At the long dining table, the butler informed them that the owner of the castle would appear for dinner every evening and dine with the guests.

Yu Sen perked up at the mention of the castle owner, thinking it was likely their target for the mission.

After exchanging glances with Si Xuanyang, he suddenly noticed the butler looking at him with a strange, wickedly excited gaze, carrying a hint of eager malice.

Yu Sen felt uneasy, withdrew his gaze, and calmly chewed the small piece of steak remaining on his plate.

Then, after the butler left, he slowly said to Si Xuanyang: “I have a feeling I’m going to be in trouble this time.”

Si Xuanyang glared at him coldly: “What nonsense are you talking about?”

Yu Sen sighed: “I hope I’m just talking nonsense. I don’t want to end up in a bad way…”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, feeling that the butler’s earlier gaze was not a good sign.

How did he get noticed? They had only been here for one night and had only met the butler twice. Was there a step that went wrong and caught her attention?

---

The castle was large, with four floors and an attic above them.

The attic seemed to have been unused for a long time; the windows were locked, and the air was stuffy inside. A layer of fine dust covered the wooden furniture, stirred up by the air from opening the door, floating slowly in the air.

It resembled a storeroom filled with many items, including straw and cotton-stuffed fake dolls sitting among the clutter, their glassy eyes staring straight at them.

Luo Yu felt uneasy: “Why do I feel like these dolls’ eyes are moving? It seems like they’re staring at me no matter which direction I go.”

“Overthinking it. They’re just fake dolls. It’s probably similar to the principle of Wangzai milk,” Yu Sen said lazily.

“…… Yu Ge, you really have a knack for analogies.”

“Why does your voice sound a bit hoarse?” Si Xuanyang frowned at Yu Sen.

“Does it? I don’t feel it,” Yu Sen cleared his throat.

Si Xuanyang approached, touched the back of Yu Sen’s forehead, and his face immediately darkened: “It’s a bit warm, you have a fever.”

“Ah?” Yu Sen blinked slowly, reacting sluggishly. “No wonder my head feels a bit dizzy; I thought it was just stuffy in here.”

“I’ll take you downstairs to rest for a bit. Si Nan, you guys can keep exploring.”

“Okay.” Si Nan quickly responded.

Without giving him a chance to refuse, Si Xuanyang pulled Yu Sen downstairs.

As they passed through the dim corridor on the second floor, Yu Sen suddenly heard a voice in his daze.

He paused and looked around, asking, “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Si Xuanyang was puzzled.

Didn’t hear it? Was he mistaken, or was he the only one who could hear it?

Yu Sen lowered his eyes. “It’s nothing; maybe I’m just hallucinating from the fever.”

Whispering sounds surged from all directions, both male and female voices, filled with teasing, greed, madness, excitement, like gusts of wind rushing into Yu Sen’s ears.

“Such a wonderful scent!”

“Delicious food, I want a bite…”

“What a sweet smell!”

“We can slowly tear it apart and enjoy it…”

“We have to save him for that person…”

…

This time, it definitely wasn’t a hallucination. Yu Sen stood still, looking at Si Xuanyang’s confused expression, certain that these voices were directed at him and only he could hear them.

A cold chill quietly spread from his ankles to his chest.

“Yu Sen?”

Seeing him stop, Si Xuanyang turned back to pull him, but just then, a man suddenly dashed out from the stairway corner, running frantically and haphazardly. Yu Sen couldn’t dodge in time and was caught off guard, slammed into the corridor wall.

His shoulder was painfully hit by a brass wall lamp. Yu Sen cursed under his breath, clutching his shoulder, curling up in pain as cold sweat quickly broke out.

“Yu Sen!” Si Xuanyang held him up, his face darkening as he yelled at the man who had fallen to the ground, “Are you blind or something?!”

The man seemed oblivious to his yelling, sitting on the floor, slowly backing away. He was trembling all over, his lips white with fear, his eyes wide open, staring at the stairway.

“A ghost… there’s a ghost! A ghost! Help… help me…”

Leaning against Si Xuanyang for support, Yu Sen noticed a bleeding cut on the man’s ankle, and remembered him as Zhao Qi, the one who had bragged at breakfast about how ‘agile’ he was last night.

“What ghost? A vampire? Did you see the target?” Yu Sen held Si Xuanyang back, signaling him to ask for more details first.

Zhao Qi, terrified out of his wits, kept staring at the stairway, babbling incoherently, “I heard voices… so many voices… and hands, they were grabbing my feet… so cold… so painful… they want to eat me! They want to eat me!”

Yu Sen furrowed his brows thoughtfully, while Si Xuanyang’s face grew even darker. He looked coldly at Zhao Qi’s wounded ankle, then wordlessly supported Yu Sen, forcefully bringing him back to the room.

“What are you doing?” Yu Sen’s thoughts were interrupted, but he wasn’t angry. “Feeling frisky in broad daylight?”

Si Xuanyang silently closed the door, pulled Yu Sen to the bed, and began undressing him.

Yu Sen was baffled. “Did I guess right? No way, Yang Yang, this is too cruel for a patient. Or do you think fooling around with a high fever is more exciting?”

“What nonsense are you spouting now?”

Si Xuanyang glared at him. After taking off Yu Sen’s coat, his movements became gentler, carefully pulling down the collar of his loose T-shirt a bit from his shoulder.

The area where he had been hit was already a large patch of purple. With Yu Sen’s pale skin, the bruising was all the more striking.

Fortunately, there was no open wound. Si Xuanyang’s expression eased slightly, though he still felt uneasy inside.

Yu Sen didn’t rush him. He spread his hands, acting generous. “Where else do you want to look or touch? I can help you undress.”

Si Xuanyang paused, then pulled his collar back up, giving him a cold glance. “Idiot, is your head not dizzy anymore?”

“Of course it is,” Yu Sen sighed as he put his coat back on. “But after a while, you get used to it. Walking on cotton doesn’t seem so hard.”

Si Xuanyang’s heart tightened, and his tone softened immediately. “Then lie down for a while; forget about the clues for now.”

“I can’t,” Yu Sen moved his shoulder. “I keep feeling like this castle is eyeing me hungrily. If I relax even a little, I might not make it.”

Si Xuanyang’s eyes darkened. He swallowed the words ‘I’m here with you’ and, after some thought, said, “That Zhao Qi is probably in serious trouble. Vampires are most sensitive to the smell of blood, and with such a big wound on him, he’s definitely already been targeted.”

“Probably. This castle is likely trying to injure us too. Once hurt, we become the next target.”

Yu Sen was distracted. The voices Zhao Qi heard must have been from the same group as the ones he heard, or the same group of vampires. But Zhao Qi could hear them because he was wounded and his blood was strong, whereas Yu Sen had no wounds, and the bruising was just recent. So why could he hear the voices too?

“What are you thinking about?” Si Xuanyang asked softly.

Seeing Yu Sen lost in thought made Si Xuanyang increasingly uneasy, though he didn’t show it.

“Nothing. By the way…”

“Ahhhhh—!”

They’d heard screams before, but this one was different, making them especially anxious because it came from someone they knew well—Si Nan.

…

Ignoring his throbbing head, Yu Sen followed Si Xuanyang as they rushed out of the room.

At the stairway corner, a small crowd had gathered. Yu Sen quickly spotted his friend standing among them, patting his chest and catching his breath, seemingly unharmed.

He let out a sigh of relief, slowing his steps as he approached.

“What the hell are you screaming for?” Si Xuanyang’s face was dark, recalling how Yu Sen had been startled by a scream that morning, a memory that still left him unsettled.

“Are you alright?” Yu Sen approached the crowd.

“Stop looking.” Si Xuanyang came over, trying to pull him away.

“I’ve already seen it.” Yu Sen said helplessly, “I just feel a little dizzy, no need to be so tense.”

He looked at Zhao Qi on the ground, who had now become a corpse.

Si Nan rubbed his arms and said with a crying face, “I didn’t mean to scream. When Luo Yu and I walked over, we didn’t know he was already dead. There wasn’t any blood around, so we thought he was just sitting on the stairs, lost in thought. Who knew that a light tap would cause him to fall over…”

“Are there bite marks on his neck?” Yu Sen asked.

“No,” said one of the people who had arrived before Yu Sen and Si Xuanyang, “It doesn’t look like it was a vampire bite.”

“Maybe the vampire found him too ugly to bite, so they let a servant do it.” Someone snickered.

“Show some respect, the man’s dead…”

“What did I say?”

…

Yu Sen felt nauseated by the faint metallic smell in the air and turned to leave.

Just as he took a step, the fragmented sounds he had heard earlier suddenly swarmed into his head like a group of snakes, quickly and without warning. The noise grew louder, making his already dizzy head spin even more.

Nearby was a redwood table used as decoration in the hallway. In Yu Sen’s spinning vision, the table’s sharp edges appeared, and his body uncontrollably leaned toward them.

‘Damn it!’

He thought the next second would result in a head injury, but suddenly a warm hand firmly supported his head, and a strong arm pulled him into a warm embrace.

Si Xuanyang’s calm and gentle voice, like a soft breeze, swept away the chaotic noise in Yu Sen’s mind. “Don’t worry, I’m here.”

Yu Sen’s tense nerves relaxed, and he slowly closed his eyes.

^[1]Author’s Note:

Yu Ge is still weak…