Pig's Fate

"You're fucking crazy..." Old Lu was so frightened he nearly lost his footing.

"Is winning ten 'ways' from you such a big deal that you have to play it this big?"

"You think I want to be a pig in this godforsaken place, living every day by luck?"

The Pig-Man reached out and touched the pig snout on his mask. Although the mask had no expression, it always gave people a twisted feeling.

"You don't understand me... Only by 'gambling with life'... Only by gambling with formidable characters does life here have meaning."

The Pig-Man's eyes gave Qi Xia a feeling that he had always been playing the role of a pig, waiting for the day he could devour a tiger.

"Truly crazy..." Old Lu looked at Qi Xia with some difficulty.

The Pig-Man, who was pointed out to, wanted to gamble with him, and it was too late to run away now.

"Pig-Man, let's change the way we play," Qi Xia said after pondering for a moment.

"I'll stay here and gamble with you. I don't need the help of these two."

"Hey?" Old Lu and Lin Qin were both taken aback.

"What are you doing, kid?" Old Lu was stunned, "I brought you into this game. What does it mean for you to stay and gamble with your life?"

Qi Xia looked at Old Lu, realizing he had been somewhat prejudiced against him before, but unexpectedly, Old Lu was quite reliable at critical moments.

"Uncle," Qi Xia said, "The more people who stay, the more dangerous it is. If I die, you take my friend to find that man and woman."

"No way, I won't leave," Lin shook his head, "Qi Xia, have you forgotten what I told you?"

"I'm not leaving either," Old Lu shook his head, "Kid, the Pig-Man is pointing at you. By rights, the girl and I should be safe... But don't worry, if you die, I'll personally take care of your funeral."

Qi Xia scratched his head helplessly. Although his opinion of Old Lu had changed a bit, his way of speaking was still unpleasant.

"It sounds really inauspicious... Since that's the case, I won't persuade you anymore," Qi Xia sighed, looked up at the Pig-Man, and asked, "You said there's a new way to play, what is it?"

The Pig-Man's excitement returned, and he pushed two pairs of glasses towards them:

"Come on, put them on! Put them on!"

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Qin and Old Lu put on the glasses.

The next second, the ends of the glasses' temples extended two mechanical arms, wrapped around the back of their heads, and snapped together at the ends.

Lin Qin felt something was wrong. She wanted to take off the glasses but found that the small glasses had a complex mechanism, and at the moment, they were tightly fitted on her head like a headband.

"What's going on..." Lin was about to speak when the Pig-Man interrupted her.

"Beauty, don't speak casually," the Pig-Man said with a smile, "Now, only by following my rules will you be safe."

"Rules..."

"Now, your glasses have started to 'take effect'," the Pig-Man explained, "One of you will feel the glasses are a bit cold, and the other will feel the glasses are a bit hot. In the time that follows, the person who feels the glasses are cold is only allowed to tell lies. And the person who feels the glasses are hot is only allowed to tell the truth."

Qi Xia had an ominous premonition; this game mode seemed familiar.

"If you want to play any tricks, or if you speak before the game starts..."

The Pig-Man pointed to his own forehead, "You will be pierced here, understood?"

After hearing this, Lin immediately closed her mouth.

Because she realized that there seemed to be some mechanism at the position between her eyebrows, and the inside of the glasses was wound up like a spring, possibly a bowstring or an energy element.

Old Lu's face turned pale and purple, knowing that "the more you say, the more mistakes you make," and he might trigger the mechanism with any single sentence.

Seeing the two fall silent, the Pig-Man turned his head and looked at Qi Xia, saying:

"And the game I'm going to play with you has the same general rules as last time, but this time... I'll be the one to distribute."

"You distribute?" Qi Xia glanced at the pieces on the table and thought for a moment, "After you distribute... then I choose?"

"Right," the Pig-Man nodded, "Doesn't that sound unfair to you?"

"Of course, it's unfair," although he said this, Qi Xia knew that the 'rules' were not over yet, after all, the rules about 'truth' and 'lies' had not yet come into play.

"So, out of great kindness, I'll add one more rule for you..." The Pig-Man chuckled, "After you've made your selection, you need to ask these two for color confirmation. But no matter who you choose, you can only ask once in total."

Then he raised his head and said to Lin Qin and Old Lu, "To ensure fairness, the two of you can only answer with 'black' and 'white', is there any problem?"

The two nodded with a look of panic on their faces.

Qi Xia seemed to understand that the rule was absurd.

Now he couldn't tell who between Lin and Old Lu would tell the truth, and asking would make the situation even more complicated.

"Watch Theory..." Qi Xia closed his eyes and murmured to himself, "When a person has only two watches with different times, they cannot trust either..."

"Are you ready, Qi Xia?" the Pig-Man asked.

Qi Xia took a deep breath, raised his head, and looked at the Pig-Man: "The same question I'd like to ask you, this is a battle for life and death, are you ready?"

"Life? Hehehe..." The Pig-Man chuckled, and soon he was shaking with laughter, "The way we live here, where is there a life to speak of... It's only when we're 'dead' that I can feel like I've truly lived."

Qi Xia nodded, knowing that the Pig-Man seemed to have been living here for a long time, and ordinary thinking could not convince him.

So Qi Xia reached out, put on the eye patch, and the Pig-Man silently began to distribute the pieces.

Lin Qin and Old Lu watched the two of them, who were calm and composed, seemingly the main characters gambling with their lives, but both remained calm as if they didn't care about what was going to happen next.

On the contrary, Lin and Old Lu were so nervous that their legs were shaking.

"Do you want to get out?" Qi Xia suddenly asked.

"What?" The Pig-Man didn't even lift his head and said casually.

"Aside from dying here, have you ever thought of escaping?"

The Pig-Man's hand paused in mid-air for a moment and replied, "Escape where?"

"Go back where you came from," Qi Xia said earnestly, even though he was wearing an eye patch, "Don't you want to go back?"

The Pig-Man thought for a moment and said, "If I didn't want to go back, how could I be willing to become a 'pig'?"

"What?" Qi Xia felt like he had just learned an important clue.

"But I don't plan to 'escape', Qi Xia," the Pig-Man said as he placed all the pieces, and then said solemnly, "I'm planning to walk out of here with honor."