At this very moment, in this very place, besides him, there was another man—Brother Jiang Ran.

Brother Jiang Ran was currently completely absorbed in fiddling with his bow and arrows.

A strange, twisted smile was playing on his face.

Who knew what devious schemes were brewing in his mind.

Upon seeing Ding Dali regain consciousness, Brother Jiang Ran's gaze immediately focused on him.

"Ding Dali, do you want to live, or do you want to die?"

A smile surfaced on Brother Jiang Ran's face.

It was a smile like that of a wicked child.

"Hah, if I say I want to live, would you really let me go?"

Brother Jiang Ran nodded.

Ding Dali shook his head disdainfully. "Enough, stop trying to fool a ghost. Just do whatever you want, kill me or slice me up."

Brother Jiang Ran sighed. "Why can't you understand my good intentions? If you want to live, I can play a game with you. As long as you successfully survive the game, you can live."

Ding Dali paid it no mind at all, simply closing his eyes.

Brother Jiang Ran continued on his own. "Don't you like playing with bows and arrows? I quite enjoy it too. If I can't kill you with the next thousand arrows, then I'll spare your life. How about that?"

Ding Dali cursed out loud. "Where's your face? You call that sparing me?"

A thousand arrows. Even if the archer was a complete novice, after shooting a thousand arrows, could his life possibly be saved? He'd definitely be dead.

Brother Jiang Ran said, "I haven't finished speaking. This is why people like you have no imagination or creativity."

"Not interesting at all, not fun at all, not enjoyable in the slightest."

"You think me shooting a thousand arrows means a thousand arrows piercing your body. In that case, even if all vital organs were avoided, you wouldn't last through many arrows before dying. What would be the point of that?"

"What I mean is, like this, passing through your body."

"You should be able to withstand it, right?"

Brother Jiang Ran tightly gripped an arrow in his right hand and used the side of the arrowhead to trace a line across Ding Dali's exposed skin.

His meaning was simple: the arrowhead wouldn't pierce in, but rather the two sides of the triangular arrowhead.

It was equivalent to a dagger sliding across your skin.

Not stabbing straight in.

This would cause significantly less damage to the body.

If that was the case, perhaps he really could survive?

Just as Ding Dali was thinking this, he noticed Brother Jiang Ran, holding the bow and arrow, was moving further and further away from him.

His eyes widened in shock.

At that distance, unless you'd played with bows and arrows for many years like him, could you shoot an arrow and use the arrow's sides to wound someone?

Could you have that kind of accuracy?

*Whoosh!*

The first arrow was shot.

Ding Dali hoped the arrow would kill him outright.

To his surprise, however, that arrow, just as Brother Jiang Ran had said, used the two sides of the arrowhead to graze the skin of his right forearm.

"Still need to get a bit closer."

"Haven't played with a bow in a long time, it's a bit taxing."

Brother Jiang Ran walked forward a short distance and began shooting arrows.

He shot over a dozen times.

Ding Dali found he only had a dozen or so more bloody scratches on his body.

If the injuries were only like this, he might truly be able to survive those thousand arrows.

But the next second, he felt that the man before him had never intended to let him live in the first place.

This was all just toying with him.

Because with the next arrow, accompanied by another *whoosh*.

That arrow directly left a bloody scratch on the most important 'bell' of a man.

At this, Ding Dali cried out in pain.

That place—even a slight flick with a finger was enough to make a man suffer.

Let alone being grazed by the side of an arrowhead.

And, from this, one could also realize Brother Jiang Ran's archery skills were truly impressive, because if he had been slightly off target, the arrow would have taken the 'bell' clean off.

After this arrow, came another.

That arrow also grazed the 'bell'.

It worsened the injury, causing blood to drip-drip-drop onto the ground.

Gritting his teeth, Ding Dali could no longer hold back and began cursing Brother Jiang Ran.

As a man, he would rather die than be humiliated like this.

Therefore, he wanted to use curses to provoke Brother Jiang Ran, to make the other side shoot him dead with a single arrow.

But the patience and temperament of the other party were completely beyond his comparison.

He was still toying with his body and mind.

...

Round 31, Day 2, a little past 8 AM.

On a clear patch of floor in the living room of Room 501, Wei Xinyu was sleeping on a makeshift bed on the floor.

Wei Xinyu had slept relatively well that night.

Wang Zhong slept in the bedroom bed.

Yang Kang slept on the living room sofa.

She slept on the floor.

After waking up, she opened her eyes and stared blankly into space for quite a while.

A fair amount of sleep crust and misty residue clung to both her eyes.

She blinked hard a few times, letting tears moisten her eyeballs, and then looked around.

She was drawn by the *tap-tap-tap* sound of keyboard typing.

Wei Xinyu sat up and saw Yang Kang sitting at the large dining table in the living room.

On the table was a laptop, along with an external keyboard and mouse.

Yang Kang was there, typing away with intense concentration.

Yawning, she lazily stretched her limbs.

A relatively soft and pleasing silhouette, unfortunately with no man to appreciate it.

"Yang Kang, what are you doing? Playing a game?"

A smile touched the corner of Wei Xinyu's mouth as she asked.

Yang Kang didn't turn her head, typing while she spoke. "Writing something."

"Writing something? A novel? Let me tell you, I've been really into a web romance novel lately."

Yang Kang suddenly stopped her furious typing, furrowed her brows, and turned her head.

She asked, puzzled, "A novel? Why would you think I'm writing a novel?"

"I'm writing a thesis!"

"When would I have time to write a web novel? I don't even have time to read them!"

"If it weren't for the Black Software, I should still be in America right now."

"Either conducting experiments or writing theses!"

Wei Xinyu was still sitting in her bedding, wearing pink pajamas.

She was very puzzled. "What's so great about writing a thesis?"

"Besides, you can have someone else ghostwrite it for you!"

Yang Kang was very dismissive. "Ghostwrite? Who would ghostwrite it? Do ghostwriters have that level of skill?"

Wei Xinyu seemed to have found a topic. "Find a skilled person to ghostwrite it!"

"Do you have a lab over there? Have your lab subordinates write it for you."

"That's what I do—I have the people at my research institute write for me."

Yang Kang laughed. "Alright, Wei Xinyu, you enjoy playing by the domestic rules yourself, don't recommend them to me."

Wei Xinyu was somewhat unconvinced. "Hah, I think my way is the proper path."

Then, she pointed at herself.

"Look at me. My grades were a complete mess, but I could still get into a top domestic university. Why? Because I found the right method."

Yang Kang asked, "What method did you use?"

Wei Xinyu said proudly, "Nationality. A foreign nationality makes it especially easy to test into some of our country's top universities."

"Including university itself. I majored in pharmaceutical research, since my family is in this business."

"My four years of university were basically four years of playing. If I had to take the exams myself, I'd definitely fail every subject. But in the end, I still got my diploma."

"Then, spend a little money and pull some strings, bump up the academic credentials. Got to the doctoral level."

"Family provided money and connections, paved the road. I just opened my own pharmaceutical research institute."

"After that, I have the masters and doctoral students at my institute handle all the research results and theses for me."

"I just put my name on them."

"So, you see how comfortable my life is now?"

"Go online and search my resume casually, guaranteed it's dazzling, with countless awards and journal publications."

"How can you compare? Miserably writing your own theses, you simply don't know how to enjoy life!!!"