AUBTN -Chapter 330 The Secret Room Discovered

Liu Chaoru had originally risen from the position of a concubine. She had only given birth to one daughter, Xiao Yuyao, while all the other children belonged to the late official princess consort!

This had always been a thorn in Liu Chaoru’s heart.

And now, out of nowhere, a seven-year-old son had appeared. It was practically a slap to her face!

She had finally managed to raise those other sons into useless wastes, and now another one suddenly showed up!

How could she possibly tolerate that?!

“Mother!” Seeing things go wrong, Xiao Yuyao hurried forward to support the swaying Liu Chaoru.

“You little bitch… you bitch…” Liu Chaoru stared at the young boy whose face resembled Xiao Zhengnan’s by seventy percent. Her chest heaved violently as darkness blurred her vision.

Suddenly, she spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Mother!!” Xiao Yuyao screamed.

Liu Chaoru’s eyes rolled back, and she fainted completely.

The entire front courtyard of the prince’s estate instantly erupted into chaos.

The maids and old servants screamed as they ran around in panic. Some rushed to summon a physician, while others pinched her philtrum in an attempt to wake her.

Standing in the shadows of the corridor, the four of them exchanged looks, momentarily speechless.

“That’s it?”

Yu Qing crossed her arms and leaned against a vermilion pillar, rolling her eyes dramatically in exasperation.

“I thought this was some high-IQ, cold-blooded female killer driven by love and hatred. Turns out it’s just the most cliché soap opera ever—a mistress barging in with her child to fight for status.”

Curling her lips, Yu Qing pointed toward Yun Niang, who was still clutching her son and wailing in the mourning hall.

“Look at Yun Niang’s expression. When she saw Liu Chaoru coughing blood just now, what flashed through her eyes was obvious panic and confusion—not the satisfaction of revenge. And when she first entered, that stunned, soul-lost look absolutely wasn’t an act.”

Lu Yan nodded.

“Not only is she not the killer, she’s probably the person in the entire capital who least wanted Prince Zhennan dead.”

“Exactly.”

Su Hewan calmly picked up the thread of the conversation.

“From the perspective of motive and benefit, Yun Niang is merely an outside mistress. All her wealth, status, and her son’s future depended entirely on Prince Zhennan alone. Once Xiao Zhengnan died, she and her son became drifting duckweed without protection, liable to be crushed like ants by the legal wife at any moment. She had countless reasons to flatter and please Xiao Zhengnan, but absolutely no reason to kill him.”

Yu Qing sighed.

“So this lead’s completely dead too. All our deductions are back to square one again.”

Shen Jue shook his head helplessly.

“The show’s over. Time to disperse.”

“Since this path doesn’t work, we’ll try another one. The Prince Zhennan Estate may be staging a family melodrama, but we don’t have time to waste here with them. Lu Yan.”

For the first time ever, Shen Jue directly called Lu Yan by name. He turned toward this rival who had clashed against him for years.

“What’s the situation with the investigation inside the Xiao Army?”

Lu Yan’s expression turned grim, his brows tightly furrowed.

“Nothing so far. The dozens of personal guards accompanying the Xiao Army were all drinking in the front courtyard on the night of the murder. They can all verify each other’s alibis. I’ve already ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guards to retrace their route into the capital and investigate backward.”

“We can’t keep waiting.”

Su Hewan suddenly spoke, interrupting their thoughts.

She turned toward the two men.

“Since the killer was capable of creating such a flawless locked-room murder, they definitely wouldn’t leave behind any obvious evidence for us to find. While we’re busy investigating relationships and motives, the killer might be hiding in the dark, watching us run around like headless flies.”

“Wanwan, you mean…” Yu Qing immediately leaned closer.

“Go back to the beginning.” Su Hewan calmly uttered four words.

“Return to the crime scene. We definitely overlooked something. First, we need to figure out how the killer left the locked room!”

Hearing this, Shen Jue looked at her gently.

“Very well. We’ll do as my wife says.” Shen Jue chuckled softly and casually opened an oil-paper umbrella, shielding them from the fine drizzle beginning to fall overhead.

Amid the endless rain—

The four of them stepped into the study where the crime had taken place once again.

The room still remained exactly as it had been when the body was first discovered.

Standing in the center of the study, Su Hewan’s mind frantically reconstructed the three-dimensional layout of the crime scene from that night.

The doors and windows had been locked from the inside. There was no tunnel, and no sign that the roof had been damaged.

“If we eliminate all the impossible explanations, then whatever remains — no matter how unbelievable — must be the truth. Since a person can’t simply vanish into thin air, then that means he never left this room that night at all.”

Su Hewan’s gaze suddenly swept across the towering bookshelves lining the study.

“Your Highnesses, do me a favor. Move every piece of furniture in this study aside, then tap on the walls behind them.”

Lu Yan and Shen Jue nodded. Together with Zhao Zhou and Chang Lin, the four of them quickly moved every furnishing out of the way.

A moment later—

Heavy knocking sounds echoed one after another through the empty study.

“Your Highness! There’s something strange here!”

Everyone immediately gathered around.

Originally, that section had appeared to be a solid brick wall decorated with a painting of a tiger descending the mountain. But when Zhao Zhou struck it hard with the hilt of his blade, the sound it produced was no dull thud — it carried a faint hollow echo.

Shen Jue’s eyes sharpened.

His slender fingers carefully traced along the wall inch by inch before finally stopping at a slightly protruding brick that had previously been hidden behind the painting.

He pressed down firmly.

A faint clicking sound from a hidden mechanism rang out.

The seemingly impregnable brick wall slowly sank inward, revealing a dark narrow compartment barely large enough for one person to stand inside.

“There really is a secret room!” Yu Qing nearly jumped up in excitement.

“We found it! This is it!”

The four entered the hidden chamber.

But once the torchlight illuminated the interior, all of them froze in unison.

This was no treasure vault.

It was clearly a luxuriously arranged woman’s boudoir.

There was a chaise lounge covered in embroidered cushions, a small table beside it, and even several erotic paintings hanging on the walls.

Even more shocking was the row upon row of strangely shaped objects of varying materials hanging from the wall.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Yu Qing reached out and poked one of the exquisitely carved items.

“Hey, Wanwan, look at this. What is it? It’s actually pretty well made—”

Before she could finish speaking, Lu Yan strode forward in a single step and grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t touch it. It’s dirty.”

Yu Qing froze.

Then suddenly, the gears in her brain clicked into place.

She looked at the objects, then at Lu Yan’s awkward expression, and instantly understood.

“Holy crap!”

Her entire face turned scarlet.

Even Su Hewan and Yu Qing, both modern women, felt so embarrassed by the roomful of items that their toes practically curled into the floor.

For a moment, the atmosphere inside the cramped secret chamber became unbearably awkward.

Four people. Eight eyes.

None of them knew where to look.

Almost simultaneously, they all turned their heads away and pretended to study the patterns on the walls.

In the end, Su Hewan was the one who broke the strange silence.

Forcing herself to remain calm, she stepped forward and focused on the small table laid out with pastries and fruit.

“This should be where the Prince of Zhennan secretly met with that woman, Yun Niang,” she said, picking up a peach blossom pastry that had not yet fully dried out.

Judging it carefully, she continued, “Based on how fresh these pastries still are, Yun Niang definitely came here on the night of the murder.”

“My god…” Yu Qing’s face was still bright red, wearing the expression of someone who had just stumbled upon earth-shattering gossip. She couldn’t help whispering, “This Prince of Zhennan really knew how to play. At his age, could he even handle all this?”

“So that Yun Niang was pretending the whole time?” Shen Jue’s voice turned colder.

Clearly, even he was displeased by the decadent scene before them.

“Whether she was pretending or not, we’ll know once we question her,” Lu Yan said expressionlessly, though a cold glint flashed through his eyes.

He turned to Zhao Zhou and Chang Lin, who were guarding outside the chamber.

“Go bring Yun Niang here.”