Chapter 40

Hearing Zhou Ziheng’s tone, Xia Xiqing was delighted. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he and Shang Sirui were having an affair. When it was broadcast, the fans of these two couples…

He couldn’t say which of the two couples’ fans would be happier.

In any case, the fans of [Xia Shang Zhou] would definitely be happy.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon.” Xia Xiqing felt like a heartless playboy lingering in a brothel, saying sweet words here and then running off to flatter someone else.

“Do you think I’ll wait for you?” Zhou Ziheng’s tone remained as cold as ever. Xia Xiqing chuckled softly, walked over to the radio, knelt down, and gently tapped it twice. “I don’t care. I’ll wait until you come.”

After saying that, Xia Xiqing turned off the blue knob and opened the red knob that had never been connected before. He wasn’t sure if Shang Siru’s signal was still connected to Ruan Xiao, nor was he sure of Shang Siru’s identity, but regardless of whether he was the killer, he should now need to understand the plot on the male lead’s side.

Xia Xiqing stood up, walked back to the table, picked up the puzzle piece he had found earlier, and placed it on the blank area behind the door. The raised part of the new puzzle piece perfectly matched the indentation of the original piece, just as Zhou Ziheng had said earlier—when placed in the correct position, it would be magnetically attracted. This puzzle piece was also firmly attached to the door.

With that, half of the blank area was filled, leaving only two pieces of the puzzle remaining.

Just then, Xia Xiqing suddenly heard a sound. He turned around and saw that the wardrobe door had opened on its own, and a red laser beam appeared from inside, shining straight onto the opposite wall.

“That scared me…” Xia Xiqing muttered to himself as he walked to the wardrobe, “The props team for this episode really went all out…”

But there were no mirrors in this room. At this point, he could only try a trial-and-error approach. Xia Xiqing held onto the wardrobe door and slowly adjusted the opening angle in small increments, observing the changes in the laser’s path. At first, no matter how he adjusted it, the light remained straight. But at a certain moment, the red beam suddenly turned and hit the wall next to the bed on the right.

On the deep blue wallpaper, the red beam converged into a point but did not change further. Xia Xiqing waited for a moment but no other mechanisms appeared.

It seemed the red dot was a position indicator.

He walked to the bedside, knelt halfway on the single bed, and touched the red dot with his hand, discovering a raised area that seemed to be hidden beneath the wallpaper.

It was a hint.

Xia Xiqing tore open a section of the wallpaper, and the third puzzle piece fell out, along with some strange characters. He put the puzzle piece away and looked at the sentence on the wall.

In fact, upon closer inspection, one could discern that the characters had been mirror-treated. However, if that were the only challenge, it would still be manageable, as one could barely make out each character one by one. But the production team had no intention of setting such a simple obstacle. This row of strange characters was actually the result of two rows of mirror-treated characters overlapping.

Mirror treatment plus separation—this task was quite challenging for the human eye, but there were no mirrors in the room.

“I’ll have to resort to a brute-force method…” Xia Xiqing took the diary he had placed on the table earlier, tore out a page, and prepared to trace the characters on the wall.

He still didn’t fully understand the plot, let alone the killer’s criteria. Xia Xiqing even suspected that the production team had given him the hardest part.

At that moment, the radio, which had been emitting a loud static noise, finally produced a human voice.

“Xiqing?”

Xia Xiqing’s hand pressed against the wall as he traced the words and replied, “Hmm. You’re finally here.”

In the previous episode, Xia Xiqing had been tricked by Shang Sirui, so he knew better than anyone else how smart the person on the other end of the phone was. “How are things on your end? Any leads?”

“You must know that our current identities are actually those of the room’s owners, right?”

The trick of pretending to be weak to catch the strong only works once. This time, Shang Sirui didn’t hide anything and went straight to the point, “I just had a call with Ruan Xiao and found that there are very few clues in my room.”

This sounded like Shang Sirui’s usual style of “showing weakness in advance.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve organized all the plot lines I could find in my room, but there’s only one. During our first call with Ruan Xiao, we discovered that our plot lines were completely different. At the time, I wondered if it was because of the ‘real vs. fake girlfriend’ setting? Later, we had another call, and Ruan Xiao told me she had a new plotline, but I still only had one. And the most frustrating part is that her new clues don’t match mine either.”

Xia Xiqing recalled his first call with Ruan Xiao, where she hesitated to speak, likely because their storylines were different. Moreover, the “multiple storylines” mentioned by Shang Sirui also applied to Xia Xiqing himself; he had already found two so far.

He remembered the numerical symbols on the clues he had found and tried to ask Shang Sirui about them, “Are there any markings on your clues? Like letters or numbers?”

“You have them too, right?” Shang Siru cut straight to the chase, which was completely different from his style in the previous episode. But the next second, he immediately revealed, “My clues do have markings. Every plot clue I’ve found has a number on it, whether it’s a memo or an email.”

He deliberately avoided the question of what the numbers were. Xia Xiqing didn’t want to ask directly, as Shang Sirui clearly hadn’t dispelled his suspicions about her. Asking directly would only make him more guarded, and he might even lie.

Having a false clue is worse than having no clue at all, as it only serves to disrupt one’s train of thought.

“I also have numbers, but to be honest, like Ruan Xiao, I currently have two plot threads, but they’re not that different.”

Xia Xiqing hesitated for a moment, feeling that the information he had wasn’t that crucial, so he said frankly, “The timelines of these two sets of clues are different. The later one is marked 13:00, at which point the boyfriend already knew about the girlfriend’s sudden death from a heart attack. The earlier one is set earlier in time, and in that one, the male lead had just turned off his phone, and it doesn’t mention whether the female lead is dead or not.”

He added, “In other words, in the second storyline, the male lead doesn’t know the female lead’s fate.”

Shang Sirui fell silent for a moment. “So, these two storylines have the same beginning and development?”

“Yes, the male and female leads argue, the female lead takes a train back to her parents’ city, and the male lead shuts down in anger. Up to this point, everything is the same.” Xia Xiqing typed out the final part, got out of bed, and sat down at the small round table.

Shang Sirui’s tone changed, and he sighed, “Then ours are completely different. Your plot does match one that Ruan Xiao has.”

Sure enough. Ruan Xiao did have clues that matched her own plot, which relieved Xia Xiqing. At least this meant that one of the plots in his hands could be fully reconstructed.

But immediately, Xia Xiqing noticed a problem. “Wait a minute, how come you’re completely different from Ruan Xiao? If you’re playing the same role, there should at least be a temporal connection. My room and Zhou Ziheng’s room are like that. Many times, I have to move things around in my room first before the props in his room can take effect. This shows that the rooms of two characters playing the same role are connected.”

“What if you’re not in the same spacetime right now?”

Shang Sirui’s sudden question hit Xia Xiqing like a bolt of lightning. That’s right, if he and Zhou Ziheng were in the same spacetime, there would inevitably be temporal connections. Otherwise, they would be parallel.

He continued, “To be honest, when I first entered the room, the first signal I tried to connect to was Ziheng’s, but his signal never connected. By the time I went to find Ruan Xiao, we both had numbered clues in our hands.”

Xia Xiqing understood Shang Sirui’s meaning. If no one had found any numbered clues upon entering the room, it meant they hadn’t entered the timeline or were in the default timeline.

“So you’re saying that you and Ruan Xiao couldn’t establish a connection because she hadn’t found a clue with the same number as yours.”

Obtaining a new clue means switching to a different timeline.

“Exactly. We missed the opportunity to communicate during the initialization because I was waiting for Zi Heng, but he kept chatting with you instead, and it went on for nearly half an hour!”

These two are really acting more childish than ever.

Xia Xiqing suddenly thought about the changing time on the notebook. Actually, time doesn’t matter; what matters is that it represents entering a new spacetime.

From the diary’s spacetime 1 to the notebook’s spacetime 2.

So, the spacetime that Ruan Xiao couldn’t find was the one where Shang Sirui was?

Having sorted out his thoughts, Xia Xiqing spoke again, “So, what exactly is the plotline you’re in? Does the female lead die suddenly of a heart attack in the end?”

“Our plotlines only share this ending,” Shang Sirui chuckled self-deprecatingly. “But aside from that, there are no similarities. In my plotline, I am the one who wants to save someone. It’s the female lead who saves the male lead, who locked himself in the house and turned on the gas to commit suicide. Do you understand?”

“What?”

Suicide?

This new plot twist came too suddenly, and Xia Xiqing was momentarily confused. But he immediately recalled the last sentence in the diary: after learning of the female lead’s death, the male lead did indeed have thoughts of suicide. But at the time, he hadn’t considered it in that way.

“Wait a minute, this plot is too different from mine. What happens next? Does the female lead go to save the male lead?”

“In this plot line, the female lead was already at the bus stop near the train station at the beginning. She knew the male lead would attempt suicide in an hour, so she crossed the street and boarded the opposite-direction 420 bus.”

“However, on the way to the male lead’s house, there was a traffic accident, and the bus got stuck in traffic. So she got off the bus, couldn’t flag down a ride halfway through, and had to run out of the congested area to the next intersection to hail a taxi. But due to the intense physical exertion, her heart was overloaded, and she had a heart attack before she could flag down a taxi.”

This plot completely overturned all of Xia Xiqing’s previous plots.

He seemed to have figured something out. “Are all your clues numbered with the digit 3?”

“That’s right.”

So, there are three parallel timelines in this story. Xia Xiqing looked at the knobs on the radio. Only Ruan Xiao’s knob had a 0 written below it; Zhou Ziheng and Shang Sirui’s did not.

What does this 0 represent? If it’s just for differentiation, there are so many other ways to do it. Why use 0 specifically? And the other one has nothing, no other numbers besides 0.

“Do you have any clues with the number 3?” Shang Sirui asked.

“No, not so far.”

“Really?” Shang Sirui’s tone was skeptical. “There’s one more thing I find suspicious. Why are your two clues so similar? Even Ruan Xiao’s clues have variations, but yours are almost identical.”

Xia Xiqing laughed twice. “To be honest, I’m also puzzled. Both are affected by the butterfly effect, so why is Ruan Xiao’s so different?”

Shang Sirui couldn’t tell if she would accept this explanation, but Xia Xiqing offered her a suggestion. “Your storyline is too limited. Let’s be honest. If you’re not the killer, you have two options. Either escape from your room first and forget about the storyline for now.”

“Either you connect to Zhou Ziheng’s signal and obtain more plotlines from him that neither I nor Ruan Xiao have. Neither of you have numbers on your radios, which means that one of your plotlines must be complementary.”

Shang Sui fell silent for a moment, then sighed in frustration at the radio, as if giving up, and revealed the truth, “I’ll be honest with you—I’ve already unlocked my door.”

“But this production team is too twisted. The clues they gave me after escaping the room were incomplete. They also told me that the final door’s password requires combining clues from two rooms to derive the final code. So I have to collaborate with someone, but I still don’t know who my partner is.”

Upon hearing Shang Sirui’s words, Xia Xiqing was half-believing, half-doubting. Shang Sirui’s tactics were too similar to others. This seemingly transparent approach was the fastest way to gain trust, even if the other party didn’t believe it, it would still confuse them.

“So you’re hiding in the room now?”

“Yeah.” Shang Sirui sighed deeply, seeming to think he’d said too much. “I won’t talk to you anymore. I need to try the second option you mentioned and meet with Zi Heng.”

Xia Xiqing laughed, “Look at you talking, as if he were a killer.”

Shang Siru countered Xia Xiqing’s words with his usual cute tone, “I feel like your guard is down around him this time.”

What are you talking about?

Upon hearing this, Xia Xiqing’s first reaction was to feel a little guilty. He hid his emotions and asked, “What do you mean? So you think I should suspect him?”

Shang Sirui laughed, “You’re so smart, shouldn’t you suspect everyone?”

The trailing note of his voice was full of implication. Xia Xiqing guessed that Shang Sirui had discovered the ambiguous relationship between him and Zhou Ziheng, which was why he was joking about the killer.

“Enough with you. Go find him quickly. If you discover he’s the killer, remember to come back and tell me.”

“No, no, no, I’ve changed~ I now seriously suspect you. I’m going to tell him.” Shang Sirui adopted a conciliatory attitude, speaking loudly. Xia Xiqing was sharp-tongued but wore a gentle smile on his face, “Do you believe I’ll kill you to silence you right now?”

“Hmph. I don’t believe you.”

After saying that, Shang Sirui cut off the connection. Xia Xiqing knew that Shang Sirui hadn’t sensed his suspicion toward Zhou Ziheng in his words, but to be honest, Xia Xiqing still suspected Zhou Ziheng the most. However, he had no evidence.

However, the fact that he hadn’t killed himself yet was highly suspicious. Logically speaking, if Zhou Ziheng was truly the killer, he would have killed himself before the first vote, otherwise it would be a major liability.

It was too chaotic. Xia Xiqing didn’t bother to think about it anymore. He first took the puzzle he had found earlier from the wallpaper and placed it behind the door. The magnetic strip attracted the puzzle, but there was no reaction, unlike earlier when it had directly triggered the mechanism in the wardrobe in the room.

Could it be that this puzzle doesn’t have a mechanism to trigger it?

Xia Xiqing stared at the butterfly pattern on the puzzle, which was almost complete, and thought of the butterfly effect in the book. If this is the theme of this episode, why are his two storylines so similar, with almost no changes?

Just as he was puzzling over it, the laptop on the desk suddenly beeped, and he received an email.

[What does the “0” on the red and blue knobs mean? Please reply with the answer.]

“If only I knew…” Xia Xiqing, whose thoughts were still disorganized, licked his lips impatiently. He ignored the prompt and walked back to the round table, flipped the small piece of paper he had copied, and held it up toward the ceiling light.

Under the light, the paper became semi-transparent, and the black ink marks left by the pen were projected into the correct characters, though two lines overlapped, making it difficult to discern what they were.

“When you… shut out all external information…” Xia Xiqing deciphered each character one by one and murmured aloud, “Another you appears, attempting to salvage everything.”

Another me?

After finishing the first line, his gaze returned to the beginning once more.

“You are… the originator of your own timeline… not the savior… whether it be 1, 2, or 3.”

Xia Xiqing slowly lowered the paper he was holding and fell into deep thought.

I am the originator, not the savior. In any of the three timelines.

He suddenly recalled the question Ruan Xiao had hesitated to ask him at the beginning.

[Have you ever gone out?]

Then the Ruan Xiao matched to him should be the original female lead in the three timelines. She hadn’t traveled through time either, but she had been affected by the butterfly effect of the time travelers, which is why she had different plot branches.

Suddenly, Xia Xiqing understood why the dials on him and Ruan Xiao were marked with a 0. This number does not simply represent a distinction, but tells them that they have never time-traveled, and they are the original male and female protagonists of each timeline!

He quickly stood up, walked to the desk, and clicked to reply to the email.

[Number of time-travels: 0]

Soon, Xia Xiqing received a reply.

[Congratulations, you answered correctly. Here’s a small reward for you.]

The next moment, the bed that Xia Xiqing had checked countless times without finding any clues suddenly automatically slid out a hidden drawer from the side.

Xia Xiqing walked over, took out the item from the drawer, and it was a fax machine with a numerical code sticker on it—3

Shang Sui’s plotline!

How could he make the fax machine work?

At that moment, a message appeared on the screen.

[May I ask, how many times has your girlfriend, who is also a beginner, died? You only have one chance, so please confirm your answer.]

“This question can probably only be answered by Ruan Xiao, who has collected all the plot copies…”

Xia Xiqing walked over to the radio and turned the red knob belonging to Ruan Xiao.

At that moment, the familiar voice from the production team sounded again.

“Attention all players, the first vote will begin in five minutes.”

Author’s note:

Zhou Ziheng: This is Chapter 40. I hope everyone can spell my name correctly.

Xia Xiqing: What’s it like to have a name with obscure characters? [Trying not to laugh]

There are only two more chapters (at most) left for the reality show. I won’t be writing any more reality shows after that. It’s time to start the play-within-a-play. Reading the comments every day is driving me crazy.

It’s okay if you don’t understand the reality show. When watching Conan, everyone should be (at least I am) immersed in the atmosphere of unraveling the mystery but still feeling a bit confused. It’s impossible to have an omniscient perspective and know everything from the start; that would mean the script is a failure, right? The feeling of suddenly understanding everything when the mystery is about to be solved is also quite good.

I’ll write an analysis after the reality show ends. This is actually a very complete plot that could even be turned into a short story.