*This Chapter is dedicated to @ChubbyLiv and @LotusLin for their generous support of this novel! Thank you so much for the castle and your support! *

A tall, broad-shouldered man stepped out of the shadow of the bedroom frame, dragging his right leg along the floorboards. The lower part of his leg was soaked in blood, and he had tied a handkerchief tightly around the wound.

One side of his eyeglasses was shattered, while the other side remained undamaged. Instead of taking them off, he continued to wear them, and in his right hand, he gripped something that was chillingly clear. It was a sleek, black handgun.

Cixi froze, pressing her spine flat against the wall.

The man paused, standing a few steps away from her as he studied her intently. He took in her face and gradually shifted his gaze down to her toes, not out of desire, but in an attempt to understand why a woman was here.

He levelled the dark barrel of his gun, aiming directly at her chest.

Despite the gun pointed at her, Cixi remained still, watching his every move. Her heart raced, but she forced herself to breathe steadily.

"I am so sorry," the man offered a polite apology. "I thought you were another intruder."

Cixi’s brain misfired. This man’s polite apology completely contradicted the weapon that was still pointed directly at her heart. If he was truly sorry, why the hell was the gun still aimed at her?

She stared at the black barrel, her ears nonetheless ringing from the initial gunshot, and his voice turned into a muffled whisper. She found herself fixated on the precise angle of his finger on the trigger.

Still keeping the gun steadily aimed at her, the man dragged his legs forward, moving slowly towards the main door, still keeping Cixi at gunpoint.

She held her breath, refusing to move a single muscle.

Once he reached the front door, he pushed it firmly shut and twisted the deadbolt until it clicked loudly into place.

Cixi’s warm blood ran instantly cold with thousands of questions. Why did he close the door? What was he planning to do? Was he going to kill her too?

But she could not die, she told herself, thanks to the immortality curse!

Was he the intruder? Had he killed the person who lived here?

Alarm bells rang in Cixi’s head as she watched him with equal intensity.

"Y-you are hurt." Her eyes moved to his injured leg.

The man lowered his other free hand, then slowly turned back to survey the destroyed living room, spotting a wooden chair lying on its side.

Keeping his dark eyes locked intensely on Cixi, he walked unevenly to the chair, reached down, hoisted it upright, and dragged it to the exact centre of the room.

"So are you." His eyes moved to her right shoulder, where he saw her clutching it with her left hand.

He sat down backwards, resting his thick arms casually across the wooden backrest, and the gun dangled loosely from his right hand. And then he simply stared at her without saying a word.

"Did someone die - accidentally?" Cixi was crazy, she thought inside her head, to have a conversation with this man. But then, having an exchange would help her feel less intimidated by the man who had a pointed gun aimed at her.

He gave a soft laugh at her question and then remarked, "Smart!"

Oddly, he did not yell at her. He simply sat perfectly motionless, observing her with the curiosity of a predator assessing a trapped rabbit inside a cage.

"W-who are you?" Cixi asked hesitantly.

"I am the one who lives here," he replied, and Cixi nodded slowly, quietly absorbing his words.

"How did you get hurt?" she ventured, feeling a flicker of confidence as he continued to engage with her.

"I know what you are trying to do," he said, his tone shifting. "Making small talk to calm yourself down."

Cixi felt the urge to scream, but her fear was not for her own life; it was for those who might come to her rescue.

Suddenly, a sharp spike of white-hot pain radiated deep from her bruised shoulder, exploding from exactly where she had slammed against the drywall. She hissed softly, and her left hand flew up instinctively to grip her injured shoulder joint.

The limping man tilted his head, watching her clutch her arm. His dark eyes softened into a semblance of genuine concern.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked gently. But Cixi was not naive.

She had witnessed many psychopathic killers in her ghostly form, and the man sitting before her, gun in hand, was exactly like them. His eyes revealed his true nature far more than his words or actions ever could.

What he did not realise was that Cixi planned to play along until she found a way out. After all, he could not kill her.

"Yes, thanks to you!" She said little aggressively.

"What is your name?" he asked in his impossibly warm tone.

"Should you not introduce yourself first?" Cixi asked stupidly, probably testing his limits.

"I have the gun here. I ask, and you talk," he replied, keeping his eyes fixed on her. "Why do I feel like you are observing me instead of being scared?"

"Because I am as crazy as you," she stated, surprised by the sudden surge of courage. First, she was scared, trying to make small talk to calm her heart, and now she found herself back-talking him.

Yes, she is Crazy she told herself, and then reminded herself that she would definitely catch a bullet if she continued down this path.

The sound exploded through the apartment, and the bullet tore past her so close that the hot rush of it kissed her left temple. Cixi flinched, but she didn’t scream.

The gunshot was a warning for her to think twice before uttering another piece of foolishness.

And realising that filled her with fresh rage even through the fear. "You bastard!" she screamed, her voice shaking. "I came here thinking you needed help, and you point a gun at me?! And then shoot just to scare me?!" Her chest heaved wildly as she glared at him. "Do you think no one would notice? People have definitely heard many gunshots by now. They might have already called the police... You will be arrested soon if you don’t flee right away!"

If she thought the threat would frighten him, she was wrong.

The smile he had until now vanished as if it had never been there.

The change in his face was colder than anger. One moment he had looked entertained. The next, he looked like something that had stepped out of a nightmare and put on a human shape just to deceive others.

"People like you," he said quietly, "who meddle in lives that are none of their concern, are always the first to die."

Cixi’s heartbeat turned savage, thinking about how she left her sandwich behind to come and save him. Maybe he was right after all. She should have minded her own business, just like the other neighbours did. However, she hoped that by now at least one would have made an emergency call. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I was interrupted," he went on, and his tone was almost conversational now, which unnerved her more than if he had shouted. "Two men in suits came into my apartment. They looked at me and made a miscalculation. Seeing me slimmer than them, they thought I was weak and easier to handle." A cruel sort of amusement flickered briefly in his eyes. "Big mistake! They attacked me." He said it so simply, as though the word itself were too small for what had really happened. "But you know," he added, tilting his head, "people often make that mistake. They judge by appearances, and then they realise too late that they have made the worst mistake of their lives." His gaze then shifted towards the bedroom door. And Cixi’s eyes followed before she could stop herself. "It only took two bullets," he said softly, almost thoughtfully, "one for each head." His eyes remained fixed on the half-shut bedroom door. "And they died instantly."

The room seemed to grow colder around his words.

For a second, Cixi could hear nothing except her own breathing and the blood roaring in her ears. The image rose in her mind against her will, with two bodies inside that room.

The man turned his gaze back to her then. "And now," he said, his voice dropping lower, "the real question is what I should do with the witness who wandered in afterwards."

"You had already decided to kill me the moment you pulled that first trigger," Cixi shot back, letting him know she understood his game far too well. Her chest was still rising too fast, yet she forced the words out steadily. "How many people have you killed before?" Her eyes did not leave his face. "If you are planning to kill me, then I am sure you would not mind granting my last wish." She had turned into a lost cause after seeing many deaths. She self-declared herself a madwoman because of begging him... she was having a war of words with a killer.

The man’s mouth had just begun to curve when a heavy knock thundered against the front door.