Lin Qin kept moving her fingers, trying to help herself regain sensation as quickly as possible.

She looked at the four “sticks” on her table: “neutral stick,” “neutral stick,” “Strong Wind Sweeps Fallen Leaves,” and “Spring Warmth and Blooming Flowers.”

“One of these sticks isn’t even mine…”

She rubbed her eyes, and after confirming she wasn’t seeing things, picked up the “Strong Wind Sweeps Fallen Leaves” from the table.

Lin Qin couldn’t remember ever drawing this stick. Looking at it carefully, this stick was truly strange.

It gave her a feeling of unreality.

Although Lin Qin had definitely taken this “stick” in her hand—she could touch it and clearly see every character on it—she just felt it wasn’t real.

This feeling was like touching her left hand with her right hand. Although she knew it was a hand, it always felt very different from touching someone else’s hand.

“Old Qin… did you make your move?”

Lin Qin turned to look at Qin Dingdong’s room, where yellow-green smoke was continuously descending. Qin Dingdong’s complexion had turned somewhat purple, and all the blood vessels on her face appeared to have darkened considerably—clear signs of poisoning.

Lin Qin knew that this extra “stick” in her possession came from Qin Dingdong, but it was a “counterfeit.”

This was Qin Dingdong’s usual trick. It should have been her method of swindling and deceiving, but now it had become a difficult problem placed before Lin Qin—

Could Earth-Dog’s game recognize counterfeits?

She had been deceived by Qin Dingdong before and had used a “counterfeit” item once in another game. That time was considered a full party violation, and everyone had been punished by Earth-Monkey.

If there was any difference between that time and this time…

It was that the one identifying the “sticks” this time wasn’t Earth-Dog himself, but a machine.

“But Su Shan…” Lin Qin looked up at Su Shan, whose face was covered with bloody marks. “Why did we choose to save people this round…?”

From Lin Qin’s perspective, the optimal strategy for this round should have been to quickly play “Hoeing Grain at Midday” to extinguish Earth-Dog’s last lamp, which would have saved everyone.

But Su Shan had abandoned this tactic, choosing to spend a round getting everyone out of the “calamities.”

“Do you think ‘saving people’ was necessary this round…?”

Since Su Shan’s strategy had already been determined, then this round absolutely required using this “counterfeit” stick in hand. Otherwise, no one could save Qin Dingdong, “winter would disappear,” and the game would enter a guaranteed loss situation.

So if “no winter” meant certain death, and “inserting a counterfeit” had a probability of death, the choice of which answer to select was already obvious.

“Su Shan, you really dare to gamble.” Lin Qin smiled bitterly as she placed that “counterfeit” into the hole. “If none of the ‘sticks’ in my hand can save people, what would you do?”

Watching the “stick” being swallowed bit by bit by the hole, Lin Qin’s expression was uncertain. Fortunately, this stick was still accepted into the table.

Qin Dingdong’s room underwent a transformation. The iron mesh on the ground opened up gaps, and the ceiling suddenly whipped up a strong wind. This gust blew in from above, instantly sweeping through the room.

Due to the excessive wind force, Qin Dingdong was directly blown to the ground, and several “sticks” in the room flew about randomly in the wind, looking even more dangerous than the poison gas.

Fortunately, the strong wind only lasted for a very short time before all the yellow poison gas in the room had been blown away, and the situation inside the room instantly became clearly visible.

But Qin Dingdong didn’t stand up from the ground for a long time.

“No… it can’t be…” Su Shan widened her eyes again, looking hard at Qin Dingdong. Her “radiance” hadn’t disappeared yet, so she should still be alive. “You absolutely can’t die… you’re our final link…”

Earth-Dog looked in Qin Dingdong’s direction and said coldly, “The third person’s ‘wish’ has ended. Please have the fourth person ‘draw a stick.'”

After those words, the room fell completely silent.

After more than ten seconds, Qin Dingdong finally moved slightly, and under everyone’s gaze, she pushed herself up from the ground.

Lin Qin saw that her complexion was still pale with a purplish tinge, and the capillaries on her face were clearly visible. It was impossible to say she was fine, but at least she had survived.

“I…”

Just as Qin Dingdong was about to speak, a large mouthful of fresh blood spurted out. The blood filled her trachea, making her already labored breathing even more painful.

With each cough, she felt like all her internal organs were in pain, as if they were about to explode.

“Dog-classmate…” After Qin Dingdong regulated her breathing and spat out a mouthful of bloody water, she looked at Earth-Dog. “You really have lived long enough… I learned all kinds of bad habits from that bastard Chen Junnan, and you actually dare to provoke me?”

Earth-Dog looked at Qin Dingdong with interest, as if anticipating her next move.

Qin Dingdong reached out and patted the glass: “Earth-Dog, let’s gamble our lives with big sister.”

But what Qin Dingdong hadn’t anticipated was that after those words, Earth-Dog still looked at her with that punchable serious face, as if nothing had happened.

“Hey!!” Qin Dingdong felt somewhat angry and could only forcefully pat the glass. “I’m fighting you to the death, do you hear me?”

Earth-Dog looked at Qin Dingdong’s lip movements, then lowered his head to organize the three scattered “sticks” on the table. His low voice came through the broadcast: “I’m truly sorry, but I may be getting on in years and can’t hear what you’re saying at all.”

“What…?”

Qin Dingdong furrowed her brow as she looked at Earth-Dog’s smug face, seemingly discovering the problem.

This damn game was designed quite cunningly. The “Participants” couldn’t gamble their lives with Earth-Dog during the game at all. After all, in this sealed glass room, the lazy dog couldn’t hear the “Participants” at all.

He had only left a speaker in the room, but no microphone.

“What the hell…” Qin Dingdong coughed a few more times and muttered to herself, “If you want to ‘gamble lives’ in your game… can it only be decided at the very beginning?”

But then Qin Dingdong suddenly thought of something else—Earth-Dog had immediately crawled into the glass room right after explaining all the rules.

On the surface, it looked like he was leaving all the “Participants” to discuss things themselves, but the actual situation was that he was afraid the group would work out a strategy and immediately choose to gamble lives with him.

“Dog-classmate, you’re really such a dog…” Qin Dingdong stared at those dog eyes, feeling increasingly angry the more she looked. “Just you wait… once big sister recovers her strength…”

Now the “calamities” in everyone’s rooms had been alleviated to different degrees. For the next three rounds, they just needed to hold steady, confronting each calamity as it came, then end the game in the eighth round.

“The sixth round begins. Now the first person will ‘draw a stick.'”

Su Shan looked at the “neutral stick” that had floated up from the hole and without another word pushed it back down.

She knew that Earth-Dog’s target this time could only be herself.

Summer, autumn, and winter had all already suffered “calamities.” Only she, representing “spring,” remained healthy. If she were Earth-Dog, she would definitely apply the “calamity” to “spring.”