When "God" Decides To Start Over

On the other wine bottles, Li Xiu also saw these two symbols several times. By comparing them with the icons on the labels, many things could be deduced.

For instance, if the icon on the bottle was a red flower, there was a high probability that the name of this wine was related to flowers. By finding other wine bottles with flower icons, some textual information could be inferred.

Through Li Xiu's research, the two symbols representing the Black Death God were not in the normal left-to-right reading mode; the symbol on the left represented Death God, and the one on the right represented Black.

Li Xiu kept comparing and deducing. He could roughly deduce the names of some wines; although it's not possible to be completely correct, it's not too far off. It's much like recognizing words from pictures, which is not a complex matter.

Unfortunately, the bottles only had names with a limited base of words. Most of the wine names were still incomprehensible to Li Xiu; only symbols that appeared frequently could be deciphered to determine the wine's name.

"Tender Lover, the name sounds gentle, it shouldn't be too poisonous, right?" Li Xiu, after having looked at all the wines, which totaled one thousand and thirty-four bottles, picked one from the fourth layer.

It was a transparent crystal bottle filled with pink liquid, which looked more like sparkling water than wine.

"If I were you, I wouldn't choose that Tender Lover bottle." The woman's voice came through again.

"Why?" Li Xiu asked.

"Tender like a knife, lover like a sword, can you still walk out after drinking such wine?" the woman said with a laugh.

"That's true," Li Xiu conceded and put the Tender Lover back.

"You're quite obedient, aren't you afraid I'm lying?" The woman was somewhat surprised, not expecting Li Xiu to follow her suggestion so straightforwardly.

"There's an old saying in my hometown: 'Listen to advice and you'll be full.' " Li Xiu continued picking wines from the wine cabinet, taking down another bottle with a Black Clergyman icon, "What do you think about this one?"

"Black Bishop, if you want to meet God sooner, choosing him wouldn't be wrong," the woman enjoyed the game, taking pleasure in rebuffing Li Xiu.

"Better not; I think the old man doesn't want to see me." Li Xiu put the bottle back.

Li Xiu selected many bottles of wine, all were negated by the woman, but from the names the woman mentioned, Li Xiu acquired much textual information, enabling him to infer more wine names.

The reason Li Xiu was so willing to take advice was actually to acquire more information, not because he genuinely listened to the woman's suggestions.

The wines he chose all had a purpose, providing him with many keywords.

The woman thought she was discouraging Li Xiu, but Li Xiu already had a general framework of the text.

"Illiteracy is really distressing." Li Xiu sighed in his heart; he had gotten the information he wanted.

Li Xiu basically understood what the words on the wine bottles meant.

Then he put down the wine bottle, went to the bookshelf, and began looking at the book titles.

Utilizing the current textual base, Li Xiu found some books whose names he could understand, took one off the shelf, and began to study it carefully.

Although there were many unknown symbols, by starting from some recognizable words and then linking the preceding and following text, more information could be gathered.

"What are you pretending to look at? Can you even read Demon Text?" the woman mocked, "If you really could read Demon Text, you wouldn't have walked in here."

"Why?" Li Xiu asked in confusion.

"You don't even recognize the words 'strangers keep out' carved at the entrance and are pretending to read a book here, better to just drink the wine honestly," the woman ridiculed.

Recollecting, Li Xiu remembered seeing two symbols etched by the door, realizing their meaning. His knowledge increased yet again.

"How do you know I don't recognize them? I simply didn't pay attention when I came in," Li Xiu closed the book in his hand, saying, "This book's name is Black Rose, I understand that much."

The woman giggled, "Adorable little illiterate, you think just because there's a black rose painted on the cover, the book is called Black Rose? This isn't picture reading; you're so naive and cute. That book's name is 'Withered Understanding Flower.' "

"Oh, sorry, didn't look closely," Li Xiu put the book back on the shelf, casually picked up another one, and this time he sat on the sofa, leafing through the pages.

Li Xiu slowly flipped through the pages without speaking. After a while, the woman couldn't hold back anymore and spoke again, "Since you like drinking and reading, why not stay here as a bartender, drink and read at your leisure?"

"I'm just a person; if I stay here without food and drink, I'd probably starve in a few days," Li Xiu casually replied while continuing to flip through the book in his hand.

"Once you become a bartender, you won't need those things," the woman said.

"So you're saying that after I become a bartender, I won't be human anymore, right?" Li Xiu replied without looking up.

"Pretty much," the woman continued, "what's so good about being human? Weak and fragile, with such a short lifespan. Once you're a bartender, you'll have immortality, much better than being human."