Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 72.2

At this moment, in the piano room on the fourth floor, at 2 in the afternoon.

In accordance with the principle of one hour as human and one hour as vampire, Actor Ming, who was bitten at 8 yesterday morning, became a vampire at 9. Correspondingly, from 2 to 3 in the afternoon, he was temporarily human.

After the sharp teeth in Actor Ming’s mouth receded, the Earl moved to the side of the window and pulled open the heavy curtains for him.

The scarcely seen sunlight spilled into the piano room. When the sunflowers on the walls were immersed in sunlight, they seemed to come alive.

Even the sunflowers on the carpet were stained with a golden hue, so vivid in colour that they seemed real.

Once he had pulled open the curtains, Earl William returned to the front of the harpsichord and started playing a piece for Actor Ming.

The melody from the instrument gradually soothed the pain, unease and hatred in Actor Ming’s heart.

As Actor Ming was being bathed in the sunshine, a wave of warmth slowly rose in his heart as he watched Earl William playing under the golden sunlight……

Gu Liang followed the script and sat down on the sofa like Actor Ming was supposed to.

Yang Ye sat in front of the harpsichord. Although he was not playing the instrument, the sunlight still shone in, enveloping his entire person. At that moment, it was like he was the genuine reincarnation of the Earl.

As he looked at the room full of sunflowers, a certain fondness rose from the bottom of his heart unexpectedly, as if he was projecting the inner love he had for sunflowers.

The current Yang Ye was not like the Earl, he was essentially Duke Dahl himself.

And himself… Who was he exactly?

The pulse of Gu Liang’s heart sped up abruptly. An unexplained, strange and intense feeling of unease made him rise to his feet immediately.

“Gu Liang? What’s wrong?” Yang Ye stood up and walked over to him. He held his shoulders.

Gu Liang stared at him. “From last night up until now, do you feel like there’s something amiss?”

“Of course,” Yang Ye frowned. A moment later, he said, “Everything that’s happening between us is very similar to the Duke and Aimeili.”

Gu Lain said: “Not only is it very similar, it’s basically one and the same. This doesn’t seem like something that is happening between the Earl and Actor Ming, it bears a greater resemblance to the things that have already happened to the Duke and Aimeili, like history is repeating itself.”

When Gu Liang received the three side tasks in the beginning, he thought that the system was giving him a pitfall problem, and he could only choose to complete two of the tasks at most.

Later, he assumed that this was a design to make the main line task more difficult to complete because the scenario was making everyone conceal their respective stories.

His current thought was that, as a matter of fact, these side tasks could also be perceived as some kind of metaphor or hint.

Hence, for the entire afternoon, Yang Ye did not play the harpsichord and Gu Liang did not listen to the piece either.

They looked for some paper and pen and started to organise the plot.

Gu Liang: “The fact that I was originally human, was later bitten by a vampire, and experienced a three-day transformation period, coincides with Aimeili.

“I like the sunlight, and I want to stand under the sun to receive the fans’ praise. Aimeili also likes sunlight. We’re very similar in this regard too.

“The even stranger thing is that when I was sitting in the piano room and looking at the sunflowers on the wall just now, it gave rise to boundless fondness in my heart, as if I had found a sudden liking for sunflowers. Aimeili also likes sunflowers.”

As Gu Liang listed the common factors between him and Aimeili, he said: “It’s too similar. Both of us are absurdly similar. I feel like I’m her reincarnation, not Mother Ai.”

“As for you&#k2014;”Gu Liang raised his head to glance at Yang Ye, before he lowered it again to sort out the common factors between Yang Ye and the Duke.

“Both of you know how to command bats.

“Both of you participated in the great war against werewolves, and came to this ancient castle after your defeat.

“Both of you do not fear the light.

“Both of you bit a person, and then fell in love with that person and forced them to stay regardless of what method you had to use.”

After Gu Liang wrote down all the common points between Earl William and Duke Dahl, he looked towards Yang Ye again. “Honestly speaking, I still subscribe to the same viewpoint. This is murder mystery game. While the scripted story is undeniably dog-blooded, I believe that it has a fundamental logic.”

“Whether it’s the Duke’s journal or Servant C’s diary, the Duke has always been a gentleman, and he likes Aimeili. He’s not bent and he has no reason to fall in love with a man at first sight. Even if he falls in love with a man at first sight, he would not do all these things to him in less than a day.”

Yang Ye pondered briefly before he continued, “Which is why I want to rectify your previous thoughts. We can’t say that the story between the Earl and Actor Ming is one and the same as the Duke and Aimeili’s story.”

Gu Liang understood his meaning and nodded his head. “Agreed.”

As Yang Ye sorted out the Duke and Aimeili’s story through verbal means, he used a pen to record it down.

“300 years ago, the developments between the Duke and Aimeili were comparatively slower while keeping to the same string of events.

“The Duke’s subordinates caught a group of humans for him, and one of them was a lady called Aimeili. The Duke was interested in her and fell in love with at first sight. But according to Su Lan’s words, the Duke didn’t really do anything to her at the start. From the servants’ diary, which also includes Servant A’s jealousy-filled one, the Duke was very chivalrous towards her in the beginning.

“That lasted until Aimeili made countless attempts to escape the ancient castle during the slow and gradual passing of time. The Duke’s patience was exhausted and he finally decided to turn her into a vampire, and perhaps he only fully possessed her after a period of time.

“Afterwards, the pair must have experienced a period where they were in extreme conflict. For example, Aimeili would think about how she could end herself, how she could stop the Duke from getting closer, how the two of them should dispute… Their days, from morning to night, must have been filled with arguments. Even if they were doing the most intimate of acts, Aimeili would also desperately resist—

“Days like these should have occupied another long period of time before Aimeili gradually gave up and stopped resisting. For instance, if the Duke were to come over at night, she would resist violently at the start, but she would accept it numbly by the end.

“The last stage is the piano room. When the Duke was playing the harpsichord, she could sit on the sofa and quietly listen, which indicates that their interactions with each other have already become relatively harmonious. This is Aimeili after she was met with consistent failure despite her countless attempts to run, commit suicide and resist, where she compromised due to her helplessness. It only looks peaceful on the surface. But the truth of the matter is that Aimeili’s heart was brimming with despair.”

Having spoken to that point, Yang Ye continued: “It’s reasonable for the story to progress like this. But on the day where the Earl just met Actor Ming, he actually… Cough, in the end, not only did Actor Ming accept it without needing much coercion, he actually felt pleasure. These kinds of narratives are only written in small yellow books, it’s not logical in the least. Furthermore, the fact that Actor Ming was willing to listen to the Earl play obediently in the afternoon when he was just threatening suicide and abstaining from the food in the morning, makes all of this incredibly strange.”

After hearing Yang Ye’s speech, Gu Liang nodded and said: “Yes, that’s precisely the case. Therefore, I get the sense that the story between Duke Dahl and Aimeili which they experienced over the course of months or even half a year, was experienced by the Earl and Actor Ming in one day.

“This isn’t normal. For the same reasons, it isn’t accurate to say that all these scenes that happened to the both of us is history being re-enacted. Rather, it’s more like our story has been casted in the mould of the Duke and Aimeili’s story and concentrated.”

The time was approaching 3 o’ clock.

Actor Ming was going to turn back into a vampire.

Yang Ye stood up, and in accordance with the script requirements, went up to close the curtains.

After blocking out the sunshine, he lit the torches on the wall.

At this moment, the card on Gu Liang’s person vibrated.

By that point in time, Yang Ye had already returned and sat opposite of Gu Liang, so he noticed that his expression was extremely strange.

“What’s wrong? What was the plot you received?” Yang Ye asked him.

Gu Liang’s eyebrows jumped as he said: “It says that after I listened to you play on the harpsichord, I fell in love with you.”

Gu Liang’s pitch-black pupils reflected the colours of the fire light.

When Yang Ye heard him say those words as he was staring at his eyes, his heart missed a beat.

Nevertheless, Yang Ye reacted very quickly, Gu Liang was talking about the character inside the script— after listening to a piece played on the harpsichord and looking at the sunflowers on the walls and carpet, Actor Ming gazed at the Earl William in front of him and his heart jolted violently. He suddenly realised that he loved him, he was irrevocably in love with him.

Actor Ming suddenly realised that perhaps they could be like what Earl William described: both of them possessing immortal bodies by virtue of being vampires, which made them the most compatible pair in this world. Between them, there would be no separation in life and death, and they could be together forever.

After keeping his card, a thought occurred to Gu Liang. He stood up and observed the paintings on the wall.

Without the sunshine’s illumination, they had lost their splendour, and under the torches’ dim and yellow flames, it gave the impression that they were about to wither as the sun was setting.

Gu Liang slowly ambled to the front of the painting slowly before coming to a stop. Then, he raised his head and scrutinised it for a long time.

Yang Ye guessed that he was contemplating something, so he did go up to disturb him.

After a very long time, Gu Liang finally spoke: “Yang Ye, I’m thinking… These wall paintings are not that simple.”

Yang Ye asked him: “You believe that apart from facilitating the cross over, it has another usage?”

Mulling over it, Gu Liang said: “Let me attempt to organise Eastern Magician’s story.

“According to the steward’s records, the first time the Eastern Magician met the Duke was on 5 October. The steward’s original words were, ‘It is unknown what he told the Duke, but in an unexpected feat, the Duke raised him to the status of a guest, and allowed him to stay next door’, this actually implies that the Magician might have offered his services to the Duke, and said that he was a talented artist.”

“Yes. The reality is that the Duke should be a person who has always loved paintings.”

Yang Ye nodded his head. Subsequently, he thought of a very crucial area and said: “All the paintings in the ancient castle are either oil paintings or material paintings, which belong to the category of realist art. Perhaps after coming to the East, the Duke had been looking for someone to draw murals for the ancient castle’s walls the entire time, it was just that he never found a suitable artist. Most of the people in the eastern side were better at ink and abstract painting, which isn’t what the Duke wanted.”

“Mn, the point you’re making is very crucial.”

Gu Liang uttered, “Besides that, the Magician must be able to speak English, right? Because he probably conversed with the Duke alone. It’s even possible that the Chinese and English written in the book that taught the Duke how to travel over was written by the Magician.”

Yang Ye: “Yes, that’s possible. We didn’t find any clues that were related to the Duke inviting a translator.”

“Since that’s the case, we can continue to inspect the Eastern Magician’s timeline.”

Gu Liang said, “On the 8th of October, he spent a total of three days to paint the sunflowers in Aimeili’s room and then he painted the roses in the Princess’ room. From 13 October onwards, he started painting the entire ancient castle.”

“Soon after, which is 7 November, Aimeili died.

“While the Duke is ruthless towards other people, he was genuinely in love with Aimeili, so when the Eastern Magician suggested that the wall paintings could allow him to travel to 300 years after while he was still heartbroken, he followed the Magician’s instructions without any questions and did it. Do you still remember the original words in that book?”

Yang Ye said to Gu Liang: “I remember. There were three points that the text expressed: one, too many people have died in this ancient castle, the resentful energy is too heavy and the power of the resentful energy could be utilised; two, the wall paintings happen to cover the ancient castle so it could be used to gather the resentful energy, but it hinges on the Duke using a blood spell and the blood needs to be merged into the wall painting; three, he deliberately mentioned that particular attention had to be paid to the positions of the wall painting, and adjustments needed to be made—”

“Yes, that third line, it seems rather deliberate.”

Gu Liang built on Yang Ye’s words as he said: “It’s like he’s telling the Duke that when he started painting these wall paintings, he was really painting them as wall paintings exclusively. They did not expect that Aimeili would die, they never thought that there would be a day where the murals would be used to gather energy to actualise the travelling over.

“I’m currently theorising that, perhaps, he said those words solely for the sake of eliminating the Duke’s doubts.

“He’s not a simple Eastern Magician. He’s proficient in English, knows how to draw oil paintings, and before he arrived, he made inquiries to learn of the Duke’s fondness for oil paintings, and the fact that the Duke was already looking for someone who could paint murals for his ancient castle. Therefore, if he made all those preparations before he arrived at the ancient castle and offered his services successfully to accept the task of painting the ancient castle’s murals—

“His arrival at the ancient castle was a meticulously arranged affair.

“The normal weapons that can kill a vampire are completely useless against the Duke. He can only be killed with a certain special method. For instance… dying under the energy of all the departed souls in this ancient castle.

“The murals are genuinely capable of gathering resentful energy, but this resentful energy isn’t used to help the Duke travel over; rather, it’s used to kill him.

“I finally know the true reason to why he killed Aimeili, and the true meaning behind the sentence ‘Please select the person who pierced Aimeili’s chest with the murder weapon’ that was on the interface during the voting segment.”

“Yang Ye, the reincarnation and rebirth, the 300 years of time travel, all of it was a fraud.

“Aimeili’s death was the most crucial bait in the entire fraud.

“The Duke fell for the scheme. He took the bait and he was hooked.

“On the night of 7 November, the Duke merged the blood spell into the painting, but what he exchanged for wasn’t the time-travel but a scene of destruction.

“Imagine, in the instant where the array activated, all of them vanished. Instead of travelling over, they became scattered ashes and dispersed smoke under the wall paintings’ bright illumination.

“It’s just that we don’t know if the Duke is truly dead, or where the Eastern Magician went after all of this.”

Gu Liang shifted his eyes away from the wall painting to look towards Yang Ye.

Under the dim and yellow firelight, two pairs of eyes met.

Gu Liang did not know why but it was if he had entered a scene because a faint sense of sorrow emerged in his heart. “I believe… We might be in some kind of fantasy created by the wall paintings. Yang Ye, the reality is that you never crossed over, and you have never met me.

“So much so that… The current you is not Earl William, and I am not Actor Ming either.”

The author has something to say:

1, Why were the wall paintings drawn so early.

2, Aimeili’s diary wrote that, even if she had to die, she would kill the Duke.

3, Why did the Magician kill Aimeili.

4, Do vampires reincarnate.

……

Therefore, have any little angels guessed it?

The translator’s irrelevant fly-by comment: Reading in hindsight is a sucker punch and a half.