In the courtroom theater, the scroll keeper publicly reads the charges against the scapegoat in Cell 107. Ji Chi has already stepped onto the same stage for the eighth time. In each of the previous seven rounds, he filled in the blank charge, was ruled wrong by a single character, and the entire group was sent back to the beginning. Little Zhan was dragged along and her leg was cut open; all eleven people onstage were made to share the punishment. Behind him, Liao Qi quietly urges him to pin the crime on Little Zhan, an eleven-year-old with a limp, so they can win half the votes and survive. Then the seat in the third row of the stands, untouched for all seven rounds, suddenly moves. But when the scroll keeper speaks for the third time, Ji Chi turns on him and argues that the blank charge itself is invalid. He demands that the scroll keeper read the second half of the verdict. Whether the stands remain silent or take a side will decide whether he can reverse the time-reset ritual. But just as he finishes counting those onstage who have nodded, the scroll keeper has already said the words "for the eighth time."
