Everything now seems to be unfolding according to plan, yet somehow feels slightly off.
Qi Xia once mentioned that the “character” on Jinyuan might be “Soldier (卒),” something of extreme importance to them, and that they must launch a full-scale offensive within the remaining time.
Now, he’s stumbled into a “Renshe (Snake Dealer)” game with him—was this part of the plan or not?
Since Jinyuan, once obtaining an “Echo,” becomes slippery like an eel and impossible to catch, it’s the perfect moment to pin him down in this room and seize the “character.” That way, even if he starts acting up later, it won’t matter.
“Very good, very good…” Chen Junnan nodded.
“What’s so good?” Renshe asked.
“Oh, right too,” Chen Junnan replied, then turned to Jinyuan. “Xiao Jin, you up for it?”
“What’s not to be up for?” Jinyuan responded. “Bro, I’m not completely scared, you know.”
“Kid, haven’t you figured it out yet?” Chen Junnan chuckled. “Didn’t you see me secretly communicating with the referee just now?”
“What… what communication?”
“Private conversation,” Chen Junnan said. “You know, secret collusion.”
“What… collusion?”
“You really want to say it like that? Who’s colluding with you?” Renshe interjected. “Weren’t we in a hurry? Not anymore?”
“Heh, now that we’ve retrieved the ‘character,’ there’s really no rush anymore,” Chen Junnan told Jinyuan. “This referee, Snake Brother, and I have known each other for over twenty years, practically childhood friends. He’s planning to give a biased call and award you ‘character’ to me, so you might as well give up early.”
“Oh no…” Jinyuan was stunned. “You’re kidding, right?”
Renshe didn’t respond but curiously looked at Jinyuan and asked, “Korean?”
“Yanbian, Jilin,” Jinyuan corrected.
“Well then, you’re at a disadvantage in this game,” Renshe smiled. “This is a Q&A game; as a Chinese person, you can’t even speak fluent Mandarin, how can you play?”
“I can understand most of it!” Jinyuan said. “It’s just not very fluent when I speak. My parents speak Korean-Chinese at home.”
“Hey, hold on!” Chen Junnan released Jinyuan and approached Renshe. “Snake Brother, are you really going to play the game?”
“…Well, what else?” Renshe asked.
“You don’t even have any game props here. What game are you going to play?” Chen Junnan questioned.
“I am the game prop,” Renshe said, pulling out a notebook from his pocket and slamming it onto the table. “I’ll ask you two questions, whoever answers correctly wins.”
“Questions?” Chen Junnan glanced at the worn-out notebook on the table. “Can I take a peek beforehand?”
“Sure,” Renshe nodded.
Upon hearing this, Chen Junnan hesitated for a moment, as if fearing a change of mind, and hurriedly flipped through the notebook, finding it filled with questions.
The handwriting looked somewhat familiar.
Not wanting to be left out, Jinyuan also rushed to Chen Junnan’s side to look at the question notebook together.
“To… two… what… please… who?” Jinyuan mumbled.
“Xiao Jin, if you can’t read, don’t bother reading. Move aside a bit, I’ll explain to you later,” Chen Junnan said.
“Mind your own business?” Jinyuan frowned and retorted, continuing to look at the notebook.
Chen Junnan quickly skimmed through it and found mostly logic puzzles, even some previously used in the interview room. Behind those puzzles were pencil marks indicating they had been answered.
Chen Junnan was very familiar with such books; every kid had a pile of them back when he was in school. Instinctively, he flipped to the last page.
The last page still contained logic puzzles.
“…?”
“What’s wrong?” Renshe asked.
“Where’s the answer?” Chen Junnan held up the notebook and asked.
“What answer?”
“The answers to these questions! Where are they?”
“How should I know?”
“…Huh?”
Chen Junnan was momentarily stunned but quickly understood. “I get it. You keep the answers separately? Clever bastard.”
“No, I just brought this notebook,” Renshe replied. “Isn’t this hard enough for the two of you?”
“It’s hard enough. But what’s the point of making it hard for us two?!” Chen Junnan said. “Besides, does this kid even need to be challenged with these questions? He’d be depressed for a day if you just told him ‘a blue cloth curtain hanging on the door.'”
“Hey! Bro! You…” Jinyuan wanted to say something but couldn’t understand what the previous sentence meant, let alone repeat it.
“So that’s why I said he’s at a disadvantage in this game,” Renshe said. “Are you two ready? I’ll start soon. Three questions, whoever answers two correctly wins.”
“Wait a second!” Knowing this wasn’t his strength, Chen Junnan quickly pulled Renshe aside and whispered, “We still have a deal, right? Can’t you let me take a shortcut?”
“A shortcut?” Renshe whispered back. “How?”
“Just tell me the answers to the first three questions,” Chen Junnan mumbled. “Otherwise, I’m afraid I can’t win.”
“Didn’t I make myself clear earlier? I said ‘How should I know’?” Renshe replied. “Where would I get the answers?”
“…?”
Chen Junnan was momentarily stunned again, realizing he might have indeed misunderstood. In this damned place, he often felt confused.
Each time he clarified his thoughts, it was only to become more confused next time.
But could he really be blamed? It seemed all the absurd things in the world had happened to him.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” Chen Junnan said. “If you don’t know the answers, why the hell are you asking questions?”
“I’ll judge whether your answers are correct after you finish speaking,” Renshe honestly replied.
Chen Junnan remained silent for three seconds before saying, “Kid, I’m a bit confused. Let me see if I understand correctly…”
“Go ahead.”
“You ask questions, and we guess. Then you judge whether our guesses are correct.”
“Correct.”
“So, whoever you think is right, is right.”
“Correct.”
Chen Junnan blinked. “Then why not give me a biased call? Aren’t we still meeting Old Qi? What do you gain if I lose?”
“Ah, although I really want to see Qi Xia, this isn’t about biased calls,” Renshe said. “Firstly, we ‘Shengxiao’ have our own rules; I must remain fair. Secondly… I genuinely want to know the answers to these questions.”
“These are just ordinary logic puzzles,” Chen Junnan said. “You can find tons of them online. What’s the big deal?”
“This is a ‘train ticket,'” Renshe said.
“A train ticket…?”
“It leads to a distant future,” Renshe said. “Though distant, I want to take a look.”
Chen Junnan and Jinyuan looked at each other in confusion. The Q&A game hadn’t even started, yet they already couldn’t understand what Renshe was saying.
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