Nan Junyi did not dislike Lin Xue’s kindness.
In an environment under this much pressure, someone who consistently remained kind was often more likely to earn the trust of the majority than someone excessively shrewd. After all, no one could guarantee they would never make a mistake, while everyone hoped that in a desperate situation, someone might reach out and pull them up.
Most importantly, Lin Xue’s kindness meant yielding her own rights, not forcing Nan Junyi to yield his.
That alone was reason enough for Nan Junyi not to dislike her.
In this endless chase between humans and ghosts, ghosts were frightening, but humans were not prey capable only of fleeing and trembling in fear. If one ignored or even looked down on them, arrogance might exact its price somewhere completely unexpected.
That was precisely why Nan Junyi patiently negotiated with newcomers. Even if cooperation never formed, he still needed to know what kind of people he was dealing with.
People trapped in extreme fear were even harder to predict than ghosts. Lin Xue’s kindness might collapse in the face of death, but within this despair it could still bring a precarious kind of stability and temporarily maintain a balance: suppressing some of the malice beginning to stir, slowing the majority’s collapse, and containing unpredictable variables and meaningless emotional outbursts.
Unfortunately… that kindness was of no help in the present situation.
After hearing Lin Xue finish explaining contamination, Jiang Ning’s face went deathly pale. The others looked stunned as well, staring at one another in silence.
“You…” Jiang Ning fixed Lin Xue with a rigid stare. Her entire body shook as she pointed at her. “You’re trying to scare me, aren’t you? You’re getting back at me for what I did just now! Aren’t you?”
Lin Xue looked at her wearily. “No. Like I said, I originally wanted to keep this from everyone and then accompany you myself.”
“I don’t want that!” Jiang Ning screamed. “I don’t want to team up with you! Who knows whether all of this is a lie you made up to get revenge on me? You want me alone with you, and then once I’m isolated you could hurt me however you wanted! Besides, how could anyone really be that kind? You know there are ghosts, and you still want to risk your life with me!”
The atmosphere in the room froze. Everyone’s subtly changing gazes moved from Jiang Ning to Lin Xue.
Once an intervention born of kindness failed, it immediately became fertile ground for suspicion. Morality was not a tangible thing. Trusting nothing but a stranger’s word was no different from walking into a casino carrying a fortune and expecting to win big. Both were equally high-risk wagers.
Fang Luyao’s expression looked rather poor. She glanced from side to side, unsure whom she should support.
At the end of the day, both Jiang Ning and Lin Xue were people she had only just met. She did not truly know either of them.
Nan Junyi simply stood by the door, leaving the matter to Lin Xue exactly as she had asked. As the argument in the room continued to expand, he thoughtfully looked toward the dark, cold corridor. “Lin Xue, it’s time to go.”
Fang Luyao instinctively looked up and asked in alarm, “What do you mean, time to go? Where are you going?”
No matter how rational she might be, Fang Luyao was still only a student. With the situation almost completely out of control, she could no longer maintain her earlier composure.
“The Anchor Point.” Nan Junyi was not stingy with this information. “Staying here too long will also bring contamination, so the sooner we find the Anchor Point, the better. Cooperation would obviously be preferable, but given the situation now, splitting up is probably safer.”
Floral Shirt and the other two newcomers who had hardly spoken opened their mouths as if they wanted to say something, but then unconsciously glanced at the nearly broken-down Jiang Ning and ultimately closed them again.
Among the six newcomers, those three had consistently had very little presence. If Nan Junyi had not noticed Floral Shirt’s earlier reaction, the young man probably would not have spoken even once by now.
This group of newcomers appeared to be university students or recent graduates and still retained certain student habits: obeying authority, following the crowd, and not yet being able to discard their self-respect or moral sense.
While Fang Luyao was thinking, Qiu Chen scratched his head and ventured, “Then what if… I mean, just hypothetically, okay? What if we get lucky? There are more of us on this side, right? People always say there’s strength in numbers. If we happen to find this Anchor Point before you two do, how are we supposed to contact you?”
His eyes flickered, clearly lacking confidence in his own question. “Even if this is one hell of an unlucky situation, meeting each other is still fate. If we can all leave together, that would obviously be best.”
The veterans had experience, while the newcomers had numbers. The possibility that they might find the Anchor Point first was indeed not small.
“No need to contact us. As long as one person finds the Anchor Point, the ship will come and take everyone away.” Nan Junyi of course knew what he was really asking. He gave a faint smile. He did not dislike clever young people, and his gaze swept over the others’ faces. “If you truly have no idea what to do, then work hard to stay alive until the ship comes.”
Without waiting for Lin Xue, he turned and stepped into the darkness.
Although the sanatorium had been abandoned for many years, it did not look badly ruined. Nan Junyi had taken only a few steps when Lin Xue’s footsteps caught up behind him. Without speaking, she quickened her pace until they were walking side by side.
After turning several corners, Lin Xue suddenly stopped. “There seems to be writing on that wall.”
Nan Junyi swept his light over it and found a sign nailed there, badly eaten by mold. There were indeed characters on it. The two moved closer and studied them until they made out four words: “Keep Quiet.”
It was hard to say whether that counted as a clue. Fortunately, neither of them was particularly talkative.
After walking a while longer, they began to see light ahead and only then realized they had reached a glass corridor.
Outside the glass lay a garden. Rain pattered steadily against the glass walls, and whenever the water slid downward, the scenery beyond seemed to flow with it, making the entire garden look warped and deformed.
Yet because the garden connected to the outside world, this glass corridor was the only place in the entire sanatorium where natural light could be seen. So despite its eerie appearance, it also brought an unexpected sense of calm.
Just as Nan Junyi instinctively looked toward the wall, the glass suddenly reflected an elderly figure sitting in a wheelchair.
Almost by instinct, Nan Junyi spun around and nearly collided with Lin Xue. Fortunately, both reacted quickly, and together they saw the elderly person in the wheelchair who had appeared in the corridor at some unknown moment.
It was difficult to judge the woman’s age. She looked unimaginably old, her hair completely white and exceptionally sparse. Her eyes were entirely hidden beneath drooping lids. Wrinkles piled across her face, and her mouth was very small. When she spoke, she looked as though she were sucking on a sour lemon, several muscles in her face trembling with every movement. Her voice was so faint that one would have to lean an ear very close to hear it.
She was speaking. Someone would have to draw extremely near to hear the “hint” clearly, or risk having an ear bitten off.
At mission locations like these, aside from malicious ghosts that delighted in killing, there were also neutral ghosts that responded to kindness. They were exceedingly rare, however, and the best course was usually to ignore them.
That way, one might gain nothing, but one would certainly lose nothing.
Nan Junyi did not answer her. He simply walked calmly past the old woman, quiet and soundless as a phantom.
Lin Xue could not resist glancing back at her once, but quickly turned forward again.
The old woman muttered a few words. Her voice was so very faint that almost no one heard them.
The rain abruptly became torrential.