Chapter 4 The Visitor
The one who was supposed to come had arrived.
I put on my coat, set the book on the shelf, and opened the door to greet the visitor.
The moment the door opened.
Under the moonlight at the entrance stood a woman in her fifties.
She wore a black cloak, her face hidden in shadow.
Her voice was very hoarse.
"Fang boss, this old body has come for a cup of tea."
I smiled without warmth. "Qiu Gu, you really are punctual. Every night you come to my place to mooch food and drink. Nothing can stop you."
Qiu Gu cackled.
She glanced upstairs with meaning.
"Today Fang boss has quite the lively crowd here!"
I took out the tea leaves and reminded her, "It is lively, but unfortunately you can only watch these, not eat them."
Qiu Gu looked disgusted. "What is there to eat about them? Their meat is tough. I still remember how tender and delicate Fang boss was as a child. I miss that taste even now."
I stared at her with cold eyes.
I first met Qiu Gu fifteen years ago.
At that time, human traffickers had kidnapped me to this village. While escaping, I came to this inn.
I did not know then that I had just left the tiger's den only to enter the wolf's lair.
That night was very dark.
I hid in the inn's woodshed.
Three knocks sounded on the woodshed door. I was so scared I hid in the haystack.
Qiu Gu, dressed exactly as she was today, appeared before me.
She opened her bloody maw, ready to swallow me whole.
The owner of the inn appeared.
That was my Master.
He was a Taoist and a demon hunter who did not hunt demons.
After taking me as his disciple and handing the inn over to me, he passed away.
I poured the brewed tea into the cup in front of his memorial tablet.
Then I lit three sticks of incense.
Qiu Gu stood behind me. She looked at the name on the tablet and said through gritted teeth, "If that old ox-nose hadn't meddled that day, I would have eaten you long ago."
I turned around and poured the remaining tea into her cup.
I smiled. "Qiu Gu, after so many years, you come here every day for tea. Could it be that you miss my Master?"
Qiu Gu spat and her old face flushed.
"Who would miss that old thing!"
But there was indeed a trace of sadness in her eyes.
Back then, my grandmaster, as a demon hunter, came here on orders to capture Qiu Gu.
But after defeating her, he built an inn here and set up a barrier.
Qiu Gu loved to eat infants and children.
So my grandmaster used the front and back of the inn as boundaries, preventing Qiu Gu from going down the mountain.
He also forbade children from entering.
The inn was passed down this way, from my Master to me after I stumbled in by accident.
I had unintentionally become the twelfth successor of Mingyue Inn.
Qiu Gu poured out the tea.
She said with disgust, "I won't drink anything brewed for the dead."
"Then what do you want to drink?"
"I want coffee today."
I narrowed my eyes. "Don't you never drink those foreign things?"
"I'll drink it. Don't give me instant. I want you to make it with the coffee machine."
She sat at the counter and ordered imperiously.
I resigned myself and turned to make the coffee.
The coffee machine had a shiny silver-white surface.
Qiu Gu's face was reflected in it.
I saw her remove her cloak and slowly open her mouth.
On her originally toothless gums, fangs gradually grew.
I immediately turned around.
Qiu Gu quickly closed her mouth.
I narrowed my eyes and asked her, "I forgot to ask. Do you want black coffee or with milk?"
"Either is fine." Qiu Gu answered with her mouth closed.
But my heart sank.
Qiu Gu usually had no teeth.
But if she suddenly grew fangs, it meant she wanted to eat someone.
There was someone here she wanted to eat.
And it was a child.