Ye Qi recalled the code Qu Wanyue had told him before and asked with a smile, " Teacher Qu, have you had dinner yet?"
Qu Wanyue said, "Not yet, Xiao Ye, are you hungry? Why don't we eat together first... The Sichuan restaurants nearby have pretty good reviews, and their sliced beef and tripe in chili sauce is very famous."
Ye Qi looked at Chu Huaying and nodded to her— Qu Wanyue's code matched perfectly, so it must be her.
Chu Huaying understood and turned to ask Long Sen, " Long Sen, what are you doing here?"
Long Sen said, "I took bus number 48 to find Wanyue. I wanted to find her first and then meet up with you."
Bus route 48 never passes through the city center, nor does it go past the sports school in the suburbs of Jiangzhou. If the Long Sen in front of him were Hunter, he wouldn't have answered like that—bus route 48 was the secret code that Long Sen had agreed upon with everyone.
Chu Huaying nodded to him and said, "In this world, some teammates have been replaced by Hunter, so we need to verify their identities."
Long Sen looked surprised: "Replaced by Hunter? Is that true?"
Qu Wanyue reminded him from the side, "Let's check the code."
Long Sen looked at Ye Qi and began exchanging the code: "Little Ye, are you hungry?"
Ye Qi rubbed his stomach clockwise and said, "I'm really hungry, I feel like I haven't eaten for three days." Ye Qi's lines matched what she had said before, and the clockwise stomach rubbing indicated that Ye Qi was certain his teammates were alright. If Chu Huaying were the problem, Ye Qi's action would have been counter-clockwise.
Long Sen breathed a sigh of relief and asked Chu Huaying, " Sister Ying, what happened with the teammate you mentioned being replaced by Hunter? Which teammate?"
Chu Huaying said, " Xiao Lou."
Long Sen gasped, his voice filled with worry, " Professor Xiao? Is he alright?!"
Chu Huaying frowned slightly: "I don't know, but I'm certain Xiao Lou is still alive, because the contract book's captain didn't move. What we don't understand is that the Hunter who was impersonating Xiao Lou actually had Xiao Lou's card holder in his hand."
Ye Qi said, "We found Professor Xiao's card holder on him. All the cards were there. If Sister Ying hadn't reacted quickly enough, we might have both been tricked by him."
Long Sen and Qu Wanyue exchanged a glance and looked at each other blankly.
After a moment, Qu Wanyue asked, "Have you looked for the other teammates?"
Chu Huaying nodded and said calmly, "Xiao Ye contacted Captain Yu, Liu Qiao, and CEO Shao, and we contacted Lao Mo together. None of these four know us. Old Gui is on a national tour, and Xiao Tang is on a business trip. Neither of them are currently in Jiangzhou."
Ye Qi added, "We are currently in Jiangzhou City on December 24th. Those who are not in Jiangzhou, and those teammates who do not know us, may have been teleported to other worlds. The Liu Qiao, Uncle Mo, and others we encountered are their past selves, so they have no memories of Card World."
Long Sen scratched the back of his head in confusion: "So, in this instance, there are only the four of us?"
"That should be the case." Chu Huaying paused, then frowned and said, "But we can't be completely sure. If Old Gui and Xiao Tang come back from their business trip tomorrow, they might join the team. And then there's Professor Xiao. The one we encountered was a fake Xiao Lou. He had Professor Xiao's card. Whether the real Xiao Lou is in this world or whether he's being controlled by Hunter is still unclear."
"How about we try Telepathic Connection?" Ye Qi suddenly suggested. " We have Professor Xiao's card holder. We can use Telepathic Connection to establish a mental connection. Assuming Professor Xiao is in this world and not unconscious, we can find him through Telepathic Connection."
"Okay, Xiao Ye, you give it a try." Chu Huaying handed Xiao Lou's card holder to Ye Qi.
Ye Qi activated Telepathic Connection, closed his eyes, and focused on using his mental perception. However, several minutes passed, and he found no information about Xiao Lou in his mental world, nor did he receive a response from Xiao Lou through Telepathic Connection.
Ye Qi opened his eyes helplessly and looked at the three of them: "I can't find Professor Xiao."
Chu Huaying stroked his chin thoughtfully: "There are two possibilities. The first is that Xiao Lou is in this world, but he has been controlled by Hunter and is unconscious, unable to respond to your Telepathic Connection. The second is that Xiao Lou is not in this world at all, but his card holder has fallen into Hunter's hands for some reason."
Ye Qi said, "If it's the first scenario, then it's terrible. Professor Xiao is in great danger now."
Just then, Qu Wanyue exclaimed in surprise, "My card holder isn't on me! Could it have been taken by the Hunter too?!"
Long Sen patted his pockets, his expression serious: "Mine isn't here either."
Ye Qi and Chu Huaying exchanged a glance.
Chu Huaying turned and stared at them: "After you came to Secret Room World, have you had any contact with anyone who seemed suspicious?"
Long Sen shook his head: "No. When I opened my eyes, I was in the sports school dormitory. I found that the surrounding area was the familiar Jiangzhou City, so I came directly to the dance center to find Wanyue. I wanted to find her first and then meet up with everyone. I only talked to the taxi driver a few words on the way. No one approached me. The card holder should not have been stolen."
Qu Wanyue said, "When I woke up, I was in the training center's lounge. I had a dance class in the afternoon, and the children were waiting for me in the dance studio. I went to class first. Halfway through the class, I saw Long Sen standing outside the classroom, and then I met you all. I didn't have any contact with any suspicious people during that time."
Chu Huaying frowned
Mei: " The card holder wasn't stolen, and you weren't controlled by the Hunter, so how could the card holder disappear without a trace?"
Ye Qi speculated: "Could the difficulty of this secret room be that some teammates' card holders simply disappear? Like some previous secret room card bans, this could greatly weaken our combat power?"
Xiao Lou's card holder inexplicably appeared on Hunter's body.
Now, Qu Wanyue and Long Sen's card holders are also missing, and they might be with Hunter. Currently, only Chu Huaying and Ye Qi can use the cards. If they encounter Hunter's siege, Chu and Ye might not be able to handle it.
Chu Huaying lowered her head and thought for a moment before saying decisively, "I wonder how many Hunters there are in this world. How about we go get something to eat first, replenish our strength, and prepare for tonight's fierce battle?"
Qu Wanyue readily agreed: " Sister Ying is right. I'm hungry too. I didn't eat lunch. I need to eat to have the strength to escape later."
Long Sen looked at Ye Qi: "I remember Ye likes hot pot? There's a pretty good hot pot restaurant nearby, want to try it?"
Just as Ye Qi was about to agree, Chu Huaying suddenly said, "Let's go to Western Restaurant, I want to eat steak."
Upon hearing this, Ye Qi was taken aback, but quickly recovered and said with a smile, "Then let's listen to Sister Ying and have Western food. The Western Restaurant has free fruit and snacks, and you can eat as much as you want. Their steak is also very famous."
Long Sen looked enlightened and nodded readily: "Right, right, let's go eat Western food, it's on me today."
*
When the group of four arrived at Central Square, it was already dark. The square was bustling with activity. A group of middle-aged and elderly people were dancing, children were playing on scooters, the fountain in the center of the square was lit up with colorful lights, and many couples were strolling hand in hand.
Ye Qi looked up at the shopping center across the square— the largest Western Restaurant in Jiangzhou City, located on the top floor of this bustling area.
Chu Huaying led everyone to the top floor via the sightseeing elevator and asked a waiter for a private room.
After the waiter left, Chu Huaying said, "Xiao Ye, you guys order. I'm going to the restroom first. Could you please order me a black pepper steak and a fruit salad? I'd like the steak medium-well."
Ye Qi nodded: "Okay."
After Chu Huaying left the private room and closed the door, Ye Qi heard a calm voice say, "Be careful."
Ye Qi paused for a moment—before he and Chu Huaying went to find their teammates, they had put on team voice headsets so they could communicate at any time, even if they were some distance apart. At this moment, the voice was coming from the headsets.
Sister Ying's actions clearly indicated to Ye Qi that she suspected there was something wrong with the Longqu Couple in front of her.
Ye Qi looked at the two people sitting opposite him. Long Sen and Qu Wanyue were ordering food together, behaving intimately. Their actions and expressions were exactly the same as the Long Qu couple in her memory. When did Sister Ying start to suspect them?
Was it when Qu Wanyue suddenly said she had lost her card holder? Or when Long Sen mentioned the hot pot restaurant?
Chu Huaying deliberately led them to the " Western Restaurant " because Professor Xiao had said that once they were teleported to the secret room in the urban environment, everyone should first meet at the largest restaurant in the city, Western Restaurant, in case there were other teammates waiting for them there.
Ye Qi was in a state of utter confusion.
Qu Wanyue across the table finished ordering and pushed the menu in front of Ye Qi, saying, "We've ordered. What would you like to eat, Xiao Ye?"
Ye Qi snapped out of his daze, took the menu from her, and was about to speak when he suddenly heard Chu Huaying's voice: "I saw another couple, Long Sen and Qu Wanyue, in room 007. "
Ye Qi: "......"
Another couple?!
Chu Huaying whispered, "Stay calm, don't give anything away yet. Are the Long Sen and Qu Wanyue in front of you the real ones, or are the ones in front of me the real ones? We need to carefully verify."
Ye Qi quickly composed himself, chuckled awkwardly, and scratched his head, saying, "I have a big appetite; two steaks are needed to fill me up. Uh, order me two steaks, medium-rare."
Long Sen laughed and said, "Little Ye, you're really hard to please. Then let's order two steaks."
Qu Wanyue tapped her finger lightly and quickly placed an order on her iPad.
Just then, Chu Huaying said in the headset again: "Something's not right. I'm going to teleport to Peach Blossom Spring."
As soon as she finished speaking, a notification appeared before everyone's eyes: " Chu Huaying invites you to enter Peach Blossom Spring ".
Ye Qi pressed the "agree" button.
The scene before me shifted slightly, and peach trees covering the mountains and fields quickly came into view. It was the familiar Peach Blossom Spring scene, and the familiar teammates—unfortunately, there were two pairs of identical teammates in front of me!
Long Sen and Qu Wanyue, who were standing with Ye Qi, saw Long Sen and Qu Wanyue standing with Chu Huaying.
The four people stared at each other, bewildered.