Zhou Ziheng clearly sensed the change in Xia Xiqing at that moment. Earlier, he had been lazily indifferent, but as soon as he heard that a player had broken through the room, he immediately immersed himself in the game.
However, he also knew that Xia Xiqing wasn’t doing this because he had a competitive spirit, but simply because he wanted to leave and see what was happening.
Stirring up a mess and making it even more chaotic was likely his true objective.
“Don’t you think this poem is strange?” Xia Xiqing pulled out a ballpoint pen from somewhere and drew a line through the last few lines of the poem.
[Only by dismantling it again,
returning you to me, returning me to you.
From top to bottom, connected to each other.
Everything can regain its meaning.]
He took out the sticky note that Zhou Ziheng had put together at the beginning, with a string of gibberish written on the front. “I think this poem is hinting at the decoding method for this password.”
Zhou Ziheng nodded in agreement and read the poem carefully in his mind.
You, who were also torn apart and reconstructed, were buried together, one before the other.
Buried beneath this fence covered in lush roses.
Only by dismantling it again,
returning you to me, returning me to you,
from top to bottom, connected to each other,
can everything regain its meaning.”
Once one, separated, pieced together, buried one after the other…
He couldn’t help but mutter aloud, “Buried beneath this fence covered in lush roses…”
Fence, fence…
Fence…
Suddenly, a flash of insight crossed his mind.
“Rail Fence Cipher.”
Both of them blurted it out at the same time, then looked at each other in surprise.
Xia Xiqing laughed first, “It seems I really am a fan of my idol. We’re in perfect sync.”
Zhou Ziheng sneered inwardly. Sorry, but he didn’t want to be associated with someone like this.
That said, Xia Xiqing’s quick response still surprised him. “How did you know about the fence cipher?” Zhou Ziheng asked.
Xia Xiqing casually replied, “My nephew works in IT. We studied some cryptography together for a while…”
He didn’t say it out loud, nor did he really believe what Xia Xiqing said. He bent down to pick up the pen he had found earlier and prepared to decode it. Xia Xiqing, on the other hand, flipped the poem over to the other side and saw the words [2 you] written there. He smiled and said, “Actually, the clues from the program team are really obvious. The 2 here doesn’t mean ‘to,’ it refers to the fact that the original state of this password was divided into two columns, right?”
“Hmm.” Zhou Ziheng counted the number of digits in the long string of random codes with his fingers, found the one in the middle, drew a vertical line, and separated them. Although he knew Xia Xqing understood the decoding process, he explained it to ensure the show’s audience could follow along. “The first half of this poem is the encryption process. From ‘only by re-splitting’ onwards are hints for the decoding process. According to the ‘2’ written on the back, divide the scrambled characters into two equal groups, each containing seven letters.”
PGOEUDE AENHNRD
“ ‘Return you to me, return me to you’ should refer to decomposing and restoring the letters in the groups.” As he spoke, Zhou Ziheng rewrote the two separated groups, aligning the two lines.
PGOEUDE
AENHNRD
Zhou Ziheng lowered his head, murmuring the penultimate line of the poem, “From top to bottom, interconnected.” Starting from the P in the first line, he traced lines with his pen, first pointing to the A in the second line, then turning the pen tip and looping back to the G, repeating this process until the winding, wave-like line penetrated every letter, reaching the final letter D.
“Write it down in the order of the lines…” Zhou Ziheng leaned forward and carefully transcribed the final answer.
PAGEONEHUNDRED
Page one hundred.
“Page one hundred.” Xia Xiqing picked up the unbelievably thick book beside him and flipped to page one hundred.
The entire page was covered in densely packed text, like ants. He saw four numbers on the 42nd line.
[I live only because of my desire, for this fiery cliff. If possible, when my desire burns out, I want to be the 1414th rose in the rose garden of your heart, no more, no less, just that one.]
“1414.” Xia Xiqing put down the book, walked to the study door, and entered the four digits into the password lock screen.
The password lock emitted a blue light, flashing three times, and the screen finally displayed a green confirmation message.
[Passcode correct!]
Xia Xiqing tried pushing the door, and heard a click as the lock opened. Xia Xiqing, who had originally planned to slip out alone, noticed the close-up lens on the lock and turned back with a smile to say to Zhou Ziheng, “We can go now. Let’s go.”
Zhou Ziheng, leaning against the desk, gave him a meaningful look, but eventually slipped his hands into his coat pockets and walked toward him.
The sound system emitted a new prompt.
[Please note that two players have now escaped the original room and entered another player’s room.]
“Is the alliance still in effect?” Zhou Ziheng suddenly spoke up.
Xia Xiqing smiled and pushed open the door, “Of course, as long as my usefulness hasn’t been completely drained.”
The word “squeezed dry” was used so subtly that Zhou Ziheng didn’t even realize he was being teased by Xia Xiqing, and unknowingly followed him out of the original room.
The structure of this house was very strange. There were no corridors or partitions between the rooms. Opening the door to your own room would directly lead you into a new room. The person in the room was busy doing something. Hearing the door behind him—at least he had always thought it was a wall—suddenly open, he couldn’t help but jump in surprise, his back shivering.
Adhering to his original intention of shaping his character, Xia Xiqing smiled and greeted the original owner of the room, “Hi, we’re the players who just escaped from our rooms. You should have received the program team’s message, right?”
The person was wearing a loose-fitting cream-colored hoodie, with hair dyed a light brown that looked quite fluffy. Upon hearing the sound, they turned around, and upon seeing Zhou Ziheng, their handsome face suddenly relaxed with relief. “Ah, Ziheng, it’s so good that it’s you.” He smiled at Xia Xqing again. “Hello, hello… Hey, aren’t you the one from recently? The one on Weibo a couple of days ago…”
Xia Xqing kindly introduced herself, “Xia Xqing.” The other person seemed about to introduce himself, but Xia Xqing spoke up for him, “Shang Sui, I really like your group’s songs.”
Shang Sirui was the lead singer of the popular group HighFive. They had previously worked together on a show, though it was just a cameo role. Although Xia Xiqing was just being polite, and he didn’t really like listening to idol boy band songs, their popularity among young people was still quite good, especially Shang Sirui, who had become the most popular member of the group thanks to his handsome face and absent-minded personality.
“Really?” Shang Sui laughed twice, “Wow, you guys are so good at escaping so quickly. I’ve been messing around here for half a day and haven’t come up with anything useful. Hey, I’m really confused. Why did my agent give me such a difficult assignment?”
Xia Xiqing almost burst out laughing. After all, he was an idol, but he spoke like a stand-up comedian. No wonder netizens criticized him for speaking so sharply.
“Two people are always faster.” Zhou Ziheng walked over to Shang Sirui to check on his progress.
It wasn’t until they stood together that Xia Xiqing realized Zhou Ziheng was actually quite tall, with broader shoulders than Shang Siru, making Shang Siru, who was already above the standard height for a boy band, look petite in comparison. If he remembered correctly, these two seemed to have a CP relationship.
The entertainment industry’s “top dog” persona truly lives up to its name.
Although Shang Siru and Zhou Ziheng both have countless fans who admire their looks, their attractiveness is of completely different styles. Shang Siru has delicate features and a youthful vibe, resembling a high school boy, while Zhou Ziheng has striking, deep-set features that were once mistaken for those of a mixed-race individual.
For Xia Xiqing, of course, the latter is more appealing.
Author’s Note: Cryptography Knowledge Primer:
I have tried my best to explain this decryption process using the simplest and most understandable language (Zhou Ziheng’s words). Many readers might have been deterred by the word “cryptography” (2333), but it’s actually quite interesting (really~). Those interested can take a look at the following explanation (no mathematical knowledge required, just simple operations).
The gibberish 【PGOEUDEAENHNRD】 that appears in these two chapters belongs to a two-column fence cipher. I won’t explain the concept; let’s just use the cipher in the text as an example. The poem that appears in the text (I made it up, so let’s just call it a poem for now) has its first half as the encryption process. Let’s match them one by one.
We were once one. [The original plaintext is “Page one hundred,” which, after removing spaces, becomes “PAGEONEHUNDRED.”]
Destiny has torn you from my body, from my bones, my flesh, my heart, and roughly pieced together these now meaningless organs. 【How was it “pulled out”? Since there are two columns, they were divided into pairs, resulting in seven groups (bones, flesh, heart, etc.). Then, the first character of each group (PGOEUDE) was placed in one pile, and the second character (AENHNRD) was placed in another pile, forming two piles】
You, who were also torn apart and reconstructed, were buried together, one before the other. 【By combining the two letter sequences obtained earlier, “one before the other,” we get the cipher PGOEUDEAENHNRD】
So this is how the fence cipher works. Let’s take another example, such as encrypting “I Love You.” If we encrypt it using three columns:
First, remove the spaces to get ILOVEYOU, then divide it into three columns: ILO, VEY, and OU
Then group the first letters of each part (IVO), the second letters (LEU), and the third letters (OY).
Finally, connect them end-to-end: IVOLEUOY.
Ding ding ding ding, encryption complete! (Go confess your feelings now~)
Have you learned how to use the fence code? It’s actually quite useful for setting passwords for your phone and various accounts in daily life~
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