Chapter 12: Your Hometown
If the statement "Rules are absolute" still applied to this second "game," then what was written on the masks should be the key to solving it.
But how could it be solved?
When would the harpoon be fired?
"The clock will never stop for a moment"...
Could it be at one-fifteen?
Qi Xia turned his head to look at the desk clock on the table. It was now five past one. If "one-fifteen" was the time the harpoon would launch, then they had less than ten minutes remaining.
"Turn one hundred circles toward the direction of your hometown"...
The nine people here each had different hometowns, and "one hundred circles" was no small number.
If they were thinking in the wrong direction, they could easily waste these ten minutes.
But in this room, aside from themselves, what else could "turn"?
Qi Xia's gaze settled on the desk clock in the center of the table.
He leaned forward, reached out, and gently touched the clock, only to find it was firmly fixed to the table, unable to move even a fraction.
"The clock can't move. Could it be the chair?"
Qi Xia looked down at the chair beneath him. It was an old, ordinary chair giving off a musty smell, casually placed on the ground with no hidden mechanism.
In that case, there was only...
Qi Xia reached out and turned the surface of the table. Sure enough, a faint sound of chains came from inside the table.
But the table was heavy, and even with considerable effort, he could only rotate it a few centimeters.
"One hundred circles..."
This number was definitely not something just two or three people could accomplish. The nine people present would need to work together to rotate the table, only then might they have a chance at survival.
Lin Qin keenly noticed Qi Xia's actions and called everyone to stop.
The rest gathered around the table and saw that it could indeed be rotated.
"You really have a way, you liar." Qiao Jiajin nodded and said, "If we turn this table a hundred circles, we should be able to open that invisible door."
Qi Xia glanced at the clock again. Though time was tight, the problem had become simpler now.
Turning this round table one hundred circles toward the direction of "hometown" essentially left two answers.
Left, or right.
But everyone's hometowns were scattered across the four cardinal directions. How could they determine left or right?
"Qi Xia, do you already know when the harpoon will fire?" Lin Qin asked, covering her mouth and nose.
"The hint says time 'never stops for a moment.' It will probably be at one-fifteen." Qi Xia said quietly.
Qiao Jiajin's expression changed upon hearing this. "That means we have less than ten minutes, right? Let's start turning quickly."
Dr. Zhao moved the corpse that was lying on the table aside, slowly sat down, and reached out to test the weight of the table. "But we only have one chance. If we turn this heavy table a hundred circles and go the wrong direction, what then?"
"Then there's still a fifty percent chance of survival!" Qiao Jiajin said urgently. "If we don't move, we're dead anyway. If we do, there's a fifty percent chance of living. Let's hurry!"
With that, he began turning the tabletop to the left with all his strength.
Though Qiao Jiajin looked thin, he was very strong. He alone managed to turn the table half a circle.
"What are you standing there for?! Ah, help me!" Qiao Jiajin shouted at the others.
The remaining people knew Qiao Jiajin was right and could only help him turn.
Now there was no correct answer; they had to gamble.
But Qi Xia hadn't moved at all.
He didn't know which direction to think in.
Left, or right?
Why was the keyword "hometown"?
Everyone was Chinese, so was it "East"?
Up north, down south, left west, right east. So the answer was "right"?
Then what about the people whose hometowns were in the west?
Or maybe everyone's hometowns were related to the Spring and Autumn period's "Zuo Zhuan" (Zuo Commentary), so the answer was "left"?
Qi Xia closed his eyes slightly, intending to use the two corpses to shield himself. But if everyone else died, what would happen in the next game...
"It's not time to abandon them yet."
Qi Xia muttered to himself, then reached out, grabbed a blank piece of paper from the spinning table, picked up a pen, and walked to a corner. He sat down in an open space and began scribbling something.
Though the others were puzzled, they kept turning, having already rotated the table more than ten circles.
"If he hadn't introduced himself as a 'liar,' I would have thought that guy was a mathematician." Qiao Jiajin said to Tiantian beside him.
Tiantian was still dizzy from spinning earlier and could only nod perfunctorily.
This time, Qi Xia didn't write a column formula. He roughly sketched a map of the country on the paper.
"Hometown...?"
His mind raced, and suddenly something occurred to him.
"Wait, wait..." Qi Xia's eyes widened. "If the 'organizer's' ability is so vast that they can pick people with similar experiences from so many provinces, then 'province' is also a key point, isn't it?"
He turned around and looked at the people spinning the table, then asked seriously, "Did any of you lie about your 'hometown' just now?"
Everyone shook their heads.
After all, "hometown" was related to accent and expression habits. Lying would easily expose them.
"Good." Qi Xia nodded slightly. "Now, please tell me your hometowns one by one again."
Officer Li spoke first, "I'm from Inner Mongolia."
Qi Xia marked a black dot on Inner Mongolia's location.
"I'm from Sichuan." Lawyer Zhang Chenze said coldly.
"I'm from Shaanxi..." Tiantian said.
"Dali, Yunnan." Kindergarten teacher Xiao Ran said.
"Guangdong." Qiao Jiajin said.
"Ningxia." Psychologist Lin Qin said.
"I work in Jiangsu." Dr. Zhao said.
Qi Xia marked everyone's hometowns one by one on the map, then added his own "Shandong."
Now everyone's attention turned to writer Han Yimo, who hadn't mentioned his hometown from the beginning.
"Han Yimo, are you from Guangxi or Taiwan?"
Han Yimo was startled. "How do you know?"
"Time is short. Answer me first."
"I'm from Guangxi..."
Qi Xia nodded. At this point, only two provinces were left for Han Yimo.
Guangxi Province and Taiwan Province.
If his answer was neither, then he had told a huge lie.
Fortunately, he told the truth.
Qi Xia marked the last province on the map. Now there were nine black dots on the sketch.
"Just as I thought."
Qi Xia said in a low voice, "Stop. Turn to the right."
"Right?"
Qi Xia quickly ran to the table, threw the paper onto it, and began turning the tabletop in the opposite direction.
Though puzzled, the others followed his lead.
Dr. Zhao glanced at the map and the nine black dots on the paper.
"Why 'right'?"