Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 90

(One Hundred and One Wishes)

After Gu Liang uttered those words, he glanced at the description on the medicine bottle again before he looked at Li Xiao Yu: “According to this description, the signs of poisoning will only start showing after the victim ingests it for 30 days straight, thereby causing irreversible damage which will lead to their deaths 3 months later. Are you certain that you poisoned her last July and made her drink the medicine everyday?”

Li Xiao Yu nodded her head in an affirmative manner. “I’m certain. After I administered the poison every morning, I watched her drink all of the water, and this occurred everyday for 30 days straight. Didn’t I say it just now? You were on your summer vacation during that period of time and I was the only one who accompanied her everyday. There were four people in our dorm room and the other two weren’t around. I watched her drink the poisoned water everyday, head to the cafeteria to eat breakfast together, then go to the library to revise our materials.”

Li Xiao Yu added, “And I’m sure that she was indeed poisoned.

“In your script, she died of illness, but the reality was that she started feeling unwell since August of last year. I accompanied her to the hospital and the doctor wrote a diagnosis report, stating that she only had 3 more months to live. The diagnosis report is in my luggage upstairs, I don;t have it with me now.

“When we arrived here on the first day, I saw the medicine bottle and the diagnosis report immediately after I opened my luggage. But I thought, all these items represented my story and it didn’t share a direct relation with the deceased in this case, so I didn’t hide those pieces of evidence.”

Gu Liang asked: “What was inside the diagnosis report exactly?”

Li Xiao Yu did a brief recall before she replied: “It roughly stated that her five viscera and six bowels were showing symptoms of premature organ failure, which were typically symptoms that elderly around the ages of eighty to ninety would experience, and since it was showing up in her body, she only had 3 months to live at most. However, the doctor didn’t know the reason and they couldn’t treat it either, so they gave her the suggestion that she should prepare her last will in advance.”

Gu Liang could not help but frown: “But why didn’t I know about this? I was completely unaware of the fact that she went to the hospital last August.”

Li Xiao Yu said: “During that summer vacation, weren’t you staying at home? You only returned to school in September and then you went for your internship. Moreover, she told me that you really loved her back then, and she couldn’t bear to let you know about this so she kept you in the dark the entire time.”

Aileen did not know that she was poisoned by her own dorm mate, and she only thought that she had been afflicted with a strange illness.

However, because she could not bear the thought of School Senior Hua being heartbroken, she never told School Senior Hua about her illness.

Once Gu Liang thought of that, his expression became even more severe, “If you’re absolutely certain that you succeeded in poisoning her, she’s supposed to die by November of last year. Consequently… From the November of last year to this May… What are the circumstances surrounding the Aileen that appeared before us?”

Li Xiao Yu responded, “That’s the reason why I said you asked a crucial question when you asked me when I poisoned her just now. Ever since I read the script, I’ve always found this point strange. But I couldn’t say it prior to this. In compliance with my character design, I’m not allowed to say that I poisoned her.”

Gu Liang mused in his heart, This would explain why there was a detailed “chronicle” in my starting script, describing what I did with my girlfriend on a certain year, month, and day.

Those details were proving to be a great help with regards to examining the characters and restoring the scripted story.

Gu Liang said: “I heard this information at the funeral a month ago. Someone at the funeral casually mentioned that Aileen went to the Yellow Springs Inn ‘more than half a year ago’. It’s currently June, the funeral was held in May. The scope for ‘more than half a year ago’ is very broad, but we eliminate the period before ‘a year ago’, which means that we have to start recounting from June of last year.

“Last June, Aileen and I were spending time together in the library to prepare for our end of the semester examinations; July to August was summer vacation and I went home, while you and her stayed in school to prepare for your post-undergraduate studies. During that period of time, did she leave?”

Li Xiao Yu shook her head.

Gu Liang continued to state, “Afterwards, I came back to school in September and started my internship, but I didn’t notice any peculiarities from her, apart from the fact that she seemed to have become thinner and more haggard. I assumed that she was tired because of her revision for the examinations for the graduate program.

“October…. I went on a business trip because of a project, especially the middle of October, that was the busiest time for me and I didn’t see her much, and the frequency of exchanged messages decreased as well. I returned from my business trip in November, and we started fighting. The problem should have started in the middle of October, when I was away on a business trip.”

Li Xiao Yu added: “In the middle of October, she did ask for a period of leave. I thought she was going home to wait for her death, and I didn’t expect that she would return again later. I felt rather guilty and I was afraid that she would find out that I poisoned her.”

Feeling like they had reached a conclusion, Gu Liang said: “Given the state of things, it’s highly probable that she came to the Yellow Springs Inn during the middle of last October.”

Opening his notebook, Gu Liang flipped to a blank page and organised the timeline for his previous girlfriend Aileen.

In the beginning of last July, she ingested the poison for a full month, which made her internal organs start failing.

Last August, she went to the doctor and learned that she only had 3 months to live.

In the middle of last October, she went to Yellow Springs Inn, gained an additional tattoo upon her return; additionally, she was supposed to die during this period of time, but she continued to live on. However, her temperament changed drastically, and after School Senior Hua came back from his business trip in November, he realised that she became very fond of striking an attitude, kicking up a fuss and arguing, and she was not willing to share the same bed with School Senior Hua.

This March, Aileen and School Senior Hua broke up.

This May, School Senior Hua heard that Aileen died of an illness, and participated in her funeral ceremony.

After Li Xiao Yu read Gu Liang’s notes, she asked: “Er ge, do you have any brain holes about this?”

Gu Liang felt a little perplexed, “Second older brother?”

Li Xiao Yu grinned, “When I bumped into Yang Ye just now, he jokingly said I should call him da gein the future, and call you er ge. Or do you want me to call you sao zi?”

“Don’t randomly give him names. Just call him er ge, will you?”

That was Yang Ye’s voice.

Gu Liang turned his head and beckoned Yang Ye with his hand.

Once Yang Ye walked over, Gu Liang briefly told him about the matter of Li Xiao Yu poisoning Aileen.

Subsequently, he stated: “Returning back to the main topic. Given everything we know now, I theorise that there are three possibilities.

“One, Aileen might have made a deal with Proprietress Ling when she came to Yellow Springs Inn, thereby extending her life and allowing her to live for a few more months, and the price of the life extension might be related to the tattoo on her waist.

“Two, Aileen had already died between the middle of October to November and she became a ghost. Afterwards, she might have been stained with the rhinoceros’ horn incense, which means that the Aileen who appeared beside me and her classmates from last November to this May, was a ghost. This might explain why she couldn’t do anything with me because she’s afraid of siphoning my yang energy.

“The third possibility is that Aileen still died in between the middle of October and November, but the Aileen that appeared by my side was played by Proprietress Ling. When I bumped into Chef Huang just now and talked to him, he mentioned that Proprietress Ling was frequently absent from the inn and he didn’t know where she went. It’s possible that she was acting as the people beside us then.”

Yang Ye mulled over it before he said: “The things that happened to Aileen should be similar to my wife. But I’m more inclined towards the third possibility because the change in the temperament for your ex-girlfriend and my ex-wife were too drastic. If it was the former two possibilities where their lives were extended, or their own spirit manifested itself, it’s more logical if they treated us the same as before. But the reality proves to be different, which means that it’s more probable that the person has changed.”

Li Xiao Yu added, “I’ll talk about another incident for you to analyse. Aileen has always been very good in her studies. When we were revising together, she would wake up early and sleep late; she was incredibly assiduous. She said that School Senior Hua had found a good company to intern at, and he should be capable of staying there once he graduated and attain a high salary. She put in her utmost efforts in her studies because she didn’t want to make it seem like she wasn’t worthy of School Senior Hua.

“Even though she learnt that she couldn’t live past 3 months in the beginning of October, she still worked hard in her studies. But after she returned from the break she took in the middle of October, she changed. Her language abilities were particularly good, but when I asked her to teach me some questions later, she couldn’t answer.”

Once Yang Ye heard that, he asked Gu Liang: “When you attended Aileen’s funeral in May, did you see her corpse?”

“No, just the burial of her bones and ashes.” Gu Liang replied.

Yang Ye said: “When I attended my ex-wife’s funeral after being notified, I only saw her ash jar too. Maybe they died a long time ago, and their corpses were already cremated. It’s very difficult to preserve corpses for a few months. But if they are bones and ashes, taking them out a few months later wouldn’t cause undue suspicions.”

Holding his pen, Gu Liang marked the side of the “Third Possibility” with a tick on the paper. “That being said, in light of the drastic changes in temperament, ashes, and Chef Huang’s statement that Proprietress Ling was frequently absent from the inn, we are currently more inclined towards the third possibility.

“This implies that— Proprietress Ling might be capable of changing faces?

“However, the changes to her body might not be large, and at the very least, the tattoo remains. The tattoo we saw, wasn’t something she tattooed on my ex-girlfriend or your ex-wife. What we saw belonged to her; it is a tattoo on her own body.”

Yang Ye: “Yes, I believe that is the case. Although she started numerous conflicts with us when she was acting as your ex-girlfriend and my ex-wife, and was unwilling to do anything on the bed, it doesn’t detract the fact that she acted as our lover for a few months and she couldn’t possibly avoid all the kisses and hugs. For the same reason, both of us felt a sense of familiarity when we met her for the first time, and it felt like we were falling in love with her at first sight.”

Gu Liang raised an eyebrow as he thought of something interesting. Then, he told Yang Ye: “Which means that we’re actually love rivals this time around.”

Yang Ye laughed: “What love rival, you’re clearly my lover.”

Gu Liang turned his head, looking towards Li Xiao Yu who was wearing a maternal smile.

Gu Liang: “Xiao Yu—”

Li Xiao Yu: “(〃’ ▽’ 〃)”

Gu Liang was strict, “Li Xiao Yu, I have another question to ask you.”

“Cough—” Li Xiao Yu composed herself, “What’s the question?”

Gu Liang said: “Chef Huang said that at 1:50 in the afternoon, he left the dining hall for the stilted building we were staying in. After searching for Proprietress Ling in the lobby and the wine cellar, he realised he wasn’t there so he went to the third floor to look for her. I’m guessing that when he reached the third floor, it was around 2 in the afternoon.

“He first saw Girlfriend Jia going into Recluse Wang’s room, and then he saw you coming out from your room.

“He didn’t want to have a direct encounter with you so he went downstairs and returned to his room.

“Before he went back to his room, he went to the back of the stilted building to take a look before he formally returned to his room. During this period of time, and according to the implications in his words, he probably didn’t see a single person in the courtyard or in the vicinity of the wooden fence behind the building. This suggests that—”

Gu Liang glanced at Li Xiao Yu, “After you came out of Room 301, you didn’t leave the stilted building, right? Whose room did you go to afterwards, and what did you do?”

“I… Cough… I’ll just give an honest explanation.”

Li Xiao Yu: “At 1:30 in the afternoon, I asked the proprietress to exchange for some loose change for me. I knew that the small change were hidden on the bottom most layer of the counter, and she would have to bend her waist fully when she was grabbing the change. I took the chance to stab her in the back with a knife when there wasn’t anyone around. Therefore, the stab wound you saw on the corpse was done by me. After stabbing her, I heard movement coming from the courtyard outside the lobby so I pulled out the blade, threw it in the lobby and ran. We already found the knife just now.

“In any case, this attack happened in a public area and I thought that anyone could have murdered her in the lobby, hence my course of actions.

“The vagrant would frequently harass her, and I had nearly every intention to shift the blame towards the vagrant. However, the noise coming from the courtyard disrupted my plans.

“I returned to the Room 301 I was occupying, stayed in there for 30 minutes approximately, which corresponds with the 2 o’ clock you mentioned just now. When Chef Huang saw me coming out of my room, I was planning to go to the second-floor lobby to check if Proprietress Ling was dead. In the end, she was gone.

“Then I returned to the third floor and went to Proprietress Ling’s room. Her room door has always been unlocked and this afternoon was no difference. Thus, I went in directly. But there was no one in her room. And well, I did stab her so I was feeling quite flustered and I returned back to my room again.”

After hearing Li Xiao Yu’s narration, Gu Liang did a brief summary of their timelines in the afternoon.

At 12 noon, everyone had a meal together, during which Proprietress Ling and Tourist Jia were absent.

Tourist Jia should be below the precipice then. As for Proprietress Ling, while Gu Liang did not see her, he heard her voice.

At 12:30, everyone left the dining hall after they were done with their meal, School Senior Hua went back to fishing.

At 1:00 in the afternoon, Chef Huang looked for Proprietress Ling in the second-floor lobby and told her about his suspicions regarding School Senior Hua to make her go to School Senior Hua’s room to search for something. Subsequently, Chef Huang went back to his own room in the stilted building next door to rest.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, Zhao Meili went to the lobby, stabbed Proprietress Ling with a knife, and she heard noises coming from the courtyard. Afraid that someone would enter the lobby, she did have the time to confirm if Proprietress Ling was dead or not as she rushed back to Room 301.

From 1:50 to 2:00, Chef Huang went back to the lobby again, wanting to confirm if Proprietress Ling had gone to School Senior Hua’s room. He noticed that Proprietress Ling was not in the lobby, so he proceeded to the third floor, thereby seeing Girlfriend Jia entering Recluse Wang’s room; with Zhao Meili subsequently exiting her own room.

Chef Huang did not want to have a direct encounter with Zhao Meili so he doubled back downstairs and left. When he was returning to his own building, he heard some noises coming from the wooden fence.

At the same instance, the person who stepped into the second-floor after Chef Huang, was Zhao Meili.

She wanted to check if Proprietress Ling had been stabbed to death, after she realised the fact that Proprietress Ling was not around, she returned to the third floor and went to Proprietress Ling’s room first. After discovering that there was no one inside, she returned to her own Room 301 again.

Yang Ye then examined the timeline once before he commented: “It’s quite strange; who was causing the noise in the courtyard when Zhao Meili was killing the proprietress at 1 o’ clock in the afternoon?”

“There are two possibilities.”

Gu Liang stated, “The first being that Waitress Jing was sweeping and tidying the courtyard from 1:30 to 2 in the afternoon before she moved towards the wooden fence. The second being that someone else was in the courtyard at that time.”

Gu Liang wrote down a name in the blank space of the page— “Recluse Wang”.

“When Chef Huang previously said that he heard noise coming from the wooden fenced area, I automatically eliminated the three ladies Recluse Wang, Girlfriend Jia, and Zhao Meili, because in Chef Huang’s timeline, neither of them came out from the stilted building, but I realised that I made an error in my judgement.

“In reality, Chef Huang only saw Girlfriend Jia and Zhao Meili. He only saw Girlfriend Jia going into Recluse Wang’s room, but he didn’t personally see Recluse Wang. Therefore, the whereabouts of Recluse Wang during this period of time is also a cause for suspicion.”

Closing his notebook, Gu Liang stood up and gazed at Yang Ye and Li Xiao Yu. “In any case, we have gained a great deal of information from this. Let’s pay attention to the timelines of everyone when the time comes around. When we’re asking about their timelines later, we’ll just keep quiet about the things we already know first, and let them recount their own.”

Yang Ye said: “Now that we’ve done a simple walkthrough of the timeline, let’s return to the story. I would like to refresh your memories about something. Truth to be trouble, I did contemplate if Proprietress Ling had harmed School Senior Hua’s ex-girlfriend and my ex-wife, and owing to some unknown motive, she proceeded to get close to us separately. But after we organised the story, I realised that it wasn’t the case.

“With Aileen’s poisoning occurring first, she went to the hospital, the doctor wrote her a diagnosis report and told her that she only had 3 months to live before she went to the Yellow Springs Inn. After she returned, she became a different person.”

Having said that, Yang Ye looked at Gu Liang: “Based on Zhao Meili’s story and your story, Aileen’s story was restored. But for my character of President Gao, I don’t have a character like Zhao Meili to make up for the gaps, so I have no way of elucidating when my ex-wife became ill. I only knew that she had died of an illness after her death, and heard from her close friend that it was cancer.”

Gu Liang understood what Yang Ye was suggesting. “Which also means to say, the situation with your ex-wife might be similar to Aileen. She found out that she had a terminal illness but she chose not to tell you, and secretly came to Yellow Springs Inn instead. Afterwards, she became a changed person.”

Yang Ye nodded, “Precisely so. We were in a very loving relationship. Therefore, it’s reasonable for her not to tell me after she became ill.

“Moreover, let’s talk about what happened after Proprietress Ling approached us. She used Aileen’s identity to break up with you, and used my wife’s identity to divorce with me. Apart from these, our lives and career didn’t suffer from any other influence and we didn’t become sick or anything, right?”

Yang Ye stared at Gu Liang as he continued to say: “You and ‘Aileen’ only broke up in March so it’s hard to perceive. But I’ve been divorced for a year. I can’t see how Proprietress Ling has harmed me in any way.”

Gu Liang raised a hand to press against the back of his neck, raising his head to look at the sky.

At this time, the colours of the sky had darkened completely.

The full moon hung in the sky, spilling a bright illumination everywhere.

The moonlight enveloped the inn, making it appear thick with a sense of mystery.

As Gu Liang raised his head to look at the moon, Yang Ye was watching him from the side.

A moment later, Gu Liang slanted his head, meeting Yang Ye’s gaze. He said: “Therefore, their illnesses occurred first before their subsequent visit to Yellow Springs Inn, and then they both died. However, before their deaths, the lady who portrayed them broke up, and divorced us respectively.”

“Yes. Which is why I have a conjecture.”

Yang Ye pulled Gu Liang’s hand before he nodded his head at Li Xiao Yu. “I discovered an item of great interest in the lobby. You’ll understand once you see it.”

As the pair walked over to the lobby hand-in-hand, Gu Liang still accepted the gesture despite the slight awkwardness he felt. Meanwhile, Li Xiao Yu absorbed the sight with much pleasure.

In this game, she had too many dark and grim experiences, and she had also seen the terrors embedded in human nature.

But she felt that she had shipped a real CP.

If her body was residing in purgatory, then her CP was like a childhood fairytale. When she saw them, she felt exceptionally happy, like she had found hope.

However, the consequence of focusing on her CP was that— she did not look at the road and she proceeded to fall down.

There was a small path paved out of pebbles in the courtyard, going from the main entrance of the inn to the bottom of the stilted building where the guests lived.

At this moment, Li Xiao Yu tripped and fell because of the pebbles on the road.

Gu Liang and Yang Ye quickly turned back to help her up before they supported her to the long bench.

After turning back to the lobby to retrieve the medical kit, Gu Liang inspected the blood on her leg and shook his head. “Tsk, each and every one of you becoming incapacitated.”

Li Xiao Yu laughed as she pointed at Yang Ye: “Da ge started it.”

As Gu Liang helped Li Xiao Yu disinfect her wound, Yang Ye hopped over to the place where Li Xiao Yu had tripped and fallen on one foot, squatting down to overturn the area. And as if he resented the lights for not being bright enough, Yang Ye took out an electric torch. “The soil underneath the pebbles has traces of being overturned once. Li Xiao Yu didn’t fall for nothing; someone probably messed around with these stones to hide their evidence.”

Upon hearing that, Gu Liang quickly helped Li Xiao Yu deal with her wound before he stepped forward, moving the pebble stones with Yang Ye, one by one.

Without needing much time, the pair found a piece of light brown paper.

An amulet was drawn on the paper, and the three words “Incense Absorbing Amulet” was written on the parchment.

There was a written description at the bottom of the amulet as well: “Igniting rhinoceros horns can illuminate ghosts and make the ghosts manifest; but if the ghost uses the Incense Absorbing Amulet, it can stop the rhinoceros horns’ formidable power and the ghosts will not manifest before the humans.

Gu Liang and Yang Ye shared a look. “Therefore, Waitress Jing wasn’t the only one who went to the opposite bank of the lake.”

Li Xiao Yu was not badly damaged from her fall; after taking a short rest, she headed over to the lobby together with Gu Liang and Yang Ye, preparing to inspect the “interesting” item that Yang Ye found.

During this period of time, Li Xiao Yu finally learned from Gu Liang’s mouth that— Proprietress Ling, Waitress Jing, and Chef Huang were all ghosts.

“That explains why I couldn’t kill her with a knife.”

Li Xiao Yu remarked, “Normal knives aren’t capable of killing ghosts. Only the likes of peach wood or dog blood would work, probably. Prior to this, we found a clue upstairs that stated that peach wood could kill ghosts. But the peach wood can’t be an arbitrary and careless selection of a piece of peach wood; if you want to kill a powerful ghost, it needs to be a peach wood that is older than a thousand years at least.”

Gu Liang thought back briefly. “The wood that we brought back from the opposite bank of the lake, does seem to be an old tree, judging from its growth rings. Consequently, making bullets out of peach wood to kill a ghost should be reasonable, given the settings of this script. Yang Ye, da ge— what was the item you were talking about?”

Gu Liang found it amusing too, so he followed Li Xiao Yu in calling him “da ge”.

Who could have known that the address would get into Yang Ye’s head, and he would interlace their fingers together, leaning close to his ear as he murmured: “Call me ‘gege’.”

“Solve the case. Quickly.” Gu Liang’s ears were slightly hot but his expression was extremely strict.

“Sure. Let’s solve the case.” Yang Ye stooped over and pulled open a drawer.

Li Xiao Yu said: “Ah, this is the drawer where she hides all the loose change. I took the chance to stab her when she was bending her waist to take out the small change today.”

Yang Ye took out the small checkbook and then knocked on the cupboard. “Do you hear that? It’s hollow.”

Having said that, Yang Ye removed that layer of wood on top before he pulled out a thick book that was stuck between the two layers.

Upon flipping to the title page, it wrote: “He said that if I help the humans achieve one hundred and one wishes, I can actualise my own wish. I have always been waiting…. waiting for the day where my wish comes true.”

Yang Ye flipped the book to the last page directly, which possessed School Senior Hua’s photograph.

Beside the photograph was a detailed record of School Senior Hua. Having information like his height and age was par for the course, but what rendered Gu Liang speechless was some of the details on the record.

“He does not like eating coriander and carrots. If you are cooking, streaky pork is fine, but fatty meats are absolutely forbidden.

“He is not very fond of foreplay, but if you talk to him nicely, he will be patient and pleasure you.

“His favourite position is back—”

Gu Liang stopped looking. However, upon raising his eyes, he collided with Yang Ye’s bright eyes.

Feeling stifled under his stare, Gu shifted his head away. “Proprietress Ling shouldn’t be privy to such details.”

“That’s right. Only Aileen could have told her about such details.”

“It is precisely because Aileen told her everything, regardless of how important the information was, that she managed to pull off a good imitation.”

Yang Ye’s voice deepened, “To integrate this with our previous deductions, I believe that after Aileen learned of her illness, she entreated Proprietress Ling to go to your side and pretend to be her. The situation on my end is more or less the same.”

Gu Liang: “But why? Why did Aileen find a person to argue with me every day? If she’s going to die and she was afraid that I would feel heartbroken, finding a person to accompany me for a period of time is something I can understand. But why did she ask Proprietress Ling to dispute with me to the point where we were disagreeable? By doing so, it would seem apparent that I wouldn’t take the news of her death too badly, because whenever I recall the period of time leading to our break-up, it will always be unpleasant.”

Li Xiao Yu pursed her lips. “Er ge, the reason is in the last line you mentioned.”

Gu Liang was slightly confused by the thoughts of a woman. “Huh?”

Li Xiao Yu explained: “I get it now. Since Aileen knew that she was going to die of a terminal illness, she was scared that you would be heartbroken. Hence, not only did she not tell you about her illness, she even looked for someone to pretend to be her and argue with you every day, only to break up with you in the end. By the time you break up, neither of you would have feelings for each other, and when she finally allowed you to know about her death, you wouldn’t be that upset any more. This kind of scene is very common in dog-blooded dramas.”

Li Xiao Yu flipped to the title page of the thick book. “Didn’t Proprietress Ling write that she wanted to help people achieve their wishes? It’s possible that the wish Aileen professed to Proprietress Ling, was this. And President Gao’s story is similar. But this thick book… must have a lot of different wishes that Proprietress Ling helped other people achieve.”