The five gift boxes found in the storage room all had combination locks, and with only 10 minutes left in the countdown to the maze challenge, everyone felt tense as they saw the countdown numbers in the floating frame.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath to calm herself, her gaze quickly sweeping over the five boxes on the ground.
The five boxes are different colors: white, blue, purple, green, and red.
Apart from the different colors of the boxes, the size and shape of the boxes are exactly the same, and there are no password hints written on them.
How do we unlock the five boxes? The teammates were all deep in thought.
Xiao Lou quickly said, "Since these five boxes are Christmas gifts brought by people invited to the Christmas Eve party, the different colors of the boxes must correspond to their identities and hobbies. The white one is a gift from Dr. Simon."
The word "doctor" or "hospital " most easily evokes the color white, and this box comes from Dr. Simon.
After receiving Xiao Lou's hint, the teammates suddenly understood.
Yu Hanjiang followed up, saying, "The blue box was a gift from Jack. In a photo of him and Wells from their college days, they were both wearing blue team jerseys. The box is exactly the same color as the team jerseys, a very special lake blue." He then opened his photo album, found the photo, and confirmed that the colors matched perfectly.
Qu Wanyue followed up, saying, "The purple gift box is from Miss Susan. It's difficult for most girls to pull off this cool, deep purple, but in the photo, she's wearing this color of high heels, so she must really like deep purple."
For the remaining orange and pink photos, Yu Hanjiang flipped to the back of the photos, showing a group picture with her best friend.
In a photo of the three best friends, they stand side by side, wearing the same white dresses and carrying the same style of bags in different colors. The protagonist, Shirley, carries a cute pink bag, while Martha, with her long hair, carries a dark green bag, and Karen, with her curly hair, carries a striking bright red bag.
After quickly identifying the owner of the box based on the photo, Xiao Lou began analyzing the password.
Yu Hanjiang quickly pulled out several relevant photos from the album and asked, "Are the clues to the password in the photos?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "Yes, let's take a closer look."
There were no clues in the storage room, and the five guests were not present. The only thing related to them was the photograph.
The photo shows Jack and the male homeowner, both wearing jerseys. Jack is on the left with the number "12" on his chest, while Wells is on the right with the number "08" on his chest.
This box is the simplest. Xiao Lou handed the box to Ye Qi and CEO Shao: "1208, open it and look for clues."
Time is limited, so everyone must work together. Xiao Lou will be in charge of deciphering the code, while the rest of the team will be responsible for finding the clues.
He then brought over a white box.
In the photo of Simon and Wells, Wells must have gone to the hospital, because Simon was wearing a white coat and a stethoscope around his neck, while Wells was holding a medical record.
Xiao Lou took the photo closer for a careful look. The medical record showed: Patient name Wells, height 180cm, age 21, BP: 98/70mmHg. Among these data, only the last item, blood pressure, was a set of numbers that could form a code.
Xiao Lou handed the box to Liu Qiao: "9870."
Liu Qiao immediately opened the box and found a letter inside.
The purple box came from a classmate of Wells's. In the photo, the two are holding up the architecture design competition trophy together. The trophy has a unique design, consisting of several interwoven metal lines.
Apart from the trophy, both men were wearing suits, and there was nothing related to numbers in their clothes or the background.
Xiao Lou examined the trophy carefully but couldn't see anything special about it. He handed the photo to Lao Mo, who was also a design student. Upon seeing the trophy, Mo Xuemin immediately said, "The lines of the trophy form a number. Cover up the gold part and look at the silver."
Because the trophy is coated with a large area of silver as the base color and shiny gold as the embellishment, people are often attracted to the gold embellishment when they look at the trophy. For example, if you draw a few black lines on a white wall, people will notice what the black lines are trying to express first, rather than the white wall.
Xiao Lou didn't understand the gold accents either, but after Lao Mo explained it, he immediately realized what it meant.
This is a common technique used in escape rooms—reversing colors.
In puzzles, walls, and other misleading areas, paint other colors on a large area of background color to make players think repeatedly about what these colors represent. In fact, the painted colors are the distractions; you should look at the background color instead.
Old Mo also figured out the code, saying, "The background color surrounding the trophy forms the number 1989."
Xiao Lou nodded: "Quickly find clues."
Old Mo opened the box and carefully searched through it.
There are two boxes left, a green and a red gift box from my best friend.
In the photo of the three best friends, Martha is wearing a necklace with four small diamond-studded number pendants strung on a silver chain. It looks quite delicate, and the four numbers are 7679, which is a very obvious clue.
Xiao Lou handed the green box to Qu Wanyue and Long Sen.
Clues about Karen are somewhat difficult to find; she has no symbolic numbers on her body.
Besides carrying a bag, she was also holding a small toy. The background of the photo was an amusement park, and many children were also captured in the picture.
Not far behind the three of them, a large group of children were gathered together, each holding a cute doll. Many parents were also with them, queuing at the entrance of the amusement park. The dolls in the children's hands were the same as those in Karen's hands, and it looked like the amusement park was having a promotion and giving each child one.
The group gathered together to look at the photos, as if playing a "spot the difference" game.
Yu Hanjiang frowned and asked, "What's the meaning of this doll?"
Xiao Lou thought about it carefully, his eyes lit up, and he said, "Children's Day, the password is 0601."
On Children's Day, so many children go to amusement parks together, accompanied by their parents; and it is also quite common for amusement parks to give out dolls to passersby on Children's Day.
The three girls in the photo are striking adorable poses that perfectly embody childlike innocence. Combined with the obvious clue of the "doll" in Karen's hand, Xiao Lou deduced that the password to Karen's box was related to the holiday represented by the doll.
Yu Hanjiang trusted Xiao Lou's judgment and immediately entered 0601 on the box. Sure enough, the box was opened!
Five boxes; find clues in the photos and unlock them all within 2 minutes…
Everyone pushed their speed to the limit.
The clues obtained from opening the box were sorted out by the teammates. Ye Qi quickly said, " There's a basketball model in Jack's box, nothing unusual."
Liu Qiao said, "Dr. Simon wrote a letter saying that Wells ' recent examination revealed that the left circumflex artery of his heart was narrowed by more than 40%, and he recommended medication to control it. In addition, Shirley's physical examination report was not good either, with excessive Helicobacter pylori infection in her stomach, and he recommended that she rest for a period of time and receive proper treatment. He also said at the end that a healthy body is the best gift."
Xiao Lou was puzzled upon hearing this.
Based on the previous deduction, Simon visited the villa on the day he moved, and there was an old necklace left in the female protagonist Shirley's drawer. He and Shirley had a past relationship, and it is most likely that he killed Shirley's family out of love turned to hate.
But judging from the letter, he should be the family's private doctor, and he even told the couple to take care of their health.
Xiao Lou asked his teammates, "Where are the other three boxes?"
Old Mo said, " Susan sent a model of a building and a greeting card that said 'Merry Christmas'."
Qu Wanyue said, " In the green box that Martha sent was a small, handmade Christmas tree. It was quite unique. The greeting card read, 'Merry Christmas, for the lovely little angel Lucia.'"
Finally, Yu Hanjiang took the box Karen had given him and said, " Karen gave me a bottle of perfume, and the greeting card said—Wishing you eternal youth and beauty, my darling."
The group looked at each other in bewilderment.
At this moment, since all the box passwords had been cracked, everyone heard a strange rumbling sound, as if something was emerging from underground. Xiao Lou looked in the direction of the sound and saw a square table appearing at the entrance of the two glass doors next to the restaurant. The table was just the right size to hold a gift box.
Old Mo had noticed the restaurant door long ago and said, "Outside the door is a garden. Once we walk out of this door, we'll have escaped this labyrinth of secret rooms!"
Everyone agreed with Lao Mo's statement.
Ye Qi analyzed, "Place the corresponding box on the box corresponding to the murderer. This should be a push-button mechanism, corresponding to the weight. The contents of the five boxes are of different weights, and only by placing the correct box can the door be opened."
Liu Qiao said expressionlessly, "If we put it in the wrong place and fail the challenge, will this villa collapse?"
Xiao Lou: "..."
The scene Liu Qiao imagined was somewhat tragic, but not impossible.
With only 5 minutes left in the countdown, time is of the essence. Which box contains the correct answer? And who is the real murderer?
He took a deep breath and scanned the five boxes again with his eyes.
Then, he suddenly realized the theme of the escape room and immediately looked at Ye Qi: "Besides this letter, are there any basketballs, architectural models, perfumes, or handmade Christmas trees that are related to music?"
Ye Qi paused for a moment, then carefully turned the items over to examine them.
Then, to his surprise, he discovered a tiny knob, no bigger than a nail, beneath the exquisite architectural model.
He pressed the knob, and a clear and melodious piano piece rang in everyone's ears.
—It's " Marriage Damour ".
Ye Qi exclaimed excitedly, "This building model is actually a music box!"
As the music played, the outer layer of the architectural model began to descend, revealing a hidden world inside. Two hands appeared on the inner layer, holding up a beautiful five-story villa, which rotated continuously in rhythm with the music.
This is the most unique music box Ye Qi has ever seen.
Yu Hanjiang said decisively, "The murderer is Susan, the male protagonist's classmate in the architecture department at university."
She didn't come to the villa on the day she moved; she didn't need to come in advance at all.
Because she is an architect, and she personally designed this entire villa community.
Yu Hanjiang placed the purple box on the table at the restaurant entrance, and sure enough, the glass doors in front of him opened to both sides the next moment.
A cheerful Christmas carol filled everyone's ears, along with the children's voice of The Diamond-Suit Guardian: "Congratulations on successfully escaping the locked room. Please enter the villa's back garden; the truth lies here."