It had to be this! Everyone in Jing City knew that Ye Xiaoshu loved her brother, Mo Chengzhou, as if her life depended on him. This had to be another one of Ye Xiaoshu’s tricks; she would never let her brother see this venomous woman.
“What are you looking at?”
“Is the Mo family really so poor they can’t afford even the most basic alimony?”
Ye Shu let out a derisive laugh, locking her gaze firmly on Mo Jiugge. There was none of the fawning or timidity of the past in her eyes.
“Ye Xiaoshu, stop wasting your efforts. My brother will never see you again. He loves only Sister Xiaolian.”
Ye Shu stared at the self-righteous woman before her, her lips twitching in silent amusement.
The original owner had been blinded by love, but she wasn’t. The upgraded survival game was stingier than ever—no starting funds at all. The supplies in her storage space wouldn’t last her thirty days in this world. So, the fastest way to get her hands on money was through the Mo family.
“Mo Jiugge, do you understand anything I say? I told you—I want money, not men.”
“Mo Chengzhou is just a fool who climbed the ranks by relying on women. I admit, I must’ve been blind to fall for him back then, but now? I wouldn’t want him even if you gave him to me for free. If Mo Chengzhou wants to give that delicate little flower a title, I’ll grant it—as long as the Mo family returns the original Ye Group shares to me. Agreed? Besides, it was mine to begin with.”
She spoke every word slowly and clearly, her expression serious like never before.
“You…”
Mo Jiugge stood rooted to the spot, her lips moving but unable to produce a word. She tried to convince herself it was all a scheme, another performance by Ye Xiaoshu, but seeing the woman across from her—so calm and coldly indifferent—panic rose for no reason.
She’d known Ye Xiaoshu for years. The other girl had never looked at her with such ridicule. All because Ye Xiaoshu liked Mo Chengzhou—she’d love his family by extension. Even as an illegitimate daughter, Mo Jiugge was the one he was closest to, and Ye Xiaoshu always tried to please her, giving her any good thing she found…
“If Mo Chengzhou refuses to hand them over… I can’t guarantee the Mo family won’t make tomorrow’s headlines.”
Ye Shu lay back on the bed, a smirk at the corner of her lips, fixing her gaze on the stunned Mo Jiugge.
Mo Jiugge blinked in disbelief, but couldn’t take her words seriously. “Do you even know what you’re saying?”
Was Ye Xiaoshu out of her mind?
How dare she spout such wild threats in front of her?
“I’ll only say it once. You don’t want the Mo family to be smeared as a husband-abandoning lot, do you? If anything happens to me, there’ll be an exposé—imagine how the media will spin it. Mo Group’s CEO locks his wife in a mental ward just to marry his secretary mistress? Quite a story, don’t you think? The bidding contest is coming up, and the Chen family has been eyeing your position for a long time… What will happen to all you’ve built?”
“And you, Mo Jiugge—pretending to be harmless, when you’re ambitious beneath the surface. Wasn’t it you who recommended Bai Xiaolian to the Mo Group? What are you after? Trying to drive a wedge between me and Mo Chengzhou?”
For the first time, panic slipped through Mo Jiugge’s calm façade.
How could Ye Xiaoshu, locked up in a mental hospital, know all of this?
Wasn’t she supposed to be just a lovesick fool?
Could it all have been an act?
Were there still Ye family allies in Jing City?
Those cold, fierce eyes made Mo Jiugge’s brow twitch. She threw out a sentence and hurried off.
“Damn, I’m going to suffocate in here!”
“My master’s storage space desperately needs an upgrade. I almost died of thirst in there. A fish can’t live without water—what kind of life is that? Survival, at best! My pretty tail was wilting.”
The merman grumbled in a low voice.
“Quiet.”
Ye Shu almost regretted bringing the merman along. If she’d known how much noisier he’d get once freed from whatever uncanny restraints held him before, she never would’ve brought him out.
“Fine.”
Xiaobai made a zipping motion across his lips and curled up quietly in the corner of the hospital bed.
According to the data transmitted by the system, the novel’s protagonist, Mo Chengzhou, doted on the heroine, Bai Xiaolian, excessively. After several years of growth, the Mo family was now a force to be reckoned with—the little Ye Group was but a speck to them.
That meant her odds of securing starting capital were quite high.
Now, she was alone in the ward.
Though she was confined to a mental hospital, the Mo family had saved her some face—at least the room was spacious, and the side wall was a giant floor-to-ceiling window offering a perfect view of the woods behind the hill.
Sunlight basked her body with gentle warmth, while beautiful, dreamlike clouds hung over the hills in the distance.
It was a tranquil, idyllic scene, but Ye Shu couldn’t miss the white fog still creeping relentlessly lower from mid-air.
After enduring a round of maritime survival, Ye Shu was hyper-sensitive to any mist.
Black fog—thick as ink—could dissolve bones and kill unseen. Perhaps this white mist deserved some scrutiny.
Could this be the core of this round’s game?!
Ye Shu quickly snapped a photo of the scene and uploaded it to the player channel and original world hub.
[ImYourDad: Day one in the game—checking in at the psych ward.]
The comment came with a striking scenic photo.
She’d chosen her angle well; the wispy clouds curled around the mountainside like something out of a fairyland lit by morning light.
[LittleHoarderHamster: Such beautiful mist! This would be a great vacation spot… In the last round, I was blind for a whole month!]
[SwallowWithoutYouHowCanILive: Ugh, now you’re using the channel like a social feed? Even posting landscape shots. What are some of these players thinking?]
[SuperInvincibleGaia: That username—aren’t you number two on the strength rankings?!]
[LittleBunnyGoodChild: It really is! No wonder it looks familiar—it’s the one who cleared the ghost-infested pit last game. This isn’t just any picture—surely it’s a hint for us.]
[Park Shinchang: Tch, what strength rankings? Would our Great Han country ever recognize those?]
[Satō Mihako: Baka, just because Huaxia has a few on the list, you get cocky? Isn’t this place… just a mental hospital? Hah! Has Huaxia run out of people—letting a psych patient top the rankings?]
[Jiangzhe Wenzhou Leatherworks a666: Get lost, you idiot! Trash like you couldn't even make the list!]
[Lin Against All Odds: Looking for a fight? Well, bring it on—I'll flame you to bits.]
[...]
A misstep.
She’d accidentally included the mental hospital’s sign in the photograph...
Ye Shu stared at the comments scrolling across the screen without responding, and quietly submitted an anonymous report on the Sakura Country player.
With millions of players, all sorts of people were mixed in. It wasn’t long before someone pinpointed Ye Shu’s general location.
The area’s unique climate meant it was shrouded in clouds and fog almost year-round, hence its name—Yunwu Mountain (Cloud Mist Mountain).
The flurry over her scenic photo quickly faded to calm.
Nearly everyone assumed the long photo was nothing more than a random snapshot, irrelevant to the game. Indeed, in the real world, the upload stirred no ripples—like a pebble tossed into a lake, raising only a fleeting ring before vanishing.
The sedative in her bloodstream was wearing off; Ye Shu felt her strength returning bit by bit.
The sun was dipping toward the mountains.
The fog on Yunwu Mountain never dispersed.
Ye Shu watched the mist warily, then turned to the merman at her side. "Xiaobai, can you sense anything wrong about the fog? Check it for me, will you?”
The merman shrunk down further and darted out of the room, soon returning.
Xiaobai shook his head with a sigh. “Sorry, Master. I can’t see anything wrong, only that the white fog smells awful.”
Different species…
The white mist had substance, yet was indistinct. He didn’t dare get too close—he could only watch from afar.
Also, his abilities didn’t seem to work at all in this world.
The merman felt a twinge of existential crisis.
“Hey, the sun’s almost down, and the fog’s still here!”
“That’s odd. Usually, the mist would’ve cleared by now.”
A couple of orderlies outside the door were marveling at nature’s handiwork.
They’d lived on Yunwu Mountain for years, long accustomed to its fog, and thought nothing of it.
While she waited, Ye Shu received a bank transfer from Mo Jiugge.