Live Action Murder Mystery Chapter 35

Chapter 35

(Are you the murderer this time around?)
The rosy clouds from the early morn were thousands of miles away, for black clouds had suddenly arrived and the weather became moist and stiflingly hot.
One corpse after another, an unstoppable massacre, and now adding the depressing atmosphere…
Everything seemed to become even heavier.
Yang Ye glanced at the skies before he looked towards Gu Liang.
Gu Liang was leaning against the staircase railing with tightly knitted eyebrows and he appeared to be quite dismal.
Wanting to make him relax a little, Yang Ye no longer had the desire to discuss the case. Thus, he brought up the fact that he had food prepared and they should break for lunch before it became cold.
Upon hearing that there was food to eat, Li Xiao Yu’s eyes brightened instantaneously. Raising her hand, she exclaimed: “I want to go too! Did Yang Ye, the great chef god make it?”
Yang Ye gave her a gaze that was criticising her for ‘her lack of tact’, but he still brought her along in the end.
A short while later, inside the next-door Old Wang’s shroud shop.
As Yang Ye was carrying the dishes to the table, Gu Liang volunteered his services by going to the kitchen to dish out the rice.
Yang Ye poured himself a small glass of beer and then gave Li Xiao Yu a look. “Are you drinking water?”
“That’s fine by me.” Noticing Yang Ye’s displeased expression, Li Xiao Yu peered in the direction of the kitchen before she leaned closer to Yang Ye. She whispered, “I’m not here to become a lightbulb, I’m here to provide support.”
Yang Ye retorted back, “Provide what support? Your eyes are already green from staring at the pork cutlets; you’re obviously here to freeload a meal.”
Li Xiao Yu: “Hei hei…”
Yang Ye: “You’re not allowed to eat the breaded pork cutlets, all of it belongs to Gu Liang.”
Li Xiao Yu: “……”
* * *
In the middle of their meal, Yang Ye thought of something and asked Gu Liang: “Since Li Xiao Yu will be acting against Neighbour Liu again tonight, you might die a second time tonight. Have you received any new details? For example, who you’ll be meeting tonight? If you need to meet someone, they might be the murderer who wants to kill you.”
“No. I haven’t received anything for the time being.”
Just as Gu Liang finished speaking, his card vibrated.
Yang Ye put his chopsticks down immediately to look at Gu Liang, nervousness evident in his expression.
In contrast to Yang Ye’s nervousness, the person himself, Gu Liang, was akin to dull clouds and light winds throughout the entire process.
With a tasteless expression that was lacking in all emotions, he read the entire plot before he kept his card away silently.
Yang Ye kept waiting; waited for Gu Liang to finish reading his plot, waited for him to speak of his plot and discuss it with him.
Contrary to his expectations, however, after Gu Liang kept his card, he held his chopsticks again to pick up a piece of breaded pork cutlet, and continued to eat in a tepid manner— slowly, he ate the glutinous and soft outer shell first and proceeded to nibble on the meat.
Judging from his appearance, it was apparent that he did not have the slightest intention to speak about his plot on his own accord.
Patiently, Yang Ye waited for him to swallow his piece of breaded pork cutlet at an unhurried pace before he knocked his index finger on the table. “What does it say?”
Gu Liang returned a question, puzzled. “What are you referring to?”
Yang Ye replied, “Your plot at night, of course. What was it about, who’s going to kill you?”
Gu Liang paused before he answered: “I still don’t know. I didn’t receive the plot that concerns my leaving at 8:20 tonight. I received something else.”
His two consecutive replies were clearly expressing one fact— whatever his newly received plotline was, he had no intention to talk about it.
Did he not trust me, or are there difficulties that he’s unwilling to discuss?
Yang Ye’s eyes narrowed instantly.
His eyes were long and narrow to begin with, and his brows were also sharp in shape; whenever he narrowed them like this instance, it could cause quite a scare.
Hence, Yang Ye’s sudden ice-cold severity brought the surrounding atmosphere to a freezing point.
At the side, Li Xiao Yi was evidently affected by the strange atmosphere. She blinked her eyes, looking between Yang Ye and Gu Liang alternatively before she conveyed the words Yang Ye wanted to ask. “What was the plot you received exactly? Could it be that you can’t tell us?”
Gu Liang eyed Li Xiao Yu briefly, before he finally met Yang Ye’s gaze calmly.
“There’s some things I’m not certain of. I’ll tell the both of you once I’ve confirmed them.”
Yang Ye snagged onto the three words “both of you” keenly, and thought— Gu Liang had previously expressed that he trusted me. Therefore, he’s currently having some misgivings because he’s distrustful of Li Xiao Yu, right? I’ll ask him in private later.
Settling his suspended heart, Yang Ye picked up his chopsticks once more. “Sure, let’s eat, let’s eat.”
The surrounding air began moving again.
Gu Liang clipped up another pork cutlet while Li Xiao Yu gazed at the pair with a subdued countenance, only to lower her head and eat quietly in the end.
Once they were done, Gu Liang took the initiative to wash the dishes and clean up as per usual.
Yang Ye looked at Gu Liang who was busying around in the kitchen before he shifted his gaze towards Li Xiao Yu who was piled on the sofa. “Other people are aware that if they didn’t cook, they should go and wash the dishes, what are you lazing there for? Aren’t you going to offer your help?”
“I should,” Li Xiao Yu said, wearing an expression that viewed all things as floating clouds after she had eaten her fill. “Which is why it’s very normal for me to not have a boyfriend.”
Yang Ye: “……”
Li Xiao Yu stared at him. “However, the one who should be helping is actually you, no? How could you have the heart to make him labour away alone?”
Yang Ye thought in his heart, Why wouldn’t I have the heart to? Is there a relation between him and I?
Li Xiao Yu spoke with sincere words and earnest wishes. “Wives are for the pampering, not for the abuse.”
Yang Ye: “……”
Li Xiao Yu: “Speaking of which, you can’t be like this. While we were eating just now, I felt that you were a little fierce to him.”
Yang Ye: “? How was I fierce?”
Li Xiao Yu: “Your brows and eyes are sharp, and you look scary when you’re pulling a long face. With his type of personality, you have to be gentle and soft; the more you go against him, the more his fur puffs up, and he’ll keep a further distance from you. If you’re gentler and softer, and then beckon him, he’ll come running towards you. Therefore, you should smile gently at him more often.”
Yang Ye: “……”
Yang Ye always felt that Li Xiao Yu was terrible with her descriptions, but he could not stop himself from imagining the scene where he beckoned Gu Liang towards him gently, and Gu Liang Liang running over to him with his tail asway. It was as docile and cute as one could stretch their imagination.
Huh… Would there really be such a day?
What am I even thinking, he’s a straight man.
Noting that she had coaxed the bigshot Yang Ye and made him happy, she knew that she had escaped from the ensuing lecture. She quickly seized the opportunity to slip away after freeloading a meal.
Sure enough, the bigshot Yang Ye had flown away with his imagination and he did not pay any heed as to when she left.
After a short while, Gu Liang ambled out of the kitchen.
He took off the apron, took care to fold it neatly, and placed it back on the shelf at the side. He raised his head, only to be caught off-guard by Yang Ye smiling in his direction.
Gu Liang scrunched his brows unconsciously. “What are you smiling for?”
Yang Ye pushed his hand. “Is my smile not gentle and soft?”
Gu Liang gave him a one-over. “Mn, it’s quite gentle and soft, and it’s rather abnormal too. If you continue being like this, I’m going to start suspecting that you’re the murderer who killed me, and you’re planning some black-bellied scheme.”
Yang Ye: “……”
— He felt like he had fallen for Li Xiao Yu’s evil.
* * *
After bidding farewell to Yang Ye, Gu Liang returned to his coffin shop alone.
Once he shut the large front doors tightly, he closed the back door firmly and locked it.
Subsequently, he went to the centre of the hall and looked at the coffin that was placed dead centre, eyebrows wrinkling together tightly.
Gu Liang stared at the coffin for a long time, and it was unknown what he was thinking.
It was only after a long period of time that he walked up to coffin, raised his arms, and pushed open the coffin lid forcibly.
When the coffin lid was pushed open, the condition of its interiors was revealed in its entirety.
Unexpectedly, the coffin was not empty inside.
The bottom of the coffin was covered by layers of straw mats, like it was hiding some kind of secret path.
Bending his waist, Gu Liang leaned into the coffin and removed the layers of straw mats one by one— there was no bottom to this coffin, for the straw mats directly led to the ground surface, which had a dark opening with interconnected stone stairs. Where it led to was uncharted.
Despite studying the cave opening for a while, Gu Liang still complied with the script’s words and jumped into the coffin and followed the stone stairs downwards.
* * *
After their separation in the afternoon, the next time Yang Ye saw Gu Liang was at 4 in the afternoon.
In this period of time, it did not matter if it was the coffin shop’s front door or backdoor, it was all shut firmly and it made it impossible to guess what Gu Liang could be doing inside.
When the time crawled to 4 in the afternoon, the front doors to the coffin shop finally opened.
However, owing to the fact that it was close to sundown, the coffin shop did not open for long before it was closed again.
In that short time span, Yang Ye saw Beggar Ding, who was clad in tatters, appear.
Yang Ye knew he had to be Beggar Ding.
Compared to the other people, Beggar Ding’s performance was exceedingly natural.
It was highly likely that he was a NPC instead of a player.
This conjecture was not hard to reach.
Beggar Ding walked to the entrance of the coffin shop and knocked on the door respectfully. Raising the bowl in his hands, he said: “Boss Meng, I hope you’re thriving and prosperous in trade! Can you give me a few dollars?”
Half a beat later, Gu Liang came out from the backdoor and revealed half his face.
No one was aware of what he had been doing in the afternoon alone, but his entire person looked a little frail, and his pale complexion was utterly deprived of blood.
Afterwards, Yang Ye observed that Gu Liang did not send Beggar Ding away dismissively. Rather, he started a conversation with him instead.
“You’re trying to gather money to buy a guitar for School Sister Feng, right? How much more do you need?”
“I still need 200! But how did you know about this…?”
“I heard you telling BBQ Li that last night.”
“Ah? BBQ Li? I didn’t see last night ah, why don’t I remember this. I… I obviously woke up at the neighbouring market today. We don’t have a place that sells guitars here, so I went to the neighbouring town to find a luthier to inquire about guitar prices.”
“Because you’ve already died once.”
“What?! What do you mean by that?”
“You died, and your School Senior Feng died too. Even if you gather up enough money, there’s no meaning to it. You have no way of saving her.”
“I don’t believe it… I…”
“Come, enter the shop, I’ll explain it to you.”
When they reached the point, Yang Ye could no longer hear the rest of the conversation because Gu Liang had dragged Beggar Ding into his shop.
Before he closed the front doors of the coffin shop, Gu Liang finally saw fit to poke half his body out of the threshold. He sent a look in Yang Ye’s direction as if he had always known he was watching.
Yang Ye frowned faintly and waved his hand at him.
Gu Liang nodded his head slightly before he turned around and shut the door.
Yang Ye’s eyebrows knitted together tightly in an instant.
— The gaze that Gu Liang gave him just now… was extremely off-kilter.
His appearance – one that did not allow a stranger’s transgression – was basically a throwback to the first time they had met.
When the sky began to darken half an hour later, Gu Liang did not open the front door and sent Beggar Ding away from the front door instead.
Immediately after Beggar Ding left, Yang Ye appeared at the door.
The sunset glow was coloured in maple reds. With one person standing inside the door and the other out, the pair stared at each other for a long moment.
At long last, Gu Liang started speaking slowly, “What are you finding me for?”
His words were perplexing.
When I bothered you daily prior to this, you’ve never asked me what I was finding you for.
Yang Ye stared into Gu Liang’s eyes, and asked: “When Li Xiao Yu and I asked you about the plot you received in the afternoon, you said you would think about it before telling us the details. Presently, Li Xiao Yu isn’t here and you’ve been alone for the entire afternoon…. What about now, have you thought it through? Can you tell me the details now?”
Gu Liang went quiet.
It took him a long, drawn-out moment before he said: “I haven’t thought it through.”
Upon hearing those words, Yang Ye’s gaze deepened.
But his expression reverted back to normal very quickly. He proffered, saying: “It’s fine if you haven’t thought it through. Let’s head over to my place and eat dinner.”
Lowering his eyelids, Gu Liang stilled for a moment before he raised his eyes again to glance at Yang Ye. “Dinner?”
“Are you free?” Yang Ye raised an eyebrow.
“Mn, I’m free. I only have a timeline after 8.”
In the afternoon, Gu Liang claimed that he had yet to receive the timeline for tonight.
But from the look of things now, he had already received it.
Therefore, Gu Liang was slated to go out to meet someone and get murdered by them later.
Yang Ye’s demeanour became heavy once more— how could he possibly watch as Gu Liang sent himself to his death?
* * *
The next-door Old Wang could not be considered as some rich person; the reserves in the refrigerator was in a slight state of emergency and he could only make crucian carp and tofu soup with some vegetable dishes for dinner.
“I don’t know where we’re going to eat at for the next two days.” Yang Ye commented about the state of things before he asked Gu Liang, “There’s only one meat dish, is it filling enough?”
Gu Liang shook his head and then said, “Isn’t there two meat dishes?”
Baffled, Yang Ye countered with a question, “Where did the second meat dish come from?”
Gu Liang gestured at it with his chopsticks. “This, tomato and eggs.”
Yang Ye: “Eggs don’t count.”
“Oh.” Gu Liang smiled faintly as he clamped up a piece of egg to eat.
On the hand, Yang Ye withdrew his smile and stared at him with searching intent.
Even without lifting his head, Gu Liang knew he was examining him constantly.
However, he merely continued to eat silently and did not speak out on his own accord.
Thus, the silence between the two remained up until Gu Liang finished his meal.
Just as Gu Liang was planning to stand up to stack the cutlery, Yang Ye stood up first and pressed down his wrist, sharp-eyed and deft handed as he was.
Yang Ye’s sense of proportion was quite accurate; he merely held onto his pulse point, which limited the perception that his actions were ambiguous – although it had to be said that even if it was ambiguous, the straight man Gu Liang Liang would not sense it at all.
Gu Liang raised his head, tea-coloured eyes fixing onto Yang Ye, but he did not utter a word.
Yang Ye met his gaze and said: “You don’t have to clean up immediately, there’s still a long time before it’s 8 o’ clock. Shall we talk about the plot?”
Half a beat later, Gu Liang nodded his head and Yang Ye promptly retracted his hand.
Subsequently, Gu Liang stood up, shifted his chair closer to the window, and sat down.
“We can see the situation at BBQ Li’s from this vantage point. Let’s talk over here.”
On the second floor of the shroud shop, near the window.
Gu Liang and Yang Ye sat on two rickety chairs with a worn-out small table in front of them, where they had placed their plain water and beer.
It was nearing 6:30 at night.
At the barbeque stall opposite of them, was the once-Brother Bai acting Liu Ran, who was currently acting as BBQ Li as he began to make preparations for the night crowd.
Having put the chairs and tables in order, he was about to wash his ingredients when the School Senior Feng played by Li Xiao Yu walked over.
From Li Xiao Yu’s expression, it could be seen that she was slightly nervous and unsettled.
However, she still followed the script. She took out a stash of money and handed it to BBQ Li.
She then said something to BBQ Li, to which the older man patted her shoulder, smiled and left.
Upon seeing BBQ Li walk away, Li Xiao Yu put a variety of ingredients on the grates and seasoned it with salt, chili powder and cumin in succession…. Once she had done all these, she took out a blue medicine bottle from her pocket and sprinkled the medicinal powder all over the food evenly.
Having watched the proceedings, Yang Ye remarked in a low voice: “So, the plot should be as such: the Neighbour Liu that School Senior Feng wants to kill, is really fond of eating barbeque. Hence, School Senior Feng arranged a meeting with him at the barbeque stall. But because School Senior Feng wanted to poison the food and did not want to be seen by BBQ Liu, she proceeded to give him a lot of money just now, offering the pretext that she was going to have a date and bought the entire barbeque stall for the night.”
“Agreed, that should more or less be the case.”
Gu Liang’s gaze shifted to the left to look at the other end of the street, “Neighbour Liu is here.”
Similarly, Yang Ye glanced over to Neighbour Liu.
It was roughly 6:50 at the present moment.
And when he sat down, received the barbeque that School Senior Feng was offering, and put it into his mouth, it happened to be 7 exactly.
For the rest of the time, it was essentially him and School Senior Feng facing each other and they would have awkward conversations intermittently.
Instead of a poison that reacted instantaneously, it was apparent that this poison needed time to flare up.
Yang Ye withdrew his line of sight and looked towards Gu Liang. “That being the case, who do you have to meet later? Or perhaps is it more exact to ask, who will be killing you tonight?”
Gu Liang raised his chin towards the window before he met Yang Ye’s eyes again. “It’s him, Neighbour Liu. The Neighbour Liu that Xun Feng is acting as.”
Despite the growing furrow of Yang Ye’s brows, Gu Liang continued to speak: “It goes without saying that it’s not the current Neighbour Liu. Or perhaps to phrase it simply, it’s the Neighbour Liu who was revived after School Senior Feng killed him. Afterwards, he will kill me.”
Yang Ye retrieved his small notebook and flipped it open to record the details down. Then, he told Gu Liang: “When I was alone in the afternoon, I reviewed the plot carefully. In addition to what we’ve understood from School Senior Feng and your person, I have a few ideas, do you want to analyse them together?”
Gu Liang: “Of course. Go ahead.”
Yang Ye said: “Firstly, can you affirmatively say that Beggar Ding was definitely killed by BBQ Li?”
“Yes. I can essentially confirm that. I saw BBQ Li give Beggar Ding the remaining barbeque yesterday, and the script even specifically mentioned that his gaze was ruthless back when.”
Gu Liang nodded, “Actually, there’s another possibility… Although BBQ Li received School Senior Feng’s money to buy the entire stall, he did not go far at all. Thus, he saw School Senior Feng implementing her poison in the dark. And when Beggar Ding came to cadge him for some food later, he conveniently handed the remaining barbeque to Beggar Ding. If those are the circumstances, he has the ability to push the blame to School Senior Feng should the plot come out to light.
“School Senior Feng probably did not account for the fact that someone would eat the remains of the barbeque that Neighbour Liu would leave behind.”
“Noted. Therefore, these are the actual happenings— yesterday, you saw BBQ Li giving Beggar Ding the barbeque, which were Neighbour Liu’s leftovers in actuality. And because the School Senior Feng of yesterday first used her poisoned barbeque to kill Neighbour Liu, so…”
Yang Ye’s tone quietened down, “The exact same incidents will occur again today.”
“With regards to the sequence of events that will and have occured at the barbeque stall, that basically seems to be the case,” said Gu Liang.
Yang Ye took it a step further and said: “Okay. Then I’ll make a brief summary of what we have now. BBQ Li killed Beggar Ding; Boss Meng who is played by you, killed Principal Zha; School Senior Feng used poison to kill Neighbour Liu; the person Neighbour Liu wants to kill with you. Where all these cases are concerned, we’ve essentially corroborated them.”
“Mn, no issues there.” Gu Liang said.
Yang Ye continued, “Who School Senior Feng was killed by, whether BBQ Li was murdered by someone; in addition to whether Principal Zha and Beggar Ding have a target they would like to kill, are matters that are still unknown to us.
“However, despite these unknown factors, we can formulate a regular pattern.”
Gu Liang did not reply, merely using a “I am going to watch you analyse quietly” expression to gaze at Yang Ye.
After giving a pause, Yang Ye said: “The regular pattern – at least from the information we have now – is that every person has a conflict with someone, and they have acted against that person as well. Furthermore, the situation where one person was killed by several people or that one person has killed several people, does not exist.”
Gu Liang nodded his head to express that he was in agreement. Yang Ye: “Since that is the case, it enables me to open a brain hole.”
Gu Liang cooperated with him by asking him a single question: “Mn, what kind of brain hole is it?”
Yang Ye said: “This is a slaughter circle. Take this for instance, A kills B, B kills C, and C will kill A in return. Given those circumstances, every person’s time will be reset nonstop. Thus, everyone will be trapped on the 7th of August.
“On the surface, it seems like everyone has an undying body. But in reality, everyone is stuck repeating the same day and they are ceaselessly perpetuating the slaughter circle. And naturally, I’m not inside this circle. It’s possible that I’m still the detective this time around.”
The colours of dusk became thicker outside the window.
Moonlight drifted in, outlining Gu Liang’s chilly, albeit gentle and agreeable countenance. After a long time, he finally chose to speak, “This brain hole of yours is quite good. But there’s one thing you can’t explain.”
Yang Ye asked: “And what is that?”
Gu Liang uttered, “If we were to get rid of your suspicions on the basis that you’re a detective, we’re already aware of the majority’s killing targets except Principal Zha and Beggar Ding. Similarly, we’re unaware of who murdered School Senior Feng, right?”
Yang Ye nodded as though he had grasped what Gu Liang was trying to say, and his brows knitted together minutely.
Gu Liang kept going, “If we were go along with your brain hole, where there is a murder that starts and ends the circle, and where the possibility of two people killing the same person or a person killing two people does not exist, then School Senior Feng’s murderer can only be either Principal Zha or Beggar Ding.
“However, Beggar Ding likes School Senior Feng, and Principal Zha is also considered School Senior Feng’s adopted father who is very concerned for School Senior Feng and even helped her conceal the corpse. It’s not possible for them to kill School Senior Feng. This can only mean that the person who subjectively killed School Senior Feng is someone else.
“Given that, the person who could have harmed School Senior Feng is among three people, namely me, BBQ Li and Neighbour Liu. But all three of us already have a target we want to kill, and therefore someone definitely killed two people. Your brain hole is not tenable.”
Once he was done with his large chunk of exposition, Gu Liang stared at Yang Ye. Meanwhile, the latter man rested his hands on his armrests and did not speak for a long time.
The time struck 8 o’ clock exactly.
Gu Liang took a glimpse outside the window. At this moment, Neighbour Liu’s head slanted and he laid down on the table, unmoving as if he had fallen asleep.
Gu Liang knew that at this moment, the poison in the barbeque had flared up.
— He ate the barbeque at 7, died at 8, the time interspacing the two events happened to be one hour exactly.
Yang Ye looked out of the window too, but he only spared it a single glance before he stared at Gu Liang again. “I’m still quite certain of my brain hole. Why is this small town called Undying Town? It’s because of the slaughter circle. Everyone is being trapped on the same day which enables everything to continue as it was. Perhaps, someone who breaks the circle will appear in the end, and this person is the real murderer we have to find.
“Of course, the issue you brought up just now is critical too. The question of who killed School Senior Feng might be a pivotal point in the case.”
“Perhaps.”
Gu Liang stood up. “It’s time. I need to carry out my plot. I don’t have the time to wash the dishes, I’ll be troubling you.”
“Gu Liang—” The gaze that Yang Ye directed him became fierce and serious, and it was even rimmed by a trace of searching intent.
With a self-possessed expression, Gu Liang turned around and left without saying another word.
After Gu Liang left the shroud shop, he did not go and find Neighbour Liu immediately, and he went back to his coffin shop first instead.
Yang Ye went downstairs, walked to the backyard and found a small wooden stool to sit on.
He stared at the dirt mound that buried a “Gu Liang” with a scowl, and his gaze was quite sombre.
Come one hour, it would be 9 o’ clock at night.
Yang Ye kneaded his temples and continued to assess the state of three corpses.
Neighbour Liu and Beggar Ding died because of the poisoned barbeque.
But the former was killed by School Senior Feng while the latter was killed by BBQ Li.
As for School Senior Feng… her cause of death was a broken beer bottle shard.
That day, he and Gu Liang had analysed that her death was an impulsive kill.
Since the murder weapon was a random broken bottle shard that was picked off the ground, it pointed at the fact that the murder was a sudden occurrence, and not something long premeditated.
Wait—
Given the circumstances, if they were to parse out the murderer’s motivation to kill purely from a story line perspective, eliminating Beggar Ding and Principal Zha did not make sense.
No matter how much Beggar Ding liked her, or how much Principal Zha regarded her as a daughter, sudden and unexpected situations could crop up, thus leading to a momentary desire to kill her.
Yang Ye thought back about it. When they saw the corpses last night, it was rational for the both of them to eliminate the possibility of Beggar Ding being the murderer of School Senior Feng.
Because when they just saw the corpses, they possessed little knowledge of the characters and their stories.
But now that he scrutinised it carefully, there was an issue with their judgement.
According to Gu Liang’s intelligence, he should have figured it out by now.
Was he misleading him on purpose?
When he went back to the coffin shop on his lonesome in the afternoon, what did he see exactly?
Could it be that, in this round, Gu Liang… was the murderer?
T/N: The plot thickens!