Chapter 832: Born in Early Summer

"Tu Mi Hua..." Di She pondered for a moment, then turned to Qi Xia and said, "Qi Xia, it seems you don't know much about plants."

"Yes, I've learned a lot of knowledge, but I still can't cover everything," Qi Xia replied. "Do you know about this flower?"

"Tu Mi Hua is also written as Tu Mi Hua. It's purely white but only blooms in one specific season," Di She said. "Do you know which season that is?"

"No."

Di She sighed and said, "It doesn't fit the saying 'spring brings warm flowers,' because it blooms in chu xia and flourishes in sheng xia, but when xia fades away, this flower withers along with it."

After hearing this, Qi Xia furrowed his brow slightly: "So this flower appears and disappears along with xia?"

"Yes," Di She nodded, then walked over to the corner and started rummaging through the books.

Half a minute later, he pulled out an old higher plants atlas from the pile of worn books. The book looked poorly preserved, as if it might fall apart with a gentle shake.

He carefully opened the pages and flipped to a picture of a pristine white flower, then turned and handed it to Qi Xia.

The pages before and after this one had mostly detached, leaving only the yellowed picture precariously attached.

"Tu Mi Hua..." Qi Xia murmured softly, then took the book and examined it.

The flower appeared to be from the rose family, each bloom immaculately white with yellow stamens.

Qi Xia stared at the flower for a moment and asked quietly, "So after Tu Mi Hua blooms, does that mean autumn has arrived?"

"That's right," Di She said. "The blooming of Tu Mi Hua often signifies the end of the flowering season; no other flowers bloom after it. This flower represents 'ending' and also 'finality'."

Qi Xia nodded after listening: "Thanks to you, I've learned something new."

"But you must have noticed..." Di She said, "In this entire city, no plants can survive. The streets are full of withered dead trees and dried flowers. There's no rain, no normal sunlight, and certainly no living plants. So why did you suddenly bring up Tu Mi Hua?"

"Maybe it's precisely because all the plants here are dried up and dead," Qi Xia sighed. "That's what makes this pure white flower stand out to me."

Di She nodded and said, "Qi Xia, the flower language of Tu Mi Hua is 'mo lu zhi mei'."

As those four words entered Qi Xia's ears, a long-forgotten memory gradually surfaced in his mind.

Back then, Yan Zhi Chun had softly said to Qi Xia, "Let's use Tu Mi Hua."

"Yan Zhi Chun... 'Mo Lu Zhi Mei'..." Qi Xia slowly narrowed his eyes. "When everything has vanished completely, is there still anything beautiful left?"

"Who knows?" Di She said. "You'll have to find the answer yourself."

Qi Xia paused for a moment, then nodded to Di She, turned around, and walked out of the room.

The remaining people in the room exchanged glances. Qiao Jia Jin and Qin Ding Dong followed Qi Xia out the door, leaving only Chen Jun Nan behind.

"Old Snake," Chen Jun Nan called out.

"What?"

"What's your game?" Chen Jun Nan asked.

"My game? You want to have a go?"

"Not really," Chen Jun Nan said. "It's just that this setup doesn't seem to have any dangerous equipment. The only thing that could be used for a game is the books."

"The game does involve books," Di She said, "but I have plenty of other props here."

Di She walked to the wall and gently tapped it. A hidden compartment revealed itself, followed by a rush of foul odor.

The compartment was like a large wardrobe, filled with an array of murder weapons covered in blood and rust, emitting a nauseating smell.

"My game is called 'The Reader'," Di She said. "It works for any number of participants. I'll give them books to read aloud, and then I and the other participants will take turns asking questions about the book. If they answer correctly, they pass; if not, it's fine, they just don't get a reward."

"Is it that hard?" Chen Jun Nan asked doubtfully. "How does someone die in this game? And how do you use those murder weapons?"

"The difficulty has nothing to do with reading," Di She said. "There's a death condition that runs throughout: until I say 'game over,' no one can show any facial expressions. If they do, I'll kill them."

"Facial expressions...?" Chen Jun Nan still didn't quite understand. "Who would be laughing or smiling in a deadly game like this?"

Di She pulled a battered copy of "Jokes Compendium" from the corner and handed it to Chen Jun Nan.

Chen Jun Nan took the book and saw that it was almost falling apart from heavy use, clearly having been flipped through countless times since it arrived here.

"If you were reading this book, could you keep a straight face the whole time?" Di She asked.

Chen Jun Nan opened the book and glanced through it. It was mostly short jokes, about one or two hundred characters each, but they were all outdated and stale—nothing but cold jokes and embarrassing old gags.

"What, do people here have such low senses of humor?" Chen Jun Nan asked. "Reading this crap for too long might make me cry instead."

Chen Jun Nan closed the book and flipped it over, noticing it was published in 2001.

"You little brat, this book's my highest success rate for kills," Di She laughed. "Think about it: normally, if a book bores you, you can just stop reading. But in a life-or-death situation, even if they know it's terribly dull, they'll grit their teeth and read it through."

"That makes sense," Chen Jun Nan nodded. "But how would they show expressions? Under that kind of pressure, shouldn't they just get more and more expressionless?"

"Blame it on how cautious people are in this world," Di She said. "This book is called 'Jokes Compendium,' so even if the reader finds it unfunny, they'll worry that the next joke might be hilarious and cause them to slip up and lose their life. If you were in that situation... how would you avoid it?"

Chen Jun Nan put himself in the scenario and realized that, to read jokes under such survival pressure without showing any expression, his solution would probably be to think of something sad to counter the emotions.

Di She knew Chen Jun Nan had figured it out, so he walked over, slowly extended his hand, and said, "In moments like that, I'd just lightly pat their shoulder and tell them to 'relax'."

"You're something else..." Chen Jun Nan sighed helplessly and handed the book back to Di She.