In the dead of night, a pitch-black figure moved slowly through the living room.
The clock on the wall ticked away — it was three in the morning.
Fingertips traced along the wall, and the figure finally stopped in front of Ying Chen's bedroom door.
The doorknob turned slowly, and the door was pushed open.
A chilling gaze cut through the darkness, locking onto the man in pajamas lying on the bed.
He was sleeping soundly, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, as though he were dreaming of something happy.
The figure outside the door crept closer to the bed, approaching the bedside without making a sound.
In the pitch-black bedroom, the rustle of turning pages suddenly echoed through the air, and a pungent smell of blood flooded the room.
Ying Chen, lying on the bed, furrowed his brow. He rolled over, turning to face the figure standing right beside his bed.
Crouching silently before the man, the figure tilted its head and studied the sleeping man, then slowly raised the grotesque, exaggerated skull crusher in its hand.
"Ying Chen?"
A soft whisper. Ying Chen's eyelids fluttered. Half-asleep, he slowly opened his eyes.
Through the haze of drowsiness, he seemed to see a person standing by his bed. His vision gradually came into focus — a barbed iron hammer, its face even gouged with blood channels, was hurtling toward his shoulder at full speed.
Ying Chen gasped and vaulted off the bed in an instant, rolling to the side.
The barbs tore through his pajamas and smashed into the mattress, punching clean through the wooden bed frame!
Ying Chen could barely bring himself to imagine what would have happened had he not dodged — that blow would have crippled him.
"Who are you!" Standing on the other side of the bed, Ying Chen's forehead was drenched in cold sweat. He was terrified, his voice trembling.
"You were able to dodge — not because I missed, but because I wanted to play with you slowly."
The voice from the darkness made Ying Chen's skin crawl, and at the same time, he felt that the voice was deeply familiar, as though he had heard it somewhere before.
Still shaken, with no time to think, the figure lunged at him again.
Ying Chen's hand groped across the desk, and he grabbed a fruit knife. But before he could even swing it, his arm was struck by a tremendous force and went completely numb in an instant.
His entire arm hung limp at his shoulder. The fruit knife clattered to the floor.
The figure kicked the knife aside and stood in the darkness, eyes fixed on Ying Chen.
Right now, Ying Chen didn't dare move a muscle. His back pressed against the wall, he couldn't for the life of him figure out how this terrifying creature had gotten into his room.
"I suppose I'm never any good at bullying the weak. The game you're so fond of is dreadfully boring to me." The figure took a step back on its own, gave a slight shake of its head, and dragged the heavy skull crusher out of the bedroom, closing the door behind it as it went.
His heart pounding wildly, Ying Chen clutched his numb arm. He felt as though he might be dreaming.
The stench of blood grew heavier and heavier. Threads of blood spread across the room, and pale faces emerged one after another on the walls.
…
With his back against the bedroom door,
Half an hour later, the screaming stopped. Chen Ge reopened the door and dragged Ying Chen out.
"His mental fortitude is pretty mediocre — nothing like the Ying Chen played by the Nether Fetus."
As Chen Ge was hauling Ying Chen, the meowing of cats poured out ceaselessly from the room Ying Chen had been using to keep stray cats.
One of the cat cries was especially piercing, and it reminded Chen Ge of the cat sounds he had heard in the world behind Ying Tong's door.
It was precisely because of those cats' warning cries that he had been able to pin down Ying Chen's location.
"Almost forgot — you're victims too." Chen Ge smashed the door open directly. The moment the door swung wide, countless cats came flooding out. They passed straight through Chen Ge's body, scattering in every direction before vanishing without a trace.
"Are those the cats that died in this house? Good — they've regained their freedom."
Chen Ge stepped inside. A few injured strays remained on the floor. They were terrified of Chen Ge, and the instant he entered they shrank into the corner of the wall, desperate to escape.
"You saved me behind the door, so outside the door, let me return the favor."
Chen Ge wasn't a doctor. He decided that once dawn broke he would take these cats to a pet hospital, and after they were treated, bring them back to New Century Paradise.
"Chen Ge…" Ying Tong stepped out of the room, feeling along the wall with his hands. The child still hadn't gotten used to keeping his eyes open.
"What is it?"
"There's a corpse hidden under Ying Chen's bed — it's the stepfather." The stepfather Ying Tong spoke of was the relative Ying Chen had mentioned earlier. The man had actually been quite good to them, but Ying Chen didn't see it that way. "And Mr. Wood, Skirt Lady, and Aunt Wu… I know where they are."
Ying Tong was talking about where the bodies were, and the weight of it settled heavy on Chen Ge's heart. He reached out and patted Ying Tong's head. "Mm. We'll find every last one of them."
Sitting on the sofa, Chen Ge dialed Li Zheng's number. When the call connected and Li Zheng's groggy voice came through the other end, Chen Ge suddenly realized it wasn't even four in the morning yet.
"Captain Li, I'm at Ying Chen's house right now."
"Weren't we supposed to go check the place together this morning?" Li Zheng was already wide awake, and he picked up on something unusual in Chen Ge's tone.
"You know me — I can't stand evil. The thought of a criminal still out there running free, and I just can't sleep."
"Cut the chatter and get to the point. What have you found?" The sound of Li Zheng getting dressed was already coming through the phone.
"Ying Chen hasn't just been abusing cats — he's killed people. The body is under his bed. Get here as soon as you can. We've got witness testimony and physical evidence."
"Make sure you and the witness stay safe! We're on our way right now!"
The call ended. Chen Ge listened to the busy signal, then glanced over at Ying Chen beside him. "Subduing a murderous psychopath like this — should I take a few more injuries to make it convincing?"
Quietly, Chen Ge tore open his jacket and the shirt beneath it, making himself look sufficiently disheveled.