The slope down was a flight of steps, with no accessible ramp. Bai Youwei, sitting in her wheelchair, couldn't go down and could only anxiously wait at the top.
“Shen Mo!… Shen Mo!…” she called out repeatedly.
Wu Lili wiped away a tear and offered, “How about I push you down?”
Bai Youwei shot her an irritated look. “How much strength do you even have? I don’t want to roll down with you!”
Wu Lili bit her lower lip, aggrieved.
Bai Youwei ordered her again, “You go down! Find my brother and bring him back!”
“This place is so big… where am I supposed to find him?” Wu Lili said.
“Just go and find him! So much nonsense!” Bai Youwei snapped. “How will you know if you can find him if you don’t even try?!”
Wu Lili, afraid of her, wiped her tears and started down the steps.
After only a few steps, she saw a door open in a distant village house. Shen Mo walked out, carrying someone in his arms—it was Uncle Zhao!
“Shen Mo!” Bai Youwei shouted at him.
Shen Mo freed one hand and waved.
Bai Youwei told Wu Lili, “Quickly, push me down!”
“Huh?” Wu Lili was stunned. “But didn’t you just say…”
“Just push me!” Bai Youwei snapped again. “So slow!”
“…” Wu Lili didn’t dare to provoke her and silently gripped the wheelchair handles, descending the steps.
As they got closer, they saw that Zhao Jiantao was tied up by Shen Mo. The old man's face was dark, and he remained silent, probably having nothing to say.
“The dolls are all in those houses.” Shen Mo pointed to the village houses. “Everyone’s luggage is there too. He’s quite meticulous. Every time someone enters the game, he waits nearby. As soon as someone turns into a doll, he drags them into a house and hides them, along with their luggage. That way, the next time he brings people to the island, no one will notice.”
“He came with us, so why is he okay?” Bai Youwei asked.
Shen Mo glanced down at Uncle Zhao and said indifferently, “I asked him. He said players can’t enter the same game twice, so even if he enters the doll game area, it won’t trigger the game.”
Bai Youwei hummed in agreement. “…That makes sense. If someone knew how to beat the game, coming back to repeatedly farm rewards would be cheating.”
Wu Lili, however, wasn’t as calm. She rushed forward, grabbed the old man’s clothes, and angrily questioned him, “Zhao Jiantao! Why did you do this? Why?! It’s one thing to harm other people, but why Zhang Qi? Zhang Qi and Sun Wei have been helping you on the island! What kind of heart do you have?! How could you be so cruel! Ah! Why?!”
Uncle Zhao looked up at her, his face expressionless. “He insisted on coming. Same as you.”
— Slap!
Unable to contain her rage, Wu Lili slapped the old man hard across the face.
“Monster!” she cried, cursing him.
Zhao Jiantao remained unmoved, his expression numb.
Bai Youwei looked at Wu Lili, then at Uncle Zhao, and asked curiously, “Hey, there’s one thing I don’t understand. Since you clearly knew there was danger on this island, you could have avoided it. Why did you lie to everyone, saying there was a safe base here?”
Zhao Jiantao lowered his head and didn't respond.
Bai Youwei speculated on her own, “Could it be… because there were too many people on the island, and you wanted to save resources, so you sent people to the island?… Hmm, that doesn’t seem right. There are only sixty or seventy people on the island now, which isn’t a lot. If the number decreases further, tasks like fishing and chopping wood won’t get done…”
Her gaze shifted back to Uncle Zhao. “Could it be… you’re actually a murderer, and you enjoy this?”
“Heh!” Zhao Jiantao sneered. “You don’t know anything. If I didn’t regularly send people into the game, everyone on Sanshan Island would have been dead long ago!”