I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 41

“4, 5, 6, 8,” Bai Qing said, staring at the digits on the password screen where fingerprints had appeared. “Only four numbers?”

Having lived with Qi Yan in modern society for a month, she could already recognize all the Arabic numerals, so the numbers themselves didn’t stump her.

Qi Yan tentatively pressed the four numbers in sequence. As expected, an alarm sounded, indicating an incorrect password.

“The alarm prompt says it’s a four-digit code,” Qi Yan said, rubbing her chin. “That means the correct password is a permutation of these four numbers.”

“What do we do now?” Bai Qing was completely clueless when it came to this kind of decryption.

“Try them one by one. Since the system didn’t give a hint about a limit on attempts, it means we can try many times until we get the result.”

This brute-force method was tedious, but it was also the way that required the least brainpower to find new clues. It was simple and crude.

However, after two attempts, Qi Yan was proven wrong. The alarm sounded even louder than before, and crimson text flashed on the screen, warning her that after three more failed attempts, the lock would be disabled for 72 hours.

“Damn it! Are you kidding me?” Qi Yan couldn’t help but swear. “After all that, we still have to find more clues.”

“Hehehe, Sister.”

The lights in the room suddenly began to flicker rhythmically. Qi Yan jumped in fright, taking a step aside to dive into Bai Qing’s arms.

“Good students shouldn’t be lazy.”

The ghostly voice in this room seemed to have a built-in reverb, making one’s skin crawl.

Bai Qing narrowed her eyes toward a corner of the room where a cloud of black mist swirled, with a young girl’s silhouette appearing faintly within it.

“This voice belongs to the other little ghost.” Bai Qing had excellent hearing and was a powerful demon; it was easy for her to distinguish the different vibes between ghosts.

Qi Yan hugged her waist tightly, hiding in her embrace. “Which one? Is it that fierce child named Yanyan?”

“Yes, that’s her.”

“Aww, Sister thinks I’m fierce, but I think I’m actually quite soft-hearted. Otherwise, why would I have only turned you into a toy back at the Carnival? A toy that kept its soul so you could move freely, at that.”

Qi Yan got angry just hearing her mention it. “You think you’re in the right for turning me into a toy? You made it so hard for me to move in the Carnival!”

Yanyan laughed maliciously. “Hard to move? But weren’t you being carried the whole time? The sister next to you protected you so well that we couldn’t even get close to recycle you. Besides, you were clearly so cute as a doll. If you don’t believe me, ask this sister if she thought your doll form was adorable and couldn’t bear to put you down.”

This string of words left both Qi Yan and Bai Qing stunned. The former was surprised, while the latter went stiff all over after having her inner thoughts exposed.

The information the little ghost suddenly dropped was a bit much for Qi Yan to process. She poked her head out of Bai Qing’s arms in surprise, looking up at her. “Was my doll form… cute?”

Bai Qing turned her face away, avoiding her gaze. “It wasn’t.”

“Liar! Your ears are red!” Qi Yan suddenly remembered something and clapped her hands in excitement. “I remember now! Last time at home when you were in your fox form, your white ears would turn pink whenever I touched them. So that meant you were shy? How amazing!”

Embarrassed and annoyed, Bai Qing pushed her away, refusing to let her keep clinging to her chest. “I. Am. Not!”

“Hmph, even Yanyan said so. And you kept protecting me so they never had a chance to get near me.”

Bai Qing gave a light hmph in return. “That is because you and I are bound by a spiritual contract. If something happens to you, I will suffer as well.”

Qi Yan felt that this fox’s skin was sometimes as thick as a city wall and sometimes as thin as paper. Her tsundere act was quite cute, making Qi Yan want to tease her.

At this moment, neither of them realized one thing: Bai Qing’s “thin skin” mostly only appeared in matters related to Qi Yan, and Qi Yan also habitually teased her whenever they were together.

Some things had become natural through the habit of being together, but no one had noticed those subtle changes yet.

The little ghost named Yanyan had vanished to who-knows-where, leaving only the two of them in the study again. Qi Yan paced back and forth, thinking about the order of the password. A four-digit code, four numbers—what was the right combination?

Qi Yan looked at the secret door, recalling the mural painted on it. She felt like it looked familiar. Human memory is often like that; it tends to fail at the most critical moments, likely due to nerves. Tension can trigger human potential, but it can also make one lose their footing due to impatience and forget important details.

Qi Yan tapped her forehead and sat on the desk, deep in thought. They only had three attempts left; she had to be cautious.

Bai Qing didn’t disturb her thinking. Instead, she began to browse randomly around the moderately sized room. She couldn’t understand most modern writing, so she lost interest after flipping through a couple of books and started playing with the light switch on the wall out of boredom.

Click, click.

The switch opened and closed repeatedly, the lights in the room flickering on and off.

Qi Yan was annoyed by the distraction. She looked up with a frown, intending to stop Bai Qing’s childish behavior.

But as she looked up, her gaze froze on the secret door, her eyes suddenly widening.

“Wait, don’t turn the light on yet!”

Bai Qing was startled. Though she didn’t know what Qi Yan had seen, she followed her instructions and kept the light off.

On the wall, at the site of the original secret door, faint fluorescent light shimmered in the darkness.

Qi Yan completely forgot to be afraid. She rushed to the mural and reached out to touch the glow.

“Fluorescent powder!”

So that was it!

No wonder she felt the painting was strange before, giving her a weird feeling of being familiar yet unrecognizable. She thought her memory was failing because of the stress, but it wasn’t; the painting itself was incomplete!

Qiu Ran, that brilliant and talented girl, had put immense effort into the mural when she made this secret door, using two special types of pigments. One was a fluorescent powder visible in both light and dark, and the other was a pigment that only appeared in the dark. This glow-in-the-dark powder didn’t show under light; it silently absorbed and stored it instead. Once in darkness, it would reveal itself, combining with the other part to form a new picture.

And this specific painting was one that Qi Yan, a fine arts student, happened to know—The Wreck of the Kent, an oil painting created by Théodore Gudin in 1827. It depicted a soul-stirring moment of a shipwreck.

“The Wreck of the Kent,” Qi Yan clapped. “The code is 5846!”

She re-entered the password based on her deduction. With a “ding,” the code was correct. The secret door slowly slid open, revealing a passage outside.

Bai Qing was slightly surprised. “You knew the name of the painting, but how did you guess the correct order of the numbers instantly?”

“Because of the T9 keypad layout; it’s what we modern people use most often on our phones.”

“What is a T9 keypad?” Bai Qing was like a curious baby. She knew too little about modern things; she was a complete blank slate.

Qi Yan pulled her out of the study, temporarily coaxing her. “I’ll teach you when we get home. I can’t explain it clearly right now.”

Bai Qing looked at her. “Don’t brush me off.”

“I’m not! This really isn’t the time to explain. Besides, we don’t have a phone in this script, so how can I show you?” Qi Yan took her arm, scanning the surroundings warily. “Be good! I’ll definitely teach you when we get home!”

Bai Qing didn’t say more but silently noted the matter. She would definitely make Qi Yan teach her after they left the script.

Outside the study was another long corridor. In terms of appearance, it looked identical to the one they entered through, with no discernible difference. Qi Yan tried to use the murals on the wall to distinguish them, but to little effect.

The corridor lights flickered, creating a creepy and terrifying atmosphere. This path was quite long, and it felt slightly curved. Qi Yan had completely lost her sense of direction in this maze-like place.

Outside the window was another night scene. Aside from the crescent moon hanging high in the sky, there wasn’t a glimmer of light.

As they walked, a sound suddenly came from ahead. Qi Yan clutched Bai Qing’s arm tightly, her palms starting to sweat.

Bai Qing looked down at her sleeve, which had been crumpled by the grip. Losing her patience, she said, “The sweat from your palms is getting all over my clothes.”

Qi Yan was entirely focused on her fear. “Don’t be so stingy! Aren’t we bound by a contract? Aren’t we married? Then what’s the point of distinguishing between yours and mine? Your clothes are my clothes. What’s wrong with getting my sweat on my own clothes?”

“…”

Bai Qing was defeated. This kid had a whole set of twisted logic that made one grit their teeth.

The voices ahead grew louder, sounding like several people arguing. The voices were very familiar.

As they got closer and the silhouettes became clear, Bai Qing suddenly vanished back into the ring, leaving Qi Yan alone.

Jiang Miao heard the noise and looked over. Seeing Qi Yan, she was first stunned, then gave a relieved smile. “Shijian, it’s great that you’re okay!”

Qi Yan’s gaze swept over Jiang Miao and the other two. She nodded. “Sister Miao, I’m fine. What’s going on with you guys?”

Judging by the posture, the other two seemed to be arguing.

Jiang Miao said helplessly, “This door won’t open, and they got into another dispute.”

The five-person team had dwindled to just two; the only survivors were Xinyi, the woman in the tracksuit, and the captain, Wushuang.

Qi Yan’s sharp eyes immediately noticed the bloodstains on the three of them, her eyes flickering.

Because of Qi Yan’s sudden appearance, the two arguing stopped temporarily, but they stood apart without saying a word. It seemed the conflict between them had reached a breaking point.

Qi Yan didn’t know what had happened on their side. Since turning into a doll in the Carnival, she hadn’t seen the other players. After leaving the Carnival, they were scattered in different places. She hadn’t expected to reunite now.

“Where were you guys just now?” Qi Yan walked to Jiang Miao’s side. She noticed something interesting: Xinyi and Jiang Miao were standing together, both keeping a distance from Wushuang, forming a subtle divide.

Jiang Miao pointed to a room with an open door nearby. “There. It’s the bedroom of that little girl, Qiu Ran.”

Jiang Miao took Qi Yan to the room to take a look. The bedroom decor was very luxurious, clearly belonging to a wealthy family. However, it looked a bit old-fashioned, not quite fitting the style of a middle school girl.

“The furniture in this bedroom is very sparse. We only got out after cracking the code lock on the door.”

“A code lock? Was it a secret door too?” Qi Yan immediately thought of the study door.

Jiang Miao was surprised by her question. “How did you know?”

Seeing her reaction, Qi Yan knew the situation in the bedroom was likely the same as the study. She sighed and said, “It’s nothing. The study was the same.”

The bedroom and the study both had their original doors, but both were one-way locks that could only be locked from the outside. There wasn’t even a way to open them freely from the inside.

Qi Yan and Jiang Miao briefly exchanged information, piecing together the pitiable image of Qiu Ran, who was firmly imprisoned by her family.

“I also found this in the bedroom.” Jiang Miao handed Qi Yan a card. “It’s Qiu Ran’s daily schedule. I feel suffocated just looking at it.”

It was a plain card, but every day for Qiu Ran was packed tight. Even weekends weren’t for resting; besides finishing school homework, there were all kinds of extracurricular tutoring. This included several major academic subjects and music lessons. The music lessons were further divided into music theory and piano performance.

“Sleeping only four hours a day—don’t they care about the child’s health? How can anyone be a parent like this?”

“You’ll never know how severe tiger parenting can get.” Jiang Miao shook her head and sighed.

For the first time, Qi Yan felt lucky to have “free-spirited” parents. Their life motto was to be happy, and they had raised and influenced her that way.

Therefore, Qi Yan didn’t obsess over academic subjects like many of her peers. Her academic grades remained at a mediocre level, just enough to get into the art school she wanted. She spent more of her extracurricular time on her hobbies. It was wonderful that her parents had supported her in learning to paint from a young age instead of forcing her to study.

There wasn’t much to see in Qiu Ran’s bedroom, so they retreated back to the corridor. Xinyi was at the door, looking like she wanted to follow them, completely ignoring Wushuang.

Qi Yan took the chance to whisper to Jiang Miao, “What happened?”

“It’s a long story. Internal strife,” Jiang Miao whispered back. “That man is too ruthless. Be careful.”

She didn’t elaborate as the current setting wasn’t convenient, but she warned Qi Yan to pay attention.

Qi Yan was shrewd, not some naive ingenue. She had a bad impression of Wushuang from the start and had been wary of him all along.

“Let’s talk about this door first. Another code lock?”

There was only this one door at the end of the corridor. They had to find a way in.

“Yes, it’s a code lock. There are hints when you enter it wrong. I guess Qiu Ran’s parents set it.”

On the LCD screen, the password hint was: “The most important day.”

What the hell?

Qi Yan was baffled.

But Jiang Miao said, “Actually, we have a clue. We found several trophies in Qiu Ran’s bedroom. They were all awards from various piano competitions. The earliest trophy was from when she was six years old.”

Fine, the parents of this family really loved tiger parenting. Qi Yan lamented for the umpteenth time.

“Then what were you guys arguing about?”

Jiang Miao shrugged. “It was nothing much. Wushuang just told Xinyi to enter the code to open the door, and they started fighting.”

Xinyi stood against the wall and gave a cold hmph. “I will never walk in front of him. Should I give him the chance to deal with me the way he dealt with Qiuqiu and the others? San Shui, you saw it too, how he pushed Qiuqiu out to feed those vultures in the haunted house!”

Qi Yan frowned slightly. Wushuang was indeed shameless. At a critical moment, he was someone who would backstab his teammates without hesitation.

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