Chapter 256: The Invisible Wall
The moment Qi Xia was distracted, the old man in the distance lifted his foot and kicked Qin Dingdong hard in the stomach.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, then walked straight over. "Hey..."
The old man turned his head and glared at Qi Xia with fury.
Only now did Qi Xia recognize the old man as the first "deceived one." He looked extremely angry.
The consequences of Qin Dingdong's own evil deeds had come knocking at her door.
Just a moment ago, Qin Dingdong had calmed him down, saying, "Wait another hour, I'll get two fans and then we'll go out." But it seemed that every "fan replenishment" after half an hour required spending "Dao" to purchase.
Now the old man had neither a fan nor any "Dao." He was a hundred percent going to die here.
So he had completely broken down.
Qi Xia stared at the old man, thinking about whether he should calm him down or immediately abandon Qin Dingdong.
"What are you doing?!" the old man asked rudely. "I'm going to beat this bitch to death today! Nobody's stopping me, no matter who it is!"
The old man's voice was very loud, drawing the attention of the crowd. An honest man's temper was like a volcano—once it built up to a certain point, it would trigger devastating consequences. This half hour had been more than enough time for him to accumulate anger.
"This is a bit troublesome..."
Qi Xia sensed danger.
He felt that the old man was about to break through a completely "invisible wall." Once that wall collapsed, the "beastliness" in everyone present would burst forth.
"Uncle..." Qi Xia swallowed and said, "Listen to me... I can give you a fan, but if you kill someone here..."
"Get lost!!!" the old man screamed like he had lost his mind. "What's it to you?! I don't want to live anymore! I'm going to kill her!!"
More and more participants gathered to watch.
They all noticed the fans in the pockets of Qin Dingdong and the man from Sichuan-Chongqing.
Although the two trying to escape weren't exactly "rich men," they were definitely "petty bourgeois."
For the majority of participants, it would be perfect if these two died here. Their fans would become ownerless property, and many could then take a share.
But no one wanted to be the first to get their hands bloody.
Qi Xia frowned, quickly thinking of a countermeasure.
The uncle in front of him was definitely going to fight to the death; he had no hope left. Although Qin Dingdong was the one at fault, Qi Xia, considering his own interests, had to try to prevent anyone from dying.
But even more despairing events were coming.
The "rich man" who had bought all the "Sorrow" earlier had paired up with another "rich man" and tried to escape via the stairs, but they were now blocked by a group of onlookers.
At this moment, except for the two "rich men" who had escaped from the start, all the "rich men" were trapped.
The consequences of the "wealth gap" in this game had begun to manifest.
Before Qi Xia could react, a burly man with a knife stepped directly onto the escape stairs.
It seemed that the earlier team of "rich men" had indeed given him the knife when they escaped. The situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The "Deception Game" might enter its second phase.
That was the "violent phase."
Now it wasn't about who had more strategy, but about whose fists were harder and who had the knife.
"Hey!" the burly man with the knife stopped the old man who was beating Qin Dingdong. "What's the point of just beating her? Grab her fan!"
"Fan... fan...?" The old man looked at the fan in Qin Dingdong's pocket and couldn't help swallowing. "That's right! My fan was swindled!"
With that, he bent down and started to snatch Qin Dingdong's fan.
"You bitch... give me the fan!!"
Qin Dingdong clutched her pocket tightly. "No! I won't!"
"If you don't, I'll kill you!"
At this point, Qi Xia couldn't just stand by. He rushed over and pulled the old man away.
"Huh?!"
"Everyone!" Qi Xia called out loudly. "Think carefully... once someone dies here, things will spiral out of control. Everyone could end up dying in the next game... Are you really prepared for that?"
The crowd stared at him expressionlessly, each with an air of "It's none of my business."
Understandably so. From the looks of it, the ones about to die now were the few "rich men," not them.
At that moment, Qi Xia had only one thought... Who could stand by his side? One tree does not make a forest. Even just one person would help.
A man in a leather jacket in the group seemed about to step forward and say something, but another leather-jacketed man stopped him.
Seeing the standoff, one "rich man" seized the chaos, grabbed his briefcase, and dashed straight for the exit.
Qi Xia first glanced at that "rich man" in panic, then showed a hint of relief.
The escaping "rich man" was not the man who bought all the "Sorrow," but rather the one who had teamed up with him.
"Damn it!"
Under everyone's gaze, the burly man with the knife caught up to him in two or three strides and immediately stabbed the knife into his ribs.
The whole thing happened in a few seconds; no one had time to react.
The burly man with the knife seemed to freeze for a moment too, but quickly recovered and asked in a deliberately calm voice, "Who told you to run?!"
He viciously pulled out the bloody knife, and the other man collapsed to the ground.
The "rich man" lay on the floor, breathing shakily, his face turning deathly pale.
Blood gushed from beneath him. The first life was about to disappear.
Whether or not the burly man with the knife had ever killed before, he had now broken that seal. From now on, he wouldn't hesitate to strike.
The crowd finally erupted into chaos. A life was fading away, and murmurs of shock spread among them.
But here in the "Land of the End," people's acceptance of death was significantly higher. Many of them began to calculate whether they could snatch the fans.
Qi Xia watched the "rich man" lying on the ground, gasping for breath, and slowly furrowed his brow.
Although "someone dying" was indeed bad, it seemed there was something important he had overlooked...
What was it?
Qi Xia turned and glanced at Di Yang in the distance. He made no move at all.
So killing was tacitly permitted?
The "rich man" who had bought all the "Sorrow" saw this and stared at Qi Xia in panic.
Qi Xia thought for a moment and mouthed the words, "Run."
The "rich man" snapped out of it and, taking advantage of the confusion, turned and sprinted up the stairs, then opened the door and escaped.
The burly man with the knife hadn't expected that just after he had "asserted his authority" someone would "rebel" immediately.
The man moved extremely fast. The burly man was furious but, as he tried to charge out the door, he gradually stopped about five or six meters away.
He hadn't successfully "paired up" yet. If he escaped now, he would definitely break the rules.
Before the crowd could settle down, the old man pushed Qi Xia aside and went back to Qin Dingdong.
"I'm going to take your fan today!"
He reached out, grabbed the fan in Qin Dingdong's pocket, and yanked, tearing one fan apart. The old man seemed completely unconcerned and reached for the others.
Qi Xia reached out to say something, but the burly man with the knife turned around and spoke first: "Hey!! Old man! Who told you to tear up the fans?!"
"I don't care!!" the old man screamed with a twisted expression. "Even if I have to tear up her fans, I won't let her have an easy time!"
Seeing this, Qi Xia knew he was helpless to stop it. The best he could do was take his own fan and escape to a safe corner. If he stayed in the eye of the storm, he would become the next target soon enough.
At this point, Qin Dingdong's chance of death was extremely high, and the "rich man" who had teamed up with her was also likely to die here.
But before he could take a few steps, the burly man with the knife came over to Qin Dingdong and blocked the old man.
"I told you not to destroy the fans! Don't you understand?!" the burly man roared angrily.
Hearing this, the old man also flared up. "This woman tricked me! I'm not letting her get out!"
"Then just kill her!" the big man shouted, as if losing his mind.
"Right... Then give me the knife!" The old man, provoked by the big man, grew even angrier. "Give me the knife, and I'll kill her!"
With that, he reached out to grab the big man's knife. But how could the big man let go?
The two ended up grappling with each other.
"What are you doing taking my knife?!"
"Give it to me! I want to kill someone!"