Tang San stood in the middle of the ruins, facing the only three figures before him.
Liu Qiang stood with his arms folded, his face cold and indifferent.
Xiong Er leaned against a broken half-wall, his eyes full of distance.
Dai Mubai stood a little farther away, his robes worn and his blond hair dull. His former high spirits had long since vanished.
Tang San's voice broke the silence, heavy with deliberate grief.
"Boss Dai, Xiong Er, Liu Qiang..."
He paused, as though emphasizing the names of those absent.
"Little Ao didn't come... Fatty... has long since..."
He forcibly suppressed those tangled emotions, swept his gaze over the three men before him, and adopted an impassioned, "sincere" tone.
"But we're still here!"
"Shrek's spirit is still burning!"
He stepped forward, fixing Xiong Er and Liu Qiang with a fervent gaze.
"We must remain the Shrek Seven Devils for life!"
Xiong Er let out a very faint yet unmistakably clear scoff.
He straightened away from the broken wall and dusted nonexistent dirt off his hands.
"For life?"
Xiong Er's voice was as cold as ice, laced with undisguised mockery.
His gaze was sharp as a blade as he stared straight into Tang San's eyes.
"Tang San," he addressed him bluntly by name, "I never thought joining Shrek and forming these Shrek Seven Devils with you was anything to be happy about."
"We were more like..." A mocking curve tugged at his lips. "A pack of fools who didn't know their own limits, penned up by your so-called 'monster theory.'"
The "sincerity" on Tang San's face instantly froze. A glimmer of malice flashed deep in his eyes, only to be swiftly buried beneath even greater "earnestness."
"Xiong Er, how can you say that?" His voice trembled with "hurt." "After everything we've been