Chapter 60 Haunted House Mystery: The Room of Secrets Enthusiast

Fang Rui and Xiao Zhang went to Liu Xiaonian's home to find out about the situation.

Liu Xiaonian's parents were both junior high school teachers, his mother taught Chinese and his father taught physics. They lived in an old residential area for teachers and staff.

Seeing Fang Rui and his friends coming, his father's face was not very good, and his mother asked anxiously: "Comrade police, my Xiaonian could not have committed a crime, he was just a little bit decadent, he was a good boy, he could not have committed a crime."

Xiao Zhang said cautiously: "Aunt, uncle, you have to mourn, Liu Xiaonian has passed away. We suspect he was murdered, so we came to understand his situation."

"Is that rubbish dead?" Father Liu was stunned at first, and then fell into a rage, "It's better for him to die, a rubbish like him, a vampire, it's better for him to die, if he dies we will be clean!"

"Old man, what are you doing? Xiaonian is dead, and you still want to scold him. Xiaonian just doesn't have a job, it's not like our pension can't support him, why do you always scold him like this!"

"Hmph, it's all your fault. You spoiled him. Just protect him."

"What a sin, it's my fault, it's all my fault, okay! Wuwu... My little Nian, how could you bear to leave mom alone!" Mother Liu covered her face and cried bitterly. Father

Liu looked at her. He wanted to get her a tissue, but in the end he left the living room and went into the study, slamming the door.

"Auntie, I'm so sorry." Xiao Zhang handed her a tissue, patted her back, and silently soothed her emotions.

"Police comrade, my husband has a sharp tongue and says harsh words, but he has a good heart. Please don't mind it." Liu's mother's mood gradually stabilized. She asked: "How did Xiaonian die?"

"He hanged himself in the store where he played the escape room."

"Escape room...Escape room again. My Xiaonian, how come you are trapped in it and can't get out?" Liu's mother burst into tears, "It's all my fault. I just shouldn't indulge you. I just shouldn't give you money."

"Auntie, what do you mean by this?" Xiao Zhang handed Liu's mother another piece of paper, "What's wrong with the escape room?"

"Hey, Xiaonian was ruined by the escape room. He used to have good grades in school and was admitted to a very good university. The year he was born, the escape room suddenly became popular and he fell in love with it. Later, he could not extricate himself from it and even stopped going to school. He is 24 years old now, doesn't work, doesn't have a girlfriend, and doesn't communicate with people. He just plays the escape room all day long. He has become a complete waste."

"Did he have a conflict with anyone?" Fang Rui asked.

"No, Xiaonian is an introverted child and usually doesn't have any conflicts with others." Mother Liu thought for a while and suddenly said, "Xiaonian went out one time and came back with a bruise on the corner of his mouth, as if he was beaten. I asked him what happened, but he didn't tell me."

"When was it? What did he go out for?"

"It seemed to be September 5th. I remember it was the day before my wife's birthday. He asked me for a few hundred yuan that day. He must have gone to play the escape room again. Apart from this, he is not interested in anything else."

"Can we go to his room and take a look?"

"Sure. I'll take you there."

Liu Xiaonian's room was very dark, and the windows were covered with thick curtains. Without turning on the lights, you could hardly see anything.

After turning on the light, Fang Rui saw a very tidy room. The colors seemed to be only black and white. The bed sheets were white, and the closets and curtains were black, with all kinds of strange symbols on them. It was very depressing to stay in such a room.

There was a row of books on Liu Xiaonian's desk, many of which were about decryption, including professional books on cryptography and some novels. There was also a large stack of drawings in his drawer, which looked like architectural design drawings.

Fang Rui picked up one and looked at it. He felt it was a little familiar. The layout inside was a bit like the scene he saw in the escape room shop. The date was written in the corner of the painting: January 15th.

Fang Rui saw another one, which was a painting of the scene in the "Bride and Groom Collection Room". The painting also marked various mechanisms and their activation methods. The date of the signature is: February 21st.

"Xiao Zhang, when did the 'Edgar's House' open?"

"It's a new store, I think it was in June, because the store was selected as a recording venue for a variety show right after it opened, and it became popular all of a sudden."

Fang Rui frowned, "Then why was Liu Xiaonian able to draw the layout of one of its scenes on February 21st?"

"Liu Xiaonian couldn't be the designer of those secret rooms, right?" Xiao Zhang guessed, "Could it be that someone from that store did it? They plagiarized Liu Xiaonian's design, and because they didn't want to pay him, they killed him to silence him?"

Fang Rui also found a student ID in Liu Xiaonian's drawer, and the information on it showed that Liu Xiaonian studied civil engineering. It seems that Liu Xiaonian may indeed be able to draw architectural design drawings.

"Auntie, can we take these paintings away? We will return them to you after the case is over." Fang Rui said to Liu's mother.

"Okay, you can take them!" Liu's mother said, "Comrade police, what about my son's body? Can I take him home?"

"Probably not. It needs to be cremated after the case is closed." Xiao Zhang said cautiously.

"Then can I go see him?"

"Sure, you can take our car. We can just take you there on the way."

"Thank you, thank you!"

At this time, the door of the study suddenly opened, and Liu's father walked out. Fang Rui felt that Liu's father seemed to have aged a little.

Father Liu still looked serious. He said to Fang Rui, "I'll go too. My wife can't handle things. If she faints, it will be troublesome for you again."

Fang Rui took them back to the police station. Mu Mian had already completed the autopsy and sutured the body, so she generously allowed them to see the body.

"Son, mom will never say anything to you again. Open your eyes and look at mom." Mother Liu threw herself at Liu Xiaonian's body and burst into tears. "Mom will support you no matter what you do. Don't leave mom!" Father Liu

's expression was much more restrained. He stood at the door of the autopsy room and looked at Liu Xiaonian's body from a distance.

He regretted being so harsh on his son, he should have been more patient with him. Even if Xiaonian was a waste, so what, he was still his child.

Thinking of this, he could no longer control his emotions, he also hugged Liu Xiaonian's body and cried.

The autopsy results came out quickly, and Mu Mian reported the results at the morning meeting the next day.

"The cause of death of the deceased was strangulation. The time of death was between 3 and 5 pm on September 18th. The deceased had no resistance injuries." Mu Mian paused, "We also detected sleeping pills in his body."

"Sleeping pills? The murderer wouldn't have made the deceased unconscious first, and then dressed him up as a prop corpse and hung him in the secret room." Xiao Zhang guessed.

Everyone agreed with Xiao Zhang's guess. Because it was the most reasonable guess at present.

Xiao Li reported the results of his surveillance: "At 3:11 pm on September 18, Liu Xiaonian entered this store. At 3:10 pm, he entered the entrance of the 'Escape from the Mental Hospital' copy alone. After that, no surveillance captured him. It should be that after he entered, he never came out again."

Xiao Li had already edited the video with Liu Xiaonian's picture. The surveillance footage showed that Liu Xiaonian entered the store with a black backpack and a sullen face. A short while later, he appeared at the entrance of the dungeon, still carrying a backpack and looking very unhappy.

"I have captured the faces of everyone who entered the secret room around this time period," Xiao Li opened a folder that contained picture files, "about seventeen people entered that copy."

"The fingerprint detection results are also out. We detected twelve fingerprints on it, of which thirty belonged to the clerk of that store and one was Liu Xiaonian. I don't know who the remaining seven belong to."

"Then this case is simple." Xiao Zhang leaned back and said confidently, "We just need to check these people. Whoever knows Liu Xiaonian and whoever has a conflict with him may be the murderer!"

After listening to Xiao Zhang's reasoning, Mu Mian poked Fang Rui's arm. When Fang Rui looked at her, Mu Mian drew a square with her hand, and then drew several circles on it.

Fang Rui smiled helplessly after seeing this.

Chen Xue glanced at Mu Mian's little action and said unhappily, "Mian Mian, you can't always be like this, telling only Team Fang when you find clues. There are so many people sitting here?"