Trial of Sin

Ye Xinglan leaned against a rock not far away, her arms crossed over her chest. Her exhaustion was evident on her face, her lips were dry and chapped, and her work clothes were wrinkled beyond recognition.

But she was smiling.

The smile was slight, the corners of the mouth barely curved, but the eyes curved slightly, like a lake with a thin layer of ice being gently tapped with a finger, causing a fine crack to appear on the surface, revealing flowing water underneath.

"I knew it."

Her words were extremely short, and the last syllable faded quickly in the wind.

There was no surprise or extra emotion in her eyes as she looked at Yun Jingheng. She simply stared at him, her gaze sweeping from his forehead to his chin, lingering for a couple of seconds on the corners of his eyes, which were slightly red from just waking up, before looking away.

How long have I been inside?

When Yun Jingheng opened his mouth, his throat was so dry and hoarse that the first few words were almost scraped out of his vocal cords, and he only managed to speak more smoothly at the end.

Ye Xinglan straightened up from the reef and walked towards him.

Her pace was slow, her feet firmly planted on the rocks, each step measured and controlled, her weight shifting evenly from her back to her front foot as if she were walking a straight line.

She walked up to him and stopped. She was half a head shorter than him and had to tilt her head up slightly to see his expression.

"Sloth said you stayed inside for three hours and forty minutes and told us not to disturb you."

"Have you been waiting outside the whole time?"

Ye Xinglan did not answer the question.

She reached into the right pocket of her work pants and pulled out a palm-sized metal water bottle with several scratches from the sand.

She unscrewed the lid of the kettle and handed it to him; the aroma of steam wafted out as the spout was brought close to his face.

"Have a drink."

Yun Jingheng took the water and tilted his head back to gulp it down. The water was a bit cool, but the feeling as it slid down his throat was like a thin stream flowing through the middle of a dry riverbed, stretching apart the mucous membranes that were stuck together due to lack of water.

As he screwed the kettle lid back on, he saw Ye Xinglan tilting her head to look at the door behind him.

The door was still open.

From the outside, the inside of the door frame was filled with a warm, paste-like light, making it impossible to see anything clearly. It looked like a whole piece of honey-colored amber embedded in the door frame, with a faint halo of light emanating from its edges.

"What's inside?" Ye Xinglan's gaze lingered on the ball of light for a moment.

"My mom."

Ye Xinglan nodded.

She didn't ask any further questions, but simply put the water bottle back into her pocket, then turned around and tilted her chin slightly towards the center of the Reef Island.

"The Lazy Old Demon said someone is waiting for us over there. Everyone's here, and they're waiting for you to come out so we can meet up with them."

"They've already reunited?"

"Yes."

Ye Xinglan had already taken a step forward, her boots making a dull thud on the rocks. As she walked, she said, "I arrived an hour ago. The Lazy Old Demon told them to wait where they were, but I'm waiting for you here."

Yun Jingheng followed, walking half a step behind her on the left.

The sea breeze blew in from the side, carrying the scent of rust and sweat, a mixture of smells from the rocks and seawater that had been soaking in the water all night, into his nostrils.

The smell was unpleasant, but it was real.

It was far more real than the scent of soap in the room behind him, far more real than the non-existent blue bricks on the ground beneath his knees.

"What did you see inside?" Ye Xinglan asked without turning around, her voice carried by the sea breeze from above her shoulder.

Yun Jingheng remained silent for two steps.

"My mom is helping me with my homework," he said.

Ye Xinglan's figure paused slightly, for less than half a second, but her steps remained steady.

"Then?"

Then I pushed the door open and came out.

"What did you find out from this test?"

How would I know?

They walked for about three minutes, and the rocks under their feet changed from sand to large, solid rock surfaces. The grayish-white stone surfaces were covered with honeycomb-like holes eroded by seawater, and when they stepped on them, they could hear the faint popping sound of air being squeezed out of the holes.

The sea breeze grew stronger, blowing in from the side and carrying salt grains that hit my face. The tiny crystals shattered on my skin, leaving a layer of white, Frost Mark.

The central part of the Reef Island is higher than the surrounding area, like a spine rising from the ground. The gray rock ridge rises from the lower part, and the highest point is about seven or eight meters above the sea. The top is polished into a flat round plate by the sea and sea wind.

The edge of the circular platform rose inch by inch from below the line of sight. Yun Jingheng walked half a step to the left of Ye Xinglan. When he stepped up the last three rock steps, his gaze passed over the edge of the curved platform before his body did.

Then he saw them.

Five people stood in the center of the circular platform, on the west side, forming a loose semicircle, facing the direction he came from.

Tang Wulin stood at the very front, the tallest, his shoulders flaring out from the sides of his neck. The sea breeze blew his hair back, revealing the outline of his entire face. He was slightly turned to the side, talking to Xie Xie Yun Jingheng.

Then he raised his right hand.

The five hands rose up almost simultaneously.

Yun Jingheng stood at the edge of the circular platform and raised his hand slightly.

His movements were lighter than the other five. He raised his hand horizontally from his side, palm down, and rotated his wrist outward a little bit before pulling it back, like a gesture of gently pushing something back into place.

Ye Xinglan, standing behind him, peeked out from above his shoulder and then raised her hand from outside her work pants pocket. Her hand was raised not much higher than her knee, but all five people on the platform saw it, Tang Wulin's smile deepened by half an degree.

They walked the last few steps faster than they had before.

When Yun Jingheng stepped onto the circular platform, the soles of his shoes crunched over a layer of fine quartz sand, the rustling sound carried away by the sea breeze.

Before he could even stand still, Xie Xie had already taken two steps through the crowd. When he reached out his right hand, Yun Jingheng noticed that the white shell powder on his hand was still not wiped off, and a few tiny shell fragments were stuck between his fingers.

"You're finally out." Xie Xie spoke quickly, his tone rising at the end. As he said these four words, his gaze swept from the corner of Yun Jingheng's eye to his chin and back to his brow, as if checking if something had been replaced.

"After Xiao Yan and I woke up, we couldn't find you. There were two people standing in front of us, calling themselves Nightmare Old Demon and Abomination Old Demon. They told us to come here. Then one of them, called Lazy Old Demon, said you went into a house. What's going on inside?"

"It's pretty good," Yun Jingheng said.

Xie Xie raised an eyebrow, the curve of the two words forming a clear shape of distrust above his brow bone, but he didn't ask any further questions because Xu Xiaoyan had already moved closer behind him.

Xu Xiaoyan's complexion wasn't very "healthy," after all, she had been tormented by Nightmare for a long time, but the smile on her lips was still there, like a lamp that was half blocked in the wind, not bright, but warm.

"Jing Heng,"

Her voice was half carried away by the wind, and the remaining half, barely audible in his ear, said, "If you hadn't come soon, we'd have to consider taking turns trying to get through."

"The Lazy Old Demon said you had already passed two trials when you found him. What were those two trials?"

Yun Jingheng pulled his coat tighter. "Desire and Greed, plus the Sloth I just felt."

Gu Yue leaned closer. "What I experienced was Abomination."

Yuanen Yehui spoke up, "What I experienced was Nightmare."

Tang Wulin scratched his head. "Mine is Desire."

Yun Jingheng looked at Xie Xie and Xu Xiaoyan, "Wait, wait, wait, Desire, Abomination, Nightmare?"

Xie Xie shrugged. "Mine is also Abomination, Xiao Yan's is Nightmare. We were just discussing it. The others were pulled into the illusion without even seeing anything. And judging from the timing, the three of us should be the first to fall victim."