The Village Chief apologized. "I'm sorry, Mr. Shao. We'd love to welcome you, but this sea was bestowed upon Xu Family Village by Mother Ming. You and Jiawei aren't married yet, so our rules forbid you from going out to sea..."
Shao Lan nodded in understanding. "I see. Then surely I can just watch?"
"I won't board a boat. I'll only look around. Is even that forbidden?"
Seeing that Shao Lan was growing unhappy, the Village Chief could only nod. "All right, Mr. Shao. You can look around from the shore."
Night soon engulfed the little fishing village completely. The endless sea became an unbroken expanse of black, looking especially still and frightening.
Shao Lan and Qin Ning returned to the Guesthouse.
They went up to the second floor. Xu Nan's door was shut tight, and there was no sound from inside. They couldn't tell whether he was there.
Qin Ning's door was unlocked, and Xu Zijian wasn't there.
"Do you have any food to spare?" Shao Lan asked. "If you do, I won't bother going to the parking area to get mine."
Qin Ning nodded. "Yes."
On the first night, everyone else had been busy with their own affairs, some hurting others and some getting hurt. Only Qin Ning had stayed out of everything, quietly bringing back a pile of supplies.
"Help yourself, and take some for the children too," Qin Ning said. "I didn't know the instance only lasted three days, so I bought too much."
Shao Lan was starving too. He tore open a package of bread and took several large bites.
As he ate, he looked over the bags of food.
There were five large bags in total. Four had labels on them that read "Qin Ning."
Only the relatively smaller bag had a label reading "Xu Zijian."
As though lightning had suddenly flashed through his mind, Shao Lan froze.
With an extremely grim expression, he asked Qin Ning, "Who wrote this?"
"I did." Qin Ning didn't understand why Shao Lan was suddenly hung up on this. "I usually write labels to tell things apart, so I wrote one for Xu Zijian while I was at it."
"Are you sure you didn't get it wrong?" Shao Lan asked. "This is the character for 'Jian' in Xu Zijian?"
Qin Ning was a little puzzled, but she still answered, "I asked him which two characters he used when I wrote it. His exact words were, 'Zi as in Confucius said, and Jian as in construction.'"
Shao Lan remained silent for a long time.
Qin Ning couldn't help asking, "Is something wrong?"
Without a word, Shao Lan stepped out of the room and looked at the names carved into the wall.
"Xu Zijian, Qin Ning."
The character for "Jian" meant "health."
"This name was written wrong." Qin Ning, who had followed him out, noticed it too.
But she didn't understand why a misspelled name would make Shao Lan look so grave.
For once, Shao Lan didn't answer Qin Ning. He stared at the wrong character for a long time, then finally began to laugh.
"My opponent this time really is fascinating."
Before Qin Ning could ask anything else, Shao Lan turned and headed upstairs.
"I know you have some questions. I'll tell you everything the next time we meet," Shao Lan said calmly. "Until then, I want you to keep Xu Zijian and Xu Jiaojiao occupied."
The air still carried the damp, briny smell of seawater as Shao Lan climbed toward the third floor, one step at a time.
He felt closer to the truth than ever before.
On the third floor, Shao Lan pushed open the door to the Moon-Viewing Pavilion.
He had tied Zhang Fang up here before leaving, but now Zhang Fang was gone.
Shao Lan wasn't particularly surprised. He took a can of coffee from his supplies and drank it quietly.
Shao Lan liked the aroma of coffee, but he rarely drank it, precisely to keep his nervous system sensitive to caffeine.
He saved coffee for the moments when he most needed a clear head.
Canned coffee wasn't as potent, but it was enough.
When Shao Lan was halfway through the can, Xu Jiawei returned.
Her carefully styled hair had been tousled by the sea breeze. "Where did you go this afternoon?"
Shao Lan said nothing.
"Shao Lan," Xu Jiawei said. She had clearly lost patience and no longer teasingly called him her husband as she had before. "I can tell you're smart, and I'm no fool either. I hope we can work together."
Shao Lan pointed at the empty floor. "Zhang Fang is gone."
Xu Jiawei froze. "What? Didn't you and Qin Ning take Zhang Fang away?"
Shao Lan shook his head.
Xu Jiawei said, "Zhang Fang was already gone when I came back this afternoon."
"If you want us to cooperate, then I can share one piece of information," Shao Lan said. "The Village Chief didn't take Zhang Fang."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because the Village Chief and I were both by the sea this afternoon."
Xu Jiawei paused. "Then a player took Zhang Fang."
"I went to the village entrance to pick up supplies this afternoon and ran into Xu Jiaojiao and Xu Zijian," Xu Jiawei said. "In that case, Xu Nan is the prime suspect."
Shao Lan nodded.
"I'll go ask Xu Nan right now," Xu Jiawei said.
"Want me to come with you?"
"No need." Xu Jiawei drew her knife and waved it in her hand, then turned and headed downstairs.
Shao Lan watched her retreating figure in silence.
The current situation was indeed tricky.
If his guess was right, Zhang Fang would die as early as today, or tomorrow at the latest.
In fact, his death would be a good thing for Shao Lan too. After all, Jiang Mingran and Pancake Uncle were still in the building, their fates unknown. If Zhang Fang left the instance alive, they would be the ones to suffer.
But once Zhang Fang died, many things could no longer be concealed, and the conflict would come to a head.
What he needed to do, then, was gather some bargaining chips before that happened.
Shao Lan had many bargaining chips, and the most important among them was Qin Ning.
He needed Qin Ning's help.
Of course, aside from gathering bargaining chips for his own side, there was something else just as important.
Eliminating his opponent's bargaining chips.
There was no moon that night. The sea lay dark and still, as though harboring a tremendous storm and secrets.
At the same time, inside the Guesthouse, Xu Nan sat in his room.
He gazed out the window at the sea, feeling rather bored.
Before entering this absurd world, Xu Nan had been a convicted robber serving his sentence in the real world.
That was why Xu Nan liked the building. It had no laws and no prisons. It was the ideal ground for him to do as he pleased.
By contrast, he hated instances.
Inside an instance, his viciousness and ruthlessness were completely useless. He could only leave himself at others' mercy.
That was also why, after surviving the assessment instance by sheer luck, Xu Nan had never again taken the elevator to participate in any game instance. He had lived off robbery ever since.
This time, he felt both unlucky and fortunate.
He was unlucky because his surname, Xu, had forced him to participate in this instance. He was fortunate because he had met someone highly capable.
That person had everything under control. As long as he obediently followed that person's instructions, he would be unbeatable.
Just then, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Three light knocks, then one heavy one.
Xu Nan stood up excitedly.
That was their secret signal. He knew that person had arrived.
He opened the door, and light from the hallway spilled in, illuminating the visitor's black hair and red lips.
The person outside was Xu Jiawei.
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