The face on the Knotting Room’s door had a diater close to one and a half ters, pasted on the door,
The face’s muscles were swollen and wrinkled, with features enlarged and eyes closed, resembling an overly inflated dough.
The face was indifferent to the solution of the rope trap in the Rope Corridor,
Li Ang and Wang Congshan walked up to the door, observing for a while, and discovered that although the sliding door of the Knotting Room was paper-covered wood, it was indestructible under the force of the face.
Furthermore, the face itself,
was unaffected by psychic abilities or even gunfire—the face would quickly regenerate any injuries, preventing the two from opening the door to the Knotting Room.
Just as Li Ang was about to use his theory of "Ma Yinglong for dark circles" to pitch it to the face, the latter suddenly awoke, murmuring "I really want to drink Guiquan Liquor."
Beyond that, no matter how Li Ang tried to negotiate, the face remained indifferent.
Li Ang and Wang Congshan discussed for a while, realizing that the current situation clearly indicated the next step to passing through,
since entering the script world, they hadn’t seen any alcohol around, with only two related clues.
One was a note from the folklore scholar ntioning that the Hiratsuka Family would prepare sake for the Fate Carving Festival,
The second was that the map of the Hiratsuka estate had a marked brewing room.
Guiquan Liquor, as the na implies, should be made with water from the Guiquan Well,
However, the Guiquan Well was guarded by black-haired creatures, preventing access, and just well water alone wouldn’t suffice for making liquor.
After much thought, it seed most likely that clues to Guiquan Liquor could be in the brewing room.
Thus, the two took the Human Head Lantern and exited the Rope Corridor, following the map’s guidance to the brewing room.
Along the way, they found that deeper within the Hiratsuka estate, there were other monsters,
most of which lingered in one spot—so wore kimonos, others wore more ancient and tattered clothing,
their appearances varying from near-human to completely non-human.
However, these monsters seed rather... sluggish,
as long as Li Ang and Wang Congshan didn’t step into their wandering areas, they wouldn’t pursue or attack.
Earlier, when the two searched in front of the courtyard of the Hiratsuka estate, they hadn’t seen this many monsters—likely they’d been wandering around only to be dealt with by the black-haired creature.
The duo avoided the scattered monsters in various rooms, heading straight to the brewing room.
The door to the brewing room was open, and inside was dim and lightless, with the faint outline of a dozen figures, accompanied by the sound of wood being struck and songs being humd.
Li Ang and Wang Congshan entered the dimly lit brewing room, using the lantern light to make out the specific appearances of the figures within.
These were hybrids of leeches and humans, retaining the outlines of human limbs, their skin a translucent green, wearing relatively new kimonos, and with black-and-white headbands.
These "things" labored among the various facilities in the brewing room, and based on Li Ang’s knowledge, he could tell they were performing the usual steps of milling rice, washing husks, and spreading koji for brewing.
The half-leech in front appeared to be forr workers of the brewing room,
transford into their current state, still repeating their work processes from mory,
though as ti passed, the raw materials in the room’s equipnt had long since rotted, and they were essentially laboring over empty barrels.
"Why are there still children here?"
Wang Congshan frowned slightly, watching the four or five half-leech figures darting about in the brewing room—these smaller half-leeches wore kimonos, leaping about, occasionally letting out hum-like grunts,
acting much like normal human children.
"The Fate Carving Village has a tradition of making its own sake for the Fate Carving Festival. These children might be mbers of the Hiratsuka Family or ordinary villagers from Fate Carving Village, who happened to be in the brewing room when the disaster struck."
All the half-leech lifeforms in the room ignored the two players. Li Ang searched the brewing room, shaking his head regretfully, "The raw materials have rotted, and there’s no ready-made sake to be found.
However, there are a lot of empty sake bottles on the ground..."
"Wait, what are you planning to do?"
Wang Congshan’s heart skipped a beat as she looked at the empty sake bottle in Li Ang’s hand, "You’re not planning to pee in the bottle and bring it back to report to the face at the Knotting Room entrance, are you?"
"Of course not."
Li Ang frowned, "Do you really see as soone so depraved and unscrupulous that I’d do anything to satisfy a twisted sense of humor?
I’m quite disappointed, Congshan."
"Can you just stop fiddling with the zipper while you say that?"
Wang Congshan rolled her eyes, suddenly noticing sothing, her gaze fixing on the leaping, song-humming half-leech children.
"This lody..."
Wang Congshan frowned in thought, then her eyes lit up. She took out the folklore scholar’s note from Li Ang’s backpack, looking at the scribbled symbols on the note’s edge.
"As expected."
Wang Congshan exhaled a breath, showing the note to Li Ang, "The song these dead brewing workers are humming is part of the notation recorded on the folklore scholar’s note."
"Hmm... it’s indeed the sa."
Li Ang examined carefully, knowing only a bit about music theory—not very familiar since learning instrunts costs money.
"The folklore scholar who left the clues—likely Ogashira Masashi—ntioned that this lody may have ties to his past before amnesia."
Wang Congshan took a deep breath and said, "This suggests that Ogashira Masashi may have been here before, rembered this lody,
and possibly was a forr villager of Fate Carving Village.
Given his approximate age, he was likely still a child when the disaster struck Fate Carving Village; he managed to survive but lost his mory.
The Yuan Shan myth, the Fate Carving Festival, the Hiratsuka Family disaster, the sealed Shrine, the mad Noh Mask Master wandering near the Guiquan Well...
Guiquan Liquor may very well be at the center of it all."
She gazed down at the symbols on the note, humming a segnt based on the notation.
The lody itself wasn’t pleasant, far from a pop song, more akin to a mountain song or a work chant.
At the instant she began to hum, the brewing workers in the room, laboring before derelict equipnt, all halted and gazed at her.
However, the notation was short, and after she finished, the half-leech brewing workers returned to their tasks, ignoring the two players.
"Was it futile?"
Wang Congshan said in frustration, "Could it be because the lyrics are missing?"
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