Chapter 18: Night Demon – What to do when your wife runs off with someone else?

The temperature in the basement was noticeably several degrees colder than upstairs.

The damp chill clung to Jiang Shulan’s skin. Even wrapped in a blanket, he couldn’t help shrinking his neck.

The dim yellow light illuminated only a small area in the center. The corners of the room disappeared into darkness, impossible to make out clearly.

The air carried a strong smell of blood, not fresh blood, but the lingering scent of animal blood that had already begun to dry. Mixed with mold and dust, every breath felt heavy, thick with a sticky metallic odor that refused to fade.

Night Demon set Jiang Shulan down on a chair.

Directly in front of him hung A Jin’s employer.

The moment Michael saw Night Demon, terror flooded his face. He tried to retreat, but iron hooks suspended him from the ceiling. Every movement produced a nauseating sound of flesh being torn and pierced.

“We’re going to play a game,” Night Demon announced calmly.

He strolled toward a nearby table.

Spread across its surface was a collection of horrifying instruments.

His long fingers brushed over razor-sharp knives, bloodstained pliers, jars filled with cockroaches, gleaming axes…

Every time Night Demon picked something up, Jiang Shulan’s heart seemed to skip a beat.

This BOSS was a genuine psychopath.

Night Demon appeared to make a decision.

Holding a syringe filled with an ominous blue liquid, he walked toward Jiang Shulan.

“I-I-I’m not… afraid… of you!”

Jiang Shulan’s eyes were already red with fear. His words came out in a stammer as his body instinctively leaned backward.

Unfortunately, the chair back was directly behind him.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

Simply maintaining eye contact with Night Demon was already the limit of his courage.

Night Demon sneered and raised the needle toward Jiang Shulan’s eye.

“Really?”

“You’re not afraid?”

He wanted to see exactly when his little boyfriend would finally beg for mercy.

Of course Jiang Shulan was afraid.

His hands were trembling.

But instead of pleading, he clenched his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and thrust his head straight toward the needle.

‘Better one sharp pain than endless anxiety!’

‘Huh?’

‘Why doesn’t it hurt?’

In fact, he couldn’t feel anything at all.

Was the System’s pain suppression really this effective?

Jiang Shulan was secretly pleased with himself.

The next second, however, pain exploded from his jaw.

“Damn it. What are you doing?”

Night Demon seized his chin and forced his head upward.

“Look at me.”

Those eyes, usually cold enough to freeze a person to the bone, now held traces of lingering fear and fury.

His voice was nearly a roar.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Why would he deliberately aim for the needle?

Did he realize that if Night Demon’s hand had been even a second slower, those blue eyes would have been pierced and blinded forever?

“…Don’t you already know?”

Jiang Shulan was angry too.

Did this BOSS have any idea how much mental preparation he’d gone through?

And after all that, he still hadn’t struck.

It was infuriating.

“Good.”

Night Demon nodded.

His pale lips flattened into a rigid line.

The tension drained the color from them.

“You’re very good.”

He repeated the words through clenched teeth.

They were so close that Jiang Shulan could see Night Demon’s pupils narrowed to pinpoints.

A ring of redness surrounded his eyes.

Not the redness of tears.

Something colder.

Stickier.

Something deeply unsettling.

Suddenly, Night Demon seemed to notice something in the corner of the room and walked away.

Jiang Shulan immediately gulped down several deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart.

His hands and feet felt numb.

[This BOSS is terrifying! Waaaah! I’m just going to find a trap and throw myself into it.]

At least that would be less stressful than this constant fear.

While desperately searching for a quick way to get himself eliminated, something suddenly appeared in front of his face.

A spider.

Then, under Jiang Shulan’s horrified stare, the spider was placed on his collarbone.

His breathing stopped.

A tiny but impossible-to-ignore sensation crawled slowly upward.

From his collarbone.

To his neck.

His chin.

His cheekbone…

“Waaaaah! I’m sorry! I was wrong! I’ll never do it again! Please let me go!”

Jiang Shulan burst into tears.

He was terrified of bugs.

Especially bugs crawling on him.

They rarely caused serious harm, but the sensation alone was enough to make his skin crawl.

“Everything is my fault! You’re right about everything! Please take the spider away! I’m begging you!”

Tears poured from his eyes like broken strings of pearls.

Within moments, the blanket around his collar was soaked.

The truth was that Night Demon had already removed the spider.

But Jiang Shulan was crying too hard to notice.

His mind had become trapped in a nightmare where spiders covered his entire body.

The more he imagined it, the harder he cried.

At this rate, there would be no calming him down.

Night Demon considered the situation for less than a second.

Then he immediately crouched down.

He untied Jiang Shulan’s restraints.

One arm slipped beneath Jiang Shulan’s arms and lifted him up.

The other wrapped around his waist.

Leaning against the table, Night Demon settled him onto his lap so that Jiang Shulan was practically sitting against his abdomen.

“It’s okay. It’s okay now, baby. The spider is gone.”

He kissed the corner of Jiang Shulan’s eye.

His voice was gentler than any he had ever used before.

“Don’t cry, okay? Baby.”

“It’s all my fault.”

Jiang Shulan was crying so hard that when A-Jin cautiously made his way downstairs, this was the scene that greeted him.

The slender boy was practically nestled against Night Demon’s larger frame.

The blanket hanging down concealed most of their contact.

But there was no mistaking the details.

The boy’s reddened eyes.

His pitiful sobs.

Night Demon shamelessly pressing kisses against him.

Every piece of it stabbed directly into A-Jin’s brain.

No wonder.

No wonder Jiang Shulan had remained unharmed.

So this was what Night Demon wanted.

A-Jin could tolerate it no longer.

Every plan he had carefully prepared upstairs vanished beneath a wave of fury.

Grinding his teeth, he grabbed a nearby stool and charged forward.

The stool crashed against Night Demon’s head.

“You bastard! Let him go!”

Night Demon had noticed A-Jin the moment he entered the basement.

His objective had already been achieved.

A-Jin’s appearance simply provided the perfect opportunity to exit the scene.

So Night Demon allowed himself to be knocked backward.

He released Jiang Shulan and immediately engaged A-Jin in a fight.

A-Jin was genuinely skilled.

Unfortunately, the injuries to his ear and hands gradually put him at a disadvantage.

Soon he was bruised and battered.

“A-Jin!”

Summoning every ounce of strength, A-Jin locked Night Demon’s head in place and shouted:

“Hit him!”

Crash!

A glass jar full of spiders shattered.

Hundreds of spiders spilled across the floor.

Night Demon stumbled backward uncontrollably and collapsed.

Dizziness clouded his vision.

Through the haze, he watched Jiang Shulan grab A-Jin’s hand and run.

Blood streamed from the wound on his forehead.

It traced a path down his brow, across the corner of his eye, along his cheekbone, and finally dripped from his jaw onto the floor.

He made no effort to wipe it away.

Didn’t even raise a hand to cover it.

He simply sat there with his head lowered.

His eyelids drooped, half-concealing his eyes.

A complete idiot who had triggered five traps within minutes of entering the house…

And that idiot dared to flirt with Jiang Shulan?

How exactly was he supposed to be better than him?

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