Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 75: Letters
With the pop-up of the task line option, the friends retreated back to the empty room 1301 they had initially left.
With the door tightly shut and the atmosphere quieted down, in the first minute, the friends either stared at their arms in deep thought or gazed at the ceiling in contemplation, with no one speaking.
Choosing one out of six wasn’t difficult, but if, among these six paths, some were as blissful as heaven and others as nightmarish as hell, then the choice had to be made carefully.
“Career line seems the safest.” Qian Ai decided first, mainly because he relied on instinct rather than logical analysis. “Who would choose the horror line? And the joy line… Are we sure it’s us who will be happy, not the NPCs?”
“Ah.” Kuang Jinxin felt a bit disappointed. “I actually wanted to choose the joy line…”
Qi Shan also felt a bit down. “The horror line could be quite thrilling…”
Qian Ai, not expecting his words to dampen the spirits of two teammates, hastily corrected himself. “I must have overthought it. The joy line surely means pure happiness!”
Qi Shan: “?”
Qian Ai: “?”
Qi Shan: “……”
Does his choice of the horror line not deserve any comforting reassurance?!
Three people, three directions. Kuang Jinxin decisively asked the leaders. “Captain, Sheng Ge, which one do you want to choose?”
Xu Wang didn’t even have to think and could answer for his advisor. “Your Sheng Ge will definitely choose the puz…”
“Love line,” Wu Sheng said. “I choose the love line.”
Xu Wang doubted his ears. He turned to look and saw Wu Sheng with a serious face.
“You can’t be serious…” Xu Wang wasn’t trying to disparage Wu Sheng, but given his teammate’s emotional intelligence, even a kiss could be brushed off as playful banter. Choosing the love line?
“To experience it,” Wu Sheng said.
Xu Wang was speechless. “This isn’t like trying an orange at the market, where you can taste a slice first.”
Wu Sheng replied, “Without tasting, you’ll never know if it’s sour or sweet.”
“You just want to taste it,” Xu Wang retorted. “Did you ask the orange for its opinion?”
Wu Sheng asked, “Then what do you suggest?”
Xu Wang rolled his eyes. “Either buy it and accept it if it’s sour or walk away and stop thinking about its sweetness.”
Wu Sheng fell silent and just looked at him.
Xu Wang suddenly felt a bit flustered, his heated brain finally cooling down.
What nonsense had he been spouting? And Wu Sheng was even playing along. What a mess.
While Xu Wang was confused, Qian Ai, Kuang Jinxin, and Qi Shan were even more baffled.
What’s this about sour and sweet oranges to buy or not buy? Is this how the leadership team communicates now? What are they, then, a bunch of onlooking fruits?
Xu Wang’s usual approach was to avoid confusion by circumventing it altogether. The fall he took ten years ago was painful, but since it was his own doing, he couldn’t hold a grudge. But he remembered the pain.
“I choose the puzzle line,” he declared his stance.
Kuang Jinxin confirmed again in a daze. “Captain chooses puzzle? Sheng Ge chooses love?”
Qian Ai’s expression turned grave. “Did you two get the wrong script or what?”
Anyway, everyone had made their choice, and they were completely disjointed.
Qi Shan asked, “What now? Draw lots?”
“Actually, I changed my mind…” Kuang Jinxin hesitated, raising his hand. “I choose the love line too.”
Xu Wang: “……”
Qian Ai: “What love do you know, you little brat!”
Kuang Jinxin: “Anyway, I’ve changed my mind!”
With two votes, the love line won.
The process was confusing, but the result had to be respected.
With no other choice and time pressing, Captain Xu Wang led the way, choosing the “love line”.
As the last person made their choice, a flame suddenly appeared in midair in the center of the room. Something seemed to be inside the bright flame.
As the flame weakened, the object inside became clearer, and when the last ember died, an envelope fell to the carpet.
The teammates hurriedly gathered around.
In such moments of speed, Kuang Jinxin usually couldn’t compete, but this time Wu Sheng was also behind. While Xu Wang and the others were picking up the envelope, he curiously asked, “Why did you change your mind?”
“Because you looked like you really wanted to choose love.” Kuang Jinxin’s reason was unexpectedly simple.
Wu Sheng: “……”
The straightforward gaze of his teammate felt like an infrared scanner, leaving him nowhere to hide.
“Sheng Ge, have you never been in love?” Kuang Jinxin suddenly asked in a very soft and rapid voice.
Over there, Xu Wang had already started opening the envelope.
Wu Sheng was unprepared and didn’t know how to answer.
Kuang Jinxin sighed, seemingly understanding the truth. “Sheng Ge, even if the love line here is realistic, it’s still fake. You can’t satisfy yourself by just going through the challenge…”
Wu Sheng was stunned, feeling something was off. “I’m not…”
Kuang Jinxin’s eyes were full of genuine concern. “Also, many NPCs already have their own partners. If you happen to choose one with a CP, you’ll end up being the third wheel…”
Wu Sheng: “……”
He wasn’t here for a one-night stand in the love line!
“What are you two talking about—” Captain Xu, holding the letter he took out of the envelope, called out. “Hurry over here.”
Wu Sheng and Kuang Jinxin quickly rejoined the group.
Xu Wang naturally passed the letter to his advisor.
Wu Sheng took the letter and, under the light, read the flowing words written on it—
I once loved you,
Love, perhaps,
Has not yet completely died in my soul.
But I hope it won’t bother you anymore.
I don’t want to make you sad or hurt.
I once loved you silently, without hope.
Enduring both shyness and jealousy.
I once loved you so sincerely, so tenderly.
May God bless you,
And may someone else love you, just like I did.
As Wu Sheng finished reading, Xu Wang contributed his knowledge. “It’s a love poem* by Pushkin. The first line is the title of the poem, I Once…”
*The title of the poem is I Loved You. However, various translated versions exist. The one linked in the Wikipedia is one of the English versions, while the one used in this novel, I believe the author combined the various Chinese versions into one (thus the lines and translated text don’t match up one to one like the English version).
He suddenly stopped, struggling to speak.
What kind of title is this? It sounded like a confession!
“I Once Loved You?” Qian Ai, not getting the full version, asked blankly.
“…Yes.” Xu Wang nodded.
Qian Ai admired his quick retrieval of information. He quickly guessed, “Did we study this poem in our high school Chinese class?”
Xu Wang was amused. “Which high school Chinese class teaches you love poems!” After a thought, he clarified strictly, “Elegies for deceased wives in classical Chinese don’t count.”
“……” Realizing he was off track, Qian Ai understood this was part of someone’s literary extra-curricular knowledge.
Qi Shan, hearing this, finally caught on. “You two were high school classmates?”
Qian Ai pointed to himself and Xu Wang, then to Wu Sheng, who was still looking at the letter, saying, “All three of us.”
Qi Shan looked incredulous.
Qian Ai understood his feelings. “We never expected that the Owl would plague a whole class like this.”
“That’s a bit sad.” Kuang Jinxin was still focused on the love poem. “Sheng Ge, did you figure anything out?”
His question brought back the attention of the other three teammates.
“I can’t be sure.” Wu Sheng put the letter back in the envelope. “But we can go and check.”
“Got a clue?” Xu Wang didn’t expect such a quick response. “Where to?”
Wu Sheng: “Room 1829.”
Xu Wang: “Reason?”
Wu Sheng: “The poem was written in 1829.”
Xu Wang: “……”
Wu Sheng: “Did I remember it wrong?”
Xu Wang: “Shouldn’t have… I think.”
Who remembers such dates! He still gets the dates of the Opium Wars mixed up!
Wait.
Why would a science whiz be so knowledgeable about love poems?!
Activating [Transparent Dream Team], the group left room 1301 and stealthily headed towards room 1829.
A long journey.
Walking down the corridor, the friends finally confirmed that it wasn’t just “seemingly” endless, but “actually” endless!
When passing room 1700, the door suddenly burst open with a bang!
The five immediately pressed against the corner, holding their breath, to avoid being exposed.
Inside, two teams were fighting, spilling into the corridor, and a disheveled woman in white joined the melee.
Upon closer inspection, the woman had no face.
Finally, one team was sent home by the faceless woman, while the other narrowly escaped, disappearing into the depths of the corridor.
The invisible companions watched the woman in white return to her room, feeling a chill down their spines.
The corridor returned to silence.
Qi Shan confessed sheepishly, “I feel ashamed of my naive suggestion for the horror line…”
Xu Wang laughed, about to say it was okay, but then heard Qi Shan lament. “What a pity.”
Xu Wang didn’t understand. “Hmm?”
“We should have helped that ghost lady,” Qi Shan said. “So the other team couldn’t escape either.”
Qian Ai, walking in front, turned back in confusion. “Why intervene? It’s none of our business.”
Qi Shan shook his head, analyzing it logically. “While it’s unrelated to our task, only one team can submit their papers, so we’ll eventually have to fight.”
Qian Ai frowned, thinking hard. He felt Qi Shan was right but also sensed something was off.
“We only act when we really need to compete,” Kuang Jinxin said. “Maybe by then, they’ll have been sent home by other teams.”
“The logic is sound.” Qi Shan understood his point. “But it’s better to keep control in our hands.”
Kuang Jinxin pondered this logic seriously, and since he was too earnest, the topic ended without a conclusion.
Approaching room 1829, the group somehow ended up with Wu Sheng and Qian Ai at the front, Kuang Jinxin in the middle, and Qi Shan and Xu Wang at the rear.
“Basic defense is invisibility.” Xu Wang suddenly spoke up, as if sure Qi Shan would understand. “Intermediate defense involves physical armor, and everything else is considered advanced defense.”
Qi Shan listened intently and nodded at the end. “Cool.”
Xu Wang looked at him. “Anything else you want to ask?”
Qi Shan paused, then smiled. “Is it that obvious?”
It was more than obvious to Xu Wang; Qi Shan’s curiosity was almost written on his face, yet he waited so long without asking.
“Any tactics we use later, we’ll explain clearly,” Xu Wang said seriously, putting aside his joking tone. “Likewise, if you have any tactical ideas, you must tell us. Only by working together can we become more in sync.”
Qi Shan lowered his eyes, and after a few seconds, smiled. “Understood.”
Xu Wang said no more.
Qi Shan was different from Lao Qian and Kuang Jinxin, who were genuinely naïve and gave direct reactions whether they agreed or not. Interacting with them was straightforward; you just had to speak your mind.
But Qi Shan was different.
Xu Wang could only give him a hint.
If Qi Shan had actually intervened and dealt with the team that had just escaped, would it have been wrong?
No.
But that wasn’t their team’s style.
Style is a mysterious thing, primarily guided by personality, and Xu Wang couldn’t list it out clearly.
A team is like that; when there are incompatible aspects, they need to be addressed to continue harmonizing.
He hoped Qi Shan would become a true partner.
Wu Sheng had been standing in front of room 1829 for quite a while. When he turned around, Xu Wang was still whispering with the new teammate.
Advisor Wu and the others waited patiently without saying a word.
Xu Wang finally felt as if a gaze was staring at him.
“Click—”
The door of room 1829 opened on its own, revealing a young girl with braided hair, dressed in a floral dress, with faint freckles on her face, looking pure and cute.
She stood inside the door, bending over to lift the carpet in the corridor.
Wu Sheng, Qian Ai, and Kuang Jinxin, who were already at the door, quickly stepped back.
The braided girl successfully lifted the edge of the carpet and took out a letter hidden underneath. Just as she re-entered the room and was about to close the door, Wu Sheng became visible and held the door open.
The girl turned around in surprise, seeing five men suddenly appear at the door, and asked tremblingly, “Who are you?”
Wu Sheng hesitated between introducing himself or mentioning the task line, but Xu Wang had already held up the previous envelope to the girl’s face.
The girl was stunned, comparing Xu Wang’s envelope to her own, and finally noticed the key point—the wax seal on the envelope was exactly the same.
“Are you the ones I’ve been corresponding with?” The girl’s eyes were filled with shock and disbelief, without a trace of joy.
The teammates felt emotionally wounded.
Fortunately, they had gambled right on the task line.
“We’re not,” Xu Wang said. “But we can help you find them. Can you tell us more about this?”
The letter in Xu Wang’s hand seemed to have earned enough trust, and the girl immediately invited them in, explaining the whole story.
This love line started with a letter.
The girl, experiencing the stirrings of first love, suddenly received a love letter one day. The affection in the words moved her, but she still mailed the letter back to the address on it, including a letter of her own, telling the sender that the letter was sent to the wrong address.
Soon after, she received a second letter. The sender claimed there was no mistake—the letter was meant for her. He loved her.
At first, the girl didn’t believe it, but she couldn’t bear to end the correspondence as the sender not only talked about love but also shared interesting events and even knew some of her likes, feeling like a long-time friend.
Gradually, she fell in love with him and wanted to meet him, but he never responded.
Determined, the girl went to the address on the letters—this Castle Hotel.
But with so many rooms and people in the hotel, she had no idea where to start and decided to stay temporarily. The sender’s letters began arriving at her door, appearing every three days under the carpet, where she also placed her replies.
Qian Ai: “So you came all this way here, only to continue writing letters and having a romance with the person?”
The girl with the braided hair nodded.
Qian Ai, feeling exhausted just by listening, commented, “I can’t understand this kind of romance. What kind of love is this? Why not just talk face-to-face?”
“This is called the beauty of ambiguity, you know.” Xu Wang retorted, suspecting that if Qian Ai ever fell in love, his way of showing affection would probably be, “Whatever you like to eat, brother will take you to eat.”
Wu Sheng was surprised by Xu Wang’s response.
Back in the days when they communicated through letters, Xu Wang had always complained about the “old-fashioned” method, never once mentioning the “beauty of ambiguity”.
“I’ve been here for thirteen days. Counting this unopened one, I’ve received four letters from him.” The girl handed over the letters. Her eagerness to find the person overshadowed her shyness about revealing personal details. “The earlier ones are at home. I only have these. Can you see if there’s any clue in them?”
Wu Sheng took the letters and laid them out side by side on the table.
The teammates gathered around the table to study them. The letters were mostly in a similar format: starting with a piece of love poetry, followed by some interesting events and thoughts about the girl.
Kuang Jinxin asked, “Do we still need to follow the dates of the poems?”
Qian Ai looked at Wu Sheng, inquiring, “Are these poems all from the same era?”
Wu Sheng shook his head. “No.”
Qian Ai then turned to Xu Wang, noticing something in his captain’s eyes, and immediately asked, “Captain, did you notice something?”
Xu Wang replied, “Lucky guy.”
Qian Ai: “Huh?”
“I mean, this guy is lucky,” Xu Wang said with a bit of sympathy for the girl. “Every letter says he misses her, but why not meet up? Only a naïve girl would actually come looking for him. Anyone else would have broken up already.”
“Maybe he has his reasons.” Wu Sheng suddenly defended the unseen NPC.
Xu Wang raised an eyebrow curiously. “Like what?”
Wu Sheng turned to Xu Wang. “Like, maybe he’s already dead and is now a ghost communicating with the girl.”
Xu Wang: “……”
Is this the [(Illusory) The Curse of a Single Dog]…?
Qi Shan picked up a letter, holding it against the light.
Kuang Jinxin leaned in, thinking Qi Shan had found something.
But Qi Shan placed the letter back on the table in disappointment. “There’s no hidden message revealed by the light.”
Wu Sheng kept tilting his head and pondering. When Qi Shan placed the letter back, he picked it up again, but instead of one letter, he took all four and stacked them together against the light.
Xu Wang leaned in to look with him and finally saw the pattern. “One… zero… seven… four?”
Wu Sheng said, “Yes.”
The other three teammates immediately joined in to study the letters, and finally, they understood. Regardless of the content of the letters, these four numbers always appeared in the same spot on each page. When the letters were stacked, these numbers were the only ones that perfectly aligned.
Qi Shan was genuinely impressed. “Impressive.”
Kuang Jinxin, who was used to such feats, would have been more surprised if Wu Sheng hadn’t figured it out.
Qian Ai felt a subtle sense of dissonance. This love line, once in his advisor’s hands, seemed to take on a puzzle-solving tone…
Xu Wang’s heart skipped a beat when he saw Wu Sheng casually place down the letters, looking effortlessly cool.
The joy of finding the next room number turned without warning into an indescribable anxiety.
Stacking the letters against the light…
Was Wu Sheng genuinely inspired by Qi Shan, or had he already known about this trick?
The communication between him and Wu Sheng had been real, starting with Wu Sheng’s initiative… Could it be that Wu Sheng had hidden strange codes in those few letters?!
If he did, what could they be?
The apprehension turned into anticipation, and within the anticipation, a sense of urgent, unsettled panic emerged.
Xu Wang frantically recalled those five letters. He could almost recite their content, but only almost. Who could use their brain like a scanner like Wu Sheng?
And even if he could recite them, he couldn’t simulate a comparison in his mind. It’s not just about the text; it’s about their positioning… Damn, Wu Sheng, you lunatic!
As Wu Sheng was about to return the letters to the girl, his nose tickled unexpectedly.
He resisted the urge to sneeze, his gaze accurately finding his team captain. “Are you scolding me in your mind?”
Xu Wang was startled but maintained an innocent expression. “How could I?”
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