Chapter 13: A Rain
Qi Xia was working hard to turn the table as he spoke. "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. That's exactly the character for 'right'."
"No matter where Han Yimo's hometown is in the end, as long as it's either Guangxi Province or Taiwan Province, it will form an 'enclosure' character. So the answer was determined from the very beginning."
Everyone quickened their movements while casting strange glances at Qi Xia.
Qi Xia's train of thought was too erratic, but he had cracked the riddle twice in a row, which inevitably made the others start to doubt him.
Qi Xia realized this himself, so he said to the group, "Don't misunderstand. If the next game requires abandoning you to save myself, I will also unhesitatingly choose to survive."
Hearing this, the others fell silent, gritting their teeth and continuing to rotate the table.
The nine people sat around the table, constantly pushing it to the right.
"How many laps?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
"Twenty-six laps," Lin Qin replied.
"You can even count that?" Qiao Jiajin blinked. "This table looks the same every time."
"I counted by looking at the bloodstains on the table," Lin Qin said seriously. "Counting is important for us counselors."
Qi Xia frowned. "Not even thirty laps yet. We need to hurry."
Everyone fell quiet and sped up their efforts.
But the table became harder and harder to move as they went on, as if the internal chains were tightening more and more.
"Damn it, what's going on?" Qiao Jiajin said through clenched teeth. "This is way too heavy."
"Keep going... maybe it really is connected to a door!" Tiantian added, grimacing.
Her words gave everyone a glimmer of hope amidst despair.
A door.
Since this room could conjure holes out of thin air, why couldn't it conjure a door?
Everyone's arms were sore, but they still rotated the table lap after lap.
"Don't give up, everyone! Only five more laps to go!" Lin Qin called out loudly.
At this moment, everyone was gritting their teeth and exerting force, not daring to slack off.
*Clack, clack.*
As the final lap ended, the table clearly locked into something.
Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief, the soreness in their arms gradually surging up.
There were only three minutes left until 1:15.
"Where's the door?!" Qiao Jiajin yelled in panic.
The surrounding walls remained unchanged, the pitch-black holes still showing the cold gleam of harpoons.
"Damn it! There's no door!" Qiao Jiajin's voice carried a note of despair.
"Wrong! We guessed wrong!" Xiao Ran shrieked. "We should have turned left, right?! We shouldn't have trusted that liar! We're all going to die here!!"
Qi Xia frowned slightly.
Wrong?
Before anyone could react, the central clock on the table suddenly began to change.
It trembled slightly, then shot out eight laser beams.
The eight beams emanated from the clock, gradually moving to the edge of the table and stopping.
Before the bewildered group could understand, the clock precisely divided the table into nine equal fan-shaped sections, like a pizza.
*CRASH!*
With a loud noise, the table shattered into pieces.
The central clock now stood alone on a small wooden stump.
Time was too tight; everyone scrambled frantically.
"What is this?" Han Yimo cried out. "Why did the table break?"
Officer Li noticed that the back of each fan-shaped piece had a handle. His years of professional experience immediately told him what it was.
"It's a shield!"
He picked up a fan-shaped piece and held it in front of himself.
"We can use these shields to block the harpoons!"
Hearing this, everyone else also grabbed their own table pieces.
But within just a few seconds, they realized the problem.
"How are we supposed to block?" Lawyer Zhang Chenze showed rare panic. "If harpoons come from all sides, we can only cover one direction."
"We need to cooperate," Qi Xia said, snapping back to focus. "We form a circle and cover each other's backs."
Everyone quickly adjusted their formation, standing still and waiting.
Now, the only sound they could hear was each other's breathing.
Nine strangers had become teammates, indispensable to one another.
At that moment, Qi Xia glanced back at the writer Han Yimo. He noticed that Han Yimo's face was covered in fine sweat, his whole body trembling, looking extremely nervous.
From somewhere far outside the room, another chime rang out.
"You okay?" Qi Xia asked.
"N-Nothing..." Han Yimo shook his head.
"Hey! Dr. Zhao, turn your piece upside down!" Zhang Chenze suddenly spoke.
"Why?" Dr. Zhao looked at the piece in his hand. The pointed end was down, the wide end up.
"Like that, you can't cover my legs!" Zhang Chenze said nervously. "I'll get hit!"
"If I turn it over, I can't cover my head!" Dr. Zhao retorted without backing down. "Which is more important: head or legs?"
Some people overheard their argument and thought Dr. Zhao was right. They promptly turned their own pieces around.
Pointed end down, wide end up.
This created a strange situation.
The harpoons flying from all directions would only be blocked in the upper half, leaving everyone's legs vulnerable.
"Is this really right?" Xiao Ran was stunned. "Even if we can hide our legs behind the pointed end and cover the front, what about the harpoons coming from behind? What about the ones from above?"
"I'll cover the top!" Officer Li raised his piece. "Everyone get closer. I'll protect you."
Lin Qin thought quickly and said, "The rest of us should arrange our pieces alternating up and down. We can stagger them!"
"Right! Makes sense!" Qiao Jiajin agreed.
"No," Qi Xia interrupted. "If everyone's pieces are perpendicular to the harpoons, they'll be too easily pierced..."
"Handsome guy, then what do you suggest?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
Qi Xia's gaze fell on the sheepskin mask on the floor.
"Why are spring bamboo shoots not afraid of the rain?"
The final clue made Qi Xia thoughtful.
"Hold on... give me a moment." Qi Xia frowned.
Everyone held their breath, watching the seconds tick by. There was only one minute left before the harpoons launched.
"Forget it!" Dr. Zhao said coldly. "Let's do what Lin Qin said—stagger them!"
"You jerk, shut up!" Qiao Jiajin yelled back. "I trust what the liar says."
"You—!" Dr. Zhao gritted his teeth and swallowed his words.
"Got it!" Qi Xia suddenly widened his eyes. "Everyone, pointed end up!"
Although some were skeptical, most of their minds were blank, so they could only comply for now.
Dr. Zhao thought for a moment, then also turned his pointed end upward.
"Everyone, crouch down!" Qi Xia continued. "Move the pointed ends backward and bring them together. Officer Li, you don't need to cover the top anymore. Join us!"
Under Qi Xia's direction, everyone slowly aligned their fan-shaped pieces, forming a cone.
No one had expected that all the pieces would fit together perfectly, blocking all gaps from every direction and from directly above.
From a distance, the cone looked like a spring bamboo shoot, waiting for a heavy rain.
In the pitch-black space, everyone's hearts pounded nervously. Only the sound of breathing echoed among them.
"Here it comes..."
Qi Xia calculated the time in his head and quietly signaled.
The next second, everyone heard the wind split. An invisible object slammed violently into the table piece in Qi Xia's hand.
Then, sounds from all directions swept over them like a raging storm.
The force of the harpoons was astonishing. Everyone felt their arms ache violently, as if they could barely hold their pieces.
Fortunately, all their pieces were now braced together, creating a delicate balance.
"Ah!"
A harpoon suddenly pierced through the piece in front of Xiao Ran, making her scream.
Qi Xia turned his head and saw that the harpoon had stopped just two or three centimeters from Xiao Ran's eyes.
Thankfully, the table piece was tough enough. Otherwise, Xiao Ran would be dead already.