Chapter 97.2
(The Falsified Letter)
Once he was done narrating the timeline, Gu Liang looked at Recluse w.a.n.g first: “I would like to ask you, with regards to the actions that Proprietress Ling took after jumping out of the window, was my a.s.sumption accurate? You didn’t dare to say it previously because you were afraid that we would think you chased her to the forest by mistake, since it would increase the amount of suspicion directed towards you. What about now?”
Recluse w.a.n.g replied: “Girlfriend Jia and I used an array to trap her. When she broke out and jumped out of the window, both of us suffered from the backlash and we fell down, hence we needed two to three minutes before we could go to the window to check. She was already gone by then.”
“Afterwards… Indeed, both of us did go downstairs and sprinted into the forest. But we didn’t manage to find her.
“Honestly speaking, both of us have always felt that the entire event was quite strange. Because she was undoubtedly in a weak state; it’s not possible for her to run into the forest within two to three minutes. Furthermore, both of us really couldn’t find her in the forest, and then we returned.
“Now that you’ve mentioned it, it’s possible that she managed to hide herself in the sundries within two to three minutes, heard both of us flipping across the fence in succession, and then she returned to the third floor of the inn.”
Gu Liang picked up a pen to record down her answer as he continued to ask: “What time did both of you reach the forest, and what time was it when you returned?”
Recluse w.a.n.g: “We started to give chase around 2:25, reached the forest at 2:30, and we searched for a dozen minutes or so. By the time we returned to the inn, it was 2:50. We didn’t meet a single person.”
Girlfriend Jia thought about it before nodding. “That’s right.”
Gu Liang proceeded to ask Tourist Jia: “What about you then? Why weren’t you dead after falling off such a high mountain precipice?”
Tourist Jia: “Isn’t it obvious?”
Gu Liang: “?”
Tourist Jia stood up, turned around, and showed everyone his back.
Underneath the bright lights, Gu Liang was finally in the position to see this— the clothes on his back were tattered and torn, like it was chaffed with various sharp rocks and weeds. Additionally, there was a decently large hole in his clothes, and it was unknown what had torn into it.
After a long moment, Tourist Jia turned around and faced Gu Liang: “I had good luck; a tree branch hooked onto my lower back as I was falling. This hole was made when the tree branch hooked onto the fabric. After I returned, I originally took off my outer coat, but then I saw this hole, and felt that this was a piece of evidence so I wore it again.”
“What happened afterwards?” Gu Liang questioned.
Tourist Jia responded: “I manoeuvred myself carefully by placing both hands on the rocks beside me, and then I slowly went down the mountain. When I was going to reach the bottom of the mountain, I still fell down on accident. Fortunately, I wasn’t that high up anymore, so I was merely injured instead of falling to my death.”
Gu Liang: “Why did you spend so much time getting back?”
Tourist Jia: “The fall I suffered at the end knocked me out. When I woke up, it was already 1 o’ clock in the afternoon. Detective, you can open your map and take a look. The mountain precipice is very steep, it’s not possible for me to climb up to the mountain peak, and then use the original way to return to the inn. I walked from a completely different direction, it was extremely long-winded.
“Furthermore, while my card possessed a map because I’m a player, but as the character, I couldn’t find my way back then. I fumbled around for a long time before I managed to find the inn again, to say nothing of how my injuries aren’t light. The fact that I managed to return to the inn in 4 hours is already considered a good thing.
“But it was also because of this that I became infuriated and aggressive the moment I saw President Gao, and I started a fight with him.”
“Speaking of which—” Tourist Jia could not resist frowning, “You’re the detective. I can understand your timeline being simple. But President Gao’s might not be as clean. Did he really do nothing in the afternoon?”
Gu Liang thought in his heart— Good going, owing to their “substantive romantic relations.h.i.+p”, it would actually sound a little dubious if he were to help Yang Ye speak out right now.
However, the words that needed to be said, had to be spoken.
Gu Liang stated: “The story for the character of President Gao, is quite similar to mine with minor differences. Previously, the system mentioned that I don’t have any motivation. President Gao follows the same logic. He wanted to chase Proprietress Ling because Proprietress Ling reminds him of his ex-wife.
“The only difference between the two of us is that, I didn’t confess to Proprietress Ling. Whereas he went to confess to her yesterday morning, except Proprietress Ling said that she was infatuated with Tourist Jia, hence why he had murderous intentions towards Tourist Jia.”
Having said that, Gu Liang addressed everyone. “Let’s go back to the restoration of the case. In view of the significance that the plum wine holds for Proprietress Ling, and the strong sleeping potion appearing in the middle of the search for evidence, I believe that we can rule out the possibility of Proprietress Ling killing Vagrant Qian.
“Therefore, there must be two murderers. One of the murderers is a ghost, they used the Incense Absorbing Amulet to go to the opposite bank to kill Vagrant Qian, took aim at Proprietress Ling, and proceeded to shoot her to death; the other murderer could be human or a ghost, and through some kind of method, they were able to make Proprietress Ling stand in front of the window for a long period of time without moving, thereby allowing their accomplice on the other side of the lake to hit Proprietress Ling’s body in one shot.”
Following closely, Gu Liang recounted the “Murderer A” and “Murderer B” a.n.a.lysis that he and Yang Ye previously organised once to everyone.
After everyone comprehended his explanation and accepted it, Gu Liang continued to say: “That being said, I will be raising two questions right now. I believe that everyone can ponder from these two perspectives, and perhaps we can find a breakthrough.
“Firstly, the letter that Chef Huang received, why did it ask him to make Proprietress Ling stand in front of the window from between 2:30 to 4 in the afternoon in explicit writing?
“The plan to get rid of Proprietress Ling was conceived by Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian, and it was slated for the morning. But unexpectedly, Proprietress Ling was absent from the inn in the morning.
“Chef Huang saw that letter in the back kitchen at 5 in the morning. This indicates that before 5 in the morning yesterday, the murderer was already aware that Proprietress Ling wouldn’t be at the inn in the morning. Why is that?
“If the murderer isn’t Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian, this symbolises that the murderer knew about their plan to kill Proprietress Ling, and they proceeded to exploit the rest. In that case, they could have just allowed Vagrant Qian and Waitress Jing to act, without needing to interfere. Why were they so insistent on doing it on their own?
“This suggests that there was something that would inevitably occur, which Proprietress Ling had complete in the morning, and this matter should be closely related to the real murderer, or perhaps it was of extreme importance to the murderer, and it’s even possible that they asked Proprietress Ling to do something. Therefore, they have no choice but to spoil Vagrant Qian and Waitress Jing’s plan, thus postponing the execution of the murder to the afternoon….
“Additionally, since they were dragging the plan to the afternoon, they could still allow Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian to carry out their plan and that would suffice. Why did they absolutely insist on killing Vagrant Qian?
“In any case, the time Chef Huang received the letter is extremely strange. The real murderer knew about Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian’s plan to kill, and yet they refused to allow the implementation of the plan. Instead, they chose to make use of this plan, and their killing of Vagrant Qian is also quite strange.
“The second question is closely related to the previous question. Which is that, Waitress Jing, if you’re not the real murderer, I hope that with the remaining time we have, you can carefully consider who might have known of your plan? The letters of correspondence between both of you, who could have seen them? Or perhaps, if you have met yesterday morning or the day before that to discuss the plan, is it possible that someone overheard you?”
The first question that Gu Liang raised, no one could give an answer for the time being.
But for his second question, Waitress Jing managed to offer an explanation fairly quickly. “It is currently the morning of June 10, the crime took place yesterday on June 9. On June 8, Recluse w.a.n.g, Tourist Jia, and Girlfriend Jia arrived one after another. The earliest to arrive on June 7 were School Senior Hua, President Gao, and Zhao Meili, these three.
“School Senior Hua, on the day you arrived, which was also 7 June, didn’t the incident where Vagrant Qian hara.s.sing Proprietress Ling occur while you were eating dinner? Truth to be told, that’s a secret signal between me and Vagrant Qian. Whenever he pretends to play the fool, it indicates that he will be waiting for me near the wooden fence behind the stilted building at 12 midnight.
“Hence, at 12 midnight on June 7, I went to meet up with him and discussed our preliminary plan. We agreed that on 8 June, we would meet at the same place at the same time. Hence, on 8th of June at midnight, we met again to discuss the details.”
Gu Liang frowned: “Which also means to say, on the midnight of June 8, the discussion that you had near the fence then, was when you finally came to consensus that you would act on the morning of June 9?”
Waitress Jing replied: “Yes. Because after I introduced the scenic spots in the dining room on the night of June 8, all of you looked rather interested. It was only after I sent all of you back to your guest rooms that I met up with Vagrant Qian by the wooden fence. Then, I told him in definitive terms that all of you will be going out tomorrow morning. Sure enough, during breakfast on the second day, all of you decided where you wanted to go, and all of you left the inn.”
Gu Liang: “Therefore, we can’t rule anyone out in actuality. By 8 June, all of us have checked in, anyone could have heard your conversation.”
Waitress Jing said, “Apart from Tourist Jia, I suppose, the rest bear a possibility. Because Tourist Jia was seeing Proprietress Ling in his room back then. Proprietress Ling wore a wedding dress to meet him. This point can’t be wrong.”
After bringing the discussion to this point, Gu Liang stopped guiding the rhythm. Rather, he allowed the other players to go wild with their thoughts, and the discussion became lively as everyone talked at once.
But no progress was made during the discussion.
Just like what Gu Liang had predicted, everyone harboured extremely heavy suspicions towards Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia, because both of them went to the forest, and their whole timelines could be mutually fabricated.
There were also people who doubted Yang Ye, arguing that it was not possible for President Gao’s afternoon timeline to be completely blank, so much so that someone managed to conjure the possibility that he might have had a leg together with Waitress Jing, thus forming a dog-blooded and emotionally abusive love triangle with Vagrant Qian, pulling it to the extent where President Gao and Waitress Jing colluded to kill Proprietress Ling.
After the players debated for a full hour, arguing to the point where it was getting awful, Gu Liang interrupted all of them.
They took some time to calm down before they started to circle around the clues and evidence, like the Wish Book for instance, or books like the Index of Hundred Ghosts. Since there were no special markings, they started to check each page slowly, one by one.
There were private rooms in the dining hall, which had been refas.h.i.+oned into a one-on-one interrogation room.
Gu Liang knocked on the table in front of Yang Ye, bringing him to the interrogation to begin their individual discussion.
* * *
Moments later, inside the interrogation room.
Gu Liang gazed at Yang Ye: “After hearing their wild thoughts, what do you think?”
Yang Ye shook his head. “Apart from emphasising on their innocence, and ceaselessly and randomly splas.h.i.+ng dirty water on others, I didn’t hear anything worth noting.”
Giving a pause, Yang Ye said, “Actually, I was thinking about the first question you raised just now.”
Gu Liang: “Chef Huang’s letter?”
Yang Ye nodded his head. “The letter specifying that they will act in the afternoon, when linked together with the fact that Proprietress Ling wasn’t around in the morning, is certainly very strange.”
Yang Ye took off his gla.s.ses and ma.s.saged the s.p.a.ce between his brows.
It was an action he would frequently do when he was slightly fatigued.
Upon seeing that, Gu Liang retrieved a bottle of mineral water, twisting open the bottle cap as per usual before he handed it to Yang Ye.
Yang Ye laughed, accepting the water that Gu Liang was offering to take a sip. He looked at him deeply before he uttered: “The question that you raised is extremely vital. The murderer is most definitely aware of Waitress Jing’s and Vagrant Qian’s plan, and they proceeded to exploit them. Why did they insist on killing Vagrant Qian instead of allowing the plan to happen, which would directly allow Proprietress Ling to die by Vagrant Qian’s hands?
“Furthermore, how did they know that Proprietress Ling wouldn’t be around in advance? Prior to this, the possibility you conceived for this was— that person was going to meet Proprietress Ling beforehand, or at the very least, they had agreed to do something with Proprietress Ling before Chef Huang received the letter at 5 in the morning.”
Yang Ye stated, “What you said is certainly one of the possibilities. But this possibility would imply that what they agreed to meet for, is far more important than them wanting Proprietress Ling to die. That makes it slightly confusing. What could be so important?
“That being said, if this possibility is comparatively smaller, are there any other possibilities?
Yang Ye’s speech slowed down, and his voice deepened slightly. “I thought of another possibility just now. A possibility that incurs greater fear upon careful thought.”
Gu Liang furrowed his brows. “What did you think of?”
Yang Ye said: “When the person wrote the letter at 5 in the morning, they actually didn’t know that Proprietress Ling wouldn’t be around in the morning. This letter is fake. Chef Huang faked it. He used his own left hand to write it. Since the homicide had already happened in the afternoon, he wrote down the afternoon.”
Wearing his gla.s.ses again, Yang Ye stared at Gu Liang: “But I can’t make sense of why he would falsify that letter.”
T/N: Hahahahahahaha. Ming Yue is such a great character~ :3