Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Everyone’s eyes fell upon the cookies and the potion on the table.

In the movie plot they had all seen not long ago, Alice would grow larger after eating the cookies and shrink after drinking the potion.

As long as one drank the potion, they could shrink their body, enter the Cheshire Cat’s stomach to retrieve the key, and then eat the cookies to return to their original size.

“But both the cookies and the potion are poisonous. Would you eat them if I gave them to you?” the Scarred Man asked, his voice thick with hostility.

The Old Lady held her Two of Spades, looking confused. “Children, I see it written clearly here: the cookies are poisonous, but the potion is not.”

A stout young man who looked like a college student, the Chubby Boy, scratched his head. “For real? It says here that neither of them is poisonous.”

The Scarred Man snapped, “Not poisonous? Then why don’t you hurry up and scarf them down?”

The Chubby Boy fell silent.

Was it possible this group had survived the first round simply because they were lucky enough to receive the correct time rules?

Just as I was about to interrupt them and announce the rules regarding the cards’ authenticity, the Bespectacled Man stepped forward holding the Jack of Hearts.

“Everyone, stop arguing. No one is lying; it’s the rules that are misleading us. Let me share what’s written on the Jack of Hearts: different suits have different truth-telling properties. Hearts are true, Spades are false, and Clubs and Diamonds are half-true and half-false.”

“Therefore, the Two of Hearts contains the correct rule: the cookies are not poisonous, but the potion is.”

If one wanted to shrink and enter the Cheshire Cat’s body to get the key, they first had to drink the potion.

And the potion was poisonous.

The discussion hit another stalemate.

“But think about the phrasing carefully. The rule only says the potion is poisonous; it doesn’t say the poison will definitely kill you. It might just be like eating some bad mushrooms.”

The Bespectacled Man proposed a possibility, but no one was willing to try it. After all, no one knew what would happen after being poisoned.

After a long silence, he spoke again. “Let’s decide with Rock Paper Scissors. Someone has to take the risk, or we’ll all be trapped here.”

This was the fairest method anyone could think of. Everyone formed a circle and began to filter people out using the ‘palms or backs’ method.

After the first round, five people showed the backs of their hands, and three showed their palms.

The remaining three were the Bespectacled Man, Lolita, and the Scarred Man.

Before the second round began, I noticed Lolita and the Bespectacled Man share a silent, knowing look.

On the first attempt, all three showed the backs of their hands.

On the second attempt, all three showed their palms.

Beads of cold sweat began to form on the Scarred Man’s forehead.

The third time…

Two showed the backs of their hands, and one showed his palm.

The Scarred Man was the only one different from the others.

“It seems you’ve chosen your sacrifice,” the spectating Cheshire Cat chimed in at an inopportune moment.

Likely provoked by its words, the Scarred Man grabbed the Bespectacled Man by the collar and questioned him fiercely, “You-you two are a couple, aren’t you? You and her cheated!”

Lolita shoved him away. “What nonsense are you talking about? Show us some proof.”

The Scarred Man pointed at the Bespectacled Man excitedly. “You were the one who suggested using Rock Paper Scissors to choose someone in the first place!”

The Bespectacled Man looked disdainful. “What does that prove? Everyone saw us; we didn’t exchange a single word from start to finish.”

The Scarred Man trembled with rage, but he couldn’t find any evidence or reason to refute them.

“I saw it. Big Brother and Big Sister cheated.”

The Mixed-race Boy, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, suddenly whispered.

“Before the game started, Big Sister put a card in her palm and flipped it over and over again.”

“Front, back, front, back… that was the signal you and the Bespectacled Brother agreed on for how to play, wasn’t it?”