DA chapter 29

 

Lin Jia and Yan Xu stared at the grease on the electronic screen. Lin Jia quickly noticed that the grease on the number “0” was layered, meaning the password had more than one zero.

0023? 0032?

Password settings generally have some meaning, but if the number “0” is placed in front, like an amount of money, it can have many meanings.

Lin Jia thought briefly and was just about to suggest trying “2003” when he saw Yan Xu reach out and press the electronic lock.

The first number was “2,” the second “0,” the third “0,” the fourth “3,” and finally, Yan Xu pressed the pound key.

With a ding-dong sound, the lock opened.

Lin Jia fell silent. Yan Xu pushed the door open a crack. From where Lin Jia stood, he could not clearly see inside.

He simply stepped back, leaving the room and moving to the stairwell.

His original task was to keep watch.

Lin Jia stood in the stairwell, also keeping watch. He glanced in Yan Xu’s direction and saw him slip into the room. For now, he could not concern himself with whether there was danger inside or what clues were hidden there.

What he wanted to figure out was what the cat was doing. Had it failed to find a chance to fuse, or had the fusion failed?

The more he tried to figure it out, the more irritated he became.

He had already delivered the opportunity right to the cat’s mouth. If the cat could not take advantage of it, it might as well die.

As he was thinking this, a scream suddenly came from downstairs.

Lin Jia frowned and quickly walked to the doorway. “Captain Yan.”

Yan Xu was still searching for clues with his head lowered. He found a photo wedged in the gap by the bedside, but it was stuck in deep. His finger joints were large, so it took quite a bit of effort to pull out the photo.

After taking the photo and glancing at it, he tucked it into his pocket and slowly replied, “Coming.”

But when he looked up, Lin Jia had already disappeared.

Yan Xu froze for a moment, then laughed in annoyance.

The scream had attracted many gazes. The director had not finished checking everyone’s answers yet, but had already moved on to the next person’s room. Because the director was still there, no one dared to step forward and check. They could only stare fearfully at the door from which the scream had come.

Lin Jia quickly came down from the rooftop. When Xiao Yao saw him, he wanted to ask about the situation, but Lin Jia ignored him and walked toward Deputy Chen. Among the many onlookers, Lin Jia spotted Deputy Chen, but there was no cat in his arms.

His brow tightened almost imperceptibly. Then, he pretended nothing was wrong and calmly walked up to Deputy Chen.

Before Lin Jia could ask, Deputy Chen spoke up: “Sorry, the cat suddenly ran off.”

“It hasn’t been away from me for long,” Lin Jia had already expected that things would not go smoothly. After a brief explanation, he asked: “Did it cause trouble?”

“Not really.” Deputy Chen asked, “Don’t you need to look for it?”

Lin Jia replied: “It will follow the scent back.”

Since Lin Jia said so, Deputy Chen nodded and looked at Yan Xu.

Yan Xu gave a slight nod.

At that moment, click—

The director came out of the last person’s room. She looked up at the people in the corridor and tapped her cane impatiently. “Why are you all crowding in the corridor? Go back to your rooms. If you have nothing to do, don’t run around.”

A scream showed that someone had died again. The remaining survivors did not want to anger the director, so they all returned to their rooms.

No matter how much Xiao Yao wanted to know about Lin Jia’s results, he could only go back to his room.

Lin Jia took this chance to return to his room as well. Inside, it was quiet, and the cat was not there.

He stood in place for a moment: “Stupid cat.”

The “thump, thump” sound gradually moved farther away and eventually disappeared from the second floor. Once they confirmed that the director had left, the others rushed out of their rooms again and gathered at the door of the room from which the scream had come.

Just like yesterday, the door was unlocked. It only needed a gentle push to open.

Yesterday, however, no one dared step forward because they did not know what had happened inside. Seeing what had happened yesterday, someone now dared to push the door open.

As Lin Jia came out of his room, he saw Zhang Tudou directing someone to open the door.

The moment the door opened, a corpse fell out.

There were fewer screams today, but everyone’s expressions were still terrible. The person who opened the door rolled up his sleeves and carefully turned the corpse over. Copying Yan Xu’s actions from yesterday, he pressed on both sides of the corpse’s cheeks.

Watching someone else touch a corpse is one thing, but touching one yourself is another matter entirely. The deceased had died recently, and the body was still warm. The cheeks were still warm, but the warmth was disappearing quickly.

This person’s hands were shaking. He relied entirely on willpower to pry open the dead person’s mouth.

“The tongue… His tongue is gone too.” Zhang Tudou, standing behind him, said with an ugly expression.

No one spoke.

Everyone looked at each other. The same method of death showed that the two deceased had triggered the same death condition, but the director’s questions were clearly different. They had no idea why they had survived, nor did they know if they would trigger the director’s killing condition tomorrow.

If they could not find the condition, more of them would die. No one could guarantee that they would not be the next dead person.

“Say your answers.” In the silence, Yan Xu spoke. “For ‘two ears and four feet,’ my answer is an Arctic fox.”

After he spoke, he glanced at Lin Jia and lifted his chin very impolitely, signaling to everyone to look in his direction. “He was a guinea pig.”

Deputy Chen followed. “Mine was a cat.”

“I said dog.” Xiao Yao added.

As the others gradually recovered from the horror of death, they began offering their own answers.

“Rabbit.”

“Pig.”

“Mouse.”

“…”

“Two ears and four feet” was a broad category, and now all kinds of answers filled the corridor.

Lin Jia listened silently. By the end, his guess about the director’s condition was confirmed. However, he did not speak up to explain. He did not like sharing what he discovered. Judging from Yan Xu’s appearance, Lin Jia knew that Yan Xu had already figured out the circumstances surrounding the director’s death. Perhaps, like him, Yan Xu had guessed long ago; otherwise, he would not have asked about his answer after leaving the director’s office.

“Captain Yan.” Xiao Tian looked at Yan Xu with both fear and expectation. “Do you know something?”

Everyone looked toward Yan Xu, expectation appearing on their faces.

However, Yan Xu did not explain the answer directly. Instead, he asked everyone to list the order in which they had been checked. After asking each person individually, everyone’s anticipation had reached its peak. Deputy Chen turned to Yan Xu and said: “Stop keeping people guessing.”

Yan Xu said: “Repeated.”

Immediately, countless emotions appeared on everyone’s faces. Some looked thoughtful; others were still confused.

Xiao Tian thought for a moment. “Captain Yan, do you mean that if the answer repeats, you die? But…”

He looked at the corpse on the ground and swallowed nervously. “If repeating means death, then why did only one person die?”

Suddenly, Xiao Tian understood.

She covered her mouth in horror, and tears instantly filled her eyes.

“The first person to say an answer does not count as a repetition. Only the second person to repeat an answer is counted as repeating it. The director said that parents like smart children, so repeating someone else’s answer is seen as not smart and therefore gets… killed.” Xiao Tian figured it out, tears falling one after another. “Yesterday, Xiao Cheng and I both chose the same song, and he corrected my lyrics. It wasn’t because he sang badly or was nervous. It was only because he was checked after me…”

Xiao Tian described a tragedy, but the others could not empathize much. Instead, faint approval showed in their eyes.

After all, Xiao Tian was just a newcomer. Although Yan Xu had almost delivered the answer to her, being able to figure it out herself was good enough.

The old hands had spent too long in the Underwater Wold. Their hearts had grown hard from life and death. They did not understand Xiao Tian’s grief. If they were in her position, they would only feel relieved that they were not the one who repeated someone else’s answer.

Only the remaining two newcomers could understand Xiao Tian, quietly offering a few words of comfort. After understanding the director’s condition, the others felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

Right after that, more good news came.

Deputy Chen asked Yan Xu, “What did you find?”

Everyone’s eyes lit up when they heard that. They suddenly remembered that Yan Xu and Lin Jia had made some subtle moves during breakfast.

Yan Xu and Deputy Chen were not on the same side as Lin Jia, though. They weren’t interested in fish spirits and had no reason to hide clues. Yan Xu smiled and glanced at Lin Jia. Lin Jia could tell he was mocking his narrow-mindedness. Whether or not Lin Jia cooperated with him, Yan Xu would still hand over the clues without reservation.

Lin Jia showed no reaction and quietly listened.

He watched as Yan Xu took a photograph out of his pocket and said, “There’s a separate suite on the top floor. Inside, there are a lot of drugs that stimulate mental excitement. Plus, the director goes to the top floor every half hour at night, so she’s probably preventing the person upstairs from sleeping.”

Sleeping had been mentioned in Soup Surface. ‘She is a bad girl, she cannot sleep.’

Everyone froze for a moment. Xiao Yao said, “Man, not being allowed to sleep is something man-made?”

The photo was first handed to Deputy Chen. After looking at it, he casually tried to pass it to Zhang Tudou beside him. However, before it could reach Zhang Tudou, Xiao Yao snatched it away.

Deputy Chen’s expression darkened slightly, though he said nothing.

Xiao Yao glanced at the photo quickly, then handed it to Lin Jia as if it were a treasure.

Lin Jia naturally accepted it. After all, Xiao Yao had already offended people on his behalf, so there was no need to decline—and he didn’t want to decline anyway.

He lowered his eyes to the photograph. Others stood on tiptoe trying to look at it, but Xiao Yao barked, “Why the rush? You’ll get it after we finish looking. Get lost; don’t crowd so close.”

There were four people in the photo: three adults and one little girl.

Of the three adults, one was the director. The other two stood close together, resembling a married couple. A little girl stood between them, each adult holding one of her hands. They all smiled at the camera.

However, neither the director nor the little girl smiled. The director looked worried, and the little girl lowered her head and stared at her toes. Her whole posture revealed inferiority and timidity.

Lin Jia turned the photo over. Written on the back was a date: June 1, 2010.

He frowned slightly as he thought of the electronic lock password: 2003.

“Brother Jia?” Xiao Yao called softly.

Lin Jia handed the photo back to him. Xiao Yao stared at it for a while, then flipped it over and saw the date. “This couple should be the little girl’s adoptive parents. They probably adopted her on June 1, 2010. But Captain Yan said the director doesn’t let the person upstairs sleep. From Soup Surface, the one not allowed to sleep is the little girl. This means the top-floor room was prepared for her and that she was still in the Welfare Institute. She was clearly adopted, yet she reappeared in the Welfare Institute—something must have happened, and she was sent back.”

He said a lot, but since the others hadn’t seen the photo, they couldn’t respond appropriately.

Xiao Yao looked again at the director’s expression and the little girl’s posture in the photo. Then he concluded, “The little girl is probably the source of the incident.”

Zhang Tudou said impatiently, “Done looking? Can you pass the photo already?”

Xiao Yao didn’t originally want to hand it over, but Lin Jia, beside him, turned his head and glanced at him.

Xiao Yao: “… ”

Instead of handing the photo to Zhang Tudou or another team member, however, he gave it to the newcomers.

The newcomers didn’t dare monopolize the photo, so it eventually made its way to the older members.

Xiao Yao told Lin Jia, “Brother Jia, the director said not to leave the room at night, which means the Welfare Institute is dangerous at night. She wrote so many letters asking for help to expel ghosts. I feel like there’s probably a ghost here at night. But the little girl probably isn’t a ghost. Ghosts don’t need stimulant drugs, but the little girl is definitely related to that ghost.”

This was an obvious conclusion, so Lin Jia simply acknowledged it.

The photo circulated through everyone’s hands. Very quickly, the veterans arrived at the same speculation as Xiao Yao.

Then someone said, “So, what should we ask today? Are we going to ask if the little girl is related to the ghost?”

A deduction was only a deduction. It would only become fact after getting confirmation from the Fishman.

Although everyone clearly understood that asking the Fishman about the connection between the ghost and the little girl was key to uncovering the Soup Base, doing so directly was too dangerous. The director had already killed two people. If the ghost and the little girl materialized at the same time, more people would die.

The atmosphere in the corridor froze once again. The clue was right ahead, but no one had the courage to move forward.

 

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