The sickly one in F4 was the group's darling.

At 5:30 a.m., it was still dark outside the window, and the sky was gray and hazy.

When Bai Ci was woken up by Xiao Qi, she was curled up in the blanket, like a rabbit hiding deep in a burrow.

Last night, I was up until midnight, climbing through the window, kneeling in front of Shen Tinglan, complaining about the bathrobe to her face, being caught cooking noodles in the middle of the night, and having three bites of noodles stolen from me... My weak body hasn't recovered at all, and my limbs feel so sore as if they've been run over.

"Bai Bai, wake up quickly, it's almost dawn!"

Bai Ci didn't move.

"Once they all wake up, you can expect Shen Tinglan to stand by the window and watch you pick up your shoes."

Bai Ci suddenly sat up in bed, her hair sticking up in a mess, her eyes not fully open, her amber pupils veiled with a layer of sleepy mist, her whole body dazed. The blanket slipped off her shoulders, revealing the old T-shirt she had worn to bed the night before, its neckline so low it exposed a section of her collarbone.

He sat there in a daze for a while.

Xiaoqi urged a second time: "Bai Bai, your shoes. Your shoes are still outside the window."

"I'm up."

"You haven't even opened your eyes."

"They've opened their eyes."

"You said it to the wall."

He put on his coat in the dark, zipped it up halfway, and walked barefoot toward the door in a daze.

"Bai Bai, shoes! You're not wearing shoes!" Xiao Qi quickly reminded him.

Bai Ci looked down at her bare feet, her toes curling slightly on the cold floor.

He suddenly remembered that Shen Tinglan had specifically instructed him last night not to leave footprints on the floor.

He silently retreated and obediently put on his slippers.

"You kicked off your shoes when you climbed out the window last night, remember? One's in the bushes, and the other's stuck next to the drainpipe. We'll get them back in a bit."

Xiaoqi began checking the "battle plan," its tone as serious as if it were on a mission. It cleared its throat and began the battle briefing in a commander's tone:

"Agent Bai Bai, the operation plan is as follows. Target: Two shoes. Location: The bushes below Shen Tinglan's window and the gap in the drainpipe."

Risk: Shen Tinglan will discover it.

"If the consequences are seen—" Xiao Qi deliberately dragged out her words, then imitated Shen Tinglan's tone perfectly, even mimicking the unhurried pause, "'Your window-climbing posture last night wasn't exciting enough, so today you're giving me a performance of crawling forward in the early morning.'"

"Don't follow his example," Bai Ci interrupted in a muffled voice.

But the tips of his ears had already started to turn red.

Last night's scenes flooded back: hanging on the window, kneeling on the carpet, bumping into someone's shoulder, guarding food in front of him, and finally being told, "At least the pot didn't overturn."

Bai Ci closed her eyes, deciding not to think about it.

"Bai Bai, if you don't go soon it'll be dawn."

"Walk."

Bai Ci opened the door and walked into the corridor.

The corridor was dimly lit, with only a sliver of grayish-blue light filtering in from the corner of the staircase.

Bai Ci huddled against the wall, inching his way towards the stairwell. When he passed Shen Tinglan's door, his footsteps were lighter than a cat's.

"Target number one, Shen Tinglan, current status: suspected to be asleep. Threat level: unknown."

Xiaoqi's real-time bullet comments have started again.

"Can you speak in a normal tone?"

"Okay, bye-bye. He might be sleeping, or he might be awake reading, or he might be standing at the door waiting for you to pass by."

Bai Ci almost tripped.

Bai Ci moved as cautiously as a little thief, tiptoeing downstairs.

Xiao Qi's voice floated out again, tinged with laughter: "You look just like a rabbit stealing carrots near the hunter's lodge."

Bai Ci's lips twitched: "...I went to pick up my shoes."

Xiao Qi quickly corrected herself: "Oh right, I went to pick up my own carrots, no, I went to pick up my own shoes, which are far worse than carrots."

Bai Ci made it down to the first floor without incident. He pushed open the side door of the villa, and a blast of cold air rushed in.

The November morning was chilly, the air filled with the scent of dew from the lawn and the mist from the distant artificial lake.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, and the eastern exterior wall of the villa was still shrouded in a deep gray shadow, just enough to conceal his figure.

Bai Ci pulled his coat tighter, shrank his neck, and crept along the outer wall toward Shen Tinglan's window, like a clumsy agent carrying out a mission that was not dangerous but extremely awkward.

"First target: bushes. Location: directly below the second window on the east side. Estimated search time: 30 seconds."

"Xiao Qi, can you be quiet for a second?"

"I'm providing you with tactical support."

"You're putting more psychological pressure on me."

Xiaoqi wisely shut up.

Bai Ci squatted down and began to part the branches of the bushes.

The first shoe was found quickly, crookedly wedged between several branches.

He parted the bushes with both hands, tentatively reaching out, only to be bounced back by the branches, scraping the back of his hand. He pulled it back, blew on it, and reached in again, only to find his hand heavy when he reached for the shoe.

My shoes were soaked through with dew.

He turned the shoe upside down, and a puddle of water dripped out, mixed with other things: a limp, withered leaf, a small piece of dried twig, and a drowned pill bug, curled up into a tiny black ball at the toe of the shoe.

Bai Ci stared at the pill bug for two seconds, then squatted down and dug a shallow hole in the soil of the flower bed with his finger.

The soil was cool, mixed with morning dew, and some dirt got stuck in my fingernails.

He put the pill bug inside, covered it with soil, and gently patted it, as if he were giving it a little home.

Xiaoqi paused for a moment, her tone full of helplessness: "You just... buried it?"

"It died here; we can't let it stay submerged in water forever."

"Bai Bai, you're here to pick up shoes, not to hold a funeral."

Bai Ci put the wet shoe on the ground and turned to look for the other shoe.

The second shoe was stuck in the gap between the drainpipe and the wall, much higher than the one in the bushes.

Bai Ci stood at the base of the wall, looked up to estimate the distance, then stood on tiptoe, her fingertips barely touching the soles of her shoes, but she couldn't reach them.

He tried several positions:

He stood on tiptoe and stretched out his hand, but it was only a hand's breadth away. He jumped to reach it, but on his first jump, his fingertips barely touched the top of his shoe. The shoe wobbled but didn't fall off, and his knees were already a little weak when he landed. His cardiovascular system was too poor; after only two jumps, his chest started to feel tight. On his second jump, he used too much force, and his knees buckled when he landed, almost causing him to fall into the bushes.

"Bai Bai, be careful."

He took a step back, took a deep breath, and jumped up for the third time, slamming his hand hard on the sole of his shoe. The shoe popped out from the gap, somersaulted in the air, and then—

"Smack."

It hit him squarely in the face as he looked up.

Bai Ci covered her forehead and squatted down.

The shoe landed on the ground and bounced, as if mocking him. Bai Ci squatted against the wall, one hand covering his forehead, the other clutching the culprit shoe, his whole body red from the tips of his ears to the roots of his neck.

Xiao Qi's voice trembled, clearly suppressing a laugh: "Agent Bai Bai, mission progress halfway, facial damage: one shoe print. Evaluation: Well done."

Bai Ci remained silent.

He covered his forehead, squatted against the wall, and felt that he had lost all face this morning.

No, adding the time I knelt before Shen Tinglan last night, it should be two lifetimes.

He took a deep breath, picked up the muddy shoe, hugged both shoes to his chest, and retreated along the same path.

When he passed by Shen Tinglan's window, he practically crawled over, shrinking into a small ball and pressing himself tightly against the wall, barely daring to breathe.

"If he really opens the window while you're in that position, how do you explain it?" Xiaoqi couldn't help but ask.

Bai Ci muttered to herself, "...Just say I was tying my shoelaces."

"What you're holding in your hands are shoes."

Bai Ci: "..."

"And you're wearing slippers right now," Xiaoqi added, delivering a precise and apt remark.

Just as Bai Ci was about to retort, a very soft sound came from above, and the window was pushed open.

Bai Ci was frozen in place, as if the back of her neck had been grabbed, and she didn't move at all.

He remained crouched in the bushes, holding two shoes in his arms, with a shoe print on his forehead.

He didn't even dare to look up.

But he could feel a gaze descending from above, slowly sweeping over his head, over the two shoes he was holding, and over the red mark on his forehead.