Before the deceased’s teammates could say anything, Guyu Gege continued speaking loudly, “Listen well—every place has its own rules.”

The onlooking crowd quietly listened to him speak, but I distinctly smelled that the scent on Guyu Gege’s body was somewhat fearful.

It seemed that this time, even my “sword” wasn’t confident he could persuade these people.

“When you need the hero, you beg him, and when you don’t need him, you want to kill him. There’s no such cheap deal in this world. He’s not your tool.” Guyu Gege continued speaking loudly, his voice stirring people’s hearts. “This building now houses several thousand people. Every single one could potentially be the thief who stole this ‘Jade.’ If you insist on killing the hero here, then from now on, no one will come to smell the scents on your bodies for you. Have you really thought this through?”

It sounded like Guyu Gege was negotiating with these people, but to me, it seemed more like a threat.

He was using my life to dissuade these people. This sounded too dangerous.

Once the negotiation failed, they would not only tear me apart but would also tear Guyu Gege apart.

“But our ‘Jade’ is gone!” A gege said. “Our ‘Jade’ disappeared—we were so close to getting out!!”

“If it disappeared, why don’t you go look for it?” Guyu Gege asked coldly. “Did you ever ask the hero to look after your ‘Jade’?”

“What…?”

“Between you and the hero, who exactly is the child that can’t grow up?” The more Guyu Gege spoke, the angrier he became. His body even emitted faint killing intent. “Not only does he have to check every day whether you’ve awakened, but he also has to give you his food to eat. Now that you’ve lost something, he has to take responsibility for that too. Later on, will he also have to dress you and wipe your butts? Between you and him, who exactly is the child?! Why don’t you kneel down and call him ‘Father’?”

His powerful and resonant voice was like heavy punches, hammering into the hearts of the onlookers. Their expressions became exceptionally ugly.

Now I already understood these people. Although they had no scent on them, they would often change their scent based on what someone else said.

“But we… trusted him so much…”

“Does trusting him mean you can grab him by the collar?!” Guyu Gege asked loudly. “Today you lose ‘Jade’ and come question him. Tomorrow if you fail a game, you’ll come question him. Whenever you encounter any difficulty, you’ll all come question him. The hero has devoted his everything to you—is this how you treat him?!”

Although everyone’s scents all followed Guyu Gege’s lead, I knew the situation wasn’t quite right, because the person who stole that “Jade” was Guyu Gege himself.

“Then… then…” That person’s gaze wandered for quite a while before he spoke. “Then Guyu… you go help us find it! Last time you were able to find fifty thousand pieces of ‘Jade’—you’ll definitely be able to this time too!”

“No, quite the contrary.” Guyu Gege shook his head. “Not only will I not help you find it this time, but I’m also going to establish a rule here. Because your team lost the ‘Jade’ that the hero distributed to you and tried to frame the hero, I’m ordering you to find the fifty thousand missing pieces of ‘Jade’ within two days to redeem your crime. Otherwise, you’ll all be dealt with according to the ‘family rules.'”

“What…?” All the people in that team widened their eyes. “If we could find them… why would we come ask the hero?”

“So you also know you can’t find them?” Guyu Gege sneered. “But ‘family rules’ are ‘family rules.’ The hero distributed all the jade to you, and you failed to preserve it well.”

I could sense that Guyu Gege was about to win. He had “led” everyone’s scents.

“That’s right…” Gradually, people began to say, “How come our ‘Jade’ didn’t get lost?”

“Right, our ‘Jade’ is all still here!”

Everyone talked over each other, changing the scent in the room, causing everyone on that team to panic completely.

At this moment, Siwei Jiejie also ran in. She looked at the situation at the scene, first picked up my “crown” from the ground and put it on me, then anxiously inquired about what had just happened.

“So that’s what happened…?” Siwei Jiejie suddenly turned her head and said, “You did it on purpose?”

“What do you mean on purpose…?”

“You’re ‘usurping’…?” Siwei Jiejie asked in a heavy voice. “Did you hide the ‘Jade’ yourselves and then come to frame the hero?”

Those several people’s expressions became even more panicked than before. The scents on their bodies were in complete chaos. Guyu Gege and Siwei Jiejie had completely won.

“We didn’t at all…!”

“You didn’t? Then choose for yourselves.” Siwei Jiejie said. “Do you want two days to go find that ‘Jade,’ or do you want to be dealt with right now for ‘usurpation’?”

After hearing this question, those several geges had completely lost their choice and could only agree to spend two days finding back that lost “Jade.”

After the crowd dispersed, the three of us returned to my room and locked the door from the inside. I had too many questions I wanted to ask.

“Guyu Gege… you…” I pondered for a moment. “Did you hide their ‘Jade’ again?”

Siwei Jiejie also looked at Guyu Gege with a strange gaze.

“Of course.” Guyu Gege said. “I said before—no one can be allowed to collect enough quantity, or we’ll all face danger. So I need to protect this place. It’s just a pity that in this city, I can’t find like-minded friends. Otherwise, I’d be willing to form a team to protect this place together.”

“A team…?” Siwei Jiejie was stunned. “You form a team specifically to obstruct others from collecting ‘Jade,’ calling it ‘protecting this place’ euphemistically… this sounds a bit strange.”

“But…” I also felt something was a bit odd. “Guyu Gege, as you said, if someone collects enough, an unexpected disaster will occur and we’ll all die. But according to what the ‘Executioner’ Jiejie told me at the time… if we want to cure everyone’s ‘illness,’ we must kill them. Is it possible that this is exactly an opportunity?”

“No, we have no way to predict exactly what kind of disaster will occur, much less predict what the consequences of the disaster will be.” Guyu Gege said. “We only know things will start over, but what if even someone like Wan Cai starts over too? What if we don’t even have our memories anymore? The hardships you endured all those years before—do you want to endure them again?”

As soon as I heard that Uncle Wan would be revived, and thought of those days when he smiled and spoke to me, all my hair stood on end.

“So today I made an example of them.” Guyu Gege said. “However, the situation is still very dangerous. This method can’t be used many more times.”