Delivering Dishes

"Sir, here is the drink you ordered."

Bai Wei pretended to polish glasses behind the bar. He watched as another waiter brought the drink to Lucen. Twenty minutes passed, yet Lucen was still waiting for someone, showing no intention of touching his glass.

...What exactly is this man up to? Bai Wei ground his teeth in frustration. Then his phone rang—Lucen had sent him another message.

"Darling, are you asleep?"

"I'm about to go to sleep. Haven't you gone to bed yet, honey?"

Bai Wei placed his phone beneath the bar, replying with practiced nonchalance.

Lucen read the message before him. It seemed Bai Wei had found a hotel in Black Harbor City to spend the night. Even though he knew Bai Wei had once worked here for a year and a half, Lucen couldn't help but wonder which hotel Bai Wei had chosen, and whether it was truly safe.

Seeing Lucen frowning at his phone, Bai Wei had a sudden inspiration and sent another message:

"It's so late and you’re still awake... Are you out somewhere? Is someone with you?"

Lucen’s composure unraveled in an instant.

Bai Wei was asking about his whereabouts... Wait, did Bai Wei suspect he was cheating? Did Bai Wei think he had come to Black Harbor to see someone else?

Lucen suddenly recalled the shopkeeper’s words about a “white moonlight.” Lord, could Bai Wei possibly misunderstand and think he had another “white moonlight” here? Did Bai Wei follow him to Black Harbor, not out of concern, but to catch him in an affair?

For one strange moment, alongside his panic at being unable to prove his innocence, Lucen was struck by a weighty, peculiar feeling. For the first time, someone in this world was so stubborn about him, so possessive... Heavens, but for Bai Wei, who was misunderstanding him, how painful must this feeling be?

Lucen replied immediately: "Darling, I’m alone in my hotel room. I just can’t get to sleep. Maybe the city is too noisy. I’m lying here with insomnia."

Liar!

Bai Wei’s hand tightened around the stem of the glass. Not only was Lucen hanging out in the hotel bar in the middle of the night, he was also lying to him?

How was Lucen any different from those husbands who sneak out while pretending to be working at home, cheating on their wives?

No, no—his first priority now was to make Lucen drink that cocktail. Besides, Lucen’s reply was just as he had predicted. He needed to stay calm.

"How come? Honey, I can’t sleep either. I just had a bit of brandy. Do you have any alcohol with you? A little might help you sleep."

"Honey, why don’t you have a drink too—just imagine I’m right there with you ^_^"

Bai Wei watched as Lucen stared at the message for a long moment, dazed. Then, without hesitation, Lucen drained the cocktail with the special addition.

The glass was empty. Success!

Bai Wei had already billed the cocktail to a non-existent “Mr. X.” The records would show Lucen asked the bartender to serve a drink symbolizing passion to “Mr. X.” Anyone investigating would see Lucen and Mr. X exchanging drinks in a crowded bar, then heading together to the restroom.

In a few days, someone would discover Lucen’s body in the dumpster behind the hotel. They’d conclude that Lucen came to Black Harbor to meet his “white moonlight,” Mr. X. They drank together at the hotel bar, went to the restroom, then, after an argument about divorce, something went wrong, and Lucen died in an unmonitored alley.

And Bai Wei, far off in Snowy Mountain Town, would know nothing, would remain completely unaware, and would finally be free of his zombie husband.

Lucen was a zombie. His body was dead, but his heart was still alive, still capable of infidelity. Wasn’t that perfectly logical? Bai Wei thought so. He quietly slipped away from the bar, waiting for Lucen to head to the restroom—because he had put a special stimulant in Lucen’s drink.

This special stimulant boosted the body’s metabolism. Many cheating athletes used it in small doses. In high doses, it caused nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, and dizziness. In even greater amounts, it could induce a state like sudden cardiac death.

Bai Wei only needed Lucen to go to the restroom and throw up. Then, depending on Lucen’s reaction, he could fabricate a story: Lucen died of sudden cardiac arrest in the restroom, or died during a quarrel, or accidentally drowned while vomiting into the toilet... As expected, Lucen soon stood up.

But instead of heading for the restroom, he strode straight and tall toward the hotel elevator.

What?!

Bai Wei stared at Lucen in shock. To chase him into the elevator now would only arouse suspicion. He could only watch as the elevator rose all the way to the 30th floor.

What was Lucen doing in his room? Was he going to vomit in his private bathroom?

Wasn’t the route from the bar to the restroom much more convenient?

Bai Wei had no idea which room Lucen was in. When he reached the 30th floor, he found all the doors tightly closed. He glanced down at his phone and made a despairing discovery.

Lucen had left his phone at the bar.

Meanwhile, the guests in several rooms on the 30th floor were still deep in slumber. Even so, a thick, abyssal scent of the sea began to diffuse through the air, plunging them into a deeper, dreamless stupor. Faint murmurs lulled them into utter silence.

Perhaps by the next afternoon or night, they would wake up, assuming they had simply slept too soundly, unaware of the truth: a certain drug had accelerated the metabolism of a monster. That mysterious deep-sea creature had shed its skin early in the hotel.

Now, it was fiercely agitated and highly aggressive, swelling and contracting with a low, unsettling growl.

...

Bai Wei waited near the hotel for two whole days.

During those two days, nothing emerged from the hotel—no news of a death, no new messages from Lucen. All was silent, leaving Bai Wei unable to know what had become of Lucen.

Had Lucen really died from the drug?

No, that was impossible—Bai Wei hadn’t used such a large dose! Or perhaps, for zombie monsters, the stimulant was lethal?

Bai Wei grew anxious. He slowly finished a bottle of iced water in the hotel’s back alley. If Lucen wasn’t dead, Bai Wei should add more fuel to the fire. If Lucen was dead, showing up now would only expose himself.

At last, Bai Wei changed into a waiter’s uniform again in the staff dressing room and secretly checked the hotel’s booking records.

He soon found something that made him furious.

The room registered under Lucen’s name wasn’t even on the 30th floor! Was he an idiot? There had only been one person in the elevator that night—Lucen—and he had definitely gone up to the 30th floor!

Which meant someone else had booked a room up there, and Lucen was now in that room!

Two days—he hadn’t come out.

Lucen!!

...Still, now there was a sealed space and a clear suspect. Who said this wasn’t a good thing? Bai Wei quickly composed himself and began reviewing the 30th-floor bookings.

It was simple. The 30th floor held only five presidential suites. Based on booking times and room service requests, Bai Wei soon pinpointed the room.

3003.

"Lucen, you actually booked a presidential suite for ten whole days. If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found you so quickly," Bai Wei thought coldly.

But Bai Wei had always been composed. He quickly suppressed his anger and devised a plan.

Bai Wei created a service order for room 3003 on the hotel computer. 3003 requested ice and balloons. Bai Wei assigned the task to the waiter he was impersonating. Soon, during the hotel’s quietest afternoon hours, dressed in a waiter’s uniform, he pushed a metal cart toward the elevator.

Meanwhile, a young woman with green-streaked hair and a blue-haired youth entered the hotel. They looked about warily, clearly searching for someone.

In the corridor, the green-haired woman brushed past a waiter. After a moment, she glanced back, a subtle and complicated expression on her face.