An old tungsten filament light,suspended from the ceiling by black wires,flickered with a dim light.
The tranquil atmosphere was like ink dripping into clear water,spreading and diffusing within the room.
In the center of the room stood a large round table,looking weathered and worn,with a small,intricately patterned clock standing in the middle,ticking away.
Around the table sat ten people dressed in various attires,their clothes somewhat tattered and their faces covered in dust.
Some were leaning on the table,others were sitting back in their chairs,all fast asleep.
Beside these ten individuals,a man wearing a goat head mask and a black suit stood quietly.
His gaze pierced through the worn-out goat head mask,watching the ten people with interest.
The clock on the table rang out,with the minute and hour hands both pointing to'twelve'.
From a distant place outside the room,a deep bell tolled.
At that very moment,the ten men and women sitting around the round table slowly awoke.
After gradually regaining consciousness,they first looked around in confusion,then at each other with doubt.
It seemed that none of them remembered why they were here.
"Good morning,nine of you,"the goat head spoke first,"I am delighted to meet you here,as you have been sleeping in front of me for twelve hours."
The attire of the man before them was truly eerie,startling everyone in the dim light.
His mask seemed to be made from a real goat's head,with much of the hair turned yellow and black,matted and stuck together.
Two hollows were dug out for the eyes of the goat mask,revealing his cunning eyes.
His every movement not only exuded the unique goaty smell but also a faint odor of decay.
A man with a tattooed arm hesitated for a few seconds before finally realizing the absurdity of the situation and asked the goat head hesitantly,"Who...are you?"
"I believe you all have this question,so let me introduce myself to the nine of you,"the goat head waved his hands cheerfully,seemingly well-prepared with an answer.
A young man named Qi Xia sat the farthest away from the goat head,quickly surveying the situation in the room,and after a moment,his expression turned serious.
Strange,this room was truly strange.
There were no doors,just walls on all sides.
In other words,this room was enclosed on all sides,roof,and floor,with a table placed right in the center.
If that was the case,how did they get here?
Could it be that the people were brought here first,and then the walls were built?
Qi Xia looked around again;the floor,walls,and ceiling all had crisscrossing lines,dividing the surfaces into many large squares.
Another point that caught Qi Xia's attention was the'nine'mentioned by the goat head.