Chapter 10
(You use a pink scarf?)
When Gu Liang exited the interrogation room, he noticed that Son Bai was giving him an unblinking stare that was tinged with nervousness.
With a blank expression, Gu Liang withdrew his own gaze and went back to his own seat.
Seeing that he was not going to speak, Son Bai could not help but ask: “You guys talked for a long time, did you talk it out? Who’s the murderer?”
“It’s enough if everyone has a judgement in their minds. I’m not going to influence other people.” After putting down his a.s.sertion, Gu Liang closed his eyes, adopting an att.i.tude which expressed that none of the current situation was part of his concerns.
Son Bai clenched his fists tightly, causing blue veins to emerge on the back of his hands.
However, he had no time to force an answer out of Gu Liang, because he was too occupied with reviewing for any possible slip ups he might have made today.
He pondered deeply about how he would reply if the detective were to ask him some questions later.
Contrary to Son Bai’s expectations, the people who Yang Ye called into the room next were Maid Liu and Brother Bai, in that order, and he was not called upon even as the time grew late.
Son Bai grew increasingly nervous as he watched the two aforementioned people come out. In his heart, he thought— The next one should be me right?
But that did not occur. Very quickly, Yang Ye walked out of the interrogation room and settled back in his seat quietly. He did not utter a word, only choosing to take out his pen and notebook to jot down something.
Apart from the sound of breathing and the scratch of Yang Ye’s pen, the centralised discussion room was utterly silent.
Unable to sit steadily, Son Bai took the initiative to ask Yang Ye: “What is the meaning of this ah?” Detective, you don’t need to have a one on one with me?”
Yang Ye eyed him before he said smilingly: “Not necessary. Your timeline is very simple. You administered the white moonlight poison in the afternoon and Boss Bai didn’t consume it, all of us are aware of this. Thus, I don’t have any questions I want to ask you individually.”
“Is… Is that really true? Have you guys determined that the murderer is Brother Bai then?” Son Bai was forcing himself to remain calm but his hands were trembling slightly.
At that moment, even Yang Ye did not answer him.
— No no no, Yang Ye was lying. What did he mean by his timeline was very simple? If simple timelines could rule him out as a murderer, then the others could be ruled out too. Everyone’s timeline was obviously uncomplicated.
Why? Why were they called individually but not him?
Were they suspicious of him?!
Son Bai swallowed his saliva with much difficulty. He s.h.i.+fted his gaze from Yang Ye’s person to Gu Liang’s. “You talked to him for the longest duration. When Maid Liu and Brother Bai went in afterwards, it didn’t take long for them to come out. Can you tell me why? What did you guys discuss?
“You’re the one who made the detective come up with a certain conclusion, is that it? The latter two people were only told the results.
“Why didn’t you guys talk to me individually? Why did you keep me out alone?”
Gu Liang opened his eyes and turned his head sideways, looking at Son Bai at long last.
He contemplated briefly before he said: “There’s still an hour before voting commences. If you have anything you want to say, you can talk to them, certainly. The system did not dictate that only the detective can enter the interrogation room.”
“What you’re trying to say is, I don’t need to talk to you, and I don’t need to talk to the detective either?” Son Bai asked.
— Have all of you determined that I was the murderer?
Gu Liang: “Personally, there’s nothing more I want to say. Where the others are concerned, however, I’m not certain if they’re willing to talk to you or not.”
Son Bai’s heart sank completely.
Then, he recalled numerous instances. Abruptly, he realised that Gu Liang had always found him displeasing, even from the start of the morning.
Every time he looked at him, his gaze would be guarded.
The detective originally trusted him. It was definitely because Gu Liang said something, which caused the detective to suspect him in turn.
Son Bai had been uneasy for the entire day, and he was especially nervous when he was awaiting the one on one interrogation just now.
It was only at this moment where he could essentially determine that they had already decided to vote for him.
At the juncture, he could care less about everything else.
“Good… Very good… It was you… Sure enough, it was you… you implicated me. I’m not the real murderer! The real murderer is you! You deceived the detective and then deceived everyone to vote for me, am I right?! Why did you implicate me!”
When Son Bai finished speaking those words, his entire person leaped on the table, drawing close to Gu Liang in an instant as he crouched down.
Gu Liang was looking sideways indifferently when a glint of light flashed past his eyes.
— There was a dagger in Son Bai’s hands.
Son Bai brandished the dagger down and towards Gu Liang’s chest viciously. “Die together… everyone should die together! Kill all of you! None of you can cast me as your vote then! Yes, I have to kill all of you!”
Illuminated by the lights, the back of the dagger was snow white, and its brightness was piercing to the eye.
When he saw the glint of cold steel, Gu Liang frowned minutely. It was unknown what he was thinking about but his gaze became a little unfocused in that instant, causing an inability to react.
It was only in the split second where the dagger was within arm’s length that Gu Liang snapped back to his senses. Just as he was about to tilt his body to dodge, he was pushed to the ground by someone forcefully.
When he raised his head to look, he realised that the person who rushed over to push him away was Yang Ye.
Son Bai was originally sitting opposite of Gu Liang, and he had directly crossed the table to stab him. Whereas Yang Ye had jumped up from his seat immediately and pushed Gu Liang off his seat from his left flank.
In the instant where the flint sparked, his first reaction was to push Gu Liang away; he was bereft of the time to do anything else, even dodging was beyond him. The dagger was already stabbing down from the air, and Yang Ye could only raise his arm subconsciously to block, thus receiving the piercing dagger.
Blood flowed out instantaneously.
A drop of blood from Yang Ye’s arm landed in Gu Liang’s eye, and his pupil became a smear of red momentarily.
Gu Liang rubbed his eyes forcibly, but through the hazy blood colour, he saw Yang Ye lifting his leg and kicking it in the trajectory of Son Bai’s chest.
Son Bai tumbled to the ground from the kick, body jerking as he struggled to bounce back to his feet to continue swinging and stabbing his dagger at Yang Ye.
Just as his waist left the ground, Yang Ye promptly drove his foot into his waist and he immediately fell back to the ground.
Following that, Yang Ye stomped on his wrist, causing Son Bai to cry out in alarm, and the corresponding pain made him drop the dagger.
Yang Ye seized the opportunity to kick away the dagger. Then, he crouched down, straddled the boy and placed him in a chokehold to thoroughly restrain him and ensure that he could not hurt a single person.
At this juncture, Gu Liang remembered that the interrogation room had items like ropes and handcuffs so he darted into the interrogation room.
Moments later, he walked back to Yang Ye’s side and handed him the rope.
After receiving the rope, Yang Ye hauled Son Bai up and tied him to the chair in a quick and effective manner. He exhaled through his mouth before he turned his head back to glare at Gu Liang.
Sweat was forming on Gu Liang’s forehead, the hair near his ears were matted down, and the serrated aura he had the tendency to exude had lessened by a fair amount.
Despite that, Yang Ye’s tone of voice was quite severe: “When people rush at you with a knife, don’t you know how to dodge?”
Gu Liang was seldom at the receiving end of such criticism; upon hearing that, he stiffened.
He really wanted to refute but when he saw that Yang Ye’s arm was bleeding nonstop, he did not say anything in the end.
Recalling he had a scarf in his wind-jacket pocket, Gu Liang took it out immediately, planning to make do with it and fas.h.i.+on it into a bandage for Yang Ye. “I’ll help you stem the blood first. We’ll finish casting our votes in a bit, and we’ll see if there’s any way to treat you then.”
“Come here, undo your sleeves, raise your hand.” Gu Liang walked to his front.
He looks rather anxious after seeing me bleed, it seems like he’s quite concerned about me.
When Yang Ye returned to his reverie, he noticed that the scarf was actually pink.
That made Yang Ye raise his eyebrows. “Is this your scarf?”
Gu Liang hastened the process of him taking off his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeve. Immediately after, he bound the injury with the scarf. “Do you have a problem with it?”
“You use pink ones?” Yang Ye asked.
Gu Liang glanced at him evenly. “What are you trying to say?”
Yang Ye: “It’s a scarf designed for women?”