Bai Youwei had no idea what kind of trouble she’d stirred up among the game’s inspectors.

She slept soundly through the night, received a good-morning-kiss buff in the morning, and was feeling more radiant and full of energy than ever.

The only thing that put a damper on her mood was seeing that hand in the dining room.

Because every time she saw that severed hand, she was reminded of the reward she had missed out on.

The hand was sitting on a chair.

Last night Bai Youwei had forbidden it from getting on the floor, so it had spent the entire night on the chair, rolling back and forth like a bored hamster, picking the fuzz off the chair cushion bit by bit.

A layer of fine fluff had fallen onto the floor below the chair.

Bai Youwei was quite certain: if left on that chair for a month, it could bore a hole straight through the wooden seat, let alone the cushion.

“Forget it.” Bai Youwei sighed. She shouldn’t hold any expectations for something like this. “Come down.”

The hand slid off the chair with a whoosh!

It seemed quite afraid of Bai Youwei — the moment it was off the chair, it scurried back behind the refrigerator.

Bai Youwei frowned and commanded: “I’m setting three rules for you!”

“First, no going to the second floor.”

“Second, no damaging anything in this house.”

“Third, wash your hands regularly and stay clean! — If you heard me, go wash your hands right now! I already told you yesterday that behind the refrigerator is filthy!”

The hand crept out, subdued, and crawled over to wash itself.

Shen Mo said with a faint smile, “It seems quite lively. I wonder if it needs to charge.”

“Probably not,” Bai Youwei mused. “Mali’s doll doesn’t charge, so this probably doesn’t either… Though I’m not sure what its energy source is.”

Shen Mo watched the hand crawl away with interest. “Let’s keep it for a few days and see. Maybe we’ll figure something out.”

Bai Youwei gave a soft “mm” of agreement.

With an extra hand in the house, everyone needed to be informed.

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo called Teacher Cheng, Tan Xiao, and Pan Xiaoxin — who’d all stayed outside the night before — into the dollhouse, and very formally introduced them to the hand.

All three were deeply and psychologically disturbed!

The hand was, admittedly, a very lovely hand — pale and soft, with slender fingers and those charming little dimples on the back — but it was still a “severed limb,” crawling back and forth in plain sight before them. The sight of it was, to put it mildly, difficult to describe.

Xiaoxin looked the most distressed. Being a child, encountering something like this was naturally more frightening than for an adult.

Tan Xiao adapted the fastest — being his carefree, scatterbrained self, he actually suggested that in the future, when he had an itch on his back that he couldn’t reach, the hand could help him scratch it.

Teacher Cheng, compassionate soul that he was, found it hard to accept at first — but seeing the hand being ordered about by Bai Youwei at every turn, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for it. He even found a glove for it to use as a “slipper,” so it wouldn’t rub the sofa dirty and get scolded by Bai Youwei again.

The five of them were in the dollhouse discussing how to accommodate this “new member” when Pan Xiaoxin suddenly had a wild idea. He turned to them and said: “Su Man’s hand is injured. If we attached this arm to her, wouldn’t it fit just right?”

The hand shuddered.

“Su Man’s injury hasn’t healed yet?” Bai Youwei was a little surprised.

“Mm.” Pan Xiaoxin nodded. “I heard it from Sister Zhu. She came by early this morning looking for you, but you were in the dollhouse, so she didn’t find you.”

Bai Youwei asked, “Did she say what she was looking for me about?”

“She didn’t say. She saw you weren’t around and just asked us some things about Sister Su Man.” Pan Xiaoxin said earnestly, “Sister Su Man seems to have left the base. Nobody knows where she went. Sister Zhu Shu asked a lot of people, but nobody knows.”

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo exchanged a glance, both puzzled.

Su Man’s family was here, and Li Li was here too — why would she suddenly leave the base?

“Are you sure she left of her own accord?” Bai Youwei asked, frowning. “Could something have happened to her?”

Pan Xiaoxin shook his head blankly. “Sister Zhu didn’t say.”

Bai Youwei thought for a moment, then said to Shen Mo, “Let’s go take a look.”

Zhu Shu and Yan Qingwen lived at the other end of the neighborhood — not far at all. They could just walk over and ask.