Day of Imprisonment

"You're also taking a gamble!" the bespectacled man said at this moment. Before formally uttering an idiom, it was necessary to create some misdirection, because the first idiom was crucial: "A very important aspect of this game is the number of idioms that can be formed from the thirty-six characters you find. It's like two people shooting at each other; the more ammunition you have, the more confident you are. But choosing rare characters like you do means you can form very few idioms. Once someone connects to it, you lose the possibility of retaliation. You're a very extreme person."

Luo Xi seemed to completely ignore what the other person said. He stared at the bespectacled man expressionlessly and said directly, "You're afraid!"

Not a question, but a statement.

The bespectacled man sneered, "I was just amused by you and said a few extra words. I didn't expect you to be such a dull person after all."

He knew that he had encountered a real expert this time.

This expressionless young man had completely seen through his thoughts and the core of this game.

What the other party said just now was all correct.

At this point, there was no point in continuing to mislead.

On the contrary, it would seem very poor.

So the bespectacled man laughed and said, "No matter what you say, this game must be played. And the current situation is that I know the character molds you have obtained, and I also know the idioms you can form. But you don't know my character molds. To you, my side is opaque, unknown. I can even tell you very clearly that the character molds you chose are very ordinary. Among the thirty-six characters, you can only form three idioms. And I can be sure that I can connect to two of these three. And you will definitely not be able to connect to any idiom formed by my thirty-six characters, even the most common one. So, do you understand?"

Luo Xi nodded, "I understand. Three choices, if I choose the one you can't connect to, I win; if I choose wrong, and you connect to it, I lose!"

"Good that you know. So, what will you choose? You should know that with three choices, you only have a one-third chance of winning, while I have two-thirds!" The bespectacled man continued to put psychological pressure on his opponent.

What he wanted was to make the other party 'hesitate' in a seemingly open situation, to be concerned about gains and losses. Only in this way could he interfere with the other party's original thinking and tilt the balance of victory towards his side.

"Choose?" Luo Xi looked at the first character mold that had been placed in the groove and said, "I've already chosen."

At this moment, the character on the front of the character mold in the wall groove was '如' (rú - as, like).

"It's good that you've chosen. Three choices, it's simple and difficult at the same time," the bespectacled man smiled noncommittally.

It was impossible to judge the other party's true thoughts from their actions, expressions, and words.

Qiu Kui, as an observer, was very certain of this.

She had been observing Luo Xi and the bespectacled man, and she had even regarded the current scene as a sample for psychology and micro-expression observation.

These two people had different styles.

Completely different.

Luo Xi was like a secluded lake or a silent sea.

Without any ripples or undulations, he was as quiet as a 'dead man'. In this case, no matter how powerful a micro-expression master or psychology expert was, they could not peek out the hidden things from a 'dead sea'.

Luo Xi was also like an abyss.

No matter who stared into this abyss, they could not obtain what they wanted. On the contrary, they would feel fear, because if they were not careful, they would fall into the abyss. Moreover, you could not see the things under the abyss, but the things below could see you.

This was the most terrifying thing.

As for the bespectacled man, he could be described as an 'old hand'.

He was the kind of person whose emotions were not controlled by the heart. The same expression and language could derive many different, even completely conflicting things, making people unpredictable.

He was like a loach hiding in a mud pond, slippery and hard to catch.

Just when you thought you had caught it, it could always escape in an unexpected way.

Neither of these two people was easy to deal with.

Having watched until now, Qiu Kui was actually unable to determine, given that both of them had already chosen their character molds, whose chances of winning were greater.

But the only thing she could be sure of was that what the bespectacled man had said earlier was true: Luo Xi's choice of thirty-six characters could indeed only be pieced together into a maximum of three idioms, which was a very small number. Once the bespectacled man connected to the first one, then Luo Xi could be said to have lost.

The bespectacled man definitely did not lie about this.

He was telling the truth.

From Qiu Kui's side observation, this was also the case.

Now Luo Xi had already placed the first character '如' (rú - as, like) on the wall, but according to the rules, as long as an idiom had not been formed, there was still a chance to regret it.

Would Luo Xi regret it?

Or rather, did the bespectacled man want Luo Xi to continue, or to change?

At this moment, Qiu Kui was fully focused on this game.

Luo Xi's response was to put on the second character mold.

It seemed that he had no intention of changing the idiom combination.

The second character was '鲠' (gěng - fish bone, to be obstructed).

There was no doubt that this character belonged to one that was rarely used in idioms, so the idiom that Luo Xi was going to form was already on the verge of being revealed.

The bespectacled man over there had already said, "如鲠在喉 (rú gěng zài hóu - like a fish bone stuck in the throat), this idiom is very difficult to connect to."

He only said this sentence, without saying more, and still could not see any thoughts.

From the words alone, he seemed very distressed, saying that this idiom was difficult to connect to.

But this could also be understood as being confident.

The key was still to see whether Luo Xi was going to insist on using this idiom as the 'leader'.

The result was that Luo Xi did not hesitate at all. He had already placed the third and fourth characters into the grooves on the wall respectively.

如鲠在喉 (rú gěng zài hóu)!

That was indeed the idiom.

"It's your turn to connect!"