Chapter 443: Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse

Qiao Jiajin led his small team around for a long time before finally finding the second Di Ji Sheng Xiao.

The team consisted of three men and three women, who didn't understand what Qiao Jiajin was so worried about. But considering that no one among them could beat him, they had no choice but to follow him unconditionally as he walked along the street.

Until they spotted that Di Ma from a distance.

Di Ma appeared to be a woman with a pure white horse head, and her white mane hung down like long hair.

She was wearing a pure white suit with a wine-red shirt underneath, and she was standing in front of an indoor basketball court, waiting for everyone.

"You are all well."

Seeing people approaching, Di Ma greeted them from afar.

Qiao Jiajin scratched his head after looking, then slowly walked up.

"Ma... Ma..." Qiao Jiajin hesitated for a long time before uncertainly saying three words, "Ma jie?"

"What jie..." Di Ma frowned at Qiao Jiajin, "That's rude; you should at least call me 'Di Ma'."

"Okay, okay..." Qiao Jiajin nodded, "Di jie."

"That's rude!" Di Ma exclaimed, "How can there be someone as rude as you?!"

"Hey?" Qiao Jiajin felt a bit wronged, "Where was I rude? Didn't you tell me to call you Di Ma?"

"Stop talking nonsense." Di Ma seemed angry, and her elegant demeanor disappeared after a couple of sentences, "Are we playing or not?!"

"Uh..." Qiao Jiajin was stunned, "Play, play... but can you first tell me what we're playing?"

"Death race." Di Ma said impatiently, "Each person five Dao; the survivors get ten each, hurry up."

Qiao Jiajin turned back a bit troubled and looked at the people behind him, whispering, "Did I make her angry? Do Sheng Xiao usually have the surname 'Di' or 'Ma'?"

"I don't think it's about the surname..." Bai Jiu also covered her mouth and smiled, "The problem is with 'jie'."

"'Jie'?" Qiao Jiajin didn't understand, "This woman is almost two meters tall; shouldn't I call her jie?"

"You're also very sturdy." Bai Jiu reached out and knocked on Qiao Jiajin's arm, "You look skinny, but you're actually so solid."

"Ah... let's not talk about that..." Qiao Jiajin shook his head, "Do we have enough Dao? Seven people, five each, that's a lot."

"Don't worry." Bai Jiu nodded, took out dozens of Dao from her small backpack, counted them on her not-so-wide palm, then stood up and handed them to Di Ma, "Jie, don't be angry; here's the Dao for you."

"Good." Di Ma reached out and patted Bai Jiu's head, then put away all the Dao.

Qiao Jiajin was even more puzzled: "I still don't get it... Why is it okay when you call her jie?"

"Qiao Ge, just don't ask." Bai Jiu and Yun Shijiu showed a bitter smile, "Let's go in quickly."

Di Ma put away all the Dao, nodded to them, and turned to open the big door behind her.

Everyone felt a rush of cool air, as if the room had the air conditioning set very low.

"If any of you have thick clothes, remember to wear more; it's unpleasant if you catch a cold." Di Ma seemed to have recovered, speaking in a gentle voice, "This way, please."

The group took a deep breath at the door, then slowly walked into the basketball gym, bracing against the chilly air.

Fortunately, basketball courts are not complex, and they could see the entire structure at a glance.

Although it's called a "basketball court," this place seemed to have been completely remodeled into a small plaza; the baskets on both sides had been removed, leaving only a flat floor.

Looking closely, these floors seemed to have been tampered with, covered with a thick layer of ice, so it might as well be called an ice rink.

In the center of the area, many sharp-pointed glass shards were neatly arranged in two rows, faintly outlining a straight track in the middle of the ice.

On the outer sides of the track, many half-person-high wooden boxes stood on both sides, each with a small round hole, their purpose unknown.

At the end of the track, something about the size of a motorcycle was covered with a dark curtain.

"Gentlemen, my game is called 'Mu Niu Liu Ma'."

"Mu Liu Liu Ma?" Qiao Jiajin paused.

"Mu Niu Liu Ma."

"Mu, Mu Niu Niu Ma?"

"Mu..." Di Ma was about to explain but suddenly got angry and turned her head away, "If you don't understand, forget it; why are you causing trouble? Probably someone like you, a rough person, wouldn't understand even if I explained."

"This..." Qiao Jiajin felt that the big sister was still angry, but he didn't know where his problem was.

"Next, I'll explain the rules to you all; make sure to listen carefully." Di Ma slowly walked around the ice and came to the end of the straight track, "My game rules are very simple... You seven people, within fifteen minutes, all complete a round trip on the track, and that counts as a game victory."

"A round trip?" Qiao Jiajin looked at the thick ice track and swallowed, "Will you give us ice skates?"

"Ice skates...?" Di Ma smiled slightly, and everyone noticed she seemed to have applied lipstick on her black lips, looking a bit strange, "Don't think about ice skates; I'll give you something else, which is much better than the Westerners' ice skates."

"What...?" Qiao Jiajin lifted his foot and looked at his old leather shoes, feeling that this was going to be difficult.

Di Ma paused, then reached out and pulled open the curtain beside her, revealing the wooden structure that had been covered: it was a strange handcart.

This handcart looked no different from an ordinary one, but there was a chair on the cart board, and this chair seemed integrated with the handcart, fixed with mortise and tenon joints.

Qiao Jiajin looked again at the wheels of the handcart, and this glance startled him.

Although like other handcarts, the wheels were in the middle, but it wasn't an ordinary wheel; it was a very smooth carved wooden sphere.

"I..." Qiao Jiajin cursed under his breath, "Di Ma, are you joking? We're supposed to push this cart with a spherical bottom on the ice?"

"Yes." Di Ma said, "Not only on the ice, but you have to come back before time runs out, otherwise everyone dies."

"Do you think I haven't pushed a handcart before?" Qiao Jiajin felt the game was absurd, "Even with ordinary wheels, it's not certain to move smoothly on this ice, let alone a ball..."

"So that's why you need people to push." Di Ma said, "Sounds reasonable, right?"