CHAPTER 89: CHAPTER 89: THE CONTEMPORARY PICASSO, THE LIVING QI BAISHI

Nobody could play against this bomb card for a while, so the turn went full circle and was back to Yu Xia.

The little figure representing her on the screen suddenly jumped, then a pile of coins fell from above and buried it, instantly doubling her score from nine to eighteen.

At the same time, an electronic voice chimed in cheerily, "Good."

Yu Xia chuckled happily, and the recently teasing Wei Yaoyao was now lamenting, "So it turns out this prop card was to bring you luck!"

That was supposed to be his luck!

Yu Xia squinted with a smile, "Thank you so much, this taught me a life lesson—hidden fortunes and disasters are never certain until the very end."

With that, she casually placed down her next card.

"Bra."

Xie Qingci paused briefly from drawing a card, then pushed his card out.

"Palace Guard."

"Only to see that scarlet bra hanging on the rogue who turned out to be the palace guard.

Yu Xia: "..."

So you’ve spent the last year memorizing Zhen Huan Chuan, huh.

Obviously, Little Zhipu had also been exposed to palace intrigue dramas and perhaps even enjoyed them, so the connection was quickly accepted.

It was Guan Yang’s turn.

"Slash card."

Wei Yaoyao: "Huh? What’s a slash card?"

Yu Xia leaned in to look, and the card just had the word "Slash" on it.

Alright, everyone clearly realized that the card itself didn’t matter—what’s important is how you spin it.

Guan Yang’s story was decent: "Slash is the sound of drawing a sword, swiftly unsheathing it to behead the palace guard."

Next was He Mingjie.

"Stomach."

"When their sword was drawn with a slash to slay the guard, unexpectedly his stomach, with extraordinary talent, opened its mouth wide and swallowed the sword!"

Guan Yang: "..."

Others: "..."

It seemed as if they were about to write a touching story.

Now to Pei Lu.

He was as hesitant as ever, cautiously placing a card with "Pot."

"The pot was big enough to stew a pot of pig stomach chicken, just right for this stomach."

Yu Xia nodded calmly, "Makes sense, although a palace guard with a pig stomach is rather shocking. But it’s somewhat in line with extraordinary talent, although wouldn’t this AI think humans are strange?"

Electronic voice: "This beauty wouldn’t think so."

Yu Xia looked up in shock: "..." How could this broken machine be so narcissistic too?!

Anyway, Little Zhipu passed Pei Lu’s explanation, and it was Yu Kuang’s turn.

"Work."

It’s tough to come up with a story for a card with just one character, so Yu Kuang thought and realized he was left with just one option: "Assume everyone is a fool and make up nonsense."

"’Work’ refers to industry, and what does industry need? Iron. Where did iron originally come from? Part of it came from donated iron pots."

"Then I’ll play this card, Leaf." Song Xi followed up.

Shu Ran: "What does a leaf have to do with industry?"

"No relation," Song Xi said with a smile, "but a leaf has two more strokes than ’work’."

Shu Ran was stunned, "That’s it? Such a simple reason."

Though she was asking, her hand was already drawing a card from the deck.

"Then I’ll play this, Some, with even more strokes."

Wei Yaoyao: "Sleep, with more strokes."

Yu Xia surveyed the circle, and finally, it came back to her, and with excitement restrained, she pushed down three cards.

"Cotton, Brick, Lamp."

Wei Yaoyao was still puzzled: "Yu Xia, why are you playing three cards?"

"Aren’t you sleeping? Don’t you need a blanket to sleep? A blanket is made of cotton, isn’t it? Plus, you need a brick to build a windproof and rainproof home to sleep in, right? And a lamp is also indispensable at home, as sleeping requires turning off the lights, doesn’t it?"

"But you didn’t have to play three cards!"

"You know nothing, play as much as you can; people who do big things don’t dwell on minor details."

There’s no loss if the relationship doesn’t work out.

Moreover, the electronic voice ultimately deemed her successful.

The score doubled again.

Everyone looked at her in shock, never anticipating that while they were still trying to come up with reasonable spins within the rules, she had already discovered a more powerful way to play.

Yu Xia smiled again and looked at Xie Qingci, "Sorry, little brother, I’ve set another challenge for you."

Xie Qingci nonchalantly flipped a card: "No worries, Yu Xia, I have to thank you for teaching me a new trick."

"?"

He directly pushed out all eight remaining cards.

"Night, Fire, Flower, Concubine, Analects, Noodles, Frontier."

"In the palace, because of that concubine who had an affair with the rogue, it remained noisy at night. A noble concubine was ordered to resolve this issue when unexpectedly, the concubine’s residence caught fire in the middle of the night. Although servants carried water from the lotus pond to put out the fire, it was futile. At that time, the second prince, reciting Analects in another palace, having eaten noodles as usual, was thinking about his brother fighting at the frontier, and fell asleep, unaware that a fire had destroyed a home."

"That home of yours, I’ve burned it."

Electronic voice: "Connection established, pass."

The sound of coins dropping continued for quite a while, and the score instantly surpassed Yu Xia’s.

After a while, everyone slowly raised their thumbs at him.

"You’re awesome."

"How can you make up stuff like this?"

"Never thought you were a fan of palace intrigue dramas."

Xie Qingci gave a languid fist salute, eyes full of mirth: "You’re too kind."

Yu Xia, looking at the five cards left in front of her, fell into contemplation.

Xie Qingci glanced at her expression, his smile deepening as his previously turbulent emotions settled quickly.

[Xie Qingci, well done, hahaha finished all cards in two turns]

[Yu Xia went through quite the roller coaster, hahaha]

[Xie Qingci must be cheating? Exploiting loopholes, breaking the rules!]

[Speechless, the show’s production team is obviously favoring Xie Qingci]

[Wuwuwuwu Xie Qingci and Yu Xia are kind of sweet (please don’t scold me, I’m just indulging in my own ship)]

[Little brother is not available, our little brother is focused on singing and dancing, just wanting to debut]

[Pei Lu, can’t you act like a man? Your indecision is unbearable to watch]

[Poor Song Xi, playing by the rules, doomed never to get first place]

[Song Xi seems quite interested in Yu Xia, is it just my imagination?]

[Yu Xia: My bad, taught the disciple, starved the master]

["Your home, I set it on fire", "Let me give you a new home", wawawawa what a poignant love story]

[Ladies, murder and arson are crimes]

The production team didn’t expect the loopholes they exploited, adding a rule promptly in the third round.

"This round, each player has nine blank cards. The card contents are to be created with markers. Additionally, this time you can only play one card at a time."

Yu Xia and Xie Qingci, being notably watched, touched their noses, each taking a bucket of various colored markers.

With a clean slate, she picked up a black marker, hesitantly drew a picture, and nodded in satisfaction after scrutinizing it.

Pablo Picasso of modern times, Qi Baishi reborn.

——

PS: As imagined, though this game is becoming less interesting the more it’s written, in the future, the games will be shortened based on their level of excitement. The focus will shift to the upcoming survival chase show, where Xiaxia and the little brother will spark a firework display akin to an atomic bomb explosion.