Mingqiao was shaken awake. When he opened his eyes, he saw Qin Xue's face in front of him, and then with Qin Xue's excited shout, when he opened his eyes again, the face had been replaced by Shi Xin's.

During the time when Mingqiao was unconscious, Shi Xin had gone to the corridor to recover his original height. He didn't know if he was tired or what, but his voice was a little hoarse: "Teacher Ming, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Your fever seems to have subsided."

"Sleepy." Ming Qiao rubbed his temples and got up from the bed. He looked around and found that they were still in the basement. "How long have I slept?"

"About ten minutes." Shi Xin's arm was loosely around Ming Qiao's back, fearing that he would fall down again. After making sure that Ming Qiao was conscious and not in any other pain, he retracted his hand and said, "The meat grinder has stopped. I checked and found that most of the mechanisms here are unlocked. If nothing goes wrong, there is already an escape route on the playground. Shall we go now?"

"Yes." Mingqiao nodded: "Pack up all the tools in this room that can be used and take them away, such as ropes and flashlights."

"good."

Shi Xin and Qin Xue were very quick, and since Shi Xin had searched the place once before, they found the cabinet keys and other things right away.

The two men dug out a bundle of hemp ropes three fingers thick, a toolbox, a tall cell phone for the elderly, and finally found half a box of Zhonghua cigarettes and a lighter.

Mingqiao took the lighter and turned it on with a click. The short flame jumped a few times before it stabilized. He stared at the light for a few seconds and asked Shi Xin, "Are you sure there's nothing else here?"

"Sure." Shi Xin said firmly.

"Let's go."

The three of them walked through the familiar corridor and arrived at the entrance of the casino. Without the dazzling neon lights, it seemed a bit desolate.

Mingqiao opened the door and walked in without hesitation.

The pain this casino left on him was too deep, and Mingqiao had to grit his teeth to get through it with difficulty.

Many gamblers greeted Ming Qiao when they saw him, their enthusiasm not diminishing at all: "Mr. Lucky, keep playing!"

There were drops of blood splattered on the faces and hands of those people, which had dried and turned brown. Coupled with their malicious smiles, it was disgusting to see them.

Mingqiao took a few deep breaths, and didn't want to bother with them anymore, so he simply closed his eyes and ignored them. However, some shameless people still came over and tried to grab Mingqiao.

The man was quick-witted and agile, and Mingqiao almost failed to dodge it. But before he could react, Shi Xin, who was walking in front, rushed over and knocked off the hand.

"Don't touch him!"

Many people around were stunned, even Ming Qiao was staring at Shi Xin in a trance.

Shi Xin stared at the man who wanted to come to Lamin Bridge just now, and warned him word by word: "I have tolerated you for a long time."

"That's enough." Ming Qiao was so tired that he just wanted to leave quickly, so he came over to hold Shi Xin and patted him on the shoulder a few times: "Let's go out first."

Shi Xin didn't say anything, but silently gave up the leading position and followed Ming Qiao like a bodyguard, one step away. After this, no one came up to cause trouble, and even gave them a way out.

Qin Xue, who was walking at the end and witnessed everything, swallowed silently.

Why did he feel that Shi Xin was so much like a dog? Just like the German Shepherd raised by his classmate's family, oh no, usually as obedient as a golden retriever, but only like a wolfdog when he got angry. But he certainly didn't dare to say this out loud, because he had just been caught by Shi Xin and scolded for a long time, and he just stopped now, so he didn't want to provoke him again.

Shi Xin turned around and saw Qin Xue's half-smile. He squinted his eyes and looked over, not knowing what bad intentions this man had. "Can you hurry up? Even a cripple like me can walk faster than you."

Qin Xue didn't say anything, but he spat quietly behind his back.

What kind of cripple? He just fell when he was climbing down the wall, and his legs are weak, so he walks with a slight limp, and he's pretending to be weak.

Mingqiao heard Shi Xin talking and turned to look at him: "What's wrong with your legs?"

"I fell down and it hurts a little, but it's okay."

Since Shi Xin said so, there must be something wrong. Ming Qiao sighed and said, "I'll help you check it out when we get to a safe place."

"Okay," Shi Xin smiled at him, "Thank you, Teacher Ming."

Mingqiao felt relieved when he saw him laughing. He walked towards the back door and said, "I'm going to burn this down later."

"Ah?" Shi Xin didn't react for a moment. In his opinion, Ming Qiao didn't seem like such a arbitrary person. Before in the restaurant, he didn't even want to let those people who turned into monsters enter the mechanism. He was like a saint, so why did he suddenly want to burn this place down now?

"I don't know why this game designer would build a casino in a place like a school. Anyway, he definitely has no good intentions. Such a place should not exist. It is better to burn it down to prevent it from causing harm to others."

"Teacher Ming." Shi Xin called him, but when Ming Qiao turned around, he didn't know what to say.

Ask him directly what you have experienced? Will Mingqiao tell him?

"Those NPCs..."

"They are all monsters." Mingqiao said only one sentence.

Without any obstacles, the three of them quickly arrived at the back door of the casino. Before Mingqiao went out, he pulled the curtain next to him and lit it with a lighter.

There were not many people at the back door, so naturally no one would pay attention to them. There were many wooden tables and chairs in the casino, and many places were covered with carpets. Once a fire started, no one inside could escape.

Mingqiao watched the flames grow bigger and bigger, burning along the curtains. The air around them began to become scorched, and the smell of smoke began to spread. He glanced at Shi Xin and asked, "Do you have anything else to ask me?"

"Mr. Ming, how did you win those four cards?"

"After entering the casino, I started playing cards. There was a fixed prize on each gaming table, which was a metal poker card. If I wanted the cards, I had to keep winning."

"Use your winnings to exchange for your next winnings, until you get the cards you want." Shi Xin was terrified: "Then there are at least four times you can't exchange, so you..."

This is why Qin Xue said that when he first met Ming Qiao, he had lost an eye and three fingers. It turned out that this was the reason.

"You can't lose this whole time." Shi Xin murmured.

"Yes." Mingqiao nodded: "So I racked my brains to cheat, and someone targeted me."

"Maybe they didn't want your fingers and eyes, but just wanted to punish you for cheating. Or, they cut off your fingers and dug out your eyes to stop you from cheating next time."

"right."

Shi Xin took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling heavily: "Does it hurt?"

"It's over." Ming Qiao had a faint smile on his face. "But luckily, before the game started, I won a prize. In their words, it's called 'free meals from the casino'. No matter what I lose, the casino will pay for it in the end. So my lost eyes and fingers finally grew back on my hands."

Shi Xin looked at his fingers. At the base of the three fingers on Mingqiao's right hand, except for the thumb and little finger, there was a very light pink circle, like a scar that was about to heal.

Hearing Mingqiao's relaxed tone, as if everything was really over, his heart suddenly ached and his nose felt sour.

Although Mingqiao is already twenty-five or twenty-six years old, he has probably never come into contact with card games in casinos, let alone cheating in them.

There are so many gambling tables in the casino, and he has to play one by one. He cannot lose, because if he loses, he will have to cut off an extra finger or dig out an extra eye. If in the end he has no more eyes to dig out or no more fingers to cut, he will not be able to win back the cards. Without cards, the mechanism cannot be opened, and everyone will die here.

None of his colleagues or students survived.

This is Mingqiao’s responsibility.

Shi Xin didn't know what to say about Ming Qiao. No one would ask him to do these things, but he was just doing what he thought he should do. It had nothing to do with heroism or honors. He was being a legendary "good teacher."

As the last small wooden door opened, the three finally walked out of the smoky casino. The rain had stopped, and only Wang Dada was left on the podium. The others went to the entrance where they first turned out from the cafeteria.

"Teacher Ming!" Wang Dada ran towards him immediately when he saw Ming Qiao, his speed almost catching up with that of a black man in a 100-meter race.

Shi Xin stopped him halfway to prevent him from being knocked down by Ming Qiao.

"Teacher Ming, about ten minutes before you came out, there," Wang Dada pointed at the crowd, "a diving platform grew out there. Wow, it scared all of us."

"Then what?" Qin Xue asked.

"Then Teacher Zhang took us to see it, and we found that there were several rules engraved on it where there should have been instructions for using fitness equipment."

Mingqiao recalled the notice he saw on the playground bulletin board at the beginning, which mentioned something about the diving platform and diving board: "Let me briefly explain it."

"In addition to the unusual instructions, the two strangest ones are, 'The diving platform and diving board are real, you can use them without worry', and another one with illegible words, but Teacher Zhang guessed it was probably, 'There is a connection between the acid water and the diving platform, they will only disappear together.'" Wang scratched the back of his head, "If that's the case, even if we don't use the diving platform, it's unlikely that we can get out of the playground by other means."

"That shouldn't be the case," Shi Xin frowned. "As long as the meat grinder inside stops pumping out the acid water and it doesn't rain outside, the drainage system of the playground alone should be enough to drain the acid water out. It just takes time to wait. How come the acid water is connected to the diving platform again?"

"It's those two forces fighting each other again." Ming Qiao shook his head helplessly, "Let's go, since we have to use the diving platform, let's go over and take a look."