Don't go to the moon, there are gods on the far side of the moon.

The first thing Renjian did the next morning was to return to the counterweight compartment.

It's not about filling in that one space.

It's to investigate something even smaller.

"There was a message left by the Thirty-First Princess." Qin Lan spread the previous record on the main control table. "It was still there when we evacuated, but it was gone when we went back in."

"Who took it?"

"I don't know," she said, "but the hatch wasn't pried open."

"The fact that it wasn't pried open means that someone with access privileges entered."

"right."

Xu Wangshu stared at that record for a long time.

"How long did we stay in the cabin last time?"

"Forty-one minutes."

"Who left the group alone during those forty-one minutes?"

The main control room fell silent.

This question is harder to answer than "who chose it".

The rules agreed upon by the three parties require that three people be present, from different cities, different departments, and different bloodlines.

The rules only care whether someone has arrived or not, not whether they have left or not.

"We missed one," Xu Wangshu said.

"What's missing?"

"Someone has to keep an eye on things every minute after we arrive."

She didn't give this rule a catchy name.

She only added one line after the record:

[Those entering the venue are not allowed to act alone at any time. If a single person leaves the group for even one minute, the entire team must start over.]

After she finished writing, she said, "The second thing is to go ask the God of Fire."

"What should we ask it?"

"Ask it why it sent out the 'Please complete' message at this particular time."

"You suspect it knows the message was taken."

"I'm not doubting it," Xu Wangshu said. "I want to confirm whether it's urging us on or protecting that person."

No one could respond to that.

Because everyone knows that if Zhu Rongtai is protecting that person, then it is not an enemy.

Of all the things I've ever seen in the human world, the most troublesome have never been enemies.

They're the kind of people who haven't decided which side to stand on yet.

There were nine of them when they re-entered the cabin.

It wasn't three people confirmed by all three parties; it was nine people.

"Why are there nine?" Lu Chenggong asked.

"Because I don't want anyone to be able to leave the team alone again," Xu Wangshu said. "There are nine people, and if we take one step, we can see eight of them."

"Abandoning the rule for three people?"

"Yes," she said. "Three people is the bottom line, not the top line. Whether the bottom line is reached or not, we'll keep an eye on it. If it's not, we'll keep an eye on it."

It was still cold inside the counterweight compartment.

The forty-seven shelves stood in their original positions, like a row of unfinished letters.

At the bottom of the forty-seventh princess's residence, Lin Wangchuan's handwritten message is still there.

The bottom of the 31st square is empty.

Qin Lan squatted down and pressed her face close to the wooden board.

"There's a seal here."

"What seal?"

"Someone scraped it with something," she said. "Not pickling, but scraping. The kind of scraping that removes the words."

"Is it clean?"

"It's not clean," Qin Lan said. "Wood won't forget. Paper will, but wood won't."

Xu Wangshu walked over, squatted down, and placed his palm on the grid bottom.

When she touched him, she suddenly stopped moving.

"What's wrong?"

"This piece of wood," she said, "is warmer than the one next to it."

Everyone stopped talking.

There is no heat source in the counterweight chamber.

Except for that small area with a different temperature at the bottom of the thirty-first grid.

Qin Lan said softly, "It hasn't gone far."

"Who?"

"The person who scratched the words," she said. "Or rather, that thing."

"Is it nearby?"

Qin Lan did not answer.

She simply removed her hands from the wooden board, stepped back, and stood in the very center of the nine people.

"From now on," she said, "none of these nine are allowed to leave the team."

Lu Chengong stared at the slightly warm grid bottom and suddenly said something that no one expected.

"The person who scraped off the words wasn't trying to hide their name."

"So what does he want to do?"

"He wants to take the name with him," Lu Chengong said. "If he takes it, he won't have to return it."

Xu Wangshu did not respond immediately.

She asked Qin Lan to bring her a roll of extremely fine thread.

"Measure the temperature of this compartment and compare it to the forty-seventh compartment."

Qin Lan measured it.

"The forty-seventh level is room temperature," she said. "Only this level is a little higher."

"How much higher?"

"Less than one degree."

"Can a person feel anything less than one degree?"

"Humans can't feel it," Qin Lan said, "but wood remembers it."

Xu Wangshu nodded.

"Then write this down: This compartment has an abnormal temperature, the source of which is unknown. Do not heat or cool it down."

Why is it stated that the temperature must not drop?

"Because if it's been artificially cooled down," Xu Wangshu said, "no one can prove that it was ever hot here."

Xu Wangshu remained silent for three seconds after hearing Lu Chenggong's words.

Then she pulled out the sentence "Leave the position blank and continue observation".

I read it once.

I watched it again.

"Leave it blank," she said, "not for the Zhurong Terrace."

"Who was that reserved for?"

"It's for the person whose name was scratched off."

She said, "It never sealed that compartment because it was afraid that person wouldn't be able to find their place when they came back."