Chapter 96
(The Confusing Truth)
Half an hour later.
As expected, they managed to dig out a few things from the soil, like the previous correspondences between Waitress Jing and Vagrant Qian.
But the content expressed in those letters conformed with Waitress Jing’s previous account completely, and it did yield any new leads.
Hence, when they ended up with little to no gains after overturning the soil, Li Xiao Yu started rummaging through the garbage bins in the courtyard helplessly.
Surprisingly, Li Xiao Yu made a discovery. “Hey! There’s something!”
Just as her voice landed, Li Xiao Yu picked out the bottle. It wrote on top: “Strong Sleeping Potion, soluble in water, soluble in alcohol, just a little is required, once a small mouthful is consumed, immediate loss of consciousness occurs.”
Upon seeing that, Yang Ye said: “I searched the garbage bins at the very start. It wasn’t there when I was rifling through them, it’s highly likely that the murderer just discarded it during the investigation segment. The drug bottle was probably hidden on their person just now.”
Gu Liang pondered briefly before he opened his mouth to say: “This potion actually offers a better explanation for how Vagrant Qian died. Previously, we were under the a.s.sumption that he drank, blacked out, and was subsequently killed. But if he had a plan to kill, it’s true that he wouldn’t drink that much alcohol. Now that there’s the possibility of a sleeping drug, the doubts surrounding this small detail finally has an explanation.
“Hence, even though we found this drug bottle, our deductions still remain unchanged— someone Vagrant Qian trusted gave him the wine. Since he was only drinking one mouthful, he didn’t think he would get drunk, so he drank it. However, he didn’t expect that it would be spiked with sleeping drugs, and thus he fell asleep.”
Li Xiao Yu could not help but ask: “Someone he trusted? Wouldn’t it be his disciples then?”
After posing that question, Li Xiao Yu’s gaze s.h.i.+fted towards Recluse w.a.n.g’s person unconsciously.
Recluse w.a.n.g was still overturning the soil, and when she sensed Li Xiao Yu’s gaze, her hand movements ceased. She said: “It wasn’t me. I was completely unaware of the fact that my s.h.i.+fu was here too. I didn’t know he wanted to kill Proprietress Ling as well.”
Gu Liang asked Recluse w.a.n.g: “After so many years, were you ever in contact with your s.h.i.+fu?”
Recluse w.a.n.g shook her head. “s.h.i.+fu wanted me to live my own life properly. He said: Xiao Dou’s revenge, just hand it over to me. My life is still long, I shouldn’t waste my entire life on seeking revenge.”
After hearing Recluse w.a.n.g utter those words, Gu Liang and Yang Ye shared a look.
Yang Ye nodded at Gu Liang. Gu Liang looked towards Recluse w.a.n.g and Gu Liang, “Can we have a private conversation?”
Li Xiao Yu sidled up to Gu Liang. “I want to listen too.”
Gu Liang thought about it before he instructed her: “Help me stare at the others. It’s possible that someone might throw something inside the garbage bin again.”
Li Xiao Yu made an “OK” gesture. Consequently, Gu Liang and Yang Ye brought Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia to the third floor of the inn. However, this time around, they went to the room that Recluse w.a.n.g was staying in, namely 304.
Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia sat shoulder-to-shoulder, while Yang Ye and Gu Liang sat opposite of them with similar postures.
Like opening the door to see the mountain, Gu Liang asked Girlfriend Jia: “Today at approximately 2 o’ clock, why did you go into Recluse w.a.n.g’s room?”
Girlfriend Jia exchanged glances with Recluse w.a.n.g subconsciously, not uttering a word.
Gu Liang continued to ask: “Is it because you b.u.mped into Proprietress Ling who had been stabbed with a knife, and decided to take advantage of her injury to do something? It’s not possible that both of you didn’t make a move, what was your plan?”
After Gu Liang posed that query, the room still remained silent.
Yang Ye spoke out: “If you don’t explain yourselves properly, your suspicions will be incredibly heavy. We have reason to suspect that Recluse w.a.n.g used the Incense Absorbing Amulet to go to the opposite bank, kill Vagrant Qian, and then kill Proprietress Ling. Girlfriend Jia, on the other hand, brought Proprietress Ling towards the window, and allowed her to be shot to death.”
Recluse w.a.n.g interrupted Yang Ye: “That’s not right. I don’t have any reason to kill my s.h.i.+fu.”
Gu Liang peered at her, asking, “Something might have happened last night, which made you decide to murder your s.h.i.+fu. The Index of Hundred Ghosts states that there are times where a resentful ghost fails to recognise their own family. As of right now, what is extremely disadvantageous for you is the fact that, even if you continue to deny it, you share a common timeline with Girlfriend Jia from beginning to end. If both of you are the murderers, it goes without saying that you can cover up for each other. Therefore, we have no way of believing either of you, unless you choose to explain your story in full.”
Recluse w.a.n.g furrowed her eyebrows. “Nothing happened yesterday, I only asked Girlfriend Jia to help me kill Proprietress Ling. It was only during the investigation segment today that I learnt of the fact that my s.h.i.+fu was here at the inn too.”
When Girlfriend Jia listened to this point, she could resist asking Gu Liang: “Who saw me entering Recluse w.a.n.g’s room this afternoon?”
Gu Liang replied: “Chef Huang. He was the first to speak about his timeline. Whereas both of you only chose to talk about your timelines after I expressed the hefty suspicions I harboured towards the both of you. For the same reason, even if you were to bring up another method you used to kill Proprietress Ling, I’ll speak honestly, I will still doubt you all the same.
“But I still hopek2014; perhaps you can persuade me that you are indeed not the murderers.”
Girlfriend Jia looked at Recluse w.a.n.g before she murmured something close to her ear.
Recluse w.a.n.g hesitated for a long time before she finally nodded her head.
Girlfriend Jia proceeded to say: “Recluse w.a.n.g and I were essentially together ever since the start of last night. Around 1:30 in the afternoon, we heard an extremely loud noise coming from the wooden staircase. We cracked open the door slightly and peeked out, and we saw Zhao Meili running upstairs, looking rather fl.u.s.tered. The loud thuds on the wooden staircase was made by her.
“Soon after, both of us saw an injured Proprietress Ling walking up too. Proprietress Ling wanted to go back to her room but she was stopped by us. We declared that we knew her ident.i.ty and we had questions to ask her.
“Proprietress Ling agreed, and we went to Recluse w.a.n.g’s room. Right—”
Having spoken to this point, Girlfriend Jia glanced at Recluse w.a.n.g and said: “That amulet of yours, you should explain it.”
Recluse w.a.n.g took over and said: “If you’ve searched my luggage, you probably saw that there are a lot of array and amulet books inside, because I’ve been researching on how to exorcise a powerful ghost for the past 18 years. Didn’t I die a month ago? Prior to my death, I used my own blood to draw a talisman, and I cultivated that talisman for a year. Once Proprietress Ling entered my room, I pasted that talisman on her face.”
Once Gu Liang heard that, he went to the corridor outside the room, retrieved a few books, and handed them to Recluse w.a.n.g. “Which talisman specifically?”
Recluse w.a.n.g picked up one of the books, flipped to the page, and pointed towards it with her finger. “This one.”
Gu Liang looked at the page, and only saw that it wrote: “[A Very Powerful Ghost-Killing Blood Talisman], capable of killing ghosts who have cultivated for hundreds of years, but it requires the user to use their blood to cultivate the talisman. Since the talisman requires heart blood for the cultivation, it demands a lot from the user, please use with the utmost caution.
“Instructions: Paste the talisman on the ghost’s face, use fire to burn the talisman paper, allowing the karmic fire to burn the ghost.
“Take note, the blood talisman cannot kill the ghost immediately, in the instant where the talisman paper burns, only a fire is planted inside the ghost’s heart. After 3 hours, the heart fire will turn into karmic fire, working outwards, until the ghost is immolated to death.”
Gu Liang could not help but frown: “Therefore, this blood talisman was already burnt away when you tried to get rid of Proprietress Ling. This means that this piece of evidence no longer exists, and you have no way of proving that you used this talisman.”
Recluse w.a.n.g said: “Certainly, I have no way of proving it. But I really didn’t know that my s.h.i.+fu was on the opposite bank of the lake, nor was I aware that he had a plan to deal with Proprietress Ling. I only prepared the blood talisman to deal with Proprietress Ling.”
After a moment of contemplation, Gu Liang looked sideways towards Girlfriend Jia. “What were you doing when you appeared at Recluse w.a.n.g’s room door?”
“Because Recluse w.a.n.g’s blood talisman was not completely fool-proof. She only heard that it was a method to get rid of ghosts, but she never tested it herself. We wanted to lock Proprietress Ling in her room for 3 hours and wait for it to take effect.
“During this period of time, I went back to Room 303 that I was sharing with Tourist Jia to retrieve my peach wooden sword to prevent Proprietress Ling from running. And around 2 o’ clock, I went back to Tourist Jia’s room to knock on the door, but to my surprise, he wasn’t back yet. I couldn’t find the spare keys that Proprietress Ling stashed so I could only return to Recluse w.a.n.g’s room.
“When Chef Huang said he saw me going into Recluse w.a.n.g’s room, it probably happened after I knocked on Tourist Jia’s room door but to no effect, and he saw me returning to Recluse w.a.n.g’s room.”
Yang Ye could not help voicing a question then, “Therefore, after breakfast, you basically didn’t see Tourist Jia for the entire day, and you never went back to his room either?”
Girlfriend Jia said: “I didn’t. Proprietress Ling only gave us one key, and that key was with Tourist Jia the entire time. Last night, didn’t Proprietress Ling want to meet him alone? I was staying with Recluse w.a.n.g last night, all of you know this. After breakfast, Tourist Jia was going to hike the mountain and he locked the door before he left. I was completely locked out of the room the entire time.”
Having thought of something, Gu Liang asked Yang Ye: “Didn’t you push Tourist Jia off the mountain? Is it possible that he actually died and he turned into a ghost? It’s just that we don’t know how he learned of Vagrant Qian’s existence, and of Vagrant Qian’s plans.”
Before Yang Ye could answer, Girlfriend Jia spoke first: “That isn’t really possible. As a Taoist pract.i.tioner, I’m capable of distinguis.h.i.+ng who are humans, and who are ghosts. In my story, Tourist Jia was human from start to end. What about you, Recluse w.a.n.g? Are ghosts capable of distinguis.h.i.+ng their kind? Is Tourist Jia a ghost?”
“He’s not.” Recluse w.a.n.g said in a resolute tone. “Once I saw Proprietress Ling, Waitress Jing, and Chef Huang, all of us knew that the other party was a ghost. But my story never mentioned that I realised that Tourist Jia was a ghost as well.”
That’s awfully strange.
Tourist Jia was not a ghost, and realistically speaking, the possibility of him knowing Vagrant Qian’s plan was not high, which correspondingly meant that the possibility of him going to the opposite bank of the lake to commit the crime was very small. However, his character was way too soy sauce; this was not normal in the least.
Unable to conjure any new brain holes for the time being, Gu Liang could only continue to question Recluse w.a.n.g: “What happened afterwards? Can you talk about Girlfriend Jia and your timeline in detail?”
“At 1:40 in the afternoon, I used the blood talisman on Proprietress Ling, which made her feel absolutely awful so she didn’t do anything temporarily. At around 2 o’ clock, Girlfriend Jia did go out once because she wanted to retrieve her peach wood sword, but she returned empty-handed. Both of us could use our powers to trap Proprietress Ling.”
“Despite everything, Proprietress Ling’s powers were way too strong. After another 20 minutes, which was around 2:20, she escaped the bindings we casted on her when we relaxed our vigilance, and she jumped out of the window to run.”
Gu Liang recorded down their timelines, saying: “Therefore, if your blood talisman took effect, a karmic fire will burn her from inside out 3 hours later. You used the blood talisman at 1:40, which means that Proprietress Ling should be burned to death by the ghost fire at 4:40. If the karmic fire burned her to death, what kind of symptoms would she show?”
Recluse w.a.n.g went silent for a long moment before she replied: “You’ve touched on a vital question. We don’t know what kind of traces the karmic fire will leave behind. This is the reason why Girlfriend Jia and I didn’t dare to confess.”
Taking a figurative step back, Recluse w.a.n.g explained: “School Senior Hua, you’ve already seen this clue, it doesn’t state if there will be any marks left on her body if she was burnt to death by the karmic fire, nor does it say if she will become scattered ashes and dispersed smoke instantaneously….
“This is the reason why Girlfriend Jia and I didn’t dare to confess prior to this. This blood talisman that enables ghost killing is a secret method that I managed to find, but I wasn’t certain if it could kill a ghost, or what kind of state the ghost would be in post-mortem to the karmic fire.”
Half a beat later, Gu Liang nodded his head. “I understand now. If the karmic fire was capable of leaving marks after burning the ghost, both of you wouldn’t have hesitated to fess up. For example, since Proprietress Ling didn’t have any burn marks on her body, you could definitively say that she was shot by the peach wood bullet before 4:40, which means that she died by the peach wood bullet, not the karmic fire.
“But because you weren’t clear about the state of death that the karmic fire would leave the ghost in, you couldn’t, and you didn’t dare to ascertain if she died by the karmic fire first and the bullet came later, or if it was the reverse, or if it was something else altogether.”
“Yes, that’s how it is. If you are certain that the bullet came from the opposite bank of the lake, then I have the courage to fess up too. Because it isn’t possible for her to stand in front of the window again to get shot by the bullet after she died from the karmic fire. She has no way of doing so, and the murderer trying to kill her with the bullet doesn’t have to do that either. If she’s already dead, what’s the point of shooting her again?”
Recluse w.a.n.g stated, “But now that the investigation hasn’t reached the final juncture, we can’t conclusively say how she got shot, which is why Girlfriend Jia and I didn’t dare to admit to our actions.
“You and President Gao also reminded me that even if I gave my account, it’s still possible that you’ll believe that everything I said was simply conceived by Girlfriend Jia and me. After all, our timelines are essentially shared. During the centralised discussion, we could become the main suspects. After this, I will properly search for clues with Girlfriend Jia, and find a way to clear up our suspicions.”
Seeing that Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia were getting up to leave, Gu Liang called them to a stop. “Hold on. I still have a few more questions. From your explanation, both of you only decided to use the blood talisman to deal with Proprietress Ling in the afternoon, which also means that you devised the plan at the last moment after you saw her stab wound. What was your original plan? Both of your luggage had 5 ‘Incense Absorbing Amulets’, what were you originally planning to do with them?”
Recluse w.a.n.g replied, “I prepared them for my own use. Proprietress Ling told me that when there was a chance later, she would talk to me. I was planning to meet her tonight. After I killed her, I would use the Incense Absorbing Amulet, and leave this place while everyone was none the wiser.
“Before I arrived here, my plan was not completely formulated, but I had to prepare the Incense Absorbing Amulet either way. After all, I didn’t know any of you when I just arrived, and I didn’t know if you were a friend or foe. I prepared the Incense Absorbing Amulets for myself in case I had to run.”
Girlfriend Jia said: “I only brought it around in case of a possible period of want or need. There are numerous objects that are related to ghosts in my luggage, and besides the Incense Absorbing Amulet, there are all sorts of talismans. I brought them along out of habit. Before I arrived here, I didn’t have a plan. I only came here to help Tourist Jia conduct an investigation.”
Gu Liang posed another question: “Did both of you only have 5 Incense Absorbing Amulets initially? Are you missing any, is there a possibility that it was stolen off you?”
Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia shook their heads.
Gu Liang asked: “Therefore, the Incense Absorbing Amulet that we found in the courtyard, you don’t know who it belongs to either?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” Recluse w.a.n.g shook her head. “But since Chef Huang and Waitress Jing knew about the rhinoceros horn incense, and they are quite long-lived for ghosts, it’s not possible that they’re unaware of the Incense Absorbing Amulet.”
From the side, Yang Ye voiced his query: “How do you use the amulet?”
Recluse w.a.n.g: “You burn it too.”
Yang Ye heaved out a sigh, steepling his fingers and placing his hands on the table before he looked at Gu Liang: “Which means to say that the amulet paper has become ash and mixed with the mud, and it would be incredibly difficult for us to find that many clues in reality.”
Gu Liang became slightly strict as well. “Even if we found some remaining bits of ash, it’s highly likely that it will be in a public s.p.a.ce like the courtyard, we would be hard-pressed to find specific leads.”
* * *
The time crawled to 11:30 at night.
They were still inside Recluse w.a.n.g’s room.
Gu Liang sat opposite of Yang Ye.
Gu Liang was looking through the checklist that he and Yang Ye previously made, regarding the ordered choices of combination for “Murderer A” and “Murderer B”.
A moment later, Yang Ye asked him: “What are you thinking about right now?”
Gu Liang raised his eyes from the notebook, saying: “I can only maintain that Murderer B can only be either of the three ghosts. I’ve already given the clear and explicit a.n.a.lysis to Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia. The suspicions on both of them are exceedingly heavy. If they truly are murderers, they can actually bite down on the fact that Tourist Jia has already become a ghost after falling off the mountain precipice. But they didn’t.”
Yang Ye went silent momentarily before he uttered: “Where Proprietress Ling went this morning, no one knows for certain. This is incredibly strange.”
Frowning, Gu Liang murmured, “It’s quite unlikely that she went to the opposite bank of the lake to kill the vagrant. That’s not possible. If she went, she could have done away with the bullets in the vagrant’s thatched hunt. That way, she wouldn’t be shot to death.”
Yang Ye contemplated briefly before his eyes lit up slightly. “Is it possible that she killed the vagrant like you said, and then brought back the bullets and guns and placed it in her own room, wanting to deal with it later? Afterwards, someone went to her room and saw the gun and bullets, shot her to death from the forest, and then brought the weapon to the thatched hut on the opposite bank, recreated the scene again, to pretend that the gun was shot from the opposite bank?”
“If that’s the case, then everything can be made sense of.”
Gu Liang’s eyebrows scrunched together, “But this would overturn all the deductions we previously made.”
“Just now Recluse w.a.n.g said that Proprietress Ling jumped out of her room window at 2:20 in the afternoon.
“Consequently, one of the possibilities is that when Girlfriend Jia went to retrieve her peach wood sword at 2 but failed to enter Tourist Jia’s room, she went to Proprietress Ling’s room instead, and saw the gun that Proprietress Ling hid, then she took the gun and returned to Recluse w.a.n.g’s room.
“At 2:20, after Proprietress Ling jumped out of the window, Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend Jia chased after her with the gun, and they ran through the forest and eventually shot her to death. Girlfriend Jia returned to the inn afterwards, while Recluse w.a.n.g used an Incense Absorbing Amulet to look for a place to hide a gun, to which she discovered a thatched hut on the opposite bank of the lake, and she planted the gun there…
“The second possibility is that after Waitress Jing found the deceased vagrant when she went to the opposite bank of the lake, she went back to the inn and found the gun in Proprietress Ling’s room. She started to pursue Proprietress Ling, proceeded to find a heavily injured Proprietress Ling in the forest, and shot her to death.
“The third possibility is Chef Huang.
“In actuality, if it was the latter two options, then the pair of murderers doesn’t exist. From beginning to end, it’s possible that there’s only one murderer.”
Gu Liang released a long exhale, “But that would also mean that we can’t rule out a single person.”
For instance, when they ruled out Waitress Jing as Murderer B, they were ruling out the possibility of her killing Vagrant Qian.
But if Proprietress Ling were to kill the vagrant, Waitress Jing toting the gun and shooting Proprietress Ling to death at close distance in the forest, would be completely within the realm of possibility.
“That’s not right, let me rectify that. This possibility is nearly negligible. I nearly forgot the fact that the strong sleeping potion was found by Li Xiao Yu just now. When I rummaged through the garbage bins shortly after my return, the drug bottle for the strong sleeping potion wasn’t in there.
“This indicates that the murderer only threw the empty drug bottle inside the garbage bin during the investigation segment, and the strong sleeping potion was definitely used to spike the alcohol that was meant for Vagrant Qian. Since that’s the case, the person who killed Vagrant Qian can’t be Proprietress Ling, which means that his murderer is among us.”
Yang Ye stated, “There’s nothing wrong with the previous a.n.a.lysis we made, the murderers are in the permutations of A and B.
“That being said, the key problems we presently have at hand are: one, where did Proprietress Ling go in the morning; two, is Tourist really that soy sauce. Three…”
Gu Liang took out his card and stared at the red circle on the map.
This red circle surrounded the inn, thereby representing the area that they were allowed to explore, whereas everything in the outer perimeter were shrouded by a thick fog.
Having thought of something, Yang Ye took out a reward card.
Gu Liang glanced at the card, only to realise that it was called [Reopen the Exploration Area Card].
Instructions: Players can use this card to reopen the exploration areas that have already been sealed, like the scene of the crime for instance.
Yang Ye gazed at Gu Liang: “Do you want to go to other places to have a look?”
Gu Liang asked him: “The place you climbed to during the day, how far is it?”
Yang Ye said: “If you want to climb to the peak of the mountain, a one-way route takes an hour.”
Gu Liang: “Did you push Tourist Jia off from the mountain peak?”
Yang Ye nodded.
Gu Liang pondered for some time: “It means that a two-way trip would take two hours. We’re in a rush for time, and it’s not absolutely certain that we’ll discover anything. Recluse w.a.n.g and Girlfriend went to Beilin. I can’t imagine what kind of clues that these two places will leave behind. And even if there were clues, those areas are too huge, the probability of finding crucial clues are small at best.
“Yang Ye, just in the inn alone, there must be some kind of place that we neglected.”
* * *
12 Midnight.
A thin fragrance of food wafted out from the kitchen.
Gu Liang walked into the kitchen and discovered Ming Yue cooking.
Upon slanting his head back, Ming Yue saw Gu Liang stepping in, and he gave him a smile. “Brother Liang, do you know who the murderers are?”
Gu Liang only asked: “You’re cooking?”
Ming Yue nodded: “Mn. The time for investigation is very long this time around. Before the centralised discussion begins, the system has arranged some time for supper. I’m in-charge of the preparation. Is there anything you would like to eat specifically?”
Gu Liang was not in the mood for supper. He only asked: “You saw Girlfriend Jia going into Recluse w.a.n.g at 2 in the afternoon. What was the situation like exactly, could you describe it in detail? For example, was Girlfriend Jia holding something in her hands? Like a peach wood sword perhaps?”
Ming Yue paused as he was holding the soup ladle. Subsequently, he scooped out a little spoonful to put it inside the big metal wok before he shook his head again. He said: “I’m not sure. I only saw her back figure entering Recluse w.a.n.g’s room, she was gone in a flash. Consequently, I wouldn’t know if she went to her own room to take something, before she went to Recluse w.a.n.g’s room.”