As soon as I finished speaking, Xiao Heshang let out a cough and glanced at Xie Pang, saying, "Little Lazi, what's the point of saying all this nonsense? You're making it sound like I came here to ask for money. Just stop—you're making me look like some kind of… whatever."Xie Pang lightly slapped his own forehead, quickly stepped forward, and grabbed Xiao Heshang's hand. "Master, listen to me—compared to our lives, what's money worth? As long as you can protect these dozens of people, this island, and even my businesses back on the mainland—they're all yours."Seeing that Xiao Heshang was about to politely refuse, Xie Pang continued, "I'm not saying this is a gift for you personally, Master. Just consider it a donation to your temple's holdings. It's an act of merit. If you say it's too little, then that's the same as taking the lives of everyone here."
Xiao Heshang sighed and said with great reluctance, "What kind of person do you take me for? Never mind, the temple stuff can wait till later. Let's take care of what's happening now. Today's situation is tricky. A pity—I didn't bring any of my trusty instruments…"While he was speaking, Sun Fatty, basking in his self-declared status as a "bureau-level official," had to bite down hard to keep himself from laughing out loud.
By now, the rain outside had stopped, but the sky had gone completely dark. The hotel's surroundings were pitch black, with only the sound of waves crashing against the shore breaking the silence. In this kind of atmosphere, people couldn't help but grow increasingly uneasy.Most of us had rushed here early in the morning after breakfast, and we'd originally been expecting a big feast. But before the food could even be served, disaster had struck. No one had eaten or drunk anything all day. Now that things had calmed down a bit, the rumbling of empty stomachs echoed through the hall. Eventually, the general manager went to the kitchen and brought back some food and drink.
When hunger hits hard enough, even cold food can chase away the fear. The dishes were from the lunch banquet that had been prepared but never served. Most of the high-end stuff—sea cucumber, abalone, and other seafood—had already been looted earlier by the deputy mayor and his people. What the general manager brought back now were just steamed sponge cakes, braised pork belly, and a few pastries.No one was acting prim anymore. No one even bothered with chopsticks; people just grabbed food with their hands and stuffed it into their mouths.
Even while eating, Xie Pang didn't dare go far. He grabbed a few sponge cakes and a handful of braised pork, then returned to Xiao Heshang's side, chewing as he spoke, "I don't know what sin the Xie family committed in our past life, to run into… something like… ugh—"
Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly dropped to his knees. His right hand shot into his mouth, clawing at something inside. At the same time, the paper effigy marked with his birth characters that had been lying on the table burst into flames for no reason.This time, it was finally Xie Pang's turn.
"He's choking!" Xiao Heshang shouted, striding forward and lifting Xie Pang from behind with an arm around his waist. He started bouncing him up and down, trying to dislodge whatever was stuck in his throat. But his efforts didn't seem to be working—Xie Pang's eyes had already rolled back in his head, and his daughter, the young lady of the Xie family, was clinging to his leg and sobbing uncontrollably.
"Move aside!" Guo Xiaoni suddenly rushed over. She shoved Xiao Heshang out of the way, knelt beside Xie Pang, and reached directly into his mouth in front of everyone.At first it looked like she was just trying to fish the food out of his throat, but her movements didn't quite match that. Her hand kept stirring inside his mouth, but nothing came out.I was starting to wonder if Xie Pang was going to make it when suddenly he let out a gasp, and then—retching violently—he finally spat out the food stuck in his throat.
Guo Xiaoni gently patted his back until he finished vomiting, then called over Xie Mochou and quietly stepped back, wiping her hands clean.Sun Fatty squinted at the young girl and murmured to himself, "Interesting…"
Seeing the look in Sun Fatty's eyes, I couldn't help but wonder—did he just notice something?
Though Xie Pang had narrowly escaped death, he was clearly drained. His daughter helped him to a corner to rest. But this incident left the rest of the Xie family even more tense than before. No one dared touch the food again, even as they stared longingly at the half-eaten dishes. Only a few with stronger stomachs cautiously nibbled on some pastries after a long hesitation.
As night dragged on into the small hours, no one from the Xie family dared to close their eyes. Everyone forced themselves to stay awake, afraid that a moment's drowsiness might mean losing their lives.
At this point, all hope rested on the missing deputy mayor. He had not returned all night, and there was still no contact with the island. No one on the mainland—his family or local authorities—knew what chaos was unfolding here. By tomorrow at the latest, someone from the mainland would surely send a boat and crew to check the island. As long as contact could be made, everyone here could leave with the rescuers.Maybe once they were back on land, this nightmare would finally end.
Nothing unusual happened for the rest of the night. Bored, Sun Fatty pulled his Wealth Rat out of his coat pocket. The big rat seemed in good spirits, frolicking around on the floor before climbing back onto Sun Fatty's shoulder.Sun Fatty rolled up a sponge cake into a little ball and fed it to the rat. Its appearance brought some life back to the gloomy hall.Xie Mochou and Guo Xiaoni, still children at heart, came over to pet the rat. Even Hao Zhengyi and Crow stole a few glances at it. In fact, there was even a hint of envy in Crow's eyes.
After feeding it a few more cake balls, Sun Fatty suddenly let out a soft "Huh?" and grabbed the Wealth Rat in his hands."Lazi, come take a look. Doesn't it look different than before?" he said to me.I leaned over to examine the rat in his hands. It still looked the same to me—still that same old rascal—but it did seem to have gotten noticeably fatter.Other than that, I couldn't tell what had changed.
Xiao Heshang heard that Wealth Rat seemed different from before, and hurried over to take a look. Sun Fatty pried open Wealth Rat's mouth—something only he dared to do—and revealed two full rows of rodent teeth. "Take a look at its teeth. What the hell is going on here?" Only then did I see that inside the outer ring of teeth, another row had grown along the inner edge. At first glance, it looked like a double image from a hallucination.
Sun Fatty glanced at Xiao Heshang and said, "No offense, Master Xiao, but did you feed it something weird while I wasn't around? Overdid the calcium supplements, and now its teeth are sprouting out all over?"
"I wish I could feed it," Xiao Heshang replied, "but with the way you guard it like a treasure, it's like you're worried I'll run off with it." He clearly didn't understand why Wealth Rat had suddenly grown double rows of teeth either, and no ancient texts mentioned this kind of thing. Still, the rat looked quite pleased with itself—its extra teeth didn't seem to affect it at all.
Neither Sun Fatty nor Xiao Heshang could make sense of what was going on with Wealth Rat. Suddenly, Sun Fatty looked up and spoke to Yang Jun, who had barely said a word all this time: "Yang Jun, what about your black cat? Nothing's wrong with it, right? Don't try to hide it. I saw you brought it here in a bag."
Yang Jun stepped out from the corner, looked at Sun Fatty, and said expressionlessly, "You really want to know?"
Sun Fatty hesitated for a second, then said, "Something's wrong with your cat too, isn't it?"
Yang Jun didn't answer directly. He opened his shoulder bag and took out the black cat. At this point, the cat had curled into a tight ball, eyes shut, its front paws covering its head, body trembling nonstop. It was shaking so hard that when Yang Jun placed it on the table, the whole table started to shudder along with it. I'd never seen the black cat like this before. Even back in the Tomb of a Transcendent Beast when it encountered Yin Bai, it still had some fight in it. But now it looked completely paralyzed with fear. What could possibly terrify it to this extent? Even Hao Zhengyi looked surprised when he saw the cat.
After a brief silence, Xiao Heshang spoke first. "When did it become like this?"
Yang Jun, staring at the trembling cat, replied, "When that old man from the Xie family was the first to have something happen to him on stage, Nyeh turned like this."
Sun Fatty glanced at the cat, then looked up at Yang Jun. "And why didn't you say something back then? At least give us a heads-up or something."
Yang Jun gave a cold snort and said, "I didn't want to scare you guys. If Nyeh got this scared, do you really think knowing would've helped you feel better?"
Sun Fatty looked like he wanted to retort, but after smacking his lips a few times, he swallowed the words back down. Hao Zhengyi stood directly across from us, head lowered, silently taking in every word we said.
When Sun Fatty first said Yang Jun had brought the black cat, I still held out a bit of hope. But now, seeing it in this state, it was clear we couldn't count on Yang Jun or the cat. Meanwhile, Director Nicolas Hugo was squatting in the distance, only glancing over here without coming any closer. Ever since his godfather failed to deliver earlier, Hugo had been in low spirits, looking completely deflated. Besides, he never had a good impression of the black cat. In his words, that cat was a demon's pet and never should have set foot on land blessed by the light of God.
Just before dawn, my grandfather, worried about the situation, sent my father and third uncle to check on me. We chatted briefly, and once I sent them off, the sky was already growing bright. None of us had slept a wink all day and night—we were completely exhausted. I was just thinking about finding a spot to doze off when the hotel's general manager suddenly came running from the front hall, heading straight for Xie Pang. "Boss! Someone's come ashore!"
Hearing this, the Xie family members all rushed over. In an instant, their hopes were reignited. Just as expected, it was thanks to that deputy mayor. Last night, the city had hosted a major diplomatic event requiring all city leaders to attend—except the deputy mayor never showed. His secretary disappeared too. Neither the local government nor the deputy mayor's family could reach him. Later, they found out that along with him, a district chief and a deputy director of public security had all gone missing. They'd attended the wedding of a local private entrepreneur's daughter during the day and never came back.
By dawn, even more shocking news came in: every guest who had attended the wedding was still out of contact. No phone, no radio signal—the island was completely cut off, as if it had vanished from the world. The local authorities finally dispatched a maritime patrol boat equipped with radio to investigate. The boat made landfall, located the deputy mayor, and reported back to the government. A larger rescue ship was now en route.
Upon hearing this, the Xie family members burst into tears and laughter. Xie Pang got excited too. "No more waiting around here. Let's go to the dock. Don't let those cold-blooded bastards leave us behind. Everyone, let's go!" He turned to look at Sun Fatty and Xiao Heshang and added, "Chief Sun, Master, will you and Boss Hao come with us? If it weren't for the three of you, we wouldn't have made it through the night in one piece. Having you with us puts us at ease."
Sun Fatty nodded. "Even if you didn't ask, we were going to check the dock anyway. You think staying on this island is some kind of vacation?"
Xie Pang didn't dare offend Sun Fatty, especially now that a way off the island was within sight. In high spirits, he laughed nervously. "Glad to have you with us. Let's all go together…" Then he turned and shouted at his relatives, "Hurry to the dock! Lao Qi, are you tired of living? Still trying to cut through the front hall? Didn't Zhang Rantian—the GM—say only one small boat has arrived? The big ship won't be here for a while. We'll circle around the hotel to get to the dock."
Under Xie Pang's lead, the entire Xie family swarmed out of the hotel's back door and dashed toward the dock as if they'd be stuck on the island forever if they were even a minute late.
On the way there, Sun Fatty kept sneaking glances at Guo Xiaoni. Actually, with how obvious he was being, you couldn't really call it "sneaking." But Miss Guo was calm and poised, acting like she didn't even notice.
When we arrived at the dock, it was already packed with hundreds of people. The deputy mayor stood at the front, shading his eyes as he scanned the sea. Someone in the crowd spotted us and shouted, "The Xie family is here!"
That one yell drew everyone's attention—including the deputy mayor. All eyes turned toward us, filled with fear, suspicion, and a trace of disgust.
The deputy mayor was the first to speak. He shouted in our direction, "Boss Xie, don't come any closer! Say whatever you need to from there. Being too close isn't safe for anyone."
Now that there was hope of leaving the island, no one wanted to offend the deputy mayor. Still, the Xie family pretended not to hear, inching forward another twenty-plus meters before finally stopping.