Lin Qin was startled by Qi Xia’s action and hurriedly stepped forward to pull him back: “Qi Xia… calm down…”

She didn’t quite understand why the usually composed Qi Xia would suddenly become so agitated.

Qi Xia still didn’t let go. He tightly gripped Doctor Zhao’s collar and said through gritted teeth: “How am I supposed to calm down? Do you know how many people I’ve seen die in front of me today?!”

After hearing this, Lin Qin silently lowered her head.

That’s right, from the Man-Mouse at the beginning to Qiao Jiajin and Tiantian at the end, they had experienced far too many moments of being near death.

“No wonder…” Qi Xia continued. “No wonder when you heard someone enter, your first reaction was to strike with a wooden plank… You knew Officer Li and Lawyer Zhang wouldn’t come back at all, didn’t you?”

A trace of panic appeared on Doctor Zhao’s face: “No… Qi Xia, listen to me, I had no choice either. The two of them really wanted to go die…”

“Go die?” Qi Xia snorted coldly. “You’ve never stepped out of this room, so you know nothing about this place. Officer Li must have talked with the bull-head across the way. He discovered that the games here won’t get you killed, but instead might allow you to obtain ‘Dao,’ so he left with Lawyer Zhang.”

“Huh?” Doctor Zhao showed a completely puzzled expression. It seemed he was indeed hearing this news for the first time. “Won’t get you killed? How… how could that be?”

At this moment, Xiao Ran climbed up from the ground, wiped the mud from her face, and turned back with an angry expression: “Zhao Haibo! What are you standing there for?! He’s bullying us right to our faces!”

“But, but I…” Doctor Zhao’s expression was clearly not good.

“Useless!” Xiao Ran called out anxiously. “How can you be so useless?!”

Qi Xia looked at Xiao Ran, then at Doctor Zhao, and suddenly felt somewhat disheartened.

Where did he have time to waste here entangled with these two?

Thinking this, he silently let go of his grip.

Qi Xia now completely lost his direction.

Where would Officer Li and Lawyer Zhang go?

Had they encountered “Zodiac” animals beginning with the character “Earth”?

Had they participated in life-gambling games?

Were they still alive?

Rustle rustle, rustle rustle.

The insect sounds outside the door became even more cacophonous, as if a cricket was lying right outside the door, making it impossible to calm down and think.

“Qi Xia, what should we do?” Lin Qin asked with a sorrowful expression.

Qi Xia raised his head and asked Doctor Zhao: “Did the two of them say where they were going?”

He held onto one last thread of hope in his heart.

Officer Li was a cautious person. If he really was going far away, he should have left some clue.

“No…” Doctor Zhao shook his head. “But I saw them turn right along the street after participating in the bull-head game across the way…”

“Right?” Qi Xia looked at the pitch-black sky outside and calculated in his mind.

Officer Li probably wouldn’t go too far. He just wanted to distance himself from these two people.

After all, he had told Qi Xia that he hoped they could meet again someday to exchange information.

If that was the case, he should still be active in this area. Besides the restaurant across the street, he was most likely at the nearest “game room” to this location.

After determining the general direction, Qi Xia felt more certain.

Although the sky was now pitch black, he really didn’t want to continue staying in the same place with these two people.

So he picked up a wooden stick from inside the room, slowly walked to Han Yimo’s corpse, and said in a low voice: “Brother, you can’t rest in peace even in death. I’m sorry to trouble you.”

“What are you going to do now?” Xiao Ran asked irritably.

Qi Xia didn’t answer. He simply tore off a piece of cloth from Han Yimo’s body, wrapped it around the top of the stick, then took the stick and smeared some dried filth from the ground on it.

After finishing all this, he walked to the firelight in the room and ignited the side with the cloth fragment. A simple torch was complete.

“Lin Qin, I’m planning to go out and look for them,” Qi Xia said. “I don’t know if there will be danger outside, but I don’t want to stay here. Do you want to wait here until dawn? After dawn, whether or not I find them, I’ll come back for you.”

After hearing this, Lin Qin turned to look at Xiao Ran and the other person, then shook her head: “No, I’ll go with you.”

With that, she picked up the pot containing the bear meat and stood beside Qi Xia.

“What is this…” Doctor Zhao finally noticed the old aluminum pot, and his eyes seemed to light up.

“This is…” Lin Qin paused, then shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Is it food?!” Doctor Zhao immediately stepped forward. “You found food?”

At this moment, Xiao Ran’s expression also changed slightly: “There’s something to eat?”

The look in their eyes became somewhat inhuman, more like that of starving beasts.

Qi Xia pulled Lin Qin behind him, blocking between them, and said slowly: “Sorry, this thing isn’t for you to eat.”

“Qi, Qi Xia…” Doctor Zhao said tremblingly. “No, Brother Xia… we went a bit too far just now. Don’t take it to heart.”

“Right…” Xiao Ran also forced out a smile. “What people in this world don’t bicker… Besides, you’re a grown man, would you really get angry at me, a woman? Everything just now was just joking with you…”

“Exactly, exactly…” Doctor Zhao and Xiao Ran sang in harmony. “There’s quite a lot of stuff in your pot. We’ll just eat a little. We won’t possibly eat it all…”

Qi Xia’s expression darkened again as he said: “The things in this pot were won by Qiao Jiajin risking his life. You can go ask him. If he agrees, I have no objection.”

After hearing this sentence, the expression on Xiao Ran’s face changed several times. After a moment’s pause, she directly lunged toward the pot.

Qi Xia had already anticipated this move. He could only sigh helplessly and reach out to block her.

“What, not using ‘deception’ anymore, switching to ‘robbery’?” Qi Xia said with slight mockery. “There’s no ‘lawless land’ anywhere in this world. I advise you to think carefully. Your team ‘originally’ had a police officer.”

“You…”

Qi Xia snorted coldly, pushed Xiao Ran aside, and walked out the door holding the torch. Lin Qin followed closely behind.

Only now did Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao understand what it meant to have “cooked duck fly away.”

That pot with its faint fragrant smell was clearly right in front of them, yet they couldn’t even touch it.

“Don’t leave!” Xiao Ran shouted and once again chased after Qi Xia out the door.

The world outside the door was pitch black except for the dim firelight and insect chirping.

But what Xiao Ran didn’t expect was that Qi Xia and Lin Qin were now standing quietly about three steps outside the door with their backs to her, not moving at all.

“Hm?”

After a few seconds, she saw Qi Xia and Lin Qin slowly take a step back.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you two?” Xiao Ran asked.

Lin Qin turned around like a robot, extremely stiffly, her eyes full of terror. She put a finger to her lips, making a gesture for silence.

“Are you sick or something?” Xiao Ran said irritably. “You can leave! Just leave the pot!”

After saying this sentence, Xiao Ran felt something was wrong.

The torch in Qi Xia’s hand illuminated a small area. Under that dim firelight, something seemed to be moving.

The next second, Xiao Ran saw clearly what was under the firelight. Her eyes instantly widened, and a look of extreme terror appeared on her face.

Right in front of Qi Xia was a naked man, so emaciated he was barely human in form, his whole body pale.

He was on all fours, with both legs propped up behind him, crawling on the ground in an extremely uncoordinated posture.

On that shriveled face hung two hollowed-out eye sockets. His mouth was puckered, constantly making sounds:

“Rustle rustle—”

“Rustle rustle—”