Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 60.2

Thank you for your Ko-Fis, kungkoe!

After a few seconds, only Yang Ye and Gu Liang remained in the resting lounge.

Gu Liang tilted his head, meeting Yang Ye’s gaze immediately.

When Li Xiao Yu was around just now, Gu Liang did not notice it.

But he was now all-too-aware that Yang Ye was way too close to him.

Gu Liang raised an elbow to jab Yang Ye’s side. “Go and sit on the opposite seat.”

Yang Ye: “Why?”

“It is easier to discuss that way.” Gu Liang deadpanned.

Yang Ye grinned, but he still complied with his request by moving to the seat opposite of him.

However, he rested his entire body on the table and held onto his face as he gazed at Gu Liang. Those eyes were still extremely close to Gu Liang.

Gu Liang stood up and fetched a bottle of mineral water for Yang Ye.

He did not know what kind of mentality he possessed but he mimicked his actions, twisting open the bottle cap before he handed it to Yang Ye.

Yang Ye gave him a one-over. “You’re…”

“It’s merely mutual reciprocation.” Gu Liang sat back on the sofa and knocked on the table, “Our time is limited, let’s continue talking about the case.”

“Hah…”

Yang Ye’s eyebrows raised as he looked at Gu Liang smilingly for a long time. Then, he firmed up his expression and took the initiative to ask Gu Liang: “After chatting with Li Xiao Yu, do you have any new ideas?”

“If we’re talking about an overall new theory, then no. But her supplementing details allowed me to gain closer insights on Butler Hao’s behavioural logic.”

Gu Liang said: “I think, when Butler Hao noticed that you, Designer Mei, and Confidant Ai went to the garden, he decided to seize the opportunity to deal with the dolls in our rooms, in which he stabbed them with a knife and tore off their right arms.

“In order to prevent all of you from returning, he instructed the back kitchen and the workers to make you stay in the main hall to help decorate the wedding venue instead of returning to the lodging area. I reckon, if Magnate Rong and I had finished our chess session earlier than expected, we would have been retained by the workers as well.

“And when he went downstairs to check the first floor, only Confidant Ai and Designer Mei had returned, whereas you’re not around. Subsequently, he used the other path to go to the garden, eventually found you at the lake, and knocked you out. Ah, that’s not right&#k2014;”

Gu Liang became conscious that he had committed an error. He stopped for a moment before he continued to speak: “I want to amend our previous conjecture&#k2014; Butler Hao’s instruction to make the workers obstruct them and the act of knocking you out, wasn’t to prevent you from returning to the lodging area, but because he was afraid that all of you would go to the vegetable field.

“The stabbing and arm chopping of the dolls, he should have finished it before 10 o’ clock. After he knocked you out, he brought your doll and the right arms to the vegetable field for burning.”

Yang Ye mulled over it with a scowl. He said: “Which means to say, he didn’t kill someone and then shift the blame. He shifted the blame first before he killed. This suggests that he had conceived of the entire plan a long time ago.”

— Was this reasonable?

“Yes. If he wanted to stop you from returning to the lodging area, there is no need for him to knock you out.

“Under the premise that he’s already instructed the workers to obstruct all of you, and you were to return back to the main hall by the usual way, you would be placed in the same situation as Designer Mei and Confidant Ai, where you’d be retained to help set up the wedding venue. You wouldn’t be given the chance to return to the lodging area.

“Therefore, the butler knocked you out, not because he wanted to prevent you from going back to the lodging area, but because he was preventing you from going towards the vegetable field. For the same reason, it can be inferred that he had thought of a plan to retain Designer Mei and Confidant Ai in the main hall for the same purpose as well.

“A detail that supports this fact is that, when Li Xiao Yu went to look for the both of you, she didn’t smell anything in particular, because he probably wasn’t burning something in the vegetable field back then. Furthermore, would he use the pentagram in the vegetable field to kill someone when the three of you were arguing in the nearby lake? It’s unlikely for him to do that; he would wait for all of you to leave before he used the formation to kill someone.

“Lastly, I didn’t see him from beginning to end. Whether it was going to the vegetable field or the lakeside, he never used the path from the west side door of the main hall to reach his destination. Instead, he walked around from the main entrance of the ancient castle every time he travelled. If he were to go to the vegetable field to burn the items first, he would have to detour back to the main hall to take a peek, notice that you have yet to return, then run back to the lake to knock you out. And afterwards, he would still have to run around the ancient castle’s perimeters to return back to the lodging area to deal with the dolls. There’s too many detours, it’s impossible.”

Having said that, Gu Liang gave a conclusion: “Therefore, before 10 o’ clock, Butler Hao was already in the lodging area stabbing the dolls and cutting off their arms. After 10 o’ clock, he went to the vegetable field to kill the deceased with the array. I’m not certain when the array took effect, but it can be inferred that Boyfriend Feng’s time of death was after 10.”

Yang Ye scrunched his eyebrows together after a short beat. “Before 10 o’ clock, none of us were in the guest rooms. It’s a good time for the butler to act against the dolls in our rooms. But what about Lady Rong’s and Boyfriend Feng’s? The two of them are more special.

“Lady Rong went back to her room at 8:30 for her make-up after breakfast. Therefore, the butler needs to be in her room before 8:30 to stab her doll and tear off her arm.

“Then there’s Boyfriend Feng. According to your previous deduction, Boyfriend Feng definitely died after 10 o’ clock, and this indicates that he was always in his room before 10. When did the butler act against the doll in his room then?”

Yang Ye’s questions were extremely crucial.

It was necessary for them to completely restore the butler’s timeline before they could get close to the truth.

The eyebrows which Gu Liang had just relaxed, scrunched together again subconsciously.

After contemplating it for a while, he opened his mouth to say: “Which means that the butler can only act against the doll at the very last moment. He was the person who discovered the corpse. All of us were in the main hall, waiting for Boyfriend Feng to come down and attend the wedding. When he went to call Boyfriend Feng, he could have thrusted a knife into the doll’s chest and then cut off her arm.”

“Mn. That makes sense.” Yang Ye frowned, “Therefore, we still need to amend our previous deduction. The individual dolls in the room were not dealt with in the same time interval.”

“That’s right. It’s just…”

“Yang Ye, the question you brought up is very crucial. We have to put Butler Hao’s timeline in proper order.”

Gu Liang found some paper and pen in the resting lounge, and started tidying up the crucial timeline.

“We started eating breakfast at 7:30. After both of us sat down, the butler sent us some milk and then left. Lady Rong seated herself subsequently after.

“Let us make the assumption that after his departure, the butler went to the kitchen to get breakfast and then sent Boyfriend Feng some. Which means to say, when he arrived at Boyfriend Feng’s room, it should be around 8 o’ clock. Following that, he went to Lady Rong’s room, stabbed her doll and tore off her arm. Assume that he hid the arm in his own room for the time being. Hence, after returning to his room and putting down the arm, he went back to the dining room.

“By that time, we were more or less done with our breakfast. He cleared the dining table, set up the chessboard for me and Old Man Meng, and the time was 8:30.”

If they were to continue following Gu Liang’s train of thought, Butler Hao’s course of action later should be— after departing from the garden dining room, he returned to the sixth-floor lodging area to keep a secret look-out, and when 9 o’ clock came around, he saw Confidant Ai, Designer Mei, and Scumbag Yu leaving.

Hence, as he was cleaning up the rooms, Butler Hao took the chance to stab and tear the arms off the dolls in four rooms, namely Gu Liang, Confidant Ai, Designer Mei, and Magnate Rong.

When it came to Yang Ye’s room, he needed to spend a lot more time, because he needed to change the wet carpet, bedsheets and blankets. He also needed to wipe the water off the various household furniture like the chairs and tables.

Once he was done dealing with all these matters, Butler Hao returned to the main hall. Perhaps, he learnt Scumbag Yu and the rest had gone to the garden after he inquired the chefs and the workers present for their whereabouts.

At this time, the butler wanted to go to the garden to find a place to set up the pentagram. Hence, he instructed the workers and chefs to retain the guests in the main hall if they saw them returning, and stop them from going back to the garden.

After doing that, he left the main hall, cut through the main lobby in the direction of the ancient castle’s main entrance. After winding around the perimeter to reach the vegetable field, he walked past the peach forest to get to the northern lake, knocked Yang Ye out, and by that time, it should be around 10 o’ clock.

After 10 o’ clock, he returned to the vegetable field, burned the doll, and completed the task of killing Boyfriend Feng.

Once they had organised the butler’s timeline in full, Yang Ye and Gu Liang stared at each other for a long moment, having understood what the other person was conveying with their eyes— the butler was way too busy.

Just for the stabbing and arm chopping of the dolls alone, he had to do them during three separate instances.

First, he had to seize the chance to go to Lady Rong’s room to act against her doll while everyone was eating breakfast, and he had to rush back before everyone was done with their breakfast.

Since Lady Rong went back to her room for make-up after her breakfast, it was possible that she stayed there until it was time for the wedding held at noon. The butler could only go to her room to act against her doll as she was eating breakfast.

The next instance was from 9 to 10 o’ clock. The butler had to go to five rooms to complete the aforementioned tasks, and he needed to get rid of the watermarks in Yang Ye’s room. Not just that, he had to run to the main hall first to instruct the workers and chefs to obstruct the guests to ensure that they would not randomly wander into the garden. Afterwards, he needed to run to the lobby again, use the other path to get to the vegetable field, and then go to the lake to knock out Yang Ye.

Finally, which was at 12 noon, he took advantage of the fact that he was calling Boyfriend Feng to participate in the wedding to deal with the doll in Boyfriend Feng’s room.

Realistically speaking, apart from the final instance where the time given was reasonable, the amount of time he had for the first two instances were too rushed for him, especially for the time interval between 9 to 10. He had to do too many things, and it would only work if he could guarantee that not a single step would go wrong.

“It’s incredibly strange. It’s not logical. This means that he probably dealt with the dolls in the five rooms after 10 o’ clock.”

Gu Liang pinched the space between his eyebrows, “We’re back at the problem we had before. Since he had given instructions to the workers and chefs, it will ensure that you, Designer Mei, and Confidant Ai will all stay in the main hall instead of returning back to the lodging area.

“But under the circumstances where he was certain that you wouldn’t return back to the lodging area, why did he knock you out, why was he afraid that you would return back to the lodging area? It’s unquestionably because he was afraid you would go to the vegetable field. This implies that after 10 o’ clock, he was no longer at the lodging area dealing with the dolls, or cleaning up your room. He must have knocked you out because he wanted to prevent you from roaming around the garden arbitrarily, like venturing towards the vegetable field, and witnessing him set up the pentagram.”

“But what if—” Yang Ye sat up, focusing his gaze on Gu Liang as his voice deepened, “there was someone else was setting up the pentagram back then?”

When Gu Liang heard his words, he straightened his posture.

Yang Ye happened to be sitting right below the lights. The light shone down on his tall and straight nose bridge, and even reflected glimmering spots on his lens.

When Yang Ye voiced those words just as Gu Liang’s line of thought was sinking into an impasse, it made him appear tall, bright and imposing; different from his habitual frivolity.

Partitioned off by the glass lenses, Gu Liang stared at Yang Ye for a moment before he opened his mouth to speak: “Then Lady Rong is the only one capable of setting up the pentagram.”

Yang Ye nodded, and said slowly: “Yes, after 10 o’ clock, Lady Rong was at the vegetable field putting down the pentagram. Butler Hao was handling the dolls in all the guest rooms.

“Therefore, these guests that we represent, can neither roam around the gardens arbitrarily and venture towards the vegetable field to discover Lady Rong burning the pentagram; nor are we allowed to return back to the lodging area to disrupt the butler’s plan to deal with the dolls.

“This is the reason why I was knocked out near the lake, and why Designer Mei and Confidant Ai were kept in the main hall.”

Gu Liang lowered his head to record down these conclusions.

He stared at the words written on the notebook contemplatively for a few seconds. Then, he said: “That being the case, the questions we currently have are—”

“Since Lady Rong is so fond of dolls, why did she burn the doll?

“Furthermore, because of [The Havoc Wreaked By The Moon, Making You Love Me] spell, she will never leave and give up on Boyfriend Feng, why did she kill Boyfriend Feng then?

“Additionally, everything we have right now is merely conjecture, we haven’t found any conclusive pieces of evidence, or a decisive tear or hole from the murderer.

“Finally, why did the butler do all these? This scenario… Is it possible that an accomplice exists? And if an accomplice exists, how should we vote during the vote casting?

“If we have to vote for the accomplice and real murderer simultaneously, between Lady Rong and the butler, who is the accomplice, and who is the real murderer?”