Summer lengthened the daylight hours, and the setting sun faded weakly.

The reluctant sunset stretched the shadows of houses and trees into long silhouettes, gilding them with golden radiance—tired, quiet… A car sped past, stirring up waste paper and plastic bags from the roadside, bringing brief clamor to this tranquility.

The Jeep slowly decelerated, finally stopping behind a congested road.

“Lu Ang, Su Man, you two go up ahead and see how far the jam extends,” Yan Qingwen ordered. “If the distance isn’t long, we’ll move some cars. If it’s too long, we’ll take a different route.”

The fat uncle and the red-clothed woman got out of the car upon hearing this, each taking weapons to scout ahead.

Yan Qingwen took out a map to study. The man and woman in the back seat also got out of the car, saying, “Yan Ge, we’ll go look around nearby to see if there’s any water.”

Their food supplies were still plentiful, but clean drinking water was never something to have too much of.

“Don’t go too far. Zhu Shu’s injury just healed,” Yan Qingwen lightly instructed.

“Got it.” The man walked off cheerfully with the woman.

The pair hadn’t been gone long when the fat uncle Lu Ang and the red-clothed woman Su Man returned.

“What’s the road condition up ahead?” Yan Qingwen asked them.

Lu Ang wiped the sweat from his face, his thick beard also glistening with perspiration, and shook his head. “The jam isn’t that long, but there are dolls. Nine times out of ten it’ll trigger a game. We’d better take a detour.”

Su Man got in the car and noticed the back seat was empty. “Where did Li Li and Zhu Shu go?”

Lu Ang laughed. “Where could those two go? On a date, of course! Clingy all day long—taking advantage of us being away, they finally caught a chance to get cozy! Hahaha!”

Su Man’s expression turned ugly. She frowned at Yan Qingwen. “Yan Ge, why don’t you control them either?”

Yan Qingwen continued looking at the map without changing expression. “Why should I control them? They’re in their twenties, not three-year-olds.”

Su Man pressed her lips together, still unhappy, and said sullenly, “What if they encounter danger…”

“Aiya! If you care about him so much, just go check on them~” Lu Ang said bluntly, completely unabashed. “Clearly you like him in your heart, but you refuse to say it. Now look what happened—someone else intercepted him halfway~”

Su Man glared fiercely at the fat man. “Who likes him?! I’m just worried that if something happens to those two, they’ll drag us down instead!”

The fat uncle picked at his ear. “Fine, fine, fine, whatever you say…”

“Yan Ge!!!”

A shout came from the distance.

The three people in the car turned their heads to look, seeing a man and woman hurrying toward them.

Yan Qingwen frowned slightly and opened the door to get out.

“What’s going on?”

“Yan Ge, quickly… quickly look over there!” Li Li was breathing unevenly, pointing into the distance. “Hangzhou’s fog is gone!”

“Huh?” Lu Ang laughed loudly, his laughter like thunder. “Li Li, did you get heatstroke and your eyes are playing tricks on you? Hahaha!…”

“If you don’t believe me, look for yourself!” Li Li pushed the woman beside him forward. “Zhu Shu saw it too! We were just on that building over there and saw it crystal clear!”

The petite young woman nodded, stroking her chest and taking small breaths. “It’s really gone… There was originally a huge mass of fog, and now it’s gone.”

Yan Qingwen frowned, went back to the car to get binoculars, stepped onto the car roof, and looked toward Hangzhou’s direction.

The other few people gathered around, asking him, “How is it? Is it really gone?”

Yan Qingwen looked for a while, lowered the binoculars, and his expression shifted with uncertain emotions. “…It seems someone completed Hangzhou’s maze.”

Li Li said, “We didn’t notice anyone else when we completed it. If they entered the maze after us, that means the completion time didn’t exceed 4 hours! How is that possible?!”

Yan Qingwen looked up and asked, “How long did we take?”

Li Li answered, “6 hours and 27 minutes.”

“That can’t be real…” Lu Ang said. “Only used half our time?”

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

In their minds, they simultaneously thought of several faces…