Chapter 61.1
(I love you so much, why are you scared of me?)
After Gu Liang threw out a string of questions, Yang Ye thought about it before he said: “If an accomplice truly exists, the system will definitely announce what the voting format is at the end. Therefore, we still have to ascertain who is the real murderer right now, and we’ll naturally know how to vote when the time comes around.”
Gu Liang nodded. “Sure. We still have a lot of time to discuss. What we have to do later is find out the story that Butler Hao and Lady Rong are concealing underneath. They will probably edit their oral confessions, but we have to find the breach and pierce through their lies.”
Yang Ye drank some mineral water from the bottle that Gu Liang helped him twist open. After a moment, he said: “Finally, there is still one question that we haven’t made sense of from start till end— why did Boyfriend Feng die from the spell?
“According to what Li Xiao Yu said just now, the pentagram also serves to seal evil spirits and kill them in Designer Mei’s story. Needless to say, it’s the key to solving this problem.”
The lights in the resting lounge suddenly flickered, causing Yang Ye’s visage to darken and then brighten again.
Gu Liang stared into Yang Ye’s eyes. Abruptly, he opened his mouth to say: “Is it possible that, Boyfriend Feng is an evil spirit?”
“That’s not right, we shouldn’t be using evil spirit to describe him…”
Having thought of something, Gu Liang laid his hands flat on the table and his entire person became severe.
Upon careful scrutiny, some pity was present in his eyes.
“I think, I know what roughly transpired in this story.
“Yang Ye, do you remember that after we found the water stains in your room, we went to Lady Rong’s room? A doll in one of the photographs is gone.”
* * *
A few hours ago.
The pair had opened a huge brain hole in Gu Liang’s room.
The pentagram was meant to defeat evil spirits.
For the same reason, Gu Liang had thought of a possibility where the dolls gave rise to an evil spirit which controlled someone, only to be killed by said person later.
However, after discussing the theory with Yang Ye, they discovered a paradox in his brain hole.
Therefore, the two of them could only accept the fact that the pentagram was used to kill Boyfriend Feng.
Afterwards, Yang Ye had asked Gu Liang if he wanted to search another place.
Gu Liang’s first suggestion was Lady Rong’s room, because her room should have a lot of clues pertaining to the dolls.
Gu Liang’s second suggestion was Yang Ye’s room.
But in the instant where flint sparked the stone, Gu Liang had thought of the relations.h.i.+p between the fire, water and the doll, so the pair had gone to Yang Ye’s room first to look for the water stains before they called Meng Qian Cheng over to photograph it.
After departing from Yang Ye’s room, they went to Lady Rong’s room.
Truthfully speaking, there were not a lot of special clues present in Lady Rong’s room.
Her room was only slightly bigger than the rest, and the size was equivalent to two guest rooms being connected together.
Even though the room was quite large in area, a part of the s.p.a.ce was part.i.tioned off into a small room again, which Lady Rong specifically used to store her dolls.
Lady Rong’s bedroom previously had a doll that had a stab wound in her chest and right arm ripped off, but it was later taken to the detective’s room so it could be placed together with the rest. Apart from that, there were no other clues in the bedroom.
As for the room that was specifically used to store dolls, it did not seem like there were any peculiarities at first glance.
The entire room of dolls were placed in neat rows, and the only difference was that they looked different.
The dolls that were lined at the very last row had the least exquisite features, probably owing to the fact that they were products from a decade or two ago. Their hairstyles and clothes had gone out of fas.h.i.+on too. Dust had acc.u.mulated all over their bodies, and it looked like they had been forgotten for a long time.
In comparison, the newest row of dolls were decked out in fas.h.i.+on and glamour, making it apparent that they were currently receiving Lady Rong’s favour.
Numerous photographs were hung up on the walls of the room.
They were pictures that Lady Rong had taken with all kinds and sorts of dolls. Some of them were taken in the bedroom just next-door, while others were either taken by the lake, in the garden or the vegetable field.
In the room br.i.m.m.i.n.g with objects, nothing seemed to stand out in particular.
Because all of these props conformed with Lady Rong’s character design of— being fond of dolls.
Hence, when everyone was inspecting the room, they did a brief survey before they left.
Gu Liang and Yang Ye did not remain in the room for a long time either.
However, amidst the wall full of photographs, one of them attracted Gu Liang’s attention.
— Because compared to all the pretty dolls in this room, only this doll looked especially ugly.
It was a picture of Lady Rong carrying a doll on her back as she waded through brook waters.
Judging from Lady Rong’s appearance in the photograph, she looked like she was five or six years old at most.
Her smile was artlessly romantic in the photograph, which made the doll pale by comparison.
Back then, Yang Ye had noticed the photograph as well. He said: “Mn, Carrying The Doll, the main theme has been brought out. It looks like she treats the doll incredibly well. Even when she was waddling across the water, she couldn’t bear to let her get wet.”
“Yes, the direction that this clue points towards doesn’t differ from our conjectures in truth.”
Gu Liang said, “Since she treated the dolls too well and protected the dolls, the dolls started protecting her as well and s.h.i.+elded her from any damage. Our brain hole wasn’t wrong.”
Gu Liang’s gaze swept through the room full of dolls again, “However, this doll has already disappeared. Judging by the photograph, Lady Rong was merely five years old back then. With how much time has pa.s.sed, it’s possible that the doll has already been thrown away.”
Back then, Gu Liang’s mind had been completely occupied by Butler Hao’s diversionary tactic and timeline.
And towards the photographs and the dolls in Lady Rong’s room, he had simply believed that they were pointing towards the brain hole that “the dolls were Lady Rong’s subst.i.tute”.
It was only now that Gu Liang realised the true hidden meaning in this story.
Presently, Gu Liang gazed at Yang Ye, saying: “The pentagram was meant to kill a soul, that isn’t wrong. But it wasn’t an evil spirit. The soul was borne by the dolls, and it was used to protect Lady Rong.
“I think, the Boyfriend Feng of that time, had been replaced a long time ago.”
* * *
There was an ancient castle in the capital that was bought by Magnate Rong with large sums of money, which was then transformed and remade.
He loved his daughter Lady Rong dearly, and hoped that she could live like a princess.
Unfortunately, Magnate Rong’s wife had already remarried, and Magnate Rong was usually tending to his business all year around.
Hence, Lady Rong had lived on her lonesome in the ancient castle ever since her childhood.
Lady Rong had always been lonely, but that lasted until she walked past a store with her accompanying servants and saw a cute doll. She immediately asked her servant to help her buy it.
Although she did not have her parents to accompany her at five years old, she had her doll to accompany at the very least.
Fifty metres outside of the ancient castle was a scenic area, and she frequently went there.
There was a small brook and she really liked stepping on the pebbles barefoot and playing there.
The brook waters were extremely shallow, they did not go past Lady Rong’s kneecaps.
But for the Doll, this water was deep.
Therefore, whenever Lady Rong was playing in the water, she would always carry that Doll on her back.
Every thing had a soul; she treated the Doll with her heart, and the Doll also sensed her heartfelt intentions.
Hence, in the years where she accompanied Lady Rong as she was growing up, the Doll also gave rise to a soul, and her soul energy grew formidable with each pa.s.sing day.
When her spirit body finally manifested, the first person she saw was Lady Rong.
And in the days and nights that followed after, the person who stayed by her side was still Lady Rong.
Having felt too much, way too much warmth and affection from Lady Rong’s person, she swore that she would exhaust her entire life to repay Lady Rong.
But the Doll did not know that the human heart changed easily.
Once Magnate Rong’s work gradually steadied, he attached more importance to the business within the capital, and had more time to spend with Lady Rong.
At that time, he also started bringing Lady Rong outside of the castle to socialise, allowing her to meet more friends.
For instance, Lady Rong met Designer Mei when she was 17 years of age.
Each doll that was crafted by Designer Mei’s hands were more exquisite and gorgeous than her previous work.
Thus, Lady Rong began buying more and more dolls.
Consequently, the earliest Doll was shoved to the corner of the room by Lady Rong.
Slowly, Lady Rong had essentially forgotten about this Doll, but the Doll always remembered her.
The Doll could only blame herself for not having a prettier appearance, for being incapable of obtaining Lady Rong’s good graces.
2X19, Lady Rong was 25 years old.
On the day of 7 November, a lot of guests arrived at the ancient castle.
They were staying here for the night before they attended Lady Rong’s wedding on the second day.
Among them was Lady Rong’s fiancé— Boyfriend Feng.
But before they even stepped into the ancient castle, the doll sensed a bad omen based on her soul energy alone.
— At this time, Lady Rong’s life might be in danger.
Perhaps, all of those guests harboured errant thoughts and they held murderous intentions towards Lady Rong.
Before the guests stayed here, the butler and Lady Rong opened the room the dolls were stored in, and chose a number of them to send it to all the guests as a wedding gift. She picked the most beautiful of the lot and gave it to Boyfriend Feng.
The dolls that the other guests received were souvenirs.
Whereas the doll that Boyfriend Feng received represented Lady Rong herself. The message was— when Lady Rong was not by his side, the doll would accompany him in her stead.
The good-looking dolls were taken away by Lady Rong and the butler.
And because The Doll was too ugly and outdated in appearance, it was still neglected and unchosen.
The door opened and shut again. She was forsaken in the corner once more.
What could she do? She could not continue staying in the room.
She had to go out; or else, how was going to protect Lady Rong?
Fortunately, the chosen dolls had stayed in the same room for a long period of time, and they were infected with some of her soul energy.
Hence, she could distribute her soul energy to these dolls.
Actor Ming, Sc.u.mbag Yu, Confidant Ai, Designer Mei, and Boyfriend Feng, these were the five people who were staying in the ancient castle.
The Doll disa.s.sembled the soul she had been cultivating for twenty years, dividing them into five lives, all for the sake of protecting Lady Rong.
The soul could leave the main body but it could not be without a vessel. Hence, they resided in the bodies of the other dolls separately, sharing a symbiotic relations.h.i.+p with these other dolls.
Henceforth, the five spirit bodies became linked to the five dolls separately. If the spirit prospered so would the body; should harm befall either, they would both perish.
Coincidentally, by borrowing the opportunity made by the varying dolls staying in different rooms, this Doll could instruct the spirit bodies to follow their respective guests and observe their movements to protect Lady Rong at any given time.
7 November, 6:30 at night.
The main hall experienced a power outage.
Designer Mei took a dagger and stabbed it in the direction of Lady Rong’s heart.
The spirit body following Designer Mei sensed it, and it immediately possessed Lady Rong’s body.
The spirit body subst.i.tuting Lady Rong died, and correspondingly, the vessel which it was invested in suffered from the damage, thus leading to a knife wound above her heart on her chest.
At 12 midnight that night.
Sc.u.mbag Yu entered Lady Rong’s room, pouring the alcohol on Lady Rong’s face.
Lady Rong woke up in shock and cried for help, causing the alcohol to trickle into her mouth and nose. The alcohol was lit up by the fire and it burned her windpipe.
The spirit body following Sc.u.mbag Yu possessed Lady Rong’s person before the damage occurred.
The one who died was also the spirit body.
Correspondingly, the doll in Sc.u.mbag Yu’s room had burns around her mouth and nose.
The next day, which was also 8 November, at 9 in the morning.
Lady Rong, who had finished doing her make-up, recalled the Confidant Ai’s urging last night.
“Since both of us are such good friends, you have to use the lipstick I sent you when you get married.”
Lady Rong was running a slight fever last night; due to the discomfort she felt, she was not in the mood to open the present.
Hence, she was only opening Confidant Ai’s present now. She removed the lipstick that was already wearing on her lips and took out the lipstick that Confidant Ai sent. Facing the mirror, she planned to apply the lipstick on her mouth.
It was also at this instant where the spirit body possessed her, enduring the lipstick and the poison within it.
Since this spirit body died, a heart symbol appeared on the right arm of the doll in Confidant Ai’s room.
Lastly, there was Boyfriend Feng.
The spirit body from the Doll saw the spell in his room, and saw the contents in his photo alb.u.m and diary as well.
It turns out, he did not love Lady Rong, and he was only interested in the Rong Family’s money.
Furthermore, he was extremely fickle in love affairs and he would not treat Lady Rong well in the future either.
My Lady, all the people who became close to you have other motives, none of them regard you sincerely.
After experiencing these incidents, these guests should be aware that they cannot kill you.
I will come out later to scare them, so they will never dare to harm you again.
But what about Boyfriend Feng?
He is the person who will accompany you for the rest of your life.
How do I chase him away?
The two people you wanted to marry, whether it was the former Sc.u.mbag Yu or the later Boyfriend Feng… Neither of them truly loved you.
I am the only one who genuinely loves you.
Since that is the case, I will… be the replacement.
The spirit body left the Doll, its original doll vessel.
The spirit body that had been distributed into the doll in Boyfriend Feng’s room, also left from that doll vessel.
Thus, the two existing spirit bodies fused into one, deciding to replace Boyfriend Feng and make him the next target they resided in.
Once she was done supplanting him, she shared the same fate as this body: if the spirit prospered so would the body; should harm befall either, they would both perish.
* * *
On this night, due to the poor days that Boyfriend Feng was overly accustomed to, he could not help but eat more upon seeing so many big fishes and meats.
He had eaten until he was bloated, and his head was dizzy and heavy as well.
After taking a hot shower, the dizziness only increased.
After exiting the shower, he discovered that the bright lights had been extinguished without any rhyme or reason. He wanted to go out to call for the butler, but just as he walked towards the door, he realised that the closet had been opened instead. Following closely, a doll jumped out, smiling at him.
Boyfriend Feng p.i.s.sed himself in fear at that moment.
As a result of the shock and eating too much, Boyfriend Feng developed physiological nausea.
He ran into the bathroom and knelt down, hugging the toilet as he started to puke profusely.
At that moment, the Doll walked up to his back and stretched her hand out, shoving his head into the toilet to suffocate him to death.
Then, the Doll cleaned up his body and the floor.
Lastly, she washed his dirty clothes clean, took a proper shower in her new body and picked out another outfit from the closet to change into.
Despite lying down on the bed, she did not shut her eyes at all.
She was too happy, and that happiness lasted through the night.
On the morning of the second day, the butler came over to send her breakfast. He told her that the make-up artists were here to do her make-up.
She happily responded with the ident.i.ty of Boyfriend Feng.
In the middle of the make-up session, she could feel another spirit body dying because it had s.h.i.+elded Lady Rong from the poison.
Consequently, the Doll’s power became even weaker as well.
But the Doll was only rejoicing in her heart— Thankfully, I antic.i.p.ated everything in advance.
Lady Rong, do not be afraid. After today, everything will come to an end.
Once the make-up artist was done with her make-up, the time was around 9:10.
She could not restrain herself from wanting to see Lady Rong, so she headed straight for her bedroom.
The make-up artist had teased her briefly prior to her departure: “The bridegroom really loves the bride. However, you can’t go and meet her right now, or else it won’t be auspicious!”
“I don’t care if it’s auspicious or not. I can’t wait to see her in a wedding dress!”
Borrowing Boyfriend Feng’s body, the Doll left the room. He walked down the corridor and knocked on Lady Rong’s room door.