Bai Youwei made a swift decision: she moved the incense burner along with her entire pile of items into the dollhouse.

After all, the dollhouse was itself an item at its core.

Besides, burning one was the same as burning a whole pile — so naturally, the more you burned, the better.

Bai Youwei did the math. From last night to this morning, the incense had been in effect for approximately 8 hours. Assuming every 8 hours of burning would restore one use to the clay tablets, then after 56 hours, the tablets would return to their original 9 uses apiece.

Four tablets combined — that was 36 uses total. Without exaggeration: that amounted to saving 36 lives.

Bai Youwei simply settled into the dollhouse and went nowhere, checking the item statuses once every hour, intent on staying until she saw results.

During this time, Yan Qingwen came looking for her. Zhu Shu and Su Man came as well — likely wanting to thank Bai Youwei in person. But since she was in the dollhouse, none of them were able to see her.

From morning until the afternoon, Bai Youwei kept watch for a full 8 hours.

The tablets’ uses had not increased. The statuses of the firefly and flower seeds remained unchanged as well.

Very odd…

……

Outside in the courtyard, Teacher Cheng was watering the vegetables. After feeding the chickens and gathering some dried branches, he was pondering whether he could build a chicken coop somewhere in the grove.

Coming inside to fetch tools, he found Bai Youwei still sitting completely motionless in the living room, the incense burner on the coffee table with a heap of items around it.

“Weiwei, where’s Little Shen?” Cheng Weicai asked.

Bai Youwei propped her chin in her hand, eyes fixed on the incense burner. “He went to the training room with Tan Xiao.”

“And Little Xin?”

“In the meeting room working through practice questions — says he wants to improve his overall knowledge base.”

“Everyone’s busy, hm…” Cheng Weicai murmured to himself.

“What is it?” Bai Youwei turned to look at him. “Is something the matter, Teacher Cheng?”

“Nothing, nothing…” Cheng Weicai said. “I was just worried about you all being busy. If you’re feeling bored, Weiwei, why not go out for a bit? I’ll keep watch here — check it once an hour. Right?”

Bai Youwei hesitated. She wasn’t a patient person, and after sitting here for eight hours in a state of excited anticipation, she was nearly at her limit.

Teacher Cheng added, “And Little Hand is home too — it can help keep watch.”

Bai Youwei immediately rolled her eyes. “Teacher Cheng, it would have been better if you hadn’t mentioned that. Now I really don’t dare leave. Letting it keep watch? It’d be a miracle if it didn’t cause trouble with my items.”

“Aiyah, don’t say that…” Teacher Cheng spoke up in the severed hand’s defense. “It’s been very well-behaved lately — much improved from before. We can’t always be dismissing it and putting it down. We should encourage it, guide it with a positive attitude so it can continue to grow. That’s how you raise something properly.”

“……” Bai Youwei said nothing.

She had absolutely no interest in raising it properly. She only wanted to torment it.

“Rabbit — come here, keep watch over this,” Bai Youwei called toward the corner.

The rabbit charging by the wall heard her, twitched its ears, and hopped over.

Bai Youwei lifted it onto the coffee table and pressed one finger to the plush rabbit’s forehead. “Especially watch out for that hand. Don’t let it come anywhere near these items. Understood?”

The plush rabbit nodded.

Teacher Cheng turned to the rabbit as well and said, “It won’t come near. At most it’ll just look out of curiosity. You two should get along — don’t cause trouble…”

Bai Youwei was thoroughly exasperated. She pulled her wheelchair over and settled into it with practiced ease, saying, “Teacher Cheng, you didn’t teach high school. You taught kindergarten.”

Teacher Cheng smiled. “Will you be back for dinner?”

“Nope~” Bai Youwei wheeled herself out the door. “I’ll eat in the cafeteria. Wait until those chickens fatten up a bit before I come back to eat them.”

At the mention of the chickens, Teacher Cheng sighed. “They run wild in the grove every day — they’ve all gotten thin from all that running…”

……

—