“She saved us!”
Edmund Chow’s voice came from the bed. Though weak and slightly hoarse, his tone was unusually stern.
“Lan. Put the knife down.”
The blade pressed against Vera’s neck did not move at once.
Lan’s gaze swept past her shoulder and quickly scanned the room.
Edmund was pale but clear-eyed, and there were no obvious signs of a struggle inside the house.
Finally, Lan's gaze settled on Vera again.
Vera’s eyes were clear. Her breathing was steady. And the skin left bare held no sign that a creature had parasitized or taken control of her.
The cold pressure against Vera’s neck finally disappeared.
Lan sheathed his short knife, released the hand gripping her shoulder, and stepped back two paces on his own.
The movement was clean and immediate, without the slightest hesitation.
“Sorry.”
He looked directly at Vera.
“I misjudged the situation.”
Vera did not answer right away.
She raised her hand and lightly brushed her fingertips over the spot where the blade had rested. The skin hadn't been cut, but the cold left behind lingered long after.
For a moment, she was dragged back into an old memory.
Another hand gripping her shoulder.
The pressure painfully tight.
A voice beside her ear, repeating again and again that he was only worried about her. That if she would just listen, things would never have turned out this way.
But whenever she refused, that same voice would accuse her—
She had forced him to hurt her.
Vera’s fingers curled slightly.
Lan could clearly tell that her reaction was more than anger. His gaze lingered on her face for a moment, but in the end he asked nothing.
Vera closed her eyes and took several seconds to steady her breathing.
When she opened them again, the wooden house finally came back into focus.
She looked at Lan coldly.
“Do you always put a knife to someone’s throat whenever you make the wrong call?”
“Usually, no.”
Lan answered with complete calm.
“Things are worse today.”
“Oh. Should I feel honored?”
Lan paused for a moment, his tone still even.
“This time was my fault.”
Vera stared at him.
“Your apology is terrible too.”
Lan did not argue.
“I won’t deny that.”
Edmund watched the strained silence between them and let out a helpless sigh.
"Lan, why did you come back so suddenly?"
Lan didn’t answer right away. Instead, he walked to the bedside and gave his grandfather a quick check first.
“I came back to check how the air purifier was holding up, and to see how the two of you were doing.”
Only after confirming that nothing seemed wrong with his grandfather did he turn toward the corner.
A faint yellow light was blinking on the purifier’s casing.
Lan crouched down and opened the panel on the side. The filter inside had already turned dark gray, with one edge nearly black.
“It’s almost worn out.”
He took a fresh filter from the small black pouch at his waist, replaced the old one, then closed the panel again.
“With a new one, it should last another week.”
His gaze returned to Edmund.
“What happened ?”
Edmund briefly explained everything.
While out looking for food, he had fallen asleep without meaning to, and a Dreamgrave Raven had left its mark on him. At eight in the morning, the Raven followed that mark to Everslumber Street. Mia, trying to wake him, was marked as an Interferer by it.
Then Eve and Vera arrived just in time, and together they killed the Dreamgrave Raven and finally brought Edmund back.
Only the memories he had lost while asleep were still something Edmund couldn’t make out clearly.
Lan listened quietly the whole way through.
Until he learned that Mia had gone toward the Dreamgrave Raven of her own accord. At that, his brows drew sharply together.
"That was too dangerous."
Vera’s gaze slid toward him, unimpressed.
“If Mia had done nothing, your grandfather would already have been dead by the time we arrived.”
Lan’s voice still carried clear disapproval.
“But she had no idea how dangerous that Dreamgrave Raven was. If she had been even a little slower, or if anything had gone wrong, she would have died too.”
“So?”
Vera shot back.
“Are you going to tell her that if something like this happens again, she should just stand there and watch?”
“I’ll make sure she never has to face something like that again.”
Vera stared at him for two seconds before letting out a cold laugh.
“Does your sister know you’ve already planned the rest of her life for her?”
Lan looked up at her.
“At least the path I choose will keep her alive.”
“Staying alive and only being allowed to live the way you want are two different things.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Lan wasn't angry, but his gaze visibly darkened.
"You seem to enjoy meddling in other people's family matters."
Vera did not back down.
“And you seem to enjoy deciding what counts as safe for everyone else.”
Seeing the tension between them growing worse, Edmund finally stepped in.
“Lan, it’s already over. Mia and I are both fine now, aren’t we?”
He looked at his grandson.
“I understand what you’re worried about, but Vera isn’t entirely wrong either.”
Lan let out a quiet sigh.
“Sorry. I acted on impulse.”
He looked at Vera again.
“And thank you. You and Eve saved my grandfather and my sister.”
“I’ll repay you.”
Vera replied flatly,
“No need. We didn’t save them because of you.”
They talked for a while longer before Lan asked again where Mia had gone.
"So Mia took someone who only just arrived in Everslumber Town to see the Apothecary?"
“Yes. But there shouldn’t be a problem. Eve is very reliable,” Edmund said.
Lan paused.
“Very reliable?”
Vera replied coolly,
“If you’d come back a little earlier, maybe you could have met her before greeting me with a knife.”
Lan glanced at her and chose not to respond.
He stood up, his fingers quickly brushing over a hidden pocket at his waist. The shadow pins embedded in Vera’s shadow quietly loosened and slipped free, disappearing back into his hand without drawing attention.
Several thin, ice-cold shadow pins vanished into the hidden pocket, and his folding knife was secured once more at his waist.
“I’ll go find them.”
He had only just reached the door when Mia’s voice came from outside.
“Grandpa, we’re back.”
The moment the words left her mouth, the doorknob began to turn slowly from the outside.
Lan didn't step forward right away. His gaze dropped to the gap beneath the door first.
Pale wisps of mist drifted slowly past outside, and two shadows slipped through the gap and fell across the floor of the room. One was slender, and had a habit of leaning slightly to the left when it stood. That was Mia's.
The other kept half a step's distance from her.
There was no third shadow nearby, and no trace of anything warped or moving against the light.
Only after he had confirmed that nothing else had followed them to the door did Lan's tightened fingers ease a little.
Mia pushed the door open from the outside.
She stood there, an anti-sleep mask covering most of her face. When she saw Lan behind the door, she froze, then her eyes widened with delighted surprise and she threw herself at him.
“Brother? You’re back?”
Lan lightly hugged Mia, his gaze sweeping over her from head to toe to make sure she was unharmed.
Then he led her inside.
Eve followed behind them.
The door closed again, shutting the Sleep Mist out.
Lan was the first person Eve noticed.
He wore simple, neat dark clothing, with no obvious injuries anywhere on him. His features closely resembled the teenage boy from the family photograph, only sharper now, with far less of the carefree ease he had possessed when he was younger.
At first glance, the warmth he showed around Mia made it difficult to associate him with danger.
But his eyes still carried the vigilance of someone who had spent far too long living in dangerous places.
Before Eve could speak, Mia noticed how unusually quiet the room was.
She looked at her brother, then at Vera standing beside the bed.
Vera’s expression was calm, though there was still a trace of irritation in her eyes.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
Vera answered with a hint of sarcasm.
“Your brother just has a rather special way of welcoming people.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Mia looked suspiciously at Lan.
“Brother, what did you do?”
“A misunderstanding.”
Lan clearly had no intention of explaining further.
Vera added flatly,
“He misjudged the situation. Apparently, things are just worse today.”
Lan fell silent for a moment.
Those had been his own words.
There was nothing he could say to that.
Mia was about to ask more questions when Edmund began introducing them.
“Eve, this is my grandson, Lan Chow. He’s Mia’s older brother.”
“Brother, Eve is actually the new Manager of the Long Night Hotel,” Mia added.
Eve looked at her, slightly surprised that she had suddenly mentioned the hotel.
“You know about the Long Night Hotel?”
“I do,” Mia said. “My brother is a guest there. That’s how I know about it.”
“A guest of the hotel?”
The moment Eve spoke, the watch on her wrist suddenly lit up.
Dark golden light surfaced beneath the glass as several lines of text arranged themselves across the display.
[Guest identity confirmed.]
[Name: Lan Chow]
[Check-in Status: Confirmed.]
[Warning: This guest will soon lose eligibility to stay.]
Eve’s gaze stopped on the final line.
Soon lose eligibility to stay.
In other words, he did not have enough vouchers left and would soon be expelled from the hotel?
This was the first time she had seen such a warning attached to a guest’s information.
She instinctively looked at Lan.
His expression did not change at all, as though he had already known—or perhaps could not see what was displayed on her watch in the first place.
Edmund and Mia were still beside them.
Eve did not question him in front of his family. She simply pressed the watch face and quietly dismissed the text.
Lan had already walked over to her.
The wariness and impatience he had shown toward Vera were gone. With a small smile and a courteous manner, he was easier to deal with than Eve had imagined.
“Thank you, Manager Lam, for saving them.”
He glanced at Edmund on the bed, then at Mia.
“I owe you for that.”
Eve looked at him calmly.
"It was just instinct."
She paused.
“I wasn’t expecting anything from you in return.”
Lan did not respond at once.
He simply studied her for several seconds, as if filing the answer away somewhere for later consideration.
Eve made no attempt to prove herself.
Trust was not something that could be earned with a single sentence.
She walked over to the table and began taking out what she had received from The Nightwatch Apothecary.
Two Anti-sleep masks.
Four sealed replacement filters.
And a small glass bottle filled with dark green liquid.
“This is the Wake Tonic,” Eve said. “It can only be used once. It forces the body to stay awake for a short period of time, though how long it lasts depends on the person. Once it wears off, all the accumulated fatigue will hit at once. It may also cause headaches, hallucinations, and temporary mental confusion.”
Vera picked up one of the filters and examined its color through the sealed packaging.
“The apothecary gave you all this?”
“I traded the Dream Crystal for it.”
Lan raised an eyebrow slightly.
“That’s all?”
“And three answers.”
Eve handed one of the masks to Vera before explaining the clue The Nightwatch Apothecary had given her.
“The restaurant’s missing Energy Core is probably somewhere inside the Old clock tower.”
“The Old clock tower?”
The smile on Lan’s face faded.
“The Nightwatch Apothecary told you that himself?”
“Yes.”
“What else did he say?”
“The Sleep Bell in Everslumber Town never needs anyone to ring it. It operates on its own.”
Eve looked at him.
“The thing keeping the Sleep Bell running may be the Energy Core we’re looking for.”
Lan thought for a moment before adding,
“The Sleep Bell is inside the Old Clock Tower. Every day at two in the morning and eight in the morning, its sound reaches the entire town.”
Eve remembered the bell she had heard after entering Everslumber Town.
“Is someone guarding it?”
“There used to be.”
Lan’s answer was short.
“The person responsible for maintaining the Sleep Bell hasn’t appeared publicly in a very long time. No one knows whether he’s still alive, and no one can say for certain what’s keeping the bell running now.”
“But it still rings every day,” Mia said quietly.
Eve frowned slightly.
“Is there anything else we should watch out for around the Old clock tower?”
“Thicker sleep mist. And rules that only take effect within the range of the bell.”
“What rules?”
“I don’t know all of them.”
Lan answered naturally, without revealing exactly how much he did know.
"Someone once walked into the area near the tower. When he came back, he insisted he'd only been gone a few minutes. But the townspeople had already been searching for him for three days."
"Others have heard the voices of their dead loved ones outside the tower. If you answer, you forget who you are and where you came from, and fall into a dream."
Mia's fingers twisted uneasily at the hem of her clothes.
"People in town never go anywhere near there."
Eve turned to Lan.
"Do you know how to get to the old clock tower?"
"I do."
“Take us there.”
Lan did not agree immediately.
“This is a hotel commission?”
“Yes.”
Eve raised her wrist.
The deadline on the watch was still slowly counting down.
“Less than two nights.”
The room fell quiet for a moment.
Lan lowered his eyes, seemingly calculating the distance, the risk, and what value Eve could offer him.
“I can take you there.”
At last, he spoke.
“But I have a few conditions.”
Eve was not surprised.
“Go ahead.”
“Once we enter the clock tower’s range, all information must be shared. If anyone finds a clue, no one keeps it to themselves.”
“Fine.”
“If we find anything valuable, ownership will have to be discussed.”
"The restaurant's power core has to go back to the hotel."
Lan looked at her.
"The core belongs to the hotel. I won't contest that."
“Anything else, we decide once we find it.”
"Deal."
They didn't shake hands.
It was neither an order from manager to guest, nor help offered unconditionally by either side.
It was only a cooperation of convenience, for as long as their interests aligned.
Vera had already torn open a new anti-sleep mask and was about to fit the filter.
Lan glanced at her.
“Turn the filter clockwise until it locks. Otherwise it can come loose easily once we enter thicker mist.”
Vera did not look up.
“I don’t need your reminder.”
Lan paused slightly, as if searching for a reason for the reminder he’d just given, then looked away.
“We’re still heading to the old clock tower afterward.” His tone deliberately cooled. “I just don’t want to bring along someone who falls asleep halfway there.”
Vera tightened the filter, then finally looked up at him.
“Don’t worry. I won’t slow you down.”
She put on the mask and added through the filter,
“As long as no one suddenly misjudges the situation again, appears behind me, and greets me with a knife, I should make it there just fine.”
Mia froze for two seconds.
Then she finally understood what they had been talking about.
She whipped around to stare at her brother.
“Brother, you put a knife to Vera’s neck?”
Lan was silent for a brief moment.
“It was a misunderstanding.”
“He misjudged the situation,” Vera added flatly. “Apparently, things are worse today.”
Hearing the same words come from her mouth a second time made the mockery even sharper.
Lan glanced at her.
“You have a good memory.”
“When my life is in danger, I tend to remember things a little more clearly.”
“That’s a useful habit.”
“At least it’s better than using a knife first and thinking afterward.”
Lan did not continue.
Mia stared at her brother in disbelief, as though it were the first time she had discovered there were situations where even he had nothing to say.
Edmund leaned against the headboard and gave a soft cough.
“You deserved that.”
Lan helplessly raised a hand and rubbed between his brows.
Eve did not involve herself in their exchange.
She glanced at the clock on the wall.
It had just passed twelve noon.
They had eaten not long ago and didn't need to rest for now.
It was still more than ten hours until two in the morning, but Eve's commission had less than two nights left. Conditions inside the old clock tower were unknown, and they couldn't linger at the house.
"A little preparation, and then we leave," Eve said.
Lan nodded, his expression turning serious again.
He began by checking his equipment.
Several shadow pins were neatly tucked into a custom-made pouch at his waist, and the folding knife was fixed at his hip, within easy reach.
The pouch also held simple bandages, a light, and a roll of grey-white thread for leaving markers along the way.
Eve packed away the remaining filters and the Wake Tonic as well.
There was only enough Wake Tonic for a single dose.
Unless one of them truly reached the point where they could no longer stay awake, no one would use it lightly.
Lan turned to Mia.
“Wait here until we come back. Don’t open the door carelessly. No matter who you hear calling from outside, check the shadow beneath the door first.”
Mia nodded.
She knew she had to stay.
The dream-marks on Grandpa had faded, but his body was still very weak. If he fell asleep again during the Greyday, no one could say whether it would draw other Dreamgrave Ravens.
"I'll look after Grandpa," she said.
Edmund looked at the three about to leave.
"Be careful, all of you."
"We're only going to see what's happening," Eve said. "We won't go in rashly."
Hearing this, Lan turned his head and glanced at her.
"I hope that when we get there, Manager Lam remembers what she said."
"And I hope our guide won't hide the most important part."
Lan gave a soft laugh and turned away.
Eve didn't call him out.
She had already seen that Lan was holding something back.
That included why he was about to be expelled from the hotel.
But for now, their goals aligned, and there was no need to press him in front of his family.
With everything ready, Lan walked to the door.
The wooden door opened.
Sleep Mist at once crept in along the floor, like a layer of water silently flooding the room.
Mia took an instinctive step forward.
“The mist around the clock tower is much thicker than it is here.”
She looked at her brother, then at Eve and Vera.
“Don’t take off your masks.”
“We know, Mia.”
The three of them answered gently.
Lan stepped out of the wooden house first.
Eve and Vera followed close behind.
The door closed slowly behind them.
Mia stood by the door, watching their backs until the very last gap disappeared.
Lan knew the roads of Everslumber Town well.
He avoided the wider Everslumber Street, instead leading the two of them through narrow paths behind the residential area.
The weeds along both sides grew higher than a person's knees, and grey-black vines crawled over the abandoned wooden walls. Now and then, a resident glanced at them through a gap in the curtains, but no one opened a door, and no one called out to ask who they were.
Beyond the residential area, the streets gradually emptied.
The farther they went, the more run-down the buildings became.
On some houses the outer walls had peeled away and the roofs had caved inward, leaving only empty darkness behind the doors and windows. Damp walls were covered with grey-black mold, and rotting planks warped slowly in the mist.
A rusted street sign stuck out crookedly by the road, its writing long since illegible, only an arrow left pointing into the depths of the mist.
The Sleep Mist grew thicker too.
A few meters ahead, shapes began to lose their outlines. Lan, walking in front, was almost swallowed by the surrounding grey-white.
Eve watched him wind a short length of grey-white thread around an inconspicuous spot at every intersection.
Sometimes it was the base of a utility pole.
Sometimes a broken fence.
The places he chose avoided what people would most readily notice, yet would be easy for them to spot quickly from the opposite direction on their way back.
"Can't we just remember the way?" Vera asked.
Lan didn't turn his head.
"Only if the roads here stay the way they are."
Vera looked at the street ahead, swallowed by Sleep Mist.
"You'd better explain what 'stay the way they are' means, and soon."
"If we pass the same intersection on the way back and see three roads that weren't there when we came, you'll understand."
Vera gave a cold laugh.
"Do you make a habit of waiting until people ask before you tell them something this important?"
"Anyone who's willing to come here with me usually knows before we set out."
Lan finally glanced back at her.
“Things are worse today.”
Vera’s gaze immediately turned cold.
Lan had already faced forward again and continued walking.
Eve suddenly understood that Vera was probably going to remember that sentence for a very long time.
The relationship between those two was worse than she had expected.
Back in the residential district, they had still been able to hear merchants doing business and the occasional footsteps of people passing through the streets.
Here, every sound seemed to have been swallowed by the sleep mist.
Only their breathing remained, along with the quiet crunch of shoes against loose gravel.
Eve had no idea how long they had been walking when the gray-white fog at the end of the street finally began to part.
She raised her head.
In the distance, the blurred outline of a tall, crumbling clock tower emerged from the mist.
Gray-black vines crawled across its outer walls. The enormous clock face at the top was covered in cracks—
like an eye slowly opening from sleep.