Chapter 123 Who orchestrated all of this?

As soon as Song Rui finished speaking, the guests at the scene and the viewers online were all stunned, and then fell silent.

Yang Yang had now moved to the other side of the guests. As the murderer in this case, she was trying to keep a low profile and avoid attracting attention, but she had a lingering doubt in her heart.

Why is that? Why did the challenge fail even though everyone cast the correct vote?

In her script, she was indeed the one who killed Ren Ning'er.

And what does "behind-the-scenes person" mean?

Yang's concubine killed Ren Ning'er on impulse, without any prior planning or meticulous preparation.

Moreover, Yang Yang knew very well that when Concubine Yang murdered Ren Ning'er, there were only the two of them present, and it was absolutely impossible for her to have been misled by anyone to commit such a heinous act.

If someone really orchestrated all of this, then as the murderer, she couldn't possibly have been completely left out of the script, without any mention of it...

She couldn't help but start recalling the entire process described in the script.

From the initial crime scene to the evidence collection phase, several clues gradually surfaced, suspects were identified one by one, and finally, during the concentrated reasoning phase, Lu Ziye discovered the mud on his shoes.

Every detail seemed to be arranged in an orderly manner.

But did all the guests fail?

Suddenly, Yang Yang had a flash of inspiration and thought of a possible answer...

She sighed, glanced silently at Lu Ziye, then looked at the big screen, feeling a vague sense of regret.

...

Luo Jiayin and the other guests stood in the middle of the room, staring blankly at the failed logo displayed on the screen, but they wanted to laugh but dared not.

Gu Yishen glanced at Luo Jiayin, pursed his lips, and remained silent.

"The mastermind? You mean... this case isn't that simple, that someone orchestrated it?" Lu Ziye asked incredulously.

Song Rui nodded: "That's right. Although it's true that Ren Ning'er was killed by Yang's concubine, the mastermind behind the whole case, who can also be considered the 'real culprit,' is still hiding among you suspects."

"And since you all failed to find the person who orchestrated everything, your mission this time has failed."

"Yang's concubine was successfully voted out as the murderer of Ren Ning'er, so the murderer also failed. Only the mastermind who was not caught won our episode."

"Who is this person?!" Lu Ziye was somewhat exasperated.

"The mastermind behind this entire case is hidden among you; he is—"

Song Rui paused deliberately at this point, immediately raising everyone's expectations to the maximum.

"Master Luo Chenzi—he is the real hidden mastermind—"

As Song Rui announced the person behind the scenes, a gasp of surprise rang out from the audience.

Yang Yang's eyes widened as she looked at Luo Jiayin sitting next to her with disbelief.

Gu Yishen smiled and nodded at Luo Jiayin.

He had anticipated this outcome, after all, the murderer was hiding among them, and he had already gathered enough evidence and, through perfect deduction, concluded that Luo Jia was the real mastermind.

The camera immediately focused on Luo Jiayin, but her face didn't show much of the joy of a victor.

Immediately afterwards, the scene shifted, and a VCR recounting the truth began playing on the large screen at the scene, while the live broadcast room also simultaneously played the footage from the large screen.

...

During the Tianbao era of the Great Chu Dynasty, the capital city was a scene of peace and prosperity.

The Lu family's Zuixian Winery in the capital region is renowned far and wide. The head of the family, Master Lu, is extremely wealthy, yet he has opened multiple Zuixian Wineries throughout the capital, making him one of the most affluent families in the city.

Unfortunately, in the Lu family's harem, although he had a wife and a concubine, over the years only the concubine, Yang, gave birth to a son, namely Young Master Gu.

Although Young Master Gu was uneducated and incompetent, he was handsome and eloquent, so at the tender age of twenty, he was already a well-known charming young man in the capital and was favored by the head of the Lu family.

Aside from Zuixian Winery, the Ren family's Tianxiang Restaurant in the capital is also extremely famous.

As the head of Tianxiang Restaurant, the Ren family head is not actually the biological son of the former family head.

He was originally just an apprentice at Tianxiang Restaurant, but was later adopted by the old master of the family and inherited the Ren family's vast wealth.

After inheriting Tianxiang Restaurant, the head of the Ren family did not disappoint the old patriarch's high expectations. He gradually developed Tianxiang Restaurant into a great success, until it was able to rival Zuixian Wine House.

Because his wife was unable to conceive, the head of the Ren family sought medical treatment for many years, but to no avail. In the end, he had no choice but to adopt a girl and named her Ren Ning'er.

Even though the head of the Ren family knew that Ren Ning'er was in love with Wei Gongzi, the son of the Prefect of Jingzhao, he still resolutely married her off to Gu Shaoye, the son of the head of the Lu family. His purpose was to find his sister who had mysteriously disappeared from the Lu family years ago.

The head of the Ren family was originally from Lanxi Village on the outskirts of Beijing.

In the seventh year of the Kaiyuan era, Lanxi Village suffered a locust plague. The crops in the village were ravaged by locusts, and the entire village had no harvest.

Left with no other choice, their father had to painfully sell his youngest daughter into a wealthy family in the capital as a slave.

Before leaving, the head of the Ren family painted two portraits of his sister. One was taken by his sister, and the other was left with him.

Her younger sister, who had been sold by her parents, became a servant in the Lu family's Drunken Immortal Wine Shop. It was at this time that she met the Lu family head, who had not yet inherited the family business.

The head of the Lu family was very fond of the kind and understanding maid in front of him who was also literate, and named her Qingyuan.

After falling in love, the two had a son and a daughter in the twelfth year of the Kaiyuan era. The son was named Lu Chengyin and the daughter was named Lu Siyao.

The head of the Lu family promised Qingyuan that after his wife entered the family, he would take her as a concubine and give her and her two children a formal status.

In the sixteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, the head of the Lu family married Qian Yaqiu, the daughter of the prominent Qian family.

Unexpectedly, Qian Yaqiu was a very jealous woman, and also very vicious.

She used her family's influence to suppress the Lu family head, and the weak and incompetent Lu family head, after weighing the pros and cons, had no choice but to abandon Qingyuan and her two children, and begged Qian Yaqiu to send them out of the capital to be properly settled, hoping that they could live a peaceful life.

Before leaving, the Lu family head divided the ancestral jade pendant in two, giving one piece to Lu Chengyin, hoping that one day they could recognize each other through this item.

Unexpectedly, Qian Yaqiu, who outwardly agreed to the Lu family head's request, secretly murdered Qingyuan and dismembered her body, hiding the remains in a wine jar.

To cover up the matter and retaliate against her husband, Qian Yaqiu buried the wine jar containing Qingyuan's body in the ground of the Lu family's main room to vent her personal anger. Her purpose was to make the two, who were once in love, spend their days together, but now they are separated by death.