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"Then break the letters into numbers and make a table..."
"181520,1356,141825..."
“There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to this…”
Chu Ming watched the two of them writing furiously, and soon the entire page was almost filled with their guesses. He then looked at the blank page in his own notebook, scratched his head, and began to calculate on paper as well.
Alas, the password was clearly his own, but now he has to think of other answers because he can't figure it out...
Chu Ming felt the cell phone next to him vibrate slightly. He raised his eyelids and looked at Shinichi and Hattori who were immersed in writing and calculating. He quietly opened his cell phone under the table and saw that it was a message from Lafitte.
He and Bourbon had originally stayed just to watch the show, but since they had already stayed, how could Chu Ming possibly leave two useful helpers in the audience?
Now that Lafitte has succeeded, he has to speed up the process.
He pretended to mutter to himself, but deliberately raised his voice: "None of them are right. Is it an encryption code, Atbash code, Virginia code, or Caesar code? Or a chessboard or a change of position?"
"Encryption password?"
After being reminded by Chu Ming, Shinichi and Hattori simultaneously drew a huge table on their notebooks, then stared at the table and began to ponder.
Looking at the table in his notebook, Hattori frowned: "If it is the Virginia cipher, it needs a key. Which one is it?"
Shinichi's eyes lit up, he unfolded the letter and pointed at the English name at the end: "Could this be the key?"
The two compared the table, comparing the disordered English letters one by one: "r becomes l after conversion, o becomes d, t becomes p..."
After one-to-one correspondence, the letters become "ldp zdl wlq jir ubr xlq wkh zrr ghq fde lql qwk hir uhv w".
Gradually seeing the dawn of hope, Xinyi wrote faster and faster: "The letters are grouped in groups of three. It is very likely that the Caesar cipher has an offset of 3. So if we count all the letters forward by three, it becomes iam wai tin gfo ryo uin the woo den cab ini nth efo res t..."
Looking at the decoded code, Hattori and Shinichi stood up together and said in unison: "I am waiting for you in the wooden cabin in the forest... I am waiting for you in the wooden cabin in the forest???"
"Oh no, Xiaolan and the others are in danger!!"
Shinichi and Hattori didn't even bother to greet Chu Ming who was watching their performance on the side, and turned around and ran out the door.
Looking at the two people leaving quickly without looking back, Chu Ming curled the corners of his lips.
It was too late to realize that they were in danger.
He slowly stood up, stood by the window, looked at the two figures running on the road, chuckled, took out his cell phone and made a call.
"They're over there, let's get started."
*
Hattori and Shinichi ran into the wooden house in the forest at almost the fastest speed. Shinichi was very familiar with this wooden house. He had lived in it during the time when he was locked up by Makoto Yada.
But now, he could hardly believe his eyes.
He had only been away from the forest for a few days, so how come the original cabin had become completely unfamiliar?
The small house, which was originally only about ten square meters, has now expanded several times. The windows have disappeared, leaving only a black door with a wooden sign that says "welcome" hanging on it.
The handwriting was bright red, and some of the letters seemed to have bright red blood flowing down them, which made people feel creepy just looking at it.
Hattori and Shinichi were startled and didn't care about anything at this moment. They quickly stepped forward and looked at each other in front of the door. Shinichi pushed the door open and stepped aside, while Hattori quickly slipped in with the stick he had just picked up.
But after entering, Hattori's eyes widened suddenly when he saw the scene in front of him.
The house was divided by a railing that reached the roof. On the other side of the railing, there were thirty or forty people imprisoned. There were some familiar faces, most of whom were villagers from Okuho Village. Makoto Yada, Kazuha and Xiaolan were also among this group of people, but they all had their eyes closed and lost consciousness.
And their position was also very strange. They were divided into two groups and sat opposite each other. In the middle of the crowd, two masked men were standing with guns in their hands.
On this side of the railing, there is only a table and three chairs.
On one of the chairs, there was also a man in black clothes sitting.
Shinichi looked at the man sitting at the table and clenched his hands tightly: "Granburch..."
Seeing the two people rushing in, Chu Ming, who had arrived early in Bourbon's car from the other side, pressed the switch and the door slammed shut.
He looked at Hattori and Shinichi, raised his hand and politely motioned them to sit down.
Hattori's eyes were red with anger as he looked at He Ye who was locked behind the railing. He had no time to have friendly talks with Chu Ming. He raised the wooden stick and chopped at Chu Ming: "Asshole, let my He Ye go right now!"
Chu Ming's legs tapped the ground, and the chair he was sitting on leaned back slightly, just enough to avoid Hattori's attack. As the chair swung back to its original position, Chu Ming reached forward, grabbed Hattori's wrist and bent it upwards.
With a slight clicking sound, Hattori's hands opened uncontrollably and the wooden stick in his hand fell to the ground.
Chu Ming kindly repositioned his dislocated wrist and pushed him back.
Hattori stumbled back to his original position.
All this happened in a flash. Shinichi watched Hattori rush forward and then be disarmed and sent back. During the whole process, Granburch did not leave his seat.
[If you are interested, you can learn about the Virginia cipher and the Caesar cipher, which are quite interesting]
Chapter 654: Such a touching love
Hattori covered his wrist and retreated back to his original position, his pupils slightly shrank, and he looked at Chu Ming with much more vigilance.
Shinichi stepped forward and slightly sideways to block Hattori. He looked at Chu Ming with fear in his eyes: "Granburch, you clearly said last time that as long as I don't ask about the organization's information, you won't do anything to me."
Although Shinichi didn't intend to be obedient, he would still check if he got any information from the organization. But the question was, how was what he did this time related to the organization?
So he asked this question with confidence.
Chu Ming leaned back in his chair with a half-smile on his face: "I remember I reminded you last time that Gin was looking for you, but the famous detective's ears may not be very good, and he seemed to not listen to my advice."
Shinichi was confused, and he hastily argued, "I listened, and I didn't do anything!"
Chu Ming clapped his hands: "You did nothing, great detective, you're really good at playing around, even using a body double? Why, you can't be with your girlfriend, so you send her someone who looks similar to relieve her longing?"
Ignoring the grievance that was about to overflow from Shinichi's eyes, Chu Ming waved his hand and threw a photo on the table: "Don't quibble, don't you detectives all talk about evidence? I have evidence."
Hattori leaned over to take a look at the photo that Chu Ming casually threw out. In the photo, Yada Makoto's version of Kudo Shinichi was standing with Xiaolan. Their eyes met. The setting sun was shining obliquely, casting a layer of gold around them. The shadows of the two were stretched out and disappeared in the afterglow of the setting sun.
The whole photo captures a very good atmosphere, and at first glance it looks like a young couple in love looking at each other affectionately.
——It would be better if the person in the photo was not Makoto Yada.
Shinichi looked at the photo, and jealousy almost overwhelmed him, but he still managed to calm down and explained to Chu Ming: "This is not me, and I didn't arrange it. This person had a misunderstanding about me before, so he had plastic surgery to look like me..."
"Whether it's you or someone else in the photo, it doesn't matter anymore. The problem now is that Gin was looking for you, and now he sees this photo. If he didn't have a mission, the person standing in front of you would be him." Before he could finish his words, Chu Ming interrupted him, "Because of the things caused by your stand-in, my wonderful vacation was interrupted, and I'm in a very bad mood now."
Seeing Chu Ming's words that seemed to be full of smiles, Xinyi's heart skipped a beat: "So..."
"I'm in a bad mood, so I want to find someone to play some interesting games with me." Chu Ming raised his hand and lifted the two upper covers of the table. Below was a chessboard embedded inside the table.
"Shogi?" Hattori frowned as he looked at the table where the chess pieces were already placed. "As long as we play with you, will you let us go?"
"Of course not. It's between you two. The winner can pick one of me to take away." Chu Mingchao leaned back, his eyes full of interest sweeping over Hattori, and said meaningfully, "After all, only the winner is qualified to take away his treasure, isn't it?"
"Then...what about the loser?" Shinichi knew how bad Granburch was and had a bad feeling in his heart.
"The loser? Of course the loser will stay here forever to accompany his treasure~" Chu Ming's voice rose strangely, his eyes full of excitement.
Hattori looked at the group of people on the other side of the railing and remembered something: "What about the others? Why did you arrest so many people?"
Chu Ming's words were full of self-righteousness: "Of course the more people there are in the game, the more lively it is. These people are very important~"
Looking at Hattori and Shinichi who were asking questions, Chu Ming was a little impatient: "Are you stalling for time, waiting for that guy named Fujino to tip off? Sorry, he is probably sleeping in the room you were in before. Come on, you two, if you don't start, I may not even be in the mood to play games."
Without the mood to play games, the promised rewards would naturally be meaningless. Hattori and Shinichi could both hear the implication of his words, and after looking at each other, they sat on opposite sides of the table.
Chu Ming pointed at the chessboard, full of anticipation: "Let's start."
In fact, he was not very good at playing shogi. At most, he knew the rules. Therefore, he was not very concerned about the details of the game between Hattori and the other man. He just yawned and leaned back in his chair leisurely.
Seeing that Chu Ming was not very focused on the game, Hattori and Shinichi began to slowly delay time, planning to end up with a draw.
Chu Ming knew their plan very well, but he did not stop them from being clever.
Watching the two of them take one of my pieces, and then I give you one, the situation repeated three times and ended in a tie. Chu Ming raised his eyes and glanced at the two of them: "Draw?"
Shinichi glanced at Chu Ming's face and tentatively asked, "Since we couldn't decide the winner this time, why don't I play another round with him?"
Chu Ming raised his hand to stop them and sneered: "Another round? If you insist, it's not impossible, but I don't have enough chess pieces~"
Shinichi and Hattori exchanged glances, not knowing why Granburch suddenly looked very easy to talk to: "Why are there not enough chess pieces? We just--"
Before Shinichi finished asking, Chu Ming stood up and made way. Just now, in order to reach a draw in the end, Hattori and Shinichi did not choose to attack after capturing the other's chess pieces, but just placed them on their own chessboards, so now there are only a few chess pieces on the chessboard.
Chu Ming asked loudly: "Can you see clearly? Let's start."
On the other side of the railing, Lafitte, who was already sleepy from waiting, adjusted the mask on his face, pulled out a gun from his arms, and fired at the positions of the crowd corresponding to the positions of Hattori and Shinichi that had been captured.
Here is a diagram of the room division, which may be more intuitive. The people caught are placed according to the positions of the chess pieces.
Looking at the crowd that fell down, Shinichi and Hattori's eyes were red with anger: "Stop it, what are you doing! Stop it!"
Chu Ming watched the two of them rush to the railing and desperately shook it. The devil whispered behind him: "Why are you in such a hurry? Isn't this your own choice? The pieces that were captured can also be attacked. It was you who chose to deal with me and get a draw. Otherwise, so many people wouldn't have died."
Looking at the two teenagers who turned around and glared at him, Chu Ming said leisurely: "Why are you looking at me like that? I never intended to hide it from you. When you came in and saw the chessboard, you should have found that the positions of these people are arranged according to the chessboard. Your girlfriends are in the positions of the king and jade generals. And I have also reminded you implicitly that only the winner can take away the treasure."
Chu Ming said as if he had suddenly realized something: "Oh, I see. The two detectives are so smart, they must have seen through my trap. So you must love your girlfriends too much, so you deliberately used other people's lives to save them? Oh my, this is such a touching love story. Isn't it better than a TV drama?"
Chu Ming was reaping a lot of points, looking very touched, totally ignoring the lives of Shinichi and Hattori who were listening to these heart-wrenching words.
[I've been stuck on writing for several days. These days, I've been taking time to study how to play shogi, but after a few days of thinking about it, I haven't figured out anything, so I just skipped the details QAQ]
Chapter 655 Scapegoat
"Don't worry, after we kill all the people, I'll ask them to go outside and capture some more people to replenish the chess pieces." Chu Ming deliberately misinterpreted their meaning: "I know what you are planning. You want to use the draw to delay time, and when your friend named Fujino wakes up and calls the police, we will have to leave, right?"
Chu Ming tilted his head, looking as if he had realized something. "I have to say, you two famous detectives are quite evil-minded. Since you have pleased me, it is not impossible for you to try to take away your treasures in this way."
"However, I cannot allow you to continue playing shogi. How about changing to Chinese chess? Play two more games of Chinese chess. Regardless of whether you win or lose, I will let you take your people away. How about that?"
Unlike chess and shogi, in shogi you can choose to put the captured pieces back on the board, but this is not possible in chess.
So Chu Ming's words were full of malice, and he was completely instigating the two to exchange dozens of lives for the safety of Xiaolan and Heye.
This is absolutely an unacceptable option for the two detectives who have always upheld justice.
Sure enough, after hearing what Chu Ming said, the two men, who were already angry because of Lafitte's killing spree at the railing, were now even more furious.
Hattori held the railing tightly, turned around and yelled at Chu Ming: "You bastard, these are more than a dozen lives! You actually treat this as a game!"
Such bland words did not cause any harm to Chu Ming at all, so he did not take it seriously: "The world is so boring, it is their honor to add some fun to my game."