He had been right here helping with the traps just a moment ago — and now he was nowhere to be seen.

Yan Qingwen was aware of Shen Mo’s wariness. Seeing Shen Mo’s expression grow grim, he walked over and said quietly, “Should we go check on her?”

Shen Mo glanced toward the clock tower. “No need. She’ll handle it.”

……

The clock tower wasn’t too far from the carousel.

Following the small path paved in red tiles straight ahead, one came upon a flower garden, with four arched bridges extending to each of the tower’s four sides.

The upward slope of the arched bridge was somewhat taxing in the wheelchair, so Bai Youwei simply got out, braced herself on her crutches, and walked forward.

She noticed that the shadow on the ground had grown longer by one additional shape. She stopped, turned her head — the man behind her was already less than ten meters away.

Bai Youwei’s brow creased. “Stay away from me.”

Jiang Hao smiled pleasantly. “I saw you coming this way alone… so I followed to check on you. Need any help?”

His manner seemed friendly, but carried a pervasive undercurrent of dominance — and his steps closing in on her never paused for a single moment.

The corners of Bai Youwei’s mouth curved into a cold, mocking smile.

She knew perfectly well what his intentions were.

He had probably been waiting for this opportunity, growing increasingly impatient. After all, once night fell, everyone would scatter, and Mary and the cat would wake up — after that, “killing someone to seize their treasure” would become exponentially more difficult.

Since his goal wasn’t to clear the game, there was no need to wait until night and take unnecessary risks. It was best to claim what he wanted during the day, and then find the right moment to use a puzzle piece to leave the game.

Of course, if he could get all the other players killed before he left — even better. That way, no one would be around to expose his disguise.

Like that white-gloved man who had come out of the game last time.

Jiang Hao continued to close the distance.

Bai Youwei watched him with cold, composed eyes.

She found herself mildly curious — just what kind of item were those white gloves? Why were they so powerful? Of the ten people who had entered the game last time, every single one had died except for the man wearing the white gloves…

“Youwei! It’s so high up here! And there’s a telescope!”

Tan Xiao suddenly burst out of the clock tower and, seeing Jiang Hao, couldn’t help doing a double-take.

He asked bluntly, “Hey! What are you doing here? What, you’re trying to slack off and skip the work?”

Jiang Hao was briefly taken aback, then smiled calmly. “I couldn’t do much on their end, so I came to check in.”

He continued walking toward Bai Youwei, and raised both hands slightly — hands that were encased in white gloves.

—

Bai Youwei smiled again.

How interesting.

— Even having seen Tan Xiao come down from the clock tower, he still refused to abandon her as his target. It seemed Tan Xiao posed absolutely no deterrent to him — at least in the eyes of this man called Jiang Hao, Tan Xiao was not worth fearing in the slightest.

She found herself even more curious.

Just how powerful were those white gloves? Powerful enough to give him the confidence to take on two people at once?

As the distance closed, the fuzzy rabbit perched on Bai Youwei’s shoulder lifted its head, its small bead-black eyes silently fixed on the man.

Jiang Hao faltered.

For much of the time, this rabbit had served the function of looking adorable on Bai Youwei, so Jiang Hao had no clear understanding of its true capabilities.

He hesitated.

Even though he was confident he could deal with both people at once, an unforeseen item had now appeared — and he had to proceed with caution.

“Jiang Hao? What are you doing here?”

Shen Fei walked up in surprise, then spotted Tan Xiao, and immediately couldn’t help frowning. “Why are you all here? They’re swamped over at the carousel — aren’t you going to help?”

Tan Xiao protested his innocence: “I was going to help! But they said I was making things worse, not better, and told me to stop. I had nothing to do, so I came over to help Youwei survey the terrain!”

Shen Fei: “……”

Jiang Hao smiled at them. “I’ll head back then. I was worried that Miss Bai had no one with her, but since you’re both here, I’ll go lend a hand.”

With that, he tucked both hands into his trouser pockets and walked away at an unhurried pace.

Bai Youwei felt a twinge of regret.

She had almost gotten a glimpse of his true colors. But she was certain… very soon, he would make his move again.

—