Seeing a "corpse" suddenly smiling, the three adults shrieked loudly. Old Xie fell to the ground on his ass as he used his hands and feet to back up. Bajie and Little Jun hugged each other and shared each other's shock.

Tao Yueyue got up at her fastest speed, rushed to the door, and closed the door at an unbelievable speed. Then, she plugged in the latch.

Gu You told her that when people fall into fear, they will instinctively make defensive actions, because the amygdala[1] is the alarm device in the brain, and it’s always activated much faster than other areas.

Old Xie was the first to realize that they had been fooled. "Damn, we were fooled. That's a person!"

"What do we do? She locked us inside, and there’s still a dead person on the ground..."

"Don't worry about the corpse. Break the door down!!!"

Under the leadership of Old Xie, the three adult men repeatedly slammed their shoulders towards the door, making high-pitched cries like a primate’s courtship routine.

Tao Yueyue, who had just been proud for a second, realized that things weren’t good. She hurriedly ran away. She had to escape before the door slammed open.

Tao Yueyue was dejected when she saw the "entrance". The window that the three of them came in was too high for her to reach. The violent door slamming echoed throughout the entire building. Tao Yueyue gritted her teeth and pushed a table over.

Standing on the table, she could finally touch the window, but only with the tip of her finger. It was impossible for her to climb out.

She hated her height for the first time in her life. She was already fifteen years old, but she was still the height of an elementary school student.

With a loud bang, Tao Yueyue trembled all over with fright. The three criminals managed to escape from the door. Old Xie walked over and gave his thumbs up at the same time. "Little girl, you’re pretty amazing. Uncle will give you a thumbs up!"

"Haha, what a cute little loli!" Bajie rubbed his nose excitedly.

"Don't let her run away."

The three of them circled around her and Tao Yueyue hurried to escape, using the furniture and terrain to fight this guerrilla warfare with the three of them. However, as the circle continued to shrink, the space she could use to run away became smaller and smaller.

The three of them were enjoying this cat and mouse game due to the great disparity in strength, yelling excitedly.

There was only one plan left!

Seeing Bajie spreading his arms and leaping towards her, Tao Yueyue drew out her small knife from behind her and stabbed his thigh. Bajie's scream hurt her eardrums.

Taking advantage of the moment Bajie bent over, she quickly rushed to Zhou Xiao's room. Bajie complained from behind her. "I haven't even penetrated her yet, but she penetrated me first."

"Haha, silly ass!" Little Jun laughed but then cared about him. "Are you seriously injured?"

"It's okay, her little hand is weak. It's not pierced too deeply... Tsk, it motherfucking hurts too much."

"Hurry up!!!" Old Xie urged.

Tao Yueyue got to Zhou Xiao's door, opened the latch, and opened the door. Zhou Xiao stood behind the door, silent and overwhelmed with hostility.

"You need to get out of the way!"

He walked out and Tao Yueyue leaned against the wall, panting from the strenuous exercise. She seemed to see Zhou Xiao spread out a pair of demon wings behind him.

At this moment, the three of them arrived, and Old Xie was slightly startled. He took a dagger from Bajie and said, "Oh, the murderer? That’s pretty amazing, but you think you can kill the three of us alone? Hahaha!"

Although scared, Bajie and Little Jun also laughed.

Old Xie commanded the two. "Quickly grab some tools and kill this bastard!"

The two picked up the bench legs and broken bricks from the ground, and guarded Old Xie on each side. The four pairs[2] of eyes stared at each other like a confrontation between lions and hyenas.

Zhou Xiao roared as a show of strength and rushed directly at Old Xie. Old Xie tried to stab him, but Zhou Xiao grabbed his wrist, rolled to the side, drew his knife from behind him, and stabbed Old Xie's waist madly.

Old Xie knelt down in pain.

Little Jun struck with a stick from behind, but his screams exposed his movements. Zhou Xiao turned around and quickly swung his knife. After half a second, Little Jun’s throat cracked with a blood stream pouring down. The blood spurted out and down his throat with the rhythm of his pulse.

Zhou Xiao smiled terrifyingly as he turned his head around. Bajie was so frightened that the brick in his hand fell down. His legs trembled, and a flow of heat covered his legs.

"Ah!"

Bajie screamed and ran away, but fell down disappointingly. Zhou Xiao grabbed his hair from behind and stabbed him wildly in the back. Tao Yueyue twitched with fright. Bajie's hand was originally spread on the ground, then clenched tightly, before finally slowly loosening again.

Zhou Xiao pulled the knife out of Bajie’s corpse forcefully with blood and sweat all over his face. He glanced at Yueyue, threw the knife at her feet, and lifted Old Xie who was still struggling. Old Xie said with blood in his mouth, "Do you know who I am?"

"I don't know. I don't want to know!"

Zhou Xiao said this lazily. As far as he was concerned, they were just prey.

Zhou Xiao twisted and held Old Xie’s head from behind, so that he could no longer speak. Old Xie’s neck lifted the weight of his whole body. His legs kicked aimlessly at the ground. Zhou Xiao said to Tao Yueyue, "You did a decent job. Now, pick up the knife and kill him. This time it shouldn't be difficult, right?"

Tao Yueyue furrowed her brows and hesitated. Zhou Xiao shouted, "Hurry up!"

Although she had gotten rid of the three bad guys, Tao Yueyue's situation suddenly returned to square one. She had to slowly pick up the knife. The blood on the knife had already begun to solidify and thicken, causing Tao Yueyue to untimely think of tempura.

"A stab at the heart, or you can stab at the stomach over and over to get rid of this person. The result is very pleasant." Zhou Xiao said with a smile, as if he was recommending local exotic flowers and delicacies to out-of-towners.

Tao Yueyue walked to Old Xie. The captain of the kidnappers who had just been so fierce now had eyes full of tears and was pleading.

"Do I have to kill people?" Tao Yueyue asked. "I can do other bad things without killing people. Don't you want me to be an undercover agent? I can provide you with information from the police."

"Don't spout nonsense. What I want is not an undercover agent. What I want is... your awakening!"

Tao Yueyue gritted her teeth. She knew that if she pierced this knife in, Zhou Xiao would trust her and perhaps let her go, but it was impossible for her to do this. There was an invisible force holding down her knife. It was Chen Shi's phantom.

"I can't do it!" Tao Yueyue cried.

"Ah!!!" Zhou Xiao yelled angrily, threw Old Xie away, and forced Tao Yueyue back step by step. "Are you trying to piss me off? Why can't you do such a simple thing? Do you know what it means to be disobedient? A few days ago, I removed the psychiatrist’s liver and let her lie in the hotel to die slowly. Do you want to be like her?"

"Who’s that?!" Tao Yueyue raised her head in striking realization.

"It was Gu You who lived opposite of your house. She’s actually one of us. By the way, she also..." Zhou Xiao suddenly stopped. Pain spread from his palm. The small knife in Tao Yueyue's hand had pierced his palm.

"I’m going to kill you!!!" Tao Yueyue's face was distorted, tears rushing down.

Zhou Xiao raised his eyebrows excitedly. "Haha, good job! Good job!"

1. When you feel threatened and afraid, the amygdala automatically activates the fight-or-flight response by sending out signals to release stress hormones that prepare your body to fight or run away.

2. Author mentioned three here, but I’ve changed this due to consistency.