In the fitting room, Xiao Lou quickly solved the combination lock on the drawer.
The jewelry section is arranged in a pattern: necklaces are arranged from shortest to longest, and earrings are arranged from the smallest studs to the longest wires. Therefore, the arrangement of jewelry codes should also follow the pattern of "from shortest to longest".
Of the three pieces of jewelry, earrings are the shortest (8 pairs, 16 pieces), bracelets are the next shortest (7 pieces), and necklaces are the longest (5 pieces). Therefore, the order of the code should be the number of earrings - the number of bracelets - the number of necklaces, which is 1675.
The drawer has a four-digit combination lock.
Xiao Lou dialed the numbers to 1675, and sure enough, he heard a crisp "click" sound, indicating that the combination lock had been successfully opened.
He opened the drawer and saw a 30cm long jewelry box inside. The red velvet on the surface was slightly worn and looked quite old. It was tied with a red ribbon and a pretty bow.
Upon opening the box, a necklace lay inside, though the chain had turned somewhat yellow.
There was another compartment underneath, with a note inside that read: "To my dearest love, may you always be as youthful and beautiful as you were at 18. I will always love you as I always have."
Xiao Lou handed the necklace to Qu Wanyue and asked, " Teacher Qu, can you tell what it's made of?"
Qu Wanyue said, "Platinum has a much better luster and is not easy to rust. Silver chains are prone to yellowing and oxidation over time. This necklace looks more like a silver chain. Although the pendant in the middle is jade, it is not transparent at all and the color is average. It should be a cheap item that can be bought for a few hundred yuan in a shopping mall."
She turned to look at the jewelry displayed on the table.
The five necklaces on the left gleamed under the lights. The first, a sapphire necklace, was clearly very valuable and would be perfect for pairing with various formal wear. The other two were diamond necklaces, with enormous, dazzling diamonds that would easily cost hundreds of thousands of RMB. The two jade pendants were also crystal clear, one of which was likely a high-quality jadeite.
Compared to these luxurious pieces of jewelry, the silver necklace locked in the drawer looked particularly shabby.
Due to its age, the silver chain has oxidized and turned yellow, and the heart-shaped jade pendant looks like it's covered in a layer of dust.
Xiao Lou frowned slightly: "This chain must have a special meaning for the female lead. She's so rich, she has so many priceless pieces of jewelry that she can't wear them all, so why would she lock up a cheap silver chain in a drawer?"
Long Sen said, "Judging from this note, could it be a gift from someone for her 18th birthday? It has special meaning, so it's been kept until now? 18-year-old students don't have much income, so they naturally can't afford expensive diamond jewelry. It's quite common for students to give silver chains as gifts."
Xiao Lou nodded: "Yes, this necklace was probably not a gift from her husband. At 18, she's probably at the age of first love."
Qu Wanyue agreed, saying, "This must have been a gift from her first love, the lover, who was very important to her. She didn't dare let her husband find out, so she secretly locked it in the bottom drawer."
Most men wouldn't bother rummaging through their wife's jewelry cabinet in her walk-in closet, so the woman secretly locked the necklace in the bottom drawer, making it difficult for the man, Wells, to find it.
If the necklace was a gift from the male homeowner, she wouldn't need to hide it.
Based on the clues provided in " Marriage Damour " and " The Lover," Xiao Lou felt that his deduction was close to the truth: "The female protagonist is now happily married with a fulfilling family life, but she still has an unforgettable first love in her heart. Just like in the novel " The Lover," although the male and female protagonists married different people due to family reasons, they always loved each other."
Old Mo said with a headache, "She marries one man but thinks about another. Isn't that unfair to her husband?"
Xiao Lou said, "There are indeed many such examples in reality. People who love each other can't be together, and in the end they can only find a suitable person to marry through blind dates or introductions. Many couples are not necessarily each other's true love. I've also heard that many people have an unforgettable white moonlight in their hearts, and they will keep the things that the other person gave them, even if the things are not expensive, they are the most unique in their hearts."
The three of them looked at Xiao Lou in unison: " Professor Xiao seems to know a lot about this?"
Xiao Lou touched his nose and explained, "I'm just doing theoretical analysis; I've never been in a relationship."
Qu Wanyue joked, "After listening to your analysis, I thought you also had an unforgettable white moonlight."
Yu Hanjiang could hear Xiao Lou and his teammates' conversation through the Telepathic Connection channel. Upon hearing this, he couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Really?"
Xiao Lou was taken aback: "What?"
Yu Hanjiang's expression was serious: "White Moonlight."
Xiao Lou immediately explained, "It's all theoretical analysis. I've never been in a relationship, and there's no one I can't forget."
Yu Hanjiang breathed a sigh of relief: "Oh, that's good."
Before Xiao Lou could even ask a question, he quickly changed the subject, saying, "Your guess is quite reasonable. The lady of the house must have had an unforgettable first love, and her eventual marriage to Wells was probably due to circumstances. And her true love, too, could never forget her; unable to have her, he simply took drastic measures."
Xiao Lou asked with concern, "Have you cracked the code over there? Any new clues?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "I untied it and found a sketchbook. I'll show it to you later."
The password to the children's room was devised by Ye Qi.
of.
The key clue is the sentence on the wall: "Trees live much longer than humans. How wonderful it would be to become a tree, where you can eat your fill just by basking in the sun every day."
There is a logical order in this sentence: trees have a longer lifespan than humans, so those with longer lifespans are listed first.
The toys in the room have been organized and categorized, and their exact numbers have been determined. The only thing that is uncertain is their order. The only thing in the entire room that is related to the order is this sentence on the wall.
Lifespan is the key factor in the ranking.
There are five types of plush toys: 5 Mickey Mouse toys, 6 teddy bear toys, 3 turtle toys, 7 Snow White toys, and 8 plush rabbit toys.
Tortoises have the longest lifespan, with some living up to 200 years; humans are next, averaging 70-80 years; bears typically live 20-30 years; rabbits live about 10 years; and mice have the shortest lifespan, living only 2-3 years at most.
Following the rule that the longest-lived toys come first, the order of toys is: turtle, Snow White (human), bear, plush rabbit, and Mickey Mouse.
This also aligns with the rule in the tortoise and hare fable where the tortoise is in front of the hare.
The password is: 37685.
Ye Qi's logic chain was very complete. Yu Hanjiang entered the password he deduced into the lock on the cabinet, and sure enough, the cabinet door was opened.
A Little Girl sketchbook was found in the cabinet.
Yu Hanjiang picked it up and saw that the colorful graffiti on it was very creative. Lucia has a talent for drawing and recorded the details of the family's life in the form of "graffiti".
Yu Hanjiang quickly flipped through the album, realizing that she must have been working on it before she moved into the villa.
The first page is a drawing of her and her father having a picnic, the second page is of her father taking her to an amusement park, her father taking her to the movies, her father celebrating her birthday... Her mother appears very rarely in the drawings, which may be related to her mother's frequent overseas performances.
Lucia also wrote on one of the pages: "Mom loves the piano more than she loves me."
The last page shows her moving to her new home with her parents. In front of the five-story villa, a man and a woman are holding her hands. Next to them is a truck from a freight company, and two other people, a man and a woman, who are probably there to help.
This picture book connects the timeline with Lucia's diary entries.
The diary records events after moving into the new house, while the picture album records events before the move.
It seems that besides her parents and Lucia, two other people were present on the day of the move. According to the diary, the nanny and driver were hired a few days after moving to the new house, so the people in the picture couldn't possibly be the family's servants; they were more likely friends of her parents.
Yu Hanjiang pointed to the drawing and said, "These two people are key. They came to the villa on the day they moved in, so they could familiarize themselves with the layout of the villa beforehand. This murder was clearly premeditated. It would be very difficult for someone who had never been to the villa before to kill someone in such a large villa and get away unscathed."
Without familiarity with the environment, it would be impossible to accurately reach Little Girl's bedroom and poison Lucia.
Of the five people invited to the Christmas Eve party, there must be two of them, the ones Lucia drew in her doodles. She had met this uncle and aunt a long time ago, so she wouldn't be too suspicious if either of them entered Lucia's room and switched her medication.
Yu Hanjiang put away the drawing and asked Xiao Lou, "The wardrobe password has been cracked, but the room door is still closed. How are we going to get out?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the back panel of the wardrobe suddenly opened to both sides, revealing a passage.
Meanwhile, in Xiao Lou's walk-in closet, a passageway was opened at the back of the wardrobe.
The group walked forward along the passage, and after turning a corner, they were surprised to see their familiar teammates.
Ye Qi exclaimed in surprise, "It seems that the exits from the two secret rooms are the same? Dividing us into groups will really save a lot of time."
Old Mo rubbed his temples, looking troubled. "This villa is full of random mechanisms—pianos, bookshelves, wardrobes—it must have been used by Diamond A to create a maze of traps."
Xiao Lou asked, "Old Mo, can you distinguish between space and direction?"
Since entering the maze, Mo Xuemin had been drawing on paper. Upon hearing this, he took out one of his drawings and explained, "The dream room and Little Girl's bedroom that we entered at the beginning should be on the second floor; the music room and study that followed are also on the second floor. After leaving the study, we went up a flight of stairs, and Little Girl's playroom and the lady of the house's dressing room are on the third floor."
Now, the staircase is going downwards again. Old Mo looked at the spiral staircase in front of him and said, "Judging from the length of the staircase, the place we are going to this time is most likely the lobby on the first floor."
Xiao Lou immediately became alert.
Typically, parties in a villa are held on the first floor, where there is a living room, dining room, and kitchen, making it convenient for everyone to eat and chat.
It is very likely that there will be a major discovery on the first floor, which is also the most difficult part of the locked room.
After walking down the spiral staircase for a while, the group saw a glass door.
Xiao Lou gently pushed open the door, and sure enough, everyone walked into the luxuriously decorated living room.
In the middle of the living room, a Christmas tree, two meters tall and adorned with colorful lights, stood impressively, covered with Santa's stockings. The walls were decorated with balloons spelling out "Merry Christmas"—the hosts had clearly put a lot of thought into inviting their friends to the Christmas Eve party.
The living room was a mess; cushions on the sofa were thrown on the floor, and the table was piled with various snack bags.
The long tables in the restaurant were scattered haphazardly.
Seven wine glasses were placed on the ground, with empty wine bottles scattered around. There was also a lot of uneaten fruit and pastries, carelessly tossed onto a plate.
This scene looks like the mess left after a party that hasn't been cleaned up yet.
Most strikingly, amidst this mess, a tall man lay motionless on the sofa.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance, strode forward, and turned his head to take a look.
—It was indeed the male owner, Wells; he was already dead.