Isolated Island (22)

The map of Starlight Manor was a bit special. The lines did not follow the path; instead, they followed the sequence of each tourist spot. In addition, segments of the dotted lines in different scenic areas would intersect.

Since they both thought of the same point— fine, they could draw together. In the sandpit where children would play, Saman levelled the sand with a wooden board, broke off a reed stem and drew a rough frame. He then silently drew up a 'map' from memory.

Ren Yifei started on the other side.

Saman was a data enthusiast, and the map he drew was as accurate as those produced by a printer.

Ren Yifei glanced at it, and the effect of the strokes he drew was just as accurate.

One was responsible for the map on the left, while the other was responsible for the map on the right. It was like a competition. A schematic diagram could obviously be drawn, but it had to be drawn to the correct scale.

Two long reed stems swam in the sand. Only at the end, when the reed stems travelling in a straight line met in the middle, did the two look up. The whole map had been drawn, basically identical to the one at the gate.

"You must have a good memory," Saman smiled.

"Not bad. Only around the top three in school," Ren Yifei also smiled.

Two lines intersect.

It could clearly be seen on this map that there were three main tourist routes, and among the many routes, three could be described as two lines intersecting.

"This is the peach blossom forest, the farm, and the fairy castle."

They did not sound like they had anything to do with 'life and death meeting'.

Ren Yifei stood up and shielded his eyes with his hands as he looked into the distance. Whether it was the peach blossom forest, the farm, or the fairy castle, they all had people there.

The people who were not mulling over food and were instead searching for something must be a player.

What they could think of, others could too.

He looked back at the sandpit. The sunlight whitened the thin lines drawn with the reed stems, and only these three points intersect in the tourist routes. If they added more... Ren Yifei's line of sight was fixed at the end of the three routes— above the grass skiing field.

Three different tourist routes meet here. They were different lines, but they met at the same point. Wasn't this also an intersection?

The reed stem in his hand stopped at that point, which was the fairy town above the 'grass skiing field'. Saman understood without him saying anything and said, "Search again."

"Search where?" They searched everywhere that should be searched, and they could not dig into the ground since they did not have time.

"The windmill tower. It's the highest place on the entire estate."

Ren Yifei looked at the windmill tower with a door that had long been broken. The NPCs' previous riot had not spared this place, so the door was destroyed, and since the space inside was tiny, the things inside were fully visible.

"There's a pile of miscellaneous items inside; they seem to be puppets."

The large and small puppets based on fictional characters were taken out one by one. Although they were all currently battered, it could be seen how exquisite they once were.

"What's this? Are these seven elves arranged in ascending order?" Ren Yifei pointed to the eight puppets tied together. There were seven elves wearing hats and a beautiful girl.

Saman turned his head and looked at them. A look of doubt flashed across his face: Even someone like him who doesn't read girly fairy tales knows. How come this person doesn't know?

Theoretically, people who entered the Cape of Desolation are all from the same cultural background.

"Ifs Snow White, and those seven are the dwarfs."

"Oh, so that's what they were," lien ',Wei fiddled with the seven dwarfs and naturally made up an excuse, "The type of fairy tale little girls love to hear"

He lined up the seven dwarfs from the tallest to the shortest and finally positioned Snow White at the end. He then picked up a wooden carving of a mermaid with moss growing underneath.

That's not right; they were green and brown seaweed.

He searched among the remaining wooden carvings and found an octopus to pair up with the mermaid.

Saman did not have the heart to tell him that Mr Octopus was another famous cartoon character who should have been paired up with the yellow sponge and had nothing to do with the mermaid.

After that, they found other puppets based on children's fairytales. Some were cute, while some were stunning, but they were all currently tattered.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to clean up the windmill tower, Saman secretly observed Ren Yifei.

Although Ren Yifei quickly concealed this little bit of unnaturalness and did not say anything after that, the strange and novel look he displayed when he first looked at the puppets could not deceive anyone.

That was 'A Fei's' genuine expression.

Was he deprived of fairytales during his childhood?

"There's a large carving here, but it only has a head and half a body," Saman took out the last puppet, which was extraordinarily beautiful. It was a goddess with sharp, unrelenting eyes and long curly hair resembling waves.

"It's a pity that only the head and half of the body are left. It seems that it was violently broken by something," Ren Yifei also felt regret that such a beautiful statue was left with just this.

Her head was larger than an ordinary person, so if it was a complete statue, it must have been around three to five meters tall, and it must have been absolutely gorgeous.

"Which fairy tale is this one from?" Ren Yifei was a little curious.

Saman looked closely at what appeared to be a vintage Greek dress. Judging from the ornaments on its clothes and its stretched-out arms. Not knowing what to do, he answered, "Probably some kind of goodness from Greek mythology."

He also did a little research on these kinds of myths and legends, but he could not say it for some reason.

The grass was full of these broken and tattered wood carvings; large and small carvings showed off the beauty of the fantasy world.

"The puppets are damp, and some seaweed appeared on the bottom."

Seaweed grew throughout the estate.

"I also looked inside. The walls and ceiling are painted white, and there are no murals or other clues," Saman came out of the windmill tower.

"What's the result of the divination you got? Two lines intersect, life and death meet?" Ren Yifei repeated the line as he gave the puppet another cursory glance, then shook his head at Saman, indicating that he found nothing more.

"Let's go."

It was getting dark, and dusk had already arrived. They searched the place and still made no new discoveries. Both of them were disappointed and prepared to go back to think about it.

As they walked down the slope, Ren Yifei looked back at the puppets on the grass.

The light of dusk fell on the puppets, giving them a layer of warmth, and the delicate puppets seemed to come to life.

"What's wrong?" Saman turned back after taking a few steps and asked when he found that Ren Yifei was not following him.

Ren Yifei stretched out his hand and pointed, "Look at it. Doesn't it look like the owner of the manor?"

The puppet seemed to be looking over towards them with light reflecting off of its eyes.

"Do you remember the first day we came here? Wasn't the owner of the manor also wearing a white dress during the rainstorm that day?"

That day, the heavy rain made it hard to see, and they, the refugees, could not wait to get inside, so no one was paying attention to the exact appearance of the hostess.

He only remembered that she wore a long dress that was out of tune with her surrounding environment and had long wavy hair.

Ren Yifei did not think of her at first, but when he looked back, the angle of the statue magically pulled out the memory of that day, and he realised that the two were actually similar.

"I'll take a look," Ren Yifei ran towards the turf, and Saman also returned without hesitation.

This was probably an intuition telling them not to let this clue go.

The other puppets on the grass were pushed aside. Only the wooden sculpture of a head and shoulder was straightened, and the dust was carefully wiped off.

"This is a pure hand-carved piece with natural waterproof paint on the lacquer," Ren Yifei carefully observed the coating of the halved wood carving. The wood carving was coated with a white lacquer, and because of age, it appeared yellow with fine cracks.

From looking at the paint coat on the fractured surface, they could tell that the paint was evenly applied and that there were about three layers of different materials.

Judging by the shape of the wood carving, it was obviously not a mass-produced product, and the maker's intentions could be seen in many places. Especially the head, both in the hair texture and the crown, was incredibly intricate.

Also, the gold on the crown was not gold lacquer but gold plated, which became apparent after the dust was wiped off.

"If we had known earlier to clean it, we would've immediately seen it." The wooden carving with the dust wiped off was like a pearl being revealed under a layer of dust, shining brightly.

Ren Yifei looked at it for a while and said with admiration, "This thing's a little old, but the original owner seems to maintain it often, so it's still well preserved."

"Teak wood was used for carving. Teak wood is precious and expensive because it's dense, water-resistant and fire-resistant, and it's not easily deformed. It's often used to make high-end furniture, decoration, shipbuilding, making decks..."

Saman tilted the wood carving, "Judging from the flow of the hair and the angle of the neck, when the wood carving was still intact, her correct posture should be like this."

A goddess had her head raised and her body tilted.

Ren Yifei approached the wood carving and observed the colour change of the white lacquer. No matter how high quality the lacquer was, there would still be a difference in the degree of ageing between the part with more and less sun exposure. The colour of the lacquer and the fine lines on the surface are the basis for judgment.

He confirmed Saman's statement, "From the degree of ageing of lacquer, the parts with more light are the top of the head and the face, and the paint under the hair is less aged. This is indeed the correct pose. Isn't it a bit like it's flying?"

"It's a Western-style sculpture."

Ren Yifei looked left and right at the wood carving but remembered something. However, that kind of carving usually appears on old Western ships, and 'it' would not typically be seen on modern ships.

The two pondered over the wood carving until it was dark and no more clues were found. They put the wood carving back and then covered it with the other puppets, layer by layer.

"I've already taken a photo. I'll go back and compare it with the real person," Ren Yifei raised the mobile phone in his hand.

"En," unlike him, Saman seemed a little quiet at this time.

He was a little confused about 'A Fei's' true character. The 'A Fei' at that moment was 'Gu Xingye'. There was no trace of 'Song Bozhi' or 'He Jun' in him, and they have almost nothing in common.

"It's too late to make food now. Fortunately, there're still two packs of instant noodles," Ren Yifei took out the instant noodles and ate them dry. He then took out a sausage for the cat.

The black cat glanced at the sausage with despise. But there was no other choice, there was only this, so it had to endure.

The wooden cabins below were not lit, so you could see a cluster of stars when you looked up. They hung low in the sky and appeared to be very close. It was as if you could touch them as long as you reached out— of course, this was only an illusion.

The night was so dark, and all was silent. There were many people on the estate, but at this moment, it was empty.

Both Ren Yifei and Saman coincidentally slowed down their pace.

"The night today is very beautiful," Ren Yifei thought of the night in the Cape of Desolation, which was also beautiful.

The night in the Cape of Desolation was dazzling, a bit like an abalone shell, a colourful black. The five colours were left behind when the space fish swam, and it was said that each fish represented an instance. It was unknown what fish they were in now.

Are the people in the Cape of Desolation looking at the fish now? Are they looking at them?

Saman looked up at the sky, only to realise that the night sky of this instance was so beautiful. The players enter instances with an important purpose, and their time is very short, so few people would stop to appreciate the night sky in a horror game.

Looking sideways at Ren Yifei, he also saw the pair of sparking eyes on his face.

Suddenly, Saman remembered when he met 'Song Bozhi' for the first time, and when he was looking at 'He Jun' in the garden that day, he also saw such bright eyes.

The players' eyes are numb from the daily torturous grind to survive, while the NPCs' eyes are dull because they are programmed and have no self-identity.

Only the owner of these eyes was serious about 'living'. Despite wearing shackles and standing in confinement, he was still desperately trying to 'live' wonderfully.

No, it was not the eyes that were wonderful, but the soul seen through those eyes.

A numbed soul would instinctively look for this wonder, like seeking an oasis in a desert, but he deceived himself by saying that he was looking for 'a future partner with excellent acting skills'.

Fortunately, it was not too late.

The people of the Cape of Desolation are those who have been exiled from the world and have nothing. Thus, they must hold onto it once they have what they want.

Saman has never understood his heart like this. He wanted to grab this dazzling light, and even if it were to burn his soul, he must hold it tightly.

"What are you laughing at?" Ren Yifei looked strangely at Saman, who was laughing discreetly.

"No, it's just... the starry sky is beautiful tonight," Saman, who looked up at the sky, then turned to look at him, "Thank you."

Ren Yifei:?