Novels2Search
Time Hotel
Chapter 13: A mountain of debt

Chapter 13: A mountain of debt

For a few hundred dollars, he bought three summer outfits for the heroine to wear inside and out, and Ethan learnt that-

  Woman is D!

  The heroine is really unpretentious, and she doesn't get upset no matter how Ethan manipulates her by telling the clerk that she's his girlfriend or a distant relative who's not quite right in the head. At most, she blushed very slightly and kept saying yes.

  And Ethan is young and handsome, and dresses sunny, even if his temperament is a bit dishevelled, it will not make the female shop assistants suspicious.

  The whole process was almost a sleepwalking state.

  It was only when Ethan paid for his goods that she looked shocked, and at the same time, she was trying to calculate how many bowls of beef noodles she had spent in one go.

  After exiting the last Sanfu department stores', the heroine had already changed out of Ethan's clothes.

  She was currently wearing a plain black t-shirt and a pair of high-waisted denim shorts, the t-shirt was a little snug, emphasising her tight, powerful waist and bulging breasts, an outfit that made her feel a little ashamed. Under the denim shorts was a pair of straight and well-proportioned legs, stepping on a pair of flat women's sandals, this kind of shoes seem to be called Roman shoes, wearing up to give her a better feeling than flip-flops. And apart from the skin above her neck, the rest of her was actually snow-white and tender, seeing as how she usually wrapped her body up tightly-

  The heroine wouldn't be dressed like this if it wasn't the way everyone in this world dressed!

  And it was only then that Ethan realised that this heroine had such a good figure, completely the figure of a top beauty ...... scaled down. If there was no reference around, it was absolutely impossible to tell that she was less than one metre six!

  Well, her body proportion is even better than Elaine! ...... No no no, almost almost.

  And her hair is actually not pure black, nor is it the blonde hair of Europeans and Americans, but it is slightly yellowish, like Chinese black hair dyed, and it is very natural when it is draped down. If you looked at her from the right side and couldn't see the knife scar on the left side of her face, she would be a very sultry miniature version of a great beauty. Provided the knife wasn't in her hand.

  ......

  On the way back, the heroine carried several bags in each hand. The bags were light, while she was very heavy inside.

  A mountain of debt!

  Soon returning to the hotel, according to Evelyn Elaine went out to buy food, Ethan hastened to take advantage of this time to bring the heroine upstairs and said to her, "You'll stay here for now, I'll arrange a room for you later."

  "Okay." The heroine nodded heavily.

  "I'll start by showing you roughly what electrical equipment and facilities are in this room and how they work. By noon you'll want to be downstairs in room 202 at the old mage's for lunch, which I'll have ready for you." Ethan said as he walked over to the window and pulled the curtains back, the morning sunlight suddenly filtered through the floor to ceiling windows and flooded the living room, "After that you can have a first nap in my room if you're sleepy in the afternoon. If you don't mind."

  "Don't mind don't mind!" The heroine said in a hurry. The carpet was so soft, she could just sleep on the floor!

  "Well, then follow me." Ethan walked towards the bedroom first and stood in the doorway pointing to a row of switches, "This is the switch for the bedroom lights. Since it's an inn, there are more lamps arranged, and all you have to do is press the corresponding button and a light will come on. Like this ......"

  "Snap!" Ethan pressed a button and the inside of the dimly lit bedroom was illuminated by the main goose-yellow light.

  The heroine shuddered and looked at the light on the bedroom ceiling in shock, "What's this this ...... what's going on!"

  "Watch closely!" Ethan slightly aggravated his tone, "What you need to do now is learn to use it, not understand it, don't act like a curious baby. When you stay longer later, you'll naturally understand the principles."

  "Oh." The heroine had already learnt the meaning of the word 'curious baby' without any teacher.

  Ethan felt that he didn't need to go into too much detail, so he finished and headed straight for the bathroom, "Next I'll teach you how to use the sinks, toilets and showers of our world."

  Still standing back with a strong gleam of curiosity in her eyes, the heroine faced the wall and reached out to press the light switch, which kept turning on and off ......

  Snap, snap, snap ......

  "Ahem!" Ethan stood in the bathroom doorway!

  "Oh, here it comes." The heroine rushed over towards him, her eyes locked dead on the switch on the wall, then reached out with lightning speed and snapped on all the lights in the bathroom, grinning.

  Ethan was just speechless.

  And glancing towards the bathroom, the heroine froze, "Wow! The Emperor doesn't enjoy himself this much ......"

  The large double bathtub, the sink, the mirror and the vase sitting on the cabinet, the small decorations on the wall, where clean white and gold or other simple colours clashed, the whole bathroom was immaculate.

  "Look at this ......" Ethan said as he turned on the tap on the sink, a jet of white water burst out with a brushing sound, "That's it, it comes out, press it down again and it switches off. And you veer it to the left in the red direction and hot water comes out, to the right and ......"

  It took about half an hour for Ethan to teach the warrior woman to use everything in the bathroom, a process that left him feeling mentally exhausted.

  And by this time the warrior woman was still playing with the shower canopy inside the bathroom with an excited look on her face ......

  He walked back over to the bed and sat down, craning his head to scan the room just in time to see the clothes that the heroine had changed out of earlier and the objects that she was carrying with her.

  A set of kudzu cloth clothes that no one would wear hundreds of years ago was neatly folded, beside the cloth clothes there was a short sword, two daggers and four slim flying daggers, a packet of something wrapped in yellow paper and a tiny bamboo tube stuffed with a wooden cork.Ethan couldn't help his curiosity and quietly picked it up to take a look at it, only to see that what was wrapped in the yellow paper was a large packet of white powder, presumably lime or something with a similar function. And inside the bamboo tube was full of red chilli oil.

  "What a dangerous man!" He tugged at the corner of his mouth, glancing in passing at the bathroom, where the dangerous man was still playing with his feet by flushing them with the tuffy head as soon as the bathroom was turned on and off.

  After a long while, Ethan couldn't help himself and shouted towards the bathroom, "Have you had enough fun!"

  "Huh?" The heroine poked her head out.

  "What do you want for lunch today? Have you thought about it yet? I'll make it for you if you're free, but if you're not, I'll order you takeout."

  "What takeaway?"

  "I asked you what you want to eat for lunch today."

  "I ...... I'm casual lah, I'm not picky, I can eat just about anything!" The heroine waved her hand boldly and added, "Eat something cheap, just buy some cabbage and greens to deal with it!"

  "Where am I going to pick up cabbage helpings for you ......," Ethan said, speechless.

  "No? Then a bowl of porridge or bread or something ...... I'm really not picky!" The heroine showed a torn look, "If there's no more then I'll actually be fine if I don't eat for a meal or two! ...... Well, the noodles I ate this morning were well oiled and hunger resistant."

  "......"

  Ethan didn't want to have any more interaction with her, and after teaching her to recognise the clock on the wall, he told her to go down to the old mage for dinner when it was time, and proceeded to just lock her in the house.

  At this time Elaine was sitting on the sofa playing with her mobile phone, seeing him down froze for a moment, and then said: "The food has been bought back, in the refrigerator, what else you want is best to give me now, I'll go and buy it again, if you're late, there will only be leftovers."

  Ethan went over and opened the fridge to have a look, this girl really did buy quite a lot, all kinds of vegetables stuffed half of the fridge.

  He couldn't help but laugh, "Are you having a craving and want to have a feast, or do you think I'm rusty and want me to practise my skills?"

  Elaine's expression was a little unnatural and didn't answer his words.

  "Hmm?" Ethan acutely noticed that something was wrong with her and frowned, "What's wrong with you? Something's wrong!"

  "I'm not you don't say anything."

  "Sure is a little off." Ethan clearly noticed that her tone and the way she answered was different than usual, but on second thought he couldn't figure out exactly why she was vain.

  "You should go stir-fry! It's eleven o'clock." Elaine looked at her watch, "I want curry beef brisket, I've already bought the curry and put it in the fridge. And I want taro chicken, I've bought millet chilli too, add more."

  "Then you go and give me a hand."

  Elaine hesitated a little, put down her phone and got up, "Okay."

  Ethan felt even more out of sorts.

  Usually Elaine only came to the kitchen to help him out when she was in a good mood or when he was just too busy, and there was no way she'd agree as readily as she did today.

  The two of them got to work in the kitchen, and while they were chopping the vegetables Ethan frowned and asked Elaine a few questions, which she passed off vaguely, and Ethan just concentrated on the cooking and didn't ask any more questions.

  Considering that there were still two wailing travellers in the guesthouse, he purposely made the portion of the dish bigger, then made an excuse to sidetrack Elaine when it was about to come out of the pot, and secretly served a portion to the old mage and the heroine, ready to be brought over to them.

  Originally, Ethan thought that Elaine should be surprised and ask "why is the dish so small after it is ready", Ethan also planned to come up with "the dish will shrink" and other excuses to fool this silly girl, but the result was that Elaine was distracted and didn't even ask. But Elaine was so distracted that she didn't even ask him.

  Soon, the three of them were seated at the coffee table on the ground floor reception desk.

  Faced with her favourite beef curry, Elaine was still not eating very seriously and was preoccupied. Kind of like Ethan when he was a kid when he came back from a bad exam and was afraid of being beaten by his professor.

  And that's when room 202 had a very different atmosphere.

  On the small table embedded in the wall was a pot of beef curry, a pot of taro chicken, half a plate of hot and sour cabbage and a pot of sweet potato and white rice. Next to them sat an old mage and a drooling wild female warrior.

  "Gulp!" The female warrior gulped, forcing herself not to just reach out and grab it to eat, "Old Mage, you're called Old Mage, right, I heard the station master call you that. Is that how you eat every meal here?"

  "Pretty much." The old mage laughed, "The dishes are basically different every day."

  "There's pretty much always meat and white rice!" The heroine seemed to have understood something, so it turned out that something like cabbage bread or something like that the Station Master Lord couldn't even look at.

  "Pretty much."

  "Wow! The station master's life is open so well ......," the female warrior was full of emotion, "If I had known, I would have broken the void earlier and come! The rumours in the rivers and lakes are indeed true!"

  "What rumours?" The old mage was quite curious.

  "The upper realm has white rice to eat all the time!"

  "Oh." The old mage nodded and said, "When civilisation develops to a certain extent, materials will definitely become more and more abundant, and no one in their realm should lack rice to eat."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  As he said that, the old mage remembered the little receptionist girl who came a few days ago, and suddenly fell silent.

  He immediately added, "Very few exceptions."

  "Too happy!" The heroine had already taken her chopsticks and put a pile of beef into her mouth, because the soup was thick and hot, she was so hot that she let out a whimpering sound and kept inhaling, but couldn't bear to spit it out.

  Then she ruthlessly shaved her mouthful of rice.

  "It's so delicious! This is the best thing I've ever eaten in my life oooo......" the heroine couldn't help but get teary-eyed, "Before this I've only eaten both stir-fried vegetables and white rice when only my father and mother were still alive, or during the Autumn New Year... ...Oooh if I have white rice to eat all the time, then still mix what jianghu, every day nest at home to eat white rice on the line!"

  The old mage laughed and slowly ate as well.

  "Alas!" The heroine no longer do more emotion, big mouthfuls of planing up rice, a bowl of rice quickly to the bottom.

  The old mage was obviously giving in to her and only ate a token amount, the rest of all the rice was basically eaten by her. Including the sour and spicy cabbage soup and the chopped peppers and garlic granules inside she ate it all.

  The heroine belched unimaginatively and stretched, revealing an expression of enjoyment, "Good ......"

  She suddenly froze, and her words were not finished, her expression steeply heavy.

  Seeing this, the old mage asked, "What's wrong?"

  The heroine froze for a long time, turned to the old mage, and asked, "Old senior, you have to charge for these dishes, right? How much is your living expenses for this meal?"

  "I'm not sure, I'll have to ask the station master." The old mage smiled faintly and didn't give her the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't paying for it.

  "With so much meat, it should be expensive, right?"

  "It's okay." The old mage swept his eyes over the empty plates on the table, "If we go by the prices in this place, three dishes like this would probably be worth around a hundred dollars in an outside restaurant."

  "Oh my god!" The heroine's eyes widened, and she hastily broke her fingers to count again, "A hundred dollars, all of which I ate, I definitely have to pay for the bulk of the meal, doesn't that mean I ate ten bowls of beef noodles in one meal!"

  "Let's split it equally." The old mage kindly said.

  "That's also seven ...... no eight ...... or no, six ...... six bowls of beef noodles!" The Lady Warrior felt that she would only eat beef noodles from now on!

  "Lady Warrior don't think like that." The old mage said, "The price of goods in a region where the situation is stable must be related to the per capita income, and since the people in this place can afford to eat this kind of food, it means that they can easily earn money for the food. As long as you, Lady Warrior, 'work hard and live frugally' as the station master said, eating will definitely not be a problem."

  "Is that so?" The heroine froze, "Don't lie to me, I may have studied little, but I'm fierce!"

  "Categorically won't lie to the lady warrior."

  "Alright, let's trust you for once." The lady warrior said as such, still preoccupied.

  And then the old mage calmly cast a spell, and the dishes were immediately clean as new. Then he sat down in his chair and reached out to poke his hand in the air again, tapping out the hovering screen.

  Strange words quickly emerged-

  "The people of this world classify this country's culture as a 'pleasure-sensitive culture', and the characteristics of a 'pleasure-sensitive culture' are ...... I'd like to think that it's similar to the Daqianzhou 's culture has similarities ......"

"The opposite of this is the 'culture of guilt' in the west of this world ......"

  The heroine stared blankly at the screen pulsing with words she couldn't understand at all, and couldn't help but ask, "Old-timer, is this also a strange artefact from this world ......"

  "No, this is an invention from my world." The old mage said while smiling, but the screen didn't stop.

  "Then what are you doing?"

  "I'm recording what I saw and heard in this world, writing it out, and when I return to my original world, these things that I'm writing down now might be inspirational to quite a few future generations."

  "Can it be used as food?"

  "Cannot."

  "Oh." The heroine who hadn't yet broken away from her lowly interest was instantly disinterested, "Then do you have a paper or a pen ah, I also need to jot down the things that happened to me in this world."

  "Oh?" The old mage looked at her with some surprise, then fished out snow white paper and a feather quill from somewhere.

  Only to see the female warrior spread the paper on the small table board, burying her head in her desk and recording it carefully, only to write the words crookedly: "Beef noodle eight dollars, halved brined egg, fried egg one and a half, buy clothes seven hundred and six ...... Woah shit how so much!"

  The old mage silently withdrew his gaze and continued his business.

  "There is a creature in this world that is very peculiar, this creature is called a water bear worm, it is able to ...... I have conducted a simple research and magic strike, conduction, transformation and other tests on it in the absence of experimental equipment ...... "

  ......

  Elaine finished her meal and made an excuse to slip away, Little Miss Evelyn still volunteered to do the dishes, Ethan couldn't argue with her so he went upstairs to find the old mage and the Woman.

  The Charming had just finished her calculations, and had examined them four or five times with her fingers crossed.

  How she wished that she had miscalculated, but in the end she was forced to accept the crushing truth - that

  She had only been here for half a day, and she already owed Lord Station Master eight hundred and twenty-one dollars in accounts!

  "The lady warrior is a man of honour." The old mage laughed, "Unlike those rangers in the kingdom when I was young, who tend to do anything to make a little money."

  "Alas, we can't help it." The female warrior frowned tightly, her face full of despondency, "Jianghu people are all bitter people. The commoners are afraid to deal with us, the dignitaries dislike us for being dirty and don't deal with us, and the government treats us as a nuisance and can't wait for us to die out. Even when we meet people who are also jianghu people, we may fight because of dozens of money, a job that can make a living, or a little face. If we don't follow the rules, how can we get along ......"

  Ethan entered the door just in time to hear these words, he did not say anything and did not comment.

  Where is not a jianghu, where are there no rules?

  The old mage also just smiled and said, "People who act and behave according to a rule are always better."

  Then he looked at Ethan with a smirk, "You have questions for me?"

  "Yes." Ethan nods, a little gruffly.

 Ethan glanced at the crooked bill the Mistress had written on a piece of paper, shook his head, and sat right down on the bed.

  The comforter sheets on the bed were completely new, neatly laid out without a single wrinkle, as if the old mage had never slept on them before.

  "I was wondering, the three of us are all from different worlds, but why do we have similar forms, and even ...... our biological characteristics are very similar!" Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly, the discovery made him even a little scared inside, "This obviously completely disproves our theory of evolution."

  "Evolution?" The old mage revealed an amused look, "About three hundred years ago, there was a part of our world that followed the theory of evolution as well. The theory of evolution was backed up by research findings that stated that all races in our world, whether it be the various races of humans, elves, or any other biological race, evolved from very primitive creatures. And the disagreement was straightforward - the coincidence that almost all the races of our world that possess intelligence show some sort of similarity in appearance or other biological formations such as ways of thinking is just amazing."

  "And then?"

  "Then I got the scroll and started travelling around the world, and I discovered what you're discovering now." The old mage looked at Ethan with a wry smile, "If this is a coincidence, it's obviously an even bigger one. So big that it's unbelievable, so big that it's almost impossible."

  "So?"

  The old mage looked at him with a smirk, meaning in that expression, but did not answer him, "You have discovered something quite extraordinary, boy."

  Ethan fell silent.

  It was then that the old mage sighed deeply and said, "In fact, we still have no answer to this question either. Although it seems that we have been very close to the truth from the time we discovered this question, I still keep pursuing it. Perhaps I won't be able to get close to that truth in this lifetime, it doesn't matter, there will always be someone who will get close to the truth in the thousands and thousands of years to come. And you're different, you've got a lifespan almost equal to that of this world, unless this game ends early or the rules change, you'll always see the final answer."

  His tone was light and calm, but for no reason at all, it sent chills down the spine.

  Ethan thought that if there was a final answer, perhaps the answer was God, the non-existent God in the broadest sense of the word.

  Of course, it might not be.

  "Relax, Lord Station Master." The old mage smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "You can never imagine the fear and dread that must have been in my heart for a mage who has spent his entire life in the pursuit of wisdom and truth, to be faced with such a difficult question that lies ahead but is destined to remain insurmountable for the rest of my life. But I am still calmly standing here doing what I should do, so you also need not feel fearful and disillusioned, there is even no need to despair, the ancients have long seen the sky high and unattainable, and you are now standing far higher than the ancients, but also saw an even more remarkable thing."

  His tone was as bland and calm as ever, causing Ethan to ghostly nod along.

  The heroine, sitting next to him and baring her lips, recalling the taste of this day's midday meal, suddenly interjected, "What nonsense are you talking about ......"

  Ethan gradually comes to his senses, and realises what the old mage is trying to convey to him - that no matter how this world came to be, at this point in time he should get on with it.

  So he waved his hand at the heroine, "Something your IQ can't comprehend anyway."

  "What's wrong with my intellect?" Woman frowned steeply and raised her voice, "Speak clearly! What happened to my IQ? I was able to practice the Southern Flying Fish Blade Technique that difficult! Hey it's really strange! After so many years of travelling in the jianghu, this is the first time I've heard someone talk about my IQ ......"

  "......" Ethan pulled the corner of his mouth.

  "You're jealous!" The heroine threw out her conclusion.

  "Hmm." Ethan nodded dryly.

  The Woman fell silent.

  Then Ethan said to the old mage, "I'll head upstairs then, and help the warrior woman introduce herself to our world this afternoon, and then we'll continue our research tomorrow."

  "Good."

  "Mistress, come with me." Ethan said as he picked up his dishes and turned to head out the door.

  Woman rushed to follow.

  Just as she reached the stairs, a loud speaker suddenly sounded from outside: "Congratulations to our school for its superior high school entrance exam results, 15 people have been accepted to Harvard with 。。。。。。。 "

  Ethan suddenly froze, today seems to be the ......28 number!

  His face changed instantly.