"How could he be dead?!"
Qi Xia said in disbelief.
"He was perfectly fine when we parted ways yesterday."
"I feel it's very strange too," Old Lu said.
"Maybe he lost too much blood? Before going to sleep last night, he was still talking and laughing, but he just didn't wake up this morning."
Qi Xia's pupils shrank slightly, feeling an unspeakable weirdness about this matter. Although Zhang Shan was injured, it obviously wasn't fatal. From Lin Qin and Tian Tian's descriptions, the black bear only caused him some superficial flesh wounds and did not damage his internal organs.
But how could he have died in his sleep?
"Did he suffer any other injuries?"
Lin Qin asked.
"Like being stabbed by a sword or blade early in the morning..."
"No." Old Lu shook his head with some sadness.
"But it's hard for me to say. After all, we aren't forensic doctors. All I know is that Zhang Shan stopped moving, stopped breathing, and his chest stopped beating."
Qi Xia stroked his chin, feeling that this matter was eighty percent related to Xiaoxiao. In Earth Bull's game, Qiao Jiajin and Zhang Shan were undoubtedly the two most outstanding people. Without the two of them, it would be impossible for so many people to survive these two games.
But in just the span of a single night, both of them perished. If it wasn't Xiaoxiao who did it, then it must have been Earth Bull.
"Are you guys playing dirty..."
Qi Xia muttered through gritted teeth, a hint of coldness in his eyes.
"Who? Me?"
Old Lu paused in surprise.
"No..."
Qi Xia felt a bad premonition in his heart. If things continued at this rate, the number of people with hope of clearing the game would become fewer and fewer. Thinking of this, he turned his head and said to Old Lu, "Old Lu, since your organization is already gone, can you tell me about escaping?"
"Gone?"
Old Lu scratched his head awkwardly.
"I wouldn't say it's gone... it's just that with Zhang Shan dead, I can't stay there anymore..."
"Hm?"
Qi Xia didn't understand.
"Wasn't Zhang Shan your leader?"
"Not exactly."
Old Lu shook his head.
"Our leader isn't Zhang Shan. He was considered the number three figure in the organization."
"Number three figure?"
"Yes."
Old Lu continued, "Our organization is called Heaven's Gate and has about twenty people. The leader is named Chu Tianqiu, a very smart man. The number two figure is named Yun Yao, her luck is incredibly good, she often wins when gambling, and she's very pretty.
I heard she was a celebrity before coming here. As for Zhang Shan, since he used to be a soldier, he mostly picked the Bull game..."
"Wait, wait a minute..."
Qi Xia felt as if he had spotted a loophole and hurriedly interrupted Old Lu.
"You're saying this organization of yours has twenty people?!"
"It's probably less than twenty now... As soon as Zhang Shan died, trash like us were kicked out..."
"That's not the issue!"
Qi Xia said with a face full of confusion.
"Old Lu, what day did you arrive at this place?"
"Two days ago," Old Lu said without thinking.
"Weren't you?"
Qi Xia grew even more confused now.
"We indeed arrived two days ago, but I still don't understand... You were able to establish an organization in just two short days? You could even designate three leaders? Could you guys actually trust each other?"
After saying that, Qi Xia shook his head again.
"No... that's not right. You guys already had an organization yesterday. In other words, you established this thing called Heaven's Gate on the very first day?!"
"Yes."
Old Lu nodded seriously.
"This was all Chu Tianqiu's idea. On the first day, he didn't participate in the game. Instead, he ran around every corner of the city looking for strong people. Since little glasses, Zhang Shan, and I walked out of the same room together, we joined him together. But now that Zhang Shan is dead, I just..."
"Hold on..."
Qi Xia reached out and interrupted Old Lu once again.
"You're saying that man named Chu Tianqiu spent a single day gathering twenty people?"
"Yeah."
Old Lu looked at Qi Xia earnestly.
"That's why I said Chu Tianqiu is very smart."
"But why did you trust him?"
Qi Xia said, puzzled.
"When a stranger comes to team up, shouldn't you be skeptical?"
"Because Zhang Shan trusted him," Old Lu explained.
"I don't know what he whispered to Zhang Shan, but after thinking it over for a few minutes, Zhang Shan took little glasses and me and joined Heaven's Gate. But I have to say, the people there are quite nice. In comparison, I am the most useless piece of trash."
Qi Xia looked at Old Lu in disbelief, as if trying to judge whether what he said was true or false. If such a thing as Heaven's Gate really existed, and there really was such a formidable figure as Chu Tianqiu, why was he completely fine?
If the Zodiac really wanted to get rid of formidable participants, then the first one to be eliminated should be the leader, Chu Tianqiu.
"Isn't little glasses with you?"
Qi Xia asked again.
"No." Old Lu sounded a bit dejected.
"little glasses is stronger than me, so he stayed at Heaven's Gate. He's been good at studying since he was young, unlike me, who has just been setting up a stall selling socks for over twenty years."
Qi Xia nodded. It seemed that even though Zhang Shan had died, nothing had changed. This organization called Heaven's Gate still grasped the method to escape from here.
The notes on escaping from here that Zhang Shan once mentioned should be on the leader. Given Old Lu's status, it was impossible for him to know the detailed contents. Qi Xia also gradually clarified his goal.
This time, after finding Officer Li, he would try his best to team up with him. After all, he was one of the few people Qi Xia could trust. Then, they could go to Heaven's Gate and recommend themselves.
On one hand, they could pursue the method to escape. On the other hand, if there really was a group of formidable figures there, Qi Xia wouldn't mind participating in these deadly games together with them. As Qi Xia was thinking, the three of them passed by the intersection marked with "S" and "Z".
Old Lu led the two of them straight in the opposite direction. Lin Qin was startled, turned her head, and said to Qi Xia, "So we were walking in the wrong direction? Those 'S' and 'Z' weren't left by them?"
"I don't know," Qi Xia shook his head.
Old Lu heard their conversation and cast a distant glance at those two characters that looked like both letters and numbers.
"'S' and 'Z'?"
Old Lu hesitated for a moment.
"Isn't that '52'?"
"Do you know what this means?"
Qi Xia asked again.
"I don't really know what it means, but I've seen these kinds of numbers in many places," Old Lu said.
"Maybe it's a number to make it easier for people to remember the roads? Like calling this place 52nd Street or something similar."
When Qi Xia realized that these two symbols had nothing to do with Officer Li, he no longer cared about their meaning either. After all, there were too many confusing things here, and absolutely no time to investigate them one by one.
"We're almost there, it's just ahead."
Old Lu quickened his pace.