"They abandoned us! They abandoned us, do you understand?"
In a room at another inn, Xiao Zhou paced back and forth, grumbling like a resentful wife who'd been cast aside.
"Oh."
Li Liang lay languidly on the bed, perfectly embodying what it meant to be "a salted fish."
Bi Wanhui remained silent. Seeing her best friend die right in front of her had hit her hard.
"Could you two at least react a little?"
Xiao Zhou snapped.
"Didn't I?" Li Liang said. "I think this is great. We don't have to risk our lives, and we can get through the mission in peace."
"If we don't take part, we don't get any rewards," Xiao Zhou said. "Have you forgotten?"
"I don't care."
Bi Wanhui said this, then fell silent again.
Li Liang waved a hand. "Come on. You really think this is some video game where you go into a dungeon? People die in these missions."
"Didn't that monk say he'd protect us?" Xiao Zhou asked.
Li Liang gave a quiet laugh. "And you believed him?"
"He's strong. He could've taken us along to complete the mission," Xiao Zhou insisted. "But they think we're dead weight, so they abandoned us!"
Night had already fallen.
Tang Luo and the others still hadn't returned.
That morning, they'd simply given them some money and left it at that. They didn't even know where Tang Luo and the others had gone.
At least they'd left a copy of the document behind.
Li Liang and Bi Wanhui only wanted to stay alive. They didn't have to take part in any dangerous missions, so they were perfectly happy with how things had turned out.
But Xiao Zhou was different.
He was stuck between not daring to step forward and being unwilling to back down.
After Tang Luo and the others ignored him and "abandoned" him, the more he thought about it, the more resentful and angry he became.
"Take us along, my ass."
Li Liang said, "You really think the whole world has to spoil you like your mom? They gave us money and found us a place to stay. That's already pretty decent. That monk may have stabbed me before, but honestly, he's a good guy."
As an unemployed young man who'd run into a few walls, Li Liang understood a little about how harsh the world could be.
"Are high schoolers all this self-centered these days?"
Li Liang mocked him, completely forgetting that he'd once been that age himself.
The pot calling the kettle black.
Really, they were all much the same. Some people adjusted their attitudes quickly, while others lost their balance.
"Shut up!"
Already in a foul mood, Xiao Zhou roared at Li Liang after being mocked.
"Oh? You want to fight?"
"Damn it!"
Xiao Zhou's reaction was far more violent than Li Liang had expected.
Someone had actually asked for it? Then he'd give it to him.
The energetic teenager cursed and lunged at Li Liang. The two wrestled on the bed.
Then Li Liang found out, to his dismay, that he couldn't beat him!
After four years of eating and sleeping his way through college, Li Liang was in terrible shape.
He was nowhere near as fit as he'd been at his peak in high school.
Not to mention, his body was already completely drained.
Xiao Zhou had to run laps at school every day, and he enjoyed playing sports in his spare time, like basketball. After all, for a boarding student, it was the only respectable form of entertainment!
He was genuinely strong.
His fists pounded Li Liang's face, leaving blood streaming from his nose.
"You're insane!"
Bi Wanhui cursed, then opened the door and walked out without hesitation.
Tang Luo had generously booked them three rooms.
But out of habit and fear, they'd all stayed together.
Now the two of them were fighting.
Bi Wanhui had no desire to break it up, and she didn't want to stay and watch them beat each other up.
She took out her key and unlocked the room next door.
Bi Wanhui reached for the door, about to push it open and go inside, when she heard footsteps behind her.
This inn was much worse than the one they'd stayed at the night before.
The floorboards in the corridor often creaked beneath people's feet.
The footsteps were especially distinct.
One light step, one heavy.
At the sound, Bi Wanhui's body instinctively shuddered.
Remembering the footsteps she'd heard the previous night, she hurried to push the door open.
But just as she'd opened it halfway and was about to step—or rather, flee—inside, she stopped.
The footsteps behind her stopped too.
An icy breath brushed the back of Bi Wanhui's neck.
She felt dazed, as if she were no longer in the inn but in some strange, dark, freezing place.
Every hair on her body stood on end. Her hands and feet went numb..
Bi Wanhui stood frozen in place, holding the door open, as rigid as a statue.
Only the expression of terror on her face kept shifting wildly.
Tears and snot streamed down her face.
She had no idea who was behind her.
But the fear of imminent death engulfed her completely, steadily breaking down her mind.
"Hoo—"
"Hoo—"
The icy breath against her neck grew heavier and heavier.
Its temperature dropped even further. Bi Wanhui even saw frost slowly form on the door in front of her.
She tried with all her strength to open her mouth and scream.
At that moment, the person behind her moved too.
A pair of hands reached out from beneath Bi Wanhui's arms, like a lover's warm embrace from behind.
That might have been true if the hands meeting in front of her hadn't been holding a dagger.
A rust-covered dagger!
Its blunt blade pointed at Bi Wanhui's chest.
Not at her heart, but right in the center.
The real "embrace" began.
The arms around her started to tighten. Just then—
Bi Wanhui's body shuddered. Her frantic, silent struggle finally paid off.
It was like a choking person suddenly drawing in fresh air, or someone breaking free of the ropes binding them.
Bi Wanhui regained control of her body, her mouth wide open.
She raised her hand, lunged forward, and tried to escape!
A searing pain struck.
In that instant, the rust-covered dagger stabbed into Bi Wanhui's chest.
The hands that had been so steady began to tremble wildly.
The wound widened, tearing apart.
Her blood, her strength, and the light of life in her eyes were all pulled from her body.
"%...*)*@#￥%"
A string of murmured words came from the killer.
The killer let go, allowing Bi Wanhui's corpse to crash to the floor, then retreated into the darkness and disappeared without a trace.
Inside the room,
Li Liang and Xiao Zhou panted heavily as they stared at each other.
Several bloody scratches marked Xiao Zhou's face. Blood ran from his forehead, staining half his face and making him look terrifying.
But the wounds were shallow, and the bleeding had already stopped.
Li Liang, on the other hand, had a swollen, bruised face. His left cheek and right eye were both badly swollen.
He sat on the bed, swaying, mouth hanging open as he retched from time to time.
"I've had it with you, you good-for-nothing! I'm joining the mission tomorrow too! You can sit here and wait to die by yourself!"
Xiao Zhou wiped the blood from his eyes and turned to leave.
He stopped when he reached the door.
It was ajar, and only then did he realize that Bi Wanhui seemed to have left earlier.
When he stepped into the corridor, Xiao Zhou saw that the door to the room next door was ajar too. He pushed it open curiously, but Bi Wanhui was nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd she go?" Xiao Zhou stood at the doorway, glancing around. "Did she go to the bathroom again?"
At the thought, Xiao Zhou realized he needed to pee too. He also had to clean the blood off his face.
But he wasn't about to use the bathroom down the hall.
Instead, he chose to go downstairs to the first floor.
There had to be someone in the inn's tiny lobby, and their presence would make him feel safer.
As he went downstairs with his head lowered, Xiao Zhou caught sight of someone standing behind the counter in the corner of his eye.
Without looking up, he said, "Boss, I'm going to use the bathroom."
His face was covered in blood, which would be hard to explain.
Fortunately, the boss behind the counter didn't stop him. Xiao Zhou hurried past.
"Hm?"
After a couple of steps, the light in front of Xiao Zhou suddenly dimmed, then brightened again, then dimmed once more.
The sharp changes between light and dark left large black spots in his vision.
He looked up and saw the light above him flickering continuously, as if it had broken.
"Just my luck."
He muttered, squinting against the flickering light that stung his eyes, then went into the bathroom and left the door half-open.
After a while, he grimaced at his reflection in the grimy mirror.
The cuts on his face weren't deep, but they hurt.
Before Xiao Zhou could get any water to wash his face,
the dim light overhead began flickering too.
Bright and dark, over and over.
"Damn it! What kind of lousy place is this?"
Xiao Zhou cursed under his breath, hastily wiped his face, and left without bothering to wash properly.
In his haste, his left foot caught against his right, and he nearly fell.
As soon as he stepped out, he caught sight of someone standing by the doorway. He was so startled that he almost fell over.
A strange smile hung on the man's face as he reached out and repeatedly pressed the switch on the wall.
It was the switch for the bathroom light.
In other words, the light inside hadn't been flickering because it was broken. This guy had been messing with the switch outside!
"You—"
Before Xiao Zhou could lose his temper, the bathroom light gave out under the abuse and went dark for good.
The smile on the man's face disappeared at once.
The sudden change startled Xiao Zhou again, and he swallowed his curse.
The man glanced at Xiao Zhou, then walked back behind the counter, one light step and one heavy.
Then the light overhead began flickering again.
"Click... click..."
The switch made a mechanical, monotonous sound.
The person behind the counter just now hadn't been the boss they'd seen that morning. It was this guy.
He'd broken one light and now wanted to break a second?
"What the hell is going on?"
Xiao Zhou realized something was wrong. Where had this eerie old man come from?
Where was the boss?
Where had he gone?
His scalp prickling, Xiao Zhou no longer planned to return to the inn room. He wanted to get outside and leave the place.
Because Xiao Zhou suddenly remembered—
When Tang Luo and the others had asked the owner of the inn they'd stayed at the previous night about the cleaner that morning,
the owner had said Old John was lame!
At his advanced age, he walked with one step light and the next heavy. Wasn't he a cripple?!
Could it be... Tang Luo and the others hadn't abandoned them?
Could it be that they'd found the real culprit, only to be killed?!
Xiao Zhou didn't know that Tang Luo and the others had cleared Old John of suspicion and had gone straight to investigate another lead.
All he could feel now was—
An immense terror, like a hand clenching around his heart.
His heart thrashed violently in its grip, almost leaping into his throat.
"Run!"
All his thoughts became a single roar.
His stiff body sprang into motion. He lifted his legs and ran outside with everything he had.
"Click!"
The sharp sound of the switch stopped.
The flickering light overhead plunged into darkness.
He didn't know whether the limping man had turned it off or whether it had broken, just like the light in the bathroom.
It's Monday—please vote for me!
There'll be another update tonight.
Before you continue