“Hey! Qin Dingdong!!”

Su Shan anxiously turned Qin Dingdong over and patted her face, only to feel her cheeks burning hot.

“This isn’t good…”

Su Shan made a snap decision and reached out to feel Qin Dingdong’s neck. After confirming there was a pulse, she listened to her breathing.

She was still alive, but she had already stopped breathing.

Without hesitation, Su Shan pried open Qin Dingdong’s mouth and reached in to clear out several pieces of broken ice.

Then she unbuttoned Qin Dingdong’s upper garment, used her thumb to locate the position of Qin Dingdong’s sternum, moved down three centimeters, then knelt on the ground and straightened her upper body. She clasped her hands together and pressed down forcefully.

Using the strength of her entire upper body, she pressed down frantically. After about twenty to thirty compressions, she relaxed her hands, then pinched Qin Dingdong’s nose and blew two breaths into her mouth.

After releasing her grip, Su Shan bent down again to listen to Qin Dingdong’s breathing. It still wasn’t good.

Zhang Chenze came to Lin Qin’s room and helped her up. The two of them shuffled their way to Su Shan’s side.

All three women had rather specialized professions, and they all knew some first aid knowledge. However, no book had ever taught them how to rescue someone who had simultaneously experienced a sandstorm, flood, poisonous miasma, hailstorm, and wildfire.

Before long, Su Shan’s face was covered in sweat, and her hands performing chest compressions were becoming increasingly weak.

“Let me take over…” Lawyer Zhang patted Su Shan’s back, had her step aside, then straightened her own upper body and began performing CPR on Qin Dingdong.

Seeing several people persisting so tenaciously, Earth-Dog slowly pushed open her room door and walked up to them.

“Is this necessary?” Earth-Dog asked. “Saving her now is pointless. Even if she wakes up, she’ll be in so much pain she’ll wish she were dead.”

None of the three women paid her any attention. They just focused intently on Qin Dingdong. Su Shan sat directly beside Qin Dingdong, supporting her head with both hands. If they let her continue lying with her face to the side, breathing would be even more difficult.

Finally, through the unrelenting efforts of the two women, Qin Dingdong coughed loudly, and a mouthful of vomit mixed with blood sprayed from her mouth.

“Aaagh!”

She screamed miserably, instantly resuming breathing. She furrowed her brow in pain, lying on the ground gasping for breath. Before long, she couldn’t stop coughing, continuously coughing up fresh blood.

“That’s wonderful…” Both Su Shan and Zhang Chenze wearily sat down on the ground. They looked at each other and showed bitter smiles.

This game of “Earth-Dog” had finally ended in victory with everyone alive.

“Damn it…” Qin Dingdong slowly opened her eyes. Before her was this godforsaken glass shop. “Are you that bored…? Why save me…?”

Zhang Chenze was currently cleaning locusts off herself. She sighed and said, “Then what would you have us do? We clearly could save you, yet we should just stand here and turn a blind eye? That wouldn’t be fair to you.”

“Who cares about ‘fairness’…?” Qin Dingdong coughed a few more times. “My body won’t last much longer. It would’ve been better to just let me die…”

“Old Qin, although I understand you,” Lin Qin nodded, “this is just a thought that emerged after you and I experienced so many things. How can you use this kind of thinking to constrain ‘newcomers’?”

“Newcomers…?”

Qin Dingdong weakly lifted her eyelids and looked at the determined expressions in Su Shan’s and Zhang Chenze’s eyes. She felt somewhat melancholic.

Once upon a time, she and Lin Qin had also had that look in their eyes. They wanted to win, wanted to defeat the “Zodiacs,” and even more so wanted to escape from here.

But as they accumulated experience and gained abilities, they gradually began to disregard life. They not only began to disregard the lives of others but also stopped caring about their own survival.

Lin Qin knew that if only she and Qin Dingdong remained right now, she definitely wouldn’t reach out to save her. She would just wait until their next reunion.

Was this a good thing or a bad thing?

“Fine… big sister doesn’t blame you…” Qin Dingdong tried to push herself up from the ground but found she had no strength at all. So she could only stand up with Lin Qin’s support and said, “After all, saving one life is better than building a seven-story… seven-story what was it? Pagoda?”

At this moment, Earth-Dog took out a cloth bundle and put a full forty “Dao” in it, handing it to Su Shan.

“You can stay as long as you want. I’m off duty.” He walked forward a few steps, then turned back around. “This place is already messy enough. I’ll come clean up tomorrow morning. Just don’t make it any messier for me.”

All four people looked at her with meaningful expressions. No one responded.

Seeing that no one wanted to pay attention to her, Earth-Dog nodded, turned, and was about to leave.

“Wait a moment…” Su Shan called out to him.

“What is it?” Earth-Dog asked.

“There’s something I’m very concerned about.” Su Shan stood up and said, “At the last moment when I broke your plan, you seemed to say ‘as expected of you.’ What did that mean? Have you seen me before?”

Earth-Dog looked at Su Shan expressionlessly, the look in his eyes very strange. He reached up to adjust his suit collar, then slowly said, “Su Shan, how many people are left in your interview room?”

Hearing the other party call out her name, Su Shan knew her guess was correct. They had indeed known each other before.

“What do you mean ‘how many people are left’? There have always been four people in our room.” Su Shan said. “Why are you asking this?”

After hearing this, Earth-Dog nodded slightly. “Let me guess. You, Jiang Ruoxue, and Zhoumo, right? Who’s the fourth person?”

Hearing this, Su Shan slowly walked toward Earth-Dog. “What do you mean… you even know Ruoxue and Zhoumo?”

“Why not?” Earth-Dog smiled bitterly. “We once had so many comrades-in-arms, and in the end, only the four of you remain. If I weren’t still standing here, no one would remember those who have already passed away. For them, this is more painful than dying ten thousand times.”

“Who exactly are you…”

“I’m still curious—who’s the fourth person?” Earth-Dog repeated again.

“His name is Fang Zichen.” Su Shan answered. “He’s a first-year university student.”

“Zichen…” Earth-Dog nodded. “His personality isn’t suited to surviving until now. Have you been protecting him all this time?”

“What do you mean? Who exactly are you?”

Earth-Dog pondered for a while, then nodded and said, “There’s no rule saying I can’t reveal my identity, so I might as well tell you. Su Shan, I came from the same room as you, but our teammates weren’t enough to let us escape from here, so I switched to a different path.”

“Hmm…?” Su Shan hadn’t expected Earth-Dog to still be so honest even after the game ended, but her thoughts were somewhat chaotic. “You came from the same room as me… and now you’re ‘Earth-Dog’?!”

“That’s right.” Earth-Dog nodded. “Su Shan, do you want to join us?”

“Join you…?”

All four women were simultaneously stunned.

“Become a ‘Zodiac.'” Earth-Dog sighed. “The path you’re walking now is too dangerous. I’m no longer a ‘Participant,’ so you’ve lost another ally by your side. As for the remaining three… Zichen is useless, Jiang Ruoxue appears and disappears mysteriously, and Zhoumo doesn’t fit in with the group. How are you going to escape?”

After speaking, he looked at the people behind Su Shan and said, “Are you going to rely on them?”

Earth-Dog’s gaze lingered on Qin Dingdong for a long time before he said slowly, “I originally wanted to kill that woman for you, but you insisted on saving her. What an absurd thing.”

“What?”

“Su Shan, that woman has gotten you killed before.” Earth-Dog said lazily. “I thought after all this time she would have restrained herself, but she still wasted the ‘Wish Lot’ in the first round. Sooner or later, she’ll get you all killed.”

Hearing this, Zhang Chenze slowly took a step forward and said, “Hey… don’t say things like that. Everyone has their own judgment. You don’t have the right to make judgments for others.”