“Yu Chaohui!”

“A’Long!”

“Ashalina!”

“Is anyone there?! Is anyone still alive?!”

“Is there anyone at all…”

Bai Youwei’s voice was growing hoarse from shouting, yet no third person appeared among the flowers.

Refusing to give up, she mustered every bit of strength she had, shuffling and dragging herself in an attempt to escape this life-draining flower bed—but Ye Chong behind her was dead weight, and she could barely even manage to sit up.

Bai Youwei bit down hard on her lower lip.

Running quickly through this flower bed versus lying in it with her full body in contact—the effects on the body were vastly different. The greater the contact surface area, the more rapidly life force drained. Right now she had simply lost her strength. If she remained here much longer, she feared even staying conscious would become difficult.

Bai Youwei forced herself to hold on. Even if she couldn’t stand, sitting up was better—minimizing contact with the flowers would buy her more time.

Buy time… buy time…

Damn it!

Someone had to come save her for buying time to mean anything! Otherwise she was just waiting to die!

Bai Youwei raged inwardly!

If not for her intense fear of the white gloves this time, she would never have used a tool that inflicted eight hundred points of self-damage to deal one thousand to the enemy!

Now her hands were bound behind her back. She couldn’t control her wristband, couldn’t use the key to open the dollhouse! She was going to be killed by those white gloves!!!

Her mind was a storm of desperation—when she suddenly heard footsteps approaching from ahead.

Overjoyed, she looked up—and saw Yu Chaohui walking toward her, covered in blood, his steps unsteady and lurching.

Bai Youwei was startled. “What happened to you?!”

“The human balloon… its self-detonation has enormous force.” Yu Chaohui struggled forward. “A’Long is injured even worse…”

His entire body was drenched in blood, even his face smeared with dark, clotted gore. Bai Youwei couldn’t immediately tell where he was wounded and said urgently:

“The flowers here drain the life force of anyone inside! Let’s get out of here quickly!”

Yu Chaohui came and tried to pull her—he couldn’t. He noticed her hands were connected behind her back to Ye Chong’s white gloves.

He reached over to pull the gloves off. Though they looked like a simple layer of fabric, the fibers had grown into the flesh, fused with skin and nerves—they couldn’t be removed no matter what.

“Use the knife!” Bai Youwei urged him anxiously.

When weapons had been distributed earlier, everyone had received a dagger—gilded edges, gemstone settings, the ornamental kind favored by European royalty. Impractical, but present.

Yu Chaohui drew the dagger and began cutting the rope.

He was injured, his body weakened, and sinking into the flower bed. The hand gripping the knife trembled slightly beyond his control, and he cut into Bai Youwei’s skin.

Bai Youwei endured the pain without a word, only kept urging him: “Faster! Cut faster!”

Every extra second in this place was dangerous!

Yu Chaohui had no strength left for words—he kept his head down and cut.

Finally, the rope came free.

Bai Youwei was instantly freed, shaking off the rope and grabbing Yu Chaohui’s arm to run out of the flower bed!

Yu Chaohui was too severely injured. After just a few steps, he collapsed with a crash, coughing up a great mouthful of fresh blood!

“Even if you’re going to die, don’t die here!” Bai Youwei grabbed one of his arms and dragged with all her strength! “…Get up, get up! Don’t die here!”

For some reason, Yu Chaohui suddenly laughed—a hoarse, low sound. “Last time… did you think the same thing?”

Bai Youwei snapped at him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about! If you have the strength to laugh, use it to stand up right now! Get out of here!”

“I mean last time…” Yu Chaohui closed his eyes, then stared blankly up at the sky. “When Fang Yu died because of you…”

Bai Youwei clenched her teeth.

“You clearly could have… could have made the rabbit conjure smaller lightning. But you chose not to.” He laughed, and as he laughed, tears slid down his face. “Just like now—you clearly could have won cleanly, but you chose these flowers… Is it that for the sake of winning, you can discard everything else…?”

Bai Youwei had reached her limit. Stung into a fury, her eyes went red as she roared, “Then what do you want me to do?! What can I do?! Consider the bigger picture! Minimize casualties! Cover every angle perfectly and still win?! Yu Chaohui! I’m not a god!”

—