“What…?” The uncle’s scent became hesitant.

“Pull me up right now, or else we’ll all die together,” I said. “After all, I don’t even know you people…”

“That’s right! Exactly!” The lady’s muffled voice shouted from far away. “Little brother, don’t let them succeed!”

She smelled very angry.

The uncle thought for a brief moment, and ultimately decided to have everyone work together to pull me up first.

In order to stay alive, I also used both my hands and feet. My palms that had been scraped raw earlier were now soaked with water and hurt terribly, but I absolutely couldn’t cry out loud, or else I’d get scolded.

When I finally managed to climb out of the well, my entire body had not a shred of strength left. My hands and feet were all going soft.

That uncle, carrying his whole body’s worth of foul smell, walked over and fished the key out from my shirt, then immediately ran over to the door.

I saw the lady being held down in place by several aunties, and someone even wanted to cover her mouth. After seeing me climb up, the lady struggled free from them with great effort, then came to my side.

“Little brother, are you okay?” She looked at me with some worry.

“I’m fine, Sister…”

The scent on the lady’s body still smelled so pleasant. Her scent was very clean.

“It’s open! It’s open!”

An auntie shouted.

Everyone excitedly turned back to look at the machine in the room, only to discover that the countdown on it had not stopped.

Everyone looked at the countdown that was still ticking away, their bodies all giving off scents of confusion.

The door had clearly been opened now, but the countdown hadn’t ended. Should they be able to just run away?

Seeing that my knees were also scraped raw, the lady hurriedly picked me up from the ground, and also looked toward those masked people with a confused expression.

“Of course, you’ve already passed the game,” the Rabbit-Man said with a nod. “Go on, the losers will automatically accept their punishment.”

Losers…?

I distinctly smelled the confusion emanating from the lady’s body.

After saying this, he turned back to look at the Dog-Head Man and Tiger-Head Man behind him. The several people actually started discussing in low voices.

“Do any of you want to go out?” the Rabbit-Man asked. “If there are still matters to handle on the ‘train,’ you can go first. I’ll stay and die.”

“It’s fine,” the Dog-Head Man shook his head. “I can die first too. I’ve finished handling everything. What about Tiger?”

“Should I live?” the Tiger-Man scratched his head. “Forget it, it’s not that interesting. I’ll die first this time. Let Rabbit go.”

The three people discussed death casually and indifferently. From their bodies I smelled neither terror nor fear. Their bodies only had foul smells.

That was a strange foul smell I had never encountered before.

The masked people didn’t stop us. We all fled from the room one after another. Outside was a very long corridor, with doors all along both sides.

After the uncles and aunties walked out, they couldn’t distinguish whether to go left or right, and all stood rooted in place.

The lady, holding me, was the last one to leave the room.

Even at the final moment the lady was still confused, until she saw the countdown end and the massive machine behind us really did release yellow-green gas. Only then did the scent of confusion on her body finally turn into panic.

In the lady’s embrace, I also turned back to see that gas engulf the masked people. Only the Rabbit-Man waved his hand, dispersed the poison gas before his eyes, and followed us out.

I saw him close the door from outside, shutting the remaining two masked people and the poison gas together inside the room, then stood beside us.

“What does this mean…?” the uncle asked. “Are we done just like that? Can we leave?”

“Yes, go ahead,” the Rabbit-Man replied.

“Isn’t there a ‘reward’…?” an auntie asked. “You brought so many people here to play games—if we win, do we get money?”

“Right… even though we all survived, there should still be money, right?” an uncle asked.

After hearing this, the Rabbit-Man was silent for a while before answering: “Every time you wake up, it’s money on your minds. I don’t want to explain anymore. Go die outside. You all lived and you still want rewards?”

Only later did I learn that we had already woken up in this room many times.

But there were still many things I hadn’t figured out… Why didn’t I remember the things from when I woke up before?

Why didn’t everyone else remember either?

When I woke up before, would I also have smelled so many strange scents?

I also often thought that if I really could have foreseen what would happen afterward, could have foreseen the future of the lady and “Jade City,” I would rather have never left that room at all.

I would rather that poison gas had directly killed me. I wanted to be like the others and forget all of this.

But I could never forget anymore.

From the moment I started smelling these scents, I could never forget anymore.

Following the Rabbit-Man’s directions, we walked out along the corridor. At the end, a person wearing a monster mask was waiting for us. He gave us a large handful of emerald green small stones and told us that these things were called “Jade.” As long as we could collect fifty-seven thousand six hundred pieces of “Jade” within ten days, then everything could be saved.

This monster mask’s body was also very smelly—to be precise, it was even a bit smellier than the other masked people.

When he opened a strange door for us and led us into this city, my nose finally felt a bit more comfortable.

It finally wasn’t so smelly here anymore.

But when I turned back, I discovered that the remaining eight people had all covered their noses. The smell outside the room seemed unacceptable to them, but I felt it was okay.

The situation seemed to be getting stranger and stranger. They could accept the foul smell inside the room, but couldn’t accept the smell outside?

If you asked me, those masked people’s bodies were much smellier than outside.

From this day forward, carrying my memories that could never be erased, I officially arrived on this land.

“Little brother, what’s your name?” the lady beside me asked.

“My name is Zheng Yingxiong,” I answered.

“Hero?” The lady was amused by my name.

“No, no, no, I’m not ‘Hero’ (yīngxióng), it’s ‘Yingxiong’ (yìngxióng), fourth tone.”

I waved my hands somewhat nervously. I was a petty thief who would end up in prison in the future—I absolutely couldn’t bear the title of “Hero.”

I suddenly thought of Yue Fei.

Only people like Yue Fei could be called “heroes.” No matter who was a hero, I definitely was not.

“Zheng… Ying… xiong?” After hearing this, the lady thought for a few seconds, then still laughed. “What a very strange name. It sounds so old-fashioned, like only people from my father’s generation would use this kind of name.”

The lady said my name was very old-fashioned, but I actually thought this name was pretty good. At least it sounded better than “Xu Jiahua.”

“Jiahua” was clearly very common, right? Very few people used “Yingxiong.”

“Sister, what’s your name?” I asked, pulling on her hand.

“My name is Li Siwei.” The lady reached out and patted my head. “You’re such a little baby, why would you have such an old-sounding name? It sounds so incongruous.”

“I’m such a little… baby?” I was somewhat confused. “I’m already in second grade… I’m almost eight years old.”

“Okay, okay,” the lady nodded. “You’re not a baby. You’re a real ‘hero,’ okay?”

“Hm?” I looked at her in confusion. “Why?”

“Because just now, thanks to you, we were all able to survive,” the lady said. “If you hadn’t gone down into that well to get that key back for everyone, perhaps we would have died in that room.”