After dinner, Song Qiming and Song Gaoli went to Su Luobai's room.
As the hour of Hai (9-11 PM) approached, Song Jinzhao noticed there had been no movement from the neighboring room, so she went to Su Luobai's room to call for them.
Hearing the knock, Su Luobai lifted his head from his book. "Come in."
Song Jinzhao said, "It's almost Hai hour. We have to travel early tomorrow, don't stay up too late."
Su Luobai glanced at the sky outside the window; it was full of dark clouds, obscuring the Big Dipper.
In this remote wilderness inn, there was no night watchman to sound the watches, so they hadn't realized how late it had gotten.
After escorting Song Qiming back to his room, Song Jinzhao instructed, "If anything happens, just shout. Your elder sister in the next room will hear you."
Song Qiming nodded.
Once sure everything was fine, Song Jinzhao prepared to return to her room to sleep.
As she pulled the door open to leave, a dark brown mark on the door bolt caught her attention.
It looked like a fingerprint.
She crouched down for a closer look and found another half-print of a bloodstain at the bottom of the bolt, right where a thumb would touch.
It was a blood trace left when a bloodied hand had pulled the bolt open.
The blood had already dried and cracked, its color a dark brown, indicating it had flowed from a vein more than three days prior.
Having finished making the bed, Song Qiming saw Song Jinzhao still crouching by the door and walked over puzzled. "What's wrong, Elder Sister?"
Song Jinzhao stood up and thoroughly inspected every corner of the room but found no other traces of blood.
Yet, a faint unease lingered in her heart.
She said to Song Qiming, "I'm not comfortable with you staying here alone. Go sleep in the next room."
Song Qiming had started feeling something was off when Song Jinzhao began checking the room. Hearing this, he promptly gathered the bedding from the bed and moved to the next room to make a pallet on the floor.
Immediately after, Song Jinzhao went to knock on the doors of Su Luobai's and Song Dazhuang's rooms.
When the doors opened, she gave a normal reminder: "We depart at Chen hour (7-9 AM) tomorrow morning. Don't oversleep."
Su Luobai looked down at the note suddenly pressed into his hand, confusion on his face.
After Song Jinzhao turned and left, he closed the door and unfolded the note.
"This inn might be suspicious. Stay alert tonight. Call for me immediately if you encounter any danger."
Su Luobai swallowed hard. Thinking of the innkeeper and his wife who seemed to have been replaced, all drowsiness instantly vanished from his mind.
In the pitch-dark room, Song Dazhuang sat on the edge of the bed, propping his eyelids open with his hands to keep from dozing off.
Song Gaoli, lying on the bed, couldn't hold out any longer and was now fast asleep.
Song Jinzhao sat cross-legged on the floor, her imposing and majestic Lingyun Spear laid out in front of her.
Song Qiming couldn't help but let out a big yawn, tears of exhaustion wetting his eyelids, on the verge of falling asleep the next second.
In the middle of the night, at Zi hour (11 PM-1 AM), the old floorboards in the corridor creaked and groaned under the weight of footsteps.
Song Jinzhao, who had been resting with her eyes closed, snapped them open, two sharp glints shooting from their depths. She reached out and gripped the Lingyun Spear, ready for action.
A man with a fleshy face inserted a bamboo tube through the window. Song Jinzhao rose silently and walked to the door, using a teacup to block the smoke outlet.
The knockout smoke backflowed, thick fumes seizing his throat as if a thousand needles were pricking it.
The innkeeper clutched his throat, coughing violently a few times before his mind seemed to fog over. His eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness, collapsing to the floor.
The innkeeper's wife, who had been blowing knockout smoke into Su Luobai's room two doors down, hurried over upon hearing the commotion.
Song Jinzhao opened the door, her Lingyun Spear thrusting straight for the woman's throat.
A sharp boning knife met it.
With a loud "clang!", everyone in the three adjoining rooms, half-asleep, jolted fully awake.
Su Luobai instinctively raised his voice and shouted, "Miss Song!" His voice was so loud it nearly lifted the roof.
Song Dazhuang's eyes widened. His first instinct was to look at Song Gaoli lying on the bed. Seeing he was unharmed, he grabbed his staff and rushed out.
Song Shixue stayed close by Song Anhao's side, not moving an inch.
Song Qiming scrambled out from under his quilt, grabbed the crossbow from under his pillow, and charged out.
The boning knife in the innkeeper's wife's hand was knocked flying by Song Jinzhao. The spear tip pressed against the woman's neck, a bead of blood welling from the wound. One more inch forward would pierce her throat.
She lay on her back on the floor, staring up at Song Jinzhao in terror. "You weren't asleep?"
Song Jinzhao's lips were pressed into a tight line as she looked down at her coldly. "Instead of running a proper business, you chose to operate a murderous inn. How many people have you used this trick on?"
The woman's lips, along with the excess fat on her chin, trembled. "You're the first. If business weren't so bad, we wouldn't have planned to steal your money."
Song Jinzhao let out a cold laugh, pushing the spear tip in another fraction. "Do you think I'd believe that?"
"Uncle Dazhuang, find two ropes and tie them up."
Song Dazhuang, clutching his staff, turned left and right like a headless fly, unsure where to find rope.
Remembering the kitchen might have some, he immediately ran downstairs to look.
Hearing the voices outside and thinking the danger had passed, Su Luobai ran out of his room.
No sooner had he steadied himself than he saw Song Jinzhao, expressionless, twist and snap the arms and legs of both the man and the woman.
The sound was first muffled, then crisp, like hanging a skeleton and methodically breaking every bone with a stick.
"Ah!!!"
A terrified scream came from downstairs.
Song Gaoli, who had been rubbing his eyes, froze, his pupils dilating. "That's my father's voice."
The group quickly ran downstairs, heading towards the kitchen from where the sound came.
Song Dazhuang's face was drained of color as he stumbled and crawled out of the kitchen, staggering and swaying as if chased by a demon.
Seeing Song Jinzhao, he fell to his knees before the group, his whole body trembling as he vomited violently onto the floor.
Half-digested food mixed with stomach acid splattered on the ground, emitting a sour, rancid smell.
Song Jinzhao frowned and took two steps back, wary of getting splashed. "What did you see?"
Song Dazhuang clutched his chest; the image he had just seen refused to fade from his mind.
"There's—there's a lot of human flesh. The vats are full of it."
It looked like it had been dried, prepared for cooking.
The thought that the meat they ate that evening might have been human made Song Dazhuang feel like he was dying.
Su Luobai and the others stood frozen like statues.
Human flesh? Didn't they say they only stole money?
Song Jinzhao narrowed her eyes slightly and stepped inside.
Dozens of strips of meat were pressed together in the water vat, with what looked like human feet faintly visible buried beneath.
Song Jinzhao's lips sealed shut, her jaw clenched tight.
Based on a preliminary assessment, there were at least two corpses in that vat.
The sharp knives on the chopping block, the long iron hooks hanging on the rack—everything gave Song Jinzhao a feeling of being back in the apocalyptic wasteland.
Her face dark, she walked out of the kitchen. Everyone's gaze was fixed on her, urgently wanting to know what to do next.
Song Jinzhao ordered, "Pack up immediately. We're heading to the nearest relay station."
Su Luobai asked, "What about those two?"
"Tie them up and leave them here. We'll report to the authorities at the relay station and have the post soldiers collect them."
Everyone followed Song Jinzhao's command without question, immediately returning to their rooms to pack.
In the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, the carriage was already waiting at the door.
