It would be nice if this road never ended.
At half past nine, the car stopped on the roadside at No. 27 Yong'en Street.
No. 28 is on the opposite side, and we don’t stop there because there is no room.
After all, there are many nobles living from Yong'en Street to Yong'en District, so there is no shortage of cars here, and the roadside is almost full.
"If you call for help, I will break down the door."
Xia Yibing made a promise.
Hitzfeld waved to her, crossed the street, came to the door of No. 28 and rang the doorbell.
The architectural layout here is similar to that of No. 12 Flo Street. There are single-family villas on the roadside, and each household has two large courtyards and iron gates.
After a while, footsteps were heard from inside.
Hitzfeld was surprised to see a girl with glasses coming out from the corner and opening the door for her. He couldn't help but ask her, "Aglaia?"
"it's me!"
The class representative of Ancient Sarai, Aglaia was also very excited to see her.
"The professor told me before that there would be a new member joining us, and I was wondering who it would be... Indeed, only Miss Hitzfeld is qualified!"
"Join? Join what?"
"Hey, didn't the professor tell you?"
Hitzfeld shook his head slowly.
"Ahem..." Aglaia looked around and came over with a guilty conscience.
"Although it would be a shameful betrayal to reveal the news without consent, since Miss Hitzfeld is destined to know..."
"It's a code book," she said seriously.
"What book?" Hitzfeld still didn't understand.
"A code book." Aglaia repeated. "It is made of various parts such as steel and wood. It looks like a book. You need to decrypt it layer by layer to turn the pages."
"The professor has been trying to decipher the contents of this book, but it is too difficult... If you don't know ancient Sarai, you are not even qualified to understand it. The professor has been troubled by this for a long time."
"so……"
Hitzfeld fell into deep thought.
Is this Ferdinand's plan?
Decipher this code book?
To be eligible to participate, you need to have a profound knowledge of ancient Sarai.
I see. That would explain why her Sara language proficiency needed to be assessed.
The open class he gave here should have been part of the assessment. If she passed it, he would skip the subsequent series of assessments and recruit her into the group.
But there was one thing she couldn't figure out.
If I say that I was chosen and favored by Ferdinand because I showed my talent in languages.
Why did Aglaia, who so far knows no more than 1500 words in ancient Sarai, appear in this place?
"Due to an accident, some of my ideas inspired the professor, and it seems that the decryption work has taken a big step forward!"
Aglaia held her chest with some pride.
"That's how it is sometimes, isn't it? Inspiration - inspiration is the most important thing!"
"really."
Hitzfeld affirmed.
She knew only too well how important it was.
"Come on, Miss Hitzfeld!"
Then she was pulled in by Aglaia under Xia Yibing's gloomy gaze.
"I bet the professor can't wait!"
Chapter 38: Gears on the Cover
Being dragged by Aglaia, Hitzfeld had to hurry to catch up.
She glanced at her grabbed sleeve.
Aglaia was very careful in this regard, and even though he looked very anxious, he still remembered not to have physical contact with her.
But you can't praise her for being polite. If she was really polite, you shouldn't have pulled her.
He was dragged into the house, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. After changing his shoes, Hitzfeld's first feeling was that it was very hot inside.
The wet and rainy April is about to pass, the temperature has risen significantly, and it is not so cold to wear skirts.
Even so, there was a roaring fire in the room, and Hitzfeld estimated that the temperature inside was at least 30 degrees, and she was already considering whether to take off the jacket over her dress.
As for the holster, you can tighten the lock a little and tie it around your leg, and then go to the bathroom.
"Welcome! Hitzfeld!"
Hearing the noise, Ferdinand walked out from a dark corridor with a somewhat excited expression on his face.
For a strict and rigid person like him, it is rare to have such a change in expression.
Aglaia was right, he was indeed looking forward to her arrival.
The two sat down on the sofa in the living room. Aglaia went to make tea, and they talked about the purpose of today.
"Do you want to know why I asked you to come here today?"
Hitzfeld nodded slightly: "If the professor is willing to explain."
She couldn't betray Aglaia. It would be fine if it was someone else, but Ferdinand... She suspected that if Ferdinand knew that Aglaia had secretly revealed the secret, the girl would be gone the next second.
"First of all, I want to apologize to you." Ferdinand sighed softly, "You are very smart, Hitzfeld, as smart as Lilith. I know you must have doubts about certain things, but you are still willing to remain neutral to me, and I must thank you for that."
Did Grace tell him about the conversation?
Hitzfeld was slightly startled.
He really trusts that old man who dares not show his face.
"Intelligence, objectivity, rationality, sufficient knowledge accumulation... and most importantly, a cool head." Ferdinand nodded. "These factors combined make me realize that you don't need to go through so many complicated assessments."
"In other words, if there was no open class, or if my performance in that class did not meet expectations, I would have to pass the language level tests step by step to receive this invitation?"
Hitzfeld couldn't help but ask.
"Yes, that's it."
"Then what the professor wants to discuss with me must be related to the level of ancient Sara language."
"You're only half right." Ferdinand raised his eyebrows slightly, "Wait a minute."
He stood up and walked away into the deep corridor, and soon returned with a huge tome—larger than any encyclopedia Hitzfeld had ever seen.
"Take a look at this." He placed the thing on the coffee table, leaned back on the sofa, and signaled Hitzfeld to start working on it.
Judging from the appearance alone, this is indeed a book.
Very big and thick.
Hitzfeld took it in his hand.
It’s still very heavy…even weighing it like this is difficult.
Its appearance is dark black, but it is not completely black. Instead, it has a bit of metallic texture. There are very serious scratches on the surface, and it will produce reflections when shaking it back and forth.
About of the book cover is hollowed out. From the cross-section, the first page cover is centimeters thick. Inlaid in the hollowed-out content are dozens of precision gears of different sizes and colors.
Hitzfeld turned it slightly to the side and saw that the right side, where the pages were turned, was a whole.
No, not the whole thing either. If the outer cover of the book is iron black, then the inner pages of the book are light brown in cross-section. It looks like it is made of some kind of polished wood.
Whether you observe carefully with the naked eye or touch it with your hands, you can confirm that there are fine and neat seams on the cross section.
This is probably what is called the "pages of a book", but I don't know why they are stuck together as if they were glued.
Because of the password?
Hitzfeld remembered what Aglaia had called it.
Code book.
Do you need to use knowledge to crack the code before you can open it layer by layer?
"It's almost what you thought." Ferdinand said at the right time, "You can take a closer look at the gears on the cover."
Hitzfeld did so and gained nothing.
"Reflective."
She paused, tilted the book slightly, and her brows immediately furrowed.
"Did you find anything?"
"On these gears..." Hitzfeld shook his head slightly, "Almost every gear has characters engraved on its protrusions and grooves."
"That's right... Now! Hitzfeld, try to open it."
Hitzfeld peeled back the cover.
Not moving.
"It can't be opened, can it?" Ferdinand said softly.
"Use your current knowledge to decipher all the characters inlaid on the gears, and try to put them together into a sentence."
Hitzfeld did so.
She didn't move the gears first, but connected the letters on all the gear inlays to decipher them.
[Southwest squirrel toothpick grape love poof.]
"..."
What the hell?
It's complete bullshit.
"Okay, now try turning the gear again."
"Just turn around?"
"Just turn around."
Hitzfeld glanced at the man opposite him and found that his expression was very calm.
You said you could just transfer it randomly.
She took a breath, and first pressed the largest gear, turning it like turning a pointer.
In the process, she discovered that the gears were not all grouped together—turning one gear alone did not cause all the gears to turn.
Like this big gear, it can only affect the other four gears.
There are five gears in total, and as they turn, the character combinations are constantly changing.
Hitzfeld paused.
Now if we interpret it again, this sentence becomes [Southwest little cuckold toothpick grape love puff.]
"..."
She was a little speechless, but she already understood the principle.
The first level of decryption requires turning several different sets of gears so that they can eventually spell out a coherent sentence.
If it is a little more difficult, it not only needs to be fluent, but also needs to accurately correspond to each character.
For example: the person who made this thing set the answer to the first level as "Open Sesame".
Then she has to find a way to turn the gears so that they can finally form the words "Open sesame".
Ferdinand directly agreed with all her guesses, which made Hitzfeld a little gasp - the decryption work would be too huge.
