Nightmare Assault

They came back from the client’s place, but Fatty’s brain was still blank. He glanced at Doctor, who was silently fighting the sweet and sour fish, and his throat trembled.

He was not a human… At least not someone he could understand. After dinner, Jiang Cheng surprisingly rolled up his sleeves and cleaned up the dishes. This shocked Fatty so much that he quickly stopped him and gasped, “Doctor, what are you doing?” This made him feel like he was going to be replaced.

“After you clean up, go to bed.” Jiang Cheng thought about it and added, “We’ll sleep together. You need to set the alarm. Wake me up at midnight.”

“Are you going out so late at night?” Fatty was confused. However, he was used to Jiang Cheng not explaining himself. After a quick clean-up, the two went upstairs to rest. Fatty thought that he had the chance to sleep in the bedroom, so he changed into a new set of pyjamas. Jiang Cheng stared at his new pyjamas, tutted audibly and slammed the bedroom door closed.

Fatty’s first rule of survival was to listen to Doctor. He applied that in real life too. He set two alarms before falling asleep. While his brain was still blurry, he was woken up by the alarms. He shook himself awake. Then, he went to knock on Jiang Cheng’s door. To his surprise, the door was not locked. With a soft push, it opened. Fatty didn’t enter but stood obediently outside the door.

“Doctor,” He extended his neck to whisper, “It’s time. Are you awake?”

Jiang Cheng lay flat on his mattress. He looked so peaceful that he could be dead.

“No.” His eyes remained closed, but his lips moved, “I’m still asleep.”

Fatty, “...” However, Fatty knew that Doctor didn’t set this time for no reason. He swallowed and probed, “Is someone coming?”

“A client?” Fatty followed this thought… Then, his eyes trembled. What kind of client wouldn’t come in the day but had to come at night?

Fatty was instantly reminded of the book of rich women on the shelf. Doctor said it was a book on the list of who would get sick from loneliness at night. The way he looked at Jiang Cheng changed.

Jiang Cheng didn’t care about this. He turned over the blanket and slowly sat up. Then, he stood up. While Fatty stood there, he removed his pyjamas and put on a tracksuit.

Fatty stared at him with befuddlement. Slowly, an idea came to him. His eyes bulged, “Doctor, are we…”

“Have you had enough sleep?” Jiang Cheng glanced at him as he knelt down to tie his shoelaces. “I hope you have because we are not sleeping anymore tonight.”

“We just came out of a nightmare!” Fatty was about to collapse.

“Calm down.” Jiang Cheng stood up and took out the piece of yellow paper. After inspecting it, he put it back in his pocket. “I don’t plan to bring you with me.”

“Doctor, it’s not that. You…”

“Alright.” Jiang Cheng crawled back into his bed. The warmness caused him to moan. He pulled the blanket up to his chin. “I’m resuming my sleep.”

Fatty knew he couldn’t do anything to stop Jiang Cheng. Perhaps… Doctor had his own plans.

“Doctor, you have to be careful.” He thought about it and reminded him. “Also, don’t try to save anyone this time. Just look after yourself.”

“I know.” Jiang Cheng slowly closed his eyes. “Fatty, close the door when you leave. I’m going to sleep.” In the dark, Jiang Cheng’s breathing was slow and even. Gradually, he really fell asleep. In the dream, he dreamed that he slowly stood up and walked down the stairs. He opened the black, iron door again.

When he opened his eyes, the scene changed. There was a dim oil lamp above his head. Perhaps it was the wind or the wick. The flame flickered.

The ceiling was very low. Through the lamp, Jiang Cheng saw the many spiderwebs around the room. Thankfully, he didn’t see any spiders. He disliked those things with many legs and fuzzy bodies.

The place was low and shadowy. His nose moved. There was… a strange scent. He was not unfamiliar with this smell.

He slowly lowered his head and confirmed his location.

“...”

He was in a rather cramped toilet. It was very dirty too. The walls around him were stained with unknown yellow substances.

Before him was a fragile, wooden door. The lower parts of the door had signs of being charred. He held his breath, pushed the door and walked out. After a few steps, he saw a green door. He opened it and entered a place that looked like a lobby.

The floor was black. It was probably cement… Or something else. In any case, it was cheap and rough.

The tables and chairs were aged. The table closest to him was cracked. It was covered with stains that couldn’t be removed even with a lot of polishing. In Jiang Cheng’s impression, he had never been to such a place. He had only seen it in movies or dramas. They were drama pieces about the 70s or 80s. This time, he had gone back a lot further in time.

He stood there and looked around. He was inside a rather large inn. The floor he was on contained the inn’s in-house restaurant. He found the inn’s name at a conspicuous spot. An Ping Inn.

After he confirmed his surroundings, it was time to meet up with his teammates for this mission. They should be around the inn. There were only so many people eating. Of the ten tables, only three were seated. He scanned them. Everyone lowered their heads to eat. No one paid him any attention.

He moved down a direction. There was no door but a white curtain as a partition. As the only private booth of this restaurant, it was quite simple and crude. As he pulled back the curtain, seven gazes shot at him. Jiang Cheng was not embarrassed and walked in to pull out a chair to sit down.

The people inside were dressed differently from the others from this era. They were like Jiang Cheng, who came from several decades later.

There were five males and three females, including Jiang Cheng.