The Vanished Wife (14)
Mr. Liang said, “No…we don’t know anything…how could I kill Mingyue, and Rose would never kill her sister. Besides, the surveillance footage shows that Mingyue did indeed secretly leave home half a month ago. She hasn’t come back.”
Qin Man said, "I've reviewed all the surveillance footage. A lot of footage is missing; it's incomplete. Did you delete some crucial footage?"
"No, I didn't delete it... It's just that the surveillance system isn't working properly, it has nothing to do with me..."
Xie Wei said, "There's no point in investigating who killed Ms. Jin now. Let's think about how to leave the instance."
Qin Man said, "We can only clear the level if Ms. Jin is alive. Right now, we definitely can't leave the instance. If we can find out the cause of Ms. Jin's death, maybe the judges will make an exception and let us leave."
"But, based on my understanding of referees, they are very strict, very methodical, and won't make exceptions..."
The others understood what Xie Wei was saying. Therefore, everyone fell into deep despair.
Qu Chen, however, grabbed Qin Man and Jian Tanxi's hands and pulled them to the side of the corpse, making "ah ah" sounds.
Jian Tanxi was hesitant to approach the corpse, but she still mustered the courage to look at Jin Mingyue's body, hoping to find some clues.
She suddenly had a thought: Maybe Jin Mingyue was just frozen unconscious and didn't die?
She bent down to check Jin Mingyue's breathing, pulse, and heartbeat.
However, upon inspection, she discovered that Jin Mingyue was indeed dead.
Breathing stopped, pulse stopped, heartbeat stopped.
There was absolutely no chance of survival.
Jian Tanxi was very frustrated.
At this moment, Qu Chen was still holding Jian Tanxi's hand and placing her hand on the corpse.
Jian Tanxi said, "Xiao Chen, I've already checked. This person is really dead. There's no twist..."
At this moment, Professor Pan suddenly walked over and said, "Let me take a look."
Jian Tanxi then stepped aside.
Professor Pan placed his hand on the corpse and then closed his eyes.
After a while, he opened his eyes, his face filled with barely suppressed excitement.
Jian Tanxi had never seen such an expression on his face before, and asked curiously, "Professor Pan, what's wrong?"
Professor Pan said, "This...this is not Jin Mingyue's corpse! Or rather, this cannot even be considered a 'corpse'!"
"What's the meaning?"
“Just now, I used my ‘Storyteller’ ability to communicate with this corpse. I thought that a corpse could hardly be considered a living person, but could be considered an object, so my ability should be useful. Unexpectedly, the ability really worked. This ‘corpse’ said that it was just an android, customized by Jin Mingyue, and that Jin Mingyue also put it here. I asked it how long it had been here, and it said about 18 days.”
"What?!"
Everyone was both surprised and delighted to hear Professor Pan's words.
Jian Tanxi used the interstellar triangular pyramid to cut open the "corpse's" skin and discovered that its body was indeed different from that of a normal person; it was artificially synthesized.
Everyone was excited to see this, including Mr. Liang.
Mr. Liang said, "This isn't the bright moon, it's an android... Detective Pan, is your storyteller ability real?"
Professor Pan said, "It's true."
"So, this android was personally customized by Mingyue and hidden here... Moreover, Mingyue has only been missing for half a month, but the android has been hidden here for 18 days... Does this mean that Mingyue's departure was premeditated?"
Professor Pan said, "Judging from the current situation, that should be the case. Ms. Jin is probably determined to leave and doesn't want anyone to find her. So, she deliberately faked her own body. If the body is discovered, the matter will be settled, no one will look for her anymore, and she can live a peaceful life."
She knew that Mr. Liang and Golden Rose both loved to drink and were frequenters of the liquor store; sooner or later, the fake corpse would be discovered, so she set up this scheme.
"But why...we're husband and wife, yet I didn't realize she wanted to run away from home...and it seems she never wants to see me again..."
Jian Tanxi asked, "Did you two have a conflict before?"
"No, we have a pretty good relationship."
"I don't think this is reasonable... Does Ms. Jin not even want her assets?"
Mr. Liang said blankly, "I don't know what she was thinking either..."
Qin Man said, "In any case, it's now certain that Ms. Jin is most likely still alive. Professor Pan, can your 'Stormtalker' ability be used twice? Could you ask this android corpse again where the real Ms. Jin went?"
Professor Pan: "I just asked, and it doesn't know either. Besides, I've already used up all my attempts."
"Where was it used the other time?"
"I'm... Maybe we should go back to my room and talk about it there."
The players said goodbye to Mr. Liang and returned to their rooms.
Professor Pan closed the door and, after confirming that no one was eavesdropping, said, "Didn't I investigate the nanny Wu Yaoyao before? I used my 'Storyteller' ability on a bar of soap in her house. Including this time, that makes it twice. The Storyteller ability can only be used twice per game."
Jian Tanxi asked, "Did Wu Yaoyao's soap provide any clues?"
"The soap said that Wu Yaoyao hasn't left home for long since she came home, and she spends most of her time at home. However, it felt that Wu Yaoyao seemed a little different than before, but it couldn't quite put its finger on what was different. I felt that this clue was unclear, so I didn't tell you before."
Xie Wei said, "Where should we look for Jin Mingyue now? For the next two days, we can only contact the parties involved in the case and can't interview ordinary people. What should we do?"
Jian Tanxi said, "Then... let's go and contact the person involved again."
“But we’ve investigated every place we could, even dismantled the walls of several suspects’ homes, and found nothing. Moreover, based on the existing clues, it seems that Ms. Jin deliberately planned to leave and shouldn’t have anything to do with anyone else. She even prepared her own fake corpse.”
Jian Tanxi took out a pen and paper and listed the current progress:
First, the fake corpse was prepared by Ms. Jin herself, and she herself stuffed it into the wall of the wine cellar. She is most likely still alive, but we don't know where she is or what her motive was for doing this.
Secondly, all the suspects appear to be innocent. Wu Yaoyao lacks sufficient motive to harm others, Yu Antai lacks the funds to hire someone to commit murder, and the relationship between Mr. Liang and Jin Meigui remains to be verified.
Third, there was nothing special about the two blank tombstones in the Jin family cemetery, but Qu Chen paid close attention to them.
Fourth, Wu Yaoyao seems different from before, but I don't know what's different.
Fifth, the old butler is strange; his specific role in this case is currently unknown. Based on his delirious ramblings, he seems obsessed with finding Jin Mingyue, and he's the one who led the player to the Jin family cemetery. Why did he do this? Was it to help the player, or to mislead them?
After Jian Tanxi finished writing, her teammates gathered around to look at it.
Professor Pan pointed to several names, pondering, "Among these people, who is the werewolf and who is the good guy..."
Werewolves are villains in the board game "Werewolf". Due to the popularity of "Werewolf", many people on Earth usually use "wolf" or "werewolf" to refer to bad guys or hidden villains, not just in the board game.
Qin Man suddenly said, "Wolf... The old butler also mentioned the word 'wolf'... Did he mean something similar to what we call 'werewolf'? Did he think the Jin family had 'werewolfs'?"
Professor Pan said, "City B may not have a game called 'Werewolf,' so people in City B may not use the word 'werewolf.' The word the old butler mentioned might just be a homophone of 'lang,' and I think it's more likely to represent the deceased's name."
Besides, didn't the old butler say this word at the grave? Does he mean that a deceased ancestor of the Kim family was a 'werewolf,' that is, a villain? Even if a certain ancestor of the Kim family was a bad person, it has nothing to do with this matter.
Ancestors can't just crawl out of their graves to harm people. Besides, given the old butler's current mental state, I don't think he'd utter a metaphor like 'werewolf.'"
Qin Man said, "That makes sense..."
Jian Tanxi said, "I always felt that the old butler could be a breakthrough point. After all, we've already investigated the other people several times. However, the old butler seems to have dementia and can't even speak clearly. Does anyone have any 'intelligence pills'? Let's try giving the old butler one and see if he can recover."
Xie Wei said, "I have several intelligence pills. Shall we go see the old butler tomorrow?"
"No, let's go look for it now; it's too conspicuous during the day."
“Alright. How about just the two of us go? It would be too noisy if everyone went together, and there’s also the unpredictable factor of Xiao Chen. If Xiao Chen starts crying, it will alert Mr. Liang and the other servants.”
Jian Tanxi nodded: "Okay."
It's already 12:30 AM.
Jian Tanxi and Xie Wei arrived at the old butler's door and knocked. To their surprise, the old butler opened the door immediately.
It seems he's still awake.
However, most elderly people go to bed very early, and this old housekeeper's schedule is quite strange.
The old housekeeper didn't ask them what they were there for; he simply made way for them to go inside.
Jian Tanxi quickly grabbed her hair and flicked it across the old housekeeper's face.
The old butler felt like sneezing and opened his mouth.
Before he could even sneeze, Xie Wei quickly took out a brain-boosting pill and flicked it into the old butler's mouth.
Xie Wei had a strong grip, and the intelligence-boosting pill went straight down the old butler's throat and was swallowed.
At this moment, the old butler finally sneezed, but he didn't expel the brain-boosting pill.
It seems the brain-boosting pills should have entered his digestive system by now.
Jian Tanxi observed the old butler carefully for a while, but didn't notice any change in him.
She waved her hand in front of the old butler and asked, "Old butler, do you know who I am?"
The old butler slowly said, "Detective..."
Why did you take us to the Jin family's cemetery before?
The old butler opened his mouth, but didn't speak.
Jian Tanxi then asked, "Did Ms. Jin say anything to you before she left?"
"Young Miss... looking for Young Miss..."
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