Chapter 599: The Hidden Needle
After listening to all of Di Hu’s experiences, Qi Xia couldn’t help but curl the corner of his mouth.
“Sheep… Qi Xia, I messed things up…” Di Hu sighed. “I thought I’d managed to gather a team of seven, but it all fell apart in an instant.”
“Is that so?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“They’ll come back,” Qi Xia said. “You haven’t messed up at all. In fact, you’ve already pieced the team together.”
“Huh?” Di Hu looked confused. “Qi Xia, did I really get it together? I feel like I didn’t do anything… I’m even worried these people might betray me…”
“Relax. It would have been difficult, but ‘Heaven’s Moment’ helped us,” Qi Xia said calmly. “When they stood on their own game grounds and saw the ‘Heaven level’ slaughtering lives like ants on a whim, they’ll understand everything.”
“That’s not right…” Di Hu blinked. “Seeing people die isn’t that big a deal, after all, we ‘Earth levels’ also have to kill…”
“Is that so?” Qi Xia shook his head. “When you realize that the people you struggled years or decades to kill can be taken down by a ‘Heaven level’ with just a flick of their mind, would you still think that way?”
“Well…”
“What meaning does killing even have? What meaning does being ‘Earth level’ even have?” Qi Xia sighed. “Do you become a ‘Heaven level’… just to kill better?”
Di Hu pressed his lips together after hearing this, then suddenly slammed the table. “You’re right! Damn it! The more I think about it, the angrier I get!”
“Just wait. Tonight, things are going to take a turn,” Qi Xia said. “You need to prepare tea and drinks tonight, and wait for those six people to visit again.”
“Alright!” Di Hu nodded. “Qi Xia, with those words, I feel relieved… It’s just…”
“What?”
“Like I told you… the seven of us couldn’t even pick a leader. I thought Office Rat was smart enough, but you know his personality…”
“Yes, I understand completely.” Qi Xia nodded.
“We’re completely leaderless right now. No plan, no goal. We know we need to do something, but when I really think about it, there’s nothing we can do.” Di Hu shook his head helplessly. “Sheep… Qi Xia, I understand your instructions, but what exactly am I supposed to do?!”
Qi Xia reached up and rubbed his chin. This was a very interesting question.
The other party understood his instructions. He himself understood the path he had laid out.
But what exactly was he supposed to do?
Even though it was communication between two people, there was now an invisible version of himself standing between them.
It wasn’t a question of what he should do—it was a question of what *that other version of himself* should do.
Qi Xia replayed the whole situation in his mind and arrived at a rather tragic conclusion.
Given his own nature, when he was the White Sheep, he must have deliberately won over Di Hu’s loyalty, with the intention of one day using Di Hu as a needle to coordinate with him from inside the “Train.”
So he must have invested a lot of effort into Di Hu. But there was another problem—
Betting everything on an impulsive tiger was clearly not in character for him.
He must have left a backup plan… but who was that backup?
Was it the “Black Sheep”?
When he stumbled around this city, no matter how long it took, he was bound to run into this Di Hu sooner or later. When friction arose between them, Di Hu might realize that he was the White Sheep, triggering a chain reaction and activating all the paths he had laid out.
But could his backup really be the Black Sheep?
“No… putting all your eggs in one basket isn’t safe,” Qi Xia shook his head. “That’s not my style… I have other ‘backup plans’…”
Qi Xia finished speaking and looked at the empty seat beside him.
This square table had four seats in total, three of which were taken by three people.
On that empty seat, a phantom of a white sheep suddenly appeared.
“The Black Sheep isn’t the ‘backup,’ is it?” Qi Xia thought silently, looking at the phantom. “If our thinking is connected, you’ve got another backup, haven’t you? One ‘bright needle’ and one ‘hidden needle.’ And all the other ‘Zodiacs’ dragged into this are just the ‘threads’ strung together by these two needles.”
Xu Liunian and Di Hu watched Qi Xia’s lips move as if he were murmuring to himself. Neither dared to speak.
“The real rebellion plan isn’t with Di Hu… and it isn’t with the Black Sheep either… That way, even if they get caught, it’s fine. Even the ‘Heaven Snake’ couldn’t extract the plan,” Qi Xia closed his eyes and boldly guessed at the scheme laid out by his former self. “Since you don’t even know which ‘Zodiacs’ I’ll mobilize… there’s too much uncertainty. Even you can’t gamble on that. So you’d choose a ‘Zodiac’ that is inevitably going to be involved. As soon as the ‘bright needle’—Di Hu—moves, the other ‘hidden needle’ will move too. But who is that person? And what method will you use to notify him?”
Qi Xia opened his eyes and looked again at the phantom of the White Sheep. At that moment, the phantom turned its head and stared back at him. After a few seconds, the White Sheep revealed a contemptuous expression.
That contemptuous expression made Qi Xia understand everything instantly: “So that’s it?… You have seven years of memories. Naturally, you think you’re smarter than me, so you might leave me a foolproof answer.”
Qi Xia rubbed his chin, his own expression turning contemptuous. “But you don’t know that I’m stronger every time.”
Di Hu, Zodiacs, rebellion.
Why Di Hu?
Smart “Zodiacs” were everywhere. Why not find a more reliable teammate?
Was it only because Di Hu was loyal enough?
No. There had to be another, more important reason.
Qi Xia’s eyes shot wide open. He felt the clue had surfaced. And at that moment, the phantom of the White Sheep disintegrated into dust.
“That’s it…” Qi Xia curled his lips. “A foolproof answer indeed…”
“What? What answer?” the two beside him looked at him in confusion.
“Because you are Di Hu… and the commotion you create is bigger than anyone else’s.” Qi Xia extended his finger and wiped away the dust on the table to draw a straight line. “As soon as you start acting, this matter can’t be easily concealed… All kinds of ‘Zodiacs’ will gather in your room, and they might even break into a fight…”
As Qi Xia spoke, he looked at the line he had drawn on the table.
If this was the “Train,” and the central point was Di Hu’s room, wasn’t the answer already obvious?
The safest place to bury the “hidden needle” was here.
It was the “neighbor.”
“As soon as the ‘bright needle’ moves, the ‘hidden needle’ hears the noise and has no choice but to move. As for the ‘Black Sheep’…” Qi Xia curled his lips again. “He’s just the ‘thimble’ that keeps the needles from pricking the hand.”