Chapter 25: A Letter from the Deceased
Creak—
The metal locker door finally opened.
Xi Leng and Min Zhi returned to the camera’s view. Xi Leng’s cameraman followed him in confusion, watching him use the pliers on the wall to cut the wire into two pieces, then bend down.
One piece of bent wire served as a tension wrench, the other as a pick.
He then picked up the small brass padlock on the shackles and manipulated it with the two wires.
One, two, three… ten seconds.
To the astonishment of the cameraman present and the production crew in the monitoring room—
Click, the lock opened.
“？？？”
Xi Leng quickly removed his shackles. Looking up, he saw the slightly surprised look in Min Zhi’s eyes.
He pursed his lips and explained: “The lock on my apartment was also like this. It was picked by a thief, so I practiced for a few days and learned how to do it too.”
Min Zhi didn’t question whether he had any other side hustles, looking down at his own shackles: “Then mine…”
Xi Leng shuffled over while still squatting: “I’ll open it for you.”
Freed from the shackles and chain, the two, feeling light and unburdened, immediately rushed to the fourth floor.
There was only one corridor on the fourth floor, lined with closed doors on both sides, similar to the ward design downstairs, but judging by the door plates, they were all staff offices.
Xi Leng found a floor directory and finally confirmed the location of the mysterious special ward, immediately informing Min Zhi: “So the special ward is on the fifth floor, those nurses all went to the fifth floor.”
So, the fourth floor should be safe.
A moment later, Min Zhi called out: “Here, the Director’s Office.”
The two knocked on the door, gave their names, and Qiaoqiao cautiously opened the door for them, gesturing for them to come in quickly, then looked around outside before carefully closing and locking the door.
“You’re so fast…” Qiaoqiao said. “I couldn’t find a way to distract the nurses, but the landline rang just now, saying a patient was critically ill and needed immediate surgery, so all the nurses were called to the special ward.”
Xi Leng: “Mm-hmm, we came up during that opportunity.”
“That’s great.” Qiaoqiao relaxed. “I was so worried, I didn’t know how to tell you guys.”
Watching variety shows before, no matter how mind-boggling or terrifying, it was just entertainment for the viewers. Now, experiencing it firsthand, she truly felt the intense pressure.
Then Qiaoqiao sighed and pointed: “There’s a locked drawer under the desk, and the computer needs a password to unlock, I haven’t figured it out yet… There’s also a staff lounge outside with a combination lock.”
“Then let’s take a look together.” Xi Leng, noticing the girl’s anxiety, casually comforted her, “You’ve already done a great job on your own.”
Qiaoqiao’s tense muscles finally relaxed, and she smiled slightly.
Now that the three of them were together, there were three passwords to solve.
Ignoring the combination lock outside for now, Xi Leng sat down at the desk, checking the locked drawer and the computer.
Min Zhi and Qiaoqiao stood on either side of him, the three of them examining the various documents and files on the desk together.
There was a prominent nameplate on the desk with the director’s name, his surname was Zhao. And the usual desk essentials: a notepad, a calendar, a keyboard, a mouse, and a mousepad…
“I always find the logic of these escape rooms strange.” Min Zhi casually flipped through the documents on the desk. “Leaving the clues right here, as if afraid their secrets won’t be discovered.”
Xi Leng, on the other hand, felt that the program team’s escape room logic was quite meticulous, casually replying: “Perhaps it’s because he’s old and afraid of forgetting.”
A chuckle came from above. Xi Leng looked up, but Min Zhi had already composed his expression, saying to him seriously: “The computer password can use letters, numbers, and symbols. If it’s too difficult, we won’t be able to crack it.”
Speaking of numbers, the calendar on the desk probably contained the most numbers. Flipping through the twelve pages, they found four dates circled in red: the director’s birthday, his wife’s birthday, their anniversary, and their son’s birthday.
Min Zhi picked up the photo frame on the desk. It was a middle-aged couple, both smiling brightly, the woman holding a baby who couldn’t walk yet, presumably Director Zhao’s family photo.
Min Zhi turned over the photo frame, revealing the small print in the bottom right corner: “Taken on Liner’s first birthday, February 8, 2021.”
They exchanged glances for a few seconds, seemingly having the same thought.
Xi Leng’s fingers moved to the keyboard, quickly typing “2020.” Min Zhi beside him said at the same time: “Enter 20200208.”
The couple in the photo wasn’t young, having a son at their age, the importance of this child was self-evident.
The password was the child’s full birthdate.
Qiaoqiao’s eyes lit up with excitement: “It worked!!”
Xi Leng calmly operated the mouse, ignoring the various software on the desktop, going directly to the computer’s hard drive.
Like many children did, folders nested within folders, hiding their important things in the innermost layer.
Many parents didn’t understand computers and usually didn’t have this kind of patience.
Unfortunately, the people facing Director Zhao’s computer now had to find his hidden secrets.
Xi Leng clicked about ten times, and the folder icon finally changed, revealing a video file named “20201202.avi.”
This video required another password.
Xi Leng frowned: “This date…”
He took out the girls’ exchange diary from his pocket and checked, confirming: “This is the day after the exchange diary ended. The last entry was on December 1, 2020, written by Xiaoya.”
This timing was too coincidental. To say this video had nothing to do with the two girls, no one would believe it.
“The previous folder names were all numbers.” Min Zhi reminded him.
But those numbers seemed random, like a smokescreen typed haphazardly on the keyboard.
Xi Leng went back and reopened the nested folders, writing down the numbers from the file names on the notepad.
7895123
852
987456321
9874123
745963
“A math problem? I’m a math major.” Qiaoqiao immediately became excited, but her excitement quickly faded. “But there’s not even an example, and the lengths of the numbers are different, how do we solve it, how do we find the pattern?”
There were three drawers in the cabinet under the desk, one locked, one with documents, and one with office supplies.
Among the complete set of office supplies, Min Zhi’s gaze locked onto something, and he instructed Xi Leng: “Take out the calculator.”
Xi Leng’s hand had already reached for the calculator. Besides the used calendar and the photo, this was the only other item with numbers.
The calculator with its number keypad was placed on the table.
“Could this be…” Qiaoqiao pursed her lips, saying doubtfully, “a connect-the-dots puzzle?”
Xi Leng chuckled: “The hidden mission I completed last night had an even more bizarre word game.”
Min Zhi added: “Considering our overall abilities, it shouldn’t be a very difficult math problem. And math is your area of expertise, it wouldn’t be interesting to give you a math problem.”
He then couldn’t resist taking a jab at the absent Jiang Songnan: “A math problem, Jiang Songnan definitely wouldn’t be able to solve it, but a connect-the-dots puzzle, that’s not certain.”
“Jiayan is also terrible at math.” Xi Leng casually mentioned, but Min Zhi’s gaze fell on him.
Xi Leng looked back at him, puzzled.
At this moment, Qiaoqiao took the calculator, compared it with the numbers Xi Leng wrote on the notepad, and traced her finger across the keypad: “7895123… the shape of this connection is the number 2!”
The following strings of numbers were also very cleverly designed, forming continuous lines on the keypad, representing meaningful symbols.
“852 is 1, 987456321 is 5, 9874123 is 6, 745963 is 4. So the password is 21564!”
Xi Leng entered the password for the mysterious video.
He pressed Enter, and the small black video icon expanded, filling the entire screen with darkness.
The image was dim, the angle a top-down view, the resolution low. It was probably a magnified and edited surveillance video.
A bruised and battered girl was tied to a hospital bed, a harsh operating light shining on her, cold surgical instruments beside her, all the pain, terror, and evil in this video, completely exposed.
This opening scene alone was enough to shock the three people watching.
Several medical personnel wearing masks and goggles entered the frame—or perhaps, calling them “demons,” as Number 872 did, was more fitting. They were the complete opposite of life-saving angels in white, carrying lethal scalpels and syringes, approaching the person on the bed step by step.
The girl on the bed was trembling with fear. A woman walked to the bedside, stroking her wet hair, comforting her: “It’s alright, don’t be afraid, you’re young, your body is healthy… even if we remove both kidneys, we can still save your life.”
The girl shook her head desperately, tears streaming down her red-rimmed eyes.
“…Director Zhao, you’re here?” The woman suddenly straightened up, looking in another direction.
Then, a man with graying hair appeared in the frame, wearing a blue medical mask. Judging by his glasses and hairstyle, it was Director Zhao from the family photo.
“Should we give her general anesthesia?” the woman suggested.
Director Zhao shook his head: “CEO Nie believes general anesthesia will affect the health of the kidneys, we have to do as he says.”
With local anesthesia, if the child didn’t cooperate, the surgery would be extremely difficult.
As he spoke, Director Zhao replaced the woman, approaching the girl’s bedside.
The girl stared at Director Zhao with bloodshot eyes, her gaze filled with both bone-chilling hatred and desperate pleading.
Director Zhao’s eyes were cold and indifferent.
“You killed CEO Nie’s beloved son, but he kindly spared you, hiring a lawyer to argue for mental illness. Otherwise, you would be in jail for years, instead of living comfortably here…”
The girl didn’t appreciate it, only repeating over and over: “Kill me, sob, sob, just kill me…”
Clearly, she had suffered a far more terrifying punishment at the hospital than the law would have imposed. This was probably CEO Nie’s intention.
“You killed someone.” Director Zhao said. “Now that CEO Nie needs two healthy kidneys, this is your chance to atone for your sins.”
“N-no! It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! He… he asked for it!” The girl was completely hysterical, her words incoherent.
Director Zhao remained unmoved by her cries and curses, then, after a while, he spoke, calling out a familiar name: “Xiaoya.”
The three people watching held their breath, listening intently.
Director Zhao, like a venomous snake, hissed out each cold and heartless word.
“Do you want Feifei to live?”
“Then show your value.”
As his voice fell, the struggling girl suddenly became quiet. The sharp scalpel, poised and ready, moved towards her abdomen…
The video abruptly ended.
A bone-chilling coldness seeped into their marrow, goosebumps rising all over their bodies, an involuntary tremor.
Even breathing became difficult. Qiaoqiao gasped, her eyes reddening: “This is too much… these people are the ones breaking the law, committing murder! And that CEO Nie… Xiaoya was definitely wrongly accused!”
Xi Leng, however, found this illogical, frowning and asking: “But… this is Director Zhao’s computer, why would he keep this video evidence of his own crime?”
“This isn’t just evidence of his crime.” Min Zhi continued, “There’s also CEO Nie, he was the one who wanted Xiaoya’s kidneys, breaking the law, he was also the one who had Xiaoya admitted to this mental hospital.”
“This is Director Zhao’s leverage to protect himself, or rather, his weakness? CEO Nie could torture one child, he could torture another. Director Zhao also has a child, a very young child.”
To protect his own child.
This logic was very simple and reasonable, yet something Xi Leng could never have imagined.
His eyes darkened slightly, subtly changing the subject: “Now we need to find the key to the drawer.”
After carefully rewinding the video to confirm he hadn’t missed anything, he closed the computer, restoring it to its original state.
He then stood up and walked around the room, stopping in front of the coat rack.
A white coat hung there, the name tag bearing Director Zhao’s name.
Xi Leng, on a whim, reached into the pocket and, luckily, found a bunch of keys.
Qiaoqiao stared, amazed: “You found it so quickly…”
Xi Leng found a key of the right size, inserted it into the lock, smoothly turned it, and successfully unlocked the drawer.
Qiaoqiao involuntarily held her breath, staring intently at the slowly opening drawer.
Xi Leng took out a booklet: “Xiaoya’s treatment records.”
After removing the booklet, something unexpected appeared beneath it.
A smartphone.
“A phone!” Qiaoqiao exclaimed. “Then is that…”
Unfortunately, Xi Leng extinguished her enthusiasm with one sentence: “No SIM card, no network.”
Although they couldn’t contact the outside world, it didn’t prevent them from checking the phone’s contents.
The phone had been specifically modified by the program team, all irrelevant apps hidden. Only the icon of a messaging app was displayed on the screen.
The contact list was simple, a name pinned to the top: Xiaoya.
The chat background was a photo of two girls. One of them was Xiaoya, whom they had seen in the video, the other presumably the owner of the phone.
Xi Leng quickly scrolled through the chat history, summarizing the key information, telling his two companions, and also the future audience.
“This is Feifei’s phone. She and Xiaoya were best friends, classmates in junior high. They originally planned to go to the same high school, but Yaxin High School offered Xiaoya, an outstanding student, a place, covering all tuition and fees, and also a generous scholarship. Xiaoya was a left-behind child, her grandparents’ health wasn’t good, she needed the money. While she was struggling with the decision, Feifei expressed her understanding, supporting her to go to Yaxin, saying distance wouldn’t affect their friendship.”
“But… not long after starting high school, something happened.”
“Xiaoya was targeted by the school bully—Nie Yaxin. He was the only son of Principal Nie, the CEO, and even the school was named after him. Xiaoya couldn’t resist him at all, only able to confide in her friend.”
The further down the chat history he scrolled, the heavier the content became. Xi Leng lowered his eyes, his throat as if choked by a piece of ice, unable to read aloud.
He placed the phone on the table, letting the camera film it.
Nie Yaxin relentlessly pursued Xiaoya, and after being rejected, he resorted to despicable means, drugging her and taking photos to threaten her. Xiaoya, with her secret in his hands, could only submit to his demands.
Feifei advised Xiaoya to go to the police. Just as Xiaoya finally mustered the courage, her grandfather suffered a stroke and was hospitalized, with serious complications, urgently needing a large sum of money for surgery and hospitalization. Xiaoya could only temporarily give up on going to the police, pleading with Nie Yaxin for help. But the wealthy Nie Yaxin repeatedly toyed with her, making her accompany him again and again, only giving her a paltry two hundred yuan each time.
But Xiaoya had no other choice.
Until her grandfather, due to lack of money, missed the best treatment opportunity and died in despair.
The night of her grandfather’s death, Nie Yaxin asked Xiaoya out again.
Xiaoya said she was going to a KTV, full of determination, saying she would get Nie Yaxin’s phone, delete all the photos and videos of her, and then go to the police to report this scumbag.
The last message in the chat history was a video sent by Xiaoya.
Xi Leng clicked play.
The video was shaky and dark, with music and the sounds of men arguing and joking in the background. Finally, a man lazily sitting on a sofa, holding a microphone, appeared in the frame.
He looked at the camera, seemingly finding a more interesting toy, raising his eyebrows playfully: “Yo, Xiaoya’s here?”
The person filming was Xiaoya. This young man was most likely the spoiled brat, Nie Yaxin.
Not long after, the camera tilted, the phone placed somewhere, only occasionally showing the legs and swaying clothes of young men and women passing by.
The sound was still clear.
Suddenly, amidst the chaotic singing and chatter, Nie Yaxin’s angry shout erupted: “What the fuck are you doing? Trying to steal my phone!?”
“Please, Nie Yaxin…” Xiaoya pleaded tearfully. “I don’t want the money anymore, just delete the photos and videos.”
“Heh, what nonsense are you talking about? Hey, you bitch—let go!”
Then came the chaotic sounds of struggling and pushing.
“Let go! Do you want to die!?”
Thud!
The sound of a heavy object falling.
“Aaaaaah!”
Screams erupted.
“So much blood… Nie Yaxin, are you okay?”
“Call the police! Call the police! Don’t let Xiaoya get away! She pushed Yaxin…”
“I…”
Xiaoya couldn’t defend herself.
An accident during a struggle, but with everyone’s accusations, black became white, and she became a murderer.
The poor victim, condemned by public opinion, with no chance to explain, no power to resist, was thus framed as the evil perpetrator.
“Xiaoya! You did it on purpose, didn’t you? You must have done it on purpose! I knew it, you’ve been waiting for this day… Don’t even think about running, we all saw it! You pushed him!”
“Because Yaxin didn’t give you money, you treated him like this… Are all you poor people without parental guidance so vicious!?”
“I… I… I didn’t…”
The video ended. The office fell silent.
“This is outrageous…” Qiaoqiao was the first to speak, her eyes red. “They twisted the truth, framed Xiaoya! That scumbag’s father is also a scumbag, sending Xiaoya to this hospital, torturing her until she was in so much pain, and then cutting her open to steal her kidneys…”
Xiaoya suffered immense pain, inhumane torture, and lost her life before justice could be served.
She was so young.
Now it seemed that the video on the computer and this phone were Director Zhao’s insurance against CEO Nie turning on him.
It was just a game level in a variety show, yet its logic was so meticulous and detailed, it was chilling.
The phone in Xi Leng’s hand suddenly vibrated.
A buzz, everyone heard it, their eyes filled with surprise—the vibration came from a phone without a SIM card, no signal, no network.
Xi Leng raised his wrist, and the three of them looked at the notification that popped up on the screen.
[AirDrop]
[Translator’s note: AirDrop is a Bluetooth feature on iPhones, it doesn’t require a network connection.]
[“Xiaoya” wants to share 1 photo]
The words “Xiaoya,” deceased, suddenly appearing on the screen, made their blood run cold, their breathing stopping.
The photo that was sent contained a simple sentence in black text on a white background:
“Feifei, did you kill me?”
