Lin Qin took “Rice Flowers Drift in a Bountiful Year” into her hand and, enduring her injuries all over her body, thought for a moment.
As “Autumn,” she had actually “harvested” at this moment, which meant that the preceding “Spring” and “Summer” must have employed their seasonal strategies, allowing her—this battered and scarred “Autumn”—to obtain this “lot.”
“Two bell sounds rang just now…” Lin Qin murmured to herself. “You really haven’t disappointed me…”
She raised her head and met Su Shan’s gaze, but suddenly froze.
Su Shan’s eyes had already become as dazzling as diamonds, yet at this moment, two trails of dark red bloody tears were flowing down from her eyes, looking somewhat terrifying.
“Su Shan…”
Lin Qin hesitated no longer. She decisively picked up this “Rice Flowers Drift in a Bountiful Year.” Right now, her task as “Autumn” was to safely bring all the harvested grain to “Winter.”
Before she could insert the “lot,” the Earth-Dog’s broadcast voice rang out at this moment.
“Wait a moment.”
Lin Qin froze and looked up at the Earth-Dog. At this moment, he had turned around to face her, holding a “lot” in his hand.
“What?” Lin Qin didn’t understand what the Earth-Dog meant.
“The ‘lot’ in my hand is ‘Cold Current.'” the Earth-Dog said. “If you dare to use that ‘lot,’ I will bring down a ‘Cold Current’ in your room. This ‘lot’ will cause the temperature in your room to drop to minus thirty degrees Celsius in a short time. You’re not wearing much—you’ll definitely freeze to death.”
After listening, Lin Qin slowly drew her hand back and furrowed her brow.
Since each person’s room only had a speaker and no microphone, she couldn’t converse with the Earth-Dog and could only unilaterally listen to what he said.
“You might be very puzzled—I could clearly use this ‘lot’ directly, yet I’m threatening you instead, right?” the Earth-Dog said. “The reason is simple. Because it’s too late today, if you die here, it will be very difficult for me to clean the rooms. I’ll have to get up early tomorrow, which is very painful, so I’m prepared to make you back down when faced with difficulty.”
After listening, Lin Qin looked at the Earth-Dog and, from a psychological standpoint, tried to gauge his sincerity. When ordinary people spoke such a long passage, their micro-expressions would easily reveal flaws.
Unfortunately, he had a hunting dog’s face, making it really difficult to discern.
“If you play a ‘useless lot’ this round, I guarantee I won’t kill anyone in the remaining time,” the Earth-Dog added. “You should have noticed… when explaining the rules before the game, I didn’t tell a single lie. This is my ‘sincerity’ toward all of you. When you lose the game, you can leave a few ‘Dao’ and withdraw unscathed.”
Yes, Lin Qin raised the corner of her mouth slightly. Before the game started, the Earth-Dog hadn’t told a single lie. Most of the rules had already been explained before the game—he was a very honest person.
Which was precisely why she couldn’t trust him this round.
Lin Qin placed the “lot” at the hole opening with a smile on her face, then steadily inserted it right in front of the Earth-Dog. The two maintained eye contact throughout, and the Earth-Dog’s gaze was exceptionally stern.
“Earth-Dog… if I remember correctly, before the game started, you also said something—’Next, I will use every means possible to kill all of you.'” Lin Qin shrugged with slight apology. “I’m more willing to trust the you from before the game started than the you in the game.”
The Earth-Dog naturally couldn’t hear Lin Qin’s words, but his expression had clearly changed.
“Deceiving people is really hard… no wonder ‘Sheep’ are so rare…” The Earth-Dog shook his head helplessly. “Go die.”
This year’s “calamity” came, and the target was still Lin Qin.
Lin Qin stood up, looking at the Earth-Dog fearlessly. She knew her injuries were already severe enough—this “Cold Current” wouldn’t make much difference.
Moreover, a temperature of minus thirty degrees Celsius wouldn’t freeze a person to death in a short time. She might still have a thread of hope for survival.
A huge mechanism sound rang out above Lin Qin’s head. It seemed like something was brewing. After a few seconds, an enormous cold wind blew down from above, bone-chillingly cold.
After just a few seconds, she felt something was quite wrong. If the room stayed at minus thirty degrees Celsius, her probability of survival would be quite high, but if minus thirty-degree cold wind kept blowing continuously, she would undoubtedly die.
The flowing cold wind would continuously carry away the heat produced by her body, and the cramped room wouldn’t allow her to keep warm through movement. The situation was somewhat dangerous.
But thinking from another perspective, their probability of winning next was very high. The only prerequisite was that Qin Dingdong couldn’t save her.
If she dispelled her “calamity” this round, then all four people’s efforts throughout the entire year would be in vain.
Thinking of this, she extended her finger and tremblingly wrote three characters on the wall covered in white frost—”Don’t Save Me.”
“The third person’s ‘wish’ has ended. The fourth person will ‘draw lots.'”
Qin Dingdong reached out without hesitation to pick up the “lot” on the table—”Year of Abundant Clothing and Food.”
Time was precious now. A “Cold Current” had descended in Lin Qin’s room. If they didn’t hurry, she would be frozen into an ice sculpture in the room.
So which “lot” should she play now?
The three “lots” in her hand all looked extremely precious—”Strong Wind Sweeps Fallen Leaves,” “Water Recedes Without a Trace,” “Year of Abundant Clothing and Food.”
Looking at the lot surfaces, her original two “lots” couldn’t counter the “Cold Current” at all.
“I can only leave it to ‘next year’…” Qin Dingdong said with furrowed brows. “Old Lin, endure a bit longer.”
She aimed the “lot” in her hand at the hole. “Dead dog, we’ve been busy for four years already. It’s time you let us have a good New Year, right?”
The “lot” in her hand was inserted into the hole. The next second, cheerful and festive music came from the Earth-Dog’s room.
It had been a long time since everyone had heard this music. If they weren’t in this dark, stinking room, they would have thought they had returned to the real world, sitting together with family in a warm room eating New Year’s Eve dinner.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t get out.
They had always been dying and being reborn here.
Even corpses couldn’t be transported out.
The Earth-Dog slowly stood up with a stern face, looked at his second extinguished light, then looked at the ceiling. That broken speaker was actually playing New Year’s music.
The joyful and festive melody formed a huge contrast with his cold and gloomy face.
He had conducted this game many times. The situation where each season’s mission within a year could be completely fulfilled was extremely rare.
“Looks like your team isn’t too bad.” He surveyed the people around him and said, “The fifth round begins. This round, I will act first.”
Su Shan was just about to “draw lots” when she heard this sentence and suddenly froze.
The Earth-Dog acts first?
As the end of the fourth round and the beginning of the fifth round, he would actually act twice consecutively. Was he preparing to unleash his killing moves this time?
“This round’s ‘calamity’ is called—’Poisonous Miasma.'” He took out a “lot” and threw it toward Qin Dingdong.
After a few seconds, yellowish-green strange gas floated out from Qin Dingdong’s ceiling. She quickly reached up to cover her mouth and nose.
She knew things had become somewhat troublesome. What could handle “Poisonous Miasma” was most likely “Strong Wind Sweeps Fallen Leaves,” but this “lot” was in her own hand.
What was even more despairing was that it had a leftward arrow drawn on it.
In other words, only if Lin Qin used this “lot” could she dispel the poisonous miasma in her room.
This way, everyone would need to continuously “gift” this “lot,” essentially completely wasting a round.
It was already the fifth round now. Was there still time for them to save people?