Chapter 456: The White Paper Fan
Everyone nodded and helped Qiao Jiajin into the car. Qiao Jiajin finally felt like he could take a break.
"Ah, everyone..." Qiao Jiajin lay back in his seat with a smile on his face. "I haven't ridden in many cars, so I'm feeling a bit dizzy. Please drive a little slower and keep it steady."
"Brother Qiao, don't joke around..." The others looked at him with concern. "None of us have your skills. What if you get hit?"
"Me? Get hit?" Qiao Jiajin smiled faintly, then suddenly spoke up. "Little ones, I just had a new idea!"
Everyone felt a bit uneasy when they heard this.
Although they had been through life and death together for a while and knew Qiao Jiajin's character somewhat, this guy always had new ideas every round.
Was he really reliable?
"What idea, Brother Qiao?" Out of politeness, Bai Jiu asked with a sweet smile on her face.
"I want all six of you to push the cart," Qiao Jiajin said. "Push it slowly and try to keep the cart as steady as you can."
"Ah?!" Bai Jiu felt like the thing she'd said most since entering this game venue was "Ah?!"
"Then who's going to block the balls?!" Qiu Ershi also widened his eyes and asked.
"I will," Qiao Jiajin said. "I won't worry about the ice balls flying toward you, but I'll handle the ones coming at me. I'll catch what I can and dodge what I can't. It should be fine."
Bai Jiu pondered the feasibility of Qiao Jiajin's proposal for a moment and felt something wasn't right.
"Brother Qiao... I think this method sounds reliable, but the margin for error is too low."
"Margin for error?"
"If you fail even once, you'll die." Bai Jiu looked at the chair beneath Qiao Jiajin. "Your chair is on a unicycle, and the unicycle is on ice. The movements you make up there will be very different from what you can do on solid ground."
"Well, that's true," Qiao Jiajin nodded. "If I miss even once, I'm 'eliminated,' and 'eliminated' means dead."
"Exactly." Bai Jiu nodded. "Brother Qiao, don't take such a risk. If it's 'ice balls,' we can handle them well enough."
"But—"
"Don't try to shoulder everything yourself," Bai Jiu said. "This is a team game. You've already done enough for us, Brother Qiao. Let us protect you this round."
Qiao Jiajin couldn't help but smile. In his more than twenty years of memory, no one had ever said they wanted to protect him.
"Is that so...?" He nodded, then leaned back in his chair again. "Alright, I trust you."
Seeing everyone nod, Qiao Jiajin added, "This round, I'm putting my life in your hands. Even if I die, it's fine."
Bai Jiu knew that Qiao Jiajin wasn't speaking out of anger—this was an expression of "trust."
"I understand." Bai Jiu smiled along with him. "Brother Qiao, if you die this round, I, Bai Jiu, will slit my own throat immediately."
The remaining few also smiled. "We would too."
"Ha!" Qiao Jiajin nodded. "Not bad at all, 'Cat.' Are there still people this honorable here?"
"Brother Qiao, sit tight. We're moving out."
The group began pushing the cart forward. After all, Qiao Jiajin was the third person to sit on the "Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse," and many had now pushed the cart for three consecutive rounds, greatly improving its stability.
Bai Jiu gave Qiu Ershi and Ning Shiba a meaningful glance. They understood and left the cart to head toward "Wen Qu." Unlike Qiao Jiajin, they didn't get very close to "Wen Qu" but stayed a few meters away.
"Why did you send the angry kid and the astrologer girl over?" Qiao Jiajin glanced at Luo Shiwu and Yun Shijiu beside him. "Is this handsome duo tired?"
"No." Bai Jiu shook her head. "Ershi and Shiba are the most agile ones in our team. It's reassuring to have them go."
"I see..." Qiao Jiajin nodded, then gazed into the distance at "Wen Qu."
"'Wen Qu'... does that mean the 'Wen Qu Star'?" Qiao Jiajin rubbed his chin. "If the Wen Qu Star descends to earth, doesn't that make it the 'White Paper Fan' in a gang?"
Thinking this, he felt something was off.
It was as if some hidden clue was swirling in his mind. The "Po Jun" in the first round was also "Water," but it represented the vanguard—the easily broken "underlings" in the team. The "White Paper Fan," however, was different.
Both were "Water," but what was the difference with the "White Paper Fan"?
The "White Paper Fan" and the "Red Cudgel" were the pillars of any gang. If that was the case...
"Don't catch it!" Qiao Jiajin suddenly looked up. "Hey! The 'White Paper Fan' kills without a trace—never catch it!"
The others clearly didn't understand what Qiao Jiajin meant. What did this game have to do with a "paper fan"?
*Whoosh!!*
From within "Wen Qu," a white ball suddenly shot out. This ball was pure white, seemingly emitting layers of mist, and flew straight toward Ning Shiba off to the side.
Ning Shiba's eyes turned cold, and she immediately mimicked Qiao Jiajin's move, striking the white ball with her hand.
*Crack!!*
Just like the black ball, a crisp sound came when the white ball shattered.
But the difference was that the black ball gave off billowing black smoke, while the white ball emitted rolling white mist.
Ning Shiba raised her right hand to look at it. Layers of white vapor swirled over it, but she felt nothing unusual.
She gently rubbed the white mist on her finger with her other hand, and the next moment, she let out a heart-wrenching scream:
"Ah!!"
She clutched her right hand and wailed, her expression one of extreme agony.
"Damn it!" Qiao Jiajin immediately stood up, wanting to go check on Ning Shiba's injury, but suddenly remembered he couldn't leave the cart.
Qiu Ershi quickly crouched down to examine Ning Shiba's right hand. The situation didn't look good. The tips of her fingers were coated with layers of white frost, as if instantly frostbitten.
"It's... dry ice?" Qiu Ershi frowned, picked up a white fragment from the ground, and immediately felt an intense cold on his fingertips. "No... but why does dry ice cause instant frostbite? Could it be this cold?"
He quickly threw away the white fragment in his hand. Rolling cold vapor emanated from it, but it was far from enough to cause instant frostbite. So what was it...?
Ning Shiba felt that her right hand had completely lost all sensation.
"There's... something inside the ball..." Ning Shiba said through gritted teeth. "The ball is just an empty shell... there's something inside it!"
Qiu Ershi then noticed that the ground nearby was covered in frost, as if something had been scattered over an area about a meter in diameter.
Bai Jiu furrowed her brow in thought for a moment and felt she had an inkling. Though she didn't understand the specifics, her guess was that the Di Ma had used dry ice balls wrapped around some extremely cold liquid, designed to instantly injure whoever broke the white ball.
"So it really is the 'White Paper Fan'..." Qiao Jiajin said with a frown. "On the surface, it looks pure white and cold, but its heart is utterly sinister."