A girl in a white dress followed behind Jiang Mingran. Soft black hair fell over her shoulders, and her clear, beautiful almond-shaped eyes timidly surveyed the room.
"Wait," Shao Lan said. "I didn't invite you in."
The sudden chill in his voice stunned everyone in the room, and the girl flinched in fright.
"Yes, I mean you." Shao Lan looked at the girl, his tone calm but icy. "When I said come in, I was speaking to him, not you. Room 802 is mine. Please leave until you have my permission to enter."
The girl was already timid, and at his blunt words, her beautiful almond-shaped eyes instantly reddened.
Even Jiang Mingran felt awkward. "Hey, wait, man, that's..."
Awkward as he felt, Jiang Mingran still said to the girl, "Why don't you wait in the hallway for a bit?"
The girl nodded obediently, then turned and left.
Shao Lan rose and went to the door. He watched until the girl reached the stairwell at the end of the hallway, then closed the door and returned. "Go on."
"Her name is Lin Zhizhi. She's a newcomer like us and moved into 901 today. She's all alone and really scared, so she hopes she can join us."
Pancake Uncle nodded at that. As someone equally vulnerable, he understood how she felt. After all, if he hadn't been grouped with Shao Lan, he would probably already be dead.
Shao Lan immediately picked out the key phrase in Jiang Mingran's words. "Alone? What about the people who entered the [Assessment Instance] with her?"
"They all died." Jiang Mingran sighed. "She was the only survivor of her [Assessment Instance]."
Shao Lan paused, then said, "Tell her to go back."
"Huh?" Jiang Mingran scratched his head.
After hearing Lin Zhizhi's request, he had come to Shao Lan full of confidence. He had never imagined Shao Lan would refuse.
After all, in Jiang Mingran's eyes, Shao Lan was a good person who sympathized with the weak. Pancake Uncle was timid and had trouble walking, which already made him extremely vulnerable, but Shao Lan still helped him whenever he could.
Lin Zhizhi was pitiful too. A timid girl had been thrown into a terrifying Instance, with neither physical strength nor luck. Everyone who had entered with her had died, leaving her without even a companion when she arrived at this eerie building.
Jiang Mingran glanced at Shao Lan. Seeing that he had no intention of explaining, Jiang Mingran could only get up and leave for the stairwell.
"Sorry." Jiang Mingran scratched his head apologetically. "Shao Lan said no."
Lin Zhizhi lowered her head in disappointment. "Do you have to listen to him?"
"Yes." Jiang Mingran nodded. "Shao Lan is the one holding us together. If it weren't for him, I would've died in the Assessment Instance."
Lin Zhizhi nodded and asked, "Then could I talk to him?"
"Huh?"
"He was so harsh just now that I never got a chance to have a proper conversation with him," Lin Zhizhi said. "Maybe a girl hurt him before, and that's why he's especially wary of me?"
"I want to talk to him, at least introduce myself. That way, he'll understand I'm not a bad woman."
Jiang Mingran thought about it. That made sense. "Then I'll ask him-but if he says no, don't blame me."
Once Lin Zhizhi nodded, Jiang Mingran ran back to 802 to pass on her message:
"Shao Lan, Lin Zhizhi says she wants to talk to you."
He was a little nervous, feeling that Shao Lan would refuse again.
Yet once again, Shao Lan surprised him. This time, he agreed without hesitation. "Sure."
Shao Lan went to the stairwell, where Lin Zhizhi stood waiting for him.
She had a slender, graceful figure, and her long hair fell softly and neatly over her shoulders. She looked utterly harmless.
"Brother Shao Lan, don't blame Jiang Mingran. I begged him, and that's why he agreed to ask you again," Lin Zhizhi said timidly.
"I'm all alone. I'm really scared." Lin Zhizhi's eyes reddened. "I saw that your team even has an old man who has trouble walking. You must be a good person to bring him along, right?"
"So could you bring me along too? I can do anything."
Shao Lan watched Lin Zhizhi for a long time. After a moment, he gave a faint smile.
"Is that all?" Although Shao Lan was smiling, his eyes were cold. "If you don't have a new argument, I can only give you the same old answer-no."
Lin Zhizhi's frail body trembled slightly, and tears welled in her eyes. "Brother Shao Lan, you can turn me down, but could you give me a reason? Tell me what I did wrong so I'll know how to change."
Shao Lan said, "What if I don't give you a reason?"
"Then I'll stay right here and refuse to leave." Lin Zhizhi lifted her chin stubbornly.
"Fine." Shao Lan nodded. "Because you're alone."
"What?" Lin Zhizhi froze.
"If two people survived your Assessment Instance, or three, or four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and you came to ask me to team up, I'd be willing to discuss it with you. The only situation I won't consider is a sole survivor," Shao Lan said calmly. "Miss Lin, do you still not understand?"
The expression on Lin Zhizhi's face changed.
She no longer looked like a bullied little bunny. Instead, her expression grew slightly colder. She lowered her eyes, her thick lashes casting two rows of shadows across her face.
"Brother Shao Lan," she said softly. "You're a little more capable than I thought."
Shao Lan looked at her calmly.
Jiang Mingran was far too naive. This girl was no weakling.
She had understood the lifesaving [Hidden Rule] very early on.
When the Property Manager had said the [Assessment Instance] was relatively easy, Jiang Mingran had strongly disagreed.
But that was actually because Shao Lan had led them down the hardest route.
The Instance really had only one central difficulty-they had to call the police, but Su Xia would hear them making the call.
And there was a very simple solution to that difficulty: let someone else call the police while you stayed hidden the entire time.
During the second loop, Pancake Uncle had actually come very close to this solution without realizing it. It was only because he panicked, stepping on Su Xia as she crawled across the floor, that she found and killed him.
Someone as calm as Shao Lan, however, could have stayed in the bedroom the whole time without making a sound for Su Xia to track, refused to open the door for Li Chengyuan when he pretended to be a police officer, and simply waited until the Real Police Officer arrived to win without lifting a finger.
Although that would have left them no chance to learn Li Chengyuan and Su Xia's backstory or obtain the precious memory [Su Xia's Pocket Watch], no one had known what that thing was good for at the time. Staying alive was obviously the most important thing.
Shao Lan hadn't chosen that approach, but when he heard the Property Manager's introduction, he had suspected that perhaps every Instance had a hidden rule like this-as long as you didn't insist on keeping everyone alive and were willing to send others to their deaths, the difficulty would drop.
Meeting Lin Zhizhi had confirmed that suspicion completely.
For a girl who looked so fragile and timid, who cried at the slightest provocation, to emerge from an Instance as its sole survivor, there were only two possibilities.
Either she was blessed with extraordinary luck, and a windfall had landed right in her lap.
Or she had sent other people to their deaths, turning her teammates' sacrifices into her own ticket to victory.
Both were possible, but the latter was far more likely than the former.
So Shao Lan didn't want to gamble.
More tears filled Lin Zhizhi's beautiful almond-shaped eyes as she looked pitifully at Shao Lan.
"Brother Shao Lan, I had no choice either. If there had been another way, I wouldn't have wanted to do it."
Shao Lan said calmly, "That's all I have to say, Miss Lin."
"I answered your question because I believe you're smart. If I find that you haven't kept your promise..." Shao Lan said softly, "then don't blame me for being ruthless."
With that, Shao Lan turned and left.
Behind him, Lin Zhizhi watched his retreating figure, her gaze slowly filling with resentment.
"Shao Lan." Her lips moved as she silently repeated the name. "Brother Shao Lan..."
Before you continue