Midnight

23:55.

The time Chen Jiabin left Doctor Lan's Private Clinic.

In the past seven minutes, he had endured the darkest moments of his life.

If he hadn't become Doctor Lan's assistant, he would never have believed what could be pulled out of a patient's stomach.

Fingers, watches, tree branches, live rats, television remotes, hair, human feet...

When he pulled those things out of the patient's stomach, he nearly fainted on the spot.

Were those things even edible?

How could they not cause a stomachache!

Afterward, Doctor Lan stitched up the patient's mouth, which had split open 360 degrees, and the patient acted as if nothing had happened, even thanking the doctor.

Leaving the clinic, he felt as though his soul had left his body.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle!!!"

At that moment, the trees in the park emitted a hair-raising sound in the darkness.

Chen Jiabin was startled back to his senses, only then realizing he had less than five minutes to get back and sleep.

Thinking of this, he took to his heels and ran.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle!!!"

"Scritch, scratch, scritch~~~"

As soon as he started running, it felt as if something in the woods and grass was chasing after him.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp!!!"

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!!!"

After running less than a hundred meters, Chen Jiabin saw a terrifying monster covered in arthropod legs crawling down the exterior wall of a building ahead. The sound of its limbs clashing against its carapace was like fingernails scraping against a wall—piercing, sharp, and deeply unsettling!

On the grass not far away, a soft-bodied monster as massive as a mountain lay prone. Its head featured a mouth like a volcanic crater, and with every breath, it spat out a moth covered in tentacles. Within moments, the lawn was filled with dozens of such creatures.

Everything happening in the darkness was enough to send Chen Jiabin to his grave on the spot.

In those few hundred meters, Chen Jiabin swore he had run at the fastest speed of his entire life.

23:57.

Drenched in cold sweat, Chen Jiabin ran to the elevator lobby downstairs at his apartment complex.

"17th floor, 19th floor..."

"Damn it, there's no time!"

Both elevators were stuck on the upper floors; waiting for one to come down would waste a minute, and riding it up would take another.

At this rate, he wouldn't make it in time.

"The stairwell!"

Thinking of this, Chen Jiabin dashed toward the stairwell.

He didn't live on a high floor.

The fifth floor.

"At my top speed, I can make it up in thirty seconds."

He took a deep breath, charged into the stairwell, and took five steps at a time.

2nd floor.

3rd floor.

4th floor.

"Gurgle~~ gurgle~~ gurgle~~~"

Just as he was about to reach the fifth floor, an incredibly eerie sound came from the stairs above, like an old man groaning in terminal illness or the sound of thick phlegm stuck in a throat—it was absolutely terrifying.

Chen Jiabin's scalp went numb instantly.

His pace slowed involuntarily.

But the thought that he had less than two minutes left, and that dragging his feet meant certain death, forced him to grit his teeth and charge upward.

He rushed onto the fifth floor in one breath, his peripheral vision catching a Human-faced Spider-like monster crawling on the stairs leading to the sixth floor.

He bolted into his unit, pulled out his keys, opened the door, slammed it shut, dashed into the bedroom, and leaped onto the bed—all in one fluid motion.

"Thirty seconds left!"

Chen Jiabin lay on the bed, covered in sweat.

He didn't even turn on the lights.

Tension, panic, anxiety, and the exhaustion of his physical limits made it impossible for him to fall asleep, let alone drift off instantly.

He took out a syringe he had prepared long ago and plunged it into the back of his hand without a moment's hesitation.

"Faster, faster, go faster!"

He had considered the possibility of being unable to fall asleep, so he had secretly swiped a vial of intravenous anesthetic while at the clinic.

A pitch-black night fog descended, pressing down like a dark cloud and enveloping the entire residential complex.

The black mist seemed to possess a life of its own, transforming into countless wisps of black aura that darted wantonly throughout the complex.

The park, the lotus pond, the paths, and the woods were slowly swallowed by the black mist.

Stairwells, balconies, windows, living rooms, bedrooms—they seeped into every nook and cranny, entering as if there were no one there to stop them.

"Counting down ten seconds."

"10"

"9"

"3"

"2"

"1"

Chen Jiabin snapped his eyes open, his emotions collapsing as he cried, "Impossible! Intravenous anesthesia should cause loss of consciousness in six seconds; ten seconds have already passed."

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Just then, wisps of black aura snaked through the gaps in the door and into the room; they were like a swarm of black wild bees suddenly bursting in, as if they had caught the scent of food.

Chen Jiabin's expression changed drastically, and he looked down sharply at the syringe on the back of his hand.

The needle had indeed pierced the back of his hand, but it had failed to enter the vein accurately. Since the intravenous injection had not entered his bloodstream, the anesthetic had failed to take effect.

Chen Jiabin never imagined that after making every possible preparation, he would fail at the very last step.

"Tick, tock. Tick, tock."

Time: 00:00

Chen Jiabin felt his entire world fall apart.

"It's over!"

As the words left his lips, the black mist coalesced into several terrifying streams of black energy that frantically drilled into Chen Jiabin's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose...

The fourth day.

The morning sun was exceptionally bright.

This was the first time Li Ran had seen sunlight inside the instance.

Bathed in the sunlight, it felt as if the gloom of the past few days had been swept away.

"Do you think this outfit will let me outshine the other students' mothers?"

Su Bingyao wore a simple, intellectual pink dress. The high-waisted bow belt made her already tall figure look even more perfect, and the V-neckline perfectly accentuated her swan-like neck. Paired with light-colored heels and a matching bag, she looked both elegant and refined.

She walked slowly toward Li Ran, the sunlight bathing her fair, beautiful face. With a light touch of makeup, Su Bingyao's noble temperament was even more pronounced.

"A single glance from her beauty makes all other colors in the world seem like dust."

The moment Su Bingyao walked toward him, Li Ran couldn't help but blurt out this line.

"You're so dramatic," Su Bingyao said, covering her mouth with a laugh.

"I'm serious."

Li Ran's sincere expression made Su Bingyao's beautiful eyes tremble; her cheeks flushed, and she shyly looked away.

"Son, are you dressed? It's time to go."

"Coming!"

Li Ziyang ran out of the room. "Wow, Mommy is so beautiful."

Su Bingyao patted her son's little head and took Li Ziyang's small hand. "Let's go, off to school."

At this moment, Li Ran couldn't help but sigh inwardly, If only time could stop at this very moment.

"Ding!"

The elevator arrived, and its doors slowly slid open.

Li Ran stepped forward immediately, shielding Su Bingyao and her son behind him.

However, there was no one inside the elevator.

Su Bingyao and Li Ziyang looked at Li Ran's actions with confusion.

"It would be best to be careful when going out," Li Ran said.

"Alright, I'll listen to you," Su Bingyao replied.

Li Ran breathed a slight sigh of relief.

If it were just him alone, he could have used Shadow Escape to head straight downstairs.

But now that he was bringing the whole family, they had no choice but to take the elevator.

What he feared most was running into the murderous demon Wang Gan inside the elevator.

Fortunately...

They reached the underground parking garage smoothly, got into the car, and headed straight for their son's school.

A sense of unease lingered in Li Ran's heart.

I hope the school doesn't pull any strange stunts.

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