GHG chapter 7: Siren Town

        Lucy sits at the table, yawning with exhaustion like she hasn't gotten any sleep as she leans toward Bai Liu. Jeffery keeps dozing off even though it is daytime. Dark circles hang under his sunken eyes, and his skin has become paler. Bai Liu doesn't know if it's just him, but Andrew's pupil seems to become smaller than yesterday, giving out an aura that makes people uncomfortable and anxious. There is a faint fishy odour coming from him.

        Bai Liu takes his coin out and scans Andrew.

        【Name of NPC: Andrew (sanity decreasing, metamorphosing)】

Andrew devours the feat at the table greedily, it is as if he would start pouring the food through his throat.

Since this hotel is near the ocean, most food served are fried fishes. The fish soup is sparkly, and the fried fishes are golden and crunchy, they are enough to make anyone drool. Though what Bai Liu can smell is what he recognises as the stench of rotten flesh of fish tails. just like the scent from wet markets when fishermen discard the dead fishes that have flies circling around them. The moment Bai Liu approaches these glowing foods, he can't help but gag. He can't imagine swallowing them.

Though Jeffery and Lucy both make an expression as if they smell extremely good.

Bai Liu swiftly scans them with his coin, showing that they both have the status【metamorphosing】as he expected. It most likely has something to do with the mermaid statues in their rooms.

The way that Andrew is devouring the wolfishly makes Bai Liu a bit uncomfortable, the slithering tail of the fish salps his lips, and then he shoves another piece of fish into his mouth with a fork before he even finishes the one he is eating.

Lucy eats her fish steak with a knife and fork, looking at Bai Liu in surprise, "Are you going to eat any, babe? The fish steak here is delicious, even though I'm on a diet I can't control myself and ate two of them!

"You really found an amazing hotel!" As soon as Lucy finishes speaking she leans toward him to kiss him, but Bai Liu gags at the fishy stink in her mouth and pushes her away instinctively.

He thinks for a moment and decides to take her dish away, acting serious as he speaks, "babe, your body shape is just right, I wouldn't want you to lose your beauty just for some fish. Let's eat some vegetables, these fish steaks are not that great anyway," Bai Lu crosses his arms and commented in a proud manner.

Lucy is wooed by his words. Even though she is reluctant about giving up her fish steak, she eats the salad obediently. Bai Liu pretends to conveniently grab a bowl of salad for Andrew and Jeffery, putting them in front of them. Jeffery eats whatever Bai Liu gives him, though he seems to be in a haze as he eats.

Though Andrew looks at Bai Liu as if he grew a second head, mocking, "is our billionaire running out of money? You said you'd pay for everything when we come here, but now you won't even let us eat a piece of fish? Lucy, look, this is your stingy boyfriend."

Lucy immediately scolds furiously, "Andrew! If it wasn't for Bai Liu, do you think you can still afford this hotel to eat such high-quality fish steaks?! Look at how much you ate, if Bai Liu's not going to pay the bill for you you won't even be able to walk out of this hotel!"

"Lucy!" Andrew cries. Lucy glares at Andrew without backing off, and Andrew can't bring himself to do anything to the woman that he likes, so he spins around and is about to unleash his wrath on Bai Liu. His large hands reach toward Bai Liu and are about to grab him by his collar, clearly, Andrew is a very violent person and solves everything with brute force.

Within the screams of Lucy, Bai Liu wipes his mouth leisurely, looking at Andrew with a small smile, "if you still want me to pay your bills, it'd be better if you don't touch me."

Andrew's hands stop in midair, his nostrils flaring like a bull as angry breaths are pushed out. He glares at Bai Liu with a burning gaze and threatened, "when night comes and you can't do what we bet on, I will make sure everyone knows that you're a piece of useless trash that can't even get laid!"

His eyes are bloodshot, seemingly drowned out by the anger that rushed up to his head, but he can't do anything to Bai Liu, he needs Bai Liu to pay the bills after all. At this moment a piece of broccoli rolled out from Jeffery's plate as he is eating his meal, landing on Andrew's shoe.

Andrew is like an expanded balloon that is popped by this broccoli, his rage spurting out uncontrollably. Before Jeffery could apologise, Andrew slaps the back of Jeffery's head with his full strength, causing Jeffery's head to crash into the plate, throwing up what he ate earlier.

"You dirtied my shoe! Disgusting bastard!" But when Andrew sees Jeffery puke, he seems to find it funny that it calmed his state of mind, letting out a scoff at him. He then kicks Jeffery, wiping the barely noticeable oil stain on Jeffery's pants, speaking again after he is done, "but I won't let some trash bother me. I finished wiping my shoe, now fuck off."

Lucy pulls up Jeffery who is still in a daze, yelling at Andrew at the top of her lungs, "enough is enough Andrew! You're too nasty to Jeffery!"

Bai Liu doesn't pay attention to the arguing pair, his gaze is focused on Jeffery's vomit, the fish steak gilded with a crunchy layer. After being thrown up by Jeffery, the dark meat of a dead fish can be seen, there are even what seem to be maggots squirming within them.

These rotten fish can't be consumed by people. Bai Liu remembers that the fishermen from the wet market would use these kinds of dead fish to feed bigger fish. Bai Liu remembers a fisherman telling him that the bigger the scavenger fish is, the more it likes to eat dead fish.

The driver is already there to pick them up after breakfast.

【Main Quest: explore Siren Museum. The reward is 50 points】

【Main Quest: join the assembly for mermaid capturing. The reward is 50 points】

Siren Museum and the assembly for mermaid capturing, they sound like two separate plot points.

Bai Liu falls deep in thought and is about to ask the driver what these two things are. This driver is not only Bai Liu's driver, but he is also their local tour guide that can guide them around Siren Town. But Jeffery suddenly butts in between Bai Liu and the driver, looking down without saying a word. His face is pale and sunken and the corner of his lips are bloodied from Andrew's beatings, his teeth clenching together and shivering.

Bai Liu raises a brow. From yesterday to this moment, Jefferys seems to be doing everything to prevent him from making contact with the driver.

This is unusual.

Bai Liu unconsciously twirls and flips the coin between his fingers. That is what Bai Liu always does when he is cognising. The feeling of money being in his control pleases him even if it's only one coin.

Without any other information, Bai Liu guesses that Jeffery's target is Andrew. It's normal to let Andrew talk to the driver since the driver needs to find a time to strike, and Lucy is a character that can be blinded easily, there is no need to intentionally prevent them from making contact.

There has to be a reason that Jeffery is preventing Bai Liu from having a conversation with the driver, and Bai Liu thinks of the reason behind it. It's most likely because of money. From what Jeffery is wearing and Andrew's bullying toward him, it is obvious that he is not a wealthy person. Andrew is actually all bark no bite, even though he kept insulting Bai Liu who is rich, he never really did anything, but he constantly beats Jeffery up. From what he can see, Jeffery's economic status is lesser than Bai Liu, it might even be worse than Andrew's.

Last night Jeffery seems to have given the driver a huge amount of money, Bai Liu can safely assume that Jeffery most likely took Bai Liu's money that is for him to hire a driver and tour guide and used it to hire the driver to have his revenge on Andrew, which causes him to feel ashamed and not want Bai Liu to speak with the driver.

But Jeffery already gave a stack of money to the driver last night, logically the deal has been made. Besides that, the driver is really good at his job as a tour guide and a driver, and Bai Liu never raises any questions about it either. Normally, Jeffery should feel relieved instead of anxiously blocking the communication between the driver and Bai Liu, this would do the opposite and make Bai Liu suspect.

This shameful attitude doesn't seem like the deal has been done.

It could also be because Jeffery is careful and timid, refusing to let his guard down before the deed is done. Jeffery's side quest is called 【a grisly conspiracy】 after all. Bai Liu can understand why Jeffery is so careful about a conspiracy that sounds like a potential homicide.

Though he doesn't know when is Jeffery going to do something to Andrew. For now, Bai Liu just wants to focus on the main quest.

Bai Liu speaks to the driver, "sir, what viewpoints are there in Siren Town?"

"Viewpoints, huh?" The driver thinks for a moment and says, "the tourists that are comin' here have to check out the night fishing and the museum."

It is what Bai Liu expects him to say. He raises a brow slightly and asks, "fishing and museum? What's so special about them?"

"Of course there are, it's Siren Town you're talking about," the driver turns his head toward him. This is the first time that Bai Liu has seen the driver's face so closely, even though Bai Liu is resistant to horror scenes, he can't help but suck in a break.

It wasn't because of fear, but because of surprise.

The driver's face is too strange.

The majority of his eyes are white, and his iris is as small as a fly. As he is speaking, his iris twitches nervously, it is as if he can't control his iris that could escape his eye at any given moment, and the driver's complexion is so pale that it's not transparent.

He speaks as he drives, taking a bite out of his fish sandwich. The fish steak that he took a bite out of has a cross-section, and its meat is the rotten kind of black as if it is made with molded fish. Yet the driver is relishing it, his teeth are tainted with the colour of green and black, showing them to Bai Liu as a smile so abnormally wide appears on his face.