So Phoebe's words came true. The little witch defected at the critical time two months before the league. The entire King's Guild was in chaos. Phoebe was immersed in an unprecedented low pressure. She was so crazy that she almost killed Bai Liu directly, but was stopped by Hong Tao.

"At least give her a chance and let us see what kind of person she chooses, right?" Heart said to Phoebe, "I won't let you get involved in this matter until you calm down."

"Leave it to you?" Phoebe raised an eyebrow. "A coward will only miss opportunities again and again."

"If you had chosen the most appropriate method from the beginning, the witch would not have defected at all. You left her an opening - at first I asked you to kill Liu Huai, but you refused. Later I asked you to pretend to be Liu Huai, but you were unwilling. Now there is someone who is willing to kill and replace Liu Huai at the same time, so it is natural for the witch to defect."

Hong Tao paused: "That's true, but the gap may also be the freedom of choice, isn't it?"

"It was her choice."

Phoebe paused, then sneered and said, "I watched the replay. Rather than saying it was the Little Witch's choice, it was more like Liu Huai's choice, right?"

"It's her choice." Hong Tao said, "I can bring her back, but only if you don't interfere."

Phoebe replied, "You better be able to."

Hong Tao met the player who also used the bone whip - Bai Liu. He was running fast on the small TV with a very leisurely smile on his face. He opened his arms in the wind created by Qi Yifang and laughed wildly.

The wind blew Bai Liu's hair. He smiled, stretched out his hand to Liu Jiayi and said, "Okay."

"You can do whatever you want, whatever you choose."

【Can.】

【You can do whatever you want. 】

The familiar feeling of following him like a shadow made Hong Tao's fingers curl slightly. He stood still in front of Bai Liu's small TV for a long time, so long that the attendant beside him carefully reminded him: "Empress?"

"Sorry, I was distracted just now." Hong Tao lowered his eyelashes and raised his hand to give an order. He turned his head away from Bai Liu's small TV and said indifferently, "Surround and kill him."

...Could it be him?

Or was it another trick he had deliberately set up to play with his game - just like Spades, after he calmly and clearly chose death, he released a player who was more similar to him to continue to lure him to live and suffer endlessly in this game.

All the ups and downs of thoughts were just a moment, and Hong Tao quickly returned to her original lazy appearance. She gave orders in an orderly manner and encircled and suppressed Bai Liu with brutal and fierce means - even if it was really him, who took away the only heir he had carefully cultivated, there would always be some price to pay.

...If it was really him, he would be able to easily survive his tricks...

"So this is why you let him take the little witch away?" Phoebe looked at Heart coldly, "and why you let me take over?"

"Do you think this Bai Liu is similar to the guest you have been waiting for?"

Hearts glanced at Phoebe with the side of her eyes: "Charles stepped in to protect him."

"You just let him go?" Phoebe sneered. "You can use this excuse to fool other people in the guild, but you can't fool me. If you really wanted to annihilate him, he would be dead by now even if Charles intervened."

"The bone whip, the soul, the love of trading, the tone of his voice, the way he behaved, and even his attitude towards the little witch all reminded you of yourself back then, didn't they? Bai Liu is very similar to that guest, right? And because of this similarity, you softened your heart towards this man named Bai Liu."

Red Heart remained silent.

"Red Heart," Phoebe said coldly, "You will regret letting White Willow go today."

Soon, the day of regret came.

The red eyes trembled as he looked at Bai Liu in the first team battle of the challenge match, wearing a school uniform - he recognized that school uniform, he had worn it before, he still remembered that it was the first piece of clothing that was not from the island that he wore after he became an adult, and the first man he imitated - it was the clothing and request brought by the guest.

[The child's pupils are black.]

[Don't look at me like that. He looks at me coldly. He hates me and won't look at me with such fondness.]

【He refused to kill me.】

[Come to think of it, he is about the same age as you, and is also eighteen years old this year. ]

Hong Tao had never seen that customer looking at him with such an emotional look after he had imitated himself - even when he was imitating the silver-blue child for the first time, the customer's eyes were still calm and nostalgic, without much emotion. But that time, after he had imitated the child completely as requested, the child's eyes contained a very strange emotion - he was looking forward to "him", or to be more precise, the customer was looking forward to the boy he was imitating.

The guest wore a mask and smiled as he said to the boy he was playing: "I am looking forward to you, the day when you grow up, have desires, and walk in front of me."

"I can't wait to see you."

He asked the guest, who is this?

The guest smiled and said, "This is the person who will kill me in the future."

"Or to be more precise, this is me with a soul."

He asked softly, trembling and confused, "What does it mean to be a you with a soul?"

"I am a soulless god, and the human you are playing is my derivative. To be more precise, he has the same appearance, personality traits, and desires as me. Except for not being a god, he is exactly the same as me in every way. You can say he is a mortal version of me."

"Logically, he is derived from me, so there shouldn't be any difference between him and me. But the strange thing is that, in this world, he looks the same as me, but his personality traits and desires are completely different from mine. And the most important thing is——"

The guest slowly sat up straight, his tone slightly raised: "I don't have a soul, but he does."

"I am a person with a soul. I can imagine how powerful he is. If there is a being in this world that can kill me, it must be him."

"Why did you look so angry when you heard that he was going to kill me?" The guest looked at Hong Tao with a smile, his head tilted to one side, resting on the back of his hand. His tone was light and casual, with a vague ambiguity, "Since you like me so much, then compared to me, you might like him more."

"Because I don't understand [love], but he does."

"I won't like him!" Hong Tao showed an expression as if he was humiliated, and he retorted angrily, "I won't like someone who wants to kill you! My love is not something that can be transferred so easily!"

"Oh? Really?" The guest asked, with a half-smile on his lips. "You've only seen me twice, why do you like me?"

"Just because I appeared at the right time, in the right place, and had the right ability to help you realize your wish, you like me?"

"Who do you like, me or this person who appears at such a perfect time? If this person is not me but someone else, will you like him?"

Hong Tao stood still, he raised his head in disbelief, his eyes widened, his breathing quickened, but he couldn't answer a single word.

The guest chuckled softly, then stood up, lowered his eyelids, adjusted his black leather gloves, and pulled them up. He did not look at Hong Tao, who was half-kneeling in front of him, and spoke slowly as if he was chatting, with a hint of coldness in his tone:

"From what I understand, human preferences are superficial and utilitarian, and can be easily manipulated and transferred."

The guest smiled and said, "If you really want to prove to me that you don't like him and express your loyalty to my love for him——"

"——Then kill him and prove it to me."

The moment the words fell, Hong Tao felt the guest pat her head lightly. He turned his head to look at Hong Tao, his eyes smiling, as if he was looking at Hong Tao, but also as if he was looking at the person Hong Tao was playing: "If you really like me that much."

Hong Tao's pupils trembled slightly.

——This was the first time the guest touched him.

"What a rare guest." Charles folded his hands in front of himself. He looked at Hong Tao who pushed open the door of his office and said with a smile, "What could have happened that could make the proud queen skip the meeting with the enemy after watching the challenge match and come knocking on the dirty door of a gambler like me?"

Hong Tao walked up to Charles and looked at him intently: "I want to know the news behind Bai Liu."

"What's the news behind it?" Charles spread his hands and asked with a polite smile, "The Queen and I have been working together for a long time. Of course I am willing to sell you a lot of information. After all, last year I even created a fake identity in the Gamblers' Guild to help you invest in Spades."

"That doesn't count as you helping me." Red Heart retorted indifferently, "You yourself also need an extreme gambler to enhance Black Spade's status and increase his popularity, so you agreed to cooperate with me."

Last year, Hearts spent points to cooperate with Charles in order to get in touch with Spades - he wanted to ask Spades where the bone whip came from. Generally speaking, new players will have private contacts with the gamblers who support them the most, but Spades is a player who doesn't follow the usual path. Hearts spent so many points, but this person didn't pay any extra attention to the gamblers on the points list, and never thought of having private contacts.

In the end, it was Hearts who had a bloody fight with him on the court before she got a reply from Spade about the origin of the bone whip - "I don't know".

"Last year you fell in love with Spades, this year you fell in love with White Willow." Charles teased, "Queen, you have a really good eye. You always pick my dark horse accurately. Last year you were willing to cooperate with me just to get in touch with Spades. Is it the same reason this year?"

"I don't like Bai Liu." Hong Tao replied indifferently, "I just want news about him."

Charles shrugged. "Well, it's my basic professional ethics not to ask my clients questions, but the information here is sold piecemeal. What kind of information do you want? Career? Background? Marriage? Love? Or something related to the league?"

"Since we have been working together for so long, I will give you a friendly price of 10,000 points per piece."

Hong Tao raised her eyes and said, "No matter how much information you know about Bai Liu, I want it all."