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墨書 Inktalez
"Don't move, there's something in this box," Jiang He said coldly, addressing the distracted Shui Xinlan.
Jiang He's seriousness made Shui Xinlan's heart race. She slowly crouched down and slipped out from under Jiang He's arm. Meanwhile, Jiang He carefully moved the box. Old Shao noticed something was off; he swept the clutter from the nearby table onto the floor, allowing Jiang He to place the box flat on the table.
The sound of clutter hitting the ground caught the attention of the others. They leaned in to see what was happening, only to find Jiang He and Old Shao cautiously examining a square box. The box was an ordinary cardboard one, sealed with tape at the opening, and there were no other markings or decorations on its exterior.
Nothing could be seen from outside the box.
"What’s going on?" Shui Xinlan asked nervously from the side.
"Listen to the sound," Jiang He replied.
"The sound?" Shui Xinlan stared intently at the box.
Everyone held their breath, focusing on what might be inside. Even Guan Deng, who was playing a game nearby, and Xu Yiman, who was cooking in the kitchen, sensed the suddenly tense atmosphere in the room and quietly approached to listen as well.
It felt like a deep, silent night.
"Tap, tap, tap." The sound was very low but rhythmic, like a clock's hands ticking away. Yet through the box, it sounded somewhat ethereal—sometimes audible, sometimes hidden within. What could possibly be inside this ordinary box?
Could it be a clock? Just thinking about it felt strange.
"Who sent this box?" Old Shao asked Shui Xinlan.
Shui Xinlan hurriedly replied, "When I went to open the door earlier, there was no one outside. I saw a child's back as they went down the stairs and disappeared into the distance; I guess that child left it at our doorstep. But I didn’t see their face; they looked about one meter thirty or forty tall."
"Could it be some kind of delivery?" Yuan Jun scratched his head.
Jiang He shook his head and stated firmly, "Any delivery would have an order number attached to the box. Even if someone later tore it off, there would still be signs of it being removed. But this box clearly has none. I'm ninety percent sure that this box wasn’t delivered by a courier; it was placed here directly by whoever sent it."
"It might just be a prank," Xu Yiman chimed in while still wearing her apron and holding a spatula. "It was delivered by a child; sometimes kids can be mischievous."
"A timed bomb," Jiang He said suddenly, surprising everyone. "Get me some scissors."
"A bomb?" Shui Xinlan clearly couldn't fathom that something so alarming could happen to her.
Jiang He nodded and leaned closer to the box, taking a sniff. "There's a kind of aromatic smell on the box, but I can't determine what type it is. Inside, there's a distinct rhythmic ticking sound; it could be something like a watch. Analyzing just one aspect makes it hard to conclude what's inside, but if we combine both observations, I have a seventy percent certainty that there’s a bomb inside, specifically a timed bomb."
"To be precise, it should be yellow explosives, which means this smell is likely trinitrotoluene. The ticking sound is from a timer mechanism, indicating that this bomb is controlled by time. However, without seeing inside the box, we can't ascertain the specifics of the bomb, so we need to be cautious."
Jiang He turned and asked, "Where are the scissors?"
Yuan Jun replied, "Call in a bomb disposal expert."
Jiang He shook his head. "It will take at least an hour for an expert to arrive. We don't know how long this timed bomb has until detonation; it could be as little as ten minutes. From the exterior of the box, we can't tell how much explosive material is inside. If there’s as much explosive as the outer casing suggests, it would be enough to destroy this building."
"Common bombs can be detonated via remote control, pressure activation, tilt activation, or composite methods." At this point, Jiang He had already picked up the scissors. "But this box was delivered by a child; the bomb inside must have undergone some jostling and friction, so we can rule out pressure activation and pull activation. The most likely methods are remote detonation or timed ignition."
At that moment, Guan Deng pulled out his phone and wrote on the screen: "I've used a jammer to block signals in the vicinity. If it's remote detonation, their remote control has already been rendered ineffective."
Jiang He nodded and carefully cut along the edges of the cardboard box with the scissors. "So this cardboard box isn't part of the detonation mechanism; there's no need to worry."
With that, Jiang He cautiously cut around the box until a rectangular object appeared before everyone.
It was approximately twenty centimeters long and ten centimeters wide—a rectangular prism entirely in yellow. Four detonators were tied together around it; it seemed these were meant to trigger the explosives. Connecting the detonators and explosives were a tangle of colorful wires.
Jiang He counted roughly thirty wires connecting these four detonators to the explosives and timer mechanism.
In the center surrounded by wires was a small square circuit board next to which sat a mechanical timer that was ticking away second by second. The ticking sound was coming from this watch.
Shui Xinlan stood nearby, staring at this live bomb. She felt fear, confusion, excitement—all her emotions tangled together made her breath quicken and cold sweat trickle down her forehead. "A bomb shouldn't have just one red and one blue wire; isn't there supposed to be a countdown screen…?"
Jiang He observed the bomb without turning his head and said, "That's only something you see in movies."
"There are four detonators; each could potentially serve as an ignition device or all four could be ignition devices. The bomb indeed uses a timer mechanism, but from this watch, we can't tell what time the murderer set for detonation. This means that the bomb could explode at any moment; just in case, you all should leave."
As Jiang He gently manipulated the wires with his scissors, he added, "The explosive yield is insufficient; the blast radius isn't wide. You should wait downstairs—if it explodes, it won't affect anyone else. However, whoever disarms it will certainly die."
"The murderer has also set up numerous decoy wires for interference; there may be a specific order for those four detonators. If they are disconnected in the wrong sequence, it might also trigger an explosion."
Jiang He was already taking action while he was thinking. He began to cut away the wires that wouldn’t affect the bomb; it was clear that the killer had used them to distract the bomb disposal team.
“What is this?” After cutting the interference wires and tossing them aside, Jiang He noticed a USB drive fixed within the bomb.
“A USB drive?” Old Shao looked at the black device and suddenly asked Guan Deng, “If this USB drive gets destroyed in the explosion, is there any chance we could recover the data inside?”
Upon hearing this question, Guan Deng shook his head decisively, quite firm in his response.
“The power of this bomb isn’t too great; if it were to explode, it would only kill the bomb disposal personnel. But if everyone leaves and lets this bomb explode, then the USB drive attached to it will shatter into pieces, and we will never know what was on that drive.”
Old Shao said softly, “The creator of this bomb is targeting us.”
“And we don’t know how much time we have left before it explodes, so they’re playing a game with us,” Old Shao continued. “We don’t have time to study this slowly; we must make a choice quickly.”
“Forget it; who cares about the USB drive?” Yuan Jun said. “Nothing is more important than lives. Let’s leave the bomb here and let it blow up.”
“Exactly,” Xu Yiman agreed.
Old Shao remained silent.
However, Jiang He shook his head and said, “I have a fifty percent chance of disarming this bomb. You all go downstairs and wait for me. Wait for the explosion or wait for me to retrieve the USB drive. I want to see what’s inside.”
Xu Yiman threw her apron on the ground and said to Jiang He, “Jiang He, are you joking with our lives again?”
Jiang He shook his head. “It’s not about you; it’s about me. You all go downstairs quickly.”
But Xu Yiman stood her ground and said to Jiang He, “Jiang He, why can’t you understand? A person’s life isn’t just their own business. The moment you joined the project team, your life became linked with ours. If you die, we will be heartbroken; do you understand?”
“Heartbroken?” Jiang He slowed his movements suddenly and asked, “Would you really feel heartbroken if I died?”
“Of course,” Xu Yiman replied. “Not just me; Old Shao would feel it, Guan Deng would feel it, Yuan Jun would feel it, and Shui Xinlan would feel it too. Never joke with someone else's life, and especially not with your own! No matter what’s on that USB drive, it’s not more important than our lives.”
“That’s right; we’re a team. If one goes, we all go; if not, then we stay together,” Yuan Jun added nonchalantly.
Guan Deng nodded.
Shui Xinlan looked at everyone, a bit scared, but said, "I... I also want to stay with you."
"Are you sure?" Shao the Elder asked.
Jiang He was silent for a moment before speaking. "If it's just me alone, I have a fifty percent chance. If we all stay together, I have a seventy percent chance. I guess the murderer doesn't know how many people are in our room, but coincidentally, there are four detonators."
"Seventy percent?" Xu Yiman asked. "Why not before?"
"Because if you go, even if it's a probabilistic event, it could happen," Jiang He replied.
"So you choose to send one person to their death?" Xu Yiman said. "If having one more person increases the odds, then I'll stay."
Jiang He didn't hesitate and continued, "N is a very stable explosive; even when subjected to impact or open flames, it is hard to detonate. So it definitely needs a detonator as an igniter. These four detonators are on the outside of the explosive, so we just need to remove them. But inside the explosive, I don't know if there are more detonators hidden."
"If there's another detonator hidden under the first one, pulling it out could trigger an explosion," Jiang He explained. "If there isn't, then if all four of us pull out the detonators at the same time and cut all the wires in an instant, we can disarm the bomb. The five of us make the perfect number."
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