Chapter 40.2
“Me?” Li Xiao Yu felt strange.
“Yes. Yang Ye said that I pulled Beggar Ding into my coffin shop and talked to him for a long time that day. I think I was telling him about the existence of the closed loop.”
Gu Liang leaned his head against the sofa, and stared at the dust floating in the void.
“Boss Meng, can you give me some money? I’m almost done gathering money to buy a guitar for School Senior Feng— Beggar Ding probably said something along those lines to me, which would match up to what he told BBQ Li when he was begging for food.
“And then, I’d tell him, what was the point of him gathering up all that money for the guitar? Your School Senior Feng has been trapped. If you don’t save her, she will live and die again endlessly, and she will never break away from it forever. She can’t play the guitar you’re sending her at all.
“Beggar Ding would definitely ask me, what should he do then.
“I’d say, someone has to commit suicide. But what could be done, who would commit suicide? I would never do it. Other people wouldn’t do it either, and no one could save his School Senior Feng. Even he, Beggar Ding, would be powerless in this situation. Since he had been killed by BBQ Li’s poisoned barbeque, he was also within the spell.”
After hearing that story, Li Xiao Yu felt a little sad. “I understand. In order to help School Senior Feng break away from the cycle of death, Beggar Ding chose to commit suicide. Even though you told him that the barbeque he would be eating later at night was poisoned, he still ate it. He was oblivious the first time he ate the poisoned barbeque. But for the second time, he was fully aware that it was poisoned but he still chose to eat it, which makes it suicide. However, because he was tricked into committing suicide by you… If we have to find the murderer that harmed him, that real murderer is you.”
“Yes. Beggar Ding willingly welcomed his death, and he was no longer under the protection of the ‘Undying Spell’.
“I reckon… the first time he died with remaining grievances, was because he returned to his reverie before he died and realised that he killed you.
“The second time was different; his final discontented death was probably because he didn’t manage to gather up enough money to buy School Senior Feng a guitar in the end, and he had no way of hearing School Senior Feng performing with the guitar.
“No matter what the circ.u.mstances were, he died for the girl he loved. He’s a hero.”
Li Xiao Yu’s eyebrows were about to scrunch together.
She hesitated for a good while, but still asked: “Why are you telling me these?”
“Because you need to earn those gold coins. The gold coins can offset the years. Don’t you need to go back and take your examinations? ACCA, right?”
Gu Liang said faintly, “I hope that you pa.s.s it as soon as possible, and become an outstanding accountant.”
Li Xiao Yu could not help but ask more: “No… you… I… I understand it now, you’re admitting that you’re the murderer because you don’t want to hurt the detective, right? Why aren’t you talking to Yang Ye directly then? And let him announce it to us?”
“Because he wants to help me. He won’t agree to giving me a direct vote.”
Gu Liang murmured, “However, I don’t want him to do that.”
“But how is this different from seeking death?” Li Xiao Yu asked, “You… don’t you want to live?”
“It’s not that. Death is not scary at all. Whereas stepping on another person’s life in such a low and paltry approach, is the scariest and most cowardly thing.”
Gu Liang’s gaze drifted upwards to look at the pitch-black ceiling, “When I was in my twenties, I was quite pure and innocent too, like a heart of a newborn. But later on, as I grew older, I was just dragging out an ign.o.ble existence instead. To walk the earth with a damaged soul, that is not called living, that’s called drifting and existing without a purpose.
“I don’t want to bear another life on my back again. I don’t need someone else to sacrifice their life to save me. For once, I want to be the person who saves someone, just like Beggar Ding.”
Gu Liang laughed as he spoke to this point, “I failed in reality, but in this game, let me be wilful one more time at the very least.”
The tears in Li Xiao’s eyes fell. She did not know if it was because of the character Beggar Ding or because of Gu Liang.
Gu Liang looked at her for a moment before he took some tissues for her. Then, she said: “Don’t worry. I definitely won’t die.”
“Why… Why is that?” Li Xiao Yu was slightly puzzled.
Gu Liang smiled. “Because I’ve prepared some surprises for the men in black.”
Li Xiao Yu: “Huh… Huh??!”
Gu Liang said placidly, “It’s a matter of course. Since we’re challenging the system, some risks need to be taken. I can’t promise that it’ll be a complete success. But this risk is something that I have to take, and I can’t make Yang Ye take the burden.”
Gu Liang patiently waited for Li Xiao Yu to wipe away her tears before he said: “That’s enough. Back at Xiaoyao Sect, you performed pretty well in deceiving Oldest Martial Brother with us prior to the voting segment. Hence, I have great faith in your acting skills. I’ll be troubling you to continue said acting, and help me deceive Yang Ye.”
Li Xiao Yu: “I… How am I supposed to deceive him?”
Gu Liang: “Just tell him, I persuaded you and made you vote for Princ.i.p.al Zha as the murderer.”
* * *
Under Yang Ye’s threats and promises, Li Xiao Yu could only recount everything she had experienced.
When she remembered how Gu Liang said “I have great faith in your acting skills”, Li Xiao Yu felt extremely guilty.
After Yang Ye listened to everything, he was rendered speechless, and he found it hard to describe what he was feeling exactly.
He comprehended everything now.
Yang Ye thought back about it. Not long after the investigation began, Gu Liang had said a lot of harsh words at the backdoor of the coffin shop, and he constantly reiterated the fact that humans were driven by personal profit.
Afterwards, in the cellar, Gu Liang had looked at him with a challenging gaze on purpose and said that he would prove he was not the real murderer.
In the end, he was now telling Li Xiao Yu and Liu Ran that he was the real murderer. However, he was also making the two of them deceive him together, and let him believe that he was standing on the opposite end of Yang Ye, while trying to establish the grounds where he died.
Why was he doing that? He was trying to tell me that he, Gu Liang, was a terrible and selfish person.
He wants me to believe that for the sake of self-preservation, he would disregard my life and death.
By doing all these, I would then lose all hope in him, and give up on trying to help him.
But in actuality, he was telling everyone else, Gu Liang is the real murderer, and they should vote for Gu Liang.
— Was this Gu Liang’s plan?
Yang Ye felt distressed in his heart and it was mingled with some helplessness. Immediately after, some dismay and frustration joined the mix.
At the very end, however, only mounting helplessness remained in his heart.
Li Xiao Yu was extremely helpless too.
She said to Yang Ye: “All in all, what’s happening now is that, he doesn’t want you to die, and you don’t want him to die. Am I summarising this correctly? Are you planning to continue this deception until the end? There’s still four more hours before voting commences. I’m stuck between the both of you, what am I supposed to do?”
Yang Ye reorganised his emotions before he glanced at her. “Continue to act in the manner which Gu Liang directs. Just let him believe that I’ve completely lost hope in him, and made you vote for him. I have great faith in your acting skills.”
Li Xiao Yu: “……”
Yang Ye continued, “But in the end, please don’t vote for him, you have to vote for Princ.i.p.al Zha. Princ.i.p.al Zha is a human sc.u.m and a death row inmate to begin with; that’s the reason why he’s the murderer in the story I’ve spun. Rest a.s.sured, I’ll compensate you for the gold coin you lost in casting the wrong vote.”
Li Xiao: “I’m not concerned about the gold coins. It’s just that I…”
“I’ll be troubling you.”
Yang Ye looked at her earnestly. “He and I will not die. As long as you don’t vote for him, we will all continue to live on properly.”
“I… I’ll try my best.” Li Xiao Yu said.
Yang Ye nodded: “Okay. You can go out now. After that… help me call Gu Liang into the room.”
* * *
Five minutes later.
Gu Liang entered the one-on-one interrogation room.
The first sight that greeted Gu Liang was Yang Ye having his head lowered and writing something into his notebook.
His eyebrows were furrowed together slightly, and he appeared a little fatigued.
His lips were slightly chapped, making it quite evident that he had been constantly talking.
Gu Liang’s footsteps paused before he turned towards the water dispenser to pour some water into a disposable cup.
Afterwards, Gu Liang walked to the front of Yang Ye, placed down the cup and pushed it towards him before he seated himself opposite of him. He opened his mouth to ask: “How did the discussion go?”
Yang Ye put down his pen and lifted his head to give him a look. He lifted the cup he brought over, raised his head and drank a few gulps. “Thanks. I was quite thirsty.”
Nodding his head slightly, Gu Liang placed both his hands on the back of the chair, fingers pinching the aluminium grip as he remained completely silent.
Meanwhile, Yang Ye raised his head again to finish the rest of the water before he threw the cup into the dustbin at the side. He said: “I’ve been talking to them consecutively for an hour, I’m a little tired. Why don’t we go to the resting lounge to talk? There’s beer there and I want to drink some. Either way, we don’t need to be too formal and restrained when it’s just between the two of us.”
Gu Liang stiffened momentarily before he nodded his head and asked: “Should we go to your resting lounge or mine?”
It was unknown what Yang Ye was thinking but the corner of his lips curved. “Let’s go to mine.”
“Mn.” Gu Liang did not object as he stood up and walked out.
Yang Ye studied his back figure for a second before he followed him out.
After a brief interlude, inside the detective’s resting lounge.
Yang Ye pulled open a can and pushed it towards Yang. “Not drinking any beer?”
“Not drinking,” said Gu Liang.
“This black beer tastes quite good.”
Yang Ye drank a mouthful of beer that had a rich malt flavour and a tang of bitterness. He peered at Gu Liang’s empty hands, “You didn’t even bring your pen and notebook?”
Unperturbed, Gu Liang stated: “Is there even a need for me to a.n.a.lyse anything?”
“When we were in the cellar, didn’t you declare that you were going to persuade everyone not to vote for you? What tactics have you employed? When you were outside, what did you say to the others?” Yang Ye asked.
“Naturally, I pushed the matter to someone else. The actor of Princ.i.p.al Zha happens to be a human sc.u.m, no? So I chose to smear it on him.”
Sure. Gu Liang was starting to perform.
Although Yang Ye was extremely angry, he maintained the smile on his face.
“Is that so? How did you smear Princ.i.p.al Zha?”
“I said that the cycle of death can only be broken by killing two people. The deceased is Beggar Ding. His first poisoning was done by BBQ Li. But the perpetrator of his second poisoning was Princ.i.p.al Zha.
“Didn’t Li Xiao Yu just meet you? She should have told you about my deductions. She will pick Princ.i.p.al Zha.
“Xun Feng needs no persuasion, he won’t vote for me.
“As for Liu Ran, I will persuade him to vote for Princ.i.p.al Zha as well.”
Gu Liang opened a bottle of c.o.ke and took a small sip, causing his throat knot to move slightly.
After he put down his c.o.ke, he looked at Yang Ye, saying: “Yang Ye, you’ve lost. I’ve already said this before, you might treat the other person as a comrade, but the other person might not necessarily return the same sentiments.”
“Is that so…” Yang Ye picked up his beer to drink it again, feeling utterly sorrowful and angry at the same time.
It had basically reached the point where he genuinely wanted to teach Gu Liang a proper lesson right now.
He wanted to shatter his indifference and estrangement, and wanted to break the thick and heavy layer he put between himself and others in a terrible way, because it acted like an enclosure wall that blocked out all the good intentions that everyone else had for him.
Yang Ye swallowed the beer after a short beat, like he was using it as pretext to choke down all the irritation he felt.
Only by doing this, could he continue to act this show out. Using the calmest tone he could manage, he said: “I wouldn’t be absolutely certain. I found a gap.”
“Is that so. Where’s the gap in the story I spun?” Gu Liang asked.
Yang Ye asked: “Although it’s true that Princ.i.p.al Zha has an understanding of the poison One Dream, how did he know that Beggar Ding died from that particular poison? How did you manage to persuade them for this point?”
Gu Liang thought about it and said: “All the other corpses were either hidden in a sandpit, coffin shop or backyard. Only Beggar Ding’s corpse was placed inside the small alleyway. Therefore, Princ.i.p.al Zha could have seen his corpse.
“After he and School Senior Feng hid the corpse last night, they walked back to the residential building together and returned back to the respective homes. Later, School Senior Feng went out to go to the coffin shop. Princ.i.p.al Zha could have left his house again too. At that time, he walked past the small alley, and he could have gone in and identified Beggar Ding’s corpse.
“The time should be around 9:30 too. Then, he took a few steps forward, and saw BBQ Li giving Beggar Ding food in an act of charity. Hence, he b.u.mped into two Beggar Dings, one alive and the other dead. In that moment, not only would he realise that a cycle of death was at work, he would even become aware of how BBQ Li had surpa.s.sed them in his act of poisoning Beggar Ding.”
“No one can testify to what you just said. What would be his motivation to go out the second time around?” Yang Ye asked.
Gu Liang: “If School Senior Feng went out to keep vigil of the coffin shop, why wouldn’t he keep vigil as well? It’s just that he discovered the incident with Beggar Ding, so he was delayed. Moreover, on the opposite side of the same coin, no one can testify that he didn’t go out again. School Senior Feng was hiding near the backdoor of the coffin shop then; even if Princ.i.p.al Zha were to stroll the streets outside, it would be impossible for School Senior Feng to encounter him.”
Yes. Excellent.
Yang Ye mused in his heart, when he and Xun Feng were confronted with this problem, the excuse they fabricated was that— when BBQ Li went over to threaten Princ.i.p.al Zha, he accidentally let the words slip and said that he poisoned Beggar Ding.
But as the current instance would evince, Gu Liang’s reason was more logical.
Yang Ye recorded it down in his notebook speedily.
It would save him some trouble if Liu Ran were to ask that question when he was cheating him into thinking that Princ.i.p.al Zha was the murderer.
Gu Liang would most certainly tell Liu Ran that he was the murderer.
But Yang Ye was confident that he could seize the initiative and make Liu Ran believe that Princ.i.p.al Zha was the murderer.
Appearance-wise, Yang Ye pretended to be severe and undemonstrative. “I have no choice but to admit that you’re very good at finding reasons. I’m at a loss on how to refute it.”
“Mn. Are there any other gaps?”
Yang Ye said: “Princ.i.p.al Zha killed two people to break the closed loop. And he killed two people, who are BBQ Li and Beggar Ding respectively. Why is the deceased Beggar Ding and not BBQ Li?”
Gu Liang replied: “Simple, Beggar Ding died after BBQ Li. Therefore, as the ‘second’ person that Princ.i.p.al Zha killed, he will consequently become the person who shatters the closed loop.”
Yang Ye shook his head. “In the first death cycle, Beggar Ding was poisoned at 9:30. If he were to die by Princ.i.p.al Zha’s hands in the second cycle instead of BBQ Li, then the time of his poisoning must be earlier than 10:30. Since that’s the case, Beggar Ding is bound to die before 10:30. Whereas BBQ Li fainted at 10 o’ clock, and is possible for the gas to kill him within 30 minutes? Logically speaking, it shouldn’t be that fast. He should have died after Beggar Ding.”
Gu Liang: “That’s not necessarily true. The density of the gas is not something we can judge. Furthermore, there were sleeping drugs added to BBQ Li’s alcohol, and the medicine could have sped up the reaction.”
Yang Ye’s expression became heavy. “Tch, it seems like… the story you spun is absurdly comprehensive. Everyone will be fooled by you.”
Faintly, Gu Liang said: “Apologies.”
Raising an eyebrow, Yang Ye stared at Gu Liang: “There’s still four more hours. Now that I’ve heard your argument, I ought to seize every minute and second to look for its fatal flaws.”
“That’s true.” Gu Liang nodded, “I’ve already said it, my complete honesty doesn’t mean that I want to lose or that I’m seeking death. I can still win even if I show my trump card. After all, they didn’t personally see the trump card themselves, which allows me a redeeming leeway.”
Yang Ye lowered his head, letting out a deep sigh as some dejectedness spread across his face. “I never thought that we would walk to this step.”
Quietly, Gu Liang replied, “This day was bound to arrive sooner or later.”
As Yang Ye continued to act against Gu Liang, that sentence goaded him into smiling angrily in the end.
In order to cover up his state of mind, he raised his beer to take a few large gulps, and borrowed his tipsy state to gaze at Gu Liang deeply. “Therefore, this might be the last four hours of our relations. Other than the case, do you have anything… You’d like to say to me?”
Gu Liang: “If you die, and I manage to survive and escape the game by some fluke to return back to normal life, I will burn some paper money for you. Vice versa, if you win, burn me some paper money.”
Inexplicably, the beer inside Yang Ye’s mouth became bitter and astringent to the taste.
However, he was still regarding Gu Liang with a smile as he ridiculed: “You’re quite superst.i.tious.”
Gu Liang said: “I’m alright. Actions like burning paper money is merely a thoughtful wish. Of course, that’s based on the premise that you’re still willing to burn some for me. When all is said and done after this…”
Gu Liang thought inwardly— After all, when this matter concludes, I would be reduced into an enemy who wants to hurt you in your mind, and perhaps we may never become friends again.
Although Gu Liang did not verbalise those words, Yang Ye heard them loud and clear.
Hence, the suffocation in Yang Ye’s heart became more extreme— Gu Liang really doesn’t trust me in the slightest.
Even if it had nothing to do with love, did he really believe that he, as the detective, would care about nothing, and personally send him to death with his own hands?
“Enough of this. Time is tight; both of us have our own fights.” Gu Liang picked up his c.o.ke, stood up and left.
* * *
In the centralised discussion room.
Liu Ran sat there with a frown, and his expression seemed wrought with apprehensions.
Currently, Xun Feng and Li Xiao Yu seemed to be discussing something so they went to a resting lounge together.
As for Gu Liang, he just exited Yang Ye’s resting lounge, and he was heading for his resting lounge next.
Liu Ran thought about it briefly before he stood up, deciding to find Yang Ye for a talk.
At this moment, he heard some noise coming from the seat near him.
He slanted his head to take a look. The noise was being made by the trussed up Princ.i.p.al Zha.
Since Princ.i.p.al Zha’s mouth was being stuffed with something, he could not speak.
Both his hands were tied behind the back of the chair.
But his fingers could still move.
At this moment, Liu Ran saw Princ.i.p.al Zha sign him a number— “2”.
T/N: Yang Ye and Gu Liang are a mess :’))