Chapter 48: Harvest
"What did you say?" Qi Xia's eyes widened. "You're saying you've seen... someone escape from here?"
"That's right." Zhang Shan nodded. "But to be more precise... we only found that person's notebook."
"This..." Qi Xia felt something strange about this. "You only found a notebook, and you concluded that person escaped from here?"
Zhang Shan smiled and nodded, then said to Qi Xia, "Buddy, let me make this clear first. If you want to join us, we can share this information with you. But right now... believe it or not, that's all I'm saying."
Qi Xia roughly understood what Zhang Shan meant, but he really couldn't tell whether the other man was telling the truth or not.
Just then, a slightly chubby girl overheard Zhang Shan's words and came forward, asking, "Brother... are you still taking in people? I can do anything..."
Zhang Shan looked at the girl and smiled. "Miss, it's not that I don't want to take you in, but our goal is to 'break through all the games'. Do you have the resolve to face the danger that comes with that?"
The slightly chubby girl lowered her head silently. After thinking for a moment, she said, "I can."
"Haha!" Zhang Shan didn't seem to believe the girl. He walked up slowly and said to her, "Miss, don't force yourself. Just stay alive."
The girl couldn't convince Zhang Shan. Her expression darkened.
Seeing that no one else in the room was speaking, Zhang Shan looked at Qi Xia again. He pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket, dipped his finger in the blood on his body, and roughly sketched a simple map.
"This is where we are." Zhang Shan handed the scrap paper to Qi Xia. "If you change your mind, you can come find us."
Qi Xia took the paper, still looking at the three of them warily. But Zhang Shan didn't care. He put his arm around Little Glasses, picked up the two bear arms from the ground, and limped toward the door.
"Hey." Qi Xia called out.
"Hm?"
Zhang Shan turned back, only to see a white object flying toward his face. He quickly reached out and caught it.
It was a cloth bag.
"I changed my mind. I'll only take half this time." Qi Xia said. "That guy with the glasses isn't bad. I don't want his 'Dao' anymore."
Zhang Shan looked at the bag in his hand, froze for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed heartily. "Haha! You're a good man!"
Little Glasses looked confused. "Huh? Why? I did that willingly... you said earlier..."
"I'm a liar." Qi Xia said coldly. "Don't believe what I say."
"B-but, Mr. Liar..."
"My name is Qi Xia." Qi Xia said. "Don't call me Mr. Liar. It sounds terrible."
"Qi Xia..." Zhang Shan repeated the name. "Interesting. I'll remember you."
With that, he raised one of the black bear's forelimbs and tossed it to the four of them.
"Damn!" Qiao Jiajin was startled, but still caught the furry severed limb.
He found it was unusually heavy—at least twenty or thirty pounds—and it was dripping blood.
Zhang Shan said, "We three can't eat that much of this thing. It's too heavy to carry. Help me throw it away."
"Throw it away?"
Zhang Shan waved his hand and turned around.
Qi Xia and his group stared at the bear arm, not knowing what to say, until Zhang Shan left with his two companions.
A moment later, Earth Ox came forward and handed them four dirty cloth bags.
"Take them."
Qi Xia and the others snapped back to reality and accepted their rewards.
This time there was a lot of 'Dao'—so much that the group was a bit overwhelmed. Thanks to Zhang Shan, they also got some long-awaited 'food'.
The slightly chubby girl stood not far away, glanced at Qi Xia, then slowly walked over and asked tentatively, "Can I... join you? My teammates all died in the 'Interview'..."
Qi Xia didn't seem to hear her. He just weighed the bag in his hand and said to the other three, "Let's go."
With that, he turned and walked toward the exit, leaving the girl standing there awkwardly.
Qiao Jiajin shrugged helplessly at the girl. "Don't be mad. He's always like this."
Seeing that Qiao Jiajin seemed easy to talk to, the girl grabbed his arm and said nervously, "Please let me join you... I'm so scared right now..."
"This..." Qiao Jiajin forced an apologetic smile. "Well... Pretty Girl, why don't you just follow..."
"Hey, Qiao Jiajin." Qi Xia turned back from a distance and called out. "Let's go."
Qiao Jiajin looked at Qi Xia and saw him slightly furrow his brow.
"Oh, okay. I'm coming." Qiao Jiajin seemed to understand. He nodded, then turned back and said, "Pretty Girl, not this time. Let's meet again later."
With that, like Qi Xia, he ignored the girl and headed for the exit.
Seeing Qiao Jiajin leave too, the slightly chubby girl's previously aggrieved expression turned cold, gradually becoming sinister.
Now only she and Earth Ox remained in the room. All the participants had left.
Earth Ox was tidying up the overturned chairs. He looked up at her and after a moment, asked calmly, "Still doing the same old trick?"
"Yeah." The slightly chubby girl nodded. "What a shame. It's getting harder and harder for us."
"Why can't you just be normal?" Earth Ox turned his head. "Wouldn't it be better if we all followed orders together?"
"Haha!" The girl let out an angry laugh. She stepped forward and grabbed Earth Ox by the collar, saying fiercely, "Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?! 'Normal'? How are you 'Zodiac' any better than us?!"
Earth Ox turned his head away and said quietly, "At least we're all working toward the same goal..."
"Then let's each work hard and see who's right." The girl released her grip, turned, and walked to the exit. Before leaving, she said seriously, "Zhang Shan can't be allowed to live. As for that Qi Xia... I'll think of something."
...
"Liar..." Qiao Jiajin cautiously glanced back after they left, then asked in a low voice, "What's the deal? Is that woman trouble?"
"I'm not sure, but it's highly likely." Qi Xia said. "We need to be careful in a place like this."
"Can you read faces?" Qiao Jiajin laughed. "With that woman's kind-looking face, I don't see any problem."
"It's not about reading faces." Qi Xia shook his head. "First, she said all her teammates died in the 'Interview'. If that's true, she must have used some extreme means. Otherwise, I find it hard to believe that out of nine people, only one weak woman survived." Qi Xia continued. "Second, she's survived alone until now. Combined with how she fought to survive in the game, that's enough to prove she's no ordinary person. It's very likely she approached us for our 'Dao'."
Qiao Jiajin nodded in sudden realization. "I see... Damn, I actually felt sorry for her."
"Of course, everything I just said could be wrong." Qi Xia said. "I just don't want to trust people easily."
He then turned back and asked the three, "By the way, give me your 'Dao' for a moment."