Xu Fang He produced another sheet of paper and, following the same method as before, had everyone select the numbers to be eliminated in Round Two.

“Last round, our target Number 2 wasn’t eliminated, so Number 2 counts as one for this round. We still need two more numbers — let’s choose them now.”

He wrote a string of numbers on the paper at an unhurried pace, crossed out two himself, and then passed it to the bespectacled man beside him.

“There are eighteen numbers here. With eight of us, each person crosses out two, leaving two numbers at the end. Those two, plus Number 2, will be our targets for next round’s vote.”

As he said this, he seemed to suddenly recall something and looked toward Bai Youwei: “By the way — on that final vote, which number did you choose? Why wasn’t Number 2 eliminated?”

Bai Youwei replied: “When I entered the booth, I found only Numbers 1 and 9 were selectable. So I chose Number 1.”

“I see…” Xu Fang He slowly nodded. “It seems voting order also matters a great deal. If you vote too late, you may lose the opportunity to vote as intended. In Round Two, everyone try to get your voting done earlier.”

Everyone nodded.

The paper made its rounds and arrived in Bai Youwei’s hands. Her seat was near the back, so by the time she received it, most of the numbers had already been crossed out.

Xu Fang He had written the numbers in the same vertical arrangement as before: 3–7 at the top, 10–17 in the middle, 21–25 at the bottom.

Four numbers remained uncrossed: 7, 11, 23, and 25.

Bai Youwei crossed out her own Number 11, then crossed out Number 7.

She thought for a moment and asked: “In the last round we had nine people voting for three numbers, so each number got 3 votes. But now we only have eight people voting for three numbers — how does that work? 3+3+2? Two votes seems like it wouldn’t be enough to eliminate anyone, unless the votes happen to overlap with someone else’s.”

Once she pointed this out, the others also caught on and turned to look at Xu Fang He.

“Yes, Dr. Xu Fang — what do we do about that?”

“What about 4+4? Concentrating votes might increase the chances of elimination.”

Xu Fang He shook his head with a smile. “There’s no need to worry. These three numbers will ultimately be brought to the blue-eyed players to choose from.”

Bai Youwei was mildly surprised.

Xu Fang He continued: “We have 8 votes; the blue-eyes have 7 — fifteen votes in total. If we can eliminate three or more red-eyes in the next round, we gain a significant advantage. By following my method, eliminating three red-eyes is theoretically no problem.”

Everyone’s spirits lifted at this!

The red-eyed faction currently had ten members. Eliminate three, and they’d be down to seven — their numerical advantage would vanish in an instant!

The bespectacled man looked at Xu Fang He with barely contained excitement: “Dr. Xu Fang! Tell us what to do and we’ll follow your instructions without question!”

The silk-scarf woman also wore an expression of devout reverence, bowing toward Xu Fang He: “Doctor, please lead us forward!”

The others, though they found this pair of devotees somewhat over the top, chimed in with their own flattery regardless. Saying a few pleasant words cost nothing, and as long as their own interests weren’t compromised, a little fawning and currying of favor was perfectly acceptable.

Xu Fang He slowly laid out his plan:

“I will give these three numbers to the blue-eyed team, and simultaneously, the blue-eyed team will give us three of their own screened numbers — six numbers in total.

“Then we cross out any yellow-eyes from their list; they cross out any blue-eyes from ours. Whatever numbers remain will naturally be red-eyes.

“In the best-case scenario, all six numbers belong to red-eyed players. That’s unlikely, of course — but through this method, we can quite easily identify between two and five red-eye numbers.”

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