Chapter 89: Reconstructing the Death Scene in the Secret Chamber
Yin Chuan and Lin Lang returned to the Lu residence's ice cellar and carefully inspected the ice-making tools. Sure enough, the ice props used in both "Dragon Palace Water Play" and "Ice Dragon Escape" were all made there using specially crafted molds. The ice sheets used in "Dragon Palace Water Play" were especially thin and hard, making them difficult to detect if used in a water tank.
When they returned to the Lu Family's magic practice grounds, they found no apprentices there. This shouldn't have happened, as it was just after eleven in the morning, which was usually the best time for the apprentices to practice.
There was a servant sweeping the yard nearby. Yin Chuan walked over and asked, only to find out that it was Lu Changhua, the head of the Lu family, who had summoned all the members of the Lu family, including relatives and apprentices, to gather in the courtyard of the front hall, as if there was something important to announce.
"Important?" Linlang asked doubtfully, "What could it be? Why don't we go and take a look?"
Yin Chuan shook his head slightly. "I just had a secret conversation with Lu Changhua. He quickly summoned everyone in the Lu family to announce an important decision. I suspect it's very likely related to our visit. He summoned everyone but us, which clearly means he doesn't want outsiders to get involved. So we have to be more discerning and not make things difficult for ourselves."
Linlang suddenly realized, "Brother Yin, you are more experienced in the martial arts world. I am a straightforward person, and I might just rush in without knowing the difference between good and bad."
Yin Chuan smiled and said, "If we insist on going, I guess Lu Changhua won't be upset, but he will definitely not be kind to us. Instead of going and asking for trouble, we might as well take this opportunity to do something more practical."
"More practical?"
Yin Chuan raised his hand and pointed to the training room on the side of the training ground. "Now that no one is disturbing us, we can carefully investigate the scene again. You have to know that this room is not only the scene where Lu Shuiqing was murdered last night. Three years ago, Lu Jiye also died here. The marks on his body are still clearly visible. This morning, we only performed a simple and rough autopsy. The situation at the scene has not been thoroughly investigated yet. I believe the murderer will definitely leave clues at the crime scene."
"Do you suspect that among those who discovered the body early this morning, someone will take advantage of the chaos to destroy the clues left at the scene?"
"That's quite possible. But I believe that when he deliberately destroys a clue, he will inevitably leave more clues. Moreover, there were so many people at the scene when the murder took place, and there were still many people when the body was discovered. It is impossible for the real killer to just wipe out all the clues without any scruples. Therefore, now is the best time for us to find his clues."
The two of them did what they said. Fortunately, the training room was not locked in broad daylight. Yin Chuan gently pushed the door open and walked into the room with Lin Lang.
Now he could finally inspect the room carefully. Yin Chuan first took a quick look around the room. It was much larger than the typical bedroom or living room in the Lu residence. Shelves filled the space with magic props, and some larger props were placed against the wall in the corners. Opposite the door was the large water tank used for the "Dragon Palace Water Play" performance a few days ago. In front of the water tank lay a felt blanket, covering the dark marks left by Lu Jiye's body.
"Fortunately, I was careful," Linlang said, pointing to the ground near the door. "I drew a few marks next to Lu Shuiqing's body. Otherwise, I would have forgotten her exact location."
Yin Chuan gave a thumbs-up. With his brain, he wasn't worried about forgetting the body's appearance, but with Linlang's markings, he could visualize the crime scene more intuitively.
"Our labeling of this murder as a 'reverse chamber' isn't quite accurate," Yin Chuan said, squatting down and staring at the spot where Lü Shuiqing's body lay. "Four of the five people in the room were poisoned by the snake. All the men escaped, but she stayed. It's as if this so-called 'reverse chamber' existed solely for Lü Shuiqing."
"Yes, that's right. I've been pondering this mystery for a long time, and I still haven't come up with a reasonable explanation. Even if the murderer had planned the crime long ago, how did he build a 'reverse chamber' just for Lu Shuiqing?"
Yin Chuan casually grabbed a long rope from a nearby prop rack and, based on Linlang's markings and his own recollections, used it to roughly outline Lv Shuiqing's body. "Her final gesture seemed to indicate she was grasping for something with one hand. Linlang, what do you think she was trying to grab?"
Linlang held her chin in her hand and thought for a moment, "Did she find the snake? Is she going to catch it?"
Yin Chuan shook his head. "No, since she's been bitten and poisoned, if she saw the snake, she should have avoided it as much as possible. Why would she try to catch it? So it makes more sense for her to stay in the backward dodging position, right?"
"So what did she want to catch?"
Yin Chuan stood up and stood in front of the door, imitating Lu Shuiqing's posture and raising his right hand high. "Is it like this?" he murmured.
"Could it be that something on the beam attracted her attention?" Linlang looked up at Yin Chuan's raised hand and clapped her hands suddenly. "Could it be that Feng Shijiu was on the beam at that time?"
"That's impossible. You have to know that she was poisoned by a snake just like everyone else. Everyone else was rushing out in a hurry. She would never pay attention to what was on the beam when her life was at stake. Moreover, there were four other people. If Feng Shijiu was in the house at the time, how could they not notice him when they first searched the room, but only discovered his trace when they ran out in a panic? It doesn't make sense."
Linlang fell silent after hearing Yin Chuan's well-reasoned rebuttal. Yin Chuan then reconstructed the scene from the four people's accounts of the poisoning. It was actually very simple: he just walked quickly from the corner of the room to the door, opened it, and walked out. And the moment he opened the door, a strange feeling flashed through Yin Chuan's mind.
"Wait...what if Lu Shuiqing raised his hand forward instead of upwards?" Yin Chuan asked as if talking to himself.
"Lift it forward? What could be in front?" Linlang looked puzzled.
"For example..." Yin Chuan returned to the room and closed the door, "the door handle of this door."
"Door handle?" Linlang looked at the door, then lowered her head to look at the outline of the body. "Judging from the body's posture, it seems she did reach for the door handle, but the problem is, she didn't actually leave the room! Judging from the entire process of three of the four people escaping the room after being poisoned, and Jin Gui getting the antidote to inject, Lv Shuiqing had plenty of time to leave the room and reunite with the others. But why didn't she come out? Instead of just watching herself die from the poison? What's even more puzzling to me is that if she died in the posture of pulling the door, she should have made this movement a few minutes before her death. But there was such a long time between the two. Why did she remain in the same posture until her death?"
This question seemed to give Yin Chuan a clue, and he answered confidently, "There's only one possible reason for this strange phenomenon—Lü Shuiqing, the last one left, was locked in the room, and she couldn't open the door no matter how hard she tried."
"Could it be that she was locked in the house by the murderer from outside?"
"No. There's no lock on the outside of the door, and it can only be locked from the inside, so there's no chance of someone locking the door from the outside."
"Then why couldn't she open the door? That's strange!" Linlang scratched the back of her head. "And even if she couldn't open the door, everyone else had run out. Didn't she shout for the people outside to hear her? They should have opened the door for her and let her out."
Yin Chuan knocked on the door frame. "Look at the thick walls and door panels. They're made of terrazzo. They were built specifically to prevent others from eavesdropping or observing her special skills. Even if she clapped her hands and yelled, it's entirely possible that no one outside could hear her. Plus, she had been poisoned by the snake and was gradually losing consciousness. She hardly had the energy to make any more noise. And everyone outside was scrambling to save themselves, so it's no surprise that no one noticed her."
"Oh - I understand. That's why the murderer poisoned everyone with snake venom, deliberately creating chaos to make everyone ignore that Lu Shuiqing was still in the room." Linlang suddenly realized.
"Yes, this is also an important part of the murderer's trick. However, I still haven't figured out how to create the core 'reverse secret room'."
As Yin Chuan spoke, he looked at the door again inside and out, including the hinges on the side of the door, the internal door lock, and even the hook on the door. He checked them all, and there seemed to be no mechanism that could create a secret room.
"The hinges can only turn inward, the door lock is a simple inward-lock embedded in the door handle, and the hook can only be used to hang clothes. There should be no problem with this door." Linlang said.
Yin Chuan nodded. He asked Linlang to go out of the house and stand outside the door. He stayed inside, closed the door, and knocked on the door panel hard and shouted loudly. However, Linlang outside was indifferent, which seemed to confirm Lu Shuiqing's judgment that he could not ask anyone to open the door from inside the house.
But the moment Yin Chuan pulled down the doorknob and opened the door again, that strange illusion came back. "Wait!" he muttered to himself.
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