Chapter 661: Sixteen
"Wait a minute..."
Xiao Cheng looked down at his own cards, then raised his head to carefully examine Ground Monkey's hand. He quickly spotted the problem.
He had never imagined this game could be so simple and yet so complex at the same time.
Everything Qi Xia had said, every question he had asked, the wooden box in the center of the table growing steadily brighter, the "Syzygy," the solar terms, the festivals—all the information was connecting together.
*Clang!*
A distant bell chimed, and in that instant, Xiao Cheng's thoughts suddenly cleared.
He could hardly believe that the man named Qi Xia had been engaged in such intricate thinking all along. If he had been playing this game alone, let alone eight rounds, he might not have been able to accurately figure out the rules even after a whole day under these constantly shifting conditions.
The hardest part of this game was that the rules changed in the fourth round.
Normally, players trying to deduce the rules of this deck naturally wouldn't be able to do it in just one or two rounds like Qi Xia had. The number four seemed carefully chosen—most people would need four rounds just to start understanding the rules.
And just when everyone was about to figure it out, the box in the center would reach its brightest state, and the rules would subtly shift.
At that point, everyone would think they had victory in their grasp. They would increase their bets, only to fall into the second trap Ground Monkey had designed.
"Now do you understand?" Qi Xia said in a low voice from beside him. "When you rely too heavily on those around you and stop thinking for yourself, you become weaker than usual."
Xiao Cheng nodded, realizing that his thinking had indeed been off track just now.
If he kept wanting to depend on others, how could he possibly survive to the end in a place like this?
If he had started using his brain earlier, he might have figured all this out already.
"Everyone, I know the rules now." Xiao Cheng lifted his head, a newfound confidence shining in his eyes.
Although this game followed the rules of "Blackjack," it couldn't really be called "Blackjack" at all. It should be called "Sixteen."
"Right now, we're experiencing the 'Full Moon.' During the 'Full Moon,' points can no longer be counted individually. Instead, we have to see whose total points are closest to the 'Full Moon.' The person closest to the 'Full Moon' wins." Xiao Cheng pointed at Ground Monkey's hand and patiently explained to everyone. "The current rules are a bit more complicated than before. Besides calculating the point month for each card, we also have to add all the points together."
"For example, Ground Monkey's current hand is 'Qingming's Three-Six,' 'Spring Equinox's Two-Two-One,' plus 'Spring Festival's One-One.' Adding all these numbers together gives a total of 'Sixteen.'" Xiao Cheng, afraid that everyone wouldn't understand, elaborated further. "It's like in Blackjack—'twenty' isn't the highest number; 'twenty-one' is. I'm guessing Ground Monkey borrowed from the saying 'the moon on the fifteenth is full, but the moon on the sixteenth is roundest,' so he set 'Sixteen' as the ceiling for this game. Any total exceeding 'Sixteen' is a loss, and reaching exactly 'Sixteen' is the highest."
"We shouldn't have been able to figure out the rules this quickly, but Brother Qi's question just now confirmed them directly."
Xiao Cheng pushed his own hand forward.
"Everyone, I have 'Minor Snow's One-Zero-Two-Three,' 'Winter Solstice's One-One-Two-Three,' plus 'Spring Festival's One-One.' All my numbers add up to 'Fifteen.'" Xiao Cheng said seriously. "Thanks to Brother Qi's question, we've directly confirmed which is greater in this game—'Fifteen' or 'Sixteen.' That's the rule under the 'Full Moon.'"
Everyone looked down at their own hands and quickly realized Xiao Cheng was correct.
Tiantian's hand—"Minor Cold's One-Two-Eight," "Grain Buds' Four-Two-One," plus "Spring Festival's One-One"—already totaled "Twenty," which exceeded the "Full Moon," so it counted as a loss.
Zheng Yingxiong's hand added up to "Twenty-six." Chen Junnan's hand added up to only "Thirteen." Qiao Jiajin had "Twenty-one," and Qi Xia had "Twenty-eight."
In this round, the only person closest to victory was Xiao Cheng with his "Fifteen."
If it weren't for Ground Monkey's hand being "Sixteen," they might have won another round.
"Well, damn..." Qiao Jiajin scratched his head, feeling that this game was increasingly exceeding the limits of what he could handle.
The cards scattered across the table were clearly a bunch of Chinese characters, yet everyone had been doing heavy mental arithmetic from the very beginning. Now the calculations had gone even deeper.
Not only did they have to calculate the "dates" of their own cards based on Ground Monkey's initial clue, "September Twenty-Third," but they also had to add up all the numbers contained in those "dates." And that was just to know their own hands.
To win, they also needed to deduce the probabilities of their opponents drawing certain cards based on the cards already revealed on the table, then convert those hands into numbers and add them up again.
Once they had inferred their own hand and their opponent's hand, they had to engage in psychological warfare through "betting" and "calling." That was the "Syzygy."
Although the rules weren't overly complicated, the excessive calculations made everyone during the game eerily silent. After all, one careless mistake could mean miscalculating their own hand.
At this moment, Qi Xia pressed his hand to his forehead, turned to look at Xiao Cheng, and after a few seconds of silence, spoke slowly: "Is that all the rules?"
Xiao Cheng glanced back at Qi Xia, unsure of his intention. He thought for a moment and said, "Yes. That's everything I can think of."
Qi Xia nodded slightly and then averted his gaze.
He knew Xiao Cheng had missed one important rule.
Judging by his expression, he really hadn't thought of this crucial layer. But likewise, there was no need for Qi Xia to point it out here.
After all, besides his own people, Ground Monkey was also listening to Xiao Cheng's explanation.
When Ground Monkey heard that Xiao Cheng had missed such an important rule, he would naturally try to exploit that loophole. Qi Xia, in turn, could reverse-engineer Ground Monkey's psychology, using his own deception to secure the next round's victory.
Ground Monkey might have the home-field advantage, but he wasn't a sheep after all.
"Since you all understand the rules, let's get started." After speaking, Ground Monkey turned to look at Qi Xia. "All of your chips are nearly gone. You, especially, have nothing left. Are you really confident you can walk out of my arena?"
Qi Xia slowly curled the corner of his mouth and said, "Ground Monkey, you're a gambler. You should know that a person who's lost everything down to nothing is the most dangerous of all."