Chapter 70
(The Harpiscord, The Painter’s Piece, The Sliver Cross.)
The earliest plan that Gu Liang conceived was to inspect the fifth floor.
However, in consideration of the fact that numerous players had already gone to the fifth floor, he decided to continue searching the fourth floor.
After all, they were only doing a segment task this time around, not looking for the final murderer.
Apart from the Princess Rose that Su Lan was acting as, the other people should not be related to Aimeili’s murder that year; plus, since the remaining players were together, they should not have any chance to hide the evidence.
Hence, after they departed from the Duke’s main bedroom, Gu Liang arrived at a side room.
They had opened this room during their initial reconnaissance, but everyone had only surveyed it briefly then instead of searching it carefully.
And presently, Gu Liang was finally in the position to venture inwards to investigate the s.p.a.ce in detail.
This was a piano room.
The instrument looked like a piano at first glance, but when he approached it, he realised that it was vastly different from a piano.
A carpet with sunflower patterns laid under the instrument, and the murals on the walls were also sunflowers.
At the beginning, Gu Liang a.s.sumed that this room was prepared for Aimeili.
Upon walking closer to the instrument, however, Gu Liang saw the piano score on the music rack and noted that the name written on the parchment was in English. It was then that he reacted, this was the Duke’s piano.
Gu Liang leaned closer to the piano so he could look at the flipped open page. The following words were written in English: This is the piece that Meili likes the most. She is often depressed. When she sits in a room surrounded by sunflowers, and hears me play this piece, her mood brightens up a little.”
Yang Ye entered the room at that moment.
When he reached the side of the instrument, he stretched out his hand and casually tapped a piano key. The sound was distinctively different from a piano; it was more sonorous and deeper with a strong metallic tone.
Yang Ye said: “This is called a harpsichord. When the piano became more mainstream later, it was slowly replaced. From a certain perspective, you can view it as a predecessor to the piano.”
Gu Liang gave him a curious look. “You know how to play the piano?”
Yang Ye smiled, “I learnt a bit of piano when I was younger, but it doesn’t count for much. It’s just that my family’s old man bought an antique like this before, and placed it in the house to look pretentious.”
After Yang Ye said those words, he sat in front of the harpsichord and scanned through the piano score. Then, he pressed his fingers on the keyboard and started playing.
His playing was not very smooth at the start, but after a few attempts, Yang Ye actually managed to play the piece according to the music score.
He appeared to be self-taught, for his playing became more practiced and smoother the longer he played.
Gu Liang seemed to feel quite interested as well, and he immediately sat on the sofa at the side to listen.
Gu Liang was indeed a pure science talent.
If he had not insisted on being diametrically opposed to his father during his first year in Senior High, he would have chosen the sciences without a doubt. When he chose the arts later, and continued into the study of law, neither of those options were where his interests truly lied.
He was not very knowledgeable where humanities were concerned, and towards painting and music, well, he did not have a single artistic cell in his body.
Take now for instance: unlike Yang Ye, he did not know about the timbre difference between the harpsichord and the piano at all.
However, as he continued to listen for a period of time, he seemed to understand what he was hearing.
There were splendid sunflowers on the wall behind him, a harpsichord invented in the 15th century was in front, and Yang Ye, who was playing the harpsichord, seemed exceptionally charismatic.
His countenance was focused, his fingers were slender and forceful. When he played the harpsichord, his movements were extremely entrancing.
The colour of his eyes was abnormally deep on his fair and bloodless skin.
The most deadly thing was the smile that he gave when he raised his head.
That smile possessed a strange magnetism which made people want to indulge in it completely.
It was at this moment where Gu Liang realised that something was wrong.
— Yang Ye’s irises had turned into a deep blue, just like a westerner.
His skin was also whiter, like he had been slumbering for hundreds of centuries, and he had just awakened.
Simultaneously, his lips were extremely red like the colour of blood, as if he had just feasted on the blood of many.
And the smile on his was completely different from his typical smiles, harbouring none of its usual teasing or depth of emotion. In fact, his current smile was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with evilness.
The bewitching and captivating feeling disappeared in an instant.
Indescribable fear climbed up and filled Gu Liang’s heart, alongside a hatred that came from the marrows of his bones.
It was like everything that had happened just now was merely the effect of the exceptional appearance that the person in front of him possessed, and that he looked too much like a charming gentleman when he was playing the harpsichord. Hence, he had a momentary infatuation for the person in front of his eyes.
But after that fleeting infatuation disappeared, the hatred in the depths of his heart surged and raged endlessly.
— He abhorred him to the point where he wanted to destroy him, even if it meant killing himself.
No, this is not me.
I don’t hate Yang Ye.
I shouldn’t be able to understand this piece.
I shouldn’t know how to appreciate music…
What is going on exactly?
Raising his hands subconsciously, Gu Liang lowered his head and saw that he had unexpectedly grown long nails on his ten fingers.
His ten fingers were painted in vermillion, the bright reds were garish and beautiful— It was a pair of hands that belonged to a woman.
No, something is wrong.
Yang Ye became the Duke?
I became Aimeili?
Stop.
All of this has to stop!
With an audible “thud”, the large doors issued a loud noise as they were pushed open and collided with the wall.
Following closely was Li Xiao Yu’s voice: “Wow, we’re searching for evidence seriously, and yet both of you are over here playing the piano and cultivating your relations.h.i.+p! Huh? Is that a piano? Doesn’t really look like it.”
The sound of the harpsichord ceased abruptly.
The nightmare subsided all of a sudden.
Gu Liang lowered his head to stare at his own handsk2014; they had returned to normal.
He raised his head again to look at Yang Ye. The colour of his irises, skin, and lips had reverted back to normal as well.
Yang Ye had his eyebrows furrowed, and it was apparent from his expression that he was a little absent-minded, as if he could not fathom what had transpired just now.
As Gu Liang stood up, he sensed that his back had been soaked through.
Yang Ye went forward immediately to support him. “What happened just now?”
Gu Liang breathed out through his mouth. “I can’t describe it, it feels like we were both possessed, or we had an out-of-body experience.
“Xiao Yu, we ought to thank you for that.”
Gu Liang glanced at the harpsichord in front of him. Having recomposed himself, he ridiculed Yang Ye with a line, “This incident tells us that we shouldn’t randomly play the instrument.”
Yang Ye asked him: “Did I play well just now?”
Gu Liang: “I don’t understand music. But after I felt like I was being possessed, I seemed to abruptly understand what I was hearing, it sounded pleasant.”
There was still another sentence that Gu Liang did not voice.
— In an unexpected way, he still found Yang Ye rather entrancing even after he suspected that he was being possessed.
At this moment, Li Xiao Yu chose to open her mouth to tell Yang Ye: “You played particularly well. When I was searching for evidence in the room next door just now, I was drawn over the sound of the music.”
Yang Ye frowned. “That’s strange. I recognise the staff, but my piano skills really belong to that of a kindergartener. Moreover, this instrument differs from a piano.”
While he was speaking, Yang Ye picked up the piano score from the music rack and flipped through it. On the next page of the music score, there was a single written line: “If you leave, I will wait for you in the place you love most.”
“The place she loved most?” Yang Ye placed down the music score, “Where do you think that is?”
Gu Liang said: “It should be the place where the sunflowers are planted in the garden. But where the sunflowers were planted is hard to say 300 years after. We can try and find it later, perhaps we’ll be able to find a map of the previous ancient castle.”
Li Xiao Yu said: “Right, do you want to follow me to the room I was previously in? It’s just two doors down. It seems quite special inside, there’s a lot of pigments.”
Since Li Xiao Yu brought it up, Gu Liang and Yang Ye followed her to the aforementioned room together.
That room was very small. When the players were doing their preliminary survey, they merely a.s.sumed that it was a subordinate’s room and left.
Presently, Li Xiao Yu had opened all the various cupboards, which allowed Gu Liang to see that there were oil painting pigments for certain.
Furthermore, there was a row of wooden frames in odds and ends. Gu Liang searched around for some time and found a lot of paint brushes. Most of the paint brushes hadn’t been washed clean, and paint was still stuck on the bristles.
This person’s room had pigments and paint brushes.
Could he be the person who was responsible for drawing all the wall paintings in the ancient castle?
Frowning, Gu Liang walked over to the head of the bed.
Gu Liang hadn’t noticed it previously because having a bed was very normal.
But he suddenly came to realisation, he was in a scenario with vampires.
Su Lan also mentioned that vampires slept in coffins.
Hence, the originally normal wooden bed, became conspicuously abnormal in a short moment’s work.
“Was the inhabitant of this room human instead of a vampire?”
Gu Liang stepped closer and picked up the pillow on the bed, only to discover that there was a piece of paper underneath with Chinese written on it.
Upon picking up the paper, Gu Liang saw that it wrote: “Not seeing you for a day, my thoughts go insane”.
When the paper was flipped over, there was a portrait.
The face on the portrait was incredibly familiar— it was Li Xiao Yu.
And at the corner of the portrait was the artist’s inscription, and signed in a simple and coherent manner was the name: “Eastern Magician”.
Li Xiao Yu walked over and saw the drawing as well. “So this person likes Aimeili?”
Meanwhile, Yang Ye was rummaging through another chest and he found a collection of spell books.
Flipping open one of the books, Yang Ye skilled through the pages slowly until he reached an array that was identical to the one they found in the book from the Duke’s room.
“It appears that, not only did he draw all the wall paintings in the ancient castle, he also taught the Duke how to travel across to 300 years after.”
Yang Ye said, “He’s an Eastern Magician who is highly skilled in metaphysics and artist attainments.”
Gu Liang frowned unconsciously. “That’s very strange. Yang Ye, take a look at this. He clearly likes Aimeili. And since he likes her, why would he help the Duke find her reincarnation?”
“It is strange.” The person who spoke was Li Xiao Yu.
Having found a box under the wooden bed, Li Xiao Yu opened it and found that the box contained silver crosses. “This kind of object is usually used to kill vampires. Did he want to kill Aimeili?”
Gu Liang replied: “It’s probably for the sake of killing the Duke. If it’s true that he likes Aimeili, it’s highly possible that he disregarded the dangers and established close contact with the ancient castle because of Aimeili.”
Li Xiao Yu scrunched her eyebrows. “We don’t know that.”
The trio were a little puzzled.
After leaving the artist’s room, they went to the servant’s room at the side.
Gu Liang thought of something, and he asked Li Xiao Yu: “Right, where did Su Lan go?”
— With how odd the ancient castle was, it wasn’t possible that she was searching this floor alone, right?
Li Xiao Yu coughed and said in a low voice, “Ah, her? After she heard you playing the piano, she went upstairs.”
That made Gu Liang realise something and he shot Yang Ye a sidelong glance.
Truthfully speaking, Yang Ye was slightly helpless too. “I really don’t know what’s going on with her, she’s very strange.”
“Yang Ye, does she know you in reality?” Li Xiao Yu asked after she thought of the possibility.
Yang Ye shook his head. “I don’t have an impression of her. That shouldn’t be the case.”
Li Xiao Yu: “The person I liked that I told you about, do you still remember him? I was secretly pining for him for the bigger part of the year before I had the courage to chase him. That person didn’t believe that I liked him for half a year in the slightest, and he said that he didn’t know who I was at all.
“Perhaps her situation was similar to mine. She was a small enthusiast of you in the past, but you didn’t know. But you can set your mind at ease, she feels that she has given up on you for the most part. According to my observations, she’s not a bad person and she has never thought about tearing the both of you apart. She’s merely displeased and feels the need to vent occa.s.sionally. She’ll be fine after some time. People who hang everything on their faces like her are a lot better than those who scheme in the dark.”
As Yang Ye was listening to those words, his eyes were fixed on Gu Liang the entire time.
Conversely, Gu Liang was quite calm as he pushed open the door to another servant’s room at the side, and walked in.
“Gu Liang, you can set your heart at ease, I’ll deal with it properly. This matter has nothing to do with you, don’t think too much about it.” Yang Ye said as he followed him in.
“I don’t have the mind to think about it.”
Gu Liang shot him a look, unable to explain why that was the case either. Then, he smiled faintly and raised up a small book. “Let’s solve the case first.”
This room was between the piano room and the Eastern Magician’s room.
There was a coffin placed in the centre instead of a bed.
This seemed to be the norm in this ancient castle.
The English words written on the small booklet that Gu Liang was raising was: “A Steward’s Record— From [Soy Sauce Steward]”
It appears that a steward stayed here.
And this record was made by him.
As Gu Liang read through the record carefully, he discovered a lot of clues concerning the Eastern Magician.
Following, Gu Liang folded the pages that he deemed to be more pertinent and showed it to Yang Ye and Li Xiao Yu.
“4 October, 7 humans were caught. We have not caught so many people in a long time, this is great.
“However, all of this should be ending soon. Our Great Duke’s powers are already incredibly strong.
“He is not afraid of light, fears silver objects even less, and he is not afraid of the cross either. All of the methods that can kill a vampire are useless against him.
“From a certain perspective, it also lessens our work, since it is no longer necessary for us to search the body of every person. In any case, none of them are capable of killing our Lord Duke.”
“5 October, I brought a person to the Duke for his blood consumption. It is unknown what he told the Duke, but in an unexpected feat, the Duke raised him to the status of a guest, and allowed him to stay next door? Really? How many years have I followed the Duke, and how old is he again?”
……
“He said he was called Eastern Magician. However, it has to be said that this human is quite capable. I have never seen the Duke’s wife smiling. After she saw the sunflowers drawn by the Eastern Magician, she actually smiled.
“I saw those sunflowers as well. Indeed, they seemed to be invested with souls, and they look alive.
“I have not seen the sunlight in many years too. After seeing the painting, I feel like I have been cured by the sunlight. Mn… Fine, my impression of him has changed.”
“8 October, the Eastern Magician spent three days to paint the Lady’s room full of sunflowers. He was called by the Princess today to paint roses.
“Before Princess Rose was turned into a vampire, she liked roses the most. Unfortunately, she has not been in the rose garden during the daytime for a very long time after she was turned into a vampire.
“After seeing a wall full of roses that were growing under the sunlight, the Princess became elated.
“With the Princess’s elation, she has been throwing her temper less. As her subordinates, we became happy as well.
“Fine, we are thankful for the Eastern Magician. He even sent me a painting kindly, and I hung it up on my front wall.
“In view of how he drew me handsomely, I will not dispute with him for the time being.”
“October 11, the Eastern Magician obtained a lot of rewards. It truly makes a person envious. I am starting to envy him again. I really want to bite his neck and turn him into a vampire!”
“13 October, the Eastern Magician has been painting the main lobby, third floor, fourth floor, and sixth floor, in that order.
“Speaking of which, I wonder what the sixth floor is for. With how s.p.a.cious and empty it is, and devoid of inhabitants, who is he drawing the wall paintings for?
“I heard that the reason the Lord Duke kept delaying the matter of turning his wife into a vampire was because he wanted her to give birth to a child for him in her human ident.i.ty. He probably left the sixth floor for the child. However…. Tsk tsk, the Lady is not willing.”
……
“7 November, skies above, the Lady is actually dead. Who would kill such a kind and beautiful woman?
“The Duke is excruciatingly heartbroken.
“I have an ominous hunch, like I will not live for long either…”
The record abruptly cut off here.
When Yang Ye and Li Xiao Yu were looking through the record, Gu Liang saw the portrait painting on the wall behind the coffin.
It was a portrait of a pale face wearing a black steward uniform with a red knotted tie at his collar, and his smile was a little stiff.
It looks like this was the portrait that the Eastern Magician gave him.
With what he had just seen, Gu Liang gained a crucial piece of information.
— As it turns out, all the wall paintings in the ancient castle were drawn by the Eastern Magician.
The Eastern Magician liked Aimeili, and he might have gone as far as coming to this ancient castle to save Aimeili.
But why did he help Duke travel over after Aimeili had died?
Yang Ye happened to finish reading the record and he commented: “This booklet mentioned a detail of extraordinary significance. The conventional weapons that can kill vampires like silver items and crosses are completely useless against the Duke.
“Logically speaking, the Magician is a very knowledgeable person, and he should be aware of this. Furthermore, he seems to have a good relations.h.i.+p with this steward, and he could have heard about this matter from the steward.
“Therefore, the silver cross in the Eastern Magician’s room was not used to kill the Duke, but to kill Aimeili.”
Truth to be told, Gu Liang found that rather strange. “But why? Doesn’t he like Aimeili?”
Li Xiao Yu’s inspiration struck and she said: “Could it be that… he knew that Aimeili had become a vampire, so he had no choice but to kill her? Or, Aimeili wanted to die so she begged him to kill her. He was helpless as well. Aimeili did not want to continue living in such a manner, so he had no choice but to kill her. Wuuu, how torturous!”
Gu Liang went silent for a moment before he said: “There is logic to Xiao Yu’s words. It is a possibility. But this doesn’t explain why he would help the Duke travel over.”
Yang Ye said: “Let’s investigate this place again before going upstairs. We’ll check how the corpse died first, like if there are any traces of the chest being stabbed with a cross for instance.”
“No way, no way!”
Li Xiao Yu seemed to be possessed by an acting spirit as she covered her chest, “That corpse is another me! Neither of you are allowed to look! It doesn’t matter if you’re gay!”
Gu Liang thought about it. Then, he reminded her: “Old Man Meng and the rest might have already seen it…”
Aggrieved and indignant, Li Xiao Yu ran out to call for the elevator. “I’m going upstairs to fight him with my life!”
After Li Xiao Yu went to the fifth floor, Yang Ye and Gu Liang continued to search the steward’s room once more. Surprisingly, they still made another discovery— it was a clue related to Earl William.
It was a note written to the steward in the Duke’s tone of voice.
“I received a letter from Earl William today, saying that he wanted to visit us. That kid has always been hung up on Princess Rose, and he presumably wants to find her to marry her. We will see how Rose intends then. In all likelihood, he will reach the ancient castle a month after. I will let him find a random room on the sixth floor to reside in.” — Dahl, 7 October.”
After reading the note, Yang Ye looked sideways abruptly, and saw Gu Liang staring at him with a meaningful gaze.
Yang Ye threw the note away. “This note is full of drivel. I don’t have an emotional connection with her! I bit you, and turned you into my person, you’re the one I’m romantically connected to!”
“Where are your thoughts wandering to?”
Gu Liang glanced at him, finding this a little humorous. “I was thinking, the reason stated on this note with regards to Earl William’s arrival here is different from what you said.”
Yang Ye adjusted his gla.s.ses as he did a brief recall. Subsequently, he said: “In my story, I did fight with the werewolves, lost, and then ran here to seek refuge. I really don’t have an emotional connection with the Princess. On the contrary, when I was playing the harpsichord just now…”
“Hm? What happened when you were playing the harpsichord?” Gu Liang asked.
“I can’t explain that feeling.” Yang Ye’s expression became slightly severe, “It’s just, when I looked at you, I felt that you were Aimeili, and the person I seemed to like was Aimeili. It was very strange.”
“Certainly, it is very strange.”
When he remembered the situation in the piano room just now, Gu Liang still had some lingering fears in his heart.
However, since he was incapable of opening brain holes right now, he could only continue searching for clues with Yang Ye.
* * *
After going through the entire fourth floor with a fine-toothed comb one more time, they guessed that the other players should be done investigating the fifth floor or be close to it, so Yang Ye and Gu Liang decided against going to the fifth floor, since they could discuss their discoveries together later. Hence, they chose to take the elevator down to the third floor— which was where Princess Rose and her servants stayed.
All the residents in the ancient castle from 300 years ago had cultivated the good habit of recording their lives in their diaries a.s.siduously.
Conforming to their expectations, Princess Rose also had a diary in her dresser.
The diary was in a huge mess, but most of the contents were quite similar to Su Lan’s narration in truth, especially where her existing murderous intentions towards Aimeili were concerned.
“The only mother I recognise is my biological mother. She was ripped into shreds by those werewolves. Father, what you need to do is increase your strength and avenge mother! Not discuss pa.s.sions and talk about love with another woman here!”
“Father, you have truly forgotten why you have escaped here. You came here to hone your strength for the big push, slaughter your way back, and seize back our lands!”
“The current you is cause for disappointment, you are a fool who has submerged himself in love!”
“I have to kill her. Besides preventing her from forcibly taking away the things that belong to me, killing her will restore Father’s fighting spirit. He has to remember what his true mission is.”
“I truly want to use a silver cross and stab it into that woman’s chest and turn her into scattered ashes and dispersed smoke. However, I dare not touch a cross… If I am the slightest bit careless, the one dying could be me.”
“I am a cowardly person. I was once human, so I am not willing to drink human blood. If my strength increases, will I stop fearing the cross, will I be able to kill her?”
“But my mother will be disappointed. She said that I should never forget that I was originally born a human…”
There were no other special information on the Princess’ floor.
Yang Ye and Gu Liang proceeded towards the fifth floor.
After checking the fourth and third floor meticulously, they had expended a great deal of time.
When they reached the fifth floor, there was approximately 40 minutes to the centralised discussion time for the second segment.
And like Gu Liang had antic.i.p.ated, the players who had been searching for clues on the fifth floor the entire time, had made a momentous discovery.
When Meng Qian Cheng saw Yang Ye and Gu Liang appearing, he brought the pair to a servant’s room with much enthusiasm. He said: “This servant is very suspicious! She’s called Servant A! She has too many of these things!”
“Don’t be agitated, speak slowly.” Gu Liang gave him a word of reminder.
“Sure, I have already explained it to Su Lan and Li Xiao Yu once enthusiastically, and I will tell you about it one more time.”
Meng Qian Cheng pointed towards a box. It was another box that was filled to the brim with silver crosses.
Meng Qian Cheng said: “This Servant A is secretly in love with Duke! She was particularly infatuated with the Duke, and she loves him to a maddening extent. You’ll understand what I mean once you read her diary later. She even thought of a method that allows her to touch the silver cross. Therefore, she can kill Aimeili without hurting herself!”
Gu Liang intercepted with a question. “I apologise for the interruption, but how did Aimeili die?”
“There is a wound on her chest, which should be inflicted by a cross.” Meng Qian Cheng said.
Li Xiao Yu’s sad and shrill voice travelled over from behind them. “Old Man Meng, you do not respect yourself as an old person!”
Meng Qian Cheng replied hastily: “Don’t fault me for this! Sister Mei saw it! Chief Mei and I didn’t see it! Don’t speak off the cuff!! I am very proper!”
“Cough, returning back to the topic—” Meng Qian Cheng looked towards Yang Ye and Gu Liang, “After this Duke Dahl took in Aimeili, he kept telling everyone that she was his wife. But the truth is that he never hosted a wedding ceremony with her. His wedding ceremony was supposed to be held on 8 November. Therefore, Servant A decided to kill Aimeili the evening before the wedding.
“On 7 November that day, Servant A was constantly monitoring Aimeili’s room.
“Then. when no one was around and Aimeili was alone in her room, she took the opportunity to enter her room and act.
“The other servants only had a few isolated phrases in their diaries with regards to who had entered Aimeili’s room at what time.
“We’ve already organised and summarised everyone’s timeline!
“Judging from the summary, tsk tsk, the suspicions that Servant A has is extremely heavy!”
The author has something to say:
[ A small imaginary scene, do not take it seriously! ]
–
After Yang Ye came back home from their date, their mood was extremely cosy.
Today’s Gu Liang Liang was particularly lovable, Yang Ye felt like his heart was going to melt every time he saw him.
Having endured for an entire day, Yang Ye wanted to enjoy their married nightlife properly. When Yang Ye threw himself at Gu Liang, however, Gu Liang stopped him.
–
“Liang Liang?!”
“Go and take a shower first.”
“Okay, darling, wait for your husband oh!”
–
As Yang Ye was taking a shower, he was in an extremely good mood.
Could he finally start a harmonious life with Gu Liang Liang?
–
When he wanted to throw himself at Gu Liang again after his shower.
Gu Liang slanted his body, revealing the chessboard behind him.
–
“Darling, at this time… you want to play a game of chess with me?”
Gu Liang nodded his head seriously. “Mn, I’ve thought about it. Let’s compete.”
–
“Compete in what??”
“Whoever wins in chess will be on top (1).”