Chapter 832: Born in Early Summer
"Tumi flower..." Earth Snake pondered for a moment, then turned to Qi Xia. "Qi Xia, it seems you don't know much about plants."
"That's right. Though I've studied a great deal, I still can't cover everything," Qi Xia replied. "Do you know this flower?"
"The Tumi flower, also written as Tumi flower, is pure white, but it only blooms during one specific season," Earth Snake said. "Do you know which season?"
"No."
Earth Snake sighed and said, "It doesn't fit the saying 'spring warmth brings flowers into bloom,' because it blossoms in 'early summer,' blooms fully in 'midsummer,' and when 'summer' fades, this flower withers away along with it."
Qi Xia frowned slightly after hearing this. "This flower appears and disappears... along with 'summer'?"
"Yes." Earth Snake nodded, then walked to the corner and began rummaging through books.
Half a minute later, he pulled out a higher plant illustrated guide from among the many old books. The book looked poorly preserved—a slight shake seemed like it might fall apart. He carefully flipped through the pages until he found an image of a pure white flower, then turned and handed it to Qi Xia.
The pages before and after this one had mostly fallen out; only this yellowed picture still clung loosely to the binding.
"Tumi flower..." Qi Xia murmured, then took the book and examined it.
The flower looked like a member of the Rosaceae family—each bloom pure white with yellow stamens.
Qi Xia stared at the flower for a while, then asked softly, "After the Tumi flower blooms, doesn't that mean autumn has arrived?"
"That's right," Earth Snake said. "The blooming of the Tumi flower often signals the end of the flowering season. After this flower blooms, no other flowers follow. It represents 'ending,' as well as 'finality.'"
Qi Xia nodded after hearing this. "Thanks to you, I've learned something new again."
"But you must have noticed..." Earth Snake said. "No plant can survive anywhere in this entire city. The streets are full of withered dead trees and dried flowers. There's no rain, no proper sunlight, and no chance of seeing living plants. So why did you suddenly bring up the Tumi flower?"
"Perhaps it's precisely because all the plants here are withered and dead," Qi Xia said with a sigh. "That pure white flower caught my attention all the more."
Earth Snake nodded after hearing this and said, "Qi Xia, the flower language of the 'Tumi flower' is 'beauty at the end of the road.'"
When those four words entered Qi Xia's ears, a distant memory gradually surfaced in his mind.
At that time, Yan Zhichun had softly said to Qi Xia, "Let's use the Tumi flower."
"Yan Zhichun... 'beauty at the end of the road'..." Qi Xia slowly narrowed his eyes. "When everything has faded away, can anything still be beautiful?"
"Hard to say," Earth Snake replied. "I suppose you'll have to find that answer yourself."
Qi Xia paused, then nodded to Earth Snake in acknowledgment, turned around, and walked outside the room.
The remaining few in the room exchanged glances. Qiao Jiajin and Qin Dingdong then followed Qi Xia out the door, leaving only Chen Junnan behind.
"Old Snake," Chen Junnan called out.
"What?"
"What's your game?" Chen Junnan asked.
"My game? You want to give it a try?"
"Not exactly," Chen Junnan said. "It's just that this venue doesn't seem to have any dangerous equipment. The only thing you could use for a game is books."
"The game does involve books," Earth Snake said. "But I have plenty of other props too."
Earth Snake walked over to the wall and lightly patted it. A hidden compartment slid open from the wall, followed by a pungent stench of rotting flesh.
The compartment looked like a large wardrobe, filled with an array of murder tools hanging inside, some stained with blood, others with rust, giving off a terrible odor.
"My game is called 'The Reader.' No matter how many 'participants' there are, I give them books and have them read aloud. Then, the other 'participants' and I take turns asking them questions based on the book. As long as they answer correctly, they pass. Of course, getting it wrong is fine—it just means no reward."
"Is it that hard?" Chen Junnan asked, puzzled. "How do people die in this game? And how do you use those murder tools?"
"The difficulty of this game has nothing to do with reading," Earth Snake said. "There's a death condition that applies throughout: from the moment I say 'game start' until I say 'game over,' you are absolutely forbidden to show any expression. If your expression changes, I kill you."
"Expression...?" Chen Junnan still felt a bit confused. "In a life-or-death game like this, who would be laughing and joking around?"
Earth Snake pulled out a tattered copy of *The Complete Joke Book* from the corner and handed it to Chen Junnan.
Chen Junnan took the book and noticed it was practically worn smooth—it must have been flipped through by countless people since it first appeared here.
"Try reading this book. Do you think you can keep a straight face the whole time?" Earth Snake asked.
Chen Junnan opened the book and glanced through it. It was mostly short jokes of a hundred or two hundred words. Unfortunately, they were all stale, old-fashioned gags—besides a few dry jokes, there were only some very awkward, dated puns.
"What, are the people here that easily amused?" Chen Junnan asked. "Reading this kind of crappy humor might actually make me cry if I have to sit through it long enough."
He closed the book and flipped it over to the back cover, noticing the publication date was way back in 2001.
"Kid, this book has the highest kill rate of all my games," Earth Snake said with a grin. "Think about it. An ordinary person reading a boring book can just stop. But when your life is on the line, even if you know the book is painfully dull, you have to grit your teeth and finish reading it."
"That makes sense," Chen Junnan nodded. "So how would someone show an expression? Under that kind of pressure, wouldn't they just get more and more expressionless?"
"Blame it on how cautious people are," Earth Snake said. "This book is called *The Complete Joke Book*. Even though the person reading it finds no amusement in it, they're still terrified that the next joke might be hilarious, causing them to slip up, show an expression, lose the game, and die. If it were you... how would you avoid that?"
Chen Junnan put himself in that role and realized that under such survival pressure, while reading jokes and trying not to show any expression, the solution he'd likely choose would be to "think about something sad" to neutralize his emotions.
Earth Snake knew Chen Junnan had already figured it out, so he walked over to him, slowly extended his hand, and said, "At that moment, I simply pat them on the shoulder and say, 'Don't be nervous.'"
"You're something else..." Chen Junnan sighed helplessly and handed the book back to Earth Snake.