This bug is amazing!

Chapter 255 Reasoning
"Judging from the broken marks on the latch, things are indeed a bit confusing."

Ji Yi muttered to herself as she entered Old Zhang's bedroom. The old wooden bed, covered in black mud, looked rather messy.

But it was so chaotic and disorderly that it seemed as if someone had deliberately made it messy, trying to make people think that some earth-shattering battle had taken place there.

Combined with the broken door latch
"Interesting. Sure enough, that orange-haired guy is not as rough and brainless as he seems."

Ji Yi bent down and could smell the sour stench of the bed sheets that hadn't been changed for years.

He endured the stench and reached under the pillow.

empty.

No note was found.

Ji Yi frowned, her thoughts beginning to race.

And just then.

"Dad, you're here!"

The quiet girl outside the door shouted excitedly.

"I've been texting and calling you, but the signal is really bad in these mountains."

Just as the girl was speaking, Ji Yi had already walked out of the house and arrived at the door.

The upright figure standing in the courtyard looked quite robust. He was a stern-faced middle-aged man with a long, narrow scar on his face that ran from his cheekbone to the corner of his mouth.

"The heavy rain last night seems to have triggered mudslides on the mountain roads. Now, neither the main roads nor the small roads are accessible for the time being."

The man's words were like a muffled thunderclap, instantly stirring up emotions in everyone present.

The expressions on everyone's faces varied, and it was unclear what they were all thinking.

In that brief moment, the girl whispered a few words to her detective father, who nodded and fixed his gaze on Ji Yi:

"My name is Liu Zhaohua, and I'm a police officer. May I ask your name, young man?"

He said he was a detective.

The girl interrupted playfully, seemingly feeling more confident after her father's arrival.

"My name is Ji Yi, and I am a detective." Ji Yi paused for a moment, "...a detective novelist."

Upon hearing this, Liu Zhaohua seemed to smile slightly.
"Did this detective writer find any clues at the scene?"

Ji Yi shook her head: "I'd better not presume to teach a professional like myself. Officer Liu, please go first."

He did find some clues and made some preliminary deductions.

However, there is currently no clear evidence to prove one's conjecture, and one can only wait for the right opportunity.

Seeing this, Liu Zhaohua just smiled and walked straight into the house.

Clearly, he was just being polite and teasing Ji Yi. A young man who thinks he's a mystery master after reading a few novels is quite amusing to Liu Zhaohua.

Little did they know that the veteran detective's extensive work experience far surpassed that of those theoretical reasoning enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, the mountain roads are currently closed, and until traffic resumes, it is impossible to use more advanced modern criminal investigation methods to investigate the scene.

With two people having been detained at different times, it became impossible to conduct a relatively rigorous investigation and collect evidence.

Even so, Liu Zhaohua immediately saw the problem:

"This door was definitely not forced open from the outside. Judging from the angle of the break in the back panel of the door, this is clearly a staged breach."

As he spoke, he went inside, glanced around the living room, and then went into the bedroom, taking a quick look around.

He narrowed his eyes and carefully lifted the pillow off the bed.

There's nothing below.

He quickly stepped out of the house and made his conclusion immediately:
"This is a typical case of staged crime scene. Someone deliberately made the scene messy to mislead people into thinking that a fight had taken place here. In fact, there are many flaws in the details, and you can see it at a glance."

Liu Zhaohua did not explain the details one by one.

Firstly, others may not fully understand the professional terminology and theoretical knowledge, so there's no need to show off by explaining it. Secondly, he has enough experience to reach a certain conclusion, so there's no need to discuss it with others.

Therefore, he stated his conclusion directly:
"Old Zhang is still alive, but he staged his disappearance. His purpose was simple: to reduce the number of participants in this 'disappearance' curse by one."

These words immediately startled everyone.

Everyone knows about the so-called disappearance incident. Although people have different opinions on this disaster, there is a relatively consistent consensus to a certain extent.

For example, the event will begin slowly after a note appears under each person's pillow.

For example, those who receive the word "death" will disappear one after another following some strange pattern.

This is something everyone knows.

Based on this knowledge, it's not hard for everyone to guess the deeper meaning behind Lao Zhang's actions.

The orange-haired thug sneered:

"I get it. Old Zhang just wants to fake his death to escape, secretly hide, and kill everyone else. After all, according to the 'rules,' only one person can live. This old man is driven by hatred and plans to strike first, acting as a non-existent, extra 'ghost' to kill and survive. That's interesting."

Liu Zhaohua glanced at the orange-haired man:
"That's roughly it. And there's another possibility: Old Zhang is holding the 'live' card. If he hides for more than seven days and waits until we're all dead, he can become the ultimate winner."

"Wait a minute, I think this conclusion is a bit arbitrary."

Another middle-aged man on the field suddenly interjected.

Seeing everyone looking at him, the somewhat portly middle-aged man scratched his head sheepishly.
"My surname is Hao, and my given name is Hao. Everyone calls me Mr. Hao Hao. I'm a well-known wealthy businessman."

"This time I went back to my hometown to build roads and give back to the village. I also wanted to do some project development to boost the village's economy. Oh, sorry, I've gone off on a tangent."

Hao Hao spoke, displaying a humble and eager-to-learn attitude:
“When I lived in the village as a child, I heard all sorts of rumors, and I held those rules about ‘disappearance’ in awe, but—”

"I don't believe anyone would actually kill someone for this, and I don't believe an elderly man would be so cunning. Is it possible that he left the village beforehand to avoid trouble?"

"impossible."

Liu Zhaohua said confidently:

"Last night, before I went to sleep, the light in Old Zhang's house was still on, which means that he was at least still in the village before 10 o'clock."

“He couldn’t have gone out at night, and with the heavy rain and mudslides blocking the roads in the latter half of the night, he couldn’t have sneaked out of the village at dawn. So Old Zhang must be in the village.”

Upon hearing this, Hao Hao frowned and said again:
"Then it's not possible that someone with malicious intent killed Old Zhang, or that his 'disappearance' was accompanied by strange events?"

Liu Zhaohua grew a little impatient with the questions, but glancing at her curious daughter, she had no choice but to patiently continue explaining:

"First of all, the least likely thing is a strange event. The 'disappearance' only truly begins when a note appears under the pillow. Before that, as long as you sleep soundly in your room, nothing will happen."

He just finished speaking.

Ji Yi felt a sudden jolt in her heart.

If last time he was courting death by breaking the rules at night and catching a blood moon, then why did he die on his very first night of rest before the note appeared when he first arrived in the village?!

This is very strange, extremely strange!
There must be something wrong with the information in between. Either the statement "it's safe to stay home the first night" isn't absolutely true, or...
No one knew what Ji Yi was thinking, but Liu Zhaohua's voice continued:

"The messy traces at the scene clearly indicate that it was deliberately sabotaged, and it took quite a bit of time, so this direction is obviously misleading."

"On the other hand, the timing doesn't match up. If the murderer committed the crime in the morning, he would have had almost no time to do so and no chance to dispose of the body."

"If the murderer takes action the night before, the body must be removed that night. Otherwise, he cannot move the body in full view of everyone as soon as it is light. He can only remove the body between 10 pm and 12 am."

"But this involves another 'rule'."

"The note will be posted under your pillow."

That's right, it's a very simple rule with a very primitive mechanism.

Even if the person dies prematurely, the note will still be written under the pillow that "belongs to him".

"So, assuming there really was a murderer who killed Lao Zhang and hid the body, there should have been a note under the pillow at the scene, but there was no note at the scene."

At this point, all logical chains are closed.

Everyone looked on with sudden realization, and their gazes toward Liu Zhaohua were filled with admiration.

The little girl with bangs had a smug look on her face, as if to say, "My dad is awesome, isn't he?"

The orange-haired thug frowned and pouted, seemingly a little unconvinced.

After their approval, the elderly couple looked at Old Zhang's house with resentment, especially the old lady:
"That damned old Zhang, he actually dared to hide and do this kind of thing in secret! He usually seems dull and simple-minded, but he's actually quite clever. He's been hiding it well!"

The old man sighed and cursed, "He's practically buried up to his neck, and he's resorting to such petty tricks to survive. Sigh!"

And just then.

A voice of doubt suddenly rang out from the crowd:

"Most of Officer Liu's analysis was correct, but unfortunately, the outcome was completely wrong."

The murmurs in the crowd immediately ceased.

When everyone turned their attention to him, they realized that the one who had spoken was Ji Yi, who had just called himself a detective and novelist.

Liu Zhaohua found it somewhat amusing: "Young man, what's wrong with this?"

As an experienced criminal investigator, he was not easily questioned even by the enthusiastic young people in the station, but he never expected to be criticized by an outsider today.

"Tch, just trying to attract attention."

The orange-haired thug curled his lip in disdain.

Xie Ping also looked at Ji Yi, but unlike the others, her eyes were full of curiosity and anticipation.

Ji Yi grinned and looked at the orange-haired man:

“You’re smarter than I thought. For example, there were two meanings to stopping that girl from saying her note.”

The orange-haired man frowned: "What do you mean?!"

"First!" Ji Yi ignored Ju Mao completely and held up one finger.

"On the surface, you're trying to play the good guy and help the girl keep the information a secret, but if you think about it carefully, is it really necessary? According to the rules, you only die if you read someone else's note or someone else reads your note. You won't die if you tell them."

"So it's no big deal for anyone to lie, deceive, and reveal the contents of their notes."

"you"

"second!"

Ji Yi shoved the orange hair away and held up a second finger:
"Your actions are very intriguing. The first meaning is obvious: on the surface, you're helping her conceal information, but in reality, you're trying to mislead people—to make them think the note in the girl's hand is 'alive.'"

At this point, everyone on the field was somewhat stunned.

"That's not hard to understand, is it? A simple, honest girl is about to reveal the contents of her note, but you suddenly stop her. If it's the word 'death,' there's absolutely no reason to do so. But if it's the word 'life,' then it's very necessary."

"You're pretending to help cover it up, but your real intention is to mislead everyone and shift the blame onto the girl. Once you do this, no matter how much the girl claims to be 'dead,' she'll only be met with skepticism."

"Of course, this girl has not offended you, nor does she pose any threat to you. The real target you want to deal with is her father—Mr. Liu Zhaohua."

As soon as this statement came out, everyone in the audience was shocked.

Ji Yi glanced at Liu Zhaohua's waist, where there was a bulging thing.

"In this 'disappearance' disaster, theoretically, we are all each other's enemies. Of course, this is just common sense; I actually still hope to get along peacefully and amicably with everyone."

"But some people have already started to have designs on it."

Ji Yi looked at the orange-haired girl.

"An armed police officer is too much of a threat to you, but you can't directly confront a physically strong officer. Rather than relying on someone to randomly disappear, you'd rather seize the opportunity yourself."

Orange Hair's face grew increasingly grim as he was being talked about.

"That's why you wanted to frame her, making the girl the target of everyone's anger. That way, Officer Liu would have to take the brunt of the fire to protect his daughter, while you could sit back and watch the show."

"You fucking fart!"

Orange Hair was like a lit fuse, its temper exploding instantly.

He rushed forward and punched Ji Yi.

"too slow."

Ji Yi nimbly dodged the attack, then delivered a powerful punch to the waist of the orange-haired man, causing him to immediately collapse to his knees and lose his fighting ability.

This sudden display of thuggishness startled everyone present, and Xie Ping looked on in surprise. She hadn't expected that Ji Yi, who looked tall and thin, would actually be able to fight.

Ji Yi, however, was unimpressed. She shook her aching fist and said something even more shocking:
"I guess people will think, how could a petty thug have so many thoughts? Am I over-interpreting things?"

"After all, he has a temper that explodes at the slightest provocation, and he doesn't seem like the kind of person who is very smart. It's just a pity that this brute force is just a disguise. He actually just wanted to interrupt me to tell the truth—Old Zhang is dead."

"And the murderer is obviously this person."

As Ji Yi spoke, she reached out and groped for the pockets on Ju Mao's body.

The other person tried to struggle, but the pain in his liver made it impossible for him to continue.

Soon, Ji Yi pulled out two folded notes, made of the exact same material, from his body.

"As Officer Liu said, if there really was a murderer, there would definitely have been a note left under the pillow at the scene."

As Ji Yi spoke, she held a piece of paper in each hand and showed it to everyone:

"Look, we found it!"

(End of this chapter)