Xiao Xue was the girl who had died outside Lu Mi's door. "Mom" had dragged her into the kitchen too, chopped off her head, and placed it on the TV stand.
Lu Mi patted her shoulder in comfort. "What's done is done. Let's eat first."
Ning Zhuangzhuang was a veteran, after all, and didn't wallow in her unease. "Who knows what tricks 'Mom' will pull next."
After breakfast, "Mom" gathered everyone again. Now, only five of them remained.
Lu Mi took a look. Apart from him, none of them were newcomers.
"Mom" smiled as though nothing had happened. "Children, I'll need your help decorating the living room today. After all, this is where we'll be holding the anniversary celebration."
"Decorating the living room?" Xu Zhi asked humbly. "What do we need to do?"
"I have fifty balloons, twenty-five streamers, and two strings of fairy lights here." Two cardboard boxes sat at its feet. "I want you to decorate the living room with them."
It sounded fairly easy, and not particularly dangerous. But after their experience cleaning the house, no one dared let their guard down.
"One hundred." "Mom" held up one finger. "One hundred fresh flowers. No wilted ones, no insect holes. Not a single flower short."
They exchanged glances. They were trapped inside this house. Where were they supposed to find fresh flowers?
Xu Zhi immediately took the initiative. "How about this? We split into two groups. Two people can handle blowing up balloons and hanging streamers, and three can pick flowers."
Then he reached for Ning Zhuangzhuang. "Ning, let's stay in the living room."
Ning Zhuangzhuang stole a glance at Lu Mi and pressed her lips together.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't tempted by the prospect of doing easier, safer work alongside a veteran like Xu Zhi, but...
She gently pulled away. "No, Brother Xu. I'll go with Lu Mi. He's new, so I should look out for him."
Xu Zhi's smile stayed in place, but he turned down the other two when they offered to join him.
In the end, he worked in the living room alone, while the other four split into two pairs to pick flowers.
Ning Zhuangzhuang felt a headache coming on. "It's not spring, with flowers blooming everywhere, and the requirements are so picky."
Lu Mi recalled what he had seen from his window that morning. "I know where there are flowers. Come on."
Seeing them leave, the remaining man and woman followed them out of the living room.
Lu Mi led Ning Zhuangzhuang through the passage by the back door and into the back garden.
"There are flowers here?" Ning Zhuangzhuang looked around. "Isn't it all dead branches and withered leaves... wait, there really are! What kind are they? Do you recognize them?"
Lu Mi looked over too. Clusters of unnaturally vivid flowers grew at the foot of the boundary wall. From a distance, they looked like clumps of fire.
"No. They don't look safe. We shouldn't pick them unless we have absolutely no other choice."
Lu Mi worked out his bearings and led her to the patch of chrysanthemums beneath his room.
"Wow," Ning Zhuangzhuang exclaimed. "This spot is pretty well hidden. How did you find it?"
"Don't worry about that. Just start picking."
"Mom" had set a time limit. Picking a hundred flawless fresh flowers was going to be a real challenge.
The man and woman followed them over too. The girl wore a ponytail, and she approached them with a timid greeting. "Hello. I'm Zhang Mei, and this is my brother, Zhang Zhu. We..."
Lu Mi understood what she meant and nodded amiably. "We need a hundred flowers in total. Let's split that evenly between our two groups."
The four of them picked in separate sections for a while, only to discover that the chrysanthemums' densely layered petals had made the patch look more plentiful than it actually was.
Ning Zhuangzhuang counted the flowers in the baskets and frowned. "Both groups combined only have forty-something. That's nowhere near enough."
Lu Mi examined them carefully, then took out two flowers and tossed them aside under the others' puzzled gazes.
Zhang Zhu, who had been quiet all this time, grew anxious. "We already don't have enough. What are you doing?"
Lu Mi explained patiently, "Look, the outermost petals on these two have already wilted. 'Mom' said these wouldn't count. Let's check the rest of the garden and see if there are any more..."
He suddenly stopped. After looking around, he asked, "Where did your sister go?"
Zhang Zhu froze.
He didn't like talking to people, and he had only approached them in his agitation because he was terrified of being killed for failing to pick enough flowers.
Seeing Lu Mi take flowers out and throw them away had made him even more anxious. He hadn't paid any attention to where Zhang Mei had gone.
Just then, Zhang Mei's excited voice rang out. "Come and look! I found flowers!"
Hearing his sister's voice, Zhang Zhu sighed in relief. "Mei, how many times have I told you not to wander off? Especially now that we aren't with Brother Xu. It's easy for something to go wrong-"
"There are so many flowers! There'll definitely be enough!"
Zhang Mei jogged around the corner with a proud expression. In her hand, she held an entire stem of extraordinarily gorgeous, flame-like flowers.
At the sight, every cell in Lu Mi's body went on alert.
Zhang Zhu looked at his sister and happily gave her a thumbs-up. "Mei, you're amazing! We're saved! Where did you pick such beautiful flowers?"
"At the foot of the wall over there. We were so busy following them that we didn't notice."
Zhang Zhu was about to go pick some, but Zhang Mei waved him off and walked up to Lu Mi, the tips of her ears flushing as she spoke.
"Um, you let us pick flowers with you earlier. This time, let's go together too."
She had noticed this newcomer right at the start of the game. He looked a little oblivious, but he acted calmly and rationally, and he was kindhearted.
She couldn't help looking up at him.
The young man before her had the sort of face that only grew more attractive the longer she looked. His amber eyes were especially captivating in the sunlight.
If finding these flowers saved everyone, would he think more highly of me?
But Lu Mi's gaze was fixed on the flowers in her hand.
He could feel the intense malice radiating from them.
He said softly, "Throw them away."
"What?"
Zhang Mei thought she had misheard, but Lu Mi raised his voice and repeated urgently, "Throw them away. There's something wrong with those flowers!"
"What? It took me so much effort to find these!" Zhang Mei was growing frightened herself, but she couldn't bear to just throw the flowers away. She turned to her brother for help.
"Don't listen to him. He just can't stand anyone doing better than him." Zhang Zhu sneered, convinced that Lu Mi was doing this deliberately.
Ning Zhuangzhuang was confused too, but she still spoke up for Lu Mi. "He isn't that childish. Besides, how do you know there's nothing wrong with those flowers?"
Zhang Zhu shot back, "Then have him tell us what's wrong with them! If we don't pick the flowers right in front of us, are we all supposed to die here?" He glanced at his watch. "We're almost out of time. If you want to die, don't drag us down with you. Mei, let's go."
Still holding the flowers, Zhang Mei looked at Lu Mi once more. "You really aren't coming?"
Zhang Zhu flicked her forehead in exasperation. "Of all the people you could fall for, why him? Sooner or later, someone like that will pay for his indecisiveness."
Zhang Mei's face flushed bright red. She was about to walk away when she realized, to her surprise, that her feet seemed stuck to the ground. She couldn't move at all.
She swallowed and slowly lifted her foot.
Then terror filled her eyes, and the flowers slipped from her hand-
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