Chapter 66
(Picturesque Roses, A Mountain of Bones.)
Before Gu Liang replied to Li Xiao Yu, he reviewed the case developments and the deductions that he and Yang Ye previously conceived once.
In the case of Carrying The Doll, there was a total of seven characters that were played by the players apart from the NPC Boyfriend Feng.
Actor Ming stayed in the ancient castle alone last night; Magnate Rong went out, and he only returned this morning.
Besides the two of them, the five other characters died in a span of a night.
Sc.u.mbag Yu, Designer Mei and Confidant Ai were met with a car accident, and it was highly likely that Magnate Rong had instructed his subordinates to kill them.
Magnate Rong had silenced them by killing them because he did not want the events that occurred in the ancient castle to promulgate from their mouth and allow those rumours and slander to affect his daughter’s future happiness.
Next, there was Lady Rong’s and Butler Hao’s deaths in the vegetable field.
Designer Mei had previously mentioned that she had attempted to kill her because she had received money.
Therefore, it was highly probable that the person who genuinely wished for Lady Rong’s death had witnessed Designer Mei’s failings, and thus took the chance to infiltrate the ancient castle to kill Lady Rong, while also killing her butler who had followed along.
Lastly, there was the chef who had arrived at the ancient castle for work, but he had died in the kitchen as he was making breakfast.
While the system was broadcasting this part of the plot, it dictated that he had died after he had eaten, which meant that he had cooked the food and was in the process of eating.
He should be a NPC actor, but for some unknown reason, his corpse had been brought to the main hall by the players.
He was short of becoming a dried corpse after being sucked dry. It was evident to the eye that he had been killed by a vampire.
Thus, in the short span of a night, 6 people had died in this ancient castle, and there might be 3 murderers.
Furthermore, it was impossible to decipher what the players had to vote for during the first voting segment.
Apart from the death of 6 people, the ancient castle had also experienced the entire time travelling issue.
300 years ago, the ancient castle’s original owner was called Duke Dahl, and his daughter was Princess Rose.
Earl William came to this ancient castle because he wanted to seek asylum from Duke Dahl.
However, when he arrived at the ancient castle, he did not see the Duke and Princess.
After staying for one night, he travelled to the current s.p.a.ce-time with numerous bats and antiquated objects.
Another highly plausible matter was that the Duke and the Princess had travelled over as well.
Since that was the case, there might be three vampires hiding among the humans— namely, the Duke, the Princess, and the Earl who Yang Ye was portraying.
At this present moment, Gu Liang scanned all the players in the main hall. To his astonishment, Su Lan, Li Xiao Yu and Meng Qian Cheng were among them.
Meng Qian Cheng should still be Magnate Rong.
But Designer Mei and Confidant Ai had already died. Hence, Su Lan and Li Xiao Yu should be similar to Yang Ye, in the sense that they should have received new character roles in this new scenario.
Beside these three people, there were two unfamiliar faces. They were two players – one male and one female – of whom Gu Liang had never encountered.
Once Gu Liang was clear about all the proceedings in this ancient castle, he looked at Li Xiao Yu, greeting her before he asked: “Are all the players here?”
“We should be. You…”
Li Xiao Yu looked at him before she looked at Yang Ye who was standing behind him with a face br.i.m.m.i.n.g with spring, “Why did both of you arrive so late?”
“I woke up late. He just arrived.”
As Gu Liang was giving an offhanded reply, he surveyed everyone else. All of them were wearing human clothes, it seemed like the vampires among them were similar to Yang Ye, they had changed their clothes before coming over.
Gu Liang came to an immediate understanding: this meant that no matter which side task he chose to abandon in the end, it would be better for him and Yang Ye to pretend to be human before making any further considerations.
After making a certain decision in his mind, he turned back to glance at Yang Ye.
Yang Ye nodded his head and walked up to hold his shoulder. He told Li Xiao Yu: “I’m Actor Ming’s a.s.sistant, a.s.sistant w.a.n.g, and I usually dabble in some broker work as well. I specifically came to pick him up. What are your ident.i.ties this time around?”
Li Xiao Yu said: “I’m Confidant Ai’s mother this time around, I’m called Mother Ai. I’ve been through a divorce, and I have a new fiancé. Since Confidant Ai failed to return last night, I wasn’t a.s.sured, so my fiancé and I came to find her.”
Li Xiao Yu pointed at the male player who they were unacquainted with before she told Gu Liang: “That’s my fiancé, Chief Mei.”
Chief Mei?
Was he related to Designer Mei?
Gu Liang looked towards the aforementioned player with some curiosity.
Chief Mei took a step forward to speak to Gu Liang and Yang Ye: “Since both of you just arrived, you didn’t hear the discussion just now. I’ll introduce myself again briefly, I’m Chief Mei, Mother Ai’s fiancé, and I’m also Designer Mei’s superior. On one hand, I came here to find Confidant Ai, and on the other, I came here to look for Designer Mei as well. She handed me a letter of resignation, but I wanted to urge her to stay as an employee. I heard that she was at the ancient castle, so I came here to find her.”
Once the new male player was done with his self-introduction, the female player at the side spoke: “I’m Designer Mei’s older sister, Sister Mei. Similarly, I came here to find Designer Mei because she didn’t manage to return home throughout the entire night.”
“Are you and Chief Mei acquainted?” Gu Liang asked her.
Sister Mei shook her head. “We’re not acquainted. I’m not well-informed where her work is concerned.”
Gu Liang nodded her head before he s.h.i.+fted his gaze towards Meng Qian Cheng.
Meng Qian Cheng said: “Like you, I haven’t changed, I’m still Magnate Rong. In the large cast of characters in the previous scenario, both of us are the only survivors.”
Once Meng Qian Cheng said that, he heaved out a sigh.
Finally, Gu Liang gazed towards Su Lan.
Su Lan said: “I’m a lost traveller, Traveller Meng. I was playing around the nearby mountain stream and I got lost. Afterwards, I found this ancient castle.”
Thus, among the players from the previous scenario, only the real murderer Dong Wan and accomplice Liu Bo Wen, had truly disappeared in the wake of the voted conclusion.
As for the three players, Su Lan, Li Xiao Yu, and Yang Ye, only the characters that they had acted as in the previous scenario died. Whereas in the new scenario, all of them had their respective new ident.i.ties.
Tentatively, it seemed like there would be no new additions after this.
That being said, there were seven characters in this script— Sister Mei, Chief Mei, Mother Ai, Traveller Meng, Actor Ming, Mother Ai, and lastly Earl William who Yang Ye was acting as.
Right now, the Earl William Yang Ye had falsely termed himself as Actor Ming’s a.s.sistant, a.s.sistant w.a.n.g.
Therefore, the truth of the matter was that within the four people Mother Ai, Traveller Meng, Sister Mei, and Chief Mei, there might be two vampires hiding inside as well. One of them might be the Duke, the other the Princess, it was just that they were similar to Yang Ye, in the sense that they had changed into human clothing and concealed their ident.i.ty.
* * *
Gu Liang’s line of sight slid past all these players one by one before it returned to the corpse.
Li Xiao Yu was the closest to him, so he asked her out of convenience: “Shouldn’t the chef’s body be inside the kitchen? Why is it here?”
“When the chef died, he should be eating some sweet porridge, and he probably toppled the porridge before he died. At any rate, a substantial amount of sweet porridge was spilt onto the ground, and there are a lot of mice inside the kitchen, and it’s not easy to move around. We came to the conclusion that it would be easier to inspect the corpse if we brought it outside.”
Li Xiao Yu looked at Gu Liang again. “Both of you came really late. The rest of us rushed over immediately when we heard the system broadcasting the fact that there was a corpse here. We’re planning to go to the vegetable field right now to check the corpses of Lady Rong and Butler Hao.”
“All of you came here first because you felt that the tasks for the first segment were going to be related to these corpses?” Gu Liang queried.
“Is it not?” Li Xiao Yu asked in puzzlement, “Isn’t finding the murderer the point of this game? With the number of people that have died in this round, it’s possible that we have to find a few murderers.”
Gu Liang nodded his head, gazing at Li Xiao Yu: “Make your way to the vegetable field, Yang Ye and I will be going to the kitchen to have a look. We’ll join the rest of you in a short while.”
A moment later, the other players started to make their way towards the garden from the west side door.
Li Xiao Yu, however, stared at Gu Liang and Yang Ye with a mysterious and inexplicable smile.
Gu Liang: ?
Li Xiao Yu’s Internal OS: The big celebrity and his little a.s.sistant, the little a.s.sistant turned over the serf and sang the song, and pushed down the big celebrity, I can do this!
On the surface, she waved her hand: “See you later, hei hei.”
Gu Liang turned back to glance at Yang Ye. It was unknown what he was thinking but his lips hooked up.
Yang Ye held onto his shoulder as they proceeded towards the back kitchen. “What are you thinking about?”
Faintly, Gu Liang replied, “I was thinking, although I can’t fathom what Li Xiao Yu is thinking, you definitely can.”
Yang Ye grinned. “Aiyo, Liang Liang truly understands me.”
Gu Liang: “……”
Yang Ye shot in a glimpse in the direction the other players departed from before he looked at Gu Liang again. He tugged his collar higher to prevent the bite mark from being exposed. “It’s better to be careful.”
Gu Liang contemplated for a short beat before he murmured: “Frankly speaking, maybe… it might be a good thing to let them see it.”
Yang Ye understood what he meant. “You’re trying to bait the fish?”
“Between the good people and the vampires, I can only choose one.”
Gu Liang said, “Everyone should be unaware of the [Transformation Period] for the time being, and if I expose my wound on purpose, perhaps the vampires will believe that I’m a genuine vampire and seek me out for an alliance. Then, we can clarify everything by following the clues and make sense of the ident.i.ties of all the players. Only then will the game become easier.
“But that’s just a tentative plan. Whether we should do it or not requires more observation first.”
When they spoke to this point, the pair had arrived at the back kitchen.
Conforming to Li Xiao Yu’s words, there was a sumptuous breakfast placed on the entire table, but it had been undoubtedly ruined by the mice.
There was a cracked bowl on the floor where half of the sweet porridge was still in the bowl while the remaining half had already spilled out, soaking a portion of the floor.
There were countless mice on the floor: some of them were licking up the sweet porridge on the floor, others had jumped into the bowl, and there were even some that had leaped onto the preparation table and began nibbling on the other food.
“Breakfast is gone.” Pity seeped into Gu Liang’s eyes.
He had always treasured food, and the sight before him was simply too wasteful.
Yang Ye gave the pots, pans, bowls and ladle a sweeping glance. They were probably unusable as well. Turning around, he opened the refrigerator and took out two apples. He bit into one of them to give it a taste before he handed the other one to Gu Liang. “There’s some ham sausages and whatnot, do you want some?”
“Not necessary, the apple is enough. Thanks.” Gu Liang accepted the apple before he surveyed the kitchen again. Besides the befouled preparation table and floor, the innumerable furry things, and the mice excretion which made people uncomfortable, there was nothing worth noting for the time being.
The pair left the kitchen very quickly, preparing to head over to the vegetable field.
To their surprise, however, they discovered that the other players had made their return just as they stepped into the main hall.
Yang Ye was the first to open his mouth to ask: “Why are all of you back?”
Li Xiao Yu: “When we walked 100 meters out and before we even managed to see the garden dining room, there was already the thick fog in front of us. It seems like we’re not allowed to go to the garden for this exploration segment.”
In the face of Li Xiao Yu’s slight melancholia, Yang Ye stated: “Think positively; the system is actually reducing the difficulty. We didn’t have a script enactment segment in this current instance and we were directly plunged into the first segment’s free exploration, and we have to vote at 12 noon. Our time is extremely limited, and if our exploration parameters are too wide, we would be in trouble.”
“That much is true.” Li Xiao Yu asked the rest: “Have any of you been to second to fifth floors?”
No one answered her question.
Gu Liang thought about it before he looked towards Meng Qian Cheng: “As the current owner of the ancient castle, do you have any special information with regards to the changes that had occurred to this ancient castle?”
Meng Qian Cheng replied: “It shouldn’t differ from the others too much. I only know that the original owner was Duke Dahl. He was the one who built this ancient castle 300 years ago. From the day I started living here, I’ve never entered the sealed section of the first floor, and the second to fifth floors.”
“You didn’t renovate it at all?” Gu Liang posed another question.
Meng Qian Cheng said: “All of you should have seen the sealed section on the first floor, it’s all thick walls and tightly shut steel doors.When I was renovating this place, the feng shui master told me that this section, including the second to fifth floors, could not be touched at all.
“Hence, I only brushed on a layer of paint on the first-floor wall, and then did up some decorations to make it appear more splendorous and majestic instead of being all dark and dreary when it was meshed together with the style of the main lobby.”
Gu Liang: “There’s a lock on the steel doors. Have you opened them before?”
Meng Qian Cheng: “No. I don’t have the keys. The feng shui master also stated that I should never open them.”
Consequently, it meant that the condition and appearance that the locked sections on the first floor and the second to fifth floors had presently, were exactly the same as what it was three hundred years before.
Furthermore, these areas had always maintained their locked state for the past 300 years.
By this point, Chief Mei had walked to the main hall entrance and was peering into the lobby. “Have all of you noticed that there are a lot of antiques here? Have you ever thought about what might have happened?”
Spurred by his words, the group of players walked into the main hall.
Li Xiao Yu stooped over and picked up a wooden comb from the ground. It was obvious that its craftsmans.h.i.+p was old-fas.h.i.+oned at a glance.
“Did it travel across s.p.a.ce-time? Maybe an error occurred in s.p.a.ce-time, and made these past objects travel over to the present.”
Li Xiao Yu continued, “The plot mentioned the Duke from 300 years ago, and I reckon that everything is probably related to his era.”
Truth to be told, Gu Liang already had a conjecture in his heart.
But he did not say it out loud.
Because he did not want to be the first person to bring up the notion of s.p.a.ce-time travel.
It was to prevent everyone from thinking that he had too much foreknowledge, and continue to a.s.sociate him or Yang Ye to someone who had arrived from 300 years ago.
However, now that Li Xiao Yu had brought up this theory, even going as far as directly proposing the possibility of “s.p.a.ce-time travel”, Gu Liang finally decided to open his mouth: “If these objects travelled here from 300 years past, I think we can try to find an item.”
Li Xiao Yu questioned: “What item?”
Gu Liang raised his chin towards the steel doors to the locked section of the main lobby. “The keys that can open those steel doors.”
“Ah! Right! 300 years ago, the Duke’s items have travelled over, so the keys will naturally travel over as well! If that’s the case, we can open the sealed areas that we’ve never been to!”
Filled with some excitement, Li Xiao Yu proceeded to pick up a flower vase and take out the flowers, before tilting the flower vase to check if there were any keys inside.
Evidently, the other players thought that Gu Liang’ brain hole was reliable, Yang Ye included, and all of them started to look for the keys.
On the other hand, Gu Liang did not move, only walking up to the front of the elevator to press the ‘up’ b.u.t.ton.
Li Xiao Yu noticed his action: “Huh? Where are you going?”
Gu Liang: “With so many people looking for the keys, are you afraid that you won’t find it? I’m going back to the toilet on the sixth floor, and then checking if the system has opened the other floors, mostly to see if the elevator can reach said floors. I’ll be back in 5 to 6 minutes.”
Logically speaking, choosing to leave the group to move individually was a cause for suspicion.
However, Gu Liang’s expression was extremely level and calm, and he did return after 6 minutes like he promised.
With those facts in mind, it seemed apparent that he did not have the time to do anything.
At this moment, Meng Qian Cheng remembered the words that Gu Liang had once said— Some do not have the audacity to pull people out to talk alone because they are afraid of arousing suspicion in such a manner; or perhaps being suspicious after seeing someone ask another person to have a private chat are all new players. Since when was the process of deduction that easy?
Meng Qian Cheng pondered— Huh, does this apply to acting alone too?
In reality, Gu Liang had gone back to restore a piece of evidence.
There were too many things they needed to understand and reckon with at the beginning of this scenario, such that he and Yang Ye had overlooked one thing— the paper that Gu Liang had shaded in with a pencil was still in Magnate Rong’s room.
It should be said that even if everyone were to arrive at this room later and see that piece of paper, which would consequently lead to them questioning Gu Liang because he was the only one staying on the sixth floor, Gu Liang was still capable of finding a reason to explain himself. But if he had a chance, it was better to conceal the fact that he had been in this room from everyone.
Hence, when he returned to the sixth floor, Gu Liang fetched the key from the butler’s room first before going back to Magnate Rong’s room.
The book was still on the desk, and it was still flipped open.
Picking up the pencil, Gu Liang followed the handwriting of the four words “KILL ALL OF THEM” and traced it heavily to leave distinct stationery markings on the next page.
Then, he tore off the paper that had been shaded in with a pencil, carefully picking at the torn edges to remove the traces that this book had several pages ripped up.
Subsequently, he picked up the fountain pen and traced the markings he previously made to rewrite those four words.
And with that, he restored Magnate Rong’s handwriting perfectly.
Simultaneously, the markings of those four words also appeared on the next blank page.
Lastly, Gu Liang also ripped off the paper he had written on with the fountain pen, while making sure the torn edges at the side were removed cleanly.
Going into the bathroom, Gu Liang tore the two pieces of paper into shreds, threw it inside the toilet and flushed it down. Then, he left Magnate Rong’s room, locked the door, and placed the key back in the butler’s room.
In this way, Gu Liang had completely restored this evidence— the notebook was flipped open and placed on the table, there were clear markings left by the pen on the white paper, like Magnate Rong had previously written something only to tear it away later. As for what he had written down, they could use a pencil to restore it.
Everything was exactly the same as what he and Yang Ye saw when they just stepped into the room this morning.
Since Gu Liang was restoring the evidence, the paper with the replicated words “KILL ALL OF THEM” was written by his own hands, and it did not const.i.tute as evidence given by the system. Sure enough, the system did not issue a rule violation notification.
After accomplis.h.i.+ng everything, Gu Liang returned to the elevator and tried to press the “fifth” level, to which it brightened up.
Like they had expected, the system had opened the areas it had previously cordoned off.
When the elevator opened, Gu Liang did not step off to explore. Instead, he stood at the doors and observed. What immediately greeted him was a corridor, and the walls framing the corridor were pitch-black, which did not differ much from the construction on the first floor. There were a number of steel doors on the walls that were sealed tightly, as if they were locking away some kind of secret.
Now well-aware of the situation, Gu Liang closed the elevator doors and pressed floor “1”.
When the elevator doors opened, quite a few gazes wandered over.
Gu Liang returned their collective gazes, extremely relaxed. He questioned: “Have you found the keys?”
Raising a string of keys in a joyous manner, Li Xiao Yu exclaimed happily: “Found it! We found it inside a wooden cabinet, and this long string of keys was inside, and it was even designated by floors. It seems like we can go into every room. Let’s go into every room and have a look!”
“Gu Liang, did you check the other floors just now? How was it?”
The person posing the question was Yang Ye.
When Gu Liang glanced over, he saw his hands tucked in pockets, legs slightly bent as he leaned against the wall, and he appeared roguish.
But the smile on his face was extremely warm and gentle, and his eyes were particularly deep with meaning.
Evidently, he was cooperating with Gu Liang in his “cover-up”.
The corners of Gu Liang’s mouth raised subconsciously. He said: “I went to the sixth-floor toilet first, and then I only tried for the fifth floor. The situation there is quite similar to the sealed off section on the first floor. Black walls, big steel doors.
“There was light inside the elevator, which allowed me to see a part of the floor when the doors were open and the light was s.h.i.+ning outwards. But the corridor wasn’t lit up at all, and the area was murky black. I stayed there for about a minute, but I didn’t dare to venture too deeply alone, so I returned back to the elevator and came downstairs.”
“Got it.” Yang Ye said, “We’ll need to go to the storage room on the sixth floor to retrieve some electric torches before checking the other floors.”
It was at this moment where Su Lan spoke: “Let’s start checking from the main lobby. If those rooms haven’t been renovated, and have maintained its construction from 300 years ago, it should be similar to the fifth floor, where there won’t be any lighting. We need the electric torches now.”
Having said that, Su Lan walked up to press the elevator to go to the sixth floor. “I’ll go and get it.”
“Wait—” Su Lan looked at Li Xiao Yu abruptly, “I’m afraid, can you go with me?”
“Sure.” Li Xiao Yu handed the keys to Meng Qian Cheng since he was in her proximity, “You should study the order of the keys first, and see which key can open which door. Su Lan and I will come back once we’ve grabbed the torches, and then we can check all the rooms together.”
Gu Liang narrowed his eyes as he watched the pair enter the elevator at a swift pace.
With slightly knitted eyebrows, he looked to the side to observe the two new male and female players— Chief Mei and Sister Mei. Both of them had their heads lowered as they rummaged through the antiquated objects that had crossed over, as if they wanted to see if there were other clues inside.
Perhaps owing to the fact that they were unfamiliar with everyone, in addition to how they did not dare to trust people easily, they barely spoke. It could essentially be said that they did not reveal any other information.
Retracting his gaze, Gu Liang shared a look with Yang Ye. Subsequently, he raised his head to stare in the direction of the main doors from the main hall.
— There were three paintings: one rose, one portrait, and one sunflower.
The portrait was in the centre, the rose and sunflower was at its sides.
Such paintings existed inside the ancient castle in large quant.i.ties.
But Gu Liang did not know the purpose of these paintings in the present moment.
Despite lingering on the painting for a long while, Gu Liang could not think of any brain holes right now, so he promptly decided to settle his mind and eat his apple.
It had to be said that the system had never cheapened out when it came to food; the apple was crisp and tasty, and Gu Liang finished one of them very quickly.
Su Lan and Li Xiao Yu made their return just as he was throwing the apple core inside the dustbin.
They had been gone for ten minutes approximately according to his calculations.
“Have you retrieved the electric torches?” Meng Qian Cheng asked, “What took the both of you so long?”
“We went to the toilet too. Right—”
Li Xiao Yu revealed an expression that conveyed her lingering trepidation after a traumatic event, “The sixth floor is quite frightening. There were so many dead mice on the ground. After we grabbed the torches, we went to Designer Mei’s room first, and f.u.c.k, the entire room was filled with bats! Fortunately, I reacted quickly and I immediately shut the door just as I opened it.
“And then we went to Confidant Ai’s room to use the toilet. Thankfully, there was nothing inside. There’s just one strange thing— the mirror was shattered to the point where they were nearly smithereens, I don’t know who did it.”
When Su Lan heard that, she shook her head as well. “There are too many strange things happening inside this ancient castle. The scariest thing is, we were privy to the main task in the previous scenario at the very least, but we don’t even know what we’re voting for in this first segment.”
“Since we know nothing, let’s investigate the uncharted areas first.”
Gu Liang s.h.i.+fted his gaze towards Meng Qian Cheng: “Have you figured out the keys?”
“They’re stringed together in order. I’ll try the first set in a bit, and we should know how the rest works soon after.”
Hence, everyone went to the west side of the first-floor main lobby, which only had one steel door.
Meng Qian Cheng picked up the first key and started trying it, and he managed to find the right key without much suspense.
The opening of the lock rang out sonorously, to which Meng Qian Cheng proceeded to push open the door.
A wave of intense malodour smacked their faces instantaneously. Before Gu Liang could raise his hand fully, Yang Ye had already raised his and helped him cover his mouth and nose.
Concurrently, Yang Ye wrapped an arm around his waist to bring him back a few steps, like he was hugging him.
With a gentle voice, Yang Ye murmured into Gu Liang’s ear: “Be careful. Don’t go too close.”
The other players were covering their mouths and noses as well, especially the door opener Meng Qian Cheng, who was the first to start dry heaving.
Although Li Xiao Yu covered her mouth immediately, she could not stand the odour any longer so she ran over to the dustbin to throw up.
Using one hand to cover her mouth and nose, Su Lan raised the electric torch in her other hand to s.h.i.+ne into the room behind the steel door.
— White bones, piled mountain high, appeared before everyone’s sight.
The author has something to say:
There are a number of things that require blind guessing this time around:
1, Apart from Yang Ye, who are the two other vampires;
2, Who are the 3 murderers responsible for the deaths of 6;
3, Who is the deceased and real murderer in the end.
Hei hei hei.
Translator Notes: With regards to Traveller Meng – 梦游客 (pinyin: meng you ke) – it should be noted that her ‘Meng’ translates to ‘dream’. Furthermore, while ‘游客’ means guest or traveller, ‘梦游’ can also mean ‘sleep walking’ or ‘dream voyage’ figuratively. Thus, ‘梦游客’ can either mean ‘Traveller Meng’ or ‘Sleep Walking Guest/Dream Voyager’.