“He is about to show his hands,” Jiang Cheng said.
Fatty blinked, “With whom?”
“Of course, with those who killed his teammate.” Jiang Cheng rolled up his sleeves because they were wet.
“Do you mean the ghost?”
“Tsk.” Jiang Cheng shot a glance at Fatty. He wanted to scold him, but he decided against it. He grumbled, “Deep Red.”
Fatty became agitated when he heard that. “Doctor, did people from Deep Red kill Zuo Qing?”
“Who?” Fatty asked desperately.
Jiang Cheng stretched his legs and slowly revealed the answer, “You Qi.”
“It wasn’t me. Zuo Qing gave us the answer.” Jiang Cheng glanced at the table. Fatty got the signal and rushed over to pour a cup of hot tea. Then, he bounced back and handed it to Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng took a sip. “When An Xuan saw Zuo Qing, he rushed forward and used his body to block our sight.
“When I first saw Zuo Qing’s corpse, her right hand was closed. However, when we left, all her right fingers had been severed.” Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty, “An Xuan removed the thing Zuo Qing used her life to protect.”
Fatty whispered, “What was it?”
Jiang Cheng took out a small thing from his pocket. When he opened his palm, Fatty was startled. “Wait. Isn’t that the wooden segment?”
“For Zuo Qing, the game was over before it even started.” Jiang Cheng studied the segment and sighed, “No matter what she did, she couldn’t change the ending because… she was targeted by the ghost before the game even started.”
“You Qi swapped her segment,” Jiang Cheng said calmly, “The middle-aged woman gave him seven segments. He sneaked a fake one into the pile. No one noticed that.” Fatty tried to think back. The middle-aged woman didn’t ask You Qi to take the segments and didn’t ask him to split the segments among the travellers. You Qi volunteered. He was closest to the door, so no one suspected anything. After You Qi took the pile, the middle-aged woman even smiled. She gave him the task and left. The middle-aged woman usually handled all the details of the mission, so that was abnormal.
“Doctor…” Fatty raised his head.
“Don’t ask me how You Qi got the extra segment. Maybe he snapped one of them into two, or he picked up a random one. I don’t know.” Jiang Cheng predicted Fatty’s question and answered him preemptively. “You can ask You Qi if you want.” Jiang Cheng shrugged, “But I don’t think you’ll have the chance anymore.”
Fatty found a chair to sit down. He whispered, “Doctor, do you think You Qi will be killed?”
“No.” Jiang Cheng huffed, “You will be.”
Fatty was still scared even though he knew the Doctor was joking. He resumed the question, “Doctor, I’ll be honest. I think You Qi is quite powerful. Why would you think…”
“If An Xuan and Xia Meng cannot even kill a single You Qi, the night guardians should be abolished already.” Jiang Cheng analysed.
Fatty agreed with him. “Then, Doctor, what should we do now? Should we help?”
“Help whom?” Jiang Cheng regarded Fatty, “An Xuan and Xia Meng?”
Fatty replied with a confused look. He didn’t understand him. If not them, were they going to help Deep Red?
“Think about it. After An Xuan and Xia Meng deal with You Qi, who will… be next?” Jiang Cheng leaned forward in the chair.
Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes and looked out the window. After a moment’s silence, he said, “Fatty.”
“I’m here.” Fatty nodded obediently.
“There’s one thing that eludes me.” Jiang Cheng crossed his legs. The way he looked at Fatty caused the latter to become serious. “I want to hear your thoughts.”
Fatty straightened up. “Shoot.”
Jiang Cheng suddenly asked, “Why us?” He paused and explained, “I mean, why would Xia Meng’s group choose us to accompany her on this mission?”
Fatty answered, “Doctor, hasn’t the man told us? Deep Red doesn’t know us, so we can better hide ourselves.”
“Nonsense.” Jiang Cheng shook his head, “I don’t think Deep Red will know every member of the night guardian. It is not realistic.
“Since the night guardian exists, then it has to have a purpose. At least from the fact that they dared to send people to hunt Deep Red in the nightmare, at least on the surface, they are stronger than Deep Red.
“If the goal is just to protect Xia Meng, they can select two experts among the night guardians and accompany her.” Jiang Cheng lifted his face. “Why us?
“Plus, they clearly don’t trust us. Even you can see that. Xia Meng, An Xuan, and Zuo Qing were always careful around us.” Jiang Cheng commented, “They tried their best to pull us into this game and didn’t offer us any help.” Jiang Cheng paused, “What is your real goal?”
“Doctor,” Fatty licked his lips embarrassedly, “Just say what is on your mind. This… You know how dumb I am.”
“The real hunters in the dark in this mission are the night guardians.” Jiang Cheng sighed. “Like Xia Meng, we are bait.” Jiang Cheng added, “Other than that, there is no other reason that I can think of.”
“Are we bait too?” Fatty was in disbelief. “But we haven’t offended Deep Red. Why would they come after us?”
Jiang Cheng didn’t answer. He lowered his head to think and shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m overthinking.”
Fatty tapped his shoulders. “Doctor, you shouldn’t overthink it. Let’s leave first.”
After all, the mission was ending. Based on their past experience, the ghost would only get crazier as time passed.
Zuo Qing’s death… wouldn’t delay the ghost any longer.