"Someone's happiness depends on you, Detective Mu!" Around 11 PM, Chi Zhoumu received this seemingly random message. It was from Xia Yan, one of only six girls in his class.
"What does this mean???" Chi Zhoumu replied with three question marks to show his complete bewilderment.
However, Xia Yan never replied again. Had she sent it to the wrong person? Chi Zhoumu wondered. No, the way she addressed him was clearly directed at him. Chi Zhoumu quickly called her, but as expected, her phone was off. What was going on? It seemed the only way to understand this cryptic message was to ask her in class tomorrow, Chi Zhoumu thought to himself.
The sun was already shining on the blankets, but the four lazybones were still fast asleep. The nine o'clock alarm rang. "No classes this morning, right?" Qian Xing asked lazily. "No, I don't think so," Xu Yu said, uttering a statement that even he himself wasn't sure about. "Oh, then I won't get up..." Qi Kai barely moved his lips as he said this. "Damn it! I have English class this morning! I'm going to be late!" After a three-second pause, Qi Kai jumped out of bed and shouted with his mouth wide open.
"Ah, what the hell! Why didn't you say so earlier!" "Yeah, you should have said so earlier!" "I didn't know either!"...
"Hurry up! We're already late! Hey, Qian Xing, can you stop being so vain? You're still combing your hair, hurry up and let's go!" Chi Zhoumu urged. "Okay, okay, almost done," Qian Xing replied readily. Actually, you can't blame Qian Xing. As the most handsome guy in the class, his appearance naturally can't be too sloppy, otherwise, why would so many girls admire him?
When they rushed to the classroom, the teacher had already started teaching for five minutes. After quickly finding a seat, Chi Zhoumu finally breathed a long sigh of relief. As a boy who never took notes, Chi Zhoumu mainly passed the time in class by playing on his phone. When Chi Zhoumu turned around and saw Xia Yan behind him, he immediately remembered the text message from last night. "Hey, what did that mean last night? I have absolutely no idea." Chi Zhoumu asked Xia Yan anxiously. "Oh, nothing, nothing, just listening to the lesson..." Xia Yan answered evasively. Something's definitely wrong, Chi Zhoumu thought to himself, but since she didn't want to talk about it anymore, he felt embarrassed to ask further and gave up.
"Can I borrow your English notes? I'll return them tomorrow." Chi Zhoumu asked to borrow Xia Yan's notes again after class, as was his usual practice. "Um, use Qinqin's instead, I need mine today." Xia Yan pointed to Sun Qinqin next to her and immediately handed over Sun Qinqin's notes. "Okay, it's the same, thanks." Chi Zhoumu said with a smile. "I won't lend them to you next time, bye-bye." "Bye-bye."
"Homework is due again this afternoon, comrades." Qian Xing complained, then opened his bag and took out his textbook. "Hey, what's this?" he asked, holding up a rectangular piece of cardboard. "What is this?" Xu Yu leaned closer. "I don't know, I took it out of my bag, but I don't have this," Qian Xing explained. "What is it?" Chi Zhoumu and Qi Kai also gathered around.
Qian Xing was holding a white piece of cardboard, about the size of a greeting card. One side had a pair of pandas on it, and the other side had blue lines for writing, just like in an exercise book. The cardboard was quite delicate; it must have been specially prepared for something. Three lines of black text were written on it:
shi dian
｀3—8—23—4｀
89—16—shi li (chemistry).
The handwriting was deliberately childish, stroke by stroke, probably to prevent others from recognizing it.
"What are these? Can anyone understand them and explain?" Qian Xing scratched the back of his head and looked at the others. "This must be a love letter someone wrote to you, haha," Qi Kai said, laughing. Actually, Qian Xing had received some love letters from girls expressing their admiration before. "Damn it, don't talk nonsense if you don't understand." Qian Xing said this verbally, but he was secretly pleased. "Let me see," Xu Yu took over the conversation, "'shi dian', this should mean 'ten o'clock', three strokes and eight, oh, I get it." He said with a smile, "They're calling you a 'three-bite' (a derogatory term for someone who is always nagging)." He then burst into laughter. "Go to hell!" Qian Xing said jokingly, kicking Xu Yu with his leg. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Xu Yu said with a smile, begging for forgiveness.
"Now it seems that only this 'chemistry' can be truly understood," Chi Zhoumu said, pointing to the last line.
"chemistry, chemistry?" Qian Xing asked in surprise, "We study electrical engineering, which has nothing to do with chemistry. This, I don't understand what it's trying to express at all?"
"shi dian, does it mean to meet somewhere at ten o'clock?" Chi Zhoumu added, "Is that string of numbers the date?" Chi Zhoumu seemed to have discovered something, "Today is April 10th, that's not right?" Chi Zhoumu took out his phone and looked at it, then continued. "Ah, right!" he suddenly exclaimed, startling everyone. "The eighth day of the third lunar month, today! Today is the eighth day of the third lunar month!" Chi Zhoumu seemed to be talking to himself, leaving the three of them bewildered.
"Look!" Chi Zhoumu said excitedly, pointing to the words above. "Shi dian means ten o'clock, 3 and 8 refer to today, which is the eighth day of the third lunar month, and the last shi li indicates the location is Shili Bridge at our school. Chemistry means the person who wrote this is from the School of Chemical Engineering." He said with some pride, as if he had solved the last math problem in the college entrance examination.
"What about the others? Besides, this is a three-one-stroke character, isn't it?" Qi Kai asked, pointing to the three-one-stroke character.
"Well, I'm not too sure either, but Qian Xing, you should know if you go to Shili Bridge tonight. I guess a girl from the School of Chemical Engineering is asking you out." Chi Zhoumu said playfully.
“Okay, then I’ll go ‘solo to the meeting’ tonight, haha… By the way, it’s not 10 AM, is it?”
“How could it be? It’s already afternoon.” Xu Yu answered confidently.
“Yeah, that’s true.” Qian Xing decided to go and find out tonight.
At 10 PM, Qian Xing dressed up and hurriedly went to the meeting. Qi Kai and Xu Yu were having a great time playing League of Legends, so Chi Zhoumu had to open his notebook and start copying today’s English notes. “There are still people writing with blue pens!” Chi Zhoumu opened Sun Qinqin’s notebook and exclaimed to himself in amazement. At
11 PM, Qian Xing returned, looking a little dejected. “How was it? Did you see them?” Chi Zhoumu asked with a smile. “Yes, yes, what did they look like?” Xu Yu and Qi Kai came over.
“They did come, two of them.” Qian Xing’s tone showed that he was not happy.
“Ah, you’re lucky, kid!” Qi Kai clapped his hands and exclaimed.
"What? Those two were a couple, all lovey-dovey. There was nobody else around, not even a ghost. I was stuck there feeling nauseous for over an hour," Qian Xing complained angrily.
"Oh, okay," Chi Zhoumu said, somewhat disappointed. He also felt his reasoning was a bit flawed; sending Qian Xing there was just a gamble. It seemed the card held some hidden meaning. "Let me see the card." "Hmm." Qian Xing handed the card to Chi Zhoumu. Chi Zhoumu looked at it for a while, noticing something vaguely familiar, but couldn't quite place it. However, he did make a discovery: "I should know tomorrow," Chi Zhoumu thought to himself.
Outside the classroom, birds sang and flowers bloomed, but Chi Zhoumu paid no attention. "Hey, do you have any female classmates from the Chemical Engineering department?" Chi Zhoumu asked, nudging Xia Yan.
"No, one's from Civil Engineering. Why?" Xia Yan asked curiously.
"Oh, so you put that card in Qian Xing's bag yesterday, didn't you?"
"Wow, you're amazing! You knew all that. No wonder you're Detective Mu! Can you tell me how you knew?" Xia Yan seemed to have expected Chi Zhoumu to figure out she was the one who planted it.
"Well, if I tell you, can you answer one question for me?" Chi Zhoumu seemed to be negotiating.
"Sure, no problem!" Xia Yan answered readily.
"It's simple. There's a bit of OPI blue nail polish on the corner of the card, probably the same as what you have on your hand," Chi Zhoumu smiled slightly, "but it smells pretty bad."
"Sigh, nothing escapes your notice. By the way, what do you want to ask?" Xia Yan asked.
"Um, what does the writing on the card mean?"
"I knew what you wanted to ask. I don't know either. I was just passing it on for someone else, and I didn't understand it myself. I was hoping you could decipher it." Xia Yan's eyes showed she was telling the truth.
"No, wait, you texted me that night as if you already knew what was going to happen, saying someone's happiness depended on me. You must know what's on the card, right?" Chi Zhoumu retorted.
"I really don't know, I'm just guessing." Xia Yan's tone suggested she'd been misunderstood.
"Okay, but who were you passing it for?"
"That's absolutely confidential, and besides, I've already answered one of your questions, so I refuse to answer this one." Xia Yan said firmly.
"Fine, I'll find out." Chi Zhoumu was still somewhat confident in himself; she probably wouldn't say because it concerned someone's privacy, he thought to himself. So Chi Zhoumu had no choice but to keep quiet.
Since Xia Yan didn't have any other female classmates, the card must belong to one of the six girls in the class, so Xia Yan could be ruled out; she was passing it for someone else. Sun Qinqin probably wasn't either; she wrote with a blue pen, while the writing on the card was black. The remaining girls, in order, were: Zhao Feifei, a top student who spent all her time in the library and probably had little to do with this; Gao Ting—a lively and cheerful girl, quite sunny, and usually very outgoing with everyone; Zeng Litian—less lively than Gao Ting and didn't like talking to boys much; and Wang Fang—a good student who often joked around with boys. All three were quite good-looking. This made it difficult to make a decision. Chi Zhoumu went through all three in his mind, but still couldn't come up with the answer he wanted.
"Want to go to the internet cafe for some gaming?" several classmates asked as soon as class ended. "Sure, let's go!" Chi Zhoumu readily agreed, putting the card issue aside for now, he thought to himself.
As Chi Zhoumu habitually opened the two legs of the internet cafe keyboard that could prop it up at an angle, he suddenly remembered something. "Guys, I'm going back now!" Chi Zhoumu said, rushing out without looking back.
Back in his dormitory, he compared the card to his own. No wonder it felt somewhat familiar; that was the problem. Chi Zhoumu felt a surge of joy; he now knew whose card it was. But what exactly was on the card, and what was it trying to express? Chi Zhoumu was still completely clueless.
Comments
Post a Comment