"Ye Xiaoshu, I truly failed to see how scheming you could be."
"How did she know that Bai Xiaolian was the one I planted beside Mo Chengzhou... Just how much does Ye Xiaoshu know? Over the years, what else has she uncovered..."
Mo Jiugē searched high and low but couldn’t find any trace of comings or goings from Cloudveil Mountain Psychiatric Hospital. With no other options, she could only transfer the money under her name to Ye Shu, promising to make up the difference later.
Of course, there was never any so-called informant.
Those words were a bluff—Ye Shu had tricked her from the start.
All of it just to stockpile supplies ahead of the impending disaster.
Mo Jiugē brushed over everything related to Ye Shu with vague half-truths. Whether Mo Chengzhou genuinely trusted his sister or merely doted on her, the shares of the Ye family eventually turned into funds transferred into Ye Shu's account. From beginning to end, he never once questioned her.
——
Cloudveil Mountain Psychiatric Hospital.
Ye Shu gazed uneasily at the thickening white mist outside her window. She voiced her suspicions to Su Bai.
[Sexy Cockroach in Black Stockings: Shushu, you’re right. This fog is just plain wrong. Normal fog should have cleared by now—this stuff is more like miasma. I’m in Jing City too, I’ll come find you right away.]
[I’m Your Dad: I need to leave for a bit. Talk later. For now, your priority is to hoard supplies.]
They’d partnered up a few times before, and an unspoken understanding had formed.
Recalling what they faced in the last game, Su Bai wasted no time. She rushed out to stock up, leveraging Ye Shu’s funds to barely scrape together enough for two storage rings each with a two-meter space, stuffing them to the brim with bread and bottled water, though lacking in medical supplies.
Night had just begun to fall.
Ye Shu picked up the money and was planning her escape. As she slipped out the doors of the psychiatric hospital, she was confronted by a wall of white fog. In her ward it hadn’t seemed so imposing, but now, it was suffocating—the world blanketed, with no escape in sight.
Fog everywhere. No way out.
She had no idea where it came from, but Ye Shu’s instincts screamed: Whatever happens, do NOT touch this fog!
Half-hidden in Ye Shu's jacket pocket, the little merman peeked out, disgust flickering in his slate-gray eyes. “Master, that foul stench is even stronger now!”
Xiao Bai caught a whiff of something noxious and rotten—so pungent that it nearly gagged him.
Ye Shu sniffed the air, but failed to sense anything odd.
She fished out the last of her protective gear from storage. Staring at the gossamer-thin suit, she hesitated a long time—ultimately, she chose not to leave the mountain.
A wise person bends with circumstance.
So, decisively, she returned.
Cloudveil Mountain was shrouded in mist; hiking out was riskier by far.
Until the fog was gone, the safest course was to stay holed up in her room.
She messaged Su Bai first.
[Your Dad: Xiao Bai, I can’t make it. The white fog has surrounded the psychiatric hospital.]
She attached a close-up photo of the mist.
Su Bai didn’t reply immediately—most likely still frantically gathering supplies.
Ye Shu, pondering, sent messages to Fu Shiyi, Fu Jingchuan, and Pang Pangzi in quick succession.
One concise warning:
[Your Dad: Be careful—the white fog!]
Replies came swiftly, but she had no time to answer. She noticed grayish particles floating amid the white haze, urging her to move even faster.
Could these particles be carrying germs?
The contagious kind, maybe.
Ye Shu strolled back to her ward, gazing down from her window at the billowing mist below.
Mealtime. An orderly brought dinner.
Three dishes and a soup: stir-fried smoked tofu, blanched bok choy, braised cutlassfish, and bitter melon broth—the kind of humble fare anyone might expect at home.
The freshly cooked food smelled delicious, each grain of rice so plump it made Ye Shu’s stomach rumble.
She hesitated only a moment before deciding to eat. Just as she lifted her chopsticks, the merman knocked them from her hand.
"Master, you can’t eat this—there’s that awful smell in the food too!"
Ye Shu couldn’t detect any odd smell, but she heeded the warning. She turned instead to the self-heating hot pot from her storage.
If the mist was getting into food, then… Surely, the water was contaminated as well.
Ye Shu put on gloves, carefully inspecting her room’s faucet. Surprisingly, the water didn’t carry Xiao Bai’s mysterious odor.
A message from Su Bai arrived—there was a trace of the white mist in the city as well.
Some residents weren’t even fazed; they strolled through the haze, cheerful and carefree.
Luckily, the fog was blocked at the buildings, never creeping indoors.
But worryingly, the locals had zero precautions—coming and going at will.
Social media exploded with white fog videos, comment sections swamped with chatter.
Outside of the perpetually mist-shrouded Cloudveil Mountain, nobody in Jing City had ever seen anything like this—not being able to see two meters ahead.
"Whaaat! I’ve never seen fog this thick in my whole life!"
"It’s unreal—this fog just keeps growing! Say, do you think it’ll be this heavy at night too?"
"Weather report’s saying fog alert tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get the day off?"
"Is it another bout of smog? Better cover your mouths and noses, people."
Ye Shu’s expression didn't change. She started scavenging supplies throughout the psychiatric hospital.
Her blatant actions raised no eyebrows—except for some curiosity from a new orderly. The rest ignored her entirely.
"What’s that patient up to?"
Jiang Ran stared intently at Ye Shu lugging armfuls of food.
A gut feeling told her: This patient was definitely a player.
Already starting to stockpile!
Maybe she should take a page from her book?
It was her first game, and she’d just seen a photo from the leaderboard’s second place—she didn’t dare leave the hospital. With her night shift ending early, all she could do was beg the head nurse to let her stay at the hospital under the pretext of overtime.
The head nurse scoffed, waving it off. "You mean Ye Xiaoshu? She’s still Mo Family’s young madam. Her husband’s shut her in here for years—nearly lost her mind. Don’t worry, whatever happens to her, the Mo Family will compensate us."
Jiang Ran mumbled a vague reply.
Night fell.
Cloudveil Mountain lay buried under fog—looking out, she couldn’t even see the mountain opposite, just a shifting, ghostly blanket outside her window.
——
Day two of the game.
When Ye Shu woke, the fog still clung outside—if anything, it was denser than before.
At some point, the white mist pressed right up against the floor-to-ceiling glass. Looking close, Ye Shu saw scores of tiny gray particles afloat in the vapor—it hadn’t been her imagination yesterday.
She was about to check online when Su Bai sent a message.
In just one night, Jing City had been swallowed by the fog. Its density caused multiple traffic accidents.
The encroaching fog was now the trending topic.
[Sexy Cockroach in Black Stockings: Shushu, I did as you said—stocked up on food, medicine, even protective suits. I don’t have room to store everything, so I’m sending the rest your way.]
Su Bai’s delivery: ten protective suits, ten boxes of compressed biscuits, ten barrels of water, ten boxes of chocolate, ten cartons of assorted instant noodles.
Ye Shu gazed at the pile of goods on the floor—and at the mountain of instant noodles she had nearly grown sick of. "……"
She was silent for a long while, but ended up gathering it all into storage.
Supplies at the psychiatric hospital were far from enough. She had been worrying about how to stock up—Su Bai had just saved her the trouble.