The boy with facial paralysis opened a door, and Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang, dressed in black suits and wearing masks, entered the room.
In the spacious room, nearly forty square meters in size, a long table covered with velvet sat in the center. Beside the table were five chairs. The central chair bore a black " Plum Blossom " logo, presumably the Guardian's seat. The other four chairs were numbered sequentially, with chairs 1 and 3 having red number plates and chairs 2 and 4 having blue number plates.
CEO Shao had previously told them that this escape room was a 2v2 team competition.
Xiao Lou looked up and, sure enough, saw two Challengers in the room besides himself and Yu Hanjiang.
The man and woman appear to be a couple, standing very close together, even sporting matching hairstyles—the woman with long, chestnut-colored curly hair and the man with short, chestnut-colored curly hair, resembling two teddy bear dogs come to life.
The girl was holding her boyfriend's hand intimately and whispering in his ear, showing that they had a very good relationship.
Judging from their hairstyles, they hadn't been seen in the previous escape rooms. Being matched with Plum Blossom 3 indicates that their progress is the same as Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang —they cleared the other escape rooms first before coming to Plum Blossom.
The reason they weren't encountered in Spade 3 might be that they entered another parallel universe.
Guardian said calmly, "Welcome to the Plum Blossom 3 Secret Chamber [Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter]. Don't worry, this time the Plum Blossom Secret Chamber won't force elimination of players, but you might lose all your coins."
Plum Blossom A said, "Please take your seats according to your number."
He gave each of the four people a number plate.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang received numbers 1 and 3, while the couple received numbers 2 and 4.
Plum Blossom A turned on the big screen and began explaining the game rules: "At the start of the game, each of your teams, red and blue, will be given 100,000 gold coins as initial capital."
"A deck of cards, with the jokers removed, has 52 cards left. These cards are dealt to four people, each receiving 13 cards randomly. The goal of the game is to play all the cards in your hand. The team whose player has played all their cards wins."
Plum Blossom A looked at Xiao Lou and gave an example: "For example, in the first game, if player 1 runs out of cards first, then the red team, which includes players 1 and 3, wins. The remaining cards of the two players on the blue team must be compensated to the red team at a price of 5,000 gold coins per card."
The boy's slender fingers gently unfolded a deck of cards.
The 52 cards were quickly arranged into four rows according to suit and rank in his nimble hands.
The boy said, "In playing cards, hearts, spade, diamonds, and plum blossom represent the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively, so this game is called [Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter]. The rules are that you play counter-clockwise, starting with number 1. Note that you only have 3 seconds to play a card, and there will be a countdown of 3, 2, 1 in front of you. If you don't play a card after the time limit expires, you will be considered to have forfeited your turn."
"After all four players have played their cards, the round ends. Each round must be played with cards of the same suit. If you have a card of that suit, you must play it; if you don't, you must skip it. After each round, the player with the highest card value gains the right to play in the next round and can choose a new suit. The card value ranking is A>K>Q>J>10>9>8>7>6>5>4>3>2."
This order of rank is also the most common in poker games, with Ace being the highest and the rest arranged from K to 2 in order.
Simply put, if someone plays a heart in the first round, everyone else must also play a heart. If no one has a heart of that suit, they "cannot play" and must skip. The person with the highest score in the first round gains the right to play in the next round, and the suit is then determined by the player who plays the heart in the next round.
The goal of the game is to play all your cards. The two players must cooperate to guess what suits their teammate might have and try to get them to play as many cards as possible. Alternatively, if you have high-value cards, you can seize the right to play first and quickly play them all, which can also lead your teammate to victory.
If your teammate only has one Spade left, and you're frantically spamming Diamonds without finishing them off, your teammate will feel very awkward.
No wonder CEO Shao said that he almost lost everything because of a bad teammate before, and this game depended entirely on the cooperation between the two of them.
Observing the game and noting down the cards that have been played in order to deduce the cards that your opponents and teammates might have left is the key skill in the "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter" suit games.
Guardian said, "The game consists of four rounds. If you run out of coins, your opponent will randomly select you as the card holder. In order not to lose cards, I hope everyone will take this game seriously. You have one minute to understand the rules."
The rules of this game are relatively simple, so the time allotted for everyone is also very short.
Losing all your coins won't eliminate you from the game, but it will allow your opponent to take your card holder. Xiao Lou really doesn't want his opponent to take away S-rank cards like Tao Yuanming and Bai Juyi, which he finally got after a perfect run!
This couple should be very in sync; he and Captain Yu must concentrate and absolutely cannot lose everything.
A minute passed quickly, and Plum Blossom A said, "The game begins, please get ready."
As soon as he finished speaking, an LCD screen suddenly rose up in front of everyone's seats, blocking everyone's view—this was probably to prevent players from cheating using various tricks.
For example, Xiao Lou might secretly raise her pinky finger to indicate she has plum blossoms. Yu Hanjiang might blink her left eye to mean she has hearts... These methods of cheating using body language can be pre-arranged between the two of them.
That would make the game extremely simple.
When CEO Shao talked about the games in Plum Blossom 3, he didn't mention the screen; it was probably added by Guardian at the last minute.
Sure enough, Plum Blossom A said, "You all came from the multiplayer game Spade 3, so you might have already been spoiled about the rules of Plum Blossom 3. This screen is to prevent you from discussing strategies in advance. After the game starts, you can only see the cards played by other people on the screen. Don't even think about cheating by exchanging glances with your teammates."
Xiao Lou, who had already planned to exchange glances with Captain Yu: "..."
Well, the Guardian was truly prescient.
In this way, since they can't see their teammates' actions and expressions, their tacit understanding can only rely on "intuition".
Plum Blossom A: "In the first round, play starts with card number 1, rotating counter-clockwise."
The boy's slender hands shuffled the cards quickly, and then dealt 13 cards to each person.
Xiao Lou picked up his hand and looked at it—6 hearts, 3 diamonds, 3 plum blossoms, and 1 spade.
He happened to have a high-ranking card in his hand: the Red Heart Ace.
Xiao Lou immediately played Red Heart A to test the waters.
The girl next to her played a Hearts 7, Yu Hanjiang played a Red Hearts 2, and the curly-haired man played a King of Hearts.
Xiao Lou's eyes lit up—the curly-haired man probably didn't have any hearts left!
Based on the card values, the highest is Ace, followed by King. In this round, Xiao Lou clearly has the highest card. If the curly-haired man has other hearts in his hand, his King will be the highest when someone else plays hearts in the next round. There's absolutely no need for him to use his King of Hearts to clash with Xiao Lou's Red Heart Ace. Playing his King at this point is essentially wasting a high-ranking card.
Xiao Lou has the highest card and still has the right to play first in the second round.
He smiled slightly and played a red heart 4.
The girl next to him played a Hearts 6, and Yu Hanjiang calmly played a Hearts J. Sure enough, the curly-haired guy said, "Skip."
Yu Hanjiang's J is the highest, giving him the right to play first.
Xiao Lou was a little worried that Captain Yu might play a different suit, but Yu Hanjiang clearly understood Xiao Lou's implication.
—First, Red Heart A, then in the second round, Red Heart 4. Professor Xiao, is this a hand full of hearts?
So, Yu Hanjiang cooperated by hitting a red heart 8 in the third round.
Playing cards counter-clockwise, the curly-haired man next to him said dejectedly, "I can't play!"
When it was Xiao Lou's turn, he played a Queen of Hearts — the Red Heart Ace and the King of Hearts had already been played, so his Queen was the highest.
The curly-haired girl looked grim and played a Hearts 9.
After the fourth round of play, Xiao Lou's Queen of Hearts was the highest, giving him the right to play first. As he played, he quickly calculated the remaining cards in his mind. After four rounds, 10 cards of the Hearts suit had been played, leaving 3 cards in his hand.
Xiao Lou's lips curled into a slight smile as he played a card— the heart 3.
Curly-haired girl: "No."
Yu Hanjiang: "Skip."
The fourth boy's voice clearly showed some displeasure: "No."
Xiao Lou continued typing: heart 5.
The other three, having run out of hearts, said in unison, "Skip."
Xiao Lou releases another: hearts 10.
The other three could only watch helplessly as he performed all by himself!
At this point, all 13 Hearts cards had been played. With Yu Hanjiang's assistance, Xiao Lou played 6 Hearts cards in one go, while the couple, the man only played 1 and the woman only played 3.
The odds of winning are very high!
Xiao Lou looked at his hand. Of the three diamonds he had left, all were low-ranking. Among the three plum blossoms, one was a relatively high-ranking plum blossom king, and he also had a plum blossom 10 and a plum blossom 6. The only spade he had was a spade 8.
Statistically speaking, the curly-haired man only has one heart, but he could also have a lot of spades, or a more even mix of diamonds, plum blossoms, and spades.
In any case, it's always a good idea to test the waters with big brands.
Xiao Lou thought for a moment and played a Plum Blossom King.
The girl next to her threw a Plum Blossom 5, Yu Hanjiang threw a Plum Blossom 3, and the curly-haired guy threw a Plum Blossom 4.
Xiao Lou's eyes lit up again—
Captain Yu definitely has Plum Blossom A!
The game was a 2v2 match. He played the Plum Blossom King. If the couple had a higher-ranking Plum Blossom Ace, there was no reason they wouldn't beat him and regain the lead. However, neither of them played the Plum Blossom Ace, clearly indicating that Captain Yu had it.
Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou are teammates, so there's no need to use Plum Blossom A to pressure Xiao Lou's King.
Xiao Lou smiled slightly and tossed out a plum blossom 6.
The girl next to her played the Plum Blossom Queen, but Yu Hanjiang immediately followed with the Plum Blossom Ace, beating her hand without hesitation.
The curly-haired man typed "plum blossom 8" in frustration.
Yu Hanjiang had the right to play, and he continued to play plum blossoms, especially high-ranking ones, forcing Xiao Lou to play all the remaining plum blossoms.
All the high-ranking cards in the diamonds suit were in the girl's hand. After Yu Hanjiang played plum blossom, he had to choose between spade and diamonds. He played diamonds first, but the curly-haired girl took back the right to play with the Diamond Ace.
She followed suit and continued playing diamonds. Xiao Lou slacked off, playing 3 diamonds as well.
Before he knew it, he only had one card left in his hand.
The girl noticed that number 1 only had one card left and was visibly nervous. She couldn't see her boyfriend's expression, but she could guess that he was probably holding a bunch of spades, since spades were the only cards that hadn't been played yet...
The girl gritted her teeth and played a Spade 2.
The curly-haired man promptly played the Ace of Spades... but Xiao Lou smiled and played his last card: the 8 of Spades.
Guardian's cold voice rang out in the room: "Number 1 has finished playing his hand. The red team wins this game. Please have the two players from the blue team count the number of cards remaining in their hands."
The couple's expressions immediately turned extremely ugly!
Player #1 is so cunning! He kept a Spade card unplayed, waiting for the turn to pass to the opponent before slacking off!
The girl has 3 cards left, and the curly-haired guy has 7 cards left...
Guardian said, " Blue team has 10 cards left. Please pay red team 50,000 gold coins."
All the coins everyone had earned in this escape room were frozen. Only Plum Blossom Youth gave each team 100,000 chips. As a result, in the first game, the couple lost 50,000 chips, leaving them with only half!
They had way too many cards left in their hands.
The key issue is that the curly-haired man had a full hand of spades, but after his girlfriend regained the lead with the Ace of Diamonds, she kept playing diamonds instead of spades, which drove him crazy...
The man, with a stern face, pushed 50,000 chips to the center of the card table.
He thought confidently that they would win the second round since they went first.
******