Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 98

(The Completely Fabricated Timeline; The Proprietress that Never Disappeared)

The lights in the interrogation room were slightly dim, which deepened the contours of his face against the high points of his skin.

Yang Ye looked at Gu Liang as he slowly said: “The first possibility is that he’s not the murderer, and he wrote that letter for fun to mess with you. Did you offend him in the past, such that he would deliberately retaliate against you?”

Gu Liang shook his head: “I don’t remember such a thing happening. That shouldn’t be the case. We haven’t been in contact for a long time.”

Yang Ye stated, “I think that this possibility is very small too. Since that’s the case, he is indeed the murderer, just like what he admitted to you. But why did he write that letter? If he didn’t write that letter, it should make him appear far cleaner. Why did he do something that would increase his own suspicions?”

After a moment of contemplation, Gu Liang uttered, “If he wanted to help me, he just needed to tell me his narrative in a factual manner. It’s quite unlikely that he would be scared that I wouldn’t trust him, to the point where he decided to falsify that letter, and use that letter to give me some information.

“Therefore, it’s more likely that he’s trying to mislead me. But what is he trying to mislead…”

Yang Ye said: “That letter has a very crucial time point, by which I mean ‘between 2:30 and 4 in the afternoon.’ In reality, Proprietress Ling’s true time of death should be within this timeframe.

“After 2:30, the person who went to the opposite bank of the lake was Waitress Jing. Could it be that he explicitly wrote this time, just for the sake of marrying the blame to Waitress Jing?”

Yang Ye’s tone of voice sounded doubtful as he voiced this question.

Because he genuinely could not comprehend Ming Yue’s intention.

Gu Liang shook his head: “But if that was his intention, his ruse would be overly simple.”

After saying those words, Gu Liang’s eyebrows scrunched together and his entire person looked extremely severe.

After a long, drawn-out moment, Gu Liang looked towards Yang Ye and abruptly asked: “Have you ever played Mahjong?”

Yang Ye: “Of course I’ve played Mahjong, but I’m not skilled at it. Sometimes I had to accompany the elders, or I needed to play a round or two during dinner parties.”

Gu Liang said: “Whether it’s Mahjong or poker, there’s a way of playing called flashing your cards. There are some people who directly show their entire hand, and play with everyone while they are aware. Given his actions, and if he were to win, he can double his money gained.”

Yang Ye said: “Do you think Ming Yue is exposing his hand to us?”

Gu Liang nodded. “He confessed that he was the murderer at the start of the match, and he is indeed one of the murderers. But he has a way to ensure that we won’t find the other murderer. Perhaps this was his intention.

“It’s like how he would let you eat a few stones first in a game of Go. In such a set-up, it doesn’t matter to him even if he loses, but if I lose, it will seem as though my intelligence has been utterly and thoroughly rolled over and crushed.”

Shortly after, Yang Ye could not help but ask: “It couldn’t possibly be that the grudges incurred from the rank fighting in your elite class, has dragged on until this game?”

— The world of top students was truly difficult for normal people to understand.

“… I don’t know what he’s thinking. But judging from our current analysis, in addition to the impression he gives me, that’s the conclusion I have come to. Maybe this is related to the system’s test.”

Gu Liang hugged his arms, his eyes half-lidded. It was only after some time had elapsed before he opened his mouth to say, “Through the letter, and the words that Ming Yue told me, he has given me a lot of information. Firstly, there are two murderers this time around, one of them led Proprietress Ling to the front of the window, the other shot her to death from the opposite bank of the lake, and Chef Huang is one of the murderers; secondly, the exact time of Proprietress Ling’s death, is indeed, between the time of 2:30 in the afternoon and 4.

“He told me all this information bluntly. If I still can’t find the other murderer, it would seem as though I’m too stupid, no?”

Yang Ye did not know why but despite being in such a tense atmosphere, seeing Gu Liang being so serious, made him feel like Gu Liang Liang was becoming cuter all of a sudden.”

Gu Liang gave him a sidelong glance, “What are you grinning for?”

Yang Ye replied, “Nothing really. With the two of us together, we’ll definitely figure out where the problem is. After all, we’re two people, we can’t make both of us appear stupid.”

Upon hearing that, Gu Liang also chuckled. The wrinkles between the space of his eyebrows eased, and his whole body relaxed soon after.

Gu Liang flipped through his notebook from the first page, saying: “Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian entered into a secret romantic liaison, and designed a plan to kill Proprietress Ling. As Vagrant Qian’s disciple, it’s highly possible that Recluse Wang knew about it. And after Recluse Wang, the person who bears the highest possibility of knowing this plan is Chef Huang. He stayed in the same inn as Waitress Jing the whole time; it’s very easy for him to observe any movement that Waitress Jing makes.

“Furthermore, for those two consecutive nights, Waitress Jing went to the wooden fence to meet Vagrant Qian. The night before Proprietress Ling’s death, they were discussing the exact plan.

“Since it occurred at midnight, in addition to the warning that ‘ghosts were being beckoned’, the probability of the ignorant travellers going out is actually very small. Even if Recluse Wang is a ghost herself, and Girlfriend Jia is a Taoist nun, the likelihood of them sneaking out in the middle of the night, and coincidentally hearing Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian discussing the details of their plan, is actually miniscule.

“Upon careful thought, the person who bears the highest probability of noticing a possible conspiracy between Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian early on, and hence pay special attention to Waitress Jing’s actions, proceed to follow her, eavesdrop, and learn of their complete plan… Chef Huang is the most likely suspect. He stays next to Waitress Jing.

“Lastly, Chef Huang has sufficient motivation to kill Vagrant Qian. Waitress Jing would never kill Vagrant Qian. On one hand, she likes Vagrant Qian, and on the other, she knows the inside story, wherein Vagrant Qian wanted to seek vengeance for his disciple.

“But for these two matters, Chef Huang isn’t aware.

“In Chef Huang’s perspective, Vagrant Qian is a Taoist Priest who is even capable of killing a powerful ghost like Proprietress Ling. Once he was done with Proprietress Ling, getting rid of him next could be on the cards. Waitress Jing must be really stupid to trust him so easily. Humans and ghosts have different paths, to say nothing of the fact that the other party is a Taoist Priest?”

After hearing Gu Liang’s words, Yang Ye nodded to express his agreement.

Yang Ye merely said: “Our only problem now is, how did he manage to accomplish everything? Who is the other murderer, and how did he end up cooperating with him?”

After a brief moment, Gu Liang opened his notebook and flipped to a new page. He said: “I still believe that we can rule out Waitress Jing. Under the premise that she didn’t lie, she left the inn at 2:10 in the afternoon, went past the wooden fence, shrubbery, and the forest. 20 minutes later, by which I mean 2:30, she reached the stone bridge at the foot of the mountain, and I saw her. At 2:45, she reached the opposite bank of the lake, and discovered Vagrant Qian’s death at 2:50.

“She stayed in the thatched hut for 5 minutes approximately, and left at 2:55. Assuming that her walking speed for her return trip was the same as her walking to the thatched hut, then when she came back to the stone bridge again, it should be around 3 o’ clock. By that time, however, the incense on her body had already dispersed, and I couldn’t see her.

“She took 15 minutes to cross the bridge, and when she reached the bottom of our mountain, it was 3:15. Following that, if 20 minutes is still required to cut through the forest, shrubbery, and fence, then she must have returned to the inn at 3:35.

“In our previous analysis, just as Murderer A is responsible for leading Proprietress Ling to the window, they have to clean up the crime scene and move the corpse to the forest as well. Therefore, when Murderer A brought Proprietress Ling’s corpse to the forest, it had to be after 3:35, after Waitress Jing left the forest and returned to the inn.

“Murderer A had to be on constant lookout at the inn. Using the window, they saw everything that was happening, and they also saw Waitress Jing walking in the direction of the forest. For the same reason, they would definitely wait for Waitress Jing to return before they would dare to go to the forest to throw the corpse.”

Yang Ye: “You can’t see the forest and the opposite bank of the lake from my room. It doesn’t matter how they were imagining my story when they were throwing out their wild thoughts, diverging their thinking, and opening brain holes just now. But if everyone still continues to harbour suspicions towards me when the official discussion begins, I can use that point to cleanse myself.”

Gu Liang nodded his head. “Mn. That works. This is very critical. You can’t observe the forest from your room, but a lot of people entered and left from the forest one after another. The murderer definitely had vision of the forest in great detail, which allowed them to determine when they should get rid of the corpse. You can most certainly be ruled out with this point.”

Gu Liang stood up and walked outwards. “Let’s go, we should have another conversation with everyone else. We can see if there are any new developments while we’re at it.”

Inside the centralised discussion, everyone discussed for another two hours, and through a process of analysis, the murderers were still locked on Recluse Wang and Girlfriend Jia. After all, Yang Ye’s self-cleansing argument managed to persuade the rest of the players.

For the sake of ensuring that the discussion would not seem overly chaotic, Gu Liang arranged for everyone to speak in turns.

When a player was speaking, the other players were not allowed to interrupt arbitrarily, unless there was an absolute need for them to talk, and they could wait until it was their turn to speak; of course, the detective was not under this restriction.

Presently, the discussion had already gone through several rounds.

When it was Yang Ye’s turn again, Yang Ye stated, “In accordance with our discussion, the murderer needs to have vision of the forest through their room window. The thatched hut that is on the opposite bank of the lake and forest is north of the stilted building. My room faces the west, so it’s impossible for me. Only the people staying in the rooms from 301 to 304 bear the possibility.

“School Senior Hua is the detective, Zhao Meili and Tourist Jia are humans, so it’s not possible for them to go to the opposite bank to kill someone, and certainly, only Recluse Wang and Tourist Jia remain…”

“Hold on.” Gu Liang suddenly thought of a crucial point and he stood up immediately.

Yang Ye exchanged a look with him. As he was reiterating his own words, he seemed to discover a certain crux as well.

Without pausing, Gu Liang took out a reward card and pressed the [Confirm to Use] button.

This card was called [Time Extension for Centralised Discussion], and its method of usage was: After tapping on confirm, the time allotted to the centralised discussion will be extended by an hour.

Subsequently, Gu Liang looked at Yang Ye: “Borrow me your [Reopen the Exploration Area Card], I want to go back to the crime scene again.”

Yang Ye contemplated for a moment before he understood Gu Liang’s intention. Taking out the card, he quickly tapped on confirm before he followed Gu Liang to the door. “I’ll go with you.”

Just as the pair pushed open the dining hall’s doors, which was also the large doors to the centralised discussion room, the public broadcast rang out. “The crime scene has been opened. But the centralised discussion segment forbids players from the discussion room, and players departing from said room without explicit approval constitutes as a violation of the rules, hence the punishment for the rule violation will be meted out accordingly. Owing to Player Gu Liang’s numerous rule violations, the punishment time will be overlong, and it will be postponed to the resting time, players are asked to take prudent considerations—”

The system was merely saying that if the players were to leave right now, they would be receiving their punishments after the game, but they did not completely prohibit the players from leaving.

Furthermore, towards their rule violations, the system did not deprive the players of the voting rights, and they even pushed the punishment back, which gave Gu Liang time to explain the truth to the other players.

In light of those considerations, the system could actually be considered as friendly.

Initially, Gu Liang was still projecting that if the system only allowed him to return to the centralised discussion room after he had received his punishment, and the length of his punishment happened to exceed the remaining time left for discussion, he just needed to use the remaining time extension cards he had.

Apart from the card that could extend the time by one hour, he still had a high-tier time exchange card, and he had more than one of those.

High-tier time extension cards could allow him to extend the time by five hours with each usage and under the circumstances where Gu Liang possessed a few of them, it was more than enough to cover the length of his punishment.

The only downside to this method was that it would be unfair to the remaining players.

The discussion was supposed to end at 7 in the morning, but they had to continue to stay here until Gu Liang’s punishment was over.

To his surprise, however, the system actually pushed his punishment into his downtime, which meant that the players could vote normally.

This was the first time Gu Liang felt that the system was quite friendly.

Hence, after Gu Liang heard the system’s warning, he immediately put one foot outside the door, and even Yang Ye could not stop him in time.

It goes without saying that Yang Ye became sombre, and the gaze he regarded Gu Liang with harboured a rarely seen severity. “Gu Liang, it’s enough if I go. It’s the same even if I go.”

“You should stay here, I can go alone.” Before Gu Liang could try to push Yang Ye back in, Yang Ye had already gripped onto Gu Liang and started walking outwards. “Yang Ye, there’s no need for you to—”

Yang Ye did not respond, only bringing Gu Liang towards the forest.

As they were walking, Gu Liang could perceive Yang Ye wearing a cold expression and pursing his lips by borrowing the lights. Gu Liang knitted his eyebrows and asked: “You’re angry? Why are you angry?”

Yang Ye only shot him a look, still maintaining his silence.

Gu Liang said: “Going there doesn’t need two people at all. Why do you insist on coming? And you need to suffer from a punishment later, why bother?”

Yang Ye: “I should be asking you that question. It’s enough if I go. My punishment time is very short. Why did you insist on going on your own?”

Gu Liang: “Because I’m the detective this time around.”

Do you have to distinguish everything so clearly with me?

Presently, the pair had just reached the wooden fence.

Yang Ye came to a halt before he raised Gu Liang’s wrist and stared into his eyes.

All of his emotions, finally vanished like smoke in thin air the moment he stared into Gu Liang’s eyes.

In the end, Yang Ye heaved out a sigh, stepping forward to hug Gu Liang. Then, he carried Gu Liang to the other side of the fence before he flipped over on his own.

“Hey, Yang Ye, your leg—”

“It’s fine.” Yang Ye braced one hand on the fence before the lower half of his body was suspended into the air. Both of his long legs went past the wooden fence easily, and his person made a stable landing on the ground. Of course, he landed on the ground on one foot.

Outside of the wooden fence, Gu Liang looked at Yang Ye as he asked: “You still haven’t answered me, were you angry just now? Are you still angry?”

Yang Ye ruffled his hair in the end. “Solve the case first. We can speak about this later.”

“Sure. But I still feel like—”

“You can just assume that I want to be punished with you.”

“There’s really no need for you to—”

“Gu Liang, do you want me to sit there and happily enjoy the results of your hard work with wide open eyes, while you’re suffering and facing difficulty?”

Gu Liang: “……”

Yang Ye: “Just solve the case.”

Hence, from the inn that was on the midpoint of the mountain, Yang Ye and Gu Liang plunged into the forest and foraged all the way to the bottom of the mountain, and then they eventually doubled back.

* * *

This trip of theirs took more than an hour.

When the pair finally made their return, all of the players looked at them with expectant gazes.

Gu Liang paid attention to two people in particular.

— One of them was Ming Yue of course. Ming Yue returned Gu Liang’s scrutiny with a faint smile. As per usual, Gu Liang could not get a read of the emotions inside his eyes.

The other person that Gu Liang paid attention to, was the other real murderer that he and Yang Ye had ascertained.

The real murderer did not make a move or sound, but judging from his shoulders to his biceps, to the taut lines of his forearms, and even his pursed lips which were slanting downwards slightly, all these signs evidently exposed his nervousness.

Gu Liang released a soft exhale before he glanced at Li Xiao Yu first. “Come, Xiao Yu. Let’s have a one-on-one.”

A moment later. Inside the one-on-one interrogation room, Li Xiao Yu looked at Yang Ye and Gu Liang with a face brimming with expectation. “Do both of you already know the truth? You’re going with the old route of telling me alone first, then telling the other players one by one, before making everyone vote furtively?”

“Mn.” Gu Liang nodded his head. “Our train of thought was never wrong from the start. But we were caught up in an error. We were constantly wrapped around this error, which was why we didn’t manage to make any process for a long period of time.”

Li Xiao Yu asked: “Where is that error?”

Gu Liang said: “Let’s call the murderer who went to the opposite bank of the lake to kill the vagrant, and then proceeded to shoot Proprietress Ling to death, as ‘Murderer B’. Murderer B has to be a ghost, because we’re absolutely certain now that the stone bridge is the only way to get to the other side of the lake. All these assumptions weren’t wrong. But when we were ruling out the suspects, we erred.”

Li Xiao Yu thought about it. “Waitress Jing and Chef Huang can be eliminated, so wouldn’t Recluse Wang remain? When Waitress Jing flipped across the wooden fence at 2:10, Chef Huang heard her. Even if he was the murderer, he could only have gone to the opposite bank of the lake after 2:10. But if we are also eliminating the possibility of him bumping into Waitress Jing, I’ve done my calculations; no matter what he does, he can only leave after 3:30. Or else he would be taking too big a risk when committing the deed.

“Which means that by the time he reached the opposite bank of the lake, it would be 4 o’ clock at least.

“But dinner service starts at 6 o’ clock, and he needs 2 hours to prepare the meal at least. He did finish his cooking.

“Furthermore, we were collating the later parts of our timeline. At 4 o’ clock, Waitress Jing saw him cooking, and she even confirmed with him the dishes for the night.

“He doesn’t seem to have the time—”

Gu Liang questioned Li Xiao Yu: “But what if he reached the opposite bank of the lake earlier than Waitress Jing?”

Li Xiao Yu stilled momentarily. “But, he saw Girlfriend Jia entering Recluse Wang’s room first at 2 o’ clock, and then he saw me exiting… he wasn’t wrong ah. He was at the inn back then.”

Gu Liang continued to ask her: “You didn’t pull the curtains during the day, right?”

Li Xiao Yu nodded her head: “Mn, I’m afraid of mosquitos. Before I went fishing with you, I pulled open the window slightly to ventilate the air. But when I was in my room in the afternoon, I closed the window, but I didn’t pull the curtains.”

Gu Liang: “That’s right.”

Li Xiao Yu: “……?”

Gu Liang explained, “There’s a scope on the sniper rifle. From his position on the opposite bank, he’s perfectly capable of seeing all of your timelines in the rooms from 301 to 304.”

Li Xiao Yu seemed to finally understand and she revealed a stunned expression. “Fuck, which means that his timeline was completely fabricated. Wouldn’t that make him a little too audacious?!”

Gu Liang shook his head. “He’s quite courageous, yes. But more importantly, it’s because he’s meticulous in his thinking.”

Gu Liang stated: “I’ve tested that scope before, it’s exceedingly clear. Hence, when Chef Huang was in Vagrant Qian’s thatched hut, he could clearly see what each and every one of you were doing.

“At 2 o’ clock, he could see Girlfriend Jia entering Recluse Wang’s room, and he could also see both of them setting up an array in an attempt to trap Proprietress Ling.

“He could also see you leaving your room afterwards. But you returned to your room very quickly, and maybe he even saw you holding a knife in your hand. Thus, he could infer that you probably didn’t leave the stilted building, and you only went to the lobby before returning.

“Furthermore, he was very cautious when he was recounting his timeline, which gave us the illusion that he immediately left once he saw you opening your room door.

“(Chef Huang stated that) after leaving the stilted building, he only went to take a glimpse at the wooden fence after he heard some noise, and then he returned to his room. Truth to be told, when he was giving me his account, he didn’t explicitly state that he saw you leaving the building, because he didn’t dare use absolutes in his words.

“This includes the time when Waitress Jing was flipping across the fence. From the very beginning, he never persisted in saying that it was at 2:10. In actuality, his original words were that he reached the stilted building at 1:50, spent some time around the lobby and wine cellar looking for Proprietress Ling first, before he proceeded towards the third floor of the inn and witnessed Girlfriend Jia and you, and talked about your timelines. Lastly, on the way back, he spoke about Waitress Jing’s timeline indirectly. But Waitress Jing’s timeline is slightly blurry for him.

“This is because he can only see when Waitress Jing at the stone bridge from the thatched hut, and then calculate what time she might have left the inn, but he couldn’t be absolutely certain either.

“Even if Waitress Jing had denied it by saying that she only left at 2:20, and she ran to the foot of the mountain, this doesn’t count as a broken seam for him. Because in his timeline, he didn’t personally see Recluse Wang either. This was also why we initially assumed that perhaps only Girlfriend Jia and Proprietress Ling were inside the room, and Girlfriend Jia had forced Proprietress Ling to stand in front of the window, while Recluse Wang was at the thatched hut, aiming down her sights and lying in wait.

“Hence, even if Waitress Jing denied that noise from the wooden fence flipping was caused by her, we can push the noise maker onto Recluse Wang’s person.

“Honestly speaking, the only thing that Ming Yue needs to gamble about is Yang Ye, which is also President Gao’s timeline. If President Gao stayed in the courtyard for the entire afternoon to bask in the sun, he wouldn’t be able to say such things.

“But when we were eating lunch in the afternoon, President Gao said that he wanted to rest because he was tired from mountain climbing, and everyone heard him.

“Additionally, I believe that after you were done stabbing in the lobby at 1:30 in the afternoon, Xiao Yu, the sound you heard coming from the courtyard was made by Chef Huang. Maybe he was burying the extraneous Incense Absorbing Amulet, by which I mean the one we found under the pebble stone path.

“Therefore, Chef Huang was still in the inn at 1:30. After we were done with lunch in the afternoon, he saw President Gao going upstairs. This is an inn where the corridor is built outside, and he has the ability to see President Gao going back to his room to rest from the courtyard. It’s not like President Gao would go downstairs immediately after taking a short nap. For the same reasons, this is why he dares to fabricate a timeline around 2 o’ clock.

“Truthfully speaking, I reckon that Chef Huang left the inn around 1:30 and he went to the opposite bank of the lake. Waitress Jing walked slowly, and she spent 40 minutes to reach the thatched hut. But during the search for evidence, I ran there and it took approximately 15 minutes, and 20 minutes at most.

“Thus, it’s completely possible that Chef Huang left at 1:30, and reached Vagrant Qian’s thatched hut at 1:50. It’s highly likely that after killing Vagrant Qian, he manifested himself in front of the scope, and saw the circumstances surrounding your respective rooms around 2 o’ clock.

“He doesn’t need to set-up the crime scene before 2 o’ clock. He has the time to keep a constant lookout through the scope, and once he was fully cognizant of your timelines, only then would he disguise Vagrant Qian’s death as a hanging suicide.

“After setting up the crime scene for the most part, he could see Waitress Jing’s figure appearing at the stone bridge from the thatched hut’s window. Hence, he used his ghost form to phase out of the room, and randomly hide himself among the trees.

“Once Waitress Jing departed, he could return to the thatched hut again, and through the scoping lens that was being pointed towards the inn, he just needed to wait for Proprietress Ling to appear in front of the window.

“Chef Huang managed to be in the kitchen and cooking by 4 o’ clock, while Waitress Jing left the thatched hut around 2:55. That being said, when Chef Huang opened fire, it should be between 3 and 3:40.”

Li Xiao Yu could not help but ask: “How did he manage to make Vagrant Qian drink the alcohol that was spiked with the strong sleeping potion then?

“Moreover, who did he cooperate with? I can’t figure it out!”

Gu Liang said: “You read through Proprietress Ling’s book of wishes carefully, didn’t you? Go and bring it over, right, and flip to… it should be between pages 40 and 50, I can’t remember which specific page it was. Bring it over, I’ll help you find the page, and then you’ll understand— where Proprietress Ling went yesterday morning. During that period of time, she never disappeared in actuality, and she was beside a certain someone instead.”

T/N: On (hilarious) woes of searching for Mahjong/Poker terms that don’t actually exist: