After finishing his assessment of the two individuals’ appearances, Xia Xiqing looked around the room. It was quite different from theirs, clearly a bedroom, with simple furnishings: a black wooden wardrobe, a round table on a woolen carpet, and a small bed.
Shang Sirui’s approach differed from theirs. He gathered all the items that appeared to be clues and placed them on the round table, then analyzed each one in turn.
“Zi Heng, could you help me determine if these items are useful?”
Zhou Ziheng nodded and walked over to examine the existing clues with him.
Xia Xiqing didn’t go over but instead walked around the small space. This room was different from the previous study; there was almost nothing hanging on the walls. He ran his fingers over the smooth wallpaper and noticed a small camera on the wall directly opposite the bed. But strangely, the camera’s field of view was almost entirely blank walls.
Suddenly, he noticed two tiny nails on the wall, blending in with the wallpaper patterns and hard to detect. Xia Xiqing touched them with his finger and felt something was off.
Had there been a painting hanging here before?
“Xiqing? Come take a look at these clues. I can’t make head or tail of them,” Shang Sirui called out to him and waved him over. Xia Xiqing snapped out of his thoughts and turned to see Zhou Ziheng and Shang Sirui gathered around the round table. He nodded and walked over.
There weren’t many clues on the table—a piece of paper, a memo, and a laptop.
Shang Sirui was explaining to Zhou Ziheng where he had found these clues. Xia Xingqing moved the mouse, and the computer screen lit up, displaying a web browsing page with three URLs in the tab bar. Xia Xiqing clicked on them one by one. The first was information about an art exhibition, the second was a book reservation page, and when he clicked on the third page, he suddenly sensed something.
“Sirui, have you touched this computer?”
Shang Sui, who was talking to Zhou Ziheng, leaned closer, “Huh? No, I haven’t. That computer isn’t connected to the internet. When I came in, these three pages were already displayed.”
Zhou Ziheng glanced over slightly, the screen’s light shining on Xia Xiqing’s face. His eyes blinked slowly, as if deep in thought.
“What did you notice?”
Hearing Zhou Ziheng’s voice, Xia Xiqing turned his head. “Do you remember the sticky note in our room? There was a message written on the back.”
Just as Xia Xiqing was about to continue, Zhou Ziheng pulled out the sticky note from his pocket, which surprised Xia Xiqing. He had already experienced Zhou Ziheng’s patience and attention to detail, but this was beyond his imagination. “You actually brought it with you.”
“Did anyone say carrying clues was against the rules?” Zhou Ziheng raised his eyebrows, flipped the note over and placed it on the table, then pulled over a chair and sat down, reading the message aloud, “Tonight at 10 PM, meet at Sophia Restaurant.”
“Sophia Restaurant?” Shang Sirui furrowed his brows in confusion.
“Yes,” Xia Xiqing moved the notebook in front of Zhou Ziheng and Shang Siru, “The last page is the official website of Sophia Restaurant.”
Shang Siru squinted at the screen, then scratched his head in frustration, “It’s all in English…”
You’re a bit of an idol, aren’t you? Xia Xiqing shook his head in his mind. If this line wasn’t edited out and aired directly, the haters would have another opportunity to attack him, and he might even be labeled as illiterate. The rival team would buy a bunch of press releases and start a massive smear campaign again.
“Rose Day?” Zhou Ziheng seemed to catch a hint of interesting information from the official website.
Shang Sui looked confused, so Xia Xiqing explained roughly, “It’s probably some kind of couples’ dining event. They say they’ll decorate the restaurant with thousands of roses that day, and the special menu will feature rose-themed dishes and drinks.”
“What does this have to do with us escaping this room?” Shang Sirui crouched down, tilting his head up to look at Xia Xiqing. Xia Xiqing felt helpless inside, but still smiled gently at him, “I don’t know either.”
Shang Sui looked at Zhou Ziheng with a puzzled expression. Zhou Ziheng propped his chin on his left hand and tapped the note with his right index finger. “Since two clues point to this restaurant, it can’t be meaningless.”
He was right. If there was only one clue, it might have been a coincidence. But if both clues pointed to this restaurant and the clues progressed step by step, it must have been intentional.
Seeing Shang Sirui’s confused expression, Xia Xiqing, who was playing the role of the angel, feared he might feel awkward and worried the show’s effect might not be good, so she voluntarily shifted the focus away from the restaurant, which currently lacked a complete chain of clues. “Did you guys discuss anything from the other clues earlier?” After speaking, he casually picked up a piece of paper from the table. The front had a neatly written yet childishly innocent line of text, likely penned by a teenager.
[Dad, my teacher gave me a problem today, but I just can’t figure it out. Could you help me solve it?]
Xia Xiqing flipped to the back, where there was a four-digit number and two empty brackets.
1634 ( ) ( )
A number sequence?
The conditions given are too sparse.
Based on the experience from the first room, the production team wouldn’t make it this difficult for the guests. If it were a puzzle similar to a number sequence, they would at least provide three or more numbers. But now there’s only one, and it’s a four-digit number. This is really headache-inducing.
Xia Xiqing looked at Shang Sirui, “Sirui, where did you find this note?”
Shang Sirui pointed to the bedside table, “It was right there, but there was only this one note.”
Xia Xiqing nodded. Though he believed Shang Sirui’s words, he still felt the child was unreliable, so he walked over himself and examined it carefully. Indeed, there were no other items on the bedside table, but he still felt something was off. The production team must have hidden something else. He walked around the bedside table and noticed a trash can wedged between it and the edge of the bed, barely noticeable. Xia Xiqing reached out and pulled out the trash can, emptying its contents onto the floor.
“Goodness, I didn’t even notice!” Shang Sui saw this and immediately stood up, ran over to Xia Xiqing, and knelt down beside him. He followed Xia Xiqing’s example, unfolding each crumpled piece of paper and placing it on the floor. “What’s inside?”
“I’m not sure, but the production team deliberately ‘created’ all this trash, so there must be a purpose behind it.” Xia Xiqing replied to Shang Sirui while flipping through the papers, until he unfolded a piece of paper with several lines of mathematical formulas written on it.
He examined it carefully and saw that it was only half of a calculation process.
“I found it.” Xia Xiqing stood up with the paper in hand and walked over to the round table where Zhou Ziheng was looking at the promotional page for the hotel’s Rose Day on his computer, his expression meaningful. When he saw Xia Xiqing and Shang Sirui walk over, he returned to his previous expression. “What did you find?”
“The calculation process. Look, doesn’t this handwriting look familiar?” Xia Xiqing handed the scrap paper to Zhou Ziheng, who took it, glanced at it, and placed it on the table, his lips curving slightly.
That expression was too handsome. Xia Xiqing was momentarily dazzled.
Zhou Ziheng was simply too much to his taste.
Beauty is deceiving, beauty is deceiving.
“The handwriting in the solution process matches the handwriting on the bookmark in the study earlier. It turns out the note was written by a woman.” Zhou Ziheng placed the scrap paper back on the round table. “It seems we can confirm the identity of the protagonist—a married man with children.”
“Maybe he even has an extramarital affair.” Xia Xiqing sneered.
Shang Sirui was completely baffled, looking confused as he asked, “How did you two figure that out?”
Xia Xiqing blinked, “Just a guess.”
Shang Sirui hummed in response, then smiled innocently, “I feel like I’m not on the same wavelength as the two of you. You two are too in sync; you can understand each other instantly.”
It’s not chemistry; it’s just that we’re smart. Xia Xiqing thought to himself.
He picked up a pen, bent down, and drew a line through the calculation process on the paper. “Let’s take a look at this first.”
The only number given in the question was 1634, and the discarded draft paper only had a single line written on it.
1x1x1x1 6x6x6x6 3x3x3x3 4x4x4x4=?
Author’s Note: Shang Sui: Clinging to the legs of two kings, my goal is to win effortlessly (*?▽?*)
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