Chapter 61 Haunted House Mystery: Design Plagiarism?

After being caught by Chen Xue, Mu Mian looked at the ceiling with a guilty conscience, avoiding their accusing eyes.

Xiao Zhang also echoed: "That's right, is there anything we can't listen to? Or does forensic doctor Mu think we can't understand?"

"Xiao Zhang, are you sure you want to hear it?" Fang Rui looked at Xiao Zhang helplessly, "I think it's better for you not to know."

"Of course! Tell me quickly." Xiao Zhang felt strange, why did the boss only call his name? He suddenly had an ominous premonition.

"Mu Mian told me that your reasoning just now was like a net."

Xiao Zhang said happily: "Are you praising my reasoning for being rigorous and coherent?"

Fang Rui continued: "It's full of loopholes."

Xiao Zhang looked at Mu Mian aggrievedly: "Forensic Doctor Mu, you hurt me!"

"It shouldn't have hurt me," Mu Mian also felt aggrieved, "You just insisted on asking."

"So sad... Forget it, you help me fill in the loopholes." Xiao Zhang has gotten used to it. His reasoning seems to avoid the correct answer every time.

Why is this? Obviously he is not very stupid, and he is very imaginative.

Mu Mian reminded him: "There are many possibilities. For example, the murderer is a perverted killer who randomly selects targets to kill. In this case, it is impossible to identify the murderer through interpersonal relationships..."

After the meeting, Fang Rui decided to go to the store again. He had something to ask the store manager.

After Mu Mian learned about it, she excitedly said that she would also go there to look for clues.

"Doctor Mu, isn't the cause of death of the deceased very certain? What other clues are you going to find?" Xiao Zhang looked at Mu Mian's excited face and felt that things were not that simple.

Mu Mian did not answer the question, and said to Fang Rui: "Fang Rui, drive faster."

When they arrived at the store, Mu Mian said to Fang Rui and Xiao Zhang: "Fang Rui, you go and take notes, I will go to the secret room to look for clues first. You can ask slowly, don't worry. I will wait for you in the secret room."

The store manager worriedly said: "But without me to lead the way, you may need to spend most of the day to decipher. You should wait for me to take you there..."

Before he finished speaking, Mu Mian had already left happily.

"It doesn't matter, she should be faster if she walks by herself than if you lead her." Fang Rui said with a smile.

"..." The store manager was a little speechless, but thinking of the speed at which Mu Mian deciphered the code, he felt that Fang Rui's words seemed to make some sense.

This little girl is very smart.

"Boss, forensic doctor Mu won't be scared walking alone, right? That place is too scary!"

"Are you sure she will be scared?" Fang Rui and the store manager looked at Xiao Zhang at the same time. Xiao Zhang suddenly felt that his worry seemed a bit unnecessary.

Fang Rui looked at the store manager and asked, "Do you know Liu Xiaonian?"

"Who is Liu Xiaonian? I don't know him. Our store receives dozens of players every day. With such a large customer flow, how can I remember every player's name."

Fang Rui interrupted him: "I only asked your name. Since you don't know him, how do you know he was a player in your store?"

The store manager's face changed, and he explained: "Oh, I subconsciously thought you were asking about the players' situation. It's my fault. I spoke too quickly. I really don't know any Liu Xiaonian."

Fang Rui handed him a photo of Liu Xiaonian: "Are you sure you don't know him?"

"No."

"Didn't you beat him up? How could you not know him?" Fang Rui asked. In fact, he was not sure whether they had beaten Liu Xiaonian that time, so he was just deceiving the store manager.

Unexpectedly, the store manager was sweating all over in an instant, and he confessed: "Officer Fang, I just lied, I know him. He came to our store to make trouble before, and our staff beat him up and drove him away. I was just nervous, so I lied."

After discovering the body, the store manager immediately asked the staff to check the surveillance video. Through the surveillance videos of the entrance and exit, they found out that the deceased was Liu Xiaonian. Because they had a dispute before, the store manager was worried that the police would suspect them, so he lied.

"Why is he making trouble?"

"This... this." The manager hesitated, but when he saw Fang Rui staring at him, he finally confessed, "He thinks our secret room design is rubbish and the experience is shit. He is very dissatisfied, so he made trouble."

"Is that the only reason?"

"Of course not. I really didn't lie this time."

Fang Rui felt that this manager was really a liar. Fang Rui took out Liu Xiaonian's design drawings and handed them to the store manager. "Your store opened in June, why did Liu Xiaonian draw the design drawings of your copy in January?"

After looking at the drawings, the store manager tried to argue: "Our... escape room uses the same routines, it's normal for the design drawings to overlap!"

Fang Rui pulled out one of them, "The mechanism in this one is exactly the same as the scene layout of your 'Bride and Groom Collection Room', the mechanism settings are the same, and even the way the mechanism is used is exactly the same. Do you think this is a design overlap? Isn't this a direct copy?"

The store manager could no longer hide it, Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he confessed, "Some of the things in our secret room were copied from our peers. The 'Bride and Groom Collection Room' was a design copied from our peers, but it was definitely not copied from Liu Xiaonian. I really didn't lie about this. The last time we beat him up was because he cursed in our store and affected our reputation."

Afraid that Fang Rui would not believe it, the store manager added, "The store was called 'Lost Island' and it has closed down. Last month, their boss sued us, and we paid a large sum of money, and then obtained his authorization. If you don't believe it, you can check the judgment online, it has been publicly displayed."

"If he felt that the experience in your store was bad, why did he come to your store this time?"

The store manager looked helpless, "We don't know! We had already blacklisted him. The person who received him that day was a new clerk who didn't know him, so we let him in. We were unlucky to encounter such a thing."

Then how did Liu Xiaonian have those design drafts? What is his relationship with the store called "Lost Island"?

Fang Rui decided to go to the secret room to find Mu Mian first.

Xiao Zhang originally refused to go, but he had no choice, he succumbed to Fang Rui's tyranny. Maybe because he had been there once, Xiao Zhang found that this time didn't seem so scary.

Xiao Zhang touched the decorations on the wall and felt that it felt good, but saw Fang Rui looking at him.

"With Chen Xue away, you seem to have become braver. Weren't you scared to death yesterday?"

Xiao Zhang's face turned red, "Boss..."

"You're quite capable." Fang Rui looked at Xiao Zhang with admiration. He didn't expect that Xiao Zhang was quite cunning when it came to love.

"..."

Under the leadership of the store manager, they soon arrived at the hidden level.

Xiao Zhang saw Mu Mian standing in front of the skeleton bride, touching the bride, and looked particularly happy.

"Forensic Doctor Mu, why are you standing here? Can't you get into the secret room?"

Xiao Zhang suddenly spoke, scaring Mu Mian. She quickly retracted her burning gaze, and then explained: "Did you finish the record so quickly?"

Fang Rui looked at the resin skeleton. He seriously suspected that Mu Mian fell in love with the skeleton bride, just like she inexplicably fell in love with his corpse.

Mu Mian pressed the bride's chest and said to the store manager, "The mechanism is on the chest. In fact, you don't need to hug her to turn it on."

After hearing this, the store manager's face turned a little unnatural.