“Will we succeed this time?” Su Man stared out at the overflowing water beyond the window, anxious and restless. “This is our last chance… If we get it wrong again, this place will be flooded too.”

Nobody spoke.

A dead silence hung over the room.

After a while, Li Li opened his mouth: “If we still can’t clear it… Lu Ang, give my puzzle piece to Su Man. Take Su Man and get out of here with Yan Ge. The research data is all in the bag anyway; just take it directly to Professor Song. Whether I’m there or not doesn’t matter…”

“What do you mean by that?” Su Man’s face darkened immediately. “You want to stay here with Zhu Shu? What for? You’ve only known each other for a few days, and already you want to share life and death together?”

Li Li said, irritated, “Can you give it a rest?! Are you saying you want me to leave my puzzle piece to Zhu Shu and go face life and death with you instead? And then I’d just get yelled at again — accused of caring only about the white lotus and not about whether you live or die, right?!”

Su Man was livid: “Who asked you to do that?! You couldn’t just keep the puzzle piece for yourself?!”

“Keep it for myself? Zhu Shu just saved me — am I really going to run off on my own and leave her here alone? What kind of a man would that make me?!”

“You say it all comes back to her! You just want to be with her!”

“You are completely unreasonable! You’re deranged! You’re out of your mind!”

The two of them quarreled away as usual.

The others remained silent.

Normally someone would have thrown in a word or two to smooth things over — but now everyone had their own worries and no heart for it. They let the two of them argue on and on.

Until the water surface rippled, and with a rushing splash —

Shen Mo and Yan Qingwen were back.

Everyone looked over at once.

Yan Qingwen caught his breath and gave them a firm nod. “That’s the one. It’s the light bulb.”

One simple sentence — but it was like a royal pardon.

Everyone exhaled at once.

Shen Mo produced the bulb from the storage room for everyone to see.

It was a small, oval-shaped bulb.

Unlike ordinary bulbs, from the base of this one extended several hair-like black filaments — like hair, yet thicker than hair, resembling outgrown nerve fibers.

And that wasn’t all.

Shen Mo had also found an entire box of light bulbs in the storage room.

This box of bulbs was what had actually been meant for use in the storage room. When they’d searched the house earlier, everyone had come across the box — but no one had thought anything of it, assuming it was just a box of replacement bulbs.

The answer had been right in front of them all along.

Everyone looked at each other, seeing in one another’s faces: astonishment, doubt, hesitation…

“If this time too is wrong…” Li Li’s expression was tense.

“It won’t be wrong.” Shen Mo cut him off. Gripping the bulb, he paused for two seconds, then said suddenly, “Come in, then, guest.”

Li Li’s face changed dramatically. “Hey! We’re not ready yet!!!”

“What do you have to prepare?” Shen Mo asked.

“I! …” Li Li choked.

He… truly had nothing to prepare right now.

As for injuries — the ones that should have healed already were mostly better; the ones that shouldn’t have healed yet certainly weren’t going to heal anytime soon.

As for defenses — the attic had only half a floor left; once the water surged in there was nowhere to defend.

And speaking of water — the water was already coming — every time they invited the guest in, the water level rose a notch, as if to make it easier for that monster fish to approach them.

The water came surging in with a rush.

Flooding the floor, rising past the ankle, rising past the shin… everyone stood up.

Teacher Cheng and Tan Xiao each took one of Bai Youwei’s arms to support her.

Shen Mo looked at her.

Bai Youwei gave him an almost imperceptible nod.

Shen Mo looked away, his gaze returning to the churning water surface.

The waves surged violently; the attic’s wall lamps finally went out too, leaving only a small light at the top of the room, and a few flashlight beams illuminating the surroundings.

After a series of lurching, banging crashes, the massive fish monster, drawn to the light source, arrived at the edge of the attic —

—