Since Lu Kai and Luo Jiajia missed the plot clues of room no. 8, Yue Xingwen could not be sure at present whether the death of the bride had nothing to do with the inn itself, or was it just missed? Another round of clues must be collected before they could move on to the next analysis. Thinking of this, Yue Xingwen said, “Let’s sleep outside the forest for now, and we’ll talk about it at dawn.”
It seemed as if they returned to the public elective course <Cross-country Orienteering>, they had to camp out in the middle of nowhere.
They had to find a tree and sleep with their backs against the trunk.
In the early hours of the morning, Yue Xingwen was suddenly awakened by an argument. He opened his eyes with a frown—— Not far away, two boys were arguing. It was Lu Kai and Gao Yongqiang, the cousins.
The sky was still dark, and the angle where Yue Xingwen was located could clearly see Gao Yongqiang’s side profile.
Gao Yongqiang’s expression was livid, pointing at his brother, lowering his voice to curse. “Are you fucking retarded?! According to the rules, each course has the opportunity to be retaken. Luo Jiajia is not really dead, you’ll see her when you get back to the library. You’re confused!”
Yue Xingwen was facing Lu Kai’s back, his back were thin and lean, his voice was trembling slightly, “The reason is not Luo Jiajia! I just don’t want to stay in this library even for a minute. At first, I could still endure rabbits and monkeys, but then it turned into a bunch of skeleton monsters, and now even the female ghosts have come out! Then, what else do you know? Maybe there will be all kinds of man-eating monsters!”
Gao Yongqiang was calm and did not speak.
Lu Kai choked up and said, “Brother, we only have 10 credits now, and we need 100 credits to graduate. Have you ever thought about how many more times we have to go through such horrible things? I’ve already had enough!”
Gao Yongqiang’s eyes were red, and his voice was hoarse as he said, “I don’t want to fucking come this this library either! But, what can be done? We’re already here ah! You are not afraid that if you give up now, what the library said is true and you’ll be obliterated in reality?”
Lu Kai shook his head desperately, as if convincing himself. “I don’t believe that the library can affect the real world, everything here is too fake!” He suddenly had an idea, “Maybe if we die here, we can be resurrected in reality?”
“Do you want to die once and try? You are crazy!” Gao Yongqiang reached out to hit him, but Lu Kai dodged and escaped, he replied with tears. “I don’t want to waste time being abused here anyway, so you can stay if you want to continue. I want to go back! I want to go back!”
He was obviously on emotional breakdown. After he said that, he turned around and rushed into the forest, like a wild horse off the reins, as he could not hold it at all. Gao Yongqiang was also stunned, he wanted to chase but could not catch up. When he chased Lu Kai to the side of the forest, he stopped with an ugly expression.
Yue Xingwen soon heard the scream from the depths of the forest. The voice was high-pitched and sharp, like a sharp blade cutting through the silent sky, instantly waking up all the sleeping students, and everyone opened their eyes in panic, “What’s wrong?”
Ke Shaobin’s glasses went crooked to the side, hastily found it and put them back on, and then he jumped to Yue Xingwen like a nimble rabbit. His whole body tensed up, “What happened? Are the female ghosts chasing us?”
Yue Xingwen looked at Gao Yongqiang, whose face was as black as the bottom of the pot, and did not know how to explain.
Seeing that he did not explain, Yue Xingwen had no choice but to say, “Lu Kai gave up the exam and rushed into the forest, probably by the female ghosts…” Needless to say, everyone understood the source of the scream just now.
Gao Xiaoxin’s face turned pale, “He gave up the exam? Is it for Jiajia?”
Yue Xingwen: “……”
The girl also had a beautiful fantasy about love, thinking that Luo Jiajia’s death stimulated Lu Kai, so he went to accompany his girlfriend. But in fact, Lu Kai gave up the exam not because of his girlfriend’s death at all—— Rather, it was his own cowardice.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Among the boys, there was also cowardice, and Yue Xingwen did not know how to evaluate this student.
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Gao Xiaoxin bit her lip and did not speak anymore.
Jiang Pingce, whose sleep was disturbed, was obviously not very happy, and said in a cold voice. “The female ghost didn’t come after him and he ran off to his own death. This classmate is really creative.”
Everyone: “…” What a way to send someone’s head a thousand miles.
It was already dawn, and after being woken up by Lu Kai’s commotion, everyone was no longer sleepy.
Seeing Jiang Pingce’s terrible expression, Yue Xingwen hurriedly walked over and patted his shoulder to appease him and smiled while saying, “Okay, don’t be angry. I know you hate being woken up halfway through your sleep, so catch up on your sleep when you have time during the day.”
Looking at Yue Xingwen’s smile, Jiang Pingce’s mood finally improved, and he whispered, “We won’t give up.”
Yue Xingwen nodded, “Of course, I’ve been headstrong since I was a child, and I know you are too.”
Jiang Pingce fought to death in the high school’s IMO(International Mathematical Olympiad), and in order to graduate early, he completed the four-year courses in three-year. Yue Xingwen could only sleep four hours a day for a week in order the check the information for debate—— In order to achieve a certain goal, forcing themselves to work hard was a common occurrence for them.
Now that they had each other, there was even less reason to give up. Whoever gave up first would be looked down upon by the other side for a lifetime. They knew each other and could always encourage and motivate each other. No matter how hard it got later, they would definitely make it to the end.
Both of them looked at each other and smiled. Jiang Pingce’s anger from being woken up had been completely cured.
Yue Xingwen looked back at the crowd and said, “It was Lu Kai’s own choice to withdraw from the examination. We can’t ask everyone to have firm faith and perseverance. He has the right to decide his own fate. However, the people who stay, I hope that you will have a little team spirit and not cause any more trouble in the days ahead.”
He looked at Gao Yongqiang and Gao Xiaoxin, the couple and said, “I’m familiar with others, but I’m not familiar with the two of you. As you saw last night, due to the negligence of Lu Kai and Luo Jiajia, we missed important clues and could not continue our reasoning. Please try to cooperate with everyone’s actions in the future.”
Gao Yongqiang nodded immediately, “I understand. My brother, who is the only child, was spoiled by his parents since he was a child, so he can’t take care of himself and can’t even wash his socks… I’m sorry to trouble everyone.”
Compared to his brother’s pair, Yue Xingwen’s impression of Gao Yongqiang was not bad. After Lu kai made a mistake yesterday, he immediately scolded his brother, which made everyone embarrassed to scold again, and his response was quite fast.
Yue Xingwen looked at Gao Xiaoxin next to him, “How about you? Are you willing to stay?”
Gao Xiaoxin’s eyes were red. She choked and said, “I don’t want to die. My punctuation book has not yet been upgraded to the full level, and I want to change to other skills books… Although the library is dangerous, but- but it’s not impossible to pass right? At least, I want to try it.”
Yue Xingwen said warmly. “You are right. There are a lot of skill books that can be exchanged in the Chinese Department. The course will become harder, but our skills will also become stronger. Try hard, and maybe we’ll pass?”
Gao Xiaoxin nodded vigorously, “En, thank you senior!”
For the first time he met a junior sister from the Chinese Department in the library. He only encouraged her as the senior of the same department, and it was not within his concern as to how far the couple could go in the future. The most important thing at present was still this <Death Code> course, and with last night’s progress already delayed, they had to hurry up and find clues.
The sky was already completely bright when Yue Xingwen led everyone back to the inn.
Everyone walked into the inn, and saw Luo Jiajia on the ground with her face covered in blood. The visual impact caused by the students who died with a pool of blood made everyone’s footsteps stiffen. Gao Xiaoxin turned her head, her body was trembling. Gao Yongqiang then whispered, “She will come back to life in the library, don’t be sad.”
Ke Shaobin whispered, “Move her body away? We can’t have a discussion around her corpse.”
Jiang Pingce used the coordinate system to transport Luo Jiajia’s body to a distant location.
Upon looking at the inn after dawn, it was much more magnificent than what they had seen in the darkness last night. The height of the first floor was more than 3 meters. Some exquisite patterns were carved on the suspended beams of the roof, and there was actually a secret door in the corner they had not scouted last night, locked by an iron lock. Yue Xingwen hesitated for a few seconds between violently breaking the iron lock or finding the key, and chose the latter.
Yue Xingwen said, “Let’s look around separately and find out where the key to this room is hidden.”
Eight people quickly split up, with four people going to the rooms upstairs to find the key, and the remaining four rummaging around on the first floor.
After a few moments, Qin Miao suddenly said, “I found it.”
Yue Xingwen turned back and saw that she was carrying a bunch of keys in her hand, which she actually found from the flowerpot in the corner.
The students upstairs immediately ran down after hearing it.
Qin Miao handed the keys to Yue Xingwen, then said, “I counted these keys, there are eleven of them. Eight of them should be the keys to the second floor guest room and one should be this secret door? I don’t know the use for the remaining two.”
Jiang Pingce suddenly frowned. “Wait a minute.”
Everyone looked back at him.
The tall boy walked quickly to Yue Xingwen, took the string of keys, studied them carefully for a moment, and then said, “It occurred to me that the course exam for <Death Code> is about ‘numerical reasoning’, but instead of directly giving us a string of numerical codes for us to guess, the examiner scattered the numerical codes throughout the exam.”
Upon hearing Jiang Pingce’s words, the others seemed to understand.
Yue Xingwen’s eyes lit up and he immediately understood. “Do you mean that from the moment we enter the examination room, all the clues related to the numbers that we encounter will become the key to connecting the entire case? Is that the ‘numeric code’?”
Jiang Pingce nodded. “That’s right. Do you notice a lot of things that aren’t right?”
Everyone nodded in unison. This place was strange, and everyone had felt that something was not right since they walked in last night. The inn was empty, the humid and moldy wooden furniture exuded the uncomfortable smell. The strange wedding room, the bride and groom’s bright red dress, even the vines that climbed all over the roof and the gorgeous lotus pond outside the house made people feel strange…
However, they couldn’t pinpoint the reason for it to be strange.
Jiang Pingce said, “First of all, this inn looks very much like a three-story building from the outside.” Yue Xingwen immediately answered, “But the internal structure is just two levels, so the numbers are not right?”
Jiang Pingce nodded and continued, “There are eight rooms on the second floor.” He looked at Yue Xingwen, and the latter said, “And the number of ghost brides is seven?”
Both of them sang in unison, and the students finally understood upon listening to this.
Liu Zhaoqing slapped his forehead, “That’s right! These numbers are reminding us that something is not right with the inn! Reasoning according to the numbers is the only way to discover the secret of the inn!”
Jiang Pingce said, “We just found a secret door that we didn’t pay attention to last night, and with the 8 rooms on the second floor, we only need 9 keys so far, but there are 11 keys on the keychain, which means, there are other rooms in this inn that we haven’t found.”
Yue Xingwen continued, “The seven brides, too, don’t match up at all with the contents of our dreams. The plot clues we have obtained can be connected; the female protagonist is Miss Su, and the male protagonist is the son of the Zhao family. The supporting characters are the guard, the doctor, the woman in pink, the matchmaker, and both of their parents, so where are the seven brides?”
Qin Miao suddenly said, “It’s not uncommon for ancient men to marry several wives. The Zhao family is so rich and powerful, could they have found seven girls together to marry Mr. Zhao?”
Yue Xingwen lowered his head for a moment, and then said, “Among the ancient perceptions, seven is the sum of ‘yin and yang’ and ‘five elements’. After death, there is also the saying that ‘returning back for seven days after death, to fulfill one’s wishes’. If the Zhao family paid a high price for seven brides to give to their terminally ill son, and the son died when the wedding failed. Maybe they killed all the seven brides to marry their son… Does it all make sense?”
The students carefully pondered Yue Xingwen’s words and found that Yue Xingwen’s speculation could indeed explain the existence of seven brides.
Jiang Pingce said, “But the curse of the two rag dolls doesn’t match up with that deduction.”
Yue Xingwen also knew this, and immediately made an arrangement. “First, match the keys with the rooms. Qin Miao, Qin Lu, Gao Xiaoxin, the task of trying out the key is given to you guys.” He tore a piece of paper from the dictionary and said, “Write a note and stick it on the key on which key corresponds to what room for us to easily check the number.”
The three of them took the white paper given by Yue Xingwen and went upstairs with the key, trying out one by one.
Jiang Pingce looked at Gao Yongqiang and asked, “As I remember, you are from the Architecture Department of Nanyang Jiaotong University, right?”
Gao Yongqiang nodded in a hurry. “En, can I help you?”
Jiang Pingce said lightly, “Come with me.”
The remaining few people followed Jiang Pingce out of the inn. Jiang Pingce pointed to the inn and asked, “Can you do building mapping?”
Gao Yongqiang’s eyes lit up. “Yes!”
In fact, Jiang Pingce could have used the coordinate system to measure the data himself, but since the couple was willing to stay, Jiang Pingce wanted them to participate in it as well. With a sense of participation, the two could gradually trust everyone and not drag their feet.
Jiang Pingce looked serious and said, “Let’s measure from the outside first and write the specific values of the building’s periphery, then measure the internal structure and draw a detailed drawing of the interior of the building.”
Human vision was prone to error and was influenced by a variety of light and color. The visual effect was often used in space design. What people saw when they walked into a room, not necessarily what the room itself looked like.
The first impression of the inn was strange, where was the strangeness—— Jiang Pingce believed in data.
…Data boy??
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Thank you for translating! 🙂
Thanks for translating😊