Chapter 119: Knock Knock Knock
"Enough." Qi Xia cut off Officer Li's speech. "Officer Li, why do you think you have to save everyone? For the sake of complete strangers you've only just met, you'd rather let yourself die over and over again?"
Officer Li gave a slight smile, pulled out another cigarette, and lit it.
"That's not the right way to put it." He shook his head and said, "I'm a criminal investigator. How can I only help people I know? All the victims in this world are strangers to me when we first meet, but I will risk my life to protect them. That's just the way it is."
"Regardless, I don't agree." Qi Xia said. "Your 'Resonance' ability is just my speculation. Whether you can actually conjure up items at will is completely unknown. What if you can only produce lighters and cigarettes?"
"Then we won't have lost anything." Officer Li replied. "It wouldn't hurt to try. Maybe your guess is right, and I really can get everyone out without any trouble."
"But if you use your own life to obtain three thousand six hundred 'Dao,' and we get out, what happens to you?" Qi Xia asked, his brow furrowed. "According to this logic, the moment you gather three thousand six hundred 'Dao,' you'll die. You wouldn't even have the right to leave!"
"Wouldn't that be perfect?" Officer Li let out a hearty laugh. "Qi Xia, the best ending for me is to die here saving everyone."
"Don't say such ominous things." Qi Xia replied with some concern. "Before we figure out the situation, you can't decide your own ending."
He knew that Officer Li meant what he said. Dying here was the best possible outcome for him.
"But Zhang Huanan..." Officer Li murmured quietly. "As long as he's out there, I can't go back."
"Officer Li, you're from 2010, right?" Qi Xia asked.
"Yes."
"I'll give you a contact method. When you return to the real world, contact the me from back then." Qi Xia said. "I'll help you deal with Zhang Huanan."
"Contact the you from back then...?" Officer Li blinked slightly. "Qi Xia, what year are you from? How old are you this year?"
"I'm from 2022. Twenty-six years old."
Officer Li lowered his head in thought for a moment, then looked up and said, "You were only fourteen in 2010. Do you know what kind of person Zhang Huanan is?"
"It doesn't matter." Qi Xia shook his head. "He can't defeat a fourteen-year-old me."
"You..." Officer Li found he couldn't see through the man before him at all. Could a fourteen-year-old boy really defeat a vicious con artist like Zhang Huanan?
But then Officer Li suddenly remembered—Qi Xia was also a con artist.
Yet his eyes were different from any criminal Officer Li had ever seen. There was no 'wickedness' in those eyes, only 'despair.'
"Qi Xia, are you really a con artist?" Officer Li asked calmly. "How many times have you scammed people? Who did you scam?"
"That has nothing to do with escaping this place." Qi Xia turned his head and said. "The bottom line is, I won't harm innocent people."
"So that means... in the first story, you lied too." Officer Li said.
"That's not important. Just remember that I will help you. And in exchange, promise me you won't throw your life away so easily for others."
Officer Li thought carefully about what Qi Xia had said but couldn't find any grounds to refute it.
"I promise you." Officer Li nodded. "But if I 'die accidentally' in some game, then I'm going to try this ability no matter what."
"Fine."
Although Officer Li still hadn't given up, the plan he'd proposed this time was better than before.
"Qi Xia, what's your 'Resonance'?" Officer Li suddenly asked.
Hearing this, Qi Xia scratched his head and said, "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Officer Li paused. "That makes things difficult... So there's no guarantee you'll retain your memory next time?"
"Right." Qi Xia nodded. "But you're different, Officer Li. Unless you get your head blown off by a gun, you're sure to keep your memory. You could say all our hopes of escape rest on you."
"But what can I do alone?" Officer Li said with a troubled expression. "If you've all forgotten everything, how could I possibly succeed?"
Qi Xia knew this was indeed a tricky problem. If they really wanted to escape this strange place, the more people who retained their memories, the better.
As the game continued, the cycle would begin again and again, so the number of 'Resonators' should also increase accordingly.
That meant... 'retaining memories' couldn't stay hidden forever. In that case, was there something suspicious about Human Sheep's warning?
Who was the one to watch out for?
The 'Zodiacs'? The 'Ki Dao'? Or the other participants?
Qi Xia's expression grew serious as he thought for a while, then spoke to Officer Li: "Officer Li, if I forget all of this next time, just say one thing to me."
"One thing?"
"Mm." Qi Xia nodded. "Just tell me, 'Yu Nian'an said: Knock knock knock.' Then I'll understand everything. That's a secret only she and I know."
Whenever Qi Xia was with Yu Nian'an and fell into deep thought, Yu Nian'an would say 'knock knock knock.'
Hearing those three words would snap Qi Xia back to reality, and he would smile and ask, "Who's at the door?"
"Ah, so Qi Xia is home after all." Yu Nian'an would always answer playfully. "You ignored me for half a day. I thought Qi Xia wasn't home."
They had played this silly game dozens of times, and it became a unique hallmark of Yu Nian'an in Qi Xia's memory.
"That's enough?" Officer Li nodded. "Will you believe me?"
"When you're in a hellish place like this, what's left that you can't believe..." Qi Xia said with a melancholy expression. "I have to get back from here. But before that, I need to take back what belongs to me from the 'Land of the End.'"
"What belongs to you...?" Officer Li blinked, clearly not understanding.
Qi Xia didn't dwell on this question. Instead, he thought of something else.
He pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. It was the 'Zodiac Ascension Gambling Contract' he had found on Human Sheep.
There had been outsiders around before, so Qi Xia hadn't had the chance to read this bizarre contract.
If there were any other hidden secrets in this place, this contract would surely reveal some clues.
Seeing this, Officer Li moved closer.
The two of them each held one side, reading the entire contract under the dim light coming from the surrounding school buildings.
After reading it, Officer Li wore a complicated expression. He felt like he was going insane.
Could any normal person actually write something like this?