That is a code, your honor
I stayed away from Link Click in order to avoid any spoiler, to the point I only discovered today that episode 1 of the Yingdu chapter was released last friday.
There is a long frame by frame rewatch already waiting for me but, at this moment, I only want to focus on this frame in the opening:
I don't know if anyone has already done it but I've cracked the code and I wish to share it with you.
Yes, that is a proper code and is fully decipherable, if you want to solve it yourself I'll share some hints on how to do it, otherwise you can just skip to the actual message section down below.
HOW TO DECIPHER THE CODE, step by step
- The message is in English, lucky for us non-Chinese viewers;
2. the code uses a substitution cipher, which means every symbol corresponds to a specific letter and that letter only.
With these two clues alone I think you can already approach the message, but if you wish for more hints, here they are:
3. I could think of two different ways to decipher the code, one takes longer but it requires only one cipher; the other one is easier but there is a twist to keep in mind.
4. The longer method consists of classical substitution cipher solving approach: symbols, or set of symbols, that occurs more often in the message can be correlated with letters (E, T, ...) or words (THE, AND, ...) that occurs more often in the english language.
5. The easier way is to recognise that the symbols belong to a well known cipher: the pigpin cipher! You can google it, see the pic below
or just check my solution:
-XLI LIEVX SJ XLI JSVIWX E WYHHIr-
-MG WTVIEH EQSRK XLI ERMQEPW JSB-
-VIGXMRK IPITLERX XS HSYWY XLI JPEQI-
-MJXPC WTVIEHMRK QIWWEKIW SJ YVK-
-SAIZIV SRPC GEVIH EFSYX JPIIMRK-
-XLI JSVIWX WYGGYQFIH XS XLI JMVIW-
HIXIVQMRIH XS TVIZIRX WYGL XVEKIH-
LMVIH E HIXIGXMZI XS YRGSZIV XLI-
HMWGSZIVIH AEW FICSRH XLIMV AM-
LI FIPMIZIH XLEX XLI OIC XS-
XS IPMQMREXI EPP TSXIRXMEP-
Wait what?! That is not a solution! True, and that is the twist: pigpen alone doesn't solve the code, you need one more step, another substitution cipher.
6. This is a Caesar Cipher with key 4!
from: E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D
to --: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
THE ACTUAL MESSAGE
-(t)he heart of the forest a sudde(n)-
-ic spread among the animals fox-
-recting elephant to dousu the flame-
-iftly spreading messages of urg-
-(h)owever only cared about fleeing-
-the forest succumbed to the fires
Determined to prevent such traged(y)-
hired a detective to uncover the-
discovered was beyond their wi-
He believed that the key to-
to eliminate all potential-
THE BLABBERING
Already many interesting things everywhere!
This message implies the existence of 5 people: the writer of the message; the target of the message; the hired detective; the "He" mentioned in the third paragraph; the "all potential" trouble igniters (at least 2, I'd say) that should be eliminated. The blond woman seems to be the target, since the message is under her cup of tea; Liu Xiao could be the detective but I bet he is the "He"; the trouble igniters are definitely Lu Guang, Cheng Xiaoshi and the whole gang. The other two characters are way less obvious, we can only assume their identity based on which one is missing; I can only speculate that Vein could be the detective, but he could also be your basic assassin; Finally, Xia Fei could be the writer of the message, if we accept the idea that he and the woman might be somehow blood related.
Then, we have the proper content of the message: a burning forest is mentioned and we know from S2 that a forest appears in Lu Guang's memory of CXS dying (and in the opening as well). Why so much emphasys is placed on the forest?
The next sentence "determined to prevent such traged(y)" might be the most revealing: what is the tragedy? The forest on fire or something else? If it's the former, how can the fire be prevented it it has already happened? Either, they dive back in the past and change it, which we know is no-go option, or the forest on fire was a vision from the future and there is someone (Liu Xiao?) with the ability to either foresee or actually dive in the future, completing the past, present and future pattern.
And this is all coming from just one frame. One Frame.
Welcome back to the delightfully hellish Link Click.
