By the time the paper reached Bai Youwei’s hands, six numbers on it had already been crossed out.

The nineteen numbers were arranged in a vertical column: 1–5 at the top, 10–18 in the middle, 23–26 at the bottom.

Her own number, 11, had already been crossed out — since each person needed to cross out two numbers, the people before her had crossed out their own and possibly one other person’s number as well.

Bai Youwei casually crossed out 1 and 17, then passed the paper along to the next person.

Once the paper had made its full circuit, only Number 2 remained with no one having crossed it out. So the three numbers they would vote for this round were: 2, 8, and 27.

With the numbers settled, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. Getting through the first step smoothly and safely felt like a good omen.

They stayed with Dr. Xu Fang, continuing to discuss the various possibilities within the game, intending to all go to the voting booth in the square together once voting time arrived.

Before long, they heard the sound of an argument.

People exchanged glances, looking toward the source of the noise with puzzled curiosity, but the trees were too dense to see anything.

Dr. Xu Fang suggested: “The game rules prohibit violence. Let us go take a look together.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Walking along the arc-shaped cobblestone path, they soon discovered the source of the dispute — the red-eyed faction and the blue-eyed faction had broken into a quarrel.

It seemed that within this short time, everyone had found their respective camps and each had their own leader.

The leader of the blue-eyed camp was a powerfully built Black man.

The leader of the red-eyed camp was a short-haired woman with an androgynous appearance.

Both sides were formidably assertive.

The Black man barked roughly at a man in a suit standing in the middle of it all: “Idiot! That woman tricked you! You’re blue-eyed!”

The short-haired woman was equally unyielding, saying coldly: “What’s this — not enough people in your own team, so now you want to poach from ours? Allen, think carefully — if you were blue-eyed, would we have recruited you from the very beginning?”

“Bullshit! It’s you red-eyed lot who ganged up to trick him!” The Black man fumed, itching to go over and beat the suited man senseless, but held back by the game rules.

“Keep performing! Keep the act going!” The short-haired woman gave a cold sneer. “The way you perform, you’d be wasting your talent if you didn’t become an actor!”

“You foul woman…” The Black man’s veins bulged with rage. He wanted to lunge forward and hit someone but was held back firmly by his companions.

His companion shouted furiously at the suited man: “Why aren’t you coming over?! How could there be a player this stupid in the preliminaries? Can’t you tell those people are playing you?!”

The suited man looked utterly devastated. He glanced left, then right, growing more and more confused.

Finally, his nerves strung tight, he asked the short-haired woman: “My eyes — are they really red?”

The short-haired woman nodded with a composed expression. “Yes. Your eyes are red.”

“They’re blue! Damn it!” The Black man spotted Xu Fang He leading his group over and immediately pointed at them. “If you don’t believe it, ask them! What’s the use of asking red-eyed people?! They’ll only play you!!”

The suited man gritted his teeth and looked toward Xu Fang He, asking once more: “You — tell me! What color are my eyes?!”

Xu Fang He paused for a moment, then looked toward the Black man. After two seconds of silence, he told the suited man: “Your eyes are blue.”

“Hear that?! Blue!” The Black man declared.

The short-haired woman broke into loud laughter. “You really do have tricks up your sleeve, big Black man! Knowing full well this gentleman wouldn’t dare cross you, you deliberately had Allen ask him — how could anyone expect a straight answer out of that?”

After her round of mockery, she turned to the suited man: “Allen, think carefully — why didn’t he answer you immediately? Why did he pause for several seconds, even glance at that damn Black man, before giving you an answer?”

—