The Trial Game of Life

As soon as Leng Miao saw Jin Cheng, he asked straightforwardly: “Is Scarlet out of jail?”

Jin Cheng didn’t answer immediately, but looked at K and made a ‘please’ gesture. K shrugged, stood up and leisurely walked out of the private room. Before leaving, he closed the door like a true gentleman.

“You talk slowly, if you need anything, let me know. The bar recently launched a new wine, which only costs 88 points after discount.”

A cunning businessman, as always.

Leng Miao and Rong Yi took their seats, and the conversation went straight to the point. Just before the start, Jin Cheng asked Leng Miao to put up a ‘Silence Barrier’. After all, they’d better be safe than sorry.

In the private room right next door, discovering that their voices were suddenly lost, K pursed his lips. Boring. 

He casually tapped the air twice, and a silverish-white door whose size only allowed one person to pass appeared out of thin air. A complicated labyrinth pattern was carved on the door.

K opened it and walked in, and the door automatically disappeared behind him. Entering his eyes was a silverish-white circular space, where bookcases were embedded in the walls and a staircase was spiralling around the bookcases, pointing upwards, but its top wasn’t visible. In the center of this space was a huge black chessboard.

Silverish-white lines lay across the black chessboard, with many chess pieces very delicately scattered atop the surface. If one looked carefully, each chess piece had a person’s name written on it. The silverish-white lines weren’t just simply grid lines, rather, they made up a map of the relationship between the characters.

A tatami cushion was placed on the north and south sides of the chessboard. Next to the cushion was a cup of tea that hadn’t completely cooled down, facing away.

K walked around the chessboard with a golf putter more than one meter long in his hand. Looking at all the chess pieces with interest, he stretched out the putter and placed it next to the chess piece with ‘Chong Yanzhang’ written on it. As he knocked it hard, the piece broke into pieces and disappeared.

Immediately, his gaze moved to the chess piece right above that had ‘Scarlet’ written on it, and with a light thrust of the putter, he pushed her to the middle of the chessboard.

As soon as ‘Scarlet’ moved, the entire silverish-white map started changing, and the network that used to represent ‘Heaven’s Will’ completely disintegrated. ‘Jiang He’, who was originally connected to ‘Heaven’s Will’ with a feeble ray of light, was now completely independent.

K smiled, hooked Jiang He with the putter and pulled him to another chess piece. As the two chess pieces were attracted to each other, a new line was briskly born.

That chess piece was called ‘Zheng Yingying’.

‘Zheng Yingying’ had several lines connected to ‘Xiao Tong’, ‘Tang Cuo’, ‘Chi Yan’ and ‘Meng Yufei’. With a contemplating expression, K swept his eyes over ‘Zheng Yingying’, ‘Jiang He’ and ‘Scarlet’.

“Will there be another line here, Zheng Yingying? What an interesting little girl. As for you, Jiang He, Jiang He, you go round and round, what kind of master will you choose for yourself in the end…?” He leaned on the putter and mumbled to himself.

Very quickly, his gaze turned to a chess piece that was drifting away, ‘Yu Yiyi’.

“Tossing danger to someone else’s hand?” To talk about who K couldn’t understand the most, Yu Yiyi was one of them. The man’s luck was so good that it was Heaven-defying, yet he didn’t seem to have any special background. Everything so far could only be explained by metaphysics.

Yu Yiyi got the clues to the phylactery, but he feared that he would get into trouble, so he simply passed it to Jin Cheng. Jin Cheng sold the news to K. K’s professional ethics didn’t allow him to disclose the source of information, so later, everyone would only know that the information came from K.

This danger got passed on and on, and ended up at K himself?

Unless K didn’t leak this information to outsiders, but would that be possible?

No one was stupid. Everyone had their own agenda, but would K have something to be afraid of? He was but a civil-servant player. Suddenly, the corner of his mouth arched into a smile, then he walked to the other side of the chessboard, pushed the chess piece with ‘Lin Yandong’ into Zone G to collide against ‘Xiao Tong’.

“You two, what are you plotting?”

At Zone G.

“You’ve screwed up my business today.” Warden Xiao Tong sat in a chair with his legs crossed, holding a cup of coffee in his hand. Even when he was in the deepest corridor of the prison, he still emanated his gentlemanly aura as usual.

Looking at him from across the bars was Lin Yandong, who was sitting cross-legged on a straw mat. He was dressed in linen house clothes, half of his body stained with blood, but the prayer beads in his hands weren’t stained with the mundanity of life in the slightest.

“I was also killed.” Lin Yandong put up a bitter smile.

“Mr. Lin, your words are deceptive. Scarlet has been locked up with me for more than a year, and her current level certainly isn’t enough to kill you directly.” Xiao Tong retorted.

“Am I not welcome here?”

“Speak, what do you come to find me for? I’ve emptied the entire prison for you, so I’ll specially stay here to entertain you.”

“You should know that after the dungeon four years ago, Yong Ye City has placed a lot of restrictions on me. It isn’t easy for me to come here to meet you.”

“Oh.”

“I want you to send me into a dungeon. Only inside Zone G that I face no restrictions.”

“You, the honourable Lin Yandong, need to be sent to a dungeon by me?”

“It’s a dungeon of Zone C. I’m in Zone A, so I can’t reach it. And I must go there in person.” Lin Yandong looked at Xiao Tong calmly yet firmly, with persuasive charisma between his eyebrows. But, Xiao Tong was inexplicably annoyed.

“If you ask to be sent and I do as you ask, am I your transit station?” 

As his voice fell, the atmosphere went a little stiff.

A long moment later, Lin Yandong broke the silence: “I haven’t seen you in ten years, Xiao Tong. I’m in Zone A, you’re in Zone G. Even if there’s only a wall apart, I’ve abidden by our promise that year to never see you again. Now ten years have passed, I think it’s been long enough.”

Xiao Tong suddenly laughed: “What sh*tty promise? Lin Yandong, you think you’re a real man, but you’re just an actor who comes on stage to sing. Have you forgotten how to sing after coming to Yong Ye City for so many years? You can sing a few more words to me, then I’ll please you.”

Lin Yandong’s expression suddenly turned solemn. He continued looking at Xiao Tong but didn’t say anything.

Xiao Tong laughed like a frivolous young master in ancient times, as if everything was just a plaything in his palm.

The atmosphere continued to remain a stalemate and neither of them spoke for a long time. In the end, Lin Yandong sighed and returned to his usual calmness: “I’ve forgotten.”

Xiao Tong snorted coldly but didn’t speak anymore. He stared at Lin Yandong in silence, his eyes as sharp as swords. A long while later, he finally said: “It’s not that I can’t help you. As a matter of fact, I can also give you some information — Since Jin Cheng used the [Twelve Movements] to set up the new laws, starting from the date when the movement takes effect, the murderer in Yong Ye City must be punished with the same crime as the victim, right?”

Lin Yandong gazed at him, not quite understanding what he meant.

Xiao Tong: “You said that Scarlet killed you, but only you’re here and Scarlet isn’t. She must’ve escaped the punishment by some means. I don’t know what you’re having up your sleeve, coming and leaving my prison as though it’s a guest house, but if you have time to stay here to play with a dungeon, Scarlet will have time to slaughter all your people.”

Hearing this, Lin Yandong frowned.

Xiao Tong took a sip of coffee and asked with a hint of interest: “Now, do you still want to enter the dungeon?”

On the other side, Jin Cheng explained the matters surrounding Scarlet to Leng Miao and Rong Yi clearly. Seeing that Scarlet was a target that was challenging to deal with, Jin Cheng didn’t hide any details. After all, Rong Yi and Leng Miao were also participants in the original siege of the city. Although Leng Miao didn’t directly attack Scarlet, considering Scarlet’s personality, none of the people involved in that operation could escape.

As for what Yu Yiyi revealed to him, Jin Cheng straightaway omitted his name and directly told them the clues about the phylactery.

Rong Yi frowned: “So, maybe Chong Yanzhang sided with Scarlet? He knew that Heaven’s Will had come to an end, so he took the risk and brought BS055 into the prison to create a riot. He wanted to take this opportunity to set Scarlet free, but he carelessly died in it too?”

Tang Cuo: “No, Chong Yanzhang might’ve been used by others.”

Leng Miao looked at him: “But didn’t you say that the clues to Scarlet’s phylactery were only made known to Jin Cheng, Lin Yandong, Rong Yi and Chong Yanzhang?”

Tang Cuo: “In addition to Chong Yanzhang, there are three others, aren’t there?”

Leng Miao didn’t enjoy this kind of Werewolf game. In the minds of these self-proclaimed clever people, it seemed that everyone was suspicious. Among those four people, if he was to exclude Rong Yi and Jin Cheng here, then Chong Yanzhang and Lin Yandong were the only ones left.

If it wasn’t Chong Yanzhang, was it Lin Yandong?

Lin Yandong spent a lot of effort to send Scarlet to jail, but now she was at large again. What was his motive?

“All in all, it’s necessary to find out where Lin Yandong is. If he has been successfully taken down by Scarlet’s revenge, then according to the law, both of them should be in Zone G. If that is indeed the case, then the situation isn’t too bad.” Rong Yi made a serious analysis, then continued: “We still have a chance to locate Scarlet’s phylactery and completely destroy this danger.”

Jin Cheng folded his arms: “But Zone A still has to be guarded. Most of the people who participated in the city siege were from Zone A. You and I can’t go back now, so the only person that can go back is —”

Leng Miao’s face turned black in an instant: “What are you all looking at me for?”

Tang Cuo drank the juice through the straw with a blank expression, simply watching the show.

Leng Miao really believed that Jin Cheng was evil. Twice in a row, he was inexplicably pulled onto this wicked band, and Rong Yi, his friend, even pushed him behind his back.

Who would’ve thought that just more than a month ago, Leng Miao was sent to jail by Jin Cheng after trying to fight for the [Twelve Movements]?

Rong Yi: “You have the ‘Mega Rift’ skill, and you know Scarlet better than we do.”

Leng Miao: “…”

Dear friend, do you know why your life isn’t easy?It’s because you speak too truthfully. Doctor Leng’s heart was storming, and his face was getting so cold that he didn’t even want to talk to his only friend.

Jin Cheng took over Rong Yi’s role to speak: “Remember to take good care of my Lili and 10086. The little girl is going so apesh*t that even her family doesn’t want to recognise her. If she intends to run away, immediately pull me there via your ‘Mega Rift’.” 

“It’s not my goddamn business.” Leng Miao turned him down, not holding back at all.

“Cooperation makes a win-win situation.” Jin Cheng leaned back on the back of the sofa with a smile: “Moreover, if something happens to Lily and 10086, I’ll be the next Scarlet. Are you sure you can stop me?”

Leng Miao’s black face slowly turned cold.

That was exactly how Jin Cheng was. When people refused to do things his way, he would blatantly throw intimidation at them, with such a gangster-like manner. But what he said truly made people think twice. If Jin Cheng became the next Scarlet, plus Tang Cuo, it would definitely be a hundred times more terrifying than Scarlet herself.

At this point, Rong Yi pressed on Leng Miao’s arm and looked at Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo, saying with a calm but firm tone: “You won’t.”

Jin Cheng: “Those who do big things won’t care about the small detailsThe idiom used here is ‘成大事者，不拘小节’, also metaphorically interpreted as ‘a great man shouldn’t be bound by the trivial matters of life.’. I won’t become Scarlet, why? Because I’m smarter than her. If I want to kill, I have a hundred ways to make you die, such that everyone will clap and cheer for me.”

This completely had Rong Yi lost for words. He couldn’t help looking at Tang Cuo, the righteous man among the two, but all he saw was a black cat’s face with absolutely zero righteousness on it.

Tang Cuo nodded coldly at him: “What he said is right.”

Leng Miao let out a cold snort, put his hands in the robe, got up and left.

Rong Yi hurriedly called after him: “Where are you going?”

Leng Miao didn’t look back: “Zone A.”

It seemed that he agreed.

Jin Cheng watched him leave, and when the door was closed again, he explained to Rong Yi: “It was actually a joke just now. I, Jin Cheng, am kind and nice.”

Rong Yi: “…”

Soon, Rong Yi also took his leave, for if he continued to stay with Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo, he might easily die early. When he left the Ruby Bar, he still thought to himself: Easy? Rong Yi? Rong Yi easily dies early?There’s a bit of humourous wordplay here. Since Rong Yi’s name is homophonous to 容易 (meaning ‘easy’), the sentence ‘Rong Yi easily dies early’ reads as ‘Rong Yi rongyi ying nian zao shi’, with the word ‘rong yi’ said twice in a row.

Living is really difficult.

After everyone left, Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo also got up and left. As K was nowhere to be seen when the two of them headed out, they got a tad suspicious, wondering where he went off to.

On the way back, Jin Cheng still wrapped the cage in the [Quantum Stealth Invisibility Cloak] and hugged it tightly in his chest. Not spending any energy at all, Tang Cuo nestled on the cushion comfortably, then he asked about Yu Yiyi again.

“Yu Yiyi could’ve directly sold the information to K, yet he added you in the middle. Did he want to do you a favour?”

“Pretty much.”

They were in a hurry and Jin Cheng didn’t have the time to analyse Yu Yiyi’s story from the beginning. Now that Jin Cheng carefully looked at it again, what had him most puzzled was Yan Ye.

Was it the fortune teller who took the initiative to give the information to Yu Yiyi, or did Yu Yiyi ask her?

“We inferred Scarlet’s whereabouts from the number of the black iron cage and Lin Yandong’s disappearance, but not the clues about her phylactery. When the fortune teller Yan Ye told Yu Yiyi about these clues, it was more than ten days ago. At that time, news about Scarlet only began to slowly surface, so it sounds as if the fortune teller knew that Scarlet was coming out soon. Yu Yiyi and Yan Ye, either of them must be related to Scarlet.”

Tang Cuo basically agreed with Jin Cheng’s inference. This whole messy affair, there must be someone behind it.

At this moment, Yu Yiyi was hiding with his teammate in a dark alley outside Black Hat’s Miscellaneous Store in Zone E with a lollipop in his mouth, looking out with scrutinising eyes.

“They’re coming out.” He moved back a little, watching Wen Xiaoming and Chi Yan coming out from the store’s main door. The two still exuded so much joy on their faces, talking and laughing with each other.

“Yu Er, will we follow them?” Asked the teammate.

“Hell no, those are Jin Cheng’s men, do you want to die?” Yu Yiyi smashed the lollipop between his teeth.

“Then shall we head back to Zone A?”

“That’s even worse. I looked at the Almanac Calendar黄历 [huang li], an oriental calendar that is produced based on the Lunar Calendar to indicate the good and bad of the day. today, it said ‘life-threatening bad luck’. I don’t want to go to jail.” 

“Then what shall we do?”

“We’ll try our luck in the Infinite Market of Dreams to scour for some life-saving items.”

When the teammate heard that Yu Yiyi wanted to try some luck, he immediately nodded. They had nothing to lose, and their luck was definitely not bad. After Wen Xiaoming and Chi Yan left, they swaggered out from the dark alley, and as they walked, the teammate said with exhilaration:

“This Infinite Market of Dreams seems to be really awesome. I can exchange for everything. 10086 must’ve gotten something really good, else, how can he be all smiles like that?”

“Awesome is indeed awesome, but this is also a matter of luck. How can it just simply be awesome?”

Yu Yiyi looked up at the crooked black wizard hat patterns on the signboard and squinted: “This place is a Pandora’s box.”