Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 61.2

On the other side.

Lady Rong stared at her own reflection in the mirror, somewhat dazed.

She remembered that she was on the verge of applying the lipstick, but it seemed like she had lost her consciousness.

When she returned to her senses albeit dizzily, the lipstick that Confidant Ai gave her had unexpectedly fallen to the ground, thus staining it with dust.

Lady Rong picked up the lipstick, resolutely deciding not to use a dirty lipstick. Thus, she closed it.

After resting for some time, she heard knocking at her door.

Beyond her expectations, the person outside the door was Boyfriend Feng.

“Why are you here? According to traditions, we’re not allowed to meet right now.”

After saying those words, Lady Rong stared at the Boyfriend Feng who was standing in front of her, and abruptly felt that she did not want to marry him at all.

The reason why she adored Boyfriend Feng previously was because Boyfriend Feng had used the spell.

Presently, the real Boyfriend Feng was already dead. The Boyfriend Feng before her was being inhabited by the Doll’s soul.

The spell had lost effect alongside Boyfriend Feng’s death. As a natural consequence, Lady Rong did not like the doll-possessed Boyfriend Feng in the slightest.

The smile on Lady Rong’s visage lowered instantaneously. Awkwardly, she uttered: “You should go out first. It’s not time for the wedding yet.”

The Doll asked her: “Are you unhappy? Why is that? You were quite happy when I saw you yesterday.”

Lady Rong did not know what to say either. Instead, she sat in front of the dresser again and opened a drawer, casually taking one of the lipsticks to draw on her lips. “You should go out. I… I still need to do my make-up.”

Lady Rong, who no longer liked “Boyfriend Feng”, did not want to stay together with him at all, and she only wanted to find an excuse to make him leave.

Who would have expected that “Boyfriend Feng” would rush up to her and stop her from applying the lipstick all of a sudden. He exclaimed: “That lipstick is poisoned, don’t use it!”

“How did you know that!” As Lady Rong stared into his eyes, she felt a sudden and inexplicable sense of familiarity.

It was like… she had seen this gaze on a doll’s face once.

“You… Who are you?!” Lady Rong asked, panic-stricken.

The Doll retracted her hand immediately. In that instant, she was at a complete loss on what she should do.

She was afraid that if she prolonged her stay in the room, she would be utterly exposed. Hence, she said: “That… You can do your make-up first then. We’ll meet at the wedding later.”

After the Doll departed, Lady Rong suddenly recalled the words that the magician said.

Back when she was 10 years old, a magician had paid a visit.

The magician had gazed at the doll in her arms and asked her: “Are you very fond of that doll?”

Lady Rong nodded her head, “Yes, I really like her. Is there a problem with her?”

Contemplative, the magician said: “She won’t harm you for the time being. If you allow her to continue being like this, I can’t predict what she will become later down the road either. If she comes alive and harms people, I will teach you an array that can get rid of her.

“Place all the objects related to her like her toys, small houses and clothes inside the pentagram, which will draw her spirit body towards the pentagram and seal her away. Afterwards, burn those objects, which will in turn, destroy her soul.

“Her soul can leave her original body, and reside in other vessels. Naturally, her soul and the vessel she resides in are mutually dependent; once the soul is destroyed, her temporary vessel will be destroyed through the same method.

“Lastly, you must burn her original body. Or else, her spirit body might be reborn again. Only when you destroy her original body and spirit body together in the pentagram by fire, will that be considered as a complete and thorough destruction of her body and soul.”

Remembering the magician’s advice, Lady Rong pushed open the doors to the doll room, walking towards a dusty corner that had been neglected for a long time. She picked up that ugly doll.

At the age of five, this was the first doll she ever possessed in her life.

But she had forgotten about her for a long time.

Brimming with paranoia, dread, and fear, Lady Rong picked up the doll and started rummaging through the cupboards and chests based on her memory to find some outdated and old clothes and toys that once belonged to this doll.

She ran out of her door swiftly, and encountered the butler who was pushing the cleaning cart over.

At that time, it was 9:30.

* * *

Last night, after the dance ended.

After the guests dispersed from the scene, Butler Hao stayed behind to clean up the hall.

It was at that moment where he discovered the dagger underneath the tablecloth.

This was also the first time he noticed that something was awry.

However, he did not manage to ascertain what was going on at that point in time, so he kept the dagger.

On the morning of the second day, he was one of the earliest to rise and he started busying about. Once he was certain that breakfast was prepared, he brought the breakfast to the garden dining room before he brought another portion of breakfast to the bridegroom.

He returned to the garden dining room afterwards. Once the guests were done with their breakfast, Magnate Rong wanted to play chess, so he prepared the chessboard.

After he left the garden dining room at 8:30, Butler Hao returned to the lodging area on the sixth floor and started tidying and cleaning up every guest room.

He went to Yang Ye’s room first. However, he was subsequently greeted with an extremely strange matter— the bedsheets and blankets in the room, furniture included, were completely wet.

Did Scumbag Yu happen to smoke, which ended up triggering the sprinkler system and dispensing the water?

Butler Hao did not think too much into it, merely changing the carpet, bedsheets and blankets to a new set silently.

Then, Butler Hao opened the closet, wanting to check if the clothes in the closet had been soaked through. To his surprise, he discovered that the doll in Scumbag Yu’s room had scorched marks around her mouth and nose.

Butler Hao did not spare the revelation much thought either, because cleaning up Scumbag Yu’s room had been exhausting, to say nothing of the fact that he had spent more than half an hour.

Following, the butler went to Actor Ming’s room for cleaning. Recalling the condition that the doll in Scumbag Yu’s room was in, he checked the doll in the closet conscientiously. There were no peculiarities.

He went to Designer Mei’s room next.

After doing a simple clean-up, Butler Hao abided by a principle of prudence, so he went to check Designer Mei’s closet as well.

At this moment, he discovered that there was a knife wound in the doll’s chest.

This reminded him of the knife he had picked up from under the table last night.

Having spent 20 minutes tidying Actor Ming’s and Designer Mei’s rooms, the butler proceeded to Confidant Ai’s room.

Similarly, he checked the doll in Confidant Ai’s closet, and noted that there were an additional heart symbol on the doll’s wrist.

When he finally tidied up and exited Confidant Ai’s room, the time was approximately 9:30, and Butler Hao bumped into Lady Rong, who was losing her head out of fear.

Noticing that Lady Rong’s emotions were off-kilter, Butler Hao asked her: “What’s the matter with you?”

Under the compulsion of her fears, Lady Rong’s speech was a little incoherent. “The doll is alive, she killed someone! She killed Boyfriend Feng, she possessed Boyfriend Feng’s body, and she might kill me as well! I want to destroy her!”

“How are you going to destroy her?”

“A magician once taught me a method, I just need to go to the garden and find a place to set-up the array.”

Butler Hao thought about it before he told Lady Rong: “You need to calm down first. With regards to the ancient castle being haunted, and the doll killing someone who happens to be your fiancé, they are matters that can’t be disclosed to others. It will harm your reputation, and I’m afraid that no one would dare to marry you in the future.”

“What should I do then?”

“I saw some of the guests going downstairs just now, they might have gone to the garden. Additionally, Actor Ming is in the garden dining room playing chess. Therefore, you can’t use the path from the main hall, or else Actor Ming will see you.

“How about this, I’ll accompany you to the garden to find a place for the array.”

Thus, the pair took the lift to the first floor. The butler made Lady Rong wait at the main lobby as he went to the main hall to instruct the workers and chefs, telling them to retain the guests in the main hall if they saw them coming back.

Afterwards, he escorted Lady Rong to the main entrance of the ancient castle, and they went along the outer perimeter to get to the vegetable field.

When they were walking towards the peach forest, the butler heard an argument. Subsequently, he witnessed Confidant Ai and Designer Mei returning back to the main hall, but Scumbag Yu had yet to leave.

Hence, the butler sneaked up to the lake. Taking advantage of the fact that Scumbag Yu was unguarded because his heart was distracted and his thoughts were in turmoil, he knocked him out.

At that time, it was roughly 10 o’ clock.

After returning back to the vegetable field, the butler said to Lady Rong: “You should finish the array as soon as possible. There is a certain distance from the lake to this location. You should pay attention to the sound of footsteps. If he wakes up and walks over, you need to leave immediately.”

Hence, Lady Rong started to draw the formation in the vegetable field with a peace of mind.

Truth to be told, after considering the different defects present on the dolls’ bodies in the different rooms, Butler Hao had already reacted by then. Perhaps, the dolls were protecting Lady Rong.

However, he could not let his young mistress marry a doll.

Moreover, even if the doll was protecting Lady Rong right now, it was still an absurdly evil practice when all was said and done. What if the doll harmed Lady Rong in the future?

What was occupying the butler’s thoughts right now was that, if the guests were to discover Boyfriend Feng’s corpse, what were they going to do?

He would never allow Lady Rong to carry the tarnish of murder to her name, he had to protect his young mistress’s reputation.

Without needing to think for too long, the butler had already conceived a plan. Hence, he returned to the lodging area immediately, and proceeded to go into every room to stab the dolls and tear off their arms, while taking away the doll in Scumbag Yu’s room in an attempt to shift the blame to him.

In the moment before the pentagram took effect, the Doll inside Boyfriend Feng’s body was sitting in front of the mirror as she styled herself.

The Doll thought in her heart— Since I’m using his body to get married with you, I hope that my own appearance is perfect and clean as well.

Only then, will I be worthy of you.

And in the instant where the formation took effect, she was standing in front of the mirror to readjust her tie.

All of a sudden, she felt a wave of intense pain that caused her to keel over, thus collapsing to the ground.

Following closely was an agony that was more excruciating than before.

Her spirit body was starting to burn up, which also destroyed the body she was possessing in an instant.

The fire prevention sprinkler system activated, and water that was akin to downpour descended from the skies.

Before her consciousness vanished, her memory returned to that particular day 20 years ago.

Unable to bear the thought of her getting wet, not even by a single drop from the brook waters, Lady Rong had carried her on her back to waddle her across.

But twenty years after, on this day, the heavy rain poured down, and she was killed by Lady Rong instead.

“You can’t go and see the bride right now, it’s not auspicious!”

The make-up artist’s words were still ringing in her ears.

If I didn’t meet you in the morning, would you have married me?

But… I love you so much, why are you afraid of me?

* * *

After Butler Hao had cut off the dolls’ arms and stabbed their chests with a knife, it was already 10:15 when he entered Boyfriend Feng’s room.

By that time, Boyfriend Feng was already lying on the ground, his body entirely scorched.

The butler took out the doll from his closet apathetically, and dealt with her in the same way.

He was a responsible and diligent butler.

His only consideration had always been the safety and protection of the ancient castle’s master from start to end, which included his young mistress’ reputation.

He could not allow any bad rumours to spread out from the ancient castle.

After he cut off all the dolls’ arms with scissors, Butler Hao shoved them inside the bag before he did the same with the doll in Yang Ye’s room as well.

Carrying the bag, the butler headed for the vegetable field by travelling along the outer perimeter of the ancient castle.

The fire was still burning. The butler threw the chopped arms into the flames before placing Scumbag Yu’s doll on top to shift the blame.

Whereas the original body of the old doll had already turned into ash during the beginning of the large fire.

When they returned to the ancient castle, it was 10:45. Butler Hao sent Lady Rong back to her room, while he went back to his room to rest for a short while.

At 11 o’ clock, the remaining people returned.

Butler Hao informed them that they should prepare for the commencement of the wedding.

* * *

At the present moment. Inside a resting lounge in the centralised discussion room.

Lady Rong looked at Butler Hao: “I already had a talk with Meng Qian Cheng just now. Once the one-on-one interrogations have concluded, he will gather everyone for a discussion.”

“Furthermore, he’s no longer suspecting Yang Ye right now, he’s suspecting you. I can give you my vote, right?”

“Yes. You can vote for me. I will vote for myself as well. If the accomplice is treated as the real murderer and voted out, the accomplice’s task succeeds. Although we had a slight altercation prior to this… But we are tied together right now, without a doubt.”

As Butler Hao said those words placidly, he did not look at her.

“For the entire day, we were afraid of attracting suspicions so we couldn’t have a careful discussion alone, and you can’t stay in my resting lounge for too long. After you leave, help me call in a random person…

“We have to make him assume that I’ve talked to every single person in the resting lounge before. I can’t let them think towards the accomplice trajectory. Everyone in this script should be around the same calibre, and they shouldn’t have encountered a script like this.”

Butler Hao uttered: “At this current juncture, especially at this time, you have to be calm. We still have to push for the angle where Scumbag Yu is the murderer first. All you have to do is remain adamant about the fact that you didn’t leave the room after 8:30. I was constantly moving along the corridor, cleaning each and every room, I can give you an alibi.

“When we reach the stage where we’re only left with the last resort, I will defy everything and self-detonate myself as the murderer.

“We’re done here. In order to avoid any misgivings, I’m leaving.”

Lady Rong could not help but be nervous, and her complexion was slightly pale. “Wait, that Gu Liang isn’t simple… Do you think he will manage to find out where I have erred?”

The author has something to say:

1, Butler Hao and Lady Rong will be performing up next, can anyone guess where their critical mistake is?

2, The title of this script comes from a horror song that isn’t very horrific called ‘The Doll The Young Girl Carries On Her Back’. (I think it’s a song?)

3, Actor Ming won’t remain a soy sauce character, his important scenes are at the back, the ancient castle story has a continuation to it.

Some of the little angels in the long comments have been asking about the wall paintings, it is related to the next story as well.

4, Mwah! A word of good night to the comrades who are already asleep, I hope all of you won’t lose your hair like me, 23333.