“Wait a moment…”
Xiao Cheng lowered his head to glance at his own cards, then looked up to carefully examine Earth Monkey’s cards, quickly spotting the issue.
He had never imagined that this game could be both so simple and so complex at the same time.
All the words Qi Xia had spoken, the questions he had asked, the increasingly bright wooden box at the center of the table, the “lunar phases,” the solar terms, the festivals—all the information suddenly connected in his mind.
*Dong!*
A distant bell tolled, and in that moment, Xiao Cheng’s thoughts cleared like a sudden revelation.
He couldn’t believe that the man named Qi Xia had been engaging in such intricate thinking all along. If he had been playing this game alone, forget eight rounds—even after a whole day under these constantly shifting rules, he might not have figured them out accurately.
The most challenging aspect of this game was the rule change in the fourth round.
Normally, players trying to deduce the rules of this card game wouldn’t manage it in just one or two rounds like Qi Xia had. The number four was likely carefully designed—most people would need four rounds to grasp the game’s mechanics.
Just as everyone was on the verge of understanding the rules, the box at the center of the table would reach its brightest state, and the rules would quietly shift.
At that moment, when everyone believed they had victory in their grasp and increased their bets, they would fall into Earth Monkey’s second trap.
“Do you understand now?” Qi Xia said solemnly from the side. “When you rely too much on those around you and stop thinking for yourself, you become weaker than usual.”
Xiao Cheng nodded, realizing that his earlier reasoning had indeed been flawed.
If he kept depending on others, how could he possibly survive in a place like this until the end?
Had he started thinking for himself sooner, he might have figured these things out long ago.
“Everyone, I understand the rules now,” Xiao Cheng said, lifting his head with newfound confidence in his eyes.
Although this game followed the framework of “Blackjack,” it wasn’t actually “Blackjack”—it should be called “Sixteen.”
“Right now, we’re experiencing a ‘Full Moon.’ During this phase, the points aren’t calculated individually anymore. Instead, we see whose total comes closest to the ‘Full Moon’—the one who gets closest wins.” Xiao Cheng pointed to Earth Monkey’s cards and patiently explained, “The current rules are a bit more complex than before. Besides calculating the ‘month’ value of each card, we also need to sum up all the digits.”
“For example, Earth Monkey’s current hand includes ‘Qingming’ (3-6), ‘Chunfen’ (2-2-1), and ‘Spring Festival’ (1-1). Adding all these numbers together gives a total of ’16.'” To ensure clarity, he added, “Just like in ‘Blackjack,’ where ’20’ isn’t the highest—’21’ is—Earth Monkey likely drew from the saying, ‘The moon is fullest on the sixteenth,’ making ’16’ the cap for this game. Any total exceeding ’16’ is a bust, while reaching exactly ’16’ is the best possible hand.”
“We wouldn’t have figured this out so quickly, but Brother Qi’s earlier question directly confirmed the rule.”
Xiao Cheng pushed his own cards forward.
“Everyone, my hand is ‘Xiaoxue’ (1-0-2-3), ‘Dongzhi’ (1-1-2-3), and ‘Spring Festival’ (1-1). Adding all these numbers together gives me ’15.'” His expression turned serious. “Thanks to Brother Qi’s question, we now know for sure whether ’15’ or ’16’ is stronger in this phase of the game. That’s the rule during the ‘Full Moon.'”
After hearing this, everyone quickly checked their own cards and realized Xiao Cheng was absolutely right.
Sweet’s hand—’Xiaohan’ (1-2-8), ‘Xiaoman’ (4-2-1), and ‘Spring Festival’ (1-1)—added up to ’20,’ which exceeded the ‘Full Moon’ limit and therefore counted as a bust.
Zheng Yingxiong’s cards totaled ’26,’ Chen Junnan’s only reached ’13,’ Qiao Jiajin had ’21,’ and Qi Xia had ’28.’
Among them, Xiao Cheng’s ’15’ was the closest to victory.
Had Earth Monkey’s hand not been ’16,’ they might have won another round.
“Dang it…” Qiao Jiajin scratched his head, feeling like this game was rapidly spiraling beyond his comfort zone.
The scattered cards on the table were nothing but a mess of Chinese characters, yet everyone had been performing excessive mental calculations from the start—and now the calculations had deepened even further.
Not only did they have to determine their own card values based on Earth Monkey’s initial clue, “September 23rd,” but they also had to add up every digit within those “dates.” And that was just to understand their own hands.
To actually win, they had to deduce the probabilities of the opponent’s possible hands based on the cards already revealed on the table, then convert those hypothetical hands into numbers and sum them up.
Once they had an estimate of their own and their opponent’s totals, they had to engage in psychological warfare through “betting” and “calling”—this was the essence of “lunar phases.”
Though the rules weren’t overly complicated, the sheer volume of calculations left everyone in heavy silence during the game. A single misstep could mean miscalculating their own hand.
At this moment, Qi Xia pressed his fingers to his temple, glanced at Xiao Cheng, and after a brief silence, slowly asked, “Is that all there is to the rules?”
Xiao Cheng met his gaze, unsure what he meant, and after a moment of thought, replied, “Yes, that’s all I can think of.”
Qi Xia gave a slight nod and looked away.
He knew Xiao Cheng had missed an important rule.
Judging by his expression, he genuinely hadn’t considered it—but Qi Xia saw no need to point it out here.
After all, besides their own group, Earth Monkey had also heard Xiao Cheng’s explanation.
Once Earth Monkey realized this crucial rule had been overlooked, he would undoubtedly exploit it. And Qi Xia could use that to his advantage, leveraging his deception skills to secure the next round’s victory.
Though Earth Monkey held home-field advantage, he was no sheep.
“Now that you understand the rules, let’s hurry up and continue,” Earth Monkey said, turning to Qi Xia. “All of you are nearly out of chips, and you especially have nothing left. Are you really confident you can walk out of my place alive?”
A slow smile curled on Qi Xia’s lips. “Earth Monkey, as a gambler, you should know—those who’ve lost everything are the most dangerous.”
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