Chapter 11: Let’s Continue
Qi Xia remained seated, neither standing up nor searching for clues.
He still felt that something was strange.
Also still seated was Lin Qin, the psychological counselor.
“What are you thinking about?” Lin Qin asked, casually covering her mouth and nose with her hand.
“Me?” Qi Xia was taken aback. “What? Are you going to give me a psychological diagnosis?”
“Not exactly. Although smart people like you tend to have some psychological issues, this situation isn’t really suitable for therapy.” Lin Qin gave a slight smile. “I just wanted to ask what you were thinking.”
Qi Xia hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’m thinking about the reason.”
“The reason?”
Qi Xia ignored Lin Qin and instead called out to Dr. Zhao, asking, “Doctor, generally speaking, how long can a person survive after being shot in the heart?”
Dr. Zhao turned around, pondered for a moment, and replied, “If I remember correctly, when the heart is hit by a bullet, a person loses consciousness within seconds. However, since medical ‘death’ refers to ‘brain death,’ even if unconscious, the brain can still function for a few more minutes.”
Qi Xia nodded. “The ram-headed man screamed for several minutes just now. That means his physical structure is much tougher than an average human’s, right?”
“Yes. He was shot in the heart and only completely lost consciousness after several minutes.”
Hearing Qi Xia and the doctor talking, everyone quieted down.
It was precisely because this swindler’s thinking was so clear that all nine of them had survived.
“So, why do you think that is?” Qi Xia extended his index finger and thumb, forming the shape of a gun, and placed it against his temple. “Most people would choose to kill themselves like this.”
He thought for a moment, then aimed the imaginary gun upward from below toward his chin. “Or like this.”
He withdrew his hand and pointed at his own heart.
“No matter what… a suicide would choose a way to die that minimizes their pain. So why did he aim at his own heart?”
Qiao Jiajin was toying with the ram-headed mask, then flipped the man’s head over and said, “Maybe this fool’s head was tougher, and one shot couldn’t kill him.”
“Since he was coughing up blood, that proves his body structure is the same as ours,” Officer Li said. “Even if he were stronger, getting shot in the head at that distance would definitely kill him.”
Qi Xia nodded. “In that case, I can only think of one reason.”
He pointed at the mask in Qiao Jiajin’s hand and said, “The ram-headed man chose to shoot himself in the heart, most likely to protect something. The ‘game’ probably isn’t over yet.”
Qiao Jiajin was stunned. “You mean… he was afraid of damaging his own mask?”
“Exactly.”
Following Qi Xia’s instructions, Qiao Jiajin turned the ram-leather mask over, revealing the rough inner lining to everyone.
A sour, rotten smell wafted out.
Just as Qi Xia had predicted, words were written on the inside of the mask with black ink.
Some parts were stained with blood. Qiao Jiajin didn’t mind; he wiped it with his T-shirt, and the writing became legible.
“What the hell?” Qiao Jiajin was startled and began reading the words aloud in his non-standard Mandarin:
“I am the ‘Human Dog.’”
“You are cursed.”
“I want you to live.”
“The clock never stops; death lurks on all sides.”
“If you want to survive, turn one hundred times toward your homeland.”
“Oh, and they say bamboo shoots grow after rain. Why aren’t bamboo shoots afraid of rain?”
“See you after the rain.”
Qi Xia frowned slightly. So this was the clue for the next game…
The shadow of death hanging over them was still refusing to dissipate.
They were already dead—did they have to die again?
“Hey, swindler, what does this mean?” Qiao Jiajin asked.
“How should I know?” Qi Xia snorted coldly. “There are nine people here. Do I have to do all the thinking?”
Lawyer Zhang Chenze slowly sat down on a chair and said, “Though I hate to admit it, your way of thinking matches the ‘host’s’ very closely. If you have any ideas, you’d better speak up.”
“I…”
Before Qi Xia could finish, the walls around them suddenly began to change.
To everyone’s shock, holes appeared out of nowhere.
The originally cement-built walls now seemed like a constantly shifting soft substance.
In a moment, rows of holes lined up neatly on the walls, as if they had always been there.
At the same time, the sound of chains dragging came from all four sides.
“What’s happening?” Panic erupted instantly.
“Look at the ceiling!” someone screamed.
Everyone looked up and found that even the ceiling was covered with dense holes.
Qi Xia finally stood up, took the ram-leather mask from Qiao Jiajin’s hand, and carefully examined the last sentence on it.
“See you after the rain.”
“Rain…?”
Qiao Jiajin crept to the wall, leaned in to look into one of the holes, and immediately jumped back several steps.
“Holy shit!”
He yelled and looked for a place to hide, but found none.
“What is it? What’s inside?” Xiao Ran asked fearfully.
Everyone knew that Qiao Jiajin was quite brave. For him to be so startled and retreat, it must be something terrifying.
“Holy mother—!” Qiao Jiajin shouted. “It’s harpoons! Inside the holes—harpoons that are ‘retreating’!”
“What does ‘retreating’ mean?” Dr. Zhao asked in confusion.
“Probably ‘being cocked,’” Qi Xia said. “From just now, chains have been sounding from all sides. Those harpoons are now cocked and ready to fire.”
“Hey, swindler! Think of something fast!” Qiao Jiajin came up to Qi Xia, panicked. “If they fire from all directions at once, where are we gonna hide?”
Qi Xia thought carefully. It wouldn’t be hard for him to survive on his own—after all, there were already two corpses on the scene.
The harpoons’ penetration was limited. He could just pile the two bodies in a corner and hide behind them. He might get hurt, but his survival chances were high.
“It’s going to be very hard for everyone to survive this time. I need to protect myself too, so I won’t save you all again,” Qi Xia said softly.
“You…” Qiao Jiajin started to say something but stopped. He could only turn to Officer Li and Dr. Zhao for help, but they looked even more helpless.
Qi Xia looked again at the hints on the ram-leather mask.
Had he misunderstood?
Only when one person remained would this “game” truly end.
If he kept letting everyone survive, these deadly games would keep appearing.
After all, this room was very strange—the walls could change at any moment.
None of this seemed to follow any scientific logic; it was more like magic.
But if the host was a powerful figure capable of magic, why would they torment nine dead people?
Was this some twisted game run by a ghost-management organization?
As Qi Xia was lost in thought, Lin Qin stared at the mask in his hand and spoke up: “This… it says there’s a way for us to survive. It says to ‘turn one hundred times toward your homeland.’”
Everyone calmed down a bit and began pondering the phrase.
“Could it mean we should spin ourselves around, facing our hometown?” Tian Tian asked.
“No way,” Qiao Jiajin shook his head. “In this room, how do you even determine the direction of your hometown? And spinning yourself a hundred times would just make you dizzy—it wouldn’t do anything.”
“Forget it! I’ll try first!” Tian Tian picked a random direction and started spinning.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, knowing things couldn’t be that simple.