Chapter 14: Lame Foot

They abandoned us! They abandoned us, do you know?

Inside another inn's room, Xiao Zhou paced back and forth, dissatisfied, like a deserted wife.

Oh.

Li Liang lay lazily on the bed, fully embodying what it means to say 'I'm already a salted fish.'

Bi Wan hui remained silent; the shock of seeing her close friend die before her eyes was still huge for her.

Can you give some reaction?

Xiao Zhou said angrily.

"Didn't you already give it?" Li Liang said, "I think it's great—we don't have to risk our lives and can just get through the mission safely."

"If we don't participate, there's no reward," Xiao Zhou said. "You forgot?"

I don't care.

Bi Wan hui said one sentence and then fell silent again.

Li Liang waved his hand: "Come on, you really think this is like clearing a dungeon in a game? The mission could get people killed."

"Wasn't that monk supposed to protect us?" Xiao Zhou said.

Li Liang gave a light chuckle: "You're just going to believe what he says?"

"Wasn't that monk supposed to protect us?" Xiao Zhou emphasized again, "But they despise us as dead weight and abandoned us!"

It was already night.

Tang Luo and the others never came back.

In the morning they just gave them a bit of money and called it a day; they didn't even know where Tang Luo and the others had gone.

That document, however, they left a copy of.

Li Liang and Bi Wan hui just wanted to stay alive; not having to take part in dangerous missions, they were quite pleased with the situation.

But Xiao Zhou was different.

He was in a state of wanting to go forward but not daring to, shrinking back yet unwilling to accept it.

After being ignored and abandoned by Tang Luo and the others, the more he thought about it, the more resentful he became, and he started to get angry.

Bring a fart.

Li Liang said, "Do you really think the world revolves around you and everyone has to indulge you? Giving us money and arranging our lodging is already pretty good. That monk may have stabbed me, but honestly, he's a good person."

An unemployed youth who's hit a wall understands at least something of society's harsh rules.

Are high school students these days all so self-centered?

Li Liang completely forgot that he himself had gone through this stage, and he started to mock.

The elder brother doesn't say the younger brother.

Actually, everyone is the same; it's just that some people can quickly adjust their mindset, while others become unbalanced.

Shut up!

After being mocked by Li Liang, Xiao Zhou, who was already in a foul mood, shouted.

Yo, you wanna fight or what?

Damn it!

Xiao Zhou's reaction was far more violent than Li Liang had imagined.

Someone actually made such a demand? Then let's satisfy him.

All we saw was the energetic teenager shout a curse and lunge straight at Li Liang, and the two ended up wrestling on the bed.

Then Li Liang tragically discovered he couldn't win!

As a college student who's spent four years just eating and sleeping, Li Liang's physical condition is really not great.

It's nowhere near his peak in high school.

What's more, he's in a state of being completely drained.

Xiao Zhou never skips the school-mandated morning runs, and he also enjoys exercising, playing basketball and such—after all, for boarding students, that's practically the only legitimate form of entertainment.

His strength is really not small.

He threw punches at Li Liang's face, smashing it and causing his nose to bleed profusely.

You're sick!

Bi Wan hui cursed, then simply opened the door and walked out.

Tang Luo generously opened three rooms for them.

However, out of habit and fear, they usually stayed together.

Now the two of them were fighting.

Bi Wan hui had no mood to break up the fight, nor did she want to stay and watch those two guys brawl.

She took out the key and opened the door of the room next door.

Bi Wan hui reached out and touched the door, about to push it open, when she heard footsteps behind her.

This inn is much worse than the one we stayed in yesterday.

When you step on the corridor floor, it often creaks.

The footsteps are especially noticeable.

One light, one heavy.

Hearing the footsteps, Bi Wan hui's body instinctively jerked.

Recalling the same footsteps she heard last night, she made her motion to push the door hurried.

However, just as Bi Wan hui pushed the door halfway open, intending to walk—i. e., to escape into the room—her motion stopped.

The footsteps she had just heard also stopped.

The icy, bone-piercing breath sprayed onto Bi Wan hui's neck.

It made her feel a wave of dizziness, as if she were no longer in the inn but instead placed in a dark, icy, unfamiliar environment.

Her body's hairs stood on end, her limbs went numb..

Bi Wan hui stood where she was, maintaining the posture of having pushed the door, motionless, stiff as a statue.

Only the terrified expression on her face changed wildly.

Tears and snot streamed.

She didn't know who was behind her.

But the fear of impending death completely enveloped her, gradually crushing her spirit.

"Huh—"

"Huh—"

The icy breath sprayed on her neck grew increasingly heavy.

Yet the temperature of the exhaled breath dropped further, and Bi Wan hui even saw white frost gradually appearing on the door she faced.

She strained to open her mouth, wanting to shout.

At that moment, the person behind her also began to move.

A pair of hands reached out from under her armpits, like a lover's warm embrace from behind.

The premise was that, in the hands that met in front of her, there was no dagger gripped.

A dagger covered in rust!

Though not a sharp blade, it was aimed at Bi Wan hui's chest.

Not the heart's position, but right in the middle.

The true 'embrace' began.

The arms reaching from behind began to tighten, just then.

Bi Wan hui's body shuddered, and in silence her frantic struggle finally took effect.

It was as if a person suffocating suddenly breathed fresh air, breaking free of the ropes binding her.

Bi Wan hui regained control of her body, her mouth hanging open.

She raised her hand, she surged forward, she wanted to escape!

Intense pain transmitted.

In that instant, the rust-covered dagger stabbed into Bi Wan hui's chest.

Those hands, originally steady, began to shake wildly.

The wound widened, tore.

Blood and strength, together with the vitality in her eyes, were all drawn out of her body.

"%……*)*@#￥%"

A string of delirious-sounding utterances came from the killer.

He let go, allowing Bi Wan hui's corpse to crash to the ground, while he retreated into the darkness and vanished without a trace.

Inside the room.

Li Liang and Xiao Zhou panted, staring at each other.

Xiao Zhou's face had several blood streaks, blood flowing from his forehead staining half his face, making him look extremely ferocious and terrifying.

But it was actually a minor wound, the blood had already stopped, no longer flowing.

On the other side, Li Liang had a bruised nose and swollen face, his left cheek and right eye swollen badly.

He sat on the bed, also swaying, mouth open, occasionally retching.

"I've had enough of you, this waste! Tomorrow I'll also join the mission! Just you, slowly wait to die on your own!"

Xiao Zhou wiped the blood from his eyes, then turned and left.

When he reached the room door, he paused for a moment.

Because the door was ajar, he then realized that Bi Wan hui seemed to have left just earlier.

After leaving the room, Xiao Zhou noticed the neighboring door was also ajar; he oddly pushed it open to look, but saw no Bi Wan hui.

"Where is the person?" Xiao Zhou stood before the door, looking around, "Could he have gone to the toilet again?"

Thinking this, Xiao Zhou felt a sudden urge to urinate, and also needed to clean the blood off his face.

But he would not go to the toilet down the hallway.

Instead he chose to go downstairs, to the first floor.

The first-floor lobby of the tiny inn definitely had someone there, which could give him a sense of safety.

Walking downstairs, head lowered, Xiao Zhou's peripheral vision saw a person standing behind the counter.

He didn't raise his head, saying: "Boss, I'm going to use the toilet."

After all, his face was bloody, not easy to explain.

Fortunately, the boss behind the counter didn't stop him, letting Xiao Zhou hurry past.

"Huh?"

Having taken just two steps, Xiao Zhou's vision suddenly dimmed, then brightened again, then dimmed once more.

The intense light-dark shifts left large black spots on his retina.

Looking up, Xiao Zhou saw the light diagonally above constantly flickering, as if broken.

"Unlucky."

He muttered a sentence, squinting at his eyes that hurt from the flashing light, Xiao Zhou entered the toilet and latched the door ajar.

After a while, he bared his teeth at the dirty mirror.

The wound on his face wasn't deep, but it hurt a lot.

He didn't wait for Xiao Zhou to get some water to wash his face.

The dim light overhead also began to flicker.

It went bright then dim.

"Damn it! What a lousy place!"

Xiao Zhou muttered a curse, hastily wiped his face, didn't bother to clean it properly, and simply pushed the door open and went out.

In the panic, his steps faltered, his left foot tripped over his right, and Xiao Zhou almost fell to the ground.

Just as he stepped outside, he caught sight of someone standing at the doorway, instantly giving him a start, and he almost fell over.

The man wore a strange smile on his face, reaching out to press the switch on the wall back and forth.

This was the switch controlling the toilet's light.

In other words, the flickering light inside the toilet wasn't because it was broken; it was this guy messing with the switch outside!

"You!"

Before Xiao Zhou could even get angry, the toilet light couldn't withstand the abuse, went completely out and dimmed.

The smile on the man's face vanished instantly.

The sudden change.

It made Xiao Zhou jump again, swallowing his angry curses down his throat.

The man glanced at Xiao Zhou, then walked back behind the counter with an uneven gait.

Then, the overhead light began to flicker once again.

"Click… click…"

The monotonous sound of the switch rang out.

The person behind the counter just now wasn't the boss seen this morning, but this guy.

He broke one light, and now he wants to break a second?

"What the hell!"

Xiao Zhou had already sensed something was off—this weird old guy, where did he come from?

Where's the boss?

And where did he run off to?

Feeling creeped out, he no longer intended to return to the inn's room, but instead went out, leaving the inn.

Because Xiao Zhou remembered—

This morning, Tang Luo and the others had asked the owner of last night's inn about the cleaner.

The boss said that Old John was a lame man!

This rather old fellow walks with an uneven step— isn't that just a limp?!

Could it be… that Tang Luo and the three didn't abandon them?

But rather— they found the real culprit, only to be killed?!

Xiao Zhou didn't know that Tang Luo and the others had cleared Old John's suspicion and had rushed off to another lead.

He now only felt.

An immense fear, like a hand, clenched his heart.

His heart pounded violently in that hand, almost bursting out of his throat.

"Go!"

All his thoughts turned into that roar.

His somewhat stiff body moved, he lifted his leg without hesitation, and Xiao Zhou ran outward.

"Click!"

The crisp sound of the switch stopped.

The overhead light that kept flickering plunged into darkness.

He didn't know whether the lame man had turned it off, or whether it had broken like the toilet's light.