Your Hometowns

If "the rules are absolute" still applied to this second "game," then the words written on the mask were the key to solving it.

But how were they supposed to solve it?

And when would the harpoons fire?

"The clock won't stop for a quarter..."

Could that mean a quarter past one?

Qi Xia turned to look at the clock on the table. It was already five past one. If "a quarter past one" was when the harpoons would fire, they had less than ten minutes left.

"Turn a hundred times toward your hometown..."

All nine people present came from different hometowns, and "a hundred times" was no small number.

If they took the wrong approach, they could easily waste those ten minutes.

But aside from themselves, what else in this room could "turn"?

Qi Xia's gaze settled on the clock in the center of the table.

He leaned forward and gently ran a hand over it, only to find that it was firmly fixed to the tabletop. It wouldn't budge.

The clock won't move. Could it be the chairs?

Qi Xia looked down at the chair beneath him. It was an ordinary old chair that smelled of mildew, placed casually on the floor, with no mechanism of any kind.

That left only...

Qi Xia looked at the round table in the center of the room and finally noticed something strange.

It couldn't really be called a "round table." It seemed to be a polygon, but with so many sides that it looked round at first glance.

He reached out and turned the tabletop. Sure enough, a faint rattling of chains came from inside.

But the table was heavy. Even with considerable effort, Qi Xia could only turn it a few centimeters.

"A hundred turns..."

Two or three people alone could never manage that number. All nine of them would have to work together to turn the tabletop if they wanted any chance of survival.

Lin Qin keenly noticed what Qi Xia was doing and called for everyone to stop.

They gathered around the table to take a look and found that it could indeed turn.

"Not bad, con man." Qiao Jiajin nodded. "If we turn this table a hundred times, we should be able to open that invisible door."

Qi Xia glanced at the clock again. Though time was running short, the problem had now become simpler.

Turning this round table a hundred times toward their "hometowns" left only two possible answers.

Left or right.

But their hometowns lay in every direction. How could they determine whether to turn left or right?

"Qi Xia, have you figured out when the harpoons will fire?" Lin Qin asked, covering her mouth and nose.

"The clue says the clock won't stop 'for a quarter.' My guess is one fifteen," Qi Xia said quietly.

Qiao Jiajin's expression changed. "Then we've got less than ten minutes left! Let's start turning!"

Doctor Zhao moved the corpse slumped over the table aside, then slowly sat down. He tested the table's weight with his hands and said, "But we only have one chance. This table is so heavy. What if we turn it a hundred times in the wrong direction?"

"That's still a fifty percent chance of surviving!" Qiao Jiajin said anxiously. "If we do nothing, we're dead no matter what. If we turn it, we've got a fifty percent chance of living. Hurry!"

With that, he put all his strength into turning the tabletop to the left.

Though Qiao Jiajin looked thin, he was immensely strong. On his own, he turned the table halfway around.

"What are you standing around for?! Damn it, help!" Qiao Jiajin shouted at the others.

The rest knew he had a point, so they could only help him turn it for now.

There was no clear answer at the moment. They had to gamble.

But Qi Xia still hadn't moved.

He didn't know which line of reasoning to follow.

Left or right?

Why was "hometown" the key word...?

They were all Chinese, so did that mean "east"?

North at the top, south at the bottom, west on the left, east on the right. Was the answer "right"?

Then what about the people who lived in the west?

Or were all their hometowns connected to the Zuo Commentary from the Spring and Autumn period, making the answer "left"?

Qi Xia half closed his eyes. He had planned to shield himself with the two corpses, but if everyone else died, what would he do when the next game came...?

It wasn't time to give up on them yet.

With that thought, Qi Xia reached out and snatched a sheet of white paper from the rotating tabletop. He picked up a pen, stood, and walked aside. Finding a clear patch of floor, he sat down and began writing, his pen scratching rapidly.

Though the others were puzzled, they kept their hands moving. By now, they had turned the tabletop more than a dozen times.

"If he hadn't introduced himself as a 'con man,' I'd have thought the guy was a mathematician," Qiao Jiajin said to Tiantian beside him.

Tiantian was still dizzy from spinning around earlier and could only give a perfunctory nod.

This time, Qi Xia didn't write out any calculations. He simply sketched a rough map of the country.

Hometowns...?

His mind raced, and something suddenly occurred to him.

"Wait, wait..." Qi Xia's eyes widened. "If the Organizer is powerful enough to find people with similar experiences from so many different provinces, could the 'provinces' be important too?"

He turned back to the people rotating the table and asked earnestly, "Did any of you lie about your hometown earlier?"

They all shook their heads.

After all, their hometowns were tied to their accents and speech habits. A lie could easily give them away.

"Good." Qi Xia nodded slightly. "Now, please tell me your hometowns again, one at a time."

Officer Li spoke first. "I'm from Inner Mongolia."

Qi Xia marked a black dot over Inner Mongolia.

"I'm from Sichuan," said Zhang Chenze, the lawyer, coldly.

"I'm from Shaanxi..." Tiantian said.

"Dali, Yunnan," said Xiao Ran, the preschool teacher.

"Guangdong," Qiao Jiajin said.

"I'm from Ningxia," said Lin Qin, the counselor.

"I work in Jiangsu," Doctor Zhao said.

Qi Xia marked their hometowns on the map one by one, then added his own, "Shandong."

Everyone's eyes turned to Han Yimo, the writer, because he hadn't mentioned his hometown at all.

"Han Yimo, are you from Guangxi or Taiwan?"

Han Yimo froze. "How did you know?"

"We're short on time. Answer me first."

"I'm from Guangxi..."

Qi Xia nodded. At this point, only two provinces remained for Han Yimo.

The Guangxi Autonomous Region and Taiwan Province.

If his answer had been neither of those, he would have told an outrageous lie.

Fortunately, he had told the truth.

Qi Xia marked the final province on the map. There were now nine black dots on his sketch.

Just as I thought.

Qi Xia said quietly, "Stop. Turn it to the right."

"Right?"

Qi Xia hurried back to the table, tossed the sheet of paper onto it, and began turning the tabletop in the opposite direction.

Though the others were puzzled, they followed his lead.

Doctor Zhao glanced at the map on the table and its nine black dots.

"Why 'right'?"