Chapter 3

(Comparing big and small, hah, the show-off breaks their leg.)

At 10:30, Gu Liang carried the insulin on his person and headed downstairs an hour in advance, only to find that someone lounging on the sofa casually.

It was Yang Ye.

Clattering and chopping noises travelled out from the kitchen, alongside the fragrant smells of the rice and dishes.

It seemed like someone was cooking.

Gu Liang did not make a sound while Yang Ye beckoned him with his hand proactively. “The maid is currently making food in the kitchen. Are you hungry, are you trying to eat on the sly?”

He’s issuing a naked provocation, isn’t he?

This person’s eyes clearly had the words “I know you’re going to administer your poison” written all over his eyes.

— He must be the detective right?

Gu Liang stared at Yang Ye placidly. “It’s not time for me to act yet. I came down in advance to observe the situation.”

The reason why Gu Liang chose to answer honestly was because he had seen through his identity, and because it was clear that Yang Ye had no intention of leaving as he sat there in the living room.

From his position, he could see the corridor upstairs and the people entering the kitchen, which made for an exceedingly advantageous observation point.

Which signified that when he had to follow the script and plant his poison at 11:30, he would definitely witness it.

Gu Liang made a brief recall. The original text in his script was “you walked past the kitchen, noticed that there was no one inside, and you…”

There was no one in the kitchen but it did not mean that there was no one in the living room who witnessed him entering the kitchen.

It was highly likely that the other players shared the same wording in their copies, which was why Yang Ye’s actions were not considered a rule-breaker.

Trash scenario. Not strict enough.

Gu Liang shot Yang Ye another look: “The system didn’t condemn you for breaking the rules?”

Yang Ye said, “No. When it comes to administering poison or the likes of it, most would have to do it through the kitchen. I guessed that many among us will have to enter the kitchen, which is why I’m sitting here to observe. Presently, it appears that as long as I don’t enter the kitchen to watch the specifics of your actions, it will not be considered as a violation of the script’s contents. And as reality would prove it, I’m fine.”

Gu Liang pondered for a moment. With one long stride, he placed himself on the sofa as well.

Half a beat later, Gu Liang tilted his head to the side and questioned Yang Ye again. “Your actions aren’t considered a foot fault? A found loophole?”

“It seems like it isn’t considered as such. Furthermore, I didn’t hear any notice about breaking the rules or committing a foot fault. You, on the other hand, attempted to destroy the evidence but the system found you out. Everyone should have heard it.”

As Yang Ye stared at him, he tacked on another line at the end. “You should be cautious. Cautious of everyone casting you as their vote.”

Gu Liang: “So you are the detective.”

Yang Ye: “If I am the detective, do you think someone would be narrow-minded enough to kill me?”

Gu Liang: “If you were the detective, I would constantly follow you.”

Yang Ye: “To protect me?”

After a moment of silence, Gu Liang replied, “I only intend to follow you in secret and keep watch. If you happen to hold onto any important clues and the real murderer comes to silence you, your continued existence is none of my concern, and I managed to find the murderer.”

Yang Ye: “……”

Despite being a murder suspect, Gu Liang seemed to be in a relatively good mood as the corners of his mouth curled up a little after he had attacked the detective verbally. Who, by the by, was watching everyone for their respective timelines.

Although they hadn’t been acquainted for long, Yang Ye could still perceive that Gu Liang wore a perpetual poker face, was reticent and spoke sarcastically, which gave rise to the feeling that he was difficult to get close to.

But once he smiled, there was an immediate difference.

His tea-coloured irises had a rare shattering, wherein a faint lustre was allowed to seep through, like crushed ice that had collided and separated in coca cola in the heat of midsummer.

And the smile on his lips was akin to the foam bubbling up the surface of the cola, sweet and pliable, appearing to be gentle and soft.

Yang Ye was staring at Gu Liang’s smile, slightly entranced, when he heard his subsequent question: “Right, there’s an issue that I can’t understand. Your character should have murderous intentions towards Boss Bai too, how did you become the detective?”

“Didn’t you hear what I said in the morning, I told Son Bai to call me stepmother. It’s been confirmed that I’m going to marry Boss Bai,” said Yang Ye.

Gu Liang did not understand. “Why?”

Yang Ye: “I wasn’t raped by him, there’s no mention of it inside or outside of the script. The “I” inside the script is a vain, slag female. I’m together with Boss Bai because I wanted money. I lied to you, and fabricated the fact that I was sexually assaulted by him. I even said that I was coerced to be together with him, only because I didn’t want to seem like a fickle and lascivious woman.”

Oh, this truly was a godly script.

Gu Liang tapped on the sofa once and roasted it internally.

Yang Ye sighed, “I didn’t expect that the casual lie of mine would result in you feeling murderous towards him. It seems like you do love me. It’s just a pity that I only love money.”

Gu Liang: “……”

— The individual before him was immersing himself too deeply in the act, no?

Soon after, Gu Liang sunk into the sofa and emptied out his gaze again, as motionless as a mountain and seated like a clock.

Yang Ye studied him and ruminated. He must have shocked Gu Liang with that.

Upon reaching this conjecture, Yang Ye felt that while Gu Liang might seem like a difficult person to get close to, he was permissive and fun to tease.

Thus, some time passed like that. Yang Ye gazed at him: “It’s rather boring.”

“Oh.” Gu Liang picked up the deck of poker on the table and returned him a look. He said: “Should we play cards?”

Yang Ye patted his thigh. “Bring it. What are we playing?”

Gu Liang: “Comparing big and small.”

Lowering his eyes, Yang Ye caught a glimpse of the hand Gu Liang was holding the poker cards with. His fingers were long and slender with a distinctive bone structure. The back of his hand were whiter than porcelain, faintly sketched with blue veins like flowers on fine china.

While the red cord on his wrist was the opposite of his temperament with its bright colour and beauty, it provided an irresistible temptation to glance at it a few more times.

All of a sudden, Yang Ye smiled as he asked: “What are we comparing big and small with?”

I suspect you are trying to start the car.

But I don’t have the evidence.

Gu Liang raised his eyelids to glance at him. Waving the poker cards in his hand, he spoke in a light tone. “Of course it’s poker. You draw a card, I’ll draw one, and then we’ll compare big and small.”

Yang Ye thought in his heart, And that isn’t a bore?

But what Yang Ye expressed was this: “The game is quite simple ah.”

Gu Liang nodded his head calmly. “It is that simple. Having to solve the case is already complicated enough, we should play something simpler with the cards.”

Despite implying that it was a bore with his mouth, his body was very honest since he still accompanied Gu Liang to play the comparison of cards.

Hence, the pair played the game for twenty minutes happily.

During this period of time, Maid Liu exited the kitchen, greeted Gu Liang and Yang Ye, before she crossed the living room and went to the balcony to water the flowers.

The balcony had a half-open concept and it was quite big. However, because it was packed to the brim with flowers and fauna, there did not seem to be much foot space.

Holding onto a watering can, Maid Liu spritzed the flowers from left to right. Under the faint sunlight, the fine spray of water refracted the vseven colours of the rainbow before it eventually landed on the fresh and tender petals, giving them a dewy sense of vitality.

Gu Liang observed the maid for a long while, but it was evident that his point of focus was not the flowers she was watering but her actions instead.

A moment later, Gu Liang withdrew his gaze and turned towards the kitchen.

After the maid left, no one had gone close to the kitchen.

It was an ideal location for poisoning, it had to stay unoccupied for the time being.

No one walked down from the second floor until it was 10:50.

The aforementioned man was reaching the later phases of his age and appeared to be slightly older than Boss Bai, but he was not fully bald yet.

Upon seeing that there were two people in the living room, he hesitated, eyes wandering in the direction of the kitchen before he faltered again.

Following that, he sat down on the stairs. He had a face full of despair as he buried his head in his palms.

This person was Brother Bai.

There were six characters in the game. Apart from the deceased character Boss Bai, Gu Liang was already acquainted with all of them save this one Brother Bai.

And said Brother Bai looked extremely distraught. As Gu Liang stared at him, he took the initiative to speak, something which rarely occurred. “You’re Brother Bai?”

Yang Ye, who was busy shuffling the deck, raised an eyebrow at Gu Liang when he heard that address. “How could you casually call people brother? Why don’t you call me brother?”

Gu Liang: “……”

Perched on the stairs, Brother Bai let out a sigh but he still had no intention of speaking.

He did not move much either. After some time, both his shoulders started to shake as he began to cry.

The clock was going to strike eleven soon.

The broadcast rang out abruptly: “Warning! Warning! Brother Bai is not at his assigned location at the given time, he is on the verge of being punished for violating the rules! Brother Bai, please head to the location stated in the script immediately, and act accordingly to the script!”

“No… No… I’m his older brother in reality too. I’m his biological older brother. I won’t kill him! I can’t do it! Can’t do it! This can’t be real… all of this is fake… I’m dreaming!”

Evidently, Brother Bai’s psyche had already collapsed.

Gu Liang frowned. Yang Ye became grave as well and he stopped joking around.

In a few minutes, the clock hands fell on the eleven o’ clock mark.

Two men in black appeared and they dragged Brother Bai away forcibly.

Simultaneously, another man in black appeared, and he was holding onto something as he went into the kitchen.

Broadcast: “The following is a report on an unexpected incident. Brother Bai has failed to act according to the script, he will be accepting his punishment. The NPC will become a temporary actor and complete the necessary tasks at the designated time in his stead.”

Yang Ye and Gu Liang exchanged glances silently, and they perceived a certain heaviness in their eyes.

With what had just transpired, they were thoroughly diminished of the mood to play their card game.

Ten minutes later, at 11:10, Brother Bai came back.

If they were to say that his psyche had collapsed previously, then he was no different from a walking corpse now.

His hair was messed up, there were several blood streaks running down his face, his eyes were cloudy and his complexion was grey.

Blood was all over the back of his hands and his nails were scarlet.

All the visible injuries were probably self-inflicted via means of scratching.

Apart from those hurts, no other wounds caused by external influences could be found on his body.

Why he scratched himself to such a state, what terrifying things had happened in those ten minutes, was something no one knew.

The men in black continued to drag Brother Bai across the living room and brought him back to his own room on the second floor.

After watching the entire process dully, Yang Ye gave Gu Liang a sidelong glance.

Gu Liang was still expressionless. However, Yang Ye noted that the card in his hand had already been crumpled and deformed— he was gripping onto the card so tightly his nails had whitened and turned transparent.

Yang Ye asked him: “You have to act soon?”

A pause. Gu Liang eyed the clock in the living room and nodded without saying a word.

Yang Ye gave him a look before he eventually said, “Carry it out. If you don’t act, they’ll make the men in black act in your stead. From the beginning to the end, they are the ones killing. Not you.”

“You are not a sinner. You are a victim.”

When Yang Ye uttered those words, Gu Liang turned his head back to gaze at him. Besides the ever-present indifference in his eyes, some gloom lingered within its depths.

Yang Ye added, “All of us are victims, and we can only find out the truth if we keep living on.”

For some inexplicable reason, Gu Liang’s lips curled into a self-deprecating smile when he heard that line.

However, Gu Liang did not say anything before he rose to his feet quickly and left.

11:25. Gu Liang arrived at the kitchen punctually.

The chicken soup was in an earthen jar, stewing over a small fire, gurgling as it bubbled.

At 11:30, Gu Liang wore a glove, opened the lid of the earthen ware and dashed 3mg of insulin into it. Then, he used some water to wash away the insulin left in the glass bottle before he placed the emptied apparatus on the chopping board directly.

The kitchen could be considered a public space. Even if everyone were to see an empty medicine bottle when the time came around, no one could prove that Gu Liang was the one who brought the bottle.

By 11:40, Gu Liang returned to his room on the second floor.

With regards to the insulin introduction that has the two characters “Lawyer Zhang” written on it, it goes without saying that he could not dump it in a public space like the empty medicine bottle.

Thus, after returning back to his room, Gu Liang carefully tore the paper introducing the insulin into a long, thin strip of paper before he stuffed it into the crevice between the Simmons mattress and headboard.

Lastly, he had to deal with the medicine box that once contained the insulin.

After Gu Liang examined it, he realised that the medicine box possessed a similar thickness to the poker cards. Plan in mind, he took apart the box until it was in pieces, folded it into the size of a poker card and packed it into the poker deck box to mingle with the other cards.

With his actions, he was left with a few additional poker cards that could no longer fit in its original box.

Initially, Gu Liang was planning to put the poker deck in the living room. Meanwhile, the additional poker cards would be kept on his person first and he would find a chance to throw them somewhere while they were searching for clues, and it even presented a possibility for him to shift the blame onto another player.

In spite of having such thoughts, Gu Liang still chose to place the poker deck on his table in an arbitrary manner.

As for the additional cards, he simply threw them into the dustbin in his bedroom.

After doing everything he could, Gu Liang sat down on the sofa and closed his eyes to recover his energy.

The reason why he could not be bothered to hide the evidence further was because he suddenly understood a principle.

The evidence could not be destroyed, only hidden.

The system stipulating this rule actually had an underlying meaning — it was extremely difficult for the evidence to remain concealed.

This villa was not large. If there was a segment to allow them to search for clues later, and everyone conducted a thorough search, anything could be found no matter how deeply it was hidden, and it was only a question of how long it would take.

Even if he placed it in a public space, it was still proof of the murderer’s modus operandi. The reality of the matter was that, after everyone had discussed and troubleshooted the matter, they could still find out who the original owner of the evinced object was.

Afterall, under normal circumstances, especially in this sort of simple scenario, a single person would only have so many means; under the condition where they used Poison A, it was unlikely for them to use a Poison B too.

Hence, if the real murderer were to use their utmost effort to hide the evidence, it was estimated that they would enter the pitfall created by the system.

And ultimately, they still had to refer to everyone’s timeline to check who the real murderer was exactly.

Therefore, the real murderer should put their energy into fabricating a timeline, since that was their true key to victory.

Now that he thought about this point, he felt that his own timeline was far too simple, and the possibility of him being the real murderer was, truthfully, minuscule.

Furthermore, he could only make do with the situation he was placed in, and he also found the game interesting, which was why he was choosing to play along at present.

But if he were to expend his effort to hide the evidence carefully now and carry on with his deception to the point where he shifted the blame to someone else, he would feel like he was being toyed by the system.

In the end, he chose to hide the evidence randomly and pretended to accommodate the game.

At twelve, Maid Liu knocked on his door. “Lawyer Zhang, lunch has been prepared, please head to the dining room to partake in your meal.”

“Okay, I’ll be there soon.” Gu Liang answered. He heard the maid’s footsteps gradually fade away in the distance.

Gu Liang did not leave the bedroom immediately, since he wanted to wash his face in the bathroom first.

By the time Gu Liang was done washing up and seated himself in the dining room, the time was precisely 12:10.

The scenario did not dictate everyone’s seating arrangement, so Gu Liang sat down without care.

After a while, Yang Ye stepped in and promptly took the seat beside Gu Liang. Son Bai hurried in after and sat opposite of Gu Liang.

Brother Bai was the last to arrive. It was unknown what he encountered during his time in the small black room but he was still terribly afraid and his entire body was shaking. There were even newer blood scars that he had inflicted on his own face.

12:30.

Maid Liu stopped in front of everyone and said smilingly: “Ten minutes ago, I knocked on the Old Master’s door to call him out to eat and no one answered. I don’t know if he’s sleeping. Hence, I separated a portion of food for the Old Master.”

Saying that, Maid Liu took out a lunch box filled with sumptuous dishes and handed it to Son Bai. “Young Master, I’m afraid of the Old Master criticising me for interrupting his sleep, could I trouble you to bring it to the Old Master?”

Upon hearing those words, Gu Liang looked at Son Bai immediately. Conforming to his expectations, Son Bai’s visage was quite heavy.

In compliance with what Son Bai had stated in the morning, the script instructed him to seize the chance to poison Boss Bai while they were eating lunch.

If these were the original words given by his script, then everything that was transpiring now was following the plot developments— where the maid told him to send the food, and he would “seize” the good opportunity to poison the food as he was walking from the dining room to the room on the second floor.

With matters weighing on his mind, Son Bai carried the lunch box and left.

At 12:40, he returned to the dining room and sat back in his chair

In the ten-minute timeframe where Son Bai was absent, Maid Liu carried out the food from the kitchen dish by dish at a slow pace and placed them on the dining table.

The variety of food was quite rich; appetising in both smell and appearance, but no one picked up their chopsticks.

For one, everyone had their own worries and anxiety, degree varying, and they did not have the appetite at all.

Secondly, no one knew if these foodstuffs had been poisoned or not.

The broadcast sounded soon after: “The following is a reading of the general plot. At 12:40, everyone started to eat their lunch happily. Wine cups and gaming chips lied about in disorder, everyone was talking and laughing with ease and comfort. The gathering lasted until 1:30, and everyone departed from the dining room reluctantly.”

“Happily”, “talking and laughing with ease and comfort”, “reluctantly”…

Every single phrase that the system used was enough for Gu Liang to roast ten thousand times.

In order to coordinate with the script, everyone had no choice but to stay in the dining room.

However, no one ate a single thing and they merely observed each other without talking.

After a long while, Yang Ye lifted his arm and prodded Gu Liang’s shoulder.

Gu Liang tilted his body to avoid his hand. Staring at him, he said: “What are you doing?”

Yang Ye: “Do you still have your cards? Should we continue playing the same game?”

Gu Liang only retorted, “I didn’t bring the deck with me.”

“Fine.” Yang Ye inspected the dining table before he picked up a chicken wing and asked everyone: “Did any of you poison the chicken wings?”

Maid Liu smiled wordlessly.

Dull-witted, Brother Bai remained stiff and motionless from his position.

Only Son Bai saw fit to reply, “I didn’t.”

Gu Liang said: “I did not. But I advise you not to eat it.”

“Why?” asked Yang Ye.

Gu Liang merely said, “A bold hypothesis, conduct your verification carefully. There’s truth in those words. If your process of verification is improper and something were to occur, you might die.”

Yang Ye thought about it before he said: “This instance’s scenario is merely a simple introduction model, if we don’t take the opportunity to test and understand how the game functions, we might not have a chance to do so in the future and we can only wait for the system to toy us to death. In spite of the present risks, I have to gamble this once.”

Just as Yang Ye finished his speech, he already bit down on the meat of the chicken wing.

“Purely based on the usage for poison as the method of killing alone, if the murderer were to poison all the dishes on the table, it can only mean that he doesn’t understand the dietary habits of Boss Bai and they have no way of targeting Boss Bai specifically with their poison. Furthermore, the murderer has to possess a large amount of hatred for Boss Bai, and they’re slightly inhumane in personality, since they have no scruples about harming everyone else just for the sake of poisoning Boss Bai alone.”

“In light of this fundamental logic, let’s review one by one.”

“Let’s talk about Lawyer Zhang first. When you entered the kitchen, I heard the grit of the jar lid closing and you exited the room very quickly afterwards, which indicates that your poison is in the soup. You should be aware that Boss Bai has the habit of drinking his soup every day, thus leading to your targeted poisoning. You did not drug any other food.”

“Next, Son Bai. I was observing from the living room the entire morning and Son Bai did not enter the kitchen at all. If he wanted to use his poison, he can only do so as he was delivering the food to Boss Bai.”

“Thirdly, Maid Liu. At 11:50 in the morning, Maid Liu brought the soup to Boss Bai; at 12:20, she went to call Boss Bai for lunch on her lonesome; additionally, the box of food that Son Bai delivered was brought out of the kitchen by her. Maid Liu has had a lot of opportunities to plant her poison. Moreover, she can accomplish exact applications of poison in every instance, and it is most unnecessary for her to poison all the food.”

“Lastly, we have Brother Bai. When I met Brother Bai in the morning, the script should have tasked him to go to the kitchen and use his poison. He lacked courage and confidence, his conscience was disturbed, and because he was unwilling, he was punished by the system. The system then said he violated the script setting because he did not act on time. However, the system did not mention that he OOC-ed, which means to say Brother Bai’s character design should roughly coincide with the actual person himself. Furthermore, it doesn’t seem like he has a personality that loathes society, and the possibility of him poisoning all the foodstuff isn’t high either.”

“In summary, I determined that this chicken leg was not poisoned. This meal can be eaten by everyone. See, didn’t I just take a bite, and I’m completely fine? The system didn’t remind me, telling me not to eat it.”

Having said that, Yang Ye took another bite of the chicken wing. Following closely, he fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

Gu Liang: “……”

Show off, keep showing off.

Has your car overturned?

Although Gu Liang was maligning him, he still knelt down and checked Yang Ye’s pulse and breath without delay.

Contrary to Gu Liang’s expectations, Yang Ye was actually without breath.

Gu Liang’s heart could not help but plunge, stuck in the constant feeling that this should not have happened.

Truth to be told, Gu Liang agreed with every conjecture that Yang Ye posited just now.

According to said assumptions, it was true that there was no poison in the food.

Yang Ye’s conjectures were based on the various roles’ behaviour and order of thinking, and everyone’s motives and timeline was very clear.

The script had ascertained that the only deceased was Boss Bai; there was no possibility of the murderer dumping poison in all the dishes or a situation where the majority of the players were poisoned to death.

Unless… this was content outside of the script.

— There was a player who poisoned all the dishes. This was not the script’s instruction, but their own personal action instead.

In addition to that, his behaviour was not considered OOC, which was why he was not reported by the system and punished.

Although that thought occurred to him, Gu Liang also felt that such a possibility was too small.

The system would never abandon all care, it should have stopped those actions.

Could it be that Yang Ye was too successful in flaunting his life, such that he lost it in the process?

Numerous thoughts slid past his mind but Gu Liang did not allow them to stall him. He went to flip through the three places with dustbins immediately, namely the dining room, living room and the one in the kitchen.

In the end, he yielded a bottle of ‘feigned death’ medicine from the dustbin in the kitchen.

The bottle was completely empty, like someone had used it before.

The description pasted on the bottle wrote: “The user will go into a state of feigned death five minutes after ingestion, and the side effects can last up to two hours.”

Gu Liang had never been in possession of the feigned death medicine, Son Bai never entered the kitchen, which means this medicine could only be administered by Brother Bai or the maid.

The maid had countless of chances for targeted poisoning and it was not necessary for her to drug everyone with the feigned death medicine.

And while the specifics of her modus operandi was not known, it was more likely that Brother Bai was the user of the feigned death medicine.

Gu Liang pondered deeper. Yang Ye had always been in the living room because he wanted to monitor everyone today. It was probable that he had already rummaged through the dustbin in the kitchen.

Therefore, Yang Ye might have already guessed that— Brother Bai strew the feigned death medicine in all of the dishes.

It was just that he wanted to test something, which led him to the decision where he swallowed the drugged chicken wing into his stomach.

At this moment, the broadcast abruptly sounded. Instead of directing it to Yang Ye, however, it brought Gu Liang to the forefront.

“The following is a report of an unexpected incident. Lawyer Zhang, it is a happy lunch time right now. Lunch is only supposed to conclude at 1:30, why did you leave the dining room on your own? You are violating the general plot contents, you have to be punished!”

When Gu Liang raised his eyes, he saw two men in black walking over.

Gu Liang: “……”

Damn it.

The one causing the disturbance is obviously Yang Ye, but I got the pit instead.