After the incident with Su Qing, the merchant ship encountered nothing else out of the ordinary and arrived in Chenyu Vale without further trouble.
The captain finally breathed a sigh of relief and began directing the crew to unload the cargo.
Shen Luolun and Lan Yan disembarked as well.
Since it was already late, the two found an inn and stayed the night, planning to head to Yilong Wharf the next day.
The night passed without incident.
Early the next morning, they got up, ate breakfast, and set off without delay. They finally reached Yilong Wharf before noon.
"Traveling far from home really is a love-hate experience."
Looking at the bustling, peaceful streets ahead, with their neatly arranged buildings and courtyards, Shen Luolun felt as though he had finally climbed to the top of Mount Tai.
"It took so much effort to get here, and I'm starving."
"Teleport Waypoints are so much better. One loading screen and you're there. Too bad the ley lines are a wondrous thing-you can admire them from afar, but you can't mess around with them. I'm going to find Xiangling and eat ten honey-glazed crab roe buns!"
Lan Yan wiped the beads of sweat from her forehead, breathing a little hard.
"Xiangling should be waiting for us now. I sent her a message ahead of time with a paper person."
"Then let's go."
"Mm."
The arrival of the Moonchase Festival had filled Yilong Wharf with a relaxed, festive atmosphere. Almost every household was decked out in decorations and hung up homemade lanterns, making the place look lively.
But as the two walked along, they noticed something wasn't quite right.
There were too few people on the streets.
Too few for a festival celebration.
It felt rather deserted.
Puzzled, they stopped a little boy who was flying a kite.
"Here, kid, have some candy."
"Thanks, big brother!"
The little boy happily licked his lollipop.
"Kid, where did everyone on the streets go? Why are there so few people out today?"
"They... they probably all went to eat beef noodles."
Beef noodles?
Lan Yan and Shen Luolun exchanged a look.
He continued, "What kind of beef noodles are so good that everyone went to eat them?"
The little boy seemed to recall something. He forgot all about licking his lollipop and began to drool.
"They're really, really fragrant beef noodles. Just smelling them from far away makes you want to eat them. People who've eaten them say they want more after just one bowl. Now they go eat them every day. I want some too, but-"
He lowered his head, looking a little dejected.
"Mom says I can't eat spicy food, and the beef noodles are really, really spicy. She told me to eat hard mooncakes instead."
"What are the beef noodles called?"
"Um... I think they're called For... Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles."
Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles? That was a pretty melancholy name.
Shen Luolun patted the little boy on the head, gave him another piece of candy, and let him go.
"A-Shen, from what the boy said, it sounds like everyone on the streets has gone to eat noodles. Should we go take a look too? We might run into Xiangling there."
"Sure, let's go have a look."
They stopped another passerby to ask where the Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles were sold, then hurried over once they had the exact location.
When they saw the sea of people, their jaws nearly dropped.
More than ten thousand people were gathered around a single restaurant?!
What shocked them even more was this:
Hundreds upon hundreds of people were holding bowls and drinking their fill!
As if the bowls contained heavenly nectar.
After drinking, their faces shone with grease, and they looked utterly intoxicated, as though they were high.
There was even a singer among them, singing a beef noodle song with abandon:
"Oh~ Boss, give me a bowl of Emotion-Forsaking Beef Noodles, no tears, no pain, just forget-me-not soup~ I want to forget the you I once knew..."
The people around him sang along.
They put their arms around one another's shoulders, swaying their heads.
The scene looked like a massive team-building event for some pyramid scheme.
"What's wrong with them?"
Lan Yan tugged at the hem of the young man's clothes, looking somewhat uneasy.
"I'm not sure either, but I feel like they've entered some kind of special state."
"What?"
"They're high."
Shen Luolun frowned deeply.
Were these normal beef noodles?
Why did they seem a little like... ice?
The people who had eaten the noodles were acting possessed.
"A-Shen, look, look! It's the Traveler."
Lan Yan tugged at him and pointed somewhere.
Lumine and Paimon?
Shen Luolun hurriedly looked over, his gaze jolting.
Lumine was pulling hard on Paimon's cape with both hands, shouting,
"Paimon, stop eating! Stop!"
"If you keep eating, your belly's going to burst!"
"No, no! Paimon's belly won't burst! Beef noodles are yummy, yummy!"
Paimon clung tightly to the table, desperately trying to get closer to the beef noodles on it.
Even without a free hand to pick up the noodles, she kept slurping them up, sucking the long strands into her belly. Her mouth was covered in red chili oil, but she still couldn't stop eating.
"Lumine!"
Shen Luolun waved to her and called out.
"A-Luo? Lan Yan? What are you doing here?"
Lumine was stunned at first to see Shen Luolun and Lan Yan, then her face lit up.
"Thank goodness! Come help me, quick! Help me hold Paimon down! I'm almost out of strength!"
Whoa! =͟͟͞͞=͟͟͞͞(●⁰ꈊ⁰● |||)!
Hearing Lumine, the two hurried over to help her pull Paimon back.
After a struggle, they finally managed to get Paimon away from the beef noodles on the table.
"Noodles, noodles! Paimon wants noodles!"
Paimon still refused to give up, her little hands reaching for the beef noodles.
"Smack-!"
Lumine raised her hand and struck Paimon squarely on the back of the neck with a chop. The little one's eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot.
Once Paimon had passed out, she finally quieted down.
"Lumine, what's going on?" Shen Luolun asked.
"And what happened to Paimon?"
Lumine's face was grim as she pointed at the restaurant ahead.
"It's all that place's fault!"
"Paimon only became like this after eating the noodles there."
She told them what had happened earlier.
She and Paimon had come to Yilong Wharf at Xiangling's invitation to take part in the Cuisine Machine Test, only to discover upon arrival that many locals had suddenly become abnormally obsessed with beef noodles.
Curious, she and Paimon had gone to investigate.
Lumine hadn't wanted to eat the noodles; her instincts told her something was wrong with them. But Paimon couldn't resist and took a small bite.
That one small bite had sent Paimon completely over the edge.
She had gobbled down noodles like crazy, and Lumine couldn't stop her.
"There's definitely something wrong with that restaurant!" Shen Luolun said with certainty.
"Then what do we do now? Should we report it to the Millelith?" Lan Yan asked.
Lumine shook her head.
"I went looking for the Millelith, but they were all gone. I only found out later that they'd fallen victim to the noodles too."
"Right now, the only people in Yilong Wharf who escaped are some residents who didn't get a chance to eat the noodles."
"I had someone send word out. Hopefully, once Ningguang and the others hear, they can send more people over as soon as possible."
Shen Luolun said, "This is urgent. We can't sit around waiting for help. We need to investigate that restaurant's beef noodles as soon as possible, or the consequences will be serious."
"I strongly suspect the business has added a large amount of addictive drugs to them. Otherwise, Paimon and everyone else wouldn't be reacting so strongly."
Lumine and Lan Yan nodded.
"By the way, Lumine, is Xiangling with you?"
At the mention of Xiangling, Lumine's expression changed.
"Oh no, I forgot about Xiangling."
"After Xiangling met up with us, we went to investigate the restaurant together. But once something happened to Paimon, I couldn't get away. Xiangling is still in the restaurant. Let's hurry and save her."
"What? Let's go!"