Chapter 57: Old Lü
"Huh?"
Qi Xia froze, caught off guard by the fact that Lin Jin's concern stemmed from this.
"Are you overthinking things?" Qi Xia shook his head and said, "I hold Xiao An every day until she falls asleep, and then I go sit by the desk myself."
"Oh..." Lin Jin nodded as if suddenly relieved. "Doesn't that make things hard for you?"
"I..." Qi Xia wanted to say something but found himself momentarily tongue-tied. "Lin Jin, you might not understand my line of work. If I let my guard down even for a moment, what awaits me is likely a bottomless abyss."
"Is that so?" Lin Jin replied with a hint of vague understanding, then murmured to herself, "Actually, I'm really curious about you. You seem like a very smart person, and yet you make a living by deceiving people..."
Hearing this, Qi Xia silently lowered his head.
"I don't want to either," he said. "But it's the only thing I can do."
The second long night felt even longer than the first.
The pitch-black darkness hung in the air, like an old friend who hadn't been seen in ages, reluctant to leave.
Although Qi Xia and Lin Jin had both managed to sleep a little, they still felt sore all over when dawn broke.
Doctor Zhao and Xiao Ran, on the other hand, looked as if they hadn't slept at all. They had been keeping watch on both the door and Qi Xia all night long. Now, both of them looked haggard, with heavy dark circles under their eyes.
They weren't just afraid of the "bugs" outside charging in; they were even more afraid that Qi Xia might pick up a giant black sword at daybreak and murder them.
Fortunately, neither of those things happened by the time daylight arrived.
"Let's go." Qi Xia stretched and said to Lin Jin, "Time to start today's journey."
A whole day had passed, and Qi Xia's earnings were zero.
His original target of collecting three hundred and sixty "Dao" per day had now turned into four hundred per day.
Based on yesterday's situation, many games offered higher rewards as the difficulty increased. If he wanted to reach his goal quickly, he would have to play some extremely dangerous games today.
Without saying goodbye to Xiao Ran or Doctor Zhao, the two of them stood up, picked up the aluminum pot, and left.
The "bugs" were nowhere to be seen outside. Where did those countless monsters hide during the day?
Were they all in the nearby buildings?
The air was still murky, but Qi Xia was gradually getting used to the stench of rot mixed with decay.
After leaving, he led Lin Jin past the restaurant across the street and turned onto the road to the right.
The buildings here were different from the place where Qi Xia had encountered the "rat-man." Most of them were shops.
The two walked along the street all the way to the end without finding any signs of human activity.
Now standing at a T-junction, Qi Xia looked left and right.
If they had come here, had they gone left or right?
Qi Xia admitted to himself that he didn't know Attorney Zhang or Officer Li well enough to deduce their decisions.
Just then, Lin Jin noticed something in the corner near the right wall.
"Qi Xia, look." She pointed to a corner by the wall with some whitish marks.
Qi Xia bent down to examine them, finding two crooked symbols that looked like either the numbers "5" and "2" or the letters "S" and "Z."
"Could these have been left by them?" Lin Jin looked at the symbols, puzzled.
"Most likely," Qi Xia nodded. "'Z' probably stands for Attorney Zhang."
"And 'S'?" Lin Jin asked again. "If it's Officer Li, shouldn't it be 'L'?"
"I don't get it either..." He paused for a moment, then asked, "Lin Jin, do you remember Officer Li's full name?"
"Full name...?" Lin Jin thought for a moment, then suddenly recalled something. "Ah, he mentioned it during the first game. He said his name is 'Li Shangwu'!"
She then looked at the symbol that could be either an "S" or a "5."
"So it really was left by them?" Lin Jin said. "But how did they know we were coming?"
Qi Xia was also puzzled. If they really wanted to leave them information, it should have been more explicit. The only possibility that came to mind now was that they seemed afraid he might get lost, so they left these symbols that only he would recognize.
"Regardless, there must be someone in this direction. Let's go take a look first."
The two confirmed the direction and set off again.
Walking along the dilapidated street, it took less than twenty minutes before Qi Xia heard loud commotion coming from a building.
"Damn it! This round doesn't count! Rematch!" a man shouted. "If you've got the guts, let's go again!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he was shoved out of the door by a tremendous force and landed heavily on the ground.
"Ouch... my god..." The man rubbed his sore backside and cursed, "Just you wait..."
Qi Xia glanced at him and his expression turned grim.
The man thrown out was none other than the short, pudgy middle-aged man they had met before—Old Lü.
The city Qi Xia was in seemed quite large, so running into the same person two days in a row was quite a coincidence.
Old Lü also noticed Qi Xia. "Hey, kid...?"
As if remembering something, he shook his head, stood up, and turned to leave with a look of annoyance.
"Wait a minute..." Qi Xia called out to him. "Have you seen anyone else around here?"
Old Lü turned around, his face showing contempt as he looked at Qi Xia. "Oh? Isn't this Lord Yama? The life I bought from you isn't used up yet, and you're already here to collect more money?"
Qi Xia shook his head helplessly. "I don't want to argue with you about what happened before. Right now, I'm looking for my companions. If you can help, I'll find a way to repay you."
"Repay?" Old Lü's eyes darted around, and he walked over with a fake smile. "Alright, since you said that, do me a favor. If you satisfy me, I'll tell you right away where the two people I saw earlier are."
"Two people...? Fine. What favor do you want me to do?" Qi Xia asked coldly.
He pointed at the room in front of him—a Go club.
"Go in and beat that pig in a bet," Old Lü said with a grin. "I want him to lose everything, even his underwear."
"Pig?" Qi Xia turned his head and saw a grimy pig-headed man sitting inside the Go club.
In front of him were black and white Go stones, and next to him were two empty bowls.
Qi Xia rubbed his nose, then turned back to Old Lü. "Old Lü, I have no problem helping you, but you need to answer me first: did you really see other people here just now?"
Old Lü hesitated for a moment, then said, "Yes, I did."
Qi Xia took a step closer, pressing the fat man. "I'll ask you one more time. Did you really see other people?"
Old Lü looked a little scared, his eyes fixed on Qi Xia's. "I really did see them..."
"Two people?"
"Yes."
"A man and a woman?"
"Yeah..."
"What were their characteristics?"
"Huh?" Old Lü quickly recalled. "The man was very serious, and the woman didn't talk much..."
Old Lü kept backing away, obviously still wary of Qi Xia.
He knew that this man had once pinned Zhang Shan to the ground and beaten him—definitely not someone to mess with.
Qi Xia, through his repeated questioning, found that Old Lü didn't seem to be lying, so he said, "Alright, I agree."
Lin Jin's lips curled up slightly, and she whispered, "Qi Xia, do you know psychology too?"