Chapter 38 Strange Tales
Indeed, it was a fine wine, full-bodied and fragrant, its aroma so enticing that it drew one deep into intoxication.
Wang Guan lifted his cup, his gaze sweeping over the silent Daxiong Bao Hall. He then announced loudly, "I heard a joke in Nanjing City. There was a landlord’s son who couldn’t read. Someone advised the rich man to hire a teacher to instruct him. The teacher first taught the character ’one,’ a single stroke. The character ’two’ has two strokes, and ’three’ has three strokes. After that, the landlord’s foolish son proudly threw away his brush, telling his father he had mastered all characters and didn’t need the teacher anymore. The rich man was delighted and dismissed the teacher. One day, the rich man wanted to invite a friend with the surname Wan for a drink. He asked his son to write an invitation in the morning, but by noon, it was still unwritten. When the rich man inquired, his son complained, ’There are so many surnames in the world—why did that guest have to have the surname Wan? I’ve been writing since morning and have only reached over five hundred strokes!’"
Hearing this dry, tasteless joke, the horde of demons looked at each other wordlessly. After a few seconds, they finally caught on and burst out laughing in unison.
Awkward yet polite laughter filled the entire hall. Delighted, the Taoist Wang Guan raised his cup to the guests. "To drink with you all!"
"To drink!"
The demons, with playful grins, raised their cups and emptied them in one go.
The members of the mission team, watching the demons gulp down the strong liquor, also raised their cups, pretending to drink.
The liquor, imbued with Spiritual Energy, was indeed extraordinary. After each demon drank a cup, their faces flushed, and their expressions grew dazed. They began recounting stale jokes to one another, making the other ghostly creatures roar with laughter.
Those demons and monsters who had no jokes to tell shared recent stories of eating humans—when, where, and what kind of people.
"Just the day before yesterday, I ambushed a group of traders in the mountains. The tastiest among them was a fat man, and the tastiest part of him was his liver—so oily, rich, and smooth."