To be honest, Baiyang’s request was quite simple. The person in his heart already had a general outline, only missing a face.

But how could such a face be easy to find?

After all, Baiyang had said “you can’t use a face from the real world,” so where exactly were we supposed to create this face?

“Um… would a cartoon character work?” Jiang Ruoxue asked.

She seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me. If we couldn’t use faces from reality, perhaps only cartoon characters could fulfill this requirement.

“I rarely watch cartoons either,” Baiyang said. “Can you find one?”

I understood what Baiyang meant. Even if it was a completely fictional cartoon character, Baiyang still had to be able to see that face.

“The two of us can help you search,” I said. “But the path you’re taking is truly too rare—no one can guarantee success.”

“I understand,” Baiyang said. “Whether it succeeds or not, I will remember this kindness.”

Jiang Ruoxue and I bid farewell to Baiyang and began our journey to find a “face.”

Since Jiang Ruoxue had come to find me this time, it would take several days before she would be reborn back in her own room. We still had some time.

But to find a “face” in such a vast city—how incredibly difficult was that…?

Especially a completely virtual cartoon face that didn’t exist in the real world.

We walked through many nearby buildings that looked like residential structures, mainly searching for posters on walls and bookshelves in homes.

However, every room here seemed to have been ransacked. The walls were all covered with cracks and burn marks. Paper products were severely damaged, basically unrecognizable. We could barely find a few intact ones, but the cartoon images on them were just simple line drawings, merely using ordinary lines to outline the five facial features. I tried to imagine them on a living person’s face and felt they couldn’t match at all.

Although I hadn’t carefully looked through every book, thinking about it carefully, a bookstore should have manga books, right? Even if there weren’t manga books, there should at least be sketch or painting tutorial books, right? Those should all have completely fictional human faces, which might help Baiyang.

“Ruoxue, come with me.”

I brought her to Earth-Snake’s game venue and happened to see several people crying bitterly walking out of his venue one after another, followed closely by White Snake, who also had tears hanging on his face.

Jiang Ruoxue was left somewhat bewildered by this bizarre scene.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “Why are so many people crying?”

“Uh… I can’t really say. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.”

Seeing White Snake reluctantly shaking hands with several people to bid them farewell, I also felt this was absurd. Had the “Mutual Support Group” been established? But why did everyone look so sad?

Wasn’t this place supposed to help people move past their sadness?

Earth-Snake turned around and saw me. He reached up to wipe his tears, then shook his head and said, “I should have greeted you properly, but I’m in a bad mood right now, so I won’t keep you company.”

“Wait… wait a moment…” I hurried forward and said, “Earth-Snake… I have something I’d like you to help with. It won’t take too long…”

“Not right now,” Earth-Snake said vexedly. “I didn’t expect to hear so many sad stories in a single day. I’m in an extremely bad mood right now. But still… I should thank you, you stinky girl, for the suggestion. After renaming it the ‘Mutual Support Group,’ there are indeed quite a few more people…”

“Sadness Mutual Support Group…?” Jiang Ruoxue seemed to be suppressing a smile as she squeezed out a few words through her teeth. “A compete-in-misery convention?”

“You…” Earth-Snake glanced at Jiang Ruoxue, then let out a deep sigh. “What does a stinky girl like you understand… Listening to other people’s sad stories really makes it easy to empathize… I need to go cry for a while now. Nobody bother me.”

“Don’t go…!” Jiang Ruoxue also hurried forward and said, “White Snake, this is a bookstore, right? Do you have books?”

“Yes,” White Snake nodded.

“Can you lend us a book?”

“No,” White Snake said.

“Huh…?” Jiang Ruoxue was startled.

“This won’t work,” I interjected from the side. “I’ve dealt with him before. He’s unwilling to lend out his books.”

“What if we only want one page from it?” Jiang Ruoxue asked again.

“Stinky girl, no means no. Even if you only wanted a corner, it still wouldn’t work,” White Snake said. “If you want me to lend you books, you’ll have to join my ‘Mutual Support Group’ and come share sad little stories with me every day. Otherwise, just leave. I’m really in too bad a mood to argue with you.”

Although Jiang Ruoxue and I were both seeing the established “Mutual Support Group” for the first time, seeing how the several people earlier had been crying as they left, we knew this place wasn’t suitable for us.

“Hold on, hold on…” Jiang Ruoxue scratched her head. “Earth-Snake, see if this works… Although the two of us can’t join your ‘Mutual Support Group,’ I can give you some other help.”

“Other help…?”

Jiang Ruoxue nodded slightly after hearing this. “You found a way to organize such a strange group yourself, which shows you’re a very kind person, right?”

“I wouldn’t say kind, but this organization is indeed very important to me,” Earth-Snake said.

“Either way, you’re willing to listen to other people’s sad stories, which to me is quite remarkable,” Jiang Ruoxue continued. “So I thought of a way to help you terminate your sadness.”

“Terminate… sadness?”

“Yes!” Jiang Ruoxue nodded. “This method—I wouldn’t tell just anyone. After all, it’s also my closely guarded secret. If you want to hear it, you need to give us a sketch book. Deal?”

I think I’ve said this more than once… I really admire Jiang Ruoxue.

Earth-Snake thought briefly after hearing this, then asked with slight doubt, “You can really help me terminate sadness?”

Jiang Ruoxue didn’t answer, only extended her hand forward, palm up. “The book.”

White Snake was silent for a moment, then nodded. “Wait here.”

He walked into the bookstore and began searching, while Jiang Ruoxue and I stood outside waiting. Before long, Earth-Snake’s voice came from inside the room: “There are no sketch books left… Will a manga book work?”

“Yes!” Jiang Ruoxue answered from outside.

After a while, Earth-Snake walked out from the store, holding a palm-sized manga book in his hand. The packaging of this manga book looked very vintage—it was called “20th Century Boys.”

“This is it. Will it work?” He handed the book to Jiang Ruoxue.

“Fine,” Jiang Ruoxue nodded after taking the book, then handed it to me.

I briefly flipped through the book and found that the characters in it were somewhat different from common manga—they had a bit more realism to them. Hopefully this could help Baiyang.

“Tell me the method to terminate sadness,” Earth-Snake said with a sorrowful expression.

“Fool…” Jiang Ruoxue smiled mischievously. “Listen carefully—if you feel sad… you can try going and dying.”

After hearing this, I was startled, thinking White Snake would erupt the next second and kill us both. But after hearing it, he only paused slightly, then slowly nodded.

“That makes sense…” The corners of his mouth gradually spread into a smile. “If I feel sad, I can go die! That’s absolutely right!”