Chapter 756: The Broken Room
"Yan Zhichun..." Yun Yao repeated the name. "Isn't that the strange woman I met when I played the Earth Snake Game with Chen Junnan?"
"Met during the Earth Snake Game...?" Chen Junnan beside her was stunned. "Did that happen?"
"You..." Yun Yao looked at the Chen Junnan before her with a complicated expression, wanting to explain something but feeling it would be futile. She could only say, "Maybe that wasn't you. It was 'Chen Junnan' instead."
"Yan Zhichun..." Chen Junnan rubbed his head, feeling like he had never heard that name before.
Not only was it absent from his own memories, it wasn't there in the past seven-plus years either.
Yun Yao turned to look at Qi Xia again. "You said Wen Qiaoyun is with Yan Zhichun...?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure...?" Yun Yao asked with a suspicious expression.
The few of them had only heard from Zhang Chenze that Qi Xia's ability, "Endless Rebirth," created a person, but they didn't know exactly how he brought someone into existence.
Could the person he created appear anywhere?
But judging by Qi Xia's behavior, he himself didn't know where Yan Zhichun was, so how could he create a person by her side?
As a fellow "Echoer," Yun Yao simply couldn't understand the operating principle of Qi Xia's "Echo." She could only tentatively believe that he had actually done it.
"I'm sure she's there." Qi Xia nodded. "You might as well go and see."
Yun Yao and Zhang Chenze both looked up at the sky. They felt that aimlessly going outside to look for someone in this pitch darkness wasn't a good idea. They could only note this down for now and plan to act when it was light.
"We'll go find her first thing tomorrow morning." Yun Yao said, then turned to look at Chu Tianqiu. "Sorry to bother you, Chief. Can we spend the night here...?"
Chu Tianqiu just shrugged after hearing this. "Doesn't matter. 'Heaven's Entrance' no longer exists, and I'm not the Chief anymore. This is just an abandoned school."
Yun Yao nodded. "Thank you."
She turned and walked toward the teaching building, taking Zhang Chenze and Li Xiangling with her. Tiantian, who had been standing there stunned for a long time, eventually slowly followed.
"By the way, Yun Yao." Qi Xia turned to look at her back.
"Hmm?"
"Lin Qin is with them too. Bring her back as well."
Hearing Qi Xia give her an order with such certainty and no hesitation, Yun Yao felt the situation was too strange.
They had all witnessed Lin Qin being cut in half by black threads and dying right before their eyes.
Now Qi Xia was confidently saying "Lin Qin is over there too." Was he really not worried that two Lin Qins would appear at the same time?
The mention of "two Lin Qins" reminded Yun Yao of the "two Chen Junnans" she had seen yesterday. Had that Chen Junnan also been created by Qi Xia?
But no matter how she looked at it, there was no way Qi Xia could have known back then that "Chen Junnan was already dead." The only person present who could have done something that strange was Chu Tianqiu.
Yun Yao gradually felt that what these two men were doing had started to surpass what she could even imagine.
"Is Lin Qin... with Wen Qiaoyun?" Yun Yao confirmed again.
"Yes." Qi Xia nodded. "I agreed that I would let Wen Qiaoyun join, but Lin Qin and Yan Zhichun have to come too. If you can't convince the other two, I can't guarantee I'll agree to let Wen Qiaoyun in."
"But you clearly know..." Yun Yao said softly, "I don't really care whether Wen Qiaoyun joins. I only care about whether she 'exists.'"
"As long as Wen Qiaoyun 'exists,' she will definitely join. After all, Chu Tianqiu is here." Qi Xia replied. "But since I helped you so decisively, you can't let me walk away empty-handed either."
Yun Yao thought for a long time after hearing this, then nodded slightly. She followed the others into the teaching building.
The sun had gradually set that day, and everyone present could only decide to spend the night at "Heaven's Entrance."
Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin, and Chen Junnan came to a classroom. In silence, they lit a campfire and watched the eerie sun sink below the horizon.
Zheng Yingxiao had run off somewhere again.
"Day six." Chen Junnan broke the silence first. "After seven, eight, nine passes, we'll have to say goodbye again."
Qi Xia tossed a piece of wood into the fire and said in a low voice, "There's no 'goodbye.' I told you two you are no longer useful to me, so you don't need to help with what comes next, and you don't need to worry about it anymore."
Chen Junnan looked up after hearing this and asked irritably, "Lao Qi, has anyone ever told you you're kind of asking for a beating?"
"No." Qi Xia shook his head. "I rarely talk to strangers."
"Always saying 'useless' all the time, I wonder who you learned that from." Chen Junnan muttered softly.
"You really are useless." Qi Xia replied. "I came here to see Chu Tianqiu this time. What help did you provide?"
This answer made Chen Junnan furious again. He stood up with a "whoosh." "Qi! Don't you play dumb with me! My brother and I risked our lives to help you, and now you're saying this to us?!"
Qiao Jiajin frowned again. He felt he wasn't very good at handling this kind of problem and had to quickly stand up and say, "Aiya... Jun Nan Zai, sit down and talk slowly..."
"The hell I'll talk slowly!" Chen Junnan pointed at Qi Xia. "The first time this kid said it, I could write it off as him being half-asleep. But now he's awake and he says it again! Does he really think we're dead weight?"
Qi Xia looked up at Chen Junnan, then said in a deep voice, "Chen Junnan, you tell me yourself. What have you helped me with?"
"Every single time I went to play a game, I was thinking about taking their heads for you! And now you're telling me it was all useless?!"
"I don't need anyone to play games for me, and I don't need anyone to gamble their lives for me." Qi Xia said heavily. "You're helping me with things I don't need."
"You son of a..."
Chen Junnan was about to throw a punch, but Qiao Jiajin had to stop him again.
"Alright... fine, fine." Chen Junnan nodded. "Qi, since we've come this far, let's just speak plainly."
"Oh?" Qi Xia raised an eyebrow. "Is there anything between us that needs 'speaking plainly'? I might know you better than you think I do."
"Heh." Chen Junnan sneered. "But over these past few days, I've had a chance to get to know you too... Lao Qiao and I, aren't we originally from this room, right?"
Qiao Jiajin kept pulling on Chen Junnan from the side. "Jun Nan Zai... can we really talk about this here?"
"The hell do I care anymore!" Chen Junnan shouted. "It's not like I chose to come here! It must be this Qi guy's doing! He's planning to throw us away like dead weight. Do I still have to worry about his safety?"
Qi Xia picked up a stick beside him and poked at the campfire, then nodded. "You're right. It's not just the two of you. Everyone in this room was reassembled by me."