“That doesn’t really matter…” Tan Xiao scratched his hair. “Pretty, good figure—that’s what matters. Age is actually irrelevant.”

Bai Youwei’s face darkened.

Teacher Cheng quickly soothed: “A pretty face is like a painted skull—appearances are all temporary. What’s most important for girls is inner beauty. Beauty of the soul is true beauty…”

“…” Bai Youwei’s face darkened even more.

Shen Mo laughed silently on the side. This topic had veered so far off course he couldn’t even pull it back.

As they were chatting, a little boy cautiously approached from not far away. Probably feeling their conversation atmosphere was decent, he timely interjected and asked:

“Excuse me… do you need to buy a map?”

Everyone looked over.

The child was truly small, probably only around ten years old. Being stared at by everyone, his face showed nervousness.

Bai Youwei hadn’t seen a child in a very long time.

Not just children—elderly people like Cheng Weicai were also rare. Of course, disabled people like her were even more uncommon.

“Little friend, are you selling maps?” Teacher Cheng asked him kindly.

The little boy held a map in his hand, hand-drawn in pencil, very detailed, with traces of repeated erasing and revising with an eraser.

“You’re going to enter the maze, right?” The little boy said. “This is a map of the inside of the maze. For just one item, I’ll sell it to you.”

A maze map?

Selling for one item?

Everyone was astonished.

If it were someone else, it would be one thing, but the one doing business was such a small child.

Teacher Cheng couldn’t help but ask, “Little friend, how old are you? What’s your name?”

The little boy didn’t answer. His eyes looked at each of their faces again and again. Finally, probably feeling Shen Mo was the “leader,” he stared at him and asked:

“Do you want the map? I also have a city map with all the game areas marked. With the map, leaving the city will be very safe. The price is also one item. Want it?”

Shen Mo glanced at the map in his hand, his tone flat as he asked, “How do you prove your map is authentic and reliable?”

The little boy pursed his lips with difficulty, seeming to struggle with how to answer.

Bai Youwei propped her chin and studied the child—a chubby little guy with a round head, carrying a backpack, thick eyebrows, small eyes. Quite cute, though a bit sunburned with some reddened skin peeling.

Thinking about it, it was quite pitiful. Previously pampered by family with delicate skin, now his family was probably all gone. At such a young age, he had to learn to support himself.

Half teasing, half testing, she asked him: “Once you enter the maze, you may not be able to get out. No one can prove your map is useful. Why would I trade an item for it? The city map is even more unnecessary. Don’t you know that game areas change?”

The little boy froze. “Game areas change?”

“You didn’t know?” Tan Xiao interjected. “If no players enter a game for seven days, the game area randomly moves. The direction and distance can’t be determined—it automatically locks onto areas where people are concentrated!”

The little boy listened, looking bewildered. After a while, he nodded and murmured: “Oh… in that case, you really don’t need my map…”

His voice was forlorn, making one’s heart ache involuntarily.

Teacher Cheng almost couldn’t restrain himself and was about to pull out his clay doll but was stopped by Shen Mo.

Shen Mo asked the little boy: “What do you want items for? At your age, even if you get items, they’ll quickly be robbed. Your life might even be in danger. Items will only bring you disaster.”

Teacher Cheng heard this and immediately snapped back to reality. Although he hadn’t done anything yet, he broke out in a cold sweat, feeling frightened afterward.

He’d almost harmed this child.

“I want to leave this place.” The little boy’s gaze drifted toward a group of young men not far away. “But without items, I don’t have the qualifications to join Brother Fei’s team.”