Chapter 30 Elevator (7) "Mine is the Queen of Hearts..."
Xie Tan was also taken aback, realizing that he hadn't had time to answer Lu Jinzhao before the internet connection was lost.
But why not just ask him after we go out?
Although Lu Jinzhao thought this was just a murder mystery game that his club had planned to play, he didn't realize that this was not a normal world.
But Xie Tan was right next to him. Such a simple question, one that had nothing to do with demons, monsters, conspiracies, tests, or intelligence, could be asked directly when there was an opening.
Why waste an opportunity to ask a question when you absolutely cannot lie?
Moreover, this cannot even be considered a question; it is an invitation. The initiative is not even in the hands of the questioner; Lu Jinzhao is instead sincerely seeking his consent.
Although Xie Tan was the one being questioned, he had some undeniable doubts about the questioner.
Did Lu Jinchao have no doubts or suspicions about him, no sense of danger, at all?
Xie Tan would sometimes have a moment of realization when he looked at himself in those amber eyes.
It's as if he's such a clear-headed person that it's so obvious in his eyes.
He should have answered "yes" or "no," but instead he asked, "Why do you ask that?"
Didn't you already decide to go see it after get off work today?
Xie Tan remembered the time Lu Jinzhao mentioned, which was exactly half an hour before the script-based murder mystery game team building session ended.
Zhu Fengliang warned with dissatisfaction: "The loser cannot ask questions."
But the two people who were staring at each other ignored him, as if they hadn't heard him at all.
Zhu Fengliang looked at the dormouse, which immediately stopped sniffing and looked seriously at the winner.
The winner didn't seem to have any objections, so... that means there's no problem?
So the fair-minded judge, Mouse, went back into the teapot and continued to sleep soundly.
Zhu Fengliang: "..."
Lu Jinzhao said whatever came to mind: "Because I want to watch it with you."
Xie Tan: "..."
Trying to break free from his eye contact and conversation with Lu Jinzhao, Xie Tan finally noticed the expressions and eyes of the two people opposite him.
Did someone just speak?
A good way to change the subject, Xie Tan sincerely asked Zhu Fengliang, "What did you say?"
Zhu Fengliang remained expressionless; this was the most serious reaction Xie Tan had shown since entering the tea party.
Xi Rui chuckled and quickly waved his hand, "It's nothing, it's nothing, you guys chat, no rush."
Tsk, this club president, he's brought the topic back to itself again.
Xie Tan had no choice but to turn around. Lu Jinzhao was still looking at him intently, waiting for his answer.
Receiving no response for a long time, Lu Jinzhao said gently, "If you don't want to go, just refuse..."
Xie Tan calmly replied, "I understand."
It means that you agreed.
Lu Jinzhao's smile immediately brightened, practically illuminating the entire eerie room: "Yay!"
Xi Rui found it amusing, his gaze constantly shifting between the two of them.
Xie Tan didn't look at Lu Jinzhao or the two people opposite him anymore. He looked at the playing card castle with a normal expression and took the initiative to call out the next round.
In the fifth round, the Mad Hatter was still eyeing Xie Tan, whose hand was also relatively weak, number 2.
Xi Rui drew card number 9, shrugged, and knew he wouldn't be the winner this time, but he hoped he wouldn't be the loser either.
Zhu Fengliang's smile widened, but then Lu Jinzhao drew the Queen card.
Zhu Fengliang shrugged regretfully, his luck had run out, and it seemed he had given up his chance to target Xie Tan.
Before Xie Tan drew his cards, Zhu Fengliang spoke up: "I have a suggestion. We've already played four rounds of Truth or Dare. Regardless of who wins or loses this round, how about we play a game of Truth or Dare?"
Xi Rui and Lu Jinzhao had no objections.
Xie Tan knew that Zhu Fengliang's sudden proposal of a dare must be aimed at him.
It doesn't matter who wins, he's definitely going to lose. Zhu Fengliang must have tampered with things in the castle.
Zhu Fengliang's goal was to get him to do a dare, which was prepared in advance. What dangers awaited him?
He couldn't easily raise objections because he didn't know the specific dangers and couldn't accurately find another way. To protest against something that was vague and dangerous was not something an unfathomable and mysterious character would do.
He might at most mock Zhu Fengliang for being too obviously targeting him, but since he couldn't change the situation, he couldn't be bothered to do anything more.
Moreover, there are dormice as referees, excluded from the food chain.
Mr. Dormouse indeed tapped the teapot, agreeing to the Mad Hatter's suggestion: "Squeak squeak squeak, let's diversify our games, gentlemen!"
Zhu Fengliang laughed and politely asked Xie Tan to draw a card.
Judging from his confident demeanor, Xie Tan guessed that since Zhu Fengliang was going to cheat, no matter which card he drew, the result would be the same.
He guessed it would be the highest card, the King.
So he randomly picked a card, flipped it over to show himself first, but then stopped.
It's not the King.
It's a Joker card, the King of Spades.
But Zhu Fengliang said that there were no Joker cards in the playing card castle.
Moreover, the clown printed on the card looks very familiar.
Xie Tan saw the clown's iris shrink to the size of a pen tip, circle mischievously twice in his eye socket, and then look at him outside the card, spreading a big smile.
It pinched one corner of the ruff collar and subtly flipped it up a little to the other side.
This is its signature move when performing the "switching" magic trick.
Xie Tan understood the clown's meaning perfectly.
“Mr. Cheshire Cat, what are you waiting for? Time to turn the card?” Zhu Fengliang smiled meaningfully. “Looks like the card you drew wasn’t so good? No problem, it’s just a dare.”
Xie Tan calmly flicked his finger, and the card at his fingertip flipped outward, facing everyone present.
The Queen of Hearts (Q)
Zhu Fengliang's smile froze, and he stared in disbelief at the cards in his hand.
He cheated!
Zhu Fengliang was about to report the cheating to Dormouse when he remembered that he had cheated first, and if Dormouse checked, he would also be exposed.
His expression suddenly became terrifyingly somber.
Lu Jinzhao cried out, and Xi Rui wailed, "So I lost?"
Zhu Fengliang snapped out of his daze and immediately denied it: "No, Sunshine Dog and Cheshire Cat both have the Queen of Spades. They have a tie, so there's no winning hand this round. Therefore, it's void, and we should play the next round..."
"I disagree," Xie Tan interrupted him.
Zhu Fengliang is becoming increasingly daring in his card draws, and so are the other two. If the castle draws a few more times, it's bound to collapse.
Xie Tan guessed that the "Great Adventure" was clearly a key challenge prepared by Zhu Fengliang, and it had already been proposed.
Zhu Fengliang failed, and it's very likely that the castle will collapse in the next round, forcibly ending the game.
Then he's not at a loss; he hasn't won a single hand yet.
Zhu Fengliang narrowed his eyes: "Perhaps you should give the referee an explanation?"
Xie Tan raised his eyes, looking at him with a half-smile, and asked leisurely, "You should give an explanation. In Mr. Mad Hatter's eyes, is there anyone in the entire Wonderland more authoritative than Her Majesty the Queen of Hearts?"
He flicked the card in his hand: "This is the Queen of Hearts."
Lu Jinzhao's card is the Queen of Diamonds.
Weren't we supposed to play a murder mystery game based on Alice in Wonderland?
Zhu Fengliang's expression changed, and his dormouse-like eyes, glowing red, turned to stare at him mechanically, scrutinizing his micro-expressions, awaiting his answer.
Zhu Fengliang knew there couldn't be a second answer to this question, so he calmed down and said, "...No, Her Majesty the Queen of Hearts is supreme."
Xie Tan looked at the Dormouse, who, sensing the "cat's" gaze, shuddered and quickly tapped the teapot: "The Cheshire Cat wins this round!"
Lu Jinzhao nodded in agreement, while Xi Rui continued to wail, "So it's still me."
Xie Tan reached into his hat and slowly scanned the slips of paper. Unable to discern any differences, he could only choose one at random.
But Xi Rui suddenly stopped him: "I also have an idea."
Zhu Fengliang's brow twitched.
Xi Rui looked at the Dormouse and suggested with a smile, "Since it's already like this, why not make the game more interesting? Why bother with drawing lots? Let the Cheshire Cat decide my dare."
Xie Tan paused, put the slip of paper he had just grabbed back, and looked at the dormouse.
He was even more certain that there was something wrong with the dare note.
Zhu Fengliang also looked at Dormouse, but with a gloomy gaze.
The dormouse thought about it and agreed that games should be more free to be more fun! So it started banging on the teapot.
So Xi Rui looked at Xie Tan. Even though it was Xie Tan who had made the suggestion, he was more unafraid of any outrageous punishment he might receive than anyone else. Instead, he asked with great interest, "So what do you want me to do?"
Xie Tan: "Anything is fine?"
"If I can do it, then of course I can."
The dormouse agreed.
Xie Tan nodded: "Give the pocket watch around your neck to Alice."
After Xie Tan entered the tea party, he noticed Xi Rui's pocket watch.
In Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter's pocket watch broke and kept the wrong time because the March Hare used a bread knife to add butter to it.
After the Mad Hatter pointed it out, he even put it in the tea and let it steep for a while.
This is a magical pocket watch that displays the date but not the time; the dial only shows the year.
In the original story, Alice wonders, "But for a long time, the year will not change," to which the Mad Hatter replies, "That's why my watch doesn't tell the time."
The Mad Hatter gave her an example: to get along well with time and make it obey you. For example, if class starts at nine in the morning, you can secretly set your watch to one-thirty, which is lunchtime, and you can keep it at one-thirty for as long as you want.
This perfectly aligns with Xie Tan and Chang Mingai's method of leaving the top floor: setting the clock to a specific time to make reality reflect that time.
Time is key to this segment of the story.
In the original story, the Mad Hatter angered the Queen of Hearts by singing a boring song (or perhaps it was too awful) at her concert. The Queen scolded him for "wasting time" and threatened to cut off his head.
After that, the clock stopped obeying the Mad Hatter and was forever frozen at tea time.
So they kept having tea parties, moving around the table.
Xie Tan thought, therefore, Huai should be bad now.
But considering the reality, the reason should be... the lack of a pointer.
The hands moved from the clock in the art gallery to the clocks on each floor of Wonderland, including the giant cookie that served as the stand-in clock.
The actual watch face that comes with it is probably this pocket watch.
He didn't know how to leave Wonderland, but he knew that the floor the elevator took Chang Mingai to, like the top floor, was the corridor of her apartment building.
The worst-case scenario is that this is actually an endless loop, and finding the correct time for this layer is useless.
She must find the right time to leave the entire fairyland.
And this time must be on the actual dial.
Xi Rui's eyes narrowed, and he stared at Xie Tan for a long time, as if trying to see something in Xie Tan's eyes.
He laughed: "No problem."
The tea party wasn't over, the door remained closed, and the three men and the mouse stared at him, wondering how he would give the pocket watch to Alice.
Then Xi Rui took off his pocket watch, carefully slipped his hand through the drafty playing card castle, and placed it in the very center of the castle.
With a snap, the entire card castle collapsed, but when the dormouse parted the stack of playing cards, the pocket watch was gone.
The dormouse taps the teapot to indicate that it has been delivered.
Xi Rui laughed and said, "Alice is very fast. She's already at His Majesty's castle."
"The castle has collapsed, the game is over." The castle collapsed unexpectedly for Zhu Fengliang. He seized the last opportunity and said first, "Although it was the March Hare's watch that broke the castle, it was because of the Cheshire Cat's dare that Cheshire Cat lost in the end. If you ask me, this wouldn't have happened if I had used the note I prepared. What a pity, Mr. Cheshire Cat. But don't worry, the original rules didn't say that there would be a penalty for the loser. It's just that the winner's phone reward will be given to Mr. Sunshine Dog, who has the lowest card at the end."
Lu Jinzhao listened to everyone's conversation with great interest. He was surprised to be called on suddenly, but quickly found it interesting and asked, "Okay, where do I play?"
Zhu Fengliang wasn't worried that Lu Jinzhao would reveal crucial information to Chang Mingai. Putting aside the fact that Lu Jinzhao was just a naive and innocent girl who had stumbled into this situation, he also had requirements for this phone call: "Let me remind you, you can only say one sentence on the phone, and it must be a line from the script."
For those unfamiliar with the original fairy tale, besides famous lines like "Why is the crow like a writing desk?" and "Cut off her head", what other lines can they remember?
I remember that it's probably not very useful, especially Alice in Wonderland, because it's a dream, so it's all illogical nonsense.
What can you reveal?
Although the tea party made him very angry, fortunately, the main task, Alice's task, was not disturbed and will continue to progress steadily.
Just as Lu Jinzhao was about to nod, Xie Tan slowly spoke up: "I disagree."
Zhu Fengliang's heart skipped a beat, and he looked at him with a sinister and wary expression: "What is it you're unhappy about now, sir? Don't forget, we're playing a murder mystery game, so of course we have to say our lines."
"I disagree with the outcome." Xie Tan smiled slightly. "Mr. Mad Hatter, do you remember what you said in the first round?"
Zhu Fengliang was taken aback, a bad feeling creeping over him.
The first round? He said the first round...
"You can't look at Wonderland with the logic of reality. It's the opposite here. Since the initial rules didn't explain it, the person who destroys the castle is naturally the ultimate winner."
Xie Tan personally opened the lid of the dormouse's teapot. The dormouse, which had been dozing for a minute, vaguely smelled the fragrance, followed it with its nose, and stuck to Xie Tan's hand. He then pulled up the entire dormouse and leaped out of the teapot.
Immediately, the dormouse felt extremely cold and looked around warily. The Mad Hatter's eyes were terrifying beyond measure, staring intently at its answer with a threatening gaze.
But...but Mouse thinks it makes a lot of sense.
It's all for the sake of fairness!
The mouse quietly nudged Xie Tan's hand again, stood at attention, and solemnly tapped the teapot.
"That makes sense, this is paradise, squeak!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
