The Chamber

Room 2011.

Xu Mo carefully observed the room once more.

After confirming that no one was hiding inside, he thought maybe he had been wrong, and the two people hadn't hidden at home at all.

They had gone out the night before the show to buy a large amount of daily necessities, possibly just to mislead the Investigation Team.

This made him think, "These two are pretty cunning!"

"It's understandable to guard against the Investigation Team, but to also guard against me, a good person, is a bit much, huh..." Xu Mo sighed and turned to leave.

Viewers: "???"

Who's good and who's bad?

Isn't that the opposite of what was just said!

As he walked out of the room and into the corridor, heading towards 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 that the layout of this room was a bit off.

Logically, two rooms in the same building with the same orientation should have identical layouts.

But the layouts of 2011 and 2010 were vastly different, completely unlike each other.

Compared to 2011, 2010 was significantly larger and more spacious.

You could tell just by looking at the door.

At first, Xu Mo didn't pay much attention to this, just attributing it to the difference in room sizes.

He just glanced at the adjacent 2010 and continued walking towards the elevator.

In the elevator lobby, the elevator door faced the fire escape, which was the staircase.

On the wall next to the fire escape was a sign indicating the fire escape route, along with a floor plan diagram. The diagram also had arrows and red dots marking the location of the escape route.

While waiting for the elevator, Xu Mo, with nothing else to do, glanced at the floor plan diagram.

After staring at the diagram for a while, Xu Mo muttered to himself, "Interesting..."

Then he turned back.

His initial guess was correct.

The two 'fugitives' were indeed hiding at home.

They were just hiding in a very cunning way, so much so that he hadn't realized where they were even after a thorough inspection.

He even thought his guess was wrong.

But when he saw the floor plan diagram, Xu Mo realized his guess was right all along!

Xu Mo also remembered noticing earlier, when passing by room 2010, that the layouts of 2011 and 2010 were completely different.

At the time, he was puzzled. Even though they were two rooms in the same building with the same orientation, why were their layouts so different? Why did 2010 look so strange?

Now he knew.

It wasn't that 2010's layout was strange.

It was 2011's layout that was strange.

Room 2011 had been altered!

According to the floor plan diagram,

the layouts of 2010 and 2011 were identical.

But when he looked earlier, he found that 2011 was significantly smaller than the adjacent 2010.

And the layout of 2011 he saw was also different from the layout shown on the floor plan diagram, with a part of the room missing in reality.

Based on this, Xu Mo deduced that there should be a hidden room in 2011 that he hadn't discovered before, or rather, a secret room.

The two 'fugitives' should be hiding in that secret room.

No wonder they chose to hide at home.

Because they weren't afraid of the Investigation Team coming to search their place!

They believed the Investigation Team wouldn't find the secret room in the room!

Back at the door of 2011,

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

After opening the door, he quickly closed it.

He also found a few towels from the bathroom and stuffed them into the door gap, then closed all the windows in the room.

Ensuring that no wind could get in, Xu Mo took out a cigarette box.

He took out the remaining ten cigarettes, lit them one by one, and placed them at intervals along the wall on the east side of the room, with the lit ends facing down, forming a straight line.

He needed to verify his guess.

To see if there really was a secret room behind this wall.

During this process, Xu Mo held his breath and didn't move, afraid that his breathing and movements would disturb the calm airflow in the room.

After a few seconds,

the smoke from the burning cigarettes began to rise.

Some of the smoke rose straight up.

Some of the smoke was affected by a very weak airflow.

The corresponding position should be the door of the secret room!

Xu Mo carefully examined the wall.

He found a very small gap.

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

Earlier, he hadn't noticed there was such a gap in the wall.

In the live stream, viewers were completely confused by Xu Mo's actions.

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

"Is he performing a ritual? Is Xu Mo a Taoist priest?"

"Taoist rituals aren't like this, are they? Who lights cigarettes for a ritual?"

"I don't know if Xu Mo is a Taoist priest, but I do know that if he doesn't leave soon, he won't be able to get away. The Investigation Team is already on the elevator and will be here soon."

"Even if he leaves now, it's risky, isn't it? Where can he go? This is the twentieth floor!"

"..."

Xu Mo was still staring at the wall.

He knew where the door was, but how to open it was a problem.

There was no lock, so his lock-picking skills were useless.

Either he had to force it open by kicking or smashing it.

Or get the people inside to open the door themselves.

...

The elevator doors opened.

Han Fei and his team stepped out of the elevator.

Accompanying them was a locksmith they had found in the neighborhood.

The group arrived at the door of 2011.

"2011, this is the place. Master, please help us open the lock," Han Fei pointed at the door of 2011 and said to the locksmith.

The locksmith nodded and without a word, took out his tools.

In a few quick moves, he had the door open.

Then he looked at Han Fei, "Comrade, the door is open. If there's nothing else I can do, can I leave now?"

"Sure, thank you, Master."

After saying that, Han Fei cautiously looked into the room to make sure there was no ambush at the door before entering.

The police officers following him also entered the room.

Before Han Fei could say anything, they began searching the room diligently.

A minute later,

"Captain Han, there's no one in the room."

"No one?" Han Fei was puzzled, "Did you check under the bed and in the wardrobe carefully?"

"We checked every corner, there really is no one."

Hearing this, Han Fei's brow furrowed.

If they weren't hiding at home, did that mean they guessed wrong?

"If there's no one, then we might have made a wrong judgment. Let's regroup and see if there are any other leads on the fugitives..."

Before Han Fei could finish his sentence, Shen Manyi suddenly spoke up.

"No, there's someone... There's a lingering smell of smoke in this room! It hasn't dissipated yet, someone must have smoked here recently."