Chapter 277: The Rat's Game

“You… don’t go too far!” Hei Yang Shushu jumped in fright. “Your mask stinks terribly—can you not disgust me?”

“Then I don’t care.” She Shushu shook his head. “If you won’t help her, I’ll disgust you to death.”

Hu Shushu didn’t seem to appreciate the gesture; he just stood up, grabbed my hand, and said, “Little Mouse, you don’t need those two fools to help you—I’ll come up with a game for you myself!”

He pulled me over to the desk and sat down, then picked up some paper and a pen to think.

After a few minutes, he hadn’t written a single word.

“Hiss…” He slowly took a breath, then said, “Playing with sandbags or hopscotch won’t work… I wonder if kicking shuttlecocks would be okay…?”

“Oh, come on!” She Shushu waved his hand. “Are you trying to send this girl to her death yourself?”

“You…!” Hu Shushu was so angry he shook his head back and forth. “How am I sending her to her death?”

“You’re just thinking about what your daughter likes to play,” She Shushu said, shaking his head and turning to Hei Yang Shushu. “Hei Yang, why don’t you help them out?”

“With that attitude from Dead Tiger, who wants to help him?”

“Then I’ll go hug you, okay.” She Shushu said.

“You…” Hei Yang Shushu looked like he’d been hugged by She Shushu before—he was really afraid of that.

He walked over to Hu Shushu, snatched the paper and pen right away, and said, “It’s a shame you have that big, tiger-like head and still came up with ‘kicking shuttlecocks’—why not suggest cat’s cradle while you’re at it?”

“Cat’s what your mo…” Hu Shushu’s temper was terrible; he was about to explode.

“Uncle… um… swearing isn’t good…” I tugged at his sleeve.

“Ah…?” Hu Shushu paused for a moment, then stared at me with his eyes darting around. “I… I didn’t swear, I was just… just greeting…”

I blinked. He’d clearly looked like he was swearing… how did it turn into a greeting?

Hu Shushu looked at me for a while, and his tone softened. “Alright, alright… I was wrong. I won’t say it anymore.”

Hei Yang Shushu ignored him and sat at the desk, looking at me. “Kid, come over here. I have a few questions for you.”

“Ah…?”

I slowly walked up to him, a bit scared, and glanced at him.

“Where did you put on the mask?” Hei Yang Shushu’s voice was flat, with no emotion.

“I think it was in a warehouse…”

“A warehouse?” Hei Yang Shushu picked up the pen and quickly sketched a big room on the paper. “Like this warehouse?”

He was good at drawing, but it didn’t quite match the warehouse I remembered.

“Uncle, the space isn’t that big… it was a very small warehouse.”

He nodded, took out another sheet of paper, and drew a small room.

“Is it like this…?” He muttered to himself as he added a few shelves. “Were there a lot of things in the warehouse?”

“Not really…” I said quietly. “There were just a few shelves along the wall.”

“Were there things on the shelves?”

“Yeah… there were some boxes, but I don’t know what was inside.”

Hei Yang Shushu quickly drew two figures in the warehouse, thought for a moment, and started writing on the side.

“Game tentative name: Xinren Youxi.”

“I’ve got an idea.” Hei Yang Shushu said. “Kid, come over here—I’ll tell you the rules.”

“Oh…” I went to his side and looked at the little house and figures he’d drawn.

“The game requires two people to participate, with an entry fee of two Dao per person.” Hei Yang Shushu said as he wrote. “The two people stand inside and ask each other about their secrets. Especially those secrets they don’t want to be brought up…”

“Then what?” Hu Shushu asked.

“We can lie in the rules. The winning conditions are different for each person—one needs to tell the truth, and the other needs to lie.”

“Oh?” Hu Shushu stroked his chin. “You’re playing it sneaky?”

“No, it’s just the nature of sheep.” Hei Yang Shushu shook his head. “While the two people tear each other’s masks apart, they can also see the ugliest side of human nature.”

Hu Shushu nodded. “You really have a lot of tricks up your sleeve.”

“You flatter me—it’s just that I’m a bit smarter than you.”

“Oh…” Hu Shushu nodded, but then realized something was off. “Wait, how does this game relate to ‘Shu’? This seems more like a sheep thing!”

“You’re being unreasonable.” Hei Yang Shushu sighed. “The game takes place in a warehouse, so how is it not related to ‘Shu’?”

“You’re full of…” Hu Shushu seemed about to say something, but he glanced at me and changed his words. “You’re talking nonsense!”

Hu Shushu snatched the paper and pen. “Besides, this game is too hard—I’ll fix it for you!”

He crossed out all of Hei Yang Shushu’s rules and wrote new ones.

“Four people participate, two per team. The team that grabs the vase in the middle of the warehouse wins, by any means necessary. Weapons will be provided by the referee…”

She Shushu couldn’t sit still. “Oh, come on! And you have the nerve to say that? Is brawling in a warehouse really ‘Shu’?”

“So what?!” Hu Shushu shot back. “Can’t ‘Shu’ fight for territory?”

“Fight for what?!” She Shushu grabbed the paper again. “You guys are always corrupting kids—this is up to me.”

He picked up the pen and crossed out Hu Shushu’s rules. “Listen to me: after entering the warehouse, lock the door with five locks. Each lock corresponds to a question, and answering correctly gets you a key. The keys are for…”

The three uncles went back and forth, snatching the paper from each other all night long without sleeping.

They filled sheet after sheet of paper, and there were a few times they almost came to blows.

By dawn, they finally handed me a messy manuscript. The game written on it was so jumbled I couldn’t even understand it.

Just then, the door opened, and Bai Yang Gege walked in.

He always seemed different from the others—his clothes were very clean, and his fur was white, but he felt unapproachable.

The three uncles, no matter how messy they looked, were really good people.

“Shu, have you thought of something?” Bai Yang Gege found a chair and sat down, asking in a flat tone. “It’s been a whole night.”

“Ah… I… um…” I turned to look at the three uncles, and they all winked and nodded at me, so I mustered my courage and said, “I’ve thought of something…”

“Go ahead and tell me.”

“My game… needs four people to participate, with two per team to grab the vase. Once they grab it, they can escape, but the door is locked with five locks, each corresponding to a question that needs to be answered correctly to get out… And when they escape, the two people have to ask each other about their secrets…”

“Absurd.” Bai Yang Gege interrupted.