Page 24

In The Last Supper, Judas, one of the twelve disciples and a world-famous traitor, had the scent of an answer about him here.

Everyone immediately grew excited.

But just as they picked up the knife, they suddenly realized: "Wait, no, we're not supposed to write a name!"

Each place setting at the long wooden table had a corresponding number. What belonged on the answer wall wasn't the name "Judas," but the number corresponding to the goblet that concealed it.

The tattooed man, the most impatient of them all, rushed back to the table and picked up a goblet to examine it.

He had just seen with his own eyes that the slip of paper with the foreign writing had fallen from the joint between the stem and the base. But he scrutinized the goblet from every angle and still couldn't see what was written on the paper.

The tattooed man had his eyes practically pressed against the glass. "Why can't I see it?"

It wasn't just him. Everyone had checked the goblets before. If the hidden words were visible at a glance, would they have waited until now?

Everyone knew where the names were hidden, but they couldn't see them.

And unlike the one on the floor, these goblets couldn't be smashed or broken. They couldn't simply knock the bases off as You Huo had done before.

Yu Wen suddenly slapped his forehead. "I know!"

"What?"

"Refraction!" Yu Wen said. "The refraction Yu Yao and I wrote down applies here! The names are hidden in the goblets, and we can't see them because... uh... the refraction isn't right! I forgot how to describe it, but I think I've done a problem like this before."

Everyone: "..."

The way this unfortunate kid described it was downright despair-inducing.

Watching his halting gestures, it was hard to believe he knew how to solve the problem.

Even so, everyone clung to one last shred of hope. "Then how can we see them?"

Yu Wen looked ashamed. "I... stopped studying physics in my last two years of high school. That problem was at least two or three years ago, and I... forgot."

"..."

They fucking knew it!

You Huo watched Yu the idiot gesturing wildly, his face expressionless.

He had planned to put up with it a little longer, but then he caught sight of the invigilators out of the corner of his eye.

922 had already dragged over a brazier and was setting up an iron rack. He carefully arranged the remaining half-box of precious beef on the grill.

154 kept a straight face, glancing at him from time to time. It was hard to tell whether he was hungry or couldn't stand his colleague's idiocy.

As for 001... he didn't even have to move. Sitting there, he was provocation and mockery writ large.

You Huo looked away, yanked the keys from Hunter A's waist, and strode into the kitchen.

The thin paper bearing the name was stuck to the center of the goblet's base, its image refracted through the glass. What could they do if they couldn't see it clearly from a normal angle?

Refract it one more time.

You Huo rummaged through the kitchen, but couldn't find any water he could use. Hunter A had kept saying there had to be wine, yet the goblets he brought out had been empty.

The only liquid in the entire kitchen was the bloody water winding across the floor.

And even that had nearly dried up.

The harder something was to find, the more crucial it was.

That was practically an indirect way of telling You Huo that the key to the answer lay here.

He came out of the kitchen carrying the keys and swept his gaze around the house, finally settling on the room next door.

The door with the rooster hanging on it was the only one here that hadn't been opened. Without a word, he picked out the last key, inserted it into the lock, and turned it.

With a click, the door swung open.

The smell of old dust hit him in the face. You Huo covered his nose and waved a hand in front of it twice.

The room before him was as cramped as a storage closet, but it held no brooms or mops, only a solitary wooden rack with a solitary bottle of wine lying at an angle on it.

Everyone crowded around. You Huo took out the bottle and said, "Found it."

Yu Wen, with the benefit of hindsight, slapped his thigh. "Right, right, right! Add water! I remember now!"

As soon as the cap came off, the strong, pungent smell of cheap wine filled the little house.

This was the most important part of the hunter's feast, but he would never get the chance to eat it.

You Huo poured the pale amber wine into goblet number one. Everyone craned their necks to peer into it, holding their breath.

"Oh, yes, yes! I can see it!!!" Old Drunk Yu was the most eager, the first to shout.

Another name was hidden in the goblet:

Matthew

Zhou Jin grew excited too. "Matthew! That's right, it's The Last Supper. Hurry and find Judas!"

Everyone slowly got moving, pouring wine into the twelve goblets one by one.

The disciples' names also emerged one after another:

Bartholomew

John

Thomas

Philip

By the time they poured wine into number eleven, the bald man nailed to seat number twelve was shaking all over.

Only two names had yet to appear, and they happened to be the two most important figures in the masterpiece: Judas and Jesus.

If Jesus's name appeared in number eleven, then Judas would be hidden in the goblet before him, and he would become the cursed guest, very likely to die here.

The bald man was so terrified he was about to throw up. Even in the confinement room, even when he saw those mangled remains, he hadn't reached this point.

Because those remains had belonged to someone else, but now he himself was the one about to die.

Suddenly, a cheer erupted from the crowd.

Zhou Jin's voice rang out among them. "Judas! Judas!"

The bald man froze for a long moment, then slumped onto the table.

It was number eleven!

Thank goodness! Judas was in goblet number eleven!

It wasn't him! It wasn't retribution...

The knife for answering was thrust into Zhou Jin's hand. He showed his first smile since entering the house. "Me? All right, I'll do it..."

Zhou Jin stopped in front of the answer wall, gripped the knife handle, took a deep breath, and carved a "1" into the wall.

Just as he was about to start carving the second "1," a figure suddenly darted in from behind and seized his wrist.