The thin man froze slightly, seemingly trying to figure out Qi Xia’s motive.

Qi Xia had been holding the two “Happiness” fans in mid-air for a while now. He said somewhat impatiently, “What? I’m trading two for one and a half of yours—how long do you need to consider?”

The thin man was indeed in a difficult position.

After all, what Qi Xia was offering were two identical fans, which wouldn’t help him escape at all.

“Can you… can you change one?” The thin man pointed at the “Joy” fan on the ground and asked tentatively, “Would one ‘Happiness’ and one ‘Joy’ work?”

“Of course not.” Qi Xia said without hesitation. “This is my business, I make the rules. Take it or leave it.”

“Huh?”

Qi Xia knew this man had a very indecisive personality. If he wanted him to make a decision, he absolutely couldn’t leave him time to think.

“Not taking it, then? Fine.” Qi Xia nodded and was just about to put the fans back down when the thin man grabbed his arm.

The thin man had dealt with Qi Xia once before and naturally knew he was the type whose word was final. At this moment, he could only quickly make a decision.

“I’ll take it… I’ll take it…”

With a reluctant expression, he pulled out the other fan from his pocket and handed both it and the broken fan to Qi Xia.

Qi Xia didn’t hesitate further and handed him the two “Happiness” fans.

After receiving the fans, the thin man nodded in thanks, then asked the crowd, “Does anyone want to exchange a ‘Happiness’ with me now? Any fan face is fine.”

“Hey!” Qi Xia immediately stopped him.

“Huh?”

“If you’re doing business, get out of the way.” Qi Xia waved his hand. “Not here at my place.”

“But… but there are more people here.”

Qi Xia nodded and picked up the knife from the ground. “Understood. I’ll just escort you away then.”

“Ah, no…” The thin man was quite frightened. He knew this man could converse with the “referee” and was definitely not someone to mess with, so he immediately turned and left.

Seeing him leave, Qi Xia also breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, not a single person here would exchange “Happiness” with that man. He would discover this problem sooner or later.

Seeing that the surrounding crowd said nothing more, Qi Xia tucked the broken fan into his pocket, then picked up the other one to examine it.

Everyone was gathered around watching, but Qi Xia only opened the fan by a very small margin.

Before anyone could see clearly, Qi Xia immediately closed the fan.

Was it “luck”?

No, it was a stratagem.

This was another “Sorrow.”

In everyone else’s eyes, each fan was worth five “Dao,” but in Qi Xia’s eyes, it was different.

The broken fan in this thin man’s hands was “Anger,” which was extremely scarce on the “market.” Now this second fan was “Sorrow.” He hadn’t realized at all that he was a hidden tycoon.

Using two “Happiness” fans to obtain one “Sorrow” and one “Anger” could only be described as a windfall from heaven.

This man’s fan faces were exactly as Qi Xia had predicted. The reason he had the audacity to come over and exchange was precisely because he could get out very soon.

Therefore, the remaining fan in his hand was neither “Happiness” nor “Joy”—otherwise, even after exchanging, he still couldn’t get out.

Since he had taken out an “Anger” to exchange, his second fan could only be “Sorrow.”

Qi Xia tucked the “Sorrow” into his pocket and placed the broken fan on the ground.

Seeing Qi Xia display a broken fan, everyone expressed their confusion.

“Young man, why did you put down a broken fan?” the older woman asked. “What character was on that good fan just now? Show us.”

“That’s right, that’s right!” Several people chimed in.

“Do I have an obligation to show you?” Qi Xia said coolly. “These are the two available now. Whether you want them or not is up to you.”

Everyone looked down to see one broken fan and one “Joy” fan, and they all hesitated.

Qi Xia didn’t care. He took out the chalk and added another line on the ground.

“Broken Fan: Two fans for one.”

Seeing this line, everyone felt that Qi Xia had gone mad.

Who would trade two fans for one fan? Wouldn’t that be just like Earth-Sheep?

Moreover, what Earth-Sheep had were good fans.

At this point, the onlooking crowd gradually dispersed. Qi Xia took the opportunity to count the number of people remaining in the venue.

Only twenty-two people remained. He hadn’t expected that during his time running the stall, ten people had actually escaped.

Qi Xia had helped quite a bit with this.

Without Qi Xia’s stall, these people would probably have had to wait another half hour to get out.

These people had consumed five “Sorrow” fans, so now there were at most fifteen “Sorrow” fans remaining on the “market.”

During his time running the stall, Qi Xia had acquired two “Sorrow” fans from the “market.” The moment these two “Sorrow” fans entered his hands, they could no longer flow back into the market, so at most thirteen remained on the market.

Looking at it in conjunction with the stall situation just now, the number of “Sorrow” fans was probably far less than thirteen. Otherwise, someone would definitely have taken out “Sorrow” to exchange for other fans.

After all, for everyone right now, escaping was the best option.

Both Earth-Sheep’s and Qi Xia’s fans required two fans to exchange. There was no point in them continuing to wait.

But why hadn’t anyone escaped?

Where were they stuck?

Qi Xia wasn’t anxious at all. He just sat in place quietly waiting.

The remaining twenty people in the venue began talking with each other, but seeing one failed teaming attempt after another, everyone seemed to feel the situation wasn’t good.

A man in a leather jacket came over to Qi Xia’s side at this moment. He looked down at Qi Xia’s stall, then asked, “Hey buddy, what character is on this broken fan of yours?”

Qi Xia lowered his head and carefully opened the broken fan. It was an “Anger” torn in half.

Seeing this, the leather-jacketed man raised an eyebrow, then said in a low voice, “Can I make a deal with you?”

“Oh?” Qi Xia looked at him. “What kind of deal?”

“I’ll trade you two fans for it, but after the game ends, you return five of those ‘Dao’ to me.”

Qi Xia lightly stroked his chin. He felt this proposal wasn’t too difficult to accept—this was also a form of cooperation.

“Two questions.” Qi Xia said. “First, since it’s two fans either way, why don’t you exchange with Earth-Sheep?”

“Because he absolutely won’t return the ‘Dao’ to me.” The leather-jacketed man said. “Besides, I feel like you played some little tricks in this game. Right now you should need fans more than ‘Dao,’ so I want to cooperate with you.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia nodded and asked again, “Then how can you be sure I’ll definitely give you the ‘Dao’ after we get out?”

“Because my name is Song Qi.” the man said.

“Song Qi?” Qi Xia had never heard this name before. “So what if your name is Song Qi?”

“My reputation is enough to allow me to conduct a fair transaction in the ‘Land of the End.'”

Qi Xia understood this statement had two meanings—it carried both a hint of threat and a hint of fairness.

This man’s tone didn’t sound like he was lying. He was very likely someone famous and renowned in the “Land of the End,” like Lin Qin.

“Alright, Song Qi, I agree.” Qi Xia said. “If you’re not lying, then this ‘Anger’ is yours.”

“Straightforward enough.” Song Qi nodded. He had just turned to take out his fans when he asked, “Is there any particular character you want?”

“Of course.” Qi Xia answered. “I want ‘Sorrow.'”