TEFSCBSS Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Focused Deduction (Part 1)

Everyone had just about finished reading the script. Each person wore a tense expression, scanning one another in silence. A few even cast accusatory glances.

“Zhao, what are you staring at me for?” Wan Niang snapped, irritated by Zhao Wen’s wistful gaze.

She already held a grudge against Zhao Wen for abandoning her at a critical moment. On top of that, her script contained suspicions about him, making her even more convinced that he was up to something.

And now, Zhao Wen was looking at her with that inexplicable expression—like she was the murderer! That was the last straw. She was so furious that she didn’t even bother addressing him as “Young Master Zhao” anymore. If she had her ancestral feather duster with her, she would have smacked him right then and there.

Zhao Wen knew better than to provoke Wan Niang, so he quickly averted his gaze. “Ahem, nothing. It’s just… your level of suspicion is pretty high, Wan Niang.”

“My suspicion is high?” Wan Niang looked incredulous.

Seeing that everyone had finished reading the script, Zhao Wen decided to get straight to the point.

“I’ll go ahead and share my experiences so far.”

By this point, aside from Jiang Liang—who had vanished to who knows where—all the players were gathered. Zhao Wen saw no reason to hide anything, so he laid out everything: how he and Gu Qing had gone looking for the others, how they had encountered Wang Bokao, and how they had found Li Tiechui.

“After that, Wang Bokao said he had a mission to complete and left. The three of us then saw Zhao Si and the villagers carrying a coffin out of the ancestral hall. We stopped Zhao Si, but then we got split up to carry out different tasks.”

“From that moment on, I think it’s fair to say that each of us had time alone where we couldn’t be trusted.”

“Gu Qing went off alone with Zhao Si. But according to my script, Zhao Si seems to have some kind of connection with Second Senior Brother Wu Fei, and they might be plotting something.”

“Gu Qing spent a long time alone with Zhao Si, so I can’t be sure if he’s completely innocent.”

Gu Qing simply nodded without offering any immediate defense. “I’ll add some details about Zhao Si later.”

His calm demeanor reassured Zhao Wen a little. Gu Qing didn’t seem like a murderer.

Zhao Wen continued, “Then there’s Li Tiechui. Following Zhao Si’s instructions, I went to find some dirt. When I came back, he was there alone, but something about him just felt off.”

“I said the lantern had gone out, but he insisted it was still lit. He kept forcing a smile—so stiff that it felt unnatural. His head was twisted at an odd angle while he played with the dirt in his hands. There’s no way I’m buying that he’s innocent.”

Li Tiechui’s eyes widened at the accusation, but then he recalled the task assigned to him in his script. He gritted his teeth and kept silent, turning his head away in frustration.

“Ahem, I’m just laying out the facts,” Zhao Wen said, a little uneasy.

This wasn’t like a game of Werewolf, where you could debate from a distance. Here, they were face-to-face, each with their role, tangled in a complex web of characters. Zhao Wen’s head was spinning.

If not for his naturally good memory, he wouldn’t have been able to keep track of everything. But his father had never taught him how to handle this kind of situation!

When Judge Bao solved cases, he was the highest authority—there was no doubt about who was in charge. But here? They were all suspects. He had no idea how to reach a verdict. All he could do was analyze the available information and throw out suspicions indiscriminately—uh, no, conduct impartial reasoning.

After finishing with Li Tiechui, Zhao Wen turned his gaze to Wan Niang. “After that, I ran into Jiang Liang, who claimed he was being chased by ghosts. He was in the Earth God Temple. Then he took me back near the ancestral hall and knocked me out.”

Yep, definitely couldn’t say he threw me into a pit.

“Right before knocking me out, he seemed to say something about Li Tiechui being an accomplice, but I couldn’t hear the rest.”

Because I was too far down in that damn pit.

“Later, Wan Niang found me. The two of us hid in the dark and saw the villagers carrying the coffin to the altar. We quietly followed them.”

“What happened next is what you all saw. But when the sky turned dark and we could barely see, I distinctly heard movement from Wan Niang. She left and came back. I have no idea what she was up to.”

“That’s why I suspected her at first!”

When Zhao Wen finished, everyone turned their eyes to Wan Niang.

“Tch, what are you all looking at me for? I ran into someone I knew and stepped out to chat for a bit. What’s the big deal?” Wan Niang rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

Wang Bokao frowned. “Someone you knew?”

“Yeah, that heartless man of mine.”

At that moment, Gu Qing, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly asked, “What’s your heartless man’s name?”

“Cui Lang—Cui Yixue. Why?”

“Doesn’t that name sound familiar to you?”

Wan Niang frowned. “Now that you mention it, it does ring a bell. But this is the first time my new script has revealed his name. It wasn’t mentioned before. Wait…” She widened her eyes and turned to Zhao Wen. “You—during our first discussion, who did you say was the friend of the supernatural master?”

Zhao Wen’s expression turned incredulous. “Cui… Cui Yixue.”

His throat moved as he swallowed, his disbelief apparent. Was his script somehow connected to someone else’s?

Was the immortal monster Wan Niang’s heartless ex-lover?

It wasn’t just Zhao Wen who was shocked. Everyone else who heard this was equally stunned.

Wang Bokao clutched his chest, a little dazed as he thought back on everything that had happened so far. He turned to Gu Qing and met his gaze.

Wang Bokao: [It can’t be what I’m thinking, right?]

Gu Qing: [It’s highly likely.]

Wang Bokao: [Cui Yixue is that powerful?]

Gu Qing: [Who would’ve thought?]

While the two of them were exchanging silent signals, Li Tiechui remained speechless, and Wan Niang glanced around at everyone. She decided that there were still things she needed to keep hidden, so she carefully recounted her experience—though heavily edited.

She recycled the story she had used earlier to fool Zhao Si and fed it to the group.

She definitely couldn’t admit that she had been thrown out of a coffin. If they knew she had been locked in one and constantly guarded by the villagers, who knew what kind of implications that would bring?

But when it came to her private conversation with Cui Yixue, she got a little more enthusiastic.

“To be honest, I get confused when there are too many people around—I can’t tell one face from another. So at first, I couldn’t find my heartless ex-lover in the crowd.”

“But it was like he knew exactly where I was. The moment night fell, he appeared right next to me.”

“He told me that the ritual would soon be complete. He also revealed his identity—he was a villager from Shanshi Village. And once the ritual was over, he could leave the village forever and stay with me for eternity.”

“He spoke so sincerely that I thought he was a good person.”

Wan Niang said this with an indescribable expression. Wang Bokao and Zhao Wen, on the other hand, just stared at her as if she were an idiot.

“!… It wasn’t me! It was the character in my script who thought he was a good person!”

Wang Bokao: “No need to explain. I get it.”

Zhao Wen: “Love makes people blind. I get it.”

Gu Qing: “…I don’t even know what to say. I get it.”

Li Tiechui: Am I the only one not fitting in here?

Just as Li Tiechui was debating whether to join the conversation, Wan Niang suddenly dropped a bombshell.

“Cui Yixue said he knows the secret to immortality. He asked if any of you wanted it!”