“Hm?”

Qi Xia was stunned. He hadn’t expected Lin Qin’s starting point to be this.

“Are you overthinking this?” Qi Xia shook his head and said, “Every day I hold Xiao An until she falls asleep, then I sit at the desk myself.”

“Oh…” Lin Qin nodded as if suddenly relieved. “Doesn’t that make things very hard for you?”

“I…” Qi Xia wanted to say something but found himself at a loss for words. “Lin Qin, you might not understand my line of work. If I let my guard down for even a moment, what awaits me could very well be an abyss.”

“Is that so?” Lin Qin responded with seeming understanding, then murmured as if to herself, “Actually, I’m really curious about you. You seem like a very intelligent person, yet you make a living by deceiving people…”

Hearing these words, Qi Xia silently lowered his head.

“I don’t want to either,” he said. “But this is the only thing I can do.”

The long night of the second day was even longer than the first.

The pitch-black night hung in midair, refusing to leave like an old friend who hadn’t been seen in ages.

Although Qi Xia and Lin Qin had both slept for a while to varying degrees, when dawn arrived they still felt sore and in pain all over.

Doctor Zhao and Xiao Ran looked as if they hadn’t slept all night. They had been staring at the door and at Qi Xia the entire time. Now their faces both looked somewhat haggard, with heavy dark circles under their eyes.

They not only feared those “insects” outside the door would rush in, but also feared that Qi Xia would raise a black giant sword at dawn to murder them.

Fortunately, by the time dawn arrived, neither of these things had happened.

“Let’s go.” Qi Xia stretched lazily and said to Lin Qin, “It’s time to start today’s journey.”

A day had passed, and Qi Xia’s gains were zero.

The original quota of collecting three hundred sixty “Dao” per day had now become four hundred per day.

Judging from yesterday’s situation, the rewards of many games would increase with the escalating difficulty. If he wanted to quickly achieve his goal, today he would have to participate in several extremely dangerous games.

Without saying goodbye to Xiao Ran and Doctor Zhao, the two stood up, picked up the aluminum pot, and left.

Outside the door, there was no trace of the “insects” to be seen. Where could that astonishing number of monsters be hiding during the day?

Could they all be in the nearby buildings?

The air was still turbid, but Qi Xia had gradually grown accustomed to this stench mixed with rotting smells.

After leaving with Lin Qin, he passed by the restaurant across the street, then walked toward the road on the right.

The buildings here were different from where Qi Xia had encountered the “Man-Mouse.” Most were shops.

The two walked along the street to the end without discovering any traces of human activity.

Now standing at a T-junction, Qi Xia looked both left and right.

If they had come here, had they gone left or right?

Qi Xia admitted he didn’t really understand Lawyer Zhang and Officer Li, nor could he deduce their decisions.

Just then, Lin Qin discovered something near the corner on the right side.

“Qi Xia, look.” She pointed to a corner by the wall where there were some whitish marks.

After hearing this, Qi Xia bent down and discovered two crooked symbols that looked like either the numbers “5” and “2,” or the letters “S” and “Z.”

“Could these have been left by them?” Lin Qin looked at the two symbols and asked with some confusion.

“Most likely.” Qi Xia nodded. “‘Z’ might represent Lawyer Zhang.”

“What about ‘S’?” Lin Qin asked again. “If it’s Officer Li, shouldn’t it be ‘L’?”

“I can’t understand it either…” After saying this, he paused and asked, “Lin Qin, do you remember Officer Li’s real name?”

“Real name…?” Lin Qin lowered her head and thought for a while, then suddenly remembered something. “Ah, he mentioned it during the first game. He’s called ‘Li Shangwu’!”

After speaking, she looked at that symbol that resembled both “S” and “5.”

“Could this really have been left by them?” Lin Qin said. “But how would they know we were coming?”

Qi Xia was also somewhat puzzled. If they really wanted to leave some information for them, the content should be more explicit. Now the only possibility seemed to be that they were afraid of getting lost themselves, so they left these symbols that only they could understand.

“In any case, there must be people in this direction. Let’s go take a look first.”

The two confirmed their direction and set out again.

Walking along the dilapidated street, sure enough, in less than twenty minutes, Qi Xia heard noisy arguing coming from inside a building.

“Damn it! That round doesn’t count! Again!” a man roared. “If you’ve got the guts, come again!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he was pushed out the door by a great force and fell heavily to the ground.

“Ow… my mother…” The man rubbed his buttocks, cursing and swearing. “You just wait…”

Qi Xia glanced at him, and his expression darkened.

The person who had been pushed out was none other than the short, fat middle-aged man he’d met before—Old Lu.

The city Qi Xia was in looked quite large in scale, yet he could run into the same person two days in a row. What a coincidence.

Old Lu also noticed Qi Xia. “Hey? You, kid…?”

After speaking, he seemed to remember something, so he shook his head, stood up, and was about to leave with a face full of chagrin.

“Wait a moment…” Qi Xia called out to him. “Have you seen other people here?”

After hearing this, Old Lu turned around and looked at Qi Xia with a contemptuous expression. “Oh? If it isn’t the King of Hell himself? The life I bought from you still isn’t used up, and you’ve come to collect money again?”

After hearing this, Qi Xia helplessly shook his head and said, “I don’t want to argue with you about what happened before. I’m looking for my companions now. If you can help, I’ll find a way to repay you.”

“Repay?” Old Lu’s eyes darted around, then he walked over with a fake smile plastered on his face. “Fine. Since you put it that way, help me with something. As long as you satisfy me, I’ll immediately tell you where those two people I just saw are.”

“Two people…? All right. What do you need me to help with?” Qi Xia asked coldly.

He pointed at the room before them—it was a Go club.

“Help me go in and win against that pig through gambling,” Old Lu said with a smile. “I want to make him lose even his underwear.”

“Pig?” Qi Xia turned his head and indeed saw a filthy pig-headed person sitting in the Go club.

In front of him were black and white game pieces arranged, with two empty bowls placed beside them.

Qi Xia rubbed his nose, then turned around and asked Old Lu, “Old Lu, I don’t mind helping you, but you have to answer me first—did you really see other people just now?”

Old Lu paused and said, “I did see them.”

Qi Xia took another step forward, getting close to this fat man, and asked again, “I’ll ask you one more time. Have you seen other people?”

Old Lu was somewhat frightened. He kept staring at Qi Xia’s eyes. “I really did see them…”

“Two people?”

“Yes.”

“One man, one woman?”

“Yes…”

“What were their characteristics?”

“Huh?” After hearing this, Old Lu hurriedly recalled. “The man was very serious, and the woman didn’t talk much…”

Old Lu kept backing away, looking as if he was still traumatized by Qi Xia.

He knew this man had once pinned Zhang Shan to the ground and beaten him—he was very difficult to provoke.

Through several consecutive interrogations, Qi Xia discovered that the other party didn’t seem to be lying, so he said, “Fine, I agree.”

The corners of Lin Qin’s mouth curved up slightly as she said in a small voice, “Qi Xia, you understand psychology too?”