[A World of Three]

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The news the icy beauty brought left everyone somewhat silent. Du Wei felt even heavier at heart, frowning as he pondered hard.

A monster that could easily swallow a dragon whole!

A monster that could easily defeat a dragon and an eighth-level mage besides!

Leaving the pair of sisters behind, Du Wei walked to the shore alone, trying to use the chilly sea breeze to calm the tumultuous thoughts in his mind.

Hmm, a monster... a place that suppressed magic... unable to use magic... no food, no fresh water...

Du Wei sighed and muttered to himself, "Looks like this is the only way..."

With that, he turned and returned to the woods, back to the two sisters. At that moment, the icy beauty was fiercely arguing about something with Vivian.

Well, perhaps "arguing" was not the right word, because it seemed that only the icy beauty was talking. With little Vivian's stutter, it was basically impossible for her to engage in any verbal dispute.

"You should have given me that damned phantom beast long ago! Do you know? That old man doesn't even know where we are now. Are you still counting on him to save you? Hmph..."

"What's going on?" Du Wei walked over and glanced at Vivian. She looked deeply aggrieved, her eyes red as she looked at him cautiously. "N-nothing."

"What exactly is going on with you sisters? One is as honest as a newborn chick, while the other is as violent as a mother dragon." Du Wei sat down and began piling up branches, preparing to light a fire.

The icy beauty snorted. Though Du Wei's bold words irritated her, she had said herself that, in consideration of him saving her once, she would not make trouble for him again. Having just said it, she could hardly take it back at once, so she could only suppress her temper and endure it.

Vivian looked at her sister, then at Du Wei. Unable to help herself, she shifted closer to Du Wei's side.

The icy beauty saw it and muttered, "You little hooligan, luring away young girls!"

Du Wei refused to yield and immediately shot back, "A female bandit who steals other people's belongings."

The icy beauty flew into a rage, glaring at Du Wei with wide eyes. She was just about to lose her temper...

But at that very moment, an inharmonious sound instantly scattered both her anger and imposing manner.

Grr... grrr...

Du Wei could not help laughing. He looked at the icy beauty with a half-smile.

The icy beauty's face flushed crimson. There was less anger on her face now; of ten parts, seven were embarrassment, and the remaining three parts of anger were no longer frightening at all.

"Oh... how strange. Did I hear wrong? What was that sound just now? Could it have been the monster on this island crying out?" Du Wei deliberately muttered loudly to himself.

The icy beauty's face turned so red it seemed ready to drip blood. She shot Du Wei a resentful look, gritted her teeth, and said softly, "It... it was me!"

"You?" Du Wei deliberately widened his eyes.

"..." The icy beauty felt as if her lungs were about to burst from anger. At last, she shouted, "It was me! My stomach was growling! I'm hungry! It's almost dark! Don't you people eat dinner?!"

"Eat, of course we eat." Du Wei lazily stretched. "If there were food to eat, I'd certainly like to eat too."

Beside him, Vivian felt around inside her clothes. Before the icy beauty's wide-eyed stare, she pulled out a handful of blackened, suspicious-looking plant roots and said softly, "S-sister... if you're h-hungry, eat-eat-eat this first."

"What is this?" The icy beauty frowned. Then she suddenly flew into a rage, jumping to her feet and glaring at Du Wei. "You little bastard! You let my sister eat this kind of thing! Tree roots?!"

Du Wei said coldly, "If you don't want to eat it, then go hungry."

The icy beauty became even angrier. "Bastard! Can't you catch a beast or two?"

Du Wei gave a laugh. "Beasts? Go catch them yourself! If you can catch one, I'll sing praises to the almighty gods for your greatness! Go on!"

Vivian secretly tugged at the icy beauty and whispered, "S-sister... there's n-nothing on this island..."

But Du Wei had already turned away, his voice cold. "Decide for yourself. Either eat those things, or go hungry. When you're too weak from hunger to move tomorrow, perhaps I'll take the chance to avenge myself and kick you into the sea."

Those words worked better than anything else.

The icy beauty immediately snatched the handful of roots Vivian offered and stuffed them into her mouth, biting down with all her might.

As she ate, she frowned... She had probably never eaten anything so awful in her life! Heavens! To make someone as dignified as me... eat grass? Am I a horse? A cow?!

The angrier she became, the faster she ate. Her stomach was unbearably hungry after all, and she soon gnawed through the entire handful of roots. Though they tasted terrible, they did leave her feeling a little fuller. She could not help looking at Vivian. "Is there any more?"

"...No." Vivian wore a helpless expression.

"...There's no more?" The icy beauty froze.

What kind of world was this! Fine, there was no fish or meat! She had already humiliated herself by eating grass roots, yet she was not even allowed to eat her fill?

"Listen." Du Wei turned around, his gaze icy as he stared at the icy beauty. "I think you need to understand the situation we're in! We're on a deserted island, with nothing to eat and nothing to drink! Do you know that what you just ate was the rations Vivian saved today? Do you know that I spent nearly an entire morning running around just to find that little bit of food? And you? You just sat down, took it, and ate it. You finished your sister's rations without the slightest guilt. Without even the slightest gratitude. All you know how to do is complain... So let me tell you this: if you're not full, go find food yourself! I hope you won't take up someone else's rations tomorrow! Here, no one is a noble—not you, not me, not Vivian! No one will wait on you!"

Du Wei's unyielding expression clearly made the icy beauty angry, and his accusations left her feeling deeply embarrassed.

Yet somehow... as the icy beauty looked at Du Wei's stern face, she found herself unable to utter a single word in rebuttal. This frail boy—she could knock him down with one kick—yet at this moment, facing his rebuke, she suddenly felt guilty... Yes, guilty! So guilty that she did not even dare meet his eyes.

For the first time in her life, the icy beauty found herself unable to summon even the slightest desire to resist such blunt reprimanding. The frail boy before her had such steady, cold eyes, and in the night, his thin body seemed like a great tree!

"I... I understand. I... I didn't mean to eat Vivian's food, I..." The icy beauty stopped halfway through, suddenly realizing that her tone was so weak... so unlike herself!

Why should I lower my head to this child?!

Du Wei merely smiled softly and turned back to look at the sky.

The mist had yet to disperse; not a single star could be seen overhead...

Du Wei sighed. "Sleep. We still have plenty to do tomorrow."

He added a few branches to the fire, then suddenly glanced at Vivian, who sat there too afraid to speak. His heart softened despite himself. Almost instinctively, he reached out and patted Vivian's head, his tone gentling. "Silly girl, are you hungry?"

Vivian froze for a moment. She first shook her head, then nodded awkwardly.

"Sorry. I'm the only man here, so by rights I should be taking care of you." Du Wei gave a wry smile. "But instead, I let you go hungry. Well, how about this? Go to sleep. You can imagine this island is a great big cake, and all these trees around us are candles stuck into it. You're lying on a huge, fragrant, sweet cake... Go to sleep. In your dreams, you can eat your fill."

Cake? Vivian's eyes lit up.

Du Wei had already turned away, but Vivian continued gazing quietly at his back.

Du Wei woke early in the morning.

More precisely, hunger had woken him. He had eaten only those few awful fruits yesterday, and his stomach was so empty it felt ready to perforate. The fruits had been sour and astringent, and with the stomach acid added in, the sensation had tormented Du Wei so badly that he had barely slept all night.

When he woke, he found that the ice-cold beauty was awake as well, sitting there blankly with a hand over her stomach.

"You're awake? Hungry?" Du Wei felt that his words the previous night had been a little too harsh. After all, this woman had not known the situation on the island, so his tone became somewhat friendlier.

"Not hungry!" The ice-cold beauty shook her head. She was obviously lying. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Where's the water? I want to wash my face!"

"Walk outward for a while and you'll see the sea."

"...You want me to wash my face with seawater?" The ice-cold beauty's eyes widened.

"Sorry, but our fresh water is scarce. We can barely ensure enough for drinking."

This time, the ice-cold beauty did not argue. She merely sighed, stood up, and headed toward the shore.

That morning, Du Wei went out again in search of food. This time he spent even longer, because there was one more person—one more mouth to feed. He returned carrying another bundle of plant roots and stems.

This time, the ice-cold beauty took them and began eating without a word.

Du Wei smiled. "Hey."

"What?!"

"Actually..." Du Wei suddenly felt that this woman was not quite so hateful after all... Judging from how she was acting now, she was merely throwing a childish sulk. Holding back his laughter, Du Wei said, "Although the food is rather simple... you could at least wash the dirt off before eating it."

"..."

Seeing the woman's expression darken again, Du Wei hurriedly changed the subject. "Now that we're stranded here together, we're companions in the same boat... and I still don't know your name."

As he spoke, Du Wei stood with a smile on his face and performed a standard aristocratic salute. Then he said with a smile, "I am Du Wei Roland, current head of the Roland Family, Deputy Commander of the Imperial General Staff, and son of Count Raymond."

The ice-cold beauty hesitated. She was clearly reluctant, but she still said, "My name is Joanna."

Joanna... That was quite a nice name.

Seeing that Du Wei and her elder sister had finally stopped arguing, Vivian quickly added, "Y-you can also call her JoJo."

JoJo... What a strange name.

"Shut up, Vivian," Joanna snapped coldly. Then she glanced at Du Wei. "Only my parents may call me that. If you dare call me that, you're dead."

"All right." Du Wei did not mind. "Miss Joanna, now that we know each other, it's time to get to work."

"Work? What work?"

Du Wei's smile faded, and he said seriously, "We need to find a way to leave this place! I have an idea..."

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(To old readers who have read Xie Qi Lin Ran, I want to say this: names don't mean anything. I was just too lazy to come up with names, haha.

It's just that... look, Vivian's sister is JoJo... Suddenly I have this feeling that the sky is falling... haha.)

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