Chapter 69 Ceiling

At this time, I suddenly remembered a mass of hair hanging from a different ceiling that had nearly scared me to death before. So, when I looked up and saw a shadow reflected by my flashlight, goosebumps rose up all over my body. At the same time, I acted on reflex and started leaning to one side.

But I immediately found that there was nothing there besides some water pipes and a small hanging lamp.

Finding it odd, I carefully swept my flashlight in an arc around the ceiling, but no one was there. At this time, I heard the voice come from the ceiling again.

“I’m talking from your room. When it was first built, the sound transmission effects from your room and this dark room were specially designed so that I could stay abreast of any occasional developments that happened above.”

I knew immediately what was going on. Damn it. If that’s the case, he could hear the whole process of me dismantling the computer with my classmate. No wonder he ran away.

Oh, I’m so stupid. Such a cautious person wouldn’t make such a low-level mistake. Monitoring all of Uncle Three’s movements in his room must be a last resort.

I took a deep breath and asked, “Who are you?”

“I know you can hear my voice. Now you have half an hour to clarify your situation. I closed the two tunnels to that room so you’re already trapped,” the other party said. The sound was particularly dull with this mode of transmission, so I couldn’t recognize any specific sound traits.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I shouted.

“You are not Wu Sanxing. Your appearance proves that he encountered a problem. I have to know what the problem is. When you understand your situation clearly, you can use the computer in front of you to answer my questions.”

I let out another shout but suddenly realized that the situation was all wrong. It was very likely that he couldn’t hear any sounds I made here and it was only a one-way monitoring system; otherwise, it would be like a phone call.

I knew what this person said didn’t have to be verified and that the entrance must be blocked, so I immediately went to the computer.

It wasn’t surprising that everything was gone. He must have removed it all after hearing my conversation with my classmate.

But he left an email and didn’t delete it because he wanted me to reply more easily. That’s so fucking sweet.

I immediately wrote back:

“I heard, who are you?”

I waited for a moment before the other party replied:

“Who are you? This room is so airtight that you can’t hear anything from the outside. If you don’t want to be trapped, you have to tell the truth.”

I was about to answer when another email was quickly sent to me:

“You don’t have much time; I can’t stay too long. If you lie to me, I’ll leave immediately and no one will ever know that you’re inside.”

I secretly cursed as I wondered what to do. How would he even know that I was lying? He probably knew that I wasn’t Uncle Three, and if I said I was, he would leave immediately. But who I was… should I be honest and tell him I was Wu Xie? Wasn’t that revealing too much?

Although it wasn’t a big deal to reveal the truth now, was it too weak of me to reveal it after such a scare?

I thought about it and immediately replied in an email:

“You won’t know who I am when I tell you.”

The other party responded almost immediately:

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

Shit, this guy was quite strong. Just as I was thinking about how to reply, the other party immediately sent another email:

“You still have one last email. I must leave immediately. Don’t waste my time. Who are you?”

Feeling extremely anxious, I touched my face and then typed two words: not necessarily. But I immediately deleted them because I knew that this kind of person was especially determined.

But even if I told the truth, how could he tell?

In fact, what he wanted to determine wasn’t whether I spoke the truth or not—because it was impossible for him to judge it by email—but whose side I was on.

Whether I lied or told the truth, he would basically ignore me after hearing it and still leave. But the most terrible thing was that I could see from all the signs around me that this was a very cautious, highly effective, and self-disciplined person. He must not have been lying when he said that he was going to leave right away. But if I didn’t respond, he would stay a little longer because he wanted to know the answer.

I didn’t have to tell the truth, per se, just make him interested in me enough to release me.

So, how would he be interested in me? After thinking about everything, I was sure that he trusted my Uncle Three a lot. But I couldn’t say that I was Uncle Three. Should I tell him that I was Uncle Three’s relative?

Should I tell him that I was Uncle Two? Or should I say that I worked for Uncle Three?

“I’m leaving.”

Just when I was feeling anxious, another email was sent.

I immediately panicked and reflexively typed a few quick words.

“I’m Wu Xie, Wu Sanxing’s nephew.”

The email was sent so quickly that I didn’t even have time to regret it. I just immediately looked at the screen.

As time went by and no reply appeared on the screen, my whole body went cold. Oh no, I thought to myself. Did he come to a decision so quickly and walk away just like that?

Impossible. This network’s transmission speed was very fast, so he should’ve seen my immediate response after he sent that message.

But wait! What if he did see it? Maybe he had no interest in the name Wu Xie at all and left after a quick glance.

Shit, I was trapped and dying here. What should I do? What should I do?

I took deep breaths to calm myself down. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to me, so I immediately rummaged around looking for any tools that could be used. When I found that there were only a large number of empty videocassettes here, I almost went to kick the iron frame in rage.

But I knew that I wasn’t without opportunities so I soon calmed down again.

The gardener uncle would come to water the flowers tomorrow morning, so as long as I could get his attention, I could get others to save me.

Shit, how would I explain why Master Three was trapped in this secret room? There were so many VHS cassettes and a video recorder here, they wouldn’t think I was selling porn, would they? Regardless, I would be able to restore Wu Xie’s true body in a few days, so losing face right now wouldn’t be a problem.

But how should I attract his attention? The soundproofing here had to be very good, after all. To use a line from a Hong Kong movie to describe it: even if I shattered my voice screaming, no one would save me.

I looked at the pipes on the ceiling but didn’t know what kind of pipes they were. Even if I banged on them and yelled, I didn’t know if I could be heard outside.

I climbed the iron frame’s stairs and looked up, but found it unhelpful: these pipes must not be from Uncle Three’s house, but the neighbor’s sewage pipes. Even if they were strong, the excrement would definitely spray on my face if I managed to break them somehow. And even if I could put up with all of that, the chance of the pipes’ sound reaching the toilet was too small. Moreover, if someone heard a strange noise in their toilet, they would either think it was the air pressure in the pipes or that it was haunted. And by the time anyone reacted, I would’ve already starved to death.

I saw the light off to one side and immediately thought of another way.

The wires here were electrified, so if I connected them to the water pipes, someone over there might be electrocuted when bathing.

In this way, the police would be called to find out what was going on. But a life for a life wasn’t my style.

After thinking for a long time, I decided to try yelling at the sewage pipes first. So, I climbed down and forced myself to break a rusty iron bar from one side of the frame by using the effect of metal fatigue. But I didn’t expect the iron bar to be so strong. I forced myself to try and break it off but it didn’t move at all.

I bent it back and forth a few times, immediately becoming angry and shaking it harder and harder. At this time, I heard an old voice coming from one side of the sewer.

“Come out.”

I froze for a moment, and then heard the sound of the iron railing opening over there, “Come out slowly.”

I had seen the iron railing, but I never thought that it could be opened. I felt a little embarrassed, but I was the only one who knew that. I leaned over to look at the sewer and saw a flashlight shining over there. It was so dazzling that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

“Come out slowly and don’t move,” the other side added.

“Don’t hurt me,” I immediately said. “I won’t move.”

With that said, I squatted down and crawled out bit by bit. But as soon as my head reached the pipe’s exit, a knife was pressed against my neck.

“Don’t move,” the voice said. 

I couldn’t lift my head up so I couldn’t see him clearly, but the man pinched my face and moved the hair covering the back of my neck aside. Then, he suddenly smiled.

I became a little angry, “What are you laughing at?” 

“Indeed, Wu Sanxing was right. Small flies can ruin major events. You are alive and well, so why bother yourself with such things?”

I didn’t know how to answer, but I suddenly felt him pull away and climb out of the manhole. When I struggled to climb up after him and rushed into the alley outside Uncle Three’s house, I found that no one could be seen anywhere. There was only the dark street.

<Chapter 68> <Table of Contents><Chapter 70>

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Updated 7/18/2021