The fish only appeared at night. The man's meaning was obvious: he wanted Gao Ming to leave the Manor in the middle of the night and brave the blizzard to reach East Lake, the most dangerous place of all.
Even setting aside the wild animals and that eerie snowman he might encounter along the way, the howling wind, heavy snow, and difficult terrain alone would pose a serious problem for Gao Ming. Even someone as experienced as Bai Huang had gone there during the day.
"I won't force you to do anything for me. I'm only telling you what happened to me. Frankly, I want you to stay safe even more than you do yourselves." The man noticed Gao Ming's hesitation. A trace of melancholy lurked in his beautiful eyes.
"Why do you say that?"
"You remember the mountaineers I told you about, don't you? If they'd listened to me and stayed quietly in the Manor, they wouldn't have been in any danger. But now they've all turned into strange things and come back, making my Manor more and more dangerous." Helplessness seeped into the man's voice, and what he said did make sense.
"The Manor was already eerie enough, but you outsiders keep coming here and making trouble. You won't listen to anything I say until misfortune strikes you, and then you make this place even more dangerous."
"As long as we do as we're told, we can survive safely?" Gao Ming said this to distract the man. He had keenly picked up on the word the man had used for them—outsiders.
Before, the man had always called them tourists. His wording had just changed, and Gao Ming couldn't tell whether he had let something slip or simply misspoken.
"You could before. Now, even I'm not sure. If you