"Drip."

"Drip."

...

The sound of footsteps in water echoed in his ears.

Neither near nor far.

Fatty subconsciously looked up. In the rain, a figure slowly approached. It looked like a man, wearing a black trench coat and holding a huge black umbrella.

The umbrella was held low, obscuring his face from Fatty's view.

But the man's hand gripping the umbrella handle was slender and pale.

What startled Fatty even more was the strength in the man's wrist.

The night wind was strong, but the hand holding the umbrella didn't tremble in the slightest.

The man seemed to walk casually, stepping right through puddles, water splashing on his black leather shoes, and an air of grim determination surrounding him.

Fatty's first thought wasn't to run. He sensed a familiar aura about the approaching man.

As the large black umbrella was raised slightly, Fatty's pupils suddenly contracted.

"It's you?!"

...

"Ouch, ouch, be gentle, will you? I'm a patient right now, you know. Don't you have any pity?"

This was a rather old room, with no lights, only two white candles burning faintly.

Bronze candlesticks gleamed with a metallic sheen.

A figure lying on the bed inside grumbled incessantly. He looked terrible, really terrible, but surprisingly, his spirits were high.

He even had the energy to bicker with the person beside him.

The guy who claimed to be a patient in need of care was lying flat on the bed, covered with a pure white quilt pulled up to his chin.

He had a torn black stocking over his head.

There were holes ripped just big enough for his mouth, eyes, and nose.

"Hiss—"

The man beside him gently touched his abdomen. The stocking-clad man gasped in pain. "Are you trying to kill me with pain so you can inherit my stockings?"

"Even if I give you the stockings, Lu-meizi isn't going to wear them for you. Just give up on that dream!"

Listening to the stocking-clad man's rambling, Chen Ran, standing in front of him, showed a hint of displeasure, but this time, he didn't retort.

Instead, he reached out and tucked the quilt on the side of the stocking-clad man a little tighter.

His companion was more seriously injured than he had thought.

The door inside him was almost destroyed.

It was a miracle that he could struggle to leave the Nightmare Assault.

What was even more terrifying was that he could already feel the guy inside his companion's door stirring.

"Hey, don't look so down, okay?" Wei Jinting grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. "Cheer up, I'm not dead yet."

"Don't worry, I won't kick the bucket so easily. I still have a lot of things I want to do." As if thinking of something, Wei Jinting suddenly perked up. "I haven't gotten my hands on the rich woman's fortune yet. I can't die in peace!"

"Oh, right." Wei Jinting changed the subject. "Where is everyone? Lu-meizi must miss me. Why hasn't she come to see me?"

"I didn't tell them."

"Hehe, I knew you cared about me." After a pause, Wei Jinting lowered his voice. "My... my affairs... they don't know about them yet, right?"

In the candlelight, Chen Ran's expression flickered. "You can't hide it for long."

"I'll hide it for as long as I can." Wei Jinting stretched comfortably on the bed, squinting. "Anyway, by the time I can't hide it anymore, there's nothing they can do about it."

A burst of rapid footsteps came closer and closer. With a "bang," the door to the room was smashed open.

Literally smashed open.

With a huge black iron hammer.

The solid wood door frame cracked, and splinters flew everywhere. "Number 4, you son of a bitch, I heard you brought back a toy. Are you planning to keep it all to yourself?"

In contrast to the newcomer's momentum, the voice was a child's.

In the dim candlelight, the newcomer's face was revealed.

It was a rather small girl, about 13 or 14 years old, wearing a knee-length dress with cute bear patterns.

But the sharp eyes and the huge iron hammer she was carrying, almost taller than herself including the handle, revealed that this was no ordinary girl.

"Number 8, who let you in?" Chen Ran's face turned ugly.

"Cough, cough..." Wei Jinting coughed violently twice, almost being sent away by the previous blow. "It's okay, it's okay."

Wei Jinting narrowed his eyes, sizing up the irritable girl. "Come on, let me see. Number 8, have you been secretly developing lately?"

"Secretly developing, and then preparing to amaze us all, right?" He chuckled, as shameless as could be.

They had all suffered from Number 4's flirty nonsense. He would only be a little quieter when the Gentle Sleep Instructor was around.

"If you piss me off, I'll chop off your little worm and sew it on your mouth!" After delivering the routine threat, the irritable girl, known as Number 8, began rummaging through the room.

Flipping through boxes and cabinets, she almost threw Wei Jinting off the bed and flipped the bed over to take a look. "Damn it, where'd you hide it?"

From Chen Ran's angle, he could just see a large black leather bag on Number 8's back, strangely shaped, resembling an ancient quiver.

But much larger than a quiver, a menacing saw protruded from it, its sharp teeth glinting coldly.

Besides the saw, there were all sorts of strange things inside.

These were all Number 8's treasures.

Once, Number 4, being nosy, took advantage of Number 8's inattention and secretly opened it to take a peek. As a result, Number 8, after learning the truth, chased him down eight streets with a hammer.

If Number 3 hadn't come to the rescue, Number 4 would have died prematurely.

"Stop searching." Chen Ran glanced at Number 8. "It's in Number 7's room, guarded by her. You can look, but you can't touch, or else..."

Before he could finish, Number 8 happily dragged her big iron hammer away like a whirlwind, so fast that sparks flew on the ground.

"Sister Lu, are you there?" Standing in front of the door, Number 8 was still very respectful to Li Lu, mainly because the other party had a terrible temper.

After a while, a lukewarm voice came from inside, "Not here."

Number 8 pressed her ear to the door, trying to hear the movements inside. "Sister Lu." Number 8 swallowed, her expression becoming more and more excited. "I miss you, I want to see you. Can I come in and sit for a while?"

"Creak—"

The door opened a crack, revealing a plain-looking face, filled with calmness and indifference.

A few seconds later—

"Have you seen enough?" Li Lu asked, "I'm going to close the door if you've seen enough."

But Number 8's eyes had already slipped through the crack in the door. She was pleasantly surprised to see, in Li Lu's room, lying on the floor near the sofa bed, a person.

A woman!

And with a great figure, except that her face was covered by long hair, making it impossible to see clearly.

Her gaze roaming over the woman's body with fervent heat, the girl's face became increasingly flushed. "Sister Lu, can you give her to me?" She shifted her gaze back, pleading, "I promise to train her well... no, no, take care of her, and make her spit out all the information she knows."