Qi Xia said while trying to turn the table, "The positions of 'Ningxia' and 'Shandong' can be connected into a horizontal line."
"The positions of 'Inner Mongolia', 'Sichuan', and 'Yunnan' can be connected into an 'apostrophe'."
"And the four dots of 'Guangxi', 'Guangdong', 'Shaanxi', and 'Jiangsu' can be connected to form a square, which is exactly the character for 'right'."
"No matter where Han Yimo's hometown is in the end, as long as it's any of the Guangxi and Taiwan provinces, it will form the character 『Mouth』, so the answer is certain from the start."
The crowd revealed strange gazes while speeding up the movements in their hands.
Qi Xia's thought process was too jumpy, yet he had revealed the answer to the riddle twice in a row, which couldn't help but make the crowd begin to doubt it.
Qi Xia himself understood this, so he opened his mouth and said to the crowd, "Don't misunderstand me either, if the next game is to abandon you all to live by yourselves, I will also have no choice but to let myself live."
Hearing him say this, the crowd could only fall silent, clenching their teeth as they spun the table.
Nine men sat around the table, constantly pivoting to the right.
"How many turns?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
"Twenty-six laps." Lin Qing replied.
"Can you count that too?" Qiao Jiajin blinked, "The table looks the same."
"I counted it by looking at the blood on the table." Lin Qing said seriously, "Counting is important to us counselors."
Qixia frowned, "Less than thirty laps to go, we need to hurry."
The crowd then quieted down and sped up the movements of their hands.
But the table became harder to move the later it got, it seemed like the chains inside were getting tighter and tighter.
"Damn, what's going on?" Qiao Jiajin gritted his teeth. "This is way too heavy."
"Come on... maybe it really is connected to a door!" Tiantian said through gritted teeth.
Her words gave everyone a glimmer of hope amidst their despair.
A door.
Since this room could conjure holes out of thin air, why couldn't it conjure a door?
Everyone's arms were starting to ache, but they continued to rotate the table, circle by circle.
"Don't give up, everyone! There are only five circles left!" Lin Qing shouted.
At this moment, everyone was gritting their teeth and exerting their strength, with no one daring to slack off.
"Crack, crack."
As the last circle ended, it was clear that the table had been embedded into something.
Everyone finally let out a sigh of relief, and the ache in their arms gradually set in.
At this moment, there were only three minutes left until 1:15.
"Where's the door?!" Qiao Jiajin shouted anxiously.
The walls around them showed no signs of change; in the dark void, the cold light of the harpoons could still be seen glinting.
"Damn it! There's no door!" Qiao Jiajin's voice carried a hint of despair.
"Wrong! We guessed wrong!" Xiao Ran screamed, "It should have been a left turn, right?! We shouldn't have trusted that liar! We're all going to die here!!"
Qi Xia frowned slightly...
Wrong?
Before anyone could react, the clock in the center of the table suddenly began to act strangely.
It trembled slightly, then shot out eight beams of laser light.
The eight beams of laser light emitted from the clock gradually moved to the edge of the table and stopped.
Under the confusion of everyone, the clock precisely divided the table into several equal-sized sections like a pizza.
"Bang!"
With a loud noise, the table shattered into pieces.
At this moment, the clock was left standing on a small wooden stump.
Qi Xia looked closely and saw that there were nine small triangular sections and one large triangular section.
No, rather than calling them "sections," it was more accurate to call them "triangles," since the base of each piece was flat.
Time was too tight, and everyone was in a flurry.
"What is this?" Han Yimo exclaimed. "Why did the table break apart?"
Officer Li noticed that each triangular table surface had a handle on its back, and his years of professional experience instantly made him realize what was happening.
"It's a shield!"
He picked up the largest triangular table surface and held it in front of himself.
"We can use this shield to block the harpoons!"
Upon hearing this, everyone raised their table pieces, but unfortunately, there was only one large triangular piece; the rest could only grab a small triangle, barely enough to shield their own bodies.
But within just a few seconds, everyone realized the problem.
"How are we supposed to block it?!" Lawyer Zhang Chenze rarely showed a hint of panic. "If there are harpoons coming from all directions, we can only block one side!"
"We need to cooperate," Qi Xia replied, coming back to her senses. "Let's form a circle and cover each other's backs."
Upon hearing this, everyone hurriedly adjusted their positions and quietly waited.
At this moment, all they could hear was each other's breathing.
Nine strangers had now become teammates, and none could be missing.
Qi Xia casually glanced back at the writer Han Yimo and noticed that his face was covered in fine sweat, and his whole body was trembling; he looked extremely tense.
At that moment, a distant bell rang again from outside the room.
"Are you okay?" Qi Xia asked.
"No, it's nothing..." Han Yimo shook his head.
"Hey! Dr. Zhao, turn your table piece upside down!" Zhang Chenze suddenly spoke up.
"If you keep it like this, you won't be able to block my legs!" Zhang Chenze said nervously. "I'll get hit!"
"If I turn it over, I won't be able to block my head!" Dr. Zhao refused to back down. "Is the head more important or the legs?"
Some people, upon hearing their argument, found Dr. Zhao's point quite reasonable, and they began to turn their triangular pieces around.
With the pointed end down and the wide end up.
This created a bizarre situation.
That is, the harpoons flying from all directions would only be blocked on the upper part, leaving everyone's legs exposed to injury.
"Is this really okay?" Xiao Ran paused for a moment. "Even if we can hide our legs behind the pointed ends and block the front, what about the harpoons coming from behind? And what about the ones coming from above?"
"I'll block the top!" Officer Li raised his large table piece. "Everyone get a bit closer; I'll protect you."
It must be said that this approach now seems to be the best solution. One person holds up the largest table piece to block from above, while the others block from the sides. However, Qi Xia still felt there was a problem.
Lin Qing quickly thought for a moment and said, "The remaining people should arrange themselves in an alternating up-and-down manner; we can stagger our positions!"
"Yes! That makes sense!" Qiao Jiajin agreed.
"Not quite," Qi Xia interrupted the two. "If everyone's table pieces are perpendicular to the harpoons, it would be too easy for them to penetrate..."
"Handsome guy, what do you suggest then?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
Qi Xia's gaze lingered on the sheepskin mask on the ground.
"Why doesn't bamboo shoot fear the rain?"
The last hint left Qi Xia deep in thought.
"Wait, wait... give me a little more time," Qi Xia frowned.
Everyone held their breath, watching the seconds tick away, with only one minute left until the harpoons were fired.
"Forget about him for now!" Dr. Zhao shouted coldly. "Let's go with what Lin Qing said and arrange ourselves in a staggered manner!"
"You, brat, shut up!" Qiao Jiajin also yelled, "I trust what the liar said."
"You!" Dr. Zhao gritted his teeth and swallowed his words.
What do the large table piece and the small table piece really mean...?
"Wait a minute..." Qi Xia suddenly widened his eyes. "It's 'lies'! The large table piece will get us killed!"
"What?" Officer Li looked at Qi Xia with some confusion.
"Officer, get rid of the large table piece and go grab the last small table piece. Everyone should point their ends upwards!"
Although everyone was somewhat skeptical, most of their minds were blank, and they could only follow Qi Xia's instructions for the time being.
Dr. Zhao thought for a moment and also turned his pointed end backward.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Officer Li picked up the last small table piece.
"Everyone, crouch down!" Qi Xia continued, "Move the pointed ends back and lean against each other. Officer Li, you don't need to block from above anymore; join us!"
Under Qi Xia's command, everyone gradually aligned all the fan-shaped pieces to form a cone.
No one expected that after discarding the large table piece, all the small table pieces would fit together perfectly to form a pyramid, blocking the gaps from all sides and above.
From a distance, the cone resembled a bamboo shoot, waiting for a heavy rain to come.
In the dark space, everyone's hearts raced anxiously, with only the sound of their breathing echoing among them.
"It's coming..."
Qi Xia calculated the time in his mind and quietly signaled.
In the next second, everyone heard a deafening rush of wind as an invisible object violently struck the table piece in Qi Xia's hands.
Immediately after, sounds from all directions surged in like a storm.
The force of the harpoon was surprisingly strong, and everyone felt their arms vibrating painfully, almost unable to hold onto the table pieces.
Fortunately, all the table pieces were pressed together at that moment, creating a delicate balance.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, the table piece in front of Xiao Ran was pierced by a harpoon, causing her to scream.
Qi Xia turned around and found that the harpoon had stopped just two or three centimeters away from Xiao Ran's eyes.
If it weren't for the hardness of the table piece, Xiao Ran would have been dead by now.