Autophagy

"Where are we going?" Song Lei asked.

The monster giggled to itself while saying, "Master told me to bring you over for a family dinner. You haven't seen him for a long time have you?"

Song Lei shook his head and stopped talking. Every time he had to speak with the monster, an unsettling feeling would take him over. The emotionless, eerie voice of the monster would shake his will. Any person could figure out that it was a monster just by listening to it talk.

"You've washed your hands, right? Master doesn't want you to get sick. If you do so, My pay will get cut," the monster grumbled.

"Yes. Yes, I have," Song Lei affirmed. He didn't know what would happen if he let the monster's hand go. He couldn't risk offending it at the moment.

After walking for some time, Song Lei felt the temperature becoming lower and lower. When it finally dropped to a degree that was almost making him shake, the monster stopped.

"We are here. Don't forget your manners and be a good girl. All the maids in this mansion have been working hard to give you the necessary knowledge," said the monster. She let Song Lei's hand go. This made his heart jump. "Your dad will be infuriated if he sees you making mistakes. Go on,"

Song Lei was actually more relieved than nervous. He had been worrying that he would fall into the nothingness if he let the monster's hand go. But from what he understood, rooms were actual places that were exempt from the nothingness on the lower floors.

Just as he was about to walk forward, he heard an oinking coming from his right. This sudden noise made him jump in his place.

"Oh! Little Mia! So you are here too huh?" the voice shrieked. It was a forced, hoarse voice. Song Lei could imagine a pig, speaking human language next to him. Although the thought was disturbing, he quickly pulled himself together.

"Yes. Could you help me walk a little bit? I feel weak," Song Lei requested. He wasn't actually feeling weak. He just couldn't open his eyes in case he became unable to understand other beings just like before. When his eyes were open, other beings' speech would become unintelligible, even dangerous. It would shake his mind and make him unable to stand on his own.

Another thing that was keeping him from opening his eyes was the fact that he was scared of what he would see when he did so. Initially, he had thought that supernatural beings were invisible in this place. But he realized that his guess might be wrong after all. What if being invisible was a skill of the maid monster? What if other monsters had other abilities? The pig monster next to him might've been a good test candidate but the maid was still there. He wanted to be alone before he could try it out.

"Of course!" The pig oinked. Song Lei felt a slimy, hairy arm wrap around his shoulders, although it felt disgusting, it was better than not having a guide.

Song Lei heard a door creaking. From the pitch of the creaking, he could deduct that the door was pretty big.

The pig monster pulled Song Lei into the room after the room's door was open. Song Lei could deduce from its arm that the pig monster was a humanoid, rather than a full-on pig.

After Song Lei entered the room, something whizzed past his ears, actually chipping off a bit of his hair.

"Manners!" Something said. This time, Song Lei couldn't even tell whether the voice was made by a mouth or not. It sounded more like someone was trying to talk through a flute by blowing on it. He decided to call it the flute monster for now.

"Sure," Someone cackled. It was a manic voice that made Song Lei's hair stand on its end. The pig kept walking with Song Lei and eventually stopped. Song Lei reached out with his hand to touch what felt like a chair.

He pulled it and sat down without saying anything. From what he could hear, the pig pulled another chair and sat next to him.

"How are your studies going?" A man asked. Since Song Lei had entered the dream space, this was the first time he had heard such a voice. Actually, it was nothing out of ordinary. It sounded just like a normal person. What made the voice surprising for Song Lei was this. He thought that all the people in this mansion were monsters.

'This must be the dad aforementioned in Mia's diary. He was the only person that wasn't depicted as a monster,' Song Lei guessed. The diary was filled with different kinds of abominations. Mia's dad was the only person that seemed to be human. Although there were a lot of other monster sketches in the diary, he couldn't match them with the real ones just by their voices. He would have to take a proper look at the monsters if he wanted to do so.

"I think I've been doing very well. You can ask the maids too!" Song Lei said. He was trying to be as cheerful as he could. He hoped that the fake smile on his face wasn't noticed. The table sounded to be very crowded. From what Song Lei could deduce, there was a child making slurping noises sitting opposite to him. Another child monster was giggling. Song Lei couldn't locate its position.

"I believe in you, Mia. That's great," the dad said. Suddenly, there was a disgusting sound, as if someone was drinking juice from a straw. Everyone at the desk went silent, it was like all the air around them disappeared in an instant. Song Lei had just been overwhelmed by the crowd a second ago but now, it felt as if every single entity in this room was gone.

"Remember to keep your silence at the table. And dear, you can keep your small talk for after the dinner," the flute monster whistled. No one answered it. Song Lei lowered his head without making any noise. The flute monster seemed to have some kind of authority over the other monsters in this mansion including Mia's dad.

The awkward silence was broken by the sounds of cutlery and eating. Everyone had started eating. Song Lei silently sighed.

'This is what I was scared of...' Song Lei thought. The maid monster had told him to not forget his manners. The problem was, he almost had no idea about the elite European table manners. He had lived all of his life in the slums. The little bit of knowledge he had would come from the movies he had watched at Jia Feng's house.

Song Lei carefully felt the cutlery with his hands. He smelled the food in front of him. Unfortunately, it didn't have any distinct smell. As Song Lei couldn't deduce what the food was by the smell, his only choice left was to eat it. He raised his spoon to touch the food. When he did so, his spoon met with resistance.

'It's not a soup. Is it some kind of meat?' Song Lei guessed. He put the spoon back on the table and picked up a knife and a fork, hoping that he wasn't breaking any rules.

He cut through the food and brought it to his mouth.

*Spit

'Oh god...'

As soon as the taste of the food spread around Song Lei's mouth. Song Lei spat it out. It was beyond horrible. If Song Lei tried to eat shit, he could probably manage to do so after puking a few times but whatever this thing was, it was impossible to eat. Even swallowing it whole without chewing wouldn't save it. Because even a split-second contact with the tongue would make the person eating spit it out.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. As the person could opt to not eating it but for Song Lei, this might've as well been a death sentence.

"You little wench! You dare spit your food out at my table!? Maids! Take that bitch's daughter out of here! Make sure that she doesn't get any food for a day! Lock her in her room!" The flute monster shouted. Song Lei felt his world shaking as he opened his eyes out of reflex....

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