Chapter 94
(The Checklist of Murderer B)
After Waitress Jing departed.
Yang Ye and Gu Liang continued to sit in the room to conduct their discussion.
Presently, it was close to 10 o’ clock at night.
Gu Liang yawned, revealing some traces of sleepiness on his face.
Yang Ye looked at him: “Do you want to sleep first? You can take a short nap; I’ll wake you up later.”
Gu Liang shook his head: “We’ll have time to rest once this ends. I’m fine. Furthermore, I’m the detective, how could I sleep? You, on the other hand, you can rest.”
Yang Ye stared at Gu Liang, a slight smudge of helplessness evident in his gaze, although it gradually deepened with more admiration.
From the very beginning, he had always understood Gu Liang’s train of thought.
From Gu Liang’s perspective, it was probably like a romantic relations.h.i.+p between a man and woman: the man should take care of the woman in every aspect, and protect her. It was nothing much to him; women were supposed to be carefully protected.
This was the difference between the genders that had been established when the Creator made this world. The male gender was born with better physical fitness, and during the ancient era, men were responsible for hunting and foraging food for their wife and children.
Even though their society became advanced enough later down the road, it could not be denied that the discrimination against women was still being perpetuated, and within the professional fields, the existing discrimination was quite severe.
Hence, there were certainly areas where the ladies did not have it easy.
Gu Liang believed that it was natural for them to receive care.
But Gu Liang felt that he was male, why should he allow another man give him more care?
Gu Liang held fast to this principle constantly, as exhibited in how he was adamant about helping Yang Ye twist open his bottle cap.
The logic of the gong taking care of the shou was not at all applicable where Gu Liang was concerned, to say nothing of the fact that he might not even have the consciousness of a shou right now.
In the face of Gu Liang Liang being like this, there were times where Yang Ye would feel that small speck of helplessness.
Because he really wanted Gu Liang to accept his goodwill.
However, this helplessness turned into distress for Gu Liang very quickly, and it only increased his heartfelt desire to love and protect Gu Liang even more.
Hence, Yang Ye stretched a hand out to caress Gu Liang’s head before he flipped his notebook to the newest page. “Sure, let’s continue sorting then. Let’s solve the case as soon as possible, and if there’s still time later, you can sleep for a while.”
“Mn. We can rest together then.”
Gu Liang tapped on the empty s.p.a.ce in Yang Ye’s notebook with his finger, “Let’s move on to the second combination. Tourist Jia and Girlfriend Jia, do you think that they bear a huge possibility? Can we eliminate them directly?”
Yang Ye thought about it, saying: “I believe that we can eliminate it directly. Firstly, Tourist Jia only returned to the inn when it was evening yesterday. His motivation to kill was only decided in the morning because Girlfriend Jia only told him and affirmed the fact that Proprietress Ling was a human-killing evil ghost at 5:30 in the morning. Hence, the possibility of Tourist Jia knowing the vagrant’s plan and taking advantage of it is very small.
“His motivation to kill manifested the latest, he doesn’t have the time. According to Girlfriend Jia’s words, it’s more likely that Tourist Jia would spend a sum of money to invite a great master to get rid of the ghost instead.
“Additionally, Tourist Jia and Girlfriend Jia are both human. But according to our current restoration of the case plot, there must be a ghost using an item like the ‘Incense Absorbing Amulet’ to avoid being illuminated by the effect of the rhinoceros horn incense. Consequently, they would be capable of going to the opposite bank of the lake while even G.o.ds and ghosts remain unaware, and with their ghost form, they managed to phase through the wall and kill Vagrant Qian.
“Therefore, this combination can be eliminated.”
After Yang Ye uttered those words, he promptly made a cross behind the combination.
Gu Liang contemplated for a moment. He took Yang Ye’s pen, flipped to a new page, and drew a straight line in the middle of the paper. Then, he wrote “Murderer A” on the left of the straight line, and wrote “Murderer B” on the right.
Gu Liang stated: “A is the murderer who led Proprietress Ling to the front of the window, and they can be human or ghost.
“B is the murderer who used the ‘Incense Absorbing Amulet’ to go to the opposite bank to kill the vagrant because they were not visible when they were crossing the bridge, and they managed to make the crime scene a perfect closed room murder, so they must be a ghost.
“There are only three ghosts. Since that’s the case, we can use the three ghosts on B and trace them back to A, combination by combination. We will have a clearer picture if we sort them out like this.”
Yang Ye nodded as he took the pen back. Under “Murderer B”, he wrote down three names in order, namely “Waitress Jing”, “Chef Huang”, and “Recluse w.a.n.g”.
“The suspicion of Waitress Jing killing Vagrant Qian has already been ruled out. Furthermore, not only has her combination with Chef Huang been ruled out, the other possible combinations with her can also be eliminated.”
Having spoken to this point, Yang Ye struck out the name of “Waitress Jing”, which could be considered as cutting out this possibility.
“Mn.” Gu Liang said, “Chef Huang being Murderer B can actually be eliminated as well. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon when I saw Waitress Jing appearing on the stone bridge. Her walking pace was quite slow, and it nearly took her 15 minutes to get across the bridge. As such, she probably reached Vagrant Qian’s thatched hut at approximately 2:50 in the afternoon. According to her account, Vagrant Qian was already dead by then.
“Chef Huang saw Girlfriend Jia going into Recluse w.a.n.g’s room, and the timeline of Zhao Meili exiting her room. It was 2 o’ clock back then.
“In reality, Waitress Jing spent half an hour getting to the stone bridge at the foot of the mountain from the inn, and she also left around 2 o’ clock. Even if Chef Huang walks faster than her, he could reach the place earlier than her by ten to fifteen minutes, and it isn’t really possible for him to kill someone during that short period of time.
“Disregarding how it’s more than likely that Chef Huang would have b.u.mped into Waitress Jing on his way back, the time for Chef Huang to act is too rushed. When you take all the factors into account, even if he reaches the place 20 minutes prior to Waitress Jing’s arrival, he needs to use those 20 minutes to make Vagrant Qian drink until he blacks out before he kills him and disguise it as a suicide by hanging. No matter how you look at it, there isn’t enough time. Furthermore, Chef Huang doesn’t have any intersections with Vagrant Qian, how did he manage to deceive Vagrant Qian into drinking until he loses consciousness?”
On the notebook, Yang Ye struck out the name of “Chef Huang” which was under “Murderer B”, thereby ruling out that possibility.
Putting down his pen for the time being, Yang Ye propped up his gla.s.ses as he said: “Which leaves only one possibility, wherein Recluse w.a.n.g was the one who went to the opposite bank to kill Vagrant Qian. What we need to find out right now, is the person who colluded with Recluse w.a.n.g.”
“Agreed. In fact, this can be inferred from the relations.h.i.+ps that the character Vagrant Qian has.”
Gu Liang uttered, “Based on the characters that have had intersections with Vagrant Qian, there should only be three from what we can perceive. Waitress Jing was the lady whom he ran into at Yellow Springs Inn, and judging from clues, she’s also the person who explicitly knows his plan to kill Proprietress Ling; Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia were once his disciples. Now that Waitress Jing’s suspicion has been eliminated tentatively, we can look at the other two ladies.
“Through the previous discussion, we came to understand Recluse w.a.n.g’s and Girlfriend Jia’s character setting. Girlfriend Jia appears a little simple-minded by comparison. Despite witnessing her companion being killed by a ghost during her childhood, she only felt scared and she wanted to run away. Concurrently, she was entranced by the gold and flowery world, such that she fooled around with her rich second-generation friends, constantly mixing around in that circle, relying on her ability to dress up as G.o.d and play the devil to earn a lot of money…
“Therefore, this is just my basic a.s.sumption, but she’s not lying. Slowly but surely, she estranged herself from her previous life, to the extent where she might have cut off contact with her master Taoist Priest Qian, who is also Vagrant Qian of today, and she stopped interacting with Recluse w.a.n.g.
“If it weren’t for her owing Tourist Jia one hundred million, it’s probable that she would never come to this inn on her own accord. It was only when she arrived at the inn that she saw Recluse w.a.n.g, and learned of what she was trying to do.
“Now that we’re done with Girlfriend Jia, let’s look at Recluse w.a.n.g. She’s completely different from Girlfriend Jia. She holds her companions and friends.h.i.+ps with great importance, the death of her companion also gave rise to a gigantic psychological shadow, but her psychological shadow morphed into an adamance for revenge. For the next 18 years of her life, she poured her efforts into seeking her revenge.
“From what I can see, Vagrant Qian was similar to her in reality, he also wanted vengeance for his disciple. This point can be corroborated by Waitress Jing’s narration. For instance, he laid an ambush around the inn for months on end, he played the fool and ruined his own image… In the end, everything was for the sake of getting rid of Proprietress Ling.
“Hence, did Vagrant Qian and Recluse w.a.n.g not have any contact at all? I don’t think that’s the case. They have a common goal. Therefore, apart from Waitress Jing who knew of Vagrant Qian’s plans, there is still another individual who could have exploited this plan too— that would be Recluse w.a.n.g.”
Yang Ye reclined his body, leaning his head on the sofa as he knocked on his finger on the table a few times in contemplation.
After some time, Yang Ye straightened his posture as he looked at Gu Liang. “It’s plausible in theory. Recluse w.a.n.g could have stayed in contact with Vagrant Qian the entire time, and she was aware of his plan to kill as well. Hence, she made use of this plan, and not only did she kill Proprietress Ling, she also murdered Vagrant Qian.
“But this will result in two questions.
“One, why did she kill Vagrant Qian?
“Two, with her character design being that of a person who valued comrades.h.i.+p greatly, to the extent where she dedicated her whole life to avenging her childhood friend, would she turn around and kill her own master?”
Gu Liang retrieved the book Index of Hundred Ghosts, flipping to one of the pages. Yang Ye glanced at that page and realised that it was specifically introducing Lamenting Ghost within the hundred ghosts.
“There are three types of ghosts that are hard to deal with, the first being malicious ghosts, evil ghosts occupying second, and the third place belongs to resentful ghosts.
“Resentful Ghosts, are humans who harboured extremely deep resentment towards a certain person or thing prior to their deaths, and the enmity they possessed was not enough to change them into malicious ghosts, and they transformed into resentful ghosts after their deaths. Malicious Ghosts will completely lose the wisdom and goodness that they had as humans, thereby killing humans and draining their vital energy as entertainment; compared to Malicious Ghosts, Resentful Ghosts still retain a portion of their rationality, and are correspondingly capable of controlling themselves.
“But Resentful Ghosts are also p.r.o.ne to moments where they will lose their rationality. When their hatred and grievance has been invoked, they will cause carnage even when confronted with their former lovers, relatives, and friends.
“Hence, when confronting these three types of ghosts, exercise due caution. Once they have decided to act, they will not care about former affection. How lamentable; once they have transformed into ghosts, humans and ghosts were meant for different paths. Everyone please take heed, do not be confused by their intelligence in the moment, and believe that they will not harm you…”
After Yang Ye finished reading the introduction for Resentful Ghosts, Gu Liang remarked: “Judging from our current circ.u.mstances, this is the only possibility. Recluse w.a.n.g remembers her past, she can maintain her consciousness for the most part, but she transformed because of the exceedingly deep resentment she harboured prior to her death. Recluse w.a.n.g conforms with the description of a resentful ghost. Therefore, she could have lost her intelligence suddenly and killed someone.
“There were so many empty alcohol bottles around Vagrant Qian’s corpse. Based on our deduction, he probably drank too much and blacked out, before he was killed. Consequently, we can imagine that the person he could drink in front without the slightest reservation, might be someone he has feelings for, like Waitress Jing for instance; but it could also be his former disciple— Recluse w.a.n.g.”
Yang Ye wrote two names in the “Murderer A Column” in correspondence with “Recluse w.a.n.g”.
“Between Chef Huang and Girlfriend Jia, who is more likely to be Murderer A?”