The car drove into Kongse City, and the rain had stopped.
It was already 4 p.m., and after the dark clouds had dispersed, the sun once again dominated the sky, draping the cold, gray streets and buildings with a golden robe.
Even in a small country like Chicken Snake Country, located south of the East Continent, Kongse City was a nondescript and insignificant place.
It was like a small fire boil hidden in the hair on the scalp, only noticeable when it started to itch.
However, in that year, Kongse, a town with a permanent population of only about 150,000 to 160,000, saw an influx of over 200,000 people.
It was the only safe place in the conservative-occupied area.
Even during wartime, the market economy in Kongse seemed not to have collapsed yet, with small private shops still open, shopping malls welcoming customers with open doors, and even many people selling daily necessities on the streets.
The blue car drove slowly down the crowded street, which was not only full of pedestrians but also too many electric bikes, motorcycles, and family cars that had become battered from long-term use parked along the curb.
Compared to them, Yaha's old car seemed quite decent.
As they passed a large shopping center, Yaha suddenly instructed the driver to stop.
"Starbucks," Yaha called softly to the passenger seat.
Starbucks looked back, nodded, and then opened the door to get out.
Wei Tianyang thought they had reached the hotel and wanted to get out too, but Yaha stopped him.
He said, "Don't rush, I just asked Starbucks to buy some daily necessities."
"I can help," Wei Tianyang said.
"Look at you, dressed in tattered clothes, looking like a refugee. Come to the hotel with me first. Starbucks will return on his own," Yaha said with a smile.
The car restarted, and ten minutes later, they were on a road in the suburbs where construction had halted midway.
On both sides of the road was a dark green man-made forest. As the local government had not invested in further maintenance, many of the trees had died, leaving only bare trunks pointing skyward like wooden spears.
The driver veered off the main road into a small path repeatedly crushed by car wheels.
Wei Tianyang looked through the car window ahead and saw, between the layers of tree trunks, a large black building appearing and disappearing as if it were a hermit hidden in the wilderness.
The car emerged from the woods and stopped in front of the dried-up fountain on the hotel plaza; they got out of the car, and Wei Tianyang slowly walked up, his head tilted back to survey the daunting hotel.
It was massive and could be described as majestic, although the surface of the building was somewhat mottled and old, and the walls were covered with vines, one could still see the designer's intended pride and prestige from the original style.
It consisted of three seven-story long buildings. The main building facing the square curved slightly forward at both ends, like crescent moons, giving off the feeling of wanting to embrace all the guests who were ready to check in.
Ironically, the two rows of buildings on the wings were connected to the main building from head to toe, forming a reversed inverted triangle symbol, as if this place was specifically prepared for the Medicine People.
Given the age of the entire building and the surrounding artificial forest setting, the hotel's first impression on Wei Tianyang was not good; if one had to describe it with a word... it would be ominous...
He finally understood why Yaha's hotel was called the "Black House."
Yaha walked ahead of Wei Tianyang, spreading his arms out; just by looking at his silhouette, one could tell he was extremely proud of his hotel.
"Ishmael! Welcome to my Pei Guode Hotel," Yaha said.
He turned around, his bright and exquisite demeanor making the gloomy building seem much more approachable.
"Do you have any luggage?" Yaha asked Wei Tianyang, bowing slightly and extending his right hand.
Wei Tianyang pressed his lips together, hanging his backpack on Yaha's arm.
"Please come with me, I'll take you to check-in and meet the other guests. I have a feeling you'll get along very well with them; I guarantee it!" Yaha said with a smile.
"Whatever you say, Yaha..." Wei Tianyang said.
At that moment, there was a rare ease.
The driver drove the car into the underground parking lot.
They walked one after another up the thirty-three steps in front of the hotel door.
The olive-green double doors were carved with abstract art wooden carvings of a chicken and a snake fighting each other, looking very exquisite and expensive.
Yaha pushed open the door, and a beam of warm orange light fell on Wei Tianyang, followed by a burst of warmth and a strong, rich aroma of coffee.
As they entered the building, Wei Tianyang discovered that the warm yellow light did not come from electric lamps but from candles.
The magnificent chandeliers on the ceiling were completely unusable, with the glass parts long shattered, leaving only the metal and wooden frames dangling sadly from the dome. But clearly, Yaha was not going to let these things go to waste, so he had ladders placed and a circle of candles lit...
The sofas placed around the corners and walls of the lobby, adhering to the principle of recycling waste, Wei Tianyang guessed these old, mismatched sofas probably came from the second-hand market in Kongse City...
The patchy inner walls were also covered with posters and wallpaper from mismatched doors, used to conceal the holes and large flakes of peeling wall paint behind them.
As Starbucks had mentioned before, this five-star hotel had long been abandoned, and they were merely living among the ruins.
Yet even so, when he truly entered the interior of the building, all his previous negative impressions of it were wiped clean.
Though shabby and simple, there was a feeling of meticulous cleanliness and arrangement that made Wei Tianyang think of home.
Yaha led him, stepping on the worn but clean dark green carpet, all the way to the reception desk.
Behind the wooden reception desk, a tanned-skinned adult woman, embracing an RPD light machine gun, leaned on a red high-back chair.
She gave Wei Tianyang a wary and odd look.
Yaha tapped the bell on the countertop, and not long after, a tall boy with glasses emerged from the blue side door behind the desk; he looked slightly older than Wei Tianyang, maybe about seventeen or eighteen.
"Yaha? Is this... a new partner?" the boy adjusted his round glasses, sizing up Wei Tianyang.
"This is Ishmael. He, like us, has an irreconcilable feud with Tiantai Pharmaceutical," Yaha said.
"My name is..." Wei Tianyang began.
Before he could say his name, Yaha stopped him and shook his head.
"There are three rules in the Black House, and the first is, don't use your real name."
"What about the other two?" Wei Tianyang asked.
"We'll tell you later. First, we'll get you settled, then you can take a bath and change into fresh clothes," Yaha said with a smile.
"It's quite spacious here... the echo when you speak. Who is she, by the way?" Wei Tianyang said, looking at the woman sitting behind the reception desk.
She looked to be in her late twenties, dressed in a dark red sleeveless coverall and camo pants, with a yellow headscarf on her head and some knife scars on her arms, giving off an unapproachable vibe.
"Her?" Yaha asked.
Wei Tianyang looked at the woman, and the woman looked back at him. The two remained silent for a few seconds before the woman's lips slightly curved upwards.
"Alright..." Wei Tianyang sighed.
"You're playing that game again~ Hmm~ 'Hey, your house has collapsed~ Anyone wants to stay in the hotel?'" Yaha mimicked Wei Tianyang's tone, laughing.
The woman stood up and walked silently through the blue side door where the eyeglasses boy had emerged.
"It seems it's not so empty here," Wei Tianyang said.
"They're all upstairs, we have a lot to do... Oh, let me introduce him, this is Kacha," Yaha said.
Kacha smiled, extending his left hand which bore an open inverted triangle, carved fiercely with three slashes from a knife, just like Yaha's.
Wei Tianyang also showed him the mark on his left wrist. Suddenly, tears welled up in Kacha's eyes as he tightly embraced him.
"Wait a minute... you..." Wei Tianyang hadn't reacted before he was hugged, feeling quite awkward.
"No matter what you've been through, from now on, we are brothers," Kacha said.
"Wow... okay, you guys really are enthusiastic..." Wei Tianyang felt a bit uncomfortable.
Kacha let go of him and pulled out a tissue, lifting his glasses to wipe his moist eyes.
"Kacha is quite sensitive, an emotional big boy. If it weren't for Tiantai Pharmaceutical's mess, he could have finished school in a few years and become a journalist and freelance photographer," Yaha explained.
"That's my dream. I want to travel the world, record how people live in different regions on this planet, and understand the differences between the customs of different races," Kacha said.
"He believes the root cause of war comes from misunderstandings between different races and civilizations. What do you think about this?" Yaha explained.
Wei Tianyang shook his head, saying, "I've never thought about these issues. A year ago, I only cared about what day jobs paid more..."
"Kacha, don't trouble our new friend with your questions now. Go prepare for Ishmael's initiation ceremony," Yaha instructed.
Kacha nodded, patted Wei Tianyang's shoulder, and walked away.
"Initiation ceremony?" Wei Tianyang asked.
Yaha stretched out his hand, showing Wei Tianyang the scarred inverted triangle mark on the back of his hand.
"The first step of resistance, Ishmael, is to say goodbye to this mark."