Chapter 226: Secret Chamber

Room 2011.

Xu Mo carefully observed the room again.

After confirming that no one was hidden inside, he thought perhaps he was indeed mistaken; those two people hadn't been hiding in the house at all.

The two went out the night before the program started to buy a large amount of daily necessities, possibly just to mislead the Investigation Team.

Seeing it that way, those two guys are pretty sneaky!

"It's one thing to block the Investigation Team, those bad guys, but they even trapped a good guy like me, sigh…," Xu Mo sighed, turned around, and prepared to leave.

Water Friends: "???"

Who's the good guy and who's the bad guy?

Are you sure you didn't get it backwards!

When he walked out of the room into the hallway and headed toward the elevator,

Xu Mo subconsciously glanced at the adjacent Room 2010.

Through the door, he could see a woman sitting in the living room, crying.

Xu Mo also noticed.

The layout of this house seemed off.

Logically, two rooms on the same floor of the same building with the same orientation should have identical layouts.

But the layouts of 2011 and 2010 were worlds apart, completely different.

Compared with 2011,

Room 2010 was obviously much larger and more spacious.

One could tell the difference just by looking at the doorway, without even entering.

At first, Xu Mo didn't mind this, assuming it was just a size difference.

He only gave a quick glance at the neighboring 2010, then continued toward the elevator.

Elevator lobby.

Directly opposite the elevator doors was the Escape Passage, i. e., the stairs.

On the wall of this side of the Escape Passage hung the emergency sign and a floor plan, with arrows and red dots specifically marking the location of the passage.

While waiting for the elevator,

Xu Mo, having nothing to do, glanced at the floor plan.

He stared at the diagram for a while.

It seemed Xu Mo had an idea, muttering to himself, "Interesting…"

He then turned and walked back.

His initial guess was correct.

Those two 'Escapees' were indeed hiding in the house.

But they hid in a cunning way, so even after his careful sweep he hadn't realized where they were concealed.

He even thought his own deduction was flawed.

However, upon seeing the floor plan, Xu Mo realized his guess was spot on!

Xu Mo also recalled that when he passed Room 2010 earlier, he noticed the layouts of 2011 and 2010 were completely different.

At the time he wondered why two rooms in the same building, same orientation, could have such disparate structures, why 2010 looked so odd.

Now he knows.

It's not Room 2010's layout that's strange.

It's Room 2011's layout that's odd.

Room 2011 has been remodeled!

From the floor plan,

the structures of 2010 and 2011 should be identical.

But when he looked, 2011 was noticeably smaller than the neighboring 2010.

Moreover, the actual layout of Room 2011 differed from the plan; part of the room was missing compared to the diagram.

Based on this, Xu Mo inferred that there must be a hidden room he hadn't noticed in 2011, or rather… a secret chamber.

Those two 'Escapees' should be hiding in the secret chamber.

No wonder they chose to stay hidden at home.

Because they aren't afraid of the Investigation Team coming to their residence!

They think the Investigation Team can't locate the secret room inside the house!

Returning to the doorway of 2011,

Xu Mo took out a piece of wire and opened the door.

He opened it and quickly shut it again.

He also fetched a few towels from the Restroom, blocked the door gap, and then closed all the windows in the room.

After ensuring no breeze could enter, Xu Mo took out a pack of cigarettes.

He took out the remaining ten cigarettes, lit them one by one, placing each at intervals in a line with the lit ends down, standing upright against the east wall of the room.

He needed to test his hypothesis.

To see whether there truly was a secret chamber behind that wall.

During the process, Xu Mo held his breath and stayed still, fearing his breathing or movement would disturb the room's calm airflow.

He waited a few seconds.

The smoke from the burning tobacco rose.

A portion of the smoke rose straight upward.

Another portion of the smoke was affected by a very weak airflow.

The corresponding location should be the secret room's door!

Xu Mo carefully looked at the wall.

He found that there really was a tiny crack.

If he hadn't looked closely, he wouldn't have noticed it at all.

He hadn't noticed such a crack on the wall earlier.

In the Live Broadcast Room, the Water Friends completely didn't understand Xu Mo's actions.

"What is Xu Mo doing? What's the point of lighting a cigarette against a wall?"

"Is it some ritual? Xu Mo can't be a Taoist, can he?"

"Taoist rituals aren't done like that; there's no ritual involving lighting a cigarette."

"I don't know whether Xu Mo is a Taoist, but I do know that if he doesn't leave now he'll be stuck; the Investigation Team has already taken the elevator and should be up here soon."

"Leaving now would be too risky, right? Where could he go? This is the twentieth floor!"

"……"

Xu Mo kept staring at the wall.

He already knows where the door is, but how to open it is another problem.

There is no keyhole, so his lock‑picking skills are of no use.

He could either force it open by kicking or by smashing it.

Or he could make someone inside open it voluntarily.

……

The elevator doors opened.

Han Fei and his party stepped out of the elevator.

Accompanying them was a lock‑picking master they had hired from the neighborhood.

The group arrived at the entrance of 2011.

"2011, this one. Master, could you help unlock it?" Han Fei said, pointing at the door of 2011 to the lock‑picking master.

The lock‑picking master nodded, said nothing, and immediately pulled out his eating utensil.

In a couple of quick moves, he pried the door open.

Then he looked at Han Fei: "Comrade, it's open. If there's nothing else for me to do, may I leave now?"

"Sure, thank you, master."

After speaking, Han Fei cautiously glanced into the room, confirmed there was no ambush at the doorway, and then entered.

The police officers following him also entered one after another.

Without waiting for Han Fei to speak, they instinctively began searching the house.

One minute later.

"Han Team, the house is empty."

"Empty?" Han Fei asked, a bit puzzled, "Did you check carefully under the bed and inside the wardrobe?"

"We've inspected inside and out thoroughly; indeed we found no one."

Hearing this, Han Fei's brows involuntarily furrowed.

If they're not hiding inside, could we have guessed wrong?

"If it's empty, that's fine; maybe our judgment was wrong. Disband the team, and first see if there are any leads on other Escapees..."

Han Fei hadn't finished his sentence when Shen Manni suddenly spoke up.

"Wait, someone... there's a smell of smoke in this room! It hasn't dissipated yet; someone must have smoked here not long ago."