The girl slept with both hands folded neatly over her stomach, her sleeping posture stiff and proper.
After confirming she was deeply asleep, Hermoke finally sank one knee into the soft bed, preparing to lean closer for observation…
But suddenly, he lost his balance.
The mattress was soft like a soaked sponge. His knee bent unexpectedly, and he nearly fell directly onto Lu Yi!
In the darkness, Hermoke’s body lightened instantly. His large hands immediately braced themselves on either side of Lu Yi’s head. His rounded pupils tightened as he stared at the girl beneath him like someone who had narrowly escaped disaster.
Lu Yi remained deeply asleep, but her expression looked terrible, as though she were trapped in a nightmare.
Seeing the bangs soaked with sweat sticking to her forehead, Hermoke reached out to touch her, only to freeze in surprise.
Her body temperature was so cold.
The back of his fingers slid downward from her forehead, brushing away the stray black hair along her cheek before arriving at the corner of her vivid red lips.
Hermoke paused.
Only then did he realize he had forgotten to wear his gloves.
Yet the restless curiosity in his heart prevented him from stopping. The back of his fingers continued downward… reaching the pulse of Lu Yi’s neck.
As expected, it was cold there too.
…She was cold like a corpse!
Was Lu Yi sick? Or something else…
Noticing the moonlight shift, Hermoke turned his head toward the mirror. Reflected within it was his human form hovering over Lu Yi like some terrifying pervert.
This was truly the worst field mission of his life!
Not only was Lu Yi strange, even he himself had become strange too…!
Below him, Lu Yi suddenly let out a painful whimper, and sweat rolled down from her forehead—
Without thinking, Hermoke reached out and caught the droplet of sweat.
A strange bloody fragrance invaded his brain. Realizing something was wrong, he immediately snapped out of the bizarre sensation and swiftly retreated from the bed.
Looking at Lu Yi still trapped in her nightmare, he pondered for a moment before transforming into his sand cat form and lightly jumping back onto the bed.
The softest and warmest part of his body was his stomach…
Hermoke burrowed beneath the blanket and pressed himself against her soft waist, providing warmth for her.
She absolutely could not die for real.
Otherwise, after catching the silver-haired female, there would be no one left to split the reward money with him.
The next morning, Lu Yi woke up from the heat.
Not from sunlight—
But from the strange warmth inside her blanket.
There was also the faint sound of purring.
Still half asleep, Lu Yi lifted the blanket. After freezing for three full seconds, she suddenly hugged her face and screamed—
“AHHHHH!!!!”
The “dead cat” she had brought home had actually climbed onto her bed!
Lu Yi was terrified of cats!
Curled up against the headboard with her knees hugged tightly, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest.
“I-I clearly saved you, so why are you repaying kindness with hostility…?”
Hermoke, freshly awakened, froze in confusion, thinking there was something terrifying behind him.
But when he turned around, there was nothing there.
Turning back again, he saw Lu Yi trembling as she fled the room, her eyes filled with fear and disgust.
Hermoke: ……
Lu Yi was actually this afraid of cats?!
An hour later, Hermoke proudly gained ownership of a cat cage.
He helplessly watched Lu Yi trembling in fear while still reaching out to grab him…
The scene looked so pitiful that Hermoke could not bear to watch any longer. Pretending to be interested in the cage, he voluntarily climbed inside.
He meowed twice, only to receive Lu Yi’s tearful and miserable gaze in return.
“…Y-You stop meowing!”
Hermoke immediately drooped his ears and silently lay down inside the cage.
What a strange female.
She was clearly terrified of cats, yet she still chose to save him…
Could such a kind female really have anything to do with that murderer?
With great pain in her heart, Lu Yi spent two hundred star coins to register on an adoption website and posted the kitten online.
【Seeking adoption: golden stray cat, found yesterday, minor injuries already treated, 90% new.】
The post immediately sank into silence without a single response.
Feeling depressed, Lu Yi collapsed onto the sofa and rubbed her still throbbing head.
Last night, she had dreamed of Lin Che’s older brother again.
In the dream, heavy rain poured down as the young man approached her holding an umbrella, gently asking,
“May I walk you home?”
Lu Yi immediately refused and ran into the rain using her schoolbag as cover.
But in the next moment—
A blaring horn sounded. Pain exploded before her eyes, and her entire body flew through the air.
She saw the young man appear before her holding a red umbrella, gently touching her blood-covered face with a disturbingly obsessive tone.
“Why didn’t you wait for me?”
What an incredibly vivid painful dream.
Lu Yi opened the interstellar network and searched for the Lin family. The very first image that appeared was Lin Yu.
Fox-like eyes, a black beauty mark between his brows, and a high nose bridge that added sharpness to his otherwise gentle demeanor.
His white curly hair swept to one side, revealing a clear and slender jawline. A red gemstone earring dangled from his ear, giving him an extremely artistic appearance.
Lin Yu—famous painter and philanthropist of Weimang Star. Gentle, polite, handsome, and the most desired unmarried male on the entire planet.
Overwhelming news articles and discussions filled the screen. Lu Yi became sleepy from reading them and soon closed the network.
Perhaps she had accidentally watched an interview video of Lin Yu, which caused these dreams?
After all, the boy in her dreams had short hair…
Lin Family Estate.
Inside Lin Yu’s private art studio, a half-finished painting had been splashed with blood-red paint.
The red mark on the back of his veined hand slowly faded. Lin Yu placed down his custom-made paintbrush and stared gloomily at the ruined canvas.
It depicted the outline of a young girl, blurry and impossible to see clearly.
This was the information he had obtained from the dream.
Using his ability to enter dreams, Lin Yu had successfully invaded the dreams of the silver-haired female.
This proved one thing clearly:
The silver-haired female from the video truly existed and was alive and well, not captured by any organization.
But her dreams provided him with no useful information.
It was a world completely different from Weimang Star…
And in that world, the silver-haired female was not a seductive beauty, but instead a delicate little girl.
Moreover, her face could not be seen clearly.
The silver-haired female’s dreams carried an incredibly strong sense of rejection. She remained highly vigilant and refused every request Lin Yu made within the dream.
If he could not guide her into agreeing to his requests, Lin Yu would never see the girl’s face…
His fragile mental state was already crumbling. Nearly all of his artistic inspiration had been drained away.
He had to meet her…
Pressing the switch beside the canvas, a fresh blank sheet rolled into view.
Lin Yu mixed thick black paint and slowly began stroke after stroke upon the canvas…
“Grrrr…”
Lu Yi’s house cleaning was interrupted by hunger.
She had been too focused on making minced meat paste for the kitten earlier and completely forgot to prepare lunch for herself.
Although Lu Yi needed blood, she did not need to bite people every single day to survive. As long as she ate normally, a few mouthfuls of blood bags whenever she felt dizzy were enough to get by.
After tidying herself up and preparing to buy groceries, Lu Yi reached into her canvas bag for her keys—
Then suddenly froze.
The fluffy pom-pom keychain attached to them was gone.
When had it fallen off? Where had it gone?
Panicking, Lu Yi hurried outside and searched around the yard, but found nothing.
She went back inside and carefully searched every corner again.
Still nothing.
A horrifying possibility suddenly emerged in her mind, and Lu Yi could not stop herself from heading toward the crime scene…
Just to look. Stay calm…
Pretending to remain composed, she stopped outside the police barrier. In the dim lighting, she could not see anything clearly, much less a tiny fluffy keychain.
Glancing around, the alley at dusk was nearly empty.
Gathering her courage, Lu Yi stepped inside—
Only to suddenly hear approaching footsteps in the next moment…