Wells ' body lay sprawled on the sofa. Xiao Lou quickly stepped forward and bent down to examine the body, while the other teammates searched the room for clues.
The man's eyes were wide open, and his tongue was sticking out halfway—typical signs of strangulation. There were obvious ligature marks on his neck, showing a pattern of being deepest in the center and fading towards the sides, with a width of about three fingers.
In addition, no other obvious injuries were found on the body.
Xiao Lou quickly arrived at the autopsy results: "The cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation. His shirt showed signs of being violently pulled, and two buttons were missing. The murder weapon used by the killer was most likely his tie."
Yu Hanjiang frowned as he looked at the body on the sofa and analyzed, "He must have drunk quite a bit at the party on Christmas Eve. After seeing the guests off, he fell asleep on the sofa. I didn't expect the murderer to return, tear off his tie, and strangle him to death."
This is a reasonable speculation, because there were no signs that the body had been moved, and the murderer had no reason to strangle Wells and then move him back to the sofa.
Wells didn't go back to his bedroom to sleep; he just collapsed and fell asleep on the sofa, which suggests he was probably drunk.
Therefore, he was unaware that his wife had been murdered in the music room on the second floor.
Xiao Lou turned to his teammates and asked, "Has anyone found any clues?"
Ye Qi rummaged through the restaurant's trash cans and said, "The trash cans are full of snack bags and various fruit peels, nothing special."
Shao Qingge walked around the kitchen and said, "There are a lot of drinks in the refrigerator, as well as leftover fresh vegetables and meat. It seems that the couple cooked for their guests at home on Christmas Eve."
Old Mo walked to the side of the restaurant and found that there was a large garden outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. He tried to open the glass door, but it wouldn't budge. Old Mo turned around and said, "This glass door in the restaurant must require a mechanism to unlock."
Qu Wanyue and Long Sen searched all the cabinets in the living room and found two photo albums in the TV cabinet. Long Sen handed the albums to Yu Hanjiang and said, " Captain Yu, this should contain information about the main characters in the secret room."
Yu Hanjiang immediately took them, and he and Xiao Lou each took a book and carefully flipped through it.
The photo album that Xiao Lou was holding was probably a personal photo album of the male and female protagonists, consisting entirely of individual photos of the two before they went to university, including photos of their birthdays every year during their childhood, as well as mementos of important events during their elementary and middle school years.
The photos show that the female protagonist, Shirley, has been learning piano since she was very young, and her photo album contains many pictures of her holding trophies after winning various piano competitions. The male protagonist's hobby is also musical instruments; he plays the violin and frequently participated in various competitions when he was young.
Although the two didn't interact much as children, the photos of one in a suit and the other in a dress look quite well-matched. However, the latter half of the album has many blank spaces; it's unclear whether there were no photos to begin with or if some were removed.
The second photo album that Yu Hanjiang looked through documented their university days.
The two did not attend the same university. Wells studied architecture, while Shirley was a student at the Music Conservatory, a fact evidenced by photos of the two of them together at the school gate.
Their first photo together was taken against the backdrop of a large stage. Shirley was wearing a beautiful performance dress, and Wells was dressed in a handsome black tuxedo. The handsome man and beautiful woman stood in front of the piano for a photo. At that time, the two maintained a polite distance from each other and did not seem very close, so they must have just met.
They took more and more photos together after that, and gradually started holding hands and hugging.
Yu Hanjiang quickly flipped through the photos of the two of them, searching for the others in the album. Soon, he confirmed the identities of the other people—they were the five people invited to the Christmas Eve party, and their names were written on the back of the photos.
Dr. Simon is a classmate of the male protagonist, Wells, and graduated from the Medical School. In the photo, Simon is standing in front of the laboratory building, wearing a white coat and posing for a photo with Wells. He is about half a head taller than Wells, has a handsome face, wears silver-rimmed glasses, and looks very refined.
Jack is also Wells's friend. The two met in college basketball club. There is a photo in the album of them wearing jerseys and holding a basketball. Jack is almost the same height as Wells.
Susan is the male protagonist's classmate. In the photo, the two are holding a golden "design competition trophy" together, suggesting they collaborated on a competition and won an award, making them work partners.
Martha and Karen are both best friends of the protagonist, Shirley. The three girls make funny faces, wear the same colors, and carry the same bags. There are several such photos of them as best friends, and they look as close as sisters with a very good relationship.
Yu Hanjiang compiled these key photos and said, "Judging from the relationships between the people, among the five people attending the party, two men are Wells ' friends, and two of the three women are Shirley's best friends, and one is Wells ' college classmate, who may also be a business partner."
Combining the five-person graduation photo found in the study, Xiao Lou said, "They were students in the same year, and the seven of them took a photo together in their graduation gowns, which shows that they knew each other and had a good relationship."
The photos can only identify each person; they don't reveal who has a secret romantic relationship with the male or female lead. Unlike the photos in Red Heart 2, which are much more suggestive.
Yu Hanjiang said, "All five of them have the potential..."
" Could he be the murderer? Just look at Little Girl's doodles."
Lucia's doodle depicts a scene from the day she moved, where a man and a woman, along with her parents, came to help. Although the child's doodle only uses colored pencils to draw a rough outline, the shapes are still quite clear.
For example, the height difference between her parents in her drawing is consistent with reality, with her father being half a head taller than her mother.
Xiao Lou took out the graffiti and examined it carefully, saying, " The man in Lucia's graffiti is half a head taller than her father, so we can rule out Jack based on that."
Jack is good at playing basketball, and in the photo of the two of them wearing basketball shoes, he and Wells are exactly the same height.
Since Little Girl drew the height difference between her parents, she probably wouldn't have deliberately drawn the uncle as much taller than her father. Based on this deduction, the murderer likely visited the villa on moving day to familiarize himself with its layout, allowing him to plan the murder in advance. If Jack didn't visit the villa, he would be far less suspicious.
Therefore, the remaining man, Dr. Simon, naturally becomes a prime suspect.
He was exactly half a head taller than Wells, and as a doctor, it would have been easier for him to switch Little Girl's cold medicine. If he were the murderer, it would have been very easy for him to stab Sherry to death, strangle Wells, go to Little Girl's room to switch the cold medicine, and kill all three of them.
Xiao Lou looked at another woman in the graffiti.
She was slender, wearing a long red dress, and had long, curly hair.
When Little Girl was doodling, she even used a gold brush to draw a wavy line behind the woman's head to represent her hair.
Susan, Wells ' female classmate, has a neat, short bob haircut in the photo.
Sulli's two best friends, one with long straight hair and the other with big curly hair—the one with curly hair is named Karen.
As long as Little Girl's drawing wasn't random, then it can be confirmed that the people who came to help on moving day were Dr. Simon and Ms. Karen.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance and said simultaneously, "A choice between two murderers?"
Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly: "Based on the existing clues, the most reasonable suspect is Dr. Simon. The jewelry treasured by the female protagonist indicates that she has someone she can't forget. The famous book ' The Lover ' found in the study and ' Marriage Damour ' playing in the music room are also very telling."
Xiao Lou agreed, saying, "On the male lead's side, there are no clues to suggest that he has a white moonlight in his heart, or that other women admire him. The key should be Shirley's side. Her treasured necklace is too suspicious, and there are words like 'I love you for life' written in the jewelry box."
So, the murderer is Dr. Simon?
The teammates exchanged bewildered glances, feeling that given Guardian's awful personality, the answer wouldn't be so simple.
The restaurant door wasn't open yet. Xiao Lou glanced at the 20-minute countdown and said, "There's still time. Let's not rush to conclusions. Everyone, let's search the room again to see if there are any mechanisms or other clues."
The teammates split up to search again.
Three minutes later, Liu Qiao suddenly said, "There's another hidden door here."
She had just been checking the living room, but hadn't found any useful clues. Then she heard Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang start analyzing the case. As she listened, she tapped on the wall, but all she heard was a hollow "thump thump".
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang immediately stepped forward.
The TV wall in the living room is quite large. The spot where Liu Qiao knocked was right to the side of the TV wall, and the echo from the wooden door was completely different from that from the marble wall. If you look closely, you can find a very small keyhole.
A keyhole the size of a fingernail—you can't see it at all if you don't have good eyesight.
Xiao Lou stepped forward and tried to push the door, but it wouldn't open. His gaze swept across the spacious room—the living room, the dining room, the kitchen—and all the drawers had been checked; no keys were found. Everyone had also carried any clues they needed to gather from the drawers in the other rooms.
Where is the key?
Xiao Lou turned to look at the center of the living room.
Following Xiao Lou's gaze, his teammates spotted the two-meter-tall Christmas tree in the center of the room.
Xiao Lou said, "The key should be in the Christmas stocking. Everyone, let's look for it as soon as possible!"
The Christmas tree was decorated with many small stockings. At first, everyone thought they were just decorations, but now it seems that the stockings may contain the key to another secret door.
Upon hearing this, the teammates immediately sprang into action.
Ye Qi found a large amount of chocolate candy in the bottom sock, but couldn't reach the top sock, so he had to ask someone taller for help. Shao Qingge stretched out his long arm, took down the top sock, and opened it—sure enough, it contained a key.
Xiao Lou took the key and opened the hidden door.
This is a storage room with five beautifully wrapped gift boxes of different colors on the floor. The wrapping paper is decorated with many Christmas elements, such as snowflakes, Santa Claus, red stockings, and so on.
Clearly, this was a Christmas gift from the five people who were invited to the party on Christmas Eve to the host.
Yu Hanjiang said, "The final clue about the murderer should be right here."
With only 10 minutes left on the countdown, if the murderer isn't found soon, this timed maze will be impossible to complete. They've moved quickly, activating mechanisms and cracking codes, hardly wasting a single minute. Guardian probably wouldn't set the difficulty level to be impossible.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance and said at the same time, "Let's split up and dismantle it."
The five gift boxes were distributed to five people, and everyone quickly tore off the beautiful wrapping paper.
However, the moment the packaging was torn open, a shocking scene unfolded—
Five boxes, and there were five hanging on them.
Combination lock!
Everyone: "......"
Can we drag The Diamond-Suit Guardian out and beat him up?