Chapter 100: Ignorance Is No Crime

That night.

Bai Fugui climbed to the rooftop of Yunding Tower, lit a cigarette, and gazed down at the city’s brilliant, glowing lights. He wasn’t here to jump—he was waiting for someone.

The cigarette burned out. Bai Fugui lit another. But before he could even draw a puff, a rough, calloused hand reached from beside him and snatched the cigarette from his fingers.

Bai Fugui turned his head and saw a broad-shouldered, muscular man standing beside him, still wearing the uniform of a moving company—a laborer who hauled furniture and appliances up and down buildings daily.

The laborer took Bai Fugui’s cigarette, shoved it into his mouth, and sucked hard, exhaling three thick white smoke rings in succession.

“You look in good spirits,” Bai Fugui turned, leaning against the railing. “Did you find Zhao You?”

“Found him,” the laborer inhaled deeply, letting the smoke pass through his lungs. “I confirmed it at the Yin family ancestral home when Wu Tong died. Zhao You is inside Yu Ziqian.”

“Can you be certain?” Bai Fugui frowned.

“Completely certain,” the laborer exhaled a thin gray-blue mist, voice hoarse. “He entered the Ju Xian Garden with Xiao Lan. Xiao Lan helped him evade misfortune twice—but after that, they never suffered misfortune again.”

“I see,” Bai Fugui nodded.

He knew Lan Shiwen inside and out. Xiao Lan could not possibly possess the ability to counter misfortune. The rule negating misfortune must lie with Yu Ziqian.

The only rule related to “fortune” that Yu Ziqian could have accessed was Zhao You.

“The one who broke through Lei Te at Bishui Bay Estate, and the one who took Zhao You from Hejiacun—they’re the same person. Yu Ziqian killed him and seized both rules at once,” the laborer flicked the spent cigarette butt into the endless night, speaking lazily. “Greed makes a snake swallow an elephant.”

Bai Fugui nodded in agreement. “He’s probably forgotten how close he once came to death, driven by his old wounds from Ye Yao.”

Any Elevator with even basic understanding would never recklessly wield a rule incompatible with their own. If Yu Ziqian had any sense, he should’ve stopped after acquiring the “Lei Te” he desperately needed—not greedily seized Zhao You as well.

“Pity… pity…” the laborer clicked his tongue. “Yu Ziqian… Yu Ziqian… are you forcing me to kill you?”

“Don’t be overconfident,” Bai Fugui sighed. “Yu Ziqian isn’t ordinary. As far as I know, besides Ye Yao, he possesses another rule—one that manipulates perception. I don’t know when or where he acquired it. I’ve never found any intelligence on it.”

“I know my limits,” the laborer shrugged. “Before I uncover all his rules, I won’t move.”

The Elevator circle is full of seasoned veterans who’ve been single-handedly killed by newcomers. Charging into a solo confrontation without knowing your opponent’s true nature—even the most experienced can end up drowning in a puddle.

He wouldn’t make that mistake.

“So I’ll need your help, Tu Yu,” the laborer continued. “Use your channels to dig deep into Yu Ziqian’s background. Find out what that rule of his—manipulating perception and thought—actually is.”

Rules that influence thought, like instant-death rules, are among the rarest of all.

“Pay me the balance from last time first,” Bai Fugui said, expressionless.

“You sound so strange talking about money.”

“We’ve never been close.”

“...” After some banter, they finally settled the terms of their cooperation.

A chilly night wind swept over Yundu City. Below the towers lay a dazzling, intoxicating sea of neon.

In this bustling, noisy city, some danced, some sang, some still worked, some prepared for their night lives, others had already slept, curled in bed, trapped in strange nightmares.

Bai Zhi closed her eyes. A weathered wall of yellow earth bricks appeared before her.

Visibility was low. Wooden houses and tiled roofs flickered in and out of the smog. At the edge of her vision stretched a deep, ashen gray—as if a thick cloud had poured from the sky like a waterfall, swallowing the people below.

“Another nightmare…” Bai Zhi took two cautious steps forward. A long, dark shape gradually sharpened into view. She saw it—a coffin.

A black coffin sat beside a civilian house, covered by a crude thatched shed—barely shielding it, no different from abandoning it in the wilderness. Would anyone really place a coffin beside their own home?

By conventional logic, coffins symbolized death, linked to danger. Bai Zhi dared not approach the black coffin under the shed. She turned and walked in another direction.

But after only a few steps, another coffin emerged from the smog, appearing before her.

This one was brown-black, slightly shorter than the previous black coffin, also casually placed beside a house, half-hidden under a crude shed—identical in every way.

=9+ Shu _ Ba

Ice-cold fear rose in her heart. Instinctively, Bai Zhi felt she must not approach these coffin-sheds.

1. Don’t look.

2. Don’t listen.

3. Don’t smell.

4. Don’t touch.

5. Don’t think.

6. Don’t let it notice you…

To know is to know; not to know is not to know. The ignorant are blameless.

“What’s going on?” A string of warnings surfaced from her subconscious, leaving her bewildered.

She’d dreamed of strange events before. In past dreams, she’d instinctively known forbidden rules the moment she was pulled in. As long as she obeyed them, surviving until waking was never hard.

But this time, her “survival guide” was bizarre beyond reason…

Don’t look, don’t listen, don’t smell, don’t touch—don’t even think—and don’t let it know you’re here?

No clues. Not a single clue.

Bai Zhi’s heart pounded. Above, a faint light began to rise—perhaps the sun. The mist around her thinned slightly.

As visibility improved, Bai Zhi looked around. She stood at a crossroads of yellow earth paths, with straight, dusty roads stretching in all four directions.

Looking down any of the four roads, she saw only rows of earthen-brick houses clustered together into streets. Every two or three houses, a coffin lay exposed on the ground before or behind them. Some were even placed on simple racks beside the road, with no shelter at all.

“Where is this? What’s happening?”

The moment curiosity stirred in her heart, she crushed it instantly. She remembered the taboo: “Don’t even think.” Here, curiosity was dangerous.

(End of Chapter)