Today, the little fox indeed still hadn't locked the door. Ye Tiancheng pushed it open and saw the little fox was still fast asleep, covered by his blanket.
He walked to the bedside and yanked off the little fox's quilt, "Little fox, time to get up!"
The little fox felt a chill all over his body. Ye Tiancheng's voice, like thunder from a clear sky, rang in his ears. He jolted, sat up in bed with a powerful surge, and asked, "I'm up, I'm up! What time is it?"
Ye Tiancheng said helplessly, "It's almost noon, time for lunch."
The little fox scratched the back of his head, his mind gradually clearing. He chuckled sheepishly, "I didn't mean to oversleep. I had something on my mind yesterday, and it kept me up all night. I was so sleepy today, I just couldn't get out of bed."
"You didn't sleep last night either?" Ye Tiancheng was speechless but still asked about the little fox's situation. He himself had experienced nothing unusual all night, and he wondered if anything had happened on the little fox's end.
The little fox replied while putting on his clothes, "Thinking about things, I just couldn't sleep. I stayed up all night, but I didn't feel anything, and nothing happened."
Ye Tiancheng thought that it was the same as his own situation. He wondered what the reason was. Did the bride just come to check on them because they had attended the banquet yesterday, and then left? That couldn't be right; even a made-up story wouldn't be so far-fetched.
After the little fox got dressed, he prepared to wash up and asked Ye Tiancheng, "By the way, Big Brother, did that bride come looking for you last night?"
Hearing the little fox's question, Ye Tiancheng sighed and replied, "No, I didn't wait for anything."
"So, I also stayed up all night, but nothing happened. I made up for it with a nap this morning, and I only just woke up not long ago."
After listening, the little fox pondered, feeling the disappointment of having prepared thoroughly only to have it come to nothing. "If the bride just came and went and never showed up again, then we don't have to bother with this, right?"
Ye Tiancheng nodded. "We were worried that she had targeted us for some reason, so we had to be cautious and investigate her. If this is the end of it, then it's a good thing. I wouldn't go looking for trouble, and we can just let it be." Ye Tiancheng would be overjoyed if Liu Han, the bride, didn't cause any more trouble. However, despite thinking this, Ye Tiancheng inexplicably felt that this matter wouldn't end so simply.
While the little fox went to wash up, Ye Tiancheng waited for him in the outer room. During the wait, Ye Tiancheng suddenly heard a scream, his spirits instantly lifted, and he looked in the direction of the sound. It was from the room where Fatty and his girlfriend Shao Ying were staying. The scream, by the sound of it, must have come from Fatty's girlfriend, Shao Ying.
Ye Tiancheng's first thought was that something had definitely happened to Fatty. His second thought was that his daughter, Ye Qingcheng, had gone to call Fatty and the others out and had gone to Fatty's room. Could something have happened to her as well?
Therefore, Ye Tiancheng immediately ran towards Fatty's room. When he reached the door of Fatty and Shao Ying's room, Ye Tiancheng found the door closed. He walked to the door and first tried to push it open, but it was bolted. He then knocked on the door.
Footsteps sounded from inside, and then the door was opened by Shao Ying. Seeing her, Ye Tiancheng couldn't hold back and immediately asked, "Where are Qingcheng and Fatty? What happened here? I just heard your scream, sister-in-law... sister-in-law, you look pale?"
Shao Ying's face was very pale, and her body was trembling. She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, the commotion caused by her scream had already drawn Hou Mingzhu, Ye Qingcheng, and the little fox, who had just finished washing up, to the door.
Seeing Ye Qingcheng arrive safely with Hou Mingzhu, Ye Tiancheng's relieved heart tightened again. Ye Qingcheng was confirmed to be safe, but what about Fatty? Shao Ying's sudden scream and her current pale complexion clearly indicated that something unexpected had happened in the room. But in such a situation, why wasn't Fatty accompanying Shao Ying? When he came to knock, if Fatty were there, even if he had asked Shao Ying to open the door and not come to the door himself, he would have spoken when Ye Tiancheng was at the door. Fatty wouldn't have remained silent, would he?
Ye Tiancheng's heart sank heavily. The situation was likely dire. He had been too careless. He had initially thought that Fatty had cultivation, and the little fox had taken some protective measures, so it was unlikely for Fatty to be in trouble. The possibility of him being in trouble was definitely smaller than the little fox's. But then, while he himself and the little fox experienced no accidents last night, it turned out that the one who had trouble was Fatty?
When Hou Mingzhu and the little fox arrived, they could clearly see that something might be wrong. Since Shao Ying was a woman, Hou Mingzhu stepped forward, handed Ye Qingcheng to Ye Tiancheng, held her hand, and then spoke to Shao Ying. She tried to comfort Shao Ying, saying, "Sister-in-law, what's wrong? What happened?"
Ye Tiancheng held Ye Qingcheng's hand tightly, unwilling to neglect his daughter's safety at such a critical moment. Under Hou Mingzhu's comfort, Shao Ying managed to gather her strength and replied, "Blood... Brother Fatty, he, he's gone..." Perhaps due to extreme fear and shock, Shao Ying's lips were trembling, and she couldn't articulate her words clearly. She herself seemed somewhat confused and dazed, as if she didn't understand what had happened. However, even though Shao Ying couldn't explain clearly, the few keywords she provided were enough for people to understand what had happened.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox, being men, feared they might put more pressure on Shao Ying and make her more nervous. Also, due to the principle of avoiding unnecessary contact between men and women, Hou Mingzhu, with a hint from Ye Tiancheng, took over the questioning. Hou Mingzhu walked to Shao Ying's side, put an arm around her shoulders, and patted her back. "Sister-in-law, don't worry, don't be afraid. Everyone is here now."
"What exactly happened? How did it suddenly become like this? Sister-in-law, please tell us slowly."
As Shao Ying moved aside to let them in, everyone followed to inspect the situation. Ye Qingcheng was an accompaniment; at this moment, Ye Tiancheng had to keep her close to feel at ease. Ye Tiancheng felt somewhat relieved when he saw that there was nothing particularly frightening in the room. He chose to protect Ye Qingcheng without covering her eyes. Shao Ying, under Hou Mingzhu's comfort, gradually calmed down and led everyone to the bedside to look at the large pool of blood on the floor.
She told everyone what she saw when she woke up. "Last night, Fatty and I went to bed late, and it's quite boring living here, so we don't have a habit of waking up early. We went to bed particularly late last night, so I didn't get up this morning. I slept until just a while ago. Qingcheng came to call me and knocked on the door outside, saying it was almost lunchtime. I was still quite sleepy and hadn't fully woken up, so I just responded without opening my eyes. Then I lay there for a bit longer, no more than ten minutes, I think. I thought it wasn't good to just lie there, so I decided to get up and call Fatty to get up with me."
Shao Ying choked slightly at this point. "I reached out to the other side of the bed and found it empty. At first, I thought Fatty had gotten up earlier and hadn't woken me. But then I smelled a very strange odor. I decided to get out of bed first, but who knew, who knew that when I reached the edge of the bed to get up, I saw this large pool of blood by the bedside!"
Hearing this, Ye Tiancheng and the others could basically tell when Shao Ying had screamed. It was likely when she saw the blood by the bedside. A person who is groggy from sleep, just waking up, with their mind not yet fully clear, suddenly seeing such a situation, and the person they rely on is not around for some reason, it's understandable that she would scream out of fear.
As Shao Ying spoke, she couldn't help but start sobbing. "I think something happened to Brother Fatty. When I got up and found Brother Fatty wasn't there, and then I saw this large pool of blood, I looked around the room, but Brother Fatty wasn't there at all."
"But even if that were the case, the doors and windows in the room were still tightly shut. The door was bolted, even bolted from the inside. Because of the heavy rain these past few days, the windows were also tightly closed and bolted from the inside. In such a state, where could Brother Fatty have gone?"
The people in the room exchanged glances, realizing the strangeness of the situation. That's right, the room was bolted from the inside, and the doors and windows were tightly shut. How could anyone have left in such a state? But where could a living person go? It couldn't be that he simply vanished into thin air, could it?
Hou Mingzhu also understood this point and was a little startled. She instinctively looked at Ye Tiancheng. Ye Tiancheng's brows were tightly furrowed. The little fox, following Ye Tiancheng's subtle hint, was discreetly checking on the items he had placed in Fatty and Shao Ying's room last night to see how they were doing. Nuwa Stone also began to investigate the situation in the room under Ye Tiancheng's instructions.
Ye Tiancheng thought that he couldn't just let Hou Mingzhu and Shao Ying worry. They didn't have cultivation methods and would surely be frightened by such a situation. Therefore, Ye Tiancheng first comforted them, "Don't worry, I'm here. Little fox and I will figure out what happened."
As Ye Tiancheng spoke, he pushed Ye Qingcheng to Hou Mingzhu's side and walked to the bedside, squatting down to examine the large pool of blood on the floor. After looking for a while, he reached out, dipped his finger in the blood, and brought it to his nose to sniff gently.
"It's not human blood," he suddenly said.
Hou Mingzhu heard Ye Tiancheng's words and looked at the blood on the floor and Ye Tiancheng's fingertip. She couldn't see any difference, so she asked, "How can you tell it's not human blood? So, this isn't human blood? What kind of blood is it?"
Ye Tiancheng found a tissue, wiped the blood from his fingers, and then answered Hou Mingzhu's question. "It's chicken blood."
"Earlier, when I smelled the odor, I felt something was a bit off. You also had some other clues that made things strange. Now that I've checked and confirmed it's chicken blood, it makes sense."
"Sister-in-law just said she smelled a strange odor in the room earlier, which was actually the smell of chicken blood. Human blood has a salty, fishy smell, while chicken blood has a slight metallic odor. Moreover, animal blood is more viscous than human blood."