Chapter 55: Insect Chirping
Linqu was startled by Qi Xia's sudden outburst and quickly stepped forward to pull him back. "Qi Xia... calm down..."
She couldn't quite understand why the usually composed Qi Xia had suddenly become so agitated.
Qi Xia still hadn't let go. He gripped Dr. Zhao's collar tightly, gritting his teeth as he said, "How do you expect me to calm down? Do you have any idea how many people I've watched die in front of me today?!"
Linqu lowered her head silently.
He was right. From the very beginning with the "human rats," all the way to the end with Qiao Jiajin and Tiantian, they had experienced too many moments on the brink of death.
"No wonder..." Qi Xia continued, "No wonder the moment you heard someone coming in, your first reaction was to swing a wooden board at us... You knew Officer Li and Lawyer Zhang were never coming back, didn't you?"
A flicker of panic crossed Dr. Zhao's face. "No... Qi Xia, listen to me. I had no choice either. Those two really wanted to go die..."
"Die?" Qi Xia let out a cold laugh. "You've never once stepped foot outside this door, so you know nothing about this place. Officer Li must have talked to the Ox Head across the street. He realized the games here aren't lethal—on the contrary, they might even yield 'Dao.' That's why he took Lawyer Zhang and left."
"Huh?" Dr. Zhao's face showed genuine confusion, as if he truly was hearing this for the first time. "Not lethal? H-How is that possible?"
Xiao Ran scrambled up from the ground, wiped the mud off her face, and turned around furiously. "Zhao Haibo! What are you standing there for?! They're bullying us right to our faces!"
"B-But I..." Dr. Zhao's expression clearly soured.
"Useless!" Xiao Ran screamed in desperation. "How can you be so useless?!"
Qi Xia looked at Xiao Ran, then at Dr. Zhao, and suddenly felt a wave of discouragement.
When did he have time to keep arguing with these two?
With that thought, he silently released his grip.
Qi Xia was now completely lost.
Where would Officer Li and Lawyer Zhang go?
Had they run into a "Land"-prefix "Zodiac"?
Had they participated in a life-or-death game?
Were they still alive?
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
The chirping of insects outside the door grew even louder, as if a cricket were crouching right outside, making it impossible for him to gather his thoughts.
"Qi Xia, what should we do?" Linqu asked with a sorrowful expression.
Qi Xia looked up and asked Dr. Zhao, "Did they say where they were going?"
He clung to his last shred of hope.
Officer Li was a cautious man. If he really planned to go far, he should have left some clue behind.
"No..." Dr. Zhao shook his head. "But I saw that after they finished the Ox Head's game across the street, they turned right down the street..."
"Right?" Qi Xia gazed out at the pitch-black sky, calculating silently in his mind.
Officer Li probably hadn't gone too far—he just wanted to get away from these two people.
After all, he'd told Qi Xia himself that he hoped they could meet again one day to exchange information.
If that were the case, he should still be active somewhere in this vicinity. Besides the restaurant across the street, the most likely place was the nearest "game room."
Having determined a general direction, Qi Xia felt a bit more grounded.
Even though the sky was completely dark now, he really didn't want to stay in the same place with these two anymore.
So he picked up a wooden stick from inside the room, walked slowly over to Han Yimo's corpse, and said in a low voice, "Brother, you can't even rest in peace. Sorry for the trouble."
"What are you doing now?" Xiao Ran asked irritably.
Qi Xia didn't answer. He tore off a strip of cloth from Han Yimo's clothes, wrapped it around the top of the stick, then rubbed the stick against some dry filth on the ground.
Once he finished that, he walked over to the firelight inside the room and lit the cloth-wrapped end. A simple torch was ready.
"Linqu, I'm going out to find them," Qi Xia said. "I don't know if there's danger outside, but I don't want to stay here. Are you going to wait here until dawn? No matter whether I find them or not by then, I'll come back for you."
Linqu glanced at Xiao Ran and the others, then shook her head. "No, I'll go with you."
With that, she picked up the pot containing the bear meat and stood beside Qi Xia.
"What's that..." Dr. Zhao finally noticed the battered aluminum pot, his eyes practically glowing.
"It's..." Linqu hesitated, then shook her head. "Nothing."
"Is it food?!" Dr. Zhao immediately stepped forward. "You found food?"
Xiao Ran's expression shifted too. "There's something to eat?"
Their gazes no longer looked human—they were like starving beasts.
Qi Xia pulled Linqu behind him, shielding her as he said slowly, "Sorry, this isn't for you."
"Qi... Qi Xia..." Dr. Zhao stammered, "N-No, Brother Xia... We went a bit too far just now. Don't take it to heart."
"Yeah..." Xiao Ran also forced a smile. "What friends don't have a little quarrel? Besides, you're a grown man—you're not really going to hold a grudge against a woman like me, are you? I was just joking with you..."
"Exactly, exactly..." Dr. Zhao chimed in with Xiao Ran, "You've got plenty in that pot. We'll just have a little bite—we won't eat it all..."
Qi Xia's face darkened again. "Everything in that pot was earned by Qiao Jiajin risking his life. Go ask him. If he agrees, I'll have no objection."
When Xiao Ran heard this, her expression flickered. After a brief pause, she lunged straight for the pot.
Qi Xia had anticipated this move. He sighed helplessly and reached out to block her.
"What, when 'trickery' doesn't work, you switch to 'robbery'?" Qi Xia said with a hint of sarcasm. "There's no place in this world that's 'beyond the reach of the law.' I suggest you think carefully—your group 'originally' had a police officer."
"You—"
Qi Xia snorted, pushed Xiao Ran aside, and raised his torch as he walked out the door, Linqu following close behind.
Only then did Xiao Ran and Dr. Zhao understand what it meant when "the cooked duck flew away."
That pot of something with a faint aroma was right before their eyes, yet they couldn't even touch it.
"Stop right there!" Xiao Ran shouted and rushed out after Qi Xia.
Outside, the world was nothing but dim firelight and insect chirps, shrouded in utter darkness.
But what Xiao Ran didn't expect was that Qi Xia and Linqu were standing just three paces away, their backs to her, completely still.
"Huh?"
A few seconds later, she saw Qi Xia and Linqu slowly take a step backward.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Xiao Ran asked.
Linqu turned her head mechanically, like a robot, her eyes filled with terror. She raised a finger to her lips, making a shushing gesture.
"Are you crazy or what?" Xiao Ran snapped. "If you want to leave, fine! Leave the pot behind!"
As she said this, Xiao Ran felt something was off.
The torch in Qi Xia's hand illuminated a small area. In the dim firelight, something seemed to be moving.
The next second, Xiao Ran saw clearly what was in the light. Her eyes flew wide open, and an expression of extreme terror engulfed her face.
Right in front of Qi Xia stood an emaciated, naked man so thin he hardly looked human.
He was on all fours, his legs stretched out behind him in a highly unnatural posture, crawling along the ground.
On his shriveled face were two hollowed-out eye sockets. His mouth was pursed, making a continuous sound:
"Rustle, rustle—"
"Rustle, rustle—"