Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 89

(Good classmate from Senior High; Good dorm mate from University)

Since the room door was wide open, the crackling noises that were being issued sporadically by the burning rice straw under the stove in the kitchen next door travelled into Chef Huang’s room through the walls.

After a distinct crackle landed, Gu Liang asked Yang Ye: “What was the complete story between you and your wife?”

Yang Ye replied, “Accurately speaking, she’s my ex-wife. For the seven years we were married, we always had a good and loving relationship. Although I was quite unscrupulous where my business was concerned, I still treated my wife well. It was only after a year and a half ago where problems started to crop up in our relationship. The last straw that really broke the camel’s back for me was the fact that she actually had an extramarital affair. We divorced a year ago, and it was only two months after our divorce that I learned of her death.

“It was her death anniversary a month ago. When I went to her grave to visit her, I met one of her friends. However, I’ve never met this friend and we had a short conversation, to which he mentioned Yellow Springs Inn. That was when I learned that a year and a half ago, my ex-wife went to the Yellow Springs Inn.”

After listening to Yang Ye’s story, Gu Liang said with a frown: “My story is very similar to yours. I broke up with my girlfriend three months ago, and I heard of the Yellow Springs Inn at her funeral. Wait… What was your ex-wife’s personality like previously?”

Yang Ye pondered briefly before he said: “She was very kind and devoted, and incredibly faithful, she wasn’t the sort who was capable of having an extramarital affair. But a year and a half ago, which is also around the time where she got that tattoo, she started possessing all kinds of amorous feelings and then she derailed.”

Gu Liang said, “My ex-girlfriend came to Yellow Springs Inn more than half a year ago, and she had an additional tattoo upon her return and her personality also changed. We used to have a good relationship, but half a year ago, she started provoking me deliberately without reason, and was being very vexatious.”

Having thought of something, Yang Ye grabbed hold of Gu Liang’s wrist. “I just thought of something. Did both of you do anything together in that half-year?”

Gu Liang: “……”

Upon noticing Gu Liang’s expression, Yang Ye laughed. “Don’t be shy Liang Liang, we’re just talking about the script.”

“I’m not being shy.” Gu Liang explained before he recalled the “chronicle” inside his script.

This was what Gu Liang roughly remembered about the passage related to the “tattoo” inside the script: “That day, you finally finished your tasks in advance and you did not have to work overtime, so you arranged to meet Aileen at a hotel. After kissing and going through an intimate routine, you took off her clothes and she turned around bashfully. At that moment, you noticed a new and pretty tattoo on her lower back.”

When the script reached this point, the card even attached a photograph.

This was also the reason why Gu Liang could immediately recognise the tattoo on the proprietress’ lower back once he saw it.

After going past the photograph, the script wrote: “All of a sudden, your phone rang, it was a WeChat message from your superior. After you replied to the message, you tried to be intimate with Aileen again but she refused to allow you to touch her as she said this line to you— ‘Since you like working so much, you might as well be intimate with your work’. You told Aileen to stop throwing a fuss, to which Aileen asked if you thought that she was striking an attitude. That night, both of you parted on bad terms.”

Once Gu Liang was done recollecting, he gave Yang Ye a brief summary. “That was how it went down. The following timeline in the script… It essentially talked about what would argue about on a certain day, and it was all trivial matters. A small argument in three days, a large dispute in five. The main reason was probably because I was too busy with my fourth-year internship and I neglected her. Certainly, nothing was done after that instance… Cough… What about you?”

Yang Ye shook his head, saying: “We didn’t do it either. When she started possessing all kinds of amorous feelings, I found it quite refreshing at the start. But after we got on the bed, she would become uncooperative by saying that she was tired today, or that she wasn’t in the mood to do anything in the next. I also saw the tattoo on her waist in bed but when we reached the intimate step, nothing would occur afterwards.”

After saying that, Yang Ye paused momentarily before he continued, “From your point of view, she started striking an attitude because you were too busy at your internship, so her feelings for you started changing. From my perspective, I once believed that the reason why she changed her style of dressing up and became amorous while refusing to do anything with me, was because she had derailed and fallen in love with someone else. But from what we can perceive now—

“There is definitely something else, a reason that no one knows, which led to the huge changes in their personality and their refusal to get close to us.”

Upon coming up with that conclusion, Yang Ye could not help but ask: “Is there something wrong with that tattoo? Did Proprietress Ling do something to them?”

Gu Liang shook his head, “Uncertain. But your conjecture is reasonable, we just need to look for the clues slowly.”

Gu Liang kneeled down again to continue searching for evidence.

After a short while, he found Chef Huang’s diary.

Gu Liang skimmed through it. The beginnings of the diary went back to two years ago: “Does she think that just because she is pretty, she can always boss people around? She pretends to be gentle, but she frequently throws her temper. How annoying.”

“So what if I drink some alcohol? My salary was deducted again. Fuck!”

“Why should I let one woman suppress me?”

“She’s allowed to constantly control us just because she is powerful? I refuse to accept this…”

Yang Ye sidled up to Gu Liang to read through the diary once. Afterwards, Gu Liang gave a final summary: “There is no great hatred, no particularly obvious motivation to kill, and no plans for killing. It contains the complaints that have accumulated over a long period of time at most. Under these circumstances… It is plausible for Chef Huang to cooperate with the unknown murderer after he received the letter we saw just now.”

“Yes.” Yang Ye stood up, “Let’s go to the room next door, shall we?”

“Mn.” Gu Liang kept the diary, following Yang Ye to Waitress Jing’s room next door.

Presently, Waitress Jing could be considered as a prime suspect so the pair went through her room with a fine comb.

And certainly, there were many points about Waitress Jing’s room that was worthy of suspicion.

First and foremost, there was a lot of alcohol hidden underneath her clothes in the closet, which was also the famous plum wine from the inn.

— Why did she hide so much alcohol here?

Furthermore, there was a diary that expressed her motivation to kill.

Waitress Jing also started recording down her murderous intentions two years ago, and it roughly went along the lines of “Why is she always the one attracting the gazes of men”, or “I do not feel like I am uglier than her”. The accumulated grievances became her killing intent, and its potency was similar to Chef Huang, in the sense that there were no overwhelming hatred or heavy and strong insistence to kill Proprietress Ling.

But the contents on the newest page was different.

Since the page had been torn, Gu Liang had to look for a pencil to shade it in for the sake of restoring the original words— “This is great, she is going to die soon! She is finally going to die! This will be a perfect plan!”

“It seems like Waitress Jing had a clear plan for killing.”

Gu Liang said, “She differs from Chef Huang on this point. The dissatisfaction that both of them harboured towards Proprietress Ling gradually accumulated. Based on their diaries alone, it’s not absolutely certain that the quantitative change of their hatred led to a qualitative change, such that they genuinely wanted to kill her. But judging from Waitress Jing’s most recent entry, she was really thinking about killing her.”

At this moment, Yang Ye was busy rummaging through the closet and he found a few articles of clothing that belonged to a man.

These clothes looked wretched, the style was old-fashioned, and there were patches on them.

Yang Ye said: “From a precursory glance, those clothes don’t really look like something that the tourists here would wear. Is it possible that they belong to the vagrant?”

“There’s way too many suspicious points where Waitress Jing is concerned.” Gu Liang walked over to the window to look around. His gaze shifted to the left, the wallpaper beside the window frame was on the verge of dropping down.

Having thought of something, Gu Liang tore down the wallpaper directly.

To his surprise, there was a letter inside.

“If this evidence was hidden by a player, she really hid it well. We nearly missed it.”

Opening the letter, Gu Liang read out the contents on the paper, “Rest assured, I came here for the sake of killing her. I have been planning this for a long time. If we join our strengths together, we will definitely succeed in killing her! As for the remuneration, you can just give me some plum wine.”

Gu Liang kept the letter before he told Yang Ye, “The bottom inscription is the word ‘Qian’, it should be written by Vagrant Qian.”

“Therefore, the wine inside the closet is actually prepared for Vagrant Qian by Waitress Jing. And those clothes might be there because she helped him wash and patch them up. Waitress Jing was collaborating together with Vagrant Qian to kill Proprietress Ling. Since both of them were colluding…”

Yang Ye’s eyebrows scrunched together, “That letter from Chef Huang’s room, who wrote it?”

Gu Liang contemplated for a long time. Subsequently, his eyes brightened and he said: “Maybe it was like this— Vagrant Qian and Waitress Jing agreed to kill Proprietress Ling. The vagrant was the shooter inside the thatched hut, and according to the vagrant’s plan, Waitress Jing was responsible for luring Proprietress Ling into an empty guest room and opening the window.

“However, Waitress Jing didn’t want to become an immediate accomplice, so she wrote a letter to Chef Huang to make him do the given tasks. When the time comes around, she would have an alibi that she wasn’t there.”

Yang Ye nodded, “Mn, that’s highly possible. The person who recommended the guests to go out and play was Waitress Jing; the person who would be afraid of her handwriting being recognised by the chef, should also be Waitress Jing; judging from the diaries, the person with matured killing intent, and discussed the entire murderous plan with the vagrant, is still Waitress Jing.

“If that’s the case, then our current questions are: one, if we deduce in this trajectory, is Chef Huang considered a murderer? Two, who killed Vagrant Qian?”

Gu Liang ruminated for a moment. “If Waitress Jing did collaborate with the vagrant, then she has a motivation to kill. Maybe she murdered the vagrant to silence him.”

Gu Liang turned around and pulled open the drawer by the head of the bed. “If the stories we find later are completely unrelated to the vagrant, Waitress Jing will continue to bear the heaviest suspicion.”

After searching Waitress Jing’s room, Gu Liang and Yang Ye decided to act separately for the sake of economising their time.

Yang Ye went to all the guest rooms, including Proprietress Ling’s room, to conduct a thorough search for evidence, while Gu Liang went to the dining hall to inspect the place carefully again.

Once he was done looking through the second-floor dining hall, Gu Liang went downstairs, planning to explore the sundries room on the first floor. However, he saw Ming Yue in the courtyard first.

When he was walking along the corridor on the second floor, Gu Liang had noticed that Ming Yue was searching the guest rooms with the other players.

However, it was apparent that he was slacking off whenever he could. Presently, he was sitting on the long bench, recuperating his spirits with closed eyes and he had not moved in the slightest for a long time.

With one of the road lamps being in his proximity, the light illuminated his nearly perfect side profile, which made him look exceptionally attractive.

With the visage he possessed, no one would have the heart to blame him for lazing around even if he was a player.

Gu Liang happened to have a lot of inquiries for him, so he promptly walked over to Ming Yue.

“Can we talk?” Gu Liang asked him.

“Of course.” Ming Yue shifted to one side of the long bench, gesturing for Gu Liang to sit beside him.

Gu Liang did not hesitate as he went up to sit beside him. Then, he questioned Ming Yue: “Are you a ghost?”

Ming Yue’s eyes curved briefly. “You figured it out so quickly?”

Gu Liang asked: “Why did all of you open this inn?”

Ming Yue raised a finger and wiggled it. “Not ‘all of us’, it was Proprietress Ling, the inn was opened by her. Waitress Jing and I were small ghosts that she caught so we could serve in some capacity. I don’t actually know her story.”

Gu Liang frowned. “Small ghosts? What you mean to say is, she’s stronger than both of you?”

Ming Yue nodded, “Yes. I was a wild ghost in this mountain range, who was forcibly demanded to come here to become a chef. She even deceived me back then, saying that it was for my own good, and she wanted me to cultivate merits with her—”

Gu Liang interrupted him, “I apologise for interrupting, but what do you mean by cultivating merits?”

Ming Yue said: “I don’t know. When I asked her, she didn’t reply either. Maybe she’s doing it for you people. Since I was a wild ghost in these mountains, I would kill the travellers passing by from time to time and siphon their vital energy. But after I became a chef here, Proprietress Ling forbade me from killing.

“In short, I felt that she had lied to me when she said that she was doing this for my own good after she caught me. I thought she had opened this inn to catch living humans for me, which meant that I would have a daily supply of vital energy. In the end, I was exhausted everyday, constantly bossed around by her, and I had to make food for humans. I was incredibly displeased with her. Hence, I had thoughts like ‘it would be great if she could disappear right now’.”

Gu Liang: “Which means to say that Proprietress Ling was actually a good ghost? She opened the inn not because she wanted to harm humans?”

Ming Yue: “I don’t know. I’m not really cognizant of her story. She’s oftentimes absent because she goes out. Waitress Jing and I don’t know where and what she’s doing.”

Gu Liang mulled over it. It seems like they could only rely on looking for clues slowly to restore Proprietress Ling’s story.

Hence, Gu Liang directed his attention towards the killing method.

Gu Liang asked Ming Yue;: “From 2:30 to 4 in the afternoon today, did you meet Proprietress Ling in a certain empty guest room? Which room was it exactly?”

Ming Yue’s eyes narrowed as if he was in the midst of recollecting.

A moment later, he looked at Gu Liang, saying: “Although everyone was going out to explore, I wasn’t certain if someone would return in the middle. The only person I was certain of was you. Because when all of you were eating lunch, I heard you saying that you would be fishing for the entire afternoon as I was resting in the corridor after I was done cooking all the dishes.”

“Therefore, you asked Proprietress Ling to come to my room? What reason did you use?” Gu Liang asked.

Ming Yue said: “I told her that I suspected that you had unkind motivations, and I saw you sneaking around the courtyard last night. I incited Proprietress Ling into going to your room to search through it carefully while you weren’t around, and said that she might find something good.

“At around 1 o’ clock in the afternoon, I saw Proprietress Ling in the lobby of the inn and she was doing the accounts settlements. I told her the aforementioned words then.”

Upon hearing Ming Yue’s answer, Gu Liang found it slightly strange: “You told her about this at 1 o’ clock in the afternoon. How did you manage to ensure that she would only go to my room between 2:30 to 4?

“I couldn’t ensure it, but I didn’t need to guarantee it either.”

Ming Yue said, “I don’t have any particularly strong motivations to kill her. I didn’t make any active plans to kill her. I was just annoyed with her, and harboured some resentment towards her. If someone wanted to kill her, I’m willing to cooperate, but I didn’t want to cause any trouble for myself because of it.

“Just based on the letter alone, how could I possibly know who wrote it, or if someone was playing a prank to screw with me?

“However, with Proprietress Ling’s death today, I learnt that it wasn’t a prank.

“Of course, I wasn’t completely without designs. Waitress Jing would usually sweep the third-floor corridor, the inn’s lobby and whatnot from 1 to 2 in the afternoon. And if Proprietress Ling believed me and went to your room to check your luggage, she would probably avoid Waitress Jing. Therefore, Proprietress Ling would probably go to your room after 2. Then in reality, the timeframe I designed, and the timeframe required in the letter, would only have a difference of half an hour.

“I thought, if she was going to search your entire room from top to bottom, it should take around half an hour at least, which is enough for the person who wrote me the letter to do something.”

Gu Liang could not help but remain doubtful: “So you just stopped caring afterwards?”

Ming Yue returned a question: “Since you’re asking me for the specific time, it means that you’ve found the evidence in my room?”

Gu Liang nodded, “We found the paper fragments and pieced them together.”

Ming Yue continued to say, “Then you know it to be true. Do you remember the original words on that letter? It wrote that ‘Between 2:30 to 4:00, check in advance to confirm if the rooms are really empty. If they are, find a chance to ask Proprietress Ling to go to one of the empty rooms among Room 301 to 304, and open the room window. Leave the rest to me.’”

“The window to your room was open to start with; I didn’t have to do anything apart from asking Proprietress Ling to go to your room. In any case, the person who wrote that letter told me to leave the rest to them, so I stopped caring.”

When Gu Liang heard that, he thought in his heart: Certainly, his room window was open.

Owing to the fact that he had been constantly tormented by the mosquitoes at this location, he had kept his windows closed at all times apart from that one time at night where he opened the window to check the situation outside.

After sleeping with closed windows for a night, the room would generate an odour.

Hence, before he left the room in the morning, Gu Liang had kept his windows wide open so the air in the room would be fresher when he returned later at night.

Ming Yue continued, “In any case, that’s what occurred. I heard that you wouldn’t be around in the afternoon, and saw that your room window was open, so I made Proprietress Ling go to your room. It’s true that I couldn’t guarantee that she would be in your room after 2:30. But like I said, under the premise where I couldn’t arouse Proprietress Ling’s suspicion, I could only make such plans. If the time wasn’t calculated properly and she wasn’t killed, I wouldn’t have cared either way. I don’t have intense sentiments where I absolutely want her to die.”

Gu Liang went silent from a long moment as he lowered his head to contemplate. He couldn’t find any flaws in Ming Yue’s explanations.

Half a beat later, Gu Liang tossed out a question, “That being said, when did you receive the letter that was asking for your cooperation in the killing?”

Ming Yue replied, “5 o’ clock in the morning, after I woke up to prepare breakfast. When I arrived at the kitchen, I saw the letter next to the chopping board where I did my prep work. I don’t know who placed it there.”

Gu Liang: “In that case, you merely chose to rip this clue into shreds and hide it in your room, even though it’s just shy of directly dictating that you’re one of the murderers.”

Looking at Gu Liang, Ming Yue smiled, “Actually, when you get to the bottom of this matter, this is a deductive reasoning game, not a game of treasure hunt. The system has its rules; the evidence that it provides can only be hidden, not destroyed. Therefore, even if I used my utmost effort to hide the evidence, there wouldn’t be much use, it would only affect how long it would take you to find the clue.

“If I was a player and I wanted to drag out the time, perhaps I might do that. But as a NPC, I don’t feel like it’s necessary.

“Of course, it might also be that I’ve deduced wrongly.”

Ming Yue stated, “The person who wrote the letter to me arranged the method of killing. I merely followed the request written on the letter. But the writer’s plan might have failed. After all, it can’t be denied that I didn’t do anything afterwards.

“With regards to the corpses and the vagrant’s situation, I’ve already heard them talking about it just now, it’s possible that the vagrant’s shot landed on Proprietress Ling. But how Proprietress Ling’s body ended up in the forest, I do not know. I didn’t participate in the aftermath of the homicide.

“Hence, it’s possible that there are other peculiarities to Proprietress Ling’s death. It’s even possible that I’m not the murderer.

“Simply put, Brother Liang, I hope I’m not misleading you. I’m really trying to help you. Even though—”

With furrowed brows, Gu Liang asked: “Even though what?”

Ming Yue met his eyes: “Even though I remembered your birthday, you have never sent me a birthday email.”

“……” Gu Liang thought about it before he said, “I apologise, I don’t really pay attention to such things. I tend to forget my own birthday as well.”

Ming Yue said: “Actually, I also witnessed your act of throwing my ‘corpse’ down the mountain in The Fifth Person scenario.”

Gu Liang: “……”

Ming Yue laughed, “But I don’t mind, I wouldn’t pit you because of these things.”

Gu Liang focused on Ming Yue’s gaze. Honestly speaking, he could not decipher what he was thinking in the slightest.

From the very start, he had never understood Ming Yue; secondly, it was a fact that they hadn’t met each other ever since they graduated from Senior High ten years ago.

However, Gu Liang did not have the intention to pry for Ming Yue’s story either, so he only asked: “After you spoke to Proprietress Ling at 1 in the afternoon, where did you go?”

Ming Yue: “I went back to my room to rest.”

Gu Liang: “Did you go outside afterwards? While you didn’t necessarily want Proprietress Ling to die, you’re already complicit in the sender’s plan. You should have checked if Proprietress Ling had gone into my room, right?”

Ming Yue nodded, “Yes, I did go out. At around 1:50, I walked over to the stilted building that all of you were residing in from my own. At that time, Proprietress Ling was no longer stationed at the lobby of the inn.

“Besides stepping into the lobby, I also went into the small wine cellar next to the lobby, but there wasn’t a shadow of her anywhere. I contemplated briefly, thinking that she might have already gone to your room. Hence, I climbed up to the third floor using the wooden stairs, but at this moment, I saw Girlfriend Jia going into Recluse Wang’s room, looking hurried. Initially, I was planning to wait for Girlfriend Jia to go back to her room before I went to your room to verify if the proprietress was inside. However, Zhao Meili was sneaking out of her door then.

“If Proprietress Ling was dead, I didn’t want to be tied to her death in any way, which meant that I couldn’t allow anyone to know that I went to your building in the afternoon. Thus, I turned around and left very quickly.

“After leaving your building, I went back to my own room. As I was walking towards the dining hall building, it was around 2:10, give or take a few. At that time, I heard noises behind the stilted building, like someone was flipping across the wooden fence. But when I reached the source of the noise, there was no one there any more. Thus, I went back to my room.”

Ming Yue concluded, “Brother Liang, I’ve already said everything I know.”

Ming Yue had spoken about a great deal of crucial timings.

With a pen in hand, Gu Liang had already jotted down everything inside his notebook.

Gu Liang thought in his heart: since he saw Waitress Jing crossed the bridge at 2:30, it was possible that the noise coming from the wooden fence at 2:10 was caused by Waitress Jing. After all, according to Ming Yue’s words, the other ladies were on the third floor.

Gu Liang pondered, with regards to the ladies’ timelines, he could question them properly later to see if it could be corroborated with Ming Yue’s testimony.

Then, Gu Liang continued to question Ming Yue: “After you went back to your room at 2:10, did you come out again?”

Ming Yue shook his head. “I didn’t. I only came out of my room at 5 o’ clock when I heard the loud scuffle that was occurring inside the lobby.”

“Sure. I understand. Thanks.” Gu Liang rose to his feet, “I’m going to another area to search for evidence then.”

Ming Yue nodded his head slightly, “You’re welcome, Brother Liang.”

Since he was done questioning Ming Yue, Gu Liang went over to the inn’s lobby.

Some of the ladies were ransacking the lobby and Li Xiao Yu was among them.

Gu Liang called out to Li Xiao Yu: “Xiao Yu, come here, shall we have a short chat?”

Li Xiao Yu turned her head back to look at Gu Liang before she eventually walked over. “What’s the matter?”

Gu Liang brought Li Xiao Yu back to the courtyard, only to discover that Ming Yue was no longer sitting on the long bench.

Gu Liang promptly decided to bring Li Xiao Yu over to the bench to sit down together before he asked her: “Waitress Jing said that there were weapons and poisons inside your luggage. What was the poison?”

Li Xiao Yu handed Gu Liang an empty medicine bottle: “Here, it’s this one.”

Upon accepting the medicine bottle, Gu Liang saw the description written on top: “[Killing You Without Batting An Eyelid], Drug Description— Slow-acting poison, after using it for a month consecutively, the victim will exhibit symptoms of headaches and fatigue. While there are no obvious reactions, the victim will suffer irreversible damage in their internal organs, death will occur after three months. 30 pellets. Soluble in water.”

Li Xiao Yu took the initiative to explain: “They emphasised that I used this drug to harm Proprietress Ling. But it’s not true. Even if I were to harm Proprietress Ling, how am I supposed to make sure that she will ingest the drug for a full month?”

Gu Liang asked, “So you drugged Aileen with this?”

“Yes.” Li Xiao Yu rubbed her own face, “In view of my character design, it’s not like I could divulge it during the script enactment segment. In any case, look, this medicine bottle is empty. There are only 30 pellets inside one bottle, which happens to cover a full month. I dropped one into the water that Aileen drank everyday. The main reason why I brought along this empty medicine bottle was because I was afraid that my other dorm mates would flip through my stuff and discover this medicine bottle when I was travelling outside.”

“What a great chinese roommate.” Gu Liang shook his head before he asked the next question speedily, “When did you drug her?”

Li Xiao Yu clapped her hands loudly. “Older brother, you just touched on an important question. In fact, it’s all very strange.

“I started drugging her on the 1st of July last year, for a full 30 days. Aileen has the habit of drinking a glass of water after she wakes up everyday, and I was aware of her habit so I woke up earlier than her everyday to prepare two glasses of water, one for her and one for me. In that one month, all the water she drank was the poisoned water I prepared for her. She didn’t know about this matter and she thought that I was being considerate and taking care of her.

“I chose this period of time to poison her because we were preparing for the entrance examinations for our graduate programs and we were staying in school to revise. On the other hand, you’ve already found an internship position, and you had returned home for summer vacation. When school was still ongoing, there were times where she would go outside with you to open a room, which made it hard for me to ensure a month of consumption. Hence, July happened to present a good opportunity for me to drug her.”

Li Xiao Yu said: “I’m certain I made her drink the slow-acting poison for a full month. Logically speaking, starting from August, she was bound to die three months later in November. But she didn’t die. It’s very strange.”

After a moment of contemplation, Gu Liang said strictly: “She didn’t die but she changed. If we count backwards, she came to Yellow Springs Inn more than half a year ago, which was around November, and then her temperament changed drastically.”

The author has something to say:

Ming Yue: “Brother Liang, I would never lie to you.”

Gu Liang: “???”

Translator: “You’re the reason why people say never trust a pretty face.”