Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 454 - 405: Secret Room

"How exactly did the murderer do it?" Su Xinghuo asked urgently, then suddenly realized there was an even more important question. "Who is the murderer?"

A faint, knowing smile touched Li Ang’s lips. The answer had already surfaced in his mind. He calmly beckoned a ship attendant and instructed him to fetch something.

Then, Li Ang waved his hand and said, "To answer this question, we first need to clarify one thing: this puddle of water next to the bed."

He crouched beside the water stain. "After the ice knife theory was proven unfeasible, this puddle of water became even more suspicious. Who caused this water stain? And why leave it here?"

"The murderer... to cover up traces?" Singer Shi Yajing asked uncertainly.

"Exactly." Li Ang clapped his hands. "The Heir Prince was confined to the bed by restraints. The water jug and glass were on a table some distance away, so he clearly didn’t spill it himself while trying to drink. It must have been the murderer, trying to cover up traces. So, what kind of traces was he trying to hide?

"If the murderer had left fingerprints, he could have simply wiped them off with a cloth, rendering any iodine crystal fingerprint detection ineffective.

If the murderer had left hair at the scene, he should have picked it up and taken it away.

If the murderer was injured and bleeding at the scene, fearing someone might use his blood for a blood type test to discover his identity, then he should have bandaged his wound and wiped his own blood off the floor with a cloth.

Yet, what remained was a puddle of water. The residual blood in it didn’t come from the murderer’s wound, but from the victim, Heir Prince Xia Yuanjia."

"Are you saying the murderer washed the murder weapon, leaving behind the water stains?" Guard Sikong Qiu asked with narrowed eyes. "But, why? If the murderer could come and go without a trace, freely entering and leaving the locked room, why couldn’t he have taken the murder weapon out of the room to clean it elsewhere? Or simply thrown it where it couldn’t be found?"

"It’s simple: he couldn’t," Li Ang smiled and explained. "Last night was the island’s bonfire festival. Despite the strong winds and waves, many natives and tourists sat in chairs inside their houses, watching the SS Sea Charm by the light of the fire, drinking and chatting.

With the ship’s talisman lamps brightly lit, throwing a weapon into the sea would have created a splash and likely attracted attention.

Moreover, the SS Sea Charm was docked very close to the shore. Even if the murderer had thrown the weapon into the sea, it could easily be found.

Therefore, washing the bloodstains off the weapon right in the room was almost the optimal solution. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

If I’m not mistaken, the murderer originally hoped that the blood gushing from the wound on the Heir Prince’s neck would soak the entire bed and drip down its sides, turning the puddle of water into a pool of blood, thereby eliminating this flaw.

Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t anticipated that the Heir Prince’s luxurious bedsheets and duvet cover were so absorbent they soaked up nearly all the blood. This meant the puddle consisted far more of water than the few streaks of blood it contained.

And this act also indicates one thing—the murderer is not as omnipotent as we had imagined."

Li Ang’s gaze swept across the faces of Feilian, Su Xinghuo, and the others as he stated, "He couldn’t enter or exit the room at will, nor could he vanish into thin air. He had to wait for the specific time when everyone from the SS Sea Charm went ashore to execute his plan.

To be precise, he never actually entered the room."

Everyone exclaimed incredulously, "Never actually entered the room?"

"How could anyone have killed Yuan Jia without entering the room?"

Su Xinghuo then said gravely, "The Alarm Talisman in the room was intact, no fluctuations of Spiritual Power were detected, and the doors and windows weren’t tampered with. There were no hallucinogenic substances in the drinks either. It’s not possible that Yuan Jia was persuaded by the murderer to commit suicide, right?"

Li Ang smiled slightly, extending his finger and pointing upwards. "Ladies and gentlemen, please look. The only unsealed place in this entire locked room is on the ceiling above our heads. Specifically, the holes for the eight bolts that fix the bed in room number three upstairs to the wooden planks of this ceiling."

"Bolts... holes?"

The captain paused, then suddenly realized. "That’s not right. I checked those eight bolts. Their nuts were tightly fastened, flush with the ceiling. From the room upstairs, one couldn’t tighten or loosen the nuts through the wooden floorboards..."

"No, it is possible."

Before Li Ang could finish, the attendant returned with a peculiar expression, holding two items: a set of bolts identical to those used in the VIP rooms, and a pile of mussels in an iron basin.

These mussels, a delicacy the island’s native inhabitants used to welcome visitors, vibrated continuously in the iron basin, causing it to clang.

"My apologies for the trouble," Li Ang said to the attendant. He then took the bolts from him, showing them to the others. "Please look, everyone. This bolt’s nut and shaft are tightly secured together, virtually indestructible. Yet, without touching the nut, it’s possible to unscrew the bolt using these mussels."

As Li Ang spoke, he took the liveliest mussel from the basin and pressed its shell against the top of the bolt’s shaft.

Sensing it was out of the water, the mussel trembled even more vigorously. This caused the bolt to oscillate at a high frequency. Unbelievably, the nut began to loosen, spinning its way toward the end of the shaft.

Under everyone’s incredulous gazes, CLICK. The hexagonal nut fell from the end of the shaft and hit the floor.

"The high-frequency vibration from the mussel, transferred to the bolt, caused both the nut and the shaft to vibrate synchronously," Li Ang said. "This reduced the friction securing them together, ultimately allowing the nut to detach from the shaft. Once the nut falls off, the shaft can be removed. This creates an opening between the room upstairs and the room downstairs. This is the first part of the locked room mystery."

If I had an electric toothbrush, I wouldn’t even need these Alien Species Mussels. Just pressing it against the bolt’s surface would make it vibrate apart.

Talisman Master Dai Xu’s face changed drastically. He blurted out, "Wait a minute! Are you saying Chen Qiwei, the one living in room number three upstairs, is the murderer?"

Chen Qiwei was his colleague on the ship; they had known each other for several years. Besides, Chen Qiwei bore no grudges against Xia Yuanjia. Why would he commit such a murder?

Before Li Ang could respond, Feilian squinted and asked, "That doesn’t seem right. Even if doing so loosened the bolts and created an opening between the two rooms, when we entered the room earlier today, all eight bolts were properly fixed in the ceiling, and none were missing their nuts. Could the murderer upstairs have unscrewed the nuts through the wooden floorboards and then somehow screwed them back on again from above?"