The Restaurant

The restaurant was located on the edge of the first floor. Su Mian had visited it that morning, so she was in no danger of getting lost.

However, she didn’t rush straight there upon coming down from the third floor. Instead, she took a quick detour around the second floor. Just like the third, it was entirely deserted. Whether in the grand exhibition halls or the corridors, it was silent enough to hear a pin drop. The sound of Su Mian’s small leather shoes clicking against the floor felt piercingly loud in the stillness.

Her gaze grew more alert. After a moment’s hesitation, she made her way toward the main lobby on the first floor.

It was now nearly 5:00 PM—dusk. Usually, the sun wouldn’t have set yet, so it shouldn’t have been this dark. Yet, all the lights in the lobby were on. When she looked up at the glass dome, she saw that there wasn’t a single glimmer of light outside. Of course, considering they were no longer in their original space, it wasn’t surprising that the outside world had become a chaotic void.

Su Mian kept her footsteps light as she approached the restaurant. Unlike the other areas, she could hear faint noises as she drew closer. The nearer she got, the more distinct they became. It was a cacophony of disorganized, chaotic sounds—voices of men and women mixed together, along with sounds that were hard to identify as belonging to any normal situation.

Undoubtedly, the restaurant was more crowded than ever before.

Finally, as she pushed open the heavy double doors, the volume surged several times over. It was a roar of noise, as if she had suddenly stuck her head into a beehive. Su Mian was momentarily confused about what was happening, but the second she saw the scene inside, she froze in her tracks.

The massive restaurant was a scene of total carnage. Dozens of people were gathered here, and every single one of them was frantically eating.

If they were simply dining, it wouldn’t be strange; this was a restaurant, after all. What was horrifying was how they were eating.

Regardless of age or gender, everyone was desperately stuffing food into their mouths. They were sprawled over tables, crouching, or kneeling on the floor, their eyes wide and bulging. Their hands and mouths never stopped for a single second. Several people had stomachs that were visibly, unnaturally distended; the corners of their mouths had torn, leaving their faces smeared with blood, yet they continued to gorge and swallow without pause.

Furthermore, most weren’t even eating cooked food. The chefs had long since joined the madness, so no one was actually cooking. They were eating raw ingredients: everything from normal fruits, vegetables, raw meat, and fish to abnormal things like oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, chili powder, and black pepper.

Some were even picking through food waste previously thrown in the trash bins, completely ignoring the fact that some items were inedible, shoving everything into their maws with reckless abandon.

“This…”

The sight—vaguely familiar but exaggerated a hundredfold—left Su Mian stunned. She had no idea how to react.

If that maid hadn’t been stopped and had come here, would she have ended up like this too? And with these people eating so grotesquely, had none of them noticed the abnormality in themselves or others? Su Mian didn’t know what was happening, but any sane person could see something was deeply wrong. She wanted to stop them, but had no idea how.

Just then—

Snap!

A large hand landed on her shoulder, startling her so much she nearly jumped out of her skin. Before she could let out a scream, the man behind her covered her mouth, leaving her with only a muffled, “Mmph, mmph!”

“Shh… don’t disturb their feeding.”

A somewhat familiar voice came from behind. Su Mian froze for a second, then immediately relaxed. She wriggled out of the man’s grasp, stepped back, and turned around to glare at him.

“Officer Jiang Xun, you’re like a ghost! Do you have any idea how scary that is?”

“How do you know my name… Wait, it’s you?!”

Because her back had been turned, Jiang Xun hadn’t seen her face. Now that he finally saw who she was, it was his turn to be shocked. The young man instantly took a defensive stance, and a faint flicker of fire ignited around his body.

He had seen a girl in a maid uniform and assumed she was one of the manor’s staff. Seeing that she hadn’t entered the restaurant yet and might still be “saved,” he had intended to stop her. He never expected her to have a face he would likely never forget for the rest of his life.

Although she looked slightly different and her aura was completely changed—compared to that inhuman, soul-devouring charm from before, her face now, while still exquisitely beautiful, at least looked human—Jiang Xun did not lower his guard. He even began to wonder if he was hallucinating.

Why would a High-Level Succubus appear here? It made no sense!

His expression was stiff. For a moment, he didn’t even bother questioning how she knew his name or his cover identity as a police officer. The two of them—one tall, one short—stared at each other in a long, tense silence, broken only by the chaotic sounds from the restaurant nearby.

Su Mian felt awkward. She didn’t know what her other self had done to terrify Officer Jiang this badly. But staring at each other forever wasn’t an option.

After a long silence, she finally spoke up: “Um, I mean no harm. Also, the situation here has nothing to do with me. I’m a victim too…”

As she spoke, Su Mian blinked her eyes as innocently as possible, trying to appear less threatening. She didn’t realize that her naturally alluring features made her “innocent” act look like a seductive ploy, which only made the man more wary.

Jiang Xun retreated several steps, checked himself to ensure he wasn’t being magically influenced, and let out a small sigh of relief. He looked at the girl standing there, who now looked inexplicably aggrieved, and remained silent.

Encountering the Succubus here was entirely unexpected. For a moment, he had indeed suspected the abnormality here was her doing and that she had come to find him. But looking at her “innocent” posture, her eyes brimming with tears as if she feared he wouldn’t trust her…

That suspicion wavered instantly.

He had to frantically remind himself that she was a demon to keep from surrendering immediately. He kept his face stiff and used the coldest tone he could muster: “How… how did you end up here?”

“I came for the exhibition, of course,” Su Mian said matter-of-factly. “Everything was fine, then suddenly things turned weird. I heard something was happening in the restaurant, so I came down to check.”

Her answer was blunt. Since they had zero foundation of trust, telling a lie would only shatter their fragile relationship if she were caught. Plus, Su Mian wasn’t a good liar to begin with, so her strategy was the honest truth.

As for whether it was “logical” for a demon to attend an exhibition and auction? Who said demons couldn’t have hobbies!

In short, Su Mian was being very sincere. Under her persistent gaze, the tall man fell silent again for a long while before finally nodding.

“Fine. Shall we talk somewhere else?”

He didn’t entirely believe her. It was simply a matter of pragmatism—what else could he do? The situation was already dire; Jiang Xun didn’t want to needlessly offend a High-Level Succubus. Since she seemed genuinely non-hostile, he didn’t mind talking.

With the man choosing to compromise, Su Mian quietly breathed a sigh of relief. If he had refused to cooperate, she really wouldn’t have known what to do. Fortunately, Mr. Jiang was just as her other self had described: he didn’t harbor much malice toward them. That was the whole reason she had tried to contact him. If Jiang Xun had been a fanatical, bloodthirsty demon hunter, she never would have approached him.

The initial contact was rocky, but at least there was no fight.

Jiang Xun led the way, and Su Mian carefully closed the restaurant doors, making sure not to disturb the “diners” inside before quickly following his lead.