Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 62.1

(There is no sun, to whom do you pray for light?)

Inside the resting lounge.

Yang Ye saw a faint emotion, something akin to pity, flicker past Gu Liang’s eyes.

Gu Liang gazed at Yang Ye, saying: “While I can’t say for certain if each doll had one spirit body and all of them were protecting Lady Rong, or if everything was accomplished by one doll, I can affirm the fact that the real Boyfriend Feng had died early on, and he was supplanted by the Doll.

“Think about it, whenever a spirit body shields Lady Rong from an injury, the hurts will appear on the doll’s body. Therefore, we can infer that when the spirit body possessing Boyfriend Feng’s body suffers from damage, Boyfriend Feng’s flesh will experience the same damage as well.

“That doll on Lady Rong’s back is the oldest of the lot. By virtue of the fact that Lady Rong was very young back then, it’s possible that specific doll has the strongest soul energy. While the other spirit bodies could only invest themselves into the dolls, she was actually capable of possessing Boyfriend Feng’s body.”

Yang Ye nodded. “That’s reasonable. Therefore, because the spirit body was destroyed by the pentagram, Boyfriend Feng’s flesh was eviscerated as well. As for where that doll went… It’s highly likely that it was burnt. For the likes of evil spirits, its original vessel usually needs to be destroyed with fire before it can be completely annihilated.

“However, it doesn’t matter if we’re incorrect in terms of where the doll’s original body is. Our most important issue right now is finding a breakthrough.”

Gu Liang took out the notebook he had been using the entire time and looked through it. Then, he concluded: “Hence, after departing from the garden dining room at 8:30, the butler started to clean up the rooms. After 10 o’ clock, Lady Rong went to the vegetable field to burn the doll, causing Boyfriend Feng to die accordingly, while the Butler was in the lodging area dealing with all the dolls.

“If the butler finished cleaning the rooms before 10 o’ clock, he would have enough time to go back to every room to tear off all the dolls’ arms and stab them after 10, and then bring the arms to the vegetable field for burning, before returning together with Lady Rong by 11 o’ clock.”

Yang Ye nodded his head. “Yes, this must be the sequence of events. Therefore, we were actually wrong in our deductions with regards to one area.”

Similarly, Gu Liang had already realised that mistake, and he immediately raised his pen to cross out that section.

“Mn. Back then we said that if everything was done by the butler, he must have chopped off the dolls’ arms first before going to the vegetable field to burn them, which would cause him to leave out the doll belonging to Boyfriend Feng’s room. That’s because Boyfriend Feng’s death can only happen after the array takes effect, and the butler couldn’t possibly do such a thing while Boyfriend Feng was alive.

“Therefore, the conjecture I made about the butler only cutting off the doll’s arm when he was calling Boyfriend Feng to attend the wedding was wrong. It’s not possible.

“If he only cut off the doll’s arm after 12 o’ clock, he doesn’t have the time to bring it to the vegetable field to burn it, and we didn’t find a single doll arm at any given location. This indicates that this matter definitely wasn’t accomplished at the last moment. That being said—”

Gu Liang raised his head, holding Yang Ye’s gaze: “How do you think the accomplice is played?”

Yang Ye: “I’m not sure. But it’s possible that the accomplice can help the real murderer take on the burden of guilt as a last resort. If it works, the good people will be voting the wrong real murderer as well. And if the real murderer escapes successfully, they might attain a double-win. We’ll have to look towards the system regulations for the specifics.”

Gu Liang: “Therefore, it’s plausible that Butler Hao will help Lady Rong take the burden of guilt as a final resort. Since that’s the case, the point we talked about just now can be considered as one of his gaps. If he remains adamant about the fact that he was responsible for everything from the array, the cleaning of the rooms, the dealings with all the dolls to the killing, he will have no way of mending this loophole.”

“That’s how it’s supposed to be, but it’s not absolute either.”

Yang Ye mulled over it before he told Gu Liang: “If I were the butler, it’s completely within my prerogative to say that when I was delivering breakfast in the morning, I helped Boyfriend Feng tidy up his closet, and I took away the arm while he wasn’t paying attention.

“The same logic applies for Lady Rong. When he was changing the bedsheets last night, he could have used that opportunity to deal with the doll too.”

Yang Ye gave a pause before continuing: “Logically speaking, the story given in the script is that, we only thought of the dolls substituting and protecting Lady Rong after we saw the peculiarities on the dolls’ bodies. Whereas the butler could say that he’s been here for a long time, and he became aware of the living dolls very early on, in addition to the fact that the dolls would protect Lady Rong. Therefore, he could have conceived the plan to kill and marry the blame prior to the entire plot.

“It’s definitely possible for us to deduce that the butler is the murderer from the timelines and reasonings.

“But the script itself has given the murderer a lot of room to play in, and those loopholes aren’t enough to nail down the fact that he’s lying.”

After contemplating for a moment, Gu Liang asked him: “When we’re discussing with everyone later, do you have any specific tactics in mind?”

Yang Ye replied: “Pretend we don’t know about the existence of an accomplice first, and remain unrelenting about the butler being the murderer to relax his and Lady Rong’s vigilance. Afterwards, persist in asking about the story to find a loophole. There’s no need to tell Li Xiao Yu and Old Man Meng about this matter first to make the acting more realistic.”

Gu Liang lowered his eyes again to look at his notebook.

When his gaze landed on a date, his eyes brightened.

“All of the other clues and evidence don’t have a time frame.

“Whereas the visitation of the magician has one, and it specifically writes the year. There’s definitely a use for it.

“Maybe, I’ve found a breakthrough. We’ve been under the constant assumption that this matter is rational and clearly structured, but it could actually be the case of our first impressions leaving the strongest impact, thereby causing us to walk into this error.”

* * *

A moment later. Inside the one-on-one interrogation room.

As Meng Qian Cheng watched Gu Liang walk in, he coughed twice subconsciously.

Gu Liang eyed him before he sat opposite of him.

Under his gaze, Meng Qian Cheng kept feeling that he was the suspect while Gu Liang was the detective.

Sure enough, the first question that Gu Liang voiced was very detective-like: “How did it go?”

Meng Qian Cheng said: “You and Yang Ye were speaking alone for too long. I’m already done talking to the rest.”

Faintly, Gu Liang replied: “You don’t need to look for Yang Ye for an individual chat either. To economise our time, you can just direct your questions regarding his matters to me. Therefore, what are your current thoughts?”

Meng Qian Cheng said, “The murderer is between Yang Ye and Butler Hao, a blessed one in two.”

Gu Liang asked him: “Who is still suspecting Yang Ye?”

“I’m not sure about Designer Mei, she’s slightly on the fence about this. Lady Rong initially thought it was Yang Ye, but after I explained my analysis to her, she seemed to be convinced and believes that the murderer is the butler. Confidant Ai is voting for the butler. And naturally, the butler is dead set on the murderer being Yang Ye.”

“I understand. But the murderer is Butler Hao.” Gu Liang said.

Meng Qian Cheng looked at him with uncertainty: “That…”

“If you have something to say, say it directly.”

“If you cast the wrong vote, you will only be deprived of a reward. But I’ll be sending my life away, okay? You’re not helping your husband dupe me, are you?”

“???”

Upon seeing Gu Liang’s expression, Meng Qian Cheng asked with even greater uncertainty: “Oh, did I speak wrongly? You’re his husband?”

Gu Liang: “…………”

A moment later.

“I’m not duping you, the real murderer is the butler.”

Gu Liang stared at Meng Qian Cheng, “But I do have a question I’d like to ask you all of a sudden. How old is your daughter this year?”

Despite feeling strange, Meng Qian Cheng responded: “25 years old. Is there a problem?”

Gu Liang then asked: “How old is the butler?”

Meng Qian Cheng said, “20 years old.”

Which means my conjecture is correct. It’s basically reliable.

Nodding, Gu Liang queried: “The photograph taken during the magician’s visitation, you didn’t let them see it, did you?”

Meng Qian Cheng: “I didn’t. But the photograph just indicates the fact that a magician has visited before, no? This coincides with Lady Rong’s memories. Lady Rong was honest about the magician’s visitation as well. Therefore, there’s no need to show them the evidence.”

“That’s good. Don’t show it to them later.”

“That’s fine by me, but why…” Meng Qian Cheng started scratching his head.

“It’s nothing really.” Gu Liang downplayed the significance with one line before he stood up and walked outwards. “You just need to bite down on the fact that Butler Hao is the murderer, that’s all. His modus operandi hasn’t changed from what I previously explained. To save our time, you can gather everyone for the discussion now.”

* * *

At the present moment. There were two more hours to the final voting segment.

As the detective, Meng Qian Cheng carried out an assertion first: “I’ll be giving a brief summary of the case to start with. Actor Ming is a soy sauce character, he was playing chess with me the entire time, we’ll be eliminating him first.

“Within the remaining people, the person that Designer Mei, Confidant Ai, and Scumbag Yu wanted to kill is Lady Rong, and they’ve acted before, is that correct? Judging from the state of the dolls, the theory of substitution exists, which is that the dolls helped Lady Rong block the damage, hence why Lady Rong managed to survive.

“Confidant Ai wanted to kill her because of jealousy, Scumbag Yu acted because he was listening to Designer Mei. Right, Designer Mei, what was your motivation?”

Designer Mei said: “I don’t know. It only said that I received a prompt from someone, and I came to kill her after accepting the money. A part of the first floor of the ancient castle, alongside the second to fifth floors have been sealed. I think, there might be a continuation to this story later.”

“Sure. Now that we’ve reached this point… Ah right, there’s still another soy sauce character, right?” Meng Qian Cheng looked towards Butler Hao, “Whether it is Boyfriend Feng or Lady Rong, you’re also completely without a motivation to kill, right?”

“I don’t hold any murderous intentions towards anyone. However, I’ve hurt Lady Rong before.”

Butler Hao said, “I cut her arm last night.”

Meng Qian Cheng froze, and numerous people showed the same reaction as well.

Butler Hao: “Apologies, due to the experience I had in the last script, I didn’t dare to give people my trust easily any longer, so I didn’t say anything from the start.”

— You dare to say this now because you are cognizant that no one has studied the dolls’ conditions, nor is there a way to determine if the arm was chopped off last night after going through the free exploration and two hour-long discussion ,right?

Although Gu Liang understood this logic in his heart, he did not make a single utterance.

“Why did you cut her arm then?” Meng Qian Cheng asked.

“Accident. Last midnight, she needed her bedsheets changed so she looked for me.”

The butler said, “She complained that I came too late, and even lamented that I had a lot of shortcomings with regards to a lot of matters. I was incredibly tired after a day’s work, and yet I was being rebuked by her, so I acted against her in a moment of frustration.

“There was a small axe inside her room, which was placed there because I was helping her construct a doll house prior to this. Thus, I picked up the axe in the passing and chopped it towards her right arm. In the end, she was fine.”

There was a whole bunch of question marks inside Meng Qian Cheng’s mind. In the end, he could only squeeze out an awkward smile, saying, “Who do you think the murderer is then?”

“Of course it’s Yang Ye.” Butler Hao said, “We acted against Lady Rong, and all of the symptoms showed up on the dolls. But he’s special.”

“Why is he special? Didn’t you say that you helped Lady Rong change her bedsheets? This points towards the fact that he had used fire. The person he wanted to kill was Lady Rong.”

Having said that, Meng Qian Cheng used Gu Liang’s previous deduction regarding the sprinkler system as justification, “… Hence, the possibility of Yang Ye’s fire diverting to Boyfriend Feng’s person doesn’t exist.”

“This is Yang Ye’s smokescreen.”

Butler Hao said: “Designer Mei told him to kill Lady Rong. But he didn’t want to kill Lady Rong in actuality, the person he wants to kill is Boyfriend Feng. He didn’t have any intention to kill Lady Rong last night; he only poured a minute amount of alcohol on the bedsheets and set it on fire, thus triggering the sprinkler system to create the guise that he was unsuccessful in killing Lady Rong, which also happens to coincide with the dolls acting as substitutes.

“Under normal circumstances, a murderer wouldn’t act against two people. His murderous intentions seem to be directed at Lady Rong instead of Boyfriend Feng, but this is the tactic he’s using to confuse us.

“He stayed in the garden for such a long time, he’s the only person who could have used the array.”

Meng Qian Cheng: “And why did Yang Ye’s pentagram affect Boyfriend Feng? What is his motivation to kill then?”

Butler Hao: “That’s his story. How would I know?”

Meng Qian Cheng was at a slight loss for words, and it was even to the extent where he was swaying back and forth.

He felt that Butler Hao’s words made sense as well.

When all was said and done, no one could corroborate the fact that Yang Ye had been knocked out.

As Meng Qian Cheng was wrangling with the possibility, Gu Liang relaxed the hand he was holding his pen with, and placed the pen on the table.

The sudden noise made all the gazes gather on his person.