After following Qin Feng, Chu Huaying returned to the inn, while downstairs, Gui Yuanzhang's investigation yielded results.
The girl crying at the Chen family this morning is named Qin Yuxia. She is the younger sister of the missing Mrs. Chen Yu, Qin Yuwei. Gui Yuanzhang used Lu Jiuchuan's [ Mask ] card to impersonate Qin Feng and went directly to question her.
He knocked on the door of room number "A" on the second floor and saw the girl standing there with red eyes. When she saw him, she choked up and asked, "Brother Qin, is there any news about my sister and her family?"
Gui Yuanzhang was silent for a moment, then shook his head solemnly: "Miss Qin, I'm sorry, there are still no clues about your sister and brother-in-law's whereabouts. I'm sending people to search for them. I came to see you so late because I wanted to find out how the two of them met? Have they offended anyone? You'd better tell me in detail."
Qin Yuxia had no doubt about the identity of the " Qin Feng " in front of her and invited him into the house. Her face was pale as she recounted, "My sister and I are from Qingzhou. The Chen family came to Qingzhou to do business more than ten years ago and had business dealings with our family. My sister and Brother Chen have known each other since childhood and can be considered childhood sweethearts. They had a deep affection for each other, and since they were well-matched in terms of social status, when my sister turned eighteen, Uncle Chen came to propose marriage with betrothal gifts, and my father agreed to their marriage."
Gui Yuanzhang asked, "Is your family also in business? Do you have any enemies?"
Qin Yuxia immediately shook her head: "Our Qin family owns the largest restaurant in Qingzhou. My parents are kind and gentle, and my sister is also very gentle. We shouldn't have offended anyone, right?"
"What about the Chen family?"
Qin Yuxia lowered her head and thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know. They came from other places more than ten years ago. Uncle Chen is very good at business. He established himself in Qingzhou in less than three years."
"Is the Uncle Chen you're talking about Chen Yu's father? I heard he's passed away. Do you know how he died?"
Qin Yuxia's expression changed slightly, as if she had something difficult to say. Gui Yuanzhang said gently, "This question concerns the reason for your sister and brother-in-law's disappearance. You'd better tell me the truth."
Qin Yuxia gritted her teeth before making up her mind and said, "Four years ago, Uncle Chen went out drinking with some people. When he came back, he suddenly went crazy. The Chen family said he might be possessed by an evil spirit. After he went crazy, he bit people everywhere. Brother Chen had no choice but to tie him up. In the end, he smashed his head against the wall and died. His face was covered in blood. His death was quite gruesome."
"..." I never expected Chen Yu's father to die so mysteriously.
"How were his funeral arrangements handled?" Gui Yuanzhang asked.
"They found a cemetery there and buried him." Qin Yuxia paused for a moment, then said, "Not long after, Aunt Chen also passed away, in the exact same way as Uncle Chen. The fortune teller said that the feng shui of their courtyard was bad, and it was very likely that they had been cursed. My brother-in-law was greatly shocked and didn't want to stay in Qingzhou anymore, so he took my sister and moved back to their hometown."
While asking the question, Gui Yuanzhang also pressed the team earpiece to relay the message to Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci.
Hearing this, Tang Ci whispered his analysis: "The deaths of the Chen couple are very suspicious. They were biting people wildly, as if they had been affected by some kind of toxin. Could it be the work of the 'vengeful ghost' killer?"
Lu Jiuchuan said, " Chen Yu's parents passed away, and he and his wife moved back to Qingfeng Town four years ago. Was Second Sister-in-law Xue, also known as Han Ningshuang, also married and moved to Qingfeng Town four years ago?"
Tang Ci checked the records in the drone. The photographed register clearly recorded the situation of every household in the town, and the time when the Chen family moved to Qingfeng Town was exactly the same as the time when Han Ningshuang married into Qingfeng Town.
Tang Ci nodded to Lu Jiuchuan: "It was four years ago. Assuming Han Ningshuang is the murderer, she committed the crime in Qingzhou City four years ago, killing Chen Yu's parents; shortly after, Chen Yu's family moved back to Qingfeng Town, and she married Xue Zhao from Qingfeng Town and returned to her hometown as well. During these four years, she meticulously planned and compiled a list of all the enemies who murdered her mother-in-law during the famine, eliminating them one by one. Her husband's cause of death might also be unusual; Xue Zhao died of illness not long after she married into Qingfeng Town, leaving her a widow. What a coincidence! Could it be that Xue Zhao was also poisoned by her?"
After all, her husband could easily discover her secrets. So she simply poisoned her husband, and as a widow, she ran a business in the small town, feigning a pitiful and weak appearance to lower the townspeople's guard against her?
The more Lu Jiuchuan thought about it, the more reasonable this speculation seemed. Otherwise, how could so many coincidences be explained? He was silent for a moment, then said seriously, " Han Ningshuang's suspicion is indeed growing stronger."
Gui Yuanzhang thought so too. He looked at the girl in front of him and continued to ask, "Miss Qin, there was a famine in Qingfeng Town more than ten years ago. Was your Qingzhou affected at that time?"
Qin Yuxia paused for a moment, her expression puzzled: "Famine? Qingzhou is a land of plenty, and we've never experienced a famine before. However, I heard that there was a famine in some places more than ten years ago, and many people died, but I don't know exactly which places it was."
It seems that after leaving Qingfeng Town, the Chen family chose a prosperous place to start their business. They probably didn't tell the locals that they came from Qingfeng Town, which had experienced famine, to avoid the locals questioning the origin of their wealth.
According to descriptions from locals in Qingfeng Town, the Chen family was not considered wealthy in the past.
But Qin Yuxia said that Uncle Chen had a good business sense and quickly established himself in Qingzhou...
Where did he get the funds?
Tang Ci concluded, " Chen Yu's parents must have acquired a large sum of money through dishonest means during the famine, perhaps even participating in a hound organization and eating..."
They had eaten human flesh and drunk human blood. After the famine, they left Qingfeng Town to do business elsewhere. Having amassed considerable wealth, they quickly established themselves in Qingzhou and ingratiated themselves with the truly wealthy Qin family. However, for some unknown reason, the murderer also went to Qingzhou and killed Chen Yu's parents.
Lu Jiuchuan nodded in agreement: "That makes sense. Han Ningshuang and Qin Feng are both survivors from back then. Han Ningshuang killed Chen Yu's parents in Qingzhou, then returned to Qingfeng Town, disguised herself as the widow Second Sister-in-law Xue, and continued to purge the descendants of those sinners. Qin Feng knew it was her doing, but because of their past relationship, he couldn't bear to expose her crimes?"
The two fell silent, heads bowed, thinking carefully—although such speculation could explain most of the current doubts, they felt as if something was missing.
Suddenly, Tang Ci remembered something and asked Gui Yuanzhang through the earpiece: "By the way, Old Gui, do you remember when you went to investigate the academy in Qingfeng Town, Zhao Zeping's wife, the eldest son of the Zhao family, was also from Qingzhou, and it seems... her surname is Qin?"
Gui Yuanzhang also remembered this matter.
Since someone from the Zhao family set up a mourning hall for them three years later, arranged the memorial tablets for everyone, and offered incense to them on time, Xiao Lou speculated that this person was likely the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family, who had not appeared in the memorial tablets.
The eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family has a mysterious background. The people in the town only know that her surname is Qin. Her surname is the same as Qin Yuxia's, and they are from the same hometown. It can't be a coincidence, right?
Gui Yuanzhang asked, "Miss Qin, do you know if there are any other girls with the surname Qin from Qingzhou who have married into this family?"
Qin Yuxia said, "Yes, she is a distant relative of ours. According to seniority, I should call her my cousin, but we are not very close and rarely see each other. Her name is Qin Yurou. Her family is in the silk business and she married a man surnamed Zhao. I haven't seen her for many years."
It was no coincidence; the wives of the Zhao and Chen families both came from Qingzhou.
The three Qin sisters are key figures in the case.
Qin Yurou married Zhao Zeping, the eldest son of the Zhao family. Now the entire Zhao family has disappeared. The memorial tablets for everyone are placed in the mourning hall, but her and her son's names are not among them. Could she be the survivor who offered incense to the Zhao family?
Qin Yuwei married Chen Yu. After Chen Yu's parents died mysteriously, she returned to Qingfeng Town with Chen Yu. On the stormy night of the incident, she gave birth to her child, but shortly afterward, the entire Chen family disappeared. Xiao Lou and his team found the bodies of the Chen family members in Mass Grave.
The youngest, Qin Yuxia, knew that her older sister was about to give birth, so she traveled a long way to Qingfeng Town to visit her. However, when she entered the house, she found it empty and no one was there. As a result, she cried and made a scene, attracting onlookers, and asked Qin Feng to investigate the matter.
Tang Ci organized the information about these three people and recorded it on paper.
Gui Yuanzhang's gleaning of clues from Qin Yuxia made Han Ningshuang increasingly suspicious, but Lu Jiuchuan didn't want to jump to conclusions. He said, "In the letter we left for Xiao Lou, we should objectively describe what we've learned, without adding too much subjective reasoning. I have a feeling we've missed something."
Tang Ci thought the same way. Xiao Lou and his group, living three years in the future, couldn't find out what happened in the year of the crime, but they could find out the behavior of many people after the crime. To determine the killer, all the information had to be considered.
Gui Yuanzhang returned to his room and whispered into the voice channel, " We need to gather more clues for the letter to Xiao Lou. Should we go check out the Zhao family?"
Lu Jiuchuan said, "I 'll go with Tang Ci. Let's get that letter back first, and then we'll talk about it after we've finished supplementing it."
The two put on Invisibility Cloaks and went to the Zhao family's house together.
As soon as they entered, they saw a woman in black with a child of about twelve years old sneaking into the Zhao family's house. She walked into the Zhao family's hall, took out a large pile of wooden blocks from her bag, and then wrote words on them with a red pen without expression.
The memorial tablet of Zhao Zeping... The memorial tablet of Zhao Zean...
She wrote very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, she had written down the names of the entire Zhao family. She arranged them neatly in rows according to seniority, then lit an incense burner at the front, held three incense sticks in her hand, and knelt down to bow.
The child next to her was very pale. She tugged at the child's hand and whispered, "Kneel down and kowtow to your father, grandfather, uncles, and aunts."
The child knelt in front of the memorial tablet and was made to kowtow three times by her.
Then, she said coldly, "Do you remember the person who killed the entire Zhao family?"
The child choked up and said, "I'll remember."
The woman said, "When you grow up, you must avenge your father and the others, understand?"
The child nodded vigorously: "I understand, Mommy."
She stood up, took the child, and turned to leave.
Lu Jiuchuan stared blankly at the scene: "Could this person be Qin Yurou, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family, and her child?"
Tang Ci said, "It turns out that she was the one who placed the Zhao family's memorial tablet. So it seems that she was the one who offered incense to the Zhao family members for the next few years. Xiao Lou's speculation about this matter is correct."
Lu Jiuchuan smiled and said, " Hanjiang and Xiao Lou's deductions are mostly correct, although they occasionally make mistakes. Let's summarize all the clues we've seen and leave them to analyze."
But at that moment, Tang Ci suddenly asked a question: "Ninth Brother, don't you think that the way to pass through this secret room might not be the way we thought?"
Lu Jiuchuan looked at him in confusion: "What do you mean?"
Tang Ci said, "Now that we've arrived three years in the past and can't return to our original world for the time being, are we just supposed to wait for Xiao Lou and the others to deduce the correct culprit and clear the game? Could it be... that we also need to find the truth..."
"The real killer, otherwise, he would have been trapped in this world forever, waiting three years to meet Xiao Lou?"
Lu Jiuchuan felt a chill in his heart and didn't know how to refute it for a moment.
If the timelines are different, can Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang complete the game and then help them complete it together?
If the timeline of the escape room follows normal logic, then they could only meet Xiao Lou three years later. In other words, if they want Xiao Lou to help them complete the game, they must wait three years and be in the same world as Xiao Lou to complete the game together.
Thinking about this, Lu Jiuchuan suddenly felt overwhelmed: "Either we wait three years and analyze the case with Xiao Lou and the others, or we find the murderer at this point and pass the test in our own way?"
Tang Ci found a twig, drew a line segment on the ground, marked two points, and carefully analyzed, "We are at time point A, and Xiao Lou is at time point B three years later. Everything we see now will take three years to be passed on to Xiao Lou. Even if we complete the game at time point A, we can still leave clues for Xiao Lou at time point B to help them complete the game. I think the biggest difficulty of K Secret Chamber is probably here."
Lu Jiuchuan realized: "So it means—the transmission of clues across time?"
Tang Ci nodded: "Otherwise, why would the Guardian send us back three years to show us so much information? Wouldn't that make the reasoning easier?"
Lu Jiuchuan: "..."
Each time, the deductions rely on Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou. This time, the team has been split up and teleported to different points in time, which is the most severe test for everyone. If they make a mistake in their deductions, or if the clues they pass on are wrong, they might end up accusing the wrong person and causing the whole team to be wiped out.
They were in a parallel universe three years ago, not in a timeline synchronized with Xiao Lou.
Lu Jiuchuan's expression gradually turned ugly.
Tang Ci calmly said, "Now we have two choices. First, we hide our identities and reunite with Xiao Lou in three years. Second, if we are confident that our reasoning is correct, we can complete the game first, leaving Xiao Lou and the others with complete clues to help them complete the game in three years. Which one do you choose?"
Lu Jiuchuan pressed his temples, his head aching. He didn't have the patience to stay in this world for three years. Time flowed separately in this world; three years was truly counting down the seconds…
Complete the game on your own?
He wasn't that confident in himself, but looking at the handsome yet pale face of the man standing beside him, Lu Jiuchuan suddenly smiled slightly and gently pressed Tang Ci's shoulder, saying, "I choose the first option. I believe in your analytical abilities. After all, before we met Xiao Lou and the others, you were always the strategist of our team."
This is probably why Tang Ci was able to walk out of the Nightmare Secret Room even with his legs cut off —he never relied on physical strength, only his brain.
Hearing the praise, Tang Ci calmly said, "Don't flatter me yet. Oh, right, I finally remembered something we overlooked—I believe Han Ningshuang is not the murderer in this case of the vengeful ghost, but merely an accomplice."
Lu Jiuchuan was taken aback: "Oh? Why do you say that?"
Tang Ci said, " It's the sound of a rattle drum."
He paused, then frowned slightly: "Do you remember when we first came to this world, the rattle drum sound came from the direction of Mass Grave? At that time, the Zhao family's wedding procession had just left the town. Since Han Ningshuang was flying kites and pretending to be a ghost in the town, why would the rattle drum sound appear in Mass Grave, which is so far away from the town?"
Lu Jiuchuan's eyes lit up, and he suddenly realized: "That's right! Han Ningshuang confessed so readily to Qin Feng because she knew who the murderer was. She was helping the murderer. She was the one playing the ghost, but she wasn't the one who led the Zhao and Chen families to Mass Grave —there's more than one murderer!"
Tang Ci said, "We need to find out exactly how many children that 'grandmother' raised."
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I'll only update this chapter today because I have something to do. The case will be clear by tomorrow!
Did everyone understand what Tang Ci said? Although I wrote it simultaneously, in reality, they have to wait three years to see Xiao Lou, and CEO Shao and Ye Qi have to wait twenty years. The difficulty of this locked room mystery lies in the fact that the main characters were sent to investigate at different points in time.