"Password, incorrect?!" I hadn't entered any password just now. I turned back to the lizard-girl in surprise. She said with a hint of bewilderment, "That's right, the few of us, including the uncle, tried it before. This door is strange; it tells you the password is wrong every time you touch it!"
It seemed there was something fishy going on.
All I had was the shadow reflection tube. It seemed I had to rely on my own experience. I took it out and shone it around. I noticed that on the outside of the door seam, there seemed to be many chains binding it. This meant that even if we entered the correct password, the door would still be held shut by chains.
One could say, this door had to be abandoned.
I stated my thoughts. The girl didn't say much and followed me as we headed towards another exit of the mall not far away. Actually, I had seen a floor plan of this place in the corridor. The mall had three floors, and the exits were all on the second floor. It was a bit strange, because the exits all led downwards via stairs. A normal mall would definitely have its exits on the first floor. If I guessed correctly, this must also be another masterpiece of Jing Zijin.
We arrived at a fire escape on the west side. It was called a fire escape, but now Jing Zijin had transformed it beyond recognition. What should have been an empty passage was now deliberately filled with countless杂物 (miscellaneous items). There were iron buckets, old sofas, televisions, and even, *cough*, menstrual pads for women. My heavens.
Seeing those things, the girl behind me seemed very embarrassed. I actually noticed her lizard face blushing slightly. It seemed that whether observing animals or people's micro-expressions, the principles were similar.
But I didn't have the mind to care about these things now. I passed the large patch of red and went directly to a metal door piled high with several sofas. Listening from outside, I could hear the wind constantly blowing. I had encountered a similar situation before during a treasure-hunting case. It seemed the outside was open, but I wasn't sure if there were chains. I tilted my head and observed through the door seam. It seemed there weren't any. If we moved these杂物, could we open the door?
I knocked on the door at that moment and felt it shouldn't be locked tight. I immediately got excited. I asked the lizard-girl to get the others. She left quickly. I started moving things by myself, but most of the furniture was too heavy; one person simply couldn't move it.
I first moved the things that could be handled by bare hands, which took about 5 minutes. The lizard-girl had already called everyone over. Then they used their lizard bodies to help move things. Fortunately, they didn't become slower or weaker after turning into lizards; on the contrary, these lizard-people seemed to have become even stronger.
After we moved all the杂物, the uncle and a few of the stronger lizard-people placed their hands at the bottom of the metal door with me. Then, shouting "one, two, three," we all pushed upwards to slowly lift the door. However, just as we thought we would succeed, several people suddenly cried out. I abruptly let go and retreated a few steps, and the lizard-people quickly let go as well.
The metal door closed again, and a strong electric current passed through it.
"Ah-kaka-kaka! Kaka-kaka! Isn't this fun? You've been tricked. Did you really think it would be that easy to pass the second trial? You're wrong. You should know that I am Teacher Du's disciple!"
"Du Qitai!!"
"That's right, you scoundrel. You're not qualified to mention my teacher's name!"
"You're the scoundrel. You despicable scum who aids and abets evil. You and Du Qitai are birds of a feather!" At that moment, all sorts of vulgarities came to mind, but for dealing with this kind of person, such insults were quite restrained.
"Ahahaha! Birds of a feather, indeed. So what if we're villains? If you all die here today, aren't you still the ultimate losers? Alright, your time is running out. You have 30 minutes left. Make good use of it. Don't say I'm cold and heartless; I'm actually quite friendly!"
"Go to hell!" If He Xin were here now, she would probably curse his ancestors just like me. Thinking of He Xin, for some reason, I suddenly felt a sense of melancholy. It would be great if she could come.
I told everyone not to focus their attention on this big door and to continue searching elsewhere. But at this moment, the uncle, as if he had been prepared, said to me, "Detective He, we actually went to the west door. The situation there is even more serious. It seems to have been burned, and the temperature is very high. We can't touch the metal door at all unless we want to lose our hands."
"In that case, there's only the front door left. But that place..."
Before I could finish, the high school girl said, "I woke up there before. I remember that door required fingerprints, but I tried all ten of my fingers, and it didn't work!"
Her fingerprints of course wouldn't work, but I still had her lead us back to the front door. Looking at the fingerprint system, we didn't try it. With less than 20 minutes left, everyone was getting anxious, all looking at me.
Let alone the high school girl, even I now wanted to try my own hand.
I fumbled around the machine. I could tell there were other functions, but the system was locked. Other than fingerprint recognition, nothing else worked. After my attempt, others also tried their fingerprints. By the time all of us had tried, less than 10 minutes remained. The result, of course, was all incorrect.
And after the last lizard-person finished trying, it even prompted: "Too many failed attempts. Please try again tomorrow." Hearing the alarm sound like this, we all felt it was over. But the lizard-people were still searching around, as if looking for windows. In fact, I had already searched for windows and found none. The walls of this mall were all sealed, and even if they weren't originally sealed, they were probably covered with cement. All of this was definitely Jing Zijin's doing.
With less than 5 minutes left, the high school girl had slumped to the ground, tears sliding down her lizard face. My mind was also in extreme turmoil. Was it going to end so soon? This was completely different from the script I had originally planned.
While I was wondering, a knock suddenly came from outside: "Dad! It's me! Are you guys inside?"
Ah!!
I directly shouted at that moment. I hadn't expected that after I mentioned He Xin earlier, this person would actually come!
I quickly and joyfully shouted, "That's right! There are some lizards... people here. Hurry up and use your super skills to open the door!"