Chapter 28: Losing a Teammate

Li Yanshu gritted her teeth and roared at Huan Xiao:

"Xiao Huan, how can you be so selfish! We need Wen Su, she is very important! Can't you just help her?"

"Let her jump, we can pull her back up later."

Huan Xiao was speechless, yet she good-naturedly repeated herself. This was the third time she had said it; surely Li Yanshu could understand now? But in reality, Li Yanshu understood perfectly well; she was only clinging to Huan Xiao like this to protect Wen Su.

"No, what if something happens to Wen Su?" Li Yanshu retorted righteously.

At this, it finally dawned on Huan Xiao: Li Yanshu simply felt that she herself was less important than Wen Su.

Huan Xiao observed the other boats nearby and noticed that the people who fell into the river never had the chance to be pulled back up before their two companions fell in with them due to the boat sinking. At the final moment of a sinking boat, one person seemed to suddenly remember something and scrambled onto a boat that only had two people. Because the boat was restored to three occupants, it began to rise and returned to its original level. Seeing this, the others followed suit, jumping onto other boats and ignoring their comrades who had fallen into the water.

Huan Xiao confirmed it: given how they discarded their comrades in the water without hesitation, it was clear they truly hadn't realized they could switch boats before. They say human intelligence drops in a crisis, and it seems to be true.

Li Yanshu ignored what Huan Xiao was watching and continued to urge her: "Xiao Huan, please, just go for Wen Su's sake. Saving a life is a deed of infinite merit; you will definitely have good luck. I beg you!"

Seeing her persistence, Huan Xiao became annoyed. She secretly used ghost energy to briefly restore Wen Su’s consciousness and then said to Li Yanshu: "If you want to save Wen Su, you could also choose to jump into the river yourself. Maybe Wen Su will wake up then?"

"...No, that's impossible. How could that be? Don't talk nonsense, Xiao Huan." Li Yanshu’s eyes darted around. After hesitating for a long time, she decided to let go of Wen Su, saying, "Let’s just hurry and pull Wen Su up later, it should— Ah!!!"

"Splash!"

Li Yanshu was suddenly pushed into the river by a pair of hands before she could even react. The person who pushed her was none other than Wen Su.

Seeing the trouble resolved, Huan Xiao withdrew the ghost energy from Wen Su. To her surprise, Wen Su remained conscious even without the support of the ghost energy.

"Glug, glug... Save, save me!"

Li Yanshu tried to grab the side of the boat, but her eyes suddenly widened as she felt something under the water pulling at her hair. In an instant, she vanished into the river. The ripples faded, and the surface returned to a deathly stillness. The other people who had fallen into the river met the same fate; they were dragged to the bottom by unknown entities and disappeared without a trace.

Strangely, the boat carrying Huan Xiao and Wen Su did not sink. While all other boats that lacked three people had gone under, theirs remained an anomaly.

"Wen Su, are you alright? That’s great." Huan Xiao smiled at Wen Su with peace of mind, as if she weren't the one who had just prompted Li Yanshu to push her into the river. Wen Su, having been unconscious, had heard none of their conversation and knew nothing of it.

"I'm fine. Xiao Huan, you’re quite clever. I didn't expect that after pushing her into the river, I’d actually recover!" Wen Su felt a mix of surprise and horror—surprise at surviving against the odds, and horror at having taken a life with her own hands. Yet, she felt no regret; if she had to do it again, she would make the same choice.

Huan Xiao laughed, "Not at all, I was just guessing, I didn't think I'd be right."

Wen Su didn't seem to hear her, but instead muttered with hollow eyes, "It's thanks to your suggestion. I almost jumped in myself, but luckily I woke up just in time, or else that woman, Yanshu, would have definitely thrown me into the river. Falling into the river means death without a corpse; how could she have let me jump in?"

Seeing that Wen Su needed time to adjust her emotions, Huan Xiao left her be. On the shore, the pallbearers had long since stopped, as if waiting for them to row. Moreover, the coffins they carried had changed—or rather, something had been added. A black-and-white photograph was now fixed to the coffin, and Huan Xiao recognized the face perfectly.

It was Li Yanshu!

So, this coffin had been prepared for them all along. It seemed that one person per boat had to die; it was unavoidable, but the identity of the victim wasn't fixed—one could trade places. This explained why, after Li Yanshu fell in, Wen Su no longer felt the urge to jump.

Wen Su, having calmed down, also noticed the change on the coffin. Her face went pale as she said, "She died in my place, but she deserved it... I won't think about her now. We should keep rowing, or we'll fall behind the others... I'll row."

Wen Su picked up the oar in a daze, as if the physical labor helped soothe her tortured conscience. Seeing that Wen Su hadn't noticed the anomaly of their boat remaining afloat despite only having two people, Huan Xiao didn't bring it up. She understood why. The task on her phone didn't mandate three people per boat, and there had been an extra boat left at the dock. All of this indicated that her boat was an exception, unbound by the rules.

Naturally, this caught the attention of the others. They deliberately slowed down so that Wen Su could catch up.

"Your boat only has two people, yet it didn't sink. Did you use some special method?" asked a man with a buzz cut from a nearby boat.

Hearing the question, Wen Su snapped back to reality. Having lost her senses earlier, she didn't know what had happened, but she quickly realized the discrepancy.

"I don't know," Huan Xiao said before Wen Su could.

Wen Su instinctively tried to justify the sinking, saying, "Maybe it's because I was the one being controlled, and the one who died was just another teammate."

"Do you think that makes any sense?" The buzz-cut man felt offended, as if Wen Su were treating him like an idiot.

"Then maybe this boat is just special. Who knows?" Wen Su stopped making excuses; it didn't matter to her anyway.

"Why so irritable? I'm just trying to find the reason. Who wants to be squeezed onto a boat with others? It's cramped as hell."

The man didn't say more. Seeing that the two women genuinely didn't know, he guessed they had accidentally fulfilled some hidden condition.

"Fine, let's go, let's keep rowing. Don't waste time; I still want to live to go home and eat."

The others began to urge them on. To them, it made no difference if it were two or three people, as long as they could switch boats. Now, the priority was surviving to the end.