Bai Wanyang lay on the guest room bed and fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
Exhaustion completely swallowed him.
This sleep was not peaceful.
He fell into a bizarre, kaleidoscopic dream.
In the dream, he walked down an infinitely extending corridor paved with old-fashioned black-and-white checkered tiles.
On both sides were countless closed green wooden doors. The incandescent lights on the corridor ceiling buzzed.
The light was deathly pale, stretching and shortening his shadow.
He walked in a hurry, as if looking for something, but every door remained motionless, the numbers on the plates blurred and indistinct.
The corridor suddenly tilted, and the floor tiles flipped in a chaotic dance like living blocks.
He stumbled a few times as the tiles beneath his feet rose, pinning him toward the ceiling.
The ceiling, however, softened and sagged as he approached, turning into an elastic, transparent membrane. Through the membrane, he could see the gray, overcast sky outside.
The scene shifted. He entered another dream, seemingly back in his childhood.
One disconnected, strange dream after another relentlessly disturbed his sleep.
“Clang! Crash!”
A massive sound of impact and collapse reached his ears, mixed with wailing and cursing. It was like a crude hammer smashing all the dream fragments to pieces.
Bai Wanyang slowly opened his eyes, his heart pounding wildly, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
He gasped for breath. The feeling of suffocation and the bizarre images from the dream hadn't fully dissipated, overlapping with reality and leaving him dazed for a few seconds.
He propped himself up and felt for the phone by his pillow.
Pressing the screen, the date and time jumped into view.
He had actually slept for a whole day and night!
Over twenty-four hours!
The grogginess quickly receded, replaced by an even more unpleasant sense of frailty.
Despite sleeping so long, his body didn't feel rested. Instead, it felt as if he had run an endless marathon; every joint was sore and weak, and his temples throbbed with a dull ache.
Those bizarre dreams had consumed the energy he was supposed to have recovered.
Once fully awake, Bai Wanyang immediately checked himself.
His clothes were intact. The black feather hidden in his sleeve was still there. There were no signs that his knife or paintbrush had been tampered with.
There were no new wounds on his body. He even felt the back of his neck; there were no tiny needle marks from an injection.
The people of Begonia Alley hadn't done anything while he was deep in sleep?
The boss here actually provided him with a relatively quiet corner?
This unexpected keeping of their word only bred more suspicion in Bai Wanyang's heart.
But he didn't have time to overthink it now, because...
“Listen up, everyone inside! The Bureau headquarters is conducting an anti-vice sweep!”
“Cease all resistance and cooperate with the inspection!”
“Block all exits! Do not let a single person escape!”
“Those who resist will be killed on sight!”
An authoritative voice boomed through a loudspeaker, piercing through walls and windows to reach Bai Wanyang's ears clearly.
Interspersed were scattered gunshots, the sound of things being smashed, and even more terrified screams and wails.
Bai Wanyang jolted, lunging toward the room's window to peek outside cautiously.
With just one look, his heart sank to the bottom.
All the street workers had already been rounded up.
Teams of people in uniform, armed with firearms, moved with rapid precision.
In groups of three, they kicked down building doors one by one, driving the people inside out, pinning them to the ground, and handcuffing them.
Several armored vehicles bearing the headquarters insignia blocked every possible escape route.
The entirety of Begonia Alley had been completely surrounded, sealed tight.
Bai Wanyang's fingers clenched into fists.
What was going on?
He had only slept for a day and night!
What had happened in Begonia Alley during that time?
An anti-vice sweep... was such a massive show of force really necessary?
And it was the headquarters themselves taking action!
Was the headquarters planning a full-scale purge of the Chaos Zone, and he just happened to get caught in the middle?
Bai Wanyang's mind raced, hitting upon a possibility he was most reluctant to face.
Were these headquarters people here for him?
The worst-case scenario was that Zhang Songyun had a powerful figure backing him—perhaps he was some official's illegitimate son, hidden away as a young master in Amber City because he couldn't be acknowledged.
His retaliatory attack on Zhang Songyun had left tracks, the headquarters had found something, and they had tracked him here.
At the thought, Bai Wanyang held his breath, his eyes fixed on the movements of the headquarters personnel below.
His mind worked at high speed as cold sweat soaked his back once more.
He was so hungry.
Thirsty and hungry.
After sleeping for so long without food or water, he had no strength left.
To think he'd be cornered at his most vulnerable moment.
Fortunately, he could still use the black feather's concealment effect to hide temporarily.
Rate on N.U.
