Although the sound of the door opening was very soft, you could even feel the extreme caution and care of the person opening it. Zhu Jie seemed to empathize with her. The woman must have been thinking that as long as she opened the door a tiny, tiny crack, she would have the chance to slam it shut if she sensed something was wrong outside.

But Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie knew very well that she had no chance.

The result was exactly as they had expected. As soon as the door opened, a scream suddenly erupted from the hallway, followed by the sounds of kicking and struggling. But with a "kachak" sound, the screaming and struggling stopped abruptly, and everything fell silent.

A moment later—

"Tap."

"Shhh—"

"Tap."

"Shhh—"

…

The heavy footsteps gradually faded away, along with the sound of something heavy being dragged on the ground. The footsteps were slightly dragging, as if the soles of the shoes were covered in a thick layer of blood.

Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie leaned against the door, slowly, slowly sliding down until they were sitting on the floor. They could tell that the woman who had been killed was the younger one, the one they had suspected the most. But now, they were certain that she was definitely not Scarlet.

To be precise, they had realized this during the young woman's interaction with the "repairman."

The reason was simple: a member of Scarlet would not make such a low-level mistake, and the Night Watchers would not send someone of that caliber.

This was also one of the reasons why they had wanted to save the woman.

But now, it was all useless. The woman was dead, and tonight's crisis could be considered resolved.

However, the impression this night had left on them was too profound. Not only had the disguised "mental patient" arrived as expected, but so had the owner of the high heels from the 4th floor last night. Just thinking about that nurse in red high heels with no shadow sent shivers down Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie's spines.

Tang Qisheng reached out his arm, hooked it around Zhu Jie's constantly trembling shoulders, pulled her into his arms, and hugged her tightly. "Don't be afraid, it's all right. Go and rest, I'll keep watch."

Zhu Jie naturally understood what Tang Qisheng meant. She looked up at Tang Qisheng. His tightly furrowed brow slowly relaxed, and despite his pale lips, he gave Zhu Jie a confident smile. "I'll wait a little longer. You know, tonight we still have to open the door again. The real ward doctor hasn't come yet."

"Believe me, we can definitely survive, just like we always have." Tang Qisheng lowered his head and gently kissed Zhu Jie on the forehead.

…

Jiechi Temple.

Late at night, the fat man, who was sleeping soundly, was awakened by a hand. The fat man reacted instantly, grabbing the hand, ready to counterattack.

But he stopped halfway through the movement because, in the dim light, he could clearly see the face in front of him.

A moment later, the fat man quickly scanned his surroundings, his voice lowered. "What's going on? Did we… did we fall asleep again?"

Jiang Cheng nodded grimly. Having learned from their previous experience, they had taken turns keeping watch tonight, but it was still useless. They had lost consciousness while chatting, and when they woke up again, the candle in the room had gone out at some point.

[In view of the general environment,

Without the candle, the room wasn't pitch black, but rather a gray color, as if sprinkled with a layer of frost.

"Grumble, grumble—"

The fat man's stomach grumbled uncooperatively. Even covering it with his hand didn't help. A look of suspicion gradually appeared on the fat man's face.

"You were full before going to sleep, but now you're suddenly starving, right? It's strange, isn't it?" Jiang Cheng suddenly asked.

Upon hearing this, the fat man nodded repeatedly. "That's right. I'm starving to death now, as if... as if I haven't eaten for days."

He wasn't exaggerating. His stomach was twisting in pain, and he wished he could stuff everything edible into it.

Jiang Cheng didn't say anything. He picked up a cloth bag from the bedside, opened it, and inside were some simple dry rations.

"Eat." Jiang Cheng took out a piece of cake from it and tossed it to the fat man, then took out a piece for himself and began to eat.

The fat man caught the cake and paused for a moment. He was familiar with this food; it was what he had gotten from the group of saviors during the day. He had wanted to eat it then, but Jiang Cheng had refused, since their enemies were hiding among those people.

"Is this stuff safe?" The fat man swallowed hard as he stared at the cake in his hand. The cake was incomplete, with a small piece missing, but this also revealed the filling inside. It looked like a sugar cake.

"It should be fine. I already ate one before, and I tasted your piece too," Jiang Cheng said, cake in his mouth. "I can't stand being hungry either. If this keeps up, we won't be able to run tonight."

Hearing what Jiang Cheng said, the fat man, who was eating the cake heartily, couldn't help but pause. He remembered the antique building, which the monks in the temple called the Gongde Hall (Hall of Merit), where the monks cultivated merit and studied Buddhism.

More importantly, there was also the Guan Yu ghost. Last time, if they had been a step slower, they might have been the ones to die.

After finishing the cake and washing it down with several large gulps of water, the fat man barely came back to life, and the knife-twisting feeling in his stomach eased.

Seeing that the fat man had recovered, Jiang Cheng suddenly asked, "Do you remember where you were before you went to sleep?"

The fat man was slightly stunned, and then suddenly looked at the bed with belated realization. The next moment, his expression changed drastically. "What, I was moved again? Who did it? I..."

The fat man remembered that he was leaning against the table while keeping watch before he fell asleep, but after waking up, he was lying on the bed. He thought the doctor had helped him, but now it was clear that wasn't the case.

"I didn't do it, and neither did a ghost. You did it yourself," Jiang Cheng said.

The fat man was a little confused by this inexplicable statement. After coming to this ghostly temple, it seemed like everything had changed, and nothing was right. He swallowed and said nervously, "You know I'm not good with my head. Just say whatever you're thinking directly. I... I can handle it."

"The place you woke up is the same place you lay down last night when we got back. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Jiang Cheng asked him.

The fat man thought for a few seconds and finally shook his head.

"Then let me put it simply. The world we are in is segmented. You can think of the daytime as one complete world, and the nighttime as another complete world. The daytime connects to the next daytime, and the nighttime connects to the next nighttime. We seem to have gone through a daytime to get to the night, but actually..." he paused. "We've only just woken up from the last night."

Although these words were convoluted, the fat man understood after a moment of digestion. "So... so the reason I feel hungry is because we didn't eat anything in the entire night world, and the porridge we drank in the daytime world doesn't count at night?"