The room door opened, and Dewitt wheeled himself out. With practiced ease, he lit a cigarette and began his daily health regimen of having one cigarette upon waking.
Deng Puhe had gotten up even earlier today. Only half a cup of pale green tea remained, and he was nearly finished with it.
"No one wrote a new hint on the wall today." Dewitt glanced up at the question sheet and smiled.
"Did you hear anything last night?" Deng Puhe asked.
"What? No. I went back to my room and went straight to sleep." Dewitt looked curious.
"Your hearing loss is remarkably well-timed, like you came with noise-canceling headphones." Deng Puhe sighed. "More than two hundred people gathered outside your door last night. They stayed until two in the morning, muttering back and forth and keeping me awake. What do you think they were waiting for?"
"Don't tell me they were waiting for someone to write a new hint on the question sheet?" Dewitt was stunned.
"Yes, and they weren't waiting for just anyone. They were waiting for you! Everyone thought yesterday's hint had been left by you, so they hoped you'd leave another one today. Instead, you were sleeping soundly in your room!" Deng Puhe couldn't help laughing. "Those poor young people were being led around in circles!"
"I didn't leave the hint. It has nothing to do with me." Dewitt spread his hands. "If they want to find the person, they should look for whoever left the message."
"But who knows who left the message?"
"I have a pretty good idea," Dewitt said.
"Oh?" Deng Puhe grew curious. "How do you know?"
"Instinct. The keen instinct of an old mathematician." Dewitt paused, then suddenly said a name. "Tang Jiang!"
"Just because his thinking is more unorthodox than Katerina's and