Chapter 63: Mighty Fortune
Qi Xia licked his dry lips and picked up a chess piece from his hand.
When Lin Qin saw it, her pupils instantly dilated.
It was a white stone.
"Qi Xia... I can only tell lies... you must not believe me..." Lin Qin shouted in her heart, hoping for a miracle that would let Qi Xia hear.
She was now very afraid, afraid that his trust in her would cost him his life.
"Please don't believe me..." Lin Qin repeated in her mind over and over.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, but instead of asking a question, he picked up a black stone.
Lin Qin frowned. She knew that whether it was a black stone or a white stone, she could only give the opposite answer.
Qi Xia slowly raised the black stone and held it in front of Lin Qin's eyes, saying, "Lin Qin, tell me..."
Lin Qin covered her mouth with her hand, feeling like she was about to collapse.
She absolutely did not want to tell Qi Xia, "This is a white stone," but if she didn't tell a lie, the mechanism on her glasses would trigger.
Qi Xia seemed to sense something and said calmly, "Don't be nervous, Lin Qin. Keep your mind working. Nothing is over yet."
After hearing this, Lin Qin nodded in despair.
Once he was sure her emotions had become relatively stable, Qi Xia asked:
"Lin Qin, tell me, what color would Old Lyu say this stone is?"
"Huh?"
Lin Qin and Old Lyu were both startled. Human Pig also rolled his eyes.
"Listen carefully to my question, Lin Qin. I'll ask again." Qi Xia repeated. "What color would Old Lyu say this stone is?"
Old Lyu...?
Lin Qin glanced back at Old Lyu, her mind racing.
Her glasses felt cold to the touch, which definitely meant she was lying. And Human Pig hadn't lied so far, indicating his rule was absolute, so Old Lyu would tell the truth.
Therefore, Old Lyu would say this stone was "black."
Just as Lin Qin was about to blurt out "black," she suddenly thought of something—
She was the one who had to lie, so she couldn't tell Qi Xia the answer "black."
Even if Old Lyu said "black," she would have to say "white."
If that were the case, wouldn't everything be back to square one?!
The key point of this game wasn't Old Lyu at all; it was her.
Lin Qin bit her lip, and finally forced out two words: "White."
At that moment, she felt like she was the one choking the throat of "truth"—every truth that passed through her mouth would eventually turn into a lie.
Old Lyu covered his forehead in frustration, feeling like everything was lost.
"White, huh..." Qi Xia turned his head, seeming to look at the stone in his hand, then the corner of his mouth lifted. "I see."
Human Pig pondered for a moment, thinking to himself: "What are you going to do, Qi Xia? The person you trust most tells you the stone in your hand is white. What choice will you make?"
Qi Xia slowly set aside the black stone and picked up another white stone.
He held out the white stone and placed it into Human Pig's hand.
"Oh? Have you made your choice?" Human Pig asked.
This time, Human Pig had learned from the previous experience and deliberately kept his tone as flat as possible.
In this way, Qi Xia wouldn't be able to judge the color of the stone from his speech.
"Yes, I've made my choice." Qi Xia nodded. "But it's not the one in your hand. That white stone is yours."
"What?"
Qi Xia didn't bother with Human Pig; instead, he gripped the black stone in front of him and said, "This black stone in my hand is 'life.' That white stone in your hand is 'death.' Game over."
Under everyone's stunned gazes, Qi Xia slowly took off his blindfold.
Everything was exactly as he had predicted.
For him, the only thing that felt a bit off now was that after wearing the blindfold for so long, his eyes were a little sensitive to the light.
"You..." Human Pig trembled with excitement. "What kind of joke are you playing..."
Qi Xia opened his eyes and looked at Human Pig, saying, "I already said I would 'bet my life' with you. How could it be a joke?"
Then he pointed at Lin Qin and Old Lyu: "Let them go. A bet's a bet."
Human Pig stared wide-eyed for a long time, then sighed in frustration. He took a remote control from the drawer and pressed it absentmindedly.
Old Lyu and Lin Qin heard a "click" as the mechanism on the glasses was released.
The two quickly took off the deadly devices and tossed them aside.
"Qi Xia! You really are something, you son of a bitch!!!" Old Lyu shouted excitedly, stepping forward and slapping Qi Xia on the back. "Have you ever won the lottery?! What kind of luck is this?!"
"Luck, huh..." Qi Xia shook his head. "This time, my bet on life relied on no luck at all. It was just that Human Pig underestimated me."
Human Pig turned his head silently when he heard this, saying, "I underestimated you...?"
"Exactly." Qi Xia straightened his clothes and slowly stood up. "I told you long ago that smart people don't rely on luck, but you didn't take it to heart."
"So you mean..." Human Pig also stood up in disbelief. "Everything just now... was your plan?"
"Yes." Qi Xia nodded. "My strategy was very simple. As long as you pick one black stone and one white stone for me, then I win—and it's a hundred percent win, with no accidents."
Human Pig's eyes widened, his pupils dilating continuously.
This was the first time since becoming a "Pig" that he had lost so completely.
"To make sure you would smoothly pick one black and one white for me, I specifically told you, 'Once you've chosen, it'll be easier for me to pick.'" Qi Xia reached out, picked up two black stones and two white stones from the table, and held them in each hand, as if simulating Human Pig's mental activity at the time.
"You must have struggled with it for a while, right? In the end, you found that no matter how you chose, giving me one black and one white was the safest bet."
A voice of disbelief came from Human Pig's mask: "You even calculated that..."
"Should I say you were too cautious, or too careless?" Qi Xia weighed the two white stones in his hand. "If you had trusted your first instinct and given me two white stones directly, I would be dead by now."
Human Pig said no more, simply glaring at Qi Xia with hatred.
Qi Xia continued, "When I held stones of two colors, by asking the question the way I did, I knew the color of the stone in my hand with absolute certainty."
Lin Qin quickly thought it over.
After a moment, her mouth fell open.
The question Qi Xia had asked was simply brilliant.
He had asked, "What color would another person say this stone is?" Regardless of whether the person being asked would tell the truth or a lie, as long as Qi Xia held a black stone, the answer would always be "white."
When he asked Lin Qin, she knew Old Lyu's answer was "black," but due to her characteristic of lying, she changed it to "white."
When he asked Old Lyu, Old Lyu would directly say Lin Qin's answer: "white."
And even if, for argument's sake, the answer Qi Xia received wasn't "white" but "black," he would immediately know that the other stone in his hand was the correct one.