# Chapter 237: The Friendship of the Zodiac Signs
Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin carried two enormous hemp sacks on their backs as they walked out into the night.
Along the way, Qiao Jiajin acted as if he were on a sightseeing trip, humming a Cantonese song as he walked.
Qi Xia, meanwhile, kept a vigilant watch on their surroundings.
A total of two thousand nine hundred "Dao" was truly an alarming quantity, but fortunately, today was Day Zero. No one could possibly expect that such a massive amount of "Dao" would be carried through the streets by two people tonight.
As for Chu Tianqiu...
Qi Xia was certain he would never send people to seize the "Dao," otherwise he would forfeit their only remaining bargaining chip for cooperation.
Thinking carefully, Chu Tianqiu hadn't hesitated when giving away the "Dao." This showed his ultimate goal truly wasn't "collecting Dao," but rather what he called "becoming a god."
"Boss man, where exactly are we going?" Qiao Jiajin looked around. Now that dusk was approaching, the road was becoming increasingly hard to see.
"Follow me, Fist." Qi Xia thought for a moment. "There's a place that should be safe, but I'm not sure if my idea will work."
Qiao Jiajin nodded, then fell silent, simply following quietly behind Qi Xia.
After walking a while, Qi Xia suddenly thought of something and turned his head to ask, "Fist, did you survive until the last day?"
"Me?" Qiao Jiajin pondered. "You mean last time?"
"Mm."
"Yes." Qiao Jiajin nodded. "Kung Fu Girl and I left 'Paradise Gate' and stayed put until the last day."
"What was 'Finality' like?" Qi Xia asked, then felt a bit ridiculous.
After spending so much time in the "Land of Finality," he could only learn what "Finality" looked like from others' accounts.
"That day..." Qiao Jiajin's expression gradually dimmed. "I found a few cans of beans in a rundown house and was about to light a fire to heat them up for Kung Fu Girl, when I saw with my own eyes that her body began to dissipate..."
"Dissipate?"
"Yes..." Qiao Jiajin nodded. "That feeling was terrifying. Kung Fu Girl looked at me in panic, but her palms slowly dissolved into dark red powder that drifted away in the air. Then her entire arm, her shoulder, and then her head."
Qi Xia could almost see the scene before his eyes.
Just as Chu Tianqiu had said, when "Finality" arrived, all "participants" would turn into dark red powder, and even "Endless Rebirth" couldn't reverse it.
"Boss man, you know... I couldn't catch her..." Qiao Jiajin showed this expression for the first time—he looked deeply sorrowful. "Kung Fu Girl scattered all around me... She was everywhere! I could still feel her terrified gaze, but I had no idea how to save her..."
"And then?"
"Then it was my turn..." Qiao Jiajin raised his own palm to look at it, then said, "I started dissipating too. That feeling was strange... neither painful nor itchy, but I could clearly feel myself turning into sand. I could sense the touch of every single grain of dust floating in the air, but I couldn't stop it."
Qi Xia lowered his head and said nothing.
"I became sand drifting in the air, until I lost all consciousness. When I opened my eyes again, I was already standing at the prison gates."
"Prison?" Qi Xia paused.
"Mm... it was the day before I came here. I was standing at the prison gates." Qiao Jiajin let out a bitter smile. "I guess I'm truly pitiful... I could return to the real world, but nothing had changed in the end... Some things you don't do at the time, you'll never do them later."
Qi Xia looked at Qiao Jiajin with some sympathy. Whatever could make him show such an expression must have hurt him deeply.
And wasn't he the same?
He once thought he could control everything, but in the end, he was toyed with time and time again.
As the night grew darker and the chirping of insects emerged around them, the two arrived at their destination.
It was a building five or six stories tall. In front of it, a strange creature with a tiger's head and a human body sat on the ground.
Hearing the approaching footsteps, Dihu looked up.
"Yo..." His gaze lingered on Qi Xia for a few seconds. "Shift's over today. Come back tomorrow."
After saying this, he stood up and slowly walked into the darkness.
"Wait." Qi Xia called out. "Dihu, you can't go off shift just yet. There's something I want to talk to you about."
"Scram." Dihu let out a cold snort and continued walking forward.
Qi Xia thought it over for a moment, then still stepped forward and grabbed him.
"Dihu, I have a deal I'd like to make with you."
"A deal?" Dihu turned his head. The white, gleaming fur on his head reflected faint rays of light in the darkness. "What makes you think you're qualified to make a deal with me? Scram."
Qi Xia could only gamble now.
He threw the hemp sack on his back down in front of Dihu, then stepped forward and opened the seal. The staggering number of "Dao" inside the sack emitted a foul stench while also illuminating the surrounding area.
"Dihu, I have two thousand nine hundred 'Dao' right now. I want to entrust them to you."
Dihu, who had been determined to leave, paused slightly upon hearing this. Then he looked down at the sack.
"Two thousand nine hundred?"
"That's right..." Qi Xia nodded. "I hope you'll help me keep them safe."
Dihu thought for a few seconds. The whiskers on his face twitched, and then he revealed a contemptuous smile.
"Keep them safe for you? Why don't you take a piss and look at your own reflection to see what kind of person you are?" His tiger claw resealed the sack, dimming the surrounding light. "What obligation do I have to keep them for you?"
"I will find 'Tianyang' and bring her to see you."
"What...?" Dihu faltered. "Tianyang...?"
"Dihu, you want to see Tianyang very much, don't you?" Qi Xia swallowed and spoke slowly. "I want to see her too, so I'll definitely find her. My identity is different from yours, so I have more options than you. You should know that even if I die over and over again, it doesn't matter. So it's easier for me to find her."
These words actually moved the tiger-headed man before him.
Dihu thought for a moment, then turned his head and said, "Kid, you might not understand... It's not that I want to see 'Tianyang.' I don't care which sheep she is now—heaven, earth, or human. I just want an explanation."
As soon as he finished speaking, a faint ring of light suddenly appeared not far away. Qi Xia looked closely—it seemed to be the same light door they had seen when they first arrived.
Dihu glanced at the light door and said, "Kid, my shift is over."
Qi Xia furrowed his brow. This was the first time he had learned that "Zodiac Signs" actually had "shifts."
"I understand. You want to see 'that person.' I'll do my best to help you."
"If you want me to trust your words, you'll have to do something for me first," Dihu said.
"What is it?"
Dihu took a crumpled bag of puffed snacks from his pocket and shoved it into Qi Xia's hand. Then he slowly raised his hand and pointed in a direction.
"Walk in this direction for about an hour, and you'll find the 'Bell.' On the right side of the Bell, there's a small path leading to the game site of a 'Human Rat.'" Dihu spoke in a deep voice. "I can't leave this place. Take this bag of snacks to her for me."