Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
Second, after Fatty and I prepared the tools, we waited for a call at the office, basically spending all our time in the Coffee Room, jotting down various locations that could potentially be entrances to the secret room, just waiting to verify them in the evening.
Just as we were nearing the end of the workday, the power suddenly went out in the office, leading to a chorus of curses, especially from the design department where the complaints were particularly loud. It was understandable; if documents painstakingly created were not saved in time, that feeling of wasted effort could indeed be devastating.
About a minute later, the power came back on. Everyone grumbled as they restarted their computers, but not even two minutes passed before the power went out again, causing the office to erupt in chaos.
Ten minutes later, President Su called me into his office with a phone call and asked if I knew anything about circuit maintenance. I nodded affirmatively.
"Great, you will check the company's wiring later. I asked the Building Engineering Department, and it turns out that our internal wiring has aged and is causing poor connections," President Su glanced at me: "Is that okay?"
"No problem!"
"Good, check it right after work!" President Su waved me out.
"Can it wait a bit? I need to eat first to have the energy," I offered a rather lame excuse. President Su paused for a moment but then agreed with a smile.
Around nine o'clock that evening, Fatty and I opened the company's main door and walked to the control room to pull down the power switch. Except for the monitoring room next to the general manager's office which still had lights on, everywhere else was only illuminated by emergency lights.
"Let's go take a look," I said, nodding towards Fatty.
We knocked urgently on the door of the monitoring room, and an impatient voice came from inside: "Who is it?"
"It's me, Zhong Zhengnan, Loss Prevention Manager. I'm here to check the wiring!" I shouted angrily. "Wasn't there an announcement made earlier? Also, how come there's still power in your room? Didn't I pull down the switch?"
As soon as this person opened the door, Fatty and I would spring into action to subdue him; whether we hit him on the head or knee him in the stomach was just a technical detail and not particularly important. Isolated from the World required us to find a way, but it didn't specify how; personally, I thought this violent method was quite effective—straightforward and direct.
The door opened, revealing a burly Muscular Man. Just as I was about to make my move, Fatty exclaimed in surprise: "Old Wang, it's you?"
The Muscular Man looked at Fatty in astonishment: "Old Ding, what are you doing here?"
I asked Fatty in confusion: "What? Do you know each other?"
Fatty chuckled: "Old Wang and I hit it off right away; we met at Emperor Club. We're both annual cardholders—real fighters among rogues and VIPs among beasts! Haha!"
Muscular Man Old Wang scratched his head in a simple-minded way and pulled out a card from his pocket. "Keep it low-key, keep it low-key. I never flaunt that I have this card. Look, look, that person Manager Zhong, right? Look, it's this card. I never show it to anyone."
I was at a loss for words. What else could I say? Long time no see or nice to meet you?
The two of them laughed and joked for a bit, then Old Wang asked, "Old Ding, what are you doing here?"
"Checking the lines! I didn't expect we were from the same company. This is my boss, Zhong Zhengnan." Fatty put his arm around Old Wang's shoulder and winked at me. "Boss, checking the lines is such an easy task; you can do it alone. I'll go with Old Wang to Imperial Club for a bit."
He pulled Old Wang out without hesitation. "Old Wang, I'm with you. Imperial Club has a big promotion today—20% off for everyone and buy one get one free. Okay, these offers don't really tempt us annual cardholders, but today is the Finals of the Milk Forest Championship."
"The finals don't start until midnight, right?"
"I have acquaintances; we can go backstage and meet the contestants up close!" Seeing Old Wang still hesitating, Fatty continued to persuade him, "What? My boss is a sworn brother of Jin Zhenzhong. You still don't trust him?"
"Alright, let's go!"
Watching the two disappear, I was momentarily stunned. Was it really that simple?
I glanced into the monitoring room; there were two computers on the desk. One was playing an Adult Film, starring someone I had seen recently—Master Cang. The other computer displayed a hall with dim blue lighting and a huge Glass Case in the center, which indeed contained a gigantic key.
That's it.
To be cautious, I turned back to lock the office door and switched off the office's power supply. Then I carefully searched the company to ensure no one else was around before confidently walking into the Coffee Room.
The Golden Peak Building ab towers are about thirty meters apart, and the corridor connecting them is nearly ten meters wide. This means that the area of the Coffee Room is roughly the size of a basketball court. In such a large space, where could the secret entrance be?
I pressed the Power Supply switch, and the Coffee Room lit up with bright yellow lights. I walked towards the bar in the Coffee Room, which was one of the places that raised my suspicions. There was a decorative column against the wall behind the bar, gilded and silvered, about one and a half meters in diameter. It was obvious that this decorative pillar was overly unnecessary.
As I approached the bar, I circled around the pillar and knocked on its surface with my fingers. The pillar made an "empty" sound; yes, it was indeed hollow. But this hollow space was too... well, hollow; it felt like a paper-made Cylinder. The entrance couldn't possibly be so poorly constructed, could it?
I gave up further investigation of this Cylinder and began checking other locations instead. In total today with Fatty, we had listed seven suspicious spots; each location required some effort to investigate.
Time passed minute by minute as I eliminated each of the remaining six suspicious locations one by one—none showed any signs of an entrance.
Where the hell is this entrance? I returned to the pillar by the bar, staring at the hall in front of me, feeling completely lost.
Just when I was at my wits' end, Isolated from the World called and asked if I had found the entrance. I almost exploded with anger: "You bastard, you haven't given me a single hint! Just keep looking for it!"
Isolated from the World seemed taken aback by my outburst, then angrily said, "If you can't find it, I'll kill Yang Guo'er!" With that, he hung up in a huff.
Damn it, what's wrong with him? It's just one insult! Hanging up like that is so immature.
I punched the pillar in frustration.
To my surprise, I broke a hole in the pillar. I knew this pillar was flimsy, but I didn't expect it to be this weak. With such decoration, even Fatty leaning against it would cause it to collapse. Of course, no one would intentionally lean against this Cylinder at the bar.
Looking at the Big Hole on the Cylinder, I steeled myself; since I had already damaged it, I might as well take a closer look. I tore at it randomly until the paper-covered pillar was in tatters.
The pillar was hollow inside; there was nothing there. Still not giving up, I rummaged around inside like shuffling Mahjong tiles, but indeed found nothing.
A wave of irritation washed over me. I wandered around the Coffee Room for a while to dissipate some of that inexplicable annoyance. Lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag, the thick smoke rushing into my lungs instantly invigorated me.
Why not check the surveillance room to see if there are any clues?
With a cigarette in my mouth, I walked to the surveillance room and looked at the screen showing the hall. Aside from the Glass Case in the center, there were no visible walls around; once again, I found nothing.
Listening to the sounds of struggle coming from another computer, I wondered how Old Wang could be working so hard next door to President Su's office without her hearing anything. Suddenly, a thought struck me: could there be a mechanism in President Su's office that would reveal a staircase leading into the Coffee Room if activated?
Although I knew my idea was somewhat ridiculous, I still walked into President Su's office; after all, searching wouldn't hurt.
I turned everything upside down—desk, filing cabinet, even the sofa cushions—except for a Mini Safe next to the liquor cabinet; I had checked every suspicious spot.
Could it be inside? Leaning against the liquor cabinet, I examined the safe. How could I open this safe without a key? I didn't think I could punch a hole through it; I'm not Iron Man.
Scratching my head, my elbow accidentally knocked over a bottle of liquor. My gaze shifted; since I couldn't open the safe anyway, why not have some liquor? "Can't leave empty-handed," that's basic professional ethics for stealing—I can't break the rules.
Boldly picking up a glass, which bottle should I choose? Chivas Regal? Mani? Or vodka? Wait, what's this? Baileys? Alright then, I'll have this one.
Casually reaching for the bottle of liquor, I was surprised to find it completely immovable. Could it be rusted? After a shake, I suddenly felt the bottle of Baileys rotate slightly in place. I paused, astonished, and turned it again; the bottle spun a quarter turn.
A mechanism?
A mechanism!
I was instantly overjoyed and grabbed the bottle, spinning it around. Sure enough, the bottle rotated a full 360 degrees before coming to a stop.
Had I opened a Portal? I quickly ran to the Coffee Room and looked up, discovering that where the Bar Counter's Cylinder had been, a Metal Cylinder had appeared, gleaming with the cold light of stainless steel.
I hurried over to take a look. This Cylinder was slightly smaller than the previous one, and there was a Portal in front of it. To the side of the door was a Liquid Crystal Display, flashing four indicators. Below the display was a keyboard with three rows and three columns, featuring keys numbered 1 to 9.
This was a password lock. I didn't know what the password was, but it had to be four digits. Fortunately, I had prepared for this; I took out a box from my pocket containing some white powder. By pouring this powder over the keyboard and blowing on it, the oily residue from fingerprints would reveal themselves. Then I could arrange the four keys with fingerprint marks to unlock this password lock. With four digits, there were at most twenty-four possible combinations.
Luckily, no one had touched this fingerprint area. After blowing off the powder, I saw four numbers with fingerprints: 5, 7, and 9. What combination could 579 be? A set of numbers naturally came to mind: 957. I entered this number; many fans of Stephen Chow's movies would recognize it as Hua An's number from "Tang Bohu Meets Autumn Fragrance."
With a click, the door of the Metal Cylinder opened.
Comment 0 Comment Count