Chapter 34.2
Present moment.
Yang suddenly made a noise and his deep voice sounded from above Gu Liang’s head. “You’re looking at me? What are you looking at me for?”
That made Gu Liang laugh. “Nothing, I just feel that you’re quite silly.”
After saying those words, Gu Liang closed his eyes, leaned his head against Yang Ye’s shoulder subconsciously and fell asleep.
Yang Ye lowered his eyes to observe him. He looked agreeable and docile now that all his usual quiet haughtiness and sarcasm – or perhaps his emotionless pretence – had receded.
In that instant, Yang Ye felt that this was the first time he had bypa.s.sed his feigned outward appearance and came close to his soul.
* * *
Yang Ye brought Gu Liang to the shroud shop for breakfast first before he sent him back to rest.
While Gu Liang was sleeping, Yang Ye was preparing lunch.
When he was almost done with preparing lunch, it was exactly 11.
Thus, Yang Ye strolled over to the coffin shop from his shroud shop backyard to call Gu Liang over to eat.
He traversed the backyard and walked towards the coffin shop’s back door. Before he entered the door, however, Yang Ye heard a familiar and bright female voice— it was Li Xiao Yu.
“You’re the bottom, and he’s the top, right?”
“You’re the iceberg beauty, awkward tsundere bottom, and he’s the black-bellied, licentious and flirtatious top?”
“Don’t blame me for my rot ah, this game is honestly terrifying. Since life is so difficult, why am I not allowed to s.h.i.+p CPs?”
“Don’t be unhappy, I’m alright with you being the top too, I’m willing to buy into an iceberg beauty top. It’s just that I heard that being the bottom is quite comfortable…”
“Fine fine fine, don’t get angry, you’re the top, you’re the top, you’re the biggest and best top in the entire universe!”
What was she spouting?
Don’t you dare ruin Gu Liang Liang!
Eyebrows twisting, Yang Ye pushed open the door and strode in.
When he routed around the staircase and stepped into the main hall that was teeming with coffins, Yang Ye came to the realisation that Li Xiao Yu was not talking to Gu Liang but to two men in black instead.
Yang Ye felt a little shocked because of this girl.
— She was truly capable.
The two men in black distanced themselves away from her very quickly.
Frankly speaking, as Yang Ye looked at the blacks that covered them from head to toe, and at the faces he could not discern, he did not understand how Li Xiao Yu’s brain managed to differentiate who was the top and bottom between the two.
Upon seeing Yang Ye, Li Xiao Yu greeted him proactively. “Yang Ye! I came to find Boss Meng! What are you doing here for? Are you Boss Meng?”
“No, I’m the next-door Old w.a.n.g. Gu Liang is Boss Meng. You—” Yang Ye studied Li Xiao Yu for a brief moment, and noticed she was holding onto the coffin to stand on her feet. “What happened to your leg?”
Li Xiao Yu laughed darkly. “I tripped on the stairs and fell. The script required me to find Boss Meng at this time, but because I injured my leg, I couldn’t walk. Hence, the two men in black brought me over to help me complete the script enactment portion. Isn’t there a help b.u.t.ton on the card?”
Oh? Such actions were possible?
Just then, the sound of someone coming down the stairs travelled over. Yang Ye looked over his shoulder and happened to see Gu Liang climbing down the stairs.
It was apparent that Gu Liang was pondering over something with his slightly knitted eyebrows.
Yang Ye thought in his heart— Did he heard the words that Li Xiao Yu said just now, and he’s decided to take the unnecessary pains to study an insignificant problem for the sake of his rampant thirst for knowledge, and he wanted to study the entire top and bottom conundrum thoroughly?
But Gu Liang proved himself to Gu Liang; he acknowledged Yang Ye with a nod before he came to a stop in front of Li Xiao Yu and went straight to the main details of the case. “You’re School Senior Feng?”
Li Xiao Yu nodded her head. “So, you’re Boss Meng?”
Gu Liang replied. “Yes. If my conjecture is correct, your time should be 8th of August at 11 in the morning.”
Li Xiao Yu revealed a slightly strange expression, as if she was still in the midst of puzzling out why Gu Liang had asked such a question. “Yeah… Yes it is. What are you confirming this for?”
Gu Liang asked her: “Does your script state that the deceased will have their time reset?”
“Yes. But…” Li Xiao Yu came to a realisation, and her pupils dilated unconsciously. “Did I…”
Gu Liang exchanged looks with Yang Ye before he said: “You did. Last night, Yang Ye and I found your corpse in the alleyway beside the Secondary School. You died from a broken beer bottle shard impaling your chest.”
Despite opening her mouth, Li Xiao Yu did not utter a word, and her visage turned pale from fright.
Gu Liang said, “There’s no need to be afraid. I died once too, which is why my time and yours are the same, we’re on 8th August. Yang Ye, your current date is 9th August?”
“Yes,” Yang Ye nodded. “I probably haven’t died once.”
Still braced on the coffin to stand on her feet, Xiao Yu was stuck in a daze for a while before she came back to her senses. “If that’s the case, I finally understand why there’s a difference between my time and Princ.i.p.al Zha’s time.”
Gu Liang and Yang Ye did not respond, waiting for her to go on.
Li Xiao Yu gave a momentary pause before she mumbled, “Before I arrived here, which was roughly 10 in the morning, I went to find Princ.i.p.al Zha. I tripped when I was walking down the stairs and leaving his place.”
Faltering, Li Xiao Yu continued to say: “Now that I think back about it, there was a sentence of his that was rather strange. He said, I have to partic.i.p.ate in the calligraphy compet.i.tion in five days. But my script mentioned that the art compet.i.tion was in four days in explicit terms. It turns out I’ve already died once, no wonder our times are different.”
“Huh, hold on, that’s not right… why is he behind by a day? Logically speaking, I should be one day behind him…”
“Because he has already died twice.”
Gu Liang did not mince his words in the least, “My character killed him earlier this morning. I’ve also killed him once yesterday. Since he died twice, he lost two days’ worth of memories, and he now believes that he’s still on the 7th of August.”
BBQ Li killed Beggar Ding, Gu Liang killed Princ.i.p.al Zha, someone killed School Senior Feng…
What about School Senior Feng then?
Yang Ye furrowed his brows and asked Li Xiao Yu: “Is there someone you want to kill in this scenario?”
Upon hearing that, Li Xiao Yu visibly hesitated.
However, when she remembered how Gu Liang had spoken honestly, she offered her information as well. “The person I want to kill is Neighbour Liu.”
Neighbour Liu?
With the addition of said person, the seven characters present in this script were finally complete— Boss Meng, next-door Old w.a.n.g, School Senior Feng, Beggar Ding, BBQ Li, Princ.i.p.al Zha and Neighbour Liu.
In the moment where flint sparked, Gu Liang had a thought that seemed to hover around a decisive point but he could not figure out what this decisive point was exactly.
At the side, Li Xiao Yu continued to speak. “I’ll give a simple summary of my motivation to kill; the truth of the matter is that Neighbour Liu caused the death of my parents. Later, I was taken care of and raised by Princ.i.p.al Zha. I went to find Princ.i.p.al Zha earlier this morning because I wanted to tell him that I wanted to kill Neighbour Liu. Princ.i.p.al Zha dissuaded me, stating that I should not be impulsive, since I had to partic.i.p.ate in a calligraphy compet.i.tion five days later, and I shouldn’t allow my revenge to impact my future prospects.”
Yang Ye went quiet for a long moment before he directed another query to Li Xiao Yu: “Therefore, when you came over at this time, what were you planning to do, according to what the script ascribed?”
“Someone stuffed a slip of paper through the door seam, reminding me to pick up the coffin when the time comes. I recognised this handwriting; Princ.i.p.al Zha wrote it to me.” As she said those words, she took out a slip of paper, “Look, this is it.”
Li Xiao Yu handed the paper to Yang Ye and Gu Liang, allowing the pair to see the words written on the parchment— “Giving you another word of reminder, do not forget to buy the coffin.”
“Buy the coffin? What coffin?” Gu Liang asked Li Xiao Yu.
“I… I don’t know.” Li Xiao Yu responded.
Gu Liang mulled over it. It was highly probable that Li Xiao Yu and Princ.i.p.al Zha had done something together, and this matter involved a certain coffin in the shop.
Princ.i.p.al Zha had been afraid of her forgetting it and thus left her a note of reminder. However, Li Xiao Yu was murdered in the small alleyway and lost a day’s worth of memories, which was why she could no longer recall why she needed to deal with a coffin.
Yang Ye crossed his arms and surveyed the main hall which was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with coffins. Then, he commented, “It couldn’t be that… a corpse had been hidden in one of these coffins?”
The bits of warmth and composure that Li Xiao Yu had recovered prior was frightened away again. “There… There’s no way, right…”
Yang added as an afterthought, “There’s even a chance that it’s the one you’re bracing yourself on.”
“f.u.c.k—!” Li Xiao Yu jumped up in shock. Immediately after, a loud thud sounded as she fell to the floor miserably, face first.
Upon seeing her reaction, Yang Ye felt quite apologetic, “Sorry, I was joking. Even if there was a corpse, it should be the ones near the backdoor, and it wouldn’t be the one you were holding.”
Although Gu Liang shot him a reproaching look, he was still the one who went forward to help Li Xiao Yu up.
His actions made Yang Ye feel a wave of regret— Tch, why did I create a chance for him to show tender, protective feelings for the fairer s.e.x?
Despite having difficulties in standing firmly, Li Xiao Yu refused to brace herself on a coffin again.
Hence, Gu Liang could only bring her to the staircase landing, and she promptly decided to sit on the stairs.
After taking a few deep breaths to get a hold of her emotions, Li Xiao Yu asked Yang Ye: “Why do you think there’s a corpse here?”
Yang Ye gave a short pause before he said: “Have none of you realised that in this script, it seems like everyone is killing someone? You want to kill Neighbour Liu, BBQ Li wants to kill Beggar Ding, the Boss Meng that Gu Liang is acting as wants to kill Princ.i.p.al Zha…
“Therefore, I guessed that you, and perhaps Princ.i.p.al Zha wanted to kill someone too, and the homicide should have occurred somewhere close to the coffin shop. Under dire circ.u.mstances, both of you hid the corpse in the coffin shop for the time being first. The reason why Princ.i.p.al Zha wanted you to buy the coffin as soon as possible was probably because he was afraid that the corpse’s stench would arouse Boss Meng’s discovery.”
School Senior Feng questioned, “Why did we hide it close to the backdoor then?”
“The coffin shop does not allow for dead people, and it has to close its doors after sunset; these are rules. Look, it’s written over there.”
Yang Ye pointed at the words on the wall and continued to say, “Hence, if you wanted to hide the corpse here, Boss Meng must definitely be oblivious to it. Since the murderer was doing these things behind his back, they had to seize the window of opportunity where he was outsode to sneak in and hide the corpse here.
“Since they had murdered and needed to conceal the corpse, going through the front door would be too flagrant, so the murderer has no choice but to use the backdoor. Furthermore, the murderer has no way of knowing when Boss Meng would return so he has to leave quickly. These series of factors would lead them into choosing one of the closer coffins first, then opening said coffin and concealing the corpse.”
Having spoken to this point, Yang Ye walked towards the first row of coffins that was close to the backdoor. He randomly gestured at the two in the middle. “It should be in the vicinity.”
Under Gu Liang and Yang Ye’s cooperation, three coffins were opened in succession in the end.
And inside the third coffin, there was a corpse like they had expected.
Due to the long exposure to the damp and humid environment, the corpse was already beginning to show signs of decaying.
There was a lingering strange smile present on his face, and the greenish-purple lips curling up slightly made people tremble with fear.
In that instant, Gu Liang’s mood became a little delicate.
— Unexpectedly, this person was Xun Feng.
Without his knowledge, a corpse had been hidden inside his house, and he had stayed together with the corpse for so long without being aware of it. Say what you will, but this matter certainly gave rise to some dread.
And when he discovered that the owner of this dead body was his own friend, and during a time where there was the possibility of him being the actual deceased in this case, Gu Liang felt quite upset, and extremely powerlessly as well.
He did not know what powers were controlling this game, and the things he could accomplish alone were frankly too little.
For example, perhaps he could only watch his friend die with wide eyes.
Gu Liang could not help but think— Hence, when Yang Ye discovered my corpse, was he feeling something similar as well?
At this moment, Li Xiao Yu hopped over on a single foot.
She peered at the corpse in the coffin. In the instant where she saw his face clearly, Li Xiao Yu froze and then pulled out a photograph from her bosom. “He… Isn’t he Xun Feng? Moreover, I recognise this person! What I’m trying to say is, I know what role he’s acting as in this script.”
Gu Liang received her photograph and realised that she was holding onto an ID photo. The person’s head in the photograph had been marked out with a red cross, but it was not hard to identify that he was indeed Xun Feng.
Three words were scrawled at the back of the photo: “I WANT REVENGE.”
Gu Liang handed the photograph to Yang Ye, to which he glanced at before he returned it to Li Xiao Yu. “This is the Neighbour Liu you want to kill?”
Li Xiao Yu nodded her head. “Yes, he’s Neighbour Liu. Therefore… I’ve already killed him once, but because I was killed, I forgot about it.”
Once Li Xiao Yu finished saying those words, her card started vibrating.
Li Xiao Yu raised her card and looked over it for a long time. Meanwhile, Gu Liang and Yang Ye did not take the initiative to speak up, merely gazing at her quietly in tacit agreement.
After a long period of time, Li Xiao Yu put down her card and blinked owlishly, as though she was considering whether she should talk about it.
Gu Liang glanced at her and said: “Don’t worry. The current timeline is useless. From what we know now, everyone seems to be mutually killing each other, but with the setting of resurrection, these slaughters will not result in actual deaths.
“Whether it’s my killing of Princ.i.p.al Zha, or your killing of Neighbour Liu, we’re definitely not the real murderer. Who the final deceased is, how they died, and how the murderer broke the ‘Undying Town’ setting to kill them, will undoubtedly have another set of circ.u.mstances and secrets that are presently hidden.”
As Li Xiao Yu looked at Gu Liang, she kept feeling a sense of déjà vu.
— Like she had been under Gu Liang’s indifferent but attentive stare, listened to him use an unfluctuating tone of voice to dispense her an extremely logical piece of advice, which would eventually lead her into confessing her timeline and motivation to kill in its entirety.
And it was for the same reasons that Li Xiao Yu held some genuine fear for Gu Liang.
Although Yang Ye appeared to be more domineering, swift and fierce in terms of appearance, no matter facial features or stature, Li Xiao Yu could not shake off the feeling that Gu Liang was more terrifying, and he was the sort of person that she did not dare to get close to.
However, when Li Xiao Yu carefully thought about it, it was evident that Gu Liang was speaking the truth.
A number of people have killed someone, but these murder victims have resurrected and they were not truly deceased in every sense of the word.
These events would only play a role in a.s.sisting the players to a.n.a.lyse the plot, and it had nothing to do with the real homicide in the scenario.
Having thought everything through, Li Xiao Yu still opened her mouth to speak in the end. “The script requires me to kill Neighbour Liu at 7 tonight. But there’s already a corpse of him here. Therefore… I’ll be killing him a second time too.”
The author has something to say:
Do you have any guesses on who the real murderer is?