Chapter 76: A Moment of Cleverness

"Old dog, you're quite clever." A Mu’s face instantly darkened.

“Of course… I’m very clever at critical moments.” Lao Lü showed an ugly smile.

“I really wish your teammates could see your face.” A Mu took out five ‘Dao’ from his pocket and scattered them on the ground like feeding pigeons.

Lao Lü hurriedly lay on the ground to pick up the ‘Dao’ one by one, then put them into his pocket.

“Hehe… My teammates will understand me.” Lao Lü patted the dust off his hands. “I already reminded them that ‘I’m very clever at critical moments’; they just didn’t expect me to betray them, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

A Mu showed a fake smile and handed the locked box along with the golden key to Lao Lü.

“Then, the next thing is up to you.”

***

On the other side, in the “Shou Xin Ren” room.

Qi Xia was sitting on a chair with his eyes closed, resting.

“‘Qiu Tu Kun Jing’?” he murmured to himself. “No, it should be ‘Shui Tong Ding Lü’…”

“The weakest member in the team will determine the overall strength of the team…” Qi Xia’s fingers tapped the table lightly, timing in his heart. “But which ‘board’ belongs to our barrel…”

“Both sides’ ‘Jian Xi’ should have met with the ‘Fa Xin Ren’.” He still had his eyes closed, simulating the scene of both sides meeting in his mind as much as possible.

“About ten minutes have passed; our ‘Jian Xi’ hasn’t sent the letter yet, which means Lin Qin’s persuasion failed. After all, a woman in love has no reason to kill her lover herself.”

“As for the other side…”

Qi Xia opened his eyes and played with the silver key on the table.

“Lao Lü has probably betrayed us.”

His face gradually turned cold, and he said, “From now on, the other side will have the help of two ‘Jian Xi’, and things are developing in the worst direction.”

“The good news is that ‘Shui Tong Ding Lü’ is officially invalid, and our team no longer has a weak point.” Qi Xia slowly showed a cold smile. “Next is ‘Mi Ge-25 Xiao Ying’.”

At that moment, a voice suddenly came from the door: “When the Soviet Union was building the MiG-25 fighter, even though all the parts were not as good as America’s, they could make it a world-class fighter by improving overall performance. That’s the ‘Mi Ge-25 Xiao Ying’, right?”

Qi Xia turned his head and looked; the ‘Jian Xi’ Jiang Ruo Xue was standing outside the door, looking at him expressionlessly.

She was holding a locked box in her hands.

“Do you think the ‘Mi Ge-25 Xiao Ying’ is correct?” Jiang Ruo Xue asked.

“I’m not sure.” Qi Xia said expressionlessly. “I’m not sure if the ‘parts’ that belong to me now are useful, but with your appearance, all my doubts have disappeared.”

“Your appearance made me enlightened? You’re really a once-in-a-century genius.” Jiang Ruo Xue said with a slight sarcasm as she placed the box on the table in front of Qi Xia. “Now, please use your ‘Mi Ge-25 Xiao Ying’ to open this box.”

Qi Xia carefully examined the box; the golden lock was firmly locking it.

He tried with the silver key at hand, but it couldn’t open it at all.

He picked up the box and shook it lightly, indeed hearing a “rustling” sound inside.

There’s a letter.

“How should I address you?” Qi Xia asked.

“Jiang Ruo Xue.”

“Jiang Ruo Xue, did you crush the key just now?” Qi Xia asked.

“Do you think your teammate would give me the key?” Jiang Ruo Xue crossed her arms, as if watching a good show. “A person like you who thinks you’re smart—can’t open the box without the key?”

“She didn’t give you the key; that’s great.” Qi Xia smiled and said to Jiang Ruo Xue. “Did you hear that just now?”

“Hear what?”

“The footsteps.” Qi Xia said. “The soundproofing in this old hotel isn’t good; you should have heard the footsteps before you moved.”

“So what?” Jiang Ruo Xue pursed her lips. “In the whole building, only I and that old man can move; it’s not surprising to have footsteps.”

“But why did he set off earlier than you?” Qi Xia tapped the table, looking at Jiang Ruo Xue meaningfully. “Why did our ‘Jian Xi’ set off first?”

“You…” Jiang Ruo Xue’s expression froze, as if she thought of something.

“What do you think is your probability of surviving in this game?” Qi Xia kept tapping the table, trying to break the other party’s psychological defense with words. “If your team cooperated with our ‘Jian Xi’, do you still have a chance?”

“I understand.” Jiang Ruo Xue’s eyes gradually turned cold. “You can’t open the box, so you’re targeting me? Isn’t that too childish?”

Qi Xia nodded. “You saw through that?”

“Don’t try to confuse me.” Jiang Ruo Xue stepped back. “I absolutely won’t believe you.”

Qi Xia stopped talking and instead looked at his finger tapping the table.

“The time is almost up…” He said with a cold face, murmuring. “Let me verify if the ‘parts’ are useful…”

Before Jiang Ruo Xue could understand what he meant, noisy shouts suddenly came from another corridor.

It sounded like a fight.

Unfortunately, it was a bit far, and the specific content couldn’t be heard.

“Very good, it’s ‘superior parts’.” Qi Xia stopped tapping the table and slowly stood up, saying. “Miss Jiang, if you had agreed to cooperate with us just now, the outcome would have been completely different, but now it’s too late; you’re just ‘spare parts’.”

“Heh, how interesting.” Jiang Ruo Xue shook her head helplessly. “Then I’ll see how you can get the letter.”

Qi Xia didn’t try to open the lock.

Instead, he took his silver lock and locked it on the box.

Now the box had two locks.

“Are you crazy?” Jiang Ruo Xue asked. “Adding another lock—are you trying to ‘negative times negative equals positive’?”

“I’m possibly crazy.” Qi Xia picked up the box and handed it to Jiang Ruo Xue. “Please, help me send it back to the ‘Fa Xin Ren’.”

“What?!” Jiang Ruo Xue was stunned.

Sending this double-locked box back to the ‘Fa Xin Ren’?

“Oh, I see…” She suddenly paled and understood Qi Xia’s strategy. “You, wait a minute…”

Qi Xia didn’t wait for her to finish and directly pushed her out of the room, then locked the door.

Jiang Ruo Xue stepped into the corridor, and the countdown on the wall lit up: three minutes.

She held the box with a complicated expression.

If she had known the other party was this kind of person, she should have pretended to agree earlier…

As she walked into the corridor, the sounds from the other corridor became clearer.

Jiang Ruo Xue snapped back and slowly leaned against the wall to listen.

After a while, her expression became serious.

A Mu sounded very angry; he kept shouting:

“You old dog, you actually destroyed the key?!”