Chapter 25
(Into the small black room again.)
Yang Ye could not pinpoint what was wrong either. Despite his intuition telling him that the murderer had too much to do, he could not identify which specific detail had triggered that thought, nor could he concretely say that there was really a problem with it. In essence, he had yet to think it through.
After a while, the pair started to make their way towards the centralised discussion room.
There were only ten minutes left to the end of the free exploration segment.
“But there’s still a pre-existing problem. Living forever and never growing old, how is it related to the story exactly? Why did the Youngest Martial Brother pretend to be Perennial w.a.n.g… We’re not clear about the entire plot story.”
All of a sudden, Gu Liang turned his head back, looking towards the man-made lake and fake mountain. A thought suddenly occurred to him, causing his footsteps to come to a halt.
“What’s wrong?” Yang Ye asked him.
“Wait, the story enactment, maybe it hasn’t ended yet.”
— All the NPCs in Xiaoyao Sect had disappeared once the script enactment segment had concluded. In compliance with that logic, there should be no NPCs during the investigation segment, but the Master of Disguises was making skin masks in that secret path. It was highly likely that he was hiding plot details on his person.
At this moment, their two cards started vibrating. The system was reminding them to head to the centralised discussion room as soon as possible.
Gu Liang turned around, wanting to head back to the secret path in the fake mountain but Yang Ye grabbed hold of his wrist. “You won’t make it in time. Ten minutes isn’t enough for a two-way trip, you’ll get punished—”
“It’s fine.” Gu Liang shook off Yang Ye’s hand, “When you meet them later, tell them I went to the restroom. Don’t let the murderer know that I went back to the secret path.”
“Gu Liang, I’ll go to the secret path. You can head to the discussion room directly.”
“No need. You’re the detective, you have to stay.”
After declaring that, Gu Liang ran straight for the fake mountain.
Yang Ye still had the desire to stop Gu Liang, but the two martial brothers and Doctor Yu happened to be walking over in his direction.
Hence, for the sake of not arousing their suspicions, Yang Ye could only leave Gu Liang to his own devices and pretend that nothing was awry as he converged with the others. Then, they went to the centralised discussion room together.
Ten minutes later.
Inside the discussion room, four people had already gathered, save one Gu Liang.
Noticing that, Doctor Yu could not resist asking Yang Ye, “Why hasn’t Beauty Yi returned from the toilet? Big business?”
Before Yang Ye could reply, the broadcast already sent out a notice: “Beauty Yi has failed to return to the centralised discussion room at the designated time, this is the player’s second violation, his acc.u.mulative punishment is twenty minutes.”
Yang Ye felt like his heart had been punched and it ached dully.
There were a lot of places they were uncertain about with regards to this case, and the centralised discussion only lasted for two hours.
For the detectives, they had to make every second and minute count through question and interrogation and ensure that they got to the bottom of the matter.
If the detective ended up being late due to their punishment and it ate into their time, it might interfere with the case solving and vote casting.
If that were the case, the detective might die because they failed to find the real murderer.
Did Gu Liang choose to help him elucidate the truth even though he would be punished from breaking the rules because he had taken those factors into consideration?
This was the second time Gu Liang had received the punishment because of him.
Yang Ye let out a breath, forcing himself to concentrate his attention on the case at hand.
The discussion room was extremely quiet. Doctor Yu was glancing left and right as if she wanted to say something, but she did not know what she should start with.
Both the martial brothers were unspeaking and had their eyes lowered; they refused to communicate with the detective visually or verbally as if they were afraid of arousing suspicions.
In the midst of the silence, Yang Ye first flipped through the photographs in his camera before skimming through his own notebook to review the script enactment and the found clues. The last item he contemplated was Gu Liang’s final brain hole.
According to Gu Liang’s brain hole, the Youngest Martial Brother stabbed the Second Martial Brother twice before he carved the words on his body. Afterwards, he went to the secret path in the fake mountain to take the mask, returned back to the bedroom and wore the face skins to change their ident.i.ties. Once he had accomplished everything, he still had to go to the kitchen to retrieve the breakfast and finally go back to the room where the two martial brothers resided.
There were too many things he had to do and they were too complicated.
But what was too complicated and long winded…
That’s right, why did he have to return back from the fake mountain? He did not have to detour back at all.
His course of actions did not have to be this tedious or numerous.
Like a flash of light, Yang Ye suddenly understood something.
Yang Ye no longer hesitated. He stood up immediately and said: “We’ll jump straight to the one-on-one now. Since Beauty Yi hasn’t returned, we’ll proceed in the order of Oldest Martial Brother, Second Martial Brother and Doctor Yu. Oldest Martial Brother, I’ll be troubling you to follow me into the interrogation room.”
A short moment later, the door to the interrogation room closed.
Yang Ye gazed at the Oldest Martial Brother who was sitting opposite of him. “I’ll ask you this question first, who is the Youngest Martial Brother? Does your story mention this individual?”
A flicker of doubt crossed Oldest Martial Brother’s face. He made a brief recall and he seemed to remember that there was such a person.
“Ah. Yes. I used to have a decent relations.h.i.+p with him. Unfortunately, he died later. What’s the matter, is he related to this story?”
Yang Ye said: “Inconclusive. We simply think that this person wouldn’t appear without any rhyme or reason. It’s possible that the person feigning as Perennial w.a.n.g could be him.”
Oldest Martial Brother asked: “But why did he choose to act as Perennial w.a.n.g? Did you find any additional clues?”
As if he had heard some other insinuations in his words, Yang Ye arched an eyebrow subtly. Then, he said: “We haven’t found other clues, yes. It’s the reason why I wanted to ask you to see how this person was described in your individual script.”
Pondering, Oldest Martial Brother only said, “I don’t think he’s pretending to be Perennial w.a.n.g. Although my script doesn’t have a lot of information concerning the Youngest Martial Brother, he was comparatively pure and kind-hearted, and he holds me in higher esteem. Perennial w.a.n.g on the other hand… cough, forced himself on Oldest Martial Brother.”
“Sure. Maybe it’s because we missed out on some kind of clue which resulted in an incomplete story. We won’t contend about who Perennial w.a.n.g’s replacement is first. From the information we have right now, who do you think the murderer is?”
Oldest Martial Brother thought about it before he answered: “Truthfully speaking, I suspected that it was Beauty Yi before we entered the secret path.”
“Why?” This answer made Yang Ye feel a little mystified.
Oldest Martial Brother said: “You weren’t always with her, right? As in, weren’t you in the Buddha wors.h.i.+pping hall chanting sutras during mao s.h.i.+?”
“Yes. I only returned three quarters of an hour in. She had 45 minutes to commit a crime.” Yang Ye nodded.
“Since the deceased didn’t die by the curse, then his cause of death should be the stab wounds. I eliminated Doctor Yu and myself. From my point of view, the murderer was between Beauty Yi and Second Martial Brother.
“In the end, I chose Beauty Yi. Because Beauty Yi fed Perennial w.a.n.g knockout drops every night and she knows about the effects of the knockout drops best. Consequently, she would have the greatest amount of control over the timing and she could act before the effects of the knockout drops dissipated.”
“That’s reasonable.” Yang Ye nodded. “What about now? Who do you suspect?”
“The murderer can only be Second Martial Brother, or is it more accurate to say… the person who’s acting as Second Martial Brother.”
“When do you think they traded their ident.i.ties?”
“It should be today. It can’t be earlier than that, considering how my story gave no indication that I noticed Second Martial Brother acting strange recently or that he wasn’t himself.”
“Why do you think the Second Martial Brother was killed then?”
“I think… in the room at mao s.h.i.+, the Second Martial Brother was real. He used the curse and he genuinely wanted to kill Perennial w.a.n.g. However, when he went to check if Perennial w.a.n.g was dead after using the curse, he was counter killed. It was a crime of pa.s.sion.”
Yang Ye’s eyes narrowed slightly as he continued to ask: “How did the words on the body of the deceased happen then?”
His question made Oldest Martial Brother sink into contemplation. It was unknown what he was thinking but his face became pale all of a sudden.
But he exhaled a deep breath very quickly and said: “I don’t know. The word ‘beast’ is generally an insult, but it also gives the impression that the perpetrator was venting their pent-up anger. I’m only guessing but, he might have done that to make everyone believe that the dead person was Perennial w.a.n.g, and the murderer was someone who had enmity against him because Perennial w.a.n.g had way too many enemies.”
Tch, all of it was right on the target? His words are exactly the same as Gu Liang’s.
“Mn, understood.” Yang Ye stared at him, “What about you? You never thought of going to Perennial w.a.n.g’s bedroom to check if he was dead?”
“The Sect Leader wakes up at six quarters of an hour into mao s.h.i.+ every day, and he would bring the disciples to the back mountain to train at chen s.h.i.+. As the oldest disciple, I have to a.s.sist him in training the disciples. Therefore, I planned to go to the back mountain directly at chen s.h.i.+, and if he failed to show up, it means that he’s definitely dead.”
When Oldest Martial Brother finished saying those words, Yang Ye went silent again.
After seeing Yang Ye not speak for a long time, Oldest Martial Brother probed him: “Detective, who do you think is the murderer?”
Yang Ye’s vision refocused, lips curling into a smile that was not a smile. “Your deduction is quite brilliant. It can be said that it leaves no room for criticism.”
“Only by imagining it this way, can the story become rational and clearly structured, no?” Oldest Martial Brother said, “It doesn’t matter who the subst.i.tute for Perennial w.a.n.g was; he’s replaced the Sect Leader for so long and it’s natural that he knows the existence of the secret path. He’s the only one who knows the secret path as well.”
The way the Oldest Martial Brother tossed out the problem was identical to Gu Liang.
But this time around, Yang Ye could definitively reply that he was not the only one who knew of the secret path.
However, Yang Ye did not verbalise it. He only asked: “After mao s.h.i.+, where were you and Second Martial Brother?”
Oldest Martial Brother said: “Second Martial Brother only told me he went to the kitchen. I was in the courtyard practicing my martial arts. He only came back after 75 minutes.”
Yang Ye: “Let’s try and restore the sequence of events. Second Martial Brother was wearing clothes when he went to kill him. But the deceased was naked. Since it was a crime of pa.s.sion, it’s unlikely for Second Martial Brother to take his clothes off before he acted, and it’s only possible if the counterfeit took off the upper half of Second Martial Brother’s clothes after he counter killed and then carved the words into his chest. Do you have any objections regarding this point?”
Oldest Martial Brother thought about it briefly before he shook his head.
“So the clothes that Second Martial Brother was originally wearing must be stained with a large amount of blood.”
Yang Ye said: “As the counterfeit was switching both their ident.i.ties, apart from changing their faces, he has to change their clothes as well. It’s easy for the side of the deceased since the top half of his body needs to be bare, and as for his pants, it’s just normal inner pants, which won’t differentiate his ident.i.ty. But if the counterfeit needs to pretend to be the Second Martial Brother, where did Second Martial’s clothes come from? It isn’t possible for him to walk out with the bloodied clothes.”
Once Yang Ye posed the question, Oldest Martial Brother’s brows furrowed together as if he was considering it.
After a short beat, he uttered, “The scene of the crime happens to be Perennial w.a.n.g’s bedroom; he can just wear Perennial w.a.n.g’s clothes. In Xiaoyao Sect, everyone wears the same standardised Sect uniform, all of it is blue and white in colour. Look at Second Martial Brother’s and my clothes, it’s the same. Perennial w.a.n.g’s clothes don’t differ much from ours.”
“En. I can accept that.” Yang Ye looked at Oldest Martial Brother, “Here’s the last question I have, the bloodstained robes that originally belonged to Second Martial Brother, where would it go?”
Oldest Martial Brother pondered through the various possibilities before he said: “After killing the deceased, the counterfeit brought the bloodied clothes and went to the secret path in the fake mountain to take away two pieces of face skins. If I was the murderer… isn’t there a lake beside the fake mountain? Since there are numerous rocks beside the lake, I can tie the blooded clothes to the rocks and allow it to sink to the bottom of the lake. Perhaps that’s what the murderer did, which is why we didn’t find any bloodied clothes.”