Chapter 59: Deployment

After seeing the message, Wuming sat up abruptly and started typing at lightning speed.

【When?】

【The day after tomorrow, starting from 00:00 until the first rays of morning sunlight appear.】

The day after tomorrow…

Wuming couldn’t help but start worrying. 

It wasn’t because she feared her own house would become a target, but because of… Serena.

【You haven’t told Serena yet, right?】

Wuming sent the message, and Crosti replied instantly.

【Not yet. It’s better not to tell her about this, so I sent it to you first.】

This matched Wuming’s own thinking exactly. They both hoped Serena wouldn’t find out, in case she reacted badly.

【Thanks for the heads-up, Crosti. I’ll get ready.】

She saw Crosti send a thumbs-up emoji. 

Even though she had received advance notice, Wuming still felt puzzled. 

Why is it happening so suddenly?

【Why did it start so soon? Didn’t they say it would be delayed?】

【To be precise, it’s not exactly the full Scarlet Night. Remember that higher-level organization I mentioned?】

Of course Wuming remembered—especially since she had even met one of their members, Lu Muzhe.

【Does this have something to do with their organization and Scarlet Night?】 Wuming asked, confused.

【I heard it’s because those people are dissatisfied with Scarlet and plan to make a move against them. So they’re going all out with a Scarlet Night to fight to the death.】

This caught Wuming by surprise. From the sound of it, they weren’t targeting Serena at all—it was just internal conflict between organizations.

Still, she had to stay on guard. No one knew what might happen in the middle of all this. Wuming only hoped it wouldn’t spill over to her side.

If they could take down those Scarlet bastards, that would be the best possible outcome.

After exchanging a few more quick replies, Wuming turned off her phone, got out of bed, walked to the window, and pulled back the curtain. 

She stared up at the bright full moon hanging high in the sky and fell into deep thought.

Scarlet Night…

What will the day after tomorrow be like?

Wuming glanced down at her phone. It was 23:59. That meant…

When the time on her screen hit 24:00, it would officially be the day Scarlet Night began.

Wuming closed the curtain again, then unconsciously opened her phone once more and found Lu Muzhe’s contact.

In her opinion, keeping a hitman’s contact information wasn’t a bad idea—as long as Lu Muzhe was on her side. 

She hadn’t deleted him; he was still sitting right there in her friend list.

At least for now, it looked that way.

She really wanted to ask him for more details about tomorrow night, but after thinking it over for a long time, she gave up on the idea.

Next, Wuming turned on the light and stood in front of her wall of figurines, carefully considering which ones she would use tomorrow night to protect both Serena and her home.

This was going to be a major operation. 

The amount of blood it would cost would definitely be far more than when she had saved Serena last time. Wuming was certain of that.

But for Serena’s sake, she decided to go through with it anyway. 

Spending some blood was nothing compared to doing nothing at all. 

After all, Serena had run into her.

The next day, everything still appeared calm and peaceful on the surface.

Wuming didn’t have work today so she could prepare for tonight.

Serena still hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

After finishing lunch, Wuming began setting up the house’s defenses. The first step was scouting locations.

“I’m heading out, Serena. Keep an eye on the house for me.”

“Okay~ Be careful on the way.”

Serena waved goodbye while clearing her daily game quests.

“Don’t sneak out while I’m gone.”

With that, Wuming left the house. Her last words before leaving made Serena sense something was off!

Normally when Wuming went out, she never said anything like that. Why was today so different?!

That morning Wuming had already been dropping hints that Serena shouldn’t go outside today. 

At first Serena hadn’t thought much of it, but now she finally felt something was wrong!

It felt like Wuming was hiding something from her—something she couldn’t tell her about.

But now that Wuming had already left, there was no way for Serena to pry. 

She could only wait until she came back to ask.

Switching perspective to Wuming—

As the saying went, the higher you stand, the farther you can see. 

Wuming wanted to position snipers around the house to prevent any intrusions. 

For that, she needed to find suitable spots for them.

The ideal locations were rooftops. 

Right now Wuming was looking for several good vantage points that offered clear views of her house so she could place personnel there. As for the “personnel”…

Alice, Little Red Riding Hood, Black Widow, Miss Springfield, and Miss Teacher—which of them wasn’t a sniper?

She arrived at the rooftop of a building she had chosen. 

From here she could see her house perfectly. It was an excellent spot for one sniper.

This one will do. Place one here.

Wuming made a mental note, then checked several more buildings and marked down a few additional positions.

She spent the entire afternoon doing this.

After finishing her scouting, Wuming sat on a bench by the roadside, munching on a steamed bun she had just bought while watching the bustling crowd pass by.

It was almost five o’clock now, and the streets were getting crowded. 

After a whole afternoon of scouting, she had a rough plan in mind.

She felt her deployment should be airtight. It was time to prepare. She needed to head back and check on things.

Wuming finished the bun in her hand and returned home. 

The moment she opened the door, she saw Serena sitting on the sofa with a gloomy face, clearly sulking again.

“Why did you take so long to come back?”

As soon as Wuming walked in, Serena complained in a pouty voice. She had been waiting the whole time, yet Wuming had been gone for ages.

“Didn’t I say I had something to take care of?”

“But you were gone forever!”

“Can’t be helped. It was really important.”

Wuming didn’t even bother changing out of her clothes before reverting to her usual form and sitting down with Serena.

“So what was this super important thing that kept you busy until now?”

Of course Wuming wasn’t going to tell her the truth. She didn’t want Serena to worry, so she chose to keep quiet.

“It’s a secret.”

Seeing that Wuming refused to tell her, Serena glared at her with puffed-out cheeks. 

The more secretive Wuming acted, the more it piqued Serena’s curiosity. What on earth is something she can’t tell me about?!

…Wait a second!

Could it be that she—!!!

She actually went on a date with Crosti?!

Coming back so late and refusing to say where she went—could it be that she went on a date with Crosti?! 

An unrealistic guess popped into Serena’s mind.

Was that the “important thing” Wuming had mentioned?!

Serena didn’t know why her thoughts had gone there. 

Even she felt it was impossible, yet the idea refused to leave her head.

We’re best friends!  

Crosti would never do something like that, right?!

“What’s wrong, Serena?”

Wuming had noticed something off about Serena from the moment she walked in. 

It looked like she was thinking hard about something, which made Wuming a little wary. 

She suspected Serena might have figured something out, so she asked.

“You… you didn’t go on a date with Crosti, did you?”

Serena looked like she was worried she might have been cuckolded. 

She couldn’t believe she had actually asked the question out loud.

Looking into those clear but foolish eyes, Wuming let out a long, drawn-out “Hah—???”

What is going on inside this loli’s little head? How could she even think something like that?!

They were dealing with a life-and-death situation right now, yet this girl was worried about getting NTR’d?

“Why would you even think that?”

Wuming asked, puzzled.

“Because… Crosti hasn’t come over these past two days, and you said it was some big important thing, so I thought…”

“So you thought we went on a date?”

Wuming watched Serena nod and for a moment didn’t know what to say.

As the saying went, a gentleman acts rather than speaks. 

So Wuming simply reached out and flicked Serena’s forehead, making her yelp in pain and clutch her head.

“Why don’t you use that wild imagination to write novels instead? You’re totally wasting your talent.”

Wuming said grumpily, then reached out to gently rub the spot she had just flicked.

“Stop thinking about nonsense like that. I would never do something like this.”

Wuming said helplessly. She withdrew her hand from Serena’s head and instead took hold of her hand.

“I already have enough trouble with you around. I couldn’t handle another one.”

“You— who are you calling trouble?!!”

Serena immediately started throwing another tantrum. Wuming decided to get back to work.

“You just keep playing your game. I still have stuff left to finish.”

“You’re not done yet?” Serena asked, disappointed, pulling her hand back. She had thought Wuming was finally free to spend time with her.

Wuming leaned in and suddenly hugged Serena.

“It’s going to be really busy today, so I won’t be able to keep you company for now. But remember—I’ll always be right by your side.”

With that, Wuming let go of her, returned to her own room, locked the door, and began the next stage of preparations.

She took out the blood-drawing needles and test tubes she had bought earlier and followed the hospital procedure to draw her own blood.

Find the vein… then insert the needle…

Even Wuming hadn’t expected that watching those blood-draw videos would actually come in handy one day.

Sure enough, learning a little bit of everything really was useful.

Soon she had drawn two tubes of blood. 

According to what her mom had said, it would take at least half a year to recover from losing this much.

That was just what her mom had told her—Wuming herself didn’t actually know how long it would really take.

Pressing a cotton swab to her arm, Wuming let out a soft “Hah…” 

The sudden wave of blood-loss fatigue washed over her entire body, making her feel exhausted.

Still, compared to when she had first saved Serena, the feeling was noticeably lighter this time. After resting for just a short while, Wuming returned to normal.

Holding the two tubes of blood, she turned her gaze back to the figurines and began selecting them like she was choosing imperial concubines.

Alice… Miss Teacher… Little Red Riding Hood…

She placed the chosen figurines into a box, changed clothes, and—under Serena’s puzzled stare—carried the box downstairs to the first floor. 

She then went to the spots she had scouted earlier and set everything up.

The whole process took nearly two hours before she finally finished placing them all.

Tomorrow she would still need to go back to those locations to retrieve the figurines.

“So tired…”

Wuming lay back on the sofa, tilting her head up with a long sigh. 

After all that work she didn’t even feel like moving anymore—let alone cooking—so she simply ordered takeout.

Now all that was left was to wait for Scarlet Night to end.