The Legend of Tokyo Taoist

Chapter 165 Competition Part 5 ()

In the lounge, "Lanling King" changed into a black kimono and was sitting at the table with Qian Xiaoyi and others, making matcha for them.

The real name of "Lanling King" is Lin Guangyilang, who looks to be about 30 years old. His surname is Lin, but the origin of this Lin has nothing to do with the Lin surname in China. It is just the same character with a different pronunciation. As a Noh actor, he has regular features, short hair, and a rather elegant demeanor. At this time, he no longer has any of the madness he had before.

The lounge is a large room, half of which is covered with tatami, with a low table and cushions, and can be used as a tea room, and the other half is an ordinary sofa living room. They are now kneeling on the tatami side, waiting for Hayashi Koichiro to make tea.

"Tsk... it's really awkward to sit like this." Qian Xiaoyi thought to himself. Since the other party was so formal, he naturally couldn't be exempted from the formality, twisting his body uncomfortably on the cushion. The last time he knelt like this was more than ten years ago, when he was punished by his master to kneel for a whole night because he got into trouble for being naughty.

"Sorry, I'm still not used to it." Qian Xiaoyi simply sat down cross-legged again and said, "I'll sit like this."

"Please help yourself." Lin Guangyilang rinsed the matcha in the tea bowl with a bamboo brush, handed the tea bowl to Qian Xiaoyi, and said, "Please enjoy."

"Oh, thank you." Qian Xiaoyi took the tea bowl, took a sip, and then put it back. This was the taste of green tea powder soaked in water. He couldn't tell whether it was good or bad. If possible, he wanted to add some milk and sugar to it, and have some cake to eat together. That would be perfect.

Except for him, everyone else obviously knew the rules. Even Inuyama Heita knew that after taking the teacup with both hands, he should first turn the tea bowl three times, then start sucking the rim of the bowl, making a loud noise, then return the tea bowl and nervously praise the tea for being delicious.

"This is really good tea." Ling Na turned around and asked, "Mr. Qian, what do you think of this tea?"

Lin Guangyilang also looked at Qian Xiaoyi, and seemed to be very interested in the evaluation of people from the country where the tea ceremony originated.

Qian Xiaoyi thought: Is this woman deliberately looking for trouble? Is she trying to make me look bad? She is very aggressive. Is she already competing with the client?

So he said directly: "Well~ This is my first time to drink this. It is very different from the tea ceremony over there. I can feel a special fragrance. But I personally prefer the Tieguanyin over there. If Mr. Lin is interested in tea, I can give you some to try."

Since they are the suzerain country in terms of tea ceremony and their tea culture is more superior to ours, he doesn't need to be too humble in this regard. As long as he doesn't deliberately belittle the other party, everything will be fine.

Lin Guangyilang smiled and nodded, saying a few polite words, obviously very happy with Qian Xiaoyi's answer.

After drinking tea, they sat on the sofa area and began to talk about business. The reason why Lin Guangyilang went to so much trouble to prepare the tea ceremony before discussing the commission was because he was too frightened before and he couldn't calm down, and his speech was incoherent.

So when Suzuna saw that there was a tea room in the lounge, she suggested that they try some tea, and so this happened. It turned out that this method really worked. After a while, Hayashi Koichiro slowly returned to his normal state while making tea.

He began to tell everyone what had happened.

Hayashi Koichiro's family can be said to be a Noh family. His father is also a Noh actor. He performed in this Noh theater decades ago and was the mainstay here. He was influenced by his father since he was a child. He started performing on stage when he was a teenager. When his father passed away, he took over his position and became a core member of the Noh theater. He was well received by the audience and brought a lot of popularity to the Noh theater. "It was in these few years that I felt something was wrong." Hayashi Koichiro said with lingering fear: "I can clearly feel the extraordinaryness of some masks. They are like alive, and there are spirits inside. As long as I hang them on, I will lose consciousness and involuntarily become another person... As Miss Suzuna said, this is definitely an evil spirit! There is no other possibility!"

Qian Xiaoyi asked: "Mr. Lin, may I ask, does that happen only here? Would it happen at home?"

Lin Guangyilang nodded and said, "Sometimes at home, I do... because my father is also in this business, so he left behind many masks. Sometimes I lose consciousness for a while, and when I realize it, I have been wearing a mask for a while. Recently, it has even become so serious that I have walked out of the house and been seen on the street."

"In that case, I have to go to your house to take a look," Qian Xiaoyi said.

Gui Teng Long Guang also nodded and said, "It sounds like there may indeed be a spirit at work, but we still have to see it with our own eyes before we can draw a conclusion."

Lin Guangyilang said, "Please come to my humble abode to have a chat. I have been troubled by this matter. Even my wife was frightened by me and ran back to her parents' home. If this continues, I will be affected and unable to live a normal life."

So everyone came to Lin Guangyilang's house. His house was a single-family house with a backyard. It looked quite old.

People filed in. The house was decorated in the Showa era style and looked very Japanese. Hayashi Koichiro said that this house was bought by his father and the decoration had not changed for decades. It can be seen that his father should be a very old-fashioned person.

The rest of the house is not much different from an ordinary residence, but there is a room dedicated to Noh masks. Once you enter, you will see all three walls filled with various Noh masks, representing men, women, young and old, gods, demons, and monsters. There are quite a lot of types.

I have to say, Noh masks are really the underworld. Putting so many masks in one room, all staring at one place, don't even mention how stressful it is for the people standing in the room. It's like entering the set of a horror movie, which is really creepy.

Qian Xiaoyi held a compass and carefully explored the room with Inuyama Heita. Guido Ryuko was not to be outdone. He walked around with a rosary in his hand and muttered scriptures.

Only Suzuna was looking at the camera with a serious face. She said nervously in a spooky tone, "Everyone, can you look here? This is the client's home. Just by looking at it, you can tell that there must be something strange in it. The evil spirit that controls the client's actions may be among them. Teacher Kiteng and Mr. Qian have already started to act. Maybe something strange will happen soon..."

Since it was Suzuna who "saved" Hayashi Koichiro before, and she was a beautiful woman, she easily obtained Hayashi Koichiro's consent and began to film the Noh masks in the room as material for her video.

After carefully examining almost every mask, Qian Xiaoyi and Inuyama Heita (Ajian) came to the same conclusion.

——There are no evil spirits, not even a hair of ordinary spirits.

(End of this chapter)