Restraint

Translator: Cinder Translations

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Upon hearing this, Fatty suddenly became excited. As expected, the doctor never let him down—orphans always had sharp eyes. 

Trying to play these little tricks in front of the doctor was simply asking for trouble. 

"Doctor," Fatty licked his lips excitedly, "Hurry up and tell me what's going on!" 

"I don't know," Jiang Cheng replied calmly. 

Fatty was stunned. "You don't know?" 

"Of course I don't," Jiang Cheng pouted unhappily. "I'm not an encyclopedia—how could I possibly know everything?" He then shifted the conversation and pointed at Xia Meng. "If you don't believe me, ask her. See if she knows?" 

Fatty turned to look at Xia Meng. 

"I only noticed that An Xuan deliberately let that person go," Xia Meng said, rubbing her fingers against her water cup as if in deep thought. "But as for his exact motive, I'm not sure." 

"Yeah, I find it strange too." Fatty frowned in confusion. "That guy didn't seem like it was his first time here. He might be an important clue, so why would An Xuan just…" 

As if suddenly realizing something, Fatty quickly raised his head. "Doctor, could it be that An Xuan let him go on purpose so that after we all leave, he can catch him again and interrogate him alone?" 

"This way, if he gets any valuable information, he can keep it all to himself!" Fatty spoke rapidly. 

"That man almost escaped even when we were all here. Do you think An Xuan could catch him alone in the dead of night?" Xia Meng retorted. "He'd have to be insane." 

"Maybe he has accomplices!" Fatty argued. "That Qin Jian and… and that You Qi, they don't seem right either! Maybe… maybe they know something we don't—" 

"He wouldn't take such a big risk," Jiang Cheng interrupted. 

Upon hearing this, Fatty immediately shut up. He might argue with Xia Meng because she could be wrong sometimes, but the doctor never was—he was as cunning as an old fox. 

"But you were right about one thing," Jiang Cheng continued, staring at the door as if he could see through it. "They definitely have information that we don't." 

Xia Meng sat up straight and glanced at Jiang Cheng. "It's probably not some message that was passed along, but rather a physical object… something special." 

"Something that changed over a certain period, disappeared suddenly, or appeared mysteriously," she added. "Any of those are possible." 

Fatty blinked, feeling like Darwin's theory of evolution was being disproven through his own experience. 

He first glanced at Xia Meng, but seeing that she ignored him, he turned his pleading eyes toward the doctor. 

"Do you remember when An Xuan brought people over this afternoon?" Jiang Cheng asked. 

Fatty's eyes flickered, and he immediately realized the issue. "You mean An Xuan wanted to check our room?" 

"Not just ours—he checked another room too," Xia Meng said. 

"He was comparing them!" Fatty seemed to grasp the connection. "Something unusual happened in their room, so he wanted to check the other two rooms to see if the anomaly was limited to theirs or if all rooms were affected." 

"If only their room had an anomaly, then it means—" Fatty spoke in one breath. 

"It means they've been targeted," Xia Meng said, narrowing her eyes. 

"So…" Jiang Cheng tilted his head at Fatty and paused before suddenly asking, "Do you think he found anything unusual in Zuo Jing's room?" 

"No," Fatty shook his head without hesitation. "If he had, they wouldn't have been so anxious to check ours." 

When An Xuan arrived, he had hidden his emotions well, but the people following him had exposed everything through their expressions. 

"But…" Fatty hesitated, then looked up at Jiang Cheng in confusion. "Doctor, do you think the strange occurrences in their room are related to that person just now?" 

"Who knows?" Xia Meng casually rolled up the sleeves of her costume. 

Xia Meng was quite thin, and the oversized costume looked nice on her but kept slipping down, which was annoying. She frequently had to pull it up. 

Just like now—she adjusted the front of her robe again. 

But as soon as she did, she noticed Jiang Cheng staring at her with an unmistakably perverted, lecherous look. 

Xia Meng thought for a moment, then returned the same perverted gaze and asked sweetly, "Does it look good?" 

"Heh," Jiang Cheng smirked. "You know, if I don't look too closely, it actually looks pretty nice." 

The lingering fear from the eerie events and the paper figures vanished in the back-and-forth banter between them. 

As usual, Jiang Cheng went to sleep first, leaving Fatty to stay up and keep watch with Xia Meng. 

But without the doctor around, Fatty didn't dare offend Xia Meng. So he sat far away, and the two of them just stared at each other until the doctor got up to take over. 

Just as Xia Meng was about to go to sleep, Jiang Cheng suddenly called out in a sarcastic tone, "Fatty," he asked dramatically, "Why is my belt loose?" 

Fatty, quick on the uptake, immediately responded, "I don't know, Doctor. I just stepped out for a moment—could it be…?" He exaggeratedly glanced at Xia Meng. 

"Miss Xia," Jiang Cheng stretched his neck and teased, "Next time, please restrain yourself." 

After a moment, he added, "What separates humans from beasts isn't just the ability to use tools—it's also the ability to control their desires." 

Hearing this, Xia Meng immediately sat up in bed. 

A long moment passed before Fatty cautiously approached Jiang Cheng and whispered, "Doctor," licking his lips, "I was watching her the whole time. Nothing unusual happened." 

"Hmm." Jiang Cheng squinted at Xia Meng, who was lying in bed. Their beds were far apart, so he couldn't tell whether she was really asleep. 

Swallowing nervously, Fatty glanced at Xia Meng again, feeling uneasy. He leaned closer to Jiang Cheng's ear and whispered, "Doctor, why do you keep suspecting…?" 

Jiang Cheng raised a finger, and Fatty instantly shut up. 

Then Jiang Cheng leaned in and whispered a few words into Fatty's ear. 

Within seconds, the confusion in Fatty's eyes disappeared, replaced by a look of realization. He stared at the doctor with his mouth slightly open, unable to say a word. 

Jiang Cheng gave a slight nod. 

The next morning, still sprawled on the bed in an odd sleeping position, Jiang Cheng was yanked awake by someone shaking him. 

"Get up!" Xia Meng shouted, shaking him vigorously. "Something happened!" 

(End of the Chapter)

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