America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

To Li Xiaoen's surprise, the two girls sitting on either side of him did not speak or say anything that gave him a headache.

To avoid alerting the enemy, he slowly slowed down his movements and wisely kept quiet.

The deep summer night enveloped this isolated island. The darkness in the distance seemed to have turned into a viscous substance, yet it appeared as nothingness from afar. Only the campfire nearby provided a little light, and the dry branches crackled and popped under the flames, which brought a sense of peace.

As Li Xiaoen remained silent, the group that had arrived on the isolated island fell into a rare moment of silence.

"Sean, where are my chicken wings?"

Anyone with eyes could see Li Xiaoen's current predicament. Serafina, never one to miss a good show, rolled her eyes, snorted, and raised her chin as she spoke, "You promised me before Suffer came back."

"Okay, okay, I'll bake it for you now."

Li Xiaoen nodded in agreement, reached into a storage box and took out a string of roasted chicken wings, then stuck the roasting fork into the sand next to the fire.

"Hey, something feels off..."

After completing this action, Li Xiaoen looked up with a sudden realization, "If we each want to eat something, and we grill it ourselves with the grill fork, wouldn't we feel more involved and enjoy the food more?"

"No, I want the ones you bake."

Serafina immediately refused, tilting her head back to look away, not giving him a chance to explain further.

Li Xiaoen: "..."

"You love wilderness survival so much, but now you don't even want to cook your own food anymore?"

"Today's training is about teamwork. I helped prepare the ingredients, so you'll help cook the food, right?"

Serafina pursed her lips and gave a knowing smile that said, "I'm going to give you a hard time today."

Li Xiaoen frowned slightly as he looked at Suffer and Victoria.

"Help me."

Suffer had already changed out of her swimsuit, put her legs together in front of her, and said a few words.

"..."

"Sean, thank you."

Just as Li Xiaoen was hesitating, Victoria's laughter came from the other side.

"Alright alright."

Sean Lee nodded helplessly, his gaze involuntarily falling on Mary and Charlotte.

"You promised me!"

Mary glared at her, while Charlotte rolled her eyes. She was the only one who took the initiative to take out two skewers of sausages from the storage box and put them on the fire in front of her.

“Beautiful ladies, look at Charlotte…”

Seeing this, Li Xiaoen couldn't help but gesture to a few lazy girls. Before they could respond, he was met with a glare from Charlotte, which made him raise an eyebrow.

Without dwelling on it too much, estimating the girls' appetites, Li Xiaoen took out some skewers from the storage box and lined them up on the sand next to the fire in front of him.

"Hey, it's so quiet now, and we're on a deserted island..."

Just then, Mary wiped her greasy mouth and looked around at the group with a rather excited expression. "Such a great atmosphere, how about we tell a ghost story together?"

As she spoke, Mary excitedly clenched her fist. "How about it? How about it? It's going to be so exciting!"

"I agree!"

Serafina was taken aback by what she heard, but immediately raised her hand and looked at the others with Mary, seeking their opinions.

"Sean..."

Knowing the conditions under which Sophie, Victoria, and even Charlotte would agree, Serafina nodded towards Sean Lee.

"I don't care."

Li Xiaoen shrugged, and before Serafina could try to salvage the situation, Suffer chimed in, "Me too."

"..."

“Much profit… … ”

Despite her usually slow-witted nature, Serafina was quick-thinking at this moment. "Our vacation ends tomorrow. Don't you want to add some excitement and a different kind of vacation experience to this last night?"

"Um……"

With a slight frown, Victoria glanced at Li Xiaoen and, receiving a look from the young man that said "If you agree, I agree," she nodded.

Victoria agreed, and Charlotte naturally wouldn't be absent, so the group finally began their little meeting about horror stories.

"You're a writer, and in order to have a good, quiet, undisturbed writing environment, you specifically bought an old villa in a remote suburb..."

After Mary brought it up and it was confirmed that everyone was happy to participate, her expression quickly became serious and composed, and she spoke in a low voice, suppressing her emotions.

Buying a villa—so this is how rich heiresses tell horror stories, even after all.

Just as Li Xiaoen was internally complaining, he heard Mary speak again.

"The previous owner of the villa was obviously a painter. All sorts of paintings were still hanging on the walls of his villa. You see, the paintings are nice decorations, so he readily agreed to it."

“You moved into that villa because there was no one for ten miles around. You enjoyed the quiet, free space all to yourself and immediately began creating.”

"At first, it felt pretty good, but as the excitement of moving into the new villa gradually subsided and your heart calmed down a bit, you finally felt that something was wrong..."

Deliberately lowering her voice as she murmured, Mary leaned forward, bent down, and moved closer to the fire. She looked around at the crowd of people watching her with tension and curiosity, coughed twice, and then continued speaking.

"You finally realize something's off; you keep feeling like someone's watching you..."

"You had no cell phone signal, so you tried to contact the original owner of the villa online, but you didn't get a reply. Finally, you couldn't stand it anymore and started searching all over the villa, in every room of the huge villa, and even in dark and secluded corners, but you couldn't find anyone."

"Your psychological pressure has suddenly increased, and you're experiencing mental health issues..."

"..."

As soon as Mary mentioned this, Li Xiaoen subconsciously looked around at the girls and couldn't help but make a comment.

"There won't be any brain-dead horror movie plots where someone knows this villa is causing them a lot of mental stress, but still forces themselves to stay and endure it, right?"

"How could the horror stories I tell be so low-brow?"

Mary immediately retorted, glaring at Sean Lee, "I haven't finished my story yet, don't interrupt!"

"Alright alright……"

Sean Lee shrugged and bent down to fiddle with the skewers placed by the campfire. Meanwhile, Mary spoke up again.

"You finally couldn't take it anymore. On the morning of the third day, you went out to drive away to the city hospital for a diagnosis and to find a lawyer to find information about the previous owner of the villa. But when you opened the car door and looked back at the villa one last time, you froze on the spot when you saw the desk in the living room through a window..."

"You quickly turned back to the villa, followed the gaze that had been directed in from outside, and saw your own car again..." "..."

Seeing everyone staring intently and deep in thought, Mary pursed her lips in satisfaction and completely stopped talking.

"What's this?"

Serafina tilted her head in confusion. "Did you find something at that last window?"

As soon as he said that, Li Xiaoen felt one of his hands being firmly grasped. He looked down and saw Victoria—the girl's face was blank and frozen, and her drooping hand was gripping his hand tightly.

Li Xiaoen couldn't help but smile. Being with a girl late at night was indeed a good time to tell scary stories—as long as you didn't end up scaring yourself.

Just as he was about to explain, Suffer leaned closer to him, forcing him to stop talking.

"After moving in, you really felt like someone was watching you all the time, right there at that window, someone was watching you from outside..."

Sophie spoke softly, "But you always thought that window was just a frame for a portrait..."

"..."

"who……"

She blinked, her expression suddenly freezing, and Serafina's voice trembled as she spoke, "The protagonist of the story is the protagonist, what do you mean 'me'? I've always been a terrible writer, I'm not cut out to be a writer..."

In order to get rid of the label, she even brought up her own shameful past, and this horror story did have some effect on Serafina.

Li Xiaoen couldn't help but laugh out loud twice, and the other girls all smiled with their lips pursed.

However, amidst bursts of laughter, they also shifted their positions and leaned closer—Charlotte hugged Victoria's arm tightly, while Seraphina sat next to Sophie. Because Sophie was leaning against Sean Lee, she felt insecure and pulled Mary to her other side.

"Since everyone's so scared, I think we should leave this horror story short play as it is."

Looking around at the group, Li Xiaoen shook his head helplessly.

The suggestion failed to elicit a single response from the girls. After a moment of silence, the group finally broke into a quiet conversation.

"continue……"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Xiaoen felt Victoria shift her position and sit close to him again.

"Let's continue, Sean, why don't you say one?"

On the other side, Serafina chimed in, looking up and waving in their direction.

This person is both bad at the game and loves to play.

Li Xiaoen thought to himself, seeing that the girls around him were all hugging each other tightly, so he simply told them a story he had heard during a late-night chat with his roommates when he was in boarding school in high school.

"Serafina, after you graduated from university and started working..."

"Shut up!"

Before he could finish his first sentence, he was immediately interrupted by Serafina's shout, "You bastard, if you don't know the protagonist's name, why don't you call him Sean?"

"Ok."

Li Xiaoen smiled and shrugged, then continued, "You are..."

In the end, after Li Xiaoen finished telling his story, the entire horror story session ended in a tacit and regretful manner, whether it was because the horror story was too boring or too scary.

Li Xiaoen didn't pay attention; he just noticed the tense and stiff bodies of the girls and figured they were probably the former.

After quickly finishing their barbecue and washing up, the group set up tents by the campfire on the beach in front of the yacht, as had been arranged beforehand.

There were two hats in total, one large and one small. The large one was used by several girls together, and the small one was used by him, the only man.

Just as Sean Lee had finished setting up inside the tent and was about to lie down, Victoria came over with Serafina.

"Sean... how about... how about you come and sleep in one of our tents?"

With her eyes lowered, Victoria stammered as she finished speaking.

"You guys weren't telling scary stories earlier, and now you're scared, are you?"

Seeing the two girls' eyes narrow slightly, Li Xiaoen felt a strange sensation. "There are so many girls in the tent. I'm not afraid at all, but you're scared?"

"We have fans in our tents..."

Serafina looked around at Lee Shawn's tent and muttered to herself.

"..."

"I'm warning you, after you get some sleep and go back tomorrow, you can't falsely accuse anyone..."

Outside the girls' large tent, Li Xiaoen laid out bedding and sleeping bags, sat on them, and looked at the girls who were staring blankly at him, making a pre-emptive statement.

After receiving a few eye rolls, the large tent, which resembled a small command post erected in a military camp, went dark, leaving only faint lights in the four corners and the glow of the campfire outside.

His vision suddenly went dark, and he could hear the breathing of several girls around him. After a long day, even with Li Xiaoen's physical and mental condition, exhaustion inevitably crept over him, and his eyelids quickly became heavy.

Hearing whispers coming from the direction of the girl, Li Xiaoen's consciousness quickly blurred, and he drifted off to sleep.

He had no concept of time while he was asleep, and he didn't know how much time had passed, but he was awakened by a weight pressing down on him.

Startled, Li Xiaoen instinctively reached out and hugged the soft body covered in the sleeping bag, exclaiming in surprise.

"Sufiel?"

Upon hearing this, the body pressing down on him suddenly froze, then silently retreated. Just as he was about to pull open the sleeping bag and leave, Li Xiaoen, puzzled, quickly hugged him tightly again.

His consciousness finally returned, and he caught a whiff of that familiar girl's fragrance. He paused for a moment, then felt a headache coming on. He tentatively spoke in a soft voice.

“Much profit… … ”

Only then did the figure in her arms stop struggling. Just as Li Xiaoen was wondering how to speak, Victoria moved around in the sleeping bag and finally poked her delicate head out.

Under the dim light in the corner, the girl's emerald green eyes were unexpectedly bright, and the grievances and resentment they contained made Li Xiaoen's heart flutter and he was stunned.

"Sorry, I wasn't fully conscious just now."

Li Xiaoen smiled awkwardly, tightening his grip on the girl's slender waist and drawing them closer together.

He felt wronged at this moment. All along, whether it was a night raid or a sneak escape, it was Su Feier who was capable of such things. How could he have known that the obedient and demure lady of the past would also learn to launch a night raid today?

Are you disappointed?

The young man's answer meant a lot. Victoria was intelligent and understood the ways of Lee Shawn and Suffer. She felt a little resentful and lowered her eyes.

"how is this possible?"

Li Xiaoen quickly shook his head, smiled, and leaned down to kiss Victoria's forehead, which was hidden beneath her disheveled long hair. "I was surprised, but also delighted..." (End of Chapter)