Besides three bedrooms, the second floor also had a small study.

The study was small, but it held no small number of books. To read through them one by one — forget twenty-four hours, even twenty-four days might not be enough.

As early as the initial search of the house, Teacher Cheng had already flipped through more than ten of them.

The books in the study were a varied assortment — Chinese, English, even some in Latin, which was completely unreadable. They could only skim through them roughly.

While the others were upstairs searching through books, the people still in the attic kept puzzling over that strange nursery rhyme: Summer rain is so big, it’s pitch black and I can’t see where the treasure is…

Li Li spoke weakly: “Is there any chance it’s on the first floor?… The lights down there have all gone out now, which fits the ‘pitch black’ description.”

Bai Youwei frowned slightly, not agreeing with his reasoning. “The first floor is flooded — no light, and it’s underwater. There’s no way to search it.”

“What about a flashlight?” Li Li asked.

Bai Youwei was about to say that using a flashlight would eliminate the ‘pitch black’ feature of the environment — and besides, their flashlights weren’t waterproof. If they could only shine them across the water’s surface, visibility would be extremely limited. Treasure shouldn’t be hidden somewhere players could never find.

But… Li Li had only put forward a hypothesis. She shouldn’t extinguish even this sliver of hope — it was at least worth trying.

Thinking this through, Bai Youwei closed her mouth before it had fully opened.

She considered a moment and changed her question: “Where is the inspector right now?”

“Not sure,” Yan Qingwen said. “Haven’t seen it since the first floor flooded.”

Bai Youwei’s frown deepened.

All that talk of providing guidance and hints the whole way through, and now, barely into the second round, it had vanished without a trace. Truly a useless piece of trash.

She was a little thirsty, and remembered that all the food and water were on the first floor — now with nothing to eat and nothing to drink. Her mood grew more restless and irritable by the minute. She could only endure it, close her eyes, and force herself to calm down.

The attic light was dim and sallow.

Time passed second by second…

About forty minutes later, the searches of both the second floor and the attic concluded. Having already been turned over several times before, another thorough search still yielded nothing new.

Everyone except Bai Youwei and the injured Li Li and Lu Ang had gone to the study, joining Teacher Cheng in looking through books, hoping to find some clue.

Reading was painstaking work.

Because the answer to clearing the level might be hidden in just one book, one page, one fragment of a sentence.

The waiting had gone on too long — Bai Youwei fell asleep.

When she woke, the windows outside were still pitch black. The rain had not stopped.

Li Li had recovered enough to sit up. He couldn’t make large movements, but with a hand on the wall, he could manage a few shuffling steps.

He refused to sit and wait for death. He had Su Man bring over a dozen or so books from the study, and read slowly through them in the attic.

Lu Ang was bored lying there with nothing to do, so he took one to read as well. Though his leg wound had healed, the bone inside hadn’t set properly — it ached and throbbed with an intense pain.

He’d hoped reading would distract him from the pain in his leg, but rather than helping, the book had given him a headache on top of it.

Lu Ang sighed in exasperation.

Bai Youwei glanced at him. “What’s the matter — afraid you’ll end up lame?”

Lu Ang: “…”

He reflexively glanced down at Bai Youwei’s legs.

“What are you looking at me for? Don’t worry — if you end up lame, I’ll split my supply of adult diapers with you.” Bai Youwei looked him up and down. “Though you’d have to lose some weight first, otherwise they won’t fit.”

The comment lodged in Lu Ang’s throat, leaving half his face a mottled mix of red and blue — the other half was hidden behind his thick beard, color unknown.

He thought back to the first time he’d met Bai Youwei, when he had carelessly mocked her for being lame — and now, fate had come full circle, and he too was…

Sigh.

Lu Ang’s feelings were complicated.

“Ah!”

Li Li suddenly cried out: “Come look at this, everyone!”

Everyone startled — people came running from upstairs and down —

Li Li, forgetting his injuries, raised the book in his hand and announced, “It’s written here! The water monster likes to hoard shiny things!”

—