Restlessness

The auction officially began, but Su Mian found himself growing bored instead.

He had already seen most of the items on stage in the various exhibition halls earlier; his interest was minimal, and listening to others call out bids was far from exciting.

There were no heated confrontations, no arrogant displays of bidding just one dollar higher to show off, and certainly no one jumping up to claim they were from “Family X” and asking for “face” because they lacked the funds to win.

It seemed those tropes were no longer in fashion.

In any case, Su Mian was bored. Coupled with that inexplicable sense of wrongness that was growing stronger by the minute, he felt an instinctive surge of irritability.

More importantly—perhaps because he had drank too much earlier—he felt the urge to use the restroom.

He endured it for a while, but when the fourth item, a sunflower oil painting from the Sixth Era, was hammered down for a staggering 12 million, he finally gave in.

“I’m going to the restroom.”

He leaned in and whispered to Qi Chuan. After the youth nodded, Su Mian stood up and headed for the exit.

Leaving just as the auction started naturally drew some eyes, but seeing that he was clearly a young man not even twenty years old, the people around him merely spared him a glance before losing interest.

After leaving the auction hall, Su Mian realized he had never been to the fourth floor before. The place was massive, and for a moment, he genuinely had no idea where the restroom was.

He wanted to find someone to ask, but to his surprise, the corridor was completely empty!

“What’s going on?”

The service staff here were supposed to be quite numerous; he had seen them everywhere on the lower floors. Why was there not a single soul on the fourth floor?

Su Mian was bewildered. After searching for a bit, it seemed he really was the only person out there.

Are they all inside the auction hall? Or is the fourth floor special, and ordinary staff aren’t allowed up here?

Unable to figure it out, Su Mian didn’t bother overthinking it—mostly because, as he walked, he spotted a restroom just ahead.

The manor was large, but that also meant there were multiple restrooms, making them easy to find.

Just as he was about to head inside to relieve himself—and perhaps check in with his other self about why things felt so “off”—the door suddenly moved.

A tall man pulled the door open and walked out, coming face-to-face with Su Mian.

Their eyes met.

For a moment, there was a strange silence.

It was unclear why the other man was silent, but Su Mian’s reason was very simple: Why is it you again?!

Looking at Jiang Xun walking out of the restroom, the boy desperately wanted to complain, but when the words reached his lips, they took a different form.

He raised a hand in greeting.

“What a coincidence, Officer Jiang. You’re here for the restroom too?”

Upon hearing this, even Jiang Xun almost lost his composure. His mouth twitched, but he eventually just nodded. “Quite a coincidence indeed. It’s empty inside, take your time.”

“…”

It was a case of mutual awkwardness.

Su Mian was speechless, but the man opposite him seemed to be in a hurry and didn’t choose to linger for a chat.

He nodded.

Then, just as they brushed past each other:

“Remember to find a place to hide with your friend in a moment. I just discovered that some dangerous criminals might have slipped in. It might not be safe here anymore.”

“Huh?”

Su Mian froze on the spot, but the man offered no further explanation. Having finished his warning, he quickly disappeared around the far corner.

The youth frowned, staring in the direction he vanished.

“Criminals?”

How could criminals possibly sneak into a place like this!

Then again, it wasn’t impossible. With so many billionaires gathered here today along with countless priceless treasures, the lure of wealth could easily attract some desperate outlaws.

But if criminals had snuck in, shouldn’t he be told to leave immediately? What did “find a place to hide” mean? Did it mean there were many of them, and the exits were already blockaded?

Su Mian stood there overthinking for a moment, but soon snapped out of it. The criminal story was likely nonsense.

Officer Jiang Xun was no ordinary person; he had likely sensed the same “wrongness” and simply used a convenient excuse to warn him to hide.

Reaching this conclusion, Su Mian stopped hesitating and stepped into the restroom.

The restroom was as luxurious as the rest of the manor, looking almost like it was plated in gold. After confirming no one else was inside, he entered a stall and locked the door.

He finished his business, flushed, and then sat down on the closed toilet lid. Only then did he pull out a small mirror.

While there was a larger mirror at the vanity outside, this was a public area. Someone could walk in at any moment, so it was naturally safer to use his own.

He pushed back the plastic cover. Seeing his reflection instantly transform into the white-haired, red-eyed girl, Su Mian didn’t hesitate to ask: “That Officer Jiang just said criminals snuck in. What do you think?”

“You already know he’s talking nonsense, why are you asking me?”

The succubus girl rolled her eyes.

Su Mian sighed helplessly and changed his question: “Fine. Then do you sense anything wrong with this place?”

“Anything wrong?”

Her reflection wore a strange smile. Because the mirror was so small and slightly blurry, Su Mian couldn’t quite see exactly what kind of expression it was. He only heard her speak slowly: “This entire building… everything about it is wrong right now.”

“Hmm?”

On the other side.

After parting ways with Su Mian, Jiang Xun walked through several floors as if he were just strolling, finally stopping in front of a piano room on the third floor.

The room was originally not open to the public, but with a slight twist of his hand, he crudely and violently broke the lock.

He stepped inside and closed the broken door behind him. The man scanned the room before walking straight to the window.

The piano room faced a garden. Currently, a hundred flowers were in full bloom, competing for beauty. Looking out through the window, it was a scene so beautiful it didn’t seem to belong to the mortal world.

However, Jiang Xun was in no mood for scenery. He threw the window open and made a move to jump straight out.

But the moment he rose, he felt an obstruction. It was as if an air wall had appeared before him. As he increased his strength, the space actually began to warp slightly!

Turbid colors flashed briefly, and having failed his attempt, the man was forced to retreat.

He stood his ground, a faint spark of fire igniting within his pupils.

His eyes, now glowing with an orange-red light, scanned the surroundings again. Blood-red stains now crawled across the walls, floors, and furniture. Dense patterns, like tiny snakes, occupied every corner of his vision.

The scenery outside the window was even more chaotic—a hazy, murky grayish-white, like a thick fog that obscured everything. Inside that fog, indistinct shapes seemed to be thrashing about, causing an instinctive sense of discomfort.

The world around him had become ominous and terrifying. Distorted paintings hung on the walls, chaos reigned outside the window, and a source-less white mist drifted through the air, carrying a faint metallic scent of blood.

Jiang Xun gazed at all of this in silence.

After a long while, the fire in his eyes faded, and the world before him finally returned to “normal.”

But he knew very well that this normal-looking world was the fake one!

“A Shadow Domain…”