The Vanished Wife (19)
Then, she quickly returned to her guest room. Fortunately, she didn't run into the maid or Mr. Liang along the way.
Jian Tanxi briefly recounted what had just happened, and then took out the things she had secretly obtained.
Only then did she realize that what she had received was a memorial tablet and a photo album.
The memorial tablet was inscribed with "The Tablet of Liang Wanhao".
Everyone was surprised to see this memorial tablet.
Qin Man asked, "How come there's a memorial tablet for Mr. Liang?"
Xie Wei: "Could it be that Mr. Liang made it for himself in advance? That would be too unlucky."
Professor Pan pondered, "Could it be that this Liang Wanhao is a fake?"
Jian Tanxi said, "Take a look at this photo album."
Opening the photo album, everyone saw many photos, and the people in each photo were strangers.
Several of the photos were of two elegant ladies, both appearing to be in their thirties or forties. The lady on the left in the photo looked remarkably like the director of the nursing home that Jian Tanxi had met before. Upon closer inspection, the old director's features were almost identical to those of the lady in the photo.
The lady on the right in the photo looks very similar to the lady on the left, only she is thinner and looks a few years younger.
There are several group photos like this.
There are also some photos, one of a wealthy woman on the left and another of a middle-aged man. The middle-aged man is very handsome and refined; although he doesn't look young, he's still very eye-catching. He must have been the kind of handsome man who could make your heart flutter at first glance when he was young.
Qin Man said, "Whose photo album is this? We've never seen any of the people in it. If it's someone else's album, why is it hidden in the Jin family's house and kept behind a tin box by Mr. Liang? This means that this album can't be seen by outsiders, at least not by the few of us."
Jian Tanxi suddenly understood everything.
When she realized the truth, all the previous mysteries were resolved.
Her heart was pounding because the truth was so shocking.
Jian Tanxi said to Qin Man, "This photo album should belong to the Jin family."
"How could this be? Could they all be photos of deceased elders of the Jin family?"
"That's not entirely accurate. Some of the people in these photos have already passed away, while others are still alive."
Jian Tanxi flipped to a photo of two wealthy women, pointed to the woman on the left, and said, "This woman should be the real Jin Mingyue. And the woman next to her in the photo should be her sister, Jin Meigui. I happened to meet the real Jin Mingyue yesterday; she is now the director of a nursing home. She should be over seventy years old now, so these photos must have been taken decades ago."
Then, Jian Tanxi flipped to the photo on the left, showing the wealthy woman and the middle-aged man, and said, "This should be a photo of Jin Mingyue and her husband Liang Wanhao, who has now passed away. The photo we found in the drawer before was fake."
Xie Wei said, "I'm so confused... Haven't we already found the real Jin Mingyue? She's only in her thirties. She switched identities with the nanny Wu Yaoyao and is now living in Wu Yaoyao's house... Where did this Jin Mingyue come from, and why is she so old?"
Jian Tanxi said, "It's very simple, because the 'Golden Moon' we found with all our might was fake."
"If she's a fake, then who is she?"
“She is a player. Moreover, not only her, but everyone we have met, including Mr. Liang, Yu Antai, Yu’s mother, Jin Rose, and several servants of the Jin family, are players.”
Xie Wei was shocked and said, "Why are they players? I don't understand... Aren't we the only players?"
"No. In previous games, players usually only had one team, so we mistakenly thought that all games were similar to 'single-player games,' where we and our teammates were the only players. But this time, we've encountered a '1v1 competitive mode.'"
"1v1 competitive mode?"
“That’s right. Do you remember the conversation between Yu’s mother and Yu Antai? Yu’s mother asked, ‘Are we about to succeed?’ Yu Antai said, ‘We’re definitely going to win.’ Who did they win against? Naturally, they won against us.”
In this game, there are two teams of players. One team is us, and the other team consists of the fake Mr. Liang, the fake Golden Rose, and the fake Jin Mingyue. Our goal is to find the real Jin Mingyue, while their goal is to interfere with us as much as possible.
They set a huge trap, making us wander around inside it, until we finally found the 'Jin Mingyue' who was the same woman in her thirties from before.
We almost thought we had completed the mission, but fortunately Professor Pan remained calm and stopped us from handing it in immediately, instead asking us to stay for a few more days.
Did you guys notice that when we decided to stay in the dungeon a few more days, that fake Jin Mingyue seemed a bit anxious and wanted us to leave the dungeon quickly?
Xie Wei said, "I think I can feel it."
Qin Man said, "I feel the same way..."
Jian Tanxi: "Later, after we left, Xie Wei continued to observe the fake Jin Mingyue and found two suspicious points. First, she hadn't eaten anything all day, not even nutritional supplements; second, she seemed a little anxious."
Actually, these two points are easy to understand now. She wasn't hungry even though she hadn't eaten because she, like us, was a player, her body enhanced to the point that she could go ten days without food. Similarly, those in the Jin family who didn't eat, from the master to the servants, were definitely players as well. They deliberately fabricated the idea of nutritional supplements, claiming that taking them meant they didn't need to cook, to dispel our suspicions.
In reality, it's reasonable for wealthy people to occasionally take nutritional supplements, perhaps because they're tired of the finer things in life; however, manual laborers can't go without food. They need to consume plenty of oil and nutrients to have the energy to work. If their employers only fed them nutritional supplements, they absolutely couldn't stand it.
Therefore, there is no such thing as a nutritional supplement.
As for Jin Mingyue's constant anxiety, it's because our group of players hasn't called for a referee and submitted incorrect results. As long as we're still in the instance, their group hasn't won. Seeing them so close to success, only to get stuck at the last step, naturally made her anxious.
Xie Wei suddenly realized: "So that's how it is..."
Qin Man said, "And those metal pieces in the walls, they must be props from that group of players... They're pretty good for hiding things..."
Jian Tanxi said, "That's right. The people of City B don't have these iron plates; only the fake Mr. Liang and the fake Golden Rose have them. This also proves that they are not native inhabitants. The reason they used the iron plates to hide things was probably to cover up traces of the original owners of those houses."
The walls of the Jin family villa conceal items belonging to the real Jin family; therefore, the walls of Jin Rose's villa should also conceal all of Jin Rose's belongings, including photographs. And so on, the same applies to Yu Antai's and Wu Yaoyao's homes.
Professor Pan had previously seen an old woman airing out letters, some of which were written by Golden Rose, so it wasn't surprising. The real Golden Rose was about the same age as the old woman airing out the letters, which is why they became friends.
The granddaughter of the old woman who posted the letters said there was no need to keep them, since it was impossible to contact them again anyway.
This is because the real Golden Rose has passed away, so she can no longer correspond with the old woman.
Therefore, it can be deduced that the two blank tombstones in the Jin family cemetery belong to the real Mr. Liang and Jin Rose, respectively. These two people, who were closest to Jin Mingyue, have actually passed away.
Another group of players, in an attempt to conceal this, deliberately scratched off the inscriptions on Liang Wanhao and Jin Meigui's tombstones. This way, even if we saw the graves, we wouldn't guess that the real Mr. Liang and Jin Meigui were already deceased.
Qin Man said in surprise, "No wonder... When we asked the old butler who was in the grave, he said the words 'Jin' and 'Lang'. He probably meant 'Liang', but because he was no longer normal and his speech was unclear, he pronounced it as 'Lang'. He probably wanted to say the names of Jin Meigui and Liang Wanhao, but for some reason or some kind of restriction, he couldn't say them and could only barely say their surnames."
Jian Tanxi nodded: "That's right."
Xie Wei asked, "The other group of players is desperately trying to hide the truth, but the old butler is taking us directly to see the blank tombstones. Does that mean the old butler isn't with them?"
Jian Tanxi said, "That's right. The old butler should be the real and only original resident of this villa. He is the butler of Zhen Jinmingyue, which is why he is so old, because Jinmingyue is also very old."
"Could it be that the old butler has been controlled by another group of players?"
"That's probably it. He's probably being controlled by some kind of supernatural power, which is why the old butler can't tell the truth and is like a puppet. No wonder the brain-boosting pills and health pills we gave him before didn't work at all. And the 'good guy card' didn't work on him either."
“I understand… I remember you used the ‘good guy’ card on Yu Antai once before, and it was invalidated. Why is that?”
"That time I gave Yu Antai the 'good guy card' in order to get him to tell me about the last time he met Ms. Jin. But he didn't say anything, so I thought the 'good guy card' had expired. Actually, the 'good guy card' hadn't expired. He didn't say anything because he had never actually met the real Ms. Jin."
When their group of players arrived, the Jin family villa should have only had the old butler there; everyone else was gone.
Xie Wei murmured, "So that's how it is... That explains it... So, Yu Antai and his mother aren't actually mother and son?"
"It shouldn't be. They're just teammates. That's why their conversations don't sound like a mother and son, but rather like friends or teammates."
Qin Man said, "No wonder Xiao Chen was afraid of the two nannies and the gardener when he first came to the Jin family. Maybe he sensed that these servants were fake."
Jian Tanxi said, "That's right. Moreover, Xiao Chen likes to go to the old steward, probably because he senses that the old steward is the key to breaking the deadlock, and only the old steward can give us the right information. Therefore, I judge that Xiao Chen has another special ability, which is to find the direction to break the deadlock. However, he can only sense it himself and cannot express it accurately."
Qin Man said, "Then from now on, we should pay close attention to Xiao Chen's behavior?"
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