Chapter 542: The Suspected Infected |
Huang Shengjie and Zhou Xiaoying had no choice but to queue behind Zhang Yuan and Qian Li respectively, while Du Peng awkwardly gave up on joining the line altogether.
According to the game rules, each vending machine stocked two bottles, with a limit of one bottle per player.
That meant only four players could obtain medication each round.
Qian Li finished her purchase quickly, took her medication without a word, and moved away from the machine.
Zhou Xiaoying, who had been waiting behind her, stepped up to the machine and prepared to insert her Medical Card.
But at that moment, Huang Shengjie suddenly sensed that something was wrong, because Qian Li's behaviour this round had been strikingly out of character.
It hit him all at once, "Wait, don't buy yet!"
Zhou Xiaoying startled. She looked at Huang Shengjie in confusion, momentarily frozen.
"Wh, why not?"
Everyone turned to look at Qian Li at once.
Qian Li, having already made her purchase, had moved away from the group and was trying to keep as low a profile as possible. But now she suddenly found herself caught under the focused gaze of everyone in the room.
She was visibly rattled.
On the surface, Qian Li did not appear to be in any obvious distress, and she did not look like someone who had just been put through extreme pain. But on closer inspection, certain small details did not add up.
Her eyes were a little red and swollen, and there were faint traces of moisture near her temples, yet her face was perfectly clean and there was no sweat on her forehead.
On top of that, her body appeared to be trembling very slightly, though whether from nerves or some other cause was unclear.
Caught under everyone's suspicious stares, Qian Li lost her composure somewhat and pointed at Huang Shengjie, "You're talking nonsense! Don't go throwing accusations around! If you ask me, you're the Infected one. Pot calling the kettle black!"
Huang Shengjie pressed her, "You were the last of us to come out of your room, and you made straight for the vending machine the moment you did.
"Your eyes are red and swollen, and there are drops of moisture near your temples, but your face is completely dry and there is no sweat on your forehead. My guess is that you deliberately washed your face in the bathroom and dried it off with a towel.
"But if it had only been Standard Pain, why would you bother to wash your face at all?"
Qian Li's eyes went wide. Her expression was angry, though there was also something almost incredulous about it, "You're accusing me of being Infected just because of that?"
Zhang Yuan stepped in at just the right moment and picked up the thread, "In the last round, didn't you accuse another player of having already colluded with the Doctor simply because they hadn't come out of their room?
"Compared to the suspicion you directed at others, what we're directing at you could practically be called ironclad evidence."
Having someone back him up made Huang Shengjie feel considerably more grounded.
He had been a little worried that if he confronted Qian Li directly, everyone else might simply stand aside and watch. But once he had realised she might be Infected and could spread the fatal pain to others, he had had no choice but to speak up.
Because if Zhou Xiaoying became Infected as well, the rest of the game would be that much harder.
It seemed he had bet correctly.
Zhang Yuan's position had been clear from the start: oppose Qian Li by every means available.
Without quite realising it, everyone had drifted to Huang Shengjie's side, and the looks they directed at Qian Li were full of wariness.
Qian Li pointed at Zhang Yuan and said, "Then why aren't you suspicious of him?
"He was the first one to go for the vending machine. He was faster than me!
"And his complexion doesn't exactly look healthy either, does it?"
Everyone looked over at Zhang Yuan. His face was noticeably pale, and faint beads of perspiration were still just barely visible on his forehead, not yet fully gone.
Zhang Yuan offered no particular defence. He had bought his medication and was simply standing to one side.
Zhou Xiaoying looked at Zhang Yuan, then at Qian Li, and found herself hesitating.
Both of them were suspected Infected players, and both had used the vending machines.
For safety's sake, the sensible thing now was probably not to use either vending machine again.
But that was not a long-term solution either. Their medication supply was already limited, and they were each down to one tablet. By the next round, they would most likely be facing the same situation all over again.
Huang Shengjie shook his head and said, "Zhang Yuan didn't get any medication in the previous round.
"There were only four bottles in total, and the four of us bought all of them. That much is absolutely certain.
"With no medication at all, if he had been subjected to fatal pain, there is no way his reaction would be this mild. It would have been far more extreme than any of ours.
"Unless he has some specific condition or unusual tolerance that makes him abnormally resistant to pain.
"As things look now, experiencing Standard Pain without medication would make his complexion go pale, and that is well within the range of a normal reaction.
"You, on the other hand, are obviously trying to cover something up."
Zhang Yuan gave Huang Shengjie an approving nod.
It was clear he had been planning to make the same argument himself, but hearing it from Huang Shengjie made it considerably more persuasive.
Qian Li opened her mouth. She instinctively wanted to say something more, but with every detail laid out in the open, she could find no way to turn things around.
Zhang Yuan had already taken a seat on one of the folding chairs, "Well, all I can say is that your analysis in the last round was very impressive.
"You successfully built a consensus around 'isolating the Infected.'
"It just didn't go quite according to plan. You were unlucky enough to be selected as an Infected player right from the start.
"How does it feel to have the stone you lifted drop onto your own foot?
"The Gallery never lacks for players who enjoy being clever, but clearly, it's those who are upright and genuine who last to the end."
Qian Li's expression shifted back and forth, but it was plain that the situation was no longer in her hands.
All one could say was that plans rarely survived contact with reality. She had laid her groundwork carefully in the previous round, successfully positioning herself as the centre of the Lounge by manufacturing a common enemy. But in this round, she had become that enemy herself.
Huang Shengjie was about to insert his Medical Card into the vending machine to buy medication.
But Qian Li did not appear ready to give up just yet. She edged slightly closer to Zhou Xiaoying, who had stepped back a few paces, and said, "Listen, regardless of what anyone says, you should believe me. I really am not Infected, and I have absolutely no intention of hurting you."
Zhou Xiaoying instinctively took another half-step back.
The game's 'Special Pain' spread through shared equipment, not physical proximity, but being close to a suspected Infected player still triggered a deeply instinctive unease.
Qian Li pointed at Zhang Yuan and Huang Shengjie and said, "Don't listen to them. They talk about cooperation, but do they actually have any intention of cooperating with you?
"Haven't they just kept the medication in their own hands?
"In the rounds ahead, when everyone is competing for medication, the male players will obviously have a physical advantage and react faster. Once they've taken up positions at the machines, we won't be able to beat them!
"Think about it again."
Huang Shengjie was fuming. He had not expected that even at this point, Qian Li was still doing everything she could to undermine the relationships between the other players.
From the very beginning, his impression of Qian Li had been a poor one. She was precisely the type who loved to play clever games and schemes. When she stood to benefit the most from cooperation, she put on a show of advocating for it. But the moment cooperation threatened to cut into her own interests, she turned around and did everything in her power to tear it apart.
With that thought, Huang Shengjie shifted slightly to the side and said, "Zhou Xiaoying, come buy your medication."