Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 452 - 403: Mechanism

Chapter 452: Chapter 403: Mechanism
Even if Chen Qiwei hadn’t spoken up, the captain and crew would have done the same.
They questioned all the island’s natives and passengers who had stayed on the island the previous night. Many had been awake, but no one saw anyone rappel down from the deck or throw a weapon from a window.
The case once again reached a deadlock. Everyone returned to Room 9 to re-examine the clues.
"So, the current conclusion is that Su Xinghuo, the last person to leave the room, remains the prime suspect."
Feilian said, "After Hai Zheng—10 p.m.—no one entered or left Room 9."
"If Su Xinghuo is the murderer, how do you explain the Heir Prince dying only at the Chou Zheng hour—2 a.m.?"
Singer Shi Yajing frowned and said, "The timing doesn’t match."
"This isn’t complicated."
Feilian smirked. "He’s a doctor and a trusted friend of Xia Yuanjia. Perhaps Xia Yuanjia was already drunk and unconscious by then.
Su Xinghuo took this opportunity to remove the expiring Alarm Talismans around the room, laid the unconscious Xia Yuanjia on the bed, staged the scene, and set up a timed mechanism.
Then, he placed new Alarm Talismans around the room, stuck half an Alarm Talisman on the doorframe, and calmly left the room, creating a sealed chamber.
And that timed mechanism? It was ice."
Feilian walked to the puddle on the floor, pointed at the ground and the ceiling, and explained, "He first took two blocks of ice from the freezer, wrapping a thin thread around one of them.
Then, using a physician’s scalpel or something similar, he carved the other ice block into the shape of a guillotine blade and tied the other end of the thread to it.
The larger ice block was placed on the floor, the thread was hung in mid-air, looped over the nut of a bolt, suspending the ice guillotine directly above Xia Yuanjia’s neck.
Since Xia Yuanjia was already asleep and bound by the quilt straps, he wouldn’t move during the night.
By the Chou Zheng hour, the large ice block would have melted enough that it could no longer secure the thread. The thread would pull free, and the ice guillotine would fall, severing Xia Yuanjia’s neck as he lay in bed. It would then topple to the left, fall off the bed, and break the clock face."
Feilian snapped his fingers and grinned. "Su Xinghuo likely rehearsed this many times, knowing the ice’s melting rate. He deliberately gave himself plenty of time."
"Wait a moment."
After a brief shock, Su Xinghuo reacted and retorted, "Isn’t your theory full of holes? If there really was such a mechanism, and the large ice block had almost entirely melted, how could the ice blade not have melted as well? Without its sharpness, could it still cleanly cut through a neck?"
"You just need to make the two pieces of ice melt at different rates."
Feilian said, "For instance, add salt to the ice block on the ground to accelerate its melting. Or, lower the room’s temperature and have a Wind Talisman blow directly on the ice blade. This would quickly disperse any melted water, slowing its melting rate compared to the block on the ground, thus maintaining its sharpness. Theoretically, this is entirely achievable."
Su Xinghuo was speechless for a moment, unsure what to say.
MEOW.
His black cat, standing in the corridor, couldn’t help but meow at the scene.
Feilian appeared to be an arrogant young nobleman, but his words seemed intent on condemning Su Xinghuo to death.
"The question is, what about the thread?"
Li Ang cleared his throat and asked, "The ice blade mechanism is theoretically feasible, but how would one retract that thin thread?"
Feilian sneered. "Isn’t that simple..."
"You’re going to say he lengthened the thread and ran it out under the door, right?"
Li Ang interjected, "For example, using a thread thirty feet long, or even longer. Only a small section would be used in the ice blade mechanism. Su Xinghuo would have taken the rest of the thread out of the room, passing it under the door, out around the doorframe, and into his own room.
Last night, Su Xinghuo stayed awake, watching the thread’s movements.
Once he felt the thread begin to retract, he knew the mechanism had been triggered.
After the ice blade severed the Heir Prince’s neck, he then retracted the thread, destroying the evidence.
Am I right?"
This time, it was Feilian who found himself speechless. What Li Ang had described was exactly his guess.
"Then let’s test it."
Li Ang smiled slightly. "Doctor Su, you should have surgical thread with you, right?"
"I do."
Su Xinghuo nodded, taking several bundles of surgical thread from his medicine box.
Li Ang selected the thinnest bundle among them. In front of everyone, he laid the surgical thread on the floor, running it under the door of Room 9 and all the way to Room 11.
Then he closed the door and tried to pull the surgical thread, but it wouldn’t budge.
He then shouted for someone inside the room to pull the thread, but that was also unsuccessful.
The door of Room 9 opened, and Li Ang explained, "This door is very thick and closes very tightly; even the thinnest surgical thread can’t be pulled through."
"Could it be that the door wasn’t actually closed last night?"
Guard Sikong Ji from the Prince Mansion said, "With the same ice blade mechanism, instead of the thread passing under the door, it was wrapped around the doorknob.
Before leaving Room 9, Su Xinghuo had merely pulled the door to, without actually closing it completely.
When the mechanism activated, he pulled the thread, which then pulled the door shut, forming a sealed room..."
Sikong Ji trailed off, realizing a problem: once the door was shut, the thread would be firmly trapped. It would be difficult to retract it completely without leaving a trace while also ensuring the door closed securely.
"Perhaps..."
Li Ang looked around the room, pondering how the murderer might have accomplished the deed. He paced thoughtfully to the clock, examining it closely. Suddenly, he noticed a talisman lamp above the cabinet-style clock that lacked a glass cover.
Wait, a talisman lamp?
Li Ang’s eyes lit up. He turned to Talisman Master Dai Xu from the SS Sea Charm and asked, "Talisman Master Dai, why doesn’t this talisman lamp have a glass cover?"
"Oh, that."
Dai Xu replied casually, "Because the Heir Prince didn’t like it. He thought a hollow glass sphere covering the talisman plate, especially one larger than the plate itself, looked rather unsightly.
In fact, the main functions of a talisman lamp’s glass cover are to protect the talisman board from rust and to prevent an overheating board from damaging furniture.
The talisman lamp in the Heir Prince’s room is of the highest grade; it doesn’t have overheating issues, so it didn’t need a glass cover."
"Then is it possible the murderer used the talisman board to commit the crime?"