Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 56.1

(The bridegroom who spontaneously combusted, the mice who love eating desserts)

A small shriek sounded from the corridor all of a sudden.

Following closely, an even louder scream came from the same direction.

Gu Liang strode out of his door and headed for the source of the commotion.

The person who issued both screams was Li Xiao Yu.

When everyone was discussing the dolls during breakfast, Li Xiao Yu had originally arrived at the decision that— she would never look at the doll in her room.

Upon returning to her room, however, she became increasingly curious the longer she thought about it, and after hesitating for a brief moment, she still decided to open her closet.

Consequently, she saw the one-armed doll.

The doll’s complexion was pale white which was a sharp contrast to the smear of vibrant red on her mouth.

Under her direct stare, Li Xiao Yu had issued an involuntary scream.

Li Xiao Yu shut the closet immediately, and when she turned her head back, a man in black had unexpectedly appeared without making a single noise, like a ghost.

Hence, another scream – louder than first – swiftly burst from her throat.

After screaming, she came to her senses. She leaned against the wall, gasping for air as she took out her card. “Did I accidentally press the help button when I was scared? Was that it? Big brother, please, make some noise when you appear next time, don’t scare people like this!”

The man in black did utter a word before he disappeared into thin air from the room.

Soon after, knocks sounded at her door.

Exhaling audibly, Li Xiao Yu went to open the door and saw Yang Ye and Gu Liang outside.

Gu Liang had bumped into Yang Ye at the corridor.

Evidently, Yang Ye had also been affected by the scream, and he had come over to check if Li Xiao Yu was okay.

After opening the door, Li Xiao Yu invited the pair into the room, pulled open the closet, and picked up the doll that was missing an arm.

She closed her eyes and raised the doll for Gu Liang and Yang Ye’s perusal. “I don’t know where the arm for this doll went.”

In order to confirm a suspicion he was harbouring in his heart, Gu Liang could not be bothered about anything else as he directly took the doll and studied her chest. He remarked: “The doll in my room looks different, but the state of it is one and the same. There’s a stab wound on her chest, and she’s missing her right arm.”

Upon hearing those words, Yang Ye could not resist asking: “How did your doll end up in that state? Her arms and legs were normal last night.”

Gu Liang shook his head. “Uncertain. I just discovered it too.”

At that moment, Butler Hao walked over from the corridor.

Butler Hao stopped in front of Li Xiao Yu’s room and asked them: “I heard a scream just now, is everything okay?”

“It’s alright.” Li Xiao Yu replied.

Butler Hao: “Sure. At 12 noon, the wedding will punctually begin. It is being held at the same venue as the welcome dinner last night. I’m here to inform you that the time is approaching, and you may go downstairs.”

“Okay, I understand,” said Li Xiao Yu.

“I’ll be informing the others then. See you in the main hall later.” Butler Hao nodded his head before turning around to leave.

When Gu Liang, Yang Ye and Li Xiao Yu were walking over to wait for the elevator, Su Lan and Meng Qian Cheng were already there.

Hence, the five of them sat in the elevator together to reach the first floor, and then moved towards the main hall.

Compared to the welcome dinner last night, the changes done to the main hall were not large; rather, only an additional T-shaped stage was installed, and fresh flowers were decorating both sides. According to the programme, the father would support the bride’s hand as they walked down the T-shaped stage, before he would hand the bride to the groom.

After entering the main hall, Actor Ming, Scumbag Yu, Designer Mei, and Confidant Ai seated themselves at the main table, and Lady Rong, now wearing her wedding dress, arrived subsequently after.

There was a temporary resting room at the end of the T-shaped stage. Lady Rong and Magnate Rong entered the resting room, and they would only walk up the stage arm-in-arm once they were called by the Master of Ceremonies.

Once the bride and Magnate Rong were properly settled, the jack of all trades Butler Hao – who was responsible for hosting the wedding – walked up to Confidant Ai’s side, who was being played by Li Xiao Yu. He asked: “Are you taking care of the rings?”

Once he received Li Xiao Yu’s confirmation through a head nod, he went up the stage and waited for the wedding to officially begin.

After waiting in his seat for some time, Gu Liang slanted his head to gaze at the western clock. The display showed that there was 5 minutes to 12 o’ clock.

The wedding was about to begin, why was the bridegroom still absent from the scene?

Was it possible that… the deceased was him?

The time slowly crawled to 12:15.

Butler Hao picked up the microphone and said: “Guests, please keep calm and do not get agitated, the bridegroom might be delayed by some matters. I will go and look for him.”

Butler Hao ran off the stage and dashed out of the main hall at a similar speed, in the direction of the elevator.

Approximately fifteen minutes later.

Butler Hao returned, saying: “The bridegroom is dead. Boyfriend Feng… Boyfriend Feng is dead… He was burnt to death!”

The system broadcast rang out.

“Ding dong. The script enactment has ended. Following, the case investigation segment will commence.

“It is currently 12:30 at noon, everyone can proceed towards Boyfriend Feng’s room to investigate the scene of the crime, the time limit is half an hour.

“After 1 o’ clock, Boyfriend Feng’s room will be sealed off, and the game will enter the free exploration segment, which will last for 4 hours.

“The centralised discussion will begin at 5 in the evening. The centralised discussion room is on the second floor of the ancient castle. Please follow the directions shown on the map and reach the location punctually.

“Voting will occur at 9 o’ clock at night. Hence, you are allotted 4 hours for discussion.

“Magnate Rong left the ancient castle to attend business negotiations at his conglomerate last night. After he returned to the ancient castle this morning, he was playing chess with Actor Ming at the garden dining room the entire time. He is the detective of this case!

“Therefore, the murder suspect is among Butler Hao, Actor Ming, Scumbag Yu, Lady Rong, Designer Mei, and Confidant Ai.

“Best wishes to Magnate Rong for leading everyone to find the real murderer! Hope the game goes smoothly for everyone!

“Oh right, nearly omitted a side notice, Floors 2 to 5 do not belong to the parameters of evidence searching in this current scenario, they have been sealed off from beginning to end. The elevator cannot reach these areas, so the players do not have to check it. The centralised discussion room on the second floor will immediately open once the case investigation segment ends.”

The first incredulous reaction that Gu Liang had after the announcement was— I’m not the detective?

Therefore, I’m actually a normal, soy sauce character this time around?

* * *

10 minutes later. All the players gathered in the room of the deceased Boyfriend Feng.

Apart from the different wall paintings, the structure and furniture arrangement of Boyfriend Feng’s room was nearly identical to the other guest rooms.

Presently, Boyfriend Feng was lying on the ground and his entire corpse was scorched. His body was displayed in a “boxing position”, which was a result of his muscles dehydrating and shrinking after meeting high temperatures.

There was a huge volume of water on the corpse, and the surrounding carpet was similarly soaked, and the deeper colours could be seen from afar.

Li Xiao Yu automatically left the instant she saw the corpse, and she stood in the corridor, refusing to enter the room.

Dong Wan stood further away from the door, making it evident that she did not want to go in for the time being.

Hence, Meng Qian Cheng directed his gaze towards Yang Ye and Gu Liang: “The three of us should go in and check the corpse? We probably can’t count on the ladies to do this?”

“Who said you can’t count on said ladies?” Su Lan took the initiative to step into the room first.

The burnt fumes were thick in the room. Before Su Lan attempted to examine the corpse, she pushed open the doors leading to the balcony to introduce fresh air into the room.

Gu Liang and Yang Ye reached the corpse’s side one step after her.

Yang Ye crouched down, moving the corpse a little first. Upon doing so, they could clearly see that a hole had been burnt through the carpet underneath the corpse. Not only was the carpet completely burnt through, they could perceive that a huge area of the wooden floorboards had been scorched once they tore open the carpet.

After studying the corpse, carpet and floorboards, Gu Liang inspected the surroundings of the corpse.

On the right of the corpse was the mirror, dressing table and a small bench. There were small scorched traces on the leg of the wooden bench, but it was not heavily affected, and the dressing table at the side was essentially unscathed.

Left of the corpse was the bed. A small section of the velvet curtains beside the bed had been destroyed by the fire, but there were no further damages.

Gu Liang walked over to the curtains, stretching his hand out to grab it. His entire hand was wet.

He pulled the curtains aside and felt the bed, noting that the bedsheets and blankets were completely drenched as well.

Then, Gu Liang raised his head and focused on the fire prevention sprinkler system installed on the ceiling. It appears that after the fire started, the sprinkler system started spraying water on automatic, thus preventing the fire from spreading further.

“Isn’t this fire incredibly strange? Most fires start from certain objects before they spread towards the household furniture and cause a fire over a huge area. And due to the inability to get out of the room, the person is thus burned to death. Or perhaps it should be said that, under normal circumstances, they aren’t burnt to death but they’re choked to death by the smoke.”

The person speaking was Su Lan, and she was addressing everyone from her position by the opened balcony doors. “There, this person seems to have gone through spontaneous combustion.”

“Yes, your explanation makes a lot of sense.” Meng Qian Cheng looked towards Gu Liang subconsciously. Due to Gu Liang’s performance in the previous script, he placed immense trust in Gu Liang’s deductions, so he asked a simple question: “Gu Liang, what do you think?”

Gu Liang nodded. “Agreed. The origin of the fire was Boyfriend Feng’s person. However, the reason why he burned up is currently unknown.”

Having said that, Gu Liang walked up to the closet and placed his hand on the handle.

Yang Ye sidled up to him. “I know what you’re looking for, I’ll help you open it.”

Gu Liang shot him a look, saying, “I’ve gotten used to it, it’s not that frightening anymore. Frankly speaking, it’s just a trivial psychological shadow from childhood.”

Gu Liang thought that it was really not as bad as he made it out to be; he managed to hold Li Xiao Yu’s doll to inspect it too.

“It’s fine if you’re afraid, I won’t laugh at you.” Yang Ye teased as he raised his hand to open the closet door.

As they had expected, there was a doll in the closet. While it was blond-haired and blue-eyed, its general appearance still had some differences compared to the dolls in Gu Liang’s and Li Xiao Yu’s room.

However, the doll had a stab wound in her chest, and it was missing her right arm as well.

“Hm? What’s the matter with this toy?” Meng Qian Cheng walked over, complexion becoming a shade paler, “It’s a little frightening, no?”

Gu Liang merely said: “We should inspect the crime scene first. As for the dolls in the other rooms, we can check all of them shortly after.”

“Sure, let’s inspect the other areas.” Meng Qian Cheng strode over to the side of the bed and pulled off the bedsheets to take a look before he removed the pillowcase. “Huh, there’s something here!”

There was a piece of paper hidden in the pillowcase. Meng Qian Cheng pulled it out and unfolded it.

Gu Liang walked up to him to read the paper together.

[The Havoc Wreaked By The Moon, Making You Love Me] How To Use The Spell: During the night of a full moon, read this spell to the person you love three times in order to gain their affection and heart. Upon taking effect, they will never part from you. Even if you hurt them, betray them, or even if they come to know of this spell, they will never give up on you and leave. They will only love you, protect you, until their body is laid to rest.

Since Meng Qian Cheng read the contents out loud, the players inside and outside the room all heard it.

After reciting it, Meng Qian Cheng could not help but comment: “Fuck, did he use this spell on Lady Rong? Was this the reason why Lady Rong was so insistent and desperate about wanting to marry him? Like I was saying, how could a top-notch Miss Perfect like Lady Rong possibly want to marry such an unsophisticated, low-class, and poor person.”

T/N: Merry Christmas Eve!