Chapter 1096 - 1068: The Battle of Wits Begins
Qian felt that she should treat Qiao Zhen and his wife to a meal when she returned; it was doable and considerate since they hadn’t forgotten to prevent other women’s eyes from indulging in Xiaoqiang’s ice cream at such a critical moment.
Yu Minglang resigned himself to continue undressing.
He stripped down to the last piece.
"Can you see it now? There’s no way he could hide any weapons on him anymore. I guess next you’re thinking of having him unload the revolver and hand over the single bullet, aren’t you?" Qian noted that Yu Minglang had stripped down enough and continued to speak.
"Exactly!"
The opposing voice clearly lacked the previous steadiness. So much of what Qian said was exactly what he was thinking, which inevitably shook the bad guy’s original confidence.
Yu Minglang stripped down enough, unloaded all the bullets, and left just one, which he stuffed through the modified peephole.
He was now a man without weapons.
Yu Minglang glanced at Qian, who signaled with her eyes that everything was under control. Actually, while the others were unawares, the pair had moved to the back, transferring Yu Minglang’s gun to Qian. Qian anticipated they would have Yu Minglang undress, so she took charge by shifting the weapon onto herself and revealing the villain’s plan ahead, catching the bad guy in shock, who then forgot to search Qian.
Psychological warfare lies in every minute detail, and indeed, the villain followed Qian’s script.
Shuffling sounds came from inside, likely the bad guy retrieving the bullet; a minute or so later, the door opened.
Yu Minglang and Qian walked in. It wasn’t as dim as expected; lights illuminated the small compartment brightly, about 20 square meters, entirely open-plan. The villain sat against the wall on a sofa in the far end, facing multiple monitors displaying outside surveillance from various angles.
The air was thick with the scent of lily blossoms past their prime, subtly mixed with a trace of blood—a disquieting sight in an otherwise bright, clean room.
A woman nailed to the wall was none other than Wang Xiaohong. She’d been changed into white traditional attire, now stained red with blood, resembling white fabric adorned with red flowers. Her body bore multiple wounds, blooming into eerie flowers, her arms spread open like a butterfly pinned to the wall, dying.
Qian had studied this villain; he had read many foreign books on violent crime. This scene was likely mimicking a classic plot. After witnessing it firsthand, her stomach churned; normal people would find the sight terribly uncomfortable, and Qian was glad she was still considered normal.
"Welcome, the most beautiful woman in my heart." The villain pressed a button, and the door closed automatically. He had transformed this place into a one-way, yet impenetrable, private space.
Yu Minglang stood in front of Qian, shielding her from the villain’s serpentine gaze; he disliked how the lunatic stared at Qian.
Qian didn’t like it either; last time at the detention center, there’d been a layer of glass between them. Now, with the glass removed, it felt like being thrown into a wolf’s den, but fortunately, Yu Minglang was there as her bodyguard.
"Save me! Brother, save me!" Wang Xiaohong was tortured into incoherence, barely recognizing the couple who had entered as Yu Minglang and Qian, desperately straining her voice for help.
"Shut up! Do you want more ant bites?" The villain, irked by the noise, casually blurted this out. Wang Xiaohong dared not speak again; this demon was too terrifying, his torturous methods truly abhorrent.
"I don’t want to waste words with you. Come on, let’s dive into our death game. The gun is here; if you agree to my rules, we’ll start directly."
"Isn’t the one holding the upper hand now me?" The villain was obsessed with Qian; for the first time, he saw such a calm woman. Even with Wang Xiaohong’s ghastly hanging on the wall, Chen Xiaoqian showed no sign of emotional fluctuation, which he found incredibly exciting and captivating.
Why hadn’t he met her earlier? The woman Qio Yu Xuan had painstakingly hidden indeed had her unique allure.
"For a person who’s given up life and only wants to drag a couple more down with him, you should indeed hold the upper hand. But, unfortunately, you still have to follow my rules. Don’t you think playing merely a game of death roulette is boring? Although such a game is thrilling, anyone can play it. It lacks excitement. You fancy yourself as having unmatched intelligence, so why not engage in a special feast?"
Qian knew that for this lunatic, the only thing that could sway his emotions now was stimulation and challenge.
"Oh? How do you plan to excite me?"
"We each write a set of test questions and exchange them. I’ll answer your test, and you answer mine, finally comparing who scores higher. If you score higher, I’ll fire the gun and you don’t. If I score higher, you fire the gun and I don’t, and the second round follows the same rule. Self-proclaimed as possessing unparalleled intelligence, do you dare gamble your IQ against me?"
"You woman, if I agree to compare, but you write a bunch of things related to your profession that I can’t answer, wouldn’t I lose? Furthermore, if we answer, but you don’t admit my correct responses, what then?"
"What you can think of, I can naturally think of too. We set a scope, only asking questions related to life, and when writing the questions, we write the answers on another sheet. You and I both submit our answers to my husband. We answer one question, my husband reads the answer of that question, a total of ten questions. No one can shirk, this way is the fairest. What do you think?"
The villain clearly didn’t believe he’d be stumped by a woman, coupled with a strong interest in the rules, thus decisively agreeing.
Yu Minglang, while sweating for Qian, also admired her strategic maneuvering.
No wonder she mentioned her 100% certainty that the gun wouldn’t end up in her hands when she entered.
The villain only knew Qian was a psychologist, but he didn’t know the depth of her professional prowess. She realized using verbal prowess couldn’t persuade him anymore, so she racked her brains, even using the idea of a death bet as a gimmick to fool him.
Thinking further, the rule itself had flaws. Normally, a death roulette involves one person firing, then the other. But Qian’s rule was that the one with the lower score fires, and the one with the higher doesn’t.
This was purely an IQ showdown between them, a battle of wits.
Qian must have been 100% certain of defeating him, not firing a shot herself. Therefore, she claimed playing this death roulette was not a one-sixth chance of dying but a 100% guarantee of safety.