Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 54.1

(Gu Liang: Is Yang Ye jinxing me?)

Truthfully speaking, Yang Ye did not manage to catch what Li Xiao Yu was saying because she had mouthed her words too quickly.

Yang Ye gave Li Xiao Yu a quizzical look, to which she received, and she was about to repeat herself when Gu Liang’s calm and cold gaze swept over.

Li Xiao Yu shut her mouth immediately, and obediently greeted them as she sat down.

Together with Li Xiao Yu was Meng Qian Cheng, who had previously acted as Professor w.a.n.g.

And because he had been walking beside Li Xiao Yu, Meng Qian Cheng saw what she said with his sharp eyes.

Hence, when he planted himself on the chair, he questioned Li Xiao Yu: “Are you not allowed to say that loud?”

Li Xiao Yu thought in her heart, Since when was she allowed?

Those words were her skewed thoughts, belonging to a rotten culture; Yang Ye was gay and he looked absolutely infatuated with Gu Liang. Thus, she was merely joking with Yang Ye.

But Gu Liang was straight, what if he didn’t like these things? Wouldn’t she be offending him greatly if she were to say those words to him?

Furthermore, with Gu Liang’s high and aloof appearance, he looked a little frightening when he swept his eyes over.

Like h.e.l.l she would dare to say it out loud.

However, who could have antic.i.p.ated that Meng Qian Cheng’s following lines would be: “They have already publicised their relations.h.i.+p. What about it? This isn’t reality where people will point and gesticulate. Since we’re in a game, what’s wrong with kissing in front of a crowd?”

Li Xiao Yu looked at Yang Ye in shock.

It was unknown what she was imagining, but her face went red while Gu Liang – the person in question – seemed unfazed.

Li Xiao Yu asked in a hurry: “When did this happen! Why am I unaware of this! I only missed out on one script with you guys? I feel like I missed out on a million!”

Gu Liang frowned, gaze skimming past these frivolous people one by one. He was about to open his mouth to explain but he caught a glimpse of something from his peripheral vision, which made him stop speaking.

— Approaching them from the front was Su Lan.

Despite having been inexplicably used as a s.h.i.+eld the first time around, it seems like he had to keep going.

Gu Liang still remembered the first encounter he had with Su Lan.

Like Gu Liang, she had looked for Yang Ye with medicine and food in hand.

That night, she had worn light and delicate make-up, which barely managed to conceal the dismal state of having recently escaped from death.

Some fatigue and dejectedness were still present on her expression back then.

However, she was different today: her contrasting red lips impressed upon her a mult.i.tude of amorous feelings, and she was garbed in a wine red dress that clinched her chest and waist and it matched well with the colour of Yang Ye’s suit. A small purse hung over her left shoulder in the same red hue, and when she removed the purse strap from her shoulder, it was made apparent that her skin was as white as snow.

Why was she here?

Did she use the same reward card as Yang Ye and Professor w.a.n.g?

Gu Liang had drawn the same reward as well.

When The Fifth Person scenario ended, everyone was given the chance to draw two reward cards because they had completed the side task.

And one of the cards that Gu Liang had drawn was the “I Will Not Rest Card”.

[I Will Not Rest Card] Introduction for Use: “What is rest! I do not need it! I want to work hard and solve cases to earn gold coins! I am different from those idle players!”

“When a player draws this card, they can end their holiday in advance. The optional range for ending their rest in advance is 1 to 7 days, tap on the number to make the choice, changes cannot be made after confirmation.”

Gu Liang thought inwardly, In view of all these facts, can it be hypothesised that— a large volume of this reward card exists?

Which also meant that… The system was actually allowing players to form groups, albeit silently?

According to a few isolated phrases he had taken from his previous conversation with the man in black, and from his own personal experience in the game, Gu Liang believed that most of his guesses were correct— for example, the scenario premises were being restored and reused.

A site like Boss Bai’s villa was the easiest to restore, and it was appropriated to all the new players.

Whereas the burnt camping grounds in the snow mountain was comparatively hard to restore. Correspondingly, after Gu Liang’s group left, it would take a long time before another batch of players would enter the snow mountain.

Hence, the truth of the matter was that the system had to plan every player’s game time and resting time in advance.

Apart from that, the system broadcasted that after entering the medium level scripts, every player would be receiving an individual evaluation once the game concluded.

The system also needed to spend some time evaluating every single player.

The player’s evaluation would then decide the mode and difficulty of their next script.

And each script drawing was done at the end of their downtime.

After Gu Liang took all these factors into account, he could make the following a.s.sumptions:

One, the number of players in the game should be fewer than Gu Liang’s initial estimation.

Two, from the time where the evaluation ended to when the script was drawn, the range of scripts that a player could choose from was actually a very small number.

Three, building on the aforementioned two points, if a player uses the “I Will Not Rest Card”, the range of scripts that they can choose from will shrink even further.

Therefore, if players of similar overall scores and calibres mutually agreed on when they would end their downtime, the probability of them gathering together again in the next script was exceedingly high.

In fact, after reaching this point, the inference could be taken a step further— the system tacitly agreed to the players forming groups among themselves, and it could even be that it was facilitating the process of players with similar strengths entering the same scenario.

As for why the system had such designs, or what the final game was bound to become, was beyond Gu Liang’s scope of prediction for the time being.

Present moment. Piano music reverberated through the main hall.

In the midst of the melodious musical composition, Su Lan’s long and slender figure drew closer to everyone.

The first person to greet her was Li Xiao Yu. “Ahh, such a pretty and alpha older sister. Older sister, what role are you acting as?”

Su Lan acknowledged everyone with a small nod and sat beside Li Xiao Yu. “I’m Designer Mei, I make dolls.”

“Oh, I’m Confidant Ai, Lady Rong’s best friend.”

Li Xiao Yu helped Meng Qian Cheng introduce his ident.i.ty as well. “He’s Lady Rong’s father, Magnate Rong.”

Yang Ye slid in a question smoothly. “When did you become so familiar with Old Man Meng?”

“Huh? Since all of you are calling him Old Man Meng, I followed you in calling him that as well.” Li Xiao Yu said, “I met him when I was taking the elevator down, and we talked along the way. He said that the current bride – I’m referring to Lady Rong – was someone he had encountered for his past few scripts.”

Dong Wan had abruptly transformed into the bride Lady Rong from Doctor Xu.

The bridegroom Boyfriend Feng was Maid Liu whom they had met in the very first script.

Scientist Li became Butler Hao, Professor w.a.n.g became Magnate Rong.

Li Xiao Yu was Confidant Ai, Su Lan was Designer Mei.

All the players in the ongoing script were actually acquaintances.

Gu Liang examined everyone silently. He did not make any sound or draw attention to himself, only lifting his red wine to sip on it.

Frankly speaking, as the players became more familiar with one another, the game difficulty would increase by a certain degree, because it was easier to determine if that person was lying.

The clock in the main hall struck 5:50.

There were still five minutes before the evening party officially began.

The bride-to-be Lady Rong and the bridegroom-to-be Boyfriend Feng were the last to take their seats.

Once the pair sat down, all the players were technically seated together at the same table, if they discounted Butler Hao.

Butler Hao was not at his seat because he was serving desserts to everyone.

After he gave everyone a slice of dessert, he walked up to Gu Liang. “Actor Ming, please follow me to the backstage to change your clothes, and prepare to step on stage.”

When Yang Ye heard those words, he came to an understanding. Smiling, he looked at Gu Liang with a mix of ridicule and expectation in his faze: “You’re not going to sing, are you?”

“Not singing,” Gu Liang picked up the paper napkin to wipe his mouth before he stood up to follow Butler Hao.

Before entering the backstage, Gu Liang took a glance back.

Everyone was tasting their desserts.

Perhaps owing to their long exposure, everyone knew how to play the game, and they had come a long way from the beginning where they did not dare to eat anything.

Everyone was seated and eating the food, and Su Lan was the only exception.

After eating a few bites of her dessert, Su Lan rose to her feet. She used one hand to smooth out her skirt while she grabbed her small clutch in the other and then sashayed away, probably in the direction of the toilet.

Gu Liang stopped looking because he was called into the backstage by Butler Hao. “This is your performance outfit.”

When he caught sight of the flowery and green costume, the vein in Gu Liang’s temples jumped up.

Then, he saw Butler Hao walking up to the broadcasting system. Gu Liang asked him: “Are you the master of ceremonies, waiter and the DJ in this wedding concurrently?”

Butler Hao: “Maybe the system is poor, and it couldn’t afford to hire more NPCs.”

“The broadcasting equipment has been debugged and adjusted. You can continue memorising your song lyrics if you want, you’ll need to go up on stage around 6:30. I’ll call you when the time comes around.”

After saying those words, Butler Hao left the backstage.

Gu Liang did not memorise his song lyrics. After he changed into his performance outfit, he sat at the entrance of the backstage to observe the situation in the main hall quietly.

Nothing strange occurred during the wait.

Butler Hao was constantly wandering between the kitchen and hall; Yang Ye, Meng Qian Cheng, and Li Xiao Yu were keeping up a steady stream of conversation.

As for Boyfriend Feng, he basically had his head lowered the entire time as he used one hand to drink his red wine and eat his steak with the other.

Instead of using a fork and knife, he opted for chopsticks. However, attempting to use chopsticks to eat a huge steak was rather ineffective, so he decided to use his hand in the end, thus smearing his mouth and hands with oil.

He looked like a person who hadn’t eaten any meat for a year.

The educated and well-balanced Lady Rong, who had been taught the womanly virtues ever since she was young, did not reveal a trace of disdain on her expression. Rather, she only offered him a paper napkin gently, and helped him wipe his mouth.

This was probably part of her script enactment.

Although Boyfriend Feng was a female NPC masquerading the role, her performance was exceptional, and with her suitable disguise, it did not feel out of place at all.

Similarly, the Lady Rong Dong Wan had a charming and gentle temperament and she cooperated with the NPC well.

After performing the scene where she had to wipe Boyfriend Feng’s mouth, Dong Wan tried to insert herself into the group conversation. However, because she could not find an opening, she could only sit there silently with a slightly lost expression.

This continued until the Designer Mei Su Lan returned, and Dong Wan’s demeanour improved slightly.

After Su Lan sat down, Dong Wan held her hand and started chatting with her.

Gu Liang pondered, They probably built their friends.h.i.+p back at the resting area.

Then, he glanced at the clock in the main hall. It was currently 6:20.

Which also meant that Su Lan went to the restroom for 20 minutes, give or take a few.

10 minutes later, Butler Hao returned to the backstage to call Gu Liang. “It’s time for you to perform on stage.”

Immediately after, Butler Hao took the microphone and went up on stage, announcing: “Following, we will be inviting the widely popular Actor Ming to perform a song for everyone!”

At the main table, Yang Ye put down his wine gla.s.s immediately and sat up straight.

Gu Liang appeared on stage a few seconds later.

He was wearing a very trendy performance costume: his flower s.h.i.+rt had black undertones, and the b.u.t.tons there were supposed to line the collar were absent. Hence, his entire collar was opened, revealing his clavicles.

Multi-colour lights shown down, sinking into the gaunt of his collarbones, causing the shadows and lights to clash, thus bringing about an impactful and beautiful aesthetic. Gu Liang stood ramrod straight as he placed his hand on the microphone, revealing the flowing lines of his waist and abdomen.

Preceding this moment, a din broke out.

The multi-coloured lights s.h.i.+fted constantly in an erratic manner, the mess of colours as loud as Gu Liang’s s.h.i.+rt.

However, his standing posture was too rigid and formal in comparison, and he was strict in expression, with some of the veins on his forehead jutting out.

Presently, he had his eyebrows scrunched together, exhibiting visible displeasure. In fact, it could even be described as world-weary.

The music, lights, and costume, formed a sharp contrast with Gu Liang’s restrained temperament.

And when Gu Liang raised his eyelids unconsciously to look at Yang Ye apathetically after the contrast was amplified to its limits, the sudden a.s.sault was over much.

Yang Ye could not help but think— His Gu Liang Liang was way too attractive.

At this moment, the lights in their surroundings abruptly dimmed.

Only a beam of light shone on the stage, illuminating Gu Liang alone.

Yang Ye harboured great expectations for Gu Liang’s following performance at first.

He might not be willing to sing, but his awkwardness would definitely be very amusing.

However, what Yang Ye did not account for was that when Gu Liang’s pitch-black pupils looked at him through the incandescent white lights, he would find panic and dread in his gaze.

Those emotions disappeared as quickly as they came; Gu Liang’s expression became extremely quiet immediately.

But Yang Ye snagged hold of something with his keen senses.

— It was as though Gu Liang had been exposed under the limelight and became subject to scrutiny in the past.

He was the fish on the cutting board, and those people and the bright lights were akin to knives out to slaughter him.

Initially, Yang Ye had a.s.sumed that Gu Liang’s strange att.i.tude was borne out of shyness because he was not fond of singing.

However, Yang Ye was beginning to realise that it was not that simple.

Gu Liang’s abnormality was most definitely related to his past.

Hence, Yang Ye left the main table immediately and jumped up on stage before taking the microphone in front of Gu Liang.

“What are you doing?” Gu Liang faltered for a moment before he questioned him in a whisper.

“The script didn’t write that Sc.u.mbag Yu couldn’t help you sing.” Yang Ye patted his shoulder.

Gu Liang wanted to tell him that he planned to muddle through the song and be done with it, but the prelude to the song ended at that instant.

To Gu Liang’s astonishment, however, Yang Ye picked up the microphone and started singing a line to him: “It’s all your fault.”

Gu Liang: ?

— Was he singing the lyrics from the song itself?

What song was this? Was the song meant to reproach someone?

Following, Yang Ye continued to sing: “It’s your fault, for loving me so easily, which began to unconsciously satisfy my vanity of being loved.”

Hearing that, Gu Liang paused again.

At that moment, he seemed to grasp some of the meaning behind the lyrics.

Yang Ye stood beside him underneath the eye-piercing spotlight and sang him the next line: “It’s all your fault, the way you indulge people, is it’s own type of seduction.”

Honestly speaking, Gu Liang had difficulty understanding people who chased after celebrities in the past.

He felt that he did not have a single cell in his body that was inclined towards the arts, be it drawing, music or literature. He did not understand it in the slightest, nor did he feel any interest towards it.

But now that he was this close to Yang Ye, and heard him singing with that low and raspy voice of his, Gu Liang suddenly felt that the song was quite pleasant to listen to.

After a long, drawn-out moment, Gu Liang recalled the scene today, thus coming to the abrupt realisation that the song lyrics were extremely close-fitting.

However, the person singing the song had to be reversed; he should be the one singing the song to Yang Ye, especially where the starting two lines were concerned.

As Yang Ye continued to watch Gu Liang, he observed that the defensiveness and pessimism were gradually retreating from his eyes, and his gaze was starting to warm up.

Yang Ye set his mind at ease. Just as he was about to borrow the marvellously written lyrics of the old song to sing the words he had yet to say to Gu Liang, the microphone suddenly lost its sound and the accompanying music halted. Simultaneously, the lights were all extinguished, thus plunging the entire ancient castle into darkness.

T/N: I’ve attached a link to the song that Yang Ye sang as well as the lyrics translation. I nearly died from laughing too hard as I was translating that scene and listening to the song. Please do listen to it, the actual singer, Phil Chang, is an absolute legend with his deep voice and the video has the flas.h.i.+ng lights too~