The Trial Game of Life

As they had lunch, each of the eight players harboured their own motive they needed to achieve.

Their lunch was beef potato stew, which was poisoned by Li Shuangshuang earlier. After the food was served, the whole room was filled with its fragrance, but everyone could only smell it and eat pickles instead.

This was what people called a self-inflicted crime.

Jin Cheng was not at all interested in such a lunch, so he turned to a slightly less undesirable cup of instant coffee. He put his slender legs on the chair’s armrest, his smiling eyes scrutinising all the people in the room. He tapped his finger on the cup and asked Tang Cuo inquisitively: “You don’t seem to have any doubts about Zhang Zhiqiu.”

Tang Cuo: “Is that so?”

Jin Cheng: “Yes.”

Tang Cuo glanced at Zhang Zhiqiu and said: “Our names didn’t turn up during the voting just now.”

If the system had indeed intervened, the voting results didn’t make sense. Li Shuangshuang received three votes but Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng received zero votes, and two of them were the only ones without any votes. This seemed more like someone had intentionally avoided them, perhaps because the person was afraid of their attack or wanted to please them. In short, there was deliberate planning involved.

In one corner, Li Shuangshuang’s anxiety grew and the food tasted bland in her mouth. It tormented her that they had to wait until after lunch to vote by raising their hands, because no matter how she thought about the result, eventually, it would be either her or Zhang Zhiqiu.

It was like a knife hanging above her head. Anyone could at least struggle a bit, but how could Li Shuangshuang even struggle? She had no ability to resist.

“Don’t worry too much, it likely won’t be you.” Zhao Ping comforted her.

Zhao Ping had figured it out: the mission this time was different from their previous ones. If these players were replaced by the teammates he met before, they probably would have attacked Li Ying Jun without a care, or they would have simply hidden in the room and never come out. However, for these players, not only did they stay cautious throughout, but they also largely followed the rules of the human society.

But Li Shuangshuang wasn’t comforted at all. She knew her strength; if Zhao Ping didn’t help her, she couldn’t have survived till now.

She couldn’t always rely on other people’s help.

“I’m going to the toilet.” Li Shuangshuang found it hard to calm down and wanted to get some relief. Zhao Ping didn’t need to follow, so he nodded and let her go.

An Ning drank the pickled cabbage soup and said: “Looking at her composure and how she’s not making any fuss, I think she understands the situation very well by herself. The more you help her, the weaker she’ll become.”

It wasn’t like Zhao Ping didn’t know that, but shouldn’t everyone need time to become stronger?

Thinking so, Zhao Ping replied: “I know, maybe this time is an opportunity.” 

An Ning shrugged and stopped talking. Ten minutes later, Li Shuangshuang hadn’t come back. Feeling the others’ eyes on him from time to time, Zhao Ping couldn’t sit still.

“I’m going to the toilet too.” An Ning stood up and walked out swiftly.

She went to the kitchen first and saw Xiao Yuan mumbling something under her breath while washing the dishes, so she stood around for a while before heading to the toilet. The linen room was right next to the toilet, with a small window on its door. She looked at Li Ying Jun through the window.

Li Ying Jun, still wrapped up inside the net, looked back at her with his eyes widened and struggled furiously.

“Urgh, urgh!” 

An Ning shook her head and walked to the next door.

Amid the dripping sound of water, Li Shuangshuang was washing her face. She gasped for air as the cold water was splashed on her face, the weakness between her eyebrows fading a little.

“Are you all right? Everyone is waiting for you to come back.” An Ning said.

“I’m sorry.” Li Shuangshuang smiled apologetically. “I’ll go immediately.”

“Wait for me to go to the toilet first.” An Ning paid no mind to the ground and walked into the cubicle. As she took off her pants, she felt a cool breeze blowing above her head. Looking up, it turned out that there was a vent connected to the next room.

Even going to the toilet is troublesome. It’s so cold!

An Ning was quickly done and returned to the hall with Li Shuangshuang. Entering the hall, they found that Zhang Zhiqiu and Qian Wei had also gone to the toilet, but they went to the one on the second floor.

After a while, the two still didn’t come back. Li Shuangshuang suddenly touched her pocket and stood up nervously, saying: “I probably dropped something in the toilet. Wait for me, I will come back immediately!” 

With that, Li Shuangshuang ran towards the toilet.

“What…” An Ning murmured suspiciously and Peng Mingfan also frowned a little. Li Shuangshuang wasn’t brave, but the only danger in this hostel, Li Ying Jun, had been locked up, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

Tang Cuo could tell something was wrong.

At this moment, Jin Cheng approached him with a cold smile and said: “You deliberately drag it out for so long, just to watch this?”

Of course not.

The purpose of deliberately dragging it out after lunch was to see what other tricks Zhang Zhiqiu might have. When he went to the toilet after An Ning left, his intentions were worth speculating.

This Li Shuangshuang…

“I’ll take a look.”

Tang Cuo’s intuition told him something didn’t feel right. Just as he entered the aisle leading to the bathroom on the first floor, the sound of painful struggles and heavy objects clashing came from the front.

It was the linen room!

His expression changed and he rushed in immediately.

“Bang!” Tang Cuo kicked the door of the linen room, and the moment it flung open, blood splashed before his eyes. He only had time to raise one hand to block his face, then he looked closely to find a shocking scene ―

Li Shuangshuang was holding Li Ying Jun and thrusting a metal broomstick into his chest with both her hands. She stabbed once, then twice, then again and again like she had gone mad. The blood spewed unceasingly, a crimson shade spreading all over her hands.

Li Ying Jun was no longer breathing, but his body was still twitching.

“What are you doing?!” Zhao Ping’s thunderous voice shook Li Shuangshuang so terribly that she let go of the broomstick. She slowly turned her stiff neck and looked back, her eyes glancing over the shocked and astounded faces. She quickly looked back at Li Ying Jun with hazy eyes, as if it was only now that she realised what she had done.

“I, how can I do this? Just now, I suddenly… I didn’t do it on purpose, I didn’t do it on purpose!” Li Shuangshuang collapsed and covered her face, her tears mixing with all the blood and soaking her collar.

At this point, Qian Wei and Zhang Zhiqiu finally rushed down from upstairs. They stood frozen as they saw the scene.

“Holy…” Qian Wei gasped.

Zhang Zhiqiu didn’t feel any better, but Zhao Ping suddenly attacked him and grabbed him by the collar with both hands. Zhao Ping pushed him against the wall and asked angrily: “Did you do anything to her?!”

“You’re crazy!” Zhang Zhiqiu struggled to push him away. “There were other people following me into the toilet. What could I do?”

Qian Wei quickly came in between them. Fortunately, Zhao Ping didn’t lose his mind; he just couldn’t believe that someone like Li Shuangshuang would do such a thing. Even if she took the initiative to deal with Li Ying Jun, she would likely get it done in one blow. How could it turn out like this?!

Peng Mingfan also couldn’t understand it. He couldn’t help looking at Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng: “What do you think?”

“Take her back first, and make sure at least two people look after her.” Tang Cuo clearly referred to Li Shuangshuan. He also asked An Ning: “Have you seen the staff?” 

An Ning nodded: “She’s in the kitchen.”

Tang Cuo: “Call her here.” 

An Ning was taken aback and went to call her at once. Qian Wei stuttered a litte: “Tang ge, is there a need to call her here to see this? She’ll be horrified.”

Tang Cuo didn’t answer. Instead, he coldly glanced at Jin Cheng, who was leaning comfortably against the wall, and said: “What are you doing?”

Jin Cheng unfolded his arms as Tang Cuo’s gaze remained fixed on him. Jin Cheng had no choice but walked over, then he picked a pair of clean gloves from the rack in the linen room and squatted on the ground to examine the body.

“The bones have turned black so the poison has worked, but it isn’t very effective. The stab wound is apparently lethal, even his heart is completely smashed.” He said.

“Didn’t you say that his defence is strong?” Tang Cuo asked.

“It’s very strong, but there are exceptions that this defence can’t act against, such as metal.”

“For example, your arrow?”

Jin Cheng nodded. “Correct.”

Tang Cuo understood. To solve this, they had to also pay attention to the Five Elements.

The rest also soon saw through it: when Li Shuangshuang killed Li Ying Jun, she used a metal broomstick; and when they found Li Ying Jun dead for the first time, the weapon was a bronze trophy.

What could metal weaken? Wood.

Wood, wood log? A woodcutter?

For some reasons, Qian Wei couldn’t grasp the connection so suddenly. As he thought about it, the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard approaching. He turned back to face Xiao Yuan’s panicked face, then she let out a hysterical scream.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” She fainted on the spot.

Tang Cuo took a step back to barely avoid being hit by the falling Xiao Yuan.

Jin Cheng laughed delightfully as he said: “What do you still want to examine now?”

Annoying.

Two minutes later, the group returned to the hall.

Peng Mingfan and Zhao Ping first brought Li Shuangshuang back, with Zhao Ping comforting Li Shuangshuan and Peng Mingfan trying to get some clues from her. But Li Shuangshuang just kept lamenting that she couldn’t remember anything, as though a ghost had possessed her to go into the linen room. When she came back to her senses, the situation had turned out as what everyone saw.

“Do you remember the thing that you wanted to pick up from the toilet?” Peng Mingfan talked as slowly as possible.

“I, I…” Li Shuangshuang clutched her head with an agonising expression. It took a long time before she suddenly remembered: “It’s the bronze trophy, that bronze trophy!”

As the words came out, the whole hall suddenly fell into a deadly silence.

Tang Cuo walked in and asked: “The bronze trophy is on the second floor. You went to the first floor to find the bronze trophy?”

Li Shuangshuang shook her head again: “I don’t know why, I only know that I wanted to find that thing…”

Tang Cuo: “Then why didn’t you use that bronze trophy to kill him?”

Li Shuangshuang: “I don’t know, I really don’t know…”

“Maybe this is the system’s doing.” Zhang Zhiqiu, who had been silent from the beginning, suddenly said. “The bronze trophy is a key that triggers the plot. No matter what weapon is eventually used, the bronze trophy signals the death of Li Ying Jun. Who kills Li Ying Jun is also not under our control, everything is ruled by the system.”

Peng Mingfan: “I don’t think so, this kind of setting is too simple and cruel.”

Zhang Zhiqiu narrowed his eyes: “Little friend, must it always be a reasoning game for you to believe that it’s a difficult one?”

Peng Mingfan continued his reasoning: “This is normal logic.” 

The two were once again at heads with each other, both their expressions full of displeasure. Tang Cuo couldn’t make a decision because there were too few clues and too many distracting factors. He needed to observe all of them one more time to make a connection.

For example, he needed to see if Li Ying Jun would come back from the dead again.

“Li Ying Jun has died once again, but we haven’t cleared the game yet.” Zhao Ping, who had managed to comfort Li Shuangshuang and been thinking carefully about this over and over, finally put forward his opinion. “There’s no use arguing anymore. I think all of us should stay together and try our best to not wander off alone, all the way until tomorrow morning.” 

An Ning rarely agreed with him but also showed her approval: “This method is indeed the safest and most effective. We all can see at one glance if someone is behaving abnormally.”

No one objected so the plan was settled.

It was half past one in the afternoon, sixteen and a half hours to go before they reached six of the following morning.

Jin Cheng picked up the jigsaw puzzle again.

Tang Cuo took the bronze trophy from the second floor and observed it carefully. It was still stained with blood, its style very much similar to the Oscars statue. He found nothing special even after staring at it for a long time. Thereafter, he started to examine the books on the shelf again, but after almost every book was flipped through, no useful clues were found.

An Ning also asked the staff about the bronze trophy, but she only said that it was something bought from the store and had nothing else to contribute.

“Sometimes the game will provide you with hints, but you need to find them yourself.” Jin Cheng suddenly said.

Tang Cuo looked up: “Hints?”

Jin Cheng put two jigsaw pieces of similar colours together, then flicked his finger and paused a little. He picked up another piece from the box and fit it perfectly into the puzzle. “You must be able to distinguish whether it’s a distraction or a real hint.”

“Are you lecturing me?”

“Exactly. How can you repay me if you die early?”

 Good sir, you are quite a talented debt collector.

Tang Cuo turned back to studying the bronze trophy.

Soon, An Ning came over to ask him about his progress and got Tang Cuo’s negative answer, so she headed back. Peng Mingfan was still persevering with his reasoning, this time the subject was ―

If Li Ying Jun would come back alive tomorrow.

Qian Wei: “If he comes back alive, then is our way of killing him incorrect?”

An Ning: “Then we’d better be discussing the correct way to kill Li Ying Jun. In the end, what do we need to do so that he won’t come back?”

Zhao Ping also actively expressed his opinion and was determined to not be pushed away by Zhang Zhiqiu. If Li Ying Jun could really rise from the dead, it meant that there existed a cycle of death in this place. Then how about the cycle of going missing?

Would a second person disappear?

Peng Mingfan said: “Maybe who we killed wasn’t Ying Jun. The one we need is Li Ying Jun, but maybe there is also Wang Ying Jun or Zhao Ying Jun, and the real Ying Jun is the NPC hidden among us.”

What he said made sense. But at this moment, they felt that whatever any of them said would make some sense, because no one could produce any hard evidence, so any reasoning was possible.

They couldn’t just lay hands on anyone. If they killed the wrong person, they would kill a real player.

“Regardless of whether you believe it or not, I’m really just an ordinary player, not different from you all.” Zhang Zhiqiu repeatedly emphasized his identity.

No one responded. The difference must be temporarily hidden under the surface because none of them showed any conspicuous signs.

The wait was long and tedious.

After three hours sluggishly passed by, it was time to prepare dinner.

It was only then everyone remembered that Xiao Yuan had fainted in front of the linen room.

“Cough.” Zhao Ping stood up and said voluntarily: “Shuangshuang wants to rest a bit more. I will cook, can anyone help?”

He glanced through the entire group but no one made a move. Perhaps in order to make up for his damaged reputation, Zhang Zhiqiu proactively stood up and offered to help. Seeing Zhang Zhiqiu giving a hand, Qian Wei also volunteered himself.

At 6 o’clock in the evening, dinner was finally served. Xiao Yuan, who had fainted in the linen room, magically came back to her consciousness. She screamed again and fled in panic from the murder scene, then rushed into the hall to see —her guests gathering together for dinner.

“Grr.” Her belly innocently drummed.

Awkward.

Xiao Yuan cried again with a “waa”.

Qian Wei couldn’t stand it anymore. He reacted most enthusiastically and asked her to come to eat with them. Peng Mingfan wanted to get some information from her, but besides repeatedly complaining about the weather and expressing her dismay over Li Ying Jun’s death, nothing useful was gained.

“Where is the person who will take over you?” Tang Cuo asked.

“The newcomer can’t come yet, I’m looking forward to going down the mountain soon.” Xiao Yuan said before becoming all melancholic again, as if Xiang Linsao祥林嫂 [Xiang Linsao] refers to a young widowed woman in the short story 《祝福》 (‘Blessings’) by Lu Xun. She is known to represent a typical working woman in rural China during the early 1900s, who was often oppressed and looked down on by the society at that time.had taken over her. “How did Ying Jun ge die? How could it be…”

After murmuring over the matter for a while, she felt unwell again and returned to her room.

It was now 7 o’clock in the evening.

The players cleaned up their dishes and chatted a bit, then each found their own corner to rest and wait for tomorrow. Before having a shut-eye, Tang Cuo spent some time staring at Li Shuangshuang, who was sitting in the corner near Zhao Ping with her head buried in her arms, looking totally numb and exhausted.

“Have you found anything?” Jin Cheng asked.

“No.” Tang Cuo closed his eyes.

Jin Cheng smiled and put on the last jigsaw piece.

Not long after, the whole hall fell into a deep sleep, and even the sound of breathing seemed to be engulfed by the darkness, all the way until ―

“Slam! Slam!” The familiar sound of the wind hitting the door broke the silence, waking the players one by one from their dream. The first to wake up was Tang Cuo, who immediately turned to look at the clock on the wall.

It was 6 o’clock in the morning.

Xiao Yuan heard the sound and ran downstairs in a hurry. She was surprised to see everyone sleeping in the hall, then she ran over to open the door with a smile again: “It must be the woodcutter.” 

As the door opened, the cold blizzard poured in again.

A tall man walked in together with the wind and the snow. He was around 30 years old, his hair short and his chin full of stubble. He wore a black fur collar leather jacket, carrying a bundle of firewood on his back and an axe in his hand.

It was Li Ying Jun again.

As they turned to look at the corner of the hall, Li Shuangshuang was gone.