Solution: Animal Show
Answer: RAT DISAGREES
Written by Jonathan
The first step of this puzzle is to look at the pinyin of the Chinese words when read as a traditional Chinese scroll – read each column from top to bottom first, then the columns from right to left. Doing so, we obtain the following letters from the pinyin.
| Column | Pinyin | Breakdown (race desc. + place) | Missing letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 古热尬他然测啊? | GU RE GA TA RAN CE A? | GREAT RACE? + UGAN(D)A | D |
| 擦他我品 | CA TA Wo PIN | CAT WON + API(A) | A |
| 噢新瑟聪大破热 | O XIN SE CONG DA PO RE | OX SECOND + (S)INGAPORE | S |
| 提个然噢提很 | TI GE RAN O TI HEN | TIGER THEN + (H)ANOI | H |
| 绕吧比噶豆汤斗 | RAO BA BI GA DOU TANG DOU | RABBIT AND + O(U)AGADOUGOU | U |
| 独拉啊让噢拿擦吗他热 | DU LA A RANG O NA CA MA TE RE | DRAGON CAME + ULAAN(B)AATAR | B |
| 满桑啊可他很 | MAN SANG A KE TA HEN | SNAKE THEN + MANAG(U)A | U |
| 好日瑟啊喷第 | HAO RI SE A PEN DI | HORSE AND + (T)AIPEI | T |
| 不跟噢撒他次热撒嚜 | BU GEN O SA TA CI RE SA ME | GOAT CAME + BUEN(O)S AIRES | O |
| 吗莫努可日他一他很 | MA MO NU KE RI TA YI TA HEN | MONKEY THEN + MAURITA(N)IA | N |
| 怕普然额我噢苏特然低讷啊 | PA PU RAN E WO O SU TE RAN DI NE A | ROOSTER AND + PAPUA NEW (G)UINEA | G |
| 可动擦吗额 | A OU DONG CA ME DE | DOG CAME + (Y)AOUNDE | Y |
| 古平拉瑟他 | GU PING LA SE TA | PIG LAST + GU(I)NEA | I |
From there, one might notice that the first line contains the substring “GREAT RACE”, motivating us to find more animals among the remaining lines. Eventually we notice that the pinyin of each line is two sets of letters interweaved - the first set of letters being two words that belong to a sentence relating the story of the Great Race in Chinese zodiac mythology, and the second being the name of a country or capital city whose name is missing one letter. Enumerations at the bottom of each column give the enumerations for the race description and place separately.
This motivates us to extract the missing first letter from each city. Splitting this set of letters by the enumerations at the bottom of the puzzle, we obtain the cluephrase “[DA SHU] [BU TONG YI]”, which is also pinyin! Translating this to English yields the answer, RAT DISAGREES, fitting the incorrect story in the puzzle very nicely indeed! (In the actual story of the Great Race, the rat wins the race, not the cat.)