“Hey, you said you wouldn’t laugh!” Bai Chen snapped. Then he quickly covered his mouth, making sure he hadn’t disturbed anyone else.

Midsummer Night Restaurant was an elegantly decorated place. Apparently, it had once been a little shop that barely stayed afloat on takeout orders. After the current manager took over, she remodeled it to suit her tastes. Now it had a loyal customer base, and business was far better than it had been back when the place was barely breathing.

It hadn’t rained this hard since autumn began.

The customers couldn’t get home, so they waited, chatted, and gossiped with one another.

With no one able to get in or out, Bai Chen and the other staff finally had time to chat.

“No, I’m not laughing… Pfft!”

“You’re obviously laughing. You haven’t stopped once.” Bai Chen’s mouth twitched. “I’m not kidding. The whole thing felt seriously weird. Even if I was going to get lucky in love, couldn’t it happen in a more normal way?”

His coworker stroked their chin, looking thoughtful. “Was she pretty?”

“She’s a classmate of mine…”

Bai Chen recalled what had happened that evening. The girl’s doll-like beauty flashed through his mind.

“She was really pretty. At least, she’d rank in the top three among the girls I’ve met. Especially those eyes…”

“Her eyes?”

“It’s nothing.”

His coworker nodded along, listening like an expert in the field. Only after Bai Chen had finished did they speak.

“Don’t overthink it. The world isn’t full of miracles.”

“But I’m sure it wasn’t a hallucination.”

“Maybe she was still too shaken to think straight after being bullied.”

His coworker paused, then lowered their voice.

“Could she be into you?”

“Huh?”

Bai Chen froze, then his voice grew excited.

“You mean there’s a slender, delicate girl with a lovely face and vacant eyes—the sight of which drives me wild with excitement—who just happens to be my classmate, and because I helped her out, she’s given her heart to me? That from now on she’ll bring me a bento every day, show her vulnerable side only to me, miss me when she’s home alone, and even let out soft moans while pleasuring herself?”

His coworker stared at him. “You… did you really have to get that detailed?”

Well said. Even Bai Chen didn’t believe himself. He rolled his eyes and said:

“You might as well say she’s a monster deliberately messing with me.”

“That sounds a lot more believable than your theory.”

Bai Chen was about to say something else when the manager suddenly called to him from behind the counter.

“I’ve got a few important takeout orders here. Bai Chen, could you deliver them?”

“Now?!”

Bai Chen looked outside. The wind and rain had eased, but they were still howling.

“I’ll pay you overtime.”

“How much?”

“This much.”

Bai Chen had been working at the restaurant for over a year. He was only a part-timer, but tonight’s deliveries counted as overtime, and at first he didn’t want to take them.

Unfortunately, the manager was offering way too much. Not many bosses were willing to pay overtime these days, and Bai Chen just couldn’t turn it down. He gritted his teeth and agreed.

Before he left, the manager even lent him an umbrella, claiming it could withstand a Category 10 gale. Bai Chen actually believed that nonsense.

So Bai Chen headed out full of determination. By the time he returned, night had fallen, the torrential rain had begun to ease, and the customers who’d been waiting inside were leaving one by one. The lively restaurant quickly emptied out.

Bang!

The front door was shoved open, and Bai Chen appeared in the doorway, soaked to the skin. He looked toward the counter, only to find that the manager was long gone.

So much for an umbrella that could withstand a Category 10 storm. It had broken not long after he left.

“You’re back… How’d you get soaked like that? Hurry and change. There’s a spare uniform in the stockroom.”

A coworker passing by widened their eyes and hurried him toward the back room. Bai Chen left puddles everywhere he went, and his coworker had to mop them up.

After changing into dry clothes in a bathroom stall, Bai Chen felt a lot better. He looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was still wet, but his face was as sunny and handsome as ever.

Bai Chen had been exercising since he was a kid. He was the classic lean-but-muscular type, and one soaking in the rain wasn’t enough to make him sick.

“If I get sick, I’ll have to take time off…”

Ever since his parents died, Bai Chen had supported himself by working part-time jobs. Even though other people had offered him financial help, he believed that making a living with his own two hands was the right way forward.

Bai Chen slipped a hand inside his collar and lifted out a pendant, letting it rest over his shirt. He’d had it for many years. Years of wind and rain had robbed it of the luster a gemstone should have, but he still treasured it above all else.

When his parents died, someone had given him the pendant. Whenever life weighed heavily on him, looking at it reminded him of that kind stranger.

“If I could, I’d like to see that person again.”

Bai Chen pinched the pendant, chuckled softly, and left the bathroom.

He sat down at the counter and casually asked the coworker beside him:

“Where’s Manager Cheng?”

“She went to a meeting. She left for the branch after you headed out.”

“Tch. She got off easy.”

Bai Chen still wanted to give her a piece of his mind about what had happened tonight. Hearing him, his coworker chuckled. “She guessed you’d be this mad. You can have free drinks tonight, but don’t overdo it.”

“At least she has a little conscience.”

After work, Bai Chen went home to an empty house. He didn’t feel much like eating, so he threw together some noodles to tide himself over.

After eating, Bai Chen let himself sink onto the sofa and stared blankly at the ceiling.

The streets outside were lively. Cars rolled by and pedestrians chatted. After the heavy rain, Wind Chime City had returned to normal.

The apartment wasn’t big. It had just one bedroom, and the kitchen faced the living room. Even with only a little furniture, the place felt cramped.

Bai Chen had lived alone ever since starting high school. When he was little, he’d still had his parents with him…

“Monsters… They’re the worst.”

Humanity’s enemies—mysterious creatures that had been causing people all kinds of trouble for as long as anyone could remember.

Bai Chen remembered the day his parents had been killed clearly. It was his birthday, and they’d planned to go on a trip together.

But his parents were called away on an emergency assignment, leaving Bai Chen to wait at home by himself. He stayed up all night. When morning came, the news arrived: his parents were dead.

A disaster that had swept through half the city had taken his parents’ lives. The culprit had never been found.

Bai Chen still remembered his mother touching his face before they left and gently reassuring him:

“We’ll be back soon. The tickets are booked. We’ll definitely take you on that trip.”

At the thought, Bai Chen closed his eyes and clenched the pendant until it dug painfully into his palm.

No matter how he thought about what had happened that evening, the girl named Mo Qiu had acted strangely. She was stunningly beautiful, yet her eyes were as lifeless as a corpse’s.

And I’d only saved her life. Was she really going to offer herself to me in return?

Bai Chen raised his hand and looked at that finger. The girl’s actions surfaced in his mind again.

He’d just come from PE, and the finger was still dusty from playing ball. She hadn’t seemed to mind at all, and had handled it gently.

Especially those eyes—quiet, utterly still, like those of a lifeless thing. For some reason, girls like Mo Qiu, with no light in their eyes, really appealed to him.

Bai Chen covered his face. Every time he thought about it, he was relieved no one had been watching.

After lying there for a while, Bai Chen heard his phone ring. He sat up and grabbed it.

The caller on the screen was the manager.

Bai Chen answered and said irritably, “Hello. What is it?”

“Bai Chen, we’ve received a report.” The manager sounded very serious.

“Now?”

Bai Chen checked the time. It was already late.

“The police station contacted us directly. It’s at Wanhua Plaza, pretty close to your place. Go check it out.”

“Is it a monster?”

“We can’t be sure yet. Be careful. I’ll have Su Wanghai head over.”

“Okay.”

The news had been full of reports about the recent murder. The monster responsible still hadn’t been caught. Bai Chen had thrown himself into the investigation at first, but he hadn’t found a single lead.

Thinking he might run into the culprit, Bai Chen took the keepsake his parents had left him—

a pair of pure-black gloves.

The gloves didn’t look like they’d fit, but as soon as he put them on, they contracted on their own and molded themselves to his hands.

Bai Chen opened and closed his hands. Dangerous arcs of electricity danced at his fingertips, lighting up his stern face.