Chapter 600: Dividing Equally

"What are you drawing here?" Di Hu asked, staring at Qi Xia in a daze. "Is something wrong?"

"Di Hu, if I haven't guessed wrong, another person will come tonight," Qi Xia said.

"What?"

"You just need to wait," Qi Xia said. "At the latest tonight, that person will come to you on their own."

Di Hu still felt like he didn't quite understand what Qi Xia was saying, but this feeling made him oddly familiar.

This was exactly how Bai Yang operated.

He didn't need to ask anything; he just had to follow instructions and wait.

"Qi Xia, there's one more thing," Di Hu said.

"What?"

"As I said..." Di Hu shook his head. "Among us, not a single person can take on the role of 'team leader.' Whose orders should we follow? Is it the last one you mentioned?"

Qi Xia thought for a moment and felt that this question was hard to answer definitively.

After all, who that an zhen belonged to was something even someone as powerful as Bai Yang had no choice in.

That person could only be him.

So, whether he had the qualifications to be the team leader was completely unknown.

"I'll be the team leader," Qi Xia said.

"Ah?!" Di Hu was stunned.

"At critical moments, you all follow my commands," Qi Xia said earnestly. "After all, I'm the one who organized this matter, not you, so only I can convince everyone."

"This..." Di Hu scratched his head after hearing it, thinking the proposal sounded both plausible and not. "We only gather at night, and it's mostly on the lie che. But Yang— I mean, Qi Xia, you're not on the train."

"So I said, 'at critical moments,' follow me."

"What about the non-critical moments...?"

Qi Xia shook his head helplessly. "For non-critical moments, it's even simpler. You can all act independently. The seven of you are all team leaders— whoever thinks of something, just do it, and adapt as you go."

"Will that work?"

"The situation is already like a building that's collapsing, beyond saving," Qi Xia said, patting Di Hu on the shoulder. "So, no matter what mess happens now, it's all the same. Even if this building starts exploding from the ground floor, it's still going to fall in the end."

"Oh..." Di Hu nodded as if he understood.

"But don't worry, by then, your team will have taken shape... with a full eight people."

As he said "eight people," Qi Xia furrowed his brow slightly.

"What is it?" Di Hu asked.

Qi Xia paused, then pulled out the map that Qing Long had given him from his pocket.

"Di Hu, I have something I need your help with," Qi Xia said, laying the map out in front of Di Hu. "This time I came to see you, besides checking on your progress, there's a small issue I need you to get involved in."

"Need my help?" Di Hu laughed casually. "You're being too formal. If there's anything I can do, just say it."

Qi Xia unfolded the map in front of Di Hu. It detailed the layout of the area.

"What's this thing?" Di Hu asked.

Di Hu picked up the map and examined it closely. Although it was hand-drawn, it was incredibly detailed, even sketching the shapes of important buildings and marking some with words like zi, chou, yin, mao, and so on.

"Di Hu, there are some red characters on here, representing parts of the di ji. Do you know who is at those places?" Qi Xia asked.

"Oh, oh!!" Di Hu finally understood the map's meaning. "Let me take a look!"

He extended his thick finger and pointed at the red characters on the map, reading them one by one: "Chou, mao, chen, si, xu, shen, you, hai..."

After reading, he counted on his fingers: "Chou is ox... mao is rabbit, right? And chen..."

Qi Xia waited quietly beside him. After a while, Di Hu looked up thoughtfully, his expression complex.

"What is it?" Qi Xia asked.

"It's a bit strange..." Di Hu scratched his head. "What are these eight red di ji for, anyway?"

"This is..."

Qi Xia frowned, feeling it wasn't easy to explain, since he might end up as enemies with these eight people any second.

But he had seen these eight characters before, and they didn't match up with the team Di Hu mentioned—at least, there was no yin hu or wei yang among them. The only red character he had visited and remembered was hai, that arrogant and unlikeable di zhu.

So, things wouldn't get too out of control. As long as his an zhen was still there, they could thread the other lines at will. Even if the other six died, it wouldn't be a problem.

"You don't have to say if you don't want to," Di Hu shook his head. "It's just a coincidence... among these eight red characters, three of them came to my room yesterday."

"Oh?"

"Right here..." Di Hu picked up the map and pointed it out to Qi Xia. "Mao tu, xu gou, hai zhu... looking at these three spots, they're clearly the game areas where they are."

Qi Xia had been to the hai zhu's area before, so he knew it well, but he didn't know the locations of mao tu and xu gou. Now, it seemed the situation was about what he had expected—there was indeed a connection between these two matters.

"Out of the eight, three have joined the team, which means the real enemies are five...?" Qi Xia murmured to himself.

"What 'enemies'?" Di Hu asked.

Qi Xia didn't answer and instead said to Di Hu, "Remember the locations of the remaining five red characters. If I'm not wrong, one of those five will knock on your door tonight."

Di Hu thought Qi Xia was like a prophet. He just pulled out a map, marked a few red characters, and said one of the di ji would join him.

Who else but the Bai Yang from back in the day would dare say something like that?

Xu Liunian, standing nearby, was also confused. She had been present for the conversation with Qing Long and had heard Bai Hu recount last night's events, but she had no idea what Qi Xia was thinking.

"Qi Xia... why would one of them join?" Xu Liunian asked. "Is there some necessary connection between these two things?"

"There is, because this arrangement fits Qing Long's personality," Qi Xia replied, speaking as if to Xu Liunian but also as if to Qing Long himself. "Four 'rebels,' four 'enemies,' and these four enemies will exchange for the lives of my four 'teammates.' Four in each category, and then see how I choose... He wants to know who I'll keep and who I'll give up. As someone who knows everything about the zhong yan zhi di, this is the most fitting thing to do."

"What..." Xu Liunian widened her eyes. "But what's Qing Long's purpose in doing this?"

"Probably just for amusement," Qi Xia said. "No need for a complicated reason. He won't step in to help me or kill me; he's just looking for something interesting to liven things up."