“Holding a gun to my head?” Earth-Mouse laughed and asked.

“Yes,” Qi Xia also laughed. “Isn’t it?”

“As men, there are many things in this world that can make us bow our heads,” Earth-Mouse said. “We can bow our heads for livelihood, for family, for money. We can bow and scrape for any insignificant little matter. We can be moved to tears encountering a lonely, suffering child on the roadside, but we will never bow our heads and submit because of force. That’s what makes us men.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia nodded: “I’m becoming more and more interested in you.”

“But this is also the last time,” Earth-Mouse said. “I’ve already given up. Even if you hold a gun to my head, I won’t struggle anymore.”

For a moment, Qi Xia didn’t know how to respond.

If Earth-Mouse truly sought death with all his heart, was there still any point in trying to win him over?

“At this point… I only have one last thing to say,” Qi Xia said.

“What?”

“Behind the first room, I placed a kumquat,” Qi Xia said. “You still won’t die this round. If you admit defeat now and let us out, none of us will die.”

“You…?”

Although separated by the door panel, Earth-Mouse’s expression had already become very ugly.

He felt that even until the final moment, he was still being led by the nose by this cold man. When you desperately want to live, someone tells you today is your day of death. When you decide to die, he returns the power of choice back to your hands.

“Why are you toying with my life…?” Earth-Mouse said through gritted teeth. “Is this very interesting to you?”

“No, no, no…” Qi Xia shook his head. “I’m just a liar. Not every word I say is necessarily true, but now… that kumquat is real, and the fact that you can survive is also real.”

Qi Xia paused and added: “Since you’re not afraid of death at all, I have no need to kill you anymore. Let’s end this matter here.”

Luo Shiyi was slightly stunned when she heard Qi Xia’s words: “End it here?”

Everyone in the room looked at Qi Xia with confusion, feeling like he had indeed forgotten something.

Earth-Mouse sighed outside the door and said: “Can you and I… really end it here?”

“The decision lies with you,” Qi Xia said. “I don’t want to lose a teammate, and you don’t want to die, but the current food really isn’t enough for all six of us to survive, so let’s both take a step back and end it here.”

Earth-Mouse thought for a long time before slowly walking toward the exit and pulling down the handle by the wall.

The doors to all the rooms in the house opened at this moment, and the collars around everyone’s necks also fell off.

Qi Xia led the four people out of the house and stood face to face with Earth-Mouse.

“I admit defeat,” Earth-Mouse said. “I’ll give you the ‘Dao’ and the fruit. You can go.”

Qi Xia felt Earth-Mouse’s state was still quite interesting: “Earth-Mouse… there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What?”

Qi Xia pointed behind the door of the first room and said: “Guess whether there’s really a kumquat there or not?”

After hearing this, Earth-Mouse slowly furrowed his brow, then looked through the gaps between several people toward the table in the “Mouse House.” There wasn’t a single fruit left in that room.

“You…”

At this moment, Earth-Mouse felt the man before him was a bit excessively terrifying. Even in that situation just now, could he still lie with a completely unchanged expression?

Seeing Earth-Mouse’s expression, Qi Xia slowly walked forward a few steps, leaned close to his ear and said: “Remember, I’m a liar.”

“Heh…” Earth-Mouse gave a cold laugh, as if putting his mask back on again. “Leader, your visit today has ended.”

He walked to the side of the exit, pulled out a bag of “Dao” from under a table, then walked to a box on the wall nearby, took out a bag of fruit, and handed everything to Qi Xia.

“Take care, leaders. I won’t see you out.”

Qi Xia received these two bags of items, turned back and handed them to Saturday, then looked at Earth-Mouse again with meaningful eyes and said: “I’ll remember you.”

“I’m honored,” Earth-Mouse said. “It would be best if all you leaders could die out there and never remember me.”

Qi Xia said nothing more. He gave everyone a look, then slowly walked out of the house.

“Hey… wait, wait a moment!” Luo Shiyi felt like Qi Xia had really forgotten something. “You’re just leaving like this?”

Qi Xia ignored Luo Shiyi, opened the wooden door at the exit, and walked onto the street. Everyone could only follow.

Seeing several people walk away, Earth-Mouse looked back at the door of room number one, his expression extraordinarily complex.

Qi Xia walked on the street by himself, then looked up at the sun and calculated the current time. This game had taken about an hour or so. Overall, the time was acceptable.

“Hey…” Luo Shiyi went around Saturday, Turtle, and Qiu Shiliu, and stood directly in front of Qi Xia.

“What?” Qi Xia looked at Luo Shiyi with furrowed brows.

“Haven’t you forgotten something?” Luo Shiyi asked.

“Me?” Qi Xia showed a confused expression. “What did I forget?”

For a moment, Luo Shiyi couldn’t tell whether Qi Xia had really forgotten or was playing dumb. She could only hint: “My ‘Echo’! Weren’t you going to let me ‘Echo’?”

“Was there such a thing?” Qi Xia blinked. “Did I promise you?”

“You…” For a moment, Luo Shiyi was actually at a loss for words. “You’re not being serious, are you? Wasn’t the purpose of bringing us out this time to train troops? For training troops, don’t you need to let me ‘Echo’?”

“Right,” Qi Xia nodded. “It’s training troops. Turtle and Qiu Shiliu both ‘Echoed.’ That’s about enough, isn’t it?”

“Wh—what do you mean ‘about enough’?” Luo Shiyi raised her eyebrows. “Are you saying those two are more useful than me? And here I thought you were someone worth following… but you completely don’t take me seriously?”

After hearing this, the corner of Qi Xia’s mouth lifted slightly: “Originally I didn’t want to say it… I didn’t expect you to bring it up yourself.”

“What…?”

“I really do look down on you, Luo Shiyi of ‘Forget Worries,'” Qi Xia said. “You once lost to us. I really don’t understand what necessity there is in letting you ‘Echo’…? Just with your abilities, do you have the face to say you want to follow me?”

“You… you…”

Qi Xia stepped forward, moving even closer to Luo Shiyi, then said word by word: “There was once someone who followed me. Just by moving their mouth, they caused you to die from pain. You tell me yourself—what use do I have for you?”

CLANG!!

Standing on the street, everyone heard clearly this bell sound of “Forget Worries” triggered by “frustration.”

Earth-Mouse raised his head, listening to the distant melodious bell sound, and slowly let out a breath. He walked into room number one, then moved the door slightly and looked behind it with some trepidation.

There sat three kumquats.