Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 27

(What was my mistake exactly?)

Despite the expression that Doctor Yu wore, which spoke volumes of the fact that her world outlook had been utterly fractured, Yang Ye still asked: “For the sake of extreme caution, can I confirm that you weren’t with either of them during the free exploration segment?”

Doctor Yu said: “With how poorly the argument had ended, I wasn’t in Second Martial Brother’s company from the beginning to the end. As for Oldest Martial Brother, I met him at the weaponry storehouse later and we went to the fake mountain together before we bumped into you and Beauty Yi.”

Yang Ye: “How did you come to the conclusion of wanting to go to the fake mountain?”

“Both of us were checking our individual maps for places that we missed out on which no one had gone to. And then… Right, it was Oldest Martial Brother who brought up the fact that there was supposed to be a road there, but it was only a fake mountain in reality.”

Realisation spread across Doctor Yu’s face. “Back then, he only made a remark, questioning if the system had drawn the map wrongly. I was the one who suggested that the system probably wouldn’t make such a mistake, and perhaps there’s a secret path there or something. He was… guiding me into thinking in that direction. He’s actually been there once, but pretended to know nothing and joined us in being anxious as to how we should open the stone door… he’s an expert!”

“Precisely.” Yang Ye closed the notebook in front of him and stretched lazily. “The murderer should be him, there’s no running. It’s just that we don’t know the entire story. You were here to treat Perennial Wang’s illness, what illness did he have?”

Doctor Yu: “How would I know?”

Yang Ye: “?”

Doctor Yu: “I’m not a real doctor. I’m just a conman who wanders the rivers and lakes. The only reason why I pretended to be a doctor was to get close to him.”

Yang Ye: “Did your script mention anything regarding his illness then?”

In response to that, Doctor Yu took out her card blatantly to take a look and then said: “Ah, there is. He was constantly coughing and he felt like he was about to die soon. But I didn’t know how to cure illnesses, so I prescribed him general tonics.”

“Okay. I’ve understood everything. I’ll go out with you to have a look.”

This time around, Yang Ye stood up and walked out of the interrogation room with Doctor Yu.

He was doing this because he wanted to ascertain if Gu Liang had returned as soon as possible and check what condition he was in if he was back.

The moment he stepped out of the interrogation room and into the discussion room, his gaze landed on Gu Liang’s person immediately.

Shut eyed, Gu Liang was sitting on the chair like an unmoving mountain as he tried to recuperate his energy, and he seemed to retain his usual solemnity.

Upon closer scrutiny, however, it could be seen that his forehead had fine beads of perspiration and his complexion was even paler than before.

Additionally, Yang Ye noticed that his hands were clenched together tightly, causing light green veins to protrude out.

“Beauty Yi, come, follow me into the interrogation room.” Yang Ye’s voice was very soft as if he was deathly afraid of Gu Liang suffering a scare.

It took Gu Liang half a second to open his eyes and shift them towards Yang Ye, gaze going into slow focus.

It was as though he had just woken up; he stood up sluggishly and trudged in the direction of the interrogation room.

His footsteps gave the impression that he was slightly debilitated, and Yang Ye could not care less about everything else as he went up to support his arm. “Are you alright? The punishment you just—”

Although Gu Liang replied with an “I’m fine”, it was undeniable that he had little to no strength so he allowed Yang Ye to give him some support. “Move, let’s go in and talk.”

Hence, Yang Ye supported him to his seat first before he poured him a cup of hot water and handed it to him. Then, he pulled his detective chair over and sat by his side.

Holding onto the cup of hot water was both hands, Gu Liang stared at steam rising from the mouth of the cup without moving for a long time.

He was seated in an upright posture and not a single trace of fear could be found in his eyes. He was only a little fatigued, which was why his gaze seemed a little dull.

But from Yang Ye’s perspective, he was basically small, pitiful and helpless; the upper half of his body was all soft and boneless.

Thus, Yang Ye raised an arm and slid it across his back to hold his shoulder lightly as if he was about to hug him.

The steel and iron straight man Gu Liang probably assumed that he was just being a good brethren as he held his shoulders, and he did not feel the slightest inviting ambiguity from his actions.

As he drank the hot water from the cup he was holding at a slow pace, the paleness of his complexion receded a little. Half a beat later, he spat out a mouthful of hot air like he was finally warming up.

Gu Liang tilted his head sideways to observe Yang Ye. “Judging from your calm expression, you already know who the murderer is?”

“I’m well-aware of the situation,” Yang Ye replied.

Gu Liang knocked on the table. “What did they say just now, come, repeat them to me.”

Yang Ye chuckled and pinched his shoulders while he was at it. “Are you the detective or am I the detective?”

Gu Liang: “Am I not doing this to help you? Do you want to know what I discovered when I returned back to the secret room or not?”

Yang Ye gave him a glance before he wrote a name down on his notebook and showed it to him. “He’s the murderer, is my guess correct?”

Gu Liang issued a faint huff. “Yes. It’s him. Compared to the Death of Boss Bai, this script is more complicated by a slight margin, but ultimately, it’s still a simple script. Its complications only arose because the murderer knew how to play around. Unfortunately for him, his order of thinking exploded.”

“You figured out where the problem lies too?” Yang Ye asked, laughing.

Gu Liang looked at him indifferently, saying: “I was probably slower on the uptake compared to you. I had to return to the secret path, talk to the NPC, read through the item he gave me to find out who the murderer was before I worked backwards and figured out what was wrong.”

Yang Ye asked Gu Liang: “What did you discover there? Show it to me.”

Gu Liang took out two items from his bosom. One of them was Perennial Wang’s face skin, the other was a letter signed by Perennial Wang.

Gu Liang said: “When we went to the secret cave, that elderly NPC was still crafting a face skin and he didn’t acknowledge us. But when I went back, he started to mumble to himself once he was done with the face skin.”

Yang Ye asked: “What did he say?”

Gu Liang replied, “He was repeating one sentence incessantly. ‘Strange, why did the Sect Leader’s mask suddenly disappear? Ai, I almost failed to complete the task that the Sect Leader entrusted me with. Thankfully, I came back a quarter of an hour ago and realised this matter and quickly made another one’.”

Yang Ye grabbed hold of something with his keen senses. “A quarter of an hour ago?”

“Yes.”

“That means to say, when the NPC entered with his front foot, we went in shortly after, give or take a few?”

“Exactly so.”

“Look at this next. You’ll come to understand everything.” Gu Liang handed the letter with “Perennial Wang” as the signee to Yang Ye.

The first reaction Yang Ye had after reading the letter was: “What the fuck, ‘Perennial Wang’ was the bottom?”

Gu Liang: “Just what kind of gist are you catching…”

Yang Ye knocked on the table and feigned a serious expression. “En, let’s solve the case, let’s solve the case.”

Gu Liang looked at him in askance. “Sure. Your turn. Talk about it, which specific detail tipped you off and allowed you to confirm that he was the real murderer?”

Yang Ye said: “I’ll pose a question to you first, ‘Perennial Wang’ wasn’t wearing anything when he went to sleep last night, right?”

“Yes, he was bare.” Gu Liang nodded. “I understand, this is quite important.”

“Mn, which makes this the first determinant. The second determinant is that when Doctor Yu came over to find me in the morning, which took her from mao shi to three quarters of an hour in to reach, she passed by Perennial Wang’s room and the fake mountain, and yet she did not notice a single person heading in the direction of the fake mountain.”

“Lastly, which was also the most decisive determinant.” Yang Ye looked towards Gu Liang, “You said that the murderer’s order of thinking exploded just now, no? I reckon you’ve already guessed where the problem lies.”

“Mn,” Gu Liang nodded, “Face skins. The number of face skins was incorrect. The real murderer tried to be clever but he ended up with a blunder.”

“We’re done here. I’ll call all of them in again. Every person will go through a lone interrogation once more to prevent the real murderer from suspecting that we already know the truth.”

Having said that, Yang Ye stood up but he was abruptly called to a stop by Gu Liang. “Wait. With what we have right now, we’re clear about the burst seam in the murderer’s crime committing process. But there’s one thing that’s rather strange; why did he choose to fabricate his motivation to kill?”

— Why did he choose to fabricate the fact that it was Perennial Wang who forced himself on the Oldest Martial Brother in order to justify why the Oldest Martial Brother wanted to kill him?

Yang Ye shook his head. “This question, we can ask him later and see if he’s willing to answer.”

Nodding his head, Gu Liang gazed at Yang Ye and suddenly said a moment later: “I’ve realised you’re incredibly astute.”

Yang Ye laughed. “Hey, are you complimenting me?”

Gu Liang nodded seriously. “I certainly am. When you look at a problem, you catch the crux of it consistently; it’s very direct and effective. I’m not the same.”

Yang Ye asked: “Why would you think that way? Your logical reasoning is perspicuous, each conjecture you make lends a lot of credence.”

Gu Liang said: “I have the habit of getting to the bottom of every matter; whether it’s the storyline, the character logic or the brain hole that the entire story was crafted from. I’m too concerned with the outlook of the original story and it makes me lose out on some of the details instead.”

Yang Ye felt a little overwhelmed by the unexpected favour.

Gu Liang had always possessed a sarcastic and poisonous tongue, but he seemed to be giving him a genuine compliment right now.

Gu Liang continued to speak: “Take now for instance. I went back to the secret cave for the sake of wanting to unravel the entire story completely. I had to clarify everything before I understood the truth. But you’re not the same; you could find the murderer despite not knowing the full story.”

Yang Ye gave Gu Liang a slight bow. With a click of his tongue, he said: “Many thanks for your compliment.”

“You’re welcome.” Gu Liang stood up, making it apparent that he wanted to return to the centralised discussion room.

However, Yang Ye called him: “Gu Liang—”

“What?” Yang Ye turned his head back to look at him, “Is there still a problem somewhere?”

“No. I just wanted to thank you. Regarding that punishment…”

“It’s nothing.”

Voice earnest, Yang Ye said: “In order to help me, did you—”

When Gu Liang caught sight of a rare seriousness on Yang Ye’s visage, he smiled, “Don’t paste gold on your face. This isn’t considered as helping you.”

Yang Ye: “Huh?”

Gu Liang said: “It’s merely my obsessive-compulsive disorder exercising its bad influence and I wanted confirmation. Moreover, if I didn’t figure everything out, I’d feel like I was played by the murderer.”

Yang Ye: “……”

— Never mind, forget it, Gu Liang was definitely being a hard-mouthed tsundere who refused to admit to anything.

Hm? Why does Yang Ye look a little disappointed?

Oh, he went back to normal again.

Gu Liang moved closer to pat on his shoulder. “You’re capable of finding the murderer through the one-on-one interrogations alone, since when did you need my help? Enough of this, go and persuade them for the vote casting.”

Yang Ye: “!”

— Gu Liang, this, are you comforting me?

Turning around, Gu Liang exited the interrogation room in a leisurely manner and sat back in the centralised discussion room. Then, he closed his eyes to rest, position as unmoving as a mountain.

Following, in the order of Oldest Martial Brother, Second Martial Brother, Doctor Yu and Beauty Yi, each individual was called into the interrogation room again.

Towards the real murderer, Yang Ye randomly duped him.

Towards the others, Yang Ye gave them a thorough explanation of the truth.

Once the centralised discussion concluded, the voting segment commenced.

Every person’s card automatically initiated the voting interface.

The system broadcasted: “Right now, the case of 《 Painted Exteriors · Long Lived 》has formally come to an end. The following is an announcement of the voting results, there are two players with zero votes, who are Beauty Yi and Doctor Yu. In that case, between Oldest Martial Brother and Second Martial Brother, who was voted as the murderer?”

Second Martial Brother could not help but swallow his saliva, but he was still considered calm and collected, as if he had already predicted the outcome.

Oldest Martial Brother clasped his hands together, complexion as white as a sheet.

“Second Martial Brother has 1 vote and Oldest Martial Brother has 4 votes. The Oldest Martial Brother is the murderer being voted out in this case. So, is he the real murderer of this case?”

“The detective has guided everyone to find the correct answer. Congratulations everyone! The following is the rewards settlement segment.”

Oldest Martial Brother raised his head abruptly and looked at Yang Ye in disbelief. “Where did I…. Where did I leave behind a split seam? The matter of breakfast and the clothes, all of it could be explained! Those details shouldn’t have been enough to expose my ruse!”