"Isn't this a bit wrong...?"
Zhao Yi looked at his younger sister crouching behind the stacked crates, his brows knotted with unease. "This is a clue Bo Yi found... what if he catches us...?" Judging by Tian Xiuyun's disappearance, there was no shortage of danger behind this clue, and now they were coming straight over to reap the rewards...
"Oh, come on, we're not here to sneak a look at the clue..."
Zhao Wen Shan kept her eyes fixed on the closed iron door while reassuring her brother. "Look, that door's shut tight. We can't see anything. Bo Yi won't get angry even if he finds out."
"Besides, if Bo Yi can't handle it alone, maybe we can lend him a hand..."
As she spoke, the two of them heard movement behind the iron door.
"He's coming, he's coming..." Zhao Wen Shan grabbed Zhao Yi, who was standing bolt upright, and pulled him down. "Brother, quick, quick! Hide!"
Zhao Yi had no choice but to cram his burly frame behind the wooden crates, feeling thoroughly put upon.
The iron door creaked open, and the sinister chill that swept through the gap made Zhao Wen Shan shudder. She cautiously poked her head out from behind the crates.
The iron door had opened just wide enough for one person to pass through, but there was no one behind it.
"Huh? Where is he...?" Zhao Wen Shan asked in confusion.
"Who are you looking for?" a man's voice asked from above her head.
"Bo Yi, obviously! Have you gone stupid, brother...?" Zhao Wen Shan was still craning her neck, trying to peer through the gap. "And I told you to stay hidden. Why did you stand up again...? Hey, why are you poking me?"
The pestering from behind continued, and she turned her head angrily. Her dear older brother was obediently crouching behind her, frantically signaling toward one side with his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Zhao Wen Shan looked in the direction her brother indicated. "!!!"
She fell flat on her backside-
Bo Yi was standing on the other side of the crates, looking down at her.
"Ha, haha... w-what a coincidence..." Zhao Wen Shan laughed awkwardly. "Um, are... are you finished?"
Bo Yi glanced at Zhao Wen Shan as she awkwardly climbed off the floor, but he did not give her a hard time. He nodded, took a fresh, clean handkerchief out of his pocket, and began wiping his fingers.
To remove the "experimental samples" intact, he had inevitably gotten quite a bit of blood on his hands. He had already used up one handkerchief, but still had not managed to wipe all the blood away.
Still... he felt the sample bag through his pocket. As his fingertips brushed the two round, cold spheres inside, a faint, satisfied smile appeared on his face.
This trip had been well worth it.
Zhao Wen Shan-Zhao Wen Shan was completely stunned! She had known that Bo Yi was handsome from the moment he entered the instance, but she had never imagined his smile could be so devastating!
Especially with the flecks of blood on his face, lending his already beautiful features an eerie allure. If her brother had not been tugging desperately at her clothes from behind to snap her out of it... she rubbed her face and struggled to pull herself together. "Um, what did you run into in there?" She glanced at the handkerchief in his hand, which was steadily turning red, and asked cautiously, "Was it dangerous?"
Bo Yi did not even look up. "You can go see for yourself."
With his permission, Zhao Wen Shan hurriedly dragged her brother over to the iron door. She did not dare go straight inside, only poking her head forward to peer through the gap.
"Hiss..."
Once she saw the scene inside, she sucked in a sharp breath. The master of the house lay on the floor, his fate unknown. Beneath his head, a pool of blood was slowly spreading.
"You killed the master of the house?!" Would they still be able to hold the banquet tomorrow?!
Bo Yi shook his head. "No. I only took a few things from him."
"Oh, okay." Zhao Wen Shan nodded blankly, not daring to ask exactly what Bo Yi had taken. "That's good, that's good... since you're all right, we'll head back..." Staying firmly true to her claim that she had only come to lend a hand, she dragged Zhao Yi out of the storage room in a hurry.
Bo Yi finally wiped his fingers clean. He glanced back through the iron door, then discarded the used handkerchief, turned, and left.
Once the storage room returned to darkness and dead silence, the master of the house lying on the floor suddenly stirred. Black mist so dense it was almost liquid flowed from his empty eye sockets, slowly enveloping his body.
With the mist's help, he slowly rose from the floor and moved his body in strange, awkward motions, as though he was not used to it.
When the black mist dispersed, a pair of deep crimson eyes, as though steeped in blood, slowly opened in the once-empty sockets. That deep, ominous red flickered with a cold, uncanny gleam, looking just like two blood-red lanterns casting an eerie, ghostly glow.
The reawakened "master of the house" narrowed his eyes, tilted his head, and surveyed his surroundings. The total darkness did not seem to hinder him in the slightest.
"So this is where I am..." His voice was filled with emotion, but as he turned his head, he noticed warm liquid slowly running down his cheeks.
"Hmm?" He roughly wiped it away with his palm. Seeing his hand covered in bright red blood, he raised his brows with intrigued surprise. Then, a moment later, with a wet squelch, he suddenly plunged his fingers straight into his "own" eye sockets.
"Ha..." He tipped his head back, seemingly witnessing something entertaining, and his lips curved into a delighted smile. "Interesting... ha, this is far too interesting!"
He had never expected to see something so entertaining right after waking up.
He slowly licked away the blood at the corner of his mouth. He already could not wait to meet the person in those memories.
Still... he lowered his head and gave this bloodstained body a disdainful glance.
Thick black mist surged out of the body once more. Thud. Without its support, the corpse fell heavily back to the floor.
The black mist circled the room once before drifting toward the nearby display shelf.
A moment later, a boy doll dressed in British-style overalls moved his hands and feet.
Before you continue