Chapter 1048: How Would I Know?
Everything now seemed to be developing according to his own plan, yet at the same time, it felt a little different.
Qi Xia had once said that the "character" on Jin Yuanxun was likely "pawn," which was extremely important to them, and they needed to focus their attacks on him in the remaining time.
Now he had somehow ended up in a "Man-Snake" game with him—was this part of the plan or not?
Since that kid Jin Yuanxun, once he got his "Echo," would be as slippery as a loach and impossible to catch, it was the perfect opportunity to trap him in the room and take his "character." That way, even if he started jumping around later, it would be useless.
“Very good, very good...” Chen Junnan nodded.
“What's so good about it?” said the Man-Snake. “Since you've entered the game arena, you still have to play the game.”
“Oh, right.” Chen Junnan turned to Jin Yuanxun and said, “Xiao Jin, you up for it?”
“What's there to be afraid of?” Jin Yuanxun said. “Bro, I'm not completely scared either.”
“You still haven't figured out the problem?” Chen Junnan said with a grin. “Didn't you see me just now colluding secretly with the referee?”
“What... what 'qu'?”
“Private communication,” Chen Junnan said. “You know, colluding.”
“What... colluding?”
“Are you going to speak properly? Who's colluding with you?” said the Man-Snake. “Aren't you in a hurry? Not in a hurry anymore?”
“Hey, now that the 'character' is retrieved, we're really not in a hurry.” Chen Junnan said to Jin Yuanxun, “This referee Brother Snake and I have known each other for more than twenty years—we're childhood friends. He's planning to blow a rigged call and award the 'character' in your hand to me, so you might as well give up now.”
“Oh my...” Jin Yuanxun was taken aback. “That can't be true, right?”
The Man-Snake said nothing, just looked at Jin Yuanxun with slight curiosity. “Korean?”
“Yanbian, Jilin,” Jin Yuanxun corrected.
“Then you're at a disadvantage in this game,” the Man-Snake laughed. “This is a quiz game. As a Chinese person, you can't even speak Chinese fluently—how are you going to play?”
“I can understand most of it!” Jin Yuanxun said. “It's just that I'm not fluent when speaking. At home, my parents all speak Korean.”
“Hold on!” Chen Junnan let go of Jin Yuanxun and walked over to the Man-Snake. “Brother Snake, are you really going to start the game?”
“...What else?” asked the Man-Snake.
“You don't have any game props here. What kind of game are you going to run?” Chen Junnan asked.
“I am the game prop.” The Man-Snake took out a notebook from his pocket and slapped it on the table. “In a moment, I'll ask you two questions. Whoever answers correctly wins.”
“Questions?” Chen Junnan looked at the tattered notebook on the table. “Can I take a look first?”
“Sure.” The Man-Snake nodded.
Chen Junnan was taken aback for a moment, then quickly flipped through the notebook as if afraid the other might change his mind. He found it filled with questions.
The handwriting looked a bit familiar.
Not wanting to be left out, Jin Yuanxun also hurried over to stand beside Chen Junnan and looked at the question book.
“Jin... liang... suo... qing wen... shei?” Jin Yuanxun muttered as he read.
“Xiao Jin, if you can't recognize the characters, don't read. Move aside a bit, and I'll explain to you later.”
“Mind your own business!” Jin Yuanxun retorted with a frown, continuing to look at the words in the book.
Chen Junnan quickly scanned through. They were basically all logic puzzles, even including some that had been asked in the interview room. Those puzzles had a checkmark penciled in after them.
Chen Junnan knew this kind of book very well—every kid had a bunch of them in school. So he subconsciously reached out and flipped to the last page.
The last page still had logic puzzles.
“...?”
“What's wrong?” asked the Man-Snake.
“Where are the answers?” Chen Junnan held up the notebook and asked.
“What answers?”
“The answers to the questions! Where are the answers to these questions?”
“How would I know?”
“Eh...?” Chen Junnan was stunned for a moment, then quickly understood. “I get it. You kept the answers separate from the questions? Pretty sneaky of you.”
“No, I only brought this notebook,” replied the Man-Snake. “Isn't this enough to stump you two?”
“It is. But no—what's the point of stumping us?!” Chen Junnan said. “Besides, do you even need these questions to stump this kid? A single line like 'The door hangs a blue cotton door curtain' would make him self-isolate for a whole day.”
“Hey! Bro! You...” Jin Yuanxun wanted to say something, but he hadn't understood what that sentence meant, and couldn't even repeat it.
“That's why I said he's at a disadvantage in this game,” said the Man-Snake. “Are you two ready? If you are, I'll start. Three questions. If someone can answer two correctly, they win.”
“Wait!” Chen Junnan knew this was not his strong suit at all. He quickly pulled the Man-Snake aside and whispered, “Don't we have a deal? Can you let me take the back door?”
“Back door?” the Man-Snake whispered back. “How?”
“Just tell me the answers to the first three questions first,” Chen Junnan muttered quietly. “Otherwise, I doubt I can win.”
“Did I not make it clear? I said, 'How would I know'?” said the Man-Snake. “How would I have the answers?”
“...?”
Chen Junnan was stunned after hearing this. He felt like he hadn't said anything wrong, but in this damn place, he was often dumbfounded.
Every time he sorted out his thoughts, it was just to set himself up for an even better dumbfounding next time.
But could he blame himself? He could only say that all the ridiculous things in the world happened to him.
“Are you fucking kidding me...?” Chen Junnan said. “You don't know the answers, so why the hell are you asking questions?”
“After you give your answers, I'll think about whether they're right or not,” the Man-Snake replied honestly.
Chen Junnan was silent for three seconds after hearing this, then asked, “I think I didn't quite understand. Let me see if I've got this right...”
“Go on.”
“You ask the questions, then we guess, and you judge whether our answers are correct based on what you think.”
“Right.”
“So that means whoever you think is right, is right.”
“Right.”
Chen Junnan blinked. “Then why won't you blow the whistle in my favor? Don't you still need to see Old Qi? What good is it to you if I lose?”
“Ah, although I really want to see Qi Xia, this isn't about 'blowing the whistle unfairly.'” said the Man-Snake. “First of all, we 'Zodiacs' have our own rules—I can't lose fairness. Secondly... I really want to know the answers to these questions.”
“Aren't these just ordinary logic problems?” Chen Junnan said. “Search online and you'll find tons of them. What's the point of knowing them?”
“This is a 'ticket,'” said the Man-Snake.
“A ticket...?”
“It leads to a very distant future,” said the Man-Snake. “Although it's far, I want to take a look.”
Chen Junnan and Jin Yuanxun looked at each other in bewilderment. The quiz game hadn't even started yet, and they already couldn't understand what the Man-Snake was saying.