In the end, the sly old fox with a mind like a block of coal, after sitting there racking his brain for over an hour, still couldn’t crack the code. He could solve the most difficult passwords, but not one written in such convoluted and cryptic language.
So he cast a “I’ve done my best” look at Chi Cheng.
The two of them fell silent for a while. Then suddenly, Guo Chengyu’s half-squinting eyes lit up.
“I think… sometimes a sharp mind isn’t as good as truly understanding.”
Although Chi Cheng really didn’t want to admit defeat and let go of the word understanding, at a certain point, he couldn’t deny the gap. Some things only a bottom could truly grasp. Some codes, only the master could crack.
“So what are you waiting for?” Chi Cheng’s deep gaze swept toward Guo Chengyu. “Hurry up and call him over!”
Guo Chengyu frowned faintly and reminded him, “Did you forget? I just pissed him off last night and he stormed out.”
Chi Cheng’s thick brows knit together, and he said, displeased, “It’s been a whole day and you still haven’t coaxed him back?”
Guo exposed him mercilessly, “When you and Dabao just made up, how long did it take you to coax him into smiling again?”
“Cut the crap!” Chi barked impatiently. “Go get him, now!”
Guo sighed and reluctantly went to try his luck.
Sure enough, an hour later he returned alone.
“He said, if it’s not you personally, he’s not coming.”
Chi’s gaze darkened, his face brimming with suppressed anger.
“He’s really got some nerve!”
Guo spread his hands. “There’s nothing I can do, you figure it out yourself.”
Chi shot him a sharp, icy glare and strode toward the door, his face dark as a storm cloud.
Meanwhile, a faint, knowing smile tugged at the corners of Guo’s lips.
Jiang Xiaoshuai was sitting on the clinic sofa, wearing a white coat, his cool, aloof gaze giving off an air of haughty elegance, above the mundane world.
The ugly guy immediately stepped back three paces when he saw Chi Cheng arrive, casting an anxious glance at Jiang.
In fact, the moment Jiang met Chi Cheng’s eyes, his heart gave a nervous jolt too. But he quickly regained composure. After all, he held the trump card of having the disciple on his side, what was there to be afraid of?
“There’s a string of code from Weiwei. Help us crack it,” Chi said.
Jiang raised a finger to himself and gave a faint, knowing smile. “You want my help? And this is the attitude you’re asking with?”
Chi clenched down on his irritation and shot back, “What do you want, then?”
“Pour me a glass of water first,” Jiang said.
Chi’s face darkened, but he didn’t move.
Jiang boldly provoked him, “Not pouring? Fine then. Zhang Feng, show him out.”
Zhang Feng, the ugly guy, jumped at hearing Jiang’s words. He glanced at Chi, then quickly ducked back to where he was.
Jiang frowned. “Why are you so spineless?”
The ugly guy muttered softly, “I’m afraid if I send him out the door, he’ll send me out of this world.”
To mask his own nervousness, Jiang avoided looking at Chi Cheng, though he was even less inclined to meet Guo Chengyu’s gaze. In the end, he simply closed his eyes, folded his arms over his chest, and assumed the posture of taking a nap.
Guo, in a deliberately mischievous tone, reminded Chi Cheng: “For the sake of your man, what’s the big deal about pouring him a glass of water? You can always get back at him later.”
Chi Cheng stood stiffly for two minutes before finally grabbing a cup, stomping to the water dispenser, and filling it. With heavy steps, he walked over and handed it to Jiang.
“Drink!”
Jiang met Chi’s eyes fearlessly and let out a cold laugh.
“That’s not very sincere, is it?”
Chi snapped, “What, you want me to force-feed you?”
“No need for such a grand gesture!” Jiang said slyly, squinting at Chi. “Just call me ‘Master’ and say ‘please have a drink,’ and that’ll do.”
Chi’s face turned as dark as his brother-in-law’s.
He wanted to blow up but couldn’t, worried that if he did, Wu Suowei would throw another tantrum. But actually doing what Jiang asked would be humiliating.
So he cast a meaningful glance at Guo Chengyu instead.
Guo, seeing Chi in this predicament, only gave him a helpless look and said in a mock-tragic tone, “I can’t help you with him.”
In fact… it wasn’t just that he couldn’t help, he didn’t want to. Deep down, Guo was hoping to use this rare opportunity, seeing Chi Cheng humbled, to help dissipate Jiang Xiaoshuai’s anger, and save himself some trouble.
“What now? Not gonna say it? If you don’t, I’m going back to sleep.”
After saying that, Jiang Xiaoshuai closed his eyes again.
Chi Cheng’s big hand grabbed Jiang’s collar, and Guo Chengyu immediately tensed up. But at the critical moment, Chi held himself back. For Wu Suowei’s sake, he forced himself to squeeze out four words from between his teeth:
“Master, please drink.”
Although Chi’s tone when saying those words was anything but conciliatory, to Jiang’s ears it was immensely satisfying. Feeling smug, he accepted the cup from Chi’s hand. He had intended to drink it gracefully and make a show of it, but under Chi’s intense stare, his nerves faltered and he almost choked.
“Now can you help us take a look?”
In truth, Jiang was also worried about Wu Suowei’s safety. But if he had to choose, he cared even more about the purity of his relationship with his disciple. Two grown men jerking each other off? That was no small thing.
“One last request,” Jiang said, taking a deep breath. “About what you and Guo Chengyu did last night, I expect an explanation.”
Chi replied casually, “Just a normal thing between buddies.”
“Oh? So by that logic, me and Wu Suowei could jerk each other off too?”
Jiang finally touched Chi’s bottom line. Chi suddenly erupted, grabbing Jiang by the collar, his eyes bloodshot and terrifying. Jiang immediately chickened out.
“Wait, what are you doing, Guozi! Guozi!…”
Guo stepped in just in time, grabbing Chi’s wrist. Though his face wore a smile, the strength in his grip didn’t falter. At last, he managed to pry Jiang free from Chi’s hands.
Just as Jiang was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Chi spoke again, “There won’t be a next time.”
Jiang looked slightly stunned.
Guo repeated the words on Chi’s behalf, “He said there won’t be a next time.”
With Chi saying that, Jiang started to feel the pressure. Damn, he’d made such a big show of himself, if he couldn’t crack the code now, he’d be screwed.
Chi handed Jiang the string of numbers.
Jiang examined it carefully.
“23, 25, 14, 10, 8, 8, 8, 520, 8.”
What the hell was this? Jiang clicked his tongue inwardly but kept his composure in front of Chi.
Still, his thinking was clearer than Chi and Guo’s. Those two, seeing numbers, immediately thought of high-tech codes and even arranged the numbers into matrices, trying to deduce Wu Suowei’s location.
But Jiang quickly saw through it, this wasn’t some code. It was just pinyin.
There are 26 letters in the alphabet. Jiang followed Wu Suowei’s hint and decoded the first four:
“23 (W), 25 (Y), 14 (N), 10 (J).”
Obviously, Wu Suowei was trying to convey the meaning of “我在你家” (wo zai ni jia, “I’m at your house”) with these initials.
But Jiang didn’t stop there. He also converted the three 8s at the end into letters. Since 520 was too big to stand for a letter, he guessed, rightly, that 520 was being used in its common slang meaning of I love you.
So Jiang correctly combined the final “5208,” concluding it was a homophone.
In the end, Wu Suowei’s code was simplified by Jiang into:
“wznj—hhh—5208”
After that, Jiang let his unmatched imagination run wild.
Watching Jiang muttering and struggling for so long without a clear answer, Chi couldn’t help but speak up, “Have you cracked it yet?”
After trying many different letters, Jiang Xiaoshuai finally managed to piece together a complete sentence.
But the sentence was hard for him to say out loud.
“I… I cracked it, but I…”
“Stop stalling,” Guo Chengyu was getting anxious. “Hurry up and say it.”
Jiang Xiaoshuai cast a mournful look at Chi Cheng. “You’d better prepare yourself. The result… is a bit brutal.”
Chi’s expression shifted slightly, and his eyes signaled Jiang to go on.
Jiang really couldn’t bring himself to say it, so he wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed it to Chi.
On the paper, it clearly said, “I can only say hehe hehe I love your dad.”
Chi Cheng: “……”