But You Love Me!

Jin Jiuchi gaped at him, utterly flabbergasted. What did the jade doll mean by that? Did he just say that he would still go out after curfew and risk being caught by that bizarre spider aka Madam Liu version two?!

"NO!" he hollered out loud. If he could move, he would have shot up to his feet and grabbed Nian by the shoulders, shaking him to see if he could shake the water off his brain. Who was the one who lacked common sense here? Had he even looked at himself in the mirror?! Nian'er was so tiny, what if he was swallowed by that spider creature in one gulp?! The more Jin Jiuchi thought about it, the more aghast he was. "Nian'er, you can't! You—"

"Ssshh!" Nian hastily shushed him with a dark glare. "Keep your volume down!"

Jin Jiuchi did not listen, of course. Not only that, he also shouted louder. "Ah, ah, ah! Help— there's a bad Nian'er here! He wants to—hmpph!" The needle was stabbed into Jin Jiuchi's body again, sealing his mouth shut in an instant.

Towering over Jin Jiuchi like a sadistic and cruel young master, Nian barked out a chilling laugh with an expression as dark as the bottom of the pot, "Why the hell do I keep you alive until now? I shouldn't have stopped you when you wanted to enter Old Guan's room earlier!"

"Hmmph hmm hmm!!" But Nian'er, you love me!!

Nian snapped at him angrily, "Shut up!"

He glared at the annoying man in front of him. Even though he had no idea what Jin Jiuchi was saying, he instinctively knew that it was nothing good. He should have just kept Jin Jiuchi in this state until they got out of the Cycle so that the man would not cause him any trouble!

This time, Jin Jiuchi indeed shut himself up, but not because Nian'er ordered him to.

He raised his gaze to the ceiling and quietly perked his ears up. Seeing him like this, Nian also turned vigilant and lifted his head to follow his line of sight. There was nothing on the ceiling above them, except—

Sssh… sssh…

A strange sound entered their ears. It's a slow, dragging noise like something heavy being dragged across the floor. Nian's body grew tense and he slowed his breathing, his purple eyes gleaming in a sharp light. The sound persisted, echoing all over the silent room as if it had been magnified ten folds to strike fear into people's hearts. The more he listened to it, the more he felt like… that's right, it sounded just like someone dragging their limp leg around!

A possibility instantly flashed through his mind. The third victim? The one surnamed Dong? Excluding the paper dolls and the spider creature, then it could only be him.

The two of them waited with bated breaths as the dragging sound got further and further away until it completely ceased and only eerie silence remained. The tension in the air slowly dissipated and only then could Nian allow himself to relax. Alas, the fact that he knew almost nothing about the creatures gnawed on his mind, making him restless and uneasy. He was fairly certain that the journal in Zhi's hands contained a main clue – it could be the creatures' weakness or even how to defeat them. And to obtain it… perhaps he had to strike a deal with the man tomorrow.

Ignoring Jin Jiuchi's puppy eyes that were staring unblinkingly at him, he lay down on the bed and made himself comfortable under the cover.

"Mrrphh!! Hmm nghh!!" Nian'er, what about me?! You can't be serious about leaving me like this for the rest of the night, right?!

"Don't tire yourself out," Nian said in a lazy tone, sleepiness starting to drag behind his eyelids. "You have to keep watch tonight. If the nightmare creature comes, wake me up."

Jin Jiuchi was practically in tears now. "Hmmm!!" How am I supposed to wake you up like this?!

Nian did not tell him how the effect of the prop only lasted for two hours at most. 'Let's just teach him a lesson so that he will not dare to move his stinky paws again,' he thought viciously. With that thought in mind, he drifted off to a peaceful slumber, leaving Jin Jiuchi to fend for himself.

That night, Miss Zhao did not drop by to visit either.

***

The next day, they were woken up by Xinxin's horrified scream. "AHH—!"

Nian jolted out of his deep sleep, and his instinct immediately kicked in to clear the haze of drowsiness from his mind. Alarm bells rang in his mind. This was the second time he had fallen asleep so soundly inside the Cycle, and he had done it twice in a row!

He snapped his eyes open with a light gasp, only to feel the heavy blanket weighing down on him suddenly moved away and spoke in a hoarse and sleepy murmur,

"What the hell is that…"

Nian instantly went still, too stunned to react for a while. The searing heat of Jin Jiuchi's body still lingered on his back and practically his entire body, and he slowly turned around to find the man sitting up on the bed with mussed up hair. His upper body was bare, displaying the flex of those glorious, mouth-watering and taut muscles as he stretched his waist and let out a huge yawn.

"Nian'er?" Jin Jiuchi's voice barely brought him out of daze. "Someone is screaming outside. Shouldn't we check it out?"

"You…" Nian sat up and wiped the corner of his mouth, relieved when he did not find any traces of drool there. He choked out, "Why aren't you wearing your shirt."

"Too tight," Jin Jiuchi complained in a grumble. "You can't expect me to wear that in my sleep. I will be suffocated to death! Okay, okay, don't look at me like that. Geez, I will wear it now, okay?" Murmuring about how strict and fussy Nian'er was, he grabbed the shirt he had tossed aside last night and slipped it on to cover his bare body.

Nian let out a relieved sigh. Finally, he could think again. The sight of this damned husky's body at such an early hour was seriously so distracting…

"Let's go," he got out of the bed, put on his shoes and went to open the door.

Xinxin was standing over the corridor railing while peering down, her face ghastly pale. She yelped in surprise upon hearing the door open, only to relax again when she saw Jin Jiuchi and Nian coming out. She looked one second away from bursting out into tears. "Y–You guys are here…"

Nian tugged the hem of Jin Jiuchi's shirt and gave him a signal.

Raising his brow, Jin Jiuchi chuckled and scooped the jade doll into his arms again, helping him to see what was going on downstairs. Madam Liu's corpse was still there in the same position they had left her last night. The question of how she could still be there when the spider creature was moving around last night crossed his mind for a split second, but then he was quickly distracted by another sight.

There was not only one corpse downstairs, but two.

As for the other one…

It was none other than Sister Hong.