Chapter 709: Unfamiliar History

We silently returned to the room, only to find a familiar face inside.

But I hadn't seen him in so long that it took me a while to remember—this person was my Gu Yu Gege.

Like Si Wei Jiejie, he was someone who had always been very kind to me.

"Si Wei, Ying Xiong," Gu Yu Gege smiled, "I'm back."

Gu Yu Gege looked exactly the same as before, and it seemed not just him—my own appearance hadn't changed either, since we didn't age at all in this strange prison.

But his scent had changed; it wasn't as clean as it was many years ago, yet it still smelled good.

"Gu Yu...?" Si Wei Jiejie was startled and about to say something when she quickly turned and shut the door. "How...?"

"It's a long story, but luckily I made it back in time, and everything fell into place."

"Fell into place...?" Si Wei Jiejie asked, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"This place can't allow anyone to collect enough 'Yu,' or it will lead to an irreversible catastrophe."

Si Wei Jiejie gasped. "So... you're the one who hid those 'Yu'? You're here to stop Wan Ge from collecting them?"

"Yes." Gu Yu Gege nodded. "Have you forgotten my 'Qing Xiang'? I concealed those 'Yu'."

"Concealed...?" Si Wei Jiejie widened her eyes after hearing this. "So that means those 'Yu' are actually..."

"They're still right there, haven't gone anywhere." Gu Yu Gege smiled. "It's just a shame that people in reality aren't like in TV dramas, where they'd see an empty safe and still reach in to feel around. Otherwise, my plan would be ruined. The safe has been opened by now, right? I'll find a chance to dispose of them."

"But how did you do it? That was a safe, after all."

"Nothing difficult." Gu Yu Gege touched his nose. "I started as a stage magician, but when the industry declined, I switched to close-up magic. Back when I performed escape acts, I studied the structures of safes and got up close and personal with them for years. Usually, a stethoscope is enough to open some of the lower-grade locks."

"Just that simple...?"

"Just that simple. This is an office building, not a bank." Gu Yu Gege said. "The safes here are mostly for storing contracts, so they don't use the highest-level locks. It wasn't a problem for me. Last night, while you were all chanting slogans together, I already concealed all the 'Yu'."

Si Wei Jiejie pondered for a moment before asking, "And the 'catastrophe' you mentioned—is that...?"

"You might not believe it, but over these years, I've traveled to other cities and learned a lot of information we didn't know before." Gu Yu Gege squatted down and began drawing a diagram on the floor as he spoke. "If we don't come up with a good plan, we're all doomed."

Ying Xiong and I moved closer to him, watching as he sketched a simple map on the ground.

In the past, I never understood what the adults were talking about, but now it seems I've grown up.

It's quite an interesting thing—my age hasn't changed, but I've grown up all the same.

Gu Yu Gege drew five circles on the ground, arranged like the Olympic rings. He pointed to the circle on the left of the bottom row and said:

"Si Wei, Ying Xiong, the city we're in needs to collect 'Yu,' so I'll call it 'Yu Cheng.' The other four cities include two that no longer have any living people, and two that are still active. One of the active ones is 'Wo Cheng,' where they collect a spiral-shaped object like a snail shell, called 'Wo.' The other is 'Dao Cheng,' where they gather a shiny golden sphere called 'Dao'."

Ying Xiong and I listened to this unfamiliar knowledge, both falling into thought.

"Five cities...?" Si Wei Jiejie murmured to herself. "And we're all collecting different things?"

"Yes, but that doesn't matter." Gu Yu Gege said. "Whether it's 'Yu' or 'Wo,' it's not important. What matters is that people who have preserved their memories for a long time all know the same thing—that we must never collect all of these items. It's a massive trap."

"So... if we do collect them all, what happens?"

"It will lead to a 'restart.'" Gu Yu Gege said. "I visited predecessors in 'Wo Cheng' and 'Dao Cheng,' and according to them, that's what happens. Once they're all gathered, an unstoppable force will make everyone start over. But they seemed to be afraid of something and didn't explain the details to me."

Si Wei Jiejie's scent began to change. She was silent for a while before asking, "Then doesn't that mean we can never escape...?"

"I'm not sure about that." Gu Yu Gege said. "Each city has its own path forward... From what I can see, our 'Yu Cheng' and 'Wo Cheng' are in the most danger, always on the brink of total destruction."

"Total destruction...?" Si Wei Jiejie paused. "Do you mean we'll end up like those two cities without names, with everyone wiped out?"

"That's right." Gu Yu Gege replied. "As for the two active cities... The ruler of 'Wo Cheng' is called Nie Bei, an active special forces soldier. His presence has turned 'Wo Cheng' into a city of warriors, where every man and woman has a do-or-die attitude. They fight 'Sheng Xiao' relentlessly, day and night, leaving the city strewn with corpses and rivers of blood. But I've never seen anyone there regret it—in fact, the 'Sheng Xiao' working there are the ones complaining, never knowing when they'll die in the participants' barrage. Nie Bei told me that as long as 'Wo Cheng' has even one person left, they'll keep fighting 'Sheng Xiao' without hesitation until the end. I asked him why, and he said that ever since the first 'life-or-death gamble,' the 'Sheng Xiao' became the killers of their comrades, so this war must go on until there's a winner."

"There's someone like that...?" Si Wei Jiejie was stunned.

"'Dao Cheng' is completely the opposite." Gu Yu Gege pointed to the circle in the middle of the first row and continued. "This city, located at the center, doesn't have a leader like Nie Bei, but it has several renowned 'wise generals.' If Nie Bei represents 'might,' then 'Dao Cheng' represents 'wisdom.' Their strength lies in ensuring a higher survival rate, but they also have weaknesses—they can't match Nie Bei's kill rate against 'Sheng Xiao.' Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet their leader, Wen Qiao Yun, but I did encounter a decent man named Qian Duo Duo, who told me about 'Dao Cheng's history."

After hearing this, Ying Xiong and I both fell silent. Compared to those two cities, what have we been doing?

"You've probably noticed it too..." Gu Yu Gege said deeply. "Everyone in this place is striving to 'escape,' but our 'Yu Cheng' has been standing still. No... it's more like we're going backward."

"This city is 'sick'..." Si Wei Jiejie said.

"It's truly 'sick,' but it's still salvageable." Gu Yu Gege glanced at me. "As long as we have 'Ying Xiong,' there's still hope for everything."