Peach Haven Village (21)

While having fun, Ding Shi also stretched his head and half his body into the coffin. From the outside, it looked as though the coffin had clamped him in place.

Ding Shi shone the flashlight upward and saw two talismans pasted in an X shape on the underside of the coffin lid. In the center of the X was a special-material card the size of a playing card, hereafter referred to as a card-like object.

Ding Shi extended his left hand and could barely reach the card-like object. He pressed it with his fingertips and pushed upward, but the X-shaped talismans blocked the way. When he pushed sideways, it seemed that he only needed a little more to push the card-like object out of the X.

Ding Shi wriggled farther into the coffin and braced the lid against his waist. He was young, and his waist was strong enough to bear this little weight.

He stood the flashlight beside Third Lady's knee and tried to remove the card-like object from the X with both hands. After experimenting for a long time, Ding Shi found that it truly was just a little short. He rotated the card-like object to see whether he could reduce its width. The answer was no.

Very little of the card-like object was exposed; most of it was wrapped in talismans. Without touching the talismans, Ding Shi could only use his fingertips to hold down the card-like object and move it up, down, left, and right.

There was only one method left, a highly risky one: remove the talisman paste blocking the card-like object and clear a path. But he had to ensure that the talismans would not fall off.

The situation was like driving onto a narrow road. In theory, if he continued forward, the wheels would fall into the ditch. But in practice, it could still be saved. As long as half of the left and right wheels went off the road and the other halves stayed on it, the vehicle could pass through. However, it was extremely dangerous in actual execution; the slightest error could lead to disaster.

It was time to witness a miracle.

Ding Shi rubbed his hands, shook out his fingers, took a deep breath, then pressed both index fingers against the card-like object and moved it left. Clearly, the upper left and upper right corners were blocked by the talismans. If he angled it slightly, the upper left corner could get out, but only that corner. Now he could only hope the talismans had some tolerance and were not pasted on too firmly.

Greed lowered people's IQ. Ding Shi had never considered why the talismans could stick to the coffin in the first place. Common folk used paste, but a master would definitely just slap them on directly. How could talismans slapped on directly have any tolerance?

It was summer. Sweat dripped from Ding Shi's head onto the flashlight lens, instantly blurring it. Ding Shi lowered his head to wipe the lens, causing the flashlight to fall over. When he reached for it, his finger accidentally touched Third Lady's left pinky. Third Lady's eyes snapped open.

Ding Shi did not move. Even more sweat flowed down his face. He stared fixedly at Third Lady, while Third Lady stared fixedly back at him with those completely black eyes.

When the enemy did not move, he moved. After waiting for a while and seeing that Third Lady made no further motion, Ding Shi picked up the flashlight and scraped off Third Lady's eyelids to cover her eyes. He set the flashlight back in place and resumed work.

Good, it was almost out.

Just as half the card-like object had left the X, Ding Shi's hand trembled lightly. The edge of the card-like object sliced across a talisman, creating a crack roughly half a centimeter long. As if someone had pressed pause, Ding Shi remained motionless. After holding still for half a minute, he picked up the flashlight to inspect Third Lady. Good. Her eyes were still closed.

Ding Shi put down the flashlight and continued retrieving the card-like object, only to discover in surprise that the talisman's crack had grown a little. Had it? It had, right? He was not entirely sure.

At a time like this, it did not matter whether it had or not. Time was life. Ding Shi continued shifting the card-like object. Since the crack had widened, he smoothly removed it.

One glance told him that it was not a card-like object at all. It was a playing card: the Seven of Spades, with the common blue rippled pattern on the back.

What did this mean?

A line of text appeared before Ding Shi.

Ita Truth One: This was a game, yet not a game. Life was like a play.

What did that mean? Was this some kind of joke?

Ding Shi tried to interpret it. The development of anything consisted of nothing more than process and result. Could it be understood this way? The Ita process was a game, but the result was not. For example, most people played this game because it was fun. A small number played it for all kinds of reasons: to kill time, to pick up girls, to lure rich men, to level up accounts for money, or because their job required them to play.

There was no need to explain what "life was like a play" meant. The key was the word "like," which already indicated that life was not a play. Boiled down to one sentence: life was not a game.

Combined analysis: Ita World was using games to search for the people it needed. What kind of people did it need? Ding Shi guessed that it was seeking people who went against human nature. Some said human nature was greedy, lazy, impulsive, selfish, and vain; there was also the notion of the seven deadly sins. Only those who went against human nature and could restrain their instincts could achieve success.

Losing weight, studying, exercising, and so on—if one wanted to achieve something, one had to act against human nature.

Ding Shi did not know whether his analysis was right or wrong, but his intuition told him that the guess that Ita was searching for people it needed was probably correct. He simply could not determine what sort of people Ita was looking for.

When he opened the system interface, there was now a notebook. Opening it, he found Truth One recorded inside.

After all, this was only the first instance, and it was still a casual one. Ding Shi set the matter aside for now and tried placing the Seven of Spades into the skill card slot. The system prompted: Conditions insufficient. Ding Shi then tried placing the Seven of Spades into the item card slot without cardifying it. This time, it went in, categorized as a skill card.

Ding Shi glanced at the crack in the talisman and confirmed that it was widening. It had now spread to a quarter of the talisman's width. He had to run. But Ding Shi was not completely irresponsible. Since he had damaged the talisman himself, he had the obligation to repair it.

He took out the Sweet Potato Card and produced a sweet potato. He dug out a small piece, kneaded it between his fingers, then pressed the piece of sweet potato, now rolled into a ball, over the talisman's crack.

After making the repair, Ding Shi packed up his things, held up the coffin lid with his left hand, and wriggled out of the coffin.

Before coming out, Ding Shi shone the flashlight on Third Lady. Her eyes remained tightly closed, as if nothing had happened. Ding Shi tried lifting the coffin lid a few times, and Third Lady's eyelids cooperatively played the little game with him more than ten times. Ding Shi was very satisfied. This meant Blind Zhao had told the truth: taking only the important treasure would not cause any problems. Blind Zhao simply had not mentioned that taking it would very likely damage the talismans.

Life was full of traps. Ding Shi had long grown used to it.

He closed the coffin lid and hammered in the coffin nails. Though it was still pitch-black outside and a light rain had begun to fall, Ding Shi remembered his agreement with White Cloud Daoist and hurried down the mountain. He even used his butt as a cushion and slid directly down the slope.

How should he judge what he had done?

Li Si was a scumbag. Zhao Liu was a scumbag. He himself was one too. Ding Shi was willing to admit that. From the slowly widening damage to the talisman, he could tell that damaging it would definitely bring negative consequences.

What if he had not been greedy? No, there were no what-ifs. Ding Shi only blamed himself for not being careful enough, not for being too greedy. He had to take something like this when he saw it. There was absolutely no reason to let it go.

His immediate priority was to get down the mountain as quickly as possible.

Should he tell White Cloud Daoist what had happened after returning to the village?

Of course not. Blind Zhao had fought ghosts alongside him, after all. If he confessed the truth, would he not be dragging Blind Zhao down for telling him about the important treasure? As for a real man taking responsibility for his own actions, that depended on whether Blind Zhao had the courage of a real man.

In any case, Ding Shi did not. As an undercover agent, his dictionary had no option for taking the blame. No—it could not have an option for taking the blame.