At that moment, I remembered a ma.s.s 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 the flashlight, goose b.u.mps rose all over my body. At the same time, I almost reflexively leaned to one side.

However, I immediately found that I didn't see anything but some water pipes and a small hanging lamp.

I found it odd and carefully swept my flashlight in a circle on the ceiling, but no one was there. Just then, the voice came from the ceiling.

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

I knew immediately what was going on. d.a.m.n it, in this case, he could hear the whole process of me dismantling the computer with my cla.s.smate. 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 side said. The sound was particularly dull with this mode of transmission, and I couldn't recognize any specific sound characteristics.

“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 and suddenly realized that it was all wrong. It was very likely that he couldn't hear any sounds I made here, and it was only one-way monitoring; otherwise it would be like a phone call.

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

No wonder everything was gone. He must've removed everything here after hearing my conversation with my cla.s.smate.

But he left an email and didn't delete it. He wanted me to reply more easily. That's so f.u.c.king sweet.

I immediately wrote back:

“I heard, who are you?”

I waited for a moment before the other party came back:

“Who are you? This room is so airtight that you can't hear it 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. No one will ever know you're inside."

I secretly scolded, wondering what to do. How would he even know 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 returned almost immediately:

“I'll be the judge of that.”

s.h.i.+t, 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?”

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

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

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

Whether I lied or told the truth, he would basically ignore me after hearing it and still leave. 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. If I didn't respond, however, 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? I thought about everything, and was sure that he trusted my Uncle Three very much. 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 I'm Uncle Two? Or that I work for Uncle Three?

“I'm leaving.”

Just when I was anxious, another email was sent.

I immediately panicked, and reflexively typed a few quick words.

“I'm Wu Xie, Wu Sanxing's nephew.”

The e-mail was sent in an instant. I didn't even have time to regret it and looked at the screen immediately.

As time went by and there was no reply on the screen, my whole body began to freeze, and my heart said "No, did he come to a decision so quickly and walk away just like that?

It was impossible. The transmission speed of this network was very fast. After he sent that message, I immediately replied so he should've seen it.

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

s.h.i.+t, 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 and I immediately rummaged around looking for any tools that could be used. When I found that there were only a large number of empty video ca.s.settes here, I almost went to kick the iron frame in rage.

But I soon calmed down again, knowing that I was not without opportunities.

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

s.h.i.+t, I didn't know how to explain why Master Three was trapped in this secret room. There were so many VHS ca.s.settes and a video recorder here, they wouldn't think I was selling p.o.r.n, 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 sound-proofing here must be very good. 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, finding it unhelpful: these pipes must not be from Uncle Three's house, but the neighbor's sewage pipes. Even if they were strong, if I managed to break them somehow, the excrement would definitely spray on my face. Even if I could put up with all that, the chance of the pipe's sound reaching the toilet was too small. Moreover, if someone heard a strange noise in their toilet, they would definitely think it was the pipe's air pressure. At most, they would think it was haunted and by the time anyone reacted, I would've starved to death.

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

The wires here were electrified, and 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 one. 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 break it off but it didn't move.

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

“Come out.”

I paused 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 it could be opened. I felt a little embarra.s.sed, but I was the only one who knew that. I leaned over to look at the sewer and saw a flashlight over there s.h.i.+ning, so dazzling that I couldn't keep my eyes open.

“Come out slowly and don't move.” The other side added.

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

With that I squatted down and crawled out bit by bit. When my head just reached the pipe's exit, however, 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 aside the hair covering the back of my neck. Suddenly, he smiled.

“What are you laughing at?” I was a little angry.

“Wu Sanxing was right indeed, small flies can ruin major events. You are alive and well, why bother yourself with such things?"

I didn't know how to answer, but I felt him pull away suddenly 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.

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