Chapter 43

Chapter 42: Mountains and Seas 20

Ten minutes later. Fifth floor of the castle, in the screenwriter’s room.

Shizong and He Zhen sat on opposite sides of a small square table, on which several Jingxin Talismans sealed in plastic bags were placed.

Shizong picked up one of the talismans in front of him, tore open the plastic bag, and took it out.

Immediately, he saw a fingerprint appear on it—his own.

A few seconds later, another fingerprint appeared, belonging to He Zhen.

Shizong, being closer to the talisman and the first to touch it, noticed that his fingerprint was exactly at the center of the talisman.

Probably because He Zhen was slightly further away, his fingerprint appeared later, located slightly off-center but near the middle.

Seeing this, Shizong looked at He Zhen. “Try tearing open a talisman yourself.”

He Zhen did as instructed. This time, the first fingerprint at the center of the talisman was his, and the one appearing later, slightly towards the edge, was Shizong’s.

By comparing them, they found that on both talismans, the first fingerprint was always at the center, perfectly overlapping; the second fingerprint also appeared near the center, again perfectly overlapping.

After putting down the talismans, the two immediately went to the director’s room door, removed the two halves of the talisman, brought them back to the room, and pieced them together under bright light.

They then noticed that at the center of the talisman was a fingerprint, and next to it another fingerprint—likely left by the two chefs who originally placed the talisman.

Stacking all three talismans together, they found that on all three different pieces of paper, the positions of the two fingerprints were exactly the same; the only difference was the pattern of each fingerprint, as they belonged to different people.

From this, Shizong and He Zhen deduced a rule for the fingerprint distribution on the talisman:

The further back a person is from the talisman, the closer their fingerprint is to the edge, and it will appear in a fixed position.

Using a target as an example, the first person to approach the talisman will leave the first fingerprint at the bullseye—the 10-ring; the second fingerprint will always appear at a specific spot on the 9-ring; the third on the 8-ring, and so on.

This rule was undoubtedly crucial.

Shizong looked at He Zhen across the table. “If we ignore your part of the story, from the center to the edge of the talisman, the first two fingerprints are left by the two chefs. The third fingerprint would belong to Zhou Lü, who grabbed the key and went to the director’s room first; the fourth would be… I remember the fourth was Sansan.

“Then us, and finally Zhang Qijun and Zhu Shuangyun.”

He Zhen nodded and continued, “The key is the third fingerprint. I approached that door before Zhou Lü. The third fingerprint should be mine. If we compare it, we’ll know exactly what happened.”

He Zhen then took a lipstick, applied it to his index finger, and pressed it onto a piece of white paper.

Shizong glanced at him with a smile. “Carrying this around?”

He Zhen said lightly, “Male actors occasionally need to wear lipstick.”

Shizong chuckled, then focused on the fingerprints.

After careful comparison, the third fingerprint on the talisman indeed belonged to the character played by He Zhen.

“This doesn’t add up,” He Zhen said. “When Zhou Lü went to open the director’s door, I immediately noticed the talisman. At that time, it was intact, without any tears.

“And initially, there were only two fingerprints. Only when Zhou Lü approached did the third appear. The fingerprints of the rest of us appeared afterward.”

“So—” Shizong looked at him, “you think that when you went to the director’s room, and when Zhou Lü led everyone there, the talismans on the door were different talismans.”

“The talismans were different. More precisely, the doors were different, the rooms were different.”

He Zhen then explained in detail to Shizong about the two black velvet covers related to the piano and piano bench.

After hearing this, Shizong immediately understood He Zhen’s point—

When Zhou Lü led the players into the “director’s” room and found no one inside, the director’s corpse was actually still in his own room.

In fact, they hadn’t entered the director’s room at all.

The fifth floor had twelve rooms, all with identical black double doors.

The decorations and furnishings inside each room were also identical.

It was normal that the players couldn’t tell the difference.

Additionally, there were many empty rooms, providing the murderer ample conditions to create a trick.

The truth was likely this—

When He Zhen went to stab the director, he was already dead.

Later, the murderer covered the real director’s door—the one He Zhen stabbed—with black velvet.

Then, he placed a lock and a new talisman on another empty room’s door, likely the room next to the director’s.

Since that room was empty, when Zhou Lü led the players in, they found no one and assumed the director had somehow left on his own.

When the players, panicked, went down to the fourth-floor banquet hall, the murderer returned to the fifth floor, removed the talisman from the fake room, unlocked it, and removed the velvet from the real director’s door, rehanging the lock.

Thus, the talisman on the director’s door had never been touched by the murderer.

The third fingerprint left by He Zhen remained on it.

With this conclusion, Shizong and He Zhen went to the director’s room door, tiptoed, turned on their flashlights, and carefully examined above the door.

Sure enough, there was a small hole on each side of the wall next to the door.

It was easy to imagine nails had been driven in to hang the velvet.

Back in the screenwriter’s room, He Zhen said, “The velvet covering the piano had been moved. It was black, so hanging it outside a black door made it nearly invisible.

“At the time, the fifth floor lost power, and we were chased by the monster around the corridors several times, already disoriented. Using just a flashlight, we saw a door with a talisman and naturally assumed it was the director’s room.

“It was too dark; the fifth floor is circular. We had no time to verify the positions.”

“So the two chefs are highly suspicious. The velvet came from the storage room. The only people who knew where the velvet and talismans were and could access the keys at any time were probably them.”

Shizong continued, “But the real murderer wasn’t easy to find. So the chefs likely only assisted the murderer, helping him set up the trick. Additionally…

“Whether the so-called monster roar was real is also in question.

“Lights out on the fifth floor, us running scared around the corridor—these were likely the murderer’s design, meant to disorient us.

“The door with the talisman was treated as the director’s door. Under this subconscious influence and having lost direction from running, we didn’t realize we had entered the wrong room. Also—”

Looking at He Zhen, Shizong added, “Since both black velvets from the storage room were moved, it’s likely that a small piece of velvet also covered the staircase in the dark.”

The twelve rooms on the fifth floor looked identical, with no markings.

Players determined their room’s location based on the staircase.

A large railing circled the staircase; all black, except for the walkway.

Hanging black cloths on the railings to cover the stairs, with only flashlight illumination, would make it even less likely someone would notice the director’s room was misidentified.

He Zhen nodded. “Two pieces of black cloth: the large one covered the door, the small one covered the staircase. When we left the director’s room, the chefs secretly removed the cloth.

“At the time, we were not only under the shadow of being chased by the monster but also worried about what would happen if the director went missing. Walking near the staircase, we were discussing what to do next and didn’t notice anything unusual.

“Also, the fake room Zhou Lü opened was right next to the real director’s room. This design minimized positional errors and made it least likely to be noticed.”

Pausing briefly, He Zhen recalled two days prior. “The second day of the director’s seclusion, I stabbed him. When we had breakfast together, it was 9:30 a.m.

“During breakfast, Zhou Lü suddenly got angry, argued with the chefs in the kitchen, and ran after them in the corridor several times to get the key. That’s why we were able to go upstairs to find the director.

“So the two chefs were just accomplices cleaning up afterward. They removed the two pieces of velvet and dealt with the fake room’s talisman and lock, restoring the fifth floor.

“But the earlier actions, covering the real director’s door with velvet and putting a lock and talisman on the empty room to fake the director’s room, were likely not done by them.

“If they had done it before we got up, we would have noticed. During breakfast, both chefs were in the kitchen.

“So this should have been done by the real murderer.

“He had two opportunities: the first before

Since all of this points to a premeditated act, he should have prepared thoroughly in advance, including checking the real director’s door, observing if anyone approached it, or even tried to enter the room.

In that case, Zhou Lü would have a high chance of noticing that a third fingerprint had already appeared on the talisman and that it had been torn.

Then, when Zhou Lü did the disguise in the empty room, he would forge a third fingerprint on the talisman and create the appearance of it being torn and then reattached.

But that was not the case.

So the possibility of Zhou Lü being the real murderer is slightly smaller.

The real murderer was more likely acting temporarily on the fifth floor during Zhou Lü’s argument with the chefs.

He had prepared the velvet in advance because he already had a similar plan, though it was not the best time for implementation.

Because of Zhou Lü, he had to advance his plan temporarily.

In this situation, the real murderer did not have time to examine the real director’s room carefully.

The fifth floor was dimly lit, and he was in a hurry to return before Zhou Lü got the key, or before other players discovered his absence, so his actions were rushed.

He did not notice that the talisman on the director’s door was torn and had an extra fingerprint, so he only forged two fingerprints on the new talisman, pretending they were left by the two chefs.

He Zhen added finally: “But in the two days afterward, the real murderer must have realized the problem. He definitely entered the director’s real room. First, the blood on the director. When I stabbed him, he should have already been dead, so the amount of blood doesn’t match.

“This blood was added by the murderer when he saw the wound on the director’s heart, intending to frame me.

“Then there’s the talisman at the door. I think, over the past few days, many people approached the director’s real room, leaving fingerprints. Moreover, the murderer knew how to add fingerprints, so he didn’t replace this talisman.

“I had torn the talisman, Zhou Lü also tore it. Both talismans were torn and had many fingerprints, looking similar. So the murderer just kept this talisman.

“His only flaw was that he didn’t notice the pattern of fingerprint distribution.”

At first, when the murderer placed two fingerprints on the blank talisman outside the fake room, he was simply imitating the positions of the chefs’ fingerprints on the real room’s talisman.

He didn’t know the rule—that the first two people to approach the talisman would always leave their fingerprints in those positions.

Later, if no one approached the real director’s room, the talisman outside the real room would have far fewer fingerprints than the fake room’s.

To create the illusion that everyone entered this room together that day, the murderer needed to add fingerprints to the talisman outside the real room.

At that time, he only imitated the positions of the fingerprints on the fake room’s talisman, without noticing that the position of each fingerprint corresponded to the order in which they approached the room.

This gave He Zhen the chance to discover the flaw through the third fingerprint and unravel the locked-room method.

The discussion ended for now. Shizong and He Zhen left the room, using flashlights to carefully inspect the fifth floor, finding a small speaker in each corner.

It was highly likely that the monster’s roars had come from these speakers.

By playing the four speakers in sequence and adjusting the volume, it could create the effect of a monster approaching as if chasing someone.

After this, the two went to the fourth-floor banquet hall.

They moved everything on the table and lifted the tablecloth.

Then they moved the central candelabra with effort and saw a red button underneath—it was for initiating the vote.

Next, they inspected the control panel beside the dining area.

It held spare dishes, cups, and utensils—the area where the chefs prepped food.

Upon examining the panel, they found a section that could be lifted.

Opening it revealed many buttons below.

Shizong pressed the one labeled “4-1,” and they heard melodious music from the fourth-floor banquet hall.

To avoid the chefs noticing, Shizong quickly turned the button off.

Then he looked at the buttons labeled “5-1,” “5-2,” “5-3,” and “5-4,” guessing they controlled the four concealed speakers on the fifth floor.

It seemed that when the players, led by Zhou Lü, ran to the fifth floor intending to go to the director’s room, it was the two chefs operating the panel who broadcasted the monster-like sounds.

The power switch was naturally handled by the two of them as well.

Since it was largely confirmed the two chefs were accomplices, Shizong and He Zhen temporarily avoided further detailed exploration of the kitchen and other areas.

They also didn’t return to the fifth floor to inspect other rooms.

After the murder, it was agreed that everyone would explore the rooms together to prevent anyone from hiding evidence.

If they investigated first, leaving traces would invite suspicion.

Besides, it was time to keep watch on the first floor. So they left the banquet hall together and headed to the first floor.

The spiral staircase was dark and long, winding downward like a path to hell.

During this, Shizong inevitably thought about his and He Zhen’s discussions of hell, souls, the three halls, and Emperor Song.

He Zhen seemed not to think about that moment.

He simply looked at Shizong and asked, “So, what are your thoughts about the two chef corpses in the freezer?”

Shizong said, “I’ve always thought it strange. Today, when I questioned those two chefs, sometimes they answered quickly, sometimes they had to look at each other before giving the same answer.

“Now I think the real murderer may have prearranged how they should respond to certain questions.

“But the murderer can’t preset answers to every question. So when asked something unexpected, they needed eye contact to confirm each other’s answers, ensuring consistency.

“Eye contact was likely their communication channel.

“Those two corpses could be the director’s actual subordinates. They had been killed long ago and replaced by the murderer’s agents.

“Now the only unknown is the murderer’s true identity and the actual role of the two chefs.”

At this, Shizong remembered something and asked He Zhen, “In the past two days, have you gone out?”

“No.” He Zhen shook his head. “My character, after following Zhou Lü to the director and discovering he wasn’t there, has been somewhat fearful.

“The director could bypass the talisman and pass through walls. I thought he had regained supernatural abilities. I feared he would discover I killed him and seek revenge, so I wanted to escape.

“But this castle is his. I didn’t know where to go, so I could only hide like a turtle in my room.

“Besides, every night I endured excruciating torment. Under the debuff, I had no energy to move around during the day.”

He Zhen understood why Shizong asked the question.

He asked Shizong, “You’re thinking about why the murderer designed such a locked-room trick?”

Shizong indeed was pondering this.

Generally, a murderer designs this to manipulate the timeline, avoiding being discovered.

For instance, if everyone believed the director was alive when they went to his room, they would logically assume he died afterward.

Then, if the murderer stayed with everyone afterward, he would have an alibi.

But that wasn’t the case.

In the two days after finding the director, everyone was occupied with their own activities, rarely together.

In theory, the murderer still had time to avoid everyone while killing the director.

So what was the purpose of the timing manipulation?

Shizong thought and said, “If the murderer did all this not to create an alibi, but still prepared the velvet in advance…

“Then the design was simply to prevent us from discovering the body too early.”

Although the director had instructed no one should disturb him during his three days of seclusion, someone might still have come for some reason.

The murderer didn’t want this, so he created the impression that the director had left early and regained powers.

Thus, no one would enter the director’s room prematurely and discover what the murderer wanted to hide.

He Zhen thought of the silver needles in the director’s room and the many needle marks on his back, saying, “I agree. Perhaps the murderer killed the director and didn’t want us to discover the cause of death too soon because he intended to use the body for something.

“What he truly feared us discovering was likely what he wanted to do with the director’s corpse.”

“Yes, maybe all the clues on the first floor will reveal the answer.

“But regardless, the murder itself is now clear. Excluding me and you, temporarily excluding Sansan and Zhou Lü, the real murderer is either Zhang Qijun or Zhu Shuangyun.”

Saying this, Shizong quickened their pace to the first floor.

Halfway down, He Zhen suddenly called out.

“What’s up?”

Shizong stopped, turned, and looked up at He Zhen.

He Zhen asked, “You don’t suspect at all that I’m lying to you? You believe everything I told you?”

Author’s note:

Xiaoshi: Do you think I suspect you?