Liu Zhaoqing put the skeleton he fished out from the pond under the shade of the tree, and Yue Xingwen observed it for a while. The clothes were rotten, but from the pattern embroidered on it, it was the same type as the wedding dress worn by the six brides in the second floor storage room.
Yue Xingwen said, “This dress is the same as the wedding dress on Su Wanxin’s body, it seems that the murderer customized nine sets of wedding dress, one set for Su Wanxin, seven sets for sacrifices, and the remaining set as a display?”
There was no extra wedding dress in the storage room, and the murderer was clearly confident in his success rate in killing.
Liu Zhaoqing turned back and asked, “The numbers in the ragdoll, could it be left by this bride number seventh?”
Yue Xingwen simulated the scene of the wedding night in his mind and said, “I don’t think so. The groom is terminally ill. On the wedding night, the bride in the wedding dress would be alone in the wedding chamber. She might find something wrong, such as the corpse room next to the bed, and then fled in a hurry, losing her footing in a panic by the murderer who had long been on her trail. She did not have time to unstitch the ragdoll leaving code numbers.”
Liu Zhaoqing touched his chin, then asked, “But if she found the hidden corpse in the storage room and shouted out, the others would also notice, right? Why did she run away in panic instead of calling other players?”
Yue Xingwen said, “Of course, others would notice, but don’t forget that they were playing ‘murder mystery game’ at that time, and they just thought it was the script for the bride to scream. On her wedding night, the bride was alone, and the other players must be temporarily separated from her. When they heard the screams, they just thought she was acting out the script, so they did not mind and did not rush to help.”
This was the cleverest part of the murderer, using the ‘murder mystery game’ to kill the deceased in the script, which the original script as this ‘the bride is left alone in the wedding chamber and a scream comes from inside the room’, so even if the other players heard the scream, they would subconsciously think ‘her acting is good’ and would not think—— She would really be killed.
Liu Zhaoqing suddenly realized, “Indeed, it’s just like acting. Everyone became an actor and their first reaction was that she was following the script, and they did not even think in the horrible direction of ‘the murderer is by our side’ at all.”
Jiang Pingce analyzed, “The code numbers are likely to be a keen player who sensed the problem after the bride’s death and secretly left it. This player was very wary and did not dare to trust anyone easily, and guess that the murderer was close by, so this player did not dare to tell anyone about his/her speculations, and could only leave some clues in this way.”
Yue Xingwen nodded, and said, “After all, the murderer is too terrible, and could kill him/her at any moment. It’s only prudent to pretend to be silent on the surface, leaving clues in secret, and then find a way to call the police when the script is over and escape safely.”
It was also the wisest thing to do; If it was revealed on the spot, it was a question of whether the others believed it or not. In case he/she guessed the wrong murderer, he/she would immediately die. The player who could stay calm in this situation and left the password had a first-class psychological quality.
Everyone was silent for a while, and Liu Zhaoqing said, “For the inn plot, it’s just the last password, what do those code numbers mean?” Turning his head to look, Ke Shaobin squatted beside him uncomfortably, wanting to vomit but unable to do so. He looked quite aggrieved, Liu Zhaoqing walked over and patted his shoulder, laughing. “It seems that you are unable to eat the sugar lotus root.”
Ke Shaobin’s face was bitter. “Senior brother, can you stop talking…” Now, when he mentioned sugar lotus roots, Ke Shaobin only thought about the gnarled white human bones and the skeleton grinning at him. He was really not in the mood at all.
Yue Xingwen laughed. “Let’s go, don’t think about it. Let’s have instant noodles for lunch.”
Ke Shaobin stood up and followed them. Everyone returned to the dining room together to continue their analysis.
The table was filled with strips of cloth pulled out of the ragdoll’s body, and the numbers on them looked extremely messy.
71 – 16 – 30
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
99 – 16 – 9
281 – 22 – 1
299 – 1 – 5
6 – 17 – 11
Ke Shaobin was puzzled. “Three-section type secret code, it’s not very common, ah?”
Aljcu Ulcumf ogbkcfv jcv byrfgnfv mjgfoeiis obg j wbwfca, rewwlcu eq atf qjaafgc bo atf cewyfgr, “Obbx, fnfgsbcf. Ktf olgra cewyfg jqqfjgr gjcvbwis ogbw 1 ab 299, atf rfmbcv cewyfg jqqfjgr gjcvbwis ogbw 1 ab 22, jcv atf atlgv cewyfg ogbw 1 ab 30. Ktf rlhf, atf bgvfg bo atf cewyfgr tjnf yffc mtjculcu klatbea jcs geifr gfijafv ab atf cewyfgr bg oecmalbc. Qtja fzjmais vb remt ragjcuf cewyfgr mbggfrqbcv ab?”
Everyone had no clue.
Jiang Pingce thought about it carefully, scanned the book on the table, and suddenly said, “Could it be the page number, line number and word number of the book?”
Yue Xingwen’s mind suddenly enlightened, and he hurriedly spread out the three books he had previously taken out from the suitcases in front of everyone. “What Pingce said makes sense! The average thickness of the book is within 300 pages. If the first number corresponds to the page number, it’s very reasonable not to exceed 300. The number of lines per page of a book is generally about 25 lines, and the number of words per line is about 30 words.”
Ke Shaobin’s eyes lit up. “If we look at it this way, the arrangement pattern of the characters in the book is exactly attached to the characteristics of the three-section type secret code. The first number represents the number of pages, up to 299, and the second and third numbers are smaller, representing lines and words respectively.”
Yue Xingwen quickly turned the three books to the last page; the total number of pages for the famous book was 275, the total number of pages for the modern romance novel was 245, and the ancient romance novel was exactly 299.
Seeing this, everyone was excited. “This 299-page book is the secret code?”
The ancient romance novel corresponded to ancient murder mystery game, and the largest number in the ragdoll was 299, exactly the same as the number of pages in the novel—— All the code numbers that corresponded to the words in this novel!
Yue Xingwen glanced at Jiang Pingce and gently patted the other man’s shoulder, praising him, “It’s still our Pingce who is attentive. Every time you encounter a problem related to numbers, you can always find the pattern in the fastest time.”
Our Pingce? There was something strangely intimate about this address. Jiang Pingce’s lips lifted slightly as he quickly arranged the cloth strips on the table in order from the smallest to largest page and said, “Let’s start deciphering. First—— page 6, line 11, word number 17.”
Yue Xingwen quickly turned to page 6, counted to the 17th word of the 11th line, and wrote down on a piece of paper: “Mobile.”
Jiang Pingce continued to read, “Page 8, line 15, word number 1.”
Yue Xingwen was flipping through the book skillfully, “Side.”
Jiang Pingce: “Page 11, line 1, word number 15.”
Yue Xingwen: “Marriage.”
Both of them cooperated tacitly. Jiang Pingce read out the numbers on the cloth strips, and Yue Xingwen quickly turned the book to find the corresponding characters. More than ten minutes later, Jiang Pingce finally read all the code numbers, and Yue Xingwen also wrote hundreds of Chinese characters and punctuation on the white paper.
Jiang Pingce said, “I’ll leave the task of making up a sentence with these scattered words to you.”
Yue Xingwen smiled, “No problem.”
Using a bunch of Chinese characters to make sentences, this was the test for elementary school’s Chinese language. However, there were hundreds of words given this time, and they had to be spelled out into a logically complete sentence.
Mobile, side, bride, I, first, script, murder…
Since the cloth strips were not arranged in the order manner, the dozens of deciphered words were completely disrupted.
Yue Xingwen quickly reorganized them, and then wrote a paragraph on another piece of paper. “It’s horrible, it’s not a script from murder mystery game, but a real murder—— the murderer is by our side! The player who played the bride was really dead, and I saw her fall into the pond chased by a dark shadow! I don’t have a mobile phone, I can’t get in touch with the outside world. I met these online friends for the first time, and I did not know who killed the bride, will he continue to kill? I just want to get out alive…”
Yue Xingwen looked up at Jiang Pingce, “It seems that all of our reasoning is correct.”
The students were beaming with joy.
Ke Shaobin, who had an ugly face, finally showed a smile at this point and praised. “Great. When the 7th bride died, it alarmed another player who was playing the murder mystery game. This player perceived that something was wrong, but she/he did not choose to expose it head-on… Who would be such a rational person?”
Jiang Pingce analyzed, “The source of the code numbers was an ancient romance novel, boys shouldn’t bring such romance novels to read when they go out, this book most likely belonged to a girl. When checking the suitcase yesterday, there was a girl who did not bring any makeup, only facial cleanser, do you remember?”
Qin Lu remembered this and said hurriedly, “Yes, all the other girls brought foundations, lipsticks, and eyebrow pencils, and she only had toiletries in her suitcase. At that time, we also commented that she did not like to use makeup and loved her bare face, which was different from others.”
Jiang Pingce said, “She is obviously different from other girls. She didn’t bring cosmetics when she went out. The color of the clothes in her suitcase was also clear black and white, there were no nice dresses, she could be a girl with a relatively cold personality. She was more rational and perceptive than the average person, and this book was probably hers.”
Yue Xingwen carefully recalled the scene when he checked the suitcases yesterday and said, “The players’ suitcases were all left here, so the other eight players might be…”
Jiang Pingce’s expression looked solemn, “killed too.”
Liu Zhaoqing’s eyes widened in surprise. “The girl who left the clue hasn’t been able to escape either?”
Ke Shaobin was stunned. “Do you mean that the members of this set of murder mystery game were directly wiped out?”
Jiang Pingce and Yue Xingwen looked at each other and nodded at the same time.
Yue Xingwen said, “Bride no.7 suddenly fell into the pond, affecting the murderer’s plans and alarming other players. The murderer noticed that someone had made a move on the ragdoll, knew he was likely exposed, and simply killed the other players to silence them completely.”
Ke Shaobin’s back was cold. “No wonder all these people’s suitcases are left here!”
Yue Xingwen said, “Assuming the murderer only killed the bride’s players, then he had committed crimes 7 times so far, and the number of people killed in each. The people for this murder mystery game is 10 people, excluding the murderer, leaving only 9 people, then the inn should had 7×9=63 occupants from the beginning to the end. The murderer killed 6 brides very smoothly before, and the other players did not suspect anything and they would leave the inn after completing the murder mystery game. As for the bride who died, the murderer had the bride’s mobile phone, casually sent a message to the family saying ‘I’m going to travel somewhere’, during which he kept in touch with his family, and in a few days arranged for the bride to be ‘missing’ in another city, and the police could not investigate him.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Yue Xingwen continued, “As a result, there was an accident when the 7th time the crime was committed and a player discovered the secret of this inn, so the murderer killed everyone to silence them, which was the reason why 10 suitcases appeared in the inn—— 9 suitcases are players’, the remaining 1 is his. He probably knew he could not hide it anymore, so he simply threw down this inn and fled.”
Yue Xingwen looked at the numerical code left on the table and sighed softly, saying, “Too bad, this player who discovered the secret could have survived if she had not given the mobile phone to a stranger for safekeeping before the murder mystery game.”
Qin Miao’s face turned serious, “They were really too careless. They came to this desolate and deserted place, and they also turned in their mobile phones collectively. The murder mystery game’s process was so dangerous…… If it was me, I would never get involved in this kind of game.”
Such a game was creepy as soon as it was heard.
If you were looking for excitement, you should also go to a safe place to have fun with someone you really trust.
Ke Shaobin’s lips turned pale, “Then, what about the corpses of the other 8 players if the last group is wiped out?”
Jiang Pingce was silent for a moment and suddenly said, “Do you remember that there was a lot of ash under the kitchen stove, and the kitchen looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time, and the amount of that ash… is too much.”
Ke Shaobin’s face changed. “The corpse was burned to ashes?”
Everyone: “……”
A skeleton was found in the pond, the kitchen was full of ashes. They did not have to dig up lotus roots in the future, nor did they have to cook in the kitchen. For the next few days, just eat instant noodles every day.
Fortunately, the inn plot had been sorted out, and now there was still mystery’s left—— Drama within a drama.
How did the story of the script in the murder mystery game go, and who was the murderer?
Wow, it’s very confusing.
Thank you very much for the translation 🤍🤍🤍
There’s a lot of jumps in reasoning. How does not having makeup correspond to mindset/rationality? This arc has been full of a lot of thse logic jumps and I’ve been a bit confused to how they jump to these answers. Oh well, I’m still enjoying it a lot.
I dunno about the cremation thing…it takes a really high temp to burn even bones to ash like they insinuate here….
Well it is a kitchen so, the murderer could just chop the body into pieces and slowly burn them. You know, just toss it piece by pieces.
Nvm, I have read the next chapter.
Ok but can you imagine you find such a clever way to do a secret code.. and then you choose to write an entire diary entry into it knowing that you can’t arrange the words a certain way ✋😭 like hundreds of words?? Gurl pls, I’m pretty sure you could’ve cut down a few sentences before the murderer cut you down 💀