1. Chapter 1

"Yuanyuan, you haven't paid this quarter's bill yet."

"Oh, wait." A voice came from the room, and then the door was opened a little, and a white hand stretched out from inside, holding three red translucent beads in the palm of the hand, "Sister Xue, can you see if this is okay?"

The woman called "Sister Xue" was a beautiful woman with a beautiful face, snow-white skin, blood-red lips, and wearing a gauze dress on such a rainy day.

Such a woman coming to this old community should be very eye-catching, but at this time, even the voice-controlled lights in the corridor were not on, and the corridor was quiet, as if no one was there.

Sister Xue took the beads, shook them, and said, "Okay." Then she took out a brush and drew a few strokes on the security door.

The shabby security door emitted a faint light, and then slowly returned to its ordinary appearance.

Sister Xue put the beads into a pocket on her waist, smiled and said goodbye, and left. After a while, the security door that had been opened a crack was gently closed again. Everything happened silently, and the neighbors nearby did not notice anything.

Until a few minutes later, a shrill scream of a wild cat suddenly came from outside the window, and in an instant, the voice-controlled lights in the corridor lit up.

Yuan Yuanyuan exhaled and walked back to the bedroom.

Her tense muscles relaxed at once, and she lay back on the bed.

She was the only one in the room, and a small yellow lamp at the head of the bed was quietly on, emitting a warm and weak light.

It was quiet everywhere, and the screen of the mobile phone on the bed was shining.

The beautiful woman just now was the "second landlord" of this area, who specialized in collecting the "rent" of the little monsters here for the boss.

Yuan Yuanyuan moved to this place a year ago. There were all kinds of monsters mixed here, and the public security was not particularly good, but as long as you didn't go out in the middle of the night to commit suicide, life here was quite orderly.

As a half-demon, Yuan Yuanyuan has spent a lot of effort in the past few years to find a place where she can live in peace. Even if it is a place similar to a monster slum, she feels grateful that she can settle down.

There are many cases of flirting and fighting between monsters, and they are xenophobic by nature, so they are not very welcome to half-demons like Yuan Yuanyuan.

The city where Yuan Yuanyuan currently lives is a city where monsters and humans live together. She jokingly calls this city the "Free City". The leader is a very good monster. He makes a rule that as long as a certain amount of protection fee is paid every month, he will protect the monsters living here.

So there are many monsters like Yuan Yuanyuan in this city who are not accepted by the outside world. The order is very chaotic, but there is order in the chaos.

Ordinary monsters don't like this city. The only ones who really like this city are some notorious monsters, indiscriminate killers, and some monsters who are hiding from something.

Before she became a monster, Yuan Yuanyuan had imagined a lot of things about monsters, but in the past few years, she was too lazy to even think about her own affairs. Some things will feel different only if you participate in them. The blood and brutality in them are quite disgusting, and are not as beautiful as imagined.

The "rent" for this quarter has been paid... I can probably spend three months in peace.

Yuan Yuanyuan turned over and looked at the drizzle outside. She was really satisfied with the place she is now. Monsters are used to being active at night, but she, who was once a pure human, still sticks to human habits and never goes out at night.

It's night now... It's a good time to stay up late to cultivate immortals. Having just paid the "rent" for this quarter, Yuan Yuanyuan is in a very good mood and feels that she can stay up until two o'clock in the middle of the night today.

She turned on her mobile phone that she had bought for three years, opened an app dedicated to reading comics, and found a comic that she liked recently. The name of the comic is "Yao Ji", which tells the story of a little demon hunter.

"Yao Ji" was drawn by a new painter. The painter's name is "Ji Qiu". There was never any trace of him before, but a month ago, he suddenly became the most popular on the website like a sudden rise.

Yuan Yuanyuan didn't like to read comics about monsters after she became a monster, but she couldn't resist this comic that was on the front page every day. One day, she opened this comic out of curiosity, and then she was immersed in it.

If you ask why Yuan Yuanyuan likes this comic, she can only say that the monsters drawn by this artist are very real.

Not just ordinary real.

When Yuan Yuanyuan looked at this comic, she sometimes felt that these monsters all had prototypes. She even thought that this artist was also a monster, but he just broke into the human world on a whim and took up the brush to draw such a comic.

In fact, there are many powerful people among monsters. They are proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. After all, they have lived for so many years, and many of them have lived from ancient times to the present.

But monsters who have lived to this age... must not be so idle to draw such things.

She looked at the phone in her hand and curled her lips. When I read romance novels before, the monsters in the novels could live in peace with humans, and seemed very enthusiastic about integrating into human society, and even had love affairs. At that time, I thought these girly stories were so cute, but now I find them more and more ridiculous.

It's not that she's not romantic, the point is that she didn't know what was going on until she came here. Those famous big monsters are all elusive, and the nameless little monsters are all struggling for survival. The monster hierarchy is as strong as the evil feudal society, and most monsters live a hard life.

Yuan Yuanyuan went to the kitchen to get a glass of milk, and came back to lie on the bed again. Some things are fucked up. No one knows how she, a socialist child who grew up under the red flag, suddenly returned to the feudal society after a few years.

She thought about this for a few years, and recently she finally stopped thinking about it.

Yuan Yuanyuan took a sip of milk, and the white milk stains got under her nose. She looked at the picture on her phone, which showed a woman in red clothes. She fell in a pool of blood, covered in blood, and her black hair was scattered on her back and shoulders.

The woman's eyes were staring forward. She had a pair of deep eyes and upturned eyes. The red dress was like a blood chrysanthemum, which bloomed very beautifully and withered very quickly.

Yuan Yuanyuan was drinking milk while looking at the woman. It was obvious that the painter favored this woman very much. He used a whole page to draw her. The whole screen was full of bright red and pure black. The black and red intertwined, which looked very heavy and textured, as if he could see the woman's death with his own eyes.

If there really is such a big monster... what kind of scene would it be when he died?

Yuan Yuanyuan felt a little scared when she thought about it. She felt numb all over her body as if she had been electrified.

She turned a page and prepared to see what would happen next. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door frantically outside.

"Who is it?" Yuan Yuanyuan turned over and sat up, picked up a knife from the bedside, and shouted outside.

It was almost eleven o'clock in the evening. This time period was generally not the time for guests to visit, so she didn't know who was knocking on the door outside.

She got out of bed a little timidly. When she approached the door, she hesitated for a moment, and then remembered that Sister Xue had drawn a barrier for her anti-theft door an hour ago, so she walked over with courage.

Unexpectedly, the person knocking on the door was her neighbor.

"Yuanyuan! Yuanyuan, are you there?" The door was knocked "bang bang". Yuan Yuanyuan heard this familiar voice and slowly opened the door. A woman came in from the door. She was wearing a black coat, her hair was all wet, and she looked anxious. "Yuanyuan, have you seen my Xiaoying?"

"Xiaoying?" Yuan Yuanyuan was stunned, "Has she not come back yet?"

Xiaoying is the child of Yuan Yuanyuan's neighbor. Although Yuan Yuanyuan has to pay rent to the monster on time every month, she lives in a community full of humans, and her neighbors are purebred humans.

[An old book friend who I have known for ten years recommended me a book-chasing app! It's really useful. I use it to read and listen to books to kill time while driving or before going to bed. You can download it here. 】

"No, I just went to the cram school to pick her up, but I didn't pick her up. Her teacher also said that she left after class, and I couldn't get through on the phone." The neighbor's eyes were red. I didn't know how long she had been running in the heavy rain, and her trouser legs were wet.

"..." Yuan Yuanyuan looked up at the sky outside. It was a rainy day today, and she could smell the fishy smell in the air.

"Yuanyuan, your uncle and I will go out to look for her. You can help your aunt keep an eye on her. If Xiaoying comes back, call me quickly." The neighbor said, and turned away again. Yuan Yuanyuan was a little dumbfounded, "Wait a minute! Aunt! Aunt! Come back first! It's raining outside! Call the police first!"

The neighbor has gone far away now, "I've called the police!"

Yuan Yuanyuan stood at the door for a long time. She thought that even if I called the police, it would probably be useless.

The fishy smell outside was getting stronger and stronger. Yuan Yuanyuan had smelled it a long time ago, but she had not gone out because it was best not to get involved in the affairs between monsters, especially hunting.

The rule of this area is that weak monsters that do not cause trouble are not allowed to be killed at will, but if there is a private fight between monsters, the leader will not care.

She has been following this rule for the past year and never goes out at night. After all, the barrier painted on the door is not used for defense, but for identification, proving that the people living here are legal residents and have the boss's protection.

But if a private fight occurs... then this barrier is useless, other monsters can easily rush into her house and chop her to death, and there is no need to worry about any punishment.

As a half-demon, although she has not been in contact with the monster world for a few years, Yuan Yuanyuan still knows these unspoken rules. Although she has become a monster, she will never cause trouble at ordinary times, but today... she met an acquaintance.

Yuan Yuanyuan closed the door and stood at the entrance. For the first time, she felt helpless. She felt that what happened today was the most fucked up thing she had ever encountered. It was even more fucked up than the time during the Chinese New Year when she was chased by a bird-faced idiot who discriminated against half-demons for most of the night.

She stood there for a long, long time, like a frozen statue. It was only after the voice-activated lights in the corridor automatically went out that she suddenly moved.

Yuan Yuanyuan did not go back to the bedroom to continue reading comics. She ran to her closet in a few steps and started to look through her clothes. She dragged out all the clothes one by one and threw them all over the floor.

After searching for a few minutes, Yuan Yuanyuan finally found a black windbreaker from inside and gestured with the clothes on her body.

This is a set of clothes that her father used to wear. It is very big, enough to cover her head and body, so that she can't see her appearance at all.

Yuan Yuanyuan stretched out a hand to cover her face and rubbed it. After three seconds, she raised her head again.

Her appearance has changed a little.

... Let's take a gamble.

Yuan Yuanyuan put on a windbreaker, and her eyes suddenly became sharp, and a trace of red spread to the corners of her eyes.

A gust of wind blew outside the window... It was as if someone sneaked in and saw this scene.

This scene suddenly froze on a piece of drawing paper, black and red, intertwined into one.