"What's wrong?"
Tang Yao keenly noticed his abnormality.
Song Yecheng pulled out his hand, revealing a bunch of keys and a folded piece of paper with rough edges.
"What is this?" Ling An and Tang Yao came over in surprise, "Where did it come from?"
Song Yecheng thought about the time his pants were pulled when he entered the room, and said, "He must have stuffed it into my hand just now."
As he spoke, he twisted the paper open with one hand and discovered that it seemed to be a piece of paper torn from somewhere. It was written in Jiang Que's handwriting, which looked very hastily. There were only ten words in total:
Don’t trust your feelings, trust the evidence.
"What do you mean?" Tang Yao and Ling An were both confused.
Song Yecheng didn't really understand. After pondering for a moment, he could only come up with a guess: "Maybe there's something else we don't know about. Do we have to keep looking for clues?"
"But why did he remind us?" Ling An was a little confused. "Isn't the instructor in cahoots with the base?"
Song Yecheng had already thought about the instructor's stance in the dormitory last night. Today, after determining that this base might be an organization targeting criminals and that all volunteers were in the same situation, he, like Ling An, classified the instructors, who were employees of the base, into the base's camp.
But now it seems that this conclusion is obviously too early.
"What are these keys for?"
Tang Yao stared at the bunch of keys in Song Yecheng's hand and found that there were about ten keys in total, and they were all similar in style. She subconsciously looked at the door at first, but soon found it impossible - this door was an electronic induction lock and there was not even a keyhole on it.
Song Yecheng didn't even think about opening the door, because the keys were very small. Compared to door locks, they were more like small locks used to open boxes, drawers, etc.
Thinking about it, he raised his head and looked at the furnishings in the room in front of him. He found that the layout here was like an office, with a set of desks and chairs in the front and three filing cabinets against the wall behind the desk.
His mind raced as he immediately walked towards the cabinet: "Could it be used here?"
Ling An and Tang Yao hurried to catch up. Song Yecheng explained as they walked, "Just now, Dr. Jin gave him the task of 'taking them to a quiet place,' but he didn't specify a specific location. If he wanted to pass on information to us, and he chose this room himself, would he choose a room with clues?"
Ling An and Tang Yao had not noticed the details in Dr. Jin's words before. When they heard what he said, they suddenly felt enlightened and nodded hurriedly.
Behind the desk, the three filing cabinets against the wall are all of the same regular style, with transparent glass double doors on the top, two metal drawers side by side in the middle, and opaque metal double doors on the bottom.
Song Yecheng walked to the first filing cabinet, raised his hand, inserted a key into the keyhole above, and twisted it gently. Although it didn't turn, he could clearly feel that the shape and length of the key fit the keyhole very well, which means that their types matched, but the tooth patterns did not match.
Song Yecheng pulled out his keys, lowered his head, and quickly removed all ten or so keys from the key ring. He stuffed three or four keys into Ling An and Tang Yao's pockets respectively and said, "Let's try them separately to save time."
The two nodded and immediately started to act separately. As they inserted the key into the keyhole, the room was suddenly filled with the sound of "click" and "click".
At the same time, in the lobby on the third floor.
Jiang Que walked out of the passage of Experimental Area B and saw that everyone was still standing there, as if they were waiting for him to come back.
"Has it been delivered?" asked Dr. Jin.
Jiang Que nodded, and Dr. Jin asked again, "Which room?"
"322." Jiang Que said truthfully.
Dr. Jin said "Oh" silently, then asked with a smile, "Your office?"
Jiang Que nodded again.
Dr. Jin's eyes flickered subtly, and then he smiled and nodded with an ambiguous smile: "Very good."
No one present was quite sure where this "good" came from, but Dr. Jin didn't seem to want to explain any further. He just looked at his watch nonchalantly and said, "Oh, it's past dinner time."
He looked up at everyone: "Is everyone hungry?"
As he spoke, he pulled out the remote control from his pocket again and lightly pressed it, turning the sensor doors around the office area back to the green light, indicating access. "Don't just stand here, let's go eat."
Everyone started walking out upon hearing this. Lin Yan and He Jingsheng were particularly confused. When they got closer, they were about to ask Jiang Que something when they saw Dr. Jin turn to them and say, "You three, come with me downstairs. You've worked hard today. I'll give you a little lesson."
In fact, after experiencing the "accident" and the "volunteer under house arrest" incidents just now, Dr. Jin's image in their eyes has changed from "reliable" to a little "scary". Lin Yan and He Jingsheng both wished to stay away from him.
However, his identity was the "head of the base" after all, and theoretically the leader of the entire base. Now that he had spoken like this, the few people had no choice but to exchange glances with each other and agreed to it.
Dr. Jin smiled elegantly, not paying any attention to the different expressions on the three people's faces. He turned around as if nothing had happened and headed for the stairs first: "Let's go."
On the other side, Office 322, Experimental Area B.
"Hey? This cabinet is open!" Ling An said in surprise.
Just as he finished speaking, Tang Yao happened to unscrew a lock: "Open one here too!"
Ling An was about to search in the cabinet when Song Yecheng reminded him, "Don't be in a hurry. Open them all and then look together."
Ling An thought it made sense, so he simply left the key in the keyhole and turned to try other cabinet doors.
After most of the cabinets were opened, Song Yecheng estimated that there were still three keys left. He turned around and looked at the desk behind him, and found that there were two drawers under the desk. He immediately bent over and tried to open them as well.
There is only one left.
Song Yecheng looked around but couldn't find any locks that could be opened. Coincidentally, Tang Yao also discovered the key in his hand at this time: "An extra one?"
Song Yecheng nodded, but couldn't figure out the reason for a moment, so he simply put it back in his pocket.
"Let's look through the cabinets first," he said. "One for each of us?"
"good."
Ling An and Tang Yao responded and started searching the nearest cabinets.
Most of the items in the cabinet were research reports, with their respective titles and corresponding experiments written on the covers. Many of them could be seen at a glance to be unrelated to the "memory burial" experiment, so it wasn't difficult to rule them out.
The three of them searched carefully and didn't speak for a while.
A few minutes later, Tang Yao suddenly spoke up, as if remembering something. "Hey, what do you think...what would happen if we turned ourselves in? Would they send us to the police?"
Song Yecheng thought about it while flipping through the information, and chuckled, "It's really not impossible."
He still remembered that Chi Jinan mentioned that a branch of the program might involve self-driving. If he was referring to the "surrender" line, maybe they would really be asked to drive themselves to a police station to surrender.
However, he didn't mention this off-site information for the time being, because at this moment he happened to flip through a folder. Although the title on the cover had nothing to do with the "Memory Burial" experiment, it still caught his attention -
【Employee Register】
Song Yecheng immediately opened it and saw a data sheet with a one-inch photo attached:
Name: Liu Min, Gender: Female
Age: 26, Position: Experimental Planner
Employee Number: 70208102
…
In addition to basic information, the following also records some of her resume, experimental projects she participated in, etc.
Song Yecheng glanced through it briefly and didn't find much useful information. Just as he was about to turn to the next page, his eyes suddenly paused.
In the last column of the table, there is a very inconspicuous line of information:
Joining date: February 7, 2018
Song Yecheng glanced at the basic information above, and suddenly an inspiration hit his brain, and he quickly flipped back a few pages -
Name: Shen Ming, Gender: Male
Age: 28, Position: Experimental Operator
Employee Number: 50709102
Joining date: July 5, 2019
…
Name: Zhuang Qiyu, Gender: Male
Age: 24, Position: Experiment Recorder
Employee Number: 11909102
Joining date: September 11, 2019
…
It is true.
All employees' numbers are not random numbers, but are arranged in reverse order of their joining time.
With this sudden realization, Song Yecheng used his thumb to move the edge of the stack of information papers, and quickly flipped through all the forms at a search speed to screen the photos, but he did not see the information of Jiang Que and the other experimental instructors.
"Ling An?" Song Yecheng looked up and asked, "Do you still remember the serial number on Lin Yan's nameplate?"
The reason why he asked Ling An instead of Tang Yao was because before dinner last night, he noticed Jiang Que's number and also saw He Jingsheng's, but he couldn't see Lin Yan and Jin Fuhan's clearly because they were sitting too far away.
Ling An was stunned at first when he asked this question, then he blinked and quickly recalled everything.
After a moment, he really didn't disappoint Song Yecheng - as a veteran of the game, he didn't ignore such details. He quickly nodded and said with certainty: "I remember it, it's 824...00202. Why are you asking this?"
82400202.
That was April 28, 2020.
Song Yecheng thought quickly in his mind, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he was about to speak when he heard Tang Yao's surprised "Huh?"
"What's wrong?" The two were immediately drawn to the attention.
"Come and see!" Tang Yao said anxiously.
Song Yecheng and Ling An quickly approached her, only to see that she was holding a folder in her hand. On the page that was opened were two pictures, one above and one below.
Design template: [Image]
Design goal: [Image]
The "design template" above is a photo of a bedroom, while the "design goal" below is a decoration design drawing. The main color, furniture style and placement of the room in the picture are 70% similar to the bedroom above, and it is obviously designed based on it.
Song Yecheng and Ling An had never seen the bedroom above, but they were familiar with the room in the design drawing below. They had even been there half an hour ago - that was clearly Tang Yao's dormitory.
"This is my bedroom!"
Tang Yao pointed at the bedroom photo above in surprise, then looked at the design drawing below: "So my dormitory is... designed after my bedroom at home?!"
Hearing this, Ling An quickly reached out and turned the page. He glanced at the two pictures on the page and immediately said in horror: "Holy crap, mine too?!"
Song Yecheng's heart moved, and he immediately turned to the next page, only to see a bedroom photo and a decoration design drawing there. The pictures were exactly his bedroom and the dormitory he lived in. There was also a watermark printed on the upper right corner of the dormitory design with the drawing date.
2020.05.10
Like lightning piercing through the fog, in an instant, all the clues were connected into a line, presenting an answer to the mystery in my mind.
"I understand." Song Yecheng said suddenly.
Facing the inquiring gazes of Ling An and Tang Yao, he asked, "Did you all feel that the instructor and the dormitory looked familiar last night? Did you feel that the instructor was the same instructor as last year, and the dormitory was the same dormitory you lived in last year?"
Ling An and Tang Yao both nodded.
"But look," Song Yecheng pointed to the employee information on the folder in his hand, "all the lab technicians' numbers are in reverse order of their hire dates. Lin Yan's is 82400202, He Jingsheng's is 60500202, and Teacher Bai's is 80500202. The last four digits are all 0202. This means they all joined this year. They couldn't have been our instructors last year."
"And this," he pointed to the watermark on the design drawing in Tang Yao's hand. "Our dormitory was designed in May of this year, two months ago. It couldn't possibly be the dormitory we lived in last year. The reason we feel like we've seen it before is because it was modeled after our bedroom at home."
Tang Yao and Ling An clearly understood what he meant, but they seemed to have not fully grasped the key point: "So..."
Song Yecheng took out the note Jiang Que had slipped him and showed the words on it: "So when he said 'don't trust your feelings', could it be that he meant to tell us that 'déjà vu' is just an illusion deliberately instilled in us by the base, and we may have never been here at all?"
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