Chapter 1026: Let Me Guess
“Look! The foreign trade bag brought back a silk scarf—does that count as starting the Silk Road?”
Qi Xia stared at the character in Chen Junnan’s hand and fell into another brief silence.
Lawyer Zhang and Zheng Yingxiong walked up from behind and looked at the character “巾” as well, their minds beginning to churn with confusion.
Because they vaguely remembered that at the very beginning, the character in Chen Junnan’s hand had been “帅.”
Now it wasn’t just “帅” anymore—it had lost half of it. Why was Chen Junnan so happy about losing half a character…?
“Being able to snatch back half a character is already a rare situation,” Qi Xia said. “Snatching back half a character twice in a row can no longer be described as ‘rare.’”
“No… what are you even talking about?!” Chen Junnan exclaimed. “I didn’t snatch either of these two characters! Both were given to me by others!”
“Fine.” Qi Xia nodded helplessly. “Sounds like something you’d do.”
“Old Qi, guess how I got this character just now?”
Qi Xia sighed after hearing that. “I’d guess you impersonated Xu Liunian.”
“Uh…” Chen Junnan blinked and then said, “No fun. I’m out. Here, take it.”
He handed the “巾” to Qi Xia and watched as the screen awarded him another point.
“Not a bad tactic,” Qi Xia said. “I suspect you can keep using it for a while.”
“Keep using it for a while?” Chen Junnan was puzzled. “The moment the real Xu Liunian goes back, they’ll know they’ve been tricked.”
“No. I doubt you’ll even have to wait for Xu Liunian to go back—Chu Tianqiu will probably figure out you’re a fake soon enough,” Qi Xia said. “But the problem now lies with Xu Liunian herself.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve all said that the ‘Echo’ in this place is faint and extremely difficult to manifest,” Qi Xia said. “I suddenly recalled a similar example. I’m not sure if it applies here.”
“Hey…?” Chen Junnan seemed to catch on. “Now that you mention it…”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia said. “The part about ‘Echo’ that Bai She mentioned… By the same logic, Xu Liunian barely managed to obtain an Echo, but this place makes it ‘extremely hard to Echo.’ So she’ll find it very difficult to perform actions related to her Echo. In other words, there’s a good chance she can’t break free from her Echo, which means her appearance might remain as yours for a long time.”
“Ha…” An endless stream of amusing possibilities flashed through Chen Junnan’s mind. “Then I know what to do.”
Qi Xia nodded. “From now on, ‘Xu Liunian’ could be anyone, and anyone could be ‘Xu Liunian.’ Chu Tianqiu lost the first move.”
Chen Junnan watched as Qi Xia wrote the homophone for “巾”—“金”—on the screen and then stopped. He was slightly confused.
“Keep going, Old Qi,” Chen Junnan urged. “Keep combining. There are plenty of characters.”
Qi Xia looked at the “丘” and “八” in his own hand and shook his head.
“There shouldn’t be any more,” Qi Xia said. “Among all the characters with a ‘left-right structure,’ ‘帅’ has the least utility. I’ve calculated—it can hardly form any other characters in this game.”
“What?” Chen Junnan froze. “Damn… I thought I’d scored a big one. But it only gave us a ‘巾’?! So I busted my ass for nothing?”
“For nothing?” Qi Xia said. “Of course not. You dealt a devastating blow to Chu Tianqiu. That value far exceeds a single ‘巾.’”
“No way?” Chen Junnan took a few steps forward and looked at the characters stuck on the “Phoenix Carrying the Book Platform.” “I’m determined to get you a second character today. That way, we won’t come out empty-handed…”
Qi Xia didn’t object. He simply took out his own “丘” and “八,” as if asking Chen Junnan if he had any special ideas.
But to his surprise, Chen Junnan didn’t even glance at the characters in Qi Xia’s hand. Instead, he stared at “巾” for a long time, then slowly extended a finger and moved it toward the screen.
“Wait…” Qi Xia felt a sense of déjà vu. A reckless teammate had once shoved a character with his finger and cost the team a point. That wasn’t a good omen.
But Chen Junnan was fast. Before Qi Xia could finish speaking, he pushed “巾” and rotated it one hundred and eighty degrees.
The screen flickered, and a familiar message appeared.
[Received character prototype “屮.” Please write the homophone.]
“…?”
Qi Xia, Zhang Chenze, and Zheng Yingxiong all fell silent.
“Does that count?” Zhang Chenze looked at the screen in confusion. “Isn’t that just a radical…?”
“How could it be a radical? It’s definitely a character!” Chen Junnan grinned at everyone, clearly waiting for praise. But Qi Xia wasn’t so sure.
The last failed guess had already cost them one point. This time, they could lose two points. With scoring getting harder, losing two points would be a huge blow.
“What do you think, Old Qi?” Chen Junnan patted Qi Xia on the shoulder. “See? I told you there were more characters. Even a know-it-all like you misses things sometimes.”
“Fine…” Qi Xia nodded and pointed at the screen. “Then tell me—how do you read this character?”
“Uh…” Chen Junnan blinked. “That’s tough. I don’t have as much education as you, Old Qi.”
Qi Xia sighed. “Chen Junnan, let me reiterate: all my knowledge comes from books. Even if a book occasionally contains obscure characters, I can’t magically know how to pronounce them out of thin air. So ‘obscure characters’ and ‘knowledge’ are not directly linked.”
“Uh…” Chen Junnan was at a loss. “What do you mean, Old Qi? Are we supposed to guess?”
“I suggest we take the character down and abandon this attempt,” Qi Xia replied. “Taking a risk now could cost us two points.”
Chen Junnan nodded reluctantly, but his eyes still held a glimmer of unwillingness.
“What?” Qi Xia asked.
“Old Qi… how about you let me take a guess?” Chen Junnan said. “If we really lose two points, I’ll risk my life to earn them back.”
Qi Xia frowned. “Let me make two things clear. First, I don’t need you to risk your life. You don’t owe me anything. Everyone in this team is equal. Second, if you insist on guessing despite knowing the consequences, I’ll bear the consequences with you.”
“Then that’s totally unfair!” Chen Junnan said. “One man takes responsibility for his own actions!”
Qi Xia sighed. “Then what’s your guess?”
Chen Junnan grinned and slowly raised his middle finger.
The others stared at him in confusion again.
“Old Qi… don’t you think this character looks like this gesture?”
“…?”
“I think it looks like both a swear word and a plant. How about we write ‘草’!”