Live Action Murder Mystery Chapter 49

Chapter 49

(Yang Ye: The question solving tips taught by mathematics teachers.)
Gu Liang held the reward card between his fingers and sat down alone.
There was moonlight in the skies, the ground was sheeted with snow, his surroundings were shrouded with a thick and heavy fog.
Like the scenery before him, his own imagination was brimming with a sense of abstruseness.
This was a scenario where ghosts existed.
There were three corpses and three corresponding ghosts.
Xiao Cao wandered alone, the whereabouts of the other two ghosts were unknown, but they had to have a direction, which was why Gu Liang deduced that they had possessed Doctor Xu and Scientist Li respectively.
Xiao Dong and Xiao Hua were lovers. Scientist Li and Doctor Xu were also lovers.
Since that was the case, Xiao Dong and Xiao Hua could continue being lovers after taking possession, and live their lives as husband and wife.
Similarly, this was why the male counterpart did not choose Professor Wang or the Inspector Liu played by Gu Liang as a target for possession.
Although Gu Liang had deduced that Scientist Li was probably the Xiao Yuan from that year, the fact that he had been possessed meant that he had lost his consciousness completely.
Therefore, although the arson and the saving of Doctor Xu were still carried out by Scientist Li’s body, this body was being controlled by Xiao Dong.
This means that the murderer from that year was Xiao Dong.
That year, Xiao Dong had caused the deaths of Xiao Hua, Xiao Cao, and himself.
The only one who survived was Xiao Yuan.
And three years later, Xiao Yuan became Scientist Li and was possessed by Xiao Dong, which was equivalent to being killed by Xiao Dong again.
Was it plausible that murderer they needed to find, was Xiao Dong who was pretending to be Scientist Li?
If it was from a story perspective, this deduction was tenable.
But if that was the truth, both the deceased and the murderer would be the player Scientist Li in the end.
Was that feasible?
Additionally, Xiao Dong, Xiao Cao, and Xiao Hua were trapped on the snow mountain together for three years, was Xiao Hua oblivious to the truth the entire time?
Did that story make sense?
Apart from alluding to the notion that there were ghosts, did Xiao Cao – who had made numerous appearances from start to finish – not have any other uses?
Lastly, what was the point of knocking him unconscious three times?
Was the fainting caused by some ghostly spell? What was the significance behind Xiao Cao knocking him out?
* * *
Just as the “call” connected, Gu Liang heard three successive gunshots transmit from the card pinched between his fingers, followed by the sound of the door opening and closing, a series of thumps like someone was going downstairs, before another door opened and closed again.
— What on earth was happening in Yang Ye’s scenario? Why was there turmoil and the chaos of war every time?
After all the complicated noises disappeared, what followed was the sound of heavy and low panting before Yang Ye’s voice superseded it.
“Okay, Gu Liang, what’s the matter, speak.”
Gu Liang gave a pause before asking: “What were you doing just now? Perhaps you should rest first?”
Yang Ye only said: “It’s nothing. I was just fighting a few zombies.”
He was still fighting zombies?
Gu Liang: “Where are you hiding at right now? Will talking attract them to you?”
Yang Ye chuckled which lightened up his voice. “It’s fine. I’m hiding in a cellar. They can’t find me. What problems have you encountered?”
At this moment, Gu Liang sneezed. Yang Ye’s voice deepened. “What’s wrong? Are you… in a very cold place?”
“Mn. On a snow mountain. It’s fine, it’s going to end soon. There’s four more hours to vote casting.” Gu Liang replied.
Yang Ye said: “Sure, what’s happening on your end, talk about it quickly.”
They only had 20 minutes to communicate; it was not enough to elaborate on every detail one by one. Hence, Gu Liang could only summarise the starting plot given by the card before describing the entire situation roughly. “In final analysis, the story I’m currently speculating feels completely out of sorts. But it’s the only possible route. The other speculations are even worse—”
Yang Ye mulled over it before he said: “Considering how your summary is too brief, I can’t say much about it either. However, there is a reminder that I can give you, which is that if the story doesn’t flow well, and makes you uncomfortable, there’s definitely something wrong with it.
“At the beginning of the story, it is reasonable to make up for the blanks in the story or the places you can’t explain with your imagination. But when you’ve reached the point where you’ve pushed your inferences to its limits for the sake of restoring the original story, while also allowing the story to make some modicum of sense, that ‘out of sorts’ sensation will only arise because you’ve realised that the script doesn’t have any clues to support your brain hole. This indicates that…”
Yang Ye stopped for a moment before continuing: “This indicates that there might be a problem with the established settings in the story. It’s only under these circumstances where, no matter how hard you try to make up for the story, the story’s trajectory will always have a sense of wrongness, or even if the story flows smoothly, you don’t have any evidence to back up your claims.”
“There’s something wrong in the initial establishment and settings? There are ghosts in the setting. All of us met a ghost, the beginning of the card is an excerpt of a ghost story…”
Once he reached that point, Gu Liang seemed to understand something and he stopped.
Yang Ye said: “Prior to this, I told you that you needed to look at the title to solve the question. Allow me to teach you another question solving method today: your mathematics teachers should have imparted to you that when you’re doing questions, you have to learn to eliminate the confounders, because some conditions are placed there to confuse you.”
Yang Ye’s advice was akin to four ounces moving a thousand catties; it removed the small piece of detail that was jamming the axle, which in turn allowed the axle to spin smoothly. Hence, all the problems present were easily solved.
Gu Liang huffed out a breath, laughing. “I understand. Thank you, Teacher Yang.”
Yang Ye froze for three seconds before he spoke again: “Were you thanking me? Wait, what did you call me just now?”
“Nothing. Yang Ye, when do you think your script enactment will end?”
“Approximately two days.”
Gu Liang nodded: “Noted. We have 3 chances to communicate in total. I can still contact you one more time. I’ll contact you again in two days. Since you helped me, I’ll see if there’s anything I can help you with then. I’m hanging up first, pay attention to your safety.”
“Hey, hold on. Do you really understand? I still don’t get it.” Yang Ye called him to a stop.
“It’s normal that you don’t understand, I only told you the rough outline.”
Gu Liang remarked, “But you’ve touched on something incredibly important. Set your mind at ease, I have a direction now.”
There was still a hint of severity in Gu Liang’s voice, so Yang Ye said: “Apart from that, there’s something else I’ve come to understand. The reason you called me last night… Was it because you were afraid of the ghost? That NPC last night was a ghost?”
Gu Liang: “……”
Even though they were separated by a “call”, he could still imagine Gu Liang’s irked appearance. Yang Ye snorted.
However, because of his impromptu comic gesture, Gu Liang’s entire body became relaxed.
When a person relaxed, they would no longer be as keyed up, and perhaps they would notice the details and issues that they had previously neglected, and their thought processes would become smoother which meant that they were less likely to make mistakes.
“If there’s nothing else, I’m hanging up.” Gu Liang said in an indifferent tone.
Yang Ye: “Hold on for a second.”
“What is it?”
“Are you getting along with the other players? Did you argue with them?”
Why did his tone sound like a father worrying about his son fighting with the other kindergarten children?
Gu Liang’s back molars gnashed together.
Yang Ye continued heedlessly, “Sigh, if I don’t look after you, I really can’t set my mind at ease.”
Gu Liang: “……”
Yang Ye: “Don’t get angry, didn’t you call me teacher just now? Am I not allowed to model a teacher—”
Gu Liang smiled out of anger. Just as he was about to annoy him back, the 20 minute mark for the call was reached, and he could no longer hear Yang Ye’s voice.
Gu Liang stared at the Request of Help Card which seemed to have lost its vitality, and ruminated over the aspect he had been lacking in for a long time now.
— He was too concerned with the overall outlook of the story, too entangled by the characters’ behavioural logic, which made him ignore some details that seemed inconsequential at first glance.
Like in Death of Boss Bai for instance, in spite of having reconstructed Son Bai’s behavioural logic perfectly, he had overlooked the water on the medicine box.
And in this story, these details were still the deciding factor of what the crux was.
For example, the emptied box of energy bars, the reagent bottle he picked up just now, and the humongous clue that was placed right in front of his face— the entire mountain.
* * *
As Gu Liang was keeping his card, he heard footsteps coming from behind him.
Upon turning his head, Gu Liang saw Professor Wang and Doctor Xu walking over together.
Professor Wang’s expression was a little odd, and somewhat gossipy.
Doctor Xu’s visage was filled with awkwardness and entanglement.
As for the distant Scientist Li… Gu Liang glanced up, observing that his head was lowered as he silently sat there, as if he was a little crestfallen.
“Looking for me?” Gu Liang asked.
Doctor Xu looked at Professor Wang before she turned towards Gu Liang: “I was constantly debating about this with Scientist Li just now. I believe that he can reveal the story he’s been hiding. But he disagrees. Therefore, I have decided to…”
Gu Liang furrowed his eyebrows unconsciously. Subsequently, he suggested: “Sit down and talk.”
Doctor Xu nodded before she sat next to Gu Liang, whereas Professor Wang studied her for a few seconds before he sat down as well.
Gu Liang asked Doctor Xu: “I reckon he’s hiding his side task. He’s Xiao Yuan, right?”
Doctor Xu widened her eyes: “You’ve guessed it out?”
“Mn.” Gu Liang nodded his head. “What are your thoughts about it?”
Despite having a brief moment of contemplation, Doctor Xu decided to speak the truth: “He said, it’s true that he had received an additional side task, which requires him to hide the fact that he’s Xiao Yuan. Then correspondingly, our side task should require us to find out who Xiao Yuan is.
“As in, he could only tell me about this matter. If I’m the only one who has the correct vote for who Xiao Yuan is during the side task voting segment, not only will he complete his side task successfully, I… I will also…”
Gu Liang: “I understand. He hopes that both of you will obtain the side task reward.”
“Yes. That’s it. But I feel that… my side task shouldn’t be my sole consideration. Hence, after hesitating for a long time, I’ve decided to tell all of you the truth.”
Having said that, Doctor Xu faltered momentarily before she continued to speak: “I’m doing this out of everyone’s consideration as well. When all is said and done, the main task is more important than the side task. You won’t think that I’m… I…”
When Professor Wang heard that, the sides of his mouth slanted downwards and his expression became increasingly subtle.
— Tch, the other person likes you, trusts you, and for the sake of allowing you to obtain another reward, he took a huge risk and told you, and only you, his side task. But you’re even better, you sold him out at the turn of the head.
You first garnered Scientist Li’s adoration, and gained the side task from him.
Then you looked for Gu Liang in an attempt to make Gu Liang help you parse out the murderer. With your arrangements, wouldn’t you have completed both tasks?
Although it can’t be said that you’re wrong in doing this… But isn’t this quite dishonest of you?
As Professor Wang muttered all those thoughts in his heart from the sideline, he gave Gu Liang a look.
Gu Liang arched an eyebrow, declining to comment. Instead, he asked Doctor Xu: “Who do you think the murderer is?”
Doctor Xu said: “I think it’s Scientist Li. I’ve analysed the merits and drawbacks with him before. Since the scenario difficulty has increased, it’s inevitable that the main task’s rewards will be better than the side tasks. If he doesn’t reveal his side plot to everyone, it will affect everyone in the judgement of who the real murderer is.
“Despite laying out those facts, he still refuses to divulge all the information he has. Therefore, even though I don’t know the exact contents of the story for the time being, I feel that the murderer is him.”
Gu Liang contemplated it for a beat before asking Doctor Xu: “With regards to the matter of everyone dying three years ago, how did Scientist Li explain it to you?”
“He said, soon after the four university students entered the cave, all of them passed out. When he woke up, the other three were still unconscious. Since his own wrist wasn’t reliable, he couldn’t bring them out, so he wanted to go back to the snow mountain’s base camp first to look for workers to help him. However, by the time he reached the base camp, a small-scale snow avalanche happened. The cave was blocked by the snow, and the other three must have been buried alive.”
Doctor Xu, “His explanation has me in some disbelief. I feel like he’s lying. How did he manage to wake up earlier than the others, and thereby escape from being buried by the snow? He must have fabricated the story. From a comprehensive and deductive standpoint, I think that he’s the murderer. The side task requires us to find out who Xiao Yuan is. And that’s him. The main task asks of us to find the murderer, which is also him.”
The downward curve of Professor Wang’s lips became more pronounced, probably because he felt that he must have been blind. Why did he think that Doctor Xu was pretty and sweet-tempered again?
After Doctor Xu said those words, she observed Professor Wang and Gu Liang for their reactions, as if she was waiting for their response.
She did not expect that after some time, Gu Liang would unexpectedly say: “I don’t think he’s lying.”
Doctor Xu gave Gu Liang a look that conveyed the extremity of her doubt. Gu Liang said: “My judgement is based precisely on the fact that he has an injured wrist. Do you remember how he said that his character had a wrist deformity since his childhood, and he has done over a dozen of corrective surgeries?”
Professor Wang widened his eyes. “I remember that. All three of us were together when he was walking over from the cave, and he was constantly rubbing his wrist.”
Gu Liang: “Humans can develop a resistance to anaesthetic drugs. Owing to the fact that Scientist Li has been through so many surgeries, his body grew accustomed to it, and he started developing a resistance to anaesthetic drugs. Hence, when he and the other three university students were sedated by drugs, it’s possible that he was the first to wake up.”
“Ah. I get it. You’re saying that someone used an anaesthetic drug or the likes of it, to knock the four students unconscious in the cave that year. And Xiao Yuan, owing to his constitution, was the first to wake up and he escaped. After he ran, the avalanche happened and the heavy snow blocked the cave entrance, which is why the other three people died inside?”
Professor Wang asked Gu Liang: “Who’s the murderer then?”
“The script title has already told us the answer— The Fifth Person.”
Gu Liang stood up and walked towards where Scientist Li was seated. “Let’s go. We can discuss the rest together.”
* * *
When Gu Liang walked to Scientist Li’s side and tried to sit next to him, Scientist Li looked at him with a guarded expression.
But when his gaze slid towards Doctor Xu’s face, Scientist Li’s expression became slightly snarled up with palpable aggravation.
Doctor Xu shifted her head away, not meeting Scientist Li’s eyes.
Hence, Scientist Li rose to feet, attempting to leave.
Gu Liang called him to a stop. “Sit down, and listen to my analysis together. I know that the murderer isn’t you.”
Scientist Li’s figure went stock-still.
“I know you were doing this for Doctor Xu’s benefit. You wanted to help her win more rewards, so you confided your side task to her alone. Apart from wanting to obtain the side task rewards, however, your unwillingness to let us know stems from the fact that you’re afraid that we’ll frame you as the murderer.
“But I think we’re not as stupid as you presume us to be. Moreover, there’s no longer a need for you to continue hiding it. Your side task has already failed. If you continue to refuse cooperation, your main task will fail too. From start to finish, you won’t gain a single reward.”
Scientist Li did not take another step forward. Rather, he lowered his head without speaking.
This basically conveyed that he agreed with Gu Liang’s words.
Gu Liang sat down and questioned Doctor Xu first: “When Professor Wang and I went to the toilet, did you eat any energy bars?”
Doctor Xu shook her head, finding it strange that Gu Liang had posed this sudden question. “No… I didn’t. Although the fat content in the energy bar isn’t high, I wanted to eat as little as possible. The vegetable soup was enough. Why are you asking this?”
“You?” Gu Liang asked Scientist Li.
Scientist Li was quite reluctant, but he shook his head in the end, which could be considered as his reply.
Gu Liang said: “This partially corroborates with my guess. Before Professor Wang and I left, I took a glimpse at the box and noted that there were three energy bars left. But when we were searching for evidence, I discovered that the box was completely empty.
“The origin of the fire was the corpses, the explosion was a result of the fire. Additionally, by virtue of their placement positions, a few boxes were not completely destroyed. The items inside can, to all intent and purposes, be identified. For example, the box containing the vegetables; there were scorched black vegetables inside, it’s just that they crumble into powder once you touch it.
“We had two boxes of energy bars. One box wasn’t opened, the other box was empty. Since neither of us ate it, it can only mean that the murderer took away those three energy bars in the passing as he was setting the fire. As to why the murderer didn’t touch the energy bars inside the unopened box, there are two reasons: one, since the box wasn’t open, it wasn’t as convenient for him to take them away; two, they were energy bars that I personally asked for, and they do not belong to the ascribed scenario.”
Professor Wang could not help but ask: “Isn’t the murderer a ghost? If Scientist Li wasn’t possessed, then that ghost… the ghost needs to eat energy bars?”
Gu Liang: “On that account, we can conclude that there was no ghost from beginning to end. There was only a person pretending to be a ghost.”
Professor Wang became a little stupid upon hearing that. “You… What do you mean by that? Didn’t we encounter a ghost? It’s easy to explain our encounters, since a person wearing a white robe can pretend to be a ghost… but you’re not the same. Didn’t you say that when you turned your head around that night, the entire camp disappeared?”
Gu Liang: “The camp didn’t disappear. After he knocked me out, he brought me to his original camping ground.”
Professor Wang was puzzled: “Brought you where?”
Gu Liang used his finger to point at the outer slope that was skewed east in the northeast direction. “There’s a slope that leads to another cave at the highest point, with the two stone walls there, do you still remember that?”
“I remembered them. You brought me there during free exploration.”
“I think, I was brought to the other side of the slope last night.”
Gu Liang said: “The slope is precipitous, and the cave and stone walls are erected on the peak of the slope. If you go down from either of the two sides of the slope from the peak of the mountain until you reach our camp, you would technically make a triangle. This triangle forms one face of the slope.”
Gu Liang looked at Professor Wang: “But the slope has another face. Do you remember that during our free exploration, after we walked through the two stone walls, there was another inclined road that led up to the peak on the other side?”
Professor Wang replied, “I remember it. It’s just that it was sealed off by the thick fog, and we couldn’t go down.”
Gu Liang continued, “If we started to chart from the peak of the mountain, and follow the road that has already been covered by the fog to go down, we can form a triangle as well. That is the back of the slope. I’ll term the slope face where our camp was located as Area A, and call the back of the slope Area B. A and B are nearly identical triangles.
“Last night, after I was sedated by the so-called “ghost”, I was brought to Area B of the slope. When I woke up, my position, in relation to Area A, happens to be our camp location.”
Professor Wang nodded his head. “I get it. Area A and B are completely symmetrical, which is equivalent to flipping them over from the peak of the slope. When you ran up to the peak of the slope last night, and in the direction of the two stone walls, the direction and distance you covered, is exactly the same as you climbing up the slope from our camp to reach the two stone walls. Hence, you didn’t realise that something was different last night, because your position was indeed in the position of our camp.”
“Yes.” Gu Liang said, “The two huge stone walls stand at the top of the peak, and the space between became a small road. The entrance closer to our camp will be called Opening A, and the other one will be called Opening B. During free exploration, we entered through Opening A and exited through Opening B, but because of the fog, we couldn’t walk out too far.
“But on the night where I was chased by the ‘ghost’, the reality was that I entered through Opening B.
“Hence, the camp never disappeared. It’s just that I was brought from this area of the slope to the other area while I was still unconscious. Afterwards, he chased me to the two stone walls which was in the centre position, sedated me again, then brought me back and proceeded to let all of you find me. This would, in turn, place me under the assumption that I never left the camping ground, and the camp had disappeared into thin air, only to reappear again.
“This is a trick created by using two similar locations. Right now, the other opposing area has already been shrouded by the fog which gives us no way of studying it. But I think that there’s definitely some differences between that area’s general terrain and the area that our camp is residing in. It’s just that my night vision wasn’t the best and the sudden appearance of a ghost had sent me into a slight panic, so I wasn’t in the mental state to carefully match up the multitudes of details. Hence, I fell for his bluff.”
Professor Wang followed up with another question: “What about the footprints? He should have left footprints on the other side of the mountain that he brought you to that night.”
Gu Liang said: “The men in black came and left from the same direction, which messed up all the footprints. For that reason, we can’t distinguish anything from the footprints.”
Having said all that, Gu Liang gave his conclusion, “In short, three years ago, there weren’t only four university students who came to this mountain, since there was a fifth person. Three of the university students died by his hands, and only Xiao Yuan – by virtue of his anaesthetic resistance – woke up in advance and ran away, making him the only survivor.
“Three years later, our four-person inspection team members weren’t the only people on this snowy mountain, since a fifth person was hidden. This person pretended to be a ghost, trying to scare us time and time again. I’m hazarding that he wants to scare us away. However, since he couldn’t scare us away, he decided to commit arson and burn the three corpses completely.
“The ‘fifth person’ who existed three years ago, and continues to exist three years after, is the murderer we need to find.”
“In accordance with your conjecture… the murderer is not among the four of us?” Professor Wang asked.
“Yes. Since the deceased can be NPCs, it’s also possible that the murderer is a NPC.” Gu Liang replied.
Professor Wang contemplated it for a short while before he tossed out another query: “Since that is the case, he should be a lunatic, logically speaking. Why did he save Doctor Xu? Why didn’t he let her burn in the fire?”
Taking out the empty, chemical reagent bottle, Gu Liang uttered, “Although we don’t know the specific reasons or the modus operandi, I reckon that the substance in this bottle was the anaesthetic that the murderer used to knock everyone unconscious.
“As for why he deliberately left the pharmaceutical bottle behind, and saved Doctor Xu… I think he wanted to shift the blame.
“This pharmaceutical bottle was found by us as we were walking towards the cave. I think he threw it there on purpose. Back then, Scientist Li was heading towards the cave and he knocked him out along the road. Subsequently, he threw the pharmaceutical bottle there to allow everyone to assume that the pharmaceutical bottle belonged to Scientist Li. And at this time, everyone will also come to the conclusion that Doctor Xu was saved by the person who started the fire, and the suspicion will naturally fall on Scientist Li. His plan to shift the blame would have been very successful.”
“I get it. Everything makes sense. But what is the murderer’s real identity? What if there’s a whole bunch of NPCs apart from the four of us when the voting segment comes around? How would we know who to choose?”
Professor Wang frowned, “This murderer should fulfil these two criteria at least: one, he is a man who shares a strong resemblance to Xiao Cao, which is why he’s capable of making himself look like Xiao Cao’s spirit and coming around to scare us. Two, he possesses a lot of strength.”
Gu Liang glanced at Professor Wang, and asked with some doubt: “Possesses a lot of strength?”
Professor Wang: “Your height should be around 183, right? If he’s capable of carrying a tall, 183-centimetre man like you to such a far-off location while you were unconscious, and then carry you back, he definitely possesses a lot of strength. His character setting might even be a fitness coach or something.”
“……” Gu Liang went silent for a moment before nodding, “What you said makes a lot of sense.”
Professor Wang: “But of course.”
Gu Liang’s eyebrows jumped slightly as he looked towards Scientist Li: “I believe that the missing story can only be found on your person. Since you’re the Xiao Yuan from that year, do you have a chemistry student among your schoolmates? Someone who has the character design of a chemistry genius, perhaps?”
Scientist Li said: “Yes. My script did mention a schoolmate like that. His height is close to 1.9 metres, he’s the captain of the basketball team, scored well in every sort of athletic examination, and he’s definitely capable of carrying Inspector Liu. Moreover, he is indeed a rarely seen genius in the chemistry faculty, and he joined a project called ‘My Chemistry is Particularly Strong’ with a PhD tutor in his third year.”
Gu Liang asked: “Who is he? Does he have any enmity towards you? Can it explain why he didn’t attack us, but only attacked you?”
“Yes, we technically have a conflict with each other, because he also likes Xiao Hua. But…
“That person is Xiao Cao. Good in chemistry, has a good physique, and has a conflict with me. The person who satisfies the three conditions concurrently, is Xiao Cao.”
Once he said that, Scientist Li frowned as he looked at Gu Liang: “But we clearly saw Xiao Cao’s corpse. If there aren’t ghosts, then this can’t be a supernatural script, and correspondingly, we shouldn’t have the sudden emergence of a setting where there are reanimated corpses. Therefore, Xiao Cao has to be dead.
“If three years later, the Xiao Cao that you, me and Professor Wang met individually was a human and not a ghost, then what are the circumstances exactly? Are there two Xiao Caos, where one is dead, while the other is alive and acting as a ghost to scare people?”
T/N: In silent sufferance because she’s still notoriously bad at directions, featuring crappy diagrams.
Post-edit: This chapter feels, and was terrible to edit as well. (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
If there’s anything you don’t understand, leave it in the comments and I will answer them ^_^