Sure enough, there was an iron door more than a meter high hidden behind the wardrobe.

There is a password on the iron gate; you need to enter the password to open it.

"Is this the exit?" Cao Feiyue asked.

Guo Zhuyan's eyes lit up. "This should be the exit."

"What if it's just a secret room behind us?" Cao Feiyue asked.

"Whether it's a secret room or an exit, let's crack the code and open it first!" Xing Yu rubbed his hands together, already quite convinced that this was the exit.

He asked, "President Chi, Qin Yuanyao, do you have any clues about the password?"

Chi Baiyi didn't speak, but Qin Yuanyao answered his question.

She briefly explained to everyone how they had found the password to get out.

After listening, everyone gathered around the calendar.

“The string of numbers is the password to leave the reading room, so are the four circled dates the password to this iron gate?” Ye Rui guessed.

"The password for the iron gate is four digits!" Chi Nao reminded her sweetly.

"Then let's try randomly combining the numbers 2, 8, 14, and 29," Guo Zhuyan said.

Xing Yu rushed to the iron gate and started trying out passwords by randomly combining numbers.

Qin Yuanyao really wanted to tell them that when they were guessing the reading room's password, they had already eliminated these four numbers, and she didn't think the iron gate's password had anything to do with these four numbers.

But she didn't need to say it aloud; the continuous incorrect password prompts had already proven that Xing Yu and her team's approach was wrong.

"President Chi, Qin Yuanyao, are there any other clues?" Xing Yu asked.

“This place is only so big, and we’ve searched for all the clues we could find, but we haven’t found anything,” Qin Yuanyao said.

"Where's the wardrobe? Could there be any clues inside?" Cao Feiyue asked.

"I searched the wardrobe once, and then Cheese and I searched it again. We're pretty sure there are no clues," Qin Yuanyao replied.

Cao Feiyue opened the wardrobe and looked around, but indeed found no clues.

"Where else could we find clues?" Xing Yu wandered around the reading room, searching for clues.

Guo Zhuyan and the others, along with Cao Feiyue and the others, searched the reading room together with him.

Qin Yuanyao and her two companions, who had already turned the reading room upside down in their search for a way out, did not join them in the search.

Qin Yuanyao and the others felt that if there were any other clues, they would have found them long ago.

Since there are no other clues, but there is an iron gate here that requires a password to exit, does that mean the password for the iron gate is not here?

Qin Yuanyao told Chi Baiyi about this idea.

Chi Baiyi nodded in agreement, "That's what I think too."

He continued, "Could it be like the metal box we found under the sycamore tree, with a password we've seen before?"

Qin Yuanyao's almond-shaped eyes widened slightly. "Very likely!"

She quickly thought, "Could the password for the iron gate be the same as the password for the reading room?"

Chi Baiyi smiled and reminded her, "The password for the reading room is four letters, and the password for the iron gate is four numbers."

"Oh, right!" Qin Yuanyao realized. "I forgot about that."

Wow, CEO Chi's smile was so charming just now!

This is the first time I've seen CEO Chi smile so charmingly at someone other than cheese!

I think if anyone else had said the same thing as Qin Yuanyao, President Chi would probably have reacted with a cold and arrogant look of disdain.

[Hahaha, the person upstairs, I actually think so too.]

It seems that CEO Chi is increasingly treating Yao Yao as one of his own.

"Could it be the strokes of those four characters?" Chi Nao suddenly thought.

Qin Yuanyao and Chi Baiyi both thought it was possible.

They calculated the number of strokes in the four characters and tried entering the password.

The password error message sounded.

Xing Yu, who had given up searching for clues in the reading room, came over.

He heard what Qin Yuanyao and Chi Baiyi were saying.

He slowly realized that if even Qin Yuanyao and Chi Baiyi hadn't found any other clues in the reading room, then it was even less likely that he, a complete novice, would find them.

He should just follow Qin Yuanyao and Chi Baiyi's line of thinking.

“We’ve already used Li Xuan and Ni Yan’s school entry dates. Are there any similar dates we can use?” Xing Yu asked.

“The list only includes their enrollment date and questions,” Chi Baiyi said.

Everyone fell silent again, seemingly trapped in a dead end once more.

They knew very well that they had seen the light at the end of the tunnel; they were just one step away from embracing victory.

But what is the missing step?

After a long silence, Qin Yuanyao raised her eyes in surprise.

"I know what the password might be!"

Before anyone could react, she had already run to the iron gate.

As she entered "0182" into the combination lock, she said, "Li Xuan's mother said that the exit code is 0182."

"Is this the exit that Li Xuan's mother was talking about? Is the exit password still valid...?"

Before Xing Yu could finish speaking, the combination lock emitted a notification sound indicating that the password was correct, and the iron gate opened simultaneously.

Qin Yuanyao's intelligence is off the charts! The exit Feng Wenhe and his group found, the password they spent ages cracking was also 0182. I was wondering why their password was the same as Li Xuan's mother's; apparently, the exit password is universal!

[Yaoyao! Yaoyao is so clever to think of this!]

[So exciting! Does this mean the exit is indeed behind the iron gate?!]

The guests also thought of this.

Overjoyed, everyone bent down and filed through the iron gate.

Behind the iron gate was a dark, narrow passage, only wide enough for one person to pass through.

Guo Zhuyan led the way, Xing Yu was in the middle, and Chi Baiyi followed at the very back.

The female guests and the children were protected in the middle by them.

The passageway is not high, so taller male guests need to bend over to pass through.

Cao Feiyue was a little scared. "Aren't there any lights here? Is this really the exit?"

"You'll know when you reach the end," Xing Yu said.

"If this isn't the exit, do we have to go back?" Cao Feiyue asked again.

"It's alright, if it's not the exit, we'll just go back the way we came..."

Before Qin Yuanyao could finish speaking, Xing Yu, who had turned a corner, excitedly shouted.

"There's light ahead!! That should be the exit!! We're almost there!!"

Everyone was energized.

After walking a few steps, they filed out through the exit in front.

They squinted, their eyes still adjusting to the blinding light, when they heard several loud "bangs" as something scattered and landed on them.

"Congratulations on your successful escape!" Director Jiang's cheerful voice rang out in front of them.

Once everyone's eyes had adjusted to the light, they were truly certain—

They're out! They really came out of the exit!!

Before us lay fields and farmhouses, as well as Director Jiang and his staff holding spray guns.

Fireworks landed on the ground and on them.

(End of this chapter)

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