“What’s going on here…?” Yan Zhichun asked in disbelief.
It was hard for her to imagine that Chu Tianqiu would make seven consecutive wrong guesses in front of the screen on his own.
But if it wasn’t Chu Tianqiu… then who could it be?
Seven points had already been deducted consecutively… didn’t this mean that most of the characters they guessed had become invalid?
A faint smile flickered across Chu Tianqiu’s face as he said, “That’s quite a long story.”
“A long story…?”
“The game rules stated that points could only be scored through the ‘commander,'” Chu Tianqiu explained, turning his head, “but what about point deductions?”
“Are you suggesting that…”
“I assumed several of the opposing team’s male members were already under control,” Chu Tianqiu continued. “So among the remaining people, who could smash a display screen barehanded within a minute?”
Then, with a slightly self-deprecating glance toward Yan Zhichun, he added, “If it were you, could you smash your own TV screen barehanded within a minute?”
Yan Zhichun felt that smashing a TV screen wasn’t particularly difficult, but the time constraint made it genuinely challenging.
“But I overlooked one thing,” Chu Tianqiu admitted. “When I saw that Qi Xia’s character ‘mi’ (to squint) didn’t score on the display, I should have realized… would he really make such a basic mistake? Could he have miswritten the pronunciation?”
Trying to grasp Chu Tianqiu’s meaning, Yan Zhichun asked tentatively, “So why didn’t the character ‘mi’ score…?”
“Because he guessed incorrectly among other characters,” Chu Tianqiu replied. “I underestimated Qi Xia… His screen even displayed characters like ‘ao’ (䍒) and ‘che’ (屮). Who knows how many bold guesses he’s made… He also understands better than anyone the consequences of guessing wrong.”
Yan Zhichun’s mind momentarily became chaotic, but she now realized they were already on the brink of defeat.
“What should we do now…?” Chu Tianqiu continued with a bitter smile. “The other side doesn’t even need to smash our display. Someone just needs to come here and repeatedly write homophonic characters incorrectly within a short time to deduct our points…”
“I still don’t understand,” Yan Zhichun said. “You’ve been here all along, right? Why are we still being penalized repeatedly?”
“This is also a long story,” Chu Tianqiu replied. “Precisely because some tasks couldn’t be entrusted to anyone else, I personally smashed their display screen. At that time, I judged that all the threatening individuals on their team would be under control. Even if someone could act freely, it would only be Zhang Chenze, who appeared after the game started.”
“I…”
“But I didn’t expect…” Chu Tianqiu continued, “I predicted Zhang Chenze would definitely lose to you, so she lost her ‘character’ and absolutely couldn’t enter our ‘preparation zone’… What’s going on here?”
After hearing this, Yan Zhichun hesitated for a few seconds. She indeed had taken the character “bao” (包) from Zhang Chenze, but afterward, Qi Xia showed up. The two of them whispered something while standing back-to-back, then she and Qi Xia entered the room. After that… where did Zhang Chenze go?
Thinking of this, Yan Zhichun spoke up, “I noticed that Qi Xia has a habit. I’m not sure if this habit led to our defeat this time.”
“What habit?”
“He always chooses the safest path straight to the ‘river’ when moving, and then moves laterally along the ‘river’ to find the room he wants to enter.”
After hearing this, Chu Tianqiu felt something strange… This habit meant that even if Qi Xia wanted to enter their own game zone, he would always enter through the ‘river.’ In the presence of ‘shape-shifting,’ wouldn’t this approach raise suspicions among teammates?
But from another perspective… Qi Xia’s movement perfectly bypassed all ‘defensive lines.’ Those who established these ‘defensive lines’ couldn’t have imagined that the enemy commander would casually walk right behind them.
“After I finished the game with Zhang Chenze, Qi Xia opened the ‘door’ from the ‘river,'” Yan Zhichun added. “So Zhang Chenze should have returned along the original path to their ‘preparation zone,’ but she unconsciously went to the ‘river’ to talk with Qi Xia. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now it seems like everything was planned by Qi Xia.”
“So just now, it must have been Zhang Chenze who came here,” Chu Tianqiu said. “Her goal was never to smash the display.”
Chu Tianqiu still felt Qi Xia’s strategy was hard to fathom. If this were a real battlefield maneuver, both sides had each launched a ‘decisive move’ directly targeting the enemy’s headquarters. But the strange part was that Qi Xia’s ‘decisive move’ could only be triggered after Chu Tianqiu launched his own ‘decisive move.’
In other words, if he had stayed in the ‘preparation zone’ all along without leaving, Zhang Chenze entering would have been just giving away a ‘character’ pointlessly.
“We’re in a rather passive situation now…” Chu Tianqiu said. “Our current score is less than ten points, while Qi Xia has nearly twenty. I wonder whether the ‘broken display’ counts as scoring. If we survive until the time runs out in this state, it’s hard to determine who the final winner will be.”
“So what do you suggest…?” Yan Zhichun asked. “Should we try to seize their ‘characters’ at the cost of our lives?”
“That’s too naive,” Chu Tianqiu replied. “For the remaining time, the opposing team could even rest in their ‘preparation zone.’ Their display has already been destroyed by me, so now their entire team has no ‘weakness’ left.”
“This…” Yan Zhichun was momentarily at a loss, feeling that the current situation was exactly as Qi Xia had anticipated. She could only say, “Qi Xia said… if you want, you can bring all the ‘characters’ to the ‘river’ to meet him. He’ll personally give you a defeat.”
“Personally give me a defeat…? At the ‘river’?” Chu Tianqiu seemed to have realized a crucial point. “Now both sides have suffered heavy losses. If we do nothing, the winner is still uncertain… but he still wants to give me a defeat?”
Yan Zhichun felt what Chu Tianqiu said made sense, but she ultimately had no idea what Qi Xia was plotting.
“Perhaps…” Yan Zhichun asked softly, “the broken screen can’t display scores, so Qi Xia will be judged as ‘defeated’?”
Chu Tianqiu pondered this idea for a moment, feeling that from a certain perspective, it could make sense.
Their opponent’s display used for counting was already broken. Could their previous score still determine the outcome?
Would their ‘previous score’ be considered the final score? This logic clearly didn’t align with Qinglong’s puzzle-setting principles.
“It seems Qi Xia considered this point…” Chu Tianqiu said. “He doesn’t believe he’ll win, so he must challenge me to a final gamble at the last moment.”
“Is it really necessary to go…?” Yan Zhichun asked again. “If we’re certain he’ll lose, it’s better not to show up. For the remaining time, we should stay in the ‘preparation zone’ and wait for victory, after all, there isn’t much time left.”
“But we’ve all overlooked one point,” Chu Tianqiu said. “The opposing team has Tiantian. This is the biggest uncertainty.”
“Tiantian…?” Yan Zhichun, who rarely interacted with others, wasn’t familiar with Tiantian’s abilities.
“It’s ‘Qiaowu,'” Chu Tianqiu explained. “Since she rarely uses her abilities, I don’t even know the upper limit of ‘Qiaowu.’ If she can actually repair the display, for us… Qi Xia’s team would be like getting something for nothing, making us lose seven points without any cost.”
“‘Qiaowu’… used to repair the display?” Yan Zhichun frowned, feeling that this idea seemed somewhat far-fetched.
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