Chapter 5

The light was dim, but Jian Xinyi could see everything clearly.

The blood, which should have been bright red, was a strange ochre-red color, slowly flowing at the feet of several people. The murdered woman had a terrified look on her face, and her eyes were particularly terrifying. A rusty kitchen knife was stuck in her chest, the kind of knife that can be seen in almost every household.

She suppressed the fear in her heart and walked into the house. Her inner defenses were on the verge of collapse, as if she was back to that all-night night. The pounding heartbeat like a drum lingered in her mind. In a trance, she seemed to see herself lying in a pool of blood with the rusty kitchen knife stuck in her chest.

Jian Xinyi couldn't help but take two steps back, but her back hit something solid. She almost screamed. Looking back, she found Qian Yuan frowning and looking into her eyes.

Qian Yuan's eyes were very similar to the cold man's, even the look of disdain was very similar. Jian Xinyi couldn't help but look at him a few more times, saving it for drawing a portrait later.

But it's just eyes, she is aware of this, what kind of prototype is needed for an otome game.

In the end, Qian Yuan blushed, quickly turned his head away, cleared his throat, stood next to her, and said softly, "Don't be afraid."

Jian Xinyi's ears were already filled with the beautiful background music. She turned to look at Qian Yuan, only to hear him continue, "The dead cannot be resurrected, and there is no such thing as ghosts or gods, so there is no need to be afraid."

It's over, now even she is afraid of herself.

Isn’t this a real female ghost?

At this time, Shi Kui, who was behind Jian Xinyi, was still unconscious. He slowly opened his eyes when he saw the light in front of him, and asked in confusion, "You are... Lin Zhuiyu, how did you get in?"

Before Jian Xinyi could speak, Shi Kui took a few steps forward in a daze. He was hit by the sound of water. He looked at his trouser legs in confusion, but found a very horrifying scene. He was so scared that he couldn't even speak clearly, "Death, death, death, death, death, someone is dead."

The indifferent man seemed quite calm and told the madam, "Seal off this place. I'll go outside and call someone over."

Upon hearing this, the madam quickly ran away, leaving Jian Xinyi alone to face Shi Kui. Shi Kui wanted to cry, but he had no tears. He hugged Jian Xinyi's arm and cried loudly: "Yu, what's going on? I don't know anything. I hope the Jinwu Guards won't catch me and throw me into jail. I'm so scared."

Jian Xinyi understood that Shi Kui was naturally at a loss when faced with such a situation, but if he hadn't insisted on climbing over someone's wall to look at the beauty, he wouldn't have ended up like this. So, she pretended to be dignified and asked, "If you hadn't been peeping at her, would you have been used as a scapegoat by the murderer?"

Shi Kui looked dejected, not daring to even look at the corpse. He tightly grasped Lin Cuiyu's arm and said, "Sister Yu, I was really wrong. I won't do it again."

Jian Xinyizi was very serious and scolded: "Think carefully about what happened before you entered the woodshed?"

Shi Kui felt very aggrieved, tears as big as beans were about to fall, and his voice was trembling: "Nothing happened, I was just beaten and then came in."

Jian Xinyi sighed. Her detective skills were all based on the 900 episodes of Conan she watched when she was a child. She was completely obsessed with the couples in the plot and had no idea about the detective plot.

At this time, the patrolling Jinwu Guards stepped forward and separated Jian Xinyi and Shi Kui. Seeing that she looked a little reluctant, Qian Yuan explained, "Your friend is the only one left at the crime scene. He's probably going to visit Jingzhao Yin."

Jian Xinyi had no choice but to cling to Qian Yuan's lifeline, trying to imitate the falsely accused concubines in palace fighting dramas. With tears in her eyes, she pleaded, "He really knows nothing. He was wronged."

Seeing her pleading like this, Qian Yuan remained unmoved and restored his hateful indifferent face: "The truth of the case will be investigated by the Jingzhao Yin and the Ministry of Justice. Don't worry, take the person away."

"Wrongly accused?" The madam squinted at Lin Zhuiyu with her cunning almond-shaped eyes, then pointed at Shi Kui's nose and cursed him sarcastically, "He climbed over the wall just to get a glimpse of Miss Qian Rou. Maybe he resorted to this desperate measure because he couldn't force her. This little girl is still defending her lover. It's really ridiculous."

"It's a pity that Qianrou, my top concubine, died just like that." After saying this, the madam pretended to cry a few times. Seeing such poor acting, Jian Xinyi just wanted to laugh. Just as she was about to retort her, someone from the Jinwu Guard shouted, "Alright, the Jingzhao Yin will decide the right and wrong. Take her away!"

When Shi Kui was taken away by the Jinwu Guards, he looked at her reluctantly, and there was indeed a hint of affection in his words, "Lin Zhuiyu, remember to ask someone to save me."

Jian Xinyi felt somewhat helpless. She looked up at Qian Yuan, only to find that Qian Yuan was also looking at her with deep eyes. She didn't know what he was thinking. She felt particularly embarrassed and could only say something to make amends: "Mr. Qian, my friend is really wronged."

After saying that, he did not forget to drag him down, "But your nephew is not guilty. He deserves death. I am really sorry to trouble you."

Qian Yuan tried hard to suppress his anger and nodded. "It's too late today. You should go back first. I'll call you tomorrow if there's any progress on the case."

"Okay, Lord Jinwuwei."

After realizing that she had said the wrong thing, Jian Xinyi immediately made amends, smiled at Qian Yuan, and then hurried back to the bookstore. She could only hope that her cheap father would not ask too many questions.

As soon as she entered the bookstore, she saw Bai Yuanyuan standing there with the pile of drawings in her hands. Lao Lin was beside her, his back hunched, his yellow eyes staring at her without saying a word, waiting for her to speak.

"Dad, you're back." Jian Xinyi spoke with courage and walked straight into the house.

"Stop, it's so late, where have you been?"

Old Lin didn't move, but his words were so powerful that Jian Xinyi didn't dare to move forward. She could only turn around and smile: "Well, I went out to play for a while, and I found that the wontons on West Street are really delicious, so I ate a lot."

Jian Xinyi didn't dare tell Lao Lin that they went to Xianxian Tower and encountered a murder case, for fear that his old bones could not bear it.

When Old Lin heard this, he was so angry that his beard was crooked. "You two are so good at deceiving me one by one, right? Ren Yuanyuan said South Street Beef Noodles, and you said West Street Wonton Shop. Where did you go?"

Jian Xinyi wanted to cry but had no tears. She secretly glanced at Bai Yuanyuan and finally told the truth: "I followed Shi Kui to Xianxian Tower. I happened to see a girl there die. It would have been a big deal if we had seen it."

"Xianxian Tower? Murder? Why didn't you tell me earlier? What about Shi Kui?" Lao Lin was very surprised to hear about the murder. He didn't think of how to blame them, so he asked a bunch of questions in a row.

Seeing that Old Lin's anger had subsided a lot, Bai Yuanyuan quickly helped answer, "He was taken to Jingzhao Yin's prison."

"Prison, this is too much! Do Shi Kui's parents know about this?" Lao Lin quickly put on his clothes and said, "I have to go find Shi Kui's parents. Yuanyuan, you stay with Zhuiyu for a while."

Old Lin left with a kind heart, leaving Jian Xinyi and Bai Yuanyuan looking at each other in bewilderment.

Bai Yuanyuan found a random seat and sat down, feeling relaxed. "Fortunately, your father didn't blame you, otherwise I would have felt so guilty."

"Shi Kui's matter cannot be delayed. Mainly, we can't do anything. I hope the Jinwu Guards can quickly investigate it." Jian Xinyi could understand her stepfather's approach. When such a big thing happened, they had to notify the person's parents. But Bai Yuanyuan and Lin Zhuiyu couldn't do that. If they notified them, Shi Kui would hate them for the rest of their lives.

While Jian Xinyi was lost in thought, she looked at the sketch in Bai Yuanyuan's hand. "It's nothing else to do anyway. Have you finished reading this?"

Bai Yuanyuan looked at the sketch in her hand, a little confused as to why she brought this up. She frowned, but answered truthfully, "Ah, I finished reading it while I was waiting for you at the bookstore."

She picked up the manuscript and placed it on the table. "What's this called? It's quite interesting. This is the first time I've seen a picture book where you can make choices. You can even flip over the paper to see the results of your choices. How did you come up with this?"

Jian Xinyi took the manuscript back from the table and explained softly, "I used to read picture books all the time and always thought it would be great if I could be the protagonist, so I wrote this. But since everyone has different personalities, I came up with different options."

Bai Yuanyuan ran to Jian Xinyi's side, extremely excited, and put her arm around her shoulders: "This thing is really amazing. If you sell it in a bookstore, it will definitely be a hit."

Jian Xinyi was so amused by her compliments that she almost forgot about the real business. "Okay, stop praising me. Do you think there's anything else that can be improved? A little girl told me before that she made all the wrong choices."

Bai Yuanyuan pondered for a moment, as if recalling something: "I chose the wrong one at first, but I opened both options, just like reading a book."

"So if the two options lead to two different side story endings, would you also open them and read them?"

"Of course, I've seen it all."

Jian Xinyi was a bit surprised. She hadn't expected Bai Yuanyuan to be such a collector. While some players only liked to complete one ending, others preferred to collect all the plots. She had initially worried about how otome games could be played solo without the support of programming, but now that seemed to be a non-issue.

"I understand. I know what to do. Bai Yuanyuan, just wait for me to become rich overnight."

Jian Xinyi's eyes sparkled with the light of money.

Bai Yuanyuan didn't seem very excited: "Come on, think about how to save Shi Kui first. What if something really happens to him?"

"It should be okay, isn't this a rich brother?"

Bai Yuanyuan felt that Jian Xinyi's constant calling him "Brother Qian" was shameful, and her tone became a little tougher. "That Jinwu Guard who brought you in? How did you run into him? Why did he bring you in?"

Seeing Bai Yuanyuan's serious expression, which seemed to indicate that confession would be rewarded with leniency, while resistance would be punished with severity, Jian Xinyi scratched her head and said casually, "Didn't that nephew want to close this shop before? It just so happened that the Jinwu Guards were patrolling the publications at that time and came across it."

"Don't lie to me. All the Jinwu Guards have their eyes glued to their heads. Who cares about your family's mess? Tell me, how did you know each other?"

Bai Yuanyuan's expression became more serious. She leaned in closer to look into Jian Xinyi's eyes and said, "Go ahead."

Jian Xinyi grabbed the sketch on the table and covered her face with it. "How about we think about how to proceed with the second chapter? I'm having a bit of a writer's block lately, haha."

Bai Yuanyuan seemed to have discovered something, her eyes fixed on the manuscript. "Hey, this cold man looks a bit like that Jinwu Guard."