The two of them carried an old aluminum pot, constantly moving through the city.
Qi Xia had never imagined that a city without lights could be even darker than the wilderness.
After just over ten minutes of walking, the sky had darkened as if ink had been spilled into it.
The rustling chirps of insects all around intertwined, unsettling Qi Xia’s mind.
“Lin Qin, are you still there?” Qi Xia asked.
“I’m here,” Lin Qin replied. “Slow down a bit, be careful not to trip.”
“We can’t go any slower,” Qi Xia said, glancing at the sky. “We can barely see the road now. We need to get to the convenience store as soon as possible. Hold onto my clothes.”
Lin Qin nodded and reached out to grip Qi Xia’s sleeve.
Relying on their memory, they walked for another twenty minutes before finally arriving at the square where they had first appeared.
Fortunately, the open space provided enough visibility to make out general outlines.
Heading east through the square, they spotted a shop with a flickering light inside.
That should be the convenience store.
“They’ve lit a fire…” Lin Qin muttered in confusion. “How did they find a fire source?”
Then it dawned on her—the female clerk inside had been cooking when they first met her. The fire source was probably borrowed from her.
Moving toward the light in the darkness, the two finally reached the convenience store’s entrance.
Strangely, the bull-headed man who had been standing outside the restaurant across the street earlier was now gone.
“Officer Li? Lawyer Zhang? Are you there?” Lin Qin called tentatively. “Xiao Ran? Dr. Zhao?”
There was obvious movement inside, but no one responded.
“What’s going on?”
Just as Lin Qin was about to step inside, Qi Xia pulled her back.
“Stay behind me. I’ll go first,” he whispered.
Amidst the rustling insect sounds, the two entered the store.
But the moment Qi Xia stepped through the doorway, a wooden plank came flying straight at his face.
Luckily, he had been alert and dodged backward just in time, narrowly avoiding the potentially fatal blow.
“Ah—!” Lin Qin gasped, quickly steadying him. “Are you okay?”
It was only then that they saw the person wielding the plank—none other than Dr. Zhao, with Xiao Ran standing behind him.
Dr. Zhao looked at Qi Xia, then at Lin Qin, before forcing a smile. “Oh! It’s just you two… I thought it was someone else…”
Qi Xia studied the two of them with slight confusion.
Dr. Zhao was barefoot, wearing nothing but a white lab coat draped over himself like a trench coat, his expression deeply uncomfortable.
Behind him, Xiao Ran’s hair was disheveled, her clothes in disarray, her makeup smeared.
They clung to each other like a couple who had just been robbed.
Qi Xia understood the situation before him, but he couldn’t fathom why it had come to this.
“Qi—Qi Xia, don’t get the wrong idea…” Dr. Zhao said with an awkward laugh. “Xiao Ran said she might be injured, so I was just examining her.”
“Why are you explaining to him?!” Xiao Ran elbowed Dr. Zhao. “Stammering like that—are you even a man?”
Qi Xia shook his head. “I don’t care what you’re doing. Where are Officer Li and Lawyer Zhang?”
“Ah…” Dr. Zhao forced another strained smile. “They went out during the day to scout the area. They haven’t come back yet.”
“What?” Qi Xia frowned. “They still haven’t returned?”
By now, the sky was completely dark. Officer Li had said he would investigate the nearby area, so it was unlikely they’d stay outside overnight.
If they hadn’t returned yet, were they dead?
Or… were these two lying?
Qi Xia slowly stepped further inside, scanning the room.
Though the floor was still a mess, there were no fresh bloodstains or signs of a struggle.
A faint fire burned in the center of the room, and not far away lay Han Yimo’s corpse, creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere.
Qi Xia turned back to the two guilt-ridden figures and asked coldly, “Aren’t you supposed to be a team? Your teammates haven’t come back after dark, and instead of worrying, you two are here… entertaining yourselves?”
“W-Worrying won’t help,” Dr. Zhao stammered. “It’s too dark to go looking for them now. We’ll have to wait until morning…”
“Who the hell are you to judge?!” Xiao Ran snapped. “Since when do you get to worry about our team members?”
Qi Xia ignored her and walked over to the employee break room, pushing the door open gently.
Inside, the female clerk was crouched in a corner, facing the wall, muttering something under her breath.
It seemed she hadn’t moved from that spot.
Qi Xia closed the door and turned back to Dr. Zhao—at least he was somewhat rational.
“Are the ‘tokens’ still here?” Qi Xia asked.
“Uh…” Dr. Zhao’s expression turned guarded. “Qi Xia, why are you really here?”
“I’m here to borrow ‘tokens,'” Qi Xia said. “The ones left here during the day. I’ll return double the amount later.”
“Borrow ‘tokens’?” Dr. Zhao narrowed his eyes, studying Qi Xia’s dirtier, bloodstained clothes. “What happened to your own ‘tokens’? And where are that thug and prostitute?”
“They have names,” Lin Qin suddenly interjected. “Don’t call them that.”
“Right…” Dr. Zhao replied dismissively.
“Stop pretending to be righteous,” Xiao Ran sneered, tightening her clothes around herself. “Did they die in a game?”
Qi Xia’s expression darkened slightly as he nodded. “Something like that.”
“Ha!” Xiao Ran let out a mocking laugh. “Weren’t you so confident about collecting 3,600 ‘tokens’ to escape this place? Now you got your teammates killed and came crawling back to borrow ours?”
Though his expression remained neutral, Qi Xia lifted his gaze to her and said flatly, “That may be the case, but I suggest you watch your mouth.”
Dr. Zhao quickly stepped in. “Alright, alright, let’s all calm down…”
He then turned back to Qi Xia. “It’s not that we don’t want to lend them to you, but Officer Li took the ‘tokens’ with him…”
“He took them?” Qi Xia paused.
“Yeah,” Dr. Zhao said, pointing at the restaurant across the street. “After you left, he and Lawyer Zhang went there to play a game. They might have won. Then they went somewhere else.”
Qi Xia followed his finger, then frowned. “What do you mean ‘might have won’? You were right here—how could you not know if they won?”
“Well…” Dr. Zhao forced an awkward chuckle. “Xiao Ran didn’t want them to take the ‘tokens,’ but Officer Li insisted on going. They argued, and we didn’t interfere. If they wanted to throw their lives away, that’s their business. Who would join them on a suicide mission?”
“You… just let them go?”
Qi Xia’s eyes widened in disbelief. He grabbed Dr. Zhao by the collar, his grip tightening violently.
“Hey!”
Xiao Ran lunged at him. “What the hell are you doing?!”
Qi Xia sidestepped and swept his leg out, sending her sprawling face-first onto the filthy floor in a perfect “dog eat dirt” fall.
Taking a deep breath, Qi Xia snarled at Dr. Zhao, “Out of respect for Officer Li, I’ve been polite to you. But you motherfuckers actually split up?!”
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