Beginner Edition · Class Reunion (Nineteen)

Zhen Liu was quite polite and thanked Basketball Qiao again. "I was just wondering why you suddenly agreed to trade the secret chamber's hidden location for me accusing Lawyer Jin of being the murderer."

Professor Lu and Zhen Liu seemed to be of one mind. Before Zhen Liu could speak, he played the perfect straight man and answered Zhen Liu's question. "Because when you stopped him, he was already about to find the entrance to the secret chamber. Since it was only a matter of time before the chamber was discovered, he might as well squeeze out its last bit of value."

Basketball Qiao's face went completely pale. That was indeed what he had been thinking.

"Then, by working backward, the secret chamber must be nearby." Rather than waste time looking for the lock to open it, it was better to simply chisel a ray of light into it.

Look how happy it was.

Author's Note:

Secret chamber: ??? Are you even human?

Newbie Instance · Class Reunion (19

The secret chamber was not large, roughly the size of a small elevator car. Its depth, however, was considerable, nearly running through every floor of the entire villa. A ring of standing platforms had been installed against the walls on each floor, while the middle was left open like an atrium, with a rope ladder hanging down from above, knotted in several places.

In short, it was a very cramped yet genuinely usable secret chamber.

When Zhen Liu had previously drawn the villa's floor plan, he had found it strange that the wall beside the stair railing was abnormally thick, unlike any ordinary layout.

Now, the answer was finally revealed.

There was a "secret chamber" hidden inside. Of course it was strange.

Zhen Liu did not chisel too large an opening in the wall. There was surely still more to investigate inside the secret chamber, and perhaps some crucial evidence was hidden there. He did not want to damage it too badly. Once he confirmed that the chamber had been exposed, he said to Second-generation Zhao, "Talk."

Second-generation Zhao had actually prepared himself to explain this earlier. He simply had not expected the refined-looking Zhen Liu to use such a violent method. Still, he said what needed to be said. "Yes, this is the villa's secret chamber. Actually, it was never meant to be made into one..." After all, this was a residential property, not some secret base.

The space occupied by the secret chamber had originally been reserved for a home elevator.

In fact, the entire villa complex had been developed by the Zhao Family. The company's original plan had been to turn it into an upscale retirement community, so every home had space reserved for an internal elevator.

Unfortunately, policies changed in the blink of an eye. Just after the complex went on sale, the nearby area was designated as public land for Airport Terminal 3. The concept of retirement villas instantly evaporated, and both sales prices and demand plummeted. The Zhao Family was no pushover. They promptly cut their losses and changed their sales strategy, turning the area into a semi-residential, semi-commercial complex—for example, selling villas to businesses that wanted to open private dining restaurants.

As for the townhouses that simply would not sell, the Zhao Family consolidated them itself, renting out some and turning others into guesthouses.

Naturally, the portion consolidated by the Zhao Family was no longer going to have elevators installed at great expense, so the reserved spaces were left empty.

The guesthouse villa booked by Doctor Zhen's group this time was a little more unusual. It had once been rented to a business for an escape room, only to be taken back in the last year or two, renovated, and converted into a guesthouse. The escape room operators had not installed an elevator either. Instead, they had turned the reserved space into a narrow secret chamber to enhance the players' experience. When the Zhao Family reclaimed the property, it did not demolish the chamber in order to save money, merely sealing it off.

"But it wasn't completely sealed. It was just done for show." Second-generation Zhao had the villa's floor plan and had easily put this secret chamber to use.

What Zhen Liu and Lawyer Jin were thinking was that if someone really had been upstairs while they spoke with the victim that night, and if that person knew about the secret chamber, then there had been no need to climb out a window to escape. They only needed to hide in the chamber first, then emerge at the right moment. Of course, they still needed solid evidence before they could draw any conclusions. Without it, all their speculation was merely empty talk.

Professor Lu spoke up and asked Second-generation Zhao, "So you deliberately booked this villa with a secret chamber for the victim?"

Second-generation Zhao nodded. "Of course. Like all of you, I was planning to kill him too." He did not say it through gritted teeth, but his intense dislike for the victim was real.

Just as Professor Lu had told Zhen Liu before, that night, everyone had been on the road to drawing a blade.

It was only that some had planned it long ago, while others had acted on impulse.

Second-generation Zhao continued. He had indeed planned to kill someone, but his plan was nothing remarkable. He had simply intended to use the secret chamber to hide the body and conceal the fact that he had killed someone. He just did not know why the corpse had been taken out again. When he saw the body in Ying De's room, he had been badly frightened as well.

Yet Zhen Liu realized in surprise that Second-generation Zhao was lying. He did not expose it or show any sign of it, merely asking, "Then did you check the secret chamber for fingerprints and shoe prints?"

Second-generation Zhao nodded. "I checked during the first round of evidence collection. No fingerprints were left behind." That was also why Second-generation Zhao had disappeared earlier and only returned late for the group discussion. He had been searching the secret chamber for clues the entire time, trying to figure out who had moved the body. Naturally, no one else could find him.

There were quite a few obvious bloodstains on the first floor of the secret chamber, confirming that the victim had indeed been hidden there.

After explaining everything, Zhen Liu began carefully examining the secret chamber floor by floor. Second-generation Zhao and Basketball Qiao went elsewhere. They were already familiar with the chamber and had no desire to continue investigating it. Lawyer Jin chose to remain as well, but he was not in a hurry to search for evidence. As soon as the strange pair of brothers had gone far enough away, he immediately leaned close to Zhen Liu and whispered, "Do you believe Second-generation Zhao's murder plan?"

Zhen Liu did not stop searching, merely saying, "From the sound of it, you don't believe him?"

It was more than disbelief. He would not believe it even if it killed him.

Before Lawyer Jin could answer, Professor Lu, who had not left either, inserted himself between Lawyer Jin and Zhen Liu with an unquestionable air, separating the two who had been standing too close together. He said to Lawyer Jin in a mocking tone, "Cattle and sheep move in herds; predators always walk alone. It's your business if you like clinging to groups, but before you latch onto someone powerful, could you first ask whether they're willing to be as childish as you?"