Chapter 8 Mirrors and Notes

When he knelt down on one knee to help Xia Xiqing untie the rope on his leg, Zhou Ziheng himself didn't know what was going on, why he was bewitched by this person, and why he was not firm in agreeing to his request.

None of this is logical.

Maybe it was because he was recording a show. He had already made requests to himself, and it would be bad if he refused. Zhou Ziheng found a step for himself.

"Thank you." Xia Xiqing's ending sounded very happy, even though his hands were still handcuffed. He stood up from the chair, put his toes on the floor and moved his ankles, then turned his head to look around the room. Zhou Ziheng took off all the white cloth covering the room and put it in a corner.

This room is not too big, but according to the furnishings, it is a good-looking study. The door they are most concerned about has a combination lock, and the door can be opened by entering the correct four-digit password through the touch screen.

In the room, light brown wallpaper with dark patterns covers the four walls, with several paintings hanging on it, and an oval mirror with a wooden frame. To the right of the mirror is a mahogany cabinet against the wall, with a gramophone on it. There was a vinyl record on it.

These were not the focus of Xia Xiqing's attention. He carefully found the camera distribution in this room. After all, it is a reality show, and all the puzzles are arranged, so there must be a camera there to complete the close-up of the decryption process.

After roughly counting the cameras, Xia Xiqing knew a lot. Occupational disease caused him to look at the paintings hanging on the wall. Zhou Ziheng also followed, but he wanted to check whether there were any clues behind the paintings.

"What do you think of this painting?"

Hearing Xia Xiqing's voice, Zhou Ziheng's hand holding the picture frame paused. Art has never been his specialty. Although he has been acting since he was a child, there is still a big gap between the expressions of painting art and performance art.

"I don't know much about this." Zhou Ziheng still told the truth.

Xia Xiqing smiled, "This is Goya's painting, "Maja in Clothes." This painting actually has a very interesting story."

Zhou Ziheng put the painting back and glanced at him. In fact, he had no interest in the story Xia Xiqing said, but he remembered that it was being recorded. what story."

“Eighteenth-century Spain was shrouded in asceticism for historical reasons, and no nudity was allowed in the country’s artworks. The only one, Venus in the Mirror, was freed under the protection of the king. He will be punished." Xia Xiqing stretched out his hand that was still handcuffed and slowly touched the edge of the frame, Zhou Ziheng looked at the woman lying on the soft dark green velvet with some puzzlement, she was wearing a A hazy white gauze, a wide rose waist belt outlines the soft waist.

"She was wearing..."

Xia Xiqing paused, and glanced at Zhou Ziheng, her beautiful eyes slightly raised, "She didn't have any clothes on. It is said that this woman was a noble favorite in Spain, and Goya was instructed to paint a full-length portrait of her." As he said that, Xia Xiqing suddenly chuckled, "Who knew that he was completely fascinated by beautiful women and painted nude portraits. After the incident was revealed, the dignitaries were very angry. In order to quell the anger, Goya painted the exact same "The Horse in Clothes". Ha", both paintings were eventually taken away."

Zhou Ziheng frowned slightly, looking at the woman in the painting, without saying a word.

Xia Xiqing put down his handcuffed hands and looked at Zhou Ziheng sideways.

"Are you imagining another one?"

Hearing this, Zhou Ziheng frowned and looked at him, like a little tiger with all its hair standing on end, "I don't."

Xia Xiqing nodded with a smile, and replied softly, "Just kidding."

Not a joke at all.

Looking at the fake smile on his face, Zhou Ziheng became even more unhappy.

This guy really has no shame.

Zhou Ziheng left without hesitation, went straight to the long table before, and checked the clues on the table. Xia Xiqing still stood there, staring blankly at the painting on the wall.

Why put this picture up?

After standing for a few minutes, Xia Xiqing turned around and found that Zhou Ziheng was standing by the long desk he was leaning against at the time, looking at the desk intently. He also walked over, there was a thick book on the desk, and a blanket. Torn sticky notes.

"It's torn to pieces. The props team is really attentive." Xia Xiqing teased in a gentle tone as he looked at the snow-like pieces.

Zhou Ziheng turned over the book in silence, and a bookmark with a line written on it came out.

[Whatever I touch breaks. - Kafka]

Xia Xiqing came over and said, "Selected Poems of Kafka."

Feeling Xia Xiqing approaching him, Zhou Ziheng felt a little uncomfortable, put the book aside, picked up one of the small fragments, turned it over and looked at it, frowned for a while, then said nothing, and began to spell one by one , Xia Xiqing didn't like doing this kind of piecemeal work, he walked over to the gramophone, flicked the tone arm of the gramophone with his fingers, and gently placed the needle on the record.

The emptiness unique to vinyl records quickly penetrated into this dull confined space along with the fast-paced notes. Xia Xiqing leaned against the cabinet and looked at the equally dull young man.

"Have you heard this song?"

Zhou Ziheng didn't look up and looked at the table intently, "I'm not very good at music."

He has no interest in art, and he has no liking for the prostitutes who engage in art.

Xia Xiqing smiled, his hands were handcuffed, but he stood in front of the mahogany cabinet like a professional music connoisseur and admired it for a while before slowly opening his mouth, "This is from Ravel's piano suite Mirror. The first song was inspired by the moths fighting fire in the dark." He turned his head and looked at the slowly spinning record, chuckling lightly, "Although music critics think this kind of fine halftone is very similar Fluttering butterfly wings, but it sounds like a broken mirror to me."

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a little regretful, as if he shouldn't have said so much on the show, but Zhou Ziheng, who had been smashing pieces together before, suddenly raised his head and looked at Xia Xiqing.

Perhaps because he thinks his metaphor is quite appropriate, Zhou Ziheng, who was originally focused, was also distracted by the ever-flowing music, trying to appreciate this piece. He didn't straighten up until the broken note was restored without error.

"It's done? You're amazing."

Xia Xiqing was a little surprised. The notes were all broken letters, and the fragments were many and broken, which made him a headache when he was impatient. As he said, he walked to the desk, where Zhou Ziheng was pasting the fragments into a complete piece of paper with Scotch tape on the table.

He glanced at it, and the letters on the note were all revealed and restored, but it was a disordered letter.

PGOEUDEAENHNRD

Obviously it's a password. Xia Xiqing frowned slightly, he was more curious now, how did Zhou Ziheng put this pile of pieces together so quickly.

"It's so fast, how did you fight?"

Zhou Ziheng turned the piece of paper over, and on the back was a complete sentence written in beautiful handwriting.

[See you at Sophia restaurant at ten o'clock tonight. ]

"The information on the back is much easier to restore than the information on the front."

Xia Xiqing nodded. Even if you can see that there is a complete sentence behind it, it will take a while to distinguish the pros and cons.

Wait, front and back.

Xia Xiqing reached out and picked up the note and touched it. Sure enough, this piece of paper was specially treated. It didn't look any different, but it felt different. The front was very smooth to the touch, while the back was much rougher.

"You are really attentive." Xia Xiqing put the paper back on the table with his handcuffed hands, and smiled at Zhou Ziheng, "As expected of Ziheng."

Zhou Ziheng couldn't believe it if he admired it so much. He responded slightly bluntly, "This kind of special paper is very common in secret rooms. If you weren't distracted by the music, you would have found it."

"No way, art is life." Xia Xiqing's hands were a little sore. He moved his shoulders and lowered his head to look at the piece of paper. I don't know what was going on. Weird lag, unpleasant.

"Your 'art' looks a little old." Zhou Ziheng rarely used a sarcastic tone. Caton's music made him unable to concentrate, so he was about to walk over and turn off the music.

At this time, Xia Xiqing stood motionless, his eyes were not knowing where he was looking, and he seemed to be in a daze.

"Wait a minute." The moment Zhou Ziheng put his hand on the tonearm, Xia Xiqing stopped, "Don't turn it off yet."

"What's wrong?" Zhou Ziheng looked at him with some dissatisfaction, and found that Xia Xiqing had found a pen on the table and had written something down on the previous piece of paper.

Did he find anything? Zhou Ziheng slowly withdrew his hand and began to listen to this strange discontinuous piece seriously.

The stuttering in the music sounds almost irregular at first glance, sometimes there is a short stutter, and sometimes it lasts for a longer time. But if you listen carefully, you will find that at the end of every two bars, the freeze will stop for a few seconds, and then reappear, even the time of the freeze is the same.

like some kind of cycle...

Zhou Ziheng quickly reacted, the beginning of each cycle is to repeat the password again.

Long time lag - short time lag - short time lag - short time lag - music

Short-term stuttering - long-term stuttering - short-term stuttering - music

Short Card - Music

long - short - music

long-short-long-music

...

The length of the handover is Morse code.

He stood in front of the gramophone and listened to a few bars. Xia Xiqing, who was still leaning over the desk just now, had straightened up, looked at the draft he had just calculated, and finally walked to Zhou Ziheng's side.

"Have you solved it?" He was a little surprised. After all, as far as he knew, Xia Xiqing's major was art, so how could he solve Morse code so quickly.

Xia Xiqing nodded, his brows were slightly wrinkled, he walked to the mirror he had seen before, stared at it carefully for a while, and then said to Zhou Ziheng, "Stand farther away."

Zhou Ziheng was puzzled, but he still stood away. He saw Xia Xiqing take his tone arm away, and the music stopped abruptly. He was about to ask Xia Xiqing what kind of information he got after decoding it, but he was a step too late. Xia Xiqing stepped back with his right foot, put his handcuffed hands into fists in front of his chest, and raised his leg with a very skilled posture and movement. Take a side kick.

With a bang, the oval mirror suddenly shattered, and he pulled his legs back lightly, and the shards reflecting the light rustled on the wooden cabinet and the floor, making a crackling sound. At the moment of falling, the original appearance of the carved mirror frame finally appeared.

In the gray chassis of the frame, a silver key was pasted.

"Please help me untie this." Xia Xiqing turned to look at Zhou Ziheng, and stretched out his bound hands towards him.

To be honest, Xia Xiqing is smarter than Zhou Ziheng imagined.

After thinking for a second, he even considered whether to keep the key for himself when he relaxed his vigilance, so as to use it as a weight to blackmail Xia Xiqing in the future. may be the killer.

But he finally gave up on this plan. Zhou Ziheng glanced at the wrists that were a little red from the handcuffs, and felt that his thoughts were really disgusting.

Later, if he was plotted against him, he could only admit that he was unlucky. Zhou Ziheng stepped forward and took off the key. The props team really worked hard. The key was sticky so firmly that it took him a lot of effort to take it off smoothly.

Xia Xiqing obediently stretched out his hands in front of Zhou Ziheng and watched him lower his head to undo the handcuffs for himself. This scene made his aesthetic enjoyment greatly.

Zhou Ziheng's sharp nose bridge and delicately angled eyes look more delicate from such a low angle. It is a kind of exquisite carving full of male hormones. The brow bone and the root of the mountain are connected and raised. mountains. His drooping head and concentrating brows made Xia Xiqing involuntarily think of Paul in Rodin's sculpture "The Kiss".

If it wasn't for a reality show, Xia Xiqing would definitely lean into his ear and say something.

[Your face is really suitable for kissing. ]