The vehicle smoothly drove onto the private road leading to the main road.

Feng Ju was just about to accelerate slightly when his peripheral vision was sharply captured, as if by a magnet.

Right at the shadow of the intersection where the vehicle was about to merge onto the main road, two figures slowly "seeped" out from the night.

Pitch black!

Absolutely pitch black!

From head to toe, they were cloaked in a material so black it seemed to absorb all light, devoid of any texture.

Their faces were covered with the same pitch-black masks, as smooth as solidified ink, without any features.

Only at the eye part of the masks was there a sinister crimson glow that flashed.

An electric chill surged through Feng Ju’s body in an instant, making his scalp tingle. He quickly turned his head towards the side window, moving so suddenly that his neck made a light "crack" sound!

Night Watchers?

They were really Night Watchers!!!

The agent in the back seat leaned slightly forward, his sharp gaze penetrating the car window, locking onto the two figures that almost blended into the night.

"Stay calm! Just drive past normally. Don’t stop! Don’t make any unnecessary movements!"

The agent snorted coldly.

Little did he know that Feng Ju was far more anxious than him, as a storm was already raging in his heart:

"No, it was all nonsense at noon, just lies to deceive this agent! How could it... how could it really come true?"

The huge absurdity and cold terror intertwined, speeding up Feng Ju’s heartbeat by a second.

Outside the car window, the attire of those two Night Watchers—the light-devouring black robes, the ink-smooth masks, even the instruments they held...

They were exactly as he had offhandedly described at noon?!!

The vehicle maintained a constant speed, and the tires made a steady rustling as they rubbed against the road, brushing past the two shadows.

"Phew..."

A very slight exhalation came from the back seat, and the agent seemed to relax a bit, leaning back into the seat.

Apparently, the Night Watchers hadn’t shown any interest in their car, allowing his hanging heart to settle back in place.

"A false alarm, they weren’t here for us."

The agent felt relieved, but Feng Ju’s heart was in his throat.

"Damn, could the Night Watchers really have detected something? Could they be after the Sheepskin Scroll? You left the Sheepskin Scroll in the mansion, right, Agent? Is it safe?"

Feng Ju was extremely uneasy, fearing that everything might go according to plan temporarily, only to find the Sheepskin Scroll gone when he returned to the mansion.

This thought made his temples throb with pain, and without realizing it, he pressed the gas pedal to the floor.

The roar of the engine fully merged into the noise of traffic on the main road, while in the shadows by the roadside, the two Night Watchers still stood quietly.

The slightly shorter figure on the left took an extremely subtle step, the pitch-black mask slowly turned about thirty degrees, "looking" in the direction the black car had disappeared, and a hint of red light flashed in the eyes.

"What is it, was there something wrong with that car just now?"

The taller Night Watcher immediately noticed his companion’s slight hesitation.

His voice came through the mask with a peculiar raspy quality, as if processed through some voice modulation.

As a Night Watcher, it’s mandatory to conceal all identifiable traits during duty.

The mask blocked vision and also prevented potential prying, whether that might be from the enemy or a companion.

Thus, most Night Watchers, until their death, would never know what the face beneath another Night Watcher’s mask looked like.

When they take off the mask, they could be a passerby brushed past in a convenience store, a colleague nodding in an elevator, a street-cleaning sanitation worker, or any face submerged in the crowd.

Any face you’ve seen might be hiding another identity that hunts in the night.

And this ongoing adherence to confidentiality is the most solid armor of the Night Watchers.

Yet, the number of Night Watchers has been dwindling in recent years, decreasing more and more.

The taller Night Watcher has been stationed in Zone 9 for a long time and therefore is quite familiar with the other Night Watchers in Zone 9.

This familiarity allows him to accurately recognize others.

Not by face, but by the subtle differences in everyone’s body shape, the minute nuances in their gait, the unique rhythm of breathing, even the speech habits that a voice modulator can’t fully mask.

So, even though masked, he was sure that the Night Watcher accompanying him on this assignment was someone he met for the first time.

Either a Night Watcher newly transferred from another zone or purely a new Night Watcher.

"The car is fine."

The shorter Night Watcher shook his head, a gender-neutral electronic synthesized voice emitted through the mask.

She withdrew her "gaze" from afar, looking back at the night ahead.

How could she answer otherwise?

She couldn’t possibly admit that she recognized both figures inside the car, and one of them was familiar to her, down to the bones.

That would just expose her true identity.

Night Watcher Sequence Rule Three—keep identity secret, above all else.

Keep it hidden from parents, children, lovers, even comrades who fight alongside, until you take the secret to the grave.

During this brief, silent exchange, another black business vehicle drove past them, heading into the villa area.

It stopped in front of a villa whose windows had been recently filled with reinforced concrete.

The car door opened, and first, a slender leg, wrapped in shimmering black silk, stepped out, the stiletto heel tapping crisply on the smooth pavement with a clear "thud" sound.

Next, two more elegantly dressed young women emerged and walked towards the villa together.

The two Night Watchers merely glanced indifferently in that direction.

The taller Night Watcher definitively stated, "Most likely special service workers."

The shorter Night Watcher did not affirm or deny this, merely responding with a low "hmm".

She raised the detection instrument in her hand, casually tracing a few detection paths in the air, the red glow of the instrument flickering in the night.

The gesture was hardly earnest, more careless and perfunctory.

Her thoughts were still on the previous car, under the mask, she licked her moist lips, muttering in a voice only she could hear:

"Brother didn’t lie to me, Dad isn’t really dead, he’s also a monster, hehe—"

Sweet laughter echoed repeatedly in her heart.

Night Watcher Sequence Rule One—a sacred duty to protect human order, to exterminate all monsters lurking within human society!

...

"Madam, the people have been brought in."

Hou Wendong led three flamboyant women into the bedroom.

Li Hanyu, dressed in a well-tailored, soft dark-colored home outfit, maintained a face well preserved without much emotion, though the tightly pressed line of her lips betrayed an almost imperceptible anxiety pressed to the limit.

Li Hanyu’s gaze briefly lingered on the three flamboyant women, gently nodding:

"Hmm, let them in to give my son a professional massage. Everyone else, out."

Immediately, a few medical staff in sterile clothing swiftly exited the room.

Li Hanyu turned her gaze to Hou Wendong, who immediately understood, bowed once again slightly, and without a word, left the room.

The ensuing service was very private, so clearing out unrelated personnel was quite reasonable.

The only thing that puzzled him was that the Madam didn’t leave, wanting to stay and keep watch the entire time as those three women gave her son a massage?

No matter how you picture it, the scene just felt undeniably twisted.

However, given Qian Huan’s condition, Li Hanyu’s reluctance to leave her son’s side might...barely make sense?

Hou Wendong suppressed his doubts, chalking it up to a mother’s obsessive protective instinct.

Shaking his head, he walked toward the end of the corridor, pondering no more.

Inside the room,

Li Hanyu’s fingers settled on the door lock, with two clicks, the lock engaged, thoroughly securing the door.