Mathilda instructed the security personnel to get out of the car and stand guard to prevent any unexpected incidents. Then, she instructed everyone in the car to get out. After that, she walked to the vehicle carrying Lam and his group and knocked on the window, signaling them to get out.
Lam nodded at Mathilda and then turned to the people in his car, telling them to get out.
After getting out, Lam began to stare at the courtyard of 1984 Charing Street in front of him. It was an ordinary three-story British house, nothing special except for the violets climbing on the white exterior walls. If there were no surprises, Great Wei should be hiding here.
Seeing Lam carefully observing the house, Mathilda asked the question that was on everyone's mind: "Dr. Lam, how did you know Great Wei was here?"
Sure enough, after Mathilda asked, Wang and Han also came over, curiously looking at Lam, wanting to know the answer.
Lam smiled lightly and then said, "'War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.' Our teacher emphasized this sentence to us repeatedly in class to make us vigilant.
This sentence is from George Orwell's novel '1984'. Moreover, if you were unsure about 1984, you saw the second line of numbers, 1111100000. Who still remembers the content of the second email?" Lam paused deliberately, leaving a suspense.
"The second email had no content, right?" Mathilda recalled, then looked at Lam in confusion, wondering what the connection was between the two.
"Yes, the second email had no content, so it was 0. If you add this 0 to 1111100000, you get 11111000000, right? This binary number is 1984."
As Lam revealed the answer, everyone suddenly realized the truth.
Lam originally thought that the blank second email from Wei was to confuse outsiders. Unexpectedly, he was wrong. Wei wanted him to look at it in combination with the third email's numbers.
When Lam opened the third email and saw the string of numbers, he immediately understood Wei's intention.
Wei felt that directly quoting the famous lines from '1984' was not enough, fearing that Lam might not understand, so he specially left such a string of numbers.
Lam continued to look at the house in front of him. After so much effort, he finally found it. It was really brain-wracking!
When he saw Wei later, he would definitely give him a good 'greeting', perhaps by giving him a beating. Thinking of this, Lam couldn't help but clench his fists tightly.
Lam wanted to go forward directly, but Mathilda stopped him, signaling the security personnel to go ahead and check for any problems.
The security personnel approached the house slowly in a safety formation and tried the doorknob, finding the door locked. After seeking Mathilda and Lam's opinions, the security personnel forced the door open and started searching the house. However, after searching up and down, no one was found.
"How is that possible? I am sure Wei is hiding here. Could someone have taken him away beforehand?"
Lam was somewhat surprised and asked to go inside the house to take a look. He didn't believe his judgment could be wrong.
As Lam entered the house, Wang and Han immediately followed without hesitation. Mathilda instructed the security personnel to stay on guard and then followed them inside.
Entering the house, Lam found the air inside very stale, and the dust on the floor had accumulated quite thickly.
Besides the footprints of the people who just entered, no other footprints were found. Lam instructed everyone to stay put and not come inside while he began to observe carefully and study the room's environment cautiously.
The furnishings inside the house were somewhat chaotic. Things in the living room were toppled over, and there were clothes on the sofa, which seemed to have been rummaged through.
Lam tiptoed along the wall, circled the living room, and then moved to the kitchen. The refrigerator door in the kitchen was wide open, but it was empty inside, and there were some slightly moldy foods scattered on the dining table. Judging by the degree of mold, they were probably left recently. From this, it seemed someone had been here recently, likely Wei.
After studying the general environment of the room, Lam began to squat down and examine the footprints carefully. Earlier, he had only glanced at them briefly and didn't see anything special. Now, if someone had been here recently, there would definitely be other footprints.
Squatting on the ground for a while, Lam found the light inside too dim to see clearly, so he asked Wang to turn on the light.
Wang responded and soon called out, saying she had found something.
Lam went over and saw clear fingerprints on the switch. He compared his finger to the print and found the size about the same. Judging by the contrast between the fingerprint and the surrounding dust-covered area, the fingerprint was relatively new.
Previously, Lam had compared hand sizes with Wei out of boredom and found their hand sizes similar.
Therefore, Lam concluded that Wei must have been in this house in the past few days. Returning to his previous spot, Lam, with the help of the light, indeed found a series of faint footprints.
These footprints, covered with some dust, were relatively shallow compared to those left by today's security personnel.
Without the light, they were hard to spot. Lam followed these footprints, finding that they extended from the doorway to the living room, kitchen, and in front of the refrigerator, then returned from the refrigerator to the living room and finally stopped near the stairs. However, at the stairs, these footprints suddenly ceased as if the person who left them vanished into thin air.
Lam searched the stairs upward, finding no footprints left. He reached the second and third floors but found no footprints either. The floor upstairs had some dust, and only today's security personnel's footprints were left on it.
Did Wei fly?
Suddenly, Lam thought of a possibility and told everyone to search for any hidden spaces beneath the floor. He guessed there might be a secret room or underground space in this house, judging by the footprints; Wei should be hiding there.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Following Lam's words, everyone started searching around. Lam focused on the area where the footprints disappeared, knocking on the stairs and the nearby floor, trying to find any hidden spaces below.
When Lam and the others appeared outside the house, Wei was not discovered in the basement because he had been hiding there for three or four days. During these days of constant tension, Wei was exhausted and fell asleep.
When the first wave of security personnel entered the door, Wei only felt a slight disturbance but didn't wake up.
When Lam and his group entered, Wei was startled awake. Listening to the movements above, and being unsure who the visitors were, Wei held his breath, continuing to listen to the sounds from above.
Upon hearing knocking sounds, Wei knew they were searching for the basement. Now, with the exit inside the house cut off, Wei hesitated, picked up his gun, and planned to leave through the other door of the basement to check the situation.
If the people above were Lam and his group, he would come back. If not, he would have to run.
The other entrance to the basement was hidden under the bricks in the living room. By lifting the bricks, one would find a staircase leading directly to the basement. Wei had entered the basement from there before.
The other entrance to the basement was hidden on the street outside. Wei crouched as he moved through the passage inside the house to the entrance hidden on the street.
He pushed hard on the cement slab above. To conceal the entrance, he had replaced the covering with a heavy cement slab. However, no matter how much strength Wei used, the cement slab did not budge.
Through a gap, Wei noticed tires on the cement slab. The slab might have been pressed by the visitors' car, making it immovable. Cursing silently, Wei had no choice but to return the way he came. If the visitors were not Lam, he would have to fight them. With this thought, Wei gripped his gun tightly.
Returning to the basement, Wei found the visitors had not yet discovered the entrance to the basement. He slowly hid in a dark corner, aiming his gun at the entrance, ready to shoot if anything seemed amiss.
Lam knocked on the floor near the footprints, confirming the sound of an echo, indicating a hidden space below. Lam then shouted Wei's name through the floor but got no response, likely due to the thick bricks providing good sound insulation.
Lam decided to find the entrance to the hidden space. Carefully observing the living room bricks, he finally found one that wasn't sealed. Pushing it, he found it loose and, with effort, moved the heavy brick, revealing a passage.
Lam quickly called everyone over and planned to go down first to check the situation. However, Han stopped him. For safety, Han insisted on going down first, ensuring it was safe before Lam followed.
Shortly after Han went down, Lam heard gunshots, followed by sounds of fighting. After a painful cry, everything went silent.
Wait! That cry sounded familiar. Could it be Wei ? Lam called down to Han, asking if he was okay, and received an affirmative reply. Lam then called out, "I'm Lam. Wei, is that you?"
"It's me, Lam. I had a bit of a misunderstanding with your friend just now, but it's all sorted," Wei said as he slowly got up from the ground, rubbing his stomach and taking a deep breath.
When Han came down earlier and saw that it wasn't Lam, Wei panicked and fired a shot, but he missed. Han rushed over to grab Wei's gun, and they tussled. However, Wei was no match for Han, a trained fighter.
After a one-sided "fight," Wei was pinned to the ground. Upon hearing Lam's voice, Wei responded, realizing it was all a misunderstanding.
"Brother, I'm sorry I had to be rough. You had a gun, and I didn't want to take any chances," Han explained apologetically to Wei as he emerged from the basement.
Wei, still holding his stomach, waved his hand to indicate he was fine. He turned to see Lam looking at him with a mischievous grin.
"How are you? Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital? It really makes me worried," Lam said, approaching Wei.
Wei rolled his eyes. He appreciated the concern, but Lam's grin was almost reaching his ears. "Can you please be a little more sincere?" Wei thought.
Despite everything, Wei patted Lam's shoulder in gratitude. After all, Lam had come all this way without knowing the full story, showing a rare friendship.
Wei wanted to say more to Lam, but suddenly a gunshot rang out. A bullet shattered the window and hit the wall behind Wei. Everyone was startled, and Wei quickly said, "It wasn't me this time!"
"I know it wasn't you. Get down! Everyone, get down!" Han and Wang shouted, urging everyone to take cover. There was a sniper outside.
As the gunfire continued, the security personnel outside began retreating into the house to protect everyone.
Mathilda quickly asked what was happening. The security personnel reported that a sniper had fired at the house, and then more people approached and started shooting. They had to retreat slowly, and several of their comrades were killed in the process. Everyone fell silent upon hearing this.
They couldn't see how many attackers were outside, but it was clear that the enemy fire was getting closer. The security personnel inside the house returned fire, and a fierce gun battle ensued. The sniper outside occasionally fired into the house, providing cover for their advancing forces, and more security personnel were shot.
Seeing this, Han and Wang quickly took over and continued to return fire.
"Hello, this is Mathilda. We are at 1984 Charing Cross Road, currently engaged in a gunfight with unidentified assailants. The situation is critical, and we need immediate assistance," Mathilda urgently called the embassy for help.
"We might not be able to wait for that. Follow me to the back door. There's a lake behind the house, and I have a boat hidden there. Why are you all still staring at me? Move!" Wei urged everyone as the situation grew more dire.
"Go! Watch out for the sniper. Stay low and don't expose yourselves," Han instructed, leading everyone to crouch and move toward the back door. When they reached the door, they saw Wang Lu looking pale and not moving.
"Come on, Wang, what's wrong? We need to go now, or it'll be too late," Lam urged, seeing Wang sitting still.
Wang gave a bitter smile and pointed to a bullet hole in the wall, then to her knee.
Lam realized Wang had been shot and was bleeding. He had kept quiet to avoid worrying everyone.
"Don't move. We'll carry you out," Lam said, telling the others to go ahead while he and Han went to help Wang.
Just as they were about to move, sniper bullets hit the ground in front of Lam. He tried to move forward, but more bullets came, one grazing his head, forcing him to retreat to a safer spot.
While Lam hesitated, the front door was suddenly kicked open, and a group of people rushed in. Seeing Lam and the door behind them, they realized Lam's group was trying to escape. They started shooting while moving toward them, and Han fired back.
"Go! Leave me! Han, take Lam and go now. This is our mission," Wang shouted, firing a few shots at the attackers.
Han gritted his teeth, fired a few more shots, then grabbed Lam and ran toward the lake.
As they left, Lam saw Wang aiming at the attackers. Before she could fire again, they shot her multiple times and advanced quickly.
Han and Lam ran toward the boat, firing back at their pursuers. Once on the boat, Wei started the engine, and it sped across the lake. Han reminded everyone to stay low and not expose themselves.
The attackers reached the lake's edge, firing a few shots at the fleeing boat. The leader made a phone call, spoke respectfully, then watched the boat disappear into the distance before leaving.
When Wei brought the group ashore, the rescue team was already there, waiting at the designated spot Mathilda had informed them about.
"Mathilda, the commotion will definitely attract the police. You handle things here. Those guys should be gone by now. We want to go back and check on Wang" Lam said, looking grim. He wanted to see if Wang had any chance of survival, even if it was slim.
Mathilda nodded, assuring Lam she would handle things. She also arranged for enough security to accompany Lam back. Lam thanked her and had Han drive the boat back.
Upon returning to 1984 Charing Cross Road, they found only bullet holes in the walls, broken glass, and bloodstains. Wang and the fallen security personnel's bodies were gone.
Han examined the bloodstains where Wang fell and shook his head solemnly. "With this much blood loss, there's no chance of survival."
Lam knew that in such a situation, the attackers wouldn't have spared Wang. The thought of survival was just to comfort himself. He nodded and patted Han's shoulder.
Suddenly, they heard police sirens outside. Han looked out the window and said, "Let's go. It'll be trouble if we stay. Let Mathilda handle the rest."
Lam nodded and followed Han out the back door. As they left, Han stared at the bloodstains on the ground, lost in thought. It was only after Lam urged him that he sighed and left.