While exerting effort to turn the table, Qi Xia said, “The positions of ‘Ningxia’ and ‘Shandong’ can be connected to form a horizontal line.”

“‘Inner Mongolia,’ ‘Sichuan,’ and ‘Yunnan’ can be connected to form a ‘pie’ stroke.”

“And the four points 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 ended up being, as long as it was either Guangxi Province or Taiwan Province, they would form the character ‘kou.’ So the answer was determined from the very beginning.”

While everyone accelerated their movements, they cast peculiar glances.

Qi Xia’s thinking was too unconventional, yet he had successfully solved the puzzle twice in a row. This inevitably made everyone begin to harbor doubts.

Qi Xia himself understood this point, so he spoke to everyone, “Don’t misunderstand either. If the next game requires abandoning you all to save my own life, I will also do so without hesitation to ensure my survival.”

Hearing him say this, everyone could only fall silent and grit their teeth as they turned the table.

Nine people sat around the table, constantly pushing it to the right.

“How many turns now?” Qiao Jiajin asked.

“Twenty-six,” Lin Qin answered.

“You can count that?” Qiao Jiajin blinked. “This table all looks the same.”

“I’m counting by watching the bloodstains on the table,” Lin Qin said earnestly. “Counting is very important for us psychological counselors.”

Qi Xia furrowed his brow. “Not even thirty turns yet. We need to hurry.”

Everyone then fell silent and quickened their movements.

However, the table became increasingly difficult to move as time went on, as if the chains inside were becoming tighter and tighter.

“Damn it, what’s happening?” Qiao Jiajin said through gritted teeth. “This is way too heavy.”

“Keep going… maybe it really is connected to the door!” Tiantian also said, grimacing.

Her words allowed everyone to see a glimmer of hope amid their despair.

The door.

Since this room could conjure holes out of nowhere, why couldn’t it conjure a door?

Everyone’s arms were somewhat sore, but they still rotated the table turn by turn.

“Everyone don’t give up! Only five more turns left!” Lin Qin shouted loudly.

At this moment, everyone was gritting their teeth and exerting all their strength. Not one person dared to slack off.

Clack, clack.

As the final turn ended, the table was clearly embedded into something.

Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief as the soreness in their arms gradually surged forth.

At this moment, only three minutes remained until one-fifteen.

“Where’s the door?!” Qiao Jiajin shouted anxiously.

The surrounding walls showed no change. In the dark holes, they could still see the cold gleam of the harpoons.

“Damn it! There’s no door!” Qiao Jiajin’s voice carried a hint of despair.

“We were wrong! We guessed wrong!” Xiao Ran screamed. “We should have turned left, right?! We shouldn’t have trusted that con man! We’re all going to die here!!”

Qi Xia furrowed his brow slightly…

Wrong?

Before everyone could react, the table clock in the center of the table suddenly behaved strangely.

It trembled slightly, then shot out eight beams of laser light.

Eight laser beams emerged from the table clock, gradually moving to the edge of the table before stopping.

To everyone’s bewilderment, the table clock precisely divided the table like a pizza into nine fan-shaped sections of equal size.

Crash!

With a loud sound, the table shattered into pieces.

The table clock in the center now stood only on a small wooden stake.

Time was too pressing, and everyone was in a flurry.

“What is this?” Han Yimo cried out in alarm. “Why did the table break apart too?”

Officer Li discovered at this moment that the back of each fan-shaped tabletop actually had a handle. Years of professional experience made him instantly understand.

“They’re shields!”

He picked up the fan-shaped tabletop and held it in front of himself.

“We can use these shields to block the harpoons!”

Hearing this, everyone also picked up their own table boards.

However, in just over ten seconds, everyone discovered the problem.

“How are we supposed to block them?!” Lawyer Zhang Chenze rarely showed a trace of panic. “If there are harpoons on all four sides, we can only block one direction.”

“We need to cooperate,” Qi Xia came to his senses and spoke. “We form a circle and block each other’s backs.”

Hearing this, everyone hurriedly adjusted their formation and quietly waited.

At this moment, everyone was so quiet they could only hear each other’s breathing.

Nine strangers had now become teammates, each one indispensable.

Qi Xia inadvertently glanced back at the writer Han Yimo and noticed his face was covered in fine sweat, his whole body trembling, looking extremely nervous.

At this time, a bell rang once again from somewhere far outside the room.

“Are you alright?” Qi Xia asked.

“It’s… it’s nothing…” Han Yimo shook his head.

“Hey! Doctor Zhao, turn your tabletop upside down!” Zhang Chenze suddenly spoke.

“Why?” Doctor Zhao looked at the tabletop in his hands. His pointed end was down, wide end up.

“Like that, you can’t block my legs!” Zhang Chenze said nervously. “I’ll get shot!”

“If I turn it upside down, I won’t be able to block my head!” Doctor Zhao also refused to back down. “Which is more important—head or legs?”

Some people, after hearing the two argue, felt Doctor Zhao’s words made quite a bit of sense. At this moment, they actually turned their fan shapes around one after another.

Pointed end down, wide end up.

This created a bizarre situation.

The harpoons flying from all directions would only block the upper half, and everyone’s legs would be injured.

“Is this really right?” Xiao Ran was stunned. “Even if we can hide our legs inside the pointed end and block the front, what about the harpoons flying from behind? What about the harpoons flying from above?”

“I’ll block the top!” Officer Li raised his tabletop. “Everyone get closer, I’ll protect you.”

Lin Qin thought quickly for a moment and said, “The rest of us should alternate up and down. We can stagger ourselves!”

“Right! That makes sense!” Qiao Jiajin also chimed in.

“No.” Qi Xia spoke up and interrupted the two. “If everyone’s tabletops are perpendicular to the harpoons, they’ll be too easily penetrated…”

“Pretty boy, then what do you suggest?” Qiao Jiajin asked.

Qi Xia’s gaze settled on the goatskin mask on the ground.

“Why aren’t bamboo shoots afraid of being struck by rain?”

The last hint made Qi Xia thoughtful.

“Wait, wait… give me a bit more time.” Qi Xia furrowed his brow.

Everyone held their breath, watching as time passed second by second. Only one minute remained until the harpoons fired.

“Never mind him!” Doctor Zhao said coldly. “Let’s do what Lin Qin said and stagger them!”

“You sausage, shut up!” Qiao Jiajin also shouted. “I believe what the con man says.”

“You!” Doctor Zhao bit his teeth and swallowed his words.

“I’ve got it!” Qi Xia’s eyes suddenly widened. “Everyone, pointed end up!”

Although everyone was somewhat doubtful, most people’s minds were completely blank, so they could only comply for now.

Doctor Zhao thought for a moment, then also turned the pointed end upward.

“Everyone crouch down!” Qi Xia continued. “Move the pointed end backward and lean together. Officer Li, you don’t need to block above anymore either—join us!”

Under Qi Xia’s direction, everyone incredibly arranged all the fan shapes side by side, forming a cone.

No one had imagined that all the fan shapes would fit together seamlessly, blocking gaps from all four directions and directly above.

Viewed from afar, the cone resembled a bamboo shoot, waiting for a heavy rain to arrive.

In the pitch-black space, everyone’s tense hearts pounded thump, thump, with only the sound of breathing echoing among them.

“It’s coming…”

Qi Xia calculated the time in his mind and spoke softly to alert them.

The next second, everyone heard an explosive rush of wind as something invisible slammed hard into the tabletop in Qi Xia’s hands.

Immediately after, sounds from all directions swept in like a violent storm.

The force of the harpoons was surprisingly great. Everyone felt their arms shake painfully, and they were about to lose their grip on the tabletops.

Fortunately, everyone’s tabletops were now pressed against each other, forming a delicate balance.

“Ah!”

The tabletop in front of Xiao Ran was suddenly penetrated by a harpoon, causing her to scream.

Qi Xia turned around and discovered that harpoon had stopped just two or three centimeters from Xiao Ran’s eyes.

Fortunately, the tabletop was hard enough. Otherwise, Xiao Ran would already be dead.