Chapter 13: A Rain

Qi Xia kept rotating the table with effort and said, “The positions of Ningxia and Shandong can form a horizontal line.”

“Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, and Yunnan can form a left-falling stroke.”

“And the four points of Guangxi, Guangdong, Shaanxi, and Jiangsu can form a square, which is exactly the character for ‘you’ (right).”

“No matter where Han Yimo’s hometown ends up being, as long as it’s either Guangxi or Taiwan, it will form the character for ‘kou’ (口), so the answer was determined from the very beginning.”

Everyone quickened their pace while exchanging uneasy glances.

Qi Xia’s logic was too unconventional, yet she had solved the puzzle twice in a row, which naturally caused the others to grow suspicious.

Qi Xia herself was aware of this as well, so she spoke up, “Don’t get me wrong, though. If the next game requires sacrificing all of you to save myself, I would毫不犹豫地 choose to survive.”

Upon hearing this, the others could only fall silent, gritting their teeth as they continued turning the table.

Nine people sat around the table, continuously rotating it to the right.

“How many rounds have we done?” Qiao Jiajin asked.

“Twenty-six,” Lin Qin answered.

“You can actually count that accurately?” Qiao Jiajin blinked. “This table looks the same everywhere.”

“I counted based on the bloodstains on the table,” Lin Qin replied seriously. “Counting is very important for us psychological counselors.”

Qi Xia frowned slightly, “Not even thirty rounds yet. We need to hurry.”

Everyone fell silent again and sped up their movements.

However, the table became increasingly difficult to rotate as time passed, as if the internal chains were tightening.

“Dang it, what’s going on?” Qiao Jiajin gritted his teeth. “This is way too heavy.”

“Keep pushing… maybe it really leads to a door!” Tian Tian also grimaced.

Her words gave the others a glimmer of hope amidst despair.

A door.

If this room could conjure holes out of nowhere, why couldn’t it conjure a door?

Their arms were already aching, but they kept rotating the table, round after round.

“Everyone, don’t give up! Five more rounds to go!” Lin Qin shouted loudly.

At this moment, everyone was gritting their teeth and exerting all their strength; no one dared to slack off.

“Crack, crack.”

With the final rotation, the table clearly clicked into something.

Everyone finally exhaled in relief, and the aching pain in their arms gradually surfaced.

At this moment, there were only three minutes left until 1:15 a.m.

“Where’s the door?!” Qiao Jiajin shouted anxiously.

The surrounding walls remained unchanged, and within the pitch-black void, the cold gleam of the harpoons could still be seen.

“Dang it! There’s no door!” Qiao Jiajin’s voice was tinged with despair.

“We were wrong! We guessed wrong!” Xiao Ran screamed. “Shouldn’t we have turned left? We shouldn’t have trusted that liar! We’re all going to die here!!”

Qi Xia slightly furrowed her brow.

Wrong?

Before anyone could react, the clock in the center of the table suddenly acted strangely.

It trembled slightly and then emitted eight laser beams.

The eight beams shot out from the clock and gradually stopped at the edge of the table.

Under everyone’s confusion, the clock precisely divided the table into equal fan-shaped sections, like slicing a pizza.

“Crash!”

With a loud noise, the table shattered into pieces.

The central clock now stood only on a small wooden stump.

Qi Xia looked closely and found that there were nine small fan-shaped pieces and one large fan-shaped piece.

No, rather than calling them “fan-shaped,” it would be more accurate to call them “triangles,” since the base of each table segment was flat.

Time was too tight, and everyone was in a panic.

“What is this?” Han Yimo cried out in shock. “Why did the table break apart like this?”

At this moment, Officer Li noticed that there were handles on the back of each fan-shaped table segment. Years of professional experience instantly told him what it meant.

“They’re shields!”

He picked up the largest fan-shaped table segment and held it in front of himself.

“We can use these to block the harpoons!”

Upon hearing this, everyone quickly grabbed table segments, though unfortunately, there was only one large segment. Everyone else could only get small triangles, barely enough to cover their own bodies.

But within just a few seconds, everyone noticed the problem.

“How are we supposed to block them?!” Lawyer Zhang Chenzé, rarely showing panic, exclaimed. “If harpoons come from all four directions, we can only block one direction!”

“We need to cooperate,” Qi Xia responded, regaining her composure. “We form a circle and cover each other’s backs.”

Upon hearing this, everyone quickly adjusted their formation and waited in silence.

At this moment, the only sound was their collective breathing.

Nine strangers had now become teammates, each indispensable.

At this moment, Qi Xia casually glanced back at the writer Han Yimo and noticed that his face was covered in sweat and his whole body was trembling, looking extremely nervous.

Just then, a distant chime rang out from outside the room again.

“Are you okay?” Qi Xia asked.

“N-nothing…” Han Yimo shook his head.

“Hey! Dr. Zhao, flip your table segment over!” Zhang Chenzé suddenly said.

“Why?” Dr. Zhao looked at the table segment in his hand; its pointed end was facing down, and the wide end was facing up.

“You can’t block my legs like that!” Zhang Chenzé said anxiously. “I’ll get hit!”

“If I flip it, I can’t block my head anymore!” Dr. Zhao retorted. “Which is more important, the head or the legs?”

Some people overheard their argument and thought Dr. Zhao made a good point, so they began flipping their fan-shaped segments.

The pointed end down, the wide end up.

This created a strange situation.

The harpoons flying from all directions would only be blocked above, leaving everyone’s legs exposed.

“Is this really okay?” Xiao Ran hesitated. “Even if we can hide our legs in the narrow part and block the front, what about harpoons coming from behind us? What about those coming from above?”

“I’ll block from above!” Officer Li raised his large table segment. “Come closer, I’ll protect you all.”

Undoubtedly, this seemed like the best solution at the moment. The largest table segment, held by one person to block from above, while the others blocked the sides. Yet Qi Xia still felt something was off.

Lin Qin quickly thought for a moment and said, “The rest of us should place our segments one above the other; we can stagger them!”

“Right! That makes sense!” Qiao Jiajin also agreed.

“No,” Qi Xia interrupted. “If everyone’s table segments are perpendicular to the harpoons, they’ll be easily pierced…”

“Hey, genius, then what do you suggest?” Qiao Jiajin asked.

Qi Xia’s gaze landed on the leather mask lying on the floor.

“Why is the bamboo shoot unafraid of the rain?”

This final clue made Qi Xia thoughtful.

“Wait, wait… give me a bit more time,” Qi Xia frowned.

Everyone held their breath, watching the time tick away, with only one minute left until the harpoons would be launched.

“Never mind him!” Dr. Zhao snapped. “Let’s just follow Lin Qin’s suggestion and stagger the segments!”

“You fat worm, shut up!” Qiao Jiajin shouted. “I trust what the liar says.”

“You!” Dr. Zhao gritted his teeth and swallowed his words.

What did the large and small table segments really mean?

“No…” Qi Xia suddenly widened her eyes. “It’s a ‘lie’! The large table segments will kill us!”

“What?” Officer Li looked at Qi Xia with confusion.

“Officer, drop the large table segment and go get the last small one. Everyone, point the sharp ends upward!”

Although most people were slightly doubtful, their minds were already blank, so they temporarily followed her instructions.

Dr. Zhao hesitated briefly before flipping his segment around.

Officer Li also picked up the last small table segment after hesitating for a few seconds.

“Everyone, crouch down!” Qi Xia continued. “Move the sharp ends backward and bring them together. Officer Li, you don’t need to block from above anymore; join us!”

Under Qi Xia’s instructions, the group slowly aligned all the fan-shaped segments, forming a cone-like structure.

No one had expected that, after discarding the large table segment, all the small ones would fit together perfectly, forming a pyramid that blocked every gap from all directions and even from directly above.

From a distance, the cone resembled a bamboo shoot, waiting for a heavy rain.

In the pitch-black space, everyone’s hearts pounded with tension, and only their breathing echoed among them.

“It’s coming…”

Qi Xia calculated the timing in her mind and softly signaled.

The next moment, everyone heard a violent gust of wind, and something invisible slammed into the table segment in Qi Xia’s hand.

Then, sounds of impact came from all directions like a violent storm.

The harpoons had surprisingly strong force; everyone felt their arms vibrating painfully, almost unable to hold onto the table segments.

Luckily, all the table segments were pressed together at this moment, forming a delicate balance.

“Ahh!”

A harpoon suddenly pierced the table segment in front of Xiao Ran, causing her to scream.

Qi Xia turned around and saw that the harpoon had stopped just two or three centimeters away from Xiao Ran’s eyes.

Thankfully, the table segment was strong enough; otherwise, Xiao Ran would already be dead.