Chapter 277: The Rat's Game
“You... don’t push it!” Uncle Black Sheep was startled. “Your mask stinks to high heaven. Can you not gross me out?”
“I don’t care,” Uncle Snake said, shaking his head. “If you won’t help her, I’ll torment you to death.”
Uncle Tiger didn’t seem keen on accepting his favor. He just stood up, took my hand, and said, “Little rat, you don’t need those two idiots to help you. I’ll come up with a game for you myself!”
He pulled me over to a desk nearby and sat me down, then picked up a pen and paper and began to think.
A few minutes passed, and he hadn’t written a single word.
“Hiss...” He took a slow breath and then said, “Playing catch and hopscotch won’t work... I wonder if shuttlecock kicking would work...?”
“Oh, give it a rest!” Uncle Snake waved his hand dismissively. “Are you trying to send this girl to her death?”
“You...!” Uncle Tiger shook his head in frustration. “How am I sending her to her death?”
“Don’t just think about what your daughter likes to play. You need to consider what’s suitable for a ‘Rat’!” Uncle Snake shook his head, then turned to Uncle Black Sheep. “Hey, Goat, give them a hand, will you?”
“With that dead tiger’s attitude, who’d want to help him?”
“Then I’ll come give you a hug,” Uncle Snake said.
“You...” Uncle Black Sheep looked like he’d been hugged by Uncle Snake before, and he was terrified at the prospect. He walked over to Uncle Tiger, snatched the pen and paper away, and said, “For all that big tiger head of yours, the best you could come up with was shuttlecock kicking? Why didn’t you just say cat’s cradle?”
“Cat’s cradle my a—” Uncle Tiger had a terrible temper, and he was about to blow up again.
“Uncle... um... swearing isn’t nice...” I tugged at his sleeve.
“Ah...?” Uncle Tiger paused for a moment, then stared at me with his round, darting eyes. “I... I wasn’t swearing. This is, uh, a greeting...”
I blinked. He had clearly looked like he was about to curse... how was that a greeting?
Uncle Tiger stared at me for a long time, then his tone softened. “Ah, alright, alright... it’s my fault. I won’t say it anymore.”
Uncle Black Sheep ignored him. He sat down at the table, looked at me, and said, “Kid, come here. I have a few questions for you.”
“Ah...?”
I slowly walked up to him, a little scared as I looked at him.
“Where did you put on the mask?” Uncle Black Sheep’s voice was flat, unreadable.
“I think it was in some kind of warehouse...”
“A warehouse?” Uncle Black Sheep picked up his pen and swiftly sketched a large room on the paper. “A warehouse like this?”
Uncle Black Sheep was good at drawing, but it didn’t quite match the warehouse I remembered.
“Uncle, the space wasn’t that big... it was a very small warehouse.”
He nodded, took out a second piece of paper, and drew a small room.
“Like this, right...?” he muttered to himself, then added a few shelves. “Was there much stuff in the warehouse?”
“Not really...” I said quietly. “There were just a few shelves against the walls.”
“Were there things on the shelves?”
“Um, there were some boxes. I don’t know what was inside them.”
Uncle Black Sheep quickly sketched two figures in the warehouse, thought for a moment, and then started writing notes beside them.
“Tentative game name: The Trust Game.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Uncle Black Sheep said. “Kid, come over here. I’ll tell you the rules.”
“Okay...” I walked over to Uncle Black Sheep and looked at the small house and little people he’d drawn.
“The game requires two participants. Each person pays two ‘Dao’ as an entry fee,” Uncle Black Sheep said as he wrote. “The two people stand inside and ask each other about their secrets. Especially those secrets they don’t want to bring up...”
“And then?” Uncle Tiger asked.
“We’re allowed to lie in the rules. The winning conditions are different for each person—one needs to tell the truth, the other needs to lie.”
“Oh?” Uncle Tiger stroked his chin. “You’re playing dirty?”
“No, it’s just the nature of the Sheep,” Uncle Black Sheep shook his head. “While they tear each other’s masks off, you also get to see the ugliest side of human nature.”
Uncle Tiger nodded. “You’ve got a lot of tricks up your sleeve, kid.”
“Flattery. At least I’m a bit smarter than you.”
“Oh...” Uncle Tiger nodded, but soon realized something was off. “But what does your game have to do with the ‘Rat’? Isn’t this the Sheep category?!”
“Are you being unreasonable?” Uncle Black Sheep sighed. “My game takes place in a warehouse. How is that not a ‘Rat’ category?”
“You’re full of...” Uncle Tiger seemed about to say something, but he glanced at me and changed his words. “You’re talking nonsense!”
Uncle Tiger snatched the pen and paper back and said, “Besides, your game is way too hard. Let me rework it!”
He erased all of Uncle Black Sheep’s rules and wrote down new ones.
“Four participants, two in a team. Whichever team can grab the vase in the middle of the warehouse wins. No restrictions on methods, weapons provided by the referee...”
Uncle Snake couldn’t sit still anymore. “Give it a rest! You’ve got some nerve criticizing others. Fighting in a warehouse counts as ‘Rat’?”
“So what?!” Uncle Tiger shot back. “Are you saying ‘Rats’ don’t fight over territory?”
“Fight over nothing!” Uncle Snake snatched the paper back. “You two are just going to keep corrupting kids. This calls for my expertise.”
He picked up the pen and crossed out Uncle Tiger’s rules. “Listen to me. After entering the warehouse, lock the door with five locks. The five keys correspond to five questions. Answer correctly to get a key. They are...”
And so the three uncles went back and forth, snatching the paper from each other, staying up the entire night without sleep.
They filled sheet after sheet of paper, nearly coming to blows several times.
By the time dawn arrived, they handed me a messy manuscript with a game so convoluted I couldn’t even understand it.
Just then, the door opened, and Brother White Sheep entered.
He always gave off a different vibe. His clothes were spotless, the fur on his face was pure white, but he always felt hard to approach.
The other three uncles, no matter how you looked at them, were dirty and messy, but they were kind people.
“Rat, have you thought of anything?” Brother White Sheep found a chair and sat down, his tone flat. “It’s been an entire night.”
“Ah... I...” I turned to look at the three uncles. They all winked and nodded at me encouragingly, so I gathered my courage and said, “I’ve thought of something...”
“Let’s hear it.”
“My game... requires four participants, two per team, to grab a vase. Once they grab it, they can escape, but the door is locked. There are five locks on the door, each corresponding to a question. They have to answer correctly to get out... and when they come out, the two need to ask each other about their secrets...”
“Ridiculous.” Brother White Sheep interrupted.