The Perks Don't Get Any Better Than This

In a dark living room, a frail, grime-covered girl with disheveled hair huddled in a corner, her arms wrapped around her knees. She clutched a bloodstained dagger in her hands. Beneath her messy bangs, her gaze was fierce and sharp, like a vicious beast lying in wait!

Several bodies lay on the floor in front of her, blood staining the entire living room red...

A group of plainclothes police officers rushed in through the door and restrained the girl. One of them made her drink something.

"From now on, I ask a question, and you answer it."

"What's your name?"

The girl's gaze lost its sharpness, turning vacant and dull.

"My name is Zhao Yingzhi."

"Bro Ran, I followed your outline for pursuing my goddess, and I managed to get Meng Ge to agree to a date."

At the Community Gathering Point, Lu Zhaohui gazed at Li Ran with admiration.

"Guys really do have to take the initiative if they want to get a girl," Lu Zhaohui said.

"Pursuing a girl takes some finesse. You don't have to keep taking the initiative and giving everything. Who could put up with that? Even on his way to rescue the princess, Mario finds coins."

Lu Zhaohui's expression suddenly lit up, as if a bolt of inspiration had struck him.

"Listening to you for a moment is better than ten years of reading," Lu Zhaohui said admiringly.

Li Ran smiled, then checked the time on his phone. His brows knitted together. "Song Linjia's late today."

"That's not like her. She's always punctual. Something must've held her up."

"Forget it. We're not waiting for her. Got any leads on new missions these past couple of days?" Li Ran asked.

Lu Zhaohui scratched the back of his head and said awkwardly, "Bro Ran, you know I'm a coward. If you hadn't given me that outline, I might not even have taken the first step."

"But..."

Li Ran frowned at him. "But what?"

Lu Zhaohui looked conflicted, hesitating before he spoke. "Bro Ran, there's something wrong with Meng Ge."

"Obviously. What resident here isn't?" Li Ran rolled his eyes.

He stood up and dusted off his backside, then glanced at Lu Zhaohui. "If you haven't got any leads on a new mission, I'll go do one myself. I've still got a ton of things to take care of."

"Bro Ran, I think you need to help me with this. I'll give you five hundred points," Lu Zhaohui blurted out.

"Five hundred?"

The corner of Li Ran's mouth curled up. Now things were getting interesting.

"A thousand-point mission?" Li Ran asked.

"Yeah, Bro Ran."

"After I completed yesterday's mission to get Meng Ge to ask me out, I followed the outline and kept going. But when it got to the part where I was supposed to take her to a hotel, she turned me down. I thought maybe I'd been too blunt. Girls can be a bit reserved, after all."

"But around nine last night, I saw her bringing a strange man home. Oh, I live in Building No. 3, so I can see the entrance to Building Six right across from me."

"Actually, I'd noticed it a few days ago. She's brought men home more than once, and it's a different man every time."

"But I don't understand. Why won't she do it with me? Or is everything I've seen an illusion, and she's actually a chaste, respectable girl?"

"Bro Ran, this mission is really breaking me. If I give up, all my effort these past few days will have been for nothing. But if I keep going, I'm afraid I won't be able to handle what I find out."

Lu Zhaohui's words conjured up in Li Ran's mind the self-discipline of a lovesick doormat.

Li Ran parted his lips and stared at Lu Zhaohui in surprise. "Don't tell me you've actually fallen for her."

Lu Zhaohui didn't dodge the question. He nodded. "I think I have."

"Wow." Li Ran gave him a thumbs-up.

"She makes me feel this push-and-pull that real girls never have. It's like the hazy feeling of first love."

Li Ran was speechless. "Your first love brings a different man home every day? Seriously, did your buddy give you a foot wash?"

Although Lu Zhaohui hadn't provided any new mission leads, his words suddenly reminded Li Ran of one of the rules Grandpa Ge had mentioned for the neighborhood.

(Every few days, a female resident of Building Six brings a man home, but no one's ever seen the men come back out. Unless you've got strong kidneys, it's best not to mess with her.)

"Looks like the female resident Grandpa Ge mentioned is the same Meng Ge this idiot's chasing. She keeps bringing men home, but none of them come back out. Isn't she obviously some kind of demoness who sucks out men's yang energy?"

"No wonder Grandpa Ge warned people they needed strong kidneys."

Clearly, Lu Zhaohui had been continuing along the later stages of his guided mission. From his description, it wasn't hard to see that he might have run into a demoness.

"What's your mission?" Li Ran asked.

At Li Ran's question, Lu Zhaohui's face suddenly turned red. He lowered his voice. "Sleep... sleep with her."

"What? Sleep with her?!"

Li Ran's jaw nearly hit the floor. He thought he must have misheard.

"What kind of mission is that? That's not a perk—it's the ultimate reward!"

Honestly, Li Ran was envious at that moment.

"Bro Ran, you're making fun of me, aren't you? What perk? I feel like I'm hitting a wall at every turn. On WeChat, all she ever replies is 'mm' or 'oh.' She'll barely chat before saying she's going to shower. I can't even get her to go out with me, let alone sleep with her." Lu Zhaohui angrily kicked a small stone at his feet, then continued, "I don't want to sleep with her. I really want to be with her."

"I just want to figure out what's going on. Why is she so casual with other men, but hot and cold with me?" Lu Zhaohui pleaded. "Bro Ran, please give me a brilliant plan."

How could Li Ran pass up a five-hundred-point mission?

The mission was certainly a headache, but he was still confident he could help Lu Zhaohui complete it.

Whether Meng Ge was a player was still up in the air. Seeing wasn't always believing, and a few snippets of chat history on Feixin weren't enough to judge.

Besides, Meng Ge's attitude toward Lu Zhaohui was a little strange. If she really was the demoness Grandpa Ge had mentioned, the kind who sucked out men's yang energy, why hadn't she made a move on Lu Zhaohui?

Could this be a case of Nie Xiaoqian falling in love with Ning Caichen?

Maybe she couldn't bear to do it?

"Looks like figuring this out will take more than just strengthening his kidneys. We'll have to catch her off guard, too. These five hundred points won't be easy to earn."

With that in mind, Li Ran said to Lu Zhaohui, "Hand me your phone. I'll get her to come out first."

Lu Zhaohui handed him his phone. "I tried. I couldn't get her to come out."

Li Ran shot him a look, then quickly skimmed through the chat history and started tapping away at the phone.