Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The next morning, the twenty contestants gathered once more in the lobby lounge. Tina appeared promptly at nine o’clock.

“Everyone, the organizers spent the entire night preparing the venue for our second contest. Please follow me!”

The twenty of them took different elevators to the second floor. Tina led them into one of the conference rooms. The moment they stepped inside, they saw that it had been completely transformed since yesterday. The two rows of long meeting tables and chairs had been removed, leaving an empty room.

It was not entirely empty. A metal stool stood at the center. Around it were nineteen illuminated waist-high podiums, numbered from one to nineteen from left to right.

“What’s all this? Are we on the set of If You Are the One?” The curly-haired student loved making jokes. “Is Mr. Liang Chen going to pick one of the nineteen of us to be his girlfriend?”

Only the round-faced student chuckled. Everyone else remained silent, confusion written across their faces. The arrangement alone gave them no clue what kind of game they would be playing.

“Welcome to Mr. Liang Chen’s home round! He’s Number Two, and this will be our second contest. This game will take place entirely in this room, so anyone who isn’t athletic can stop worrying about running all over the hotel again!” Tina said.

“What game are we playing?” Che Dongming asked.

“Before I explain the rules, the organizers have asked each of you to choose one of the podiums numbered one through nineteen. You may choose freely; you don’t have to match your contestant number. Once you’ve made your choice, you can’t change positions. These nineteen numbers represent the order in which you’ll take your turns during this game!”

“Hey, if you haven’t explained the rules, how are we supposed to choose our order?” Hong Long asked.

“To make the game more entertaining, the organizers specifically want you to rely on your intuition and choose your order before you learn the rules. You decide who goes when based on instinct, and only afterward discover what game you’re playing. Doesn’t that make it more exciting? The organizers have gone to tremendous lengths to make every contest fun and fascinating!”

“They’ve certainly gone to tremendous lengths to toy with us like monkeys,” Hong Long growled. He pressed one hand against the knuckles of the other, making them crack loudly.

“Intuition is too vague to mean anything. How is this different from assigning our positions at random?” Chen Nuo said. “If you genuinely want to make the game more interesting, give us a hint so we have something to base our choices on.”

Tina thought for a moment. “Mr. Chen Nuo has a point. All right, I’ll give you one little hint: in this game, the later a person’s turn, the more important they will be and the greater the responsibility they must bear. That’s all I can say. Interpret it however you wish and stand behind different podiums!”

Chen Nuo’s mind raced. Judging by the room’s arrangement, the metal stool in the center was clearly meant for the Featured Player, Liang Chen. In other words, he would sit in the middle and face nineteen challengers.

Based on yesterday’s Cat and Mouse game, Liang Chen was certainly no athlete, which meant he had almost certainly chosen a contest of intelligence. Tina had claimed, “I won’t lie,” and so far, that seemed to be true. Her hint was therefore extremely important: the later a person’s turn, the more important they would be and the greater the responsibility they must bear. If this was a battle of wits, would placing the smartest and quickest thinkers last give the challengers an advantage?

While Chen Nuo considered the question, the doctor, Che Dongming, was also deep in thought. He had evidently reached the same conclusion.

“We can’t be sure what we’re playing, but I suspect it will be a battle of wits, perhaps some kind of guessing game, like a lateral-thinking riddle. If so, the person going last must be the smartest among us, because the final answer may have to come from them.”

“In that case, an old man like me had better go near the front. You young people are better at using your brains.” The speaker was Liu Dashan, the man in his sixties. He walked over to Podium One.

“I don’t consider myself especially clever either. I’ll go near the front too.” The man in the cap took his place behind Podium Two.

Several more people soon “modestly” chose early positions. Chen Nuo suspected they did not want to play an “important role” because they were unwilling to bear the responsibility. That was especially true of whoever went last. If Che Dongming was right, that person would be responsible for giving the final answer. They would determine whether their side won or lost and, indirectly, whether someone died.
Before long, Podiums One through Sixteen had all been claimed. Only the last three remained. The three people without positions were Chen Nuo, Tang Ying, and Che Dongming.

Che Dongming stepped forward first and took Podium Seventeen. “Chen Nuo, you distinguished yourself in the last game. You should go last this time too. We’ll leave our fate in your hands.”

Che Dongming probably intended his final remark as an expression of trust. Chen Nuo had been debating whether to take the last position, but the words struck a nerve and provoked an immediate resistance.

“I refuse.”

“Why?” Che Dongming asked.

“I only want to decide my own fate. I won’t take responsibility for anyone else’s.” With that, Chen Nuo walked to Podium Eighteen.

“All right. It seems I have no choice.” Tang Ying took her place behind Podium Nineteen with a resigned expression.

“Now that everyone has chosen their order, I’ll announce the rules of the second contest! The game is called Yes or No!” Tina said excitedly. “Here are the rules. Mr. Liang Chen has written down a noun in advance and given it to me. Starting with Number One and proceeding to Number Nineteen, each of you may ask him one question, to which he will answer only ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ If you work together and identify the noun within nineteen questions, the challengers win. Otherwise, Mr. Liang Chen wins!”

While Tina explained the game, Liang Chen watched the nineteen people’s expressions. Judging by their reactions, most of them had probably never played it before.

Fantastic! he shouted inwardly. If none of them has experience with this game, winning will be even easier!

“Wait. Any noun at all? There must be over a million nouns in modern Chinese. How are we supposed to identify one in only nineteen questions?” Shu Yanjun demanded loudly.

“Mr. Shu, every proposed event must be evaluated by the organizers for fairness. In other words, they tested it and concluded that identifying the noun within nineteen questions is possible! Of course, certain restrictions are necessary. Those are part of the detailed rules I’m about to explain, so please be patient and hear me out,” Tina said.

“All right…”

“The specific rules are as follows.

“First, the noun Mr. Liang Chen wrote down may contain no more than four Chinese characters. It must also belong to the realm of general knowledge and cannot be too obscure. How do we determine whether it is obscure? The standard is that the noun must be common knowledge to every person present. If someone objects when the answer is revealed and argues that the noun is too obscure, the organizers will make a ruling. If they agree, Mr. Liang Chen will be deemed to have broken the rules and will lose the contest.

“Second, the noun cannot be an abstract concept. It must be a physical thing…”

The man in his sixties raised his hand, interrupting Tina halfway through her sentence.

“I’m sorry, but what is an abstract concept? Could you please explain?”

“Of course. For example, age, time, value, and luck are all things you can neither see nor touch. Those are abstract concepts. Mr. Liang Chen’s noun cannot belong to that category, or it will count as a violation,” Tina said.

“All right. I understand,” the old man said.

“Wait. When we discussed this yesterday, that restriction was never mentioned…” Liang Chen said, suddenly flustered.

“Mr. Liang Chen, the organizers established this rule. They may have decided that including abstract concepts would make the noun far too difficult to guess, which would undermine the fairness of the game. That’s why a restriction is necessary. Please understand,” Tina said.

“But… all right.”

Liang Chen’s expression tightened. He had considered several different nouns yesterday, one of which was an abstract concept. Fortunately, he had prepared several alternatives. Now he could only abandon the abstract noun, the option least likely to be guessed, and choose something concrete instead.

Tina continued explaining the rules.

“Third, you will ask questions in order from Number One through Number Nineteen. Each person may think for no more than one minute. Anyone who fails to ask a question within that minute forfeits their question.

“Fourth, while asking a question, you may not seek anyone else’s opinion. No one else may tell or suggest to a person what question to ask. Doing so will be considered a violation.

“Fifth, Mr. Liang Chen must answer truthfully with either ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Otherwise, that too will be considered a violation.”

When Tina finished, she looked around at the group. “Those are all the rules. Does everyone understand?”