Day three, 8:00 AM.
Jiang Ming still woke up right on the dot. He rose, stretched lazily, and cleared away the crumpled wads of paper resting on his desk.
Taking a moment to sense his physical body, that missing portion of strength had not regenerated. The sensation of frailty persisted. It appeared this was a permanent affliction, completely irreparable through mere sleep or sustenance.
Shifting his focus, he summoned his status panel. After a full night of recovery, the Sanity displayed upon it had climbed to eighty-five.
Five points of Sanity recovered over a single night? It felt a fraction too slow, Jiang Ming pondered inwardly.
After closing the panel, he moved on to his daily gacha draw. Still accompanied by the crisp sound of a falling coin, an item flew out from the dispensing slot:
Item: Zippo LighterQuality: Common
Description: A metal lighter manufactured by the American Zippo Corporation. Its windproof technology can satisfy the demand for ignition at any given moment, even under the most abysmal weather conditions.
Its fuel is a highly stable petroleum distillate. The flame generated from its combustion is not only exceptionally safe and reliable but also extraordinarily clean.
Note: Its exterior appearance is also exquisitely crafted, is it not?
Jiang Ming stared at the lighter resting in his hand. He toyed with it for a brief moment before storing it away; right now, there was absolutely no place where he could utilise a lighter.
He then shifted his gaze toward that metal cabinet in the corner of the room, casting another look at those three books.
Following his relentless research over these past two days, he had finally managed to discern a few subtle clues from those three books. He estimated it would not be long before he cracked the password and obtained the contents locked within.
Right at this moment, the sound of something being violently knocked over erupted from the living room, accompanied by the barking of the Labrador.
Jiang Ming was instantly on high alert. Could it be there were still hidden dangers within this house that he had yet to uncover?
It was currently the third day. The relatively safe first two days had already passed; the manifestation of some unforeseen catastrophe was entirely within the realm of possibility.
Jiang Ming moved as he calculated, swiftly arriving at the bedroom doorway. He cracked the door open a fraction to observe the living room.
It remained a house wrapped suffocatingly tight in black cloth, illuminated only by the faint glow of the ceiling bulb. The trash can lay toppled to the side, and the Labrador was currently sprawled in front of it, doing God knows what.
Watching this scene, Jiang Ming meticulously surveyed the surrounding environment. Only after confirming there were absolutely zero other anomalies did he boldly step out with peace of mind.
The Labrador directly ahead seemingly detected someone approaching, instantly snapping its head around in profound vigilance.
Upon discovering it was Jiang Ming, the vigilance in its eyes evaporated. It trotted over exuberantly, rubbing affectionately against Jiang Ming's thigh.
Looking at the dog's clingy, affectionate demeanour, Jiang Ming could not muster a shred of joy. He had spotted the contents of the trash can; several torn wads of tissue and tattered bandages lay within.
Jiang Ming felt a throbbing headache coming on. He never expected that the remnants he had left behind while treating his wounds yesterday had actually been devoured by the Labrador!
He glanced at the nearby table. The clothing he had casually tossed upon it last night, specifically that bloodstained long-sleeve shirt and jacket, had also been chewed to absolute shreds.
Without a shadow of a doubt, this was undeniably the handiwork of this Labrador.
Jiang Ming's heart grew heavy because Rule Set Two, Article Five explicitly stated:
Please feed the dog with dog food, not anything else.
Did this count as a violation of the rules?
Jiang Ming had no idea. Even though the Labrador currently displayed absolutely zero anomalies, Jiang Ming dared not lower his guard in the slightest.
It was not merely that it had consumed something else; the most critical factor was that the tissues and bandages it devoured contained his fresh blood!
Situated within such an eerily bizarre world, a dog of unknown alignment consuming his blood… Jiang Ming genuinely dared not imagine what catastrophic events might transpire!
But the deed was already done; Jiang Ming could only mend the fold after the sheep were lost.1A classic Chinese idiom ‘亡羊补牢', which means taking remedial action after suffering a loss to prevent further damage.
Thus, he scavenged a rope from the storage room, tied the dog firmly inside, and subsequently fed it dog food.
Watching the dog eat with such joyous abandon, Jiang Ming felt a complex surge of emotions. He could only hope that the ensuing days would proceed exactly like this.
…
“Burp~”
Jiang Ming set down his bowl, letting out a highly satisfied burp. Judging by yesterday's ordeal, he knew with absolute certainty that eating was a matter of paramount importance.
Therefore, after properly settling the dog, Jiang Ming abandoned his previous routine of just noodles. He personally took to the kitchen, cooking up a storm of two dishes and one soup. After polishing it all off, he felt truly fulfilled.
Fully sated, Jiang Ming strode over to the coffee table and unravelled the bandage on his left hand. The wound beneath displayed zero signs of infection.
Jiang Ming felt exceptionally satisfied. He applied a fresh layer of medicine and swapped it out for a brand-new wrapping of gauze.
Although the dog had already been securely tied up, purely as a precaution, Jiang Ming still carried the soiled bandages to the bathroom and flushed them directly down the toilet.
Having completed all of this, Jiang Ming began to calculate his next course of action.
His ultimate objective was to wait for Mother to return. Although there were still a multitude of rules whose authenticity remained unknown, he lacked any fundamental method to verify them right now.
It was absolutely impossible for him to be foolish enough to test the rules one by one. Therefore, his primary objective now was to crack that cabinet in the bedroom, allowing him to maintain absolute constancy against the myriad changes.
Thinking up to this point, Jiang Ming was instantly instilled with a renewed sense of purpose. Bubbling with excitement, he prepared to head back and scrutinise those three ‘holy tomes', yet before he could even move a single muscle…
A rhythmic barrage of knocking echoed out. Jiang Ming checked the time. It was merely 9:00 AM, yet it had already come knocking; was it truly that ravenous for a human heart?
With the dog currently tied up, he figured his own cursing would not be loud enough to overpower Uncle Li. Thus, Jiang Ming decided to retreat to the bedroom, lie down, and completely ignore him.
Sure enough, Uncle Li's painfully familiar voice drifted in from outside the door, but the words he spoke were shockingly entirely different from what Jiang Ming had anticipated. He only heard Uncle Li declare:
“Little Ming, open the door quickly. Uncle Li has come to fetch the dog meat.”
Jiang Ming was thoroughly astounded. Was this the true Uncle Li arriving this time?
He cast a glance at the time, nine in the morning, and recalled the time the fake Uncle Li arrived yesterday. One in the morning, one in the afternoon; could there be some profound connection between the two?
Jiang Ming could not fathom the underlying logic, and at this exact moment, Uncle Li was relentlessly pressing him from outside.
“Hurry up, Little Ming. Uncle Li is quite ravenous.”
Facing such a predicament, Jiang Ming naturally chose to ignore it. What a joke; right now, regardless of whether the entity outside the door was the real or fake Uncle Li, he could produce neither a human heart nor dog meat. Responding or remaining silent yielded the exact same result.
He absolutely dared not let them inside right now. If they possessed the sheer capability, they could just smash their way in and slaughter him and the dog directly. Jiang Ming still harboured absolute confidence in the transcendent quality of his own door panel.
Ignoring Uncle Li entirely, Jiang Ming retreated to the bedroom. He picked up the unread portions from last night and resumed his study, conveniently snatching a blank sheet of paper to meticulously record his findings.
Accompanied by Jiang Ming plunging his entire heart and soul into the task, time flowed on in dead silence…
…
Swish…
Following the sound of the ballpoint pen scratching across the paper, Jiang Ming raised his head in utter helplessness, unleashing a heavy sigh:
“Sigh, wrong again.”
The paper directly before Jiang Ming was packed densely with over a dozen strings of numbers, yet every single one bore a massive cross slashed through it. Seeing this scene, Jiang Ming massaged his temples and muttered:
“This doesn't make any sense. The password for this cabinet should undeniably be hidden within these three books, and it must possess some relation to those dog-eared pages. But why can't I deduce it?”
Jiang Ming was utterly bewildered. Deducing a password was not only an astronomically time-consuming mental exertion, but he actually had to read this specific type of degenerate literature to solve it, undeniably escalating the difficulty to catastrophic levels.
He cast a glance at the time; it was 10:30 AM. Sensing the pressure building up in his bladder, he shook his head and rose, preparing to use the restroom.
Although there were empty bottles available in the bedroom that could solve this predicament, it was broad daylight right now. That would simply be far too uncouth.
Notes
A classic Chinese idiom ‘亡羊补牢', which means taking remedial action after suffering a loss to prevent further damage. ↩