Chapter 179: Heart-Stopping Carriage (13)
It was too critical. After the seat-guessing segment, the ten people who survived were nearly half-dead.
Right, although the second round was hard, ten people still survived, not a single seat wasted.
Probably because five of the ten correct positions were lower bunks, and someone happened to guess the answer correctly by luck.
Player No. 3 and Player No. 8 guessed the wrong answer and were electrocuted to death. Among the survivors, only nine Real Players and one NPC remained.
The sole NPC was precisely the sleazy middle-aged man from the third compartment where Ji Ning had been. His bunk was No. 9, one of the ten safe positions. He must have stumbled his way to surviving the second round's elimination plan.
The carriage, which could hold thirty-two people in total, now had only a third left. The entire space was disturbingly quiet.
The four-person group gathered in a compartment once more.
Ji Ning walked up to Qin Yanshu, let out a long breath, and took the initiative to burrow into his arms, wrapping both hands around his waist for a hug.
Qin Yanshu was not very accustomed to this kind of "post-disaster celebration hugging among teammates." His gaze swept across the two men opposite them as he slowly and hesitantly raised his arms, preparing to reciprocate for Ji Ning.
However, before his hands could touch Ji Ning's back, she had already let go and moved away.
Qin Yanshu could only withdraw his hands. His expression faltered for an instant, but he quickly returned to his usual look.
Song Weiyang watched the whole process without blinking and, showing no mercy at all, burst out laughing.
The only reason he had survived just now was that Qin Yanshu understood the musical score, and the man had even given the possibility of survival to him first. This had given Song Weiyang a bit of a good impression of Qin Yanshu.
He walked forward, stood behind Ji Ning and leaned forward, sandwiching Ji Ning like a cookie filling as he wrapped one arm around Qin Yanshu and patted his shoulder with the other hand: "Thanks, big brother. But brother, you're too stifled, even more stifled than Brother Ting. We passed such a hard trial and you don't even crack a smile."
Ji Ning was pressed by Song Weiyang, squeezed between the two of them with her face almost pasted onto Qin Yanshu's body. With Song Weiyang still talking so much, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry and could only grab Qin Yanshu's wrist, leaning against him.
Sensing the intimacy regained after a loss, Qin Yanshu's heart was like a cup of water that had gone cold being infused with hot water again, warming back up.
He looked at Song Weiyang. The young man he had once envied was winking at him, then let go.
Qin Yanshu understood Song Weiyang's hint. This time he did not hesitate, raising his hands to just barely circle Ji Ning, hugging her briefly.
Livestream comments:
"Little Brother really is a sweetheart."
"Little Brother: I'll personally pimp my woman and my love rival."
"This move successfully infiltrates the enemy's interior, leaving the love rival with no jealousy to eat."
After Ji Ning and Qin Yanshu separated, Xing Ye spoke up: "The arrival time on my ticket is nine o'clock sharp. It's already eight forty-five now, so there's definitely one more trial not yet finished."
The other three nodded, with no objections. Everyone's arrival times were the same.
The four fell into a brief silence, and the carriage grew increasingly still.
Under such circumstances, the broadcast that sounded once more became distinctly audible.
The child's voice was considerably more cheerful than the first time. However, the childish voice suppressed a perverse excitement that sent chills down one's spine just listening.
This time, his opening line became a bizarre nursery rhyme.
"Big rabbit fell ill,
Second rabbit checked,
Third rabbit bought the medicine,
Fourth rabbit brewed,
Fifth rabbit died,
Sixth rabbit carried,
Seventh rabbit dug a hole,
Eighth rabbit buried,
Ninth rabbit sat on the ground and cried,
Tenth rabbit asked Ninth rabbit why she cried,
Ninth rabbit said,
Fifth rabbit went away and never came back."
After finishing the nursery rhyme, the child's voice giggled a few times and said: "Ten people, still a bit too many. The number of people who can get off the train is limited. Which several people to kill, you decide among yourselves. I've prepared a knife for you, hidden in the rubbish bin of the washroom. I'm thoughtful, right? Oh, right, the remaining people must match the number of living rabbits in the nursery rhyme I just sang. One more, one less, none of that will do, or you'll all die!"
At the same time the broadcast was speaking, Xing Ye left a sentence: "Protect her." He quickly opened the door and sprinted out of the compartment.
They were in the fifth compartment this time, and the washroom was to the left of the first compartment. He had to seize that knife, and not let the weapon fall into the hands of an opposing party for nothing.
Xing Ye rushed out to grab the knife, and the remaining people were not idle either.
Song Weiyang stepped onto the wall across the corridor, blocking those who followed wanting to grab the knife as well. Someone attacked Song Weiyang, and Qin Yanshu immediately and agilely blocked their way and started fighting.
Ji Ning clung to the doorframe, her gaze following Xing Ye for a glance. Seeing him tangled in a fight with three men from the front four carriages, attacking indiscriminately without distinction, locked in a fierce and tangled brawl, her heart immediately clenched tight.
But afraid of causing trouble for Song Weiyang and Qin Yanshu, Ji Ning hurriedly pulled her head back into the compartment.
Unable to see Xing Ye's situation, Ji Ning was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan, sticking her head out from time to time for a quick look.
Finally, on her fourth glance out, she witnessed Xing Ye emerging from the washroom holding a short watermelon knife.
The person holding the sole sharp weapon was at this moment the master of this carriage.
The others, terrified that Xing Ye would immediately go on a killing spree, all moved out of the way. Not only did they tuck tail and hide back in their compartments, they also swiftly shut the compartment doors.
Knowing that the three people with Ji Ning were on the same side as Xing Ye, the people behind no longer dared to fight Qin Yanshu either, silently retreating further and further away.
Xing Ye held the knife, walking back like a Yama king from hell, yet he stopped when passing the third compartment.
He turned around and kicked the door bolt on the compartment open with one stomp, walking in.
The middle-aged man's panicked shout came from within the third compartment: "What are you doing!"
Xing Ye made no sound. What answered him instead was the muffled sound of a blade slicing through flesh and soft bone.
In less than five seconds, Xing Ye, without so much as blinking, walked out of the third compartment splattered in blood and returned to the fifth compartment.
Ji Ning stared blankly at Xing Ye, whose visage was now somewhat terrifying, and her eyes involuntarily grew moist.
Perhaps other players would guess that Xing Ye killed the sole NPC for the sake of player freedom, but she knew his personal motive.
After Xing Ye came back, he sat on the bed with a bold, imposing posture. He used his clean hand to take hold of Ji Ning's hand, who was sitting beside him, and said in a deep voice: "Time is limited. Let's solve the riddle."
It was still Song Weiyang who reacted first, speaking up: "Ten rabbits, huh. I've heard it. It should be that the fifth and sixth rabbits both died, because 'carried' is an action word for two people. Sixth rabbit was carried, so it also died. But this kind of thing is a matter of opinion; maybe it's reinterpreted here."
Qin Yanshu followed closely: "I think the seventh rabbit also died. Because the seventh rabbit was digging a hole, and the eighth rabbit should have buried it alive."
Ji Ning glanced at Xing Ye and added: "I've also read that story. It says the mastermind is the tenth rabbit, because he was secretly in love with the ninth rabbit, and the ninth rabbit liked the fifth rabbit. So the tenth rabbit schemed to make the big rabbit fall ill, instructed the second rabbit to say the fifth rabbit was the medicinal ingredient, and logically killed the fifth rabbit. By that reasoning, I think the ninth rabbit also died, because her beloved fifth rabbit died, and she might have committed suicide. If she lived, she would be even less likely to accept the tenth rabbit, and might also have been killed by the perverted tenth rabbit."
Xing Ye nodded and summarized: "In that case, there are already four rabbits dead. I also have a thought. The second rabbit is the only one who knew the tenth rabbit's plot. According to the tenth rabbit's methods in this story, I believe he would not let an insider live; that would leave loose ends. So the number of dead rabbits should be five."
The few of them first listed out all the suspects, then used the process of elimination to analyze the remaining rabbits one by one.
"The big rabbit wouldn't die, because to keep the matter from being exposed, the tenth rabbit would definitely ensure that the fifth rabbit being the medicinal ingredient was a done deal."
"The third rabbit wouldn't die, because it was just an unknowing helper."
"The fourth rabbit and eighth rabbit wouldn't die either, for the same reason as the third rabbit."
"The tenth rabbit is the mastermind, no one can restrain him, so he wouldn't die either."
Calculated this way, the rabbits that died in the nursery rhyme were: the second rabbit, the fifth rabbit, the sixth rabbit, the seventh rabbit, and the ninth rabbit.
After removing the already-dead NPC, four more players needed to be eliminated.
With the knife in hand, and the person holding the knife being Xing Ye, as long as the correct answer was analyzed, the rest was very simple.
Even if it was killing people.
Livestream comments:
"Brother Xing is so damn cool!"
"So cool I'm shitting myself on the spot!"
"After this instance, Xing Ye's popularity is definitely going to skyrocket."
"My Ning-Ning will skyrocket too."
"Ji Ning and her harem, whose popularity isn't skyrocketing?"
Get instant access to all chapters now.
Post a Comment