Chapter 50 Heavy Rain Sacrifice to the Fish

Above this hand, several delicate purple flowers are placed decoratively, and the edges are decorated with fresh celery with water droplets.

"I said I didn't want fish, but they gave me this. This inn is really generous."

Lia had considered many possibilities, but he never expected that the waiter would serve him such a "feast" right away, without even bothering to make it clear.

His "dinner" consisted of three plates, plus a dessert. As Ria lifted the lids from the iron plates, the true appearance of the "delicacies" was revealed one by one.

"Human hands, face, and tongue; the dessert doesn't even look like normal food. This texture... it must be the brain."

Ria scooped up a spoonful of what she called dessert; it was as soft and creamy as fresh cheese. The sound of rain pattering against the windowpane drifted in from outside, creating a unique atmosphere that complemented the dinner.

"Snapped."

Lia put down her spoon, walked back to the bedside, unplugged the intercom, and put it to her lips: "Your service is problematic. If you don't come and solve the problem soon, I'll give you a bad review."

A chattering sound came from across the room, seemingly quite alarmed by Ria's intention to give a bad review. Shortly after, room service knocked on Ria's door, and Ria opened it for them, then pushed the food cart in front of them.

"Do you have any concerns about tonight's dinner?"

"What's the problem..." The waiter stared tremblingly at the contents of the plates for a long time. "Sir, you said you don't like fish, so we served you your usual dinner."

Roasted potatoes, seasonal vegetable salad, pan-fried pork chops, and goat milk pudding for dessert—everything looks fine except for the goat milk pudding having a spoonful scooped out. If you don't like it, we can change it.

"Ok?"

Ria frowned. The food described by the other party was not the same kind as what she saw, but the things on the plate were clearly human body parts.

Could it be another hallucination?

No.

We cannot rush to conclusions.

"You're saying this is a vegetable salad?" Ria reached out and grabbed the human hand from the plate. The bright red fingernails on it were still very noticeable, and the texture was exactly the same as real human skin.

“Isn’t it obvious, sir? Perhaps the dishes here are not prepared the same way as those in your hometown, but if you want to use that to deliberately slander our inn, we have the right to report it to the church.”

"But what I saw was a hand with red fingernails."

"I see." Hearing Ria's answer, the woman breathed a sigh of relief, clearly having assumed that Ria was mentally unstable or hallucinating from overwork.

She reassured Ria, "It's okay, relax."

Come on, sir, raise your hand, open your mouth, and put the salad in your mouth.

You can fully enjoy the perfect combination between salad dressing and vegetables; the cool juice bursting from the bursting leaves can soothe any unpleasantness.

Now, sir, forget what you see. It's just a leaf of lettuce smeared with salad dressing and ketchup; nothing more.

The staff patiently persuaded Liya that it was edible. At this moment, the resident of 302 was also disturbed by the noise outside and pushed open the door and ran out.

"What's going on? Why is it so lively outside? Don't they know our children need to get enough sleep? Wait, what's that? Someone is actually eating other foods during the Great Rain Festival!"

"This is blasphemy against the sun!" The man named Pusen and the woman named Cindy looked over incredulously. "You're from somewhere else? People from other places also have to follow traditions. During the three days of the Great Rain Festival, we can only eat fish. Why should you be different from us?!"

"And how dare your inn serve other food?"

"calm down!"

Fearing they might become too agitated, the room service staff approached them to calm them down and explained that Ria might be allergic to fish, and that they had to respect the needs of people with special needs.

"They're picky even when there's food available."

Gradually, other tenants who liked to watch the excitement came out. Some of them even held a plate in one hand with a bighead carp on it, and used a fork in the other hand to stick fish meat into their mouths.

"Alright, alright, fish allergy is nothing to be condemned. Go back now."

The room service attendant urged everyone to return to their rooms. Then, she stood smiling in front of Ria and insisted on watching him eat the "vegetable leaf" before leaving.

"It seems there's something wrong with my eyes."

Ria smiled at her and, in front of her, gracefully swallowed the finger and nail from the steel fork.

After closing the door and returning to the room—

Little Swarth appeared on Ria's shoulder and spat its finger into the plate. If Ria hadn't stopped it, it could have twisted all those people into screws while they were yelling at Ria.

"It's obvious that I'm not hallucinating, but no one else can see what dinner actually looks like."

To the manipulator behind the scenes, it made no difference whether the meal consisted of fish or people; their goal was to get everyone to eat it. My ability to discern the true nature of the dinner was probably not within their expectations. Therefore, that guy orchestrated this to influence me, making me believe I was hallucinating.

"That's really thoughtful."

Ria let little Swarth clear away everything from the plate, while she stood by the window, drew back the curtains, and calmly watched the raging storm passing by, separated only by the window.

The argument next door started again, and this time it was unusually loud.

They argued over trivial matters, got into a fight, and only then did they belatedly realize that their child was missing.

At the same time, Ria saw a little girl with empty sleeves appear in the rain. She seemed to notice Ria's gaze, looked up and met his eyes, and then, in Ria's widening eyes, her whole body turned white and grew pinecone-like fish scales.

She lost her balance and fell into the rain.

At this moment, the arguing around Lia disappeared, and the floor shook. More and more people rushed into the rain curtain with laughter and cheers, dancing a strange dance around the "white fish" in the center. Then, their bodies began to change, becoming exactly like the little girl in the middle.

The fish's abdomens swelled up, and they multiplied into more and more fish.

That's right, fish.

The rainstorm once again teemed with fish.

"You must eat fish during the Great Rain Festival. People will turn into fish when they come into contact with the heavy rain. This world is more absurd than I imagined."

Lia continued to watch everything in the downpour. He watched as the room service lady, holding an umbrella, went out and cut open the abdominal cavity of the fish to take out the bighead carp and put them into a net bag. Hundreds of bighead carp were caught in the net, which was a great harvest.

(End of this chapter)