Chapter 62 Part 2

After throwing away the wrappers, Jiang Xiao remarked casually, “So that means He Chen was the white box?”

As far as Jiang Xiao remembered, during the chemistry test, He Chen had chosen white.

Si Lin shook his head. “He chose pink.”

“Huh?” Jiang Xiao paused, then recalled the pink box contained discs, indeed something He Chen would likely choose.

That meant He Chen and Si Mingyu had drawn blanks and were stuck at the cabin today.

The remaining pair, then, was Lu Moxing and Ji Yanli. Did that mean Lu Moxing was the green box? What a bizarre combination. Jiang Xiao couldn’t even imagine those two together.

The aquarium environment simulated deep-sea waters. Vast swathes of dark ink and shimmering blue danced past, trailing a galaxy-like stream of fine, fragmented light. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

The massive form of a whale drifted slowly overhead. Jiang Xiao looked up, watching intently, a tiny glint of light reflected in his eyes. He watched for a while. Si Lin remained on his left. When Jiang Xiao unintentionally glanced over, he found Si Lin was looking at him, just as intently as he had been watching the whale.

With a smile playing at the corner of his mouth, Jiang Xiao said, “Why aren’t you looking at the fish? They’re wonderful.”

Jiang Xiao wasn’t lying. A new exhibit had opened in the aquarium, where schools of fish moved in neat, synchronized patterns, creating an utterly stunning effect.

However, in Si Lin’s eyes, there was only Jiang Xiao.

But before Jiang Xiao could look his way again, Si Lin averted his gaze, instead watching Jiang Xiao’s reflection through the glass.

“Lawyer Si, did you get my heartbeat message?” Jiang Xiao thought for a moment and asked.

Si Lin glanced at him. “No.”

“Huh?” Jiang Xiao was dumbstruck. “That’s impossible. Did your phone malfunction? I clearly…” He saw the corner of Si Lin’s mouth twitch upward very subtly and instantly caught on. “You did that on purpose!”

He hadn’t known Si Lin could have such a “lively” side too!

Jiang Xiao had indeed sent Si Lin the heartbeat message last night. The content was: The Sweet and Sour Ribs were delicious.

The message was ordinary. Jiang Xiao wondered, how did Si Lin know it was from him?

He then recalled that he’d practically polished off that entire dish of sweet and sour ribs by himself and fell silent.

“The content of the message you sent me was…”

“See you tomorrow.”

“I had a feeling that the person on today’s date with me could only be you,” Si Lin said calmly. “Seems my intuition was right on the mark.”

Jiang Xiao refused to concede defeat. “I had that intuition too.”

Actually, he had none whatsoever; it was all blind guesswork.

“Then who do you think, among us, might be the mole?” Jiang Xiao decided to test just how strong Si Lin’s intuition really was.

Hearing the question, Si Lin’s expression remained unchanged. “Come with me.”

Where? Jiang Xiao was baffled but was led by Si Lin into a dark corridor within the aquarium. As soon as they entered, it felt incredibly narrow, barely allowing one person to pass. Si Lin suddenly reached out and turned off the camera on Jiang Xiao’s chest as well as his own.

These cameras were, of course, required by the production team, though it wasn’t mandatory to keep them on.

Jiang Xiao: “Why…”

“In this game, is there a second mole?” Si Lin spoke again, asking a question Jiang Xiao couldn’t answer.

Jiang Xiao responded calmly, “I don’t know. Something like that should only be known by the mole, right?”

The warm, gentle amusement in Si Lin’s eyes had completely vanished in that instant, replaced by cold severity and piercing sharpness. In the darkness beyond reach, the reflections carved by shadows made him appear especially icy and keen.

Jiang Xiao was startled by this sudden shift in Si Lin. He subconsciously stepped back, but his spine was already pressed against the cold wall, the chill spreading uncontrollably across his entire body.

He watched Si Lin’s lips move slightly, the words seeming to freeze into ice.

“Because you are the mole.”

“How could that be…” Jiang Xiao kept his composure, staring at Si Lin. “Whether I am or not, don’t you already know?”

Yet his nervousness was still somewhat uncontrollable; his Adam’s apple bobbed slightly as he swallowed hard.

“From Si Mingyu, you’ve heard quite a bit,” Si Lin said, his voice nearly a murmur, yet each word fell heavily on Jiang Xiao’s ears like a hammer to his heart. “But what he told you was only part of the story.”

“The reason I kissed you was because you told me you had a girl you liked and to please stop liking you.” Si Lin’s pupils were pitch-black, a faint, obscure light glinting in the darkness. “That time scared you, so you never got close to us again.”

Jiang Xiao: “…”

“You’ve forgotten it all.” Si Lin could tell just from Jiang Xiao’s expression. “The first moment I saw you in the Secret Room, I was already certain of your identity.”

Jiang Xiao’s pupils trembled. His mind was in complete chaos, a stampede of alpacas trampling through. What kind of backstory was this? Why hadn’t the system told him something so crucial? What was he supposed to do now?!

He couldn’t very well tell Si Lin that after that, he’d suddenly discovered he actually liked men, could he? That would just sound like a brush-off.

“You… I… I’m not…” Jiang Xiao’s language system was nearly malfunctioning. Yet Si Lin said next, “I won’t expose you.”

Jiang Xiao asked skeptically, “Why?”

Si Lin fell silent for a moment and said, “The place we’re in isn’t a normal, real world. What it truly wants us to do is still unknown. It needs time to study.”

So the implication was, he was also one of Si Lin’s “research subjects.”

Jiang Xiao barely accepted this excuse and added, “But I can’t hide it forever. Sooner or later, elimination will vote me out anyway.”

“The solution is simple,” Si Lin said calmly. “Just ensure one person’s votes exceed three. In other words…”

“Vote rigging?” Jiang Xiao asked, astonished. “Three votes should work too, right?”

“There’s a risk of a tie,” Si Lin’s logic was crystal clear.

Jiang Xiao was silent for a moment. “I can’t figure it out. If this isn’t reality, then what is this place?”

As he spoke, a certain inspiration seemed to flash through his mind, as if some tiny detail had been missed, yet it played a critical role.

But when he tried to grasp that inspiration again, his mind was completely blank.

“Unclear,” Si Lin’s voice was low and deep. “The moment we returned to the cabin, I checked all communications. Everything matches the normal world. And I tried calling the police. Their reaction was completely normal too—”

They just didn’t believe him.

They were participants on a love variety show, telling the police the production team was forcing tasks on them and would kill them if they didn’t comply? It was far too absurd.

The matter ended there without resolution. Si Lin had noticed the other participants showed similar behavior, yet no one ever interfered with them. The residents of this world all seemed to view this as perfectly normal. You could also see it as…

In this world, only the six of them were normal people.

Just thinking about it was chilling. Moreover, as Si Lin was only speculating, he didn’t tell Jiang Xiao, merely stating that even seeking outside help was useless.

“Si Mingyu will vote the same as us. Apart from him, we need to find one more person.” Si Lin’s reasoning was clear. “He can’t defect at the last moment; he must be completely reliable. But so far, I can’t make a decision.”

Meaning the other three were all unreliable.

“Yesterday, when they talked about voting, someone lied,” Jiang Xiao said. “It’s between Ji Yanli or He Chen.”

Si Lin’s dark pupils fixed on him, a flicker of emotion seeming to pass through, and retorted, “Why not Lu Moxing?”

Why not Lu Moxing.

The question stumped Jiang Xiao.

“He… it can’t be him, can it? No one would make up a story about voting for themselves.” Under Si Lin’s gaze, Jiang Xiao’s confidence grew weaker. “Fine, I just think he wouldn’t lie.”

“You trust him a lot,” Si Lin said flatly. “That’s very dangerous.”

It was a declarative statement, but Jiang Xiao felt it was a reprimand.

Interwoven with personal emotions Jiang Xiao hadn’t yet understood.

Jiang Xiao changed the subject. “Although the production team didn’t say so, I think…”

“There really is a second mole.”

“I have no proof, just intuition.”

When Jiang Xiao was reviewing the information, he suddenly realized the info about “two moles among the guests” came from a side quest notification. That meant the other mole didn’t know about his existence and might still be fighting alone.

That Jiang Xiao possessed two votes was perhaps the mole’s deliberate doing.

After a moment of contemplation, Jiang Xiao said, “Why did you vote for He Chen back then?”

Now that he thought about it, Si Lin’s vote back then was quite strange.

Si Lin replied, “I can’t speak without evidence, but one thing is certain: you’re in great danger from now on. Until we fully understand what the production team truly intends, be extremely careful.”

Jiang Xiao was somewhat lost, momentarily unable to follow Si Lin’s train of thought.

Si Lin continued slowly, “The production team is looking for the mole. This means your existence is extremely important to them, and they can’t interfere externally. So, they secretly mobilized the audience to search along with the guests.”

The process was handled quite perfectly, very logical. Had the production team not threatened them with “death if you don’t complete the tasks,” it could be considered flawless. They would only have treated it as a game segment within the show.

Once a penalty was attached, the true dagger hidden beneath the map was revealed.

Jiang Xiao wondered inwardly what grievance they had against straight men. It didn’t seem like such a remarkable identity.

“Also, be careful of He Chen,” Si Lin said.

“Got it,” Jiang Xiao replied breezily. “He probably can’t beat me.”

Jiang Xiao had studied Taekwondo after all. Although he’d largely neglected it now, handling He Chen should be manageable.

As they were talking, someone entered the small passage, intending to take a shortcut to the restroom. Seeing two men holding each other face-to-face, the person immediately said, “Sorry to disturb.”

The reason was simple: this path was too dark and cramped, clearly the type of place suited for that kind of thing. Plus, discussing matters that shouldn’t be overheard, they were extremely close, their noses almost touching, a picture of intimate whispers. No wonder the passerby misunderstood.

Jiang Xiao: “…We should probably go out now.”

Si Lin turned the mini cameras back on, and the two tacitly dropped the subject.

The Deep Sea Zone.