"But out of habit, she still stared into his eyes, trying to make herself look fiercer. 'If I find out you lied to me, you know what'll happen!'"

"'If I lie to you, I'm an orphan!'" Jiang Cheng raised his right hand, his expression very serious.

After tossing and turning for so long, Chen Xiaomeng was also tired. She held the rope in her hand, pointed at Jiang Cheng, and said, "You, get off the bed."

"Tsk," Jiang Cheng's mouth moved, revealing a pitiful look of unwillingness but ultimately succumbing to her power.

He slowly, slowly got off the bed.

"What are you doing with that look?" Chen Xiaomeng was annoyed just looking at his face, and a slight anger rose in her heart. "I'm not going to do anything to you!"

Jiang Cheng looked up and thought for a few seconds, then looked at Chen Xiaomeng with an unspeakable gaze. After a while, he twisted his body and said coyly, "Be bolder. Actually, I'm weaker than you think."

Chen Xiaomeng: "......Do you have to be kicked out to be happy?"

"I don't care," Jiang Cheng said, as if he had regained his courage, "There's only one bed here. Why should only you sleep on it? I want to sleep on the bed too."

"My body is very delicate. If I sleep on the ground and catch a cold, the older sisters who love me won't let you off. You should think carefully!" he threatened.

"I've thought it over very clearly," Chen Xiaomeng turned around, pointed to the door, and said simply, "I'm giving you two choices now: either shut up and sleep on the ground, or get out immediately!"

"If you let me sleep on the bed, I can reveal some information to you," Jiang Cheng changed his tone in a roundabout way. He raised his eyebrows and hinted, "About this mission."

Hearing this, Chen Xiaomeng's expression suddenly became subtle. She looked Jiang Cheng up and down, nodded after a few seconds, "Okay, but I warn you, don't try to lie to me."

Jiang Cheng approached Chen Xiaomeng like a lackey, but after realizing that the latter's eyes were unfriendly, he rationally kept his distance.

"I feel like Li Lu is acting strangely," he lowered his voice.

Chen Xiaomeng glanced at him, clearly telling him to continue.

"Li Lu said she's just an ordinary housewife with a civil servant husband who leaves early and returns late, and a 3-year-old daughter. Her life is trivial and mundane, which is also consistent with the personality she shows," Jiang Cheng added, "In our previous discussions, she never actively expressed her opinions. She showed more of a dependent personality, which is often said to be echoing others."

"But when faced with the question of whether to go to Xiaoshijian Village tomorrow, she acted abnormally, showing a very active, even forceful attitude," Jiang Cheng glanced at the door and continued, "This is inconsistent with her entire basic persona. She should support the conservative Pei Qian, not Zhou Rong."

Chen Xiaomeng nodded, her expression also becoming cautious. "So... you suspect she has some kind of clue that made her make this decision."

"Mhm."

When Chen Xiaomeng looked back at the position where Jiang Cheng was standing, she found that he was gone, and a human shape was vaguely bulging in the quilt on the bed.

"Let's hurry up and go to sleep," Jiang Cheng poked his head out of the quilt and greeted Chen Xiaomeng very enthusiastically, "It's bad for your skin if you stay up late."

Chen Xiaomeng walked over, enduring the urge to drag Jiang Cheng out of the warm blanket, and asked in a low voice, "Do you think the thing is on her?"

"I'm not sure about that. I just think it's strange," Jiang Cheng moved around in the quilt, as if he was doing something.

Then, to Chen Xiaomeng's shock, he stretched out his hand and took out his clothes and pants from the quilt, neatly placing them on the chair next to the bed.

Then he turned to look at Chen Xiaomeng, his eyes full of anticipation.

Chen Xiaomeng raised her leg with a cold face.

Before she could kick him, Jiang Cheng consciously rolled to the edge of the bed. Chen Xiaomeng lay down without even taking off her clothes, in Jiang Cheng's previous position.

The flame of the kerosene lamp gradually dimmed.

Just as Chen Xiaomeng was half-asleep, she noticed that the person next to her suddenly moved, a very violent movement that made the whole bed shake.

She immediately sat up, glared at Jiang Cheng on the other side of the bed and asked, "What are you doing?!"

"Nothing," Jiang Cheng's head was buried in the quilt, and his voice was muffled, "I just had a nightmare, it was very scary."

Having a nightmare within a nightmare, I wonder if you'll be drawn into a deeper level of nightmare, just like in sci-fi movies like Inception.

Chen Xiaomeng thought unconsciously, suddenly feeling that this idea was very terrifying.

But then she thought, it was Jiang Cheng who was experiencing this, so she couldn't help but feel a little expectant.

She slowly closed her eyes, but—

"Bang—"

"Creak—, creak—"

"Bang—"

"Creak—, creak—"

Jiang Cheng twitched violently as if he had epilepsy. This scared Chen Xiaomeng, although she had not yet gone to the main location, Xiaoshijian Village, the mission had already begun unknowingly.

Without a doubt... Jiang Cheng was the first to show an abnormality.

In an instant, Chen Xiaomeng rolled off the bed, her movements swift and precise, as if she had rehearsed it.

In this situation, the actions shown by novices and veterans in dealing with crises are completely different. After Chen Xiaomeng left the bed, she moved towards the door at the first moment, tightening her lips and saying nothing in the process.

Her first reaction was that the idea just now had been confirmed. At least in this nightmare mission, if you fall asleep and have a nightmare, it will become very dangerous.

Just like Jiang Cheng now.

He shrank in the quilt, his body rising and falling, like a fish out of water, desperately slapping its body.

The old bed boards made a series of ear-piercing "creak creak" sounds as he moved.

She suspected it would collapse in the next second.

About a minute, or even less, just as Chen Xiaomeng's heartstrings tightened and she was about to escape, the violently trembling Jiang Cheng on the bed suddenly stopped moving.

The entire room instantly became quiet.

The faint light of the fire flickered, and dust stirred up by Jiang Cheng could be seen in the air.

"Phew—"

Jiang Cheng's sigh came from the bed. He stretched out a hand, scratched his hair, then rolled over, his expression very peaceful, as if it was just a simple exercise, or... a game.

Chen Xiaomeng's pupils shrank suddenly, as if she realized that she had been tricked by Jiang Cheng again. The anger in her heart could no longer be suppressed. She walked forward a few steps and kicked the human-shaped object in the quilt.

This kick was extremely solid, kicking Jiang Cheng to the ground with a "thump."

Then... there was no then. Jiang Cheng slept on the ground wrapped in a quilt all night. He had no pillow, so he used clothes and pants to form the shape of a pillow.