I Have Yet to Become a Doll Today

Lu Yuwen returned to his senses, staring at her, finding himself lost for words.

Increasingly confused, Su Man stared at him, “Are you not feeling well?”

Cold sweat appeared on Lu Yuwen’s forehead.

A suspicion in his mind struck like a massive bell, making his brain buzz relentlessly. He was utterly dumbfounded. How could he express his thoughts?!

“Is your leg hurting again?” Su Man, naturally impatient, became even more agitated as he remained quiet. She asked repeatedly, “What’s bothering you exactly? What’s going on? Say something, will you?”

Lu Yuwen took a deep breath…

“Let’s… let’s rest for a while.” He tried to sound as calm as possible. “Having moved for a while, the wound indeed hurts a bit. Let’s rest first. I also need to organize the map.”

Su Man looked around, spotting a small supermarket nearby. She then helped Lu Yuwen walk towards it.

As they made their way, she couldn’t help complaining, “I’ve told you I could carry you, but you refused steadfastly. See? Your wound has worsened again. You’re too proud for your own good!”

Lu Yuwen barely smiled, not disputing her claim.

Once at the supermarket, Su Man put down the luggage and efficiently cleared a space inside for them to rest. She then proactively gathered combustible materials nearby to start a fire and boil some water.

As soon as Su Man left, Lu Yuwen took out the map he had drawn from his bag.

He had prepared 100 sheets of A4 paper, cut into squares, with the map drawn on one side and a sequence number on the other.

Most of the sheets now held a piece of the map. According to the plan he and Su Man had, they would fill up the 100 grids on the map within two days at most. Then, the puzzle assembly process would begin.

For Lu Yuwen, assembling a jigsaw puzzle, whether it’s 10×10 or 100×100, wasn’t an issue once he mastered the technique. The final step involved arranging the maze tiles in sequence to form a whole, from which the correct path would emerge.

—That was under ideal conditions.

However, the current reality was… he had overlooked the issue of differences in the horizon.

Most of the map cells they encountered so far were all on the same level. Even if there was a difference, it was merely a step-like disparity. He hadn’t anticipated that the terrain difference could be so pronounced.

This implied that certain arrows at certain spots were destined to be unreachable. They were what was referred to as… dead ends!

For instance, on mountaintops, or underwater.

The maze cells had always been in a state of disorder, most likely because someone inadvertently moved a piece into a dead end while assembling, hence preventing the entire puzzle from being correctly put together!

He and Su Man… might not be able to get out.

They were trapped here.

What should he do…

Should he tell her?

Outside, Su Man returned with an armful of firewood.

Instead of coming in straight, she started a fire and set up a stove on the sidewalk outside the supermarket. Glancing back into the supermarket, she noticed Lu Yuwen looking at her. She smiled at him.

Lu Yuwen felt increasingly uneasy.

He couldn’t bring himself to speak.

Su Man had put her utter trust in him, always believing that he could lead her out of the maze. But in reality… he was helpless.

He looked down at the map once again.

Could it be that there really was no way out?

“Want some mixed congee for dinner?” Su Man had found some canned food in the supermarket and asked Lu Yuwen, “We’d get tired if we continued to eat biscuits and instant noodles, don’t you think? There’s canned mixed congee; want some?”

Lu Yuwen nodded, “Thank you…”

Su Man laughed again, “I should thank you. Opening canned food is a bit tough for me; why don’t you do it?”

After the words were out, she stopped short.

It was strange how she always consciously or unconsciously hid her hand’s disability from friends and family but felt no psychological burden explaining it to Lu Yuwen, a man she had only known for a few days. Why was that?

Was it sympathy from shared adversity?

Or… because he was a “stranger” she didn’t quite know, it simply didn’t matter?

During Su Man’s moment of thought, Lu Yuwen received the can from her. With a casual tone, he asked: “Su Man, why did you enter the maze?”