The Secret Chamber of the Card Game

Qu Wanyue has never watched horror movies since she was a child, and her parents are both scientific researchers, and they have never told her ghost stories. Now, seeing the spirit tablets in the room with her own eyes, she remembered the bride who got married from this yard last night. , the hairs all over her body are about to stand on her head—she has lived so long to see ghosts!

Long Sen is not afraid of ghosts, but this time the secret room alternates between the day and night worlds, and he has been completely confused until now.

As a sports school coach with "well-developed limbs and a simple mind", Long Sen knew that his IQ was at the bottom of the team, so he simply gave up thinking, looked at Xiao Lou, and asked earnestly, "Professor Xiao, the room is full of spiritual seats. The bride you saw should be a ghost bride, right? Does it mean that there is something wrong with the cause of death of this family, and what we want to investigate is their cause of death?"

Xiao Lou is still not sure about the theme of this secret room, but Long Sen's statement is the most likely. He stood by the tree and thought for a while, then said: "The death of this family is definitely not easy. You stay outside, and I will go in with Han Jiang have a look."

Long Sen and Qu Wanyue nodded, and stood guard under the tree near the yard, pretending to chat, but actually keeping watch.

Yu Hanjiang took advantage of the fact that there was no one around, directly opened the qinggong card, and flew Xiao Lou from the treetops into the courtyard with Xiao Lou.

This yard has been deserted, and no one has cleaned it for a long time. The weeds in the garden are almost knee-high. Last night's storm caused the old tree in the yard to break off a few branches, and the broken branches and leaves are piled all over the ground. a mess.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang avoided the branches, stepped lightly, and walked forward one after the other.

This is a typical big family, with several small yards connected by arched corridors. There is a pond in the middle of the yard. Although the water in the pond has dried up because it has not been taken care of for a long time, the surrounding The stone steps and pavilions are all exquisitely built, and the Feng Shui layout is also very particular.When nothing happened, the family must have lived well.

The two walked around the pond and entered the hall.

Unlike the mess in the yard, the hall is very clean.There were no traces of fighting in the house, and the tables and chairs were neatly arranged.As Qu Wanyue said, there is an altar in the middle of the hall with a large number of spiritual tablets placed on it.

Xiao Lou counted them carefully, and laid out three rows from top to bottom, a total of 16 spiritual places. On each spiritual place, their names were written with a red pen.

The family's surname is Zhao, and the one in the top row is called "Zhao Chengrui". Xiao Lou said softly, "In the mourning hall, the elders' spirit seats are usually placed at the top. This Zhao Chengrui may be the grandfather of the Zhao family?"

Yu Hanjiang said "hmm", walked to the spiritual table, glanced at all the names, and said, "Those whose surname is not Zhao, should be women who married into the Zhao family. The first row is grandparents, the second row is parents, and the second row is parents." The third row is the younger generation. But there are four spiritual seats in the third row, which one is the ghost bride who got married last night?"

The four names in the third row are Zhao Zeping, Zhao Ze'an, Zhao Zeshun, Zhao Zesui...

Xiao Lou stroked his chin, looked carefully at the three rows of spirit seats, and said, "The names of this generation of the Zhao family, the last word is "Ping An Shun Shun". Big. These four names can be used by men and women, and it is impossible to tell which one is the girl who got married last night just from the name."

Yu Hanjiang said: "There are so many spiritual seats on the altar, is this family all dead?"

Xiao Lou frowned slightly: "Could it be... the massacre of extermination?"

Yu Hanjiang turned around and looked into the house.

The furnishing of the hall does not look like a serious fight has taken place.He doesn't have the luminous ammonia used by modern police investigations, so he can only rely on his eyes.He glanced around, but did not find any remaining blood. It didn't look like the scene had been cleaned up after the extermination of the family. It was more likely that the murder did not happen here.

Yu Hanjiang said: "Let's check the whole yard first to see if there are any clues."

Xiao Lou agreed: "Well, since the bride last night was married from this family, she must have her own boudoir in her natal family."

The two left the mourning hall, turned around and came to the backyard.

The backyard is divided into many small yards, among which the south yard is separated by an arched door, and is the residence of maids and servants.There are countless rooms in other courtyards, which shows how huge the Zhao family is.

The layout of this courtyard is comparable to a maze, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang had to use arrows to mark them, and check them one by one.The two first found the residence of Zhao's elders, and found many hand-copied scriptures and Buddhist beads in the house. The elderly in this family obviously believed in Buddhism.

Then there is the residence of the parents’ generation, nothing special. In one of the rooms, many exquisite medicine bottles were found, with the names of various medicines marked on them with paper labels. There should be someone in the Zhao family who studied medicine and knew how to make pills. medicine.

The room style of the younger generation is quite different from that of the older generation.Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang quickly locked four rooms. In order to organize the clues conveniently, they named the rooms after A, B, C, and D, and made temporary marks with arrows of different colors.

Room A, in addition to the reception room and bedroom, another suite is the weapon room. There is a row of wooden sword racks on the wall, and seven sharp swords of different lengths are hung. These weapons should look very precious. The owner of this room I love collecting famous swords.

In room B, there is a small study next to the bedroom. There are many ancient books on the bookshelves, such as "Book of Changes", "The Analects of Confucius", "Mencius", etc. The owner of this room likes reading very much.It is worth noting that there is also a cradle in the bedroom, which contains a child's toy. Xiao Lou picked it up and took a look—it was a small red rattle.

Room C looks like a girl's residence at first glance. The bed curtains and sheets are all pink. There are many flowers growing on the window sill in the bedroom. Unfortunately, most of those flowers are withered now, and only a pot of cactus the size of a palm is still tenaciously alive.On her desk was a pair of white handkerchiefs with a pair of mandarin ducks embroidered on it. There were colored needles and threads beside the handkerchief, which had not been embroidered in time.

The last room is also the girl's residence, and a big red happy word is pasted on the inner window.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang looked at each other and searched the room carefully.

Unfortunately, this room has the fewest clues. Nothing special was found in the desk, drawer, and cabinet. The wardrobe and jewelry box were half empty. It should be that the girl brought her favorite jewelry to her husband's house when she got married.

The two walked to the window and discussed in low voices.

Xiao Loudao: "We found four young people's rooms, two men and two women. In ancient times, the elder sister was usually married first, and the younger sister was married later. What can be confirmed now is that room D is the boudoir of the ghost bride who got married last night. Room C is her sister's room, and a half-embroidered handkerchief was found on the table, with mandarin ducks embroidered on it, what do you think?"

Yu Hanjiang said: "According to your analysis, my sister is not married yet, but she should have a sweetheart. She wants to embroider the mandarin duck handkerchief and give it to the other party. Unfortunately, she died before finishing the embroidery."

Xiao Lou nodded: "I think so too. The mandarin ducks have a special meaning, not to mention the mandarin ducks embroidered by hand, most likely they were given to the sweetheart." He paused, and then said: "There are many books in the other two men's rooms. It should be the eldest brother Zhao Zeping, he is married and has a child."

Yu Hanjiang agreed: "Well, the second child who is full of weapons looks like he is not yet married. The question now is, how should the four children be arranged? The eldest should be a male, the second, third, and fourth, who is the male?" Who is the female?"

Xiao Lou thought about the four names carefully, and said: "I feel that Zhao Ze'an and Zhao Zesui are like girls, and Zhao Zeping and Zhao Zeshun are like boys. The four brothers and sisters of the Zhao family may be the eldest brother, second sister, third brother, and fourth sister. ?”

The corner of Yu Hanjiang's lips curled up slightly: "I guessed the same way. As for whether it's accurate or not, we need more clues to verify it."

Xiao Loudao: "There is one more key."

Yu Hanjiang said tacitly, "Toys for children?"

Xiao Lou picked up the rattle that he found in the elder brother's room, and said, "The cradle and children's toys were found in the elder brother's room, which means that he is married and has a child. However, his wife and the child's coffin were not found in the mourning hall of the Zhao family just now." Generally speaking, the spiritual places of husband and wife should be placed side by side, for example, the spiritual places of their parents are placed together."

Yu Hanjiang added: "Besides, there is incense in the mourning hall. When we entered just now, the three sticks of incense were still lit, and more than half of them burned. It means that not long ago, someone came to burn incense on the Zhao family's spiritual seat."

Xiao Loudao: "This person is most likely the survivor of the Miemen massacre—the boss' wife or child?"

Yu Hanjiang nodded in agreement: "I think so too."

The two looked at each other.Walking side by side along the way, after going through so many secret rooms, the tacit understanding between the two of them in investigating the case is getting higher and higher, and they always think of going together.From the distribution of spirit positions and room surveys, they have already figured out the general relationship between the people in the Zhao family.

The key figures are the bride, and the wife and children of the missing eldest son.

What is still unclear is - what happened to the Zhao family?

The scene where I saw the bride getting married last night, was it a hallucination at night, or a reenactment of a scene that happened before?

this point is very important.

If the second lady died before she got married, what they saw last night might be the phantom of "marrying a ghost wife" in the underworld.But if she died after she got married, what they saw might be the "reappearance of the past" formed by the ghost's obsession.

Xiao Lou suggested: "Let's go to the inn to inquire about it."

Yu Hanjiang flew out of Zhao's house with him.

Qu Wanyue and Long Sen had been waiting outside. Seeing them coming out, Long Sen immediately stepped forward and asked, "Professor Xiao, have you found any clues?"

Xiao Lou simply explained: "This younger generation has four brothers and sisters. The eldest brother is married and has children, and the married one is probably the second young lady. What we need to find out now is, what happened to the Zhao family back then, and how could it be wiped out?"

Long Sen nodded half-understanding: "Yeah, are you going to the inn?"

Yu Hanjiang said: "Let's go. I'll ask Lao Mo what's going on there, and we'll meet up at the inn later."

He pressed the voice headset, connected to the team's voice channel, and said in a low voice: "Attention everyone, the case in the secret room is more complicated this time. We found a room full of spirits in the house where the bride was married last night. The Zhao family was tragically killed." Miemen. Old Mo, where are you and Liu Qiao?"

Lao Mo quickly replied: "I took Liu Qiao to check on the house where the baby was born last night. It was a deserted yard, and there was no one there. I asked the nearby residents, and they said that this family died many years ago. It suddenly disappeared, I don’t know if it has moved.”

Liu Qiao added: "It disappeared inexplicably overnight. The young wife of this family just gave birth to a child. The neighbors nearby wanted to visit them the next day, but their whole family disappeared."