I became a saint in the world of Liao Zhai, and flirted with monster girls

The girl suddenly felt an inexplicable aura rushing towards her, and she was about to reveal her true form on the spot to protect Zhou Kao.

This won't do. There are so many people here and it would be a bit panic-inducing if a woman suddenly emerged from a cramped little box.

He subconsciously knocked on the backpack, held down Yu Niang who was about to come out, and asked softly, "Little brother, you..."

"Please, sir, let me look in this bronze mirror, just for a moment."

The young man seemed not to hear Zhou Kao's words. He just kept begging, his voice tearful and his eyes full of longing and anxiety.

Zhou Kao slowly approached and asked softly, "Little brother, why do you want us to look into this mirror?"

When the young man saw Zhou Kao approaching, his eyes suddenly lit up and he couldn't wait to raise the bronze mirror in his hand and point it at Zhou Kao's face.

For a moment, the eyes of those in the store who had never seen this scene were drawn over and they looked at it curiously.

A strange thing happened. The smooth surface of the bronze mirror should have reflected Zhou Kao's face, but now it was empty, as if Zhou Kao had no shadow at all.

"what."

Zhou Kao couldn't help but let out a soft cry, with a hint of surprise and curiosity in his eyes.

This bronze mirror is definitely not an ordinary item.

When the boy saw this, the expression on his face instantly dimmed, like an eggplant hit by frost.

But he seemed unwilling to give up. He turned around like a madman and took the bronze mirror to look at other people in the store who had not been photographed before.

This time, there were other people's shadows in the mirror.

Everyone either looked at their own images curiously, or looked at the young man in confusion, not understanding what he was doing.

"Why would a grown man like me look in the mirror? Go away."

A burly man glared at the boy impatiently and shouted.

The young man turned a deaf ear to her and continued wandering around the store with a lonely look on his face, holding the bronze mirror tightly in his hand, his eyes full of loss and confusion.

Zhou Kao looked at the boy's back, and his curiosity grew stronger.

Who is this young man looking for in the mirror?

Zhou Kao watched the crazy boy stumbling around in the store looking for someone to look in the mirror. Under his messy hair, his eyes flashed with an almost paranoid light.

The boy's clothes were tattered, with many patches and patches hanging here and there. The corners of his clothes were stained with dried mud, and it was obvious that he had not changed or washed them for a long time.

This strange behavior attracted Zhou Kao's attention like a magnet. He was not only puzzled by the boy's abnormal behavior, but also curious about the bronze mirror with an ancient luster.

As the saying goes, when things go wrong, there must be demons.

There must be something fishy about this matter.

"Little brother, what are you looking for with the bronze mirror? If you tell me, I might be able to help you."

Zhou Kao leaned forward and asked in a gentle tone.

However, the young man seemed to have heard nothing, still holding the bronze mirror stubbornly, moving through the crowd, his eyes eagerly searching for the next target.

At this time, a fellow villager with dark skin and wrinkles like knives shouted at Zhou Kao in a thick local accent: "Young man, it's useless to talk to this crazy boy! That boy is the son of the boss lady of this house. Ever since the monster started the chaos, hey..."

The fellow villager's voice suddenly stopped. He slapped his thigh heavily, his face full of regret and helplessness, and fell into silence.

What a nice guy he was, but now he has become like this.

"Sir, your wontons."

The cook's voice sounded at the right moment. She walked out of the kitchen carrying steaming wontons, with a few spots of soup still on her apron.

"Okay, thank you." Zhou Kao replied with a smile.

A bowl of wontons was placed on the table, with white mist rising and a fresh fragrance filling the air.

The chopped green onions are juicy green, the dried shrimps are an attractive orange-red, the brown dried vegetables are faintly visible, and the plump wontons are floating in the clear soup.

Zhou Kao picked up the spoon, scooped up a wonton, and took a light bite. The skin was thin and the filling was large. The soup overflowed in his mouth and disappeared between his lips and teeth in the blink of an eye.

The cook saw the crazy boy still tossing around, her brows furrowed, and she hurried forward and pulled him into her arms, her voice full of heartache and helplessness: "My son, why are you out again? Be good and go back quickly."

In the cook's warm embrace, the young man's eyes seemed to clear up for a moment, and he mumbled intermittently, "No one can help me. They all say I'm crazy, but I know... I'm not crazy. If I can... find the person that the Taoist priest mentioned, the village... will be saved."

After finally calming the young man down and sending him back to the back hall, the cook returned to the front hall with the bronze mirror.

She looked apologetic and bowed slightly to the diners present. The regular customers who knew the inside story all waved their hands magnanimously, indicating that they didn't care.

"Hmm?" Zhou Kao's eyes flickered as he pondered inwardly, "A Taoist priest wants him to find someone? Who?"

Then, he stopped eating the wontons and asked the proprietress, "Madam, who is that young man? And what's with the bronze mirror?"

The proprietress gently stroked the bronze mirror in her hand. The patterns on the mirror's surface were faintly visible in the candlelight. She forced a smile, her voice filled with unconcealable sadness:

"He, he is my only, only son now. The bronze mirror was given to me by that Taoist priest. He said that if anyone looks into the mirror and sees three figures, they are the ones who can defeat the monster."

"The bronze mirror can only show one figure, how could it possibly show three?"

Zhou Kao frowned, feeling that this was a bit ridiculous.

"That's what the Taoist priest said." The proprietress lowered her eyes, her eyes full of loneliness.

Zhou Kao said, "Can you let me take a look at the mirror?"

"Of course." The proprietress handed over the bronze mirror.

Zhou Kao took the bronze mirror and felt it was cool to the touch. It was heavier than an ordinary bronze mirror.

He raised the bronze mirror and looked at himself again, but the mirror was still empty, without any reflection.

Then he turned the bronze mirror towards the proprietress, and the proprietress's figure was immediately clearly reflected in the mirror, but it was only a lonely shadow, without even two shadows, let alone three shadows.

Zhou Kao pondered for a moment, handed the bronze mirror back to the proprietress who was full of confusion, and then concentrated on eating the wontons.

The wontons were still hot, and he blew on them with a hissing sound while devouring them.

When the proprietress saw Zhou Kao eating with relish, the gloom in her heart dissipated a little.

For her, the greatest comfort is that her wontons are loved by customers.

In a blink of an eye, Zhou Kao had eaten up the whole bowl of wontons.

He counted them and found there were eighteen wontons in the bowl.

"Madam, please give me another fifty wontons!" Zhou Kao shouted.

"Ah?" The proprietress was stunned and looked embarrassed. "Sir, there are only thirty meat left..."

Seeing that Zhou Kao was tall, she specially added eight more wontons. Ten of these wontons with thin skin and large fillings would fill an ordinary person's stomach. If they were small wontons, thirty or forty would be enough for a meal.

"We've run out of meat, so vegetarian ones will do." Zhou Kao patted his belly and laughed heartily, "Ten or eight, just to try them."

The boss lady has been a cook for many years and has seen all kinds of diners. Those strong men who do hard labor can fill their stomachs with thirty vegetarian wontons, but these fifty wontons are not enough.

Even a martial artist who works as a bodyguard for a caravan probably wouldn't be able to eat so much.

Seeing Zhou Kao slap the money on the table, the proprietress didn't know what to say. She could only cook the existing wontons while skillfully wrapping the vegetarian wontons.

The wontons were served again, and Zhou Kao was still eating them with a slurp, one bite at a time, wolfing them down. The cook was frightened by the sight, and for a moment she forgot her sadness, becoming concerned that the customer would overeat and get into trouble in the restaurant.

After Zhou Kao finished eating, he patted his stomach in satisfaction and said with a smile, "I'm 80% full, just right."

Chapter 21: Coward, Don’t Run

"There have been noises at night these past few days. I heard it was a spirit out looking for food. If it weren't for the peach charms hung in every household, they would have been unable to sleep soundly."

The proprietress remembered what had happened and could not help but remind Zhou Kao, "Sir, if you hear any noise at night, just be careful, there is no need to panic."

As she spoke, she mentioned the monster again, her eyes filled with fear and hatred: "The Taoist priest told my son that only a person with three shadows can kill the monster in the lake in front of our village."

Afterwards, she continued to talk about the excellent feng shui of the village, how the county magistrate had come to write an inscription, and how she firmly believed that someone would always come to subdue the monster.

"Are there monsters over there?" Zhou Kao asked, pointing to a village not far away. He could vaguely see a bottomless pool there, the surface of which was shimmering, yet a strange aura emanated from it.

"Yes, there's a very ferocious monster in the lake that has eaten many people. My brother was eaten while swimming, my husband was eaten while fishing, my old mother was eaten while washing clothes by the lake, and my four-year-old daughter was eaten when she tried to fight the monster with a bamboo pole."

As the proprietress spoke, tears welled up in her eyes, her voice choked, and she kept wiping away her tears with trembling hands.

"Later, my son also took a bamboo pole and went to fight the monster, but he was forcibly brought back by the village chief halfway. When he came back, he looked like this..."

A four-year-old girl and her brother, two young children, rushed to the lake with bamboo poles in hand, wanting to avenge their family after hearing that their family had been killed by a monster.

When Zhou Kao heard this, his heart was in turmoil and he remained silent for a while.

The proprietress continued, "Later, my son met that Taoist priest..."

Suddenly, the proprietress raised her head, wiped away her tears, and asked Zhou Kao expectantly, "Tell me, the Taoist priest wouldn't lie to my son, right? Everyone in the village says the Taoist priest is a liar. Tell me, is the Taoist priest lying to my son?"

Zhou Kao looked at the proprietress with a serious expression and a firm gaze: "The Taoist priest didn't lie to you. What he said is true. As long as you find the person with three shadows, he can help you get rid of the monster. But the Taoist priest didn't say that the person with three shadows can get rid of the monster, and the person without shadows can also get rid of the monster."

"Really?" The crazy young man rushed out from the back hall at some point, staring at Zhou Kao with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"Of course it's true. Look, I can't even cast a shadow on it."

Zhou Kao picked up the bronze mirror and pointed it at himself again, showing the boy the empty mirror surface.

Zhou Kao decided to stay at the wonton shop.

Besides him, there are a few other men working on ships in this shop.

The guest room was in the form of a large bunk bed. Although the cook had made a simple partition with wooden boards, it still looked narrow and cramped, and the wooden beams above were filled with years of cooking fumes.

The smell of sweat leaked out from the gaps in the bamboo curtains.

The yellowed straw exposed in the peeling walls only confirmed the cook's modest words about the place being "cramped and small".

Several men in short shirts and bare chests all had frowns on their faces. The monsters had blocked the water trade routes, and the nighttime boat business could not be carried out. If the oars stopped for a day, no money would be earned, and the wives and children at home would have to eat less, making their livelihood a problem.

In the face of survival pressure, the threat of monsters seems less terrifying.

When Zhou Kao stepped into the guest room, the men fell silent at first. But when they learned that he was a scholar, they could no longer contain themselves. They leaned forward with their knees on the bed, rubbed their rough palms on their trouser legs again and again, and gathered around to chat with him.

They hoped that the scholar would be knowledgeable and could tell them when the monsters would be eliminated in the prefecture and county towns, but as they talked, the topic turned to family matters.

A boatman sat on the bed, hugging his knees, rubbing the scars on his calves with his rough hands, his expression solemn: "Mr. Zhou, I have seen that monster before. It is pitch black and has a bloody mouth.

His mouth is full of sharp teeth like steel knives. He can crush a mast as thick as a bowl into pieces with one bite. The sound is like chewing sugarcane.

That night, the escort on my ship swung his sword and chopped it a few times. Sparks flew as the blade hit it. It's covered in scales, so maybe it's really invulnerable to swords and spears..."

"There's no such thing as invulnerable."

Zhou Kao laughed out loud and tapped the wooden box at the head of the bed with his fingertips.

"If they were truly invulnerable, the world would have long been inhabited by monsters. How could our human dynasty prosper? Don't you agree?"

These words were like a reassurance. The men nodded one after another, and the fear on their faces subsided a lot. Instead, they began to complain:

"It would be better to form a monster-hunting team as soon as possible and destroy the monster, so that we can live in peace sooner. It's strange to say, this monster was rarely seen for three generations in the past, but why have they appeared one after another in the past two years..."

"Hey, what nonsense are you talking about!"

The other person lowered his voice and glanced out the window.

"The Imperial Master's disciples will be here soon. It's only a matter of time before these monsters are destroyed..."

Everyone chatted for a long time before washing up and going to bed.

Zhou Kao fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow, with his box placed beside the pillow - with Yu Niang around, she was the best "night watchman". If she wanted to wake her master up, she didn't even need to make a sound, she just had to touch him lightly in his consciousness.

As the night deepened, the chirping of insects rose and fell, covering the inn like a fine net.

Just after midnight, Zhou Kao was dreaming that he was eating heartily from a large bowl of wontons, which seemed to be endless. Suddenly, Yu Niang appeared in his dream with an anxious look on her face.

The hem of her skirt was stained with night dew, and her hair was disheveled. "My dear, stop eating! There's a monster outside, and it's already come out of the water!"

"Ok?"

Zhou Kao swallowed another wonton in his dream and glared, "What kind of monster is following me everywhere? Wherever I go, it follows me too? Is it here to look for the badger? Quick, get my fork!"

Before he could finish his words, the dream suddenly shattered.

Zhou Kao suddenly opened his eyes, and with his backhand grasped the precious sword beside his pillow. Sure enough, there was a rustling sound outside the window, like something grinding its teeth, or like sharp claws scratching the door.

The "crunching" sound makes the hair on the back of the neck stand on end.

He held his breath, leaned against the window, and looked out through the gap in the paper: in the thick night, a pair of big eyes like copper bells shone faintly, and the pupils were filled with a cold green light, which was definitely not that of a human.

"Good boy, this look is really eye-opening." Zhou Kao muttered softly, his fingertips stroking the rope wrapped around the handle.

The noise outside had already woken everyone up, and suddenly a sharp scream from the cook came from downstairs.

Zhou Kao didn't hesitate any longer, he drew his sword from its sheath, the blade reflecting the moonlight and emitting a cold arc of light. He kicked the door open and strode towards the source of the sound.