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墨書 Inktalez
"Perhaps it was just an impromptu murder, but some evidence suggests that the killer of those five people is not the same person... In any case, if we can crack this code, we might gain some new intelligence. This is an email I found in the victim's inbox, set to be sent at a specific time. The content is quite simple, just the 'cose' I mentioned earlier." Lin Li held her phone, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing the edge of a piece of draft paper, her brow tightly knitted.
"I thought it was another deathbed confession; it seems we're not following the traditional plot after all. Who was this email addressed to?" A teasing voice came from the other end of the line—Mr. Cang.
"This email was written about twelve hours before she headed to Yu Mountain and scheduled to be sent two days later, right at noon on the second day after she arrived at Yu Mountain. The recipient is her boyfriend—a regular high school math teacher. They met when his father was hospitalized and had been dating for a year and a half, with a good relationship. Moreover, the beneficiary on the victim's insurance policy is not him, so motives of love or financial gain don't hold up. Besides, during the victim's trip to Yu Mountain, he was teaching at a high school and has a solid alibi. However, this man is currently in poor mental condition and probably isn't paying attention to whether he has new emails, so we might find this clue before he does." Lin Li paused, flipping through the materials on her desk. "Considering that the victim was a reasoning enthusiast, I believe she had basic knowledge of cryptography. Before heading to Yu Mountain, she likely sensed that her life was in danger and wrote this suggestive email in advance as her last words."
"Foreseeing death? Then why did she go? Young people these days..." Mr. Cang couldn't help but interject.
Lin Li lightly tapped the table and continued her analysis: "Regarding the email itself, I've checked it and found no additional codes attached, so the information consists solely of the four letters 'c', 'o', 's', 'e'. As far as I know, there are many basic ciphers that can deeply encrypt content through combinations; it's quite complex. Currently, I only have part of an idea." She held up the draft paper filled with writing. "These four letters themselves have no meaning and aren't particularly special in shape. I first tried cracking it using a Caesar cipher—shifting letters forward or backward by the same number of steps—there are twenty-five possible results, but none looked like plaintext." The white paper displayed twenty-five sets of jumbled letters arranged neatly, exuding a sense of futile frustration.
Mr. Cang sighed: "The Caesar cipher has long fallen out of fashion. To crack codes, you need to keep up with the times."
Lin Li pinched her aching brow and continued: "Next, I converted the letters into numbers. According to their order in the alphabet, they translate to 315195, which can be rearranged into caese or caeaie; there are too many vowels to convey meaning; writing it backward gives eiom, which also doesn't make sense; forming patterns on a phone keypad shows no regularity; since there's a 1 present, it's not mobile pinyin input—this route doesn't work either. Finally, I directly interpreted it using my phone keyboard: 'cose' translates to 2673 and directly translates to bfgd; bf could be an abbreviation for 'boyfriend,' but gd makes no sense at all. I just can't find a satisfactory answer, which is why I'm reaching out to you." After this lengthy explanation, her throat felt tight as she stood up and walked to the fridge for a box of milk.
On the other end of the line came rapid keyboard clicks and mouse clicks. After a moment, Mr. Cang's voice carried a hint of pride: "Xiao Li Li, from knowing nothing about codes to researching so much—I’m really pleased! However, this cipher is special; with only four letters, there's limited room for translation. In wartime, such codes were nearly unsolvable, but now it's different. In modern society filled with information overload, many terms use initials as abbreviations—like Vp or WTO—which strictly speaking can also be considered codes. However, this type of encryption has a downside—it can have multiple interpretations. For instance, BL might mean 'the Horde' for gamers but 'boy love' for others. Therefore, knowing who receives it is crucial. Given that 'cose' is addressed to a math teacher, I immediately thought that the first three letters 'cos' are an abbreviation for 'cosine' in mathematics!"
"Cosine Mansion!" Lin Li suddenly stood up; her chair scraped loudly against the floor. She bit her lip in frustration—how could she have overlooked such an obvious clue while fixating on complex solutions?
"You know that building too? There's an E-shaped billboard on its roof; I suspect that's what the code refers to." Mr. Cang's tone rose with excitement. "Are you heading over now? We just got in an expansion pack for Blackjack; waiting for you to come challenge me!"
"I'm on my way right now! We'll talk later!" Lin Li grabbed her handbag and rushed out the door. The streets were quiet and desolate at night; taxi drivers hummed off-key old songs while the sound of tires rolling over pavement echoed sharply. In less than twenty minutes, she arrived at Cosine Mansion.
Lin Li quietly pushed open the door leading to the rooftop, moving carefully in her high heels so they wouldn't make noise against the floor. Underneath the moonlight stood the E-Shaped Billboard silently; ropes tied to its concrete supports hung down over the railing outside. "Something must be hanging from those ropes!" She held her breath and tightly gripped one of them to pull upward with all her strength; her palms were scratched raw by the rough hemp rope. However, when she fully pulled back the rope, it was completely empty above.
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