Chapter 19
(Gu Liang, do you think I’m handsome?)
After the conversation they had with Doctor Yu, Gu Liang pledged in all sincerity he was under the a.s.sumption that he had figured out the game’s cheap tricks. According to his brain hole, they only had to find out who was aware that Perennial w.a.n.g was currently a counterfeit to find the real murderer.
Right now, however, he felt like he had been toyed by the script.
Gu Liang shook his head and said: “My brain hole isn’t right. This dead body doesn’t show any sign of ‘having wielded a sword to castrate himself’ at all. In fact, it’s even possible that a replaced imitation never existed in the first place, and there has only been one Perennial w.a.n.g from beginning to end.”
Yang Ye pondered about it briefly before he asked: “The matter of Perennial w.a.n.g’s castration, is anyone else aware of it?”
Gu Liang replied, “I’m not certain. In any case, that’s what he told Beauty Yi. He’s never laid a hand on her.”
The glumness lining his visage did not go unnoticed by Yang Ye. He patted his shoulder. “The investigation has just begun, let’s look for the clues first. No rush.”
At this moment, the broadcast sounded, reminding them that the twenty minutes to investigate the scene of the crime had ended, and the room was about to be cordoned off.
Yang Ye took out his camera again to photograph their surroundings of the room twice more, then he left the crime scene with Gu Liang in the nick of time and walked towards the courtyard.
From the beginning till the end, the two martial brothers as well as Doctor Yu scarcely stepped into the room.
Initially, Gu Liang had been wondering if they had left in advance to deal with the evidence in their respective rooms. It was only when he arrived at the courtyard where he realised that he was the lesser person.
It turns out Doctor Yu had started throwing up after she caught a glimpse of the corpse from the doorway, and she had puked so much her entire body was shaking and she almost pa.s.sed out.
In this period of time, the Oldest Martial Brother had boiled her a kettle of water, allowed it to cool in a bowl and aided her in drinking the water.
Meanwhile, the Second Martial Brother was constantly patting her back to soothe her.
Although Doctor Yu had eventually recovered her wits, it hadn’t been easy for her, especially when she was confronted with such a situation.
When she saw Yang Ye and Gu Liang coming over, she waved at them weakly but she was still lacking in the strength to speak.
Yang Ye told Gu Liang: “Say, do you think she muddled her way through her past three copies with sheer luck, and managed to avoid drawing the deceased or murderer card? Otherwise, how did she manage to live up until now?”
Gu Liang: “Not necessarily. What if she disguised herself as a pig to eat the tiger?”
Yang Ye: “Really? I can’t see it.”
Gu Liang: “I feel like you’re easily deceived by women.”
Yang Ye: “?”
Gu Liang offered his sincere and earnest words: “You shouldn’t let yourself be swayed just because someone looks attractive.”
Yang Ye raised an eyebrow, “Hold on, you think she looks attractive?”
Faintly, Gu Liang replied. “Naturally. Big eyes, tall nose, and a pointed chin. It’s quite a beautiful countenance.”
Yang Ye: “……”
Gu Liang: “What’s wrong?”
k2014; What kind of important point was he catching? Isn’t the important point supposed to be the fact that he’s easily swayed?
Yang Ye: “Nothing really. As expected of straight menk2014;”
Gu Liang: “?”
Yang Ye: “Do you think I’m attractive then?”
Gu Liang: “??”
Yang Ye asked: “Am I handsome?”
Gu Liang stilled for three seconds. “Don’t you feel awkward when two men are talking about such a thing? You have issues.”
Yang Ye: “…………”
A short moment later, Yang Ye stopped walking in front of Oldest Martial Brother and Second Martial Brother. “For our rooms, let’s search them together. If we do it this way, we can immediately clarify any questions we have as a collective and save time, and we can also prevent the real murderer from hiding crucial evidence in their rooms. Afterwards, we can search the rest of the areas freely in separate groups. How does that sound?”
Yang Ye’s suggestion was met with unanimous agreement.
Hence, the group of people trekked towards the two disciples’ room first.
The two disciples were sharing the same room.
There was a huge courtyard leading to their room where the pair frequently practiced at. Inside, there were two wooden beds, and they were separated by a table and a few backless benches. Half-eaten pastries and bowls of porridge were still on the table and it appeared to be their breakfast.
As they moved further away from the corpse, Doctor Yu seemed to regain her vigour.
While she did not manage to find any clues back at the crime scene because she was too busy puking, she wasted no time rummaging through the chest and cupboards with extraordinary enthusiasm in this instance.
Gu Liang noted that she found numerous shreds of paper from many places: like under the pillow, between the folds of the covers, under the chair legs, so on and so forth. Furthermore, these fragments of paper had parts of a diagram and words. Without a doubt, it was crucial evidence.
“The handwriting on the pieces of paper are different, it should be written by different hands, maybe it’s two different letters written by different people! I have to piece them together!”
Safe to say, Doctor Yu was itching to have a go.
Leaving her to her puzzle games, Gu Liang entered the room and wandered around for a while. Then, he went to the courtyard to inspect the area carefully.
After a brief period of time, Yang Ye strode over to him. “Have you found anything?”
Gu Liang nodded his head. “In the previous scenario, you gave me a lesson on paying more attention to the details. Look over here—”
Gu Liang raised his hand and pointed, and following the direction he was gesturing at, Yang Ye noticed that the colour of the soil under the tree was very deep, like it had been overturned.
Coincidentally, the two martial brothers were walking in their direction. Thus, Gu Liang tossed them a question: “Can either of you clarify why the soil here has a different colour? Prior to this, who drew something on the soil?”
Before the two direct disciples could answer, Doctor Yu’s triumphant voice carried over: “I got it! I pieced together the contents of the first piece of paper! I recognise the diagram on it! It’s [Draw a Circle to Curse You]! The person being cursed is Perennial w.a.n.g, and his name and Eight Characters are written on it! Whose paper is this?”
The Second Martial Brother revealed some hesitation, but he eventually admitted to it. “Today at mao s.h.i.+, while the Oldest Martial Brother was going to the toilet, I took advantage of the occasion by grabbing a brush and paper to use the [Draw a Circle to Curse You] to curse Perennial w.a.n.g to death.”
Oldest Martial Brother gave him a glance before he promptly said: “I also used [Draw a Circle to Curse You] to curse Perennial w.a.n.g to death. This morning at mao s.h.i.+, I excused myself by saying I was going to the toilet, but in actuality, I came to the courtyard and used my sword to draw the talisman and write his name and Eight Characters in the soil.”
At this moment, Doctor Yu’s voice travelled over again. “The second paper has been pieced together! It writes that ‘Through proven investigation, Perennial w.a.n.g was responsible for eviscerating our Kongtong Sect members ten years ago! Wu-er, you must kill him and avenge the Kongtong Sect in my stead!’”
Thus, the Second Martial Brother could only follow up by saying: “That’s my stuff. It’s the evidence for my motivation to kill. I’m from Kongtong Sect. My mother suspected that Perennial w.a.n.g was the murderer, so she sent me to Xiaoyao Sect to become Perennial w.a.n.g’s disciple, but the truth of the matter is that I’m a planted agent. Recently, she found out the truth and sent me the letter to tell me to murder Perennial w.a.n.g.”
“Then, what about you—” Yang Ye looked at Oldest Martial Brother pointedly. “What’s your motivation for killing?”
Oldest Martial Brother went quiet for a long moment. Frowning, he said, “It’s hard to explain. I won’t say it’s me. He… Perennial w.a.n.g forced himself on his disciple Oldest Martial Brother, which is why the Oldest Martial Brother wanted to kill him.”
Second Martial Brother: “……”
Yang Ye: “…….”
Gu Liang: “……”
The degree of melodrama the script had was constantly refres.h.i.+ng Gu Liang’s upper limit.
Meanwhile, only Doctor Yu revealed a (〃’▽’〃) expression.
After bidding farewell to the two disciples’ residence, the five of them proceeded to Beauty Yi’s Yafang Ju.
This was where she practiced her qin and would occasionally spend her nights here. Two items were found in her Yafang Ju, the first was Master Hui’s Buddhist robes which she secretly kept and the other were the tools she used to disguise as a ghost.
Oldest Martial Brother realised something as he asked Gu Liang: “My script wrote that Xiaoyao Sect has been haunted by ghosts recently, it was actually your doing?”
Gu Liang said: “Yes. This room has two evinced objects that explain my character’s motivation to kill. The person Beauty Yi likes is Master Hui. In order to get Mater Hui to stay in the Sect, she deliberately mystified the place so she had an excuse to find an exorcist.”
“As for Beauty Yi’s modus operandi—” Gu Liang took out the hexagonal mirror from his robes— “It’s the same as yours, where I used [Draw a Circle to Curse You] to curse Perennial w.a.n.g to death at mao s.h.i.+ today. I drew the cursed talisman on the mirror with water.”
Apart from those discoveries, there was nothing of value left in Gu Liang’s room.
Lastly, everyone went to Doctor Yu’s room together.
Doctor Yu’s room had a container of rouge with distinct fingerprints, and it matched the conjecture where she had used the rouge to draw the cursed talisman on the back of her hand.
Furthermore, there was an oath written in blood beneath her rouge container.
The oath only had one line: “Mother of mine, since Perennial w.a.n.g destroyed your life, I will definitely kill him to avenge you!”
Those words corroborated with the killing motive she mentioned in the morning— she had killed Perennial w.a.n.g for the sake of avenging her mother.
Additionally, a yellowed paper was found under Doctor Yu’s pillow. It wrote: “Brother Hui, despite separating years ago, I have never given up on finding you. The tree peonies were splendid the year we parted; I hope that in the coming years I may meet you again, and we will view the flowers blossoming as before. – Xiao Yu.”
Gu Liang asked her: “Brother Hui is Master Hui?”
Doctor Yu nodded furiously. “Yeah. Like I said in the morning, he’s my childhood sweetheart. After arriving at Xiaoyao Sect, I only knew that he was here too after I had a fortuitous encounter with him yesterday. When I went over this morning, I wanted to reminisce about the old days with him and get him to be my alibi in the pa.s.sing. My script stated that I’ve always loved him and I still want to be with him. Unless he has already fallen for someone else.”
Then, they made their way back to the courtyard after they were done with Doctor Yu’s room.
Yang Ye tugged on Gu Liang’s robe sleeve, causing Gu Liang to slow down his footsteps. He waited for others to enter the courtyard proper, which left them as the only occupants in the room, before he asked Yang Ye in a small voice: “What is it?”
Who would have thought that Yang Ye would b.u.mp his shoulder and say: “It was quite pleasant to hear you call me Brother Hui. Call me that again.”
Gu Liang: “…………”
And as if he could feel Gu Liang swearing at him noiselessly between the gaps of his teeth, Yang Ye grinned. Immediately after, he suppressed his voice and said seriously: “However, I do have some areas I’m doubtful about, and I would like to hear your opinion.”
Gu Liang: “Speak.”
Yang Ye: “Although this script is melodramatic, it’s a proven fact that every line has a deep meaning and has its own reasoning when you think about them carefully. From what I can perceive, our dog-blooded love triangle does not bear a single s.h.i.+lling of connection with the deceased being killed. Since that’s the case, why did it arrange the segment? The script instructing Doctor Yu to find me in the morning, what is the point behind it?”
Gu Liang furrowed his eyebrows as well before he shook his head: “I can’t think of anything for the time being. Let’s continue looking.”
“Mn,” Yang Ye patted his shoulder. Without any rhyme and reason, he smiled again as he walked forward.
— Tch, was he tacitly approving of ‘our dog-blooded love triangle’? Does this also mean he approves of the love connection that they shared?
Gu Liang tossed him a few strange looks— What is he smiling about all of a sudden?
Forget it. He’s usually like this.
Shaking his head, Gu Liang followed him out of the room and into the courtyard.
At this juncture, the rooms of the four murder suspects had been searched by everyone together.
Currently, the Oldest Martial Brother was sifting through the flower pots to search for clues; Second Martial Brother’s face was scrunched together, visibly entangled by something he was thinking about; Doctor Yu was playing the container of rouge in her hands and would occasionally bite her lips as she racked her brains for ideas.
Upon seeing Yang Ye and Gu Liang come out, Doctor Yu peered at both of them simultaneously before she complained: “Both of you are always talking to each other in secret.”
Gu Liang: “…….”
Although Yang Ye casted a glance at Gu Liang first, he still sauntered over to Doctor Yu with a smile. “Judging from your expression, it seems like you’ve discovered something. Doctor Yu, do you have any penetrating insight? Say it out and let everyone a.n.a.lyse it?”
Evidently, the words ‘penetrating insight’ pleased Doctor Yu as she immediately smiled and said: “Everyone had utilised the curse to kill him. Beauty Yi already thought of this brain hole in the morning. Presently, only the knife has no owner. But I feel that… this case is very simple— the curse at mao s.h.i.+ didn’t kill him because he was already dead before mao s.h.i.+. And before mao s.h.i.+, someone had used the knife to carve words into his body and allowed him to die from the loss of blood.”
Oldest Martial Brother placed down the flowerpot he was messing with. As he walked over, he stated in an earnest manner: “If that is the case, the murderer can’t be me or Second Martial Brother. Before mao s.h.i.+, we were in the same room for the entire night. We can mutually testify for each other.”
Gu Liang gazed at Yang Ye and said calmly: “You can eliminate me too. I was with the detective the whole time before mao s.h.i.+.”
“You… All of you have an alibi. Does that mean… I’m the only one without an alibi because I was in my room alone?”
Doctor Yu did not expect that one sentence of hers would, unexpectedly, make her the focal point. Her face paled instantaneously and she became a little panicked.