Chapter 61: Pig's Fate

"You're fucking crazy..." Lao Lü was so scared he almost couldn't stand. "Isn't it just winning ten 'Dao' from you? Do you have to play it so big?"

"Do you think I want to live like a pig in this hellhole, relying on luck every single day?"

Ren Zhu reached out and touched the pig snout on his mask. Although the mask had no expression, it always gave off an eerie and menacing vibe.

"You don't understand me... Only by 'gambling with my life'... Only by gambling with formidable opponents does life here have any meaning."

The look in Ren Zhu's eyes gave Qi Xia the feeling that he had always been playing the pig, waiting for the day he could devour the tiger.

"Really a madman..." Lao Lü glanced at Qi Xia with some unease. Ren Zhu had specifically challenged him to a life-or-death gamble, and by now, it was too late to run.

"Ren Zhu, let's change the way we play." Qi Xia thought for a moment and said, "I'll stay here and gamble with you myself, without needing help from those two."

"Huh?" Lao Lü and Lin Geng both froze in surprise.

"Kid, what are you doing?" Lao Lü was stunned. "I was the one who dragged you into this game. What do you mean by staying here to gamble on your own?"

Qi Xia looked at Lao Lü with the same confusion, realizing he had been a bit prejudiced against him before. Unexpectedly, Lao Lü turned out to be surprisingly reliable at a critical moment.

"Uncle," Qi Xia said, "The more people who stay, the more dangerous it gets. If I die, you take my friend and go find that man and woman."

"No, I won't leave." Lin Geng shook her head. "Qi Xia, have you forgotten what I said to you?"

"The hell I'm leaving." Lao Lü shook his head. "Kid, this Ren Zhu is challenging you, so logically, this little girl and I are safe... But don't worry, if you die, I'll personally handle your burial."

Qi Xia scratched his head helplessly. Although his view of Lao Lü had improved a bit, the man still talked in such an unpleasant way.

"Sounds really unlucky... Well, if that's the case, I won't try to convince you." Qi Xia sighed and looked up at Ren Zhu. "You said there's a new way to play. What is it?"

Ren Zhu showed an excited expression again and pushed two pairs of glasses toward them. "Come on, put them on! Put them on!"

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Geng and Lao Lü put on the glasses.

The next second, mechanical arms extended from the ends of the glasses' temples, wrapping around the back of their heads with a "click," locking together seamlessly.

Lin Geng felt something was off. She tried to take the glasses off but found that the small frames had complex mechanisms, now clamped on her head like an unyielding metal band.

"What's going on..." Lin Geng started to speak, but Ren Zhu reached out and cut her off.

"Beauty, don't speak carelessly." Ren Zhu said with a smile, "From now on, you'll only be safe if you follow my rules."

"Rules..."

"Now your glasses have 'activated'," Ren Zhu explained. "One of you will feel the glasses getting cool, and the other will feel them getting warm. From here on, the one who feels them cool can only tell lies, while the one who feels them warm can only tell the truth."

Qi Xia had a bad premonition—this game mode seemed familiar.

"If you try any tricks or speak out of turn before the game starts..." Ren Zhu pointed to the spot between his eyebrows. "This place will get pierced. Got it?"

Lin Geng immediately shut her mouth.

Because she noticed something in the mechanism at her brow was triggering; the glasses' interior seemed to have a spring-loaded device, possibly a bowstring or even a laser.

Lao Lü's face turned pale and then flushed; he knew that "the more you say, the more mistakes you make," and he wasn't sure which word might set off the mechanism.

Seeing the two of them fall silent, Ren Zhu turned back to Qi Xia and said, "The game you and I are playing follows the same basic rules as last time, but this time... I'll do the assigning."

"You assign?" Qi Xia glanced at the pieces on the table and thought for a moment. "After you assign... I get to choose?"

"Correct." Ren Zhu nodded. "Doesn't that sound unfair to you?"

"Of course it's unfair." Although he said that, Qi Xia knew the "rules" weren't finished yet, especially since the parts about truth and lies hadn't come up.

"So, out of the kindness of my heart, I'm adding a rule for you..." Ren Zhu chuckled with a silly laugh. "After you finish choosing, you have to ask those two for confirmation on the colors. But no matter who you choose, you can only ask once in total."

He then looked up at Lin Geng and Lao Lü. "To keep it fair, you two can only answer with 'black' or 'white.' Any problems?"

The two nodded fearfully.

Qi Xia seemed to understand—this rule was absurd.

Now, he had no way of knowing who between Lin Geng and Lao Lü would tell the truth, and asking would only complicate things further.

"The watch theorem..." Qi Xia closed his eyes and murmured, "When you have only one watch, you know the time clearly, but when you have two watches showing different times, you can't trust either one..."

"Are you ready, Qi Xia?" Ren Zhu asked.

Qi Xia took a deep breath and looked at Ren Zhu. "I want to ask you the same thing. This is a life-or-death battle—are you ready?"

"Life? Heh heh heh..." Ren Zhu laughed with a snort, soon shaking all over. "We're living here—where's the life to speak of... Only when I'm about to 'die' do I feel like I've truly lived."

Qi Xia nodded. He knew Ren Zhu had been living here for a long time, and normal reasoning wouldn't convince him.

So, Qi Xia reached out, picked up the eye cover, and put it on.

Ren Zhu quietly began assigning the pieces.

Lin Geng and Lao Lü watched the two of them with composure, even though they were the ones gambling their lives—both seemed calm, as if they didn't care about what was coming next.

In contrast, Lin Geng and Lao Lü were so nervous their legs were shaking.

"Do you want to get out?" Qi Xia suddenly asked.

"What?" Ren Zhu didn't even look up, replying absentmindedly.

"Apart from dying here, haven't you thought about escaping?"

Ren Zhu's hand paused in mid-air for a moment. "Escape to where?"

"Go back to where you came from." Qi Xia said seriously, even with the eye cover on. "Don't you want to return?"

Ren Zhu thought for a second and said, "If I didn't want to go back, why would I have chosen to become a 'pig'?"

"What?" Qi Xia felt like he had just learned an important clue.

"But I don't plan to 'escape,' Qi Xia." Ren Zhu finished placing all the pieces and said solemnly, "I'm going to walk out of here fair and square."