Chapter 4 The Fourth

After leaving Number Seven, Third Avenue, Feng Bujue did not immediately rush to the North Town Cemetery. Instead, he continued toward the address of the fourth recipient.

He was a very organized person, unwilling to easily disrupt his own plans.

According to the route he had pre-set, after delivering the ninth letter, it was most reasonable and time-saving to stop by the cemetery along the way.

Therefore… even though he hadn’t been able to deliver the third letter just now, he still planned to stick to the original route and reassess the situation after gathering more information…

…

Ten minutes later, [Fourth Avenue, Number Ten.]

Brother Jue stopped in front of a familiar-looking house, crossed a familiar-looking lawn, stood on a familiar-looking porch, and knocked on a familiar-looking door.

Tap, tap, tap—

“Open up! Quick!” Feng Bujue shouted as he knocked.

Soon, familiar-sounding footsteps came from upstairs. The door opened a crack, and a familiar-sounding voice rang out from the shadows behind the door: “Who are you looking for?”

“Mailman, delivering a letter.” Feng Bujue returned these words in a very quick voice, and skillfully showed his identification. Then he continued, “Are you going to accept it?”

“No…” The Number Four Fatty only managed to utter one syllable.

Brother Jue then rudely interrupted the other party: “How many digits is your instruction code?”

“Uh…” The other party hesitated for half a second, and replied, “Fou… four digits…”

“Is the first digit a one?” On the way here, Feng Bujue had come up with an idea. He wanted to use the “must answer any question” trait of these recipients, relying on a set of targeted questioning methods to extract the specific value of the instruction code.

Unfortunately… such behavior would naturally not succeed… The system would not allow such a low-skill attempt to get around the problem.

“I cannot answer that question.” The Number Four Fatty’s tone when saying this sentence was indeed somewhat like a game NPC.

“Oh…” Feng Bujue was not too surprised, because he also knew that this method would most likely fail. He was just asking with a try-it-and-see attitude. “Then… is this number greater than 5555, or less than 5555?”

“I cannot answer that question.” The Number Four Fatty repeated the same answer in the exact same tone and voice as before.

“Is this an odd or even number? Is it a prime number? Is it a lucky number?” Feng Bujue asked three questions in one breath.

“I cannot answer any of these questions.” The Number Four Fatty indicated that he could not disclose.

“Okay.” Feng Bujue appeared very calm. At this moment, he could confirm that these recipients could only reveal the “category” (number, rather than letter or other) and the “number of digits” of the instruction code.

“Is there anything else you need? If not, please leave.” After two seconds, the Number Four Fatty couldn’t wait to issue an order to leave.

“Before leaving, I would like to ask… by the way…” Brother Jue once again used the method he used to deal with the Number Two Fatty, stopping the other party from slamming the door shut, and then continued, “Are you a clone?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand.” The Number Four Fatty replied.

“Oh?” Feng Bujue’s eyes moved slightly, and he thought to himself: “This time it’s not ‘cannot answer’… but ‘don’t understand’…”

“I won’t accept the letter if I don’t know the code, please leave.” Five seconds later, seeing that the door couldn’t be closed, the Number Four Fatty simply left this sentence and went upstairs.

This time, Brother Jue did not try to break in again. He just quickly returned to his bicycle and set off toward the fifth address.

“Well… I understand almost everything.” He accelerated the rhythm of pedaling, and also accelerated the rhythm of thinking. “The reactions of these recipients to questions are… ‘can answer’, ‘cannot answer’, and ‘cannot understand or give feedback’.” He muttered in his mouth, “Judging from the results of the probing, the information that ‘can be answered’ is the most basic clue to solving the puzzle that I urgently need right now; and some attempts to get too directly to the answer, or to take shortcuts, are classified as ‘cannot answer’; as for ‘cannot understand or give feedback’, it shows that… according to the script settings, these NPCs cannot provide clues and answers to corresponding questions.”

Thinking of this, his expression became serious: “Things are a little more complicated than I thought… In short, it’s better to try again at the next address to confirm it.”

…

In short, by 11:30 a.m., Feng Bujue had already run through the addresses of the first nine letters.

Except for the first and second recipients who accepted the letters, the recipients of the third to ninth letters did not accept the letters.

However, Brother Jue still successfully confirmed his previous inferences from them, and asked about the number of digits in their instruction codes one by one.

Starting with the one on Third Avenue, up to the “Number Nine Fatty” on Ninth Avenue, the instruction codes of these seven people were: three digits, four digits, five digits, six digits, seven digits, eight digits, and ten digits, respectively.

“Okay… it’s about time to contact my ‘ghost’ colleague.” After leaving the house at Number Three, Ninth Avenue, Feng Bujue got on his bicycle, looked up and said, “According to the map… there’s a store on the way to the cemetery, I should be able to get the paper needed to send a letter there, right…”

Along the way, he had successively inquired about the details of writing letters to the Ghost Postman: Letters sent to the Ghost Postman do not need envelopes or stamps. As long as the correct letter format is followed, the content can be written directly on white paper and delivered. However, the paper for writing must be clean, the writing must be neat, and the wording must be polite and accurate.

Of course, even if the sender strictly follows these requirements… whether the Ghost Postman will reply after receiving the letter, and how long it will take to reply… is also unknown.

“Anyway, I already have a pen for writing…” Feng Bujue said as he rode his bike, “If the store is open as usual, I can also buy some food and drinks to replenish my energy. Even if it’s not open as usual, it shouldn’t be difficult to get a piece of paper…”

Just as Brother Jue was thinking, suddenly…

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz… that familiar sound came from the fog again.

“Again?” Brother Jue’s vision quickly captured the tire tracks on the ground. He knew that his “colleague” was about to pass by again.

“Sigh… I’ll get out of your way, okay?” Feng Bujue muttered in his heart, turned the bicycle, and rode to the side of the road.

He thought that the Ghost Postman would pass by silently, as when they first met, but unexpectedly…

Whoosh—

Accompanied by a sound of rushing wind, a rolled-up newspaper suddenly appeared from mid-air and landed accurately in Brother Jue’s bicycle basket.

Judging from the flight path of the newspaper… it seemed that the Ghost Postman threw it over casually as he passed by Brother Jue.