Chapter 65: Impersonation

The three people who had walked out of the qishe could not calm down for a long time.

Although the one who died was Ren Zhu, no matter how you looked at it, Ren Zhu was a living, breathing human being. He was not a monster, not a madman, and certainly not one of the evil organizers.

Qi Xia kept his head down, deep in thought, while Lin Geng stayed close by his side, not leaving him for a moment. Lao Lv kept glancing back into the room where Ren Zhu's body lay, but he seemed uninterested in it and was instead searching for something else.

"What's wrong?" Qi Xia turned and asked.

"Well... it's a bit inappropriate to say this now," Lao Lv said, "but you won the Du Ming, so their Dao is ours now."

"Don't be foolish," Qi Xia shook his head. "Ren Zhu couldn't possibly have any Dao left. The ten he gave you were all he had."

"What?" Lao Lv's eyes widened, and he shook his head dramatically. "That's impossible. I don't believe it."

He hurried back into the room, trying his best not to look at Ren Zhu's body, and began rummaging through the drawers.

In no time, the once neat and tidy qishe was turned upside down.

Just as Qi Xia had said, there wasn't a single Dao to be found there.

Qi Xia shook his head outside the door and said, "If he had any Dao left, why would he have chosen to Du Ming with us?"

"This is downright cheating!" Lao Lv cursed in frustration. "It's like getting something for nothing!"

"Getting something for nothing?" Qi Xia didn't quite follow Lao Lv's line of thinking. "Didn't the other side pay with their life?"

"Uh... you're right." Lao Lv put his hands together and bowed toward Ren Zhu's body. "I spoke in haste; please don't hold it against him."

After bowing a few times, Lao Lv still felt a bit shortchanged, since he hadn't wanted the other person's life in the first place.

"I need to see if there's anything valuable left here," he said.

Lao Lv continued searching the room, but it was just an abandoned qishe, with chess pieces scattered everywhere, and the only things of any value were the tables, chairs, and benches.

"What a loss..." Lao Lv shook his head in annoyance. "Kid, we're really getting the short end of the stick here! You almost died, and we end up leaving empty-handed."

As he spoke, Lao Lv suddenly spotted the pig-head mask that Ren Zhu had left on the ground.

"The mask..." Lao Lv murmured to himself, then suddenly realized something. "Damn it... isn't this the most valuable thing here?!"

Qi Xia frowned and stepped forward slowly. "What are you planning to do?"

"Make some business out of it!" Lao Lv picked up the dirty, smelly mask and held it like a precious treasure. "Qi Xia, with this mask, we could run the Weiqi She business ourselves!"

"What...?" Qi Xia's pupils dilated, thinking it sounded unreliable. "Lao Lv, are you trying to become Ren Zhu?"

"Ah, screw Ren Zhu!" Lao Lv waved his hand dismissively. "It's about impersonating him! Impersonating—do you get it?"

"You..."

Lao Lv held up the mask, pretending to put it on his face, and said in a muffled voice, "Hmph, hmph, finally someone to play with me! Time to assign! Time to assign!"

Qi Xia kept frowning; this whole idea sounded far too dangerous.

The Sheng Xiao were managed uniformly by those in charge, so how could anyone just impersonate one?

"Lao Lv, you should know that Sha Ren Duo Dao is not allowed, right?" Qi Xia asked.

"I've heard Zhang Shan mention it, but this isn't Sha Ren Duo Dao," Lao Lv pushed the mask forward. "We didn't kill the person, and this isn't Dao anyway."

"That's not what I mean." Qi Xia took the mask and placed it on the table. "I advise you not to touch this. At best, it's 'impersonation,' but at worst, it's Cuan Quan. That's even more serious than Sha Ren Duo Dao."

"Cuan Quan?!"

Qi Xia nodded. "Does becoming Sheng Xiao require some kind of assessment? What are the rules for designing games? If you put on this mask without figuring all that out, you're likely to face punishment from the managers."

After hearing this, Lao Lv looked disappointed. He had just been imagining earning dozens of Dao every day, and now it was all shattered.

"Qi Xia, are you being too cautious?" Lao Lv asked reluctantly. "Maybe anyone can wear this mask, as long as they can come up with challenges."

"I don't know." Qi Xia replied. "I'm just sharing my thoughts. If you still want to wear it, I won't stop you, but before that, tell me about those two people's whereabouts first."

Lao Lv thought it over and said to Qi Xia, "Wait a minute."

With that, he twisted his plump body and, still holding the mask, scurried around the room. In no time, he found a corner piled with discarded table boards.

He hid the mask behind the table boards and carefully covered it layer by layer with junk.

"I'll hide it here for now—at least that's one backup plan..." Lao Lv brushed the dust off his hands and turned back. "Qi Xia, I keep my word and won't go back on it. Come with me!"

The three of them left the heart-pounding qishe and headed toward the rundown streets.

Lao Lv led them back along the path they had come.

"By the way, Qi Xia, why didn't you pick me earlier?" Lao Lv asked.

"What?"

"You know, during the 'Truth or Lie' game." Lao Lv scratched his chubby face. "You chose that girl Lin Geng. Why not me?"

"Honestly, I just thought Lin Geng was a bit smarter than you," Qi Xia said helplessly.

"Pfft..." Lin Geng, who had been a little sad, burst out laughing. Qi Xia might be a trickster, but he often didn't lie at all.

"What kind of talk is that..." Lao Lv was at a loss for words. "Qi Xia, you don't know me well. I'm at my smartest in critical moments."

"Yeah," Qi Xia nodded. "In critical moments, you think of grabbing the iron plate or hiding in the corner."

"Huh?" Lao Lv was caught off guard, looking a bit embarrassed. "You can't blame me for that. I didn't know you had it all figured out back then."

"You're right; we're even now," Qi Xia said.

Lao Lv shrugged helplessly, then glanced at the aluminum pot Lin Geng was holding and asked, "Did you eat that bear meat?"

"We did," Lin Geng answered. "It was especially awful."

"Sigh..." Lao Lv nodded sadly. "Bear meat might be awful, but at least it fills you up. Too bad Zhang Shan didn't get to eat any—he ended up starving to death."

"Why didn't he eat it?" Lin Geng asked casually.

The next second, her eyes widened.

Qi Xia realized something too, and the two of them turned to look at Lao Lv together.

"Starving to death?"

Lao Lv's expression was downcast. He sighed and said, "Zhang Shan is dead."

"Dead?!" they both exclaimed in unison.

"Yeah... that's why I came out alone."