Jeffrey, who was doing a "fake plank" under the bed, saw a pair of red high heels walk over to the dressing table. After a messy rummaging, it seemed she found a small medicine bottle. There was the crisp sound of pills being poured out, followed by the sound of swallowing.

Immediately after,

there was a series of relieved breaths.

Jeffrey saw the woman's high heels pause in front of the dressing table for a long time. Then, the woman stood up, and the heels began to move.

"Ring ring... ring ring..."

The phone started ringing.

The high heels left the bedside and walked toward the coffee table under the window, where the phone was placed.

The woman answered the call:

"Yes, yes."

"Mm, mm."

"I was originally planning to go with them, but I suddenly felt unwell and had to come back to take my medicine. Let them go tonight, I'll just rest at home."

"It's fine, don't worry, thank you for your concern, I'm doing well."

The woman hung up the phone, turned around, and walked toward the bed.

"Clunk."

She stepped on the backs of her shoes and slipped them off, the high heels almost dropping right in front of Jeffrey, so close that he could even smell the scent from the shoes.

Then, the bed shook a little—

The woman must have lain down directly on the bed,

letting out a long, comfortable sigh.

Clearly,

after finishing her shift during the day, away from family activities with her husband and child, she could finally enjoy a moment of peace—even if it was because of her health, it still felt quite pleasant.

Under the bed, Jeffrey began to think about what he should do.

He was starting to regret not having covered his face in advance. If he had known only the woman would come home, he could have masked up and scared her into staying still, then left.

He believed that a woman alone wouldn't dare to act rashly, and since he hadn't had time to steal anything yet, maybe... she would prefer to avoid trouble and not even call the police!

But, that was just wishful thinking.

Even now, knowing there was only a woman lying on the bed, Jeffrey didn't have the courage to crawl out and threaten her.

Jeffrey opened his mouth as wide as possible, trying to breathe deeply and silently to ease his nerves.

Wait for the woman to fall asleep, wait for her to fall asleep,

Once she was asleep, before her husband and child came back, he could quietly slip out from under the bed and leave safely without alerting anyone.

The woman lying on the bed was humming a song, and the sound of flipping book pages came from her hands.

Damn it, why aren't you going to sleep yet?

Jeffrey had no idea how long the woman above had been reading, because lying under the bed, he had lost all sense of time.

Finally,

"Snap."

Jeffrey heard the sound of the book being closed.

The woman got out of bed,

barefoot.

She started walking toward the bedroom door, yawning as she went.

Was she going to take a shower?

Jeffrey felt a surge of joy.

He could slip away while she was in the shower!

However,

to Jeffrey's disappointment, he only heard a "click" as the woman came back, followed by the static of the radio.

"Creak..."

The woman lay back on the bed and picked up her book.

Light music began to play from the radio, and the woman hummed along.

Damn it, is she really going to wait for her husband and child to come back before sleeping?

A song ended,

and a man's voice came from the radio:

"After a short break, welcome back to the Luo Jia Storytime. Let's continue the story we were just telling. Our heroine, Catherine, is lying on the bed, holding a book, listening to music, enjoying this brief moment of leisure at night;

In fact, she has always envied other full-time housewives, because for a woman, having to work outside and also take care of the house and children is truly exhausting."

"Sigh..."

Jeffrey heard the woman on the bed let out a sigh, as if she shared a similar experience.

However,

just then,

the words from the radio

made Jeffrey's hair stand on end!

"But what Catherine doesn't know is that, while she's lying on the bed enjoying this rare peace, actually, under her bed, at this very moment, there is someone lying there..."

"..." Jeffrey.

"..." The woman.

The sighs and the sound of flipping pages from the bed abruptly stopped.

The radio also went silent, as if the signal was bad or the old radio had malfunctioned, and static filled the air again.

Jeffrey's heart was now in his throat; he felt that the unnaturally quiet atmosphere made it hard for him to even breathe.

"Heh heh... haha..."

From the bed

came the woman's laughter, as if she was trying to ease her own embarrassment—of course, mainly to dispel the oppressive feeling of "scaring herself."

If the situation allowed, Jeffrey really wanted to laugh along:

See, madam, don't listen to that bastard on the radio—how could there possibly be someone under your bed!

However,

just then,

Jeffrey saw a foot slowly reach down.