Hearing the cold, electronic voice, Jiang Yunnuan was momentarily stunned. Damn it, how could she have forgotten that all the doors in this villa required a retinal scan?
The doors to their four rooms hadn't been configured to recognize her, so she couldn't open them. She could only get in if they let her.
'What am I going to do?'
'Why is it so hard to complete a simple mission?'
Dejectedly, she walked back to the sofa and sat down. Her mind was consumed with her mission progress, and she was thoroughly miserable.
「Half an hour later.」
The sound of chaotic yet forceful footsteps came from the entrance. She lifted her gaze and saw that the three men walking in now sported fresh injuries of varying severity.
Their three handsome faces, each uniquely attractive, were now bruised and swollen, making them look rather pitiful.
'My bad!'
Jiang Yunnuan touched her nose, a pang of guilt rising within her.
"Hmph!"
Noticing her gaze, Si Xie let out a cold, disgusted snort and walked straight toward his room.
SLAM!!!
With that loud noise, the door was slammed shut.
Jiang Yunnuan: "..."
'This kid sure has a temper!!!'
'Still, he didn't come looking for trouble. I wonder if they made some sort of agreement, or if he just couldn't beat Fu Yuan.'
She touched her nose and shifted her gaze to the other two men. When her eyes landed on Ming Ye, inspiration struck. She stood up, walked over to him, and looked at him with a face full of concern.
"Oh my, you're hurt! Come on, let's go to your room. I'll help you with your wounds."
Fu Yuan: "..."
'Has she forgotten who stepped up to protect her just now?'
'Can't she see that I'm injured too?'
'No, I don't need this woman's concern. Besides, she's nothing but a troublemaker. How could she possibly have such good intentions?'
'As far as I'm concerned, she's definitely up to no good!!!'
'Good thing she's not targeting me.' Fu Yuan let out a meaningful chuckle and headed for his room.
"Spit it out. What are you really after?"
If Fu Yuan could see through her, how could Ming Ye possibly not?
He stared at her, his face devoid of expression, but his eyes were cold and filled with disgust.
Some people are like flies—annoying as hell, impossible to shake off, and impossible to avoid.
"How can you think that of me? What motive could I possibly have? I just feel terrible that you got hurt because of me, and I wanted to help you with your wounds to show my concern. If you don't need my help, then forget it. You can just go back to your room and rest."
'This man is not easy to fool. He's clearly already suspicious of me.' Jiang Yunnuan didn't dare to press the issue, afraid of revealing her true intentions.
So, she deliberately put on a hurt expression and ended the conversation, hoping to lower his guard by retreating so she could wait for a better opportunity.
'Hypocrite!!!'
Ming Ye scoffed inwardly, not believing a single word she said. 'This woman deliberately stirred up trouble and forced me to clean up her mess. Her character is utterly vile. How could she possibly feel guilty?'
'That was just an act to hide her true motives.'
'As for what those motives are, I can't be bothered to guess!'
Averting his gaze, Ming Ye strode coldly toward his room. CLICK. The door unlocked. He stepped inside and moved to close it behind him.
However, the door was suddenly pushed open. He spun around just in time to see a figure duck under his arm and slip into the room with incredible agility.
Ming Ye's expression instantly turned frigid.
'Tsk, I made it in!' Jiang Yunnuan was inwardly smug. 'See? I told you the old "retreat to advance" trick would work.'
SWOOSH...
A faint whooshing sound cut through the air. Her eyelids twitched, and an inexplicable sense of danger enveloped her. In the next instant, something wrapped itself tightly around her waist, its bone-chilling cold seeping through her clothes.
Then, with a powerful jerk, she was flung into the air, left dangling high above the floor.
Her world turned upside down. Jiang Yunnuan's eyes flew wide as she stared in shock and astonishment at the man before her.
Compared to before, the man had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering Transformation. Mysterious markings now adorned his face, adding a demonic allure to his already cold, bewitching features.
From the waist down, his legs had been replaced by a thick, powerful snake tail. Its hard, purplish-black scales gleamed with a cold luster, making for a strangely beautiful sight.
The very thing wrapped around her waist, hoisting her in the air, was that same snake tail.
Jiang Yunnuan normally despised such legless, cold-blooded creatures that slithered in the shadows, but faced with this half-beast version of Ming Ye, she couldn't bring herself to feel any disgust.
However, the part of her body wrapped by his tail felt as if it were pressed against a block of ice. The cold gave her goosebumps all over and made her limbs instinctively curl up, which infuriated her.
"It's freezing! Let me go!!!"
She glared at him, her voice a sharp command.
"Tell me. What was your real reason for coming to my room?"
Ming Ye wasted no words, his pair of phantasmal purple, slitted pupils staring her down as he demanded an answer. Only then did Jiang Yunnuan realize that in his half-beast state, even his pupils had changed.
'How magical.'
"What motive could I have? You're right here in the room. Even if I wanted to do something bad, I wouldn't do it right in front of your face, would I? I just wanted to see what your room looked like. I was just curious, is that so wrong?"
She stuck to her previous excuse. It wasn't that Jiang Yunnuan was being stubborn; it was because she knew he would never believe the truth even if she told him.
If she told him she was here to "check in" for a mission—that all she had to do was walk around his room, find a specific spot, and step on it to get a mysterious reward—would he believe her?
He'd probably just think she was crazy, right?
"And you think I'd believe that?"
'Believe it or not!!!'
Seeing the man's cold, merciless expression, Jiang Yunnuan gave up. "So what are you going to do, just leave me hanging here... Ah!"
Before she could finish her sentence, her vision blurred. The next second, she was flung forcefully out the door. The snake tail wrapped around her waist swiftly retracted, and the door clicked shut.
Jiang Yunnuan: "..."
Hearing the faint sound of the lock engaging, she angrily pounded the floor.
She pulled up her mission panel. Sure enough, the check-in mission was still marked as incomplete.
She was so mad, absolutely furious. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Unable to stand it, Jiang Yunnuan scrambled up from the floor and started pounding on the door.
"Open the door! Open up! I'm warning you, if you don't open this door, I'm calling the police to have them break it down!"
She was banging on the door and shouting, making quite a racket, but the person inside simply ignored her, playing dead to the very end. There was no reaction whatsoever. Instead, Si Xie and Fu Yuan opened their doors and stepped out.
"What's all the racket about? Can't we have a moment's peace?"
Si Xie leaned against his doorway, glaring at her furiously. But Jiang Yunnuan couldn't have cared less. She simply beckoned to him with her finger.
"You. Come over here and help me kick this door down."
Si Xie: "..."
He was speechless and irritated. "Are you for real?" he snapped. "Will you die if you don't cause trouble for one day?"