The Forest’s Secret

“However, for now…” Xiang Qi glanced around, pausing before she continued, “Let’s find shelter from the rain first.”

“Have you discovered something?”

Uncle Li noticed the girl’s shift in demeanor. Her previous slight anxiety had transformed into confident composure, immediately leading him to believe her earlier suspicions had yielded results.

“Yes, I have an idea, but it still needs to be verified.”

Keeping them in suspense, Xiang Qi turned around. A faint smile graced the girl’s beautiful face, making it hard to look away.

“She’s already far away. Aren’t you going to follow her?” Passing by the somewhat dazed young man, Uncle Li playfully cuffed Du Nan’s shoulder, successfully drawing his attention back. “Look at you, so easily captivated. That kind of person isn’t someone an ordinary man can handle.”

Though their time together hadn’t been long, Uncle Li had already glimpsed certain signs from Xiang Qi. No matter how beautiful a first impression, it could rarely withstand the test of one’s true nature.

‘Poor child.’

“She is by no means a suitable match. Come on, let’s follow.”

He had some vague premonitions, but Uncle Li was never one to make arbitrary decisions based solely on his subjective impressions. He merely offered a kind warning and, seeing that the young man remained oblivious, said no more.

This was abnormal. Extremely abnormal.

Xiang Qi could distinctly feel that there was an issue with her own thought process. Personally, she detested puzzles. Even when solving math problems in school, she would always cut corners wherever possible, skipping steps if she could. If she spotted an issue with option A, she would never bother looking at option B.

Rather than deciphering mysteries, she preferred to focus on things related to herself, secretly speculating about others’ thoughts, and meticulously crafting her prepared persona.

Of course, all of that was nonsense. When she felt her safety threatened and lacked security, Xiang Qi became excessively vigilant. Even the slightest, most subtle clue would prompt her to deduce its potential implications, viewing everything around her with the utmost malice and nipping every possible nascent threat in the bud.

An extreme egoist—that was the definition Xiang Qi had given herself. When nothing genuinely threatening appeared, she was actually quite a lazy person.

The situation she had faced earlier, while a bit troublesome, hadn’t significantly affected Xiang Qi. One shouldn’t forget her mission: from beginning to end, it was simply to eliminate the others before they completed their tasks.

Now, with all three of them trapped in this forest, the situation was quite advantageous for Xiang Qi. After realizing the unique properties of this forest, her sense of urgency regarding time had considerably lessened.

The game placed great emphasis on balance, striving to equalize difficulty as much as possible. No matter how difficult a mission, it always left a glimmer of hope. This had become a consensus among all players; to date, no player had ever clearly encountered a situation where they were unfairly targeted.

Based on what Xiang Qi had discovered so far, the Group A players’ mission was excessively difficult. If the time limit were also extremely tight, then there would truly be no chance of survival. Correspondingly, this indirectly indicated that the game’s allocated time should be quite ample.

Irresponsibly speaking, Xiang Qi considered her own intelligence in this game to be at a very high level, with perhaps only one or two players capable of matching her. Yet, even she had only gathered a meager amount of information, not even pinpointing the exact locations of the beacons, let alone the order in which to destroy them.

The information possessed by the other players was, therefore, easily imaginable.

She truly wasn’t in a hurry; if anyone should be anxious, it ought to be the Group A players. There was no need to obsess over a single problem, as that went against her usual character.

This situation made our Miss Xiang alert. Her own thoughts seemed to be influenced by something, and how could that not cause concern?

However, what was done was done, and worrying was useless. Xiang Qi could only try to mitigate this potential influence. Even if it seemed somewhat beneficial to her at the moment, she still had to guard against it.

“The rain is getting lighter?”

Under a large tree, the rainwater could barely penetrate the leaves, thus maintaining a considerable degree of dryness. The three of them had temporarily sought shelter there, and the atmosphere was silent, with no one speaking.

It was Du Nan who broke the silence first, recalling the two lost in thought back to reality. Driven by a certain awkwardness, Du Nan occasionally glanced in Xiang Qi’s direction, and Uncle Li couldn’t help but sigh at the sight.

Ultimately, he was smitten, but she was indifferent.

“Indeed, it has gotten lighter.”

Shifting her attention from her own thoughts to the outside world, Xiang Qi observed that what had been heavy rain not long ago had reverted to a gentle drizzle. It was even diminishing further as time passed, showing signs of stopping altogether.

“This…”

Uncle Li’s thoughts raced like lightning, immediately connecting with earlier observations and grasping something he hadn’t considered before.

“Is it related to the rain?”

“More accurately, it’s related to both water and wood.”

Pondering for a moment, the girl weighed the pros and cons in her mind before finally deciding to reveal her discovery.

“The Chinese characters ‘霖’ (heavy rain), ‘淋’ (to drench), and ‘沐’ (to wash) are all related to water and wood, and they perfectly match our current situation. It’s probably something like this: ever since we entered this forest, we seem to have been constantly drenched in rain.”

“These characters might represent clues. Perhaps, once certain conditions are met, we will fall into a situation where we can never leave, just like before. This must be the secret hidden within this forest.”

“But… there was no rain when we first came in?” Du Nan, ever the inquisitive student, raised his hand, indicating he still had questions. “Why couldn’t we leave then?”

“No rain doesn’t mean no water,” Uncle Li realized. “While it might seem a bit far-fetched, it’s not an impossible explanation.”

“This system really is a genuine product of Huaxia, isn’t it? If a foreigner came here, wouldn’t they be completely helpless? With clues hidden so deeply, who could ever find it?” Uncle Li made a timely joke as he stood up. “So now, if we just disrupt this condition, we can leave?”

“That should be the case.” Xiang Qi nodded, her brow slightly furrowed. Being soaked made her quite uncomfortable.

“We’ve been here for a while, and the rain has noticeably lessened. Perhaps after a bit more time, it will disappear completely, and then we can leave the forest. However… if the rain only gets lighter but doesn’t vanish, we’ll still need to find something to shelter us from the rain to get out.”

Umbrellas truly were a great invention; Xiang Qi now fully realized it.