It was a very ordinary-looking person, about one meter six or five tall, with a thin build, wearing light-colored linen short sleeves and tan shorts, and a pair of sandals on his feet.

I didn't notice him at first.

When we first arrived, he sat under the pergola and pulled his short sleeves up to his chest to cool off, revealing his tanned belly. There was a plate of peanuts in front of him, apparently waiting for the boss to serve the food. This is also confirmed by what happened next.

He was sitting across the table from us. Through Qi Mingli and Wang Lin, I glanced at him and didn't feel anything.

When Niu Feiyu and the boss had a quarrel, the man raised his head and looked like he was looking at a joke. Seeing that we prevented the two from clashing further, he still had some regretful expressions, which was really disgusting.

Then as I described in the previous chapter, Niu Feiyu stuffed money into the girl and exposed the unhappiness.

As I drank the mung bean soup, I inadvertently made eye contact with the man for a moment. Subconsciously, I felt that the man's expression was different, and his facial muscles were a little abnormally tense.

Then I got my heart on him, and I kept an eye on his every move.

The man drank tea a little more often than before. If I hadn't paid attention to him, maybe I would have thought he was a little thirsty. But just like most of us, once we're in a state of tension, we subconsciously do something to relieve it.

Some people may fix their hair, some people will look left and right, and naturally some people will choose to drink water constantly.

When the five of us cooled down and started to blow water, the man finally couldn't help but shout: "Boss, hurry up and serve the food, don't want it if you don't eat it again." ”

The boss said yes from the house.

A guy walked out briskly with a tray, put the food on the tray in front of the man, and apologized incessantly.

The man frowned and glanced at the man, his eyes darting at us, waving his hand to let the man step back, grabbing his chopsticks and starting to eat, but still paying careful attention to us.

I noticed that the man was picking up vegetables while using his left hand to place a small bag from the chair next to him behind his chair, obviously to reduce the chance that we would notice the bag.

At this time, Niu Feiyu next to me touched me. I glanced at him and went back to laughing and smiling, no different.

I laughed and got up, "Everyone, you can't drink today, let's have a toast with mung bean soup." ”

The other four stood up, Qi Mingli opened his mouth to say a toast, and stretched out his hand to touch the bowl first.

I remember vividly when I shook my wrist and poured some soup onto the table, and it flowed in the direction of the man.

The other three had their faces unchanged, grinning and laughing, and after drinking, they sat down and continued to chat.

Only Niu Feiyu's face darkened, and he slapped the table again and shouted: "Boss, why the hell do you put such a little salt, Lao Tzu sweats and a bird fades out of his mouth!" ”

After being provoked for the second time, the boss's voice also broke out: "You don't want to drink and say it straight, don't you come to the door to find a fight?" ”

Seeing that the boss didn't come forward, Niu Feiyu stood up while scolding, and strode towards the store, looking like he was going to come to the door to beat people.

The four of us hurriedly got up to persuade him, and followed him to try to stop him, but we were blocked by the chair he brought down, and we didn't follow.

The man didn't understand yet, and looked at us a little blankly, still holding chopsticks in his hand.

When Niu Feiyu walked to the front of the store, the boss also walked out with a stick in his hand, and looked at Niu Feiyu with a black face, like a tiger who chose to eat people.

Niu Feiyu smiled at him, suddenly turned around, and opened his arms to shoot straight at the man. The four of us also surrounded him from the other direction and immediately pressed him to the ground.

The boss looked at us stunned and said, "What are you doing?" ”

Qi Mingli got up and showed his ID to the boss and asked the guy to notify the police. The four of us tied the man with a belt, reached over his pouch, and poured the contents onto the table.

Inside the bag was a dagger, some miscellaneous items, a lady's wallet, and an unsigned letter.

Wang Lin picked up the wallet, opened it, took out a card from the wallet, and waved it at us: "The wallet from a lady who lives on Changqing East Road is in his bag. ”

He lowered his head and looked at the man, revealing a mouthful of white teeth: "Dude, explain?" ”

The man's lips moved, and he was about to speak, when Wang Lin put his hand into the man's shorts pocket and felt a gadget from inside.

"The card knife for thieves is very sharp, and it can cut through ordinary clothes in one click."

He popped a short blade out of the thing and showed us how to show it, and sure enough, he cut the man's sleeve in an instant.

The man gave up struggling and sat still in his chair.

I reached out and picked up the letter and asked him, "You stole that too?" ”

The man looked up at me and replied, "Of course not, military master." ”

I waited for more than ten seconds, and when I saw that the man didn't mean to continue answering, I sighed and said, "It's not a wise move to still cooperate now." ”

Then a punch slammed into his abdomen, watching him bend over in pain, only to be restrained by a tight belt and unable to struggle.

Qi Mingli grabbed his hair and lifted him up: "Now you can say it, you thief." ”

The man spat and curled up as best he could to relieve the pain of the blow: "It was given to me by a gentleman to take me to a book kiosk at the southern end of Binglang Road, and you can give me thirty yuan." ”

I raised my eyebrows: "What does that person look like, did he tell you what is written in it?" ”

"That gentleman is about 1.6 meters, very thin, very dark, much darker than me, and speaks with a strange accent. He didn't tell me what was written on the letter, and I didn't ask much. ”

"When will you be delivered?"

"He gave it to me three days ago, and I asked me to deliver it by this evening."

"Where did this wallet come from?"

"When I went to deliver the letter, I saw a lady waiting for a carriage and stole her wallet by the way."

I nodded.

The other four didn't have anything to ask, so they returned to their seats, beckoned the boss to continue serving the food, and waited for the police to come while eating.

It was half an hour before the police arrived.

The two policemen, one fat and one thin, look a bit like the two generals who often hum in novels. They rushed over against the noon sun, already sweating profusely.

The fat policeman walked in while wiping his sweat, grabbed a chair and sat down, gasping for breath. He pointed his baton at the man and scolded: "You're a fucking thief again, you've been caught a few times,

See Lao Tzu doesn't break your legs this time. ”

It seems that Jane is a repeat offender in the heart of the police.

Qi Mingli smiled and handed the two policemen mung bean soup and briefly explained what happened.

The fat cop thanked him, packed up the stolen goods, handcuffed the man, and took him away with the skinny cop.

I looked at the backs of the three of them, and thought to myself that the police in the Northern Province were a bit efficient, and they took the thief away in less than five minutes, just like picking up a courier.

Niu Feiyu screamed, and we found that the letter was still on the table, probably too far away from the bag, and the fat policeman thought it was not the contents of the bag.

Qi Mingli scratched his head and asked tentatively, "Why don't we send it to the police?" ”

The four of us looked at the sun-drenched street and bowed our heads together in silence.

Qi Mingli sighed, feeling that he had said something stupid, and sat down to continue eating.

After the cup and plate were messy, Niu Feiyu burped, reached out and picked up the letter and shook it: "Why don't we take it apart and take a look?" ”

Qi Mingli shook his head, feeling that this was not good and contrary to morality.

I always felt that there was something strange about this letter, why it was sent out in such a strange way, without writing any information, and supporting it to be opened.

Wang Lin and Chen Caimei were bored, so they also thought about taking it apart and taking a look, and we will send it to the place after the big deal. If the believer asked, he could say that it was opened to find evidence of the thief.

Qi Mingli shrugged his shoulders and motioned for me to take it apart.

The letter, later known as the "March 16" letter, is now preserved in the Northern Province Museum.

That's when I opened the envelope and took out two pieces of stationery nailed together. There were no words on it, but it was full of numbers.

After circulating for a week, Chen Caimei said curiously: "What the hell is this, is it a child's joke?" ”

Wang Lin shook his head: "How is it possible." What kid would pay 30 dollars to send such a letter. ”

"And the man was looking for a thief, not a decent person, and that's something to be aware of." Qi Mingli added, "Could that person not want to see the light? ”

I picked up the letter and read it again.

All numbers are grouped in groups of three, enclosed in parentheses. At first I thought it was a set of coordinates because the numbers can be large and small, ranging from three digits to single digits. But then I thought about it, so I thought that it was impossible to draw such a large number of coordinates in a coordinate system, so I felt that it was impossible.

Qi Mingli suddenly suggested a possibility, to the effect that the numbers on the letter would not be an encryption method.

He took the letter and told us, "You see, these numbers, the second and third numbers of each set of numbers, are single digits or two digits, and the first number is only a single digit. If these numbers were passwords, I had a hypothesis that they all corresponded to the words in a book. ”

Several of us sat up straight. If these numbers are such passwords, the content of this letter is somewhat special.

This type of encryption is widely used in the military and is widely used to encrypt high-level secrets, because it is almost impossible to crack. If we don't seize the corresponding text, even if the enemy intercepts the secret message a hundred times, it is impossible to conclude that we want to encrypt it.

"So the question is, what does the cryptographer want to convey in such a strange way?" Qi Mingli said in a low voice.

"And one more question, decrypting the text, what exactly is it?" I added.