Chapter 303: Right or Wrong?

“Doesn’t this feel a bit odd?” Yun Yao whispered to Chen Junnan beside her.

“What’s your take?”

“If I heard right… Earth Snake’s questions are all true-or-false, aren’t they?” Yun Yao pondered. “It’s a game that’s incredibly easy to determine each person’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ yet he insists on using the ‘majority rules’ approach for the answers…”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Chen Junnan said nonchalantly. “It means that old lecher Earth Snake isn’t posing ‘true-or-false’ questions—he’s asking questions with no fixed answers.”

“No fixed answers…?”

“That old bastard spent all that time explaining the rules but never once mentioned ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ So whether we survive or not has nothing to do with the ‘correctness’ of the answers.” Chen Junnan grinned at Yun Yao. “Big star, with each of us in separate rooms, I might not be able to protect you this time.”

Yun Yao nodded, seemingly unfazed. “Just focus on protecting yourself. If possible, try not to kill me in the early stages.”

“Kill you in the early stages…? Damn it… what kind of nonsense is that?” Chen Junnan frowned at her. “You think we’ve got some deep grudge between us?”

“I…” Yun Yao hesitated. “I just can’t fully trust you.”

“If everyone understands the rules, please choose your rooms freely,” Earth Snake added after a moment. “Oh, and I highly encourage those who know each other to be neighbors.”

Yun Yao stiffened slightly at that, then turned to Chen Junnan. “Then we should avoid staying together. I’ll go find a room on the opposite side.”

“Why be scared of him?” Chen Junnan chuckled. “Just stay next to me.”

“But—”

“No buts. You probably don’t know me well enough.” Chen Junnan ran a hand through his hair. “No tricks work on me. That old pervert can say whatever he wants. Today, you’ll get to witness my dashing heroics firsthand—perfect material to tell Old Qi about later.”

“Dashing heroics…?” Yun Yao gave him a skeptical look. “Are you sure?”

“Sure as hell.” Chen Junnan nodded and pushed open the door in front of him. “Big star, you’ll be staying east of me.”

Once inside, Chen Junnan took his seat and examined the screen before him.

It resembled a tablet, with two buttons on either side—green for “Yes” on the left, and red for “No” on the right.

After a moment’s thought, Yun Yao entered the room to Chen Junnan’s right, while the others gradually chose their own rooms.

Chen Junnan glanced around. With the doors still open, he could see the girl in the white dress directly across from him, but the angles made it impossible to identify the other occupants.

Earth Snake nodded and pulled a lever beside the lectern. With a heavy thud, all twelve doors slammed shut.

“Please familiarize yourselves with the facilities in your rooms. The game will begin in five minutes.”

Chen Junnan pushed against the door, but some mechanism had locked it firmly in place.

His impulsive nature hadn’t changed, it seemed.

Had he known, he would’ve entered last. Now, apart from Yun Yao and the girl in white, he had no idea where the others were positioned.

“Ah well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Chen Junnan sat back. “My life motto’s always been ‘the cart will find its way around the hill when it gets there.’”

A few minutes later, four words slowly lit up on the screen:

[Game Start.]

“Already…?”

The room was eerily quiet. Chen Junnan stood and knocked on the wall—it felt unnaturally thick, as if reinforced with solid iron and coated in paint.

Whether for soundproofing or to prevent escape, even the floor beneath him was brutally sturdy, made entirely of cast iron.

Just as he was lost in thought, the phone in the corner rang deafeningly.

[Ding-a-ling—!!]

Chen Junnan nearly jumped out of his skin. The sudden noise in the silence was jarring. He took a deep breath and picked up.

It was Yun Yao.

“Chen Junnan?”

“Yeah, it’s me. What’s up?”

She sighed in relief. “There’s only one button on this phone. It’s a miracle it even connected to you.”

“Hah, really?” Chen Junnan chuckled, examining his own phone—sure enough, just one button. “So, what’ll we talk about? Wanna exchange ages first?”

“Be serious,” Yun Yao chided. “A question just appeared on my screen.”

“Oh?” Chen Junnan perked up. “What was it?”

“[Are you female?]”

“…What?” He blinked. “That’s the ‘question’?”

“I don’t know, but I answered truthfully,” Yun Yao said. “Now it’s your turn to answer, then pass the question to the next person.”

She hung up before he could respond. Chen Junnan returned to the screen, where the text now read: [Call answered. Please respond.]

“Am I female…?”

After a moment’s deliberation, he hovered over the “No” button—then decisively slammed “Yes.”

So what if he got it wrong?

“Today, I’m a woman. Maybe that’ll give me an edge when begging that old lecher Earth Snake for mercy.”

The screen flickered: [Response recorded.]

Chen Junnan picked up the phone and pressed the solitary button. A man answered after a few rings.

“…Hello?”

“Listen up,” Chen Junnan said. “The question is: [Are you female?]”

“Wha—? That’s…”

“Message delivered. Bye.” He hung up and slumped into his chair, thinking.

Twelve participants total—seven men, five women.

If everyone answered honestly, the majority would dictate the answer as “No.”

But would they?

After a few minutes, the screen flashed again. The result made Chen Junnan grin.

[Final answer for this round: “Yes.”]

“What the hell?” He laughed. “That many perverts here?”

A deafening chain rattled overhead.

Chen Junnan jerked his head up. The ceiling was pitch-black, but something massive was moving above it.

[Clank—clank—]

The room trembled as the chains ground to a halt.

He squinted at the ceiling, clueless about what lurked there, then refocused on the screen.

The second question had appeared—this time, he’d be the one to pass it along.

[After reading, transmit the following via phone:

“Jewish physicist Albert Einstein formally published the Special Theory of Relativity in 1918, wherein he first equated gravitational fields to the curvature of spacetime.”

Is the above statement correct?]

“You bastard!” Chen Junnan roared. “Earth Snake! You son of a bitch! Screwing with me, huh?!”