The man led the way, the wild boar yaokais followed behind, and Lu A′cang was sandwiched in the middle.

  On the way back, the wild boar yaokais were clearly much more excited than before, chattering away in their strange nguage. The man focused on the path ahead, silent and holding the golden box tightly in his arms. Lu A′cang noticed that the side path they had turned into was not the same one they had taken earlier.

  Until the cool moonlight fell on her slightly flushed cheek, Lu A′cang realized that the other exit from the tunnel didn't lead back to the five-star prison cell where she had been held, but to a rose garden. Amidst the overgrown weeds, a few red roses bloomed sparsely, while the rest had withered away. Behind the garden stood an ordinary three-story white building, its color tainted by dirt and signs of decay, with broken windows. It seemed to be a long-abandoned house.

  The man's footsteps crunched over the dry leaves and twigs in the rose garden. As they stepped out of the garden, he suddenly stopped, paused thoughtfully for a moment, and waved his hand at the two wild boar yaokais. They hurried over to him, and the man handed them the golden box.

  "This," he said, "you two take this back and give it to him. I have something else to do and will meet up ter."

  One of the wild boar yaokais received the box as if it were the most sacred object in the world, swallowing nervously as it clutched it tightly to its chest.

  "Go ahead," the man said, his voice low. "The quickest route is to go around the house and cross that piece of mountain nd. With what's inside you, you should be able to make it there easily. He's still waiting for your good news."

  The two wild boar yaokais exchanged gnces, grinning widely, clearly pleased with the task at hand.

  "Mm!" one of them said, spping its chest proudly. "We′ll handle it, don′t worry!"

  The man gestured for them to hurry up. As the wild boar yaokais turned to leave, he quickly pulled an ordinary-looking pen from his pocket. Pressing the tip twice, a tiny, dazzling spark of fire shot out from the pen's nib.

  In less than a millisecond, the man jabbed the pen into the backs of the wild boar yaokais. With two muffled thuds, the yaokais colpsed to the ground, motionless.

  He kicked them both, but they didn’t stir. Satisfied, the man put the pen away and removed his mask. Beneath it was Mu Yeliang's face.

  Lu A'cang looked at the young face that remained vivid even in the night. Instinctively, she put on an expression of great fear, stepping backward, but in her heart, she thought to herself, ′With a face like that, why choose this job? Why become a kidnapper? What a pity. The world is getting crazier and crazier′.

  "Alright, stop acting, Lu A'cang," Mu Yeliang shook his hand at her.

  Except for the person who signed the contract with her, no one else could know her name. After a brief moment of surprise, she curled her lips and walked up to him, dropping her act of a frightened rich girl. With a smile, she asked, "So, you're the one who signed the contract with me?"

  "Yes, I am your employer." He admitted readily, bent down, picked up the golden box next to the wild boar yaokai, opened it, and then took out a white box, about the size of a cigarette pack, from his body. He shook out a piece of blue light that looked almost identical to the diamond-shaped object Lu A'cang had randomly picked up earlier and swapped it with the one inside the golden box.

  After completing this, he pced the golden box back next to the wild boar yaokai and carefully returned the box containing the real diamond-shaped object to his own possession.

  "This looks good, right?" He pointed to his own face, "I transformed it to resemble a Chinese person's appearance." Lu A'cang smiled, noncommittal.

  "I know, it's a bit of a joke to praise my transformation skills in front of someone with no form," he said with self-mockery, "Feel free to ugh at me."

  "Mocking you is not within the scope of our contract," Lu A'cang shrugged, gncing at the two big guys colpsed on the ground like dead pigs. "Whatever mess you're trying to make, it's none of my business. I only do what's required by the contract. And I have to remind you, our contract expires in three days. After that, the Charlotte in front of you will no longer exist."

  "Three days... that's enough." A flicker of hope, like a candle fme, ignited in his eyes, only to be quickly extinguished by a deeper sorrow.

  "Anyway, until the contract is up, you are still Charlotte. Just remember that," he said, walking over to the row of wooden stairs, which had lost all color. He sat down and patted the spot next to him. "Sit down. We need to wait for those two guys to wake up before I can report to someone."

  Lu A'cang sat down beside him, looking at the sky. There were no stars or moon, just a stagnant bckboard. The cool night wind passed over the rose garden, making a harsh rustling sound. The two wild boar yaokais in front seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, snoring loudly, with drool nearly forming a river at their mouths.

  It was truly unappealing, truly unromantic. Lu A'cang thought to herself that she wasn't in Paris, but rather some dirty, disordered little town.

  "This residential area isn't too far from the city center," he observed, catching onto Lu A'cang's thoughts. He looked out at the vacant nd cleared outside the fence. "All the residents here were evicted. Charlotte's father pns to build a top-tier hospital here. Within a week, this pce where we're sitting, including all the houses still standing, will be reduced to rubble. There was an old man who refused to leave the home he'd lived in his entire life, and then... he disappeared."

  Lu A'cang sneered indifferently, "This kind of thing happens all the time, right? The strong sacrifice the weak to fulfill their desires. Doesn't that align with Darwin's theory of evolution?"

  "Haha, compared to evolution, I prefer retivity," he ughed, his voice trailing off as his gaze grew distant. "All existence is retive. There are no absolute strong or weak, only ourselves."

  "I don't get it. I'm not familiar with Einstein," Lu A'cang said honestly. She had always been a simple-minded person who didn't like to think too deeply. The world and humanity's significance to her had one simple meaning—performance. She gained benefits, respect, and perhaps everything she had once longed for but could never attain through the various "roles" she pyed. She was content with this life, at least; that's what she believed for now.

  "We're in the house of that missing old man," she said, looking back at the decaying wooden door with a sly grin.

  "Do you think he might have been murdered and his body hidden somewhere in this house?"

  "If you're bored, go do something else. Just don't try to scare me," Lu A'cang said, rolling her eyes at him.

  As soon as the words left her mouth, a gust of wind, stronger than before, suddenly swept through the room. The windows and doors behind them creaked ominously, and something inside the house seemed to fall, making a loud thud.

  A chill ran down Lu A'cang's spine, and she quickly jumped off the wooden dder, her eyes fixed on the door, as if expecting something to burst through at any moment. Sure enough, the door slowly, slowly creaked open, revealing a narrow gap.

  Just then, a creaking sound came from the small path beside the house. A bicycle stopped outside, and an eleven- or twelve-year-old boy, wearing a baseball cap, jumped off, holding a bulging paper bag. He hurriedly ran toward them.

  From the eerie crack in the door, a small, furry thing poked its head out.

  It was just... an ordinary, fluffy little dog.

  The boy passed by them as if they didn't exist, his bright bck eyes focused solely on the plump little dog. He gently picked it up, lightly tapping its nose, and murmured in a nguage that Lu A′cang couldn′t understand. The boy was mute.

  "What are you doing here? Do you live around here?" Lu A′cang asked, using sign nguage to communicate with the boy.

  Only then did the boy notice her, looking up, and shake his head. He then signed back, "Are you here to take them away?"

  She exchanged a gnce with the man and said, "Them? We're just passing through and decided to take a rest here."

  The boy breathed a sigh of relief, then turned and pushed open the door. A rush of dust-filled air hit them, but the boy didn’t seem bothered. He stepped inside, skillfully pulling out a fshlight from the doorframe and turning it on, calling out with “Ah, ah” sounds.

  Amid the rustling noises, a thin golden retriever trotted out from the shadows inside, followed by two pyful puppies, their appearance identical to the one that had slipped outside earlier.

  The boy took the items out of the paper bag—a small packet of dog food, soft bread, sausage, and a bottle of clean water. The golden retriever family ate happily.

  The boy even thoughtfully tore the sausage into small pieces to make it easier for the little ones to swallow.

  Standing at the door, neither Lu A′cang nor the man entered.

  "Are these dogs..." Lu A′cang asked as the boy walked out after the dogs finished eating.

  "Grandpa Henry doesn't know where he's gone. Bell has been waiting for him; he won't go anywhere. If I didn't come, she and her pups would starve," the boy signed seriously. Lu A′cang noticed the bruises on his face and a wound that hadn't fully healed.

  She asked him how he got hurt. The wounds clearly weren't self-inflicted. The boy instinctively touched his face, smiled nonchantly, and said, "It's nothing. Just a prank from a few mischievous kids at school."

  "Is it because you can't speak, so they bully you?" Lu A′cang asked suddenly.

  The boy was silent for a moment, then stuck out his tongue at her, "It's nothing. I have to go now. If my parents find out I stole stuff from home to feed Bell and her pups, they'd beat me." Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed the two wild boar yaokais lying on the ground and curiously asked, "What happened to those two?"

  "Oh, they just got too tired from walking, so they fell asleep. They'll wake up soon. You should go now." The man patted the boy's head. "By the way, here, take this. You don't need to steal things from home to feed the dogs anymore." He pulled out a stack of bills and handed it to the boy.

  "Go home now." Lu A′cang crouched down and gently touched the boy's delicate face. "You need to learn to protect yourself and not let others bully you! If I'm strong, the enemy is weak."

  The boy nodded, looking as though he understood but also didn't, giving one st gnce at the strange pair before riding off on his bike.

  "This child deserves a better life." Lu A′cang said with some regret.

  "You think he's a good-hearted boy, but he's deaf and mute, and people bully him. Isn't it unfair, by God's will?" Lu A′cang asked him.

  "If he becomes stronger and stops being who he is now, he will definitely have a better life." Lu A′cang said seriously, as if speaking from experience.

  The man shook his head but said nothing. The wild boar yaokais were still sound asleep, their snoring echoing intermittently. So far, it had been a rather peaceful summer night.