Xiao Lou has played many escape room games before. "Diaries" are the most common clues in these games. Many themed escape rooms use diaries to tell players about things that happened many years ago, allowing players to solve puzzles by following the clues in the diaries.
But this is the first time I've encountered a corpse in an escape game.
Xiao Lou glanced at Little Girl on the bed and said helplessly, "I'll do the autopsy. Everyone, split up and look for clues in the room."
This maze is a timed maze with an hour limit, and its difficulty is several times higher than that of a typical escape room.
In reality, multiplayer escape room games typically give players 3 to 5 hours of challenge time, and the number of rooms usually doesn't exceed 5. But today's escape room is an entire five-story villa, so there are definitely more than five rooms. Just the first room, Little Girl's Dream Room, if Ye Qi hadn't figured out the musical notes on the staff, everyone would probably still be struggling with the bloody handprints on the four walls.
Thinking of this, Xiao Lou instructed, "Everyone, hurry up and don't miss any clues."
The teammates sprang into action. Some searched through wardrobes, some through drawers, and others looked for clues in places like the balcony and bathroom.
Xiao Lou stepped forward, lifted the blanket, and carefully examined Little Girl's body.
The little girl looked peaceful, and her clothes were neat, indicating that she had not struggled before she died. There were no obvious wounds on her body, nor were there any bruises on her neck from strangulation. Based on the lividity, her complexion, and her bluish lips, it can be preliminarily determined that she died of poisoning.
Xiao Lou examined the body again and confirmed, "She was poisoned, and the time of death should be around three days ago."
Yu Hanjiang walked to the bedside and looked down at Little Girl's body: "The first secret room was her dream, which required us to sing Christmas carols to fulfill our wishes and escape the dream. Obviously, she was poisoned before she could spend Christmas with her parents. From her diary, we can deduce that she died on Christmas Eve."
Xiao Lou asked in confusion, "Who would target a child who is only about ten years old?"
After crossing his arms and pondering for a moment, Yu Hanjiang concluded: "It's very likely that her parents are both dead, and the murderer didn't want to leave any survivors, so he poisoned Little Girl as well. Everyone should carefully examine the medicine she took."
As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Qiao found two bottles of medicine on Little Girl's dressing table, took them and handed them to Xiao Lou: " Professor Xiao, please take a look."
Xiao Lou took the medicine and looked at the names, saying, "This bottle contains fever reducers, and this bottle contains antiviral cold medicine. Lucia has been sick recently, and her cold hasn't gotten better. She's been taking medicine every day. The capsules in this bottle may have been replaced, and she got poisoned after taking them."
Yu Hanjiang picked up Lucia's diary, quickly flipped through it, and said, "The person who could enter her room and change her medication must have been someone Lucia was completely unsuspecting of, and someone very familiar with this villa. Her diary mentions three key figures: her private doctor, the nanny who took care of her, and the driver who picked her up and dropped her off. All three of them are currently suspects."
Xiao Lou said, "Many of her parents' friends came to the party on Christmas Eve. Was the murderer the doctor, the nanny, the driver, or a friend who attended the party? We need to find her parents' bodies as soon as possible before we can proceed with the next step of the investigation."
Long Sen walked to the bedroom door, pushed it hard, and said, "This door can't be opened. There's a combination lock on it, it's a seven-digit number."
Xiao Lou looked around and asked, "What clues has everyone found?"
Qu Wanyue walked over and said, "I checked Lucia's wardrobe and saw a lot of pink princess dresses. I went through all the pockets of the clothes but didn't find anything related to numbers."
Liu Qiao said, " Lucia has collected a lot of stuffed animals, exactly seven. I wonder if it has anything to do with the password."
She held seven rag dolls and placed them one by one on the bed.
Upon closer inspection, Xiao Lou discovered that the characters were all classic cartoon characters: two Mickey Mouses in different colors, a Donald Duck, a Snow White Barbie doll, a Spider-Man, a little bear, and the female lead from Frozen.
He carefully examined the dolls; all of them were new, with zippers on the back that were filled with cotton when opened, but there were no other clues.
Yu Hanjiang asked, "Are the seven dolls related to a seven-digit password?"
Xiao Lou said, "We can't see any connection yet, let's keep looking."
Mo Xuemin found Lucia's schoolbag, opened it, and took out all the textbooks and a pencil case. The pencil case contained seven items: a pencil, three colored pencils (red, yellow, and blue), an eraser, a ballpoint pen, and a ruler.
It's seven again, but how do you connect pencils and erasers with numbers?
Xiao Lou frowned slightly: "Let's look at the music-related items first. These stuffed animals and pencil cases are probably just distractions."
The group conducted another thorough search of Lucia's house.
Suddenly, Ye Qi squatted down in front of the dressing table and said, "There seems to be a hidden compartment here."
He gently tapped the bottom drawer of the table and heard a crisp "thump-thump" sound, distinctly different from the tapping of the other drawers, indicating that it was empty.
Yu Hanjiang immediately went over and pulled out the drawer, and sure enough, he found that this drawer was much shallower than the others, with a partition in the middle.
Yu Hanjiang quickly removed the partition and discovered the drawer...
There was a delicate little box at the bottom.
The small black box, once opened, resembles a piano, with a tiny princess, about the size of a thumb, standing on it. She wears a pink tutu, her left hand raised and her right hand outstretched, poised to dance.
Ye Qi's eyes lit up and he said, "This is a music box!"
Yu Hanjiang had never played with a music box when he was a child. He handed the box to Ye Qi, who examined it carefully, found the wind-up knob at the bottom of the piano music box, and gently turned it a few times.
Sure enough, the little figure standing on the piano began to dance, and at the same time, the music box emitted a clear piano melody.
Everyone quieted down and listened attentively.
The melody is very familiar; it's a children's song that almost everyone can sing.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are!
The original English version of this song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, How I wonder what you are... Regardless of the version, the melody is the same.
The melody played by the music box was very crisp and pleasant.
Ye Qi listened carefully once and quickly hummed the tune: "C major, 4/4 time, six measures in total. do-do-so-so-la-la-so, fa-fa-mi-mi-re-re-do, so-so-fa-fa-mi-mi-re, so-so-fa-fa-mi-mi-re, do-do-so-so-la-la-so, fa-fa-mi-mi-re-re-do."
Xiao Lou took out paper and pen and generated the corresponding musical notation numbers according to the melody Ye Qi hummed.
1155665, 4433221, 5544332, 5544332, 1155665, 4433221.
Yu Hanjiang asked, "The password is seven digits, but the entire piece has six measures and a total of 42 notes. Should we use the same method of repetition elimination as before?"
Xiao Lou carefully scanned the musical score and said, "No, this piece is missing a note."
Ye Qi nodded in agreement: "That's right, the entire piece doesn't have the note 'xi,' which is '7.' If we use the superposition elimination method, what's left after elimination will be a six-digit number."
According to the rules of duplicate elimination, the result of eliminating duplicates from beginning to end of this piece of music would be 156432.
Without the number 7, you can't make a seven-digit password.
Ye Qi suggested, "If a number is missing, just add a 7 at the end. Would the password be 1564327?"
Liu Qiao also said, " Lucia has seven dolls, seven items in her pencil case, and the door code is also seven digits. Could it be like Xiao Ye said, that we just need to add a 7 at the end?"
Xiao Lou thought it made sense: "Give it a try."
Yu Hanjiang walked over and entered the password 1564327 into the electronic lock at the door.
As soon as the game ended, a piercing alarm sounded in their ears. Immediately afterward, countless plush toys rained down from the sky, and a mountain of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White, and teddy bear toys piled up, burying everyone in the room.
Xiao Lou: "..."
What's it like to be buried under a rag doll?
He's a boy, and his parents have never bought him any plush toys since he was a child. But today, he got to see them all at once!
Everyone was caught off guard by the rag dolls.
Although it didn't hurt when the doll fell and hit them, the scene left everyone both amused and exasperated.
Ye Qi couldn't help but complain, "The ceiling is clearly sealed, yet a bunch of stuffed animals fell from the sky. This is completely illogical." Long Sen next to him was also cursing, "Damn it, these little bears just sat right on my head!"
Shao Qingge was both amused and exasperated: "Is this supposed to be a punishment?"
At this moment, Yu Hanjiang had a Donald Duck hanging on his head, and dozens of teddy bears buried him in a pile of dolls. Yu Hanjiang expressionlessly quickly pulled the surrounding dolls away, then turned around to help Xiao Lou clean up the dolls.
Seeing Xiao Lou's face emerge from the pile of rag dolls, his eyes filled with confusion, Yu Hanjiang couldn't help but smile slightly and say, "This punishment method is quite unique."
Xiao Lou awkwardly brushed a Mickey Mouse from his face and said, "The music maze we're in is probably all a dream, which is why these illogical situations are happening. Right now, we're in Lucia's bedroom, and the kids are punishing us by burying our pranks with dolls. If we go to other rooms, the punishment might be even more dangerous."
At this moment, his teammates also crawled out from the pile of dolls.
Ye Qi quickly kicked the surrounding plush toys into a corner, clearing a space where he could stand. He looked helplessly at the plush toys all over the room and said, "The password is wrong. It seems we can't use the elimination method this time?"
Adding a 7 using the elimination method resulted in an incorrect password.
Xiao Lou stroked his chin, thought carefully, and glanced at the numbers on the paper again.
1155665, 4433221, 5544332, 5544332, 1155665, 4433221.
The first and fifth verses, the second and sixth verses, and the third and fourth verses of this children's song have the same melody. When Ye Qi hums it, the third and fourth verses are repeated consecutively, which is like a kind of "emphasis," singing them twice in a row.
The first escape room used the superposition elimination method. Perhaps the password for the second escape room is a series of repeated "emphasis" paragraphs?
Xiao Lou mentioned
They suggested, "Let's try 5544332."
Upon hearing this, the teammates immediately assumed defensive stances, fearing that if they entered the wrong password, something else might fall from the ceiling.
Yu Hanjiang stepped forward and quickly entered the password 5544332.
However, this time there was no punishment. As the password was entered completely, the melody in the music box suddenly stopped, and the door to Little Girl's bedroom creaked open.
The sound of the door opening was exceptionally clear in the open space, and it even seemed to echo.
Outside the door was pitch black, but the light from Little Girl's room illuminated a warm, fan-shaped area in the hallway.
The group exchanged glances. Yu Hanjiang took the lead and walked out of the room first, followed closely by Xiao Lou, and then their teammates.
It was an empty corridor, unlit. As soon as they stepped out, something darted past their feet. In the darkness, a living creature darted past their feet, and everyone was immediately terrified. They quickly took out their luminous pearls to illuminate the corridor.
Yu Hanjiang calmly looked at the corner of the corridor and said, "It's a cat."
As if to confirm this, the creature around the corner turned around. Its eyes were beautiful gold, and its fur was as white as snow. It was the cat Lucia had mentioned in her diary, which she named Tom.
The white cat glanced at everyone, let out a soft "meow," and then disappeared at the end of the corridor.
Looking in the direction it disappeared, Xiao Lou said thoughtfully, "If the Lucia family had an accident on Christmas Eve, then this cat is very likely the only survivor. Maybe it came to help us uncover the truth about what happened to the family."
Yu Hanjiang agreed, saying, "Let's go, let's follow them and see."
The group followed the cat around the corner, where another door appeared. Yu Hanjiang walked over and pushed the door open.
This is a music room. In the middle of the room stands a huge grand piano, and there is no other furniture.
A woman was sitting at the piano, dressed in a beautiful gown, with long, golden curly hair reaching her waist. Her hands were on the piano keys, as if she was about to play a piece.
However, her dress burst open with a blinding spray of blood, and a sharp long knife plunged into her chest from the front!