I Have Yet to Become a Doll Today

The timing was wrong, and so was the target.

She shouldn’t have lost her temper at Lu Yuwen, it could be that spending too much time in the maze had made her anxious, combined with concern for friends and missing her family… These emotions piled up, leading to an untimely explosion.

In retrospect, Lu Yuwen was entirely innocent. He was constantly thinking of a solution, but still had to deal with complaints from her and Zhang Ke.

After calming herself a little, Su Man felt she should apologize to Lu Yuwen. But she was always obstinate and had never bowed her head to anyone, except for Bai Youwei.

As she was thinking this, the curtain of the tent behind her was lifted, and Lu Yuwen walked in.

“Su Man, I am sorry about what just happened…”

The man naturally began, apologizing to Su Man:

“The reason I spoke like that was not to doubt your abilities, but out of concern. I believe that if your friends and family were here, they would not want you to go into the water either because anyone who cares about you would not want to see you take any risks, even the slightest one.”

Lu Yuwen sighed: “Su Man, I am as concerned about your safety as your friends are.”

Upon hearing this, Su Man blushed slightly.

His words were too sweet, making her almost shy…

The strong-willed Su Man softened for the first time, stuttering: “Actually, actually, I was also wrong, I…I lost my temper, earlier, I didn’t mean to target you specifically…”

“That’s fine, as long as we clarify it, everything will be fine.” Lu Yuwen gently responded, “Next, we just need to consider how to get out of the maze as soon as possible.”

Su Man felt that what Lu Yuwen said was absolutely right.

She immediately nodded in agreement.

Lu Yuwen continued: “Zhang Ke will definitely not volunteer to go into the water tomorrow, and so you might need to go down again.”

Su Man nodded resolutely, “With or without him doesn’t matter, I can do it alone!”

“No, that’s not what I mean…” Lu Yuwen laughed, explaining, “If Zhang Ke sees that you can change the direction of the arrow all by yourself, then he will not bother with the other arrows. So, after you go into the water tomorrow, you should first pretend to be unable to find the arrow, forcing him to go in. We can’t let him reap the benefits without doing anything, understand?”

Su Man couldn’t help asking: “What if Zhang Ke also can’t find the arrow?”

“He will find it.” His eyes deepened in the dim light of the tent. “He will find it. If you worry that he cannot do it alone, you can help him, but remember, you have to go into the water in the order I arranged, understand?”

Su Man paused, then nodded and replied: “Mmm, I understand.”

Lu Yuwen showed his gentle smile again, “Go to bed early, goodnight.”

Su Man also smiled at him, “Goodnight.”

She felt a sense of contentment and peace. She thought to herself how fortunate she was to have met such a person in the maze.

…

Early the next morning, when the sun was just right, Su Man and Lu Yuwen set off.

So did Zhang Ke.

They followed the planned route and quickly pieced together two pieces of the map, arriving at the edge of Yunlong Lake.

Frankly speaking, if it had not been for Lu Yuwen’s prior explanation, neither Su Man nor Zhang Ke would have noticed anything amiss about the lake’s edge.

This piece of land should have belonged to an old channel of the Yellow River, but somehow it had been moved here, and because the area was very low, four-fifths of it was submerged in the water of Yunlong Lake, at first glance it seemed like nothing more than a grassy slope on the lake’s edge.

Su Man looked at the sparkling water and took a deep breath.

Lu Yuwen reminded her, “On the first trip, you don’t have to do anything other than familiarize yourself with the depth of the water, and we will discuss everything else once you are back onshore.”

Su Man nodded, took off her shoes, and stepped barefoot into the water…