Jumping Hot Pot Restaurant (2)
Amid the rising steam and neon haze, four pairs of chopsticks hovered over the hot pot, and the tense nerves of the group finally relaxed slightly.
Chen Xin sliced the meat while flashing a grin: “Jiang Jian, why do you look so gaunt?”
Jiang Jian blinked blankly: “My mom’s cooking is awful.”
Lan Fengtong chuckled softly: “Auntie’s a weight loss guru! I’ve been trying to slim down forever. Can I come eat at your place sometime?”
Jiang Jian awkwardly mimicked Chen Xin’s technique of testing the tripe, moving her chopsticks up and down hesitantly, and murmured, “Something’s happened at home recently. I haven’t seen my mom.”
The atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing point. Under the flickering neon, the three girls exchanged glances; Lan Fengtong’s face showed guilt.
“Enough about tripe!” Meng Lingling broke the awkward silence with a loud laugh. She forced a topic change and began talking about their university days.
Jiang Jian listened quietly the whole time, hoping to catch a spark of memory from their stories.
Unfortunately, her mind was unmoved, and her memories remained blurred.
Just then, a waiter silently approached, holding a plate of bright red meat, about to place it on the table.
“Wait.” Jiang Jian stopped him, narrowing her eyes at the bloody meat on the plate, and asked Chen Xin, “Is this meat part of the set menu?”
Chen Xin hadn’t paid it much attention, but Jiang Jian took a closer look. Her gaze fixed on the overly wild-looking chunks of meat, her pupils shrinking as she asked sharply, “What kind of meat is this?”
“…” The waiter’s indifferent face twisted into a faint sneer, caught just as Meng Lingling glanced up sharply. Her breath caught instantly.
“Sis, they brought the wrong dish, right?” Lan Fengtong said.
The waiter forced a stiff smile: “This is a complimentary gift…”
“We don’t want it.” Jiang Jian rejected coldly.
At the neighboring table, a family of three noticed Jiang Jian’s refusal of the rare free dish.
The man leaned over and reached out: “You don’t want free food? Give it to us then, I’ll take it!”
The waiter’s face remained sour but said nothing, serving the plate to the other table.
As soon as the fresh meat landed on the table, the man eagerly bit into it without even dipping it in the hot pot.
The bright red blood stained his lips, yet the women and child at his table seemed completely unfazed.
“He…” Lan Fengtong found it hard to believe.
For some reason, the twisted sneer on the waiter’s face left a deep imprint in Meng Lingling’s mind.
She felt inexplicably uneasy.
At that moment, she saw again in her mind the man feasting on the raw meat, and her stomach churned violently.
“I feel like throwing up.” Meng Lingling covered her mouth. “I’m going to the bathroom…”
“Lingling? What’s wrong? Did you eat something bad?” Chen Xin asked worriedly.
Meng Lingling waved her hand.
Her abdomen twisted painfully, and her hands and feet grew cold and restless.
With the strange events at the Jumping Hot Pot Restaurant, it was almost certain they had stepped into an insect nest.
The hot pot restaurant’s rules stated clearly:
【5. When you notice your companions are missing, it’s because they’ve gone to the bathroom after eating something bad. You are obliged to look for them.】
Rule number five mentioned the bathroom and seemed eerie in every way.
Jiang Jian’s instincts told her going to the bathroom alone was dangerous.
“Lingling, I’ll go with you.” Jiang Jian volunteered.
She sent the restaurant’s rules she’d just photographed to Chen Xin, “Look at the picture I sent. Don’t wander off before I come back.”
The path to the bathroom went through the kitchen.
The sound of knives chopping vegetables—“clang clang clang”—echoed through the closed door, making their ears ring.
No sooner had Meng Lingling reached the bathroom than she vomited. Jiang Jian waited at the door.
After vomiting, Meng Lingling felt somewhat relieved.
She patted her chest.
The dim light in the bathroom, perhaps due to the restaurant’s desolation, made the silence outside feel unsettling.
“Jiang Jian, are you still here?”
“Yeah.”
Jiang Jian’s calm voice was like a soothing balm.
Meng Lingling exhaled and flushed the toilet, tidying herself up before turning to leave.
At the bathroom door, Jiang Jian looked up at the ceiling.
Her slender figure cast a long shadow under the light.
Suddenly, a piercing scream shattered the silence.
Jiang Jian’s eyes darkened as she strode into the bathroom without hesitation.
“Help!” A swirling black vortex appeared inside.
Meng Lingling’s lower body was sucked in. Her terrified eyes begged for help: “Jiang Jian, help! Save me!”
A vortex?
Such a tactic?
Jiang Jian’s bony fingers gripped Meng Lingling tightly, but the powerful suction nearly pulled them both in.
The light above seemed to dim.
Meng Lingling panicked, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Jiang Jian, let go…”
“Please, don’t drag me in with you… let go…”
Jiang Jian said nothing.
Her fingers clenched white with force.
As she wracked her brain for how to pull Meng Lingling out, uncontrollable black mist oozed from her wrist, forming a twisting tendril.
One end wrapped around her pale wrist; the other hooked onto Meng Lingling’s hand.
“Ah!” Meng Lingling’s eyes went wide with terror, her voice breaking.
The Black Mist Tendril pulled Meng Lingling along Jiang Jian’s strength, slowly dragging her out.
Once free, the two hurried out of the bathroom.
Meng Lingling gasped for air, tears smudging her face as she looked at Jiang Jian, lips trembling.
Jiang Jian was still pondering how to explain her uncontrollable tendrils.
Meng Lingling said, “I get it!”
Jiang Jian replied, “…”
Fear still flickered in Meng Lingling’s eyes, mixed with a hint of unknown excitement: “Superpowers, right? I understand. Jiang Jian, it’s a secret, I won’t tell anyone!”
Jiang Jian: “…”
Before Jiang Jian could say anything, Meng Lingling was already convincing herself.
Jiang Jian decided to go along with it: “Yeah, that’s right. That’s how it is.”
When they returned to the table, the Front Desk Man stood by Chen Xin, holding a phone as if instructing her to do something.
Chen Xin smiled awkwardly.
Seeing Jiang Jian approaching, she quickly gave her a glance.
“Haha, I want to pay. The manager said you have to give a five-star review before settling the bill.”
Chen Xin had looked at the picture Jiang Jian sent but didn’t understand the meaning of the words.
However, thinking this place was likely a cult’s base, she dared not act rashly.
【5. Giving a five-star review is your right, but you must do so only after finishing your meal and leaving the restaurant. Any attempt to coerce you into immediate positive reviews is a violation—please firmly refuse.】
The hot pot restaurant’s rules emphasized: “Five-star reviews must be given only after leaving the restaurant.” Such reviews might be a method of insect nest contamination.
Yet the man kept urging them to leave a good review first, claiming payment could only be made afterward.
One side had to be lying.
Jiang Jian saw no reason to confirm now and said, “We haven’t finished eating yet. We’ll settle the bill later.”
The man stopped pressing, smiled, and backed away toward the front desk.
Jiang Jian’s gaze flickered: “Lan Fengtong has gone to look for Yun.”
Since Jiang Jian returned, she hadn’t seen Lan Fengtong anywhere.
Chen Xin nodded: “She went to look for you guys. She said you’d been gone too long and went to find you. Didn’t you see her?”
Meng Lingling’s face paled: “No.”
Having personally experienced the eerie events earlier, Meng Lingling now trusted Jiang Jian implicitly.
She immediately turned to Jiang Jian: “Is Fengtong… in danger?”
“Didn’t I say, don’t wander off?” Jiang Jian asked in return.
Chen Xin rubbed her nose: “You know how Fengtong’s temper is. Saying she went to the bathroom to look for you doesn’t really count as wandering off…”
Jiang Jian lowered her eyes.
Her tone seemed full of holes.
… Her ability to communicate with humans was still somewhat lacking.
“I’m going to look for Lan Fengtong.” Jiang Jian instructed, “Don’t leave your seats. Don’t accept any food from the waiters. Don’t leave any reviews. And check the pictures I sent.”
Meng Lingling trusted Jiang Jian without question and quickly raised her hand: “I promise I won’t move.”
Chen Xin’s eyes darted between Meng Lingling and Jiang Jian, harboring countless questions but holding them back: “Okay…”
Jiang Jian walked toward the bathroom, thinking about the conditions for leaving the insect nest.
In the Fifth Public Building, the condition to leave was a flashlight.
For the Jumping Fire Pot Restaurant, leaving seemed tied to settling the bill.
[Rule 2. If you have a reservation, please note: payment must be made to the manager to be valid. Only after successful payment can you leave the restaurant.]
This rule had two key points.
The first was the manager’s identity.
[Rule 9. There is more than one manager.]
If the rule was uncorrupted, would paying any one manager count as successful payment?
If the rule was corrupted, then the manager’s identity was highly suspicious.
The first thing to consider was the payment method.
Would they need to pay with cash, or some other equivalent?
As Jiang Jian pondered, she walked past the kitchen.
There was a glass panel on the kitchen door.
The corridor light cast a reflection, turning the glass into a poor-quality mirror.
Jiang Jian’s peripheral vision caught her own blurry figure reflected, and behind her… a face.
The Front Desk Man silently stood behind her, his grinning lips nearly brushing her neck.