Su Man watched from the shadows.

Even though she and Lu Yuwen were complete strangers, his treatment had her grinding her teeth in fury — she was itching to hack all three of these thugs to pieces!

But now wasn’t the time…

It would be best to wait until nightfall, when they were all asleep, or when the three of them had separated — only then would she strike, with better odds of success.

Su Man bit down on her lip, eyes fixed on those men, and continued to wait patiently.

Xiao Ge, the one in the denim jacket, released his grip on Lu Yuwen and let him collapse in agony on the ground, coughing and retching up broth and bits of instant noodles. Then he grabbed Lu Yuwen by the hair and wrenched his head up, forcing him to look at the map in his hand, and threatened:

“It’s already the third day. Look at this carefully — which way do we go tomorrow? If we still can’t get out, don’t blame me for being merciless.”

Lu Yuwen weakly closed his eyes, and answered in a hoarse voice: “Even if you… kill me… there’s nothing I can do. This labyrinth has been divided into a 10×10 grid — like a… chessboard. We have to walk through all 100 squares before we can find… the way out…”

“Damn it!” Xiao Ge slammed Lu Yuwen’s head down, pinning his face against the hard concrete floor! Skin scraped away, and blood seeped through!

The short young man nearby was fed up: “We’ve only covered 35 squares! At this rate, we’re stuck in this godforsaken place for another five or six days?!”

Zhang Ke, the dark-skinned one, gave a slight laugh, unbothered: “This place has water, has food, and we don’t have to worry about those twisted games. I think it’s actually pretty nice here…”

“Are you out of your mind?!” the short one spat. “Didn’t you see those mannequins on the road just now?! In the games at least you know how you’ll die — in this labyrinth, you won’t even know what killed you!”

Zhang Ke smiled without warmth: “Either way you die — what’s the difference?”

“Then you go die! I’m not spending another goddamn minute here!” The short one got up irritably, yanked open the tent flap, and went inside.

Zhang Ke called out deliberately loud: “Yangzi, you’re this fired up — want me to come in and help you let off some steam?”

The voice from inside roared: “Get lost!!!”

Zhang Ke smiled indifferently and turned his gaze back to Lu Yuwen on the ground.

Lu Yuwen’s body was covered in filth — dried blood, mud, and the remnants of instant noodle broth — barely clinging to life.

Zhang Ke looked away with a faint hint of regret.

Both of his companions had rat-like faces — pointed features, nothing much to look at. It was rare to come across someone with such clean, fine looks, yet he’d been knocked about into this wretched state, which killed any interest entirely.

Xiao Ge said: “Save your energy, everyone. Get some rest — who knows what we’ll run into tomorrow.”

Zhang Ke found it dull and retreated to his tent to sleep.

Xiao Ge sat outside for a while, tamped down the campfire, then went to rest in the tent shared with the short one, Yangzi.

Time passed, second by second.

Neither tent stirred.

A little while longer, and the sound of snoring drifted out — they had fallen asleep.

In this labyrinth there was nothing dangerous to be seen beyond the various arrows scattered around, and so they slept completely unguarded, having no idea that someone in the shadows had their eyes fixed on them.

Su Man kept waiting.

She wanted to wait until they were sound asleep — deeply, heavily asleep — before she went to rescue Lu Yuwen.

While mentally running through possible rescue plans, her eyes never left their tents, watching for even the slightest movement.

Just as Su Man was about to act, Lu Yuwen — who had been lying on the ground — suddenly sat up!

Su Man was startled, and instinctively held her breath.

She had assumed Lu Yuwen had already fallen asleep long ago!

After all, he’d been dragged behind a motorcycle for half a day, hadn’t had a proper meal or drink of water — what ordinary person would have the strength to keep going?

And yet — that was precisely what Lu Yuwen looked like now.

After sitting up, he spent an enormous effort before finally managing to stand, and then… slowly, unsteadily, he began walking toward the motorcycle.

—