"What on earth did you discover?" Kiyomi Liuli was becoming irate; her delicate face began to twist, the thing she hated most in her life was when others were deliberately mysterious with her. "Did you find an important clue about where Tominaga went?!"
Nanahara Takeshi didn't care whether she was angry or not, he said in a very pleased tone, "I don't know, it might be related, or it might not be related at all."
You bastard who deserves to be burnt by Hell's Karma Fire for a thousand years!
Kiyomi Liuli clenched her fists tightly, restraining herself from pinning him to the ground and beating him — I must hold back, I'm grown-up now, a lady of both beauty and wisdom, I mustn't hit people, I mustn't hit people...
She counted from one to ten in her mind, then back again to calm the raging fire in her heart, and asked through gritted teeth, "What did you discover, exactly?"
"A secret room."
Kiyomi Liuli was shocked, "A secret room?!"
"Yes, a secret room." Nanahara Takeshi said offhandedly while looking at the house, "Didn't you feel it? When you add up the area of several rooms on the second floor, something seems a bit off, especially when comparing it with the first floor, and even more so when comparing with the exterior of the house. Don't you feel that something is even more amiss?"
"Ah, this kind of thing... you can feel it?"
"Of course, you can." Nanahara Takeshi tapped his forehead with his index finger, "The human brain is constantly receiving information and is always active. So sometimes, even when everything around you seems calm, your brain will still make you feel uneasy, sensing that something is amiss. It heightens your focus, compels you to concentrate and consider, to judge whether there is any danger around you — it's a kind of genetic instinct."
He paused, then added, "Those people with such innate activity in their brains are sometimes referred to as having sharp intuition."
Kiyomi Liuli suddenly realized, "Now that you say it, I feel like I'm that kind of person..."
Nanahara Takeshi looked at her speechlessly for a while, then said directly, "You're not. The prerequisite of having sharp intuition is to have a brain; you don't meet the criteria."
Kiyomi Liuli's breath became heavy in an instant as she glared at Nanahara Takeshi, starting to count in her mind again.
Once she had suppressed her anger again, excitement surged in her heart — a secret room, a real secret room, the kind she had only seen in detective novels before, was now right in front of her eyes!
She didn't waste her day, nor was enduring this young man's vexations for nothing!
She immediately asked with utmost anticipation, "Where is the secret room?"
"Most likely in the study on the second floor."
Nanahara Takeshi recalled the layout of the second floor, mentally constructed a model and compared it with the exterior of the building, and then, after deducing for a while, proceeded with Liuli following close behind. When they passed by the first floor, they saw Hidaka Tsukasa smoking in the kitchen and Okuno Yasuharu on the phone; she hesitated but decided not to call them.
The relationship between the secret room and Tominaga Yousuke's disappearance wasn't clear yet. It could just be a place where he stored valuable items; no need to rush to inform the others.
......
Soon, she returned to the study on the second floor and began to look around, trying to guess where the entrance to the secret room was, but she couldn't find it. So, she immediately asked, "Where is the entrance to the secret room?"
If Nanahara Takeshi could figure it out by building a model and deducing, then there was no need for doing something so complicated. He nonchalantly pulled a small steel ball off the "Newton's cradle" on the desk and laughed, "Do you really need to ask such a simple question? Just try and you'll know!"
As he spoke, he placed the small steel ball in the center of the room's floor. The ball stood still for a moment, then slowly rolled towards one side of the bookshelf.
Kiyomi Liuli's eyes lit up, shouting, "You don't need to explain; I know how this works!"
Generally, secret rooms are modified and require additional reinforcement, directly causing an otherwise balanced house to experience a shift in its center of gravity. Such a condition, even for just a day or two, might be negligible. But over time, the foundation on one side would naturally sink, causing a smooth little ball to slowly start rolling.
Heavy furniture like bookshelves alone couldn't cause this; it needed something much heavier, like steel.
Of course, this would only work in normal houses. Unstable foundations or buildings where even the floors couldn't be leveled, such as dilapidated or inferior-quality houses, would not fit this scenario. However, the Tominaga residence was of good quality, so the method was immediately effective.
At least, that direction was the most suspicious.
Kiyomi Liuli immediately ran to the wall with the bookshelf, first pushing against the bookshelf, and then began rifling through the books, saying, "There must be a mechanism to open a door. Don't tell me; I can find it."
Nanahara Takeshi just stood to one side and waited, but after four or five minutes, Kiyomi Liuli still hadn't found the so-called "door-opening mechanism."
He couldn't take it anymore and dropped a hint, "Squat down. What's the use of flipping through books while standing? How could the secret room switch be hidden in such an obvious place? Isn't Tominaga afraid of someone accidentally triggering it?"
Making sense, Kiyomi Liuli quickly squatted down to search, though she retorted, "It could also be up high, where normal people wouldn't touch it."
"Does Tominaga always have to find a stool before he opens the door?"
Kiyomi Liuli was still unconvinced and muttered softly, "Maybe the switch is somewhere else, not necessarily in front of the secret room."
Nanahara Takeshi, out of patience, extended his foot and feigned a kick, "Here, reach your hand in from here and feel around."
Looking back at him puzzled, Kiyomi Liuli reached her hand into the space above the books and groped around for a while, her face showing surprise, "Hey, there really is a handle. It feels like it can be pulled."
Then she looked at the spot in confusion, "How did you know it was here? There's nothing special about this place!"
There were several books at that spot whose spines had tiny burrs on the top edge, likely from being occasionally rubbed against. Of course, it was suspicious, but Nanahara Takeshi had no intention of explaining it to her at the moment, taking two steps back and saying, "Stop talking and just pull it and see."
Obediently, Kiyomi Liuli pulled the handle forcefully, it felt quite heavy, but after a brief wait with no response, and just as she was about to ask Nanahara Takeshi again, she suddenly heard a faint sound of an electric motor starting. The bookshelf in front of her silently began to rise, likely entering a hidden space in the attic through the ceiling, part of a renovation.
She watched, dumbfounded, as the bookshelf rose to reveal a door with an electronic code lock, exclaiming with delight, "Found it, there really is a secret room!"
Nanahara Takeshi was unsurprised, thoroughly inspecting the silvery door and the nameplate under the keypad, musing, "It's not a secret room, it's a large safe, German-made, burglar-proof and fireproof, with a high safety rating... Hmm, this model requires two sets of sixteen-digit passwords, and if just one set is entered incorrectly three times, it will completely lock up."
"It's just a safe?" Kiyomi Liuli was disappointed, "Then there's nothing special about it."
Nanahara Takeshi was noncommittal, "It's very special. A safe like this is almost never purchased for private use. Although it's secure and relatively easy to open, it's too large and too cumbersome, making the cost-performance ratio very low for private users. It's usually installed in small banks or even inside bank vaults. Why would Tominaga want such a huge thing in his house?"
"Maybe he's hiding some rare treasure?" Kiyomi Liuli speculated, "Or maybe the complainant really did see what he reported, not just imagining it. Someone was indeed pressuring him for the safe's codes... No, since it's so big, like a small room, then it's a secret room. Someone beat him up to get the codes for the secret room."
Then, looking more closely at the safe, the curiosity in her eyes nearly overflowing, she said, "I wonder what treasures are hidden inside, whether those people managed to get it."
Nanahara Takeshi's interest was also piqued as he chuckled, "Why not just open it and find out."
Kiyomi Liuli said sullenly, "Easier said than done. How do we open it? Isn't this the kind of safe used in banks? I suppose the police would have to contact the manufacturer or just cut it open, right?"
"Passwords are set by humans, and if humans set it, they'll definitely make it easy to remember. There's our opportunity." Nanahara Takeshi didn't care about Kiyomi Liuli's words, full of interest and itching to try, he looked closely at the base of each keypad button, talking to himself, "Hmm, there are no signs of wear on the 8, 9, 0 buttons. Are these three keys almost never used? Two sets of independent sixteen-digit passwords, but the contents belong to Tominaga alone, he doesn't need to take measures against mutual distrust, there's no need for two unrelated sets of passwords, which means…"
Having talked to himself, he raised his hand to start entering the passwords, humming a song softly, four beats to a bar, slow and steady rhythm, sounding like an old lullaby with a somewhat eerie tune, "Door cracks creaking, door cracks creaking, Mother is laughing, Mother is laughing, she doesn't speak, just keeps on laughing; At the village head, barren rocks appear, turtle carries a bucket, crow is cawing…"
The tone really was quite eerie, causing Kiyomi Liuli to shiver unconsciously, then she snapped to attention, urging, "Don't mess around, in case you completely lock the safe…"
Before she could finish her sentence, Nanahara Takeshi had already completed one set of the password. There was a light "ding" from the door lock, a green light came on, and faint gear turning noises came from inside the door.
Kiyomi Liuli's eyes widened; the first set of passwords was correct!
Nanahara Takeshi continued humming the melody without stopping, entering the next set of passwords. She finally realized, "It's that rhyme, the creepy lullaby that kept appearing in the old movie 'Bone Village'! The musical notation of the lullaby is the password!"
"At least you're not completely clueless," Nanahara Takeshi said with a smile after inputting the other set of passwords. Turning the handle to let the door open automatically, he said with interest, "Alright, let's see what kind of treasure is really inside…"
This time, it was his turn to be cut off mid-sentence. As the door cracked open, his expression abruptly changed, he stepped back, and instinctively pulled Kiyomi Liuli in front of him, peering inside over her head with a peculiar look on his face.
"What are you doing?" Kiyomi Liuli was confused, but she immediately caught the strong stench of blood and, upon looking into the "secret room," her head spun and she crashed into Nanahara Takeshi's arms.
Fortunately, the impact muffled her scream, or else the glass on the windows would have likely shattered.
To hell with treasure, there was a corpse inside, and all the blood had dried up!