V1C21

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“Good evening. I have two messages for everybody: one of them is good, and the other one is bad.”

The girl walked inside carrying a wooden box, a smile on her face. Everyone knew her: the person handing out easter eggs on the plaza. Her unique voice was so sweet it was like boiled water with too much sugar, thick and honeyish.

“The good news is that everyone who managed to come here alive is lucky, they’ll be able to leave the maze soon. The bad news is that not all of you here can leave.”

The girl looked at the heavy faces in front of her, her eyes teasing, filled with laughter. “Only one of you has to stay behind, the remaining five can leave safely. How about it? Doesn’t that sound nice?”

It sounded absolutely rotten.

What was once a somewhat peaceful atmosphere was broken immediately. No one spoke, but something seemed to brew in the frozen air; the coming of a storm. Lin Jue couldn’t help but place a hand on the gun in his pants. There were still five bullets, more than enough to protect himself, but…

Lin Jue unconsciously looked at Song Hanzhang. He was sitting next to him with his chin on his hands, deep in thought, not appearing even a little bit alarmed or guarded.

Someone was looking at him.

Lin Jue raised his head sharply to see Lu Ren watching him, a half-smile on his face. Suddenly, he winked, as if they were the closest of friends.

It felt like a cockroach had run over him. He shifted uneasily in his seat. He took another look at Song Hanzhang. He glanced at Lu Ren before nodding lightly at Lin Jue.

Wait, what? What did that mean? Lin Jue frowned.

“And how will we choose? Don’t tell me you’re planning a duel; even though I’m very confident in myself, there’s no thrill in such an obvious game,” Lu Ren said slowly in a deliberate drawl. “Since you made such a condition, you should have a much more interesting suggestion. Don’t disappoint me.”

The girl giggled and opened the box in her hands. Inside was a deck of cards.

“Of course. It’s far too cruel to just pick some unlucky man as the scapegoat; I have a much fairer game. Let’s call it ‘Catch the Ghost’ for now.”

“Here is a deck of cards, all four suits from A to K, thirteen cards each plus a joker; fifty-three cards in total.”

“Everyone will sit down in the order they arrived at the room and I’ll deal out the cards. Everyone will receive either eight or nine cards to start, and one of you will receive the joker. Once you get a pair of cards with the same numbers, you can take them out and place them to the side.”

“Then, everyone will take one card from the person to their left. If they manage to make a pair with the cards in their hands, they can take the pair out. Those that manage to get rid of all their cards can leave the game.

“But, because of the joker, there will be one person who will never be able to get rid of all of their cards.

“The person who fails to get rid of the joker will stay here forever.”

The girl smiled, revealing a dark gentleness under the fluttering candlelight. “It’s very fair, is it not?”

A… battle of luck? No, it was also a battle of the mind.

The joker which signified death; once you received it, how would you get rid of it? A person’s expression, body language, movements, even the order in which they placed their cards, their habits in drawing cards…

Was this really a fair game? Lin Jue questioned in his heart.

“I have no objections.” Song Hanzhang was the first to respond.

The rest also gave their consent.

Compared to picking out a scapegoat, this method was far better in everyone’s opinions. Everyone thought that they wouldn’t be the unlucky one.

“Are there any other questions?” the girl asked, her voice gentle and soft.

“Me.” Lu Ren raised his hand like a good student and asked earnestly, “Will the game end if I kill you?”

The girl grinned and shook her head. “If you kill one of me, there will be another. Even if my corpses fill this entire room, the door will be opened by another ‘me’. There’s no point to it.”

“How interesting.” Lu Ren looked intrigued. “Just what are you?”

“You in the past, you in the present, and you in the future. I should be something like that.” The girl described herself as a ‘thing’ without a care. “Alright, we’ve wasted too much time on this topic. If there are no other questions, I’ll start dealing the cards.”

“Pause. Can we wait for three minutes? I have something I want to say to Lin Jue,” Song Hanzhang cut in.

“Boys have so many secrets between them… Sure, do as you please.” The girl shrugged nonchalantly. “If anyone else wants to chat, they can as well, and I won’t stop you from speaking during the game. I’m not a very dedicated supervisor anyway.”

Lin Jue looked at Song Hanzhang in confusion as the latter dragged him to a nearby corner.

“Have you ever played a game like this before?” Song Hanzhang asked.

Lin Jue shook his head. He only knew how to play Big Two and he would always lose horribly to his roommate.

Song Hanzhang closed his eyes and sighed lightly. “Just, no matter what card you get, keep calm. Remember to shuffle your cards each time you draw one. If we’re sitting by time order, I will be after you. If your luck is too horrible…

“Kill Gao Yifei.”

Lin Jue looked up, shocked.

Song Hanzhang’s face was hidden in shadow, his unchanging expression freezing Lin Jue down to the bone.

“She’s right next to you, and the closest to you. If taken by surprise, you will be able to win in a single hit. Don’t worry about Liu Shan and Zhao Liangsheng, they won’t fight with three other people for a dead man.”

Lin Jue instinctively wanted to glance back at Gao Yifei but forced himself to keep looking ahead.

“I can’t do that.” He repeated, as if warning himself, “I can’t do that!”

It was one thing to kill Zhou Yuxiu, that was a tragedy that could not have been avoided, but to kill an innocent person…

Even though at the library, he had told Song Hanzhang that if they had to kill, he would do it, in the face of murder, he hesitated and cowered. Even just thinking about pointing his gun at the innocent people next to him, he felt painfully sinful. Was he going to abandon the last of his morals to survive? What was the point of living then?

Song Hanzhang looked at him deeply. “What do you think you’re doing now? Playing cards as if nothing was happening and leaving the loser behind? We are killing, Lin Jue, it’s just a matter of holding the knife or not. The surviving five will have killed the person left behind, it’s just another way of doing it. Would you be able to live with that?”

His heart shook violently and Lin Jue felt his mind blank out.

Indeed, it was just another way of murder. The nature of this game was for the majority to kill the minority, but under the cover of fairness and competition, everything appeared understandable as everyone did everything they could to give the joker to another for them to survive, but what was so different between that and killing someone upright?

This was a despicable and deplorable game.

What was terrifying was that they had all accepted this game of murder.

Something patted his shoulder lightly and Song Hanzhang’s voice sounded, “Nevermind, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have mentioned this to you.”

Song Hanzhang looked over Lin Jue’s shoulder and met Lu Ren’s eyes. Lu Ren was rubbing his neck and gave him a meaningful smile.

It was just… a temporary alliance.

Song Hanzhang patted Lin Jue on the shoulder again. “Go back, be careful.”

To do nothing and wait for luck? Or to wait for Song Hanzhang to solve everything and enjoy the outcome… No, what was the difference between winning and killing?

How laughable, he was killing as well!

If someone had to dirty their hands… He had promised Song Hanzhang that he would do it.

Lin Jue suddenly grabbed Song Hanzhang’s wrist and when the latter gave him a questioning look, Lin Jue looked down and said hurriedly, “I’ll do it, I can do it, if it really…”

“Don’t force yourself, I have a way,” Song Hanzhang whispered. “Hide your gun, it’s poking out.”

Lin Jue’s body shook but Song Hanzhang had already seamlessly pushed the gun back into his pants and had gone back to his seat.

Lin Jue tightened his fists and sat back down.

The other four had already sat down in the order in which they arrived, leaving the two seats between Gao Yifei and Liu Shan.

The current seating plan was: the three of hearts, Gao Yifei; the nine of hearts, Lin Jue; the seven of hearts, Song Hanzhang; the ace of hearts, Liu Shan; the queen of hearts, Lu Ren; and the ten of hearts, Zhao Liangsheng. They would each take a card from the person on their left.

Lin Jue looked to his left at Gao Yifei. She was playing with her finger nervously, taking the ring on her pinky off and then putting it back on. Seeing Lin Jue looking at her, she tried to give him a friendly smile in return.

Lin Jue felt his heart grow even heavier.

The despicable intent to kill and the desire to survive surrounded his heart, making the choice even worse. He unconsciously wished that he wouldn’t be the person to receive the joker, as if that way he could escape the weight of the murder.

“Then, I’ll start dealing the cards.” The girl skillfully shuffled the deck and smiled.

Let the games begin.

***

Vera’s Notes:

Are they seriously playing Go Fish??????? Call me a fool, but I think that’s Go Fish! Not Poker, not Blackjack, not any card game that’s taken seriously, but Go Fish! This girl…

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