Beware of the red flowers! Red flowers equal dwarfs, and dwarfs equal sheep, so is this rule essentially a reminder to be careful of the flock of sheep around them?
The shepherd cannot leave the flock.
Schrödinger's sheep...
Although the rules say that red flowers are very dangerous and must be handled with care, Jiang Ran cannot simply leave the flower here.
Because he had to make sure that all the sheep were brought back to the area around the shepherd's hut without missing a single one, and this sheep was already dead, leaving only a sheepskin and a flower that the dwarf had turned into on the ground.
What exactly is the "sheep" referred to in the rules? Is it this sheepskin or a dwarf? Jiang Ran felt that the latter was more likely, so he couldn't ignore this flower and had to take it with him along the way!
He brought all the sheep back, but it didn't say the sheep couldn't die. Even if he brought back the carcasses of thousands of sheep, he would still have completed his mission.
The sheepdog's explanation for the sheep's illness was that it was unable to maintain its own stability. By using this statement as a starting point, we can come up with many interesting conjectures.
The dwarf is trapped inside the sheep's body, leading to a very serious conflict between them. If the dwarf cannot stabilize this conflict, it will lose control of the sheep's body.
No other sheep has shown this condition, indicating that this is just an isolated case. Jiang Ran put the red flower on the sheepcat and then draped the sheepskin over another sheep.
"keep going."
The remaining half of the journey is likely to be difficult.
Jiang Ran had already planned that the sheep would fall ill one by one along the way, the dwarf would tear open the sheep's bellies one by one, and then one more bizarre thing would happen. Unfortunately... nothing happened.
He led the entire flock of sheep for more than 49 kilometers and could see the outline of the destination called "Paradise". During the journey, they did not encounter any grassland wolves, none of the sheep fell ill, and they did not encounter any other strange things!
Nothing strange happened; in fact, something was very strange!
Lin Zhi mustered her spirits; she had a premonition that something bad would happen before she reached the finish line.
"Paradise" is a city, sitting abruptly on the grassland, seemingly out of place with its surroundings.
The city's buildings were predominantly blood-red, giving them a mixed feel of Eastern and Western styles. The shepherd cat stopped at the city gate and looked up at the tallest building in the city.
"Lead the sheep 50km away to graze?" Jiang Ran chuckled, looking at the city in front of him. "Does this look like a place with grass?"
The sheep began to bleat, their eyes fixed on the city gate. If the shepherd cat hadn't been standing at the head, Jiang Ran would have suspected that the sheep were about to charge straight in.
An old man with a cane stood at the city gate. He stepped forward and looked at the sheepcat.
The moment the old man stepped forward, the sheep trembled slightly, their previous momentum suppressed, as if something terrifying was blocking their way.
"Those who wish to enter the city must prove that they are qualified."
Jiang Ran and Lin Zhi dismounted and came before the old man, who then told them this.
"Follow me." The old man led the two to the wooden house outside the city, while glancing at the shepherd cat. "Keep an eye on these 'sheep'."
"roar......"
The old man closed the wooden door and had the two sit across from each other at the table.
"Are you the new generation of shepherds?"
"There is a rule in Heaven: when a team arrives, at least one person must be recognized by us before we will allow that team to be admitted."
"So—" the old man's gaze swept over Jiang Ran and Lin Zhi, "who of you will take this test first?"
"I'll try!" Lin Zhi answered first, then turned to Jiang Ran and smiled, "I'll give it a shot. If it works, Brother Jiang Ran won't need to help!"
Jiang Ran nodded.
The fact that the old man led them to this room suggests that the challenge doesn't require any specific terrain and is most likely a board game.
“Okay.” The old man nodded, then took out a deck of cards from the drawer of the table.
"My test is called 'Find the Ghost'."
"Now, there's a 'Joker' card in this deck of cards. I hope that after five rounds, you can tell me which Joker it is."
Find the "ghost" card? The rules of this game are very simple: the elder will designate a card in advance, and Jiang Ran needs to guess it within five rounds.
The old man continued to add his rules: "In each round, I will deal you five cards. If there is a card of the same suit as the Joker, I will place one face down in the deck. If there is a card of the same rank as the Joker, I will also place one face down. The two can be combined."
In other words, assuming that one of the five cards is the same suit and rank as the Joker, only three of those five cards are visible to Jiang Ran. If the old man shows Jiang Ran all five cards in one round, it means that none of them are the same suit or rank as the Joker.
Guess the joker? But the old man has the right to hide his cards, making the game even more unpredictable!
"Let's begin then."
In the first round, the old man drew five cards and then showed four of them to Lin Zhi.
The four cards are the Jack of Clubs, the 2 of Diamonds, the 7 of Diamonds, and the King of Hearts.
If one card is hidden, it means that one of the cards has the same suit or rank as the Joker!
Excluding the hidden card, these four cards already reveal three different suits. If the hidden card is a spade, then all four suits are represented. Therefore, there is a high probability that the suits will overlap in this round!
Of course, it was impossible to get the answer in just one round. After Lin Zhi noted down the suits and ranks of the four cards, he then signaled to the old man to begin dealing the cards in the second round.
In the second round, the old man drew five cards, but only showed three to Lin Zhi.
3 of Spades, King of Clubs, 9 of Hearts.
There are only three cards! This means that there is overlap in both suit and rank in this round!
Lin Zhi narrowed his eyes and looked at the old man. Generally speaking, the referee would choose to hide the more important cards, so it was highly likely that he had hidden two cards of the same suit and rank!
So, assuming Lin Zhi's idea is correct, working backwards, adding the two rounds together, we can get the following point set—
J, 2, 7, K, 3, 9.
The number K appeared twice and was not hidden, so it is unlikely to be the number of the joker. The other five numbers are also unlikely to be the same.
"Come on, round three..."
The old man can hide his most important card every turn, so Lin Zhi has to wait for an opportunity!
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