The Cellar

"How much meat do you want?"

Lin Ke looked at Butcher Zhang, helplessness written all over his face.

This is so awkward!

How am I supposed to ask...

At that moment, Lin Ke felt as though Shopkeeper Tong had tricked him.

Why did he feel tricked?

Because he figured that even if he bought the meat on credit, the stingy Shopkeeper Tong probably had no intention of paying it off anytime soon.

After all, Shopkeeper Tong wasn't the one asking for credit!

"Goddammit..."

How much meat should I get on credit, then?

Shopkeeper Tong definitely wasn't sending him to get meat on credit for his own meals.

With his personality, if eating meat cost money, he would probably rather starve than eat a single bite.

So he had to be sending Lin Ke for meat to feed those three Lord Yangs or whatever.

That made how much meat to get a problem.

Truly, a single copper coin could bring even a hero to his knees.

Suddenly, Lin Ke no longer wanted to take part in the contest. He might as well start an industrial revolution and try being a capitalist instead.

Just then, seeing Lin Ke's indecisive expression, Butcher Zhang gave him a hearty smile. "Haha, what's wrong, Handsome Lin?"

Lin Ke looked up at that and smiled. "Nothing, Brother Zhang. I'm still young. Just call me Lin Ke or Xiaolin."

Butcher Zhang walked over to the butcher's block and picked up a small piece of meat hanging from a string. His bushy, bearded mouth spread into a grin as he asked, "Haha! Then I'll call you little brother. How much meat do you need? Will this piece do? It's just enough for one or two people."

Smack!

Butcher Zhang tossed the meat down in front of Lin Ke.

It wasn't a very big piece, but it was fairly lean-a cut from the hind leg.

Lin Ke sized it up. "That's a little too small. I'm here to collect meat for our Shopkeeper Tong, to serve his customers. Could you get a bigger piece?"

Lin Ke told him the truth, hoping only that Butcher Zhang would trust him.

If he didn't, Lin Ke would probably have to pay for it himself.

The problem was that he barely had any money on him either.

Butcher Zhang paused, then asked Lin Ke, "You mean Shopkeeper Tong from the Tongfu Grand Restaurant at the end of the street wants meat?"

Lin Ke nodded.

"What's your relationship with Shopkeeper Tong? Why are you the one collecting the meat?" Butcher Zhang asked, sounding a little puzzled. "Aren't you one of those young gentlemen who dance at the Song-Listening Entertainment House?"

Lin Ke: (ㅍ_ㅍ)?

Young gentleman, my fucking ass!

Butcher Zhang had been among the spectators when Lin Ke went to dance at the matchmaker's place that day.

Lin Ke said helplessly, "I do odd jobs at Shopkeeper Tong's restaurant. Three customers just arrived, and Bai Zhantang is busy, so the shopkeeper sent me over."

Butcher Zhang suspected nothing and immediately believed him. "Oh, oh, oh! That meat!"

Without questioning Lin Ke's words, Butcher Zhang said, "Watch the butcher shop for me. I'll go get the meat!"

Lin Ke asked cautiously, "All right. So this goes straight on the shopkeeper's tab?"

Butcher Zhang headed into the courtyard without looking back. "Right, right. Just wait a moment, little brother."

Lin Ke guessed there was a cellar in the courtyard, since they would have to either smoke the meat or keep it chilled to store it.

With the technology available now, keeping it chilled in a cellar was the best option.

Yet after he had waited a while, Butcher Zhang still hadn't come out.

"Brother Zhang! Brother Zhang!"

Lin Ke called twice, but Butcher Zhang didn't answer.

The sun sank in the west, but Lin Ke could only keep waiting.

Another fifteen minutes or so passed, and Shopkeeper Tong was already standing outside the restaurant at the end of the street, looking his way.

He even mouthed, "Hurry up," while making a little person with the index and middle fingers of his left hand and an arch with his right, then walking the little fingers toward the arch.

After making that gesture, the shopkeeper pointed at Lin Ke, then at the courtyard behind Butcher Zhang's shop.

"You... want me... to go in?"

Lin Ke mouthed the words and pointed at the courtyard ahead.

Shopkeeper Tong nodded vigorously.

Lin Ke shook his head vigorously.

Shopkeeper Tong's eyes widened in a fierce glare. Then he flicked his sleeves and went back into the restaurant.

Lin Ke turned to look at the courtyard behind the butcher shop and the cellar within it, then swallowed.

It looked as though he had no choice but to trespass.

I hope some white guy doesn't jump out and empty a magazine into me.

Trying hard to look natural, Lin Ke whistled as he walked into the courtyard and approached the cellar entrance.

Butcher Zhang had even thoughtfully built steps around the entrance.

The courtyard wasn't exactly messy, but it wasn't tidy either. Weeds grew everywhere except along two trampled paths, one long and one short, where no weeds had sprouted.

The long path led straight from the house's door to the butcher shop outside.

The other led from the butcher shop to the cellar entrance.

He peered down into the cellar.

It was evening, and the moon wasn't yet shining high overhead, so he could only see about two meters down. Looking any farther, Lin Ke saw nothing but darkness at the bottom.

After hesitating, he still didn't step forward. But just as Lin Ke was about to turn around and return to the street-

"Smack... thump... smack..."

Sounds came from the cellar, one after another. They sounded like chopping firewood, yet somehow not quite.

At the same time, he heard the door of the courtyard house opening.

"Creeeak-"

He stopped and turned to look.

A woman dressed entirely in white, with a graceful figure, stood in front of the house a short distance away. Her face was pale, and her eyes curved as though smiling as she looked his way with a smile.

This is... Lin Ke froze for a moment.

During that brief moment, the woman somehow appeared right in front of him-he had no idea when or how-and asked gently, "And you are, little brother?"

So fast!

Lin Ke came to his senses and said, "Hello. You must be Brother Zhang's wife? I'm here to see him. He went in to get meat and hasn't come out for ages, so I came to see what was happening!"

"His wife?" Hearing those words, the amusement in the woman's eyes deepened. "Heehee, he's right down below. Go find him!"

In the faint evening moonlight and the last tiny traces of scarlet sunset, the white teeth exposed by the woman's wide smile seemed tinged with rouge. Her smile was uncanny.

Lin Ke's pupils abruptly contracted.

"Go down, little brother~" the woman said, her voice gentle and lilting.

As she spoke, waves of eerie chill seemed to gather around Lin Ke with the vanishing sunset, mingling with the cold wind and bloody smell drifting out of the pitch-black cellar...

Why... why is it a little cold...

Lin Ke froze, then stiffly turned and descended the earthen steps into the cellar.

"Smack... thump!"

Now the sounds were already perfectly clear!

The sound of chopping meat!

Lin Ke walked down step by step. Every stair beneath his feet was spacious, yet descending felt like walking into an abyss.

Outside, at least some warmth and heat lingered after the sunlight faded. Here, there was nothing but clammy cold and the rusty smell of blood.

However deep the cellar was, it wouldn't take long to reach the bottom. Before long, Lin Ke felt as though he was standing on level ground; probing forward and to either side with his foot, he found no empty space.

"Smack... thump..."

Sounds came from ahead of Lin Ke. Following them with his gaze, he spotted a faint light up ahead.

"Huff..."

Then came the rapid sounds of a blade chopping bone, Butcher Zhang's heavy breathing, and laughter like silver bells behind him, accompanied by a faint, elusive smell of rotting flesh.

Lin Ke stood stiffly, not daring to move rashly. Right behind him followed the white-clad woman's laughter. "Little brother, go on. Keep walking~"

Lin Ke immediately stepped forward.

The cellar was, of course, not very large. After only a few steps, he saw Butcher Zhang squatting on the floor, lifting his knife high before bringing it down hard!

Crack!

With that sound, a leg flew toward the ceiling, accompanied by a spray of blood, scraps of flesh, and shattered bone fragments.

That leg...

Its knee bent forward, its calf and thigh muscles were clearly defined, and there were fine hairs on it, as well as...

A human foot?!

Lin Ke's pupils instantly shrank. His mouth fell open as he instinctively tried to cry out, but he forced himself to stay silent.

A monster!

A ghost!

A peerless monster and a peerless ghost!

Li Chungang, who was at the Great Confucian realm, was only a short distance away. Not far from Li Chungang was the even more powerful Minister Qi, and not far beyond Minister Qi were the imperial palace and the Sacred Emperor, who held the entire realm in check.

To round things off, right beside the Sacred Emperor's own bed, there were actually a man-eating monster and a woman-shaped ghost hiding here?!

How terrifying must they be!

"Little brother, what did you come here for? It's, heh heh, it's... so dirty here!"

His face covered in blood, Butcher Zhang spread his mouth into a grin at Lin Ke!

The dim lamplight, the ghostly woman's laughter behind him, Butcher Zhang's mouth stretching almost to his ears, the flying human leg, the stench of blood and rotten flesh...

Lin Ke felt as though his heart had plunged into an ice cavern.