"You are right. Even if the murderer succeeds in breaking into the secret room, he still has to find a way to restore the secret room before others notice it."
Li Ang said: "Without using spiritual power, it is almost impossible to re-tighten the detached nut on the screw through a thick layer of wood.
Therefore, the murderer thought of a way to replace the screw."
"What?"
Su Xinghuo said in surprise: "What's the point of this? If the nut should be tightened, it just can't be tightened."
"The murderer doesn't need to actually tighten it, he just needs to make the bolt look like it is tightened."
Li Ang smiled and said: "First of all, the murderer used mussels and vibration to make the nut fall off.
Due to the angle, the nut will inevitably fall on the soft, flat bed and will not roll around and fall into the corners.
The murderer pulled out the screw, tied a vertical magnet to a string, put the magnet down through the hole in the bolt, and attracted the nut on the bed.
Then, the murderer put a tight spring that looked like a screw but was actually hollow inside into the hole.
The spring is hollow inside. The murderer can use a bent needle or tweezers to penetrate the spring and hold the nut.
Slowly hang the nut upward and put it on the spring.
Then, the murderer took a thin iron rod with a similar diameter and length and inserted it into the inside of the hollow spring to make it fit tightly. From the outside, it looked the same as an ordinary screw, with no difference at all."
After Li Ang finished speaking, the whole place was silent.
Sikong Ji, the bodyguard of the Prince's Palace, took a deep breath, "Where is the evidence?"
Li Ang stepped on the bed, reached out and pinched the bolt on the upper left corner of the bed, and pulled hard.
Buzz——
The seemingly solid screw was stretched to a length under the force of the pull, revealing the nature of the spring and exposing the thin iron rod hidden inside.
"No wonder."
The captain suddenly realized, "I had clearly broken off all the bolts on the ceiling before, but because it couldn't be broken, I didn't find anything unusual. It turned out that there was an iron rod hidden inside."
"That's right, I just figured it out after hearing Master Dai's words just now."
Li Ang nodded and said: "Master Dai Fu said that yesterday afternoon, the couple who lived in Room 5 upstairs made an impromptu decision to return to the Sea Charm to pick up their personal belongings, and happened to hear a rustling sound.
That should be the process of Chen Qiwei using mussels and replacing the screw.
As for why we had to wait until yesterday to take action,
Exotic mussels are a specialty of the island and can only be obtained after ships dock.
At the same time, most of the passengers on the ship went to visit the island, including King Si, who was afraid of the curse and often stayed in the cabin. They couldn't help but feel lonely. In the afternoon, they boarded the deck and overlooked the lively island.
Replacing the screw at this time is least likely to be noticed.
After replacing the bolts, Chen Qiwei waited for night to fall.
There was a big storm at night, so King Si would definitely use a drawstring to secure the quilt, which meant that his lying position was predictable.
Chen Qiwei first pulled out the thin iron rod in the middle of the spring, repeated the same trick with tweezers, and unscrewed the nut bit by bit - this process did not require mussels and would not make noise that would wake up the heir or people in nearby rooms.
Residents.
When the nut is almost screwed to the end, use a magnet tied with a rope to hold the nut and lower it to a certain distance, and then pull out the spring to expose the hole in the bolt.
Now it’s time for the murder weapon to appear.”
Su Xinghuo closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "... rapier."
"That's right."
Li Ang nodded and said: "The thin sword in Chen Qiwei's room is heavy, flat, and sharp, and its diameter is just enough to pass through the bolt hole.
If I guessed correctly, Chen Qiwei disassembled the blade and hilt of the rapier in advance, and used thin wires to go around the groove at the end of the blade to form a structure similar to a meteor hammer.
Then, he put the rapier through the bolt hole, dropped it, and started shaking. Dr. Su, can you lend me the scalpel and surgical thread?"
Su Xinghuo took out the scalpel and sutures from the medicine box,
Li Ang took it, quickly wrapped the suture around the handle of the knife, tied it into a tight knot, then lifted it up high and hung it above the pool of blood on the bedside, holding the thin thread and shaking it from side to side.
"The weight of the rapier itself, the length of the rope, the amplitude of the swing...all the factors are superimposed. When the swing of the rapier blade reaches the peak, the murderer suddenly releases a thin line.
The falling sword blade happened to kill the heir king who was lying on the bed."
Li Ang said: "The sword's power remained unabated and broke the cabinet clock next to the wall, so the clock showed the correct time.
As for the water on the ground, it was caused by the murderer pouring water down along the bolt holes to clean the sword blade."
"Why don't you draw the sword and wash it again?"
Singer Shi Yajing asked subconsciously.
"The blood will leave traces. If the blood splashes on the ceiling when the sword is pulled back, it will be exposed instantly. Therefore, this method can only be used."
Li Ang said: "Chen Qiwei himself is a sword dancer, and passengers on the ship can ask him to perform designated sword dances.
He was worried that during the process of killing the heir, his rapier would get bumped. Later, a passenger would ask him to perform a rapier sword dance, which would expose him.
Just don't stop doing it, and pretend to be injured for a while in advance, so that you can no longer perform the sword dance during the rest of the voyage.
The whole process is interlocking and murderous at every step.
After the captain and crew discovered that King Si had been murdered, the first thing they suspected was not him, who had never been to this cabin before, but the residents in rooms seven to fourteen.
Continuously interrogate and cross-examine, and regard the last person who entered and exited Room 9 as the number one suspect.
Everyone unknowingly fell into his logical trap."
If the door of Room 9 hadn’t been closed too tightly, ruling out the possibility of the skate mechanism,
If it weren't for a coincidence, the passengers in room No. 5 upstairs accidentally heard the sound of Chen Qiwei using mussels to open the bolts.
This time he will successfully escape suspicion and sanctions.
Li Ang held the nut with one hand, slowly rotated it, and removed the nut from the spring screw.
Then, he stretched out his fingers, pressed against the bottom of the screw, and pushed it upward.
There was no resistance during the whole process, and with a snap, the screw fell to the floor of Room 3.
Li Ang's eyes, through the bolt holes, met the eyes of Chen Qiwei who was lying on the floor of Room 3 - he had been lying on the ground, trying to hear the conversation downstairs, until now.
This chapter has been completed!