Chapter 300: The Lonely Participants
When Song Qi walked out of the teaching building, the faces of all the "Cat" team members changed instantly.
Several people quickly stepped forward to check on his injuries, but he waved them off.
"Everyone leave one right hand," Song Qi said, raising his head. "The men will cut off the hands, and the women will stop the bleeding."
As soon as he finished speaking, over half of them had already pulled out daggers and pressed them against their wrists.
Qi Xia sat by the window, watching this bizarre scene unfold on the distant playground, slowly furrowing his brow.
"Song Qi... Luo Shiyi?" He stared at those two familiar faces on the field, deep in thought. It seemed they truly belonged to the same organization, but why would they collectively sever their own right hands?
"Could it be... a 'deal'?" Qi Xia then looked over at Chu Tianqiu in the distance, trying to piece together the cause and effect of this whole matter.
What could possibly make this group of mercenaries pay such a heavy price?
"Could it be me...?" But soon, Qi Xia rubbed his chin and frowned. "Am I really that important?"
As he was pondering, a faint sound of footsteps came from behind him.
He turned his head and saw Officer Li staring at him with a grim expression, as if he had something to say.
"What's wrong?"
Officer Li sat down beside Qi Xia, looked up at him, hesitated, and then spoke.
"Just say it directly," Qi Xia said. "Did you run into some trouble?"
Officer Li glanced at Qi Xia and said slowly, "Qi Xia, do you remember? You said that as long as I stood on your side, you would help me settle the matter with Zhang Huanan."
"That's right," Qi Xia nodded seriously. "Is it taken care of now?"
Hearing this question, Officer Li's expression darkened, and then he bitterly smiled. "I didn't expect that even now, you would still be so calm and unruffled... Qi Xia, why did you lie to me?"
"Lie to you...?" Qi Xia paused.
"I chose to trust you, but you deceived me... Could it be that saying you'd help me deal with Zhang Huanan was just a temporary delaying tactic?"
Officer Li's eyes held no anger, only a trace of disappointment.
"What...?" Qi Xia couldn't grasp the current situation. "Where did I deceive you?"
Officer Li thought for a moment, then reached into his pocket, only to remember it was empty.
"Last time, you gave me a phone number... to contact the fourteen-year-old you," Officer Li said, trying to reach for a cigarette but finding none, so he could only speak with a dejected look. "But that phone number was a disconnected line."
"A disconnected line...?" Qi Xia slowly furrowed his brows, feeling that things were spiraling beyond his expectations.
"To get out of my own predicament... I had already memorized the phone number you gave me countless times. I thought of many possibilities, even considered how to convince the fourteen-year-old you, but I never imagined the number itself was wrong."
Qi Xia didn't say a word, just bowed his head in silence.
"So why did you lie to me...?" Officer Li looked at Qi Xia with weary, disillusioned eyes, as if he had once again lost the motivation to escape.
Qi Xia silently shook his head. "Officer Li, believe it or not, I have no motive to deceive you."
"But Qi Xia..." Officer Li let out a bitter laugh. "No one has helped me... from start to finish... no one has helped me... What meaning is there for me to return to reality?"
"Are you sure the number is correct?" Qi Xia asked again.
Officer Li closed his eyes slightly and repeated the phone number.
It was a landline number, the one from the house Qi Xia had lived in since childhood—not a single digit off.
"And you say it's disconnected?" Qi Xia asked.
"Do you think I came all the way here just to lie to you...?"
No matter how he thought about it, this was too strange.
After all, Qi Xia had given Officer Li a real phone number, yet it couldn't reach himself—what part of this had gone wrong?
Qi Xia turned his head and saw Chu Tianqiu pointing in his direction from the playground. The group led by Song Qi confirmed their target and began walking over.
"Troublesome..." Qi Xia frowned and turned back to Officer Li. "Officer Li, though I don't know about the disconnected number, leave me your phone number."
"My phone number...?" Officer Li felt confused. "Your time is later than mine. If I leave my number, how can you help the me of that time?"
Qi Xia shook his head. "The problem now isn't about 'helping you' anymore. I want to know... whether the two of us can actually contact each other in the real world."
"What...?" Officer Li was taken aback. "Are you suspecting..."
"I'm not suspecting anything," Qi Xia said. "I'm just running an experiment. Besides, both our lives are stuck anyway—what's ten more days?"
Officer Li thought for a moment, then recited a string of numbers.
"Due to my profession, this number shouldn't change easily," Officer Li added. "If you can't get through... it means I no longer exist in your world."
"Don't exist...?"
"I made mistakes, so I'll be buried in history," Officer Li said with a bitter smile. "I can't reach the bright future that you can see."
"A bright future..." Qi Xia smiled bitterly. "Let's hope so."
As the two fell silent, the classroom door was pushed open, and a group of "Cats" filed in.
None of the people in the room moved; they simply watched them quietly.
Song Qi stepped forward, looking at Qi Xia, and said, "I should have realized you weren't ordinary."
Qi Xia didn't speak, but Qiao Jiajin, not far away, slowly stood up.
"Not ordinary?" Qiao Jiajin laughed. "So you've come to pay your respects?"
Seeing this shirtless man, the group all took half a step back.
"Qiao Jiajin..." Song Qi said with gravity, "We're taking Qi Xia away this time. I hope you won't interfere."
"Ha?" Qiao Jiajin chuckled. "How about we both take a step back? You don't take him, and I won't block you—deal?"
At that moment, Officer Li also stood up and stood shoulder to shoulder with Qiao Jiajin. He had never seen these people in black leather jackets before, but with his years of police experience, he could tell at a glance this was a gang.
"Troublesome..." Song Qi looked at Qiao Jiajin and then at the burly Officer Li beside him, and said, "These two are probably not easy to handle."
As soon as he finished, Song Qi also spotted Han Yimo sitting in the corner.
This man also left a deep impression on him—when he had died, a violent explosion occurred, instantly killing three "Cat" team members.
Song Qi felt that apart from himself, Han Yimo might be the second person in the Land of the End capable of triggering a combustion explosion.
And Han Yimo instantly recalled something as well, a faint sense of fear rising within him, his ears ringing.
"This room is quite lively..." Song Qi's expression gradually darkened.
Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin, a highly skilled police officer, the extremist Lin Qin, and a man who could trigger combustion explosions.
Then he turned to look at Su Shan: "And a long-lost strategist..."