The Three Realms' Top Restaurant - chapter 15

Regardless of the turmoil the protagonists were causing in the outside world, Gray Street remained like a hidden paradise, moving at its own steady pace.

Perhaps it was because this place was never mentioned in the original novel?

But I knew that once the World-Destroying War broke out, not even Gray Street, which sat outside the Three Realms, would be able to escape unscathed.

It was only a matter of time.

On the day of the year when the moon was at its roundest, I turned down all guest reservations and closed the restaurant doors.

According to the original novel, the night after the Mid-Autumn Festival marked the beginning of the World-Destroying War.

Tonight, countless people were still celebrating their family reunions, wishing for a long life with their loved ones. Yet, when the sun rose tomorrow, tonight’s wishes would become an impossible luxury.

I didn’t know if I would be among them tomorrow, but at least for tonight, I hoped to have a reunion with my family in this world.

I made a custom mooncake for everyone.

Song Changshan’s was a lotus seed paste mooncake, Yu Qing’s was a cloud ham mooncake, and Big Hei’s was a custard lava mooncake.

As for myself, I naturally wanted one of each.

After dinner, the three people and one snake sat by the well in the backyard, eating mooncakes and admiring the moon.

I dug up several jars of wine I had buried when I first arrived in this world.

Song Changshan knew his wine. He advised me not to dig them all up: “In another ten years, the flavor of this wine will be even more mellow.”

I had no way of telling them that there would be no “ten years later” for this world.

I could only silently open all the wine.

Bowl after bowl of wine went down. At some point, Big Hei’s stiff body slumped into a snake pancake, looking like he wanted nothing more than to slide right into the wine jar.

Yu Qing ate her mooncake meticulously-three bites of mooncake for every sip of wine, like a programmed bot.

As for Song Changshan…

He was chatting with me.

“Where is the Shopkeeper from?”

I let out a boozy hiccup. “I’m from Yunnan… Yunnan, Nujiang… Nujiang, Lushui City…”

Song Changshan: “?”

I slammed the table, shouting at the top of my lungs, “Chinese people don’t lie to Chinese people! I’m from China!”

The stone table was too hard; my hand turned red from the slap.

It hurt.

It hurt so much it felt like my hand was dying.

I cradled my right hand with my left, wailing, “Righty, don’t die! What will I do if you die? Are you going to leave me all alone in this cold world?”

Righty didn’t say anything, as quiet as if it really were dead.

Yu Qing stopped acting like a bot and came over to rub my hand.

Song Changshan pressed his lips together to stifle a laugh, assuring me with a straight face, “Righty isn’t dead. It’s just asleep.”

I processed this slowly, letting out an “Oh.”

Then I turned to ask him, “Then will you die?”

I also asked Yu Qing, who was rubbing my hand, “Will you die?”

Without waiting for their answers, I suddenly reached out, pulling both of their heads toward me with an arm around each.

Big Hei, who had been engrossed in the wine, saw this and proactively slid over as well.

I lowered my voice. “You have to live well. Live until the very end, okay?

“Don’t go to Tianshan, and don’t go to the Demon Realm’s Northern Frontier. Stay far away from The Water-Cloud Realm in the Monster Domain.

“Only by staying away from the protagonists and villains and being a background character who’s just there to make up the numbers can you survive until the end.”

Big Hei, who was originally a bit tipsy, was so startled that his entire body stood straight up like a black exclamation mark.

“She! She! No, what on earth is she…”

Song Changshan put his index finger to his lips, signaling Big Hei to be quiet.

As if reading a bedtime story, the night wind carried his gentle voice to my ear.

“Did you come to this world because you need to do something?”

I closed my eyes, lying in a warm embrace with a familiar scent, pouring out my heart.

“The human trafficker wants me to save the world, but I’m just a coward. I can’t save anyone.”

It felt like someone stroked my head.

“If your mission fails, will you leave this place?”

I didn’t know.

“The human trafficker didn’t say. Maybe I’ll die along with this world.”

I couldn’t hear what was said after that.

The wine was indeed good. Since the deadline had been approaching, it was the first time I’d had a good night’s sleep.

In my dream, a familiar voice seemed to tell me not to be afraid.

“You won’t die. I promise.”