Chapter 93.2
Yang Ye was thinking about this question as well.
After deliberating for a long while, he raised his head, s.h.i.+fting his gaze away from the notebook. When he slanted his head, he happened to see Gu Liang’s face.
Presently, Gu Liang’s gaze was serious and focused as he was contemplating the case plot.
Underneath the lights, his tea-coloured irises were like water. As Yang Ye stared at him, his throat knot rolled down unconsciously.
Yang Ye was on the verge of saying something when knocks sounded at their door.
Yang Ye frowned inwardly, but he still asked: “Who is it?”
“It’s me.” Waitress Jing’s voice came from outside the door. “School Senior Hua is the detective, right? I heard that you were here, so I came over to look over. I just learnt that when I was searching the dining room for evidence, some of you had already conducted a discussion. Why was I the only person being left out? Are you guys suspecting me?”
Yang Ye wanted to stand up to open the door, but in consideration of his leg, Gu Liang pressed him down to make him remain seated before he stood up to open the door, thereby allowing Waitress Jing to enter the room. “We didn’t discuss behind your back on purpose, it’s just that the few of us happened to be in the same place at the same time. Come in. It happens that I have questions to ask you.”
Moments later, Waitress Jing was seated in front of Yang Ye and Gu Liang.
Like opening the door to see the mountain, Gu Liang asked: “Did you seek everyone out? And between you and Vagrant Qian, what is going on exactly, can you talk about it in detail?”
Waitress Jing went silent briefly, as if she did not know where she should begin.
In the shortest amount of time possible, Gu Liang concisely recounted the a.n.a.lysis that he and Yang Ye previously made to Waitress Jing.
“Hence, even before we find the other pieces of evidence, the reality is that we can eliminate you for the time being.
“I know that you’re afraid that if you speak about these matters, we’ll a.s.sume that you’re the murderer instead, which is why you held them back the whole time.
“But I reckon, after you heard our detailed a.n.a.lysis, you should be able to believe my words. I’m not trying to deceive you; I certainly can eliminate you for the time being. Therefore, I hope that you can speak the truth.”
Waitress Jing contemplated for a long time before she eventually spoke: “Perhaps I should start from the beginning.
“I’ve been with Proprietress Ling longer than Chef Huang. Chef Huang is a hungry ghost, and he used to be a traveller who was hiking the mountains here, but he used an undeveloped small path and fell off the mountain precipice. Before he could wait for aid to arrive, he starved to death. Since he was harbouring grievances, he transformed into a hungry ghost and he would frequently eat humans. After Proprietress Ling decided to open an inn here, she brought him in as a chef, which can be considered as a way to make-up for the regret of not being able to eat his fill prior to death. After all, being a chef means that he can eat as much as he wanted.
“As for the circ.u.mstances surrounding Proprietress Ling, Chef Huang might not be the most aware, but I know some of it, roughly. Proprietress Ling was cultivating some kind of merit, and it seems like a certain Great Master told her about it. With her ident.i.ty as a ghost, she can’t be with the person she loved, but according to the Great Master’s words, if she helped humans fulfil their wishes and cultivate enough merit, she can get rid of the grievances on her body, and be together with that person.
“When all is said and done, Proprietress Ling is a considerably stronger ghost, and her yin energy is heavy too. If she started a relations.h.i.+p with that person directly, she would break his longevity. Therefore, she has to cultivate enough merit.
“She might want to do that, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be fettered here. Furthermore, I was very jealous of her too. In any case, I wanted to get rid of her, and break away from her.
“Vagrant Qian arrived at this place around May. He pretended to be crazy and tried to sell the impression that he was stupid by frequently hara.s.sing her, but he was actually trying to remove her vigilance. The truth is that he was hiding himself near the inn the entire time to investigate Proprietress Ling’s origins. “Additionally, he was waiting for the day when those special, ghost-exorcising bullets would be fully manufactured so they could be sent over. He could only act when those bullets arrived.
“But it’s true that Vagrant Qian likes drinking alcohol. There was an instance where he stole the wine again, and Proprietress Ling told me to deal with this matter. I went to the opposite bank of the lake to look for him and discovered the fact that he was a Taoist Priest. Back then, the actual situation was quite tense. However, he said that he was not some kind of powerful Taoist Priest; he was just muddling along his days in the Taoist temple, and because his cultivation was limited, he had no way of using his own powers to subdue Proprietress Ling. In the same vein, he can’t even deal with me.
“But he said that after days of constant observation, he knew that I wanted to get rid of Proprietress Ling, and he told me to cooperate with him. He said that he had asked someone to make the special bullets and they were going to be sent over soon. With those bullets in hand, he will be able to kill Proprietress Ling.
“He couldn’t accomplish this alone. I had to help him, by which I mean he asked me to lead Proprietress Ling towards the window and open it, so he could shoot her from afar.
“The hidden thatched hut on the opposite bank of the lake was something he secretly built after he chose the location, which happens to allow him to aim at the inn’s guest rooms.
“Since he could help me get rid of Proprietress Ling, I felt very thankful towards him. Slowly, we became familiar with each other, which is why I helped him hide the wine, and helped him mend his clothes. Both of us actually had mutual good feelings for each other… At any rate, I would never kill him. He’s a very handsome Taoist Priest; it’s just that he was playing the fool so he dirtied his face on purpose to look shoddy. He doesn’t actually look like that. I was slightly infatuated with him.”
After listening to this point, Yang Ye and Gu Liang shared a look.
— Certainly, they discovered washed and patched up male clothes inside Waitress Jing’s closet prior to this.
With Waitress Jing’s given explanation, a lot of things could be cleared up.
— How did a Taoist Priest and ghost manage to collude?
And beyond the colluding, why did the ghost help the Taoist Priest wash his clothes, and secretly prepare a large quant.i.ty of his favourite alcohol?
If Waitress Jing liked the vagrant, everything made sense.
Consequently, the suspicion of Waitress Jing killing the vagrant became even smaller.
“After Proprietress Ling broke up with School Senior Hua at the beginning of March and returned to the inn, she didn’t make any new movements. I guessed that she was almost done cultivating her merits and she was making other preparations. I’m not clear about the specifics. But I reckoned that this was a good opportunity to act.
“There was an instance where I flipped through her wish book while she wasn’t around and I specifically picked the cases that involved dead people, and then I handed the information to the vagrant so he could disseminate it through his friends. By doing so, we could slowly draw her enemies over.
“Of course, the fact that this Yellow Springs Inn could allow you to meet your deceased relatives, was also a rumour that the vagrant propagated.
“Proprietress Ling was even wondering if one of our previous guests was mistaken about something, which made them spread those rumours. She was slightly troubled because she didn’t know how to deal with it.
“Afterwards, there were a lot of people calling to book the room, because they thought that they could meet their deceased relatives here. Additionally, don’t forget, I’m a service staff here. All of your booking information goes through me. Whether the rooms are full or not, when there are vacancies to accommodate your stay, all of it is controlled by mouth in truth.
“Hence, the reality is that I picked out your batch of guests, based on the possibility that you might possess tremendous hate towards Proprietress Ling. The duration of your stay was also decided by me.
“Needless to say, I did all this because I wanted to borrow your hands to get rid of Proprietress Ling. Furthermore, I’m actually a little scared of Proprietress Ling, since she’s stronger than me. I was going to act only after all of you arrived. Even if the plan conceived by me and the vagrant ended in failure and we didn’t manage to kill her, to the extent where the plot falls through and gets exposed, I could still push everything onto the guests, because quite a few of you felt animosity towards her.”
After Waitress Jing spoke to this point, she was slightly parched. She casually poured the cooling water into a gla.s.s on the table before she drank a mouthful.
Gu Liang gazed at her. “Both of you have been arranging this plan for so long, and yet it failed?”
Waitress Jing put down her water gla.s.s with tightly knitted eyebrows as she said: “Yes. When I went to look for the vagrant in the afternoon, he was indeed dead. You were correct, the incense on my body had dispersed back then, and when I pa.s.sed through the wall and entered his room, I discovered that he was already hung to death. I was afraid that you would suspect me prior to this, so I said that I didn’t go into the room.”
Gu Liang asked her: “Why did you go and look for him in the afternoon?”
Waitress Jing replied, “You’ve touched on a vital question.”
Having thought of something, Gu Liang exchanged looks with Yang Ye before he glanced at Waitress Jing again. “Right, there’s a question that has been plaguing me for a long time in fact. Everyone was definitely going out to play in the morning. During that period of time, the four rooms are bound to be empty. Logically speaking, acting in the morning would be the most optimal, why was it dragged to the late afternoon?”
“That’s where the problem resides. At the very start, the vagrant and I agreed to act in the morning, because all of you were definitely going out in the morning, which meant all the rooms would be empty. Everyone would surely be none the wiser if I acted then. Whereas I couldn’t be certain if all of you would continue to go out in the afternoon.”
Waitress Jing continued, “But Proprietress Ling disappeared in the morning. I couldn’t find her anywhere.”
Waitress Jing took her explanation a step further: “The reason I originally thought of was that ‘I discovered something wrong with Tourist Jia’s room’, and I was going to ask Proprietress Ling to go to Tourist Jia’s room with me. After all, she met Tourist Jia alone last night, I knew that she was interested in Tourist Jia.
“I was planning to pretend to hear some kind of noise coming outside the window after I met her in the room, and then push the window wide open and pull her over to take a look, which would allow Vagrant Qian to take his shot from afar since he’s constantly aiming through his scope. But I couldn’t find Proprietress Ling.”
It was at this moment where Gu Liang spoke: “I apologise for interrupting. Was she only missing from her room and the other public areas? What about the other guest rooms, was she there?”
“I don’t know. After all of you left your respective rooms in the morning, the room doors were locked, and I couldn’t go in. But I did knock on the doors, though there wasn’t any response from any of the rooms.”
Waitress Jing said: “Each room has a spare key but Proprietress Ling hid in a place where only she knows. The entire inn had been suffused with the rhinoceros horn incense, and I didn’t know about the existence of the Incense Absorbing Amulet prior to this, which is why I had no way of phasing through the walls to enter your rooms. In reality, there’s no need for me to go in either, because Proprietress Ling isn’t inside. If I went in by myself, who was Vagrant Qian supposed to shoot?”
Waitress Jing made a gesture to convey her helplessness as she said: “I pretended that nothing happened in the afternoon and brought all of you to partake in lunch. In the afternoon, it wasn’t appropriate for me to go to the opposite bank in front of the guests, so it was only around 2 o’ clock when I noticed that there was no one in my vicinity that I left. I went to look for Vagrant because I want to confirm if our plan has remained unchanged.
“Proprietress Ling not being around in the afternoon was an unexpected situation. I was afraid that he would think that I’ve spoiled the plans because I have other ideas. Hence, I had to go over to offer an explanation.
“I also wanted to tell him that I’ve ascertained the fact that rooms of School Senior Hua and Tourist Jia were empty because School Senior Hua went fis.h.i.+ng, and Tourist Jia had yet to make his return. If there are no accidents, he just needs to continue watching Tourist Jia’s room.
“But I didn’t expect that when I arrived, the vagrant was actually dead.”
After hearing that, Gu Liang asked Waitress Jing another question: “I understand everything now. I’ll ask you one last question, what was your occupation when you were alive, have you ever served in the military?”
Waitress Jing shook her head. “I didn’t. I was just an ordinary student prior to my death, who committed suicide because I was having troubles in my studies. I don’t know how to use guns. In reality, Vagrant Qian wasn’t the best shooter either, which was why he wanted me to find a reason to make Proprietress Ling stay in front of the open window for a longer period of time, so he could aim properly and kill her in one shot.”
— a.s.suming that there was no one similar to Sister Mei in the previous case, who was a professional shooter, it meant that within the remaining pairs that could have committed the crime together, who could think of what kind of reason to make Proprietress Ling stay in front of the window for a long period of time without moving, to the point where the other person could shoot her to death?