Informant

Dawn.

Countdown: 16:20:00.

Another batch of newcomers had arrived at Prison No. 18 last night.

At Qing Chen's instruction, Lu Guangyi went around asking each newcomer about their background.

In the end, Qing Chen confirmed that there wasn't a single transmigrator among this batch of newcomers.

He guessed that all transmigrators arrived and left together. No one would transmigrate midway through someone else's transmigration.

That meant all transmigrators were now on the same timeline.

At this moment, Li Shutong and Qing Chen were already seated at the dining table, playing chess.

"Ever since you told Lu Guangyi to watch his strength, there have been fewer newcomers wailing and crying in the prison," Li Shutong said as he looked at the chessboard. "But have you noticed that the other two gangs in the prison are already quite dissatisfied with Lu Guangyi?"

Normally, the three gangs took turns holding welcome ceremonies for newcomers. It was considered entertainment for everyone.

Now that Lu Guangyi had monopolized the matter, it was bound to provoke dissatisfaction from the others.

Qing Chen moved a red piece and replied, "I noticed. But I believe Lu Guangyi can handle it himself."

"Have you considered that those newcomers may not necessarily be grateful to you?" Li Shutong asked with a smile.

Qing Chen thought for a moment. "When you meet a beggar on the street and toss him some loose change, that money isn't enough to lift him out of poverty. But you buy yourself a measure of inner peace and pleasure."

Li Shutong smiled and said nothing more.

Today's endgame was called Wild Horse Ravages the Fields. However, Qing Chen, playing red, had not won. The game ended in a draw.

In fact, so-called Chinese chess endgames were situations where black held every advantage. Achieving a draw already counted as solving the puzzle.

Unlike the usual spectators, aside from Lu Guangyi's group of prisoners wearing expressions of utter bewilderment, there was now one more person: Guo Huzhan.

Yesterday, the burly man had politely sat cross-legged in the distance. Today, he had simply taken a seat beside Qing Chen, directly across from Li Shutong.

The burly man was over two meters tall. His massive frame made the chair beneath him look like a tiny stool, awkward enough to make anyone uncomfortable just looking at it.

But Guo Huzhan didn't care about that. He was determined to stick close to Li Shutong.

If he couldn't beat him, then he would join him!

Moreover, he noticed that Qing Chen's meal contained real meat while his did not. So he righteously said to Li Shutong, "I'm at least a notable figure in Spades. You people eat real meat while making me eat synthetic meat. That's hardly how you treat a guest, is it?"

Seeing how shameless he was, Lin Xiaoxiao sneered. "Can you compare yourself to us? How about you fight the boss again? If you win, we'll give you some."

"Don't always be so violent. That isn't good," Guo Huzhan said, rubbing his bald head. "And it's one thing for the three of you to eat it, but why does this kid playing chess get real meat too? He's just an ordinary person. Hey, kid, go get yourself another serving. Give this one to me."

Everyone froze for a moment. They hadn't expected Guo Huzhan to be so sly. Since he couldn't afford to offend Li Shutong, he chose to squeeze Qing Chen, the soft persimmon.

At that moment, Qing Chen looked up at Guo Huzhan, then turned his gaze toward Lin Xiaoxiao and the others.

He noticed that Lin Xiaoxiao did not speak up to rebuke Guo Huzhan this time. Instead, he was smiling as he watched Qing Chen, seemingly interested in seeing how he would deal with the bald giant.

Qing Chen silently closed his eyes and ignored him.

Seeing this, Guo Huzhan assumed the boy did not dare provoke him. He brazenly pulled Qing Chen's tray in front of himself. "You all saw it. He gave it up himself."

Yet at this moment, Qing Chen's thoughts seemed to return to yesterday.

The instant Guo Huzhan threw his punch.

The world froze.

The prisoners had been pinned down by the metal storm, their prison uniforms struck by rubber bullets like rainwater rippling across a pond.

The slowly rising alloy gate, the mechanical prison guards rushing in, the gunfire, the impacts of rubber bullets, and the hiss of hydraulic mechanisms all intertwined.

At that time, Qing Chen alone had calmly watched everyone.

No, this was not the moment he was looking for.

Standing at the center of his memories, Qing Chen swept a hand through the air, and the entire world began rewinding as if played in reverse.

Rubber bullets that had burst from the heavens toward the ground flew back into their gun barrels.

The prisoners who had fallen to the ground rose in bizarre poses.

Second by second, the scenes that had happened played backward frame by frame in Qing Chen's mind.

Until... the instant Guo Huzhan had just entered Prison No. 18.

Qing Chen slowly walked through the crowd in his memory, listening to every sound.

The people in his memories could not speak, but the details on their bodies could betray them.

Just as Guo Huzhan was about to eat all the meat from Qing Chen's tray, Qing Chen opened his eyes.

"Lu Guangyi."

"Ah, I'm here, I'm here. Boss, what is it?" Lu Guangyi hurriedly responded, no longer bothering to hide his identity.

Qing Chen said, "I'll point out some people. Pull them out."

After saying that, he turned toward the prisoners and began identifying them, pointing out eight people in one breath.

As those people were dragged from the crowd by Lu Guangyi, Guo Huzhan's expression gradually darkened. He no longer even cared about eating the meat.

Qing Chen sat back down and asked Guo Huzhan, "Are these eight your people?"

"Not all of them," Guo Huzhan said darkly.

"Mm." Qing Chen nodded. "After you were escorted in, your gaze lingered over five of them. All five made the gesture of extending their index fingers. I don't know what that gesture means, but I'm sure they made it for you. As for the other three, they exchanged glances with each other immediately."

The looks in Lin Xiaoxiao's and Ye Wan's eyes shifted. At the time, even they had been busy avoiding the barrage of bullets and had not had the attention to observe everyone's reactions.

It was as though, in that chaotic instant of torrential rain, Qing Chen alone had remained a clear-eyed observer.

Li Shutong smiled. "Prison No. 18 is a mixed bag. It's perfectly normal for other factions to have people here keeping an eye on me."

Lin Xiaoxiao grew smug and asked, "Boss, should we transfer all these people to other prisons?"

"No." Li Shutong shook his head. "Transferring eight people for no reason would only make the outside world speculate about me again. Ye Wan, isolate all eight of them and interrogate them one by one. Find out who sent the other three."

At that moment, Qing Chen saw Lin Xiaoxiao's smug expression and remembered how he had stood by cheerfully moments ago. He rose again and pointed out more than twenty people.

This time, however, he said nothing. Lin Xiaoxiao's teeth immediately began to ache as he whispered beside Li Shutong, "Boss, this kid found all our people too..."

Li Shutong looked at Qing Chen with admiration. "You may not be an extraordinary yet, but your memory and analytical abilities surpass those of many extraordinaries."

When Guo Huzhan saw Qing Chen expose the knights' people as well, he immediately realized that the boy was not one of them. "What should I call you, little brother?"

Qing Chen glanced at him. "Qing Chen."

"The Qing family?" Guo Huzhan froze. "How did the knights get involved with the Qing Consortium?"

"Does having the surname Qing mean one must belong to the Qing family? Even if he is from the Qing family, that doesn't mean he has to remain there for life," Li Shutong said with a smile. "Isn't there also a very famous person in the wilderness with the surname Qing?"

Guo Huzhan's eyes flickered, and his attitude immediately made a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.

He silently pushed the tray back in front of Qing Chen, then warmly said, "Little brother Qing Chen, what kind of impression do you have of Spades?"

"Not much of one," Qing Chen replied coldly.

Even now, he still could not figure out what kind of personality Guo Huzhan had. The man was clearly huge and imposing, yet his mind was exceptionally quick and he had no principles to speak of.

Besides, the man had come to compete with him for the Forbidden Item. Naturally, Qing Chen had no reason to show him a pleasant face.

With Li Shutong's help today, he had cut away some of the wings Guo Huzhan had arranged in advance. That counted as a gain.

As they spoke, a commotion rose nearby.

Qing Chen looked over and saw Ye Wan frowning.

The three people he had just identified who were not members of Spades were already lying on the ground, their lips and faces bluish-purple.

These were classic symptoms of death by asphyxiation.

Ye Wan took off his shirt and wrapped it around his hand. Then he crouched down and gently pried open one of the dead men's mouths. Looking up at Li Shutong, he said, "Boss, it was a poison capsule hidden behind the molars. There's a faint bitter almond smell after opening the mouth. Cyanide."

"Those three aren't from Spades," Guo Huzhan said.

"Suicide agents." Li Shutong's expression remained calm. "Now that is somewhat surprising."

No one knew who had arranged for them to enter, nor did anyone know why they had entered Prison No. 18.

Qing Chen watched silently, showing no reaction on his face.

Only his tightly clenched fists revealed his tension.

He opened his hand and looked down. His palm bore red marks pressed in by his fingernails, along with sweat.

Whether in the Outer World or the Inner World, this was the first time he had faced death directly.

He had only ever seen things like poison hidden behind teeth in movies.

The brutal methods of the three suicide agents pulled Qing Chen back into reality, making him realize once again that this was, after all, a world where savage beasts roamed.

Countdown: 15:21:59.

His return was imminent. He could not afford any more complications.

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