“You…”

Chen Junnan swallowed. He seemed not to have expected Qi Xia to answer so decisively, then asked again: “Then what’s your purpose?”

“I don’t know.” Qi Xia replied. “I can’t remember.”

“Stop fucking lying to this young master!!” Chen Junnan shouted. “Surnamed Qi, you’re not even drafting your lies anymore, are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You yourself said we’re ‘useless now.'” Chen Junnan said in a suppressed voice. “But you don’t even know what use gathering us together served, so why do you say we’re ‘useless now’?”

“For this matter, I don’t need to know the ‘purpose’ to know that you’re already ‘useless.'” Qi Xia replied.

“What…?”

“One ‘Scapegoat,’ one ‘Break All Laws.'” Qi Xia’s eyes remained fixed on the bonfire, speaking without a trace of emotion. “If everyone in the room was deliberately gathered by me for some purpose, then the reason you two are gathered here couldn’t be clearer.”

Chen Junnan seemed to have understood something, but still asked somewhat incredulously: “What reason?”

“Two emotional, sentimental people who both hate evil like enemies—placed by my side, they would naturally discover that I’m someone worth trusting, and would also easily form a team with me.” Qi Xia said. “Chen Junnan, Qiao Jiajin, whether you believe it or not, you two are both ‘shields’ I found to block bullets for me.”

Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin both widened their eyes at this moment.

This feeling was even worse than being directly insulted.

Hearing this sentence, Chen Junnan’s widened eyes showed pupils that flickered slightly, and his brows furrowed.

After Qi Xia finished speaking, he turned to look at Qiao Jiajin: “And you’re the same, Qiao Jiajin. I might have discovered at some point that you wanted to cooperate with someone smart, and you yourself possess ‘Break All Laws’ with an easily triggered mechanism, so I decisively pulled you into the room. As long as you and I stayed in the same room, you would very likely propose ‘cooperation,’ and after I agreed, you would rely on your own fighting skills and ‘Break All Laws’ to become my invincible shield.”

After hearing Qi Xia finish, Qiao Jiajin turned to look at Chen Junnan. Both of their moods were somewhat complicated.

This matter seemed to be getting a bit strange.

“So do you two understand now?” Qi Xia said. “From the very beginning when I placed you two in this room, it was to have you block various lethal damages for me, so you don’t need to say ‘help me’ anymore. You’re already ‘useless’ to me.”

After hearing Qi Xia’s explanation, the anger in Chen Junnan’s heart gradually turned into doubt. He opened his mouth wanting to say something but said nothing, and could only sit slowly on the ground after thinking for a while.

Qiao Jiajin also sat down, then kept staring at Qi Xia.

“What’s wrong?” Qi Xia asked. “What’s with those expressions?”

“It’s not that…” Chen Junnan scratched his head. “This young master is fucking a bit confused.”

“Confused about what?”

Chen Junnan could only organize his words again and said: “Old Qi, if you’re going to say it like that, this young master has to properly debate this with you.”

“Go ahead.”

“Even if… even if what you said is true.” Chen Junnan gestured with his hands. “Even if your ultimate purpose in pulling us into this room was to use us both to block bullets for you, I’ll accept this loss. But we brothers blocked bullets for you because of our relationship, right? Why the fuck wouldn’t we block bullets for others? And I’ve recalled these days we’ve known each other—you haven’t harmed us brothers either.”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded. “Harming you two has no meaning for me.”

After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin interjected: “What does this have to do with ‘meaning’ oh? Liar boy, if you’re going to say it like that, then my purpose in befriending you was also to ‘use’ your brain, wasn’t it? But you should also know that was only my initial motivation. It can’t represent that I didn’t later consider you as a brother.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia helplessly shook his head: “You’re substituting concepts. This is different.”

“Isn’t this fucking the same problem?” Chen Junnan frowned and said. “There’s clearly nothing wrong, yet you fucking have to say ‘you’re useless now’ to disgust us both. What are you after? Do you just want me to beat you up?”

“No, what I said is true.” Qi Xia said. “You don’t need to be my ‘shields’ anymore. We can go our separate ways.”

“What, you’re not going to die starting today?” Chen Junnan asked.

“No, but pulling you into this room is something I owe you.” Qi Xia said. “But I’ve also helped you settle quite a few matters, so it’s even now. From now on, we don’t need to have any relationship anymore. You can go wherever you should go.”

“Old Qi.” Chen Junnan sighed deeply. “You should know this explanation is hard to establish, right? If mine and Old Qiao’s purpose is to be ‘shields,’ then what about the remaining six people in the room? Are they your ‘spears’? If we’re categorized according to each person’s ‘Echo,’ then how would you explain the rest?”

“I don’t know.” Qi Xia shook his head. “I can only vaguely remember that I made a deal with Qinglong. I changed the room’s layout, and even our initial ‘interview game’ was specified by me. But I really can’t remember the reason I did this. Perhaps after a while, or perhaps in the next second, I’ll remember.”

“I still don’t believe it.” Chen Junnan said. “Unless you give me a more reasonable reason.”

“This no longer has anything to do with ‘reasonable.'” Qi Xia said. “I have a premonition that if you continue to be involved with me, neither of you will have a good ending.”

“What do you mean…?”

“I’ve always been blindly self-confident.” Qi Xia said in a deep voice. “I always think I can handle all the dangers I encounter. If I hadn’t foreseen an extremely dangerous situation, I would absolutely never plant ‘shields’ around myself, moreover not just one ‘shield,’ but two.”

Hearing this sentence, Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin instead felt somewhat reassured.

“So it’s this plot development. I thought something was wrong.” Chen Junnan smiled helplessly.

After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin blinked: “What do you mean ‘this plot development’?”

“Old Qiao, this stinky kid Old Qi is playing the hero.”