I Was Talking in My Sleep

In the distance, a tremendous crash echoed from somewhere beyond several walls.

A furious, malevolent presence made the lights throughout the barbecue restaurant flicker. The animal-faced customers who were eating all stopped and looked around in alarm.

"What's going on? Is there something wrong with the wiring?"

"I don't know. The flickering's hurting my eyes... Waiter! What's going on?!"

At that moment, they seemed just like ordinary people again.

The waiters, who had been coming and going, stood frozen in place. Smiles were fixed on their faces, but their eyes were unmistakably full of fear.

They didn't answer. Instead, as if sensing something, they looked toward the entrance to the corridor behind the dining hall—the exit, too.

A very scary "person" was coming... Their leader. Their superior.

All the waiters stiffly and laboriously stretched their smiles wider, putting on a ghastly grin that made anyone who saw it feel sick.

If they were caught failing to provide smiling service, their faces would be eaten—that was the only part of them that was actually food.

But before they could prepare any further, a towering figure over two meters tall slowly emerged from the darkness.

The leader hunched over. It seemed the relentless provocation had worn away its "human" elegance. The ax in its hands was so huge that it dragged on the floor, scraping out a shrill screech.

The sheep-faced leader swept its gaze across the room, then quickly fixed on the table where the deducers sat, looking past the motionless waiters.

The male candidate clutched his head and hid under the table like an ostrich. Nobody paid him any attention. The Little Heavenly Master rubbed her still-aching wrist and braced herself. The killer lowered his crossed leg and sat up slightly, his anticipation faintly palpable.

Yu Xing and Qu Xuanqing,