MTLNOVEL Chapter 130: Ghosts in a Restaurant
After the third day of competition, Lu Chen and Ei advanced to the knockout stage.
The team event followed a simple single-elimination format, so it came after the individual matches.
Because both of them had been deliberately holding back, the scores in each round were surprisingly close, which made the school team coach increasingly anxious.
After every match, the coach would earnestly remind them not to keep thinking about going out to have fun—overeating and partying would affect their competitive performance...
Lu Chen just kept nodding obediently.
That evening, he took the whole family to the bustling night market, found a cozy local diner, and ordered a tableful of dishes.
Holding a bowl of stewed noodles, Lu Chen suddenly remembered the coach's heartfelt advice...
Then he happily polished off every last bite.
A vague sense of guilt crept up on him.
Especially when he thought about the rest of the school team still training hard back at the gym—it made him feel even worse.
So he ordered another bowl of spicy soup.
Yeah... just a little indulgence like this shouldn't count as "overeating," right?
"Wow, Lu Chen, you sure can eat!"
Hu Tao looked up in surprise.
"Uh... is that a lot?" Lu Chen wiped his mouth. "Maybe I burned more calories than usual."
"It was just a few matches! How much could you have possibly burned?" Venti didn't really care for the local food, but the house-made white liquor won him over completely.
Every place had its own specialty drinks, and Venti's "drink my way around the world" plan had just ticked off another goal.
"I always burn a lot of energy at night," Lu Chen said as he sipped his soup, the warmth spreading through his body.
"At night?" Venti glanced at him, confused.
Miko gave Ei a knowing look.
Ei's cheeks flushed slightly as she shot Lu Chen a glare.
Lu Chen set his bowl down innocently. He did work out every night.
Ever since regaining his strength, he'd been revisiting the martial arts he'd learned—he'd already smashed more wooden dummies than he could count.
After soaking up a bunch of baffling glares, Lu Chen turned to look at Master Hu again.
She and Qiqi were seated in a row, but Qiqi had moved her stool far to the side, keeping a good distance between them.
As a result, everyone else was squeezed a bit tighter together.
Hu Tao still hadn't given up on trying to improve her relationship with Qiqi.
But after a few days, they were still like their elements—ice and fire, completely incompatible.
One morning during his routine training, Lu Chen happened to see Qiqi flipping through her little notebook.
It was filled with reminders about daily life.
He took a peek—and was shocked to find entries about Hu Tao.
Qiqi had filled over ten pages with just one message:
"Beware of Hu Tao!"
"Beware of Hu Tao! Beware of Hu Tao! Beware of Hu Tao!"
It was packed so densely, it looked like something out of a death note...
Watching Hu Tao still trying to win her over, Lu Chen let out a sigh.
If Master Hu wanted to mend things with Qiqi, it was going to be a long journey...
As they ate and chatted, Lu Chen suddenly felt something was off.
In the lively restaurant, it felt like... someone was watching him.
He frowned slightly and looked up.
He exchanged a glance with Ei—her expression was off too.
That strange sense of being watched made everyone slowly put down their chopsticks.
Zhongli quietly set his bowl on the table and scanned the room.
"What's wrong? Why'd you all stop eating?" Only Venti seemed completely unbothered.
"Do you feel that chill... that eerie coldness?" Lu Chen lowered his voice.
"A chill?" Venti looked around, half-joking. "Now that you mention it... I thought the A/C was just cranked too high."
"Wait—" Hu Tao suddenly dropped her usual playfulness. "This feeling... I know it well. It's like..."
Lu Chen saw her stand up, sharply locking onto a corner of the restaurant.
These hole-in-the-wall joints were everywhere in the provincial capital—cheap, tasty, but notoriously unhygienic.
The place was a mess, packed with diners inside and out.
The direction Hu Tao was staring at seemed to be the restaurant's storage area, stacked with clutter.
In that corner untouched by light, the shadows seemed heavy and detached from the noisy, cheerful atmosphere of the restaurant.
Just as Hu Tao stood up, Lu Chen caught a glimpse of a face flicker past in that darkness.
"Holy—!"
Lu Chen's eyes widened.
"Reveal yourself, fiend!" Hu Tao shouted, charging forward.
With a loud crash, Lu Chen watched her spear sweep straight into the pile of clutter. Crates toppled, dust filled the air.
Everyone in the restaurant, inside and out, froze in shock.
"Ahhh—!"
Someone screamed when they saw a girl brandishing a long spear.
"What's going on?!"
"Are they causing trouble?"
The scar-faced owner stormed out of the kitchen in a rage...
Only to see a girl with an innocent face standing at the storage room door.
"Where'd it go? It was just here..." Hu Tao muttered, glancing around.
The strange face was already gone.
Behind the boss, several burly chefs charged out—one of them even had a cleaver.
"Wait, wait! It's a misunderstanding!"
Lu Chen quickly stepped in with a big smile to smooth things over.
He pulled Hu Tao back behind him. She clutched her spear tightly, still poised to strike.
Everyone at Lu Chen's table stood up.
Seeing their numbers, the boss faltered a little.
He swallowed nervously but still tried to act tough.
"You think numbers scare me? I'll call my people! Do you even know who you're messing with? Back in my city, I fought from the North Side all the way to downtown!"
He made sure his tattoo peeked out from under his sleeve.
Lu Chen glanced at it—and chuckled. So the guy was in the business after all...
"Sorry, sorry, really, it's just a big misunderstanding..."
He gestured to Hu Tao with the spear, then tapped his own head with a helpless look.
"She's my cousin's niece from the countryside. Her brain... well... isn't all there, you know?"
"Huh?" The boss eyed them suspiciously.
"What do you mean my brain isn't all there?!" Hu Tao's eyes went wide, clearly about to argue.
Lu Chen quickly shoved her back again.
"No, really, boss. Who brings a spear to dinner? She's been like this since she was little—burned out her brain from a fever..."
Lu Chen was determined not to stir up trouble. A place like this was too crowded, too public.
Thankfully, Hu Tao hadn't pulled any of her supernatural stunts. If she had, there'd be no keeping things quiet...
After plenty of explanation, the boss finally, reluctantly bought Lu Chen's story.
Whether he believed it didn't really matter—no one turns down money. Lu Chen whipped out a fat stack of cash.
The damage wasn't worth much, so the boss didn't kick them out. He just gave them a wary side-eye and went back to the kitchen.
After seating the huffy Hu Tao back down, Lu Chen shot her a warning glare.
"Next time, warn me before you go charging off! This is a society under the rule of law, not Wuwang Hill!"
"What!" She was still focused on what had just happened. "There was a ghost! Didn't any of you see it?!"
"Oh, we saw it," Lu Chen crossed his arms. "But ghosts aren't exactly under Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's jurisdiction, are they?"
"Of course they are! Both the living and the dead need this Master Hu to mediate!" Hu Tao huffed.
After the ghost incident, no one really felt like eating anymore.
Lu Chen glanced once more at the messy storage corner Hu Tao had stormed into...
...