"What happened to Zhao Lao'er?"
"No idea. He hasn't even left his house for days now, has he?"
"I saw him come back that morning. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. Did he run into something unclean?"
"Could be."
The two old women wore several layers of thick clothing. Even the wind and snow could not stop their chatter.
"Excuse me, does Zhao Lao'er live here?"
The sudden question interrupted the two old women's conversation.
"Yes, the first room on the left. And you are?"
The old woman looked the man in blue robes up and down.
"Thank you. I'm a friend of his."
Zhao Lao'er was eating yesterday's leftover rice with some hot water added, dipping it in sauce.
He had not gone outside for several days. In the end, the scene that day had simply shaken him too much.
That scholarly-looking man in blue robes had used some strange spell and done things he could not understand at all.
A monster? He didn't really look like one.
But he had read plenty of storybooks and heard storytellers at teahouses say that monsters could take human form.
And those monsters would kill anyone who knew their identities. That thought frightened him even more.
Knock, knock!
Someone was knocking.
For a moment, Zhao Lao'er thought he was imagining it.
Knock, knock!
This time, it was real.
"Wh-who is it?!" Zhao Lao'er asked, his voice trembling.
"Sir, we met a few days ago, over steamed buns."
Buzz!!
Zhao Lao'er felt his mind buzz.
A monster! He really had come to his door.
Left with no choice, Li Ping'an pushed the door open himself.
"A monster! A monster..."
Zhao Lao'er turned and ran, but the room was only so big, and there was no back door.
Li Ping'an casually swept a