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"I want to know everything about Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital."
Vic's voice sounded exceptionally cold and hard in the empty cabin.
"Investigate it. Check every inch. Don't even spare a mouse hole."
The shadow behind him expanded suddenly, writhing and spreading like a living creature.
Countless points of crimson light lit up in the darkness—the bloodthirsty eyes of the Shadow Khan answering silently.
Immediately, all anomalies retracted. The shadows returned to dead silence, as if nothing had happened.
Vic turned and stepped into that not-yet-settled darkness, his figure swallowed instantly.
Moments later, Nevermore Academy dorms.
The air rippled slightly. Vic stepped out of the shadow behind the door.
The cold sternness from investigating Willow Hill was gone, replaced by his signature brilliant, slightly wicked smile from before he left.
"Wednesday~ Enid~"
He dragged out his tone, his voice sticky like melting toffee.
"The creditor is baaaack~ I'm here to collect my debt!"
The room was quiet, with only a few insect chirps from outside the window.
By the dim light of the wall lamp, he could see the two girls on the spliced bed seemed to have long entered dreamland.
Wednesday maintained her standard supine posture: hands crossed on her chest, breathing steady as a precision instrument. Her pale face in sleep added a few degrees of statue-like tranquility.
Enid was curled on her side, hugging a pillow. Her long eyelashes covered her eyelids like small fans, and the corner of her mouth held a sweet arc, emitting very soft sounds of slumber.
Vic blinked his peach-blossom eyes, his face written with "Disbelief."
"No way..."
He lowered his voice, sounding like he was talking to himself or accusing them.
"It's been less than ten minutes? At least act a bit more realistically! You can't cheat like this!"
He tiptoed onto the bed, leaning close to Wednesday's ear first, whispering with breathy tones:
"Wednesday? Darling? You haven't paid your 'compensation' yet..."
Wednesday didn't move a muscle. Not even an eyelash trembled, as if her soul had left her body for a Gothic dream tour.
Unwilling to give up, Vic turned to Enid and shook her shoulder gently:
"Enid? Cutie? Don't sleep, wake up and party?"
Enid just grumbled vaguely like an impatient kitten, rolled over, turning her back to him, and continued her "deep sleep."
"Really asleep?"
Vic observed their reactions carefully, trying to find any flaw, but their camouflage was seamless.
He pouted, a little disappointed, but quickly rallied.
"Hmm... fine..."
He seemed to compromise helplessly, but his tone buried a dangerous foreshadowing.
"Then I'll be merciful and allow you to owe me until tomorrow morning. However—!"
He paused deliberately, emphasizing his next words. His gaze swept over the faces of his two "sleeping" girlfriends with cunning threat:
"Overdue payments accrue interest! Compound interest. By then... hehe, it won't be something a single kiss can solve, okay?"
As he spoke, he stared tight at Wednesday and Enid, not missing a single micro-expression or change in body language.
However, Wednesday remained frozen, and Enid's breathing rhythm didn't fluctuate at all.
"Sigh, can't help it."
Vic finally sighed as if accepting his fate. He lay down gently between the two of them.
The events of the day flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern:
Accompanying Pugsley to tame the zombie named "Slorp."
Helping Donovan deal with the murder of crows, ordering a deep investigation into the gloomy and suspicious Willow Hill Psychiatric Hospital...
Even with his boundless energy, he felt a trace of deep exhaustion.
Once his body relaxed, his heavy eyelids began to fight. Before long, even, light snoring slipped quietly from Vic's nose, rippling slowly through the quiet dorm.
After confirming Vic was fast asleep—
The originally "sleeping" Wednesday opened her eyes slowly. Her pitch-black eyes were incredibly clear in the dim light—where was there any hint of sleepiness?
She turned her head slightly, glancing at the deeply breathing Vic beside her with a complex expression.
On the other side, Enid also turned over soundlessly. Her blue eyes glimmered in the dark. She mouthed silently towards Wednesday:
Scared me to death, almost couldn't hold it in!
Wednesday and Enid got up stealthily, inching toward Vic bit by bit, like two cats prowling under the moonlight.
Wednesday's hand slowly reached toward Vic's chest, her fingertips appearing exceptionally pale in the dim light.
Target acquired—that damn voice recorder.
Destroy the evidence, deny without worry.
What debt? Never heard of it.
Wednesday.
Enid whispered, a trace of guilt flashing in her blue eyes.
Is doing this... really okay?
Wednesday looked up at her, expressionless. Her voice was pressed extremely low but was crystal clear:
Indeed, not very okay. Fine then, I won't admit to it later, and I'll tell Vic to collect the debt from you.
Don't!
Enid surrendered instantly, shaking her head like a rattle.
Search, search quickly!
Wednesday's fingertips searched carefully around Vic's shirt breast pocket. Under the fabric was warm body heat and a steady heartbeat, but it was empty.
"Strange, I remember he put it here."
She frowned slightly.
"Enid, did you find it?"
Wednesday asked in a low voice. She looked up, and her face darkened instantly.
Enid's hand was carefully—and lingeringly—stroking the contours of Vic's solid abs under the hem of his pajamas. Her eyes were shining, looking like she wanted to sneak her hand inside.
Locked onto by Wednesday's icy stare, Enid yanked her hand back as if burned. Cheeks flushing red, eyes darting away:
"N... not here either!"
Both fully focused on the "search operation," they failed to notice that at some point, Vic's even snoring had quietly stopped.
A pair of shining peach-blossom eyes opened in the darkness, filled with cunning and amusement, unblinkingly enjoying his girlfriends' "Night Raid" operation.
Enid's gaze turned to Vic's pants pocket, finding Vic's hand resting casually there, blocking the entry.
She held her breath, extending two fingers, preparing to carefully move that obstructive big hand away.
Unexpectedly, just as her hand touched Vic's wrist, that hand lifted actively on its own, very "thoughtfully" making way.
"Thanks."
Enid thanked him subconsciously, then her body went rigid as she realized something.
Wednesday also sensed something wrong instantly. She tried to withdraw her hand to retreat, but it was too late!
"Hey! Caught two little mice who aren't sleeping obediently!"
Vic's laughing voice rang out. His arms tightened suddenly like iron bands, wrapping around the waists of his two girlfriends. With a slight pull—
"Eek!"
"Ah!"
With two short exclamations, Wednesday and Enid were easily pulled into a warm, solid embrace, pressed tightly against Vic's chest on his left and right, unable to move.
"Little rascals, faking sleep on me?"
Vic lowered his head, nuzzling his chin against the top of Wednesday's hair, then turned his face to look smilingly at Enid, whose face was exploding red and eyes were wandering.
"That's a trick I stopped playing when I was a kid. Hmm? Enid~ You were touching pretty enthusiastically just now. How do my abs feel? Give me a review?"
His voice carried the huskiness of just waking up and thick teasing. His hot breath sprayed by her ear, making Enid wish she could find a crack in the floor to crawl into.
"I... I didn't! You're talking nonsense!"
Enid buried her burning face in Vic's shoulder, emitting a muffled, unconvincing rebuttal.
Wednesday was relatively calmer. Although trapped in his arms, she still tried to maintain her icy facade, though her slightly reddened ears exposed that she wasn't entirely unmoved.
"Victor Black. Release."
"Release? That won't do."
Vic hugged them tighter, self-righteous.
"The debt hasn't been collected, and you guys tried to destroy evidence. That's an added crime!"
He deliberately pointed with his chin at his chest and hem which had been "searched," smiling like a cat that got the cream.
"Now caught red-handed with both person and loot present... Misses Thieves, shouldn't we have a good talk about... compensation and interest?"
He dragged out his tone, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Wednesday's forced calm face and Enid's embarrassed profile, awaiting their response.
Deep in the night, in the dorm room, the "bully" collecting debts and the "accomplices" who failed to renege... this seemingly unequal "contest" seemed to have just entered a more interesting phase.