Chapter 0306: Activated a Mysterious Switch, Smells Like an Operating Room
“Is that all?”
Xie Chengze looked at Zhang Yuheng somewhat unwillingly.
Zhang Yuheng shook his head, indicating that he had only seen this much as well.
Xie Chengze had no choice but to give up and didn’t press further. Instead, he rested his chin on his hand and sank into deep thought.
After a long while, he reached out and wrapped his arms around both their shoulders.
“Aren’t… you two curious?”
Zhang Yuheng: “…”
Su Qinghe: “…”
Su Qinghe blinked. “Is Your Highness curious?”
Xie Chengze quickly nodded.
“Well then…” Su Qinghe thought for a moment. “To open that secret door, we need two keys. If we can’t steal them, we’ll have to try to crack the mechanism ourselves.”
Zhang Yuheng, standing nearby, shot another horrified look at Su Qinghe.
Brother Su?!
That day when I just stood in front of the secret door and deliberately scared you with one sentence, you immediately urged me to give up the idea of peeking at the Heavenly Decree’s secrets. How come now, with just a nod from the Second Prince, you’ve spilled everything you know?
You even considered “stealing”?
Are you still the Brother Su I know?!
Xie Chengze still hadn’t noticed Zhang Yuheng’s shock. He excitedly tugged at Su Qinghe’s arm, unable to contain his joy. “You can crack mechanisms too? You’re that amazing? As expected of you, Qinghe gege!”
The address “Qinghe gege” seemed to activate some mysterious switch. Zhang Yuheng could literally see Su Qinghe’s ears and cheeks rapidly turn bright red with his own eyes. Then this usually gentle and reserved Brother Su began murmuring shyly and timidly, “Y-Your Highness, I’ll do my best.”
Brother Su!
Don’t do your best!
This isn’t right for us!
…
Although he was screaming these thoughts internally, when midnight came, Zhang Yuheng still stood honestly before the secret door.
He was just a weak mute who couldn’t even truss a chicken. If Ti Ling Guo asked who started this, he’d say he was forced.
The tall and burly Zhang Yuheng thought this with complete self-justification.
In front of the secret door, Su Qinghe took out his usual homemade tools, leaned against the door, and inserted the tools into the lock to listen for sounds. Meanwhile, Zhang Yuheng and Xie Chengze stood on wooden chairs, covering the bells hanging before the secret door with their hands to prevent them from making noise and waking their sleeping colleagues from the Directorate of Celestial Observation.
“How’s it going?” Xie Chengze asked.
Hearing this, Su Qinghe slightly raised his eyes and gave him a “keep calm” look. Then he pulled out the lock-picking tools, turned around to fiddle in his toolbox for a while, and finally picked up two pieces of wood, carving them into shape with a small knife.
With clear obsessive-compulsive tendencies, he cleaned off all the wood splinters, brushed lubricating oil on the surface, and only then inserted them into the two keyholes, twisting simultaneously.
Click.
The secret door’s mechanism lock opened.
Su Qinghe glanced at Xie Chengze and Zhang Yuheng, then reached out to gently push the door open.
The string connected to the bells shook as the door opened. Fortunately, with the two covering them, no sound was made. Only when the bell strings stopped moving did Xie Chengze and Zhang Yuheng carefully release their hands and jump down from the wooden chairs.
Xie Chengze cautiously picked up a wooden chair and blocked it in front of the opened secret door to prevent it from accidentally closing without them noticing anything unusual.
Zhang Yuheng followed suit, blocking the other secret door with another chair.
Then, gazing at the altar inside, the three exchanged glances, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
The inner chamber was extremely simple, containing only an altar and a row of bookshelves flush against the wall. The shelves held records of the existing contents of the Heavenly Decree from previous years.
At the center of the chamber was a large, slightly sunken circular pit. The bottom of the pit was flat, carved with intricate black runic depressions resembling some kind of magical array. For some reason, just looking at it made Xie Chengze feel an oppressive heaviness weighing down on him.
He quickly averted his gaze, and only then did his mind and body relax.
His eyes swept over the row of bookshelves along the wall before finally settling on the altar. The stone table of the altar resembled a modern classroom lectern, with slightly higher panels on both sides, which was why the appearance of the Heavenly Decree couldn’t be seen from outside the door.
And there, enshrined upon it, was the Heavenly Decree.
It took the form of a book.
A seemingly ordinary book.
Xie Chengze stepped forward and reached out to touch the book, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in his fingertip, as if cut by an invisible thread. Blood instantly welled up.
He couldn’t help but hiss softly and withdrew his hand.
“Your Highness!” Su Qinghe, seeing him injured, gasped in a low voice and hurriedly took an embroidered handkerchief from his sleeve, wrapping it around Xie Chengze’s finger.
“It’s nothing,” Xie Chengze shook his head and looked up again. Due to the dim light in the inner chamber, he hadn’t noticed earlier that countless fine threads hung around the Heavenly Decree, collectively resembling a “holy hand” that turned the pages of the book, intricately connecting to each page.
Xie Chengze tried to trace the source of the threads but couldn’t see clearly.
What was the principle behind this?
It greatly piqued the interest of this engineering-minded man.
Xie Chengze hid his hand in his sleeve, rolling up the excess fabric and clenching it into a small fist. Then, using the scant light in the room, he cautiously extended his fist into the space.
He didn’t dare let Zhang Yuheng or Su Qinghe light a candle, fearing it might burn these threads and render the Heavenly Decree useless in the future.
Although he knew the plot of this world, it only covered ten years. In the future, the Jian’an Dynasty and other dynasties would still rely on the Heavenly Decree’s disaster prophecies. He couldn’t let his curiosity destroy what appeared to be a delicate mechanism.
Carefully navigating through the threads, Xie Chengze touched the Heavenly Decree.
The moment he made contact, his expression shifted slightly, as if he had suddenly been plunged into a chaotic world.
His vision turned hazy; he couldn’t see clearly and could barely hear. A faint scent of disinfectant mixed with hand soap lingered at the tip of his nose. He felt a strange sensation, as if his soul were being torn—not painfully, but his entire body felt both weightless and unbearably heavy, as if one part was returning to its original form while another part persistently resisted and pulled back.
“Your Highness! What’s wrong with you!”
Noticing Xie Chengze’s unusual state, Su Qinghe quickly supported his body. To his astonishment, the threads seemed to come alive, retracting entirely back into the Heavenly Decree. He promptly pulled Xie Chengze’s arm back.
The moment his hand left the Heavenly Decree, Xie Chengze’s consciousness was yanked back. His vision cleared, and he bewilderedly covered his nose, unsure if what he had just experienced was an illusion.
That smell of disinfectant was very much like the scent in a hospital operating room.
When Xie Chengze was a child, he had appendicitis, and his homeroom teacher took him for surgery. The scent he vaguely smelled back then was exactly this one.
Could it be…
Could it be that his modern self was being rescued in an operating room?
Could it be that he hadn’t died?
Then could he go back? Could he see his parents again?
Xie Chengze trembled uncontrollably, his nose suddenly stinging, and his eyes involuntarily reddening.
“Your Highness? Are you alright? Please don’t scare me!” Seeing Xie Chengze trembling as if frightened, Su Qinghe was utterly heartbroken, secretly regretting whether he shouldn’t have pried open the hidden door, causing the Second Prince to get injured and now showing signs of soul loss.
Seeing Xie Chengze still dazed and disoriented, Su Qinghe couldn’t decide what to do, so he turned to Zhang Yuheng, “Brother Zhang, what should we do? Should… should we call the imperial physician?”