Yan Su reconstructed the password from memory and looked at her: "Can you understand Morse code?"
Zhen Ai didn't respond. She took his paper and pen and started writing: "delf/ben/agust/150/250/0441/2!"
Watching her write each letter one by one, Yan Su smiled slightly: "At first, I took the initials of these three words as keywords. The English looks like names, and the numbers resemble Chinese mobile phone numbers, but in the broader context of the U.S., there wouldn't be such phone numbers. The person who designed this password didn't think it through."
His tone clearly held a hint of arrogance, as if mocking the other person's lack of professionalism.
Zhen Ai said, "Now isn't the time to judge the quality of their password, right?"
"The numbers at the back should also be converted to letters. The reason they're split into three segments is that some letters represent two-digit numbers. For example, 15 could represent the first letter A and the fifth letter E, but it could also be the fifteenth letter O. So, the zero after 15 indicates that this letter isn't a single-digit number."
Zhen Ai replied, "So 150 is the fifteenth letter O, and 250 is the twenty-fifth letter Y?"
Yan Su raised an eyebrow: "I don't need to explain the rest, do I?"
Zhen Ai was eager to try: "The remaining 0441 deliberately places the zero at the front to distinguish it from the previous two numbers, indicating that these letters are all single digits. It was intentionally written as 441 rather than 144 or 414 because there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet. So, 0441 represents DDA. The specifically noted 2 with an exclamation mark means to recalculate it twice, right?"
Yan Su had an expression that encouraged her to continue, and Zhen Ai immediately started writing on the paper: "So now the letters are DELF BEN AGUST, plus two OYDDA." She paused, looking up at him with questioning eyes, "Could it be that we need to permute the letters?"
As she looked up abruptly, she met his face only a few fingers away.
He had leaned in, intending to give her some pointers as she wrote earnestly, but didn't expect her to lift her head without warning, leaving them just inches apart.
Zhen Ai froze, blinking, with the piano behind her providing no escape.
His breath was steady, tickling her face, yet the man seemed oblivious, his eyes clear and clean like a ginkgo forest in autumn, staring at her without blinking.
She could even see her tiny reflection in his light brown pupils, unable to tell if her face had turned red.
Yan Su initially thought nothing of it and felt there was no issue until he sensed the warmth of the girl's breath, soft and gentle, and only then did he realize the distance was inappropriate.
So,
He slowly, carefully leaned back, sitting fully in his chair. His face didn't turn red, but he clearly showed signs of awkwardness.
He lowered his gaze to the paper in Zhen Ai's hand, his tone a bit stiff as he said, "Yeah, it's about permuting the letters."
Zhen Ai quickly brushed aside the earlier awkwardness, energized as she said, "Let me give it a try."
"Let's save time," he suddenly returned to his arrogant tone, stating the answer directly, "dead body at SFU, golden day." SFU referred to Sorrel Fraser University, and "golden day" referred to the "day of death" at the university.
"Golden day? Isn't it believed in some places that the last day of a leap year is a 'golden day'?"
"Right, so the death password I mentioned is clear now, isn't it?"
Zhen Ai was excited, surprised that the password was so interesting. It seemed simple now, but it wasn't easy to find the clues at first. If it weren't for Yan Su's hints, she didn't know how long it would have taken her. "You're amazing! For you, this kind of password is a piece of cake, isn't it?"
"Indeed." He didn't hold back, but after a moment, he frowned slightly and said seriously, "But often, a single password can have many different solutions. That's why I said it isn't a death threat."
Zhen Ai was puzzled: "But someone has already died, proving it."
"There's a logical issue here." Yan Su intertwined his fingers under his chin, his eyes slightly narrowed, "Simple numerical and letter passwords have too many solutions. Therefore, there must be a conventional decoding method agreed upon between the sender and receiver for ease of communication. So,
If the receiver, that is, the deceased, could understand the death threat and knew someone was coming to kill her, then her waiting leisurely in the dorm for death indicates she had reached a certain state of acceptance towards death.
If the deceased couldn't understand the threat, then the sender went to great lengths to create a password that the receiver couldn't comprehend, which shows that this person was incredibly bored and empty.
In conclusion, this password isn't a death threat."
Zhen Ai understood at once; he truly was a logician. After he unraveled the logic, she couldn't help but marvel at how obvious the dissonance was, and why she hadn't noticed it before.
His crossed fingers tapped rhythmically on the back of his hand, like a butterfly flapping its wings. "In fact, that day I thought your roommate would pose a threat to you, and my first instinct was to translate it as a death threat. But at no other point did I consider it a threat."
"What was it then?"
Yan Su took the paper and pen from Zhen Ai, holding the eraser with focus as he carefully wiped away the earlier analysis, leaving only the original names and phone numbers. "I was overcomplicating things before; letters are just letters, and numbers are just numbers. You should first look at the letters and see if you can permute DELF/BEN/AGUST."
"Feb." With the earlier discussion as a foundation, Zhen Ai first thought of February, and then...
She gasped, looking up at him in surprise: "Angel Dust!"
Yan Su's gaze deepened, his expression enigmatic: "You know about angel dust?"
Zhen Ai paused, her heart racing, but she kept her composure as she explained, "Isn't it just the slang term for PCP? I did a news investigation on hallucinogenic drugs before, so I learned a lot."
But in truth, she knew more than that; she also knew that the professional name for PCP was Phencyclidine. However, she couldn't fathom how Jiang Xin was related to drugs and quickly asked, "What do the numbers mean then?"
"Three words correspond to three numbers. Angel 150 is a bar; dust corresponding to 250 should mean 250 grams; Feb corresponds to 0144/2, February 29." Yan Su exhaled lazily, as if concluding a lecture, refusing to say more.
Zhen Ai slowly said, "So, the meaning of this password is to bring 250 grams of Angel Dust to Angel 150 bar on February 29."
Yan Su glanced at her casually: "Very clever."
Zhen Ai replied, "I can tell you're mocking me."
At that moment, Owen returned from his walk, chatting with Yan Su about the scenic views in the mountains, mentioning a river where, come spring when the snow melts and the water rises, large numbers of salmon swim upstream.
Zhen Ai hadn't slept well the previous night, so she went upstairs to sleep.
However, without Marie leading the way, she got lost.
The second floor of the castle had corridors branching out in all directions, twisting and turning, and every corridor looked similar. Several times, Zhen Ai thought she had found her room, only to twist the door lock and find it wouldn't open, forcing her to search again.
Fortunately, after a few tries, she finally found the right room. After taking a shower, without any pajamas, she wrapped herself in a towel and climbed into bed. After lying there for a while, she found an unusual tranquility in the darkness.
This unfamiliar place somehow brought her peace.
Snuggling under the covers, she smiled slightly, then got up to retrieve the sleep aid Owen had bought her from her clothes pocket, swallowing two tablets and comfortably lying back down.
Yan Su read until late and, when returning to his room to shower, discovered his towel was missing. He opened the bathroom door to check, but the other toiletries in the cabinet were still there.
"Hmm? Where's the towel?"
He stood still, looking around in confusion. It was too late to ask Marie, so he just took a spare.
Stepping out of the brightly lit bathroom, his eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness of the bedroom, but he knew the place well enough to find the bed with his eyes closed, pulling back the covers and lying down to sleep.
He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but his slumber began to stir, as if something soft and feather-like was gently tickling his face.
He was someone who always woke up grumpy, so he opened his eyes in dissatisfaction, only to find that in an instant, all sleepiness evaporated like dust into the moonlight.
Zhen Ai's serene sleeping face was close by, illuminated by moonlight, and he could clearly see the girl's face, translucent and almost ethereal. He could also distinctly smell her fresh fragrance—just like his own.
She had used his soap and his towel; how could it not smell like him?
Catching the scent of someone who smelled like him, Yan Su frowned in displeasure.
After a moment, he slowly sat up, pursing his lips, his gaze dark as he silently turned to look at her: no wonder I can't sleep well; it turns out a female hormone diffuser is lying next to me, disrupting my physiological system.
He was certain that this unbelievable situation was entirely her fault.
Yet the culprit slept soundly, her long black hair spread out on the pillow, contrasting with her small face, which looked like a crescent moon; her delicate shoulders were exposed, and the towel had loosened in places unseen, revealing a graceful curve at her chest.
Yan Su quietly stared at her for a few seconds, and strangely enough, he felt a sense of calm wash over him. Oh, so she has a habit of sleeping naked just like me... Hmm, sleeping naked does help improve sleep quality.
He considered her nudity as a form of approval towards him, and he thought to himself how kind he was to suppress the impulse to kick her out of bed, ultimately muttering to himself, "This is my bed!"
After saying that, he simply lay back down, continuing to sleep peacefully.
Zhen Ai enjoyed a good night's sleep.
But in the morning, when she woke up, she found Yan Su quietly sleeping beside her. She blinked a few times, and his handsome profile hadn't disappeared. Her mind went blank; she hadn't yet figured out what was going on when Yan Su woke up.
He opened his eyes groggily, rubbed them as usual, then threw off the covers and got out of bed.
The moment he sat up, it seemed he remembered something, and without making a fuss, he pulled the towel from the bed's edge and wrapped it around his waist, standing up and turning back with an honest expression: "Almost forgot you were here."
Zhen Ai didn't want to think about what it might mean if he usually got up naked; instead, she focused on the implications: "You knew I was here last night?"
Yan Su didn't catch the questioning tone, mistaking it for a statement, and replied, "I knew last night, but I just forgot. Maybe you should learn to have more presence like me."
Zhen Ai was speechless: "You knew I was here last night, and you still slept here?"
Yan Su looked at her calmly: "Just because you ran into the wrong room, do I have to run into the wrong one too? Just because you slept in the wrong bed, should I not sleep in my own bed? Why should I punish myself for your mistake?"
Zhen Ai knew his way of thinking was different, but she was still fuming. The key point was that she knew arguing with someone like him would be fruitless. After racking her brain for a while, she gritted her teeth and provocatively focused on the towel at his waist: "No need to cover up; I've seen plenty. A man's body isn't a big deal to me."
Yan Su's eyes flickered. After a moment, he casually replied, "Oh, so you're just like Officer Diaz. Don't worry, when I die, I'll donate my body to a research institution... so you can see it as much as you want."
Zhen Ai: ...
Her provocation had failed, and she had inadvertently exposed herself.
For the first time, Zhen Ai felt frantic, angrily wrapping the towel around herself, making a commotion as she climbed out of bed to find her clothes, muttering, "Weird people living in weird houses; how could a normal person find the right room!"
"Blaming my house for your own clumsiness?" Yan Su clearly thought her comment was unfair. "As a human, you should know you're a creature capable of memory. The places you've walked can form a mental map in your mind."
Zhen Ai looked at him in extreme disbelief; his statement challenged every person who was directionally challenged, though she herself wasn't.
"Your oddity doesn't mean everyone else is!"
Yan Su calmly retorted, "Okay, I can find my room because I have a magnetic field sensor in my head, just like a pigeon."
And finally, quite disrespectfully, he added, "You're dumber than a pigeon because a pigeon would never flap around and end up in a pot where humans are frying chicken."