Live Action Murder Mystery Chapter 58.2

Chapter 58.2

After Yang Ye ended the conversation with Gu Liang, he took a few steps forward to call Meng Qian Cheng, “Old Man Meng.”
“Huh?”
Meng Qian Cheng turned his head back to look at the ancient castle’s main doors, and then slanted his head towards Yang Ye and Gu Liang, “How did you appear from there?”
Yang Ye said: “There’s another road here. I can take you down the path if you want. Remember to bring your detective camera, I’m bringing you to photograph an exhibit.”
“You’re even bringing to photograph an exhibit?”
Meng Qian Cheng prattled on, “Your suspicions are incredibly large right now oh, do you know what’s in your car?”
“I’m aware. But I’m not the only person who knows about the pentagram. Come along.”
Yang Ye held onto Meng Qian Cheng’s shoulder like they were good brothers, and led him towards the vegetable field.
Gu Liang did not follow them, only saying: “Both of you can go to the vegetable field, I’m going to the back kitchen to have another look. Economises our time.”
“Sure. We’ll meet up again in the main hall in a short while.” Yang Ye replied.
“Okay.” Gu Liang nodded before moving in the direction of the ancient castle’s main doors.
This was the second time Gu Liang had gone into the ancient castle using the front door.
The two instances were only separated by a day, but his state of mind was quite different.
As he was walking through the main doors and lobby to get to the main hall, he used the chance to carefully inspect the architecture of the ancient castle once.
The height of the large lobby and main hall were two stories high, which also meant that the first and second floors of the ancient castle were hollowed out in the centre.
The third to sixth levels could tentatively be viewed as lodging areas, which was similar to the usual apartment buildings where floors were built on floors.
As for the lobby and main hall, the sides were different.
The three sides of the main hall led to the garden, back kitchen area and terrace respectively. The area of the main hall was quite expansive, and there were no other spaces.
Whereas the amount of surface area that the lobby occupied was a lot smaller by comparison, since its peripheries were wrapped around a circle of space and built up. The first and second floors were the same.
But according to the system’s exposition, this section had been sealed off.
Gu Liang could only see the thick and heavy walls and tightly sealed doors on the two sides of the main lobby, and he could not perceive what was behind it.
This section of the first floor, in addition to the second to fifth floors, had all been sealed off. However, since the system had declared that it was unrelated to this script, Gu Liang could hazard a guess that it might be related to the scripts that would follow later. All in all, he did not need to acknowledge them right now.
In a few moments’ work, Gu Liang cut through the main hall and entered the chefs’ resting lounge again. He found the volume that recorded down the tastes of the important guest. It was only after flipped through over a hundred pages that he managed to find a page that mentioned a magician.
“2X04, Visitor to the Ancient Castle: Strange, horrid, but a magician of immense importance nonetheless. The Magician’s tastes and preferences: Dislikes coriander, cannot eat bean products, loves eating carrots. Remarks: He will only be staying for two days.”
“The Chef’s Lament: That’s great, Lady Rong said that he wanders the four seas, and after leaving this time around, he might never return again. Honestly speaking, he’s too troublesome; the steak I cooked today was only a touch overdone, and yet he scolded me for a long time. I really wanted to scold back, but the gardener persuaded me otherwise. The gardener said that this magician was very powerful. Lady Rong is fond of dolls, but these sort of dolls attract harmful things easily, and the magician had arrived here to remind her of that fact.”
“Gu Liang? Did you discover anything new on your end?” Yang Ye’s voice travelled over from the main hall.
“Mn, I did. A clue of substantial importance.”
When Gu Liang stepped into the main hall while he was holding that exceedingly thick volume, he saw Yang Ye and Meng Qian Cheng finding a table to sit down.
Walking up to them, Gu Liang placed the record on the table before sitting beside Yang Ye. Then, he told Meng Qian Cheng: “Old Man Meng, photograph this page.”
Meng Qian Cheng glanced at him. “Why are you calling me that as well?”
“I’m following everyone else.” Gu Liang replied.
Meng Qian Cheng gave him a one-over. “Sometimes I don’t know if you’re a honest child, or if you’re a two-faced person made out of cold humour and ridicule.”
Gu Liang smiled faintly in reply. He pointed at the word ‘magician’ with his finger and asked: “So, are you aware of the fact that a magician visited your house.”
Meng Qian Cheng: “I’m not aware, no.”
Gu Liang: “And why are you unaware?”
Meng Qian Cheng: “This character of mine, Magnate Rong didn’t become a magnate from reaping what he hadn’t sown. He had given his utmost effort to his business and he’s always busy. When Lady Rong was growing up, he was scarcely around to accompany her. Honestly speaking, Lady Rong is quite pitiful as well. Her mother had remarried precisely because I was too busy, but she didn’t bring her away… Tsk, although the script doesn’t have such a person, I reckon that my previous wife must be stewing in her regrets after she came to know how rich I am right now.”
Gu Liang interrupted Meng Qian Cheng: “Let’s go back to the main point. Therefore, Lady Rong was raised by her servants. You are unaware of the magician’s visitation.”
Meng Qian Cheng: “I’m certainly unaware of it.”
“But Lady Rong is aware, the Butler Hao who takes care of her is most definitely aware. Hence—”
Yang Ye stared at Meng Qian Cheng and opened his mouth to say: “With regards to magicians and pentagrams, I’m not the only one with the knowledge. Butler Hao and Lady Rong know about it as well. Li Xiao Yu, I think she should be unaware, but we can try to search for more clues related to it. Lastly, we have to check if Su Lan knows about this matter. I suggest that you attach more importance to the clues that Su Lan possesses. When we’re discussing later, you can ask her pointed questions related to these matters.”
* * *
Half an hour later. Sixth floor.
Yang Ye and Gu Liang spent half an hour checking through each and every room.
Su Lan’s room did not have any special clues, especially not where magic and pentagrams were concerned.
She only had a name card made for Designer Mei’s character.
The name card wrote— “Every doll deserves to be treasured by humans. Treat the doll kindly, and she will treat you kindly.”
After checking all the rooms, the pair went to Meng Qian Cheng’s room.
Before Gu Liang and Yang Ye went to the first floor, the other players had remained on this floor to search for evidence.
They had placed all the dolls in the detective’s room for the time being.
Presently, Gu Liang was raising the doll to check the condition of their throats.
But the dolls’ mouth could not be opened, so Gu Liang could only discard the idea.
“What are your current thoughts?” Yang Ye asked him.
Gu Liang observed all of the dolls in the room. He told Yang Ye: “Let’s talk in my room.”
After they entered Gu Liang’s room, Yang Ye poured him a glass of water first. “Are you hungry?”
Gu Liang shook his head. “There will be food in the centralised discussion, it doesn’t matter. Let’s discuss our thoughts first. Once it’s clarified, we can conduct a search with a specific aim in mind if we still have the time.”
Gu Liang yawned, sitting on the bed. Yang Ye pulled the armchair over to sit in front of him. “You were looking at the doll’s throat just now?”
“Mn.” Gu Liang stood up to walk towards the closet where the doll was originally situated, and picked up a card. Subsequently, he sat back down in front of Yang Ye, “Do you still remember this card?”
This was the card that had been placed at the doll’s side at the very start.
There were three sentences on the card. The first sentence stated that, this doll was a gift prepared by Lady Rong for everyone.
The second sentence proceeded to write: “Every thing has a soul, if you treat the doll well, it will bring you happiness.”
The third sentence was: “Lady Rong treats her dolls extremely well, we hope that every guest will be like her, and cherish these cute dolls.”
After Yang Ye read through those sentences, he remarked: “Actually, the latter two sentences bear the same meaning as Designer Mei’s name card. Its significance is that— if you treat the doll well, the doll will protect you.”
“Yes, which is why my initial theory was that these dolls functioned in a substituting capacity. Lady Rong treated these dolls extremely well, so these dolls developed a soul, which then protected her.
“Designer Mei had stabbed her, and the symptom that manifested in these dolls were the wound above all the dolls’ chest.
“Secondly, when you burnt Lady Rong’s windpipe, the dolls’ throats should have suffered damages. But we can’t discern it for the time being.”
“Lastly, the person who dies by Confidant Ai’s poison will have a heart symbol on their wrist. Since that’s the case, all the dolls should have a heart on their right arm. But for some unknown reason, someone had cut off the dolls’ arms, and they might have placed it in the pentagram spell to burn it altogether.”
After speaking to that point, Gu Liang kneaded the space between his eyebrows. “From what we have learnt, apart from Old Man Meng and I, everyone else can and might have gone to the vegetable field. Moreover, among all of the people that could have gone to the vegetable field, most of you have connections to the pentagram and magic. All of you bear the possibility of being the person who burnt the doll.
“But why did the burning of the doll result in Boyfriend Feng’s death? What is the relationship between the two factors? This question is extremely critical.”
Gu Liang stated at the card he was holding for a long time, and his line of sight remained fixed on the word “protect” the entire time.
In the instant where flint struck iron, a sudden thought occurred to him. Sitting up, he looked at Yang Ye with some agitation: “Right, if you protect the doll, the doll will protect you. Since that’s the case, if the doll was abused, would the door seek retribution against him? The card emphasised that the guests have to treat the dolls kindly; was it concealing this denotation?”
“If we were to follow your train of thought…”
Yang Ye contemplated it for a moment before he said: “Then Boyfriend Feng must be the only one who abused the doll. Magnate Rong and Butler Hao have been staying here for a long time, it’s improbable that they would suddenly have opinions about these dolls and start abusing them after so many years of silence. Only Boyfriend Feng, who is on the verge of being the male owner of this castle, might find it hard to adapt to these dolls, and abused them.”
“Consequently, the dolls might have two types of stories to them.”
Gu Liang said: “The first story is, someone wanted to kill Lady Rong and the dolls protected her. The second story is that the person who abuses the dolls will be avenged by the dolls. And Boyfriend Feng happens to be the person who was retaliated against.”
Yang Ye said: “But the dolls can’t be the murderer. According to your logic, someone among us must be influenced by the dolls, thus leading to the murder of Boyfriend Feng.”
Gu Liang nodded his head. “Only then, would the story become reasonable. First, Boyfriend Feng abused the doll; and later, the doll influenced a certain person’s intelligence or possessed them, to make them kill Boyfriend Feng; lastly, someone realised this matter, which could be the person who was being affected by the doll. After this person made the discovery, they used the pentagram to burn and destroy the doll to get rid of this ‘evil spirit’ in order to escape the doll’s influence.
“If there is no ‘doll’ option during the vote casting, we have to vote for the player who was being influenced.”
Yang Ye gave a long pause after hearing that. He said: “This brain hole is truly spectacular. We have been looking for the link between Boyfriend Feng and the doll burning, and if those are the circumstances, then everything has a comprehensive explanation. However, we still have to solve two problems.”
Gu Liang asked him: “I’m cognizant of the first problem. With regards to the question of the dolls’ missing arms, it is true that there’s no way of explaining it. The only conjecture I have is that it might be part of the prerequisites for sealing the evil spirit in the dolls. We need to ask the people who are associated with the spell for the specifics when the centralised discussion comes around. What’s the second question?”
Looking at him, Yang Ye slowly said: “You forgot one thing. Previously, we deduced that Boyfriend Feng had burnt to death in an instant. This factor is extremely crucial—”
T/N: Extra new year’s update! Hope 2021 will be better than the last :’))
[Honestly speaking, the entire ‘hindsight is 20/20’ joke has aged badly.]