“Huh?!” Saturday was stunned for a moment. “Are—are your speculations reliable?”

“I only make the worst-case assumptions,” Qi Xia said. “But my assumptions are usually accurate.”

“Tsk, then according to what you’re saying, doesn’t that mean Turtle has no way out? What do we do next…?” Saturday asked with furrowed brows.

“I need to contact Luo Shiyi,” Qi Xia said. “We need to know the ‘Cat’s’ movements.”

After hearing this, Saturday hurriedly nodded in agreement and called out to Luo Shiyi in her mind. She felt like she’d been using telepathy a bit excessively—her whole body felt somewhat dizzy now.

Qi Xia had no visibility whatsoever in the “Mouse House” and could only wait silently. Meanwhile, Qiu Shiliu beside him didn’t dare to interject either, standing there in silence without saying a word.

Several dozen seconds later, Saturday’s somewhat anxious voice came through: “Qi Xia! Tsk, it’s just like you said! Earth-Mouse is currently pacing between doors four and five! It looks like he’s about to make a choice any moment now. What should we do?!”

“This…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes slightly. After one second, he had an answer. “How about this—have Turtle actively speak up to expose his own position, then make a bet with Earth-Mouse.”

“A—actively expose himself?”

“Yes, just do it.”

Saturday hesitated for a moment. “Alright, I understand.”

Another several dozen seconds passed, and Saturday’s voice came through again: “Tsk, it seems we’ve already stopped Earth-Mouse, but Turtle’s position has also been exposed. Earth-Mouse now knows he’s in room five and is standing at the door… Will this really work?”

“Earth-Mouse would have figured it out sooner or later anyway. Better to actively expose it,” Qi Xia said.

“Tsk, then what exactly should he bet on? Can it stop Earth-Mouse?”

“Have Turtle tell Earth-Mouse: ‘If I can correctly guess the number of fruits in the third room, how about you let me off the hook?'”

“Huh?” Saturday was stunned. “That’s it? Tsk, aren’t you being a bit too flippant…”

“Relay it word for word,” Qi Xia ordered. “Don’t change a single word.”

Saturday’s end went silent, seeming to have already gone to relay the message to Turtle. This time took relatively longer—about a minute passed before Qi Xia heard Saturday’s voice again.

“Tsk… That Earth-Mouse guy really doesn’t play by conventional rules…” Saturday said. “This time it’s really troublesome…”

“What did he say?” Qi Xia asked.

“Tsk, he said ‘Leader, you really love to joke around. If I could let you off that easily, how could I be Earth-level? How about we change the stakes—you guess what fruit is in the third room. If you guess correctly, I won’t catch you,'” Saturday said with some worry. “We haven’t been to the third room at all. How are we supposed to…”

“Just as I expected,” Qi Xia said. “That earlier wager was precisely meant to throw out bait and lure Earth-Mouse into voluntarily raising the difficulty, then fall into my rhythm.”

“Huh?!” Saturday felt like she’d been shocked by Qi Xia’s words several times now. “I—I don’t quite understand… Tsk, you did it on purpose? But trying to guess something we’ve never seen at all is just too…”

“Have Turtle agree to it,” Qi Xia said. “I’ll guess.”

Saturday fell silent again, apparently having Turtle stall Earth-Mouse.

“Alright…” Saturday said somewhat anxiously. “You—you guess, I’ll tell him…”

Qi Xia stroked his chin in thought for a while, then raised his head with a serious expression and said: “Papaya.”

Saturday felt that Qi Xia had truly gone mad.

“Tsk… what exactly are you up to?” she asked with an urgent tone. “Are you randomly guessing or do you have some basis? No matter what, the fruits that have appeared so far are all common fruits, right? But something like ‘papaya’—ordinary people rarely even…”

“The answer is papaya,” Qi Xia said. “The probability of guessing correctly is over ninety percent. Just have Turtle relay it to him.”

Saturday hesitated for a while, then her voice disappeared again. Qi Xia found a chair and slowly sat down, waiting for the final result of this matter.

Before long, heavy footsteps sounded outside the “Mouse House.” Someone seemed to be walking over step by step.

Qi Xia stroked his chin, then stood up and came to the door to wait.

Knock knock knock.

A faint knocking sound came.

Qi Xia stepped forward, moved close to the wooden door, and slowly uttered a single word: “Speak.”

“Leader,” Earth-Mouse’s voice came from the other side of the door. “That fat guy shouldn’t have been able to guess that answer no matter what.”

“Hard to say,” Qi Xia replied. “There are no useless people in my team.”

“You really love to joke…” Earth-Mouse gave a muffled bitter laugh. “I admit I wasn’t very respectful to you before. Now I’ll apologize to you.”

“Oh?” The corner of Qi Xia’s mouth lifted. “So what do you want to do?”

“This place of mine is a shabby tiled mud house. Continuing to show you such crude games would be beneath your dignity. Could you perhaps change temples to worship Buddha?” Earth-Mouse said. “What I mean is, for the next few rounds, I’ll open all the doors and won’t catch mice anymore. Let’s have mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and end this game together. I wonder if you have any intention of cooperating?”

Earth-Mouse’s speech directly stunned Qiu Shiliu, who was also in the room.

Although every sentence from this Zodiac was polite language, from the beginning his tone had carried contempt and mockery. How had he now completely changed into a different person?

Was he… begging for mercy?

After hearing this, Qi Xia scratched his head and said in a low voice toward the door panel: “But I’m truly sorry—among the plans I’ve prepared, there isn’t one for ‘safely getting through the game.’ What you’re saying puts me in a difficult position.”

The two people stood on opposite sides of the door, the expressions in their eyes equally complex, as if even every sentence they spoke was part of the game.

“Leader, this is where you’re at fault,” Earth-Mouse said. “You’re magnanimous and don’t hold grudges against petty people—how can you get serious with me? You’re kind of bullying people now, aren’t you?”

“There’s no need to be so polite,” Qi Xia said. “Let me reiterate my perspective.”

“Please speak, please speak.”

“This game is truly too laughable to me,” Qi Xia said. “This is the first time I’ve discovered a game where I can kill a Zodiac on the spot without needing to ‘bet my life.’ You yourself exposed such an enormous flaw—you should have been prepared for this long ago.”

“Right, right, right. What you’re saying is correct.”

“So I’m only giving you two choices,” Qi Xia said.

“May I ask which two?”

“The first is to be blown up and killed by that huge collar around your neck.”

“Heh… If I really were going to die, Leader, you wouldn’t just stand by and watch.” Earth-Mouse gave a dry laugh twice. “We’ve been chatting for so long now—there’s at least some friendship between us. Could you bear to watch me die? Don’t you think so?”

After hearing this, Qi Xia didn’t respond, making Earth-Mouse’s heart turn cold.

“Leader, then tell me what the second option is?”

“The second option is ‘rebellion,'” Qi Xia finally spoke. “You’ll survive today by the skin of your teeth, then die magnificently in the battle of resisting Heavenly-Dragon.”

Earth-Mouse stood outside the door, his hands already clenched into fists, yet he still said with a smile on his face: “Leader… you’re not really joking, are you? That is to say, from the moment I encountered you, I was already unable to survive?”