Card Room

Chapter 95 - Liuxi Village

Yu Hanjiang touched the 4 of Spades playing card and there was a familiar dark vortex. The two men were sucked into the 4 of Spades world and Xiao Lou endured the vertigo caused by space conversion.

This place was surrounded by mountains and vegetation. Both sides of the road contained lush greenery and it was like a quiet paradise.

There was a small mountain village not far away. It was dusk and the golden sunset seemed to place a small veil over the entire village. A clear stream was flowing around the village and blue smoke rose in the distance. The strong aroma of food filled the air. Someone unknown was cooking pork with green peppers. The spicy scent of green peppers and the scent of pork mixed together and drifted from afar, arousing Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang’s appetite.

It had clearly been morning when they cleared 4 of Diamonds just now but in the world of A of Spades, it was dusk.

The time flow rate of the secret room was controlled by the keeper. It was the same when they went to 3 of Spades last time. It suddenly changed from dusk to morning. They were used to the confusion of different times in secret worlds so they weren’t affected by the time difference.

What world did A of Spades throw them in this time? It looked like a little village in the wild mountains? The two men were wondering about this when the floating boxes about their heads filled with the familiar text cues.

[Welcome Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang to the 4 of Spades secret room, Liuxi Village!]

It is home to the clearest stream in the world and the entire village is surrounded by three streams, so it is named Liuxi Village (Flowing Creek Village).

This is a small isolated village. It is said that due to genetic reasons, the babies of the village are born blind. Their world is dark and they can’t see any light. They think it is normal for all humans to be in darkness like them.

The sun setting or summer, spring, autumn and winter have no difference in their eyes.

In the dark world, they have their own standards to judge time. Every day when the rooster crows, they will get up in a group and turn the hourglass in the middle of the village upside down. Once the sand in the hourglass runs out, they know it is dark and everyone will go to bed on time.

The villagers’ lives are simple, regular and idle.

It wasn’t until one day, there was a genetic mutation in the village and a child could see the light.

The child found out that this world was actually so colourful.

However, Liuxi Village is too remote. There are no roads or railways. Only helicopters can fly into the mountains. Even if the child could see, there is no way to go to the outside world.

They had to stay in the village and live like a blind person with their friends and family.

You don’t know who this person is hiding in the crowd but once they find you, they will immediately unite with the other villagers to drive you out. Liuxi Village is extremely reclusive and doesn’t allow outsiders to disturb the quiet of the village.

Outside the village is a continuous wildness. There are wild animals, poisonous snakes and birds of prey, making hard for people who leave the village to survive.

Asking challengers to live in Liuxi Village for seven days and try not to be kicked out of the village.

During this survival period, it is forbidden to kill villagers. Challengers who kill villagers are directly judged to have failed.

Every challenger will receive the negative effect of ‘blinding’ randomly for three hours every day. Try to act with your partner so you don’t fall into the lake and drown when you can’t see.

It is said that Liuxi Village is home to seven precious stones. After seven days, any team that has found a stone is judged to have cleared the instance. The team that can’t find one will be expelled from the village.

Friendly tip: The hearing and smell of the blind are usually extremely sensitive.

Good luck.]

***

Xiao Lou had been looking at Yu Hanjiang and just wanted to speak when the prompt appeared. He immediately looked around and found no one. He leaned close to Yu Hanjiang and whispered, “This village is full of blind people but there is a genetic variation in one of them and they can see. If we are discovered, we will be expelled from the village. Is that what it means?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded and concluded, “For seven days, we have to avoid the villagers and find a gem. Finding one will allow us to clear the instance.”

Xiao Lou looked up at the mountain village not far away. “I think that it won’t be as simple as hiding from the villagers and looking for the gems. It is likely that there will be other things within seven days.”

In the 3 of Spades Financial Crisis, all challengers were issued 100,000 coins. As long as the challengers could obtain enough supplies to not starve to death, they could smoothly clear the instance. This looked very simple.

Who would’ve thought that the challengers were living in a place that robbed and killed its guests? The owner and free man worked together and nearly killed the challengers.

This time, 4 of Spades was definitely more difficult than 3 of Spades.

First, they didn’t know if the person with the genetic mutation was male or female, old or young. This person mixed in with the villagers and had grown up with blind relatives and friends. Their ability to camouflage was absolutely first class.

Since they didn’t know the identity, the challengers needed to avoid all villagers, increasing the difficulty. Once found, they would be evicted from the village.

Outside the village contained countless beasts and poisonous snakes. The result of being driven out was to become food in the belly of the beast. Even more so, challengers would randomly become blind every three hours What if an accident occurred at this time? In addition, what if a challenger found a gem? If challengers couldn’t find anything after a few days, would they steal gems from other people?

In the last few days, infighting was likely to take place as challengers tried to clear the instance. They couldn’t rule out the possibility of some challengers being able to clear the instance so they would ruthlessly drag others down with them, resulting in the challenger group’s destruction.

Challengers could unite in Financial Crisis but this secret room had too many restrictions. The more people there were, the greater the movements and the easier it was to be found. Therefore, it wasn’t advisable to join hands for the moment. Once a pig teammate exposed their whereabouts, it was likely to cause the challengers to die.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other.

Yu Hanjiang whispered, “Advance to the village to see.”

They walked side by side. They hadn’t taken a few steps when they saw a clear dividing line. Next to the boundary was a stone monument with the words ‘Liuxi Village’ engraved on them. This was obviously the village boundary.

It was dusk and the villagers were busy. Women picked vegetables from gardens in groups of two or three to prepare dinner. The men went to the fountain to carry water while children were playing in the open space. Others were walking their dogs through the village.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang hid behind trees far away. The blind villagers looked like ordinary people and their eyes were clearer than most people, as if they had been washed by a stream.

There was a genetic reason behind not being able to see. It was just a pity they had such beautiful eyes. Since they were blind from an early age, they developed a strong sense of hearing and smell and there was also their familiarity with the village’s roads, houses and other villagers. Young people didn’t walk slowly or even need a walking stick. Only some old people with grey hair walked with sticks and slowly explored the road.

Many old people had huge and strong dogs that were nearly a metre tall...

Xiao Lou met the eyes of a dog and hurriedly ducked to hide behind a tree. He saw a big dog and was scared his voice would be heard, so he crouched down and used a branch on the ground to quickly write, “This dog looks fierce. Group Leader Yu, is it familiar to you?”

Yu Hanjiang quickly wrote, “It is a Tibetan mastiff. They were one of the most ferocious dogs and their territorial awareness is very strong. In the territory of strangers, they will show a strong hostility. They have a good attack, supple body and sharp teeth capable of biting off a human neck. It is forbidden to raise such fierce beasts in the city so Professor Xiao has probably never seen them before.”

Xiao Lou was frightened. “I haven’t seen them but I’ve heard of them before. How can there be such ferocious dogs in this village?”

“They might be fierce but they have the characteristic of being very loyal to their master. Tibetan mastiffs have a strong sense of protection and protect their territory, food and belongings. If Liuxi Village is their territory then us outsiders will be enemies.”

Xiao Lou secretly looked out from behind the tree at the majestic figure of the Tibetan mastiff in the distance. If he was knocked down by the Tibetan mastiff then he probably wouldn’t be able to resist. Xiao Lou suddenly had a splitting headache. “It seems that we have to avoid the villagers as well as the big dogs.”

Yu Hanjiang frowned. “Once it gets dark and the villagers are asleep, let’s do it again.”

Xiao Lou nodded. This was the only way.

Not far away, a woman holding a basket of vegetables and a man carrying water almost ran into each other. Then they seemed to sense the same thing when they got close to each other. The woman stopped and asked with a smile, “Brother Qin, are you going to fetch water?”

The man replied, “Yes, we ran out of water at home. Your family’s Niuniu is feeling better?”

The woman sighed helplessly. “She was caught in the rain a few days ago and has a low fever. I’m planning to take her to Grandma Sun after dinner. She has been in poor health since she was a child.”

The man said, “You can’t be careless. Hurry and bring her to Grandma Sun as fast as possible for a prescription.”

“I know. I will go home first. Say hello to your wife for me.”

The two people parted on the road and went home.

The dialogue between the man and woman made Xiao Lou feel it was very magical. He quickly wrote on the ground, “Their eyes can’t see but they can distinguish each other when passing by. It is so powerful.”

Yu Hanjiang also grabbed a branch to write. “They were blind since birth and are accustomed to the darkness of the world. Their keen hearing allows them to distinguish everyone’s footsteps and their keen sense of smell lets them smell everyone. They are very familiar with the village’s roads, buildings and even small animals. It is too hard for us if we don’t want to be found by them.”

At first, Xiao Lou thought it would be fine to hide from the bosses who couldn’t see.

Now it seemed likely that all the villagers would discover their existence and the huge Tibetan mastiffs were a threat to everyone.

Xiao Lou pointed to the tall, wooden hourglass in the middle of an open space. “That big hourglass is used by the villagers to tell time? Once the sand runs out, it is time for them to go to bed. Then we’ll go to the village to check.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “We have to find out which homes have a Tibetan mastiff and avoid these fierce dogs.”

The two of them hid behind the tree and waited patiently for it to become dark. Just then, two men surreptitiously stuck out their heads from a tree in the west. They cleverly hid from the villagers as they walked slowly into the village.

The two of them had very soft footsteps and walked like thieves. As a result, they were only a few steps away when a black Tibetan mastiff suddenly turned back and growled in their direction. “Bark bark!

A huge dog over a metre high was staring at them. The two men’s expressions changed and they turned to run. The hunched-over old woman turned to look in their direction and spoke in a cold voice, “I seem to smell strangers... Little Black, go chase.”

She released the rope and the Tibetan mastiff started to chase the two challengers.

The other old people around them heard the movement and frowned. “Has a stranger come to the village?”

“Yes, Little Black found them,” The old lady said.

The black Tibetan mastiff was very well behaved by its master’s side and looked docile, like a well-behaved child. From time to time, it rubbed against its master’s hand. However, once chasing a stranger, it was almost as fast as a beast!

The huge black shadow moved like the wind and caught up to the two men. Seeing the ferocious black dog get closer and closer, the two boys were in a panic. They weren’t familiar with the village and ended up in a dead end alley. Then they were thrown to the ground by the Tibetan mastiff!

“Ah—Ahhh—”

There was the squeal of dying pigs from the alley.

Xiao Lou’s face was white and he couldn’t bear to look away. Yu Hanjiang’s eyes had become extraordinarily deep.

The Tibetan mastiff soon came out with clothing fragments and bloody flesh. The hunched-over old lady came over to smell it and spoke coldly, “Indeed, strangers have broken into the village. She looked to the side. “Lin San, can I trouble you to tell the village chief to have people carefully guard against outsiders. They think they can easily bully us because we are blind and it is unknown what bad things they will do!”

The young man called Lin San immediately said, “Okay Aunt Qin, I’ll go to the village chief’s house.”

The old lady led the dog out of the alley. The Tibetan mastiff barked a few times, attracting the attention of the young people nearby. They asked incredulously, “Aunt Qin, what happened?”

The old lady spoke coldly, “Someone sneaked into the village. Break their legs and throw them out.”

She turned away with this sentence, hunched over as she held the big dog.

The group of young people picked up sticks for a beating. Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang could clearly hear the sound of broken bones and the two challengers’ panicked screams...

Moments later, the two beaten and bitten men were thrown straight out of the village. Silence was restored in the village. Not far away behind a tree, two girls’ faces were white with horror, their entire bodies shaking. Xiao Lou made the ‘shh’ gesture and they immediately covered their mouths.

Yu Hanjiang wrote on the ground. “These two guys were too impatient and looked down on the blind. They alerted the village and our next actions will be more difficult.”

Xiao Lou had a headache. “They couldn’t wait for night and the villagers to sleep before entering the village? They were too anxious.”

They didn’t know the Tibetan mastiff and were bold enough to act when the old lady was walking the dog through the village. This was simply running to death.

How many challengers had come to Liuxi Village this time? Apart from the two silly people who rushed into the village to be found, the other challengers were very quiet and everyone was silently hiding.

It wasn’t until the last grain of sand fell in the hourglass and Old Lady Qin took the dog back home that the other villagers returned home.

It was dark and the village had become extraordinarily quiet. The cold moonlight spilled down, leaving a soft shadow over the small mountain village. The light of the moonlight might be dim but it was better than complete darkness.

Gradually, there were sounds from the surroundings. It was clear that the challengers were coming out.

In the moonlight, Xiao Lou saw a skinny girl. She was only around 1.5 metres and barely reached Xiao Lou’s chest. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and her actions very neat as she jumped from one tree to another tree. After several successive jumps, she jumped over the wall and climbed onto the roof of a villager’s home.

Xiao Lou only felt a dark shadow in the moonlight and instantly lost track of her.

Immediately after, Xiao Lou saw a man slipped over the ground like a reptile, his crawling posture much like a gecko. He also specifically picked shadows of the trees to crawl under and disappeared.

Yu Hanjiang whispered in Xiao Lou’s ear, “To be able to reach 4 of Spades, most challengers aren’t simple.”

Xiao Lou agreed. The two people at the opening were too strange and it was estimated that challengers of several levels were mixed up in this room. The secret room had warned that the villagers were blind but their hearing and smell were extremely sharp, yet they dared to rush into the village.

More challengers with IQ were alerted to a key message.

Once the hourglass’s sand finished, the villagers would sleep. The safest time to act was when the villagers were asleep.

Xiao Lou wanted to talk when Yu Hanjiang suddenly pointed to the front and whispered, “Look over there.”

In the front left, there was a hooded teenager and an adult man over 1.85 metres tall. They moved from one tree to another. If Xiao Lou’s eyes weren’t good then he would almost think he was hallucinating. Under the moonlight, the two men quickly crossed 50 metres and soon disappeared from Xiao Lou’s view.

Yu Hanjiang whispered, “It’s Ye Qi and Shao Qingge.”