Chapter 118: Love Game (End)

Chapter 118: Love Game (End)

◎ [Third Update] Shi Youqing is a godsend! ◎

At this point, Huo Xu was still stubbornly resisting: “You… you! I can’t understand what you’re talking about!”

“You don’t need to understand,” Shi Youqing said, touching his silver whip, “you killed three people, but I only need evidence that you killed one of them, like the proof of you murdering Auntie Li, which is enough to put you away.”

“Ha, it could have been Lu Yuze too…”

“It wasn’t him,” Shi Youqing said, noticing the cold sweat on his forehead and bluntly stripping away his last hope, “Lu Yuze’s actions to cover for you might have seemed suspicious, but they were implausible. A cardboard box in the fridge could contain a person, but a fridge isn’t an empty box. It’s impossible for an adult to fit inside, even with bone-shrinking skills, right? To then encase the fridge in a cardboard box?”

Huo Xu… no, it should be Huo Yang, was so anxious his mouth opened and closed, but he couldn’t refute.

“You might have escaped using the truck as cover that night, making the police not suspect Auntie Li’s suicide, but on your way back you couldn’t have been invisible. Your figure would be caught by surveillance cameras at some intersections, and just one clip would prove that on the night of Auntie Li’s death, you weren’t at your countryside villa, but sneaking back into it,” Shi Youqing explained, “Moreover, you claimed to have lost several potted plants, but judging by the excess plants in your warehouse, none were lost. If someone really stole the plants, they couldn’t escape the surveillance unless they never left the building, or, they were hidden inside your statues, switched out, and transported back to the warehouse with the movers.” He spread his hands slightly, “Clearly, everyone knows which scenario the evidence points to.”

Lu Yuze, frantic, suddenly pointed at Yan Chuan in desperation: “He, he’s also a suspect! He could have escaped through the window covered by the truck too! I think he’s the murderer!”

Hearing this, Yan Chuan's mouth twitched. Don’t be stupid.

Shi Youqing laughed: “Then we should ask Huo Yang, how did he contact those debt collectors? How did he inform them of Auntie Li’s address? After all, without those people demanding repayment and driving Auntie Li to the rooftop, her death wouldn’t have been considered a suicide, right?”

Confronted by her son’s debt collectors, to avoid being seen by neighbors, she went to the deserted rooftop to talk.

Having already lost her home and harassed by her son’s debt collectors, she jumped in despair, especially after telling them she wanted to die. Her death being considered suicide was all too plausible…

Huo Yang, seeing someone speaking for him, was about to deny everything when Hao Tianshuo kicked him: “Stop the nonsense! Don’t you see Brother Qing’s lips are drying from talking? Still struggling at death's door! Really… Even if you used a phone booth to inform those debt collectors of Auntie Li’s address, as soon as her death is deemed a homicide by the police, the time and location of your call can be traced!”

After saying this, he looked proudly at Shi Youqing.

Shi Youqing gave him an approving glance, took the thermos cup handed to him by Bo Huai, and drank some water.

Indeed, he was tired from talking.

At this juncture, there was no need for further explanation.

Feng Bin added, "Yan Chuan couldn't be the murderer. He had no contact with the senior security guard and wouldn't have known about Auntie Li’s words. Even if he did find out somehow, it's impossible for him to have arranged for a truck to block the first-floor corridor window. If the murderer were him, then he must be incredibly cunning, having prearranged for debt collectors to come and also predicting a truck would conveniently be parked outside the window... Not to mention, somehow sneaking into the truck that was moving your statues." He chuckled at his own absurdity, "And the Auntie Li he allegedly killed just happened to say something obviously detrimental to him before her death..."

The moving company man, who had been dazed initially, now understood the situation after hearing the entire discussion. Believing Shi Youqing to be a policeman, he explained, "When we were moving the statue, there was always someone watching the truck. It’s impossible for someone to sneak aboard, unless they somehow flew onto it while we were driving..."

That would be too exaggerated, after all, this isn't a Hong Kong action movie.

Even if Yan Chuan had such abilities, he would surely be captured by street surveillance cameras!

Huo Xu's facial muscles tensed, he clenched his molars, and remained silent.

At this stage, saying anything was futile.

He thought Shi Youqing would be satisfied and call the police to take him away, but what followed was entirely different from his expectations.

"Actually, everything just now was to tease you," Shi Youqing suddenly spoke up, then in a moment of silence, turned to Bo Huai, "You found it, right?"

Bo Huai, who had been intently watching him, nodded in response, producing two strands of hair hidden on his person: "Found under his bed, one tucked on the outer side and the other on the inner."

Hao Tianshuo exclaimed, "Ah, you went into his bedroom?"

This time, Shi Youqing answered for Bo Huai, "Since we had the keys, of course, we had to check both. Otherwise, it would be a waste."

“……”

Everyone gazed at the two strands of hair, feeling a chill, "These hairs are..."

"Huo Yang had a habit of collecting people's hair since university, especially after cuckolding someone... Wang Fan fits his criteria. I guess one of these is Wang Fan’s, and the other, as a memento of his first murder, is likely his brother Huo Xu’s."

He certainly didn’t buy the theory that a brother’s death would suddenly change someone’s sexual orientation.

It's plausible that being traumatized could lead to deliberate degeneration or superficial imitation of his brother, but he knew better than anyone how Huo Yang’s feelings for him developed.

"We'll know whose hair these are after a DNA test," Shi Youqing coldly smiled at Huo Yang, "As long as one is identified as Wang Fan’s, it doesn’t matter whether you admit it or not."

Huo Yang almost ran out of breath, "You..."

Shi Youqing said, "Don’t worry, Bo Huai recorded videos both times he entered your house and the warehouse across, ensuring the evidence is from the primary scene."

“……”

With everything settled, Shi Youqing seemed unsatisfied and continued his ruthless questioning, "You can't escape your death sentence, and we'll never meet again. Do you have any last words?"

Huo Yang felt a darkness envelop his vision.

He knew his days were numbered, with no way out.

"Yes! I killed my brother, Wang Fan, and that blabbermouth old woman, so what? Ha, you're an undercover cop, right? You came in to investigate Wang Fan's disappearance? Too bad for you, I exchanged one life for three. Worth it!" he exclaimed.

As soon as he finished speaking, a whip lashed fiercely across his mouth. His lips, already frail, stung intensely from the blow. Seeing Shi Youqing ready to continue, he hurriedly tried to stop him, "You're a cop, you can't..." but he was cut off as Bo Huai pressed him to the ground, assisting Shi Youqing.

"I'm just a player," Shi Youqing said emotionlessly, looking down at him. Another whip cracked, "You'll never know who I am in this lifetime!"

After enduring several lashes, Huo Yang realized just how ruthless this sickly young man was. Laughing after being beaten, he said, "I get it now! You're Wang Fan's relative, seeking justice for him! Too bad..."

"Keep guessing," Shi Youqing whipped him again, targeting his most vulnerable spots, "If you guess right, I'll stop."

Huo Yang was stunned, his face showing fear.

Was this going to beat him to death?

Even a firing squad would be more comfortable than this!

"Don't..." Huo Yang, seeing Shi Youqing wasn't joking, hastily said, "I... I had no choice!"

"No choice?"

"At the banquet that year, it was Wang Fan who approached me first! He said if I helped him take revenge on the Lu family, he'd be with me. I agreed, and that night, after he got drunk, I took him back to the apartment. He wanted to use this to spite Lu Yuze... But that night, he changed the bedsheets while I was showering and found my brother’s hair, incessantly questioning me... The guy had no tact. In the end, he even asked me if the person who died years ago was my brother or my younger brother."

“……”

"I couldn't let him live. But... I didn't completely abandon him. Although he died, I still liked him, so I kept his hair, letting him and my brother be together forever..."

These words were like a ghost story, disgusting everyone to their core.

Shi Youqing frowned and asked, "Where's Wang Fan's body?"

After a moment of silence, Huo Yang said, "Inside that statue."

Everyone's expression changed.

Huo Yang looked up at him and continued, now speaking more fluidly, "I had to dismember the body. Luckily, I had a life-sized doll at home. I stuffed the processed body into the doll, carried it out in the early dawn to the car, and then took it to my villa in the suburbs. I mixed it with cement to make a statue... So, of course, the statue couldn't be disposed of carelessly." He finished with a laugh, as if such a brutal act was no more significant than slaughtering a chicken.

Hao Tianshuo, fighting the urge to vomit, cursed, "You're not human..."

Huo Yang had confessed everything; there was no need to continue this confrontation.

Feng Bin used tape to reseal Huo Yang's mouth, then turned to Shi Youqing, "Should we just fill in the answer?"

As he spoke, Lu Yuze, lying on the ground, began to twist in apparent terror.

Ye Jing seemed prepared for the end, closing his eyes, awaiting death.

Zongtu Yuan, who had been standing at a distance observing everything, was surprisingly the calmest.

Death was the least of Zongtu Yuan's fears, only dreading dying at the hands of fools. Now, losing to Shi Youqing, he seemed content, as if the outcome was not at all frightening to him.

"Mmm... Mmm!" Lu Yuze, his mouth covered, couldn't speak but his muffled sounds were clearly cursing Ye Jing and Zongtu Yuan as traitors.

Zongtu Yuan, understanding the accusation, chuckled and walked over, giving Lu Yuze a merciless kick, "Traitor? Don't flatter yourself! What are you in all this?"

Unlike the crazed Zongtu Yuan, Ye Jing, facing imminent death, didn't want the player disguised as Lu Yuze to feel too despondent. He sadly explained, "Brother, all the evidence pointing to Huo Xu was uncovered by Brother Youqing. Yan Chuan and I, at most, just didn't interfere much... Yesterday, I tried to attack Brother Youqing to warn him of the danger, but by then, he had already focused on Huo Xu. Even if you replaced me and Yan Chuan with other players, the situation wouldn’t have changed. Just... just accept it."

Lu Yuze, initially not so resentful, after hearing Ye Jing's words, wished he could tear this contemptible person to pieces, and thus resumed his muffled cursing.

Like a monk in meditation, Ye Jing, having said what he thought would console Lu Yuze but ended up aggravating him instead, seemed to find his own peace. He took one last look at Shi Youqing as a farewell.

Shi Youqing: "...Who said you were going to die?"

Ye Jing fell silent, then, in shock, exclaimed, "…Ah?"

Everyone else, just as astonished, turned their gaze to the young man standing over Huo Yang.

Shi Youqing, with his foot on Huo Yang, said indifferently, "First, bring Huo Xu to my place."

Without further explanation, he withdrew his foot and left the room, followed closely by Bo Huai, who dragged the limp Huo Yang and grabbed a hat from Lu Yuze’s house to cover the latter's head, and dragged him away.

The others exchanged glances, then hurriedly, with the bound Lu Yuze and others, moved to room 304 next door.

Upon reaching home, Shi Youqing immediately sat down on the sofa, "My sofa is still the most comfortable."

Bo Huai threw the bound Huo Yang onto the floor and went to massage him.

"I exerted too much with the whip, need to stretch my arm a bit," Bo Huai commented, and began to actually stretch Shi Youqing's arm.

Feng Bin and the others who entered and heard this: "..."

After stretching his arm, Shi Youqing began to enjoy the massage.

Ye Jing couldn't help but ask, "Brother Youqing, when you said we don’t have to die... were you just teasing us?"

Shi Youqing glanced at him and suddenly asked, "Can you disclose your mission?"

Ye Jing was taken aback and remained silent, clearly unable to do so.

Hao Tianshuo, puzzled, said, "Since they’re from the opposing camp, they’re obviously meant to hinder our mission. Lu Yuze’s reaction made that clear. It doesn’t matter if they can’t say it, right?"

Shi Youqing smiled, "Because the specific details of the mission can have different impacts."

"Ah?"

Shi Youqing explained, "Your mission isn’t to hinder Shi Youqing, or else Zongtu Yuan wouldn’t have been so surprised to see me. It’s not to obstruct the opposing team either, as that would give away my side’s secrets. After all, I didn’t know who among you was a player at the start. So, your mission must be to prevent the main character's mission from succeeding."

Hao Tianshuo was somewhat confused, "Isn’t that what you initially speculated, Brother Qing?"

Zongtu Yuan, who knew the details of his mission, stared intently at Shi Youqing.

He couldn’t reveal it, but Bo Huai could. Glancing at him, Bo Huai spoke coldly, "The focus is on the word ‘main character,’ not the mission."

After Shi Youqing's explanation and Bo Huai's hint, Feng Bin immediately understood, "It's a loophole in the mission!"

Shi Youqing nodded, "This loophole isn't complex or hard to find. If players from both camps are willing to trust each other, even without revealing their own mission details, they can hint at it and help each other understand their respective missions. Finding the loophole enables a win-win."

But in opposing camps, who would trust each other?

Understanding the explanation, Lu Yuze’s face turned extremely sour.

Shi Youqing continued, "The loophole lies in the words ‘main character.’ You’re meant to hinder the game's main character, not Shi Youqing, nor the opposing team. And Wang Fan, he’s also a main character."

"Right!" Ye Jing felt a rush of emotion, as if he had fallen off a cliff only to be saved midway by Shi Youqing. This kind of miraculous rescue he would never experience again, except with Shi Youqing...

However, Lu Yuze interjected, "But Wang Fan is already dead? How do we hinder the main character?" There was no need for them to intervene; Huo Yang had already killed, effectively hindering the mission.

Shi Youqing clarified, "Who said I asked you to hinder Wang Fan?"

At this point, Zongtu Yuan from the opposing camp understood the solution but still found it hard to believe. He stared intently at Shi Youqing, only for his view to be blocked by Bo Huai the next moment.

Bo Huai, already burning with jealousy, wished he could whisk Shi Youqing away, preferring him to meet his end right there.

"We have a ready-made person here," Shi Youqing said, pointing at Huo Yang. "You just need to make him the main character." The rest was unnecessary to elaborate; these experienced players surely knew what to do.

As expected, Lu Yuze, who had been hostile towards him, looked bewildered and then complexly at Shi Youqing - a mix of gratitude and embarrassment.

Ye Jing said, "Making the murderer the main character means creating commonalities with the game's protagonist!"

The commonalities, with two main characters as examples, were:

First, they must live in Room 304.

Second, they must be estranged from their family, as both Shi Youqing and Wang Fan had run away from home. The rich heir aspect wasn't mandatory, otherwise, Wang Fan wouldn't have used Yan Chuan and Huo Xu’s identities to disgust the Lu family.

Third, woo four targets and discover a murderer among them.

The second criterion was already met by Huo Yang, given his parents’ early demise and his killing of his brother. The first and third could be artificially created.

Feng Bin, not wanting Ye Jing to die here and seeing his lack of hostility towards Shi Youqing despite being in different camps, decided to help, "From today, you must gain the favor of Bai Minglang, Lu Yuze, Yan Chuan, and this moving guy within seven days, reaching a favorability of sixty, while figuring out which one of these four has committed murder."

Although Zongtu Yuan was likely bloodstained, game host Feng Bin knew the trap in this.

Even if Huo Yang guessed correctly, these four would certainly not favor him. It's not that players can control their favorability; otherwise, Lu Yuze, eager to harm Shi Youqing, wouldn’t have let his favorability exceed sixty - once players take a character card, as long as the main character's actions align with their character card's preferences, favorability increases.

But the key point was, Huo Yang was about to be captured!

How could someone who wouldn’t meet their wooing targets again within seven days increase their favorability?

This was also why they initially chose not to call the police. If they had, the cops in this game world would have started investigating, and while they could indeed use police power to find the murderer, if the police couldn’t solve the case quickly within seven days, they would be in a passive position, possibly struggling even to meet their wooing targets.

Shi Youqing pulled out a rental contract from a drawer and placed it on the coffee table.

With Huo Yang in the players' hands, forcing him to create a subletting contract was feasible with some effort.

Still, he asked, "Do I need to leave a signature?"

Before Ye Jing could respond, Zongtu Yuan said, "If you're that stupid, you don't deserve to live!"

Ye Jing thought he was mocking him, but on looking up, he saw Zongtu Yuan's eyes tinged red with self-mockery. Without looking at Shi Youqing again, he turned away as if finally yielding, squeezing out, "I will repay you."

Shi Youqing, as if he hadn't heard, said to Bo Huai and others, "Alright, let’s fill in the answer." He gave Ye Jing one last look, "After turning him into the main character, remember to call the police and send him away."

After speaking, Shi Youqing submitted the answer to the system: Huo Yang was the murderer of Wang Fan.

"Congratulations to player Shi Youqing for completing the [Love Game] instance!"

As the mechanical voice of the system rang out, the floating interface in front of Shi Youqing underwent a change:

[White World Instance: Love Game]

[Game Progress: 100%]

[Instance Background Story: View now?]

Shi Youqing didn't rush to read the background story, instead, he stood up and looked out the window, towards the apartment’s main entrance.

It was time to leave quickly. Bo Huai, as usual, carried Shi Youqing on his back. As they left room 304, Shi Youqing heard a voice: "Thank you."

It was the voices of Ye Jing and the player portraying Lu Yuze.

Hao Tianshuo and Feng Bin, following behind them, heard it more clearly. Among them, there seemed to be an especially awkward "thanks" from Zongtu Yuan.

Both looked as if they had seen a ghost. A madman being polite was truly frightening...

They were on the third floor, and to avoid any last-minute surprises, all four avoided the elevator.

Shi Youqing, lying on Bo Huai’s back, was carried all the way out of the apartment and finally stepped into the white glowing exit.

As the pieces began to settle, Shi Youqing, for completing the mission and maintaining a win-win situation, received 30 white chess pieces.

Amidst the sounds of settlement, he was enveloped in the light. Suddenly, Shi Youqing felt an indescribable sensation, as if... someone was watching him.

He turned back in confusion.

Outside the exit, a woman stood straight, quietly watching him, appearing very content.

It was like when he was sent to kindergarten, and Shi Wen stood at the door, smiling, watching him walk away.

Shi Youqing suddenly froze. He was about to jump down, but in an instant, the scenery before him underwent a dramatic change.

They were outside.

Bo Huai continued to carry him, now walking up the stairs, each step firm and steady.

Shi Youqing, pressing his lips together, remained silent.

"Qingqing, don't cry..." Bo Huai's heart broke feeling the teardrops on his neck, "Soon, you'll be able to see mom again."

Shi Youqing wiped his eyes and smiled, "Yes, I can enter the ultimate instance now."

[Author’s Note]

Thanks to the little angel who dropped a mine: One Steel Wool Ball;

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated with nutrient solution: Silver Starlight, 1 bottle;

I'm very grateful for everyone's support and will continue to work hard!