“Or maybe the melody of the human voice isn't continuous and needs some kind of instrument.”

Li Ang thought for a moment, took out the melodica that originally belonged to Ogasawara Tetsuya from his pocket, blew into it, and began to play the melody.

Just like before, after he started playing the melody, the semi-leech-ified brewery workers all looked over again.

This time, Li Ang's playing didn't stop, and after finishing the performance, he returned to the beginning note, repeating it continuously.

All the brewery workers, including those semi-leech-ified children, followed the melody and gathered around several large wooden barrels, picking up wooden sticks and plunging them into the barrels filled with dark mold, starting to stir.

Several minutes later, the brewery workers seemed to have finally finished their massive project. They put down the wooden sticks, and Li Ang stopped playing the melodica.

"Glug, glug."

One of the leech-ified brewery workers made a murky murmur.

Li Ang couldn't understand what the other person was saying at all, so he had to nod calmly with a "I think the leech is right" expression.

After making a series of gurgling sounds, the brewery worker raised his green, translucent arm and plunged it violently into his chest, spraying green liquid everywhere.

Damn it.

Li Ang couldn't help but be startled by the sudden change. What was wrong with this brother? Did he want to dig out his heart to show his appreciation because of the beautiful music he played?

Fortunately, the worry didn't last long.

What the brewery worker pulled out of his chest wasn't his heart, but two sake bottles covered in green mucus, handing them to Li Ang.

After Li Ang took them, all the semi-leech workers in the abandoned room made a "pop" sound in unison. Their bodies seemed to have their bones extracted, melting and collapsing on the spot, turning into puddles of green mucus.

Leaving only Li Ang and Wang Congshan standing in place, holding sake bottles.

Wang Congshan's expression was stunned, "...What's going on?"

"...It should be like the human head lanterns in the courtyard, resolved their last wishes, and ascended to enlightenment."

Li Ang explained, "I just saw that this brewery room has all kinds of facilities and workers working.

Only these wooden barrels have no one working next to them—these wooden barrels should be used for Kimoto production.

Japanese sake can be roughly divided into 'Sokujo-moto' and 'Kimoto' according to different production processes.

The former is a product of modern food technology, using artificially cultivated lactic acid bacteria to make the yeast starter.

The latter puts moto-koji, steamed rice, and water into large barrels, using natural lactic acid bacteria in the air for stirring fermentation.

In comparison, the Kimoto production process is obviously more time-consuming and laborious.

In the most traditional Kimoto production process, there is also a step called 'Yamaoroshi,' which is to grind the steamed rice and moto-koji in the wooden barrel with manpower for several hours continuously."

Li Ang said, "Because the Yamaoroshi process is quite hard, the brewery workers will sing the so-called 'Kimoto Grinding Song' to cheer themselves up, and everyone will work together to grind the Kimoto.

Well...the ghosts in the brewery room probably just happened to be doing brewing work before they died, stuck in the Kimoto grinding step.

We finished singing the Kimoto grinding song, which probably counts as resolving their last wishes.

Of course, I'm just guessing.

Maybe these brothers in the brewery room thought I was handsome and gave me the last two bottles of sake."

"I believe it."

Wang Congshan exhaled a breath of stale air and fanned the air to dissipate some of the unpleasant smell.

"We got the sake. Let's go back and report."

Li Ang strode out of the brewery room. He knew a little about the Japanese sake brewing process, mainly because when he was a tutor, some parents were very grateful to him because their children's grades had improved significantly (especially the final scores of the middle and high school entrance exams rose sharply). Every time during festivals and after exams, they would think about giving him gifts.

Tea, shopping cards, mooncakes, belts, watches, figures, and even alcohol (regardless of whether minors can drink).

Li Ang was quite ethical. He could barely accept cheaper gifts, and would refuse more expensive ones after checking the price, so as not to create unnecessary favors.

After wiping off the green mucus remaining on the surface of the two sake bottles given by the brewery workers, he could see clear sake inside the bottles. Approaching the cork of the bottles, he could clearly smell the aroma of sake.

The two returned the same way, arriving at the courtyard.

Li Ang was careful, letting Wang Congshan wait outside the rope corridor with one bottle of sake, while he took the other bottle and walked closer.

The big face on the door of the rope-tying room smelled the sake, opened its eyes, and a rare emotion flashed in its turbid eyes. It muttered vaguely, "Sake...sake..."

Li Ang opened the cork and aimed the mouth of the sake bottle at the big mouth of the human face.

The latter pursed its lips and greedily drank the sake until the bottle was empty. Only then did it let out a long sigh of unfinished satisfaction and turn into ashes.

"So it really was just a drunkard."

Li Ang shook his head speechlessly, waved for Wang Congshan to come over, and the two stepped into the rope-tying room, seeing a large pair of scissors quietly placed on the table.

The handle of the scissors was wrapped with a circle of dark red thin rope.

This should be the special scissors mentioned in the mission objective.

Li Ang stepped forward, and just as his palm touched the handle of the scissors, his eyes suddenly blurred, and a series of chaotic images flashed in his vision, his consciousness sinking into an illusion.

The scene of the illusion was in the courtyard of the Hiratsuka mansion, around evening.

Compared with reality, the Hiratsuka mansion in the illusion was more prosperous, brightly lit.

Li Ang's perspective was lying on the ground.

As the perspective rose and tilted, he realized that his perspective seemed to be the scissors.

A woman wearing a Noh mask and a kimono picked up the scissors from the ground. Her throat kept making turbid whimpers, as if she was deeply trapped in some kind of madness.

The Noh mask she was wearing belonged to the [Ko-omote], that is, a young and beautiful woman.

Next to the woman was the Well of Returning Springs.

Around her, a circle of figures was standing.

These people were wearing kimonos and Noh masks on their faces, silently.

Everyone worked together to hold a rope tied into a circle, surrounding the woman and the well, as if waiting for something.

As the evening sunset was covered by clouds, the woman wearing the Noh mask slowly raised the scissors in her hand.

The perspective flipped, and Li Ang could see that lying in front of the woman was another child, also wearing a Noh mask, unconscious.

Swing!

The scissors stabbed down.

The illusion suddenly ended.

Li Ang staggered slightly, regained his balance, and took a deep breath with Wang Congshan's support, realizing that only half a second had passed in reality.

Wang Congshan only saw Li Ang shake suddenly after touching the scissors, and immediately asked worriedly, "What's wrong?"

"..."

Li Ang didn't answer, but took out the two Noh masks he had obtained from the secret room of the Fujimura family from his bag.

There was no mistake, such a delicate carving technique...

The woman who appeared in the illusion was wearing the same mask as the Noh masks of the Fujimura family. She might even be the missing Fujimura Masumi.