The Death Knell

The doctor spent his last bit of money to buy a plane ticket to China, hitchhiking and learning Chinese along the way, and finally made it to Tibet.

After suffering all kinds of hardships along the way, including altitude sickness and malicious attempts to rip off guests, I finally arrived at a small village called "Huaxi Village" in a nest in the Himalayas.

This is a magic goods trading market. There are many wizards walking back and forth on the bustling streets. Their images are completely different from what the doctor imagined in the past.

Wizards are not the kind of people who wear pointy hats and fly around on broomsticks. Their speech and behavior are no different from ordinary people, and they often inadvertently release some small magic, showing incredible light or other forms of energy.

He asked several people, but no one was willing to help him treat his hands, but he still found out where the gate of Kama Taj was. He heard that every few days, the holy land would open its doors to do business with everyone.

So in order to show his sincerity, he knelt down outside the gate and waited.

During this period, a nearly naked weirdo in leather pants opened the door and glanced at him, then shrank back before he could speak. What followed was a long wait.

.............................

The sun has set, but the town at the foot of the mountain is still lively, and every shop is lit up.

Some are lanterns and some are neon billboards. The modern and classical styles seem to be blended together, mixed with the magical lights and shadows that light up from time to time. It's like a dream.

Under the shadow of the bright lights, many people walked behind Strange, showing more or less doubts as they looked at this beggar-like guy.

But no one knows what he is thinking now.

If you go around and look at him from the front, you can see that he is actually rolling his eyes because he is hungry.

All the money was spent, and everything that could be sold was sold. After arriving at Huaxi Village at noon, he had been kneeling in front of people's houses. Now it was late at night, and the water and rice had not stuck to his teeth for more than ten hours. If it hadn't been for him as a surgeon. Doctors are used to enduring hunger, so they may not be able to withstand it.

The biggest difference actually lies in the cognitive gap of the brain. During surgery in the past, the brain was running at a high speed even without eating. If you were highly focused, you would not notice hunger.

But now that I have nothing to do, and there is only the red door of the mansion in front of me, the hunger in my belly is very obvious, and the miscellaneous things in my mind are constantly emerging.

He thought of his family, of school and hospital, of Delin.

The doctor doesn't know if this decision is correct, because if someone asked him to learn magic before, he would definitely think that the other person is a lunatic, but now, this has become his last hope.

What a twist of fate.

Just as the twelve o'clock clock in the village rang, Strange, who was already dizzy with hunger, heard the sound of the door opening in front of him.

"squeak."

He immediately cheered up, knocked his head on the ground, and shouted loudly: "Please Supreme Mage, save me!"

This Chinese was spoken very poorly, and it always sounded like cumin. In fact, it was a sentence he learned from others on the way here, and it was considered the best sentence.

The person who opened the door was not the exhibitionist from the day, but an Oriental woman wearing black tights, dressed like a ninja, with the lower half of her face covered.

Her black hair was tied into a small braid and hung softly on her shoulders. Her eyes were crooked, showing that she was in a good mood.

The woman took out a large bowl from behind, which contained steaming pork stewed with vermicelli and rice. She placed it on the stone steps in front of Strange and said in standard London English:

"You worshiped the wrong person. I am Tina Show, the great mage of Kama Taj. The supreme mage was afraid that you would starve to death. He happened to come back from a party in the evening and brought some leftovers. He told me to make you a rice bowl. Eat. Go home when you're done, beggars leaving us at our door will have a bad influence."

His trembling hands reacted faster than his brain. Hunger drove Strange to take the big bowl. The blue and white porcelain made the fat slices look oily.

"I'm not... a beggar, it's delicious!" He said inarticulately as he put the rice into his mouth with his hands: "I'm a doctor, from the United States. I just want the master to help me heal my hands, hulu, Ah, I will be rewarded generously."

The big fat piece slipped into his esophagus, choking him and rolling his eyes, but he couldn't stop at all.

The female mage stood up, reached out and grabbed the door, and raised her eyebrows: "A doctor? It's ridiculous. Mortal rewards are not worth mentioning to us, let alone the noble supreme mage. Will he make an exception for ordinary people? Eat it. Just go down the mountain as soon as possible. If you dare to slander the master again, I will throw you to Mount Everest and hang you."

As she spoke, she closed the door with a clang, then leaned on the crack of the door to peek out.

She saw Strange finished his meal and slowly walked away with his rice bowl. Then she went to return to the Supreme Mage.

At this time, the Supreme Mage was drinking tea and chatting with Hamil in the reception room. He went out drinking with Lao Zheng until midnight. He originally said that he would change the stall to another place, but Zheng Xian hurried back after learning about the space breach. After leaving the Imperial Capital, Su Ming had no choice but to come back here by himself to see what was going on with Strange.

"Master, he left after eating." The female mage stood outside the door and saluted the death knell: "He also took away a bowl from us, which was Yuan Qinghua."

Tina Xiu is actually from the Celestial Dynasty, and her Chinese name is Xiu Huifen. Even though the name is a bit earthy, in fact, the Xiu surname is a branch of the Ji surname in history. She is a serious member of the Yellow Emperor's bloodline.

But this doesn’t apply to foreigners. If you often deal with foreigners, it is convenient and safe to have an English name.

She is the canteen manager of Kama Taj, and is naturally responsible for purchasing ingredients. Not only does she have to travel around the world to inspect ingredients, she sometimes also has to go to outer space to deal with aliens.

Su Ming waved to her nonchalantly and motioned for her to come in and have tea together: "It doesn't matter, he will come back. If he gives up so easily, he will no longer be Strange."

"Did you see something?" Axiu asked thoughtfully, guessing that the master saw something with the time stone.

The Supreme Mage smiled enigmatically, turned over a new cup and poured her tea: "Who knows..."

It was just dawn the next morning, and Strange was back again. He had found a part-time job in a restaurant last night. Fortunately, Huaxi Village stayed open all night, and sorcerers from all over the world came here to visit at all times. The store still has business.

At the cost of only two or three hours of sleep, he made some money.

I changed into a gray cloth robe that was more in line with the atmosphere here, went to get a haircut and shave, found a place to take a shower, and came back with a clean rice bowl.

He thought that the Supreme Mage had misunderstood him as a beggar yesterday, so he quickly cleaned himself up before coming.

Without saying anything, when the sun was rising and the golden light reflected from the snow-capped mountains, he knelt down in front of Kamal Taj.