The setting of "The Massacre of the Newlyweds" is in the mid-to-late 20th century.
The detective that Su Jian is going to play is a typical British-style detective in European literary works.
The costume that the theater prepared for Su Jing was based on the most popular detective suit styles in certain film, television and animation works, and the degree of restoration was almost 100%.
A drab brown plaid cape and a deerstalker hat similar in style to the clothing.
To match Su Jing's appearance, a furry ball is decorated on the top of the hat.
There are three pieces of tops in total, inside and outside: shirt, vest and jacket.
With a slight adjustment to the pants, they become cute overalls, paired with small leather boots that reach below the knees, which are extremely cute.
However, Su Jing had never worn overalls or small leather boots, so he had to swing his bare legs and shout for help.
I originally thought that the doting Yu Qi Miao would definitely come in to help.
As a result, the door of the locker room opened and closed, and it was ERROR who came in.
He saw Su Jian wearing only a shirt, unbuttoned and slightly open at the collar, revealing his beautiful collarbone. Like a puppet at the mercy of others, he sat helplessly beside his clothes, his calves dangling from boredom, his exposed skin flawless.
ERROR couldn't stand it any longer and cursed softly.
Who was Su Jing planning to call in just now?
He has already bound himself to me as my lover, who else do I want to show this to?
Do you have even a sliver of shame?
When Su Jing saw ERROR, he was obviously stunned for a few seconds.
He has a noble appearance and doesn't look like someone who can help others dress.
"Where is Yu Qimiao?" Su Qiong asked softly.
"It's really him?!" ERROR narrowed his flaxen eyes slightly when he heard the name.
——Fish seven seconds, right?
I remember it.
"Ah?" Su Qiong blinked and explained seriously, "Because, I helped him dress before."
According to the logic of the code, it is reasonable for Yu to help himself put on his clothes in seven seconds.
“…”
ERROR figured out Su Jing's train of thought and suddenly didn't have the energy to argue with Marshmallow.
Time was limited, so ERROR strode to his side, picked up the bandage shorts scattered beside him, and grasped his slender ankle that was too thin to hold.
"Lift your legs."
Su Jing raised his legs obediently like an obedient BJD doll.
Five minutes later, Su Jing left the locker room.
"Wow, these little snacks are so cute." Lu Shufan exclaimed in admiration.
Yu Qi Miao: "It suits you very well."
"Really?" Su Qiong pinched the corner of his clothes, overwhelmed by the praise, and said happily, "When I leave the dungeon, I will take this clothes with me and put it in my cloakroom."
Su Jing's closet was empty, with no decent clothes at all.
In the "IF" world, if NPCs want to wear new clothes, they need to exchange them with KPI.
The more exquisite and beautiful the clothing, the more KPI it consumes. For example, Apple’s blingbling little cape actually requires 5000 KPIs!
Su Qiong's KPI balance was pitifully low, and he had to keep it to maintain his newbie circle. He could only look at the beautiful clothes on the redemption list with envy, which he couldn't afford.
It's rare that the system prepares clothes for him, so every piece is free.
system:……
A cunning freeloader!
"Su Jing, where's the ERROR?"
"He went into the locker room with you, why didn't he come out?"
Su Qi turned and looked towards the locker room, and replied casually, "He's changing his clothes."
As soon as he finished speaking, the door of the locker room was pushed open again.
When they saw the man coming out, more exclamations were heard around.
"Master, who are you?!" Shi Yuntian couldn't believe it.
Moi and Qiyi covered their faces with their scripts and whispered excitedly, "So handsome, more handsome than a star!"
Su Jing, who has normal aesthetic taste, looked at him several more times.
From the time everyone saw ERROR until now, this big guy has always been wearing ordinary white T-shirts and sweatpants, dressed like a runaway college hunk.
The detective assistant uniform prepared by the system is a close-fitting dark blue suit with a brooch and cufflinks.
After changing his clothes, ERROR deliberately lifted up his messy hair. His handsome face immediately lost its youthfulness and exuded the sexiness and charm of an adult from the inside out.
It's too dangerous.
If ERROR is not a teammate, it is reasonable to suspect that he is an NPC arranged by the system to bewitch and curse, specifically to seduce old perverts with weak willpower.
"It's not fair!" Lu Shufan protested loudly, "ERROR's clothes look very expensive, why are my clothes so sloppy?"
"Your roles are different, so think positively," Yu Qimiao consoled him. "If you put on a suit and it turns out you don't look as good as him, the situation would be even more awkward."
Lu Shufan: Thank you for the invitation, but I was not comforted.
"Actually, ERROR's clothes aren't the most exquisite." Moi looked at the few remaining sets of clothes in the cloakroom.
Qi Yi continued, "The bride's phoenix coronet and bridal robe are so beautiful."
Yu Qimiao stiffened when he heard this.
Lu Shufan sat up in shock from his dying illness and pushed Yu Qimiao into the locker room. "It doesn't matter if my clothes are ugly, Yuyu's clothes are beautiful. Go change quickly~"
"Come on, our female costume guy."
"Don't let me be the weird one." Yu Qimiao sighed helplessly, picked up his clothes, and his back revealed a desolate feeling as if the wind was blowing.
As the only heroine in the whole play, the bride's clothes are indeed extremely exquisite.
The bright red wedding dress embroidered with Suzhou embroidery, the phoenix crown inlaid with pearls and jade, and the large, glittering sedan chair—anyone could tell that it was a wealthy family marrying off their daughter.
Yu Qimiao changed into a complicated wedding dress and walked out of the dressing room, but she had an expression of deep thought on her face.
"Yuyu, you really suit women's clothing."
"If there's an opportunity to dress like a woman in the future, I'll leave it to you."
His teammates made a few insults, but Yu Qimiao didn't say anything in return.
Su Qi came over and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I was wondering, the bride died on the third day after her wedding. What happened between her wedding night and her death?" Yu Qimiao lowered his collar a little to show them his innermost clothes. "Look."
From the outside, there was nothing unusual about Yu Qimiao's wedding dress.
But the white undergarment inside was stained with blood.
Some of the bloodstains were bright red, some were dark red or even scabby, and it was obvious that they were not caused on the same day.
"Assuming the murderer who killed the bride and groom was the same person, it is very likely that he killed the groom and then tortured the bride for three whole days."
"She hates the bride more." Su Jian picked up his prop pipe, acting like a detective. "Based on this premise, the neighbor is the least likely suspect among the four, because he hates both the bride and groom equally."
"The story hasn't unfolded yet, don't draw conclusions too early." ERROR held onto the table next to him and tapped the edge of the table with his fingers.
Su Qiong noticed that his nails were manicured very neatly, and the simple tapping movements were like playing a piece of music.
It is true that clothes make the man.
After ERROR changed his clothes, Su Jing's attention would always be unconsciously attracted to him.
"However, based on the current clues, we can at least rule out one person as a suspect." ERROR's gaze wandered around and landed on Shi Yuntian, "assuming that a dead person can't commit a crime."
"Only ruling out the murder of the president? Is Yuyu also a possibility?"
Su Jian nodded, "Yes, he does."
"Indeed." Yu Qimiao straightened his clothes. "I might be a masochist with delusional thoughts. I killed my husband on our wedding night, tortured myself for three days out of guilt, and then died tragically."
"The case is solved. This also explains why the bride lost her memory!"
"Submit the answer to the NPC, and we can pass the level, right?"
"No way." Su Jing suddenly said.
He held out his hand, showing everyone the prompt he had just triggered.
[System: Predicted ending 4, Mantis Bride.]
[Hint: This ending is not the real ending. Please collect more clues and work hard to solve the case.]
"Are there multiple endings?"
"We suspect everyone!"
"No, without a reason, the ending cannot be triggered."
"Alas, I can only finish the first act first, and then slowly start the next act."
Several people changed their clothes one after another and sat together to discuss the performance script.
Just when we had come up with some ideas, there was a rhythmic knock on the door.
The door opened, and a man in a tuxedo and a smiley mask poked his head in.
"It's your turn to perform, please come on stage." Although the man was laughing, his tone was filled with indescribable weirdness.
A stood up first and stepped out of the cubicle with his long legs.
As I passed by the man, I heard him remind me, "Please keep smiling."
A thought for a few seconds and forced a smile without any smile, which was more terrifying than a cold face.
"hiss."
His companions gasped.
"Our A is much scarier than the NPC."
They followed the man in the tuxedo all the way to the center of the theater.
The stage was full of audiences, each wearing a smiling mask and holding a scoreboard.
There is a blackboard on the side of the stage, which records the scores of the previous group of players. The average score is 5.5, far below the system requirement of 8 points.
On the stage, the original performers had disappeared without a trace, leaving only the messy and dilapidated props, which was enough to give a glimpse of the tragedy that had just occurred.
Several stage managers quickly ran up from both sides of the stage and cleaned the stage neatly.
After everything was cleaned up, an announcer in a coat appeared with a small blackboard in his hand.
It was written on the blackboard: "The Massacre on the Wedding Night" is about to begin.
The audience clapped perfunctorily.
The people waiting in the wings looked at each other and prepared to go on stage.
A card appeared before my eyes.
[During the performance, the new order will not be triggered.]
ERROR saw the contents of the card clearly and immediately looked at Su Jian.
"It must become the true order." Su Jing did not infer the authenticity of this card.
It doesn't matter whether it was true or false originally. Now, Su Jian must make it become the true order.
Otherwise, during the performance, they have to follow the original order, perform, and infer the murderer in the process, which is already tiring enough.
Randomly triggering a new order will inevitably increase the difficulty of the copy.
"Okay." A responded calmly.
The show begins.
With the sound of the stage control clapping, the stage changed instantly.
The judges wearing smiling masks in the audience seemed to have disappeared.
They really returned to the mid-to-late last century, with a gloomy sky and a depressing atmosphere.
The mourning hall was dim, with white candles enshrining two portraits.
Detective Su Jing, holding a pipe in his hand, led ERROR, who played the role of his assistant, into the mourning hall, and was shocked to see the souls of Yu Qimiao and Shi Yuntian floating up from the coffins.
Su Jian: ...
Is it another real copy?
"Wow, Yu Yu, you died so tragically!" Lu Shufan knelt in front of the mourning hall, pretending to cry.
The script given by the system only specifies the general direction of the plot, and does not restrict the character's personality and lines.
Just as Lu Shufan finished crying, an order card appeared on the coffin.
[The actors are free to improvise their lines.]
Su Jian saw the new card and quickly turned to look at ERROR.
ERROR seemed to have the same idea as him, and found the "card that would not trigger the new order" and forcibly launched the order war.
In the blink of an eye, the card turned into a silver card back, and the card on the coffin disappeared.
"ERROR Boss, reliable."
"You can now act with peace of mind."
After eliminating interfering factors, Su Jian first observed the mourning hall, which had a very high degree of restoration.
The mourning hall was directly converted from the newlyweds' wedding room, with red wedding couplets under white funeral couplets, and wedding photos behind the deceased's portrait.
The two coffins were placed in the middle of the mourning hall, and the groom's mother Moi stood in the front and returned the greetings to the guests who came to pay their respects.
Lu Shufan and Qi Yi knelt in front of the coffins of the bride and groom respectively, unwilling to leave for a long time.
The neighbor next door heard the noise of the funeral and secretly looked into the mourning hall, looking as if he was gloating.
This is the initial state of all actors when the curtain rises.
Su Jing took his detective notebook and came to the center of the mourning hall, carefully confirming the identities of each person and the deceased.
"After discussing it with my assistant, I believe this was a premeditated crime." Su Jian circled the coffin, puffing on his pipe and blowing out nonexistent smoke rings. "ERROR! Tell them."
"Yes." ERROR played the detective's assistant, bowing slightly and sharing his doubts with everyone. "Detective Su Jing thinks the coffin is the perfect size. It must have been prepared in advance."
"Detective, I'm wronged." Moi stepped forward and explained according to the role card he had received. "The coffin my daughter-in-law is using was prepared by me. I'm old and I'm afraid I won't live long. It's not surprising that I prepared a coffin in advance, right?"
Lu Shufan took over and said, "The coffin that Shi Yuntian lies in was borrowed from me by Old Madam Moi. After Yuyu broke up with me, I was in so much pain every day that I even had suicidal thoughts, so I prepared the coffin, wuwuwuwu..."
Seeing him crying and wiping away tears, everyone secretly despised him.
Don't get too into the role, idiot.
Su Qiong: "Even if the coffin is prepared in advance, what about the other things in the mourning hall? We can write funeral couplets on the spur of the moment, but we can't take photos of the deceased in advance, right?"
Qi Yi: "I heard that the portrait appeared suddenly."
ERROR: "The bride and groom are in their early twenties and in good health. Who would prepare posthumous photos in advance if they didn't know they were going to die?"
Su Jian: "Therefore, this is a premeditated crime!"
[System: Inference is valid, case progress is 5%.]
When ERROR heard the number 5%, he suddenly remembered that when he was bound to Su Jing, the intimacy displayed by the system was 0.02%.
I feel complicated.
According to the script, the next step is to recap the scenes before the death of the bride and groom.
Su Jing and ERROR did not show up at that time, but retreated to the corner and watched silently.
The wedding was grand and solemn. The bride, Yu Qimiao, stepped out of the sedan chair, was supported over the fire basin, and was taken to the wedding hall to pay homage to heaven and earth with Shi Yuntian.
"Really? I haven't even gotten married yet." Shi Yuntian muttered, "My first marriage is to a man. I always feel like I'm at a disadvantage."
"Shut up." Yu Qimiao said impatiently.
He is even worse off.
As a big boss in the business world, his first marriage partner is a man, and he still has to wear a wedding dress.
"Yu Yu, Boss Shi, keep smiling!" Lu Shufan suppressed his laughter and reminded with a gloating look.
Looking back on the marriage process is mainly to highlight the suspect's motive for committing the crime.
In the lively wedding banquet, several people are hiding inside, each of them is plotting something.
Qi Yi secretly replaced the bride's wine, Lu Shufan sneaked into the bridal chamber and crawled under the bed, A from next door dug a tunnel and put a snake into the bridal chamber, and Moi stuffed a dagger under the bride's pillow.
Su Jian was horrified and asked ERROR timidly, "Is this the legendary all-evil guy?"
ERROR disagreed, "This is nothing, it's just a child's trick."
Su Qiong: "Did you see anything?"
"Only Qi Yi, the yandere underclassman who had a crush on the groom, didn't enter the bridal chamber. The other people attacked in the bridal chamber, so the chances of the newlyweds dying there are very high."
"Yes. But if you analyze their modus operandi carefully, you'll find it's full of loopholes."
"The numerous loopholes cannot be used as a basis for exclusion. Next, we need to confirm their alibi."
The alibi belongs in the second act.
Before starting the second act, the film must first receive ratings from the critics.
To be honest, Su Jian was so engrossed in the play that he almost forgot about the drama review group.
Fortunately, they performed the entire plot of the script, and the critics did not find any faults, giving it an average high score of 9.2.
The second act started smoothly, but the players, who were deeply persecuted by the script, felt that something was wrong.
The drama critics gave it such high a score that they suffered from a collective attack of paranoia.
You know, the average score of the previous group of players was only 5.5.
The copy is not that simple, there must be something fishy.
"Be careful."
"good."
The second act begins with Detective Su Jing and ERROR officially investigating the case.
He opened the detective notebook and investigated the alibi of each suspect, and got a bunch of answers that no normal person could understand.
First up is the groom's mother, Moi.
"When did the groom die? Where were you on the wedding night?"
Moi: "I am at the temple. I have sinned greatly for having brought a daughter-in-law into my home who brought disaster upon me. I urgently need to atone for my sins to the Buddha."
"Can anyone prove it?"
"The Bodhisattva's manifestation can prove it."
"That means you don't have an alibi." Su Qiong wrote it down and asked, "When did the bride die? Where were you last night?"
Moi smiled strangely and said grimly, "The Bodhisattva has appeared. I will go and fulfill my vow."
Su Jing paused with his pen, and for a moment he was filled with horror as he thought about it.
His son died first, and Moi fulfilled his vow to the Bodhisattva.
What wish did she make? Is it related to the case?
Next are the two people kneeling in front of the mourning hall.
Before the bride officially died, she had been missing, and Lu Shufan waited for people in the mourning hall every day.
Qi Yi lost her beloved senior, and from that day on, she lay in front of his coffin and never left.
The point is that the groom died on the wedding night.
"Where were you and what were you doing on your wedding night?"
Qi Yi said calmly, "I will spend my wedding night alone with Shi Yuntian."
Su Qi was confused and asked, "Please explain it more clearly."
Qi Yi took out a doll made of yellow cloth from her sleeve. There were three words "Shi Yuntian" written on it. There was a drop of blood on the chest and a thin needle stuck in it.
"This is Shi Yuntian's synesthesia doll. Shi Yuntian can sense everything I do to him. So I put on my wedding dress and spent the wedding night with him in Yu Qimiao's place."
ERROR took the synesthesia doll, scratched its back, and a bunch of hair fell out.
"It should be a strange sorcery. I'm not sure if it will work."
"Oh." Su Jing nodded and turned his gaze to Lu Shufan.
"I have proof of my presence," Lu Shufan said. "I was under their bed."
Su Jing couldn't stand it any longer and said, "You are the murderer!"
[System: Through speculation, we have reached ending 7: there is someone under the bed.]
[This ending is not the final one. Players are requested to collect clues and try their best to infer.]
Lu Shufan confessed honestly, "No, I had already fainted before they entered the study."
According to the system prompts, Lu Shufan, who was hiding under the bed, should not have taken action, at least not at that time.
In the end, only A was left. He said he had been staying at home and no one could prove it.
The plot of the second act ends here. After the critics give their ratings, the plot of the third act begins.
During the intermission, the critics' scores remained high, with an average score of 9.3, which made them increasingly uneasy.
Is it the same old routine of giving high scores at the beginning and zero scores at the end, giving them hope first and then making them despair?
Su Jian had this thought and triggered another card.
[The review panel's ratings are absolutely fair.]
"Fake order?" Su Jing asked tentatively.
Sure enough, when the Order Card turned around, it was something they had never seen before—
gold.
The back of the real Order card is silver, while the back of the fake Order card is gold, which is generally considered more noble.
Is there any connection?
Also, since fairness in grading is a false order, how is the grading standard unfair?
Do you particularly favor a certain group of players, or are your standards inconsistent?
Su Jing was unable to come to an accurate conclusion, so he simply put it aside and focused on the clues in the script.
Frankly speaking, when performing the first two acts, Su Jing thought that "A Family Massacred on the Wedding Night" was a standard mystery script.
It was not until the beginning of the third act that he realized that he was too naive.
In the third act, Shi Yuntian and Yu Qimiao, who are in ghost state, appear online. They cannot feel each other and can only act independently and observe the suspects who may hurt them.
After a series of observations and analyses, Yu Qimiao and Detective Su Jian realized with horror that—
The deceased was not the bride at all!
Qi Yi's synesthesia doll is indeed effective. She can control her own actions by manipulating the doll.
But the black hair in the synesthesia doll's body did not belong to Shi Yuntian, but to the original bride.
She manipulated the bride to leave the bridal chamber and took her place, spending the wedding night with Shi Yuntian. Unexpectedly, she became the scapegoat for the real bride.
The bride herself, having obtained Qi Yi's identity, stayed in the mourning hall and had sufficient proof of her absence.
"I didn't expect you to find out." Qi Yi touched her hair with devotion. "Yes, I am the real bride. On the wedding day, I accidentally learned a secret, so I decided to use Qi Yi to escape the wedding."
"What secret?"
Qi Yi looked at Moi and raised her chin. "Old lady, are you sure you want me to tell you?"
"Wait." Moi stood up with the help of his cane and said in an old voice, "Let me prepare and tell everyone in person. Everyone, please wait in the lobby."
"What secret is it that makes such a grand scene?"
No one knew what was going on, so they just followed his instructions and went to the lobby.
After waiting for a long time, Moi did not reveal the truth, but instead heard a scream.
Following the screams, they ran to Qi Yi's room, where Moi and Qi Yi were lying in a pool of blood, hand in hand.
"You guys are offline?"
Moi nodded slightly.
"What about the secret?"
Qi Yi turned around and replied in a whisper, "It's not written in the script."
“…”
[System: Achieve ending 5, a secret that cannot be spoken.]
The two people who knew the secret died at the same time, the clues were cut off, and the case became more and more complicated.
"Although I don't know how many endings there are in total, we haven't played the first four yet."
“Perhaps, the truth lies in the first four endings.”
"It's so hard," Shi Yuntian scratched his hair, "It's itchy, I feel like I'm going to grow a brain."
"Boss Shi, just give up. It won't grow back."
Moi and Qiyi had no souls left, and only six players were left on the stage, and the fourth act began.
As the plot progresses, everyone numbly discovers that not only is the bride not the bride, but the groom is not the groom either.
The person who died on the wedding night was originally hiding under the bed, but was forcibly knocked unconscious by the groom and put on the wedding clothes to replace her ex-boyfriend!
No wonder his coffin fits him so well, as if it were tailor-made for him.
The groom himself escaped from the bridal chamber and did not replace Lu Shufan's identity. Instead, he completely left the mysterious mansion, changed his identity, and then conducted an in-depth investigation from the perspective of an observer.
"That's right, the real groom is Mr. ERROR, who followed the detective back to the crime scene!"
ERROR smiled but said nothing.
He had long guessed that the system would not arrange two detectives who were completely out of the matter.
I just didn't expect that after all the twists and turns, I would actually become the groom. It's really...
etc.
ERROR looked at Su Jing, and a guess gradually took shape in his heart.
"Since you're the groom, you have a strong motive for committing the crime. It's possible that you accidentally killed Shi Yuntian." Su Qi pushed him into the crowd of suspects. "I unilaterally declare that you are a serious suspect."
[System: Achieved ending 2, scapegoat.]
"The second ending, it seems that the first ending might be the truth."
There are still three acts left in the script, and the critics' scores have been high, and the development is unexpectedly smooth.
Su Jing was deeply distressed.
I always feel that things are not that simple.
As the third-to-last act begins, the plot takes another turn, and everyone's role is subverted.
They have to play new roles and remember their original roles, and their brains are almost not enough.
By the last scene, Su Jian had achieved 7 endings, with only ending 1 remaining which had never been triggered.
"End One might be the real ending."
"I think so too. Also, the critics' scores have always been very high. Even if our last scene scores low, we can still pass this stage."
"Is it really that smooth?"
certainly……
impossible.
At the end of the final act, Su Qiong combined all the clues he had obtained and announced, "There is no real murderer among you."
"What?"
Su Qiong: "Because you are all evil people, the result of this matter is caused by all of you."
A reminded, "According to your logic, each of us is a murderer."
However, Su Jing still insisted on his original position, believing that there was no murderer among them.
After saying this, his eyes drifted upwards, as if he saw something.
Others noticed Su Qi's actions, but they didn't know what kind of prompt Su Qi had triggered.
The drama critics still gave it high scores, and the play ended perfectly.
The NPC signaled them to choose the cards, and then they could leave the Smiling Theater and go to the next copy.
Several people did not move.
“Did we really pass?”
"I don't believe there's such a simple copy of IF."
"You passed. Let's set off quickly. There are six more copies to go." Su Jing said in a soft tone, urging them to leave quickly.
A few people were skeptical and slowly selected cards.
ERROR stared at Su Qiong for a while, then suddenly said, "Any one of us could be the real murderer."
Su Qi looked at him and asked in disbelief, "Can you see my hint?"
ERROR did not answer and continued, "According to the rules, the murderer must accept the punishment, which means dying on the stage. If the detective does not find the murderer, then..."
ERROR stared at him intently and asked, "What's the price for being a detective, Su Jian?"
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