Su Man knew her outburst had been misplaced.

Both in manner and in target.

She shouldn’t have lost her temper at Lu Yuwen. The labyrinth had simply kept her confined for far too long, and the anxiety had set in — she was worried about her friends, she missed her family… all those feelings had been building up, and they’d found their release in this untimely eruption.

Looking back on it, Lu Yuwen was completely innocent in all of this. He’d been actively coming up with strategies the whole time, and yet he still had to endure the reproaches of both her and Zhang Ke.

After she’d cooled down, Su Man felt she ought to go and apologize to Lu Yuwen — but she had always been too proud to bow her head before anyone, other than Bai Youwei.

She was still thinking this over when the tent flap behind her was pushed aside and Lu Yuwen came in.

“Su Man, I’m sorry about what I said earlier…”

He opened quite naturally, apologizing to Su Man:

“The reason I said what I did wasn’t to question your abilities — it came from concern for you. I believe that if your friends and family were here, they would never want you to get in the water either, because anyone who truly cares about you would be unwilling to see you bear any risk — even the smallest risk is too much.”

Lu Yuwen sighed. “Su Man — I care about your safety just as much as your friends do.”

Su Man’s face turned faintly red.

Those words were just a little too well said. She was almost embarrassed to hear them…

The ever-stiff-spined Su Man yielded for the first time in her life, stumbling over the words: “Actually, actually I was out of line too. I… my temper runs too hot — just now, I didn’t mean to take it out on you…”

“It’s fine — now that things have been explained, it’s water under the bridge.” Lu Yuwen said warmly. “What we need to focus on now is how to get out of the labyrinth as quickly as possible.”

Su Man thought what Lu Yuwen said was exactly right.

She nodded immediately in agreement.

Lu Yuwen added: “Tomorrow, Zhang Ke definitely won’t dive in of his own accord. It’ll probably still fall to you to go in first.”

Su Man gave a resolute nod. “Whether he helps or not doesn’t matter — I can handle it on my own!”

“No, that’s not what I mean…” Lu Yuwen laughed in spite of himself and explained: “If Zhang Ke sees you managing to redirect the arrows all by yourself, he definitely won’t lend a hand for any of the others. So after you go in tomorrow, make a show of struggling — pretend you can’t find the arrows. Force him to get in the water himself. We can’t let him sit back and get something for nothing. Understood?”

Su Man couldn’t help but ask: “What if Zhang Ke can’t find the arrows either?”

“He will.” Lu Yuwen’s gaze deepened, taking on a dim gravity in the low light of the tent. “He’ll find them. If you’re worried he can’t manage it on his own, you can help him — but you must enter the water in the order I’ve arranged. Understood?”

Su Man thought it over, then nodded. “Understood.”

Lu Yuwen smiled that warm, gentle smile again. “Get some rest. Good night.”

Su Man smiled back at him. “Good night.”

In her heart, she felt settled and at ease — and she thought to herself that being able to run into someone like this, here in the labyrinth, truly was a wonderful thing.

……

The next morning, with the sunlight falling fair and bright, Su Man and Lu Yuwen set off.

And so did Zhang Ke.

Following the planned route, they quickly assembled two more squares and arrived at the edge of Yunlong Lake.

To tell the truth, if Lu Yuwen hadn’t warned them beforehand, neither Su Man nor Zhang Ke would have seen anything wrong with the squares along the lakeside.

The square that should have belonged to the old course of the Yellow River had somehow been shifted to this location, and because the terrain was so very low, four-fifths of it was submerged under the waters of Yunlong Lake — at a glance, it just looked like a grassy slope at the lakeside.

Su Man gazed at the shimmering water, drew a long, deep breath.

Lu Yuwen reminded her: “For this first dive, don’t do anything — just get a feel for how deep the water is. We’ll discuss everything else carefully after you come back up.”

Su Man nodded, took off her shoes, and waded barefoot step by step into the water…