"..."
"..."
Neither of them spoke, and the atmosphere was somewhat awkward.
"Well..." The woman broke the silence first. "Since I saw you impersonating me in the square and getting into the car with Big Face Cat, I thought you were a bit crazy."
"Is the misunderstanding cleared up now?"
"Now I'm even more certain!"
Lin Xian shrugged helplessly. "So, you still don't believe me, huh? But since you're here to steal from Lin Xian's safe, you must have investigated him, right? Don't you know what he looks like?"
Lin Xian pointed to his own face. "Take a good look at my face and compare it to the photos you've seen during your investigation. Are they identical?"
The woman shook her head. "I haven't investigated the owner of this safe, so I don't know what Lin Xian looks like."
Lin Xian was speechless. He had never thought... proving himself to be himself could be such a difficult task.
"However, who you are doesn't really matter," the woman continued. "If you can help me open the safe, I'll tell you the answer."
She crossed her arms, looking at the perplexing combination lock. "If it's an electronic lock... I can crack it in a few minutes. But these are all mechanical combination locks, eight-digit passwords. Neither brute force nor listening methods can crack them in a short time."
She turned to look at Lin Xian. "So I don't care who you are. You can be anyone. But as long as you can open this safe, you're my partner."
"Deal." Lin Xian extended his right hand cordially. Although he wanted to extract her answer first, he couldn't present any valuable chips right now, so he had to compromise.
"What should I call you?"
"CC." The woman shook his hand and said, "Just call me CC."
Lin Xian realized that none of the characters in his dream seemed to have normal names.
"Do you have a plan?" CC looked at Lin Xian.
"Let's try my significant dates first," Lin Xian suggested. "We'll try them one by one."
...
Lin Xian racked his brains, coming up with one significant date after another related to himself, and tried each one at the safe.
But Lin Xian's brain was on the verge of exploding, and he still couldn't guess the correct password.
"Wasn't my mom's birthday just now... still wrong?"
CC shook her head. "How about trying your grandma's birthday?"
"I don't even know my grandma's birthday."
"Can't you hear the sarcasm in my voice? You've just tried the birthdays of your distant relatives and even your dog's! Can't you change your approach?" CC looked at Lin Xian in disbelief. "Why does it have to be a date? For an eight-digit password, isn't there any other possibility?"
Lin Xian waved his hand. "It must be a date, trust me. I can tell by the structure; it must be a date. It's been my habit to set passwords like this for a long time."
"Are you assuming you're Lin Xian while thinking?"
"I'll reiterate." Lin Xian sighed. "I'm not assuming I'm Lin Xian, I am Lin Xian! Can you quiet down and stop disturbing my thoughts?"
"Ha, your sense of identification is quite strong!" CC chuckled.
Lin Xian realized that he didn't have any valuable chips to present right now, so he had to compromise.
"Why can't you quiet down?" Lin Xian tried to concentrate on his thoughts.
"Sure."
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The ear-piercing alarm suddenly sounded, indicating that the main power had been restored, triggering the automatic alarm!
"Damn it!" Lin Xian felt his urgency rise, kicking the safe.
"Hurry up!" CC yelled amidst the blaring alarm.
"I'm trying!" Lin Xian's head was pounding, trying to think of any other dates he might have forgotten.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The deafening alarm continued, adding to the tension.
"I'm thinking!" Lin Xian scratched his scalp, feeling the pressure.
"I'm thinking, but I can't think of any!"
His head was throbbing, his brain overloaded.
Lin Xian felt like the world was spinning around him, like being thrown into a rotating Rubik's Cube, with familiar memories flashing by like changing TV channels.
"You're not helping at all!"
Beep! Beep! Beep!
00:41:27
It was not just a police problem now... the dream was about to end in 33 seconds.
"Are you even capable?" CC shouted, "You just said some nice words!"
"Can you stop guessing randomly?"
Beep! Beep! Beep!
00:41:47
"20150609!" Lin Xian shouted, covering his ears.
"What date is that!? Don't tell me it's the day you confessed your love!" CC yelled amidst the cacophony.
"Damn, can't you stop guessing randomly? Enter the password quickly!"
"I've entered it!"
00:41:56
Clang!
...
It didn't open.
Lin Xian felt his body go limp, feeling dizzy and disoriented.
He took one last look at CC in front of the safe.
In the blurred vision...
She turned away, her eyes filled with resentment, staring straight into his soul—
"Fraud."
00:42:00
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
A blazing white light suddenly flashed, swallowing everything...
...
...
December.
Early winter dawn.
In a clean and tidy bedroom.
Lin Xian opened his eyes...