Chapter 49
When Caroline and Jason finished with this particularly long impromptu training session, they felt surprisingly energized, they were not sure if this was because that they were finally able to finish the whole sets of moves, or was it because they awakened Xuanli and it provided them with additional energy.
During the training session, not only did Jianmen teach them how to control, hone and cultivate their Xuanli that is now flowing through their meridians inside of their bodies, but Jianmen also taught them how to utilize Xuanli in fights: both in the physical world and in limbo.
After they took another shower and came back down to the lounge waiting to have dinner, a large group of people entered into the inn and took up almost every seat in the diner.
“Woah, what happened there?” Jason asked Dave who was taking over his shift at the reception’s desk: “Who are these people?”
“I think we met some of them before.” Caroline pointed at a young woman sitting facing towards them and said: “Do you recognize that girl? I think I saw her on the movie set we delivered to.”
“Anyone serving them yet?” Jason took a look at the girl and had a “yikes” expression on his face: “Where is Boss?”
“He’s in the kitchen. Looks like he’s prepping the food?” Dave answered kinda nervously, “I’m actually supposed to serve them, but I am not sure I can handle it. I don’t even have the menu memorized.”
“It’s a one pager.” Jason could not believe Dave would even say this, “You don’t have to memorize it.”
“Yeah, well, there’s another thing. I am not good at dealing with a lot of people. And there’s like 12 people in there.” Dave looked at Jason and Caroline in a begging way: “Can you help me out here? You can keep all the tips.”
“Nah, you gotta do better than that, Dave.” Caroline joked.
“Um… how about I pay you 5% of their total order?” Dave hesitated then came up with an offer.
“5%, each.” Caroline countered.
“Okay. That’s a bit high, how about 3% each?” Dave stuttered a bit and came up with another offer.
“4% each, take it or leave it.”
“Okay, you got a deal, and you have to give me the receipts.”
“Yeah of course, Dave, we’re not scoundrels.”
“Right. You are definitely not.” Dave chuckled nervously.
“Hey ladies and gents, what can I get ya?” Caroline and Jason happily obliged and started taking the orders from the guests.
“Do you still have that pan fried ribs with bones in and the black bean sauce and celery? ” one of the guests, who was a young man with black hair and a lock that was dyed blonde, asked Jason: “That was really good, could you tell me what that dish was?”
“Just, just pan fried spare ribs with black bean sauce.” Jason marked it down in the ordering notepad: “That is a good one, what else would you like? Would you like something lighter? The spare ribs are a bit salty.”
“Yeah, do you guys have salad? I am allergic to peanuts and I don’t eat meat. ” a girl with a white hat and a big pair of glasses asked Caroline.
“No, we typically serve traditional Chinese food, so we don’t have salad. But if you want, we have boiled vegetables glazed with sauce. We can use veggie ingredient only sauce with no peanut, would that work?”
When Caroline and Jason reached the last two tables of guests, they both smelled a light but really noticeable smell: it smelled like a combination of rotten meat and burning tires.
“You guys smelled anything?” Jason looked around, trying to locate the source of the smell.
“No. Nothing!” one of the male guests on Jason’s table seemed to be upset and and neurotic for some reason: “I haven’t smelled anything!”
“Excuse us. We came from a movie set nearby, something quite unfortunate happened and our friend here got a bit shaken up.” a fellow female guest on the table said and sighed: “We had to wrap up early also because of it.”
“Oh, so unfortunate, what movie are you guys shooting?” Jason asked.
“We’re shooting a paranormal and action movie. Kinda an experimental work. ” the fellow guest smiled and then asked Jason: “Hey, have I seen you somewhere? Did you deliver the food on set the other day?”
“Yes indeed, she and I both did.” Jason pointed at Caroline.
“We should consult a medium! An exorcist or something!” the previous upset guest suddenly had an outburst: “This is clearly not normal! I mean, how many accidents have we’ve had ever since we started shooting at that set? And who the hell attacked Bradley!? And the blood and things on the floor … it’s not natural!”
“I agree.” there was another guest at Caroline’s table that agreed with the sentiment: “I checked the security cameras before sending them to the police. I could not explain what I saw there. And now the Reaper is trying to silence us into not talking about it? When will this be taken seriously enough?”
“Caleb, you know we shouldn’t talk about this in public! And we don’t know what’s going on!” another guest warned.
“How can we stay silent on this?! Bruno got attacked! The attacker clearly is not right! And Bruno got so much blood on him it’s like a gang crime scene! And you saw the security camera too! You know what happened!”
“I don’t know what I saw! Now the police have the tapes, can we just let them handle it and have dinner?”
“Umm, guys, can you keep it down?” Jason asked: “Let’s just forget about this for now. Why don’t we have some nice food, and some warm tea?”
“Oh, um, my colleague and I are actually pretty experienced with paranormal investigation. Maybe we can help you?” Caroline asked.
“Thanks, but the police...” the guest who was trying to get Caleb and the other guest to not mention what happened tried to say something, but he was cut off by someone who has not said anything.
“Yeah, we can try to get you onsite for a quick tour if you’d like.” this guest spoke to both Caroline and Jason in a serious tone and with a stern yet concerned expression: “But just once, tomorrow, during off hours. I will take you.”
“But, Stephanie, you can’t just...”
“I am the assistant set supervisor, when the Reaper is not here. I am in charge of the set.” Stephanie stared at the guest whom she cut off: “Robert, we both know what we saw. It’s not something any of us could explain. So I say we do not put our hopes in the police, who couldn’t even find a lost prop!”
The diner went silent for quite a while, then Robert sighed and said: “Fine, my apologies. But I am coming with you.”