Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 91.1

(I have a Taoist Nun Friend)

T/N: There is quite a bit of Taoist/Buddhist references in this chapter, and correspondingly, there are quite a few footnotes that you can read if you wish ^^

Initially, Gu Liang still harboured some doubts, but as he flipped the book until he reached the very last page, he realised that there were 101 pages exactly.

And when he flipped the book to the previous page, there was a stranger’s photograph with various details and information listed.

Gu Liang then flipped forward by another page. The 99th page had a record of “President Gao”.

The record of President Gao’s information was extremely comprehensive as well, and it included details about his marital life.

However, this particular page had additional remarks from Proprietress Ling: “Haha, this is interesting, this wife was incredibly shy when she was recounting the details, and she was curious as to why I was asking for these. She said, a ‘derailed’ wife will not do such things to her husband, there is no need for me to know.

“I can perceive that she is actually very jealous. I consoled her, telling her to set her heart at ease because I have someone I like and I would never do anything with President Gao.

“I told her that I was clarifying all these matters because I had to protect myself, lest the other party has any special fetishes. Moreover, I need to wholly ensure that I am completely familiar with everything about President Gao, in order to make my disguise flawless.

“After all, since I have to ensure that my real identity is never discovered, I cannot make a single wrong step. I only want to complete the 101 wishes properly, and then…. I can actualise my own wish.”

Having read the remark, Gu Liang shifted his gaze towards Yang Ye’s person: “Therefore, the wish that President Gao’s wife made was the 99th wish that Proprietress Ling helped the humans achieve. My ex-girlfriend Aileen was the last one.”

Yang Ye said: “Yes, that should be the case. It’s just that we are still unaware of what her wish is.”

“I’m very curious what other wishes she has fulfilled. Let me take a look at the front.” Li Xiao Yu proceeded to flip a page forward and she started to study the entire book.

“You can stay here and peruse it then. Yang Ye and I will be going to another area.”

Once Gu Liang said that, he went to the third floor with Yang Ye.

The guest rooms on the third floor had been mostly searched by the group that preceded them.

By this juncture, the evidence that everyone thought was useful was already placed on the long corridor in a neat and orderly fashion and separated according to their rooms and types, which saved Gu Liang and Yang Ye a great deal of effort.

The players’ classification was fundamentally sorted by the person who possessed the clue.

For example, there was a placard that was folded from an A4-size paper in front of the evidence found from Proprietress Ling’s room and it stated: “Proprietress Ling’s Room”.

Gu Liang picked up the book called Index of Hundred Ghosts.

The paper of the book was slightly yellow and the vestiges of the passing time could be discerned.

Gu Liang flipped to the first page and it wrote: “Humans will transform into ghosts after their death, return to the Yellow Springs, cross the bridge over troubled waters and reincarnate; but those with unresolved and lingering attachments will be detained in the human world, and once they miss the opportunity to reincarnate, they will be reduced into desolate spirits and wild ghosts.

“Greed, Wrath, Ignorance, Attachment. Humans cannot escape them, ghosts are the same. How tragic, how lamentable.

“The reasons why ghosts are detained on the human realm differ: some are reluctant to part with their children, lovers, or elders that are still among the living, and delayed by their affections, they transform into amorous ghosts; some have great enmity that are unavenged, they harbour grievances in their heart and they transform into malicious ghosts; some were starved to death and they crave the delicious food present in the mortal realm, and they become hungry ghosts who feast on humans…”

Evidently, the Index of Hundred Ghosts roughly detailed how ghosts came about, and how the ghosts are differentiated.

In this thick book, all sorts and kinds of ghosts were given a simple introduction.

After Gu Liang roughly skimmed through the book, he heard Yang Ye say: “Liang Liang, the evidence from your room has a camera, hey.”

Gu Liang put down the book, looking towards the pile of evidence in front of his room door— Sure enough, the familiar detective camera was standing on the pile in an extremely obtrusive manner.

Gu Liang could not resist insulting the system: “During my script enactment segment, the camera wasn’t in my room. The man in black probably placed it there at the start of the investigation. Does the system find this amusing? I’ve already received the hint it gave early on, what’s wrong with giving the camera to the detective directly?”

Yang Ye laughed, helping Gu Liang hang the camera on his neck. “If we suspect that we’re the detective next time, we’ll know what to do in the future. We have to go to our room first to grab the camera.”

Gu Liang: “Judging from how much the system likes to play tricks, it’s more likely that it will hide the camera next time, and make us figure out a way to find the camera first.”

After roasting the system, Gu Liang went back to the pile of evidence for Proprietress Ling. “Though I have to admit that my doubts have been resolved after reading the book. At the start, I was actually wondering why Aileen and your ex-wife didn’t become ghosts.

“From what we can perceive now, perhaps it’s because the wishes that they had while they were living had already been fulfilled; since they no longer had any lingering attachments, they could reincarnate right after they died, instead of being turned into a ghost and detained on the human realm like Proprietress Ling.”

Nodding his head, Yang Ye stated: “Following, we have to make sense of these questions— one, why was Proprietress Ling detained on the human realm, and what is the wish she wanted to actualise? Two, the ‘travellers’ inside the inn, who are the humans, who are the ghosts, and if they are ghosts, what were the lingering attachments that detained them on the mortal realm, and this might decide what their motivations are.”

After reading the Index of Hundred Ghosts, Gu Liang turned his attention towards Girlfriend Jia’s exhibit.

Her luggage was directly opened and placed on the corridor, and it could not be denied that there were a lot of interesting objects inside her luggage.

From what their physical eyes could discern, there was Taoist robe, a short peach wood sword and an ancient book called Techniques to Capture Ghosts.

When Yang Ye sidled up to him and took a glance at the items inside Girlfriend Jia’s luggage, he moved over to Tourist Jia’s pile of evidence to rummage through it.

Soon after, Yang Ye pulled out a certificate of indebtedness and said: “Girlfriend Jia actually owes Tourist Jia 100 million.”

After a moment of contemplation, Yang Ye gazed at Gu Liang, saying: “Huh, Gu Liang, the pronunciation of her name sounds like ‘fake’ girlfriend, the ‘jia’ from ‘real and fake’. This was a hint that the system gave us, about how she and Tourist Jia were fake lovers. They aren’t together in actuality.”

“Therefore, Girlfriend Jia is a Taoist nun in reality.” Gu Liang said, “In consideration of the fact that Tourist Jia brought a Taoist nun to the inn, his true motive warrants more thought.”

Then, Gu Liang flipped open the book Techniques to Capture Ghosts and he looked at the table of contents first.

Unexpectedly, “Rhinoceros Horn” was an item among the table of contents. Hence, Gu Liang flipped the book to the page related to rhinoceros horns first.

“Igniting the horns of a rhinoceros can allow a ghost to manifest, and under those circumstances, the ghost’s body will materialise and bear little difference from normal people, and they will not fear sunlight. When a ghost is in its dematerialised state, they can go through walls, their vision will be hindered by nothing; when a ghost has been illuminated to show a physical body, it can no longer go through walls arbitrarily.

“When a ghost has a manifested body, typical knives or weapons are not fatal to the ghosts; the speed of recovery after injury is dependent on the powers of said ghost, and how long it has been cultivating for; however, if normal killing methods are utilised on ghosts with a materialised body, the ghost will not die, regardless of the severity of their injuries.”

Upon flipping to the next page, he reached the section that detailed specific tools that could expel ghosts.

“Objects that can exorcise and keep out ghosts are garlic, dog blood, Zhong Kui, etcetera; these items are barely sufficient to protect oneself, and they merely stop the ghosts from coming closer. To truly kill a ghost, peach wood is necessary, like a sword made out of peach wood for example. The older the tree is, the more effective it will be to drive out the ghosts, especially a thousand year-old peach wood which is even capable of killing a malicious ghost.”

At that moment, Yang Ye asked: “The splashing noises outside our rooms last night, did you hear it?”

Gu Liang nodded: “I did. According to Proprietress Ling’s words, she was sprinkling dog blood because she was beckoning a deceased spirit and she was afraid that ghosts would barge into our rooms.”

Yang Ye said: “But I told you last night that I went to find Proprietress Ling before dawn. When I stepped out of the door then, there were only drying water stains, there wasn’t any dog blood. Proprietress Ling was just putting up a show for us.”

Just as Yang Ye uttered those words, two people walked out from 305 which Yang Ye stayed in, and it happened to be Tourist Jia and Girlfriend Jia.

Having heard Yang Ye’s observation, Tourist Jia immediately said: “Which is why I’m suspecting that this entire inn is run by ghosts. That chef, why was he cooking as his heart desired instead of allowing us to order dishes? Because there are some ingredients that he can’t touch. In fact, apart from garlic, ingredients like scallion and ginger are also heavy in yang energy, and they have slight properties of shunning evil which means that ghosts will avoid it.

“When I just arrived here, I had a particular craving for pork belly with mashed garlic sauce, but Waitress Jing’s face immediately changed once she heard my request, and she said that they didn’t have garlic here. What are you supposed to eat if you don’t put garlic in your dishes? After pondering about it for a long time, it turns out the chef is a ghost.”

“The chef is not the lone ghost. Waitress Jing and Proprietress Ling are also ghosts.”

Yang Ye turned his head to look at Tourist Jia, and his gaze behind his spectacle lenses was slightly deep. “You didn’t learn of this during the investigation, you must have known this beforehand, right? Or else, you would haven’t asked a Taoist nun to pretend to be your girlfriend.”

Tourist Jia pursed his lips before he replied: “Mn, that’s true. She’s not my girlfriend, she’s a Taoist nun, a friend that I am familiar with.

“Not only is she your friend, but she is also Recluse Wang’s friend. It looks like Recluse Wang is not as reclusive as she assumes to be.”

As Gu Liang said those words, he lifted up several pieces of evidence.

Yang Ye returned to Gu Liang’s side and saw him picking up a single photograph first.

Three girls were featured in the photograph and all three of them actually had their hair tied up in buns and they were wearing robes, which made them look innocent and cute.

The spacing between the eyes for two of the girls inside the photograph shared some similarities with Recluse Wang and Girlfriend Jia respectively.

Additionally, there was a sentence written at the back of the photograph: “Xiao Wang, Xiao Dou, Xiao Luo, Auld Lang Syne. The three of us, we will never separate!”

Gu Liang glanced at Girlfriend Jia: “Xiao Wang should be Recluse Wang, so are you Xiao Dou or Xiao Luo?”

Girlfriend Jia furrowed her brows, saying: “I’m Xiao Luo. Xiao Dou is dead.”

Gu Liang asked: “Considering the fact that both of you are here, is Xiao Dou’s death related to Proprietress Ling and Yellow Springs Inn?”

Girlfriend Jia did not answer.

Gu Liang did not pursue the question for the time being, only looking towards Yang Ye before he said: “From the contents we read just now, besides the fact that ghosts are afraid of dog blood and garlic, and that peach wood swords can kill ghosts, there’s another important clue— After the ghost has been illuminated by the rhinoceros horn, they can’t pass through walls like humans. If there are no other clues, we can make the tentative assumption that the closed-room murder was done by a ghost.”

“Mn.” Yang Ye nodded, “Since I found the ‘Incense Absorbing Amulet’ clue just now, this indicates that ghosts can use this amulet to get rid of the rhinoceros horn incense’s influence. Hence, the real murderer, or perhaps it’s better to say that one of the real murderers, is a ghost. Owing to the fact that the murderer used the Incense Absorbing Amulet, you didn’t see them when they were crossing the stone bridge to get to the opposite bank of the lake. Additionally, the reason why the closed room murder could be accomplished was because he/she went through the wall to commit the murder.”

Gu Liang flipped through the book Techniques to Capture Ghosts from Girlfriend Jia again, and showed one of the pages to Yang Ye.

Yang Ye promptly glanced at the page. To his surprise, it was a description and manufacturing method for “Incense Absorbing Amulet”.

“When the ghost’s whereabouts cannot be tracked, rhinoceros horns can be used to make the ghost manifest.

“But take heed, if a ghost uses the ‘Incense Absorbing Amulet’, they will not be affected by the rhinoceros horn.

“Hence, if you see the aforementioned amulet, you must take heed.”

Once Yang Ye read those words, he crouched down swiftly and started to rummage through Girlfriend Jia’s luggage. Then, he went to Recluse Wang’s exhibit and he actually found that they were in possession of 5 Incense Absorbing Amulets each.

Hence, apart from the amulet hidden underneath the pebble, he found a total of 11 Incense Absorbing Amulets.

Gu Liang raised the camera around his neck as he peered at Girlfriend Jia. “I was fishing for the entire afternoon, and I had a system-arranged alibi. There was a camera in my room as well. If there are no unforeseen circumstances, I am the detective for this case. Consequently, can you tell me the story that involves you, Recluse Wang, and also Boyfriend Jia?”

After pondering for a moment, Girlfriend Jia said: “At any rate, everyone has been searching for evidence for quite some time; it’s a good time to share our current process. And in doing so, we’ll have a direction about where we should thoroughly search in the later few hours. How about this, let’s go to the lobby to have this conversation. I’ll call Recluse Wang over so we can talk about our story together.”