The wind roared past their ears.

The scene before them blurred into streaks as they plummeted.

Bai Youwei watched helplessly as the ground rushed closer and closer, her mind going entirely blank.

She couldn’t think, couldn’t reason—until she and Fu Miaoxue passed straight through the ground! Still falling, still plunging, and only then did she finally regain her wits.

…Were they out?

Bai Youwei looked around.

Her body was still falling, the speed undiminished. All around her was white, with scattered fragments of light and image flickering past like scenes on a movie screen—

She was seeing Fu Miaoxue’s other dreams.

About the estate. About her grandfather. Most of all, about Du Lai.

Fu Miaoxue and Du Lai, playing a game of cat-and-mouse.

Because this “pet” was truly unruly—no matter how many layers of locks were put on him, no matter how many bodyguards stood watch, he always managed to escape.

Yet the estate was in an extremely remote location, almost entirely off the beaten path. Each time Du Lai escaped, he would be recaptured within a few hours.

And so the pattern went—one escaping, one giving chase, back and forth without end.

Fu Miaoxue’s greatest pleasure was riding in a helicopter at low altitude, circling the land around the estate, and whenever she spotted Du Lai’s trail, she would give the order for a full-scale manhunt to be launched!

Sometimes she would even deliberately create an opening, giving Du Lai the chance to escape, so she could enjoy the pleasure of the chase.

She employed cunning stratagems during the hunt, and then once he was caught and brought back, she lavished him with meticulous care—buying him fine clothes, feeding him all manner of delicacies, tending to the wounds he’d picked up during his escapes, and occasionally complaining to him about the tutor as a way of relieving the loneliness that had accumulated within her over so many long years.

Du Lai despised her twisted nature, yet refused to resign himself to being imprisoned in the estate forever. Even knowing he would likely be caught and dragged back, he still couldn’t help but try to run—even if there was only the slimmest chance, he had to try to escape!

Then one day, he made another break for it.

He ran farther and farther, and no helicopter came to chase him. Then he noticed thick black smoke billowing from the direction of the estate—flames lighting up the sky!

It looked like someone had come seeking vengeance against the head of the Fu family again.

Sending Fu Miaoxue to her death—ensuring the Fu family line ended entirely—would without doubt be the ultimate revenge.

No one knows what went through Du Lai’s mind, but he gave up his escape and turned back. Using his agile body to dodge the fighters clashing in the front courtyard, he returned to Fu Miaoxue’s door, broke open the lock, and carried the unconscious Fu Miaoxue out of a raging inferno.

Afterward the estate was cleared, the fire was brought under control, and Du Lai found himself unable to leave.

He had become a benefactor of the Fu family.

The elder head of the Fu family received him in person, and promised him status and money—yet the one thing that remained unchanged was that he was still to stay within the estate.

A different kind of confinement, and yet this time, Du Lai consented willingly.

…

The images flashed before her one after another. Fu Miaoxue’s memories seemed to return along with them. She looked at the surrounding scenes with curiosity, then said to Bai Youwei: “Look—there’s yours too.”

Fragments of Bai Youwei’s memories, or perhaps what could be called her “dreams,” appeared interspersed here and there among Fu Miaoxue’s memories.

Perhaps because the two of them were holding hands, they were able to see each other’s “dreams.”

In Bai Youwei’s dreams, she and her mother were dancing together. Her mother’s movements were beautiful. She would stop from time to time to help Bai Youwei adjust her posture again and again—gentle, patient.

There was a time, not so long ago, when they too had been as close and warm as any ordinary mother and daughter.

Fu Miaoxue offered her opinion: “Wow, your mother is prettier than you~”

Bai Youwei felt something sink inside her.

She didn’t want to see any of this, and even more, she didn’t want Fu Miaoxue seeing it.

Fortunately it was all over in an instant. They fell into a void of white, and that familiar system chime rang out:

*”Congratulations, player, on clearing Maze No. 1.”*

—