Three Mountains Island was a small island in the Tai Lake Natural Scenic Reserve.
Because it was originally a tourist attraction, the island had no shortage of resort hotels.
After landing on the island, they were assigned two double standard rooms. The burly man also brought them a bag of rice. Just as promised before, they didn’t need to worry about food or lodging on the island.
Of course, though this bag of rice was free, future food would need to be obtained through work in exchange for compensation.
It was too late now—everything would have to wait until tomorrow. Everyone returned to their rooms to rest.
The soft bedding was much more comfortable than the tent, but it also gave people a sense of unreality.
Bai Youwei rubbed her faintly aching and numb legs in the blankets. It hurt to move them, and it also hurt not to move them.
She closed her eyes for a while but still couldn’t sleep. Curled up in her blanket, she asked, “Shen Mo, are you asleep?”
Shen Mo on the bed beside her didn’t move, only his voice low and hoarse as he hummed in acknowledgment.
“I can’t sleep.” Bai Youwei said. “Let’s chat for a bit.”
Shen Mo was silent for a moment, then turned his head to look over. “Chat about what?”
Bai Youwei: “Chat about feelings?”
Shen Mo: “…”
His head turned back, no longer looking at her.
Bai Youwei: “If you don’t want to chat about feelings, we can chat about bodies.”
“Bai Youwei…” Shen Mo’s tone held several parts grinding teeth, several parts weak frustration—altogether very complex. He said, “Are you going to sleep or not?”
Bai Youwei was also troubled. “I want to sleep, but I suddenly changed to a new place and can’t fall asleep.”
“If you can’t sleep, you torment me?”
“If I don’t torment you, should I torment myself?” Her voice was surprised. “I’m not stupid!”
Shen Mo: “…”
He stopped talking again.
Bai Youwei figured she’d choked him again. She sighed faintly and rolled over in bed, her eyes gazing at the mountains outside the window.
“It’s so cool here…” she sighed softly. “So cool it doesn’t even feel like summer.”
After a moment, Shen Mo said flatly, “The temperature difference is large in the mountains.”
Seeing that he was willing to respond to her, Bai Youwei perked up again and continued chatting with him. “That island over there has even more mountains. It must be even colder at night. Do you think there’s really a safety base there? I feel like it’s so unreliable. That side looks pitch black, not even a single light.”
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Shen Mo answered in a low voice, “Whether there’s a safety base or not, we’ll know tomorrow when we look.”
“How will we look?” Bai Youwei asked. “That Uncle Zhao said they only send people to the base once a week. The next time they send people is the day after tomorrow. Unless you swim over there yourself tomorrow…”
“If there really is a large safety base, there must be boats transporting supplies.” Shen Mo said calmly. “The dolls only appeared two or three months ago. A safety base couldn’t possibly achieve self-sufficiency this quickly, so tomorrow there will definitely be transport ships appearing on the lake. If there aren’t any, it means Uncle Zhao’s information is false.”
Speaking to this point, his voice deepened. “As for the reason for passing false information… either it’s to stabilize people’s hearts, or it’s to conceal a certain secret. Also, where did those people sent to West Mountain Island go?”
If West Mountain Island had no safety base, and the people sent there didn’t come back, where were they?
“It’s too early to say all this now. Tomorrow we’ll see the situation and then decide…” Shen Mo contemplated.
After a long while with no response from Bai Youwei.
He turned his head to look and found her eyes closed, having fallen asleep at some point.
Shen Mo felt helpless.
However, her sleeping appearance was truly cute—innocent and well-behaved like a good baby. Why could one person have such a huge contrast?
Shen Mo sighed silently, got out of bed to tuck in her blanket corners, then went to sleep himself.