506: Furnace (11)_1 506: Furnace (11)_1 In normal circumstances, that sort of thing shouldn’t have happened.
Having noticed this slight anomaly, Fu Qian didn’t look into the content of the second book but his fingertips quickly moved downwards searching.
Soon he ascertained that this stack of well-maintained books were indeed placed alternating front and back.
Logically speaking, such a trivial detail shouldn’t be significant, yet upon closer consideration, it wasn’t a normal situation.
Although it was only a fleeting glimpse when he returned home earlier, Fu Qian had noticed there was a bookshelf in the living room, albeit looking quite empty.
Combining that with Brother Vertical Saw’s tone, there was a good chance these books came from that bookshelf.
However, there was a problem here; their excellent condition suggested that he cherished these books greatly, and a person who often tended to their books wouldn’t possibly make such a mistake of placing them upside down.
That is to say, the likelihood was that Brother Vertical Saw was responsible for the reversed books.
And this person obviously wouldn’t do something meaningless.
“The simplest Morse code?”
Fu Qian glanced at the door at the end of the passage and muttered to himself.
He had counted earlier; there were exactly twenty books in the tallest stack.
In the next moment, the orientation of the twenty books quickly turned into symbols, arraying before him in a sequence.
If grouped in fives, with orientation representing dots and dashes respectively, that would yield exactly four numbers.
But at this point it was unclear which orientation represented dots or dashes, so there were two possible combinations.
1629 and 6174.
While computing, Fu Qian quickly inspected the other stacks of books.
They were all normal, with no intercrossed placement.
So was this the aid the books could provide?
One had to admit, it was a rather simple puzzle, which couldn’t have been anticipated.
The only prerequisite was that one had to actually open the book to look.
Even when faced with a life-threatening situation, one would still need to flip through a book rather than just use it as a tool to gauge its thickness.
Who knew Brother Vertical Saw could be so Zen, although the requirement was a bit too stringent.
Fu Qian shook his head, gathered all the books, and quickly plotted a suitable route.
As of now, he had been in this place for roughly ten minutes.
Even if there was still ample time, just the irritating gases on this side alone would make for an uncomfortable morning if inhaled for too long.
It was time to start moving.
Following the planned path, Fu Qian rapidly created stepping points for himself in the liquid, step by step, moving closer to the exit.
This time there were no other obstacles along the way, and soon he reached the door.
By now the air had taken on a slightly eerie scent—Fu Qian knew it was due to the books he had thrown into the liquid.
That wasn’t surprising. Even if the paper hadn’t corroded that quickly, the hardcover might still react.
So if one truly chose to fish them out for reuse, it was very likely to be a painful endeavor, possibly ruining a hand might not even suffice.
But now…
Fu Qian steadied himself in front of the door, reached out to the keypad lock, and pressed the number 1.
The keypad lock emitted a beeping sound.
Good, it still worked.
Fu Qian was quite pleased for a moment and sequentially pressed 6, 2, 9.
Unfortunately, the door didn’t open but, on the bright side, it didn’t explode either.
Fu Qian was not discouraged; after waiting briefly, he then pressed 6174 in sequence.
He always respected the odds, never indulging in thoughts like “This number sequence must be destined, I’ll buy 100 tickets in anger.”
It was a fifty-fifty chance of success, so it didn’t matter which was tried first.
Even if Brother Vertical Saw had rigged it to explode upon a single mistake, there was nothing to regret.
And this time, it did not disappoint him. As he entered the second set of numbers, a faint clicking sound emerged.
There it was.
Fu Qian, with his ear pressed to the door, naturally did not miss such a detail and immediately applied a bit more force to his hands.
The next moment, the metal door visibly opened at an angle.
…
By comparison, this second door was much lighter.
After waiting a few seconds and confirming there were no abnormalities, Fu Qian easily pulled the door open.
Surprisingly, the scene beyond this door had changed dramatically.