Respecting Others' Fates

On the other side, Qin Shang seemed to think of something. He took another item out of a courier **box that had fallen onto the floor.

There was an old cellphone inside.

It had been sent along with the Fraudster Character Card.

It should also have been something his wife had mailed out before disappearing...

He skillfully charged it and waited for it to turn on. In the meantime, he also made a packet of instant noodles.

He hadn't felt hungry inside the Path of the Gods, but after coming out, although that sense of fear and urgency hadn't completely faded,

his starving stomach had protested first.

Gurgle~

The Character Card and the cellphone had been mailed out after Jiang Qiqi disappeared.

At first, it had been Jiang Qiqi's colleague in Yanjing who went to the Public Security Bureau to report her missing. Only then had the officer filed and registered the case.

Later, they discovered that there was also a courier package in transit, with the recipient listed as "Fiercely Licking Cockroach Jade Feet."

The Public Security Bureau reasonably suspected that Jiang Qiqi's disappearance might be connected to the package.

So they had held back the delivery.

Rather than Jiang Qiqi's "belongings," the items inside were more like clues his wife had left for him.

Yes, clues...

Qin Shang didn't believe his wife had died in the Path of the Gods.

Even though he had already experienced one perilous game in the Path of the Gods himself.

In the previous instance, if Qin Shang hadn't promptly broken up the team, there might have been more deaths among them.

But he still didn't believe this game could stump Jiang Qiqi.

Because...

His wife was a detective enthusiast and a mystery fan. Her logical thinking was better than that of many ordinary people.

Whenever they argued or bickered, Qin Shang had basically never won.

"In the previous round, I had my wife to thank for letting me avoid suspicion as the Fraudster at the start."

Qin Shang had never been interested in foreign movies or anything like that.

For the first twenty-two years of his life, he had been introverted and withdrawn, barely interacting with the outside world.

After spending two years in prison, he had become even more cut off from society. He had no idea what "Jack the Ripper" was. If Jiang Qiqi hadn't been lively and sweet, and a detective fan on top of that,

he really might not have recognized the words Jack the Ripper...

It was all thanks to his wife's influence.

Jiang Qiqi's appearance had been like a lamp illuminating Qin Shang's life.

The two years he had spent with Jiang Qiqi outweighed the more than twenty years of his first half of life.

"Hm!?"

Just then, Qin Shang noticed that the cellphone on the table had turned on. He hurriedly grabbed it.

"According to the Public Security Bureau officer, after a player dies, the Path of the Gods automatically retrieves their Character Card. So the Fraudster Character Card in my hands definitely isn't Qiqi's."

"Besides, if my wife had died in the Path of the Gods, how could she have mailed the Character Card to me?"

There had to be useful clues hidden in this card and the cellphone—clues connected to his wife's disappearance.

Please enter password!

The most troublesome problem appeared as soon as the phone booted up.

Qin Shang's expression stiffened.

Jiang Qiqi had many hobbies, but her identity as a mystery enthusiast had never changed.

Slacking off at work to send him complaints about her colleagues using cryptic jump codes, changing the electronic lock on their home's security door with Morse code, and performing all sorts of thoroughly chuuni, anti-human operations...

All of that was perfectly reasonable for a JK loli detective fan.

But what was her cellphone password?

Her birthday!?

It was unlikely to be Jiang Qiqi's birthday.

She had grown up in an orphanage, and Qin Shang knew about his wife's past.

She had been abandoned outside the orphanage. Apart from a name, there had been no clues. Jiang Qiqi had tried to find her biological parents more than once,

but even after all these years, she had made no progress, despite Xu Mingyang's help.

"A child's birthday at an orphanage isn't their actual date of birth. It's the day they were adopted."

"So in Jiang Qiqi's eyes, the birth date on her ID card had no commemorative value at all."

So...

Was it my birthday!?

Qin Shang tentatively entered four digits.

Incorrect password!

Qin Shang's face darkened.

"My birthday translated into Morse code? Binary? Or numbers produced through cryptic jump codes?"

Qin Shang entered another string of numbers.

Incorrect password!

"The anniversary of when we started dating!?"

Incorrect password!

The corner of Qin Shang's mouth twitched as he stared at the message on the screen: "You have two attempts remaining." His expression became complicated.

Damn it, a normal person's password could at least be traced through clues.

How was he supposed to figure out the password of a chuuni girl?

Jiang Qiqi, are you messing with me?

Don't you know how bizarrely complicated your own password designs are?

"Should I just find a hacker to break into this phone?"

"Great Detective Jiang Qiqi, your assistant Qin Shang is completely out of ideas..."

He raised his head woodenly, frustration etched across his handsome features.

He had thought that he had found a clue, and that his wife must have stored something in the Character Card and cellphone.

But Qin Shang now realized that he couldn't even get past the first step of cracking the cellphone password!

An all-too-familiar ancient poem unconsciously surfaced in his mind...

The late emperor's great undertaking was not yet half complete when he was stopped halfway!

After a long while, Qin Shang stared blankly ahead before suddenly freezing.

Huh, wait!

"Someone like Jiang Qiqi, who can't even remember her Taobao password, definitely knows that her own password style is bizarre to the point of being uniquely fresh. If I don't crack the password, I can't unlock the phone."

"Since she left me a clue, I must know this four-digit number. Is the password really related to birthdays or anniversaries?"

Wait, four digits...

That electronic announcement suddenly surfaced in his mind...

Ding! You are currently aboard the Death Train...

Number: 0927

That's right, my first instance in the Path of the Gods was the Death Train.

Wasn't its number four digits?

Qiqi had left behind the Character Card and the cellphone, which meant the two items had to be connected.

A smartphone couldn't hold a charge for long. It would basically run out of power after two or three days.

His wife could almost perfectly predict how he would react after receiving the package.

A black-screened cellphone and a silver-white little card.

When a normal person realized that the phone was out of power, the first thing they would do was probably take out that little card, right?

Based on his experience inside the Path of the Gods, everyone else had likely reacted similarly.

The moment their palms touched the Character Cards, they had entered the instance.

So Jiang Qiqi had been certain that he would enter the game first, then investigate the clues on the cellphone after coming out...

"My method of obtaining the Character Card was different from everyone else's. They seemed to have been chosen by the Path of the Gods and granted Character Cards, while mine was mailed to me by my wife."

"And there was another difference—the naming process..."

"I never had to name myself. Everyone else basically chose their own IDs, like Little Loli's 'Grandpa Niu Cosplaying as a Maid to Seduce Zhuangzhuang's Mom,' while mine was directly my wife's Taobao account."

Qin Shang frowned slightly.

"The instant I touched the silver-white little card, my vision went black, and I woke up in Carriage One of the Death Train."

"If there's only one four-digit number connected to the Path of the Gods Character Card, then this is the only possibility..."

The next moment, his finger tapped the screen and entered 0927!

Please, let it work!

Otherwise, he would have only one attempt left. Although he could find a hacker master on Xianyu tomorrow to help him "unlock" it,

it would be incredibly embarrassing if he couldn't even unlock his own wife's phone.

Besides, who knew what his lively, carefree wife had stored in her photo album?

Those hacker masters on Xianyu had no bottom line.

Otherwise, where did you think all those leaked resources involving Mr. Qin and Mr. Liu in the domestic 91 section had come from?

Brother Edison Chen and Cecilia Cheung had suffered from this problem back then.

Of course, in their case, it had purely been the computer repairman's fault!

"Click..."

The unlocking sound of a smartphone from a bygone era rang out.

Qin Shang instantly let out a sigh of relief.

He had no idea why his wife had used such an old phone to convey crucial information.

However, after entering the main interface, Qin Shang realized that something was off.

The first thing was the apps.

There were far too few of them. His wife had deleted almost all of the system applications.

Aside from those that couldn't be deleted, she had removed basically anything that took up storage space.

There was also an app named Path of the Gods Player Official Forum that caught Qin Shang's attention.

Qin Shang didn't open the forum right away. Instead, he opened the notes app.

Given Jiang Qiqi's style, she must have left him clues in the notes.

"Husband, I discovered something interesting that can change your entire fate. Your late-stage brain cancer is incurable. I traveled all over the country and couldn't find a single case with a hundred percent recovery rate, but Heaven never bars every path. That Character Card is your chance to turn things around."

"This may be a little risky, but it's the safest method. I don't have time to tell you more, so that's all for now. We'll definitely meet again someday."

"Exploring the Path of the Gods can only depend on you. Oh, right—in the game, don't trust anyone one hundred percent. Respect other people's fates..."

It was signed, "Your most beloved Qiqi"...

After reading the notes, Qin Shang's mind became a mess. Was that all?

Nothing else?

Just those one or two reminders?

The Path of the Gods was his chance to rewrite his fate. What kind of chance?

A way to resist brain cancer and survive?

So the root cause of his wife's disappearance was actually her attempt to cure his illness.

Qin Shang's heart sank, and his expression became complicated.

Jiang Qiqi was deeply in love with him. Sometimes, even he found it a little astonishing.

His wife was clearly a mystery enthusiast and a detective fan, and people in that group tended to be rational.

Why had she become so lovesick only when it came to him?

But the chance to turn things around mentioned in the notes...

Could the Path of the Gods be hiding some secret that could cure brain cancer?

His wife seemed to know the game of the Path of the Gods exceptionally well. As expected, Qiqi was probably a player too!

But why had she never mentioned the Path of the Gods before?

And why had she hurriedly mailed these things out right before disappearing?

Had she not even had the chance to explain it to him in person?

Or had she only written the note to put his mind at ease?

Had Jiang Qiqi encountered danger at the time?