Walking Ahead of You

The seven curves twisted like ocean waves, yet meant nothing.

But when Ji Li turned them sideways, he suddenly realized how to solve the puzzle.

Perhaps his perspective had been too conventional.

The knocking had no melody, no rhythm, and no discernible meaning.

But that was because the visitor had not conveyed the revealed information directly, instead deliberately altering it.

This string of knocks needed a second round of processing before its true form could be deciphered.

Ji Li walked to the bedside and held the sheet of paper sideways again. Segments of signals echoed through his mind.

This time, he did not arrange each set of knocks horizontally.

Instead, he rotated them ninety degrees and arranged them vertically.

He tore off the original sheet, recalled the knocks as he compared them, and recorded them anew on a second sheet of paper.

After several silent minutes, a brand-new version, oriented in the opposite direction, appeared on the page.

And this time, when Ji Li looked at it, he finally understood what the knocking foretold.

The paper still contained undulating curves, but there was one major difference from the horizontal version.

Once converted into a vertical layout, the curves were no longer continuous at the beginning. There were breaks amid the chain of signals.

Those breaks transformed the former seven curves into three short ones.

And this time, Ji Li abruptly realized that when these curves were connected, they formed a piece of sheet music.

Moreover, it was a familiar tune, one even he could hum.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are..."

It was an extremely classic, simple children's song.

Ji Li slowly lowered the sheet music and involuntarily turned to look at the door.

After Ji Li recorded those signals and drew them into curves, the