"w.a.n.g Xue?"
Su Bai suddenly felt so confused. A view merged into his mind— the view he had pictured when he was going through Chu Jianguo"s notes: he was sitting in the back of a room, it was dark and the keeper had turned off the lights. The whole room was so quiet that even a needle dropping onto the floor would be heard clearly.
A black shadow opened the door, came in and collected notes from the waste bin.
Now the vague figure became clearer and clearer until it turned into a real person.
This person looked around and saw Su Bai, so she cracked a weird smile.
It was w.a.n.g Xue.
Aroma looked at Su Bai as if she was waiting for him to digest what she had said. She must have figured out how much Su Bai had known, otherwise he wouldn"t have known the symbol X-X. But Aroma had also known that Su Bai couldn"t have figured out that w.a.n.g Xue, the victim, was actually one of the partic.i.p.ants.
Su Bai shook his head with a faint smile. "Are you saying that w.a.n.g Xue murdered herself?"
If so, why she was carrying so much hatred?
Aroma"s fingers gently touched the picture on the tomb.
It was a picture of a lady in her late thirties. Judging by the look on Aroma"s face, she really respected this lady a lot. She must be famous that she was invited to the national biological experiment, and Aroma looked up to her so much that she even started another murder club like she did over 20 years ago, and even planned to use the same symbol.
"That"s true. There were four of them, all girls, and w.a.n.g Xue was their leader. The idea just hit them: they should play a game.
"Just for fun, for feeling the power of controlling... Just a little rebelliousness of girls. You know, 20 years ago, equality between men and women was more like a catchphrase than actual practice. These girls had paid a much higher price to go to college, and they were proud of themselves.
"However, taking w.a.n.g Xue as the target was actually w.a.n.g Xue"s own idea. At first, she was not poisoned. She was just pretending by shaving all of her hair. That would be the end."
Aroma bit her lips and continued.
"Because they were scared. Scared of this game they had started. They were confused and terrified.
"They saw many students trying to steal toxins as the notes had indicated or do their parts as they had discussed, to accomplish the tasks as the notes ordered...
"Those students, their schoolmates, who were as excellent and talented as they were, who were elected from all over the nation, were now actually helping commit a murder and were worse than the devil."
Hearing this, Su Bai smiled. He could understand.
That was humanity.
Maybe w.a.n.g Xue, Aroma"s relative and the other two girls were just giving it a shot, but they were so good that the game was really successful, and they were not prepared. As the game went on, those student started to volunteer in helping commit a real murder. They were scared. They were terrified of the schoolmates around them.
They opened the Pandora"s box just for fun, but when they saw that the real devil was let out, they panicked.
For Su Bai who had gone though many story worlds in Dreadful Radio Game, this was nothing because he had seen the darkest and most despicable side of humanity far too many times. But as for these four girls over twenty years ago, they obviously lacked such experience.
"So, how did w.a.n.g Xue end up dead?" Su Bai asked.
Aroma shook her head. "w.a.n.g Xue was sick after she returned to school in the beginning of the new term. Until she eventually died a tragic death."
"That is to say... w.a.n.g Xue"s first intoxication recorded in the notes was cured only because it was faked as to end the game, but her condition worsened after the new term began, which was the first time she was actually poisoned. Is that right?"
Aroma nodded, "Yes."
Su Bai closed his eyes.
Aroma stared at Su Bai. "She told me that right after the new term began, something unexpected happened that terrified her."
Su Bai sighed and touched his jaw. He could guess what that "something unexpected" was.
"The notes were back, right?
"The killing game that should have ended...
"... was restarted, right?"
Su Bai had been gone for two hours, but Xiao Hui was still sitting on the couch. In front of her, the maid was doing housework.
"There"s no need to work so hard since no one alive is living in this place any more." Xiao Hui picked up the tea cup and took a sip. "Let"s sit down and talk."
The maid wiped her hands, walked to Xiao Hui on the tips of her feet and sat down on the opposite coach.
"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" Xiao Hui asked.
"You look exactly like you used to be. You"re so lucky that your niece has your face. Feels like I"m looking at you from over twenty years ago... Still so pretty."
Xiao Hui was stunned. She put the tea cup back and asked again:
"Who the h.e.l.l are you?"
The maid was sitting still, well-mannered, looking quite humble or even too humble. But her eyes were hollow and ice-cold.
"Who am I?" The maid cracked a bitter ironic smile. "Someone who has been tortured for 20 years because of your death!"
"I don"t know what you are talking about." Xiao Hui frowned. She was about to stand up, but the maid suddenly stood up at the same time, and their energy b.u.mped into each other. Xiao Hui felt really weak and fell back into the couch.
"Don"t move, don"t try to leave, don"t do anything." The maid"s eyes were filled with pain and entreaty. "I"ve been imprisoned in pain and guilt for over twenty years, now I"m dead. All I want is to finish as soon as possible. Just to finish all this."
Xiao Hui"s face twisted in anger and she roared, "Why! Why! How did I die? How? I can"t rest in peace! I can"t rest in peace!"
"Maybe we were doomed since we started discussing the game for the first time." The maid was shedding tears, but she was dead, and dead people didn"t have tears. From her eyes ran down streams of blood.
"Who the h.e.l.l are you? Red? Lily? Or Yuan?" Xiao Hui yelled, then tears filled her eyes too.
Su Bai took out another cigarette. This time, he didn"t light it at once, just held it between his fingers while questioning:
"Obviously, it must be one of these four girls that restarted the game with those notes."
"Yes, one of them. Of course, it might be possible that some other players wanted to take the lead, but it"s not likely. Back then, there was no internet. Not many people were experienced enough to pick up such a game without any noticeable changes.
"She said that the person who restarted the game seemed to be well practiced. Must be one of them."
"Four girls." Su Bai hit his cheek with his fingertips. "w.a.n.g Xue didn"t kill herself, so it must be one of the other three. Rule out your relative, then there are only two of them.
"So, where are these two girls, and what are they doing now?"
"They were good friends back then. Xue, Red, Lily and Yuan.
"Xue was for w.a.n.g Xue, the victim. Red was my relative"s name. Lily was living in the same room with w.a.n.g Xue, and she was pathetic because she was accused as the killer for over twenty years. Even though the police had put down all the investigation due to some particular reasons, the whole country had firmly believed that she was the real murderer.
"She tried to flee out of the country multiple times but was declined because she was too suspicious. Rumor has it that she was married to an American guy and went aboard but was later diagnosed as mentally disordered and was sent back to China."
"I"ve heard of her." Su Bai remembered that Lily was always accused to be the murderer who escaped punishment by online comments. Many people seriously speculated that Lily had a powerful family that could even influence the highest authority.
"So it was her?" Su Bai asked.
"No, that"s impossible." Aroma disagreed.
Su Bai suddenly realized something and nodded.
"Yes, she killed through the killing game in order to clean her name because she could provide a perfect alibi or escape punishment because too many people were involved.
"The real murderer had delivered notes; there"s no way she was that stupid to be suspicious.
"That didn"t make sense."
Su Bai held the lighter to light the cigarette.
"Bang!"
Just then, there came a short gunshot.