Lin Qiye curled his fingers and tapped lightly against the classroom windowsill.
A trace of confusion flashed through his eyes.
“Strange. The Nanda Serpent Demon can possess human bodies. Its concealment ability is extremely strong, it could have stayed hidden among humans indefinitely.”
He felt as though a patch of fog lingered in his mind.
“But why would it deliberately reveal its true form and draw the Night Watch here to surround and eliminate it?”
If the Nanda Serpent Demon hadn’t intentionally exposed its original serpent form on campus and been discovered,
Li Yifei wouldn’t have reported the situation to the Night Watch.
An Qingyu spun the gun in his hand with a suave motion.
“If I remember correctly, the Night Watch’s guns are only effective against monsters and harmless to humans.”
Lin Qiye nodded.
“That’s right.”
An Qingyu raised the gun and pointed it at Lin Qiye.
“I have a theory.”
With the gun aimed at him, Lin Qiye showed little alarm.
“What a coincidence. So do I.”
Without hesitation, An Qingyu pulled the trigger.
Bang—
A gunshot rang out.
Li Yifei, standing beside Lin Qiye, was struck.
In an instant, Li Yifei transformed into a terrifying serpent demon, far more grotesque than the ordinary ones.
A flicker of confusion crossed the hideous face of the Nanda Serpent Demon.
“How strange. How did you know I was the true body of the serpent demon?”
An Qingyu lightly blew on the muzzle of the gun.
“I just fired a random shot to test it. Who would’ve thought you’d blow your own cover right away?”
The Nanda Serpent Demon: …
Lin Qiye looked straight into the demon’s eyes.
“The Nanda Serpent Demon hid within the human world for so long that you gradually developed a personality just like a human’s.”
“That personality was Li Yifei. By sacrificing other serpent demon offspring, you wanted him to join the Night Watch.”
“With access to information from the Night Watch, you planned to seize the opportunity to escape the fate of being hunted down by them.”
An Qingyu’s eyes were filled with admiration.
“Very well analyzed. Exactly what I was thinking.”
“Perhaps this is what you call tacit understanding.”
The Nanda Serpent Demon roared at Lin Qiye in humiliation and fury.
Its plan had been just one step away from success.
It was all this damn guy’s fault.
An Qingyu’s gaze instantly turned cold, his eyes brimming with killing intent as he looked at the demon.
But he chose to hold back and not make a move, because he knew— in Lin Qiye’s mind, there was a psychiatric hospital, and only the mysteries personally killed by Lin Qiye could be taken in as orderlies there.
The sky gradually darkened.
The abilities within Lin Qiye that were tied to the night could now be fully unleashed.
“Nighttime is my domain.”
Lin Qiye drew his blade and slashed toward the Nanda Serpent Demon’s head.
The Nanda Serpent Demon narrowly dodged that blade aura.
Damn.
How had this kid suddenly become so powerful?
This is bad.
There’s no way to win.
Its gaze fell on An Qingyu, who looked rather frail standing nearby.
That bespectacled kid looked like a complete weakling.
Since it was going to die sooner or later anyway, it might as well drag someone down with it.
An Qingyu saw through the true body of the Nanda Serpent Demon’s thoughts.
He deliberately shifted to the side, exposing an opening.
The Nanda Serpent Demon steeled itself and extended its sharp claws, preparing to strike An Qingyu dead.
“In front of me, you still think you can hurt someone?”
Holding his blade, Lin Qiye rushed forward at lightning speed and chopped off the Nanda Serpent Demon’s head.
The hideous serpent head rolled several times across the ground.
Feigning panic, An Qingyu tightly wrapped his arms around Lin Qiye, burying his face in the crook of his neck.
“I almost got killed by that monster just now. That was close, good thing you were here.”
Feeling the trembling of the person in his arms,
Lin Qiye stiffly reached out and patted An Qingyu on the back.
“It’s alright. It’s over. The serpent demon’s true body is already dead.”
For an ordinary person who had nearly been killed by a monster, feeling afraid was perfectly normal.
An Qingyu openly took advantage of the situation. He tightened his embrace, the gun at his waist pressing against the other’s lower back.
He took a deep breath of Lin Qiye’s scent and let out an almost inaudible sigh of satisfaction.
“Qiye, what are you two doing?”
A pretty girl in a red tracksuit looked at the two of them hugging with an expression full of gossiping curiosity.
From her angle, it looked as if someone was leaning against Lin Qiye, planting hickeys on his neck.
And that someone was a boy.
Lin Qiye didn’t know how to explain.
“Sister Hongying, I…”
Hongying revealed a knowing smile.
“Qiye, you’re an adult now. It’s normal to have someone you like.”
“I’m not some old-fashioned person. Don’t worry, I won’t stand in your way.”
Seeing that his innocence was being misunderstood,
Lin Qiye tried to push An Qingyu away to quickly explain.
An Qingyu beat him to it and released his embrace.
He politely introduced himself to Hongying.
“Hello, my name is An Qingyu.”
“I was startled by the monster just now. Qiye was just trying to comfort me.”
Lin Qiye hurriedly echoed,
“Right, Sister Hongying, that’s exactly it.”
If he didn’t clarify things now, Hongying, who loved reading all sorts of messy boys’ love novels, would definitely start imagining things.
What kind of joke was this? He, Lin Qiye, a grown man, how could he possibly get tangled up in rumors with another man?
Seeing the serious look on Lin Qiye’s face, Hongying put away her teasing thoughts.
“Alright, I do believe there’s nothing going on between you two.”
“Qiye, you can relax now, right?”
With his little thoughts exposed, Lin Qiye nodded a bit awkwardly.
“Mm, I’m relieved.”
Hongying leaned casually against the wall.
“By the way, the matter of the Nanda Serpent Demon is settled. The captain and the others are cleaning up the scene. We can head back.”
Lin Qiye was about to follow Hongying back to the Peace Affairs Office, but after a moment’s thought, he stopped.
He turned and walked over to An Qingyu.
“Oh, right. Someone will come later to hypnotize you and erase your memory of what just happened.”
“So you don’t have to worry about having nightmares at night from remembering the monsters.”
An Qingyu looked like nothing more than a college student. For an ordinary person to encounter monsters, it was easy to be left with psychological trauma.
Recalling how the other had clung to him in fear,
Lin Qiye felt certain that this boy must be rather timid.
A smile flickered in An Qingyu’s eyes.
“Thank you.”
After waving goodbye, Lin Qiye left the school with Hongying.
An Qingyu lowered his gaze to the serpent demon’s head on the ground, then took out a bag he had prepared in advance and placed it inside.
Thinking of the moment when Lin Qiye had rushed forward without hesitation to protect him from the Nanda Serpent Demon, a pleased laugh escaped An Qingyu’s throat.
Carrying the bag with the serpent demon’s head, he left the school.
He had to hurry with the dissection, otherwise it would delay his meeting with Qiye tonight.
An Qingyu’s mind conjured up the image of Lin Qiye without a single stitch of clothing.
He felt his pants and clothes growing a little tight.
An Qingyu quickened his pace as he left.
After returning to the underground laboratory, he skillfully dissected the serpent demon’s head and extracted the ability known as “Fish Seed.”
He then applied this ability to rats.
As a result, he could share vision with all the rats in the city, comparable to having countless mobile cameras at his disposal.
No matter where Lin Qiye went, he could clearly keep track of his whereabouts.
As long as he wished, he could see Lin Qiye at any time.
However, considering that it might interfere with Lin Qiye’s normal life,
An Qingyu reluctantly gave up the idea of sending rats into Lin Qiye’s bathroom.
Although rats were not human,
An Qingyu did not like the thought of his possession being seen by any gaze other than his own.
Everything about Lin Qiye, inside and out, should belong to him alone.
“Qiye, I’ve come to see you.”
An Qingyu removed his white lab coat and, as usual, headed to Lin Qiye’s room.