Chapter 6 The Murderer
"What grandfather?"
Although Lu Xiaofeng's question was directed at Lu Yusheng, his eyes were fixed on Sikong Zhaixing.
The latter... silently lowered his head.
Lu Xiaofeng, however, was not prepared to let him off so easily. Feigning anger, he said, "I've been running around for you for three days straight, without closing my eyes, just to find out the real culprit and clear your name. And all you do is play games here and take advantage of me?"
Sikong Zhaixing caught the key words in his words and quickly interrupted, "The murderer? You found the murderer? Haha, then it seems I won't have to hide from Jin Jiuling next time."
“…Then we still can’t be too ostentatious.” Upon hearing this, Lu Xiaofeng smiled, seemingly having forgotten the unpleasantness from just now.
Then he became serious again: "Lu Si, do you still remember him?"
Before Sikong Zhaixing could reply, he continued, "It was a gambler whose family heirloom was taken by you. Unable to find you, he resorted to this desperate measure."
After saying that, seeing that the person in front of him still looked blank, he added helplessly, "Golden Jade Buddha."
Upon hearing this, Sikong Zhaixing indeed remembered it and quickly distanced himself, saying, "He lost the bet to me himself, so you can't blame me for it."
But... once he understood the key point, he couldn't help but feel a little sad. His feud with that person had actually led to the massacre of an innocent family.
Seeing his sorrowful expression, Lu Xiaofeng felt a mix of emotions, so she steered the conversation back on track: "You haven't explained yourself clearly yet, who is whose grandson?"
After listening to their conversation, Lu Yusheng finally understood what was going on and looked at Sikong Zhaixing, saying, "What? You're lying to me."
She suddenly stopped talking... she forgot that she still had to please him.
So he abruptly changed the subject to Lu Xiaofeng: "The old man is getting on in years now, he was just joking. As a junior, you should be more accommodating to him."
“Senior? Heh…” Lu Xiaofeng repeated with a half-smile.
Sikong Zhaixing was annoyed by his sarcastic manner and said angrily, "Lu Xiaofeng, are you ever going to stop? I just took advantage of you with a few words."
The words that came out were spoken by a lively young man, which immediately drew Lu Yusheng's surprised gaze.
Under Lu Yusheng's questioning gaze, he removed his mask, revealing his young face, and smiled with his hands clasped: "My name is Sikong Zhaixing, and my friends in the martial arts world call me the King of Thieves."
"'The King of Thieves'? Wasn't that you they said they were going to arrest the other day?!"
Lu Yusheng still remembered the scene on the first day. Although it seemed like there was a misunderstanding from their current perspective, the thought of having spent three days under the same roof as an elite thief still made him feel a chill down his spine.
And what did he use? Disguise?! If he kills me later, I'll become a ghost and won't be able to find anyone to take revenge.
Although Lu Yusheng's concerns at this moment were mostly about her personal safety, Sikong Zhaixing clearly misunderstood her meaning: "I am also very classy, I haven't touched anything here."
Lu Yusheng sensed the misunderstanding and clicked his tongue: "You big liar, steal whatever you want, just wait and see if I can get it back."
At this moment, Sikong Zhaixing's disguised face was quite handsome, but unexpectedly, her tolerance for him was not as good as that for the old man before.
In the silence, Lu Xiaofeng clapped his hands lightly and said to the two people who were looking at him at the same time, "I know who the murderer is."
Sikong Zhaixing looked puzzled: "Didn't you say it was Lu Si? Did you arrest the wrong person?"
Lu Xiaofeng shook his head: "I'm not talking about this case, I'm talking about the game you just showed me."
Upon hearing this, Sikong Zhaixing's eyes widened even more: "So, Lu Xiaofeng, you've been daydreaming the whole time, haven't you?"
Lu Xiaofeng ignored him and looked directly at Lu Yusheng: "It was suicide, right?"
He had read through all the clues that had been discovered so far, including the opening introduction, several times. After all, it was a game that had been released a long time ago, and the difficulty was not set too high in order to accommodate the players' skill level.
However, the design was so ingenious that he praised it highly.
Sikong Zhaixing also looked at her nervously... Could it be that the four suspects she had painstakingly deduced were all wrong?
“Yes, it was suicide,” Lu Yusheng confirmed his answer.
This kind of ending isn't surprising in the original world; it's a common trope in domestic horror works. A little girl, long bullied and neglected, suffering from mental illness, chooses suicide due to unbearable torment. If the protagonist had a physical body, he might have been subjected to even more brutality before that…
The plot is hard to evaluate.
It became a minor hit in its original world shortly after its release, simply because it had a lot of content to explore and good interactivity with players. It is also one of the more classic puzzle games.
However, although she appeared calm, she was still somewhat surprised. After all, even though this game wasn't particularly difficult, it could still take a newcomer at least a few days to get through.
...Suddenly, I felt I had a new understanding of the average IQ level of the local indigenous people.
Seeing Sikong Zhaixing holding her phone, she had a mischievous idea and said with ill intent, "Next, tap the doorknob, select the correct answer, and hand it in."
The latter, completely unsuspecting, followed her steps meticulously. After selecting the answer from a dozen or so names and submitting, the screen changed again, then suddenly went black—
The little girl in the red dress who had fallen to the ground stood up. Her skin was deathly pale, and the lines of her eyes, outlined by crisscrossing black lines, were anything but cute.
But she still managed a wide smile, and words gradually appeared on the screen—
You've found the culprit for Sakura.
She is very happy and has decided to consider you as part of the new family.
Finally, the little girl moved her lips, and whether she was happy or not, she smiled as two lines of bloody tears streamed down her face.
Unlike other clues, this section couldn't be closed or returned to by clicking the small arrow. Although Sikong Zhaixing knew it was drawn, she was still uneasy and returned it to Lu Yusheng.
Lu Yusheng smiled and reached for it, but as he pulled the screen back with one hand, his thumb accidentally pressed against the volume button. The background music that had been muted suddenly burst out of the speaker—
This scene is the final part of the game, but the background music is playing at its climax.
The heavy sounds of a piano and cello suddenly filled the air, mixed with the creaking of an old wooden door and the clear laughter of a little girl...
Lu Xiaofeng immediately turned his questioning gaze to Sikong Zhaixing.
But the latter seemed even more surprised than him: "What is this?!"
The worldview of silent players has been refreshed at this moment.
Lu Yusheng was startled herself. Before she could think of a way to explain, Sikong Zhaixing asked again, "Could it really be the ghost of that little girl inside?"
Thinking back to how he had previously poked and prodded the fruit knife stuck in the girl's abdomen, and even tried to turn the body over...
Fortunately, Lu Yusheng reacted quickly and turned off the screen, and the background music stopped abruptly.
She smiled awkwardly: "...Well...I can explain, it's just a simple principle of sound recording."
A note from the author:
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