The moment his palm covered with moss hit the floor tile, Tang Ren grabbed the liquid nitrogen tube and threw it at him: "Who are you? Take the icy palm from your master Tang!" Amid the white mist, a middle-aged man screamed: "You're going to die! You're Ah Qiang, the plumber!"
Qin Feng used a tactical dagger to pry open the broken floor tiles, and the flashlight illuminated the water and electricity plug stuck in the drainpipe below. The sign pinned on the man's uniform was glaring - the gold-plated words "1905 Customs Logistics Department" were faintly visible under the mildew.
"Ding! Time-space superposition phenomenon detected." A double image emerged in Su Chen's retina: the modern sewer pipe and the blue brick tunnel from a hundred years ago were strangely overlapping, and the wrench on Aqiang's waist was clearly a brass fire folder from the Guangxu period.
Kuntai pushed through the crowd and rushed in. His police badge rubbed against the bronze rust on the corpse's fingertips: "Everyone, stand against the wall!" His feet suddenly slipped and he fell on the dissection table, facing the projection of the beast head floating in the peony-patterned body. "Oh my god! This tattoo technician should be arrested! The New Year's picture doll is tattooed with Godzilla!"
Boss Lin's folding umbrella suddenly fell from the vent, with a yellowed piece of rice paper stuck in the tip of the umbrella. Su Chen used tweezers to unfold the wet page, and the system immediately analyzed the ink stains: "On the seventh day of the sixth lunar month in 1905, at 3:00 p.m., the dragon head gate."
Tang Ren took the opportunity to steal Ah Qiang's tool bag and took out a rusty pocket watch: "Wow! This broken copper and iron is enough to exchange for three bowls of wonton noodles..." The moment the cover popped open, the man in the long gown in the black and white photo was 70% similar to Boss Lin, and the bronze tripod in the background was oozing bright red cinnabar.
"Qin... Qin Feng!" Su Chen suddenly grabbed the criminal police captain who was about to inspect the pipeline, and pointed the scalpel at the load-bearing column in the southeast corner of the cold storage. The humming sound from the vibration of the blade was synchronized with the system alarm - in the hollow layer inside the column, two cold bronze lights were flickering alternately.
Ah Qiang suddenly twitched and grabbed Tang Ren's ankle: "Below...below..." A peony-shaped figure appeared behind his neck, and blue veins were spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye. The system's life detection chart showed that a piece of metal the size of a copper coin was stuck in his heart, and the radiation value exceeded the safety threshold.
"Don't move!" The forensic doctor suddenly pulled open his white coat, revealing a portable X-ray machine tied to his waist. When the scanning beam passed over Ah Qiang's back, everyone gasped - two miniature bronze animal heads were embedded in his spine, slowly rotating with the sound of water flowing in the drainpipe.
Boss Lin's sneer suddenly came from deep inside the drainpipe: "Officer Qin, it's still not too late to have morning tea." The echo from the pipe wall was mixed with the muffled sound of bronze objects colliding, as if the entire underground of Chinatown was resonating.
Kuntai's intercom suddenly exploded: "A floating corpse was found at the dock! There was a moving phoenix tattooed on its back!" His fat chin slammed into Tang Ren's head, "What the hell are you doing with feudal fantasies again... Ouch!"
Tang Ren held up the compass he had taken out of Aqiang's bag, and the needle was pointing madly at the jade mouthpiece in Qin Feng's pocket. When the mouthpiece touched the compass, a glowing earthly branch map suddenly appeared on the floor of the cold storage, and each direction corresponded to the eye laser of the bronze beast head statue.
Su Chen's system interface was suddenly covered in blood, and the three-dimensional map showed that a huge bronze resonance cavity was forming under the entire Chinatown. The radiation value of the bronze dragon head that disappeared in 1905 perfectly coincided with the abnormal data during the laboratory explosion.
"No... not solving the case." Qin Feng suddenly stuttered violently, and the tactical dagger carved a deep mark on the ground, "The... the people are in the bronze vessel!"
The moment the last stroke was completed, the tiles of the entire cold storage broke apart. A century of accumulated dust rose up in the mist that covered the sky, and two huge bronze doors rose up from the ground with a roar. The beast heads on the door rings were biting on identical lilies.
(In order to maintain the style of realistic crime, they transformed the supernatural phenomena into scientific explanations of criminal organizations)
---
When two huge bronze doors appeared in the dust, Tang Ren picked up the fire extinguisher and smashed it at the nearest dragon-head door ring: "Playing tricks! Look at your Foshan Shadowless Kick!" The sound of metal collision startled a bat, revealing a brand new hydraulic device in the gap of the door.
"Silent bearings made in Germany in 2018." Qin Feng scraped off the lubricating oil with a dagger and sniffed it, "This batch of goods is in the purchase record of the decoration team last month." He used the flashlight of his mobile phone to illuminate the QR code on the inside of the door, and it turned out to be a maintenance order for a Chinatown property.
Su Chen's scalpel suddenly stuck to the door knocker, and the system popped up a material analysis: "Bronze alloy contains 0.3% titanium, a 2020 metallurgical patent formula." He pried open the dragon's eye, and the micro-projector was playing a black-and-white image from 1905 - it was clearly a behind-the-scenes footage from a film and television base three months ago.
"Boss, you are playing cosplay!" Tang Ren pulled open the dragon beard and pulled out a bundle of optical fiber cables. "This dragon beard is certified by Huawei!"
Boss Lin's voice suddenly came from the loudspeaker: "Officer Qin, why not take a look at the second tiger-head gate?" The tiger's eyes opened and shot out a holographic projection: 38 first-class national cultural relics are in a container on a cargo ship, and the GPS positioning is flashing on the high seas.
Kuntai's intercom suddenly rang: "The Criminal Investigation Department has deciphered the gold foil in the victim's stomach. It is a mass-produced product from the museum's souvenir shop!"
Qin Feng suddenly pulled Tang Ren's Sanqing Bell, and a micro tracking device fell out of the bell: "The spoils of the anti-corruption campaign." He opened the bell tongue to reveal the crystal, "Boss Lin's ship, a customs monitoring system was just installed two...two-four hours ago."
Su Chen's white coat suddenly moved without wind, and the system superimposed the structural diagram of the two doors on his retina: "All hydraulic devices are powered by the same transformer box." He walked quickly to the southeast corner of the cold storage, "The temperature of the transformer box is abnormal, exceeding the standard value by 17%."
Tang Ren sat down on the transformer box: "Hey, the heating here is quite good..." Suddenly, the Alipay payment notification sound rang in his jeans pocket, "Who transferred 2 million to you?!"
The holographic projection suddenly twisted, and the image of Boss Lin shook: "Mr. Tang really knows what he's talking about. Keep your deposit." The projection switched to the museum's three-dimensional map, with a red dot moving in the Han Dynasty exhibition hall. "As long as Officer Qin puts the jade mouthpiece into the display case..."
"Let go...let go of your head!" Qin Feng suddenly stopped stuttering, and the tactical dagger split the outer shell of the transformer box. Two signal amplifiers disguised as bronze devices were heating up, and one of them had a bloody golden and jade building tag inserted into it.
When Su Chen picked up the tag with tweezers, the system alarm sounded: "Putrodotoxin crystals detected." He turned around and grabbed Tang Ren by the collar: "Did you sneak some barbecued pork buns from the VIP box last night?"
The moment the riot police broke through the door, the two bronze doors suddenly retracted into the ground. Tang Ren pointed at the remaining tracks on the ground and shouted, "This is a haunted house in an amusement park!"
Boss Lin's folding fan fell from the ceiling, and a fluorescent road map appeared on the unfolded fan surface - it was the smuggling route of the museum's underground pipeline. Qin Feng shone a purple light on the fan ribs, and the trademark of a steel pipe company was clearly visible under the ultraviolet light.
"The case report is closed." Su Chen suddenly stabbed the cold storage wall with a scalpel, revealing a brand new marble-textured sticker under the peeling wall skin. "The so-called century-old underground palace is nothing more than an immersive escape room venue renovated in February."
Kuntai's roar shook the freezer: "Is it that internet celebrity experience center that did this again?! They've been dressing up as zombies to attack the police for a month and the case hasn't been closed yet!"
A large number of lily petals suddenly flooded out of the drainpipe, and Tang Ren dug out a waterproof bag from the pile of flowers - inside was the true list of smuggled cultural relics, as well as the transfer records between Boss Lin and the museum's security director.
"Ding! The novice mission is completed. The forensic skill library unlocks the Song Dynasty autopsy book." The system prompt made Su Chen stagger half a step. When Qin Feng reached out to support him, his fingertips brushed against the bronze rust on the other's cuffs.
"How did you know there was a problem with the transformer?"
"Because the frost on the box melted too quickly before Tang Ren sat down." Su Chen pulled off his gloves stained with gold foil, "Also, his acting skills when collecting money were three times worse than usual."
Suddenly fireworks exploded outside the window, spelling out the four characters "天官賜福". Tang Ren leaned on the windowsill and wailed: "Two million dollars! How can it be digital currency!" The balance on the phone screen clearly showed: 2,000,000 game coins.
At the distant dock, real smuggling boats were surrounding the cargo ship with a fake location. A sealed box with a lily tied to it floated in the waves, and inside it were neatly stacked 3D printed models of two zodiac animal heads - both had "Chinatown Escape Room Copyright" engraved on the bottom.