Fu Miaoxue answered with complete confidence: “Nobody else knows I’m a doll, so even if I went and showed them, they’d have no frame of reference for the change — that’s no fun at all~”

Bai Youwei said coolly: “What’s so great about becoming human? You can feel pain, feel cold, feel hunger — you bleed when you’re hurt, and you’ll age and lose your looks.”

Fu Miaoxue shot back: “Then why do you bother treating your legs? A crippled leg isn’t so bad either — you sit or lie around all day, don’t have to do anything yourself. How comfortable!”

Bai Youwei frowned. “Can our situations really be compared?”

“They’re not the same, no.” Fu Miaoxue said, in magnificent spirits. “Even as a doll, I’ve never had a limb missing or a broken leg — I’m better looking than you!”

Bai Youwei concluded that Fu Miaoxue had come purely to antagonize her.

“Besides, being human is of course better than being a doll.” Fu Miaoxue continued. “I’d be able to smell things, taste things, and do certain… indescribable things~”

Bai Youwei: “…”

Du Lai: “…Ahem.”

Fu Miaoxue tilted her head and looked Bai Youwei up and down with curiosity. “You and your boyfriend — have you ever done it?”

Bai Youwei kept a straight face. “Done what?”

Fu Miaoxue: “Love~”

Bai Youwei: “…”

“Miaoxue.” Du Lai gave a light cough, and shot her a meaningful glance. “There’s something else we haven’t mentioned yet.”

Fu Miaoxue leaned over to Du Lai and began whispering animatedly: “Look at her reaction — does that mean she hasn’t done it with Shen Mo yet? They share a bed every day, and they’ve got this kind of problem… is something wrong with them…”

Bai Youwei stared at her coldly. “If you’re going to whisper, please be quiet enough that I don’t hear you.”

“Oh my~” Fu Miaoxue laughed. “Did I hit the mark~?”

Bai Youwei pulled the door wide open. “Done talking? If there’s nothing else, you can leave. All that chattering is giving me a headache.”

Fu Miaoxue pursed her lips, but didn’t seem particularly offended — probably because her body had just been upgraded and her mood was wonderful, so she didn’t bother continuing to trade barbs with Bai Youwei. She said: “We came specifically to give you some intelligence, actually — Maze No. 4, a stone circle. You might encounter it later. Thought it might be useful.”

“Not interested.” Bai Youwei’s expression remained unmoved. She continued to usher them out. “My people won’t be entering any more mazes.”

The mazes were too dangerous. A king like Bai Youwei only needed to improve her own and her subjects’ physical condition to a certain level, ensuring the team’s advantage in battle games — she had no need to keep throwing herself into mazes. Only someone like Fu Miaoxue, who was counting on the maze to restore her body, would recklessly charge into them again and again without fear of death.

“Hm.” Fu Miaoxue sighed. “Well, we’re presenting ourselves warmly only to be coldly rebuffed. Then I suppose we’ll be off.”

Bai Youwei showed no mercy: “No need to make it sound so generous. You’re just doing us a favor so you can trade for information about other mazes from us in the future. Let me tell you — there won’t be any. Not now, not ever. My people are not going back into mazes.”

Fu Miaoxue pouted. “You’re really no fun.”

She lowered her black gauze, raised her chin like a proud peacock gathering its skirts, and walked out the door.

As Du Lai passed by the doorway, he paused for a moment and turned to Bai Youwei. “The key to the stone circle is shadows. The paths formed by shadows point to the exit — but watch out for the midday sun. At noon there are no shadows, and the sunlight turns people to stone.”

Bai Youwei narrowed her eyes slightly and looked at Du Lai.

Du Lai said: “In the Minotaur’s maze, you saved me.”

From further ahead, Fu Miaoxue called out impatiently: “Du Lai, what are you still dawdling for? Let’s go~!”

“Coming.” Du Lai quickened his steps to catch up.

Bai Youwei called after him: “Du Lai.”

Du Lai turned back, looking at her with a questioning expression.

“How many people died?” Bai Youwei asked.

Du Lai glanced toward Fu Miaoxue in the distance, then replied: “Three… but don’t worry — none of our people were hurt.”