Bai Youwei narrowed her eyes, understanding clearly now.

Fu Miaoxue asking to borrow her teammates—calling it “borrowing people” was generous. It was really borrowing experience.

For instance, Ashalina had gone through Maze No. 3 with Bai Youwei. If Fu Miaoxue happened to encounter Maze No. 3, bringing Ashalina along would be enormously useful.

Of course, for this approach to work, the two parties couldn’t be in a competitive relationship. Otherwise she’d simply be boosting an enemy’s strength.

Bai Youwei smiled faintly. “Not a bad idea. But most of my companions are injured, so I’m afraid there’s no opportunity for cooperation this time…”

“You can lend me Pan Xiaoxin.” Fu Miaoxue said immediately. “He’s not injured!”

Bai Youwei stared at her.

Speechless for a long moment, she curled the corner of her mouth. “You really are persistent…”

This wasn’t the first time she’d tried to poach Xiaoxin.

Fu Miaoxue felt not a shred of embarrassment. She said without any restraint, “I’d love to borrow Shen Mo too—but would you ever let him go?”

Bai Youwei actually thought about it for a moment, then said, “I’ll mention it to him.”

……

After lunch, Bai Youwei took some food from the cafeteria, packed it into takeout containers, and took the elevator to the medical area.

The injured were scattered among different rooms. Shen Mo and Teacher Cheng and Pan Xiaoxin were taking turns keeping watch—even with nursing staff around, it was always more reassuring to have someone close by.

Bai Youwei brought the midday meal over and asked about the situation on this side.

Tan Xiao’s injuries were the most severe, but he was recovering the fastest. The death of Hu Dashan had clearly hit him hard, though, and his whole state of mind was poor.

A’Long’s life was not in danger, but he had extensive burns over his body—even if he recovered, there would likely be scars.

Ashalina had suffered internal organ damage; it would take a long time before she was fully restored.

Bai Youwei was quiet for a moment, then asked Shen Mo, “How is Yu Chaohui doing now?”

Shen Mo was a little surprised—he hadn’t expected Bai Youwei to be the one to ask about Yu Chaohui. “When Yu Chaohui came to, he asked about you too.”

“…Asked about me?” Bai Youwei was taken aback for a moment. “What’s there to ask about me? If something had happened to me, you’d all have been dragged down too.”

Shen Mo smiled faintly and drew her into his arms. “This time was genuinely dangerous. Fortunately your animal is an elephant, or it would have ended badly.”

He didn’t know about the flower seeds—he only thought Bai Youwei had used her rank advantage to eliminate Ye Chong.

Bai Youwei offered no explanation. She said nothing, buried in his embrace, and silently let him believe it.

“Yu Chaohui’s injuries aren’t as serious as A’Long’s, but for some reason his recovery is very slow…” Shen Mo murmured thoughtfully. “And his state doesn’t seem quite right.”

Bai Youwei pretended to be casual. “Oh? …How do you mean?”

Shen Mo glanced down, his warm palm moving gently through her hair, his voice very low. “Actually… I feel like you don’t seem quite right either.”

Bai Youwei’s heart gave a faint lurch. She closed her eyes and buried herself deeper into his embrace. “I’m probably just tired…”

“Then go back and rest.” Shen Mo patted the crown of her head gently. “Once the nursing staff gets here, I’ll come back with you.”

Bai Youwei said “mm,” nodded obediently, and turned toward the elevator.

She walked two steps and came back.

“Oh—I ran into Fu Miaoxue just now. She wants to borrow some of our people to go into a maze.” Bai Youwei said. “She’ll probably also talk to Yan Qingwen’s group. I think the idea is to build some kind of maze information-sharing system. I think it’s workable—we definitely won’t be running into her in the next battle.”

Bai Youwei had cleared Battles 10 and 20.

Fu Miaoxue was the exact opposite—she had cleared Battles 1 and 5.

So for the next two battles, the two of them could never be on opposing sides.

No adversarial relationship meant the possibility of cooperation.

Shen Mo thought for a moment, then nodded at her. “I’ll find time to have a chat with them later.”

—