“The third piece of information is my own personal lead.” Bai Youwei continued. “Although after the second round of voting, the two of them never met face-to-face again, the truth is that Xufang He and the Black man did have two indirect points of contact.”

Everyone stared at her blankly.

Bai Youwei had no interest in keeping them in suspense—she gave the answer directly:

“The first was when the Black man wrote the numbers on a slip of paper and had someone deliver it over.

The second was when Xufang He crossed off the yellow-eye numbers and sent the paper back.

I suspect it was at that moment that Xufang He hid insect eggs inside the paper. When the Black man opened the paper to look at the numbers, his skin made contact with the eggs. The eggs entered his body, hatched after several hours, and became the toxic moths—what Xufang He calls ‘divine punishment.'”

Bai Youwei raised one finger and waggled it gently:

“In summary: to avoid the so-called ‘divine punishment,’ all you need to do is keep your distance from Xufang He.

Before the next vote, everyone would do best to stay inside their own rooms with windows and doors shut tight, not make contact with any other person, and not touch any suspicious objects. That’s all it takes to avoid being subject to ‘divine punishment.’

So in the next round, you can vote without fear. There’s truly no need to be scared of him.”

After she finished speaking, everyone was left in a kind of daze.

So that was it…

That was all it was…

Just stay far away from Xufang He?

After Bai Youwei’s methodical process of unraveling each thread, when they looked back on the wariness they had felt toward Xufang He just moments ago, it suddenly seemed laughable.

“So he’s nothing special after all,” someone muttered. “All that mystique was just a performance.”

“That’s right,” another said with a burst of righteous indignation. “Next round, let’s send him packing!”

The short-haired woman looked at Bai Youwei, then at the others, and struck while the iron was hot: “Xufang He is very likely the X-guest! As long as we eliminate him next round, we can win this qualifying round—and we’ll get to split the losers’ items and puzzle pieces!”

Items. And puzzle pieces!

A game of 30 players, narrowed down to a final 5. The winning 5 got to divide the items and puzzle pieces of all 25 losers!

In an instant, morale surged. Smiles of relief appeared on every face.

Bai Youwei’s expression remained exactly as unaffected as ever.

It was like a magic trick, she thought—when you couldn’t see through it, it felt so astonishing, the magician seemed so impressive. But once you knew the key to it, it felt utterly mundane. Nothing special about it at all…

“If no one has any issues, everyone go back and rest.” Bai Youwei said coolly. “Remember—don’t make contact with anyone.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The short-haired woman was about to leave when Bai Youwei called out to her: “Stay a moment.”

The short-haired woman asked: “What is it?”

“Come with me to find the blue-eye people.” Bai Youwei said. “We need to canvass for votes.”

……

Bai Youwei brought the short-haired woman along to find Fang Yu and Yu Chaohui.

Even though those two had already refused her, she still wanted to try once more—lay out the circumstances clearly, and perhaps their stance might soften somewhat.

Hadn’t the red-eye players resisted cooperation at first too? She’d talked all of them around in the end.

Bai Youwei figured it was nothing she couldn’t handle. As long as she analyzed the situation clearly for those two, plus Shen Mo’s personal connection with them, she was confident she could win them over.

She and the short-haired woman first went to Yu Chaohui’s room. No one was there.

Then they went to Fang Yu’s room. Voices could be faintly heard from inside.

She knocked on the door. Fang Yu’s voice came from within, sharp-edged: “Who’s there?!”

Bai Youwei was slightly taken aback—she hadn’t expected him to be so on guard. She couldn’t help but frown, and then tested cautiously: “Regarding the next round of voting, I’d like to speak with you both. Could you open the door?”

There was no response from inside.

The short-haired woman pressed her ear against the door with suspicion, then gave Bai Youwei a gentle shake of her head, dropping her voice low: “There are people in there…”

Quite a few, in fact.

—