Paintings of Terror

Chapter 226: Taboo

Ke Xun, Wei Dong, Cao Youning, Fang Fei, Luo Bu, and Koharu came to the bazaar and shops downstairs together.

Ke Xun divided everyone into two groups: “Fang Fei, Dong Zi, Cao Youning, you three go to the bazaar over here. Luo Bu and I will go to the shops over there. Let’s meet back here in an hour.”

Cao Youning: “There’s no time displayed on the phone, so how do we tell it’s an hour?” He said and looked around, “Why doesn’t this big plaza even have a clock?”

Time was indeed a problem. Fang Fei said: “Each group inquires for information as fast as possible, and the group that completes the task first will wait here.”

“All right.” Wei Dong looked around, “That’s the only way to go. By the way, let’s buy lunch as well. It should be noon.”

There were lights all around and with a gray fog outside the window, it was impossible to judge the direction of the sun to know the approximate time.

Cao Youning nodded immediately: “Hurry and buy lunch, I’m already hungry!”

Everyone was a little hungry. Now they could only judge the time by the extent of digestion in their stomach, more primitive than primitive people.

After grouping up, Ke Xun and Luo Kuo walked towards the row of shops.

“Brother, have you brought any money?” Luo Bu followed Ke Xun, and Koharu followed like a little tail.

“I took some money from the luggage.” Ke Xun touched his wallet. “The currency here should be universal. There’s a record showing that I spent some money at the Light Inn.”

“Record?! Brother, you have the habit of tracking expenses?” Luo Bu was surprised and felt that this habit was completely inconsistent with Ke Xun’s personality.

“I never keep accounts, but there is a simply record in my wallet, and it is in my handwriting.” Ke Xun still couldn’t figure this out, and planned to tell Mu Yiran when they were back, “When you get back, you also should analyze the contents of your bag carefully, I feel that the painting has not fully grasped the habits of each of us.”

The two talked as they walked. There was a tailor shop in the front and it shouldn’t have anything they wanted to buy. But Ke Xun still went in to ask: “Boss, where can I buy a magnifying glass?”

“Only merchants from the Light Inn sell rare goods like that.” The old tailor lowered his head to sew the clothes. After a long time, he looked up at Ke Xun and took off his glasses, “I bought this from the merchants of those caravans.”

Ke Xun himself was part of a Light Inn caravan, but unfortunately his caravan only sold spices. “Old Master, when will those caravans that sell magnifying glasses come back? Is it possible that the shops here stock goods from them?”

After the old tailor took off his glasses, his eyes were sunken and had obvious dark brown dark circles. At this moment, these eyes were fixed on Ke Xun without blinking, and his voice was particularly gloomy: “When. You said when. Are you going to break the taboo. You are breaking the taboo. You are breaking the taboo.”

Ke Xun didn’t know which part of his words ‘broke the taboo’, but he took a few steps back when the old tailor was approaching him.

Luo Bu was already scared silly. Koharu acted to protect its master and made a few sounds of “Woo”.

The old tailor seemed to be awakened by the sounds from the dog. He took a breath, rubbed his eyes vigorously, and put on his glasses again: “Oh, boy, what did you just say?”

Ke Xun: I dare to not say anything anymore. I don’t know which words broke the taboo…

The old tailor thought for a while: “Oh, look at my memory, you said a magnifying glass, right? Some shops in our Lantern Inn will restock from the caravans. The toy store in front seems to have magnifying glasses and telescopes. Go try your luck.”

“Okay, thank you.” Ke Xun and Luo Bu thanked him and hurried out.

“Oh my god, Brother, I was scared to death just now.” Luo Bu’s legs were limp.

Ke Xun was also taken aback just now, but he calmed down quickly: “Tell me, what did I say that broke the taboo just now? Was it the Light Inn? But he said the words “Light Inn” first.”

After all, Luo Bu had only experienced one painting and still had lingering fears at this time: “I’m thinking of the old men NPCs that Brother Dong told me. There was an old man that was like a broken record. I heard he almost ate you guys. There was another one wearing a red vest in the mail room. And another old man who never showed up and only talked through broadcasting: ‘Don’t pollute the colors!’ Shit, I feel that one is the scariest.”

Ke Xun: That probably wasn’t an old man…

Luo Bu: “I guess I’m someone who has experienced old man NPC too…”

On the contrary, Ke Xun felt a little relieved. The sudden strange actions of the NPC made him feel that the painting was not as invulnerable as they imagined. At least it made everyone understand the taboo of this world, which was not far from finding out the rules.

Walking past a few shops, they saw a toy store, but the door was tightly closed.

The two had no choice but to ask the shop’s neighbor—a mutton pancake shop: “Boss, is the toy store next door closed?”

Mutton pancake shop boss: “The shop just closed. They went back to sleep.”

Luo Bu looked at the bright candlelight around him: “Went back to sleep?”

The boss of the mutton pancake shop didn’t care much about it: “If they feel sleepy, they go to sleep.”

Ke Xun suddenly saw that a nearby shop was also about to close, and felt something was wrong: “Why are they all closing?”

“They want to sleep so they just close the shops. We don’t have rules that say we must be open all the time.” The boss was a little displeased when he saw that the two had no intention of buying mutton pancakes.

Ke Xun looked at the pancakes that the boss was baking. It was divided into many layers. The roasted minced mutton was very fresh, and it was covered with black pepper and fermented soybeans. The flavor was very tempting.

“How about we eat this for lunch?” Ke Xun said.

Luo Bu was already hungry, and the smell of the mutton pancakes was too enticing: “Okay, this is fine! I’ve never seen such a big mutton pancake!”

“Our Gulouzi is a famed dish among the four Inns! Anyone who comes to the Lantern Inn must try it!” The boss quickly became enthusiastic again, “This big one is enough for three men, how much do you two want? I’ll cut it for you!”

Ke Xun calculated the price: “Let’s get four first.”

“Okay!!” The boss’s voice was loud. He didn’t expect to meet such a big customer.

Ke Xun further laughed and said, “The shops here are very casual. They just close at whim. If we come to your place for our next meal, can we still get food?”

After pondering all the way, Ke Xun seemed to vaguely understand what the ‘taboo’ was.

Luo Bu also hurriedly said: “Yes, boss, if it’s delicious, we’ll have dinner…”

Ke Xun gave Luo Bu a strong pat, making him shut up immediately, and said with a smile, “If it’s delicious, we’ll eat your pancakes every meal!”

The boss was very happy when he heard this: “Don’t worry about it, our shop only closes when the lights are off. As soon as the lights are on, we open the shop immediately! The shop is opened by my brother and I. It is not that tiresome making pancakes in shifts.”

The boss was very quick. He has already cut out four large mutton pancakes with a knife. The color was golden, and with the meat stuffing showing through, they looked very delicious.

Ke Xun thought about it, and then asked carefully, “We’re new here, are the lights about to go out now?”

The boss stopped what he was doing. His right hand was holding the knife and his left hand was placed on top of the pancakes. His face was full of bewilderment, as if he had just lost his memory.

Luo Bu trembled, and dragged Ke Xun back a few steps, fearing that the NPC would suddenly go berserk.

About half a minute later, the boss seemed to come back to his senses: “Look at me, why did I space out? Gulouzi doesn’t taste good when it’s cold! I’ll hurry up and pack it for you!”

Ke Xun said no more and took the mutton pancakes wrapped in a large paper bag from the boss. He paid and asked: “By the way, where can I buy a magnifying glass?”

The boss thought for a while: “The toy store next door has it. If there are vendors from the Light Inn in the market, you may be able to get them!” The boss said and looked at the cotton robe on Ke Xun, “Aren’t you from the Light Inn? Come on, you folks never lack those rare gadgets.”

Ke Xun smiled and said, “Maybe I lost it somewhere and couldn’t find it. I’ll look for it when I go back.”

Luo Bu followed Ke Xun out of the store: “My God, we broke the taboo just now, and the boss almost…”

“It’s time.” Ke Xun said in a low voice. At this time, the surroundings were relatively quiet and there were not too many people.

“Time?”

“Yes, the first time I broke the taboo was because I asked, ‘when will those caravans that sell magnifying glasses come back’. That is a relatively clear point in time. The old tailor later also repeated the phrase “when” with an emphasis. The second time I almost broke the taboo because I asked, ‘are the lights about to go out now?’. This is also a point in time. But maybe because I asked more casually, it didn’t cause a strong reaction from the NPC.” Ke Xun spilled out his analysis.

Luo Bu thought about it carefully and felt it made sense: “However, people will inevitably talk about time when they talk in daily life, such as ‘what time is it’, ‘when are you coming’, ‘are the lights going out soon? ‘, ‘why do you sleep whenever, is this a lunch nap…”

“Therefore, we better avoid talking to the NPCs. When we have to speak, we must also pay attention to the taboo words.” Ke Xun never thought that this world would be so complicated, and there were so many taboos when communicating with the NPCs.

When the two returned to the meeting place, Wei Dong and the others were already waiting there.

Cao Youning ran over with joy on his face: “Did you guys buy something delicious?!”

Luo Bu: “You are more gluttonous than me. I thought you guys got a magnifying glass just now with how happy you are.”

Cao Youning rubbed his hands excitedly when he saw the mutton pancakes and complained to Luo Bu: “There is nothing to buy in the market. It was all needles and threads, pigs, sheep, dogs, and rabbits.”

“There are pigs, sheep, dogs and rabbits?”

“Yes, there are shops that sell live animals.” Cao Youning nodded, “The bleating of those sheep is so annoying!” As he spoke, he looked at the mutton pancakes in Ke Xun’s hand, as if eating the mutton pancakes was for revenge.

Wei Dong took over the conversation: “Besides pigs and sheep, no other animals bark.”

“Other? What else?” Luo Bu asked.

“Rabbits.”

“Rabbits don’t bark in the first place, okay?”

“Dogs, they are just mute like Koharu.” Wei Dong said.

Fang Fei also said: “There are also chickens. Those roosters don’t seem to be able to crow.”

Luo Bu: Is it the legendary egg-laying rooster, the fighter jet of all roosters?

Wei Dong spread his hands: “We thought it was unusual, so we asked. The boss said that’s what the rooster sounds like, ‘coo coo coo’. The boss got anxious when we asked too much, and almost got mad.