Chapter 250
Chapter 250
Apart from Jian Fan, Zhou Jingying was the calmest person present.
Sensing Yang Zhen’s gaze, she turned and smiled at her. “Don’t forget our promise.”
Yang Zhen felt her heart tremble.
She nodded at once. “Don’t worry. Whether you live or die, I’ll help you kill Fang Kang. And not just in the Realm of Death. If I fail to kill him here, I’ll finish him when I return to the real world.”
“Good.” Zhou Jingying smiled.
For her, knowing that her child would be avenged was enough.
Hearing her speak like that, the others could not help feeling sorrowful.
Qin Nan sighed inwardly as well.
Who could have imagined that the internationally acclaimed actress they could normally only admire from afar would one day stand among them like this, only to meet such an end?
Yet not everyone was grieving.
Qin Weiyi, for instance. And Jian Fan.
Qin Weiyi’s thoughts were racing as he stared at the basket in Zhou Jingying’s hands, grasping at the threads of a possibility.
At that very moment, Jian Fan spoke.
“What kinds of things require a countdown?” Jian Fan asked.
Qin Weiyi’s brow immediately relaxed.
He had arrived at the same thought.
The quests with generous time limits clearly required them to follow a plot. Since Zhou Jingying’s time limit was so short, perhaps there was no plot to follow. If there was no plot, then what would warrant a countdown?
“A countdown?” Qin Nan frowned.
At the word, one thing immediately sprang to mind.
“Are the matches counting down to her death?” Mu Xin wondered aloud, following Jian Fan’s reasoning.
Jian Fan remained composed. “There’s no plot to follow. It’s like being trapped in a deadly situation with only a dozen or so minutes to call for help or save ourselves. When the time runs out, we die.”
“Ahem.” Qin Nan suddenly coughed.
Jian Fan looked at him. “You have an idea?”
Qin Nan gave an awkward smile. “Something did occur to me, but I don’t think any of you want to hear it.”
“What is it?” Lin Junruo asked curiously.
Yellow Hair urged him on. “Who cares whether we want to hear it? Spit it out.”
Qin Nan swallowed. “A bomb.”
Everyone fell silent.
Dead silent.
But once they combined Qin Nan’s idea with Jian Fan’s reasoning… Well, it really did seem possible.
The burning matches were a bomb’s countdown. Once the countdown ended, the bomb would explode–and then they would die. There was no plot to follow, either. If a bomb was counting down, the only thing that mattered was defusing it. Who would care where it came from or what story lay behind it?
Besides, bombs did have some connection to fire.
While the others were still thinking, Jian Fan walked forward.
He stopped before Zhou Jingying and pressed a finger directly against the burning match.
“It isn’t fire,” Jian Fan said.
Zhou Jingying was the first to react. Once Jian Fan withdrew his hand, she immediately reached toward the basket as well. The flame danced against her fingertip, yet she felt no burning sensation whatsoever. In fact… she could not feel even the slightest heat.
It was not fire. It merely produced the appearance of fire.
That explained why each burning match failed to ignite the others, and why the basket itself had not caught fire.
Then…
“Could it still be a bomb?” That was the only question Lu Jing cared about.
If it was a bomb, Zhou Jingying might not be the only one to die. It could kill all of them.
“If it is a bomb, how do we deal with it?” Jian Fan asked Lu Jing.
Lu Jing was the only one among them who knew anything about the subject.
He answered immediately. “That depends on what kind of bomb it is and how powerful it is. We’d need blast-mitigation measures. The explosion itself is unavoidable; the point is to contain it so it doesn’t cause widespread damage. We don’t have bomb suits, and we’re inside a castle… This is going to be difficult.”
“Throw it away.” Since Lu Jing had no good solution, Jian Fan made the decision himself.
Everyone stared blankly.
“What?” Lu Jing asked in confusion. Then he added, “Throw it where?”
“Outside the castle,” Jian Fan said.
An explosion in an open space might not damage the castle. After all, castles from earlier eras had been built with formidable defenses.
But–
“We can’t get out,” Qin Nan pointed out.
Jian Fan fell silent.
That was a serious problem.
He swept his gaze across the ballroom once more. At last, his eyes settled on the fish tank in the center of the room.
“Throw it into the fish tank,” Jian Fan said.
Everyone looked at one another. No one seemed to have a better plan.
They did not know whether the thing was a bomb, but if fire was the threat, then water was its natural counter.
The fish tank was the best option currently available to them.
“We don’t have any other ideas anyway. Let’s do it.” Lu Jing was more decisive than the others. Before anyone else had reached a decision, he had already held out his hand to Zhou Jingying.
Zhou Jingying hesitated.
But almost all the matches in the basket had burned away. She could not simply do nothing and sit there waiting to die.
After a moment’s thought, she handed the basket to Lu Jing.
Lu Jing took it, then looked at Qin Weiyi and warned, “I’ll throw it in. The rest of you get as far away as you can.”
Qin Weiyi nodded, though his eyes betrayed his concern for Lu Jing.
Lu Jing took it in stride. Knowing Qin Weiyi was worried about him, he smiled. “There’s still time. Once I toss it into the tank, I’ll have enough time to run back to you.”
“Then hurry up. Stop wasting time here,” Qin Nan urged.
Lu Jing wasted no more words. He strode straight toward the fish tank.
Fang Kang was still inside it.
He was searching desperately for the Golden Ball.
He was certain it had fallen into the fish tank, but the tank was enormous, and Fang Kang was only a tiny frog. Finding any trace of the Golden Ball was proving an arduous task.
Fang Kang was so focused on his search that he failed to notice someone approaching the tank–someone who could, at a stretch, be considered an acquaintance.
Lu Jing did not stop to think.
He glanced at the matches in the basket.
Only a few remained. Without hesitation, Lu Jing hurled the basket into the fish tank, turned, and walked away without a backward glance.
Fang Kang heard something splash into the water and instinctively looked up.
It was an enormous basket.
What did that have to do with him?
Fang Kang resumed his search for the Golden Ball.
He searched and searched.
Then, behind a patch of seaweed, Fang Kang spotted a glimmer like gold. Delighted, he knew it had to be the little Golden Ball he was looking for!
He swam swiftly toward his target.
Just as he was about to touch the Golden Ball–
Boom.
Wave after wave crashed toward him.