Chapter 124

Chapter 124

Lu Jing was the most bewildered.

He turned back to look at his own shadow and said, “Don’t I have a shadow? Jian Fan, what are you talking about?”

Everyone came to their senses at that moment and all turned their eyes to Lu Jing’s shadow.

Lu Jing did have a shadow now, but Jian Fan would never fire off a claim for no reason. And thinking back to how Lu Jing had survived the Green Bubbles’ attack-something that had felt a little too coincidental and bizarre-everyone couldn’t help but grow more guarded.

Had the Lu Jing in front of them already been replaced?

Qin Weiyi frowned at Jian Fan. “What’s going on?”

If there was something wrong with this Lu Jing, then the real Lu Jing… Qin Weiyi didn’t want to think about it.

Jian Fan paused. Seeing the wary looks around him and roughly guessing what they were thinking, he fell silent for a beat. When Qin Weiyi pressed him, Jian Fan still didn’t answer right away, only saying first, “Lu Jing is fine.”

Hearing that, Qin Weiyi was the first to let out a breath.

“What happened?” Qi Shuping asked, looking at Jian Fan.

Qin Nan linked Jian Fan’s words together in his head and quickly reached the right conclusion. “You mean… just now, under the moonlight, Lu Jing didn’t have a shadow?”

Jian Fan nodded.

Earlier, the Cave had been completely dark. Lu Jing had been standing at the entrance, and with the moonlight shining down, it was dim but still possible to make things out. Yet in that situation, Lu Jing had no shadow.

His shadow only appeared after Lu Jing lit the Fire.

Qin Weiyi stood up. The others were also startled and rose one after another.

After hearing Jian Fan, Lu Jing wasn’t surprised-if anything, he looked enlightened, slapping his thigh. “No wonder something felt weird! That group of Rabbit earlier-when they were walking outside, they didn’t have shadows either!”

That was why he’d kept feeling something was off as he watched those Rabbit. Lu Jing just hadn’t connected it fast enough; now that Jian Fan brought it up, he finally realized.

“No shadows… so the Starry Sky really is fake?” Qin Nan said, shaken.

After a moment of blankness, Lin Junruo’s eyes lit up with surprise.

She really had been right about something.

“Let’s go out and take a look,” Qin Weiyi said, taking the lead.

Whether there was something wrong with Lu Jing, or whether the Starry Sky was fake-if they all went outside and stood under it, they’d know.

No one objected.

The Rabbit had already left, so this area was temporarily safe, and Lu Jing didn’t stop them.

The group filed out of the Cave. Once they were under the Starry Sky, everyone lowered their heads to look at the ground by their feet.

Nothing.

Then they looked at the ground by the person next to them.

Still nothing.

No one had a shadow.

Since they rarely moved around at night, none of them had paid attention to something like this, so it took until now for them to realize. If Lu Jing hadn’t gone from having no shadow to suddenly having an exaggeratedly large one, Jian Fan likely wouldn’t have noticed either.

Under this Starry Sky, none of them cast a shadow.

Inside the Cave, under the glow of the Fire, shadows appeared-so it wasn’t that they had no shadows. The problem was with the Starry Sky.

“Is the way off the Deserted Island… up in the sky?” Lin Junruo asked, unable to hide her eagerness.

She’d never thought she could contribute something this crucial to the team. But she was also curious: if the exit really was in the sky, how were they supposed to get up there?

On the surface, Lin Junruo’s words sounded absurd, but after discovering what was wrong with the Starry Sky, it wasn’t impossible.

“Go to the highest mountain peak,” Jian Fan said.

It was the closest place to the sky. If the exit really was in the Starry Sky above their heads, then the best place to detect anything unusual would be the place nearest to it.

No one disagreed.

But obviously-not right now.
The group’s minds were racing with a flurry of thoughts, but standing outside in the cold was both freezing and made them easy targets. Thus, after Jian Fan finished speaking, they retreated back into the Cave.

As they approached the campfire, the warmth radiated by the Fire chased away the chill, making them feel as though their bodies were finally coming back to life.

“If the Starry Sky is fake, then what about the daytime?” Mu Xin raised a doubt.

No one answered her immediately.

During the day, everyone had been too busy scavenging for supplies to notice something like whether they had shadows. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t-who knew? They would have to wait until dawn to confirm that point.

However-

“There should be shadows during the day,” Qi Shuping said.

If there were no shadows during the day, it was impossible for them not to have noticed until now.

Mu Xin frowned. “If the problem only occurs at night, does that mean we can only leave during the nighttime?”

If that were the case, if it hadn’t been for that Rabbit passing by today-a complete stroke of luck-wouldn’t they have remained ignorant of this secret forever? After all, they usually stopped moving as soon as night fell.

“It’s possible. However, we need more specific details to support that before we can make a judgment,” Qin Weiyi said.

Currently, they had several confirmed points of interest.

The Starry Sky, the Fire, and the Unknown Fruit. But as for how to connect these elements, everyone was still completely in the dark.

Still, they had taken a significant step forward, which was good news in its own right.

Mu Xin agreed with Qin Weiyi’s assessment, then she turned to Lin Junruo and asked, “How did you even think that the Starry Sky might be fake?”

If it hadn’t been for the shadow issue, she really wouldn’t have seen anything wrong with the sky.

Lin Junruo scratched her hair somewhat sheepishly and said, “Well… the Starry Sky is just so beautiful, so dreamlike. Back when I was a student, I was quite the dreamer, I liked romance and things like that. But after entering the workforce, I gradually realized that these things are actually very fake. The more perfect something looks, the more impossible it is for it to exist in reality. I’m not denying that romantic things or events exist, but…”

“How should I put it? Maybe it’s because my old fantasies were shattered, so whenever I encounter something dreamlike and perfect now, I subconsciously feel that it’s fake,” Lin Junruo explained.

This was something Mu Xin hadn’t expected.

However, she quickly smiled. “In any case, we have you to thank this time.”

Being praised by Mu Xin made Lin Junruo even more embarrassed. “I was just talking nonsense without any evidence. It was Jian Fan who was sharp-eyed. If he hadn’t noticed the problem with the shadows, who would have thought the Starry Sky was actually the problem?”

Jian Fan, who had fallen silent since the discussion began, suddenly spoke up. “It was your words that reminded me.”

Jian Fan validated Lin Junruo’s contribution.

Lin Junruo was absolutely flattered.

Qin Nan was sitting right next to Jian Fan. He leaned an arm on Jian Fan’s shoulder and said with a smile, “Keep it up, Miss Junruo.”

He admitted that he hadn’t liked Lin Junruo before, and he had looked down on her for siding with Xia Zeqin. But for some reason, Lin Junruo had suddenly turned over a new leaf and begun to change.

The current Lin Junruo was certainly not a top-tier Partner yet, but Qin Nan no longer felt any aversion toward her.

Lin Junruo nodded quickly. “I will, thank you.” As she spoke, she flashed a friendly smile at Qin Nan.

Jian Fan’s gaze swept over Qin Nan, who was currently smiling at Lin Junruo. Jian Fan’s expression remained calm as his eyes shifted to the hand resting on his shoulder.

Jian Fan frowned slightly and then shifted to the side.

Caught off guard, Qin Nan’s hand slipped right off Jian Fan’s shoulder. Losing his support, Qin Nan face-planted into the pile of straw.

“I can’t even rest my arm on your shoulder?” Qin Nan grumbled, feeling a bit dejected.

Jian Fan ignored him entirely.