Chapter 1081: Whose Victory?

Chapter 1081: Whose Victory?

Yan Zhichun asked incredulously, "What is going on...?"

She could hardly imagine that Chu Tianqiu would make seven consecutive wrong guesses on the screen by himself.

But if it wasn't Chu Tianqiu... then who could it be?

Now they had lost seven points in a row... Didn't that mean most of the *zi* they had guessed were invalid?

A faint smile crossed Chu Tianqiu's face as he said, "This is a long story."

"A long story...?"

Chu Tianqiu turned back and said, "The game rules say that only the *zhu shuai* can score points."

"But what about deducting points?"

"You're saying..."

"I thought the opponent's male members were all under control," Chu Tianqiu explained. "So among the remaining people, no one could smash a screen with their bare hands in just one minute."

After speaking, he turned back to Yan Zhichun with a touch of self-mockery, "If it were you, could you smash your own TV with your bare hands in one minute?"

Yan Zhichun felt that smashing a TV wasn't that hard, but the time limit made it difficult—especially if it had to be done in just one minute.

"But I still overlooked something," Chu Tianqiu continued. "When I saw that Qi Xia's screen didn't score for the character *mi*, I should have realized... Would he make such a basic mistake? Or did he just write the pronunciation wrong?"

Yan Zhichun tried her best to understand what Chu Tianqiu meant, so she tentatively asked, "So why didn't the character *mi* score...?"

"Because he guessed wrong on some other characters," Chu Tianqiu replied. "I was too conservative in my assumptions about Qi Xia... His screen even had characters like *hui* and *chuo*—who knows how many bold guesses he made... And he knew better than I did what happens when you guess wrong."

Yan Zhichun's mind was in a whirl for a moment, but she also realized they were on the brink of defeat.

"What are we going to do...?" Chu Tianqiu said with a bitter smile. "The other side doesn't even need to smash our screen—they just need someone to come here and quickly write a bunch of wrong *tong yin zi* to deduct our points..."

"I still don't get it," Yan Zhichun said. "Weren't you here the whole time? How did we end up losing points repeatedly?"

"This is another long story," Chu Tianqiu said. "I didn't trust anyone else with the task, so I personally smashed the opponent's screen. Based on my judgment at the time, anyone who could threaten us would be controlled. Even if someone could move, it would only be Zhang Chenze after the game ended."

"I..."

"But I never expected..." Chu Tianqiu went on, "I assumed Zhang Chenze would lose to you, so she lost her *zi* and couldn't possibly go to our *bei zhan qu*... How did that happen?"

Yan Zhichun thought for a few seconds after hearing this. She had indeed won the *bao* from Zhang Chenze, but then Qi Xia showed up, and the two of them whispered something with their backs to her. Afterward, she and Qi Xia entered the room, and after that... where had Zhang Chenze gone?

Thinking about it, Yan Zhichun said, "I've noticed Qi Xia has a habit—I don't know if it's this habit that led to our loss this time."

"What habit?"

"Whenever he moves, he first takes the safest path straight to the *he dao*, and then moves sideways along the *he dao* to find the room he wants to enter."

Chu Tianqiu found this a bit strange... This habit meant that even if Qi Xia wanted to enter their game area, he would always go through the *he dao*. Wouldn't that raise suspicions from his teammates, especially with *hua xing* involved?

On the other hand... this move would perfectly bypass all defenses, and those setting up the defenses would never expect the enemy commander to stroll right behind them.

"And after I finished the game with Zhang Chenze," Yan Zhichun added, "Qi Xia opened the 'door' from the *he dao*."

"So Zhang Chenze was probably supposed to head back to their *bei zhan qu* the same way, but instead, she unconsciously went to the *he dao* to talk with Qi Xia. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now it seems like it was all part of Qi Xia's plan."

"So it must have been Zhang Chenze who came here just now," Chu Tianqiu said. "Her target wasn't to smash the screen from the start."

Chu Tianqiu still found Qi Xia's strategy hard to fathom. If this were a real battle, both sides could be said to have launched a "killing move" straight at the enemy's base, but the strange thing was that Qi Xia's "killing move" only worked because I launched mine first.

In other words, if I had stayed in the *bei zhan qu* and never left, Zhang Chenze coming in would have just been giving away her *zi* for nothing.

"It feels like we're on the defensive now..." Chu Tianqiu said. "Our score is under ten points, while Qi Xia has nearly twenty. I don't know if a 'broken screen' counts as points. If we hold out until time runs out in this state, it's unclear who the final winner will be."

"So what do we do...?" Yan Zhichun asked. "Try to seize their *zi* at the cost of our lives?"

"That's too naive," Chu Tianqiu replied. "From now on, they can just rest in their *bei zhan qu*. I've already smashed their screen, so their whole team has no weaknesses left."

"I..." Yan Zhichun trailed off, feeling that the situation was unfolding just as Qi Xia had predicted. She could only say, "Qi Xia said... if you want, you can take all the *zi* and meet him in the *he dao*. He'll personally give you a defeat."

"Personally give me a defeat...? In the *he dao*?" Chu Tianqiu seemed to catch on to something. "Now both sides are pretty battered. If we leave it alone, the winner isn't certain... But he wants to give me a defeat?"

Yan Zhichun thought Chu Tianqiu made sense, but she still didn't know what Qi Xia was plotting.

"Maybe..." Yan Zhichun whispered, "The broken screen means they can't see the score, so Qi Xia would be judged as 'failed'?"

Chu Tianqiu pondered this for a moment and felt it could make sense from certain angles.

Their screen for keeping score was destroyed, so how could they judge the winner based on their previous score?

Would the "previous score" count as the final score? That didn't align with Qing Long's logic at all.

"Looks like Qi Xia thought of this..." Chu Tianqiu said. "He doesn't think he'll win, so he has to gamble with me at the last moment."

"Is it really necessary to go...?" Yan Zhichun asked. "If we decide he's going to lose, wouldn't it be better not to show up? We can just stay in the *bei zhan qu* and wait for the win—the time left isn't much anyway."

"But we've overlooked one thing," Chu Tianqiu said. "They have Tiantian, and that's the biggest wildcard."

"Tiantian...?" Yan Zhichun wasn't very familiar with people and didn't know what Tiantian could do.

"It's *qiao wu*," Chu Tianqiu explained. "Since she rarely uses her ability, I don't even know the limits of *qiao wu*. If she can repair the screen, then for us... Qi Xia's side would be like pulling a fast one, making us lose seven points without any loss on their end."

"*Qiao wu*... to repair the screen?" Yan Zhichun frowned, finding the idea a bit far-fetched.