I heard him shout “Stop!”

That voice was indeed Qi Xia. A person as clever as Qi Xia naturally wouldn’t do anything futile. His purpose wasn’t to make me stop, but to wake everyone in “Heaven’s Mouth.”

In his view, as long as he could spread the sense of crisis about an intruder throughout “Heaven’s Mouth,” catching me would naturally not be a difficult matter.

But he had still miscalculated. Without sufficient “intelligence,” he had no way to make the best judgment.

I wasn’t an “intruder,” but rather the only king of “Heaven’s Mouth” at this moment.

That night, I escaped smoothly and didn’t go to see Chu Tianqiu again.

I felt things had become strange.

Was it possible that Chu Tianqiu was playing me?

He didn’t need to know the “scent” on these people at all. What he needed was simply to reduce Qi Xia’s sense of security, and it seemed he also wanted to provoke a dispute in some mysterious way.

And once again, I had become the “gun.”

I had originally thought Qi Xia was about as I expected—although he was difficult to control, he could handle himself with ease in various games.

But what I hadn’t anticipated was that the turn of events would come so quickly.

At the second day’s “Welcome Meeting,” Qi Xia determined my identity through just one conversation.

His gaze was terrifying, as if he could see through my physical body directly to my soul.

When he said the words “Miss Xu Liunian, the actress,” my conviction instantly collapsed, revealing my true appearance.

Within those few seconds, no one should have seen me, but I was still very frightened.

This man called Qi Xia was far too distant from me. Disguising myself was completely useless against him.

“I want to talk to the real Chu Tianqiu. You can’t make decisions about what comes next.” When he coldly spoke these words, I only felt a chill throughout my body.

“Qi Xia, stop fooling around. I can’t expose my identity here.” At that moment, I felt my mind going blank.

“You’ve helped me before, so I won’t make things difficult for you. Let me see Chu Tianqiu.”

I… helped him?

Qi Xia’s words startled me. What had I helped him with?

Did he already know that I had transformed into Yu Nian’an’s appearance and then stood before him?

No… that was impossible.

No matter how capable he was, even if he could retain all the memories from the last time, he was ultimately just a mortal. He couldn’t possibly have such clear consciousness in his dying moments.

So the “help” he mentioned was merely the fact that I had brought him to the city’s edge.

Hearing this, I felt slightly relieved. No matter whose game I was caught in, my only advantage was that I knew enough information.

Hearing Qi Xia’s words, I prepared to go along with his plan. The more he wanted to see Chu Tianqiu, the more I would keep him in suspense.

“No!” I said in a lowered voice. “You should know his ‘memory’ is the key to escaping this place. He hasn’t lost his memory for a full two years! What you’re doing will put him in a dangerous situation!”

See? You think I’m taking the bullet up front while Chu Tianqiu schemes in the shadows.

Little do you know, these are all lies I’ve spun from thin air. That’s right, just keep misunderstanding—Chu Tianqiu used me, pushed me to the forefront, while hiding himself. How could such a person be worthy of being a leader?

I deliberately showed a hint of grievance on my face and said to Qi Xia, “Qi Xia, you really can’t see him. If you have any plans, I can relay them for you.”

This was what a qualified “puppet” should say. I wonder if Chu Tianqiu could figure out that I had set him up here?

“Very well…” After thinking for a moment, Qi Xia said to me, “Just help me ask him one question.”

“What question?”

“Help me ask Chu Tianqiu, ‘How long have you been here?'”

Hearing this question, I was obviously stunned.

Why?

Why, even after racking my brains, could I still not figure out what this man in front of me was thinking?

At this moment, he could either tell me his own plan or ask some crucial questions, yet he chose this particular one.

How long have you been here?

Where was “here”? Was it the school, “Heaven’s Mouth,” or the “Land of End”?

“If Chu Tianqiu answers wrong this time, I’ll make him completely out of the game.”

After Qi Xia finished speaking, he turned and left, but my heart kept churning.

Although I was forced to join the game between these two men, I couldn’t see through this question.

After much deliberation, I still came to the basement, but I never knew how to begin.

“He has a question… he wants to ask you,” I said.

“Let me guess…” Chu Tianqiu took the initiative to interrupt me. “Could it be… he wants to ask how long I’ve been here?”

When I heard Chu Tianqiu’s words, I knew that the moment I joined this game, I had already lost.

The two of them could even transmit information directly through me, yet I had no idea what the content of their transmission was.

This kind of game between people didn’t even need encryption, and I had completely become a puppet.

“That’s right,” I said in a low voice.

“This is so interesting… Qi Xia, this is how it should be…”

What should I do at this moment to rejoin this game?

After thinking for a while, I said, “It’s all my fault… I didn’t expect Qi Xia to see through the flaw.”

At this time, I was tentatively on the same side as Chu Tianqiu, so I could deliberately sell out a weakness.

“It has nothing to do with you. Even if you could deceive everyone else, you couldn’t possibly deceive Qi Xia. He would have discovered it sooner or later, just much earlier than I expected.”

Hearing this, I fell silent again. So Chu Tianqiu had known from the beginning that Qi Xia would discover my disguise. Then what was his purpose in doing this?

I had thought I wasn’t the “bullet-taker,” that “bullet-taker” was just a lie I had casually spun.

But now it seemed I was truly ridiculous. Just like the “taxi driver,” the lie I told had once again become reality.

Chu Tianqiu had been using me to take the bullet all along.

“So how are you going to answer this question…?” I asked with a heart as dead as ashes. “He said if you answer wrong, he’ll make you completely ‘out of the game.'”

I didn’t even know what game he and Qi Xia had entered, much less what game they wanted to exit.

Chu Tianqiu didn’t answer directly but asked me several questions in succession. I only remember him asking me, “Has Lin Qin joined ‘Heaven’s Mouth’?”

After I nodded, he actually proposed to meet Lin Qin.

“But… but she’s from ‘Extreme Path’…” There was a trace of panic in my voice, because I had hidden one key point and not mentioned it.

She wasn’t just from “Extreme Path”—she had also colluded with “Qinglong” and appeared in Qi Xia’s interview room. This person was highly problematic.