"Damn it, you dog-hating thief!"
In a courtyard within the town, a thin-haired uncle wearing a black cotton jacket was cursing loudly as he dragged a corpse with difficulty... a dog's corpse.
His surname was Tian, and he was the third eldest in his family. The townsfolk called him Old Third Tian. For the past half hour, his dog had been barking ferociously, as if alerting him to something.
However, Old Third Tian paid it no mind. There were quite a few stray dogs in town, and perhaps another dog was just barking at his. The dog kept in the yard couldn't fight with the dogs outside, so barking insults at each other had become a daily occurrence.
Everything was normal until Old Third Tian heard a scream, realizing something was wrong. He grabbed his cleaver and rushed out of his house. By then, his dog was foaming at the mouth, close to death.
Old Third Tian's first thought was that he'd encountered a dog thief. The dog had no external injuries; only a poisoned dart could kill such a large breed so quickly.
It was a shame he hadn't caught the dog thief. Otherwise, he would have made sure the thief entered the town walking upright and left horizontally. Last year, a thief came to town to steal things, and a group of townsfolk cornered him and broke both his legs.
After a string of curses, Old Third Tian sighed and intended to drag the dog under the tree by the door to bury it.
"Fortunately, my daughter and that woman went back to their maiden home, otherwise, they would be crying their eyes out here again."
"What kind of drug did that beast use? My dog feels like it's swallowed a bellyful of lead weights; it's so heavy to drag."
Old Third Tian's dog was a large Holstein-patterned shepherd dog, weighing about thirty kilograms. Among pet dogs, it was considered quite large, but dragging it felt like it weighed at least eighty to ninety kilograms.
"Your dog wasn't killed by poison," a somewhat eerie voice said to Old Third Tian.
"Then how did it die? There's not even a scratch on its body... Who's speaking?" A cold sweat suddenly broke out on Old Third Tian's back. There was no one around him, and he had never heard that voice before.
The eerie voice spoke again, as if right by Old Third Tian's ear, "Guess where I am?"
"I'm not guessing! My dog is dead, and I'm furious. If I catch you, you'll regret it." Old Third Tian quickly picked up his cleaver, trying to sound fierce to embolden himself.
"Not guessing... then it's no fun."
The shepherd dog lying on the ground swayed and stood up, walking over to Old Third Tian and tilting its head to look at him.
Now Old Third Tian understood; the voice he heard was coming from the dog.
"How can a dog talk? Has my dog become sentient? Or am I hallucinating from anger?" Perhaps due to extreme fright, Old Third Tian became much calmer than before.
The dog bared its mouth, as if trying to spit something out. Instead of backing away, Old Third Tian leaned closer, wanting to see what the dog could spit out.
Then, he saw a hand... a hand covered in suction cups!
Old Third Tian was so terrified that he sat on the ground, his legs feeling like they were filled with lead; he couldn't run no matter what.
He then watched, in horror, as a terrifying figure crawled out of the dog's mouth. This figure was a six-foot-tall, red-skinned muscular man, whose rough skin was covered in octopus-like suction cups.
The muscular man crawled out of the small dog's mouth, yet the dog showed no external injuries. It was because he had been hiding inside the dog's body that the dog had felt so heavy.
The muscular man grinned sinisterly and looked at Old Third Tian, saying, "Guess where I'm going next?"
...
The town where the mysterious staircase was located was called Tian Shi Town, although there weren't actually many families surnamed Tian in the town.
Legend had it that the town was originally called Tian Shi Town, meaning "Heavenly Stone Town." In the center of the town, there was a giant stone that had fallen from the sky. The townsfolk believed this stone was an auspicious omen, so they named the town after it.
However, more than two hundred years ago, a major earthquake struck, collapsing many houses in the town and causing the large stone to fall, crushing several people.
The townsfolk believed that this large stone had brought disaster, so they dug up the 'Tian Shi' and used it to build houses...
Without the stone, the town could no longer be called Tian Shi Town, so it was renamed Tian Shi Town.
San Zai'er drove into the small town and stopped in front of a guesthouse.
Wen Wen, who was lying on the back seat, lifted his head from Tao Qingqing's lap, stretched, and pushed the car door open to get out. "It's more comfortable to have something to rest my head on than lying on the car seat."
That's right, Tao Qingqing was also in Wen Wen's car. Wen Wen had been resting his head on her lap all the way.
Wen Wen had promised her that once she transformed to a certain extent, he would take her out as his assistant.
After seeing her activity report, Wen Wen knew the time was almost right. As long as she could control her bloodthirsty desires, Wen Wen didn't mind letting her out to participate.
Tao Qingqing got out of the car. The sunlight was a little glaring, and she instinctively shielded her eyes. But she quickly realized that she no longer disliked the sunlight.
In the past, although sunlight didn't harm her, it made her feel uncomfortable, so she had never exposed herself to sunlight since becoming a vampire.
She stood greedily at the entrance of the guesthouse, enjoying the feeling of the sun on her face.
"Alright, stop standing there like an idiot, you're embarrassing me."
With that, Wen Wen walked into the guesthouse first and said to a middle-aged woman cracking melon seeds at the counter, "I want your best room here."
"One?" the aunt asked, sizing up Tao Qingqing.
"Yes, just one."
Wen Wen said matter-of-factly. The Hunter Association would reimburse him for staying at guesthouses, but Tao Qingqing didn't have that privilege, so he only booked one room.
"Then where will I sleep?" Tao Qingqing asked softly.
"Sleep on the sofa if there is one, sleep on the floor if there isn't. If you're not satisfied, go back to the containment facility and sleep," Wen Wen said quietly and directly, avoiding the aunt.
Tao Qingqing sighed helplessly. As long as Wen Wen didn't send her back to the containment facility, she would be willing to sleep on the ceiling, let alone the floor...
"By the way, what's going on over there?"
Wen Wen pointed in a direction and asked. Looking through the window, a family was holding a funeral; two women, one older and one younger, were crying their hearts out.
As Wen Wen had rented the most luxurious room, he was considered a major client, so the aunt did not hide anything from him.
"That's Old Third Tian's house. A couple of days ago, he argued with his wife, and she took their daughter back to her maiden home. Who knew Old Third Tian would be so dejected that he climbed a utility pole and jumped down to commit suicide..."
"Are you sure it was suicide?" Wen Wen asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.
The aunt continued to crack melon seeds, "Many of us saw him standing on top of the utility pole yesterday morning and jumping down himself. How could that be false?"
"He must have gone mad from anger. He was even grinning when he jumped down. Thinking about it now still gives me the creeps."
Wen Wen smiled and said, "It's good that it was suicide. If there was a murderer here, I wouldn't dare stay... Oh, Auntie, your melon seeds smell really good, are they for sale?"
The aunt beamed and said, "Yes, they are home-roasted melon seeds; they taste better than the ones sold outside. How many do you want?"
"Alright, give me a hundred pounds."
The aunt's smile froze: "???"