Chapter 1 - Card World

In the cold winter months, the temperature plummeted and the heavy snow for several days turned the entire city of Jiangzhou into a world of silver.

School was off for winter vacation and the students had already returned home. Xiao Lou was sent by the department to attend an academic exchange. This meeting lasted until the 28th day of the 12th lunar month. Then after a day of rest, he packed his bags and flew back to his hometown to spend the new year with his grandparents.

As a child, his parents had been too busy working and Xiao Lou lived in the countryside for a while with his grandparents. He had been too young at the time and only had a vague memory of his childhood. However, he returned to his hometown every year during the Spring Festival because the New Year reunion was a tradition of the Xiao family. His father and uncle would bring their wives and children home to spend the new year together.

By the time Xiao Lou arrived home, it was the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. He entered and his female cousin Xiao Xinyue greeted him with a smile. “Brother, why are you so late? Grandmother was just saying something about you!” She came over and whispered in Xiao Lou’s ears. “She is asking why you aren’t married yet.”

Xiao Lou, “...”

Every New Year’s Day at home, he would be urged by his elders to marry.

Xiao Lou was now an ‘old, unmarried youth.’ The 27 year old was still a single dog.

He went to school early and was admitted to medical school at the age of 17. After graduating from university, he stayed on as a teacher and became an associate professor at a young age. Xiao Lou was tall, had a gentle personality and looked very handsome. It was reasonable to say that he should be very popular in the blind date market...

Unfortunately, he studied forensics.

If a person heard the word ‘forensics’, they naturally thought of corpses. Who wanted to be with a man who dissected corpses every day?

In fact, Xiao Lou wasn’t a criminal forensics investigator and there was no need for him to go to a murder scene to identify the cause of death.

After graduation, he stayed on at the medical university under the recommendation of his supervisor. He usually spent most of his time teaching students of the Forensics Department. In his spare time, he would go to the Jiangzhou Forensics Identification Centre to help. The cases sent to the identification centre were generally to identify car accident injuries, fighting injuries and occasionally genetic identification and poison identification. He hadn’t seen a corpse in a long time.

***

Xiao Lou went to the living room and politely greeted the elders. He distributed the gifts to everyone and then his grandmother asked him with a smile, “Little Lou, when are you bringing a wife home to grandmother?”

Xiao Lou placed one hand on the old lady’s shoulder and spoke warmly, “Grandmother, I am currently too busy at work. I want to wait until I am 30 to consider marriage.”

Xiao Xinyue teased him from the side, “Brother, if you studied clinical medicine and went to the hospital as a doctor then you will definitely have many girls waiting in line to chase you. Now when they hear that you are a forensics doctor, most of the girls are scared away. Hahaha.”

Xiao Lou looked at his cousin and smiled. “This is professional prejudice. A forensics doctor doesn’t dissect living people. It isn’t as perverted as horror movies. Moreover, I haven’t touched a corpse in a long time.”

Hearing the word ‘corpse’, Xiao Xinyue’s scalp became numb and she immediately turned away.

They headed to the dining room and prepared to start the meal. Xiao Lou helped his grandmother sit down and changed the topic by asking Xiao Xinyue, “Do you have any idea what school you want to apply to next year?”

His youngest cousin Xiao Xinyue was 18 years old and would face the university entrance examination next semester. The moment Xiao Lou asked this, the elders started discussing what courses would be good for a future job. Xiao Xinyue actively joined the discussion and no one mentioned Xiao Lou’s marriage, causing Xiao Lou to feel slightly relieved.

The New Year’s dinner finished and the elder started to play mahjong. Xiao Lou took his cousins to the next room to play.

Xiao Xinyue took out a brand new deck of cards. “The three of us will play Fight the Landlord (card game). How about the losers drink?”

His younger male cousin Xiao Wei rolled up his sleeves and looked eager to try. “Come, I am the best at Fight the Landlord!”

Xiao Lou wasn’t interested in playing cards but every Spring Festival, the elders would always play mahjong. It was too boring for two people to play cards so he had to accompany them as an elder brother.

Fight the Landlord was one of the most common ways to play cards. The rules were very simple. The ‘landlord’ could add a few hands to enhance combat power while the other two ‘peasants’ needed to unite. The two sides were divided into two camps and whoever lost their cards first won.

Xiao Lou’s first hand was very good and he directly got a king bomb. (TL: In the game, the two jokers are the highest rank. A king bomb is having two jokers).

Seeing the king bomb in his hand, he didn’t hesitate to say, “Calling me Landlord.”

Xiao Xinyue and Xiao Wei had to join forces to beat him.

The result was that in this game, Xiao Lou’s cards were too good. In addition to the big straight of 9, 10, J, Q and K, he had several pairs, four bombs (four cards of the same rank), and a pair of king bombs. He simply didn’t give the opponents a way to live.

The younger brother and sister looked at him with a sullen expression as he finished playing all the cards in one breath.

Xiao Lou smiled. “I won, you drink Coke.”

Xiao Xinyue and Xiao Wei had to drink Coke with a bitter expression.

Next, regardless of whether Xiao Xinyue was the landlord or Xiao Wei in the village, every time they would be beaten by their big brother. Xiao Lou’s cards tonight were so good that people couldn’t evaluate it. Several times, he touched a king bomb and the brother and sister almost vomited as they drank.

The trio played until midnight.

The deafening sound of fireworks came from outside and the brother and sister excitedly ran to the yard to set off fireworks. Xiao Lou had just put on a coat and went outside when his mobile phone lit up and a message appeared on the screen. “Happy New Year.”

Sender: Yu Hanjiang.

Seeing this familiar snowy avatar, Xiao Lou’s lips slightly curved and he quickly replied, “You too. Happy New Year.”

Yu Hanjiang asked, “When are you going back to school?”

Xiao Lou replied, “I’ll be back on the seventh day after New Year’s Day.”

Yu Hanjiang: “Thank you very much for your help last time. Once you come back, I’ll invite you to dinner.”

Xiao Lou: “Captain Yu is too polite. I’ll contact you when I’m back.”

There was the sound of ‘bangs’ from outside the window. A variety of colourful fireworks blossomed, the night sky becoming as bright as the day.

Xiao Lou stood in front of the window and stared at the conversation records in his phone. He couldn’t help recall the first time he saw Yu Hanjiang.

It was a rainy day. A girl from the medical university fell to her death. This alerted Jiangzhou’s criminal police. Xiao Lou wasn’t familiar with this girl but her last class happened to be his class. As a person related to the case, Xiao Lou was asked by the police to make a statement.

Walking into the police squad, he saw the man at first sight. The man was wearing a dark blue uniform and stood upright at the window. He was tall with long legs and a handsome face, looking like the most exquisite statue.

He seemed to sense the gaze and the man turned to look at Xiao Lou. He came over and nodded, saying, “Hello, I am the the group leader of the criminal police’s Major Crimes Unit, Yu Hanjiang. Professor Xiao, please come over here and cooperate with the investigation.”

Xiao Lou nodded politely to him. “Hello, Group Leader Yu. I will cooperate fully.”

Yu Hanjiang walked into the inquiry room with Xiao Lou and made the ‘please sit gesture’ before lightly asking, “Name, age and occupation. These are the necessary procedures for making a statement. Please answer truthfully.”

In the process of writing the statement, the man’s voice was low and powerful. His expression was extremely serious and his eyes as sharp as a sword. He gave off a strong sense of oppression when staring, causing Xiao Lou to be almost breathless.

Even if Xiao Lou didn’t have a direct relationship with this matter, he didn’t want to look this man in the eye.

These eyes were deep and cold, like an ice-covered lake in the cold winter months which made people’s backs cold.

The resolution of the case was much faster than Xiao Lou had imagined. It was determined to be murder and the police caught the murderer the next day. It was the girl’s roommate who pushed her down the stairs. This incident caused a sensation on the Internet.

At that time, Xiao Lou noticed that the Jiangzhou police’s efficiency of solving the case had greatly improved.

He inquired about Yu Hanjiang through his forensic classmates and discovered that Yu Hanjiang’s background was very mysterious. He suddenly landed as the group leader of the police’s Serious Crimes Unit at a young age. The Serious Crimes unit was a special action group set up in Jiangzhou City to investigate murder, rape and other major criminal cases. Since Yu Hanjiang took office, many unsolved cases were solved and he greatly improved their efficiency when handling cases.

This iron-faced man was selfless, cold-blooded and ruthless, causing criminals to be disheartened. It was said that just one look could make a guilty person tremble. It was said that he had tremendous skills at investigating a criminal and the stubborn suspect would plead guilty under his questioning. In just two years, the name Yu Hanjiang had become a legend among the Jiangzhou police.After hearing this, Xiao Lou admired this man and felt that Yu Hanjiang was very young and promising.

He thought there wouldn’t be too much of an overlap but within a few days, Yu Hanjiang suddenly found his office at the Forensic Identification Centre, requesting Xiao Lou to help identify an extremely rare poison. Xiao Lou specialized in forensic toxicology identification at the postgraduate level and published several high-value papers. He was well-known in the forensic field which was why Yu Hanjiang found him. The two people also exchanged WeChat and telephone numbers.

Xiao Lou assisted the police in identifying the nature of this poisoning case and this was the ‘thank you’ that Yu Hanjiang was referring to. The two of them had seen each other four times but thanks to their busy work, their friendship wasn’t deep. Therefore, Xiao Lou was very surprised when the indifferent group leader invited him to eat.

Xiao Lou, who was standing at the window and immersed in his memories, didn’t find that the playing cards on the table gained a blood red lustre at that moment. The luster gradually formed a vortex that distorted the space near the cards, as if to suck everything into the cards.

***

On the seventh day of the new year, Xiao Lou flew back to Jiangzhou after saying goodbye to his family. Thinking of the Wechat conversation on New Year’s Eve, Xiao Lou sent a simple message to Yu Hanjiang. “Hello, I am back. Do you have time for a meal together?”

There was no response.

He thought the other person might be busy and sat on the sofa of his living room, looking at the news while waiting for a reply.

It was past dinner time and Yu Hanjiang still hadn’t sent a reply.

In any case, Group Leader Yu had a special status. If he didn’t return the message then he might’ve encountered a difficult case and was investigating and collecting evidence. Xiao Lou didn’t want to disturb the other person and went to eat a bowl of noddles.

He finished eating and wanted to go to the supermarket to buy some daily necessities. As a result, he was crossing the road when he suddenly saw a bus driving around the corner and rushing quickly towards him.

Xiao Lou’s eyes widened and his heartbeat almost stopped.

He ran agilely but the speed of the bus was too fast. He had just taken a step when his body slammed into the air!

He suddenly turned in the sky and Xiao Lou completely lost consciousness.

***

Once he woke up again, there was a white mist around him. In the midst of the mist, a cold and mechanical voice clearly entered his ears. [Xiao Lou, congratulations on being selected by the Card World. You are now faced with two choices—

A: Die with peace of mind and forget everything. Your soul will be completely dead and never feel pain again.

B: Keep your memories in the Card World to be reborn and accept new challenges. However, the rules of survival in the Card World are very cruel. Rather than being alive here, perhaps it would be better to simply die.”

Xiao Lou felt some doubts.

Was this voice an illusion? It also gave him two strange options?

Since he didn’t respond, the mechanical voice said, “I will give you 10 seconds to consider before your memory is cleared. Countdown 10, 9, 8...”

Xiao Lou spoke decisively. “I choose B.”

Whether the voice was an illusion or not, he could only choose the latter of the two options.

He was only 27 years old and didn’t want his memories erased and to completely die. If he had a chance to revive, no matter how hard and danger the new world... well, at least he was alive?

There was hope in living.

Xiao Lou quickly calmed himself down and asked, “Who are you?”

The other party spoke coldly. “I am the Card World’s high intelligence elf system. You can’t see me but I can see you.”

The feeling of being monitored made Xiao Lou frown. He took a deep breath and continued to ask. “What is the Card World you keep mentioning?”

The next moment, countless cards appeared in front of him.

They were the playing cards he used when playing with his younger cousins on the night of the Spring Festival. The back contained the familiar blue diamond pattern, which was the most common one in stores. 5 of Hearts, 8 of Diamonds, 10 of Clubs, J of Spades... various playing cards became a long chain that swayed in front of him, like a film playing at four times the speed.

In the white fog, the card chains were arranged in horizontal and vertical directions. The four types of cards mixed together with no rules at all. At a speed visible to the naked eye, the cards formed a huge card wall in 10 seconds.

The system declared, “Player Xiao Lou, welcome to the Card World.”

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Hi everyone 👋

I just wanna say that

This is not my novel , am just writing it here so that more people can read it so please don't report

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Hope you enjoy

-- The Author

Chapter 2 - Rose Funeral

Xiao Lou stood in front of the card wall and was dazzled by the large umber of cards. He was surprised to find that each card had an animation in addition to the markings such as 2 of Hearts or 3 od Spades in the upper left corner.

These cards seemed to have countless condensed spaces. Each card was like a thumbnail TV screen that played different plots.

The card in front of him had the clearest animation.

Xiao Lou stared and saw that in the card world, a short girl was being chased by several ugly zombies. The girl accidentally slipped and fell to the ground, allowing the zombies to quickly surrounded her. They tore off her head and gnawed with relish. The girl’s horrified eyes seemed to stare straight through the card window at Xiao Lou.

Xiao Lou’s scalp was numb and he felt nauseous. He clenched his fists hard, his nails penetrating deeply into the palm of his hand. The intense pain told him that this wasn’t a dream. It was another space that he couldn’t understand and consisted of cards.

That girl certainly couldn’t live but having her ‘brain eaten by zombies’, this type of death was too cruel.

Was she, like himself, inexplicably pulled into the Card World? Xiao Lou closed his eyes and couldn’t bear to look again.

The system coldly asked, “Do you see the Card World?”

Xiao Lou took a deep breath and replied, “I see it.”

“You have only one chance to modify your choice. A or B, what do you choose?”

Xiao Lou didn’t hesitate. “I choose B.”

The system declared, “The option has been confirmed.”

“Congratulations on being the 86587847th Card World challenger. Before entering the new world, you can change your image and gender. You have three minutes to make the initial data adjustments.”

There was a mirror in front of him. The young man in the mirror was handsome and his eyebrows were gentle. It was just that at this moment, his face was somewhat unnaturally pale. It was difficult for anyone who suddenly encountered such a thing to calm down. Xiao Lou was already a relatively calm person since he didn’t scream when he saw the girl being eaten by the zombie.

Xiao Lou glanced at himself in the mirror and spoke calmly, “I won’t adjust my looks or gender.”

Perhaps a lot of people who died unexpectedly were sent to the Card World. There were more than 80 million challengers. If he didn’t adjust his appearance, he might meet someone he knew before. Even though he didn’t understand this Card World, the only thing he could do now was abide by the rules of the new world and increase the chances of living as much as possible.

“Challenger Xiao Lou, the initial data storage was successful.” The mirror disappeared and the mechanical voice of the system was heard. “Next, I will read out the basic rules of the new world.

“In the Card World, every card contains a different small world. You can understand it as a secret room.”

“The type of secret room is determined by the type of card. The Hearts represent solving puzzles, Diamonds represent a secret room with different mechanisms, Spades is a survival room and Clubs is a challenge room.”

“The difficulty of the secret rooms are from low to high, in turn it goes from D, C, B, A, S and SS is the highest difficulty. Only by passing the SS-grade secret room can you obtain a new life and return to the human world.”

“If you succeed, you can get rewards. If you fail, you will be sent to the nightmare room for punishment. Players who can’t survive the nightmare room will be completely wiped out of the Card World.”

“The rules will only be told once. Then please select a card.”

Four cards emerged in the air in front of Xiao Lou—Hearts 2, Diamonds 2, Spades 2, Clubs 2.

These four cards, unlike the cards on the card wall, didn’t have a dynamic plot and looked like the most basic playing card. The front was printed in colour and it was unknown what he would face after opening the card.

One card was a world. Which one should he choose?

Xiao Lou thought carefully before reaching out to draw ‘Hearts 2.’

He loved to read detective mystery novels since he was a child. Ever since he was pulled by his roommates to play a secret room game during university, he liked this thrilling, logically and rigorous escape room game. Every time he went to a city, Xiao Lou would go the secret rooms to play. He had played hundreds of secret rooms and had rich experience. However, in his world, most of the secret room games were puzzle-solving or mechanisms. He had never heard of any ‘survival’ or ‘challenge’ secret rooms.

Thinking about the video where the girl was eaten by a zombie, the Spades secret room was likely to face a crisis of survival. The Clubs challenge room was difficult to the determined based on the name and it might be worse to rush into it. Relatively speaking, the hearts puzzle-solving room sounded friendly and Xiao Lou was good at them.

To be safe, he chose hearts first.

—The card selection is over.

— 2 of Hearts Secret Room (Rose Funeral) is open.

—Challenger Xiao Lou, the data is read.

—The time limit is 30 minutes. Exceeding this time will be judged as a failure to clear it.

There was a system prompt and a red light emerged from the card 2 of Hearts. The red light quickly formed a vortex and Xiao Lou was directly sucked into the Card World.

Xiao Lou’s vision suddenly turned black. Once he regained his vision, he found himself in a narrow, empty corridor.

The light in the corridor was very dim and there was a door at the end. The surrounding walls were bare and were the most common white wall. Meanwhile, there were dust-stained beige tiles on the ground. No useful clues were found.

A transparent suspension box with the countdown of 30:00 appeared in front of him. Xiao Lou found that the countdown had started and quickly walked to the door.

He pushed open the door and quickly looked through the house.

This was a three bedroom, three common room residence with an area of approximately 120 square metres.

The furniture was a warm colour and looked very warm. There was a soft fabric sofa in the living room, a thick carpet under the coffee table and a large LCD TV on the opposite side. The dining room was clean and neat, with a bunch of roses on the table.

The three rooms next to it were open. One was the master bedroom, one was a child’s room with cartoon wallpapers and the other was a study.

The entire house was to the north and south and the square shape was the most common layout for a family of three.

The moment he entered the house, Xiao Lou smelt a strange scent that seemed to mix with the aroma of roses.

He followed the scent to the master bedroom.

There was a double bed in the middle of the bedroom. At this time, the bed was covered with bright red rose petals. A woman wearing white silk pyjamas had fallen asleep on the rose petals. Her hands were gently placed on her abdomen and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

However, her chest had been opened up and there was a large pool of blood.

The woman’s pyjamas were stained with blood around the chest area and the delicate face covered with makeup clearly showed signs of death. His lips were blue and her skin as pale as paper. The strong smell in the air was coming from this woman’s body.

The 2 of Hearts secret room was actually a murder scene!

Xiao Lou almost gagged at the strong smell. He squeezed his nose hard and his eyes started to look around carefully.

As a player with many years of experience in escape games, he had played many puzzle-solving rooms and saw many horrible scenes. His forensic expertise almost made him immune to corpses so when he saw the female body on the bed, he didn’t panic and made himself calm down quickly.

The card of hearts represented a ‘puzzle room.’

Since this room was a murder scene, the puzzle to be solved was naturally the cause of death of the deceased.

Xiao Lou endured the smell of the corpse and stepped forward to start a comprehensive inspection of the dead.

The deceased, a young woman in her 30s, died in her pyjamas at home.

There was a large blood stain on her chest. The fatal wound came from the stab to the heart. The weapon should be a sharp knife that directly pierced the aorta of the heart. The technique was clean and neat. In addition, she had no other injuries on her body and no traces of being abused.

This was the master bedroom with a separate bathroom.

Xiao Lou started to look for clues and started with the bathroom first.

There were many long hairs on the floor of the bathroom. They were brown and curly, just like the deceased. It shouldn’t be left in the bath from before she died and there wasn’t time to clean it up. There were also some clothes she had changed out of in the bathroom and there were some dark red marks on the clothing.

Xiao Lou picked them up and examined it. It looked a bit like blood but it actually wasn’t. It was obviously different from the blood on her pyjamas.

[Countdown 28:10]

[D-grade secret room special tip: clue collection 5%.]

The moment he picked up the clothes, the line in front of the suspension box suddenly changed. The clue collection degree, this prompt was very important. For newcomers to the Card World, they could at least be sure that what they found was related to the case.

It seemed that these clothes were indeed related to the case. Xiao Lou carefully looked through the pockets of the clothing and found nothing else. However, the dark red traces on the clothing seemed to remind him of something.

He put down the clothes and continued to look for other clues.

The bathtub and the toilet were very clean. The toiletries placed on the sink weren’t abnormal. In the trash can, there was some toilet paper and it looked dirty. Xiao Lou didn’t hesitate to reverse the trash can and dump out all the garbage inside.

He found some shredded paper.

Xiao Lou quickly went through the dirty toilet paper and found all the shredded pieces of paper. He put them together and it was actually a photo, a photo of a marriage certificate.

[Countdown 27:45, clues collection 15%.]

Xiao Lou remembered the two clues and walked out of the bathroom. He started to rummage through the bedroom.

The secret rooms he used to play generally had a time limit of more than one hour. The difficulty meant it was usually three to five hours. Some large secret rooms even took seven or eight hours to escape.

Half an hour to solve a puzzle was too short.

Fortunately, this secret room wasn’t too difficult. After all, it was a D-grade secret room and there was the clues collection tip.

Xiao Lou flipped through the closet and quickly analyzed it in his mind.

The photo of the marriage certificate was torn and thrown into the toilet’s trash bin, indicating that the woman’s marriage was broken. Her residence still had male clothes and shoes, indicating that the two people hadn’t reached the divorce step. Her death was likely to be related to her husband and the next search focus should be on her husband’s things.

Xiao Lou rummaged through all the clothes pockets of the male master in the closet at a very fast speed. He only found a wallet with no cash and bank card. However, there was a photo of a couple, which was the couple on the marriage certificate.

In the photo, the woman was dressed in a white wedding dress and she was happily nestled in the man’s arms. The handsome man and beautiful woman were a good match.

[Countdown 24:06, clues collection 25%.]

Searching the wardrobe took a lot of time. Xiao Lou calmed down to think before turning to the dresser and bedside table.

He saw an exquisite perfume bottle on the dressing table and opened it. It had the scent of roses.

The drawer of the dresser contained a card that read: Dear, this bottle of rose perfume is for you. I wish you a happy birthday and an always beautiful youth— Your best friend, Liu Wei/ July 17th. The word ‘friend’ on the greeting card was drawn over with a big red cross.

Birthday, rose perfume, cross-out card and the new character Liu Wei. All these clues were crucial. In the suspension box in front of Xiao Lou, the clues collection degree jumped directly from 25% to 50%!

[Countdown 22:00, clues collection 50%.]

[You have collected half the clues and suspicious people have appeared. Do you want to identify the murderer? Yes/No]

[Tip: The shorter the time of the instance clearance and the more clues that are collected, the higher the reward will be.]

Xiao Lou thought about it and chose ‘No.’

He still had 22 minutes left and not all the clues had been found. It was very likely he could make a mistake with the identification of the killer.

At present, several clues had been found that pointed to the murderer being either the husband or the girlfriend. The husband cheated with the friend and was discovered by his wife. The heroine ripped up her marriage certificate in anger and drew a big red cross over the greeting card sent by her friend. Perhaps there was a dispute on her birthday and the heroine was killed by her husband or girlfriend.

If it was such a story then most of the clues could be reasonably explained.

But...

Was it really that simple?

Xiao Lou glanced at the gorgeous rose bed and quickly turned to go outside the room.

This absolutely wasn’t the first crime scene.

Chapter 3 - Rose Funeral (2)

Xiao Lou’s major was forensics and he was best at toxicological identification. However, he liked detective reasoning novels from a young age and loved to play escape room games, making him very familiar with the basic reasoning process.

When the police were dealing with a murder case, it would greatly help the detection if they found the first crime scene.

Xiao Lou judged this wasn’t the first crime scene for a very simple reason.

The heart was the blood supply centre of the human body and was like a powerful pump. The regular beats every minute could send blood to all parts of the body. The deceased’s fatal wound was in the heart and the position of the knife was close to the aorta. If the deceased was killed in bed, the aorta would be cut and blood would splash out on the pillow, sheets and even walls.

The surroundings were very clean and there were no traces of blood splatter.

Her blood only soaked the clothes on her chest. Judging from the amount of bleeding, it was around 100cc. This wasn’t even half a normal person’s blood donation. She was obviously killed elsewhere and only once the blood drained out was she carried to the bed in the bedroom.

Killing, bleeding and then putting the dead on a bed covered with rose petals, this murderer was clearly a psychopath!

Xiao Lou turned to the kitchen to search for other evidence and also to prove his reasoning.

The deceased’s clothes in the bathroom had something like blood stains on them but from his professional point of view, they were more like juice stains. The first thing he thought about related to juice was the kitchen.

Xiao Lou went to the kitchen and indeed saw a watermelon on the table. The watermelon was cut in half. Half should’ve been eaten while the remaining half was now rotten and smelly. The stains on the heroine’s clothes were from the watermelon juice.

There was a fruit knife inserted in the watermelon and Xiao Lou gently pulled it out.

The sharp and slender fruit knife was exactly the same as the fatal wound on the woman’s body when he examined it.

This fruit knife was the murder weapon that killed the woman!

Xiao Lou’s heart beat violently.

He started to search the kitchen carefully. If he wasn’t mistaken, this was the first crime scene!

The kitchen should’ve been cleaned without any visible blood.

He crouched down in the corner to check the floor drain and found some hair on the edge of the floor drain. They were short black hairs around 3cm long, obviously belonging to a man. On the water behind the pipe, there were still a few drops of blood that hadn’t been cleaned.

The discovery of the first crime scene and the murder weapon made the clues collection reach 70% in an instant.

Xiao Lou routinely turned over the trash can. There were many vegetable leaves, fruit peels, egg shells and frozen meat bags in the kitchen’s trash can. It could be inferred that the heroine was making a meal at home before she died. In addition, it was for more than two people. The vegetables and meat were at least five dishes. She couldn’t eat so much.

Other than that, nothing was found in the refrigerator and the cabinets.

Xiao Lou turned and went out. There was a large bouquet of roses on the dining table facing the kitchen. The glass vase containing roses was very delicate and the water inside was still clear. The roses were very good but some of the petals had been removed. It was probably the origin of the rose petals in the bedroom.

Xiao Lou turned over the trash can of the dining room. The dumped garbage contained some peels and a card. It was the type of heart-shaped card commonly used in flower stores and the strong words read: Happy birthday, your husband will always love you.

The clues collection became 75%. The roses and card were clearly useful in the case’s reasoning.

Xiao Lou walked into the study opposite the dining table.

A bookcase occupied a wall and contained many medical books on them. Several specialized in cardiac surgery.

Next to the bookcase was a very common desk with a desk lamp. There were three drawers on the right side of the table and a small cabinet with doors on the left. Xiao Lou opened a drawer and found a passport and medical practitioner qualification certificate in the first drawer. It belonged to the male of this family. Xiao Lou finally found out the information of the husband&#k2014; Zhao Sen, born on October 26th, 1988, a Han person and a surgeon.

The other drawers contained lists of property fees, bank documents and medical papers which didn’t help the case.

Xiao Lou closed the drawers and opened the cabinet door in the lower left corner.

A black safe was found in the cabinet with a password lock. It was a four row digital numerical lock. From top to bottom, it was 123, 456, 789, *0#. He had seen many similar safes. After pressing the correct numerical password, the # key needed to be pressed again to unlock.

A numerical password...

The numbers involved in this case were only the birthdays of the husband and wife.

The female friend gave perfume to the heroine and said happy birthday. The husband also gave her roses and told her happy birthday on the card. Multiple clues mentioned the ‘birthday’ and this date definitely wasn’t simple.

The man’s birthday could be found on the doctor’s qualification certificate, October 26th, 1988. As for the woman’s birthday, Xiao Lou clearly remembered the date that the female friend’s greeting card wrote on the greeting card, July 17th.

The password of the safe was four digits. He entered 1026 and the password was incorrect. Xiao Lou followed by entering the woman’s birthday 0717 and pressed the # key.

A clear sound broke the quiet of the murder scene and the safe really opened.

The degree of clues collection suddenly reached 90%!

At this point, there were 18 minutes left on the countdown.

The inside of the safe had a structure of a upper and lower floor. A folder was placed on the upper floor. Xiao Lou took it out and quickly read it, extracting key information.

There were two insurance contracts. The first insured person was Zou Xiaomei and the beneficiary was Zhao Sen. The relationship between the two was husband and wife. The second was the opposite. The insured person was Zhao Sen and the beneficiary was Zou Xiaomei.

The couple bought commercial insurance for each other, including medical insurance and personal accident insurance. The annual payment amount was more than 10,000 yuan. If the insured person was hospitalized due to a serious disease such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, the hospitalization expenses within 500,000 yuan would be fully reimbursed. If the insured person was killed accidentally, the beneficiary would directly obtain compensation of up to 2 million yuan from the insurance company.

Xiao Lou saw this insurance contract and was frightened.

He also bought commercial medical insurance for his parents and it was normal for relatives to buy insurance for each other. However, it wasn’t uncommon for murder to occur out of a desire to swindle insurance. He once saw the news about a son killing his mother just for the insurance money.

In this case, the relationship between husband and wife had broken down. Once Zou Xiaomei died, Zhao Sen would get up to 2 million yuan in compensation!

Xiao Lou’s back was cold as he put down the insurance contract and continued to examine the lower level of the safe.

There were several albums on the lower level.

The albums contained many photos of Zhao Sen. From elementary school to junior high, high school and university, he recorded his complete growth trajectory. He should have congenital myopia since he was wearing glasses from a very young age. From the photo albums, Zhao Sen seemed like a very gentle person—because he was smiling in every photo.

In addition to the personal photo albums, there were several wedding photo albums. The husband and wife seemed very loving when they just got married. The man was holding his wife and the woman was leaning into his arms and smiling.

Turn back again...

Xiao Lou saw a photo from the wedding scene.

It was a group photo of four people. In addition the groom and the bride, there were the best man and the bridesmaid.

This photo was obviously taken from the side and none of the four people were looking at the camera. In the photo, the groom and bride were smiling at each other while the bridesmaid was looking at the best man in deep affection. Not far away, the best man stood in the crowd and raised the goblet to make a toast, but his eyes were staring straight at the bride.

Xiao Lou immediately raised his spirits. The fourth person related to the case had appeared!

The best man appeared in Zhao Sen’s personal photo album. In Zhao Sen’s graduation photos, they were posing shoulder to shoulder and should be good friends. Therefore, Zhao Sen invited him to be the best man.

It was reasonable to say that you shouldn’t covet your friend’s wife and men generally avoided a good friend’s wife. Yet this best man was staring like she was prey. It obviously wasn’t an attitude he should have towards his friend’s wife.

Xiao Lou continued to rummage through the safe and found a bag in a hidden location on the lowest lower.

He opened it to take a look and the bag contained a contract that was a secret investigation agreement between Zhao Sen and a private detective. The investigation was about the relationship between his cousin He Yongqiang, this wife Zou Xiaomei and his wife’s friend, Liu Wei. Once Xiao Lou pulled out the contract, a large stack of photos also fell out.

He picked up the photos. All of them were photos of eating together or shopping together. In some photos, Liu Wei and He Yongqiang were holding hands and behaving intimately. In other photos, it was Zou Xiaomei and He Yongqiang holding hands and embracing. He Yongqiang was obviously a scum walking on two boats. He was in a relationship with the young and beautiful Liu Wei while also hooking up with Zou Xiaomei!

The last few photos were very extraordinary. Zou Xiaomei was wearing light silk pyjamas and acting intimately with He Yongqiang in the bedroom...

These photos at home were taken from a bird’s eye view and there was a time stamp in the upper right corner. It was obvious that Zhao Sen had installed a surveillance camera at home to monitor his wife’s movements at any time. These photos were screenshots from the surveillance.

Xiao Lou, “...”

What a dog blood drama!

It wasn’t the husband Zhao Sen who cheated, it was the wife Zou Xiaomei who died in bed!

If he didn’t open the safe in the study that it was likely he would misjudge that the man had cheated and the woman tore up her marriage certificate angrily. No, it was the woman who cheated and the person she cheated with was her husband’s cousin and her friend’s boyfriend.

This reversal came quickly.

The shocked Xiao Lou put down the photos and quickly adjusted his mood. He glanced at the prompt in the suspension box. The clue collection was fixed at 90% and the safe was a big clue that accounted for 15%. Based on the clues of the safe, he knew the names of all the people involved in the case. The deceased Zou Xiaomei, the husband Zhao Sen, the lover He Yongqiang and the female friend Liu Wei.

These four people had a complicated relationship. He Yongqiang was Zhao Sen’s cousin and Liu Wei’s boyfriend. Zou Xiaomei and He Yongqiang cheated, which was equivalent to wearing two green hats for her husband Zhao Sen and friend Liu Wei.

As victims, both Zhao Sen and Liu Wei had reasons to kill her. However, more confirmation was needed to determine the exact killer.

The clues collection was only 90%. The last key clue hadn’t been found.

Xiao Lou turned to the living look and carefully looked through it without discovering anything.

He went to the last child’s room to search and found a mobile phone and charging station next to the pillow in the child’s room. The mobile phone had a pink outer casing and should belong to the deceased Zou Xiaomei.

Such a key clue was actually in the further child’s room that most people wouldn’t search in first.

Xiao Lou’s eyes lit up and he immediately picked up the phone.

He pressed the power button and a line popped up on the screen stating ‘Please enter a password.’ Then a numeric keypad appeared.

Xiao Lou subconsciously entered the woman’s birthday ‘0717’ but a warning popped up. ‘Password verification error. The phone will automatically lock after five errors. The remaining number of attempts: 4.’

He followed by inputting the husband’s birthday 1026. Once again, the prompt appeared. ‘‘Password verification error. The phone will automatically lock after five errors. The remaining number of attempts: 3’

The birthdays weren’t the password? Then what was it?

The countdown in the suspension box was at 15 minutes.

Xiao Lou frowned and fell into thought.

The bedroom, bathroom, study, kid’s room, kitchen and dining room. He had searched all of them. The woman’s birthday was July 17 and the man’s birthday was October 26. Apart from that, there were no other numbers related to the case.

In reality, the mobile phone password of the deceased could be set freely. If the police couldn’t crack it then it would be solved by professional technicians. However, now he was alone in the secret room and found a phone but couldn’t resolve the password. Did he just guess?

Xiao Lou picked up the phone, thought about it and turned back to the bedroom.

If the ‘please enter the password’ prompt popped up on the phone lock screen, most people might be too caught up in the password and waste time looking around for password clues.

However, Xiao Lou had searched through all the rooms at the fastest speed. He was confident that he didn’t miss a single place.

Since the phone’s password wasn’t a birthday and there were no other numbers related clues throughout the house, the prompt to enter the password might be a ‘disturbance.’

Who said that a phone could only be unlocked with a password?

Xiao Lou took the phone back to the master bedroom, walked to the bed of roses, raised the deceased’s right hand and placed her right thumb on the phone’s fingerprint button.

The pink phone and charger left at home naturally belonged to the woman.

The woman was lying in bed. She might be a corpse but her fingers were still there.

Wasn’t it more convenient to unlock with her fingerprints?