Live Action Murder Mystery

Chapter 68

(Four pointed prepositions; The superimposition of time and space?)

Two candles were placed on the mirrorless dresser, and the candlelight illuminated the splendorous and majestic resting hall.

Gu Liang raised his head and surveyed the room, gaze lingering on the coffin for a very long time before he glanced at the diary again.

After some time, he opened his mouth to say: “The words carved on the coffins of this room and the Princess’ rooms are in English, and they were probably written by the Duke. But this diary is in Chinese. It’s highly likely that Aimeili was a woman who came from the east.

“Whereas the Duke fled from the west to the east, constructed an ancient castle, bewitched the villagers and massacred said villagers through his blood consumption. Perhaps Aimeili was one of those villagers, but by virtue of her beauty, the Duke couldn’t bear to kill her so he turned her into a vampire.

“The sunshine loving Aimeili never saw the light from that point onwards. She was unwilling to drink human blood, had a deeply-seated hatred for Duke Dahl, and swore to kill him.

“The story should be as such.

“As to whether the Princess was borne by Duke and Aimeili, this is currently unknown to us.”

“Mn. Agreed.” Sister Mei said.

Gu Liang said: “Apart from that, this sealed letter contains an extremely important clue: because the Duke has consumed a large volume of human blood, his powers were strong, so he wasn’t afraid of sunlight. But Aimeili was afraid of light. We know nothing of the Princess, since we haven’t found any stories concerning her blood drinking, but we’ll assume that she’s afraid of light too. Therefore, only the Duke is unafraid of light.”

“Agreed.” Li Xiao Yu thought about it before she asked: “But what does this clue relate to?”

Gu Liang thought of Yang Ye in the moment.

As the actor of Earl William, Yang Ye had not received any information that stated he was afraid of sunlight.

Furthermore, when everyone left the ancient castle to get some air, they were merely wary of getting close to the car because they did not want to be reflected in the car window, but they did not appear to be afraid of the sunlight.

And there was definitely a vampire among them.

But why did they have no fear for sunlight?

There was a strange feeling in Gu Liang’s heart, but he could not parse out anything for the time being. He simply said: “I’m not certain right now. But I sense that this should be a very important clue.”

Having said that, Gu Liang looked towards Li Xiao Yu: “The owner of this room is called Aimeili, you’re called Mother Ai, and both of you look identical. But you said that you didn’t know about this matter at all?”

Li Xiao Yu shook her head: “I’m genuinely out of the loop for this.”

Following closing, the system’s voice sounded. “Friendly reminder, there are 10 minutes remaining in the first exploration segment. Everyone, please make your way towards the centralised discussion room on the second floor, do not delay the time. At 12 exactly, the system will declare the voting tasks for the first segment.”

* * *

Close to 12 noon. In the centralised discussion room.

The seven players sat together, waiting for the system broadcast.

Most of the players had sitting postures that were a little too upright and stiff, because they did not know what the voting tasks were going to be in the first round.

At 12 noon, the system’s broadcast finally rang out.

“Ding Dong. Greetings players! In this current instance, the exploration segment has been divided into stages, and the vote casting has been divided as well.

“The current set-up is not meant to increase the difficulty, but to help the players organise their deductions instead, so that the players can find the real murderer in the last segment!

“The current round of votes involves several questions. Each question will be given 15 minutes of discussion time, and one-on-one discussions are not allowed within the given span of time. Trust me, the truth is that you will not have the time for one-on-ones either.

“The players can pick up their card to answer, and once the answers have been submitted, the system will immediately announce if the answer is right or wrong. If the players give the incorrect answer to the question, the system will not be announcing the correct answer.”

Upon hearing that, Gu Liang thought inwardly: Perhaps the system is right on this count.

From a certain perspective, the establishment of this segment certainly helped the players.

— With regards to the few questions, even though the system would not be announcing the correct answer if everyone gave the incorrect answer, it helped the players eliminate one wrong answer at least.

“After the voting segment for each question concludes, every player’s choice will be publicised on everyone’s card interface.

“Additionally, a portion of the players have received other side tasks. Hence, no rewards will be distributed during the first segment, and the rewards and penalties will be settled altogether in the game’s final segment.

“Are all of you prepared? Let us begin then!

“Please listen to the first question. Woah, this is truly a free question!

“Question: Who is the person that killed Scumbag Yu, Confidant Ai, and Designer Mei in a merciless manner?

“Friendly reminder: the time is limited, the question is simple, please use the limited evidence to make your deductions and that will suffice. Opening wide brain holes and diverging your thoughts is unnecessary.

“The aforementioned reminder is applicable to the following questions as well.

“The countdown begins! Please cast your votes after 15 minutes!”

After the broadcast ended.

Su Lan immediately said: “I know this one. When me, Yang Ye, and that Chief Mei stepped into Magnate Rong’s room on the sixth floor just now, there was a blank book inside. After we used a pencil to shade it, we saw the words ‘kill all of them’.

“We discussed it briefly, and we believe that Magnate Rong was responsible for their deaths. He committed homicide to silence them because he wanted to protect Lady Rong’s reputation.”

Gu Liang added a line: “I inspected Scumbag Yu’s sports car just now, the tires were devoid of air. I’m of the similar opinion that it was Magnate Rong, because he’s the only one who is capable of removing the air in Scumbag Yu’s car tires for the sake of persuading Scumbag Yu into taking the commercial car that he arranged.”

Sister Mei, who had remained silent for the most part, spoke out as well. “I’m a newcomer in this scenario, and I’m unaware of your previous circumstances. I initially thought that… We shouldn’t be this negligent; we shouldn’t determine Magnate Rong as the murderer just based on a piece of paper and his possible motivations to kill alone. However, the friendly reminder given by the system told us that using the limited evidence that we have to make our deductions will suffice, so it’s probably him. In any case, we’re not looking for the real murderer, we’re only answering questions.”

“Then I’ll vote for him too!”

Li Xiao Yu rested her chin on her hand, “This question doesn’t require 15 minutes… It would be great if we could transfer the time to the other questions.”

“All the words have been said by you. I don’t even have the time to plead my innocence…”

Meng Qian Cheng was rather speechless, “The side task that requires me to conceal the fact that I’ve committed homicide is probably poisonous. The system is being unfair towards me!”

15 minutes later.

The voting interface for the first question appeared on all of their cards.

Gu Liang only needed to choose “Magnate Rong” before he was done.

But it was at this moment where he discovered something— There was a question mark below Yang Ye’s portrait where his name was supposed to be.

Among the options of suspects, which included Magnate Rong, Mother Ai, Sister Mei, Chief Mei, Actor Ming, and Traveller Meng, all of their portraits had their corresponding names. Their names were written correctly too, and it completely conformed with their self-introductions.

Only Yang Ye’s name was a question mark.

Truly, the game was too obnoxious.

Gu Liang’s eyebrows furrowed together.

He felt like he and Yang Ye could not be blamed for being negligent.

Yes, they did not expect that there would be little to no script enactment this time around and that the first round of voting would begin directly in such a fashion, and it was to the extent where Yang Ye was nearly deprived of space to develop.

Evidently, the other players had noticed this problem as well, and all of them glanced in Yang Ye’s direction.

System: “Congratulations everyone, you have voted correctly! Magnate Rong is the murderer who killed those three people.”

“Please listen to the second question: Who was the murderer that killed the chef?”

Meng Qian Cheng peered at Yang Ye first. “What else could your question mark mean? Your skin is white, your name is a question mark, you’re a vampire, right? It’s quite obvious that the chef was killed by a vampire, and is that you?”

As Yang Ye adjusted his glasses, his expression did not change in the slightest. “I’m not the murderer.”

Li Xiao Yu also casted her doubtful gaze at Yang Ye. “The system said that we have to use our limited evidence to make our deductions. It can only be you.”

“Tsk.” Yang Ye asked Li Xiao Yu, “Student Xiao Yu, what’s up with that corpse in the coffin? You’re the only one who looks like the wife of the vampiric Duke. You might be a vampire too.”

Li Xiao Yu: “……”

At this moment, Chief Mei abruptly spoke.

He gave Li Xiao Yu a deep look before he addressed the rest: “I have something, which I originally wanted to conceal because my side task requires me to help Mother Ai hide this fact. But I feel that answering these questions correctly will be of great help when we have to find the real murderer. Therefore, I’ve decided to abandon my side task and prioritise helping everyone complete the main task.

“Mother Ai—”

Chief Mei looked at Li Xiao Yu again, “I don’t actually know you. I’m merely Designer Mei’s superior. Like what I previously said, I came here to ask her to go back to work, and persuade her not to resign. I don’t know why you called me your fiancé the moment I met you today.”

“You’re clearly my fiancé!”

Li Xiao wore an expression which conveyed that her three views had exploded. She looked at Gu Liang with pleading eyes before she gazed at Yang Ye once more, “I wasn’t being hostile towards you on purpose. But Big Brother Yang Ye, you clearly look like a vampire. Your skin is so white and your name is a question mark too. But I really wasn’t lying!”

Truth to be told, Gu Liang was also torn between two difficult choices at that moment, and he was contemplating if he should bring up the fact that he and Yang Ye were together.

If he said it, their tasks would be quickly exposed; if he chose to keep his silence, everyone would continue to harbour suspicions regarding Yang Ye.

For Gu Liang, if everyone voted for Li Xiao Yu instead of Yang Ye and the answer ended up being wrong, he would eliminate a wrong option at least. But if they voted for Yang Ye, Gu Liang could not eliminate a single person.

As Gu Liang was mulling over his options with furrowed brows, someone had an idea and they voiced it immediately: “Since there are so many suspicious figures, let’s talk about our timelines. We still have 12 minutes, every person can give a simple explanation of their timelines in one minute first.”

Li Xiao Yu was the first to speak: “I’ll talk first! Lest you suspect that I imitated another person’s timeline! I dare to speak first because I’m not a vampire at all!”

“I took a taxi here. When I was getting closer to the ancient castle, there was a thick fog. It’s not the killer fog that isolates the premises, but actual and natural white fog. Impression-wise the driver said that the ancient castle was evil, and told me to get off before he drove the car off by himself. Then, I randomly walked around the fog for… 8 minutes, and I wandered into the vegetable field.

“Mn, in the previous script, Confidant Ai knew how to get to the ancient castle from the vegetable field. But this character of mine doesn’t know how to, so I wandered around the vegetable field randomly. At 8:40, I bumped into my fiancé Chief Mei. He said that he knew the way, and we walked towards the main entrance together.

“When we reached the main doors of the ancient castle, it was around 8:50 because we heard the broadcast at that time, and the broadcast stated that it was 8:50 and it also said the chef was dead. Hence, we traversed through the main lobby and walked in the direction of the main hall and back kitchen.

“It was around 9 o’ clock when we stepped into the main hall.”

Once Li Xiao Yu was done speaking, she peered at Yang Ye: “It’s your turn.”

Yang Ye questioned Li Xiao Yu first. “You previously said that you and your fiancé came together to look for your daughter Confidant Ai. Why did you take a taxi here by yourself, and then bumped into him? Why did you stay in the vegetable garden for 40 full minutes? It’s more than enough for you to wander in the direction of the peach forest, and reach the main hall through the west side door, before going to the back kitchen to suck the chef’s blood.”

“I don’t know, that fog felt like miasma. Either way, I couldn’t walk out of it, I was actually lost.”

After saying those words, Li Xiao sighed in her heart— Why was she in a PK battle with Yang Ye again? How could she possibly out-hostile him?

Chief Mei chose to speak at that moment: “Mother Ai’s timeline has a huge overlap with mine, I’ll speak next.

“I arrived at the ancient castle around 8:30. I drove here. I don’t know if we can investigate my car later. In any case, I parked it near the vegetable field, approximately 500 metres away. I also encountered the thick fog, which was why I didn’t manage to find the main entrance of the ancient castle immediately, so I wandered into the vegetable field first. At 8:40, I met Mother Ai, and the rest is the same as hers. Both of us reached the main hall at 9 o’ clock.”

After hearing his words, Yang Ye stretched his body lazily.

As a matter of fact, he did not have an opportunity to fabricate an excuse. He and Gu Liang only arrived at the main hall at 9:40, and everyone had been there by then.

Therefore, he could only say that he reached the main doors of the ancient castle at 9:30.

If he tried to contrive an earlier time, his time of arrival might clash with the other players.

Yang Ye: “At 9:30, I took a car over, and encountered Actor Ming who was waiting for me at the door. Afterwards, we went to the main hall together.”

Li Xiao Yu: “It’s that simple?”

Yang Ye nodded. “It is that simple.”

When Gu Liang heard that, he realised that Yang Ye had made a choice.

Through this method, they could collate all the players’ rough timelines, and they would technically profit from it.

The game had just begun, now was not the time to expose their tasks.

Once they heard their timelines, they would think of a way to push the fault towards the person with a bigger gap, and it should wash away Yang Ye’s suspicions.

Sister Mei was the next to speak: “I took a car here as well. I also encountered the thick fog, and I wandered into the vegetable field at 8:50. After hearing the broadcast, I walked towards the main entrance and reached the doors at 9 o’ clock where I met Magnate Rong, and both of us walked in together. Consequently, the time that Magnate Rong and I reached the main hall was 9:10, which is 10 minutes later than Mother Ai and Chief Mei.”

Magnate Rong: “Since she mentioned me, I’ll speak. I was brought over by my driver. Of course, I also encountered the fog when I was approaching the castle. The driver couldn’t see the road clearly, so he stopped the car roughly 300 metres out, and I walked over by myself. When I reached the main doors of the ancient castle, it was 9 o’ clock. The rest of my timeline is the same as Sister Mei.”

“It’s my turn.” Su Lan stated, “In fact, I’ll summarise first. Mother Ai and Chief Mei reached the ancient castle’s main entrance at 8:50, stepped into the main hall at 9, they were the first to see the corpse.

“10 minutes after, which is 9:10, Magnate Rong and Sister Mei also entered the main hall.

“By that point in time, I was at the ancient castle’s main doors. I reached the main hall 10 minutes after at 9:20.

“The last ones were Actor Ming and— the unknown figure. Both of them only reached at 9:40.”

Unknown figure?

Gu Liang gave Su Lan a sweeping glance before he spoke in an indifferent manner: “It’s my turn. I was sleeping the entire time, and I woke up to the system broadcast at 8:50. I decided to take a shower before I went to see the corpse.”

In the short moment where Gu Liang paused, Meng Qian Cheng laughed: “Yes, yes, yes, you have an obsession with cleanliness, I know. Do you know—”

Meng Qian Cheng looked at everyone: “Two scripts ago, we were on a snow-capped mountain. The mineral water that the system provided was inside the warm thermos so it wouldn’t freeze into ice. But if you only brought that thermos alone, it wouldn’t take you far. So guess what he did? When we were going to the toilet, he specifically brought the warm thermos because he wanted to wash his hands!”

Gu Liang continued calmly: “But there were bats in my bathroom. I thought that going to the ladies’ rooms was inappropriate, and then I promptly remembered that Scumbag Yu’s room door had not been locked when he left last night. Hence, I went to his room. There were no bats there, so I could shower.

“After I showered, it was 9:20, and I went to the main entrance of the ancient castle. At that time, I didn’t see the thick fog that all of you mentioned.”

“After waiting 10 minutes, a taxi arrived, and my assistant stepped off— who is Assistant Wang.

“Of course, I want to add a point: the company said that they would assign me a new assistant. But I’ve never met this new assistant.

“Therefore, I’m uncertain if this unknown figure is actually my assistant. Since his name is a question mark, it’s definitely possible that he has another identity. However, I did see him getting off the taxi at 9:20. The system told us not to diverge our line of thought. Since that’s the case, we don’t need to overcomplicate things. For instance, it’s impossible that he killed the chef before he walked far enough to flag down a taxi.

“In conclusion, I agree with the deduction that he might be a vampire.

“But even if he is a vampire, he’s not the one who killed the chef. He doesn’t have the time to act.”

Chief Mei glanced at his card. “We only have 2 minutes left, we need to come to a decision quickly.”

Gu Liang thought about it before he said: “It’s true that Confidant Ai’s mother is a little bizarre, especially with the corpse in the coffin and how she believes that Chief Mei is her fiancé even though Chief Mei doesn’t know her at all. This, added with the fact that she was in the vegetable field for 40 whole minutes, is very suspicious.

“However, no matter how suspicious she is, her timeline is most detailed out of everyone here. Even though she knows that there were a lot of illogical areas in her timeline, she still dared to say it, and I can tentatively believe that she isn’t lying.

“Conversely, the truth is that there are four characters whose timelines are overly simple and vague— namely the unknown figure, Magnate Rong, Traveller Meng, and Sister Mei. The unknown figure can be eliminated from my perspective. It’s unlikely that Magnate Rong is the vampire, he’s eliminated.

“Therefore, we have reached a fortunate conclusion where it is one out of the two options. Between Traveller Meng and Sister Mei, one of them is the real murderer.

“In view of how Sister Mei mentioned that she had been to the vegetable field, while Traveller Meng said that she arrived at the ancient castle directly, I am inclined towards Traveller Meng being the vampire who killed the chef.

“But it doesn’t matter who we choose between the two. Even if we pick wrongly, that person will be eliminated. Which means that the remaining unchosen one is probably the vampire.

“The words spoken above are merely a personal opinion.”

When Su Lan heard his deduction, she asked Gu Liang with a frown: “Why didn’t you talk about yourself? Your timeline is absurdly simple as well. You’re the only person who stayed in this ancient castle for the entire night. You’re the most suspicious, you could have killed the chef before going up again.”

Gu Liang: “During your timelines, none of you used the lift, right?

“When I was preparing to go down after taking a shower, I saw the elevator on the first floor. This can prove the fact that I didn’t go to the kitchen to kill someone, before going back to my room on the sixth floor again. Or else, the lift should be on the sixth floor.

“Since none of you used the elevator in the morning, there won’t be any interference in this verdict.”

Li Xiao raised her hand: “I paid attention to this! When I walked into the lobby at 8:50, I was concerned about the elevator’s condition, so I specifically went over to the elevator to take a look. The elevator was on the first floor.”

Gu Liang nodded his head at her: “Thanks.”

Li Xiao Yu: “You spoke for me, so I ought to help you too. I’m being honest, I’m not a vampire! I didn’t kill anyone either! I can’t explain my story in a logical manner, but I’m really not lying!”

15 minutes ended.

All of their card interfaces lit up again.

After a moment, the system said: “Next, let me announce the voting results for the second question!

“Woah, the unknown figure has 1 vote, Mother Ai has 1 vote, and Traveller Meng has— 5 votes!”

The card interface jumped to the page which showcased the players’ votes.

Traveller Meng, who was also Su Lan, voted for Yang Ye. This was reasonable, and it was nothing else beyond venting the anger in her chest. It was similar to the Doll scenario; despite knowing she had no hopes of winning, Lady Rong still gave the vote for the real murderer to Butler Hao.

But what confused Gu Liang even more was that— Meng Qian Cheng actually voted for Mother Ai.

“Why did you vote for me?” Li Xiao Yu shot Meng Qian Cheng a questioning look.

Meng Qian Cheng: “I hesitated for a moment. While it can’t be denied that Gu Liang’s words are reasonable, your story is way too strange, alright!? Since the Duke’s wife’s corpse is there, the corpse tells us that she didn’t come back to life!

“Only the Duke and the Princess’ coffins are empty. Therefore, the surviving members are the Duke and Princess, one male and one female, both of whom are vampires.

“With the question mark below Yang Ye’s portrait, it indicates that he’s the male vampire, he’s the Duke who committed a multitude of evil. Thus, only the female remains, which is probably you, you’re the princess who is fond of roses. The sunflower loving corpse lying in the coffin is your mother. You know magic, and you can turn into your mother’s appearance. This can explain why both of you look identical.”

Li Xiao Yu: “??? Why didn’t I notice the fact that your brain holes are so distinctively queer prior to this?”

Tsk, it feels like everyone’s little friendship boat is going to break down by the end of this segment.

Gu Liang pinched the space between his eyebrows.

“Ding dong, please keep quiet!”

The system broadcast continued: “Traveller Meng has gained 5 votes. Is she the murderer that killed the chef? Congratulations everyone! Your vote was correct!”

When Li Xiao Yu heard that, she gave Meng Qian Cheng the biggest eye roll she could manage.

Meng Qian Cheng: “Hey, it’s fine, it’s fine, everyone voted for the correct person in the end, no? My vote didn’t affect the final results. At most, I won’t be able to get the reward…”

System: “The following is the third question. Who murdered Lady Rong and Butler Hao?”

“Please give your answer after 15 minutes!”

Truth to be told, Gu Liang wanted to wait for everyone to make their inferences before he spoke at the end.

He did not want to make himself the focal point.

However, Su Lan could not stand him any longer and came seeking revenge. Proactively, she asked: “Since you’re so good at analysing, why don’t you tell us, who is the murderer in this round?”

Gu Liang raised his eyes to look at her quietly, not uttering a word.

At that moment, Yang Ye chimed in: “Personal opinion, the answer to this question is either Sister Mei or Chief Mei.”

“In the previous scenario, Designer Mei mentioned that she was paid to kill Lady Rong, which means that someone bought a murderer to kill their target.

“Among us players, the only ones who are related to Designer Mei, know that she’s attending the wedding, and can incite her into seizing the chance to kill Lady Rong, are her older sister and her superior.

“Chief Mei said that he drove a car over. This means that it fulfils the condition of being able to bring his own weapon to commit the crime. Additionally, considering how the perpetrator managed to kill Lady Rong and Butler Hao so quickly, it’s more likely that the murderer is male. Therefore, I’m inclined towards Chief Mei.

“Similarly, we can choose either and it doesn’t matter if we’re wrong. After eliminating the wrong option, the correct answer should be the one remaining.”

Having said that, Yang Ye looked at Gu Liang. “Liang Liang, what do you think?”

When he saw the gaze that was trying to take credit for another person’s achievements, Gu Liang almost failed to restrain his smile.

In the end, he still said: “Agreed.”

15 minutes later, the system announced the voting results. Chief Mei had 6 votes, Sister Mei had 1 vote.

Needless to say, the single vote for Sister Mei was from Chief Mei.

The system declared the results: “How unfortunate, the answer is wrong.”

It wasn’t Chief Mei?

Sister Mei was capable of killing two people alone?

Gu Liang did not have the time to mull over it, because the broadcast continued.

“The following is the final question: There are vampires hiding among the normal players, who are they exactly?”

Towards this question, there was not much dissent among the players in actuality.

From the perspective of the normal humans, judging from the gathered clues and the fact that the real murderer of the chef was indeed Traveller Meng, Meng Qian Cheng’s previous analysis actually made sense— Three coffins, two were empty, one had a corpse.

Therefore, the vampires who managed to live long enough to travel over, could only be the Duke and the Princess for the time being.

And thus far, they did not have a single clue that concerned Earl William.

Therefore, they can only infer that Yang Ye was Duke Dahl, and the true identity of the falsified Traveller Meng Su Lan could only be Princess Rose.

During the discussion, Gu Liang was actually wavering on whether he should continue hiding his task.

He still chose to conceal it in the end.

Because he felt that even if he said that Yang Ye was the Earl, they had no way of confirming who the Duke was.

Apart from Yang Ye, there were two more male characters. After eliminating Magnate Rong, only Chief Mei remained.

But he felt that neither Magnate Rong nor Chief Mei were the Duke.

What kind of role the Duke was meant to play required more observation before they could talk about it.

Once the 15 minutes ended, the system said: “Woah, the unknown figure and Traveller Meng have 7 votes each. Unknown figure? Traveller Meng? Both of you actually voted for yourself? Tsk, tsk… In any case, did everyone give the correct answer?

“How unfortunate, the answers are wrong.

“Okay, in the four questions, two were correct, two were wrong, everyone did quite well!

“The system has always treated its players kindly. In a short while, the men in black will be sending everyone their lunch and beverages.

“It is currently 1 in the afternoon, you have one hour to eat your lunch and rest up.

“At 2 in the afternoon, the second exploration segment will begin.

“The powerful Duke Dahl loved his wife deeply. But his wife died unexpectedly.

“Duke Dahl really wants to know who killed his wife.

“Players, please lend some help to the ancient castle’s original owner!

“Friendly reminder, the options in the second segment are not limited to the players alone.

“Please put in your best efforts and solve the case, and find the murderer who killed the Duke’s wife 300 years ago!

“The exploration will last for 3 hours. At 5 in the evening, please return to the centralised discussion room to begin your discussion and cast your votes.

“Right, the name of the scenario will be announced right now— 《 Folding Ancient Castle 》.

“Hope everyone will have a smooth game!”

* * *

Once the system stopped speaking, the men in black brought lunch for everyone.

The first question that Meng Qian Cheng posed to Su Lan was: “That… since you’ve already been voted out, can you explain your story?”

Su Lan: “No. I don’t want to say it.”

Meng Qian Cheng: “Aiyo, don’t be so foul tempered. Everyone was doing their task. It’s okay to fail your side task. I failed too! Chief Mei admitted to his side task on his own accord as well! Everyone should work together to solve the main task line!”

Su Lan: “No comment. I don’t want to say anything right now.”

Meng Qian Cheng: “……”

* * *

A short while later.

Yang Ye and Gu Liang ate their food in the corner.

“After listening to the system, you looked like you were making some deductions in advance. What are you thinking about?” Yang Ye asked.

Gu Liang replied: “When we were looking through the rooms prior to this, I already had a brain hole. And with the system announcing the title, it has essentially affirmed this brain hole.”

Yang Ye tossed out another question: “What brain hole is it?”

Gu Liang said: “There is an overlap in space-time between 300 years ago and 300 years after. But it’s not a complete superimposition. The title of our current scenario is called Folding Ancient Castle. I reckon, what actually folded was the space-time.

“The ancient castle is a space-time concept. In this space-time, there exists two times: 300 years before and 300 years after.

“I think the two space-times folded, and intermediary that gave rise to this overlapping… should be the wall paintings.”

The author has something to say:

[The continuation of yesterday’s small scenario]

–

As Yang Ye left with Gu Liang hand-in-hand, he heard the ladies’ discussion behind his back. They were probably discussing who the top and bottom were.

–

Yang Ye immediately retraced his steps and declared: “That’s right, I’m purely 1. Liang Liang is my wife!”

–

After they left the restaurant, there was a fruit store at the side. Yang Ye pulled Gu Liang to the store: “Wife, what kind of fruits do you want to eat? Your husband will buy it for you!”

–

Gu Liang walked over to the boss and asked: “Do you have durians? Give me a few. Please help me cut it, but I want to take away the durian shells as well. I have another use for it.”

~

The translator has something to say: The chinese proverb might say that ‘there is gold underneath a man’s knees, but Yang Ye’s kneecaps are going to bleed x)