The Human Rat, still shaken, looked nervously at Zhuque, as if seeking his permission.
“What? Do you need me to help you up?”
Zhuque asked with a smile.
“N-no…”
The Human Rat staggered to her feet. She paused for a long moment before saying to Qi Xia, “Thank you!
Thank you!”
Qi Xia shook his head.
“You don’t have to thank me, I was just…”
A squelching sound. Before he could finish his sentence, Qi Xia saw a hand burst through the Human Rat’s abdomen. Her body froze, and her voice died in her throat.
Warm, sticky blood splattered all over Qi Xia. Zhuque slowly embraced the Human Rat from behind, like a lover.
“This child is so polite.”
Zhuque closed his eyes, his face pressed against the Human Rat’s, as if sniffing her scent.
“Saying ‘thank you’ is a good habit, but you broke the rules. You actually tried to escape. He may have let you go, but I won’t.” With that, Zhuque reached out with his other hand, tore off the Human Rat’s mask, and tossed it to the ground.
Qi Xia was face to face with the Human Rat, and now he could see her clearly. This ‘Human Rat’ was clearly a teenage girl. Her face still held the tenderness of youth, her tear-filled eyes were full of fear and despair, and she was coughing up blood.
“It… it hurts so much…” the Human Rat spat out a mouthful of blood.
“There, there… it won’t hurt for long…”
Zhuque nuzzled the Human Rat’s hair with his nose.
“You’ll be dead soon. Don’t worry… don’t worry… once you’re dead, it’ll all be over…”
“What kind of psycho are you?!”
Qiao Jiajin couldn’t watch anymore.
“She’s just a kid! Fuck your mother… Let her go!”
Zhuque sneered, pulled out his blood-soaked hand, and gave the Human Rat a push forward. Qi Xia subconsciously caught the girl, his expression one of utter shock. That’s right, this was ‘gambling with life’.
If he won, the other person would die. Even if he didn’t want to take her life, she was bound to die anyway. This young girl called Human Rat had been forced to her death by Qi Xia.
He had thought he was only betting his own life, never considering that the other side had put up the same stake. But weren’t they one of the game’s organizers? Could it be that these people in animal masks were also some kind of ‘participants’?
“Qi Xia, why are you here?”
Zhuque asked coldly, flinging the blood from his hand.
“What…”
Qi Xia froze, looking up at him.
“You know my name?”
The corner of Zhuque’s mouth curled up slightly. Then he pointed to the four of them, calling out their names one by one.
“Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin, Lin Qin, Zhang Lijuan. Why are you all here?”
Tian Tian was stunned too.
‘Zhang Lijuan’ was her real name, but she hadn’t used it since she was fourteen.
“What do you mean, ‘why are we here’?”
Lin Qin asked.
“If we’re not here, where should we be?”
Zhuque’s face constantly wore a meaningful smile. He slowly shook his head and said, “It seems you really don’t know why you’re here. This is simply too pathetic.”
“If you have something to say, just say it. What’s the point of being so cryptic?”
Qi Xia said, holding the dying Human Rat, his gaze exceptionally cold.
“Do you think being mysterious makes you seem profound?”
Hearing this, Zhuque’s gaze slowly turned severe, and the smile that had been hanging on his face vanished.
“Qi Xia, I knew we wouldn’t get along.”
Zhuque looked at him with contempt.
“You will never escape. Just rot here.”
“Oh?”
At this point, Qi Xia had nothing left to fear. He pressed on aggressively, “Make me rot here? Are you going to kill me now?”
In a flash, Zhuque flew to Qi Xia’s side, his feathered cape fluttering behind him. He grabbed Qi Xia by the collar and said viciously, “If it weren’t for the rules, I would have torn you to shreds right here!”
“In other words… according to the ‘rules’, you can’t kill me,” Qi Xia replied.
“Heh heh…”
Zhuque finally smiled again.
“I won’t kill you, but you’ll die here all the same.”
Under everyone’s wary gaze, Zhuque slowly floated into mid-air, like a god.
“Why do you think I’ll die here?”
Qi Xia asked, looking up.
“Because you are Qi Xia. Therefore, you are destined to die here.”
Zhuque snorted coldly, then vanished without a trace in mid-air. He didn’t fly away like an immortal from a television show, nor did he glow like he was casting a spell. He just abruptly disappeared in the air.
This sudden turn of events left everyone baffled.
“Because I am Qi Xia… I will die here?”
“Cough…”
The Human Rat lying in Qi Xia’s arms coughed. Qi Xia lowered his head and looked at her. The girl’s face was very clean, not like someone from this World.
His feelings were complicated. If he hadn’t chosen to gamble with his life, this young girl probably wouldn’t have met such an end. Thinking back, she had never meant Qi Xia any harm from the beginning.
One ‘Dao’ for one ‘Dao’. Perhaps it was just as she had said; Qi Xia would never again find a game so simple and so safe. The Human Rat reached into her pocket, slowly took out three ‘Dao’, and said with difficulty, “What a pity…
I waited here for so long. You were the first group of participants. I thought I’d be able to earn some ‘Dao’…”
She handed the ‘Dao’ to Qi Xia, then continued haltingly, “One of these was your entrance fee. The other three are my own ‘Dao’. Now, they’re all yours…”
The four of them looked at the girl before them, not knowing what to say. From a standpoint of factions, they should have been enemies. But the girl’s helplessness and despair penetrated deep into their hearts, evoking an inexplicable, indescribable resonance.
“Are you also some kind of participant?”
Qi Xia asked in a cold tone. Hearing this, the Human Rat actually started to laugh, blood trickling from her mouth again.
“Who here isn’t a ‘participant’…? To be honest… I’d rather be like you, never having put on the ‘Rat’ mask… even though none of us can get out…”
Her head slowly lolled to the side, and her arm fell to the ground. The two women sighed, and even Qiao Jiajin wore a sad expression. But Qi Xia’s expression was as cold as ever.
He gently laid the girl flat on the ground and slowly stood up. No one knew what he was thinking.
“Qi Xia… are you alright?”
Lin Qin asked.
“Me?”
Qi Xia was slightly taken aback.
“Do I… look like something’s wrong?”
“Because your face is completely blank… That’s not normal.
“I…”
Before the word left his mouth, a splitting headache suddenly assaulted Qi Xia. He let out a piercing scream and squatted down, clutching his head.
“Hey! Con man!”
Qiao Jiajin sensed something was wrong with Qi Xia. When Han Yimo died this morning, Qi Xia also had a headache. Qi Xia just felt like his head was about to split open, that something was throbbing deep inside his brain.