Chapter 33
Chapter 33
“Yes. The result of our first vote has been decided,” Tina announced. “The vote is valid, with more than half the players in favor. Unfortunately, Chen Nuo is not the Mastermind of this game. Of your three Mastermind votes, you now have two remaining.”
The result was disheartening for everyone else. For Liang Chen, it was a fatal blow. He swayed on his feet as he realized there was no way left for him to survive.
Chen Nuo shook his head and sighed. “I already told you I wasn’t the Mastermind. I suppose you wouldn’t believe it until you saw the result.”
A male server approached Liang Chen and politely gestured for him to follow. “Mr. Liang Chen, this way, please.”
The server looked gentle and unfailingly courteous, but to Liang Chen, he was the grim reaper wearing a hideous face. Liang Chen suddenly dropped to his knees and pleaded through his tears,
“Please, save me! I’m only in my thirties. I don’t want to die! I’ve never even been married… Why? Why did an ordinary trip overseas turn into this?”
Overwhelmed by terror, he rambled incoherently. Some people lowered their heads while others turned away, unable to bear the sight of him in such misery. More importantly, none of them knew how to help him, much less save him.
Hong Long seized Liang Chen by the collar and hauled him to his feet.
“Are you even a fucking man? You’ll throw away every scrap of dignity just to stay alive! You already wasted one of our precious votes. How do you still have the nerve to kneel there and beg? Go die with some backbone!”
“What kind of bullshit is that? You raised your hand when I called the vote! Now you’re blaming me for wasting it, when you also…”
Before Liang Chen could finish, blood suddenly sprayed from his mouth and splattered across Hong Long’s face. Hong Long squeezed his eyes shut.
The big man froze. Then screams of horror erupted around him. He looked down and saw a gaping hole in Liang Chen’s torso, as though an artillery shell had punched straight through him.
Even Hong Long recoiled in terror. He released Liang Chen at once. Liang Chen collapsed, coughed up another mouthful of blood, and died.
Only then did Hong Long understand. While he had been holding Liang Chen, someone had detonated the microbomb inside his body.
No one had expected Liang Chen to die right in front of them. They also noticed that Tina was among those who had screamed. Apparently, the explosion had frightened her too.
“Weren’t you supposed to take him to that room on the first floor? Why did he suddenly explode in front of us?” Still shaken, Hong Long wiped the blood from his face and stared at Tina.
“My guess is… the audience watching remotely grew impatient,” Tina said, pressing a hand to her chest. “They may have felt that Liang Chen had wasted a Mastermind vote and was shamelessly refusing to follow the rules, so they asked the organizers to detonate his microbomb. I don’t control the bombs. The people from the K Organization do.”
The sight of Liang Chen’s corpse on the floor broke the man in the cap. His entire body began shaking violently.
“Tomorrow is my turn. I’ll end up just like him…”
“Mr. Hu Yong, please don’t be anxious. You have an entire day to consider what you’re best at. Just tell me before six this evening,” Tina said to the man in the cap.
“I’m not good at anything… I spent all day thinking about it yesterday, and I couldn’t come up with a single thing. Liang Chen had a game he was good at, and he still died. I don’t have anything…”
“Please try your best to think of something. It can be absolutely anything.”
Hu Yong shook his head in despair.
“There really isn’t anything I’m good at. No matter what event I choose, I’m almost certain to die… Ms. Tina, can I forfeit? Please, let me go home. I promise I won’t tell anyone what happened here.”
Hong Long gave a derisive grunt. At this point, how could Hu Yong still be naive enough to ask for such a thing?
To everyone’s surprise, however, Tina looked helpless and said,
“You really are putting us in a difficult position. But if that’s what you want, we can’t very well force you to take part. You may leave.”
Hu Yong lifted his head and stared at her miserably.
“When you say leave, do you mean through the main entrance? Wouldn’t that be suicide?”
“You would certainly die if you left through the main entrance, but this hotel also has a fire exit. I suppose you could call it the back door. You can leave that way,” Tina said.
Hu Yong froze. So did everyone else.
“Leaving through the back door won’t set off the bomb inside me?” he asked.
“That’s right. Only leaving through the hotel’s main entrance will detonate the bomb. The back door won’t,” Tina said earnestly.
Everyone looked at one another, unable to believe what they were hearing. Could it really be that easy? Anyone who did not want to play could simply walk out the back door?
Hu Yong clearly shared their suspicions. Afraid it might be a trap, he asked, “Ms. Tina, you aren’t lying to me, are you?”
Tina pouted in irritation. “How many times do I have to tell you? I never lie. Everything I tell you is the truth!”
“Then… I’m really going out through the back door?” Hu Yong asked tentatively.
“Yes. The back door is at the far end of the first floor on the right, beside the movie theater. It was locked when you played the first game yesterday, but it’s open now. If you want to leave, you may do so whenever you like,” Tina said.
Hu Yong stood there gaping for a moment, then hurried out of the venue. The others followed him.
They all took the elevator down to the lobby and walked to the far end on the right. During yesterday’s game of Cat and Mouse, they had indeed noticed a door here that looked like a fire exit, but it had been securely locked. Now, just as Tina had said, the padlock was gone and the door stood ajar.
“Leaving this way really won’t detonate the bomb inside me?” Hu Yong asked yet again.
“That’s right. Stop doubting me. Tina hates being doubted more than anything!”
“Then I’m… going?”
“Go right ahead.”
Hu Yong approached the door, swallowed, and pushed it open. Beyond it seemed to lie a pitch-black passage. After hesitating for several seconds, he stepped inside.
The door swung shut on its own, once again left slightly ajar.
Everyone stared in disbelief.
Several of the bolder men pressed their ears to the door. Even after a long while, they heard no explosion, no scream, and no sound of a body hitting the floor. Liu Dashan said excitedly,
“It sounds like he’s really fine. We should get out of here too!”
He was about to pull the door open and follow when Saisi cried, “Don’t go out!”
Everyone jumped. Liu Dashan turned to her. “Why not?”
“The man who just left probably won’t survive,” Saisi said.
“Why?”
“The morning before yesterday, after breakfast, before any of this happened, I was sitting with seven or eight people in the cafe. I told them I knew how to read tarot cards. A few of them were interested, so I asked each person to draw three cards. On the surface it was only for fun. In truth, I was divining their futures.
“The man in the cap drew cards too. His three were The Tower, XVI; The Hanged Man, XII; and Death, XIII.
“All three are ominous tarot cards. And when Death follows The Hanged Man, it almost certainly means that person is doomed to die.”
She paused, then repeated what she had once told Chen Nuo.
“Whether you believe me or not, I have psychic abilities, and my readings have never been wrong. Seven or eight people were there for the card drawing I just described. Any of them can confirm that the man in the cap really drew those three cards. I’m not making it up.”
“Ruirui and I can confirm it,” Tang Ying said. “We both drew cards that morning.”
“And what does that prove? Can anyone really trust tarot readings?” Hong Long demanded.
“If you don’t believe me, open the door and walk through it. But I can tell you this: the moment I saw that door, I had an overwhelmingly bad feeling. Something more terrifying than death is hidden behind it,” Saisi said.
“Stop bewitching everyone with that bullshit, you old witch! What century is this? Who still believes this garbage?” Hong Long snapped.
“Then why waste your breath arguing with me? Go through the door. But I bet you’ll never come back, and you’ll bitterly regret walking through it,” Saisi said.
The heavy flesh on Hong Long’s face twitched twice. He placed his hand on the door handle, but after hesitating for several seconds, he still could not bring himself to push it open. For all his bluster, he was afraid. The terror of the unknown could be worse than death itself.
“Even putting the tarot cards aside, I advise all of you not to act rashly,” Chen Nuo said. “Tina only said we could leave through the back door. She never said we could leave alive. The K Organization went to enormous lengths to stage this game, kidnap us, and force us to participate. If we could simply walk away whenever we pleased, the whole thing would be a joke. Do you honestly think that’s possible?”
“Where does this door actually lead? It can’t be as simple as walking straight out of the hotel, can it?” Che Dongming asked.
“I’m sorry. No comment,” Tina said. “If you don’t want to play and wish to leave, you may walk through the back door at any time. But I cannot tell you where it leads, because I don’t know either.”
What? Even Tina did not know? If she was telling the truth, an astonishing secret had to be hidden behind that door.
Walking through it blindly would be anything but wise.
Chen Nuo drew a deep breath. He realized they had no choice but to keep playing the game.