The sage was determined to die.

Ji Bai slowly began to explain his plan. When he spoke, his emotions did not fluctuate much; in fact, they were almost nonexistent.

A group of people listened to Ji Bai's plan with skepticism.

On several ordinary, bland faces, a palette of wonderful expressions appeared one after another. At first glance, each one was different, but upon closer inspection, they all had a "Are you crazy?" look on their faces.

Yan Ming swallowed hard, his heart pounding with a mixture of fear and excitement. He couldn't help but rub his fingers together, and after a long pause, he changed his approach to a more tactful one: "Are you out of your mind...? Are you really that sure?"

Ji Bai maintained his nonchalant attitude and scoffed, "Why don't you try and see?"

"What if we disagree?" Yan Ming was very dissatisfied with Ji Bai's current attitude.

Ji Bai felt he should light a cigarette now.

But he had no cigarettes, so he could only stare at Yan Ming with his dark eyes, motionless for more than ten seconds without blinking, like a ghost, making the latter feel uneasy.

Ji Bai then said, "You can give it a try."

It's a blatant threat.

"OK."

Yan Ming gritted his teeth and agreed on behalf of everyone.

He wasn't stupid. As soon as they entered the Puppet Forest, they wandered around like headless flies. If they hadn't run into Granny Talking, they would probably still be lost in a maze.

Speaking of that unassuming old lady, or perhaps she should be called the examiner in the Puppet Forest.

Yan Ming silently rolled his eyes. His not-so-sharp intuition told him that the old lady's relationship with Ji Bai might be too close.

They even helped Ji Bai deceive them.

Ji Bai disappeared from their sight for a moment, seemingly without a trace.

He walked alone into the depths of the woods, claiming he was going to retrieve something.

As he walked away, he didn't forget to give them a little threat, leaving them with the words, "If you want to die, you can leave first."

As soon as Ji Bai disappeared, the crowd couldn't help but chatter. Some people seemed to have completely forgotten the awkward atmosphere just now, and walked up to Yan Ming to greet him:

"Brother Yan, we still have your heart."

Yan Ming chuckled. Ji Bai's words weren't entirely unreasonable. If it weren't for the fact that traveling through the mountain of books alone was too dangerous, he really wouldn't want to bring this bunch of burdens along.

"Tell me," the burdened child, oblivious to his situation and still trying to mend the relationship, "is that person's word really credible?"

"have no idea."

Yan Ming shook his head, no longer as flamboyant as before, and much more low-key. "He has indeed changed a lot."

……

"You've changed so much, how come they can't even tell?"

The old woman, who was having a heart-to-heart talk, grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds, cracking them open while commenting with a strange look in her eyes: "It's impossible that no one noticed you were an imposter, right?"

"When falsehood is taken for truth, even truth becomes falsehood."

Ji Bai was shameless in his pretense. He pointed to himself and said lazily, "Ji Bai is a genius. Do you even know what a genius means?"

The mother-in-law sighed.

Looks like I'm going to have to start pretending again.

"Genius means being a loner." Ji Bai nodded. "That's how I should act."

The mother-in-law, during a heart-to-heart talk: "..."

She waved her hand, regretting that she didn't have a broom or something nearby. If she hadn't just swept him out the door, he would probably have thought she was praising him.

During their heart-to-heart talk, the mother-in-law couldn't help but think about it.

Is the person in front of me naturally thick-skinned, or did they acquire it through studying?

Ji Bai stopped joking and said to her, "Alright, let's get down to business. I have something to ask you."