Ch10 - Little Sister Carries A Doll (8)

Chang Ze took out a doll and placed it on the table. “A toy.”

Upon glancing at it, Hai Ri noticed abruptly that this doll was slightly different from Xue Chuan’s in that it only had a mouth. Moreover, this doll of Sheng Canyang’s had a different hairstyle – it clearly had a young girl’s hairstyle while Xue Chuan’s doll had its hair combed like that of a grown woman. 

Hai Ri silently stared blankly for a moment.

The only people here who had seen the two dolls at the same time and knew of their differences was Hai Ri, Sheng Canyang, and Xue Chuan. Logically, only the other two people ought to know this; Hai Ri had merely coincidentally caught sight of it.

Sheng Canyang had searched Xue Chuan’s room, while Xue Chuan searched Sheng Canyang’s room – in this way, the two of them could guarantee that this clue was not seen by anyone else.

Hai Ri was hard-pressed to determine what exactly this clue meant at this juncture, nor did he understand why Sheng Canyang had allowed him to see this clue. There was practically no contemplation, only continued silence from him. 

Chang Ze lifted the corner of the doll’s dress, revealing its chest. There was a tiny speck of blood on it. “What is this?”

Sheng Canyang answered, “Blood.”

Chang Ze: “Why would it be on the chest?”

“What else did you find?” Sheng Canyang asked in return. “Take all of them out, I’ll explain them all in one shot.”

But Chang Ze shot back, “Take them all out so you can cook something up for all of them?”

Sheng Canyang’s smile faded and he shook his head. “Forget it, it came about because I pricked it.”

Sheng Canyang: “You might have also found a needle. That was the thing that I used to prick the doll. I only realized afterwards that blood came out. There seems to be something wrong with this doll, but that was something I only discovered after pricking it.”

Chang Ze: “Why prick the doll? Don’t you love your sister very much?” 

“… It’s true that I love my sister very much,” Sheng Canyang said. “But I also hate my mother very much and dislike anything she sends me. Even then, after pricking it once and seeing the blood, I didn’t dare to do anything to it. I was scared that my sister really was in the doll.”

Chang Ze’s brows furrowed slightly. She wasn’t sure whether she ought to believe him.

Sheng Canyang: “Anything else?”

Chang Ze still felt that it wasn’t logical. “No matter how deep your hatred, surely you won’t go so far as to harm your sister’s doll?” 

Sheng Canyang thought about it. He cast a glance at everyone. “Can I talk about the storyline?”

Ping Jie hesitated for a moment. “Yes.”

Hai Ri’s gaze swept across everyone, catching the obvious shift in Xue Chuan’s expression and her slightly anxious demeanor.

Sheng Canyang then proceeded. “I damaged the doll because I felt that my mother wasn’t worthy of making dolls of my sister. I know that she was the one who killed my sister.” 

Everyone: …

Sheng Canyang: “I’m not the killer, you’ll understand that later when we match timelines. What I can tell you is that Yu Shang committed suicide because she felt that she was too ugly. Her beauty was stolen by the deceased for fifteen years, causing her to commit suicide from depression. I’m not sure if everyone knew of this?”

Hai Ri subconsciously glanced at the deceased. Why hadn’t he ever questioned how the deceased with outstanding looks, tender snow-white skin, and glossy hair had given birth to a daughter who was so ugly she had committed suicide?

Nobody had noticed this most obvious bug. 

Hai Ri said in astonishment, “How did she do it?”

“Not sure,” Sheng Canyang replied. “But I know that your suspicions on the first day is correct. Somebody here is a ghost.”

Everyone involuntarily looked at Xue Chuan, who said helplessly, “Don’t look at me, I’m human.”

Hai Ri didn’t say anything. He didn’t believe this woman’s words. 

Xue Chuan wavered for a while, seemingly wanting to say something. But even after a period of silence, she still had yet to voice anything.

Chang Ze spoke to Sheng Canyang, “I don’t believe you.”

“Up to you,” Sheng Canyang was polite. “Fiancé.”

This topic jogged Hai Ri’s memory. He asked Chang Ze, “Why is there a woman’s undergarments in your room?” 

Chang Ze seemed to have long been prepared for this question and replied very bluntly, “I stole them, it’s a kink of mine.”

Hai Ri: …

Hai Ri: “Whose did you steal?”

Chang Ze: “Don’t ask, it’s too perverted.” 

The deceased covered her mouth, bursting into peals of laughter.

Hai Ri instantly had a not-very-wonderful guess. Goosebumps popped up all over his skin.

Chang Ze shrugged, indicating that it was as such.

Ping Jie asked curiously, “What kind? Whose are they?” 

Hai Ri: “Don’t ask.”

Ping Jie: “I haven’t even reacted and you guys have already changed topics. I’m not quite keeping up with your pace, it’s too fast, do you guys always play like this?”

“Speed-clearing,” Ping Jie said. “Is that what it is? To be honest, it’s my first time seeing two people brought away on the first night.”

Speed-clearing. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Hai Ri inwardly chewed over these two words. In fact, the game’s pace was largely controlled by the murderer. Whether or not the votes were cast, when the votes would be cast, whether to kill the first night, how many to kill – all these matters were under the killer’s control.

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Hai Ri had been intelligent since young and his brain worked rapidly. He was almost certain that Sheng Canyang was the murderer, or that he was one of them. 

He slowly clenched the hand beneath the table. He could feel his perspiration and his quickening heartbeat, and was aware that they were signs he was growing nervous.

He had suspected Sheng Canyang from the very beginning. Sometimes, human intuition was not simply that, but a subconscious process of dealing with many bits of information that the brain had not been cognizant of. And these bits of information were hinting to Hai Ri that Sheng Canyang was the murderer.

Although Sheng Canyang had never admitted to it, his actions were like that of a killer.

What Hai Ri most needed to do now was eliminate the suspicion hanging over Sheng Canyang and to cast the suspicion on someone else. He asked, “Chang Ze, when was the last time you saw the deceased?” 

Chang Ze stared blankly for a while before subconsciously moving to pick up her phone. However, her hand came to a halt midway. “I remember it being past 8pm? I bumped into her along the corridor, she…”

Without waiting for her to finish, Hai Ri interjected, “You’re lying.”

He took out the slip of paper and waved it, reading from it word by word. “Shan Xing’s script: At 10.05pm, you see Chang Ze hurriedly walking out from the master bedroom. You wanted to greet him, but he left extremely hastily.”

Chang Ze’s hands were resting on the table. She didn’t display any abnormal reactions upon hearing this, all she did was stare at her hands. After a moment of silence, she responded. “Indeed, I did make a trip there at 10.05pm. There’s nothing very wrong about my choice to conceal it, right? When you mentioned seeing the deceased at 10pm yesterday, nobody said that they saw her any later. I was scared that you guys would suspect me, so I didn’t mention it.” 

Hai Ri directly asked, “What did you go there for?”

Chang Ze: “I like her, it was an affair.”

Hai Ri found it laughable. “You were still talking about bringing your fiancée away from this place and now you like the deceased?”

Chang Ze said somewhat impatiently, “You’ve never heard of breakup sex?” 

She didn’t seem to have completely disengaged from the reality of her boyfriend’s departure, and appeared absent-minded and impatient.

Xue Chuan smiled. “Jin Tian saw that the deceased was still alive at 10pm. At 10.15pm, Ping Jie saw the deceased hanging from the ceiling. You went over at 10.05pm, isn’t this breakup sex a bit too fast?”

Chang Ze took a deep breath. “You guys might not be telling the truth either, right? Since we’re going through the evidence, then do it well. Why drag in the timelines? Have all of you accounted for your timelines?”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Ping Jie stood out as the peacemaker. “Anyone searched mine? I’m the last one.” 

Xue Chuan was not angered by Chang Ze’s attitude and flashed a gentle smile. “I searched yours.”

Ping Jie was ecstatic. “What did you find?”

Immediately after which, Xue Chuan took out a piece of bloodstained clothing, rope, scissors, a cogwheel, and a shattered flower pot.

Ping Jie: … 

He sighed. Then, he let out a laugh and directed his following words at everyone, “It’s not like I have anything to hide. The corpse was hung up by me. I cut out a section of rope and used the cogwheel to hang her up the ceiling, making it seem as if she had committed suicide. When I went in, she was already dead. Our relationship was never good and I was afraid that others would suspect me of killing her, so I put up this pretense.”

Ping Jie spoke cautiously while thinking. “You guys said yesterday that the deceased didn’t die by hanging. Actually, I already knew that I wasn’t the killer, all I did was hang her up. The blood rubbed off on my body in the process.”

Hai Ri asked courteously, “Can we match the timelines now?”

From the looks of it, all the clues were already out in the open, so they could proceed to the last stage – matching up the timelines and scripts to determine the killer. 

There was no objection.

Ping Jie took the initiative to say, “She’d already been stabbed multiple times when I went in, I even saw ligature marks on her neck. She was already dead then.”

Xue Chuan looked at Chang Ze. “Now are you willing to say what you went there for? Only you and Ping Jie have rope. I never believed that your rope was for the sake of tying up Apricot.”

Chang Ze furrowed her brows. A moment of hesitation later, she rested a hand against her forehead and finally admitted, “The ligature marks on her neck were caused by me.” 

“She knew I was going to take Apricot away,” Chang Ze stated. “She asked me to find her in her room at night. I went, and she cursed me for being shameless. I got into an argument with her and strangled her with the rope I’d originally meant for Apricot.”

She shifted in a jittery manner. “But I didn’t kill her. I only knocked her out before taking off in a flurry. All of you saw it too, the deceased’s fatal wounds were her knife injuries.”

Hai Ri glanced at the deceased, muttering irresolutely to himself for a bit.

Ping Jie: “That might not be the case. In many scenarios, the deceased was strangled to death and the knife wounds were added later on.” 

“If it was me,” Chang Ze added. “Would the clue so directly state that I went to the deceased’s room at 10.05pm? Then I can also say that I suspect the deceased wasn’t dead yet when you went in and that you inflicted the stab wounds on her?”

Ping Jie had been exercising self-restraint, but her attitude and tone of voice now made him slightly displeased. “If you don’t want to continue playing, then we’ll go right ahead and vote you out, what are you throwing a tantrum for?”

This statement evidently had some effect – Chang Ze instantly quietened.

It was Hai Ri’s first time hearing of such a maneuver. He glanced at Sheng Canyang. As if their hearts beat as one, Sheng Canyang turned around and whispered into his ear. “When there is such a situation and an uncooperative player, just vote them out. Don’t waste time.” 

Chang Ze sat back down, staring at her hands in a daze. From the looks of it, she didn’t have much desire to participate in the game. Despite that, she no longer threw a fit.

Xue Chuan seemed to want to deliberately make things difficult for her and insisted on asking her a polite question. “Chang Ze, what did you do after leaving the deceased’s room.”

Chang Ze said, “I went to find Apricot so I could take him away.”

Xue Chuan: “Did you meet Apricot?” 

Hai Ri clenched his hand once more. His heart tensed up. His breathing seemed to halt momentarily.

“Yes,” Chang Ze concisely summarized what had happened in one word. “She was sleeping, knocked out by my drugs.”

Xue Chuan cast a glance at Sheng Canyang, who nodded back and said, “According to my storyline, after 7pm, I felt dizzy after eating dinner and slept till Chang Ze woke me up. When I awoke, it was already 10.15pm. I heard a shriek from the corridor and saw my dead mother after walking out.”

Xue Chuan found this inconceivable. “You slept the entire way?” 

Sheng Canyang stated, “I was drugged.”

Chang Ze casually added, “I watched her eat it – that’s what’s stated in the script.”

Xue Chuan: “So you had no idea the deceased died?”

“Nope,” Sheng Canyang responded. “How would I know?” 

Hai Ri heaved a sigh that was equal parts relief and doubt. If that was the case, how did Sheng Canyang kill?

Yet Sheng Canyang took the initiative to offer, “Why not everyone share what they know? I don’t even know what you’re all here for in the first place.”

Hai Ri took the lead to cooperate. “I came to kill Ping Jie. I went to find the deceased at 10pm because I wanted to ask her if Ping Jie consumed the drugged food. She told me Ping Jie ate it.”

Xue Chuan poked fun at him, “Feels like Jin Tian came here but didn’t participate in anything, truly a player playing with his eyes closed.” 

Hai Ri had indeed been going with the flow the entire game. In the end, his heart wasn’t fatigued from that but the fact that he had to do the work of the killer’s accomplice despite not being one.

Hai Ri: “Xue-jie, you continue.”

Xue Chuan: “Okay, Xue-jie will talk.”

“I’ll touch first on what I know,” Xue Chuan said warmly. “I’m human, not a ghost, but there’s a possibility that my daughter is a ghost. You guys don’t know that Yu Shang is actually my daughter and not the deceased’s. She’s buried beneath the cherry blossom tree.” 

This clue really was very unexpected, even a little shocking. For a moment, everyone had their eyes raised and their gazes in all directions. They were all at a loss.

Hai Ri returned to his senses and then felt that there was something off about this. “Then what about Apricot?”

“She is also my daughter,” Xue Chuan’s gaze flickered. “There was an issue with the madam’s body, she couldn’t birth children.”

Hai Ri shot a glance at Sheng Canyang. Knowing what he wanted to ask, Xue Chuan said, “Apricot doesn’t know about this.” 

Sheng Canyang repeated, “I really didn’t know.” These words were specially said for Hai Ri.

Hai Ri: “So… what were you doing when the deceased died? She killed your daughter, you must want to kill her?”

Xue Chuan: “I do, but I don’t have the ability to. I will occasionally be possessed by my daughter, so my energy levels aren’t good at all. I went to bed very early that night.”

“That’s why you used the mirror to suppress her?” Hai Ri inquired. 

“En,” Xue Chuan nodded. “I often dream of her walking out from underneath the cherry blossom tree, carrying a doll in her arms and singing a nursery rhyme. It’s way too scary, so I got the general to find someone to sew this doll without a mouth.”

At this point, Sheng Canyang abruptly cut in, “You’re lying, right?”

Hai Ri was in the midst of contemplation. Upon hearing these words, he suddenly turned to look at him, just like an electrified little mouse. He didn’t know what Sheng Canyang was going to say.

Sheng Canyang: “The doll in your room is different from mine. Yours isn’t Yu Shang.” 

Not only was Xue Chuan dumbstruck, so was Hai Ri. The main reason being that he didn’t know why Sheng Canyang would expose this clue all of a sudden.

Could it be that he wasn’t the killer?

Xue Chuan smiled. “Maybe because they were done by different people? Yours was made by your mother, mine was done by someone the general found…”

Sheng Canyang didn’t wait for her to finish though. “That doll of yours is yourself.” 

Sheng Canyang took out the doll. Both elbows resting against the table, he tapped a finger on the doll’s head, saying, “This hairstyle is that of a married woman. Me and Yu Shang all wear western-styled dresses and have never worn kimonos. It’s even less probable that we would have such a hairstyle. This doll is you, or… this doll is Xue Chuan, correct? Yu Shang.”

Xue Chuan found this unfathomable and laughed in ridicule. “Why think that?”

Sheng Canyang: “I’m afraid your daughter isn’t only in you. She’s also taken over you, right? It’s Yu Shang who’s scared of you and not the other way round. That’s why Yu Shang made a doll in the shape of Xue Chuan, so that she could suppress Xue Chuan’s soul. She was scared you would come back again.”

Sheng Canyang leaned back, appearing extremely lackadaisical yet having everything in the palm of his hand. He asked, “You’re Yu Shang, correct?” 

Xue Chuan’s gaze was fixed on Sheng Canyang. Finally, she set aside her gentle smile.

When Hai Ri first saw Xue Chuan, he’d already felt that the sense of gloom about her was too thick. In spite of her perpetually warm and gentle appearance, she was hard to get close to. That feeling had dulled quite a bit due to their lengthy interactions, but now that Xue Chuan set aside her smile, that feeling emerged once more.

Shortly after, Xue Chuan said heavily, “If I’m Yu Shang, then who are you, Apricot?”

Sheng Canyang: “I was not possessed.” 

“That drop of blood on your doll,” Xue Chuan let out a frosty laugh. “Do you think I’ll believe you?”

“Otherwise who could I be?” Sheng Canyang asked indifferently. “Who else could possess me? Only one person died in this house – you, sis.”

Hai Ri was on the verge of being struck silly. “Wait. Xue Chuan, you’re actually… Yu Shang? You’re Apricot’s older sister?”

The corner of Xue Chuan’s lips curled up in a cold smile. She didn’t admit to it, but she also didn’t deny it. 

Concealing her identity might have been Xue Chuan’s secret task, for she didn’t appear very happy after being exposed by Sheng Canyang.

Hai Ri took his time to ponder over this. “Then if you’re a ghost… can’t you…”

He was gradually starting to doubt himself. It seemed like Sheng Canyang might not be the killer?

Sheng Canyang continued after him. “She can kill. I’ve never seen the wounds on the deceased’s body, but I’m guessing that those were not knife wounds in the first place but scratches from a ghost’s nails.” 

“Fiancé?” Sheng Canyang asked, “Is that right?”

Chang Ze was currently blanking out. Upon hearing these words, she raised her eyes to glance at the deceased. Her brows creased slightly. “Seems like it? You guys can take a look at it for yourself. I’m not sure and won’t be responsible for seeing wrongly.”

Sheng Canyang stood up abruptly, reaching the deceased in two wide strides. He swept up her wide sleeves in a single motion. The two wounds still looked fresh. Both were narrow at the top and slightly wider in the middle. They did strongly resemble stab wounds, but if they were talking about scratches… then they even more strongly resembled that.

Sheng Canyang aimed his gaze at Xue Chuan. “I think you can tell us your timeline now.” 

Xue Chuan had clearly realized that she was now the most suspicious of them all. Scrutinizing everyone’s expressions, she replied, “It isn’t like what he said. If it were, this game would be too complicated. Who would be able to play it? I’m Xue Chuan, not Yu Shang.”

Sheng Canyang didn’t pay any heed to her, instead asking with utmost courtesy, “Your timeline?”

“I saw you at 7pm,” Said Xue Chuan. “I told you that your fiancé wasn’t anything good and to not leave with him.”

Sheng Canyang nodded, silently urging her to continue. 

Xue Chuan said patiently, “Then I went back to my room. After returning, I saw the cherry blossom tree moving on its own in a very unnatural manner when there was no wind. I vaguely saw Yu Shang walk out from the tree. I was very scared and thus took out my doll, gripping it in my hands. I didn’t step out again after closing the windows.”

“After 9.15pm, the general came to see you,” Xue Chuan continued.

Ping Jie: “Ah, that I did. You had a very panicked expression at that time.”

Xue Chuan: “I was frightened.” 

Hai Ri latched onto this statement. “So after 9.15pm, the general was always in your room?”

Xue Chuan: “No, he left at 10pm. He only came to tell me that he captured the deceased’s lover.”

As Hai Ri listened, his furrowed brows became increasingly tense. Subconsciously, he looked towards Sheng Canyang. Noticing him, Sheng Canyang made his way over, bending over and offering a ear to him, seemingly thinking that he had something to say. Hai Ri didn’t actually have anything he wanted to ask, so he could only pluck a question from thin air. “What are your thoughts?”

Sheng Canyang smiled. “No idea.” 

The smiling Sheng Canyang, whose back faced the radiant sun, was beyond handsome.

Hai Ri was utterly captivated by his handsomeness, to the point that nothing else could be more important in his heart. But whatever the case, his face could not be anything more than an immovable rock. He felt that he really had quite the acting chops.

This was also to say – only the three of them had known that the two dolls were different, and Xue Chuan had not brought it up because she didn’t dare to, not because she was helping Sheng Canyang to conceal anything.

Which was also to say – there was no link between Sheng Canyang and Xue Chuan; the two of them weren’t in cahoots. Everything fell into place if explained in such a way. 

Actually, Hai Ri had always thought himself relatively clever.  Playing this sort of game didn’t wear him out either. But at this moment, he was a little confused. Glancing at everyone’s expressions, they all seemed to be in thought, immersed in confusion.

Hai Ri came to a realization – Sheng Canyang really knew how to play this game.

Ping Jie asked, “Apricot, tell us your storyline?”

“I mentioned before that my sister was killed by the deceased.” Sheng Canyang smoothly directed his subsequent words to the deceased, “It’s meal time, when are we eating?” 

Yet, the deceased didn’t budge an inch. Her eyeballs were fixed on everyone at all times, her red lips curved in a subtle smile, yet she was completely indifferent to Sheng Canyang’s words. Hai Ri took a look at the time. It wasn’t yet 12pm, maybe it hadn’t reached the fixed time for lunch.

Unconcerned, Sheng Canyang continued on, “As for what witchcraft the deceased learnt to absorb someone else’s looks, I guess the price of it is the ability to birth children. Just a guess, no guarantees.”

So, all the timelines and storylines were out in the open now.

The deceased was not Yu Shang’s real mother. The deceased caused Yu Shang to commit suicide, and it seemed like Yu Shang had turned into a ghost to take revenge against her. The question was, who exactly had facilitated all this? 

Jin Tian went to find the deceased at 10pm, Chang Ze strangled the deceased with a rope at 10.05pm, and the general saw the madam dead in her room at 10.15pm.

One of these people could lying, or perhaps someone was hiding some clue. But everything they could find out was here.

No matter who the killer was, everyone had played brilliantly, thought Hai Ri.

However, he also knew that everyone was inwardly leaning towards Xue Chuan being the killer. 

Xue Chuan suddenly asked, “Apricot, I’ve never asked, but is anyone able to testify for you during the period you were asleep?”

Sheng Canyang once again wildly cued Chang Ze. “Fiancé?”

Chang Ze hated him to death, but couldn’t avoid answering. “I can, he never left the room.”

Xue Chuan stopped talking. 

Ping Jie crumbled. “Who exactly is the killer? I just have to win this round and I can leave! Am I not going to be able to leave?”

“It’ll be a bit difficult,” Sheng Canyang casually tossed out this reply. He turned and asked Hai Ri, “Do you have something to eat? I’m about to die from starvation.”

Hai Ri already heard his previous complaint of hunger. If he had something to eat, he would have long taken it out. But after hearing this question, he still searched about. There really was nothing, so he said helplessly, “Bear with it, it’s almost meal time.”

Xue Chuan asked, “Apricot, you’re the killer, right?” 

Sheng Canyang turned around, casting her a glance. “You can ask me that, but why would I admit to it even if I am?”

Xue Chuan: “You and your fiancé are the killer and accomplice. It’s all to frame me.”

“Me and her?” Sheng Canyang pointed at Chang Ze. “Hey, you have something to eat?”

Chang Ze: “Scram.” 

Laughing grimly, Xue Chuan closed her eyes, clearly not believing a single word of what he said.

Hai Ri: “Do you have evidence? We’d better focus on the evidence.”

“Focus on the evidence?” Xue Chuan asked. “Shan Xing and that Fu Yuan or something died on the first night. Since they’re all murders, you guys can think about it – who did the two of them offend?”