Bai Youwei looked around. Slime residue was everywhere — on the deck, on the railings, smeared across every surface.

During the fight, slime from the two fish monsters had splattered indiscriminately.

Even the wheels of her wheelchair were covered in it.

Keeping clean under these conditions was an impossible ideal, yet leaving it untreated carried a very real risk — A’qing’s condition was the most vivid proof of that.

She didn’t want to expose herself, but…

She looked at Ashalina’s anguish, then at the fear and shock on Pan Xiaoxin’s face, and silently weighed the costs and benefits. At last, she came to a decision.

“There’s a place…” Bai Youwei said quietly. “Where we can wash safely.”

…

Bai Youwei opened the dollhouse.

This was the first time she had revealed her secret in front of “outsiders.”

Cheng Weicai was inside the dollhouse and was stunned to see Bai Youwei return with a group of people — especially one who had his hands bound.

“The bathroom is up the stairs and to the right,” Bai Youwei said to Ashalina, gesturing toward the staircase. “To the left is the study — I’ve converted it into a storage room. There are clothes for all four seasons inside, men’s and women’s cuts both, though the sizes may not be a perfect fit. Find something for yourself after you’ve washed up.”

Ashalina looked around. A warm fireplace, a cozy interior — not only was there a plentiful supply of food and water, but this place even had electricity.

The dollhouse was genuinely astonishing. But right now, she had little emotional room left for wonder. Her gaze settled back on A’qing.

A’qing looked exactly the same — curled on the floor, seemingly enduring tremendous pain, moaning continuously, begging them to give him water.

Bai Youwei let out a quiet sigh. “Don’t worry. He won’t be in any worse a state here than he was out there.”

Ashalina knew this perfectly well.

She settled A’qing in the living room, and then she and A’long took turns using the bathroom to clean themselves up.

Teacher Cheng boiled a bowl of tomato and egg noodles for each of them.

Just a short time ago they had been struggling desperately to survive in a dark, damp cave. Now here they were, sitting peacefully at a dining table, eating noodles and sipping soup — warm sunlight outside the window, the scent of food filling the room.

It gave a person a disorienting sense of time slipping sideways.

A’long hesitated and spoke up: “Couldn’t we… just hide in here whenever a fish monster climbs aboard? That way we’d avoid the danger, wouldn’t we?”

“That doesn’t help anything,” Bai Youwei rejected the idea without a second thought. “If we can’t solve the fish monster problem and figure out the caves, we’ll never be able to leave the labyrinth — unless you plan to live here forever.”

As she said it, she picked up her chopsticks and stirred her noodles, and suddenly found she had no appetite.

“Forever… that’s both a long time and no time at all. Maybe we live to old age, maybe tomorrow is the end. The game system won’t give us that much time… And besides, the food here is only enough to sustain us for a month.”

“That’s right,” Ashalina said, looking down at the noodles in her bowl. “Hiding in here is pointless.”

Teacher Cheng looked back and forth between them with an expression of concern. “So… do you have any clues yet about how to get out of this labyrinth?”

Bai Youwei gave a faint, dismissive curl of her lips.

Afraid he’d disheartened her, Teacher Cheng quickly tried to encourage her: “It’s all right, it’s all right — it’s only just begun! Everyone get a good rest first, sleep on it, and maybe new developments will come in the morning! Your friend over there… also needs time to recover. Don’t be too anxious…”

His words drew everyone’s gaze toward the living room.

A’qing had collapsed next to the fireplace and fallen into an exhausted, unconscious sleep. He was no longer murmuring for water.

His condition was not ordinary injury. Even mud poultice couldn’t treat this.

Bai Youwei sighed inwardly and said: “There aren’t any leads to go on right now anyway. Let’s rest for today and try to think of something tomorrow.”

…

—