# Chapter 157: Eating and Being Eaten
Tao Chengxin really didn't have much money. Accommodation costs of several thousand White Notes per night were truly unbearable. Eternal Star didn't interfere with guest fights, so after entering, she began sizing up targets. Xu Huo looked relatively weak and had very generously checked into the top floor, naturally becoming her first choice.
However, although she had the intention to kill and rob, Xu Huo didn't take the bait. Neither deception nor intimidation got him out of his room, and every single item in that room was expensive enough to make her lose her pants, forcing her to return in defeat.
Complaints aside, the two were now in the same boat, so she still took out a prop.
It was a two-meter-long fishing rod.
Tao Chengxin gripped the rod with her five fingers and forcefully threw the fishing line toward the skull. However, because her wrist couldn't move, she had no accuracy. After several attempts, she still couldn't hook the skull.
"Can you do it or not? If not, let me do it." Xu Huo said from across the way.
Tao Chengxin ignored him and tried a few more times. Finally, she hooked one of the skull's eye sockets, but just as she began to pull it slightly, all four skulls in the room suddenly flew into the air!
"Damn it!" Tao Chengxin cursed.
Four skulls, two on each side, flew toward the two people beside the dining table. After hovering in front of them, one of them opened its lower jaw, and the scroll in its mouth unrolled, revealing a blue-background menu—similar to the Bear Claw Restaurant's menu.
But the text on it had changed. The beginning read: "All things can be eaten, all things can be eaten."
Below was a list of dishes:
"Candied Black Fragrant Melon — A fresh and elegant faint fragrance."
"Crispy White Fruit — Explosive, crisp, and fresh."
"Pink Fragrant Kiss — Like a beauty's kiss."
"Cherry Pie — Sweet and cloying, melts in the mouth."
"Fragrant Roasted Garlic Liver Slices — Rich and flavorful, lingering on the lips and teeth."
"Braised Pan-Fried Meat Steak — Delicate like skin."
"Boiled Red Pulp — The breath of spring."
Seeing this list, Xu Huo immediately frowned. The Bear Claw Restaurant was not a normal restaurant, so the menu naturally couldn't be ordinary food. A faint light flickered in his eyes as he moved his gaze from the menu to Tao Chengxin across from him.
Over there, Tao Chengxin also read out her menu:
"Stir-Fried Fragrant Slices, Clear-Stewed Red Heart, Steamed Mushrooms with Ginger Slices, Braised Pan-Fried Meat Steak, Boiled Red Pulp... Are we supposed to order food?"
"The Bear Claw Restaurant's menu doesn't seem like this."
"Do we have to order to leave?"
"What are all these things?"
She was completely confused, but Xu Huo silently recited her menu in his mind and understood. "Your menu is me."
Tao Chengxin was stunned, as if she hadn't understood. "What did you say?"
Xu Huo recited his own menu. "Candied Black Fragrant Melon is hair, Crispy White Fruit is eyeballs, Pink Fragrant Kiss is lips, Cherry Pie is breasts, liver slices and meat steak are easy to understand, and Red Pulp is blood."
"This menu is about you."
"Fragrant Slices might be tongue, Red Heart is the heart, Mushrooms are the male organ, your menu is about me."
Tao Chengxin finally reacted, her face turning slightly pale. "Let us eat each other? Is the restaurant going to make both of us into dishes?"
"No way!" She subconsciously looked at another menu. "There's another one..."
Before she finished speaking, the second scroll opened. On the scarlet red paper, the style of the previous menu changed:
"Greedy and vicious eyes — Chew them to pieces!"
"Gossiping tongues — Chew them to pieces!"
"Malicious and foolish lips — Chew them to pieces!"
"Black heart, black lungs, black liver stew — Eat it!"
"Unrestrained, immoral organs — Eat them!"
"Hands and feet stained with lives — Eat them!"
"Blood flowing with sin — Drain it dry!"
A malevolent aura overflowed from the chaotic list, startling Tao Chengxin into instinctively leaning back. But since her body was confined to the chair, she could only stare wide-eyed and shrink her neck in terror. Amidst her fright, she asked, "Who is this about eating?"
"Other than others, it's yourself." Xu Huo responded. All things can be eaten, all things can be eaten. People can eat people, and they can also be eaten!
Once on the dining table, everyone was food!
Suddenly, the hands resting on the armrests uncontrollably lifted, reaching toward the menus in front of them.
That force that had been restraining him was manipulating him to choose a menu again!
Xu Huo's gaze darkened, and he immediately clenched his fists, trying his best not to touch the scrolls.
Choosing to eat others wouldn't necessarily let him escape. These two menus might not be single-choice questions. If he chose to eat others first, he might have to eat himself later!
He absolutely could not touch these two menus!
But the danger came not only from his own lack of control but also from the person across from him. In extreme situations, people would do anything to survive.
He was about to speak up to warn her, but he didn't expect Tao Chengxin couldn't calm down at all. In a panic, she grabbed the fishing rod and swung it at the menu in front of her. In her haste, she didn't make a choice but instead hit the menu on her right!
The right side was the red menu!
The moment her prop touched the menu, it suddenly turned into a red mist that poured into her mouth and nose. A few seconds later, blood flowed from her eyes, ears, and nose, and then she began to vomit. First, she vomited blood, and then her chest and abdomen heaved as if even her internal organs were about to come out!
Xu Huo decisively used his thumb to break his uncontrollable index finger, buying himself a moment of respite. But then, from the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed the Rubik's Cube beside his chair floating up!
His eyes lit up with surprise. He used his fingers to control the strings that had been hovering under his stool, sending them flying toward the empty space behind the Rubik's Cube!
The place that should have been empty was outlined by the strings, and then that outline, struggling, was brought crashing into the chair by the strings!
The moment the chair toppled over, the restraining force on Xu Huo suddenly disappeared. He kicked the person pressing down on him away and, with one hand, overturned the long table in front of him!
As the long table overturned, Tao Chengxin was also sent flying. At the same time, the aroma-filled secret room suddenly plunged into darkness—not because the lights in the secret room had gone out, but because this place wasn't a secret room at all. Where they were trapped was the restaurant on the second floor!
Just like the diners who had been sitting at the dining table before, they too had fallen into an illusion!
Kicking aside the chair at his feet, Xu Huo looked at the person who had inadvertently helped him. The other person had already stood up, holding his Rubik's Cube with a wary expression.
Their eyes met, and that person immediately picked up a nearby table and threw it at him!
Xu Huo swept the table aside and was about to move forward when two kitchen knives suddenly flew in from the staircase on the second floor, slashing at him and the person who had taken the Rubik's Cube!
Both of them dodged separately. Looking up, they saw the wooden puppet from the first floor charging fiercely into the restaurant, wildly swinging two kitchen knives!
Xu Huo became its first target. He raised the Bull Shield to block the knives, raised his right hand, and the Crimson Sword sliced horizontally across the puppet's waist!
"Bang! Bang!" The wooden puppet was cut in two. When its upper body and legs hit the ground, the joints also broke apart, scattering with a clatter. But in less than a second, the pieces automatically moved back toward the body, reassembling into a puppet in no time. It leaped and pounced onto the Bull Shield, hooking its feet onto the shield's edge and slashing wildly downward!
Xu Huo used his sword to block the attack, crouched slightly, and rammed it, shield and all, into the wall. When its body fell apart again, he took the opportunity to kick one of its arms away. But unexpectedly, the arm changed direction mid-flight, loosened its grip, and flung the kitchen knife it was holding back at him!