Variety Show: I Play the Fool Among Classic Criminal Cases

A mysterious pocket watch engraved with Sherlock Holmes's name drags Lu Li, a designer of escape rooms, from a variety show set into the fog-shrouded London of the nineteenth century...

When the faint scar behind actress Bai Lu's ear matches an old detective's prophecy of death, and "System prompts" become death sentences, Lu Li realizes this game has no script at all:

"Solve every case, or remain forever in a prison woven from obsession."

Wearing the mask of a "newbie," he uses an escape-room designer's tricks to challenge the killer's airtight logic. Yet in the gaps between repeated time stops, he catches glimpses of the truth: behind the murders replayed again and again lies the ultimate obsession of a detective fanatic spanning a century.

And the ticking of the pocket watch's gears is summoning them into the next purgatory: in the shadows of 221B Baker Street, Jack the Ripper has raised his knife...

When the designer becomes the prey, will you trust the "clues" before your eyes, or the heartbeat pounding in your chest?

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.