Chapter 1027: Weird Characters

"Ah?" Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong exclaimed simultaneously.

"Chen Junnan..." Zheng Yingxiong looked utterly speechless. "Do you want to let Qi Xia have some alone time...?"

Hearing this, Qi Xia furrowed his brow slightly and turned to look at Chen Junnan.

"What's wrong?" Chen Junnan ignored Zheng Yingxiong and held up his middle finger. He said to Qi Xia, "Why are you staring at me? Come on, Lao Qi, write it! Don't you know how to write 'cao'? The 'cao' from 'Mei Lan Zhu Ju'!"

Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, "If you know the character, why didn't you say so earlier?"

Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong were stunned again upon hearing this.

"You know it...?" Zheng Yingxiong asked.

"Damn it..." Chen Junnan felt like he was losing it. "Seriously... Lao Qi, you saw right through me again? Was my act that bad this time?"

"A middle finger meaning 'cao'—that excuse doesn't hold up," Qi Xia said. "Try something else next time."

Without another word, Qi Xia wrote "cao" on the screen.

Sure enough, after flickering for a few seconds, the screen displayed "Creation successful."

"Chen Junnan," Qi Xia called out, "What's really going on? Do you know a lot of rare characters?"

Qi Xia always believed that you couldn't judge a book by its cover. Even though Chen Junnan seemed unreliable, maybe he had actually read through a dictionary out of boredom.

"You're giving me way too much credit..." Chen Junnan said. "Lao Qi, it's a bit embarrassing to admit, but you should know my real strength isn't fighting or thinking—it's trash-talking."

Qi Xia nodded after hearing that. "So, how does that relate to you knowing this character?"

"Well, one time I wanted to trade insults online with someone, but I found it hard to let loose because a lot of the stuff I usually say gets turned into asterisks," Chen Junnan explained with a laugh. "So, I dove into some 'related techniques'... This 'chuo' character is something I came up with after mastering various online trash-talk methods."

What a way to put it—"mastering."

Qi Xia had expected Chen Junnan to have some profound insight, but this reason was both absurd and oddly logical.

At least, that seemingly useless "jin" had turned into a second character in Chen Junnan's hands, which made up for the point they had lost earlier due to Qiao Jiajin's recklessness.

Losing a point on a rare character and then gaining one back with another rare character meant their team was even overall.

At that moment, Qi Xia turned to Zhang Chenze and Zheng Yingxiong. "Why did you two hurry back?"

"I got a 'che' from that fake Chen Junnan," Zheng Yingxiong said. "Even though I already have 'che', having an extra one is better than nothing, right?"

"Of course," Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Chen Junnan. "Does the other side's screen have 'che' now?"

"Holy shit!" Chen Junnan suddenly slapped his thigh as if remembering something. "You just reminded me—their screen doesn't have 'che', but there are a few really weird 'zi' on it! I was totally baffled at the time!"

"Weird 'zi'...?" Qi Xia asked, puzzled.

"Yeah!" Chen Junnan said. "I stared at them for ages and couldn't figure out where they came from!"

"What are they?" Qi Xia asked.

"The 'xi' from sunset!" Chen Junnan said. "And the 'cun' from an inch or two! There's even a damn 'shi'! Where the hell did these 'zi' come from? They look way more useful than ours!"

After pondering for a few seconds, Qi Xia nodded. "As I thought."

"What?" Chen Junnan was taken aback. "You know where these 'zi' came from?"

"If I'm not mistaken, we've all been misled by our own side's 'zi'," Qi Xia explained. "Because all the 'hong fang' 'zi' can only be split into two parts, we assumed the other side was the same. But I feel like they have two 'zi' that can be split into three parts."

Chen Junnan suddenly realized where those strange 'zi' on the screen had come from.

"Is it 'jiang'?!" Chen Junnan exclaimed. "That one 'zi' split into 'quan', 'xi', and 'cun'?"

"Yes," Qi Xia said. "Think about it—it makes sense. I tested it with 'quan tou', and using three parts really can create new 'zi', which means existing 'zi' can be split into three parts too."

After thinking it over, Zhang Chenze nodded. "That's right. In this game, 'zi' can be split left-right or up-down, and 'jiang' can be split left-right and then up-down, so they started with more 'zi' than us."

"Then you can relax," Chen Junnan said. "I glanced over earlier, and they probably only have seven or eight points. With our 'chuo', we've got eleven now."

Chen Junnan stared at the screen and counted: "'Mu', 'mu', 'xiang', 'bing', 'qiu', 'ba', 'mi', 'mi', 'bin', 'bao', 'jin', 'chuo'—that's twelve 'zi' in total.

Among them, 'mi' didn't score, so we have eleven points."

"We're ahead in the early stages, which is normal," Chen Junnan added.

Staring at the screen, Chen Junnan paused for a moment and then said, "Lao Qi... That 'shi' on their side—isn't it also from a 'zi' split into three parts...?"

"Of course," Qi Xia replied. "It's their most important 'zi'. From what I can see, it has a ton of possible combinations..."

"Are you talking about 'zu'...?" Chen Junnan muttered, writing it out with his hand. He found that 'zu' could be split into 'tou', 'cong', and 'shi', and any of those parts could form other 'zi'—it's incredibly versatile.

Zhang Chenze stared at the screen and calculated for a bit, realizing that even though this game was all about 'zi', there was a lot of strategy involved.

"So that means...!" Chen Junnan pondered. "'Zu' is on Xiao Chu's side?"

"Not necessarily," Qi Xia turned and said. "Do you remember if they scored with 'shi' first or 'cun' first?"

Chen Junnan fell silent, thinking back. Back then, he'd glanced at the screen and been distracted by those strange standalone 'zi', so he'd forgotten the order.

"It was 'shi' first..." Chen Junnan confirmed. "Then 'cun'. I saw 'shi cun' together and thought they were forming a sentence on the screen."

"Good," Qi Xia nodded. "I suspect Chu Tianqiu has 'jiang', not 'zu'. We might have to temporarily give up on 'xi', 'cun', and 'jiang', and in the time ahead, focus on launching a full assault on Jin Yuanxun."