Chapter 36: CH 36

Chapter 36 – Esophagus 8

When the two returned to the study again, the three girls all stood up excitedly.

Ye QingLiu stuffed a book into Xu RenDong’s hands: “Look at this!”

“What’s this?” Lian Qiao approached and saw that the cover was still written in Greek, but the contents contained a lot of pictures. “Huh? A picture book?”

Xu RenDong turned a few pages: “It seems to be a fairy tale. Look, there is someone here holding a trident.”

“Poseidon, the sea god!” Lian Qiao immediately understood what he meant and pointed to the other one. It was a man with a spear and a big shield. “This should be Zeus and he is holding the ‘Thunder’ spear and the ‘Aegis’ shield.”

Xu RenDong quickly flipped through the entire book and found that there were barely any words in this book. Almost all of it was pictures. If there are clues hidden on this shelf, then this picture book is undoubtedly the best possibility. He spread the book on the table so that everyone could look for clues together.

The five children gathered around the table and looked at the picture books together, and the atmosphere was unexpectedly warm.

From the content point of view, this picture book is indeed about Greek mythology. For example; Prometheus stealing fire, Hercules obtaining the golden apples, and Sisyphus pushing megaliths (See Author’s Note)…

Even if they didn’t have any formal schooling on Greek mythology, these mythological stories have been more or less heard by them when they were young.  Therefore, even though there was no text, just by looking at the pictures everyone knows roughly what these stories are telling. But the last story in the picture book made everyone a bit confused. The pictures showed a beautiful woman. At first she and Zeus hugged but another goddess suddenly descended from the sky and turned the beautiful woman into a cannibal monster. What is most worrying is that she was depicted as eating children.

“Who is this?” Ye QingLiu scratched his head and pointed to the goddess who had fallen from the sky. “I think this looks like Zeus’s wife who came to catch him cheating… But hasn’t Zeus cheated many times? Which one is this?”

Xu RenDong shook his head. His knowledge of Greek mythology was limited to the stories he had heard when he was a child. Lian Qiao suddenly said, “It’s Lamia.”

Lamia?

No one had heard the name before and everyone immediately looked at Lian Qiao. Lian Qiao organized his thoughts and began to tell the story of Lamia.

It turned out that Lamia was favored by Zeus because of her beauty and became his mistress. But Hera, who was jealous, killed all Lamia’s children in anger and cursed her, turning her into a terrifying basilisk. Under the influence of the curse, Lamia started hunting and devouring children everywhere. In order to make her suffer endlessly, Hera even deprived her of sleep, so that she could not close her eyes, and would keep on seeing the scene of her son being killed. That way she would lose control of her emotions and keep killing people.

“Can’t close her eyes?” Xu RenDong recalled the blood-red eyes of the white basilisk without eyelids, and couldn’t help feeling his skin crawl. “This story is indeed similar to the boss from this instance.”

“But there is still a problem.” Lian Qiao With a thoughtful expression, “The clue of this instance is ‘esophagus’…what does that mean?”

Xu RenDong shook his head. Ye QingLiu was suddenly indignant: “Zeus, what a scumbag! You hook up with women all day long and ruin the girls who have been with you terribly! This queen, Hera, is crazy too. If a scumbag cheats on you you should beat up the scumbag. What’s the point of torturing the mistress? It’s best if you can join forces with the mistress to abuse the scumbag!”

Xu RenDong was helpless. The three views in ancient Greece are different from modern day, and the issue of extramarital sex is not as restrictive as it is now. Ye QingLiu’s mind was focused on Zeus’s scumbaggery and it is also true that men and women place different emphasis on things.

Lian Qiao nodded and said: “You are right. In fact, Zeus also thinks he is a bit of a scumbag. He felt ashamed and wanted to compensate Lamia. But he has a strict wife  and he dare not disobey his wife and directly lift the curse. In the end, he looked for a compromise. He gave Lamia the ability to “take off her eyes.” Lamia can sleep when she takes off her eyes, so that she can get a short respite from the endless killing and pain.”

After listening, everyone was silent. It seems that this time’s boss Lamia is actually a victim but as the target of her wrath,  no one could really stand on her side and sympathize with her.

Lian Qiao said, “According to the myth, Lamia comes out to hunt children at night. During the day she takes off her eyeballs to sleep. At present, it seems that this boss does indeed act like this.”

Everyone nodded.

“Then the problem is here.” Lian Qiao paused, looking at Xu RenDong.

Xu RenDong understood what he meant in an instant.

Since Lamia sleeps during the day, if they steal her eyeballs while she is asleep, will that mean she will be unable to hunt them down?

At this point, he exchanged glances with Lian Qiao. Lian Qiao smiled with his eyes curved, confirming that the two people had the same thing in their hearts.

The other three newcomer girls haven’t reacted yet. Ye QingLiu was even more annoyed and said: “What are you both doing with your eyes, can you make things clearer? We outsiders don’t have your tacit understanding.”

The words “tacit understanding” inexplicably made Xu RenDong feel good. But he was not in a hurry to explain and just said with a smile: “I guess the other people have almost finished exploring too. Let’s gather together and share the information we have collected.”

The other group was a team headed by that little fat kid and had more than ten people. In addition to the little fat kid who was good at talking, there was also Ran GaoFei, the biggest kid. There were also several other players who were veterans. Their team was large and under the leadership of the old players, they split up to explore all the rooms on the first floor.

At the call of the Boss RenDong, everyone gathered in the study on the second floor. A dozen or so three- to five-year-olds sat in a circle on the carpet, having a serious meeting.

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Xu RenDong first talked about the information gained by their group. Sure enough, everyone had a terrible expression on their faces after listening to Lamia’s story. Although Lian Qiao suggested that he could sneak attack while Lamia took off his eyeballs, because no one has found Lamia’s hiding place so far, so right now the sneak attack is impossible.

“What about you? Did you find anything?” Xu RenDong asked.

The little fat kid said with a frowning face: “Our reward isn’t as big as yours. We have carefully checked every room and found no clues.”

Xu RenDong nodded and the little fat kid said again: “The only gain is a bag of milk powder. I brought it here.”

Xu RenDong saw that it was the bag of milk powder in the kitchen. Before leaving the kitchen in the morning, he hid the milk powder in an inconspicuous place. But since half of their team members are old players, it’s normal to find the milk powder.

He took it easily, and was surprised to find that the bag was much lighter than last night.

“Did you drink the milk powder?!” Xu RenDong’s face changed suddenly.

“That’s right.” There was a hint of arrogance and pride in the little fat kid’s expression. He glanced over Xu RenDong’s five-person team, pretending to be considerate, “Oh don’t worry, I have left plenty for you guys. Half a cup per person should be okay right?” He said and gave his teammates a wink. “Everyone in our team only drank a half cup, right?”

Little Fatty’s teammates nodded. Xu RenDong’s heart sank, knowing that these people would be dead soon.

Obviously, the behavior of the little fat kid is to establish himself and make everyone feel that there was something to gain by being with him. They deliberately left only a little milk powder so that Ye QingLiu and the three newcomers would regret being on the wrong team. They might even give up and switch to his team. Also when he said he “didn’t find any clues”, that wasn’t necessarily true. How XuRenDong had stupidly told all the information they had found.

… His scheming was good, but it’s a pity that the little fat kid didn’t know that drinking milk powder was a condition of death.

Xu RenDong felt a deep weakness: “You are obviously a veteran player, how dare you eat anything here? And also let everyone else eat too….” 

The little fat kid misunderstood the reason for his helplessness and smiled slyly. “Don’t think I don’t know, you have also eaten it secretly! There was powder on the mouth of the powdered milk bag!” He looked at Xu RenDong, then glanced at Lian Qiao contemptuously, “You two disappeared early in the morning. You must have been hiding in the kitchen and stole the milk powder! Afterwards, you even hid the milk powder. You should be ashamed of yourselves!”

Xu RenDong was speechless. He hid the powdered milk because he was afraid that some newcomers would eat the powdered milk secretly and trigger the death condition. As for the veteran players, he thought that experienced people would not easily take the risk, let alone eat milk powder. Unexpectedly, it was self-defeating and caused the old players to misunderstand that he hid the food for his own benefit and on the basis that “he has eaten it and he is still alive”, he confidently shared it with all his partners.

Then, all these dozens of people would die tonight.

Xu RenDong’s silence made the little fat kid even more arrogant and domineering. He turned around and said to his teammates: “Oh, look, some people are relying on their rich experience to bully innocent newcomers. If I didn’t see through his tricks in time, everyone would still be hungry!”

Ren GaoFei also coldly snorted, “Oh, the human heart is sinister.”

The three newcomers on Xu RenDong’s side also didn’t know the death conditions. At this time, they looked at each other with hesitation on their faces. Xu RenDong was afraid that they could not help the temptation of food and was about to tell the truth about the milk powder but Lian Qiao gently squeezed his hand and gave him a “don’t” wink.

Xu RenDong was taken aback. Lian Qiao said: “Brother RenDong, let’s go down and take a look. I’m not reassured about the rooms they explored, let’s go and explore again.” 

The little fat kid was furious when he heard the words and the fat on his face wrinkled together: “Are you suspicious of me? Do you know how many times I have cleared instances? You are just a rookie who came in for the second time. It’s not your turn to  speak here! “

Speaking like this with the body of a five-year-old child, it seemed very contrary. And yet it made people feel very uncomfortable.

Xu RenDong wanted to argue with him but Lian Qiao stopped him with his eyes. Xu RenDong realized that Lian Qiao had other plans so he ignored Little Fatty’s provocation and nodded to Lian Qiao: “Okay, let’s go.” The two held hands and walked out the door, leaving Little Fatty gritted his teeth with anger. From Behind the two people he roared: “Why are you like this?! Do you still have a way to survive like this!”

Xu RenDong paused. There was joy on the little fat kid’s face, thinking that he was changing his mind, but Xu RenDong just turned around and called out: “QingLiu.”

“I’m coming!” Ye QingLiu picked up the baby to follow. After taking two steps and turning back, she picked up the remaining half bag of milk powder and said, “Thank you.” Then she chased Xu RenDong without turning her head.

Little Fatty’s eyes were furious. He turned his head and stared at the remaining two newcomer girls: “What about you two?” 

The two girls looked at each other, and one asked timidly: “Can we still join your team?”

The other held her and whispered: “But the milk powder is in Sister QingLiu’s hands…”

The little fat kid’s face changed in a second and his expression softened: “Don’t worry, food is not a problem.” He took out another small bag from his pocket which was full of white powder. His eyes were sly and full of  triumphant light, “There was more than one bag of powdered milk in the monastery, all the rest of them are here!”

***

The author has something to say:

Note: Sisyphus pushes the megalith: Sisyphus is a character in Greek mythology, similar to the more tragic King Oedipus, Sisyphus is the founder and king of Corinth. He even kidnapped the god of death once, leaving the world without death. In the end, Sisyphus offended the gods. In order to punish Sisyphus, the gods asked him to push a boulder to the top of the mountain. Because the boulder was too heavy, he would always roll down the mountain before reaching the top of the mountain. Just repeat and do it endlessly—the gods believe that there is no harsher punishment than to perform this kind of ineffective and hopeless labor. Sisyphus’ life was slowly exhausted in such an ineffective and hopeless work. ——The above is taken from Baidu Encyclopedia. Many works refer to this story, such as the movie “Horror Cruise” and the game “Stones of Destiny”.

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