Chapter 79.2
He flipped to a blank page and wrote down the summary.
— Under the real murderer’s deceit, Magnate Rong went to kill the Earl, but he killed the mysterious man by mistake.
Magnate Rong must have brought the mysterious man to the sunflower garden because he wanted to bury his corpse and conceal his crime…
How did he end up dying then?
He must have been killed by the real murderer as he was preparing to bury the mysterious man’s corpse.
Gu Liang took the pen and drew a few lines across the paper, before he flipped to the section where he had recorded the details pertaining to the dreamscape.
Gu Liang slowly said: “This should be interrelated to how the dreamscape was built. We divided the players into three types prior to this. But right now, we can merge the players into two types— those who have died in reality; and those who are alive in reality.
“Sc.u.mbag Yu, Designer Mei, and Confidant Ai are dead, the Duke might have seen their corpses and borrowed their appearance to reconstruct them in the dreamscape, except he gave them new memories. Or perhaps to use another phrasing, the Duke spun a story and merely borrowed their faces. In his dream, these three people can be considered as completely fict.i.tious existences that are without self-awareness.
“Whereas the other people…
“I still remember a lot of things concerning Actor Ming. I should be alive.”
Gu Liang gazed at Yang Ye, “We’re different from three of you. In reality, I could be lying in Actor Ming’s room on the sixth floor the entire time, sleeping. This would suggest that when I was sleeping, my consciousness was pulled into the dream by the Duke, and was made to dream with him.”
Yang Ye said: “Yes. That should be the case. Just think about Chief Mei. Only Mother Ai one-sidedly recognises him as her fiancé. But personally, he doesn’t acknowledge this connection. This implies that his own memories weren’t affected by the Duke.
“He and Sister Mei remember their own stories perfectly. They’re not dead in reality.”
Yang Ye opened his mineral water bottle to drink a mouthful before he continued to speak: “The three of us – namely Li Xiao Yu, Su Lan and I – have all died in reality. It’s impossible for us to have our own awareness. Even if we left the dreamscape, we can’t live.
“Hence, the person who became self-aware, who realised that this was a dream, and wanted to break out of this dream in order to live, can only be among you, Chief Mei, and Sister Mei, since Magnate Rong is already dead and he doesn’t count.
“You are naturally eliminated. Apart from our substantive romantic relations.h.i.+p—”
When Gu Liang heard that phrase, he could barely restrain himself from shooting Yang Ye a sidelong glance.
In a serious tone, Yang Ye uttered, “It’s also because your ident.i.ty as an actor has absolutely nothing to do with the ancient castle and the spells. You were taken for the ride by the Duke’s will the entire time, and you were completely immersed in the romantic affair with me. But both of them are different.
“Neither of them had a story arranged by the Duke, and that’s the first reason. Both of them are wanted criminals, and that’s strike two.
“Chief Mei was a disciple under the Eastern Magician’s sect. Those illusionary spell and dream entering books were personally written by the Eastern Magician, so it goes without saying that he’s capable of recognising that this is a dreamscape.
“Although Sister Mei isn’t the Magician’s disciple, she’s been together with Chief Mei for a long time. Not to mention, there were a lot of spell books in their car, and Sister Mei might have read those books. In addition to how many tombs she stole into, it’s highly likely that she has plenty of experiences with the mystical and abstruse. Being able to realise that this is a fantasy or a dreamscape is not impossible.
“Therefore, I think that both of them hold the greatest suspicion.”
After concluding the motivation to kill, Yang Ye flipped his own notebook and allowed Gu Liang to see the record he had made for their timelines. “Under the conditions where no one has covered up the truth or accidentally let something slip out, it seems like no one has seen Magnate Rong after we were done with lunch. When I met the mysterious man last, it was 3:30 in the afternoon. Consequently, he must have died after 3:30.
“From 1:55 to 3:40, Chief Mei and Su Lan were together the entire time. Chief Mei verbally declared that he was in the main lobby from 3:40 to 4:20, and when Su Lan saw him, it was 4:10. Thus, Chef Mei has from 3:40 to 4:10 to commit the crime, which only amounts to half an hour.
“That being said, it’s possible for him to exit the lobby from the ancient castle’s main doors, route around to the sunflower garden to kill someone before doubling back.
“But if he went upstairs to kill someone first, it doesn’t matter if he jumped down from the sixth floor directly or took the elevator down, he has to slowly carry the corpse on his back to get to the sunflower before rus.h.i.+ng back using the path on the outer periphery. He doesn’t have enough time, to say nothing of having to deal with two corpses.”
Yang Ye continued, “Let’s talk about Sister Mei next. She testified that she went to pick more flowers at 3:50, and it was 4:20 by the time she made her return. Su Lan also witnessed her return. In actuality, the time she committed the crime can be relaxed to 3:40, when Chief Mei left for the main lobby. After everything is taken into account, the time from 3:40 to 4:20 totals up to 40 minutes.
“We only saw the clue state that the people in the dream wouldn’t get hurt, but we didn’t see any clues which indicated that people in the dream could fly or levitate off the ground. The Duke didn’t give anyone a setting like this.
“Thus, if Sister Mei went to the sixth floor to kill someone during that span of time, she definitely has to use the elevator in the lobby to go upstairs, and this will be witnessed by Chief Mei. Therefore, she only has the chance to kill someone when she was in the back garden picking flowers.
“From a comprehensive view point, it’s not possible for either of them to go to the sixth floor to kill someone, before carrying the corpse to the sunflowers. Regardless of whether they each killed one person, or killed the two deceased together and carried them over, it is not within the realm of possibility.
“Hence, these two corpses must have ‘walked’ themselves to the sunflower garden.”
Yang Ye said, “Magnate Rong took the room card to enter my room to kill me, but he killed the mysterious man by mistake. After he threw the mysterious man downstairs, he jumped down as well. Magnate Rong carried the corpse on his back to the sunflower garden alone and the real murderer killed Magnate Rong in the sunflower garden. This is the only possibility.
“The motivation to kill, the restoration of the case details, and the timeline, all of it can be mutually corroborated.”
* * *
Knocks rang out at their door.
Gu Liang asked: “Who?”
“Me, I’m coming in, yeah?”
Li Xiao Yu pushed open the door and entered, “Both of you can stop whispering to each other. All three of them have gone to a resting lounge together, so I came to find you guys.”
“Come in quickly.”
Gu Liang waited for Li Xiao Yu to shut the door properly before he asked her: “What did the others say?”
“They obviously suspected Yang Ye the most.”
Li Xiao Yu went forward to sit on the opposite of Yang Ye and Gu Liang. She said: “The timelines are actually very coherent. Although there are two homicides, Yang Ye said that he met the mysterious man at 3:30. At the very least, the homicidal death of the mysterious man has to occur after 3:30.
“At 4:20, Sister Mei and Su Lan were in the main hall; Chief Mei was seen in the main hall at 3:10, and he left the main lobby at 4:30 to go to the main hall. From 4:30 to 5 o’ clock, three of them were decorating the main hall together. As I was pa.s.sing through the main hall to get to the flower garden, I met the three of them.
“If the murderer is Sister Mei, it’s not possible for her bypa.s.s Chief Mei and fly to the sixth floor to commit the murder, so she was eliminated first.
“Next is Chief Mei. Although Sister Mei was in the rose garden from 3:50 to 4:20, he could have avoided Sister Mei’s detection when he was dragging the corpse towards the sunflower garden. But the window where he can commit crime is 30 minutes at most.
“Although we managed to reach the sunflower garden in under half an hour when we were tracking the bloodstains, we were running the entire time. Chief Mei has to finish killing and drag the corpse in those 30 minutes, and there might even be two corpses, which makes it unlikely.
“If Su Lan was the killer, she definitely has to do it after 3:30 as well. If she dragged the corpse to the sunflower garden and then came back, she definitely has to go past the main lobby and encounter Chief Mei; or if she went through the rose garden and the main hall, Sister Mei would have seen her.
“But Chief Mei can testify to the fact that Su Lan took the elevator down from the sixth floor at 4:10.
“Similarly, the possibility of her flying back to the sixth floor from the sunflower garden after she was done killing was ruled out, which eliminates her as well.
“Actually, from their perspective, the three of us hold the greatest suspicion.
“After 4:30 in the afternoon, all three of them were in the main hall decorating the wedding ceremony venue.
“Since that’s the case, if someone among the three of us killed, routed around the periphery of the ancient castle from the sunflower garden, walked through the main lobby, and used the elevator to return to the sixth floor, none of them would be able to see it.
“Yang Ye’s room has the bloodstains, so his suspicion is the heaviest.”
Li Xiao Yu peered at Yang Ye, “And with regards to the room card, Chief Mei also managed to think of a reb.u.t.tal— Magnate Rong took the room card to kill you, but he was counter killed.
“You killed the mysterious man in your room first before you counter killed Magnate Rong, and threw both of their corpses off the balcony.
“Subsequently, you jumped down with them and dragged them towards the sunflower garden. Between 4:30 and 4 o’ clock, you took the outer path around the ancient castle to get to the lobby, returned to your room on the sixth floor and pretended that nothing had transpired. This is the modus operandi that the three of them reconstructed for you.”
Yang Ye asked: “How did they explain how I went downstairs then? Back then, Chief Mei was in the lobby, he didn’t see me use the elevator.”
Li Xiao Yu replied, “You directly jumped down from the sixth floor. There aren’t any clues about people in the dream being able to fly up to the sixth floor in this scenario, but there are clues about how people in the dream won’t get injured if they jumped out of the building. For the same reason, the two corpses don’t have any injuries.”
“If I knew that I could jump off from the sixth floor, it implies that I know that I’m dreaming, right?”
Yang Ye stared at Li Xiao Yu: “What’s my killing motivation then?”
Li Xiao Yu: “They also a.n.a.lysed it. They said that someone among us knows that we’re dreaming and is self-aware. You killed the mysterious man for the sake of shattering the dreamscape to escape; killing Magnate Rong was an accident, you acted out of self-defence.”
Yang Ye: “But Sc.u.mbag Yu is already dead, where did my self-awareness come from?”
* * *
After going through the explanation given by Yang Ye and Gu Liang.
Li Xiao Yu finally came to a realisation. “I get it now. The murderer must be a living character. Only living characters have the possibility of self-awareness. Then… the murderer is either Sister Mei or Chief Mei.”
Gu Liang asked Li Xiao Yu: “Why did you rule me out?”
Li Xiao Yu mulled over it. “Back in Undying Town, although I was constantly cracking jokes about you and Yang Ye, there was nothing between both of you then. Yet, you wanted to undertake everything purely because you didn’t want to implicate other people. You were afraid of the detective being persecuted, and you were afraid of a good person being incarcerated.
“This time around, it’s either the real murderer dies or five other people die. If you’re the real murderer, you wouldn’t only think about yourself and cause the deaths of five other people.
“Which is why I think you’re a good person, Gu Liang. You and Yang Ye are particularly good people. I’m willing to always believe in both of you.”
Upon hearing Li Xiao Yu’s words, it could not be denied that Gu Liang felt consoled and touched.
From Gu Liang’s perspective, the weight of Li Xiao Yu’s praise was completely different from Yang Ye’s.
Yang Ye’s praise might have vested with his own selfish desires.
Because he liked Gu Liang.
But Li Xiao Yu was different.
For Gu Liang, receiving affirmation from a person who had nothing to do with him, might actually feel more real to him.
In his life, he never really received the affirmation he truly wanted.
However, in this sort of game, someone told him— he was a good person.
After Li Xiao Yu’s temporary excitement pa.s.sed, she furrowed her eyebrows again. “Despite that, even though it’s one of the two options… We still don’t know which one to choose. Since it was Magnate Rong who killed the mysterious man, then brought him to the sunflower before he was killed as well…. Both of them are plausible.
“Time-wise, Chief Mei can make it in time. In the interval where he was looking for antiques to use as decorations in the lobby, he just needs to run to the sunflower garden using the path wrapping around the ancient castle, stab and then come back. He doesn’t need to carry two corpses to the sunflower garden… he definitely has enough time.
“Sister Mei was in the back garden picking flowers, she had the time to commit the crime too. She can head to the sunflower garden from the rose garden, impale the cross, and then continue to pick flowers. She would have enough time to spare.”
Gu Liang frowned, not speaking. Instead, he only picked up his notebook and skimmed through the contents from start to end quickly.
During this span of time, he was reconstructing all of the possibilities in his brain.
Afterwards, he closed his notebook, “I’ve figured it out. I know who the murderer should be.”
“The pile of books from the Magician is too thick. Let’s flip through everything from beginning to the end later to confirm how the dreamscape is constructed. If we can support the fact that living can enter the Duke’s dream as well, with a possibility of reawakening their self-awareness… In that case, the murderer should be that person.”
T/N: Have I ever mentioned that I love Li Xiao Yu and she’s my favourite character after our main leads? Because I do love her, and she is.