It was already past five in the morning when the two returned to their residence. Almost as soon as he entered the room, Zhou Yu sat down on the sofa. The fatigue that had been forgotten came back like a rising tide.
Looking at the dusty electric light above my head, this night's experience was like a crazy dream. In other words, ever since he could remember, everything he had experienced was like falling into a rabbit hole, falling continuously towards deeper chaos.
Zhang Mumu's matter was still unresolved, and he returned without success tonight.
While he was fighting sleepiness, Hongye also carried Ondy into the house. She didn't seem to feel tired at all. She put Ondy on the ground first, ran to the bathroom to get a towel and a bucket, and briefly wiped the dancer's blood-stained body before carefully moving the body opposite Zhou Yu.
"...Hongye, aren't you tired?"
Zhou Yu, who was already unable to resist the nightmare, was completely attracted by her actions and did not fall asleep directly. Hearing his question, Hongye also sat on the sofa and said, "It's not bad. But don't make your house dirty. I will send her to the master tomorrow night."
"Where does your master live? If it's outside the city, it wouldn't be convenient for you to take her around, right? That motorcycle of yours..."
Having said this, Zhou Yu closed his eyes unconsciously. Although he immediately opened them forcefully, his vision was shaking like a pirate ship.
"...Zhou Yu? Zhou Yu?"
"Yeah...I heard it."
"You'd better rest first. We'll discuss this matter when you wake up."
Hongye stood up from the sofa, took something out of his pocket and lit it.
"It was originally used to attract wolves. Now I will use it on you first. Don't worry, you will be the one who wakes up next time."
Her words naturally had a reassuring power. Zhou Yu closed his eyes obediently, smelled the fragrance wafting in front of him, and fell into sleep.
The dark sleep is like a machine in shutdown mode. The mind completely stops functioning, leaving only a body that survives like a plant. No matter how much time passes, it is meaningless in such a lifeless eternal sleep.
He opened his eyes the next second his thoughts stopped.
Turning on the phone, the time was nine o'clock that evening. It was raining lightly outside the window, and the wet and cold night had fallen again.
Probably because there was no news during the day, the notification bar of the phone was full of messages from Zhang Mumu. At first, it was just gossip like watching a movie together and which snacks you think are delicious. Later, it became all kinds of speculations about his lack of reply. For example, I went out for a night out, secretly went to fun places by myself, or was abducted by aliens for experiments.
At seven o'clock in the evening, even Chen Wei sent a message, "I heard that you encountered aliens? Were you really abducted?" Such a question did not make anyone feel concerned at all.
Zhou Yu finished scanning the long chat history and replied to the two of them respectively. To the former, he replied, "I had trouble sleeping yesterday and was resting during the day." To the latter, he replied, "I'm discussing with aliens how to kill you."
When he replied to Chen Wei, Hongye pushed away the people in the bathroom and came out. Seeing the expression on his face, he asked strangely: "Zhou Yu, what's wrong with you?"
"……fine."
"Aren't you angry?"
"No."
After being answered so simply and neatly by him, Hongye stopped pursuing it and said, "There is still hot water now. You should wash up first. I'll go make some food."
"...You are really an outstanding roommate."
Hongye showed a puzzled expression, and seemed not to feel that there was anything inconsistent with his behavior. Seeing her look, Zhou Yu smiled in relief and said, "It's just a big contrast. You don't look like someone who can cook at all."
"But, I always did it when I was in the mountains."
"In the mountains?"
"Well, when I was practicing with Master. Because I was the youngest, I had to be the meal for others. But they all ate very little, so it wasn't a problem."
After saying these words, Hongye really walked into the kitchen. Looking at her back with her hair disheveled after taking a shower, Zhou Yu felt that she was still in a dream.
As he stared at the long-haired figure for a little longer, he felt an indescribable sadness in his heart. The emptiness and depression that seemed to have been dug away surprised even him.
How is this going? In the end, he could only attribute it to his physical condition.
After wiping the corners of his eyes with a tissue, he walked into the bathroom for a simple wash. When I came out, I saw Hongye skillfully spooning fried rice in the kitchen.
"...Have you ever done that in a restaurant?"
"Well... I haven't done it officially, but the restaurant chef helps when he is too busy."
"Wait a minute, you're a food delivery guy, right?"
"Um……"
Hong Ye responded vaguely, and suddenly turned the frying spoon with extra effort.
"...Hongye, you are really bad at hiding things."
"I can do just fine!" Hongye immediately defended, "If you don't help, it will time out again after we set off..."
"So, why do you time out every time... No, instead of worrying about this, I don't understand why you want to be a delivery boy."
"This is...it's because of Auster. That man likes to play pranks on others."
Hongye's movements suddenly paused, and then he sighed softly. She turned off the fire, put the fried rice in a bowl and brought it into the living room.
"please."
"Thank you. But, what on earth did you just say?"
Zhou Yu took the bowl and chopsticks and took a tentative bite of the fried rice. He had to admit that Hongye was really good at this - according to what he knew, he could probably compete with ten Zhou Yu.
Just when he was considering whether he should learn a few tricks from the other party, Hongye seemed to have made up his mind and said: "If you want to act on the 'lord's' territory, you must abide by the rules specified by the other party."
Zhou Yu looked at her questioningly.
"I'm explaining what you just asked... Remember where we found the skyscraper, right? If you want to enter there, you must have a certain amount of money or more, otherwise the space will be inaccessible. That man probably wanted to use this as a prank. Right. Of course, it’s impossible to really stop me under such conditions, and he should know that.”
“…How much amount is needed?”
"The night we went there was 10,000. If we were in a group, a total of 10,000 would be fine."
"In that case, it should be easy to get in, right? Can't you find someone with a little money to take you in?"
"Inappropriate. That space is completely controlled by the people of Auster. If I bring ordinary people in, I am not sure that I can protect them all the time."
"So are there other jobs? Compared to the hard work of delivering food, you should be able to find something more profitable."
Hongye held the bowl and tilted his head in confusion.
"I think this is very easy and doesn't require any hard work. And you can move on the streets, which makes it easier to clean up the turbid soul created by Ausl... No, it should be said that it was created by 'freezing'."
"Is the turbid soul you are talking about the thing you killed the night we met?"
"Yes. There are a lot of them stored in Osler's mansion, and I have cleared them all. This is also one of my responsibilities. However, if the producer is not found, just getting rid of the minions will not be of much use. .”
After hearing this, Zhou Yu seemed to gradually understand.
"When you deliver food every night, you are also dealing with these turbid souls, right?"
"Zhou Yu, dealing with Zhuo Po is my main job."
“I see, that’s why the side job times out every time.”
As if she was a little embarrassed by his summary, Hongye looked away and said, "This is a helpless move. Don't laugh at me with timeouts every time."
"I don't mean that. Anyway, I understand that the delivery guys who work overtime are busy saving the world. Next time I will be grateful and hungry."
Zhou Yu finished speaking calmly. Before Hongye's eyes began to change color, he changed his words in time: "Then back to business - does the 'freeze' in your mouth refer to a person?"
