The weapon by the pillow

Chapter 31 actually brought out... dice!

"According to an incomplete survey, at the last moment after opening the bottom panel of the camphor wood chest, 73% of netizens chose to look directly at it, 12% chose to close their eyes, 8% chose to peek, and 7% chose to replay the footage..."

Just as the camphor wood chest was being filled with its bottom layer, a statistical statistic was inserted into the live stream.

"Get lost! I want to see the scene live!"

"Hurry up..."

One netizen hadn't even finished typing the full pinyin for "ah"...

With a creak, the interlayer of the camphor wood chest's bottom panel was completely pried open.

Where the flashlight beam focused, everyone held their breath, their pupils contracted, as if trying to hold their heartbeats there...

There was no gold or silver jewelry, no documents or files, and no more horrifying "tools" in the hidden compartment.

There is only one thing.

A die.

It was a die!

A cube-shaped die, about the size of a regular mahjong tile, made of what appears to be some kind of dark hardwood, with standard dots—from one to six—engraved on its six sides.

But this die is clearly incomplete.

One corner of it, specifically the corner where the three faces of "one," "two," and "three" intersect, was neatly cut off, leaving a flat triangular cross-section. The wood at the cross-section is relatively new, indicating that the cutting time was much later than the production date of the die itself.

It turned out to be... a die with a missing corner!

"What...what does this mean?" Lynx leaned closer, his face full of confusion. "Going through all this trouble to hide a broken die? And it's missing a corner?"

Li Kai carefully extended his finger, took out the dice, and placed them in his palm.

This die has some weight to it, and the wood is fine-grained. Except for the chipped corner, the rest of the die is polished smooth.

It's like a small object that has been handled and played with for a long time.

"A missing corner..." Cheng Tan stared at the clean cut. "It looks like it was done on purpose. Why cut off this corner specifically? The three faces corresponding to this corner are 'one,' 'two,' and 'three.'"

"One, two, three..." Lin Qian pondered, "Order? Quantity? Or some kind of code?"

"Perhaps it's a mark," Shadow further analyzed, "indicating that this die is 'specific,' or belongs to 'specific' person. It could also be... some kind of token, or part of a key."

"You fucking gave me the keys!" Li Kai's face changed instantly upon hearing the word "keys." "If this is a key, I'll eat it!"

"That's not necessarily true!" Wu Wenbin pushed up his glasses and examined the cut carefully. "The cut surface is very smooth, unlike what a paper cutter could do. It feels like it was cut with a professional tool, possibly a small wire saw or a precision cutting machine. The cut is not painted or distressed, and the wood is its original color, indicating that no disguise was done after the cut. The cutter seems not to care that the mark would be noticed, or... perhaps they wanted it to be noticeable."

"We don't know how to play mahjong..." Ah Zhe and Xiao Fei looked at each other, completely bewildered and not understanding the meaning of the dice at all.

Contrary to expectations, the live stream chat was once again flooded with questions:

"dice?!"

"A die with a missing corner?"

"One, two, three? What's the special meaning behind that?"

"What does this have to do with Li Wan's case?"

"Are they gambling paraphernalia? Does this imply a connection to gambling?"

"Does Jin Dafu like gambling?"

"Does the switch for the second level of the secret room require this die?"

"Police, hurry up! I'm dying of anxiety!"

"This...is not a murder weapon!"

Meanwhile, in another part of the city, inside a house.

In the living room of an old-fashioned apartment complex, an antique-style palace lantern casts a warm yellow light, illuminating the worn furniture. The simple furniture, however, emits a light that is anything but simple.

A mahjong table was set up in the center of the room, with the mahjong tiles already arranged. Four people were sitting around the table, playing mahjong.

It looked like an ordinary card game.

Seated in the east seat was an elderly man with gray hair, wearing a Chinese silk robe. He was holding a "North Wind" paper with his index and middle fingers, gently tapping it on the table, making a rhythmic "tap-tap" sound. His face was calm, but his gaze seemed sharp.

Opposite him was a slightly overweight man wearing a polo shirt, with a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, who was playing a "five of bamboo" tile.

The next person was a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He pushed up his glasses, said "bang," and took the five of bamboo.

The woman above was a woman who looked to be in her fifties but still had a charming appearance. She held a slender cigarette between her fingers, puffing out smoke, her eyes somewhat unfocused, as if she were absent-minded.

The game proceeded at a leisurely pace, with only the soft sounds of shuffling and dealing cards, and the occasional brief conversation.

On the coffee table next to the old man, there was a tablet computer with its screen lit up.

The screen shows the live stream that's gone viral.

The camera didn't move; Li Kai was holding the chipped die, looking completely bewildered.

The old man's gaze rarely lingered on the tablet; he spent more time looking at the cards in his hand or gazing into the void through the rising steam of his tea.

The slightly overweight middle-aged man played another card, then couldn't help glancing at the tablet, lowering his voice to say, "It's causing a huge uproar online. The live stream has almost 600,000 viewers, and it's trending in the top ten on all the major platforms. The police are downstairs, and although they're temporarily holding them off, it probably won't take long. Those few pawns... seem to be close to getting to the top."

The elderly man with gray hair glanced at the tablet, then slowly placed the "North Wind" tile on the table without immediately drawing a tile. He reached out his other hand, picked up a small purple clay teacup, and took a sip of tea.

"Reached the edge?" he asked, his voice low but meaningful. "Which edge did they reach?"

"That surveyor's son revealed the box and his father's notes, mentioning Jincheng Company, Zhang Zhiqiang, and... the blueprints." The slightly overweight man's voice was even lower. "That kid Cheng Tan even had hallucinations, saying he saw a man with a gold ring pointing at the blueprints... almost pointing to them..."

He didn't finish speaking before his eyes turned back to the tablet.

The middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses played a "Red Dragon" and chimed in, "It seems that Jin Dafu, that idiot, left a trail back then. Zhang Zhiqiang is no pushover either. I just didn't expect Wu Guodong to have a backup plan, and I certainly didn't expect his son to get involved."

The woman smoking exhaled a smoke ring, her voice languid: "Wu Guodong is a coward. Keeping a backup is just to secure his future, or perhaps for peace of mind. His son... seems like a bookworm; he can't cause any real trouble. The key question is, who exactly set this up? How could someone know so many details from back then and still manage to fool so many people?"

The old man finally turned his attention to the tablet computer. In the live stream, the camera was focused on a close-up of the die with a missing corner.

He looked at the die, his eyes flickered slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"They actually brought out... dice." He said casually, his fingers unconsciously tracing the rim of his teacup. "It seems the person who organized this whole thing really does... have some ulterior motives."