Chapter 772: Knocking

Qi Xia kept pressing his forehead, and that familiar feeling washed over him once again.

“Di Gou… you said that person is a Di Gou…?” Qi Xia muttered to himself.

“Yang Ge… what’s wrong with you?” Di Gou paused, looking confused. “Oh, right, when you were ‘Yang,’ you should have met her too… But not long after you became ‘Di Ji,’ she broke the rules…”

“She broke the rules right after I became ‘Di Ji’?” Qi Xia felt like he had finally grasped the key point.

“Yeah…” Di Gou nodded sadly. “It’s such a shame… I still can’t accept it.”

“Do you know what rules she broke?” Qi Xia asked.

“No.” Di Gou shook his head. “After hearing what you said, I even wonder if she didn’t break any rules at all—maybe those two dragons just didn’t need her anymore, that’s it.”

“Is that so…?”

“My teacher was clearly the most troublesome type of person…” Di Gou said. “She always followed the rules, but she never managed to win over the ‘Tian Long,’ so breaking the rules was inevitable sooner or later.”

Even though Di Gou said that, Qi Xia still felt the timing of that Di Gou’s rule-breaking was suspiciously specific, and no matter how he thought about it, it seemed connected to him.

He reached out and touched the table inside the glass room. This table had originally been used by Di Gou for drawing lots during games, and though it looked a bit worn, it was still wiped spotlessly clean.

Qi Xia’s fingers brushed the surface, and almost instinctively, he tapped it.

The moment he tapped the table, scattered memories began flooding into his mind, as if the owner of that voice had awakened deep within his thoughts, echoing repeatedly.

“Xiao Qi, if you don’t unite with everyone against outsiders, I’ll beat you right now.”

“Xiao Qi, will this plan of yours really work? We’re on the same side, after all.”

“Xiao Qi, your teammates are everything to us.”

“Stop arguing, Xiao Qi. I believe in you.”

“Xiao Qi, it’s me… Don’t you recognize me in this form?”

“Bai Yang, are you Xiao Qi?”

“Bai Yang, why won’t you answer my question?”

Qi Xia’s mind flashed like an electric current, and his whole body trembled slightly.

The figure with a cigarette dangling from her mouth flickered through his thoughts, like a fleeting, illusory dream. He hadn’t even gotten a clear look at her before the memory vanished completely.

Qi Xia narrowed his eyes at the tabletop, then glanced at the fingers that had just tapped it.

He felt like he had latched onto something crucial, so he reached out and tapped the surface again.

“Knock knock knock.”

Sure enough, as soon as he tapped, the woman’s figure flashed in his mind again, but this time it appeared even more briefly than before.

“So that’s it…” Qi Xia’s eyes widened slowly as he stroked the table. “‘Yu Nian An says knock knock knock’—it was a signal I set for myself…”

In his mind, Qi Xia suddenly recalled how he had tapped tables in the past, a habit that had formed at some point, especially in critical moments.

This seemed to be a deliberately trained “subconscious” cue to record something.

Similarly, when he needed to retrieve memories, this little action would trigger the stored hints.

“This is the ‘anchor point’ I set for myself…”

“Knock knock knock.”

Qi Xia tapped three more times, but no other memories surfaced. What was going on?

If tapping the table was supposed to bring back memories, then theoretically, each tap should trigger some recollections, big or small. But that wasn’t happening.

Was there something specific about when to tap the table?

“Di Gou.” Qi Xia turned and asked, “Did you design this game yourself?”

“This…” Di Gou shook his head. “Yang Ge, you might not know me well. I take my work more seriously than most, but once it’s done, I’m lazier than anyone. I wouldn’t design a game that requires so much time cleaning up the site… It would have me working overtime every day and kill me.”

“Oh?” Qi Xia nodded. “So, you inherited this game setup from someone else?”

“Yeah, you get what I mean right away…” Di Gou replied. “This game site was left to me by my ‘Lao Shi,’ so I’ve been maintaining it for her. I wipe every glass panel in this glass shop meticulously—not even a fingerprint is allowed.”

“In other words, this table…” Qi Xia slowly ran his fingers over the surface.

“Was also used by ‘Lao Shi,’” Di Gou said. “Is there something odd about this table?”

“So that’s how it is…” Qi Xia didn’t answer and instead quickly pondered the principle behind the “knock knock knock.”

It seemed his set “anchor point” had restrictions for retrieval—he had to tap a specific table.

“Yang Ge… what’s really going on with you?”

Qi Xia turned back, composed himself, and said to Di Gou, “If I’m not mistaken, there was some kind of partnership between me and your ‘Lao Shi,’ but she can no longer fulfill her commitments to me.”

“What…?”

“So, what did she tell you back then?”

Di Gou thought for a moment and said, “I don’t get why you’re asking this… But ‘Lao Shi’ did once tell me that if she were ever gone, I had to take over her game site and become ‘Tian.’”

Qi Xia nodded after hearing that. It seemed the plan he had set in motion was still proceeding smoothly.

Even though there had been casualties, with some people thrown off by the fast-moving vehicle, someone had to keep moving forward on this path.

“One last question.” Qi Xia said, “How close were you to your ‘Lao Shi,’ and how far would you go for her?”

Di Gou’s nose twitched slightly, and a hint of wariness appeared in his eyes. “Yang Ge… I’m grateful to my ‘Lao Shi,’ but I wouldn’t necessarily die for her. After all, as you said… there’s no way out of this place, and now ‘Pei Qian Hu’ has started making moves. If I keep following you, I could end up with nothing.”

“I completely understand.” Qi Xia replied. “I appreciate people who don’t hide their true feelings.”

“Yeah, so I might give ‘Pei Qian Hu’ some help, but I won’t pay any price for it.”

Qi Xia thought for a moment and added, “Di Gou, but you should know that as a ‘Sheng Xiao,’ death is just a matter of time.”

Di Gou lowered his head slowly. He knew Qi Xia’s words made sense, but if death was inevitable no matter the choice, he preferred to delay it as long as possible.