Chapter 70

The Last Case 2, the truth of that year.

Mofei opened the door to find the people who had come to play cards with him earlier.

As they entered, they were startled by the bloodstains on Mofei and his pale face, hesitating, they asked, "...Layla and Jack, could they also be...?"

Mofei nodded, looking bewildered at the people at the door, "What happened?"

"The Grim Reaper!"

One of them cried out, holding their head, "Is it the Grim Reaper?!"

Anger and Jiu Yi were two completely non-existent individuals. Anger nodded at Jiu Yi, who left the room and soon returned, informing Anger, "No one's dead, it's just fake makeup."

Anger breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Black JK hadn't gone completely mad.

Angler also realized that while others' accounts might be fabricated, Mo Fei's story about being buried alive could be true... More unsettling was the fact that Jack had since fallen into a coma, leaving what happened next unknown to anyone. Angler stroked his chin, pondering, "How will the person behind this play their part?"

Just then, one of the gamblers suddenly said, "Who could the killer be? Could they be among us?!"

Mofei was startled, looked up at him, and asked, "What do you mean?"

"No outsiders have entered this village!" the man declared, "We would know if any outsiders came in. So, it must have been done by one of our own."

"But..." Mofei, puzzled, asked, "No one has come in... Has anyone been to your houses?"

The crowd exchanged glances, all shaking their heads, indicating they hadn't seen anyone.

Anger pondered for a moment, noticing Mofei looking back at him.

Anger nodded at him, signaling Mofei to send those people away.

Mofei indeed wanted to ask them to leave, but with a death in the house, it wasn't like dealing with an illness... How could he send them away? Their expressions were also somewhat strange. Previously, JK had only given them the script for this part, leaving the rest to their improvisation, challenging them to imagine how they would resolve such a situation if it were real.

Anger couldn't help but smile, nodding at Mofei, signaling—hurry and send them away!

Reluctantly, Mofei said to them, "Could you perhaps go back for now?"

They looked at each other, hesitated, but eventually nodded and turned to leave.

Once everyone had left, Mofei asked Anger, "What do we do next?"

Anger merely smiled. Though those people were probably good actors, without a script, even the best couldn't improvise on the spot. They seemed to be asking each other for opinions.

Mofei frowned, "Anger, what's your analysis?"

Anger glanced at Mofei and Jiu Yi, walked to the wall, took down the calendar marked with today's date, and gestured for them to sit on the sofa.

Jiu Yi and Mofei both sat down.

Anger sat opposite them, stroking Ace, who had climbed onto the sofa, and whispered, "The current situation is that no one knows how the plot will unfold next, nor who the real culprit is."

"Exactly," nodded Jiu Yi. "So, if we don't make a move, the play cannot continue, right?"

Anger chuckled, waving a finger lightly and said with a smile, "Put simply, after analysis, there are two possibilities for the truth of that year."

"What?" Both Mofei and Jiu Yi rubbed their temples, overwhelmed by the complex clues and lack of direction. It seemed only Anger, with his non-human intellect, could make sense of it all.

"We have few clues and even less truth. The only reliable and real clue we have is... Jack's father, which is Mofei's current identity, knew something would happen tonight, right?"

Jiu Yi and Mofei nodded, "Otherwise, he wouldn't have marked the calendar in advance."

"The people here, both adults and children, won't act without instructions. So, the only unexpected event that night was Jack fainting at the door, right?"

Mofei frowned and asked, "Right, why did he suddenly appear at the door and then faint?"

"That might be a fragment of Black JK's memory," Anger smiled slightly. "Or perhaps a hint, because if Jack hadn't fainted at the door, we might not have thought of the idea to feign death."

"A hint?" Mofei frowned. "But didn't Black JK say he doesn't remember anything?"

“This isn't too important for now, let’s set it aside and discuss the clues we have, both absolutely real and possibly unreal,” Anger continued slowly, “For instance, the number of people who died that night.”

Mo Fei and Jiu Yi exchanged puzzled glances, looking at Anger for explanation.

Anger elaborated, “Some events, as they recede into the past, become abbreviated in the collective memory. Take the ancient city of Loulan, for instance. We say it vanished overnight a thousand years ago, but the actual disappearance could have taken days or even longer. However, in retrospect, it’s remembered as an overnight occurrence. Do you see what I mean?”

Mo Fei and Jiu Yi nodded in understanding, “Got it!”

“Good,” Anger said, pinching Ais’s ear, “This means, while we know the village was wiped out overnight, it might not have been in one single night. It could have spanned two or three nights, perhaps even a series of successive deaths.”

Mo Fei and Jiu Yi watched Anger, waiting for him to continue.

“There were over twenty families in the village,” Anger said solemnly. “Causing carnage in twenty-three different locations simultaneously seems unlikely to be unorganized. But one person’s capabilities are limited. To inflict such extensive damage, it would require either time or manpower. If the crime was committed by an army, we might believe the village was destroyed overnight. But if it was just one to three people, typical of a criminal gang, it would necessitate more time.”

“Anger,” Mo Fei, understanding his point, asked, “Do you suspect the culprit to be one to three individuals?”

“It’s not mere suspicion,” Anger smiled, “Mo Fei, there’s something called history. History has randomness but is more often characterized by universality. Collective actions require common beliefs and interests. This village was peaceful, and sudden violence is an anomaly. In such small villages, bizarre murder cases are not uncommon, often triggered by the disruption of a long-standing stable state, leading to a change in someone. If the victims had the potential to transform the village, a collective crime by the entire village would be plausible. But the victims were women and children, irrelevant to the village’s progression, indicating that one or several individuals changed, but the village didn’t follow suit. Therefore, they sought to eliminate those hindering their change for personal interests and beliefs.”

Mo Fei and Jiu Yi grasped Anger’s abstract hypothesis and reasoning, yet struggled to discern any concrete conclusion.

“Anger,” Jiu Yi asked, “What can we infer from this?”

Anger smiled, “Don’t you see?”

Mo Fei and Jiu Yi shook their heads, “Not at all.”

Anger nodded slightly, explaining, “There are two possibilities. First, all the men in the village conspired to kill their families on this night, except for Black JK’s father, who spared his wife and child and was later caught and buried alive.”

Jiu Yi frowned, “That seems too straightforward. What else is there to investigate?”

“Right, there’s also a second scenario,” Anger said with a slight smile. “A small group conspired to kill all the women and children in the village. The issue here is, it’s nearly impossible to kill a whole family without the men knowing, unless they act when the men are not home.”

“If there’s a murder, especially of neighboring women and children, people would be on high alert, right?” Mo Fei asked, “Would they leave their families alone under such circumstances?”

“Exactly,” Anger nodded, “Unless… they left to chase the murderer?”

Mo Fei and Jiu Yi were startled, “Chase the murderer?!”

“In a small village where everyone knows each other, your neighbor’s wife might be your childhood playmate, and their child could be a beloved little one to you,” Anger explained. “Don’t doubt that a neighbor's misfortune would deeply sadden you, as if it befell your own family. Additionally, fearing such a fate for your own loved ones, you’d naturally want to protect them.”

“Right,” Jiu Yi agreed, “So they should’ve stayed by their sides!”

"The problem is," Anger continued, "you've been waiting day after day, steadfastly guarding your family, yet the killer hasn't appeared. This village's economy is mainly agricultural, a profession that requires embracing nature. By staying at home, you've abandoned your livelihood. These families can't sustain this for long. After a day or two, the men will gather and decide that instead of waiting to die, it's better to take action."

"Makes sense," Jiu Yi and Mofei nodded in agreement.

"But, in each household, there's only one male protector. Once he leaves, the wife and children are unprotected... How can we hunt down the killer while also safeguarding our families?" Anger asked.

"Gather all the women and children together, leave some men to protect them uniformly," Mofei suggested. "And the rest go after the killer?!"

"Oh!" Jiu Yi realized. "This also prepares for the killer's next move! After all, it's more troublesome to kill one family at a time. If they are all together, just eliminate the men protecting them, and the remaining women will be easy to handle."

"Exactly," Anger nodded in agreement.

"Hmm."

At that moment, Anger suddenly furrowed his brow in thought and said, "Mofei... I think I know where father went wrong."

Mofei was startled and asked, "Have you solved the case?"

"Hmm," Angler nodded thoughtfully. "Father fell into a certain pattern of thinking, leading to this mistake. It's not so much the intelligence of the culprits, but rather a coincidence of geography and space that led to this."