A rainfall

As Qi Xia struggled to turn the table, he explained, "The positions of Ningxia and Shandong form a horizontal line."

"Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, and Yunnan create a downward stroke ('撇')."

"Meanwhile, the four points—Guangxi, Guangdong, Shaanxi, and Jiangsu—form a square. Together, they shape the character '右' (right)."

"And no matter which province Han Yimo's hometown belongs to—Guangxi or Taiwan—it would always complete the shape of the character '口' (mouth). So the answer was set from the very beginning."

As everyone quickened their pace, their expressions turned strange.

Qi Xia's reasoning was too unconventional—yet he had cracked two puzzles in a row. This made the others start to doubt him.

Qi Xia was well aware of this, so he said, "Don't get the wrong idea. If the next game forces me to abandon all of you to survive, I wouldn't hesitate to save myself."

Hearing this, the group fell silent. They clenched their teeth and continued turning the table with all their strength.

Nine people sat around the table, pushing it to the right over and over again.

"How many turns now?" Qiao Jiajin asked.

"Twenty-six turns," Lin Qin answered.

"You can keep track of that?" Qiao Jiajin blinked in surprise. "This table looks the same no matter how much we turn it."

"I'm counting using the bloodstain on the table," Lin Qin said seriously. "Keeping track of numbers is important for us psychologists."

Qi Xia frowned. "Not even thirty yet—we need to hurry."

The group fell silent and sped up their movements.

However, the table became harder and harder to turn, as if the internal chains were tightening.

"Damn it, what's going on?" Qiao Jiajin gritted his teeth. "This thing is getting way too heavy."

"Keep going… Maybe it really is connected to the door!" Tiantian said, grimacing.

Her words gave everyone a glimmer of hope amidst their despair.

The door.

If this room could make holes appear out of nowhere, why couldn't it create a door the same way?

Everyone's arms were sore, but they kept pushing, turn after turn.

"Don't give up! Only five more turns left!" Lin Qin shouted.

Everyone clenched their teeth and pushed with all their strength, not daring to slow down.

"Clack... Clack..."

As the final turn was completed, the table locked into place, as if it had slotted into something.

At last, the group let out a sigh of relief, the aching in their arms creeping up all at once.

Only three minutes remained until 1:15.

"Where's the door?!" Qiao Jiajin shouted anxiously.

The walls remained unchanged, and in the pitch-black void, the cold gleam of the harpoons was still visible.

"Damn it! There's no door!" His voice carried a hint of despair.

"We were wrong! We guessed wrong!" Xiao Ran shrieked. "It was supposed to be the left, wasn't it?! We shouldn't have trusted that liar! We're all going to die here!!"

Qi Xia frowned slightly.

Wrong?

Before anyone could react, the clock at the center of the table suddenly trembled.

Then, eight beams of laser light shot out from it.

The beams extended outward from the clock, slowly moving toward the edges of the table before stopping.

Under everyone's bewildered gaze, the clock precisely divided the table into equal, pizza-like slices.

"Crash!"

With a loud bang, the table shattered into pieces.

At the center, the clock now stood alone on a small wooden stump.

Qi Xia took a closer look—there were nine small triangular pieces and one larger one.

No, rather than "fan-shaped," they were more like triangles, as each piece had a flat base.

Time was running out, and the group scrambled in confusion.

"What the hell is this?!" Han Yimo cried out. "Why did the table break?!"

At that moment, Officer Li noticed a handle on the back of each triangular piece.

His years of experience instantly made him realize the truth.

"They're shields!"

He grabbed the largest piece and held it in front of him.

"We can use these shields to block the harpoons!"

Hearing this, everyone hurriedly picked up a piece of the broken table. Unfortunately, there was only one large piece—the rest were small triangles, barely big enough to cover their torsos.

But within seconds, the group realized the real problem.

"How are we supposed to block them?!" Lawyer Zhang Chenze, usually calm, now showed a rare hint of panic. "If harpoons come from all directions, we can only block one side at a time!"

"We need to work together," Qi Xia snapped back to attention and said. "Form a circle and cover each other's backs."

The group quickly adjusted their positions, standing shoulder to shoulder.

Now, the room was so silent that they could hear nothing but each other's breathing.

Nine complete strangers had now become a single team, where not even one person could be missing.

Qi Xia glanced at Han Yimo and noticed that his face was covered in sweat, his whole body trembling. He looked utterly terrified.

In the distance, outside the room, a clock chime echoed once more.

"Are you okay?" Qi Xia asked.

"I-I'm fine..." Han Yimo shook his head.

Suddenly, Zhang Chenze shouted, "Hey! Dr. Zhao, flip your shield over!"

"Why?" Dr. Zhao looked down at his shield. He had been holding it with the pointed end down and the wide end up.

"That way, you won't be able to block my legs!" Zhang Chenze said, his voice tense. "I'll get hit!"

"If I flip it, I won't be able to protect my head!" Dr. Zhao retorted. "What's more important, your legs or my head?"

Hearing their argument, some of the others hesitated—then started flipping their shields as well, thinking Dr. Zhao might have a point.

With the pointed ends down and the wide ends up, a strange situation unfolded.

Now, the incoming harpoons from all directions would only be blocked in the upper half, leaving everyone's legs exposed.

"Is this really the right way?" Xiao Ran hesitated. "Even if we hide our legs behind the pointed ends and block the front, what about the harpoons coming from behind? Or the ones coming from above?"

"I'll cover the top!" Officer Li raised his large shield high. "Everyone, get closer together—I'll protect you!"

It seemed like the best possible solution. The largest shield would be held up to block attacks from above, while the others covered the sides.

But Qi Xia still felt something was off.

Lin Qin quickly thought it through and suggested, "Let's stagger our shields—one person holds high, the next holds low!"

"Yes! That makes sense!" Qiao Jiajin agreed.

"No."

Qi Xia cut them off.

"If everyone's shields are positioned completely perpendicular to the harpoons, they'll be too easy to pierce through."

"Alright, genius, then what's your plan?" Qiao Jiajin challenged.

Qi Xia's eyes landed on the sheepskin mask lying on the floor.

"Why isn't bamboo shoot afraid of rain?"

The final hint made Qi Xia pause in thought.

"Wait, wait… Give me a little more time." He frowned.

Everyone held their breath as the seconds ticked away—only one minute left until the harpoons fired.

"Forget about him!" Dr. Zhao snapped. "Let's just follow Lin Qin's plan and stagger our shields!"

"Shut it, you sausage!" Qiao Jiajin roared back. "I trust the liar!"

"You—!" Dr. Zhao clenched his teeth but swallowed his words.

What did the big and small shields mean...?

"No… something's wrong…" Qi Xia's eyes suddenly widened. "It's a 'lie'! The big shield will get us killed!"

"What?" Officer Li looked at him in confusion.

"Officer, throw away the big shield! Take the last small one instead! Everyone—pointed end up!"

Though hesitant, most people's minds had gone blank from panic. They could only follow orders.

After a brief moment of thought, Dr. Zhao also flipped his shield around.

Officer Li hesitated for a few seconds—but in the end, he grabbed the last small shield.

"Everyone, get down!" Qi Xia continued. "Tilt the pointed ends back—press them together! Officer Li, you don't need to block the top anymore. Join us!"

Under Qi Xia's command, the group carefully aligned their triangular shields, slowly forming a cone shape.

No one had expected that after discarding the large shield, all the small ones would fit together seamlessly, creating a pyramid-like structure that covered them from all sides—including the top.

From a distance, the cone resembled a bamboo shoot, bracing itself for an oncoming storm.

In the pitch-black room, their hearts pounded wildly, the only sound echoing between them their nervous breathing.

"It's coming..."

Qi Xia mentally counted the seconds before whispering a warning.

The next instant, a sharp gust of wind tore through the air. A nearly invisible object slammed into Qi Xia's shield with brutal force.

Then, from all directions, came the sound of relentless impacts—like a torrential downpour.

The harpoons struck with terrifying power, sending painful tremors up their arms. Some felt their fingers slipping, barely able to keep hold of their shields.

But because all their shields were pressed together, the structure held firm, achieving a delicate balance.

"Ah!"

Xiao Ran let out a scream—a harpoon had pierced through her shield.

Qi Xia turned around and saw that the harpoon had stopped just two or three centimeters away from Xiao Ran's eye.

Fortunately, the shield was hard enough; otherwise, Xiao Ran would have already been dead.