Though they understood the need to rest, no one could actually feel at ease.

For the entire day, Ashalina and A’long stayed in the living room keeping watch over A’qing.

A’qing’s body was constantly damp. At first everyone assumed it was sweat, but they soon realized it was water — water carrying that faint, fishy odor.

The sofa was soaked through within minutes of him lying on it, so they moved him back beside the fireplace, closer to the warmth, doing their best to keep him dry.

A’qing drifted in and out of consciousness, his mouth never stopping its faint murmuring for water.

His mind was growing less and less lucid…

…

That night, Teacher Cheng led Pan Xiaoxin upstairs to rest, leaving Ashalina, A’long, and A’qing in the living room.

Bai Youwei sat at the dining table, working through some calculations on paper.

This labyrinth was unlike anything she had encountered before, and she was being exceptionally careful — unwilling to miss a single opportunity to uncover clues.

On the draft paper, the initial cave entrance had been labeled “mother cave.” The remaining seven cave openings, from left to right, were numbered child cave 1 through child cave 7.

She remained convinced that the seven child caves had some underlying pattern — find the right pattern, and they would certainly be able to get out. Right now, whether they advanced or retreated, chose right or wrong, the fishing vessel always ended up back at the mother cave. It had a quality of spatial displacement about it.

The trouble was that there was too little information. If they could enter two more caves, she might be able to deduce the critical key.

But with A’qing in this condition… Ashalina almost certainly had no mental space for searching for clues right now.

At that thought, Bai Youwei let out a silent, inward sigh.

After the first labyrinth, her legs had regained sensation. After the second labyrinth, she could manage a few labored steps on her own. One more labyrinth upgrade, and perhaps they would fully recover.

…Was she being cold-blooded? A’qing had ended up like this, and she was still thinking about her legs.

But A’qing wasn’t her companion. Even with what had happened to him, she felt only a certain degree of sympathy — she couldn’t feel what Ashalina and A’long were feeling right now.

Bai Youwei stared blankly at the draft paper in front of her.

Human beings really were complicated creatures. Sometimes they could shed tears for a stranger’s suffering. Sometimes they could display pure selfishness with absolute clarity.

Ashalina walked over quietly and picked up the draft paper from the table. She looked it over — a scattering of numbers and rough sketches.

“Any new discoveries?” she asked in a low voice.

Bai Youwei slowly shook her head. “A few theories, but they all need to be verified.”

A low, faint moan came from the living room. Both women looked over. A’qing was murmuring in his sleep.

He lay curled beside the fireplace. One side of his body had dried near the fire, while the other had grown damp again — his body was continuously secreting fluid.

Perhaps because of the cold, the limbs pinned beneath the ropes occasionally twitched, and his lips muttered incoherent fragments.

A’long had long since been worn out and was slumped on the sofa in a deep sleep.

“Will he get better?” Ashalina murmured, watching A’qing — uncertain whether she was asking Bai Youwei or asking no one in particular.

Bai Youwei lowered her eyes and said nothing.

She was pessimistic about his chances.

From the experience of the two labyrinths before, labyrinths had a tendency to consume those who failed.

She remembered the dolls embedded into the walls of the mirror labyrinth. She also remembered the man in the serpent labyrinth whose body had fused into the maze itself.

Now, with A’qing in this state — there was a good chance he wouldn’t recover.

“Get some rest soon,” Bai Youwei said quietly. “If we can leave the labyrinth, the labyrinth upgrade might be able to cure him.”

These words gave Ashalina something to hold onto. She looked at Bai Youwei and nodded. “You’re right. As long as we can get out of the labyrinth, A’qing can still be saved.”

The condition being — that A’qing could hold on until that moment.

—