Chapter 7: The small town of Siren

Lucy sits at the table, looking like she hasn't slept either, yawning sickly and leaning into Bai Liu.

Jeff has been dozing off all morning and has dark circles under his eyes, his skin is greenish grey and his eyes are sunken.

And I don't know if it was Bai Liu's fault, but he felt that Andre's pupils had shrunk a little compared to yesterday, and his whole being had an uncomfortable air of nervous agitation, with an unmistakable smell of fish.

Bai Liu took out the coin and swiped it against Andre.

[NPC Name: Andre (Mental value decreased, alienation in progress)

Andre seems to have worked up an appetite at this point, eating large plates of the hotel breakfast buffet as if it were being poured straight down his throat.

As this hotel is by the sea, most of the breakfasts consist of fried fish of all kinds. The fish soup is oily and smooth, and the fillets are golden and crispy, making them look appetising.

Bai Liu smelt a pungent fish smell like rotting fish tails, like the fly-ridden dead fish he smelt at the dump where the fishmongers dumped their fish in the market, and he started to gag as soon as he got near the glorious looking fish delicacies, not to mention swallowing them.

But both Jeff and Lucy had the look on their faces that these things smelled good.

Bai Liu took out the coin and scanned it. As expected, these two also showed [Alienation in progress], which should be related to the mermaid statue in the room.

Not to mention Andre, who makes Bai Liu a little uncomfortable with the way he eats. Andre chewed heavily, the wet, dark tail of the fish lapping at the side of his mouth as he chewed, often forking the next one into his mouth before he had finished it.

Lucy looked at Bai Liu with slight surprise as she sliced the fish steak with her knife and fork: "Aren't you going to eat? Baby! The fish steaks here are so delicious, I couldn't help but eat two of them even though I'm on a diet!"

"You've really found a rather nice beachfront hotel!" With that, Lucy was about to come over and kiss him.

But Bai Liu was choked by the strong smell of fish in Lucy's mouth, and subconsciously pushed her away, but thought better of it and pulled the plate away from Lucy's face, pretending to be serious: "Baby, you're in shape, I won't allow you to lose your beauty for a fish. "

Lucy was delighted to be coaxed into eating the vegetarian salad, although she still had a fondness for the fish and chips.

Bai Liu pretended to drop by again and filled a number of salads for Jeff and Andre to eat.

Jeff ate with a bit of soulfulness.

It was Andre who looked at Bai Liu with a nose that didn't match his eyes and taunted, "It's not like our rich man is short of money, is it? Before he came here, he said he'd pay for our food and accommodation, but now he can't even let us eat a fish steak."

" Lucy, look at that, there's your mean boyfriend!"

Lucy immediately cursed in anger: " Andre! If it wasn't for Bai Liu, do you think you could come to a hotel like this and eat this fancy fish and chips? You wouldn't even be able to stay here! If Bai Liu didn't pay for you, you wouldn't be able to leave the hotel!"

" Lucy!" Andre growled, but Lucy tilted her head back and glared at Andre.

Andre can't do anything about the woman he likes, so he's ready to take his anger out on Bai Liu.

As Lucy screamed and watched Andre's wide palm open to lift Bai Liu by the back of his collar, Bai Liu wiped his mouth nonchalantly, looked over at Andre and smiled, "If you still want me to pay your bill, you'd better not touch me."

Andre's hand suddenly stopped in mid-air, his nostrils dilating and contracting like a bull as he spat out a furious breath.

He looked at Bai Liu with red eyes and threatened fiercely, "If you can't do what we bet on by the end of the night, I'll make sure you're a short-handed punk who can't even get laid!"

Andre's eyes were bloodshot, seemingly dazed by the rage that had gone straight to his head, but he couldn't do anything about it, as he was still expecting Bai Liu to pay his bill.

At the same time a piece of broccoli accidentally rolled out of Jeff's plate while he was eating and onto Andre's shoe.

Like a balloon that has been inflated to its limit and then punctured, Andre backhanded Jeff in the back of the head before he could say sorry, knocking Jeff's head on the plate and spitting out everything he had eaten that morning.

"You've soiled my shoes! You disgusting bastard!" Andre seemed amused at the sight of Jeff vomiting, found some sort of mental balance by grunting a laugh out of his nose and giving Jeff another kick.

After wiping the negligible grease stain from his shoes on Jeff's trousers, Andre added, "I don't mess with losers who can't fight back, wipe it off and get the hell out of my way."

Lucy helped a dazed Jeff to his feet as she yelled hysterically at Andre: "You stop it Andre! You've gone too far with Jeff!"

Bai Liu ignored the two arguing men, his eyes focused on Jeff's vomit, a golden fish fillet that had been chewed and spat out with a greenish-black cross section that looked like dead fish, covered in what looked like wriggling carrion worms.

This rotting dead fish, which is simply not edible to humans, is used by fishmongers in vegetable markets to feed large fish.

Bai Liu remembers a fishmonger telling him that the larger the carrion fish, the more they like to eat dead fish.

The driver came to pick Bai Liu up after his breakfast.

[Main Quest: Visit Siren Wax Museum, 50 bonus points]

[Main Quest: Attend the Mermaid Fishing Convention, reward points 50]

The Siren Museum and the Mermaid Fishing Convention, which sounds like two attractions.

Bai Liu pondered for a moment, and was just about to ask the driver what these two were when Jeff suddenly came up and got between Bai Liu and the driver, his head bowed and silent, his pale, thin cheeks sunken, blood stains from Andre's blows on the side of his mouth, his teeth clenched and trembling slightly.

Bai Liu raised an eyebrow, Jeff seemed to have gone out of his way to avoid contact with the driver from yesterday until now.

This is not quite normal.

Bai Liu's fingers unconsciously turn the coin in his heart.

The coins flip back and forth on the backs of his fingers, a common gesture Bai Liu uses to think things through, and the feeling of having money in his hands, even a dollar, gives him a sense of calm and pleasure.

In the absence of other information, Bai Liu speculated that Jeff's target would be Andre, and that it would be normal for Andre to have access to the driver, who would be looking for opportunities to strike, while Lucy would be an easy character to fool, and there would be no need to be so deliberate in isolating him.

Jeff must have had a reason for isolating himself and his driver, and that reason, Bai Liu pondered, would be money.

Jeff clearly doesn't look like a wealthy character, looking at the way he dresses and his daily routine of violence by Andre's school.

Andre is also a bully, and is not very aggressive with the rich Bai Liu, but he does not take any real action, while he beats and scolds Jeff, whose family situation is not as good as his own, or even Andre's, in this respect.

Last night, Jeff gave the driver what appeared to be a substantial amount of money, and Bai Liu had reason to suspect that Jeff had taken the money he had paid for the driver and the tourists to hire the driver to get back at Andre, which is why he had been so vain in keeping the driver away from him.

But last night Jeff had already paid this driver a sum of money, the deal was reasonably well done, and the work of the apparent driver and tourist was well executed, and he did not express any suspicion.

Generally speaking, Jeff should have been relieved that there was no need to go to such lengths to isolate him from the driver, which would have aroused his own suspicions.

This is not quite the kind of cautiousness that you would expect if things were not yet in place.

But it's also possible that Jeff is just being cautious and timid, not letting his guard down if he doesn't succeed - after all, Jeff's subplot is called "The Bloody Plot", and it's perfectly understandable that Bai Liu would be a bit more careful with a plot that sounds like a murderous plot.

I just don't know when Jeff is going to take on Andre, but for now Bai Liu wants to focus mainly on the main quest.

Bai Liu spoke to the driver: "Driver, is there anything to see in Siren Town?"

"Sights?" The driver thought for a moment and said, "The must-sees for visitors to our area are the night fishing and the museum."

At this answer, Bai Liu said, "Yes," and raised his eyebrows: "What's so special about fishing and wax museums?"

"Of course we do, we're Siren Town." The driver turned his head. Bai Liu saw the driver's face up close and personal for the first time in the car, and even Bai Liu, whose resistance to horror was as high as his, looked startled.

Not so much out of fear, but out of amazement.

The driver was so strange looking.

The whites of this man's eyes were so numerous that they were only the size of a fly. In the midst of the whites of his eyes, as he spoke, the eye wavered restlessly everywhere, as if he could not control the eye that was about to disappear and escape from his eyes.

This driver's skin is so pale as to be opaque, like a piece of poor quality wax.

He said this while driving and biting into the fish and chip sandwich in his hand.

The cross section of the fillet was a rotten green-black colour, as if it had been made from mouldy fish, but the driver ate it with relish, his teeth stained with the green-black colour, and he gave Bai Liu a smile with a wide, unnatural curve.