Pay the Bills

"Everyone, make sure you stay with your partner. Getting separated would more than likely lead to you getting eaten by that monster." Shen Lin advised them all like they were children. "And I don't think any more would want that now would we?" She said this, but her partner, Yin Meng, had already walked into the hallways by himself.

"Hey! Yin Meng!" She ran after him. "I said to go together dammit!" She quickly turned back towards them. "Ye Delun, make sure you protect Yang Lan for me. And meet back here in around twenty minutes!" With that, she turned out the door and ran after Yin Meng.

"I don't need protection..." Yang Lan blushed in embarrassment.

With Shen Lin and Meng Yin, the room was almost more quiet and peaceful. If it weren't for the fact that they knew what kind of house they were in right now, perhaps they would have called this a good dream. Or maybe that's too much, maybe just not calling it a nightmare would be better.

"Well..." Yang Lan said to try and break the silence. She tilted her head towards Ye Delun, "I guess that means we sho--"

"Well, what's going on over here?"

Quickly, everyone turned towards the voice behind Yang Lan. Unexpect to Ye Delun, the owner of the voice was Zao Xing. Ye Delun took one look at the man before adjusting his gaze away. After all, looking for too long would be suspicious. Or at least, that was the explanation Ye Delun gave himself.

"Host!" Yang Lan called out in shock.

"Hello~" The tall, masked man waved his gloved hand out with a large smile on his face. "Are you all having fun? Planning a slumber party is just my style, I hope you invite me as well." Behind him, the black tentacle emerged out from the floor and grabbed ahold of Duan Li's ankle. "I can't get rid of the mess unless no one's in the room, but since the image of my cute monster house is already broken and you all already know the gist of it, then I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore."

"Hey wait!" Yang Lan called out at the sight of the monster. She ran to stop it, but the floorboard underneath her suddenly lifted up and caused her to trip.

Nao Nao, the little monster, slowly pulled the body into the floor. "No need to panic, the real Duan Li is already long dead." Host said to reasure Yang Lan. "I'll just take this so it's out of your way, wouldn't want it to creep you out for the rest of the night, right?"

"Wait a seco-" Xiang Tingfeng rushed up onto his feet but Kang Maixiu held onto his shirt to pull him back. "Stop." He said. "Let it be." Xiang Tingfeng looked down at Kang Maixiu with a slight look of betrail, but at the sight of Kang Maixiu's frozen gaze towards Host, he backed down.

"I don't know what exactly you're preparing. Your plan is so dependent on what we do that I find it hard to believe that even you know what's going to happen." He stood up straight and faced the masked man. His own height was nowhere matching with Host's but Kang Maixiu's imposing aura seemed to speak for itself. "But just let me say this, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. I got things to do, bills to pay, tests to take and people to save. So do me a favor and leave me and Xiang Tingfeng out of this."

Zao Xing stayed silent in shock for a moment before he loadly exhaled, "Ha!" He placed his hand on Kang Maixiu's shoulder. "All that imposing stuff just for you to politely ask? No threats?"

Kang Maixiu grimaced at the hand on his shoulder and told himself to deal with it. "No. I don't have anything to threaten you with."

Zao Xing gave another short laugh. "You're good. Although I would love to help you, whoever dies and survives isn't my choice. If you want to make it out of here, I would start working." He said. " I hope to see you make it out of here alive, that way you can pay those bills." With a wave goodbye and the swish of his finger he, Nao Nao, and Duan Li's corpse disappeared.

"I guess asking didn't work." Xiang Tingfeng gave an exasperated sigh as he slouched into himself.

"Good, I didn't want to go out that way." Kang Maixiu said. He wasn't at all affected by the rejection.

"Yeah, you're right. It wouldn't have as much satisfaction."

[The character 'Kang Maixiu' is excited about his upcoming plan getting put into works!]

[The character 'Xiang Tingfeng' was hoping for a pacifist route but has already accustomed himself to the character 'Kang Maixiu's' way of violence!]

Ye Delun eyed the message as he followed the annoyed Yang Lan out of the room. Ye Delun didn't understand why she was acting like that. He silently followed her as she turned to a random corridor. And then turned at another one. And then another one, and then maybe one more.

Ye Delun watched as the girl struggled with where she was going. In frustration, she turned around and walked past Ye Delun and turned back around the corner to find herself back where they started.

"What the heck is wrong with this place?! Was it ever this bad before?!" She yelled at her failure. Xiang Tingfeng and Kang Maixiu, who were seated on the sofas looked back at her. Unlike Kang Maixiu's gaze that sent Yang Lan direct disappointment in her inability, Xiang Tingfeng gave her an empathetic look. "You can't find anything? I'm sure if you keep looking you can find something, you've only been gone for a couple of minutes."

"A couple of minutes!" She gasped out in shock. She turned her head back to look at Ye Delun, who didn't understand why she was looking at him.

Kang Maixiu took another look at the frown on Yang Lan's face before wrinkling his brow. He turned his head away and rested his eyes. "There should be cookies and stuff inside of everyone's room, so there has to be a kitchen somewhere. And it doesn't matter whether you find some or not, we can just search those rooms." He said before peeking at the woman's reaction through one slanted eye.

"That's right!" She said. "I had those cookies in my room as well." Rejuvenated, she pulled Ye Delun by the wrists and ran back into the hallways. "There has to be a kitchen around here somewhere!"

Ye Delun let himself be pulled along through more hallways. Mindlessly, he asked, "I wonder how Shen Lin and Yin Meng are getting through this..."

"I wonder as well." Yang Lan said. "I can see Yin Meng and Shen Lin carrying blankets trying to find their way back." She laughed as she imagined the scene. Ye Delun could see it as well, with Yin Meng mindlessly going through the hallways with Shen Lin following after him because she doesn't have a choice.

"I didn't think you would choose to go along with me." He said. "I thought you would choose someone tougher, like Xiang Tingfeng or Yin Meng. Or maybe Shen Lin because she's both strong and reliable."

"Are you bothered with me choosing you? Sorry, you probably already had a partner in mind." She said with a small, sarcastic-looking smile hooking her lips.

Ye Delun hurried to deny. "No, no. That's not what I meant. I don't mind going with you, I was just caught off guard. I really don't mind who was going to be my partner."