"Come find me"

Yin Chao was not particularly worried about that.

After they returned to the apartment arranged by the guild, Bai Yu kept pestering him to tell her about the ghosts he had encountered in the instance.

"So you really voted for Linmu in the judgment hall?"

Bai Yu's eyes were full of disbelief. When Yin Chao nodded, she pressed on. "What about Moqi Xinzhi? He's notorious for being crafty. He actually agreed not to vote for you?"

Yin Chao lifted his instant coffee, amusement in his eyes. "Faced with certain death, I simply made a wager."

"A wager?" Bai Yu clearly struggled to understand how a gambler's mind worked.

"Yes." He took a small sip of the warm coffee, then continued, "Did you notice that when I told you about the sixth night, I never said who the werewolves killed? I only mentioned the discussion and banishment phases."

Bai Yu looked a little dazed, her eyes darting about as she tried to recall what Yin Chao had said.

A moment later, she let out an excited "Oh!"

"I get it! The change in the rules that night made Moqi Xinzhi realize the judgment rules might not be absolute. That's why he chose to believe a dying man's words when he already had victory in the bag."

Yin Chao nodded, pleased that she was catching on.

Just then, Bai Yu's phone rang. She unlocked it, and her expression turned a little strange.

"What is it?" Yin Chao asked.

"They've found everyone who entered the S-rank instance this time, except for one person. There's no trace of her."

"Luo Lingyue?"

Bai Yu nodded. "They pinpointed her location at a psychiatric sanatorium, but our guild searched through every possible candidate and still found nothing. Of course, the other guilds came back empty-handed too."

Yin Chao did not answer. He gazed thoughtfully at the black coffee in his cup, its surface shimmering in the refracted light.

It felt as though he had overlooked something right from the start.

Luo Lingyue, the offspring of a ghost and a human-could someone like that exist in the human world?

While he was pondering this, the apartment door burst open, and Anna appeared in the doorway.

Looking at her impassive face, Yin Chao understood. She had probably run into another app she did not know how to use.

"What's wrong, Anna?" Bai Yu asked.

"Why won't this open?" Anna asked, pointing to the blue app on the screen.

A thought suddenly flashed through Yin Chao's mind. Perhaps only he could see Luo Lingyue, just like Anna before she had been bound by the Myriad People Umbrella's contract.

He immediately stood up, interrupting Bai Yu as she helped Anna with her technical problem. "Where's that sanatorium? Send me the location."

"You're going there yourself?" Bai Yu looked surprised, then quickly added, "The factions over there are a bit complicated. All the major guilds have people watching the place. You'll need backup."

Yin Chao did not refuse. He nodded.

About an hour passed before the backup Bai Yu had found for him finally arrived.

The familiar smiling face before him gave Yin Chao a headache. He had not forgotten how this man had slaughtered others in the instance with a beaming smile.

He looked like a modest, courteous gentleman, but underneath, he was a beast with a taste for blood and violence.

As the old saying went, you did not strike a smiling man-but a smiling man with an umbrella went straight for the head.

Mo Nan wore an immaculate tailcoat and a black fedora, yet the outfit did not look out of place on him. His elegance came naturally.

"We meet again, Mr. Yin."

He bowed slightly and raised a hand to remove his fedora, each movement perfectly measured.

Yin Chao nodded to him. Gone were the foolishness and dullness he had feigned as a clueless newcomer in the instance. Now he was cool and aloof, with an air of refinement.

Delight flickered in Mo Nan's eyes. He seemed very pleased with this version of Yin Chao.

Bai Yu knew that Yin Chao's first impression of Mo Nan had been poor, so she had not dared tell him beforehand.

She gave Mo Nan a meaningful look. Understanding, he offered to wait for them in the garage downstairs.

Only then did Bai Yu speak. "Sorry, but Mo Nan really is the best choice right now. He may have been awful in that bride instance, but we've known him since we were kids. He's very reliable."

When Yin Chao said nothing, Bai Yu hurriedly added, "And of course, he's strong too! You know everyone calls him the Smiling-Faced Thug!"

"I know. Bai Xu told me about him before," Yin Chao replied.

Hearing that her second brother had already explained, Bai Yu visibly relaxed.

Yin Chao and Mo Nan exchanged few words on the way to the sanatorium. The remaining "person," Anna, was even more taciturn, so the journey was quiet.

Yin Chao even fell asleep.

He had a brief but vivid dream.

In the dream, there was a little boy named Wang Ren, and a gloomy, dilapidated orphanage.

Through Wang Ren's eyes, everyone wore an expression full of malice.

He was frail, hungry, and afraid.

There were the other children who snatched his food like ravenous ghosts, the caregivers who constantly punched and kicked him, and the middle-aged men who abused him and locked him in a dark room.

Those potbellied devils seemed to be the final straw.

Every day, men with different faces subjected him to inhuman torment. Wang Ren begged for mercy over and over, crying again and again, but none of it seemed to help.

He saw the crooked-mouthed caregiver gleefully counting money as he sent him into the dark room, and heard the sobs mingling with the wind beside his ears.

Wave after wave, they did not stop until dawn.

He missed the corner he used as a hiding place, the gray cracks in the wall, and the crimson bricks exposed beneath them.

They were so red, as red as blood, like the wounds blooming across his body.

Did blood of that same color flow inside these people too? Wang Ren wondered.

I really want to tear them open and see.

I really want to tear them open... and see...

As he thought this, Wang Ren's lifeless black eyes suddenly turned a startling crimson. He broke free of his chains and drove a long blade that had appeared out of nowhere through the middle-aged men's bodies.

One after another, as easily as chopping vegetables.

Their blood flowed like little streams, pooling on the floor and soon staining it red.

He panted heavily, laughing and roaring in turn.

At last, he saw himself in the mirror, naked and shackled.

Outside the window, the bright moon was rising...

The sound of the wind was his own whimpering.

Suddenly, the boy raised his head and met Yin Chao's gaze within the dream, as though looking across time, space, and dimensions.

He said to Yin Chao, "Come find me."

The dream ended abruptly.

Like a fragment of memory.

Yin Chao jolted awake and looked around, finding that the car had already turned onto a desolate mountain road.

Ever the dutiful driver, Mo Nan reminded him with a smile, "We'll be there in a few minutes. The sanatorium is halfway up the mountain."