The ribs they cut off from the monster were hung on the kitchen hook. The chef picked up the kitchen knife on the chopping board and handed it to Lu Li.
"We brought our own." Anna raised her kitchen knife, and the chef mumbled and put it back down, complaining about the pedantic and cumbersome rituals of the aristocracy.
"You'd better deal with the ingredients first, and I'll blend the sauce." Anna said.
The chef and the boss looked at each other, agreed, and gathered in front of the chopping board to take down the ribs and get busy.
Now they were all facing Lu Li and Anna defenselessly.
Thump—thump—
Two rapid falls sounded in the kitchen, blocked by the wooden door leading to the dining room.
The psychic gun melted the two monsters like the legendary holy water against evil, leaving behind two bodies that were gradually cooling down. It was inappropriate to deal with them at this time. Anna temporarily dragged them to the back of the shelf, barely letting the monsters in without being able to do so first.
Time to see.
"There should be people imprisoned here." Anna, who had built up the body, looked at the thick wooden door in the corner: "Is it in the basement?"
"Take care of the customers first." Lu Li took off the folded apron on the shelf, put it on his body, and tied it up with his hands behind his back.
Anna stepped forward and took the lace: "There is some danger, it's best for me to go."
"You have other things to do." Lu Li turned his head and looked at the chopping board: "Make some fragrance."
Making food delicious requires skill, but making food smell good is easy.
Anna nodded slightly, naturally helped Lu Li tie his apron, and rummaged around in the corner of the kitchen to find a piece of steak that Lu Li wouldn't mind.
Ten minutes later, the closed kitchen door suddenly opened, and the rising aroma surrounded a figure with black eyes in front of the door.
The guests who were eating and talking in the restaurant looked at it in unison, and then raised their heads slightly to smell the alluring aroma that made them swallow their Adam's apples.
"Does anyone want to try it?" Lu Li looked around calmly and asked.
The guests raised their hands at the same time without any restraint.
"The ribs are big enough for everyone." Lu Li randomly selected a "lucky" customer and brought it to the kitchen.
The wooden door closed again and opened a minute later.
"Who's next?" Lu Li's calmness made the kitchen behind him look nothing like a trap with bait.
Selecting a happy guest, Lu Li closed the wooden door again after he walked in.
One after another, the guests entered the silent kitchen. When there were only two guests left in the restaurant, the part of their human consciousness finally made them doubtful and vigilant.
"Where have the other guests gone?" One of the guests asked Lu Li who appeared in front of the door.
"It's inside. Do you want to go in and take a look?"
What responded to him was Lu Li's unchanging tone. Inexplicably, that calm face seemed to be shuddering because of the turbulent undercurrent surging under the sea, as if it was facing something weird... but it was simply ridiculous! It was obviously weird in its own right -
"Hey, where are the people inside?" The guest shouted towards the kitchen with an inexplicable panic tone.
No response.
So Lu Li also turned around and called for it, but he was calling another person: "Anna, you can come out now."
There are only two passengers left, so just deal with them.
When Anna appeared holding a kitchen knife and restrained the two guests with an obscure aura, they screamed in horror: "You killed them?!"
"This, this is against the rules..."
"This fits perfectly."
Lu Li answered, picked up his holster, walked along the candlesticks in the restaurant, and blew out the candlelight on the road.
The restaurant was immediately shrouded in dim gauze, making it difficult for outsiders to peek through the windows at what was going on inside.
The furnace burning on and off filled the darkness. Anna threw the last corpse on top of the other eight corpses. She turned her head and looked at Lu Li, who was looking for Withered Claw's hiding place.
"Behind the door."
Anna motioned Lu Li to look behind the kitchen door - there was a new wooden board with obvious back patching. She found a tool to pry open the wooden board and peeked inside. A rustling sound could be heard faintly from the darkness.
Anna began to drag the corpses, withered claws swarming in like flies that smelled carrion. Amidst the noise, she removed the wall planks to expand the holes, and grabbed each corpse into the gap like a factory assembly line.
The crowded kitchen soon became empty, and the withered claws in the cracks shrank back into the darkness behind the wooden boards like closed flower buds. Lu Li picked up the oil lamp hanging on the door, lit it with firewood in the stove, and walked with Anna with it.
Enter the basement.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the cool and dark basement, and Anna smelled a smell of blood from the cold underground - but this was normal. The humans kept in the basement by the restaurant owner were just blood slaves who provided blood.
However, the scene was far crueler than Anna imagined. At the bottom of the basement, dark blood that had solidified was scattered around. Three narrow iron cages held a shapeless silhouette in each. The bad news was that the chests of two of the figures no longer rose.
The good news is that the huddled woman in the middle cage is still alive. Bloodstains are all over her body like tattoos. Only her wrists are still clean - but they have been replaced by cut marks that no longer bleed into the bones.
The two cold corpses next to them had the same wounds on their hanging wrists. They died of blood loss and the harsh environment in the basement.
The dying woman's head was lowered, and her long sticky hair was scattered, covering her face.
"Leave this place to you, I'll wait for you upstairs." Lu Li looked away, handed the oil lamp to Anna, and took off his coat.
"Soon." Anna said, watching Lu Li walk up the steps, holding his coat and squatting in front of the girl: "We are exorcists, here to save you."
The head in the cage slowly lifted up, and its numb eyes could hold nothing but despair.
…
Lu Li returned to the entrance of the basement and listened quietly to the faint sounds of conversation coming out of the basement.
Knock—knock—knock—
Lu Li's attention was attracted by a sudden knock on the door outside the restaurant.
Other guests?
Lu Li thought so, stared at the kitchen door, and began to count silently in his mind.
3…4…5…
Knock—knock—knock—
Almost five seconds later, a slow knock on the door sounded for the second time.
Lu Li no longer hesitated, but at this moment, a white arm stretched out from the darkness in the basement behind him and grabbed his wrist.
"I didn't feel anything..." Anna said softly: "Is it the 'door' trap?"
"Um."
Lu Li nodded.
Knock—knock—knock—
The third slow knock on the door came as promised.
"Where's the woman?" Lu Li saw that Anna was still holding the coat.
"She's dead..."
Anna thought that the woman's awakening was due to hope and desire for survival, but she did not expect that it was because of the return of the light - after a few words, the woman's head drooped again and could no longer be raised.
She lost too much blood, and her ability to hold on until now has reached her limit.
squeak - ah -
Suddenly, the heart-stopping sound of teeth grinding slowly echoed in the empty and dark restaurant.
The door outside the restaurant... was pushed open.
