Chapter 227: The Strange Snake
Qi Xia pulled Yu Nian'an aside to sit down, then glanced at the "Tenth Person."
He was a pale-faced young man with disheveled hair.
A smile still lingered on his face.
If not for Yu Nian'an's appearance, Qi Xia would have wanted to have a good chat with him.
But not this time.
Qi Xia had a new plan.
He leaned over to Yu Nian'an's side and began rotating the table with her. The others gradually joined in.
The upcoming game was neither too difficult nor too easy to describe.
After all, there were ten people in the room.
Trying to precisely allocate escape resources for nine people made everything feel a bit strained.
Fortunately, they all managed to survive until the Human-Snake arrived.
Qi Xia and Yu Nian'an grabbed the same rope, now swinging in midair.
"Long time no see, everyone," the Human-Snake said as he slowly opened the door and entered the room. "I am the Human-Snake..."
Before he could finish speaking, he froze completely.
There were clearly ten people hanging from the ceiling!
What kind of bizarre situation was this?
Every room along the entire corridor had groups of nine, yet here ten people had survived?!
"Instead of being dumbfounded, why not hurry up and ask your question?" Qi Xia said. "We don't want to be hanging here forever."
It took the Human-Snake a long while to compose himself. He finally spoke: "Alright, alright... I have an interesting question. If you can give me the correct answer within three attempts, I'll pull the lever over there and let all nine of you... I mean all ten of you land."
No one said a word.
The Human-Snake didn't waste any more time. He began: "There were once two brothers who loved racing cars. They always drove at breakneck speeds. Their father was worried but couldn't stop them. One day, the father came up with a clever idea. He told the brothers they could have one last race, but with slightly different rules: whoever's car arrived later would be declared the winner. The winner would inherit all his wealth. He thought this would make them stop their crazy driving. Yet, on race day, the brothers still drove as fast as they could. Why?"
After hearing the question, everyone naturally turned to look at Qi Xia.
But Qi Xia acted as if he hadn't heard a thing. With one hand gripping the rope and the other holding Yu Nian'an, he whispered, "An, don't be scared. It'll be over soon."
"Mm," Yu Nian'an nodded softly in response.
Lin Qin and Officer Li exchanged glances.
In the end, the hardest game in this interview room wasn't the first three rounds, but this fourth round with the "Human-Snake."
For some reason, he always came up with new questions each time.
And his questions were precisely the key to whether everyone would survive.
Seeing that Qi Xia showed no sign of wanting to answer, Officer Li decided to take a guess himself.
After all, there was no reason Qi Xia would keep helping everyone.
"Officer Li..." Lin Qin whispered, "Do you have an answer?"
"I have no idea if mine counts as an answer. I'll just try to guess using investigative reasoning."
He shared his thoughts with Lin Qin.
Lawyer Zhang and Han Yimo, who were nearby, also thought the answer seemed plausible.
"Since you all agree, I'll go ahead and guess..." Officer Li took a deep breath and called out to the Human-Snake in the distance, "Human-Snake, I have an answer."
"Please answer."
Officer Li paused, organized his words, and said: "I think there's something wrong with that inheritance. It's probably ill-gotten money. Since inheriting it might lead to arrest, the brothers did the opposite—they both wanted to frame the other with the inheritance."
The Human-Snake stroked his chin slightly and muttered, "Is that so?"
Everyone was puzzled by his reaction.
After a moment, the Human-Snake shook his head and said, "That doesn't seem right. That answer feels a bit far-fetched. Think it over again."
"Oh crap..." Qiao Jiajin couldn't help himself. "What do you mean by 'doesn't seem right'? I think this answer *should* be right. You should think it over too!"
"Uh, well..." The Human-Snake indeed lowered his head and began pondering slowly again.
Lin Qin frowned at Qiao Jiajin. This situation felt like "a fool beats a master."
But could this trick really fool the other side?
After a long while, the Human-Snake raised his head again and said, "I've thought carefully. It's indeed wrong. That's too forced. The question never mentioned that the 'inheritance was illegal.' Besides, anything called an 'inheritance' would be a huge sum of money no matter what. So I can only count it as a wrong answer."
"Uh..." This time Qiao Jiajin was stumped. "You snake-skinned guy are pretty sharp... Can't even bluff you, huh..."
Everyone was now in a dilemma again.
Qi Xia was still whispering to Yu Nian'an, completely ignoring their predicament. Whether he was doing it on purpose or truly didn't want to participate was unknown.
"What if they tampered with each other's cars?" Tian Tian suddenly whispered. "What if they swapped the brakes and accelerators? They both wanted the inheritance and both wanted to race, so they could only make the other person go faster than themselves."
"Oh?" Officer Li was slightly startled. He thought this answer also had some merit. "That makes sense... If the other person can't brake, then no matter how fast you drive, you'll still get the inheritance..."
Han Yimo and Lawyer Zhang still felt something was off about this answer, but they couldn't come up with anything better.
"Let's try it." After discussing, they relayed this answer to the Human-Snake.
"Is that it...?" The Human-Snake slowly inhaled again after hearing it. "It sounds logical... but I still feel like something's off?"
"Stop thinking!" Qiao Jiajin shouted. "I've already considered it. This answer is correct. If you don't pull the lever now, you'll be breaking the rules."
"Ah, this..." The Human-Snake looked very troubled.
Everyone's arms were starting to ache. They had been hanging from the rope for at least five minutes. If the Human-Snake kept thinking, they would all fall to their deaths.
"I still think it's wrong." The Human-Snake shook his head. "Think if there's another answer. If not, I'll leave."
This statement left everyone utterly clueless.
"Qi Xia, do you want to see us die?" Lin Qin turned her head and asked. "Do you already know the answer?!"
Only then did Qi Xia slowly lift his head, a trace of despair in his eyes.
He spoke slowly: "Suppose one day I'm not around. How would you survive?"
This short question silenced everyone.
What did he mean by "not around"?!
Qi Xia lowered his head and called out to the Human-Snake in the distance: "I'll give the answer."
Seeing Qi Xia speak, the Human-Snake became noticeably excited. "Great!"
"Given that 'the two love racing' and 'both want the inheritance,' and according to the question, 'whoever's car arrives later wins,' the best solution is for them to swap cars. They drive each other's vehicles. This way, they can both race to their heart's content, and the faster driver still gets the inheritance."
Upon hearing this answer, the Human-Snake finally pulled out a notebook from his chest. "So that's it...? Brilliant! Brilliant!"