When Bai Lixin emerged from the willow grove, Xia Chi and Twin Ponytails were already waiting at the entrance.
Seeing Bai Lixin approach from afar, Xia Chi rushed over in a single stride. “Brother, we’ve made a discovery.”
Twin Ponytails raised the book in her hand and followed, “We found an old book hidden in a corner of the library, written by someone named Rumian. It turns out she was a prodigy; she graduated from university at the age of 18 and later worked in an archaeology team. Many priceless artifacts were discovered through her efforts.”
As the surroundings gradually darkened, the streetlights flickered to life. Just as Bai Lixin’s gaze landed on Twin Ponytails’ book, he heard the voices of the librarian and students in the distance exchanging greetings.
Seeing the librarian about to leave, Bai Lixin hurried over followed by Xia Chi and Twin Ponytails. “Excuse me, teacher.”
The librarian who was about to leave stopped in his tracks. “Is there anything else, Master?”
Bai Lixin inquired, “Is it uncommon for teachers and students to enter the willow grove?”
The librarian chuckled awkwardly. “Well, you see, the willow grove is usually quite dim and a bit spooky. Plus, Old Lin often strolls around in there, so people from the school tend to avoid it out of unspoken agreement.”
“Oh,” Bai Lixin glanced in the direction of the willow grove, his eyes searching in the dim light. The aged figure he had seen earlier had melded into the darkness, no longer visible. “Please have someone check by the riverside tomorrow morning. Thank you.”
The librarian was puzzled but nodded politely, “Okay.”
After seeing off the librarian, it was already evening, and the system’s voice came as expected.
[Ding! Dear player Bai Lixin, it’s a pleasure to see you again. I will now reveal today’s task details.]
[Please arrive at the task location before 8 p.m. tonight. Due to your late arrival last night, your professional rating has decreased. Friendly reminder: your professional rating is closely related to your competence in this profession, so please take it seriously.]
[Your task time remains from 8 p.m. tonight until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning.]
Just as the system was about to leave, Bai Lixin stopped it.
This system seemed to have a “colleague” relationship with the escape system, but the escape system was a personal system bound within the player’s mind, while this cold, impersonal system appeared to be a one-time copy system.
Perhaps it was his illusion, the escape system seemed to have had better control over the copies in the past, but its authority didn’t seem as high this time.
Bai Lixin: [We suspect that 10 a.m. is the summary time in the morning, where the system evaluates all players’ performances from the previous day and selects one person to die. Is that true?]
System: [Congratulations, you’ve discovered our evaluation system, it’s just as you’ve said.]
Bai Lixin: [Only one person each day?]
System: [That’s correct, only one person.]
Bai Lixin frowned slightly. [If another player dies before the judgment, will the person originally supposed to be judged still be judged?]
System: [No, they won’t.]
Bai Lixin: [Can you tell me who was supposed to die today? Was it the player with a Mohawk or someone else?]
System: [I’m sorry, dear player. I can’t tell you which employee was chosen, but I can tell you one thing: the player who died today wasn’t the one originally supposed to die. Do you have any other questions?]
[…] Bai Lixin: [Alright, thank you, I understand.]
[One more question, can I take a day off?]
System: [Of course, you can, but you will lose a day’s performance points. Losing a day’s performance points may likely affect your daily evaluation.]
Bai Lixin: [Thank you.]
System: [I wish the player a pleasant game~ And here’s a friendly reminder: the evaluation is comprehensive, which includes professional task completion, performance in copy tasks, and more.]
A breeze swept through, causing the slender willow branches to sway in response with a rustling sound.
After the system departed, its words continued to linger in Bai Lixin’s mind.
One person died every day, but on the third day, it reported two deaths, and miraculously, one of them came back to life.
If the nanny player was the one who was supposed to die, then the other player who died was either one of the eight in the group chat or Sun Ning, who had not joined the group chat.
If it was Sun Ning, that would make sense, but if it was one of the eight, why didn’t they reveal that they had died and come back to life?
Why did they die? And how did they come back to life?
There were no resurrection items in this horror escape game, and the only resurrection item being the Mermaid’s Heart which was in his hands, and it had gone on cooldown after saving Hongyue.
Was it a Substitution Doll?
What had this player experienced in the past? Or what were they trying to conceal?
Bai Lixin’s deep gaze shifted from the bewildered Xia Chi to the excited Twin Ponytails.
Because they were in the same circumstances in this copy, players had lowered their guard against each other. But what if the other party had precisely exploited this blind spot?
S419m: [What are you thinking, Lord Host?]
Bai Lixin: [I’m thinking about the blind spot.]
S419m: [Blind spot?]
Bai Lixin: [I was misled before and fell into a misconception. Clear information spread out before me, causing me to overlook the blind spot in the mesh. The Taoist told me that Miao Pan’er died over a decade ago, while the snack seller pointed out that the Taoist moved there over a decade ago and frequently saw a woman with him.]
[I naturally assumed that the woman she saw was Miao Pan’er. But what if they were two different people? What if Miao Pan’er died first, and then the Taoist moved there with someone else?]
S419m: [Hmm? How could it be two different people?]
Bai Lixin: [A blind spot caused by a time difference. When I was at the Taoist’s house, I always felt a subtle sense of incongruity. Now, thinking about it carefully, although there are only two people in the photo album, there has always been a third person one can easily overlook, the one taking the photos.]
[The photos weren’t staged; they were candid shots from daily life. You only see what the other person wants you to see in the photos and forget about the hidden third person behind them.]
[And that altar, on the left is his Senior Sister, on the right is the Taoist ancestor. Yet, the vast space in the middle is empty.]
S419m: [But who is this third person?]
Bai Lixin: [Don’t forget, the Taoist has a Master who has never appeared. He mentioned him briefly at the beginning but kept steering the conversation toward his Senior Sister, intentionally or unintentionally revealing her similarities to Luo Mei – young, beautiful, elegant, charming, and so on.]
[This photographer, as well as the missing person in the middle of the altar, should all be the same person, the Taoist’s Master.]
S419m: [Ah, how did another Master appear? Who is this Master?]
Bai Lixin pursed his lips with his chin in hand, his gaze gradually wandering.
All the information over the past few days raced through his mind, and s419m and the escape system stood beneath the torrent of information, only able to catch fleeting glimpses of the comet’s tail.
[First, we can reasonably conclude that Miao Pan’er is Luo Mei, the Lady Yuexian of the underground temple.]
[In 1960, she left school. In the same year, 1960, Rumian died.]
[Rumian was an archaeologist. While I only glanced casually around the Taoist’s house, I could still detect several items with a strong sense of age. I initially thought they were related to their Taoist practice, but what if they were the hobbies of his Master?]
[Rumian was the one who built the library filled with many stone figurines. When Lady Yuexian left, Rumian “died” in the same year. The Taoist’s house also had many antiques. Do you think that’s a coincidence?]
S419m: [Are you saying that Rumian is the Taoist’s “Master”? But Rumian is dead, and people found her body.]
Bai Lixin: [If Lady Yuexian can take over someone else’s body, why couldn’t Rumian, who has some connection to her?]
[…] s419m, [Wow.]
Bai Lixin: [It’s been a long time, and perhaps only the individuals involved know the secrets of that year. But I speculate that Rumian didn’t actually die back then, instead, her soul entered another body and left the school with Miao Pan’er. Later, Rumian encountered the Taoist, and the three of them referred to each other as Master, Senior Sister, and Junior Brother. This relationship lasted for a long time, but something might have happened later on. Miao Pan’er left first, followed by his Master, leaving only the Taoist.]
S419m: [So, the Taoist is the key now?]
Bai Lixin: [One could say that, but he may not be willing to tell the truth. The highest form of deception is nine parts truth, one part falsehood. From his words, it’s evident that he’s been deliberately downplaying and protecting his Master while consistently pushing Miao Pan’er forward. I suspect there might have been internal conflicts among them back then, likely between Miao Pan’er and his Master.]
[Between a Senior Sister and his Master, he chose to protect his Master.]
S419m: [This… is chilling. But does this have anything to do with the task?]
Bai Lixin sighed silently: [I have an unsettling conjecture, and I hope it remains just that.]
Escape System: [What… what conjecture? It’s a bit scary. Can you stop keeping us in suspense?]
Bai Lixin: [I suspect that his Master, who is Rumian, has successfully replaced a certain player, inhabiting that player’s body, and is planning to return to the game lobby in their place.]
S419m: […Damn.]
Escape System: […Yes, damn.]
S419m: [So, it’s highly likely that Rumian was a follower of Lady Yuexian in the past. She constructed the underground temple for Lady Yuexian. After some dispute, Lady Yuexian left and took over Luo Mei’s body. But why did Rumian want to enter a player’s body? Everything was fine here, right? What does she gain by taking over a player’s body to enter the game lobby?]
Bai Lixin didn’t hesitate: [Let’s consider another perspective. What if Rumian wasn’t a follower but was bewitched or controlled by Lady Yuexian? Wouldn’t that explain many things? Lady Yuexian bewitched Rumian to build the underground temple. In 1960, Rumian might have genuinely died, but Lady Yuexian forcefully resurrected her.]
[Knowing she couldn’t escape Lady Yuexian, Rumian had to accompany her. Perhaps out of resentment, she picked up the abandoned Taoist on the way. Although we don’t know the reason for the later rift, it’s likely that even after Lady Yuexian left, Rumian still couldn’t break free from her control. Unable to die and unable to escape, Rumian might have wanted to free herself from Lady Yuexian’s influence by entering a player’s body and leaving this world. There have been precedents of copy NPCs entering the game lobby, like Samuel.]
S419m: [This speculation actually fits the timeline and logic quite well.]
It paused for two seconds, feeling that something was amiss.
Suddenly, it screamed: [Wait! An NPC has infiltrated the players in the copy?! So, when we weren’t looking, a player was quietly killed and replaced? And we still don’t know who that player is? Shouldn’t we do something to stop this? When the game time ends, will they just enter the game lobby with us? Could they stab us in the back?]
Bai Lixin: [We can’t let them go like this. Their hands are stained with blood. The man with sunglasses probably didn’t make a mistake; Rumian is the murderer of the girl. This shouldn’t be her first time killing, and it won’t be the last. Do you remember that all the past copy bosses had some dealings with the system to varying degrees? Once they enter the game lobby, they could very well collaborate with the main system. Letting such a cunning individual go would pose a threat to us.]
S419m: [But we don’t know who that player is.]
[…] Bai Lixin rubbed his temples, [We will know. Everyone has flaws.]
Bai Lixin had been standing still for quite some time.
Twin Ponytails and Xia Chi exchanged puzzled glances, each seeing confusion in the other’s eyes.
Twin Ponytails lowered her voice, “What’s going on with him?”
Xia Chi said, “Uh, he’s probably brainstorming.”
Twin Ponytails appraised Bai Lixin. “He looks so mysterious. Is he often like this?”
Xia Chi replied, “Um, I’m not really sure.”
“My working hours are about to begin,” Twin Ponytails glanced at her watch, “The murderer should be Rumian. Now we just need information from the other side. Would it be appropriate for me to interrupt him now? Might it affect his thinking?”
Xia Chi said, “Who knows? Maybe you should give it a try.”
Twin Ponytails swallowed nervously, preparing to muster the courage to walk over. Suddenly, she saw the young man across from them, who had been lost in thought, blink his eyes. His clear gaze fixed directly on them.
The streetlamp above them happened to light up at that moment, casting a momentary halo of dim yellow light around the young man.
The young man’s skin was naturally fair, and in the soft glow, it took on an exquisite, translucent quality akin to white jade and fine cream. His sharply defined facial features were concealed in the interplay of light and shadow, adding an air of mystery to his already beautiful face.
He appeared like an elf under the moonlight.
“D-d-d-do you want to have a look at this book?” Twin Ponytails stammered in nervousness. “There’s, there’s an introduction to Rumian in here. She, she, she used to be an archaeologist and unearthed many things. She once excavated an ancient temple buried dozens of meters underground. Take a look at this.”
Bai Lixin accepted the book with a smile. He relaxed against a utility pole, his right leg slightly bent, leaning against it.
Under the gentle glow of the streetlamp, the young man slowly opened the book.
It wasn’t a book on X University’s development but rather an archaeological publication.
Inside, it didn’t contain just a personal biography of Rumian but included several prominent figures in archaeology, and Rumian was among them.
The section about Rumian comprised just a few pages. Bai Lixin used the table of contents to find Rumian’s introduction.
Rumian, born in 1920, excelled academically from a young age with outstanding grades. At the age of 15, she took the college entrance exam and entered Qingbei University’s archaeology department with the highest score in the country.
After graduating from college at 18, she naturally progressed into an archaeological team. After three years of work, she successfully became the team’s leader and continued her archaeological research.
The article contained numerous photos, including ones from her work and artifacts she had unearthed. Some of these artifacts were displayed in the most central national museum, holding great significance.
She was a rising star in the field of archaeology, and people in the industry remembered her with praise. They expressed regret over her death and decline.
Bai Lixin was drawn to a particular statement from an interview with a friend. In this elder’s memoir, he made a thought-provoking remark about Rumian:
[Her departure was a loss to the field of archaeology. She remains a strong presence in my heart. She once told me that suicide was an act of cowardice, so I never thought she would end her originally brilliant life by suicide. She was such a strong person. When she was in her twenties, she fell from a rope ladder from a height of twenty meters during an archaeological exploration, fracturing over a dozen ribs. I never heard her utter a word of pain. A person who survived a trip to the brink of death but ultimately died due to public opinion, I feel it’s such a waste for her.]
Bai Lixin flipped further and saw the textual description.
——During an archaeological expedition, Rumian had an unfortunate accident during rope ladder training, falling from a height of twenty meters into the pitch-black underground palace. And during that exploration, she unearthed an ancient temple.
The book also contained several photos of the temple. Bai Lixin squinted as he looked at them, finding the layout and structure of the temple to be not just similar but almost identical to Lady Yuexian’s Temple he had entered a few days ago.
In the center of the ancient temple, the statue of Lady Yuexian had weathered with time, its surface pockmarked. At the four corners of the Goddess statue stood four handmaidens.
These four handmaiden statues weren’t unfamiliar to Bai Lixin; they were the same statues he had seen at the four corners of the square secret temple under the library.
In another photo, there were inscriptions carved into the stone.
[Heavenly Emperor and Earth Mother, the Moon takes precedence.]
[We, the faithful followers, sincerely serve Lady Yuexian, and our prayers are always answered.]
[We build temples by the water, with eyes as the pinnacle, devoutly worshiping Lady Yuexian.]
[We would like to thank Lady Yuexian for blessing our people with bountiful harvests and good weather.]
[We pray for Lady Yuexian to bless our people with long lives and abundant offspring.]
When Bai Lixin emerged from the willow grove, Xia Chi and Twin Ponytails were already waiting at the entrance.
Seeing Bai Lixin approach from afar, Xia Chi rushed over in a single stride. “Brother, we’ve made a discovery.”
Twin Ponytails raised the book in her hand and followed, “We found an old book hidden in a corner of the library, written by someone named Rumian. It turns out she was a prodigy; she graduated from university at the age of 18 and later worked in an archaeology team. Many priceless artifacts were discovered through her efforts.”
As the surroundings gradually darkened, the streetlights flickered to life. Just as Bai Lixin’s gaze landed on Twin Ponytails’ book, he heard the voices of the librarian and students in the distance exchanging greetings.
Seeing the librarian about to leave, Bai Lixin hurried over followed by Xia Chi and Twin Ponytails. “Excuse me, teacher.”
The librarian who was about to leave stopped in his tracks. “Is there anything else, Master?”
Bai Lixin inquired, “Is it uncommon for teachers and students to enter the willow grove?”
The librarian chuckled awkwardly. “Well, you see, the willow grove is usually quite dim and a bit spooky. Plus, Old Lin often strolls around in there, so people from the school tend to avoid it out of unspoken agreement.”
“Oh,” Bai Lixin glanced in the direction of the willow grove, his eyes searching in the dim light. The aged figure he had seen earlier had melded into the darkness, no longer visible. “Please have someone check by the riverside tomorrow morning. Thank you.”
The librarian was puzzled but nodded politely, “Okay.”
After seeing off the librarian, it was already evening, and the system’s voice came as expected.
[Ding! Dear player Bai Lixin, it’s a pleasure to see you again. I will now reveal today’s task details.]
[Please arrive at the task location before 8 p.m. tonight. Due to your late arrival last night, your professional rating has decreased. Friendly reminder: your professional rating is closely related to your competence in this profession, so please take it seriously.]
[Your task time remains from 8 p.m. tonight until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning.]
Just as the system was about to leave, Bai Lixin stopped it.
This system seemed to have a “colleague” relationship with the escape system, but the escape system was a personal system bound within the player’s mind, while this cold, impersonal system appeared to be a one-time copy system.
Perhaps it was his illusion, the escape system seemed to have had better control over the copies in the past, but its authority didn’t seem as high this time.
Bai Lixin: [We suspect that 10 a.m. is the summary time in the morning, where the system evaluates all players’ performances from the previous day and selects one person to die. Is that true?]
System: [Congratulations, you’ve discovered our evaluation system, it’s just as you’ve said.]
Bai Lixin: [Only one person each day?]
System: [That’s correct, only one person.]
Bai Lixin frowned slightly. [If another player dies before the judgment, will the person originally supposed to be judged still be judged?]
System: [No, they won’t.]
Bai Lixin: [Can you tell me who was supposed to die today? Was it the player with a Mohawk or someone else?]
System: [I’m sorry, dear player. I can’t tell you which employee was chosen, but I can tell you one thing: the player who died today wasn’t the one originally supposed to die. Do you have any other questions?]
[…] Bai Lixin: [Alright, thank you, I understand.]
[One more question, can I take a day off?]
System: [Of course, you can, but you will lose a day’s performance points. Losing a day’s performance points may likely affect your daily evaluation.]
Bai Lixin: [Thank you.]
System: [I wish the player a pleasant game~ And here’s a friendly reminder: the evaluation is comprehensive, which includes professional task completion, performance in copy tasks, and more.]
A breeze swept through, causing the slender willow branches to sway in response with a rustling sound.
After the system departed, its words continued to linger in Bai Lixin’s mind.
One person died every day, but on the third day, it reported two deaths, and miraculously, one of them came back to life.
If the nanny player was the one who was supposed to die, then the other player who died was either one of the eight in the group chat or Sun Ning, who had not joined the group chat.
If it was Sun Ning, that would make sense, but if it was one of the eight, why didn’t they reveal that they had died and come back to life?
Why did they die? And how did they come back to life?
There were no resurrection items in this horror escape game, and the only resurrection item being the Mermaid’s Heart which was in his hands, and it had gone on cooldown after saving Hongyue.
Was it a Substitution Doll?
What had this player experienced in the past? Or what were they trying to conceal?
Bai Lixin’s deep gaze shifted from the bewildered Xia Chi to the excited Twin Ponytails.
Because they were in the same circumstances in this copy, players had lowered their guard against each other. But what if the other party had precisely exploited this blind spot?
S419m: [What are you thinking, Lord Host?]
Bai Lixin: [I’m thinking about the blind spot.]
S419m: [Blind spot?]
Bai Lixin: [I was misled before and fell into a misconception. Clear information spread out before me, causing me to overlook the blind spot in the mesh. The Taoist told me that Miao Pan’er died over a decade ago, while the snack seller pointed out that the Taoist moved there over a decade ago and frequently saw a woman with him.]
[I naturally assumed that the woman she saw was Miao Pan’er. But what if they were two different people? What if Miao Pan’er died first, and then the Taoist moved there with someone else?]
S419m: [Hmm? How could it be two different people?]
Bai Lixin: [A blind spot caused by a time difference. When I was at the Taoist’s house, I always felt a subtle sense of incongruity. Now, thinking about it carefully, although there are only two people in the photo album, there has always been a third person one can easily overlook, the one taking the photos.]
[The photos weren’t staged; they were candid shots from daily life. You only see what the other person wants you to see in the photos and forget about the hidden third person behind them.]
[And that altar, on the left is his Senior Sister, on the right is the Taoist ancestor. Yet, the vast space in the middle is empty.]
S419m: [But who is this third person?]
Bai Lixin: [Don’t forget, the Taoist has a Master who has never appeared. He mentioned him briefly at the beginning but kept steering the conversation toward his Senior Sister, intentionally or unintentionally revealing her similarities to Luo Mei – young, beautiful, elegant, charming, and so on.]
[This photographer, as well as the missing person in the middle of the altar, should all be the same person, the Taoist’s Master.]
S419m: [Ah, how did another Master appear? Who is this Master?]
Bai Lixin pursed his lips with his chin in hand, his gaze gradually wandering.
All the information over the past few days raced through his mind, and s419m and the escape system stood beneath the torrent of information, only able to catch fleeting glimpses of the comet’s tail.
[First, we can reasonably conclude that Miao Pan’er is Luo Mei, the Lady Yuexian of the underground temple.]
[In 1960, she left school. In the same year, 1960, Rumian died.]
[Rumian was an archaeologist. While I only glanced casually around the Taoist’s house, I could still detect several items with a strong sense of age. I initially thought they were related to their Taoist practice, but what if they were the hobbies of his Master?]
[Rumian was the one who built the library filled with many stone figurines. When Lady Yuexian left, Rumian “died” in the same year. The Taoist’s house also had many antiques. Do you think that’s a coincidence?]
S419m: [Are you saying that Rumian is the Taoist’s “Master”? But Rumian is dead, and people found her body.]
Bai Lixin: [If Lady Yuexian can take over someone else’s body, why couldn’t Rumian, who has some connection to her?]
[…] s419m, [Wow.]
Bai Lixin: [It’s been a long time, and perhaps only the individuals involved know the secrets of that year. But I speculate that Rumian didn’t actually die back then, instead, her soul entered another body and left the school with Miao Pan’er. Later, Rumian encountered the Taoist, and the three of them referred to each other as Master, Senior Sister, and Junior Brother. This relationship lasted for a long time, but something might have happened later on. Miao Pan’er left first, followed by his Master, leaving only the Taoist.]
S419m: [So, the Taoist is the key now?]
Bai Lixin: [One could say that, but he may not be willing to tell the truth. The highest form of deception is nine parts truth, one part falsehood. From his words, it’s evident that he’s been deliberately downplaying and protecting his Master while consistently pushing Miao Pan’er forward. I suspect there might have been internal conflicts among them back then, likely between Miao Pan’er and his Master.]
[Between a Senior Sister and his Master, he chose to protect his Master.]
S419m: [This… is chilling. But does this have anything to do with the task?]
Bai Lixin sighed silently: [I have an unsettling conjecture, and I hope it remains just that.]
Escape System: [What… what conjecture? It’s a bit scary. Can you stop keeping us in suspense?]
Bai Lixin: [I suspect that his Master, who is Rumian, has successfully replaced a certain player, inhabiting that player’s body, and is planning to return to the game lobby in their place.]
S419m: […Damn.]
Escape System: […Yes, damn.]
S419m: [So, it’s highly likely that Rumian was a follower of Lady Yuexian in the past. She constructed the underground temple for Lady Yuexian. After some dispute, Lady Yuexian left and took over Luo Mei’s body. But why did Rumian want to enter a player’s body? Everything was fine here, right? What does she gain by taking over a player’s body to enter the game lobby?]
Bai Lixin didn’t hesitate: [Let’s consider another perspective. What if Rumian wasn’t a follower but was bewitched or controlled by Lady Yuexian? Wouldn’t that explain many things? Lady Yuexian bewitched Rumian to build the underground temple. In 1960, Rumian might have genuinely died, but Lady Yuexian forcefully resurrected her.]
[Knowing she couldn’t escape Lady Yuexian, Rumian had to accompany her. Perhaps out of resentment, she picked up the abandoned Taoist on the way. Although we don’t know the reason for the later rift, it’s likely that even after Lady Yuexian left, Rumian still couldn’t break free from her control. Unable to die and unable to escape, Rumian might have wanted to free herself from Lady Yuexian’s influence by entering a player’s body and leaving this world. There have been precedents of copy NPCs entering the game lobby, like Samuel.]
S419m: [This speculation actually fits the timeline and logic quite well.]
It paused for two seconds, feeling that something was amiss.
Suddenly, it screamed: [Wait! An NPC has infiltrated the players in the copy?! So, when we weren’t looking, a player was quietly killed and replaced? And we still don’t know who that player is? Shouldn’t we do something to stop this? When the game time ends, will they just enter the game lobby with us? Could they stab us in the back?]
Bai Lixin: [We can’t let them go like this. Their hands are stained with blood. The man with sunglasses probably didn’t make a mistake; Rumian is the murderer of the girl. This shouldn’t be her first time killing, and it won’t be the last. Do you remember that all the past copy bosses had some dealings with the system to varying degrees? Once they enter the game lobby, they could very well collaborate with the main system. Letting such a cunning individual go would pose a threat to us.]
S419m: [But we don’t know who that player is.]
[…] Bai Lixin rubbed his temples, [We will know. Everyone has flaws.]
Bai Lixin had been standing still for quite some time.
Twin Ponytails and Xia Chi exchanged puzzled glances, each seeing confusion in the other’s eyes.
Twin Ponytails lowered her voice, “What’s going on with him?”
Xia Chi said, “Uh, he’s probably brainstorming.”
Twin Ponytails appraised Bai Lixin. “He looks so mysterious. Is he often like this?”
Xia Chi replied, “Um, I’m not really sure.”
“My working hours are about to begin,” Twin Ponytails glanced at her watch, “The murderer should be Rumian. Now we just need information from the other side. Would it be appropriate for me to interrupt him now? Might it affect his thinking?”
Xia Chi said, “Who knows? Maybe you should give it a try.”
Twin Ponytails swallowed nervously, preparing to muster the courage to walk over. Suddenly, she saw the young man across from them, who had been lost in thought, blink his eyes. His clear gaze fixed directly on them.
The streetlamp above them happened to light up at that moment, casting a momentary halo of dim yellow light around the young man.
The young man’s skin was naturally fair, and in the soft glow, it took on an exquisite, translucent quality akin to white jade and fine cream. His sharply defined facial features were concealed in the interplay of light and shadow, adding an air of mystery to his already beautiful face.
He appeared like an elf under the moonlight.
“D-d-d-do you want to have a look at this book?” Twin Ponytails stammered in nervousness. “There’s, there’s an introduction to Rumian in here. She, she, she used to be an archaeologist and unearthed many things. She once excavated an ancient temple buried dozens of meters underground. Take a look at this.”
Bai Lixin accepted the book with a smile. He relaxed against a utility pole, his right leg slightly bent, leaning against it.
Under the gentle glow of the streetlamp, the young man slowly opened the book.
It wasn’t a book on X University’s development but rather an archaeological publication.
Inside, it didn’t contain just a personal biography of Rumian but included several prominent figures in archaeology, and Rumian was among them.
The section about Rumian comprised just a few pages. Bai Lixin used the table of contents to find Rumian’s introduction.
Rumian, born in 1920, excelled academically from a young age with outstanding grades. At the age of 15, she took the college entrance exam and entered Qingbei University’s archaeology department with the highest score in the country.
After graduating from college at 18, she naturally progressed into an archaeological team. After three years of work, she successfully became the team’s leader and continued her archaeological research.
The article contained numerous photos, including ones from her work and artifacts she had unearthed. Some of these artifacts were displayed in the most central national museum, holding great significance.
She was a rising star in the field of archaeology, and people in the industry remembered her with praise. They expressed regret over her death and decline.
Bai Lixin was drawn to a particular statement from an interview with a friend. In this elder’s memoir, he made a thought-provoking remark about Rumian:
[Her departure was a loss to the field of archaeology. She remains a strong presence in my heart. She once told me that suicide was an act of cowardice, so I never thought she would end her originally brilliant life by suicide. She was such a strong person. When she was in her twenties, she fell from a rope ladder from a height of twenty meters during an archaeological exploration, fracturing over a dozen ribs. I never heard her utter a word of pain. A person who survived a trip to the brink of death but ultimately died due to public opinion, I feel it’s such a waste for her.]
Bai Lixin flipped further and saw the textual description.
——During an archaeological expedition, Rumian had an unfortunate accident during rope ladder training, falling from a height of twenty meters into the pitch-black underground palace. And during that exploration, she unearthed an ancient temple.
The book also contained several photos of the temple. Bai Lixin squinted as he looked at them, finding the layout and structure of the temple to be not just similar but almost identical to Lady Yuexian’s Temple he had entered a few days ago.
In the center of the ancient temple, the statue of Lady Yuexian had weathered with time, its surface pockmarked. At the four corners of the Goddess statue stood four handmaidens.
These four handmaiden statues weren’t unfamiliar to Bai Lixin; they were the same statues he had seen at the four corners of the square secret temple under the library.
In another photo, there were inscriptions carved into the stone.
[Heavenly Emperor and Earth Mother, the Moon takes precedence.]
[We, the faithful followers, sincerely serve Lady Yuexian, and our prayers are always answered.]
[We build temples by the water, with eyes as the pinnacle, devoutly worshiping Lady Yuexian.]
[We would like to thank Lady Yuexian for blessing our people with bountiful harvests and good weather.]
[We pray for Lady Yuexian to bless our people with long lives and abundant offspring.]
