Chapter 16: This shop, do you believe in a cult?

Jumping Hot Pot Restaurant (1)

Chen Xin took a deep breath, lifted her head, and wanted to exchange a few words with her long-unseen dorm mate.

When her gaze landed on Jiang Ge’s figure, she suddenly hesitated.

“What kind of look is that? That’s Jiang Ge, right? Has she… changed that much?” Lan Feng Tong smiled and nudged Chen Xin with her elbow.

She has changed a lot…

She really has…

A trace of confusion flickered in Chen Xin’s eyes.

“Jiang Ge, you look so thin… and you cut your hair short.”

Jiang Ge replied briefly, “Something happened at home.”

Back in college, Chen Xin was closest with Jiang Ge.

She immediately recalled the recent news about Jiang Ge.

Jiang Ge’s emotions had been unstable, and her messages often vague and hard to understand…

Chen Xin guessed that something must have gone wrong at her family home around that time.

Chen Xin’s throat tightened as she pondered how to comfort her close friend, but Jiang Ge had already turned away: “The bus is here.”

“Ah… let’s go.”

The four of them squeezed onto the bus.

Lan Feng Tong liked the window seat.

She rested her chin on her hand and asked, “Hotpot, right? Where is it exactly?”

Chen Xin: “Wait, let me check.”

She fumbled with her phone and pulled up the hotpot restaurant she had saved on an app: “It’s this one.”

Lan Feng Tong and Meng Lingling leaned forward from the back row to look.

Chen Xin said, “The reviews are great. See? Someone said ‘Simply the best meat I’ve ever eaten,’ and another said, ‘Not coming here is a waste of life!’”

Meng Lingling narrowed her eyes: “Sounds like fake reviews.”

Chen Xin: “It’s a group purchase for four people, 153 yuan, and the ratings are good. Let’s try it.”

Four recent college graduates; aside from Meng Lingling who had found a job, the other three were unemployed.

Chen Xin was the one who suggested the gathering, and she was also the one who found the restaurant.

After getting off the bus, the three of them followed Chen Xin as she turned left and right, eventually ending up in a secluded alley.

A crow flew overhead, casting shifting shadows through the trees.

“In such a remote place… can this actually be a good business?” Meng Lingling’s tone was hesitant.

“Xin Xin, are you sure you’re going the right way?”

Chen Xin: “No way I’m wrong! It’s right up ahead. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Where there’s a good smell, the crowds will come’?”

Thankfully, they found the place.

At the alley’s deepest point, Jiang Ge’s skin tingled oddly, as if passing through a thin layer of water.

A strong aroma of spicy, numbing hotpot suddenly flooded their nostrils.

This is the true smell of hotpot, Jiang Ge thought to herself.

The hotpot restaurant, tucked away in the alley, was called Jumping Hotpot.

Pushing open the door, the fragrance grew even richer, the enticing scent stirring their appetites.

Chen Xin exclaimed, “So hungry, I’m starving—”

A middle-aged man stood behind the front desk, a smile curling at the corner of his lips as he greeted them.

The time was 11:40, but the restaurant felt somewhat desolate.

Apart from the four of them, there was only one family of three dining inside.

That family had happily already started their hotpot, clearly satisfied with their meal.

Chen Xin went to the front desk to verify their coupons while Jiang Ge looked around.

The restaurant had two floors.

The walls were painted fiery red.

Near the stairs stood a redwood table, on which sat a strangely shaped statue, with incense burning beside it.

Wisps of smoke curled upward.

Lan Feng Tong approached Jiang Ge, arms crossed.

“What kind of offering is that? It doesn’t look like the God of Wealth.”

It wasn’t uncommon for restaurants to worship the God of Wealth, but the eerie statue was unsettling.

“…“

The more Jiang Ge looked at the statue, the more uneasy she felt.

She furrowed her brows, and from Lan Feng Tong’s tone, she understood that the statue worshipped in Jumping Hotpot was unusual.

A seed of doubt grew in Jiang Ge’s mind.

Her eyes scanned the room until they landed on a notice posted near the front desk.

Habitually attentive to notices ever since living in Apartment 5, Jiang Ge walked over.

“Jiang Ge, where are you going?” Lan Feng Tong called out.

Jiang Ge didn’t answer immediately.

She read the notice carefully—

[Jumping Hotpot Restaurant Rules:

1. This restaurant operates by reservation only. Only customers with a successful reservation are allowed to dine. If you realize you’ve entered without a reservation, please leave immediately.
2. If you have a confirmed reservation, please note: payment must be made to the manager to be valid. Only after successful payment can you leave the restaurant.
3. According to food hygiene and safety regulations, ingredients must be fresh and clean. If you notice any spoiled or rotten food, do not eat it.
4. Do not order dishes recommended by the staff. Those are not sold by the restaurant but reflect the staff’s personal interests.
5. Giving a five-star review is your right, but it must only be done after finishing your meal and leaving the restaurant. Any attempt to coerce you into giving a good review on the spot is prohibited; please refuse firmly.
6. If the service makes you uncomfortable, you may threaten the staff with a negative review. Remember, you only have three chances to use negative reviews.
7. If you notice your companions are missing, it means they’ve gone to the bathroom due to food poisoning. It is your duty to find them.
8. Do not trust any cashback promotions inside the restaurant. Those are scams.
9. The restaurant has more than one manager.
10. Remember your role as a customer. The customer is God.]

Jiang Ge: …

Chen Xin returned from the front desk to verify the coupon but was told the restaurant no longer accepts app vouchers.

Luckily, their group meal was an in-house special and they could pay after eating.

Chen Xin hesitated and canceled the previous group coupon on her phone, just then noticing Jiang Ge standing beside her.

“Jiang Ge.”

Jiang Ge’s expression was strange.

She turned her head and her voice was low and hoarse: “Are you sure this is the hotpot restaurant you booked?”

Chen Xin showed Jiang Ge the reservation information.

It was definitely this place.

“You found this restaurant yourself?”

Seeing Chen Xin’s anxious expression, Jiang Ge asked softly, “What’s wrong? Is something off about this place?”

Jiang Ge blinked once, her tone softening.

“I’m just curious.”

“…”

Chen Xin demonstrated on her phone, opening the app and searching for the hotpot restaurant again.

After refreshing, she froze.

“Gone… has it been taken down?”

Jiang Ge: “What do you mean?”

Chen Xin: “This place used to be on the first page of the app… but now it can’t be found. They probably stopped taking online reservations and group purchases. Just now, when I tried to use the coupon, the front desk said they don’t accept them—pay after eating only.”

Based on recent knowledge about the Hive, the appearance of rules like these was one of the signs of entering a Hive.

Even seeing what looked like the Hive’s regulations, Jiang Ge couldn’t confirm whether they were actually inside one.

The man at the front desk watched them silently.

When their eyes met, a faint smile appeared.

“Guests, any questions?”

Jiang Ge: “We want to cancel our reservation.”

The man smiled slightly.

“Once you enter this restaurant, you cannot cancel your reservation.”

Chen Xin thought Jiang Ge was dissatisfied with the restaurant.

Before any dishes arrived, hearing that cancellation was impossible made her a little angry:

“Our food hasn’t even been served yet. Why can’t we cancel?”

The man’s eyes flickered, his tone mysterious: “Guests who are invited should consider it an honor.”

A chill instantly ran down Chen Xin’s spine, and she took a step back.

Her palms felt inexplicably cold.

She whispered to Jiang Ge, “Why is he talking like that?”

Jiang Ge grabbed Chen Xin’s wrist, and they returned to their seats together.

Meng Lingling, furrowing her delicate brows, kept rubbing her exposed arms.

“I don’t like this place. That statue makes me feel really uncomfortable.”

Chen Xin looked toward the statue.

Its shape was bizarre, indescribable—like something her mind couldn’t quite construct.

Chen Xin froze.

“Is this place… some kind of cult?”

As soon as Chen Xin spoke, she felt as if she had been caught in someone’s gaze from behind.

She slowly turned around and saw a waiter in a red-and-white uniform standing behind her.

The waiter’s face was pale and expression cold, holding a plate of lamb slices.

Chen Xin closed her mouth.

Speaking ill of others, especially when surrounded by a suspected cult hotpot restaurant, made her uneasy.

The waiter silently lowered his head and brought plate after plate of food.

An eerie silence spread.

“Eat, the food is here,” Lan Feng Tong said, seeing the family of three enjoying their meal, she was the first to reach for the chopsticks.

Chen Xin asked, “Are you sure this is okay?”

Lan Feng Tong didn’t care.

An atheist, she dropped the meat into the boiling pot and said, “What could go wrong? Even if it’s a cult, people still have to eat.”

The restaurant’s rules only mentioned not eating dishes recommended by the staff.

Jiang Ge had eaten food prepared by corrupted creatures in the Hive before; clearly, food in the Hive wasn’t always inedible.

Jiang Ge then moved to stir the pot.

The lamb boiled in the sesame sauce, salty and fragrant.

A ripple of emotion passed through Jiang Ge’s eyes.

Curiosity sparked, and her mood brightened a little.

Hotpot, delicious after all.