In just a single day, the new dungeon’s record was pushed all the way to 887 points. The record-setters were the Canopy Squad.

Most dungeon records fell within the 750–850 range, with only a handful of exceptionally high-difficulty dungeons ever breaking past 900. So 887 was a remarkably high score.

Yuri suspected that Canopy Squad had taken on new members and leveraged the bonus buff to achieve such a high score.

In truth, new members were a double-edged sword for every team.

The advantage was the newcomer bonus buff. The downside was equally obvious — new members lacked combat experience and were the most likely cause of team casualties, and casualties would directly drag the score down.

After all, not every newcomer could be as outstanding as Shen Mo.

After resting at the villa for two days, the team decided to abandon Devil’s Island and try their luck at Queen’s Nest instead.

Bai Youwei wanted to come along, but her character setting was that of a girl who couldn’t harm a fly — and dungeon runs were fraught with danger, so she had no grounds to go.

Whenever the team headed into a dungeon, she stayed home to play the role of devoted wife and homemaker.

She wrote out recipe notes, soaked up some sun, applied a sheet mask, and laboriously hauled meals and dishes out of the shared inventory — and just like that, the day passed.

While sunbathing in the courtyard, she ran into the same man from the other time.

This time, he had come specifically for her. He was carrying a bouquet of roses and stood outside the courtyard gate, saying to Bai Youwei, “Don’t you get bored cooped up at home all day? How about going on a date with me?”

Bai Youwei promptly rolled her eyes. She didn’t even bother to say a word — she simply stood up and walked back inside.

The man gave a light laugh, reached back, and tossed the bouquet over the courtyard wall. It landed perfectly, right at Bai Youwei’s feet.

Bai Youwei’s steps faltered. She heard the sound of wind behind her, and when she turned around, she saw the man scaling the courtyard wall with ease and dropping down on the other side.

Quite impressive footwork.

Bai Youwei looked him up and down, her expression unchanged — she didn’t seem frightened by him in the least.

“You’re… deliberately engineering a chance encounter with me?” she asked.

The man heard that and laughed. He bent down to pick up the bouquet of roses from the ground and held it out toward Bai Youwei — if one ignored the fact that he had just vaulted over the wall and barged in uninvited, he appeared, at that moment, to be quite the gracious gentleman.

“My lovely lady, I simply want to court you,” he said.

Bai Youwei did not take the bouquet.

“But I’m married,” she said, one hand resting lightly on her abdomen. “In fact, I may well be expecting.”

The man smiled. “I don’t mind.”

“But I mind.” Bai Youwei said, perfectly serious. “I love my husband very much.”

The man’s smile didn’t waver. He raised a hand and stroked his thin, wispy goatee, a look of amusement playing in the depths of his eyes. “You love your husband, and I steal from another man’s house — we needn’t get in each other’s way~”

Bai Youwei said, “You ought to ask the house whether it wishes to be stolen from. It may not be willing.”

“She’ll come around,” the man said, staring straight into her eyes. “A lovely young woman is like a flower — she needs a man to tend to her. Once you’ve had a taste of what a man on the outside has to offer, you’ll find you simply can’t help yourself…”

Bai Youwei kept her expression perfectly neutral. “Is that so? Then perhaps you should go have a taste of what a man has to offer. I’m sure you’ll find you simply can’t help yourself either.”

The man: “…”

Seeing his expression begin to shift, Bai Youwei swiftly stepped back several paces and darted inside! The door slammed shut behind her with a resounding thud!

If he had been armed, a single door would never have stopped him — but Bai Youwei had calculated that he wouldn’t dare cause too much of a scene. After all, making himself infamous over a single woman was not a good look. Word getting out about something like that would be dreadfully tasteless.

A man who wore that sort of goatee clearly set great store by his image.

Sure enough, the man just stood there for a while with a darkened expression before eventually turning to leave.

As he climbed back up to the top of the courtyard wall, he glanced back toward the villa with a brazen little smile — judging by that look, he apparently hadn’t given up yet.

The male servant came over with cleaning tools, heading to the spot where the man had been standing, ready to sweep up the scattered roses on the ground.

Bai Youwei called out to him: “Don’t bother sweeping. Just leave the flowers where they are.”

The male servant nodded. “Of course.”

…

—