Chapter 757: Two Shields
"You..."
Chen Junnan swallowed hard, seemingly not expecting Qixia to reply so decisively. Then he asked again, "Then what's your goal?"
"I don't know," Qixia replied. "I can't remember."
"Stop lying to me, damn it!" Chen Junnan shouted. "Old Qi, you're not even thinking before you speak anymore, are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"You said we're 'useless' yourself," Chen Junnan said in a low voice. "But you don't even know what the purpose of bringing us together was, so how can you say we're 'useless'?"
"I don't need to know the 'purpose' to know you're already 'useless,'" Qixia answered.
"What...?"
"A 'scapegoat' and a 'breaker of all laws.'" Qixia's eyes remained fixed on the campfire, his voice devoid of emotion. "If everyone in this room was gathered here by me for some specific purpose, then the reason you two are here couldn't be clearer."
Chen Junnan seemed to have understood something, but still asked with disbelief, "What reason?"
"Two emotional, sentimental people who both hate evil as much as I do were placed by my side. It would naturally occur to you that I'm someone worth trusting, and it would also be easy for you to form a team with me," Qixia said. "Chen Junnan, Qiao Jiajin—believe it or not—you two were brought here by me to be 'shields' to take the bullets for me."
Both Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin widened their eyes at that moment.
This feeling was worse than being directly insulted.
"Chen Junnan, perhaps I once saw you take the blame for someone else, or maybe I witnessed your impulsive personality and knew you were easier to control than others. That's why you earned the chance to appear alongside me. As long as I could get along well with you, you would willingly die for me. Your control over 'Echo' is very casual. Maybe you don't want to do it, but you can't control the subconscious urge to take the blame for others."
Hearing this, Chen Junnan's pupils constricted slightly, and his brows furrowed.
After speaking, Qixia turned to look at Qiao Jiajin. "And the same goes for you, Qiao Jiajin. I might have discovered at some point that you wanted to cooperate with a smart person, and since you yourself carry the 'breaker of all laws,' which is easy to trigger, I decisively pulled you into this room. As long as you and I are in the same room, there's a high chance you'll suggest 'cooperation.' Once I agree, you'll rely on your fighting skills and 'breaker of all laws' to become my invincible shield."
After hearing Qixia's words, Qiao Jiajin glanced at Chen Junnan. Both of them felt complicated.
This was starting to get weird.
"So do you two understand now?" Qixia said. "From the very beginning, I placed you two in this room so you could take all sorts of fatal blows for me. So you don't need to say 'let me help you' anymore. You're already 'useless' to me."
After listening to Qixia's explanation, Chen Junnan's anger gradually turned into confusion. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. He thought for a moment, then slowly sat down on the ground.
Qiao Jiajin sat down as well, staring at Qixia the whole time.
"What's wrong?" Qixia asked. "What's with those expressions?"
"No..." Chen Junnan scratched his head. "I'm fucking confused now."
"Confused about what?"
Chen Junnan organized his words and said, "Old Qi, if you're going to say that, then I need to have a proper debate with you."
"Go ahead."
"Even if... even if what you said is true," Chen Junnan gestured. "Even if the ultimate goal of pulling us into this room was to use us as shields to take bullets for you, I'll accept that. But didn't we take bullets for you because of our friendship? Why the hell don't we take bullets for anyone else? And when I think back on the days we've known each other, you never did us wrong."
"Yes," Qixia nodded. "Harming you two would be meaningless to me."
Qiao Jiajin chimed in, "What does 'meaning' have to do with it, liar? If you put it that way, wasn't my purpose in becoming friends with you also to 'use' your brain? But you should know that was just my initial motive. It doesn't mean I didn't come to see you as a brother later."
Qixia shook his head helplessly. "You're changing the subject. It's different."
"Isn't this the exact same fucking thing?" Chen Junnan frowned. "Nothing's even wrong, and you just had to say 'you're useless' to piss us off. What are you after? Do you want me to beat you up?"
"No, I mean it," Qixia said. "You don't need to be my 'shields' anymore. We can go our separate ways."
"What, are you not going to die from now on?" Chen Junnan asked.
"No, but dragging you into this room was something I owed you." Qixia said. "But I've also helped you out with plenty of things, so we're even. From now on, we don't need to have any connection. Go wherever you want."
"Old Qi," Chen Junnan sighed deeply. "You should know that argument doesn't hold water. If Old Qiao and I were meant to be 'shields,' then what about the other six people in the room? Are they your 'spears'? If you're classifying us by our 'Echoes,' how would you explain the rest?"
"I don't know," Qixia shook his head. "I can only vaguely remember making a deal with Qinglong. I changed the room's layout, and even the 'interview game' we started with was designed by me. But I really can't recall why I did it. Maybe later, maybe in the next second, I'll remember."
"I still don't believe you," Chen Junnan said. "Unless you give me a more reasonable explanation."
"This has nothing to do with 'reason' anymore," Qixia said. "I have a feeling that if you keep associating with me, you won't end well."
"What do you mean...?"
"I've always been blindly confident," Qixia said in a deep voice. "I always thought I could handle any danger I encountered. If I hadn't foreseen an extremely dangerous situation, I would never have placed 'shields' around me—let alone two."
Hearing this, Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin actually felt a little relieved.
"So that's what this is about. I thought it was something serious," Chen Junnan said with a helpless smile.
Qiao Jiajin blinked. "What 'this'?"
"Old Qiao, this brat Old Qi is trying to play the hero."
(I've been out attending events for the past couple of days, so the update is a bit late. Sorry, everyone.)