After hearing Xiao Lou's words, everyone looked at the wall and carefully observed the pattern of the bloody handprints.
The wall was covered with messy, bloody handprints. No one could make a dent in them, no matter how long they looked. They didn't look like numbers or shapes. What did these handprints mean? To better observe the layout of the bloody handprints, Xiao Lou took a few steps back and leaned against the wall behind him, observing the handprints on the wall in front of him from the furthest distance.
Gradually, he noticed that the bloody handprints on the wall were of varying shades. There were many lighter handprints, but after removing these lighter ones and focusing only on the darker ones, he could see that they formed five straight lines, with some handprints weaving between the lines to create the shape of musical notes. A careful count from top to bottom revealed exactly five straight lines.
At the same time, Ye Qi suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "I understand! This is a musical staff! All the light-colored handprints on the wall are distractions; we can ignore them and only look at the darkest bloody handprints." He stepped forward, pointed to one section of the wall, and said, "These bloody handprints form the five lines of the musical staff, and the handprints weaving through the middle, when connected, form the shape of a musical note, representing the 'mi' note in the key of C."
Teammates: "......"
The idea of drawing musical staves on four walls with bloody handprints is thanks to The Diamond-Suit Guardian.
Xiao Lou looked at Ye Qi with relief: "Luckily I have Xiao Ye here, otherwise, we would all be eliminated from this music escape room."
Yu Hanjiang nodded seriously: "I can't read sheet music, so I'll leave it to Xiao Ye."
Long Sen, Lao Mo, and Shao Qingge exchanged glances, all indicating they didn't understand.
Qu Wanyue has been dancing since elementary school and has some knowledge of music. Although she is not as professional as Ye Qi, she can understand simple sheet music. Hearing Ye Qi say this, she turned to look at the other wall and agreed, "If we exclude the light-colored handprints, the dark bloody handprints are indeed sheet music. The notes on the left wall are so, mi, re, do, la."
Ye Qi's gaze quickly swept over the remaining three walls, and he said, "The notes on the other three walls are la, fa, mi, re, xi, so, so, fa, re, mi, and so, mi, re, do, so..."
He connected the musical notes on the four walls, rearranged their order, and hummed them softly.
Then, Ye Qi's eyes lit up, and he said, "This is the sheet music for 'Christmas Carol'!"
so, mi, re, do, so
so, mi, re, do, la
la, fa, mi, re, xi
so, so, fa, re, mi
—It's the melody of a classic Christmas carol.
Although Xiao Lou couldn't read sheet music, he had heard "Christmas Carol" before. He recognized it when Ye Qi hummed it. However, Xiao Lou was puzzled: "If you convert the notes of the sheet music into numbers in simplified notation, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, xi correspond to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 respectively. The password for this wooden box is a seven-digit number, but this part of the Christmas Carol melody has 20 notes."
The musical notes of Christmas carols, when converted to simplified musical notation, are as follows:
53215, 53216, 64327, 55423.
Ye Qi scratched his head in confusion: "How can I pick out 7 numbers to form a password from 20 numbers?"
Xiao Lou thought about it carefully and said, "If you have to pick 7 numbers out of 20, it is very likely that you are using the rule of 'overlay elimination'. You put four groups of numbers together, and when a number that has appeared before appears again, it is eliminated. Only one of each number is left, without repetition. So, the order of these four groups of numbers after being overlaid is 5321647."
Yu Hanjiang had no doubt about Xiao Lou's judgment and simply said, "Let's give it a try."
He turned the combination lock on the old wooden box into the numerical code "5321647", and heard a soft "click" sound. The wooden box was indeed successfully opened!
Xiao Lou's teammates all looked at him with admiration.
However, before anyone could speak, the familiar melody of a Christmas carol began to play in their ears—
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh...
In the enclosed, dimly lit space, music suddenly started playing, startling everyone.
Ye Qi looked up and carefully searched for the speaker. After searching around, he couldn't find it. He said helplessly, "Suddenly playing music is really scary, okay? The Diamond-Suit Guardian has been corrupted by the other Guardians too."
Xiao Lou said, "It seems this escape room has a Christmas theme. Let's take a look at the clues in the box first."
Inside the wooden box lay a yellowed, hardcover diary, bound with red thread and tied with a pretty bow on the front. Yu Hanjiang untied the thread, opened the book, and saw on the first page: " Lucia's Diary."
The handwriting is crooked and messy; it must have been written by a child.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance. Yu Hanjiang unfolded his diary, while Xiao Lou picked up the luminous pearl to provide light. As Yu Hanjiang flipped through the diary, he read aloud softly.
Here, so it's easier for teammates to hear the information—
"November 11th, sunny."
Today, Mom and Dad took me to our new house. Our new house is so beautiful! It's a super big five-story villa, and I love it here. Mom also gave me a diary, and I've decided to start recording our family's life in it from today onwards.
"November 15th, sunny."
Today I went to my new school nearby. Some classmates said there's a ghost in the villa we live in, that it floats around the villa at night. Last month, all the guests staying in the villa were killed by the ghost, and because of the deaths, the owner was in a hurry to sell it. I'm a little scared. Do ghosts really kill people? But Mom said we can't believe those rumors. How could there be ghosts?
November 20th, sunny.
I've lived in the new house for a week and haven't heard any strange noises, nor have I seen anything floating outside the window at night. Ghosts? They're just saying that because they're jealous that I live in a big villa!
"November 21, cloudy."
Mom hired a babysitter today. Her name is Ida; she has blonde curly hair, fair skin, and is a very pretty older sister. Dad also hired a driver to take me to school, Uncle Farrell. He has a long beard and looks just like Santa Claus.
"November 23, rain."
It was raining heavily, and Mom brought a cat home from the roadside. It was soaking wet and looked very pitiful, so we decided to adopt it. We named it Tom. Oh, unlike the cat in the cartoon "Tom and Jerry," our Tom is snow-white and very beautiful after a bath.
December 1st, sunny.
I get along very well with Tom; she's my best friend. I even drew a picture of her myself—it's so cute!
"December 17th, heavy rain."
Today, my mom and I took Tom to the pet hospital for grooming. Tom's fur was too long, and I wanted to get it trimmed and buy him a nice outfit. But then it suddenly started pouring rain on the way, and I got caught in the downpour and caught a cold. My nose is running, and I feel awful.
"December 18th, cloudy."
My cold hasn't gotten better yet, my head is still foggy, and I slept all day, so I didn't have time to play with Tom.
Mom called the school and got me three days off so I can stay home and rest. Great! Finally, I don't have to see those annoying boys anymore. They're always playing pranks, putting bugs in my backpack.
"December 20th, cloudy."
This afternoon I started having a fever again, and Mom called a private doctor to give me an injection. I don't like injections; they hurt too much.
"December 24th, heavy rain."
On Christmas Eve, several people came to our house. They were my parents' friends, and they were having a party on the first floor.
Adults are so annoying, they're so noisy, and they're drinking too. Dad's going to get drunk.
My cold isn't better yet, and I feel sleepy after taking the medicine. I've decided to sleep through Christmas Eve, hoping I'll be better when I wake up tomorrow. They've been too busy lately and haven't spent any time with me. They won't let me attend the Christmas Eve party, saying I can't go out because of my cold and it will worsen my condition. But those are just excuses; they just think I'm a little kid who will get in their way.
Tomorrow is Christmas, and my parents must sing me Christmas carols and wish me a Merry Christmas, and buy me lots of presents before I can forgive them.
Tom is still the best to me; he's always been there for me.
"I'm asleep."
Yu Hanjiang continued flipping through the pages, only to find that the following pages were all blank.
He looked at Xiao Lou: "The diary stopped here, something must have happened to this family."
Xiao Lou nodded in agreement: "From Little Girl" Based on Lucia's diary, it can be inferred that the musical maze we're about to navigate is very likely the five-story villa where she lives.
If you turn a villa into a maze, and there are no obstacles, finding the exit will naturally be very easy.
But The Diamond-Suit Guardian certainly wouldn't be so kind as to only set up a villa for everyone to find their way. Based on the clues we have so far, every room in the villa could potentially contain puzzles and mechanisms. Furthermore, the five-story building isn't a flat maze, but a 3D one; they might solve a puzzle on the fourth floor and then be teleported directly to a room on the second floor, creating a sense of spatial disorientation.
The exit is definitely in the lobby on the first floor, but how many rooms do you have to go through to get to the exit, and what is the correct order? We'll have to figure that out together. This maze is actually very similar to a real-life escape room.
Old Mo is an expert in spatial awareness. Xiao Lou looked at him and said, "Old Mo, this time it's a five-story three-dimensional maze. When we walk through the rooms, could you draw a diagram to determine which floor we are on and whether we should go down or up? Otherwise, we'll get lost."
Mo Xuemin immediately took out paper and pen, nodded and said, "Understood. In a typical villa, bedrooms usually start on the second floor. This room is currently dimly lit and empty, so it's likely a separate storage room. We can't determine its floor yet."
He paused, then asked, "Why is Little Girl's diary in the storage room?"
Xiao Lou couldn't explain it either, saying, "We need to visit a few more rooms to figure out the layout of the villa."
Ye Qi asked in confusion, "But the box containing the diary has already been opened, so where is the door to this secret room?"
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.
The walls of this secret room are covered with eerie bloody handprints, Christmas carols are playing in the background, and a Little Girl's diary is left in an exquisite wooden box.
Where's the door?
When it comes to escape rooms, they need to have a door to get out, right?
After searching around, the group still couldn't find any hidden doors.
Xiao Lou read the diary again and said, "The clue might be in the diary. Little Girl's entry stopped on Christmas Eve, December 24th. Tomorrow is Christmas Day. She asked her parents to sing her Christmas carols in order for her to forgive their neglect..."
Xiao Lou then looked at Ye Qi and said, "Xiao Ye, why don't you try singing a Christmas carol?"
Ye Qi asked with a complicated expression, " Professor Xiao, are you sure you want to sing to open the door?"
Xiao Lou smiled and said, "Give it a try. There's no other way anyway. This sentence in the diary shouldn't be completely useless."
Ye Qi coughed, cleared his throat, and then began to sing Christmas carols along with the melody that was playing.
Since the girl in the diary has an English name, and this secret room is likely set in a Western context, Ye Qi even sang an English Christmas carol, which was quite fitting. He does sing well; his voice is clear and bright.
Strangely, as he sang, small colored lights suddenly lit up on the ceiling of the room.
For every word Ye Qi sings, an additional colored light appears, extending continuously along the wall.
After the song ended, colorful lights had already surrounded the entire room along the walls, and a huge Christmas tree appeared in the center of the room. The entire room was surrounded by colorful lights, and the Christmas tree was full of stockings filled with gifts. The whole scene was like a dream.
Then, something unexpected happened—
The four walls suddenly disappeared, and everyone found themselves in a pink bedroom.
The bloody handprints, the Christmas carols that had been playing, and the colorful lights and Christmas tree had all vanished. It was as if everyone had suddenly woken up from a dream and returned to reality.
This is a very large bedroom, and the curtains, bed, and wardrobe are all in pink, a color that girls love.
Ye Qi stared blankly at the room in front of him and said, "It really is a voice-activated mechanism? Singing to unlock it, that's so strange..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yu Hanjiang said in a deep voice, "Look at the bed."
Following Yu Hanjiang's gaze, everyone saw a little girl in a tutu lying quietly on a pink princess bed. She was covered with a blanket, with only her head showing. The little girl had delicate features and long, golden curly hair. Sleeping peacefully, she looked like a beautiful porcelain doll.
Unfortunately, at this time her face was as pale as paper, and there were even some obvious signs of rigor mortis on her skin.
Xiao Lou's expression changed slightly: "She is Lucia, and she is dead."
Yu Hanjiang frowned deeply: "So, we were just trapped in her dream before she died?"
Only a dream could explain it; otherwise, how could there be so many strange things in the room, and then a Christmas tree would appear at the end?
Were those bloody handprints her struggles in her dreams?
The bloody handprints drawn on the wall formed a Christmas carol. Her greatest wish before she died was for her parents to sing Christmas carols to her and spend Christmas with her.
Unfortunately, her wish was not fulfilled.
Ye Qi recalled the scene of singing Christmas carols just now and couldn't help but sigh, " Little Girl died innocently. It seems that only by solving the mystery of this family's death can we find the right exit from this locked room. I don't believe in ghosts killing people; there must be a murderer."
Shao Qingge said, both amused and exasperated, "So, Professor Xiao, should we look for the mechanism first, or examine the body first?"
Everyone: "..."
The appearance
of a corpse in the Diamond Secret Room for the first time was quite unusual for everyone.