Heixiao was sweating profusely, staring as Su Wan trembled and extracted a small bug the size of a fingernail from the muscle of his lower abdomen. The bug was already dead, but its barbed legs had deeply embedded themselves into the muscle. When it was pulled out, it tore away several muscle fibers, clearly demonstrating their strength.

The bug was located in relatively shallow muscle tissue, so there wouldn’t be too much blood, but there were too many of them. If each bug created a wound, Heixiao would end up looking like a honeycomb. Therefore, he had to instruct Su Wan to use a method of subcutaneous cutting; after entering through one wound, he would maneuver the forceps under the skin to extract the surrounding bugs.

Of course, without endoscopic equipment, many of the bugs that were pulled out often came with bits of flesh. This procedure was somewhat akin to liposuction, and without anesthesia, it was easy to lead to cardiac and respiratory failure.

Not long after, Su Wan saw Heixiao grimace in discomfort and say, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. In a while, my body will absorb them on its own.”

Su Wan sighed in relief, collapsing onto the ground, his hands covered in blood. The pile of bloody, mangled bugs on the floor made him feel nauseous; for the first time, he felt that sometimes giving up halfway could be a form of relief.

“You really are the most extreme person I’ve ever seen when it comes to having no stance.” He used to think it was ridiculous that some people fainted at the sight of blood or vomited when they saw it, but now he felt he could empathize.

Heixiao trembled all over and asked, “Do you have any bandages?”

Su Wan rummaged through a bag the size of a DSLR camera and pulled out a roll of bandages.

“You really brought a lot of stuff with you. How do you view your life? Did you draw lots for a storage bag when you were a kid?” Heixiao glanced at the empty cigarette pack and dejectedly tossed it aside.

“I can’t tell you,” Su Wan replied, pulling out something that resembled underwear from the small bag and shaking it. “Turns out it was wise to pack things in waterproof layers; everything here is dry.”

“What is that?” Heixiao laughed, only to realize it was an adult diaper.

“Do you need it? It must be very inconvenient for you to go to the bathroom right now,” Su Wan said, then pulled out a pack of cigarettes from the small bag. “This is my last stash.”

“Having cigarettes is like having a blessing,” Heixiao said.

The two of them sat side by side against the wall, with Heixiao tightly wrapping his wound with the bandage. As he smoked, color gradually returned to his face.

Aside from some areas on his limbs, the more dangerous bugs inside him had been extracted, so at least he didn’t have to worry about infections in his internal organs. The bugs in his limbs could cause inflammation, but the risk of amputation now seemed minimal.

“Why did you lie to her?” After a moment of silence, Su Wan asked again, “What is really going to happen here?”

“You really are persistent,” Heixiao exhaled a smoke ring, watching it dissipate in the air. “She has her own path to walk, and we have ours. You should worry more about yourself.” Using all his strength, he began to stand up, staggering as he took a couple of steps.

It’s truly a heavy loss. Why is it that every time I do a good deed like Lei Feng, I encounter such tragic consequences, yet when I engage in morally reprehensible actions, I often end up reaping great rewards? Am I being deceived by both Xie Yuchen and Wu Xie together?

He found it quite interesting. He rarely ignores the details and simply agrees to do something for others. If he is part of a plan, he must understand the plan itself very well, whether it concerns his own part or someone else’s.

This time was unique; he was involved in something he knew nothing about, with the only reason being: “Just trust him.”

He hoped what he was doing wasn’t a foolish act. If this endeavor failed, then the Wu family and Xie Yuchen would be blacklisted in his eyes.

“Let’s go find your other classmate. He should have completed his mission by now. We need to clean up the battlefield and wait for everyone to gather.”

“Mission?”

“A good plan has no useless people, nor does it have useful ones.” He stepped outside, took a few breaths, pointed in a direction that was different from Liang Wan’s but not opposite.

He wanted to move, but the pain made his vision blur. He had to readjust his stamina. Taking a few deep breaths, he said to Su Wan, “Now we have two tasks. The first and foremost is that we need to survive. The second task is that, if possible, we need to rescue the others as well. They are about to start cleaning the room, and right now we are like cockroaches in a corner, ready to be crushed and swept away in an instant. The farce needs to end. If you don’t want to die, don’t stop for a moment.”

Su Wan came up to support him, and the two of them walked out. After about a dozen steps, Su Wan asked, “Have you ever seen a cockroach moving that slowly? I don’t think it’s very useful if we don’t stop for a moment.” The man in black glasses could only smile wryly. Su Wan then asked, “The other classmate you mentioned, is it Li Cu or Yang Zi? What’s his mission?”

The man in black glasses replied, “It’s not a tree, it’s fruit. Yang Hao’s mission is to prepare an escape route for us in advance.”

“Yang Hao has the layout of all the exits here, and he will mark them for us, though it will be passive.” The blind man put away the glow stick and then pulled out a spray can from his lower back, starting to spray around them. They saw a strange trail formed by glowing particles on the floor of the corridor.

It was a patchy trail of blood, emitting a strange light. The bloodstains were very small, like distant stars seen in the night sky, but in the darkness, the bloodstains were still very clear.

“Is it the luminescent ammonia luminol reaction?” Su Wan said. “Is he injured?” (Note: Luminol is a relatively stable chemical reagent used to identify bloodstains that have been cleaned and are very old.)

“You’re really a good student; it’s quite ironic that China’s exam-oriented education can actually work for practical talents when it encounters them. It seems that the differences among individuals have a greater impact on educational outcomes than the educational methods themselves,” said Heixiazi. “Before he jumped into the pool, he had four very small but vascular injuries on his body. Without professional treatment, the bleeding wouldn’t stop, but the amount of blood lost in a short time wouldn’t be fatal. His clothes absorbed water and had a strong dripping effect, so the blood would have flowed all the way without stopping.” He made a gesture: “This trail of blood will lead us to where he escaped, saving us the time of searching.”

“How could he have a blueprint, and how could he have discarded it while escaping?” Su Wan asked, somewhat puzzled.

Heixiazi replied, “Do you think Liang Wan and he managed to escape into the pool by chance?”