When Shao Lan returned to the guesthouse, Xu Jiaojiao came up to greet him.
"Lan, where's Qin Ning?" Xu Jiaojiao looked around. "Didn't you go looking for her?"
Shao Lan put on an exhausted expression. "Don't ask. She walked so fast that I couldn't find her anywhere. What, she hasn't come back yet?"
"No." Xu Jiaojiao shook her head and chided him. "You really shouldn't go off on your own anymore. We were all worried when you stayed away so long."
Shao Lan looked around the lobby.
Xu Zijian and Xu Nan had found the waitress in the red qipao and were questioning her.
Zhang Fang sat by the window in a daze, his mouth mechanically opening and closing. There was no telling what he was doing.
Xu Jiawei leaned against the wall alone, idly playing with her hair.
When she saw Shao Lan, she raised a hand. "Hubby, you're finally back."
Shao Lan stayed where he was rather than approaching.
It wasn't because of Xu Jiawei, but because Zhang Fang was nearby too. Although he wasn't singing at the moment, Shao Lan still wanted to keep some distance from him.
Seeing that Shao Lan wasn't moving, Xu Jiawei got up and walked over to him.
After recovering from her crazed state that morning, Xu Jiawei had brushed her hair and changed her clothes, becoming that poised, seductive woman once more.
She gently rested a soft, slender hand on Shao Lan's shoulder and chuckled. "I take my eyes off you for one second, and you run off to flirt with another beauty, hubby?"
Shao Lan ignored the teasing and looked at Xu Nan and Xu Zijian in the distance. "What are they doing?"
"Asking the waitress whether she saw anything." Xu Jiawei shrugged. "They haven't gotten anything out of her. There's no one on duty here at night."
While they were talking, Qin Ning returned.
Without speaking to anyone, she went straight to a corner and sat down.
Xu Jiawei playfully nudged Shao Lan. "What happened, hubby? That beauty doesn't seem interested in you at all."
"Exactly," Shao Lan said flatly. "When it comes to being interested in me, you're obviously number one."
"What can I do? I can't tear myself away from a handsome man." Xu Jiawei gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Besides, you're so calm and clever, hubby. I'll be counting on you to get out of this Instance alive."
"So, hubby, do you have any new clues or ideas? Tell me about them."
Before Shao Lan could answer, someone pushed the front door open.
It was the Village Chief.
"What happened?" the Village Chief asked. "The waitress called me and said your wife was missing, Nan?"
Put on the spot by the Village Chief, Xu Nan could only nod.
"Oh, you must've upset your wife!" The Village Chief lifted his leg and kicked Xu Nan in the backside. "I saw you two bickering all the time yesterday. Honestly, boy, do you think bringing a wife home is easy? If you drive her away, you'll be a bachelor for the rest of your life!"
Xu Nan took the kick, but since the other man was an important NPC in the Instance, he didn't dare kick him back.
After scolding him, the Village Chief switched to comforting him. "Still, it'll be all right. You're a young couple. There's nothing you can't work through. I'll spread the word around the village in a bit and have everyone help look for her. She might just be hiding somewhere, sulking. When she comes back, make sure you sweet-talk her, understand?"
Xu Nan could only nod. "Understood, Village Chief."
"It's getting late. You must all be hungry. Our local specialty, seafood rice noodles, is outstanding. I had the waitress start cooking some for you first thing this morning."
It was almost noon, and everyone was indeed hungry. At his words, they followed the Village Chief to the dining room.
Strangely, Zhang Fang, who had been ignoring everything anyone said, seemed able to hear the Village Chief and followed them all the way there.
With Song Liru absent, the remaining seven sat around a large round table. A bowl and chopsticks had been set before each of them, with steaming rice noodles in every bowl.
Shao Lan stuck his chopsticks into the rice noodles. Suddenly, he felt the "noodles" move.
Narrowing his eyes, Shao Lan lifted his bowl into the sunlight by the window for a closer look.
Sure enough, the "noodles" shimmered faintly in the sunlight.
These weren't rice noodles.
What lay in the bowl were long, snow-white, threadlike worms.
Their extremely thin bodies were covered in glittering scales. On closer inspection, he could see two tiny black dots at one end of each white strand, though he couldn't tell whether they were eyes or mouthparts.
Nausea churned in his stomach, and Shao Lan quickly set the bowl far away from him.
The others began noticing something was wrong too.
Qin Ning, who sat beside Shao Lan, lowered her head to sniff it. "It smells very fishy."
Like yesterday's tea, the broth the noodles had been cooked in was still fishy, bitter seawater.
Everyone put down their chopsticks, waves of nausea washing over them.
Except for one person.
Zhang Fang slurped up huge mouthfuls of "noodles." Some he sucked in whole; others he bit through. The severed "noodles" twitched in their death throes in the bowl, but he seemed completely oblivious.
"Delicious. Absolutely delicious," Zhang Fang said. "Village Chief, I've never had noodles this chewy. What did you make this broth with? It's so flavorful."
The Village Chief said kindly, "Several kinds of seafood, simmered for a very long time. I'm so glad you like it. As for the rest of you..."
Just as the Village Chief was about to look their way, Shao Lan suddenly spoke. "Zhang Fang, do you have enough?"
He poured everything in his bowl, noodles and broth alike, into Zhang Fang's. "I'm allergic to seafood. Since you like it so much, you can have mine."
The others froze for a moment, then quickly followed his example.
Taken aback, the Village Chief hurried forward to stop them. "Don't eat so much. It's bad for your stomach..."
But Zhang Fang ate faster and faster. As though starving, he didn't chew at all, simply pouring the noodles and broth straight into his mouth. By the time the Village Chief reached him, he had wolfed down six bowls and was working on the seventh.
His belly bulged alarmingly. One glance was enough to make Xu Jiaojiao wince in sympathy. "His stomach's about to burst..."
An ordinary person would stop eating if their stomach was stretched to the point of bursting, but Zhang Fang seemed to feel nothing at all. He shoved aside the Village Chief, who had come to stop him, with one arm and poured the seventh bowl down his throat too.
Suddenly, the bowl fell from Zhang Fang's hand. He clutched his neck, his face slowly turning red. "It hurts."
"I... can't breathe..."
"Did he get food in his windpipe?" Xu Zijian asked in alarm.
He wanted to go over and check, but Zhang Fang suddenly sprang up and sprinted toward the sea!
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