Chapter 9

(With your details and my inferences, it can only be him.)

“It’s… Boss Bai wants to kill me!”

“…Boss Bai, caused the death of my biological mother. Hence, I bought a certain type of poison and was planning to find a chance to poison him during lunch.”

“I was staying in my room just now. Boss Bai, who is also my father, came to find me. At that moment, I happened to find my poison pillbox and I didn’t manage to stash it away before he entered the room. And he ended up seeing that box of poison. He immediately took out a knife, saying he wanted to kill the murderer first so he wouldn’t have to die.”

……

Those were the words that Son Bai said to Gu Liang and Yang Ye after he ran into Gu Liang’s room as Boss Bai was chasing him down to kill him.

Back then, Gu Liang had believed Son Bai’s words.

That Boss Bai perceived the seventeen-year-old minor to be the easiest to bully and swindle amongst all the players. Hence, with self-preservation in mind, he chose to have a chat with Son Bai first to test if he was the murderer. The logic was sound.

And after he arrived at Son Bai’s room, Boss Bai noticed that there was poison to the table. Believing him to be the murderer, he lashed out viciously first by chasing him down to kill him. This was reasonable too.

However, with what they knew now, Gu Liang realised he had been deceived from that moment onwards.

“Therefore, what do you think the actual truth was?” Yang Ye asked.

Instead of answering immediately, Gu Liang returned a question: “Why did you come to my room first thing in the morning?”

Yang Ye replied honestly: “When everyone was done drawing their cards and heard the system announce the rules, they were all dazed. And soon after, the system told everyone to go back to their rooms to rest but no one moved apart from you. I took note of you then. It was only when you moved that everyone else started walking out. I followed you covertly and saw you enter the room meant for ‘Lawyer Zhang’, which signalled that you were acting as Lawyer Zhang.”

Gu Liang seemed to have thought of something as he quirked up an eyebrow. “Oh, so you presumed that I might be the murderer because I ran so fast?”

“Yes. If you drew the murderer card, you have to force yourself to calm down and adapt to the game. Moreover, you might be returning to your room as soon as possible because you have to prepare to make your move. Therefore, your quick departure made the probability of you being the murderer even higher.”

Yang Ye: “Of course, if you weren’t the murderer, your actions would then convey— you are extremely calm as an individual and your ability to adapt is incredibly strong. Since I just received the detective card and the game could not be more foreign to me, I really wanted to find someone intelligent and calm to discuss this game carefully. The others were either scared or nervous and I wouldn’t have reached any conclusion with them so I could only find you.”

Having spoken to this point, Yang Ye adjusted his sitting posture a little. He leaned his entire body forward slightly to bring himself closer to Gu Liang.

Yang Ye understood why Gu Liang had asked such a question. “You’re asking me this, is it to speculate why Boss Bai went to find Son Bai?”

Gu Liang nodded. “With your identity as the detective, wanting to find an intelligent and calm person to talk to helps you shape up your thinking. Then, as the murderer’s Boss Bai, having the goal of self-preservation could not be more natural, as is seeking out an easily swindled minor for a talk. I believed Son Bai’s words in the morning because of this. But it seems like that wasn’t the case.”

Yang Ye opened his notebook and recorded down something. “You’re assuming that Boss Bai didn’t seek Son Bai out of personal choice.”

“Precisely so. Boss Bai finding Son Bai was not a personal action, but a script requirement he had to carry out.”

Feeling certain, Gu Liang said, “I hypothesise that the real plot should be, Son Bai had already mapped out how he was going to kill him early on. Thus, using certain reasons as pretext, he invited Boss Bai to his room. Son Bai would then poison the cups, or perhaps the snacks in his room in advance with his white moonlight. Once Boss Bai arrived, he served Boss Bai some of the poisoned snacks and water.”

Yang Ye thought back about it before he remarked: “When Son Bai ran to our room, it was roughly 9:20. Following your logic, Boss Bai was certifiably poisoned between 9:00 to 9:20 in the morning.”

Gu Liang: “Yes. When Maid Liu called Boss Bai for lunch at 12:20, he was already dead. White moonlight happens to take three hours to flare up too, the timing coincides.”

Yang Ye squinted his eyes slightly before he asked: “How do you explain the matter of Boss Bai wanting to kill Son Bai?”

Gu Liang said, “I think, Boss Bai wanting to kill Son Bai, is an unexpected incident that is wholly outside of the script. Boss Bai reacted in such a manner not because he wanted to live. Under the men in black’s supervision, he had no chance of living, so he went for broke and wanted Son Bai to die with him.”

As Yang Ye was listening, he reclined back and rested his head on the chair. After a long time, he released a soft exhale, saying. “Yeah. I can accept this reasoning. I suddenly thought of a detail. In the morning, Son Bai looked extremely shocked when he saw you eating the snacks in your room without any scruples. If the snacks in his room were poisoned, his reaction would be justified. He didn’t know what method the other players would employ for their murder, and he subconsciously assumed that everyone might be meeting Boss Bai for an individual chat while using their corresponding poisons, which was why he didn’t dare to eat it.”

“Yes.” Gu Liang nodded before continuing, “Additionally, there’s another small detail. During the free exploration phase, there was an instance where I walked past his room. Upon seeing me, he did not acknowledge me immediately; rather, he drank a huge mouthful of water and ensured that I saw him doing it. Now that I think back about the incident, his actions appeared quite deliberate, like he was reinforcing the fact that his water wasn’t poisoned.”

Yang Ye asked: “The cup of water he drank might not be poisoned, but we didn’t find any snacks in his room. Supposing either his water or snacks had poison, where did they go?”

Gu Liang uttered, “He could have washed the poisoned cup or flushed the snacks down the toilet.”

A thought filtered into Yang Ye’s mind, causing him to take out his notebook again to record something. “It doesn’t count as destroying the evidence? The system didn’t report it.”

Gu Liang recounted: “When I went to the kitchen to administer the insulin, I only used 3 miligrams before I washed down the rest. The system didn’t judge it as a rule breaker. I reckon that such behaviour isn’t the same as burning the fax paper.”

Yang Ye pondered about it before he came to an understanding. “I got it. Our scenario doesn’t have a legal medical expert and we don’t have a member who has the ability to detect or identify it. Even if the poisoned snacks and insulin remained, we are incapable of appraising it with our physical eyes. Which means to say, getting rid of such items isn’t considered as the destruction of evidence. At the very least, it doesn’t count in a simple introductory scenario like ours.”

Gu Liang nodded to express that he agreed. “I think the Son Bai’s decision to wash his cups cleanly and remove the snacks, can only be reasoned by saying that he was preparing for all eventualities— like if we were to make him drink the water or eat the snacks, he wouldn’t dare to and it would expose his trap. However, we did not do such a thing. The actions that he displayed in front of me, now that I think back carefully, was like signalling there was no sliver buried under him.”

Gu Liang did not continue to speak after he had reached this point. Similarly, Yang Ye did make a single utterance for a long time.

The one on one interrogation room was not big. The four walls were pitch-black in colour, as was the room door that confined them in, thus isolating all the sounds from the outside world. In the duration where neither of them spoke, the interior of the room became unusually quiet again.

The walls, floorboards and door were all black, the conference table and chairs were also black. The white lights shone down, and the table was so black it reflected a faint white hue which was more drab than dazzling.

But for the same reasons, the red cord on Gu Liang’s wrist drew more attention than usual.

Unconsciously, he lowered his eyes, line of sight landing on that smear of red. After studying it for a long moment, Yang Ye finally raised his head to look at Gu Liang. He clapped his hands twice loudly before he said: “Truly spectacular. I’m becoming increasingly curious as to what your original occupation was.”

“At any rate, I’m not a policeman. The police are far more professional than we are. Speaking of which—”

Gu Liang gazed into Yang Ye’s eyes, “When we were searching for clues on the first floor, Son Bai was duped by you terribly. He actually believed that you nailed Brother Bai as the real murderer and he relaxed his vigilance as a result of it.”

Yang Ye declined to comment. Gu Liang tossed out his next query. “Which is also why you’re asking me so much unhesitatingly, because you want to look like you’re a clueless, dog-headed detective on the surface. But in reality… you already knew that Son Bai was the murderer early on? How did you figure it out?”

When Yang Ye heard that, he finally pulled out the digital camera that belonged to the detective role. His fingers slid and extracted a photo before he allowed Gu Liang to peruse it.

Gu Liang took the camera. “These are the paper shreds of the white moonlight pillbox that I found at the balcony, which I pieced together for you to photograph?”

While looking at Gu Liang, Yang Ye said, “Mn, you rely on inferences, I rely on evidence and details. Look, this pillbox is very wet.”

Certainly, that was what the photograph clearly displayed— the pillbox was basically soaked through with water.

Truth to be told, Gu Liang had noticed this detail too. Let alone the pillbox, even his shirt cuffs were damp from brushing past the plants once he was done searching, and Yang Ye had offered him some tissues because of it. However, he did not think too much into it then.

When Maid Liu watered the flowers in the morning, it was natural for there to be a lot of water on the flowers and leaves because there were a lot of plants on the balcony. Hence, when the pillbox scrap fell down from the second floor and made contact with the petals and leaves, it was normal for it to get wet.

But now that he was being reminded by Yang Ye, Gu Liang discovered where the main problem lied— there was a little too much water on the pillbox.

When Gu Liang went downstairs at 10:30 in the morning, he met Yang Ye and they played poker together. At that time, Maid Liu was in the kitchen making lunch, and she only went to the balcony to water the flowers ten minutes after.

Hence, the matter of Maid Liu watering the flowers, which Gu Liang witnessed first-hand, occurred around 10:40.

The soil should have absorbed the majority of the water by afternoon, and the residual water should only be on the flower petals and leaves.

If Son Bai had thrown the pillbox fragments onto the balcony at noon, the pillbox would only be a little wet from brushing across the flower petals and leaves, and the degree of dampness should be similar to that of Gu Liang’s shirt cuffs.

However, a large area of the pillbox they had was saturated with water, and the degree of wetness was impossible to achieve from just mere brushes alone.

The aforementioned degree of wetness could only be achieved if the pillbox scraps had come into direct contact with the water that had slipped through the flowers and leaves as Maid Liu was watering the plants with her watering can.

This clue signified one thing— these pillbox fragments were already in the flowerpots before 10:40.

Gu Liang’s eyes became half-lidded as he murmured in an unhurried manner: “I understand. This photograph can prove that Son Bai didn’t throw the pillbox scraps in the afternoon. He lied.”

“Exactly.” Yang Ye said. “Besides, when I left your room to go to the living room, I wasn’t always seated on the sofa. I wandered around, and not only did I find the medicine box for the feigned death medicine, I even saw the pillbox scraps in the balcony’s flower pots early on. It was just that I didn’t piece them together at that point in time. Furthermore, if I pieced it together then and informed all of you, I wouldn’t have a way to cheat the murderer.”

Having said all that, Yang Ye concluded: “Right now, we can still restore Son Bai’s actual modus operandi. It should be that around nine o’ clock, he drugged the snacks and water with white moonlight. Subsequently after, he shredded the pillbox and threw it into the flowerpots on the first-floor balcony from the second floor. Later, Boss Bai went to his room, drank and ate the snacks, was poisoned, and died in three hours when the poison acted up.

“All in all, whether it was the poisoning or the concealing of evidence, Son Bai didn’t accomplish those matters in the afternoon and he lied. And perhaps, the white moonlight might not even be present in the portion of food he delivered to Boss Bai in the afternoon because he used everything in the morning.”

The outline that Yang Ye posited had logic and evidence, and compared to Gu Liang’s inferences, it was more direct, effective, and simpler overall.

After hearing his verdict, Gu Liang’s brows raised slightly before they slanted downwards. Similarly, his eyes followed by narrowing. “Since you already knew this early on, why did you make me analyse so much? Are you toying with me?”

Against Gu Liang’s expectations, Yang Ye shook his head and it was quite apparent that his expression was stricter than before.

Yang Ye liked to make a sport of him; Gu Liang was not blind, he noticed it.

He presumed that Yang Ye’s actions were nothing more than— first giving the impression of weakness, pretending to know nothing, followed by making him do the inferences. And when he was done giving a lengthy speech to prove his point, he would attack his confidence and mock him.

He could see him ridiculing him with a few lines, what “although your inference isn’t wrong, it’s merely an analytical conjecture grounded in logic and it’s not based on hard evidence like mine.”

However, Gu Liang realised that, in this present moment, Yang Ye was not making fun of him. His expression held a solemnity that was different from before, and it could even be described as heavy.

Yang Ye frowned slightly as he gazed at Gu Liang. He said: “No. It’s true that I wanted to hear your analysis, because I didn’t want to make the slightest mistake. When we cast our votes, we’re deciding on the life and death of a person. Son Bai will die because of our votes.”

A moment later, Gu Liang opened his mouth to say, “How regretful. Your details and my inferences, all point at the fact that the murderer can only be him.”

Gu Liang stood up, walked to his side, and gave his shoulder a few pats. “Being cautious is valid. If we voted wrong, not only will a ‘good person’ die with enmity, it will also cause the death of a detective, which is you. But you don’t need to tangle too much over it. This is a regulation set by the game. And you’ve said this before, we’re not sinners, but victims.”

The author has something to say:

“Good person” refers to their game identities.

Good person cards, including the normal players and detective cards, are all diametrically opposed to the murderer card.