Chapter 27 ~ Third Game Pt.9 ~
Gu Yian had just smiled, unable to hold it back at Tang Jiu’s shameless behavior, but the next second she saw Tang Jiu and the large sign crash to the ground.
The tableau in front of her froze just like this.
Gu Yian was stunned for a second and then she immediately rushed over.
The customers in the candy store began to scream.
The cashier at the register couldn’t stand still and ran out from the counter.
Many people hurried over to check on the movement of the person lying in the doorway.
The sign was lifted by someone and placed to one side.
Gu Yian saw the fresh scarlet blood flowing on the ground with the bright lights in the candy store.
Tang Jiu’s eyes were closed, lifeless.
A person at the side shook their head, saying there was no saving her.
Someone called the ambulance and, upon hearing this action, Gu Yian put back her own phone.
The movement of her hand made onlookers notice that she was standing the closest.
“Who’s this girl? You still want to take a picture at this time? Be a better person!”
In order to prevent a misunderstanding, Gu Yian could only say truthfully, “I was preparing to call the ambulance.”
Another person interrupted, “It looks like you’re a friend of the person on the ground, right? Your lips are all white.”
In actuality, it was dark, Gu Yian’s back was towards the candy store, and the street lights were not bright enough to let people see her lip color.
But they could sense that, although the person in front of them looked calm, her state of mind was terrible.
Someone advised, “Ah, miss, just stay like this, don’t do anything reckless, and don’t touch her before the doctor comes. What if she can still be saved, right?”
Gu Yian hoped so.
She said, “Okay, I won’t move.”
Gu Yian looked at Tang Jiu, closed her eyes, and then opened them again.
It was at this point that the onlookers noticed the uniforms of Gu Yian and Tang Jiu, who was on the ground.
The black uniform was not conspicuous in the night, but it still had a unique style.
They discussed in low voices in front of Gu Yian.
“I was wondering what a coincidence it was that such a large sign would fall for no reason and strike someone’s body, but it turns out that they’re investigators! Law enforcement doesn’t have such an attractive girl among them. I heard that investigators have been dying in many accidents these days. All the previous ones are dead.”
“Tsk, they were called accidents, but who can say that for real? Maybe it killed them.”
“God’s Eye announced they were accidents and you still say it killed them.”
“So many people died, I heard there were 50 or 60? In just over a month, this many people died. You say they all died in accidents, but I don’t believe this. God’s Eye is just an artificial intelligence, how can it know to analyze these? I don’t think this sort of high tech is reliable!”
Their discussion landed in Gu Yian’s ears and she suddenly had an absurd guess.
Lu Zize’s objective.
Lu Zize’s objective of creating these many accidental deaths.
Perhaps it was just to make everyone pay attention to the flaws of the God’s Eye System.
When one had no way of overthrowing sin, one could become sin itself.
This guess was just too preposterous.
Gu Yian felt that her own thoughts were baffling.
Without thinking, she planned to take out her prop from her pocket to dampen her emotions, but she unexpectedly bumped into the candy in her pocket.
The outermost candy was the one Tang Jiu just gave her before the accident.
Tang Jiu told her to be careful at the time and that Lu Zize’s target was her.
Gu Yian’s heart stirred and she took out the candy.
A soft and white paper was wrapped around a round sugar ball.
There was a small design on the wrapper.
There was a tiny deer on it.
Deer, in Chinese, was a homophone of Lu.
Was Tang Jiu asking her to be careful of Lu Zize?
But she was guarded against Lu Zize from the beginning, so why emphasize this?
Unless… Lu Zize had already acted.
“Are you alright?” A gentle male voice suddenly rang beside Gu Yian’s ear.
Gu Yian abruptly turned her head to look at her side.
Lu Zize, who wasn’t wearing his black-rimmed glasses, had arrived at her side at some unknown time.
Without the cover of glasses, he looked very strong.
In particular, the street lights were weak but the lights in the candy store were bright, putting half of his face in the light while the other half was hidden in the dark, as if he was a lone traveler in the dark.
He glanced at the ground calmly and then looked at her with some concern.
In this moment, Gu Yian’s brain quickly flashed back to today’s scene of Lu Zize telling her and Tang Jiu about Sister Man and, at the end, it stopped on that cup of tea Lu Zize made for her.
Gu Yian asked, “Was it the cup’s walls that had a problem? Or was there a problem with the tea?”
“Hm?”
Lu Zize didn’t seem to understand Gu Yian’s incoherent question.
Suddenly, the siren of an ambulance streaked across the sky and their surroundings immediately became noisy.
“The ambulance is here.”
“God’s Eye is efficient.”
“Unfortunately, the person can’t be saved.”
People moved.
Everyone began to push to make way.
Lu Zize held Gu Yian’s wrist instantly and he shielded her, pulling her out of the crowd.
Outside of the crowd, Gu Yian could only see the doctor enter the crowd, carrying a stretcher.
Several minutes passed.
The doctor left with an empty stretcher.
Gu Yian vaguely heard pedestrians talk, saying the person was already dead and they would call the funeral home.
The onlookers also didn’t want to look at a dead person.
They all scattered.
Gu Yian was about to go there and had just taken a step when pressure came from her wrist.
She realized that Lu Zize was still here.
What came from her wrist was the unique warmth of a person’s body temperature and it was completely different from the body temperature of Mr. Demon pretending to be the Liar.
Lu Zize glanced at the corpse in the distance and said especially cruel words in a gentle voice.
He said, “Stop looking. If you keep looking, you won’t be able to eat later.”
Gu Yian didn’t want to see Lu Zize perform his gentle and considerate appearance.
She simply asked him in the open, “Why do you have to use this attitude to care for everyone?”
It was clear that Lu Zize was secretly using various accidents to make the players die, but all he showed was care and concern. This sort of concern made people shudder with fear.
Lu Zize heard Gu Yian and denied one part.
“It’s not everyone. It’s you.”
Having said this, he smiled a little and it weakened the pressure around him.
He told her, “You’re the first person to trust me.”
Gu Yian didn’t even know when she trusted him.
She thought for a moment and then asked, “Because, yesterday, I was the first to follow you into the office building?”
Could it be just because of this?
Lu Zize replied, “I said I was scared too. You believed me.”
Lu Zize, what’s with your brain circuits?
Gu Yian didn’t remember how she replied at the time to Lu Zize’s phrase about being scared too. She probably replied with empty words and, either way, didn’t believe him.
According to this logic of Lu Zize, wouldn’t that mean later when she took the initiative to hand over her work badge for Lu Zize to register and waited obediently in the room for everyone to return was all regarded as her trust in him?
Lu Zize reciprocated her trust and was that why he specifically instructed to have the women wash the vegetables last night at dinner time?
Was this deliberately letting her avoid that piece of premium meat?
Gu Yian recalled and associated together many small details.
She wasn’t without emotions.
However, Lu Zize’s method of killing players already completely covered his goodness.
He was a good person, but he was a genuine murderer.
These two things were not in conflict.
But Gu Yian would not have real favorable impressions towards any sort of criminal.
Lu Zize released the hand that held Gu Yian’s wrist.
He seemed to understand Gu Yian’s mental activity clearly and he spoke in a very sincere tone, “You have always trusted me. I didn’t kill them.”
“Brother Yong chose to sacrifice himself. The two new investigators today broke into the weapons storage. And, for her, the sign fell for some reason and her death is an accident.”
“Don’t distrust me, alright?”
Lu Zize was earnest and his eyes looked at her with expectation.
His words sounded too real.
But there were no accidents in this world, no coincidences, only exquisite plans.
Gu Yian was silent for a while and then she turned around and walked towards Tang Jiu.
The ground was too cold. She was going to keep her company.
Ten minutes later, Tang Jiu’s corpse was carried away.
Lu Zize’s voice sounded beside Gu Yian.
He suggested, “If we return now, the dishes will be cold. Let’s switch to another place and order a few more dishes.”
Gu Yian replied, “No need.”
She asked suspiciously, “Did you make something happen again?”
Lu Zize’s expression was helpless. “I didn’t. You two were out for too long, so I came to have a look. Trust me like you did before, alright?”
The problem was that Gu Yian hadn’t trusted Lu Zize before either.
Gu Yian paused and then asked again, “Today, in the office, what exactly was wrong with the cup of tea you gave me?”
This time she wanted to get an answer no matter what.
Pedestrians who came and went regarded the bloodstain on the ground as something dirty and avoided it greatly.
They looked at Gu Yian and Lu Zize, who stood near the bloodstain, and confusion flashed through their eyes before they passed by within shoulder distance.
Everyone had their own lives.
The night breeze drifted slowly, carrying the dust of the day and the coldness of the night.
Lu Zize seemed to see Gu Yian’s bearing and knew the question this time wouldn’t allow him to avoid it.
He answered, “It was just a cup of tea to relieve and calm the mind.”
Gu Yian turned the words “relieve and calm the mind” over in her heart once and her tone was very calm.
She asked, “You drugged me with a sedative?”
Lu Zize replied, “I only put it in. It can make you less anxious. You haven’t laughed in a long time.”
His eyes were deeply concerned.
It was a concern that made Gu Yian feel a chill in her heart.
Her hand was already gripping her small prop coffin.
She said, dispassionately, “Do you want to kill me?”
“Yian, why would you think this?”
It was as if Lu Zize heard something asburd and he laughed. His gentle voice was filled with care as he said, “Look at you, can you still sleep well after encountering all these cases?”
“You didn’t drink the tea.”
Speaking up to here, Lu Zize’s voice still carried some grievance.
“I just wish for you to be able to have a good night’s sleep.”
Was it really this?
Gu Yian didn’t know.
Who brought about the cases she ran into these past two days?
It was Lu Zize! It was all him!
Not a single one was unrelated to him.
Two candy store employees carried a bucket of water to the front of the shop.
An employee saw Gu Yian and Lu Zize’s figure and raised their voice, “Hey, handsome man, beautiful girl, could you please make way?”
Lu Zize looked at Gu Yian and said lightly, “Let’s go.”
The person lying on the ground had been carried away.
Gu Yian also wasn’t in the mood to stay any longer.
She walked in the direction of the seafood restaurant.
This time, the person accompanying her had changed to another person.
From Tang Jiu to Lu Zize.
Behind them, the employees threw out the water with a splash, where it landed and spread in all directions, but it wasn’t able to wash away the bloodstain that had long since dried up.
“Ah, it won’t wash away. It’s dried, so I gotta find a brush.”
“Grab some laundry detergent too!”
A sin was concealed just like this.
Gu Yian turned her head to glance back.
Lu Zize told her, “Stop looking. Let’s go here and eat something first.”
He looked at a restaurant a few meters away.
Gu Yian calmly refused, “No need. I’m not hungry. I’m going back to join everyone.”
When Lu Zize heard this, his eyes and brows were helpless.
The two of them still walked towards the seafood restaurant.
Suddenly, the sirens of an ambulance streaked through the sky again.
Gu Yian unconsciously stopped and looked to one side of the road, only to see an ambulance rush past cars, one after another, before halting abruptly in front of a restaurant.
That restaurant was precisely the seafood restaurant that Gu Yian was going to.
She immediately looked at Lu Zize beside her.
“You did something,” Gu Yian said with certainty.
Lu Zize looked helpless when he heard this, as if he couldn’t understand why Gu Yian had to doubt him this much, but he said with tolerance, “I know you suspect me, but I didn’t do anything. Trust me, I haven’t lied to you.”
Gu Yian glanced at him and then ignored him, running straight to the seafood restaurant.
Outside the restaurant, two female players held hands, standing right next to each other to overcome their terror. The only male player also wanted to squeeze beside them, but he was mercilessly pushed away.
The shoved male player inadvertently saw Gu Yian, who rushed over, and his panicked eyes immediately found a pillar of support.
The male player shouted, “Sister Gu, here! You finally came, what do we do?”
Gu Yian looked at the entrance of the seafood restaurant where many people surged over to look at the excitement, but they quickly dispersed when they saw the people inside were about to come out.
Everyone saw a man in a black uniform lying on the stretcher, puking out white liquid, and being taken into the ambulance.
The doctor did not wait for Gu Yian and the others in the same uniform to follow and just shouted, “People from the Investigation Bureau don’t need to come. If there is a situation, God’s Eye will convey this to you in time.”
The ambulance door slammed shut.
It issued its urgent sirens and disappeared into the horizon.
Gu Yian watched the ambulance leave her sight and then asked the other players, “What exactly happened?”
The three players were just waiting for Gu Yian to ask this and they vied with each other to explain the matter clearly.
“We ordered a lot of dishes: shrimp, fish, scallop, and just ate whatever came. The most was shrimps.”
“He ate a ton of shrimp by himself.”
“He has oral ulcers and, after eating the shrimp, he took some vitamin C.”
“Then he said his throat seemed sore and then he puked a lot. The owner came and said shrimp and vitamin C can’t be eaten at the same time, you’ll poison yourself, and quickly called the ambulance.”
A female player suddenly thought of something and said, “I remember that yesterday Lu Zize…”
Lu Zize slowly walked up to everyone.
The female player immediately changed her words, “Yesterday, Brother Lu said oral ulcers need to be supplemented with vitamins and bought him some.”
Lu Zize didn’t seem to have heard the players’ previous conversation and, looking the same as usual, he asked, “What happened?”
The other players exchanged glances.
A female player peeked in the direction Lu Zize came from and asked Gu Yian, “Sister Gu, where’s Sister Tang?”
“She died in an accident.”
Lu Zize answered this question for Gu Yian.
The three players were instantly silent.
It was just a few hours.
Eight players became six players and now there were only four players left.
To say this wasn’t due to Lu Zize’s malice was something no one would believe.
That vitamin was bought by Lu Zize for the player and he took everyone to eat seafood tonight, making it clear that he had ulterior motives.
The three players now looked at Lu Zize with strong vigilance.
There were still people chatting around the seafood restaurant.
The topic they discussed was nothing but the hapless investigator who ate shrimp and vitamins at the same time and accidentally poisoned himself. They reckoned that he couldn’t be saved.
These people saw at a glance that Gu Yian and the others were investigators and not law enforcement.
Even though these people’s discussions deliberately avoided Gu Yian and the others, they were in public and, as soon as the wind blew, their voices came to the ears of Lu Zize, Gu Yian, and the other players.
Lu Zize’s eyes cleared and he seemed to understand why the players were wary of him.
As for the players, their focus was on the word “accident” in there.
The players didn’t believe this was an accident.
This was clearly premeditated murder!
The most infuriating thing was that they couldn’t find any evidence!
It was the male player himself who had oral ulcers and the people who ordered the dishes were the players themselves.
As for why the players didn’t go to another restaurant and came to a seafood restaurant to eat seafood also, surprisingly, couldn’t be blamed on Lu Zize.
Because this was Lu Zize’s consideration for everyone after their investigation mission in the day and he kindly suggested to bring everyone to eat seafood.
And that investigation mission was assigned by God’s Eye.
Who was to blame?
Blame the God’s Eye System?
If this was really to be discussed, then it was yesterday during the day that the players joined the onlooking crowd in the local market and got involved in a fight, causing the conflict between the two butchers to escalate, and only then was there the other vendor’s death.
Lu Zize himself was completely without responsibility.
Gu Yian straightened the ins and outs of the situation.
She took out her phone with low battery and searched the internet for food poisoning related to shrimp and vitamin C.
The search results came immediately.
Gu Yian scanned the page contents and told everyone, “Eating shrimp and vitamin C together can cause poisoning, but a large amount is necessary. Based on a normal person’s food intake, at most it’s just diarrhea.”
Lu Zize heard this and his eyes brightened as he looked at her.
The other players were bewildered and uncertain when they heard this.
They looked at Lu Zize then looked at Gu Yian and asked in disbelief, “You’re in the same group as him?”
From the perspective of the three players, Lu Zize previously letting the male player buy vitamins made it clear that he had no good intentions. These words of Gu Yian seemed more like they were exonerating Lu Zize.
Gu Yian replied, “Not really.”
She continued, “I’m thinking that someone used food poisoning as an excuse to cover up the fact that they put in poison. We all believe that it’s just food poisoning but, in fact, reaching that degree of poisoning is only possible if someone put in the effort to throw in poison. Among those present, us newcomers have no motive for poisoning someone and the only possible candidate for putting in poison is just you, Brother Lu.”
Lu Zize had no change in his expression because of Gu Yian’s suspicions and, instead, there was a constant slight smile in his eyes.
He waited quietly for Gu Yian to finish speaking before saying, “Everyone suspects me because of the vitamins. Now the poisoning is not due to the vitamins and yet you still suspect me. Is it just because I am the sole surviving investigator with seniority?”
His voice showed helplessness. “I’m just an investigator who arrived a few days earlier than you all.”
The passersby outside the seafood restaurant saw these several investigators confronting each other and, openly or secretly, listened to their conversation.
Gu Yian sensed their gazes and inadvertently glanced at them. Some of those people immediately lowered their heads to play with their phones, some rummaged through their bags, and some pretended to strike up a conversation with the people around them.
Lu Zize’s focus was on Gu Yian and, soon afterwards, he noticed the onlookers.
After seeing those onlookers, Lu Zize used his constant tone of discussion and said, “Let’s return to the Investigation Bureau, where everyone can speak openly and frankly.”
The players could only tacitly agree to Lu Zize’s actions. What else could they do?
They couldn’t stab him and then run.
The eyes of the God’s Eye System were spread all over the city.
The players were unfamiliar with the place and the people and so they simply couldn’t escape as smoothly as Sister Man, who was still on the wanted list and dared to snatch a head from law enforcement’s hands.
It was still two cars that returned to the Investigation Bureau.
One car had Gu Yian and Lu Zize. The other car was the three players, two females and one male.
There was even a small episode on the way back. At the start, the car carrying the three players was driven by that new male player whose loud mouth last evening had him spend the entire night with Lu Zize and Brother Yong.
At first, he was terrified of getting in the car and said he was afraid of ghosts suddenly appearing. Lu Zize even comforted him, saying that if there was a ghost then he could just kill it.
The female players believed the new male player said this because he wasn’t at ease with them driving.
So, this new male player was forced into the driver’s seat by the two female players.
However, the new male player had been sleepy this entire time and so, because he was exhausted while driving, they nearly had a car accident.
Fortunately, the two female players had their driver’s licenses and put it in use midway.
Although the car Lu Zize and Gu Yian were in was at the front, Gu Yian also vaguely saw the car with the players twist strangely in the rearview mirror.
Lu Zize seemed to have seen the same scene.
He opened his mouth and said, “It wasn’t me, I didn’t do anything.”
Gu Yian sat in the passenger’s seat without speaking. She remembered that the driver was that sleepy male player, so it wasn’t a surprise he would have an accident.
The cause of this accident was reasonable and it also made her a little hesitant at the moment. Could it be that she really shouldn’t doubt Lu Zize?
The cars arrived at the entrance of the Investigation Bureau.
The electric retractable gate automatically recognized the cars Gu Yian and the others were in.
The gate opened slowly.
At this moment, Gu Yian looked at the office building in front of her and a corner of her thoughts seemed to have been opened up.
Last night, law enforcement of all people had to be led by an investigator to enter the Investigation Bureau and they couldn’t trespass. However, the funeral home people were unobstructed.
The Investigation Bureau also had a weapons storage and several places that couldn’t be entered without authorization.
They, as investigators who obtained director level authority, couldn’t even go to the weapons storage and so on. Perhaps they also couldn’t enter those places that required authorization as investigators.
Didn’t that mean the existence of investigators was just a cover? The purpose was to conceal other existences inside the Investigation Bureau.
Furthermore, the Investigation Bureau never had a director but, as investigators, they could use a specific method to obtain director level authority.
Didn’t this mean that the so-called director was actually not fixed?
Because there was no such thing as a director.
If there really was a director, then it could only be that hidden existence.
These matters churned inside Gu Yian’s brain.
Gradually, it pointed to an existence that was pervasive and everywhere, but which had been ignored by her until now.
The God’s Eye System.
The God’s Eye System that was in charge of everything in the City of Innocence had its true body inside the Investigation Bureau.
The car stopped.
Lu Zize unfastened his seat belt and glanced at Gu Yian. She sat in her seat, motionless.
“Yian?”
Gu Yian turned around and looked at Lu Zize.
She asked, “You said you haven’t lied to me?”
Lu Zize looked at her questioningly.
Then he immediately nodded, his expression calm.
Gu Yian pointed to the camera in the car and asked, “Then is this right below here?”
Lu Zize watched her and his eyes had a hint of praise.
He nodded again.
Gu Yian said, “Then you are? The master or the rebel?”
Lu Zize chuckled, “Aren’t we all people who want to overthrow it?”
Gu Yian thought of Tang Jiu’s words for an instant.
Tang Jiu said his goal was her.
She had been in the game and couldn’t see as clearly as Tang Jiu.
His goal had indeed been her.
“You believe I’m your partner and they’re just pawns?” Gu Yian asked this question.
“No,” Lu Zize denied with a faint smile.
Gu Yian could roughly guess Lu Zize’s way of thinking now and changed her question. “Is it because they’re not qualified enough then?”
The smile in Lu Zize’s eyes deepened but he didn’t answer.
Gu Yian didn’t need him to answer. His response just now already silently agreed to what she had said.
She unfastened her seat belt and pushed the car door open.
Immediately, the activity outside fell into Gu Yian’s ears.
She was slightly stunned.
Because in front of her eyes the driver’s door of the other car was half open and, through the open gap and in the yellow glow of the car lights, she could see the male player in the back seat leaning through the middle and stabbing wildly into the body of the female player in the passenger seat with the knife in his hand.
There was already no sound from that female player.
But the male player was shouting madly, “I’m going to kill the ghost! Kill the ghost!”
Had he been hypnotized?
Chapter 27 ~ Third Game Pt.9 ~
Gu Yian had just smiled, unable to hold it back at Tang Jiu’s shameless behavior, but the next second she saw Tang Jiu and the large sign crash to the ground.
The tableau in front of her froze just like this.
Gu Yian was stunned for a second and then she immediately rushed over.
The customers in the candy store began to scream.
The cashier at the register couldn’t stand still and ran out from the counter.
Many people hurried over to check on the movement of the person lying in the doorway.
The sign was lifted by someone and placed to one side.
Gu Yian saw the fresh scarlet blood flowing on the ground with the bright lights in the candy store.
Tang Jiu’s eyes were closed, lifeless.
A person at the side shook their head, saying there was no saving her.
Someone called the ambulance and, upon hearing this action, Gu Yian put back her own phone.
The movement of her hand made onlookers notice that she was standing the closest.
“Who’s this girl? You still want to take a picture at this time? Be a better person!”
In order to prevent a misunderstanding, Gu Yian could only say truthfully, “I was preparing to call the ambulance.”
Another person interrupted, “It looks like you’re a friend of the person on the ground, right? Your lips are all white.”
In actuality, it was dark, Gu Yian’s back was towards the candy store, and the street lights were not bright enough to let people see her lip color.
But they could sense that, although the person in front of them looked calm, her state of mind was terrible.
Someone advised, “Ah, miss, just stay like this, don’t do anything reckless, and don’t touch her before the doctor comes. What if she can still be saved, right?”
Gu Yian hoped so.
She said, “Okay, I won’t move.”
Gu Yian looked at Tang Jiu, closed her eyes, and then opened them again.
It was at this point that the onlookers noticed the uniforms of Gu Yian and Tang Jiu, who was on the ground.
The black uniform was not conspicuous in the night, but it still had a unique style.
They discussed in low voices in front of Gu Yian.
“I was wondering what a coincidence it was that such a large sign would fall for no reason and strike someone’s body, but it turns out that they’re investigators! Law enforcement doesn’t have such an attractive girl among them. I heard that investigators have been dying in many accidents these days. All the previous ones are dead.”
“Tsk, they were called accidents, but who can say that for real? Maybe it killed them.”
“God’s Eye announced they were accidents and you still say it killed them.”
“So many people died, I heard there were 50 or 60? In just over a month, this many people died. You say they all died in accidents, but I don’t believe this. God’s Eye is just an artificial intelligence, how can it know to analyze these? I don’t think this sort of high tech is reliable!”
Their discussion landed in Gu Yian’s ears and she suddenly had an absurd guess.
Lu Zize’s objective.
Lu Zize’s objective of creating these many accidental deaths.
Perhaps it was just to make everyone pay attention to the flaws of the God’s Eye System.
When one had no way of overthrowing sin, one could become sin itself.
This guess was just too preposterous.
Gu Yian felt that her own thoughts were baffling.
Without thinking, she planned to take out her prop from her pocket to dampen her emotions, but she unexpectedly bumped into the candy in her pocket.
The outermost candy was the one Tang Jiu just gave her before the accident.
Tang Jiu told her to be careful at the time and that Lu Zize’s target was her.
Gu Yian’s heart stirred and she took out the candy.
A soft and white paper was wrapped around a round sugar ball.
There was a small design on the wrapper.
There was a tiny deer on it.
Deer, in Chinese, was a homophone of Lu.
Was Tang Jiu asking her to be careful of Lu Zize?
But she was guarded against Lu Zize from the beginning, so why emphasize this?
Unless… Lu Zize had already acted.
“Are you alright?” A gentle male voice suddenly rang beside Gu Yian’s ear.
Gu Yian abruptly turned her head to look at her side.
Lu Zize, who wasn’t wearing his black-rimmed glasses, had arrived at her side at some unknown time.
Without the cover of glasses, he looked very strong.
In particular, the street lights were weak but the lights in the candy store were bright, putting half of his face in the light while the other half was hidden in the dark, as if he was a lone traveler in the dark.
He glanced at the ground calmly and then looked at her with some concern.
In this moment, Gu Yian’s brain quickly flashed back to today’s scene of Lu Zize telling her and Tang Jiu about Sister Man and, at the end, it stopped on that cup of tea Lu Zize made for her.
Gu Yian asked, “Was it the cup’s walls that had a problem? Or was there a problem with the tea?”
“Hm?”
Lu Zize didn’t seem to understand Gu Yian’s incoherent question.
Suddenly, the siren of an ambulance streaked across the sky and their surroundings immediately became noisy.
“The ambulance is here.”
“God’s Eye is efficient.”
“Unfortunately, the person can’t be saved.”
People moved.
Everyone began to push to make way.
Lu Zize held Gu Yian’s wrist instantly and he shielded her, pulling her out of the crowd.
Outside of the crowd, Gu Yian could only see the doctor enter the crowd, carrying a stretcher.
Several minutes passed.
The doctor left with an empty stretcher.
Gu Yian vaguely heard pedestrians talk, saying the person was already dead and they would call the funeral home.
The onlookers also didn’t want to look at a dead person.
They all scattered.
Gu Yian was about to go there and had just taken a step when pressure came from her wrist.
She realized that Lu Zize was still here.
What came from her wrist was the unique warmth of a person’s body temperature and it was completely different from the body temperature of Mr. Demon pretending to be the Liar.
Lu Zize glanced at the corpse in the distance and said especially cruel words in a gentle voice.
He said, “Stop looking. If you keep looking, you won’t be able to eat later.”
Gu Yian didn’t want to see Lu Zize perform his gentle and considerate appearance.
She simply asked him in the open, “Why do you have to use this attitude to care for everyone?”
It was clear that Lu Zize was secretly using various accidents to make the players die, but all he showed was care and concern. This sort of concern made people shudder with fear.
Lu Zize heard Gu Yian and denied one part.
“It’s not everyone. It’s you.”
Having said this, he smiled a little and it weakened the pressure around him.
He told her, “You’re the first person to trust me.”
Gu Yian didn’t even know when she trusted him.
She thought for a moment and then asked, “Because, yesterday, I was the first to follow you into the office building?”
Could it be just because of this?
Lu Zize replied, “I said I was scared too. You believed me.”
Lu Zize, what’s with your brain circuits?
Gu Yian didn’t remember how she replied at the time to Lu Zize’s phrase about being scared too. She probably replied with empty words and, either way, didn’t believe him.
According to this logic of Lu Zize, wouldn’t that mean later when she took the initiative to hand over her work badge for Lu Zize to register and waited obediently in the room for everyone to return was all regarded as her trust in him?
Lu Zize reciprocated her trust and was that why he specifically instructed to have the women wash the vegetables last night at dinner time?
Was this deliberately letting her avoid that piece of premium meat?
Gu Yian recalled and associated together many small details.
She wasn’t without emotions.
However, Lu Zize’s method of killing players already completely covered his goodness.
He was a good person, but he was a genuine murderer.
These two things were not in conflict.
But Gu Yian would not have real favorable impressions towards any sort of criminal.
Lu Zize released the hand that held Gu Yian’s wrist.
He seemed to understand Gu Yian’s mental activity clearly and he spoke in a very sincere tone, “You have always trusted me. I didn’t kill them.”
“Brother Yong chose to sacrifice himself. The two new investigators today broke into the weapons storage. And, for her, the sign fell for some reason and her death is an accident.”
“Don’t distrust me, alright?”
Lu Zize was earnest and his eyes looked at her with expectation.
His words sounded too real.
But there were no accidents in this world, no coincidences, only exquisite plans.
Gu Yian was silent for a while and then she turned around and walked towards Tang Jiu.
The ground was too cold. She was going to keep her company.
Ten minutes later, Tang Jiu’s corpse was carried away.
Lu Zize’s voice sounded beside Gu Yian.
He suggested, “If we return now, the dishes will be cold. Let’s switch to another place and order a few more dishes.”
Gu Yian replied, “No need.”
She asked suspiciously, “Did you make something happen again?”
Lu Zize’s expression was helpless. “I didn’t. You two were out for too long, so I came to have a look. Trust me like you did before, alright?”
The problem was that Gu Yian hadn’t trusted Lu Zize before either.
Gu Yian paused and then asked again, “Today, in the office, what exactly was wrong with the cup of tea you gave me?”
This time she wanted to get an answer no matter what.
Pedestrians who came and went regarded the bloodstain on the ground as something dirty and avoided it greatly.
They looked at Gu Yian and Lu Zize, who stood near the bloodstain, and confusion flashed through their eyes before they passed by within shoulder distance.
Everyone had their own lives.
The night breeze drifted slowly, carrying the dust of the day and the coldness of the night.
Lu Zize seemed to see Gu Yian’s bearing and knew the question this time wouldn’t allow him to avoid it.
He answered, “It was just a cup of tea to relieve and calm the mind.”
Gu Yian turned the words “relieve and calm the mind” over in her heart once and her tone was very calm.
She asked, “You drugged me with a sedative?”
Lu Zize replied, “I only put it in. It can make you less anxious. You haven’t laughed in a long time.”
His eyes were deeply concerned.
It was a concern that made Gu Yian feel a chill in her heart.
Her hand was already gripping her small prop coffin.
She said, dispassionately, “Do you want to kill me?”
“Yian, why would you think this?”
It was as if Lu Zize heard something asburd and he laughed. His gentle voice was filled with care as he said, “Look at you, can you still sleep well after encountering all these cases?”
“You didn’t drink the tea.”
Speaking up to here, Lu Zize’s voice still carried some grievance.
“I just wish for you to be able to have a good night’s sleep.”
Was it really this?
Gu Yian didn’t know.
Who brought about the cases she ran into these past two days?
It was Lu Zize! It was all him!
Not a single one was unrelated to him.
Two candy store employees carried a bucket of water to the front of the shop.
An employee saw Gu Yian and Lu Zize’s figure and raised their voice, “Hey, handsome man, beautiful girl, could you please make way?”
Lu Zize looked at Gu Yian and said lightly, “Let’s go.”
The person lying on the ground had been carried away.
Gu Yian also wasn’t in the mood to stay any longer.
She walked in the direction of the seafood restaurant.
This time, the person accompanying her had changed to another person.
From Tang Jiu to Lu Zize.
Behind them, the employees threw out the water with a splash, where it landed and spread in all directions, but it wasn’t able to wash away the bloodstain that had long since dried up.
“Ah, it won’t wash away. It’s dried, so I gotta find a brush.”
“Grab some laundry detergent too!”
A sin was concealed just like this.
Gu Yian turned her head to glance back.
Lu Zize told her, “Stop looking. Let’s go here and eat something first.”
He looked at a restaurant a few meters away.
Gu Yian calmly refused, “No need. I’m not hungry. I’m going back to join everyone.”
When Lu Zize heard this, his eyes and brows were helpless.
The two of them still walked towards the seafood restaurant.
Suddenly, the sirens of an ambulance streaked through the sky again.
Gu Yian unconsciously stopped and looked to one side of the road, only to see an ambulance rush past cars, one after another, before halting abruptly in front of a restaurant.
That restaurant was precisely the seafood restaurant that Gu Yian was going to.
She immediately looked at Lu Zize beside her.
“You did something,” Gu Yian said with certainty.
Lu Zize looked helpless when he heard this, as if he couldn’t understand why Gu Yian had to doubt him this much, but he said with tolerance, “I know you suspect me, but I didn’t do anything. Trust me, I haven’t lied to you.”
Gu Yian glanced at him and then ignored him, running straight to the seafood restaurant.
Outside the restaurant, two female players held hands, standing right next to each other to overcome their terror. The only male player also wanted to squeeze beside them, but he was mercilessly pushed away.
The shoved male player inadvertently saw Gu Yian, who rushed over, and his panicked eyes immediately found a pillar of support.
The male player shouted, “Sister Gu, here! You finally came, what do we do?”
Gu Yian looked at the entrance of the seafood restaurant where many people surged over to look at the excitement, but they quickly dispersed when they saw the people inside were about to come out.
Everyone saw a man in a black uniform lying on the stretcher, puking out white liquid, and being taken into the ambulance.
The doctor did not wait for Gu Yian and the others in the same uniform to follow and just shouted, “People from the Investigation Bureau don’t need to come. If there is a situation, God’s Eye will convey this to you in time.”
The ambulance door slammed shut.
It issued its urgent sirens and disappeared into the horizon.
Gu Yian watched the ambulance leave her sight and then asked the other players, “What exactly happened?”
The three players were just waiting for Gu Yian to ask this and they vied with each other to explain the matter clearly.
“We ordered a lot of dishes: shrimp, fish, scallop, and just ate whatever came. The most was shrimps.”
“He ate a ton of shrimp by himself.”
“He has oral ulcers and, after eating the shrimp, he took some vitamin C.”
“Then he said his throat seemed sore and then he puked a lot. The owner came and said shrimp and vitamin C can’t be eaten at the same time, you’ll poison yourself, and quickly called the ambulance.”
A female player suddenly thought of something and said, “I remember that yesterday Lu Zize…”
Lu Zize slowly walked up to everyone.
The female player immediately changed her words, “Yesterday, Brother Lu said oral ulcers need to be supplemented with vitamins and bought him some.”
Lu Zize didn’t seem to have heard the players’ previous conversation and, looking the same as usual, he asked, “What happened?”
The other players exchanged glances.
A female player peeked in the direction Lu Zize came from and asked Gu Yian, “Sister Gu, where’s Sister Tang?”
“She died in an accident.”
Lu Zize answered this question for Gu Yian.
The three players were instantly silent.
It was just a few hours.
Eight players became six players and now there were only four players left.
To say this wasn’t due to Lu Zize’s malice was something no one would believe.
That vitamin was bought by Lu Zize for the player and he took everyone to eat seafood tonight, making it clear that he had ulterior motives.
The three players now looked at Lu Zize with strong vigilance.
There were still people chatting around the seafood restaurant.
The topic they discussed was nothing but the hapless investigator who ate shrimp and vitamins at the same time and accidentally poisoned himself. They reckoned that he couldn’t be saved.
These people saw at a glance that Gu Yian and the others were investigators and not law enforcement.
Even though these people’s discussions deliberately avoided Gu Yian and the others, they were in public and, as soon as the wind blew, their voices came to the ears of Lu Zize, Gu Yian, and the other players.
Lu Zize’s eyes cleared and he seemed to understand why the players were wary of him.
As for the players, their focus was on the word “accident” in there.
The players didn’t believe this was an accident.
This was clearly premeditated murder!
The most infuriating thing was that they couldn’t find any evidence!
It was the male player himself who had oral ulcers and the people who ordered the dishes were the players themselves.
As for why the players didn’t go to another restaurant and came to a seafood restaurant to eat seafood also, surprisingly, couldn’t be blamed on Lu Zize.
Because this was Lu Zize’s consideration for everyone after their investigation mission in the day and he kindly suggested to bring everyone to eat seafood.
And that investigation mission was assigned by God’s Eye.
Who was to blame?
Blame the God’s Eye System?
If this was really to be discussed, then it was yesterday during the day that the players joined the onlooking crowd in the local market and got involved in a fight, causing the conflict between the two butchers to escalate, and only then was there the other vendor’s death.
Lu Zize himself was completely without responsibility.
Gu Yian straightened the ins and outs of the situation.
She took out her phone with low battery and searched the internet for food poisoning related to shrimp and vitamin C.
The search results came immediately.
Gu Yian scanned the page contents and told everyone, “Eating shrimp and vitamin C together can cause poisoning, but a large amount is necessary. Based on a normal person’s food intake, at most it’s just diarrhea.”
Lu Zize heard this and his eyes brightened as he looked at her.
The other players were bewildered and uncertain when they heard this.
They looked at Lu Zize then looked at Gu Yian and asked in disbelief, “You’re in the same group as him?”
From the perspective of the three players, Lu Zize previously letting the male player buy vitamins made it clear that he had no good intentions. These words of Gu Yian seemed more like they were exonerating Lu Zize.
Gu Yian replied, “Not really.”
She continued, “I’m thinking that someone used food poisoning as an excuse to cover up the fact that they put in poison. We all believe that it’s just food poisoning but, in fact, reaching that degree of poisoning is only possible if someone put in the effort to throw in poison. Among those present, us newcomers have no motive for poisoning someone and the only possible candidate for putting in poison is just you, Brother Lu.”
Lu Zize had no change in his expression because of Gu Yian’s suspicions and, instead, there was a constant slight smile in his eyes.
He waited quietly for Gu Yian to finish speaking before saying, “Everyone suspects me because of the vitamins. Now the poisoning is not due to the vitamins and yet you still suspect me. Is it just because I am the sole surviving investigator with seniority?”
His voice showed helplessness. “I’m just an investigator who arrived a few days earlier than you all.”
The passersby outside the seafood restaurant saw these several investigators confronting each other and, openly or secretly, listened to their conversation.
Gu Yian sensed their gazes and inadvertently glanced at them. Some of those people immediately lowered their heads to play with their phones, some rummaged through their bags, and some pretended to strike up a conversation with the people around them.
Lu Zize’s focus was on Gu Yian and, soon afterwards, he noticed the onlookers.
After seeing those onlookers, Lu Zize used his constant tone of discussion and said, “Let’s return to the Investigation Bureau, where everyone can speak openly and frankly.”
The players could only tacitly agree to Lu Zize’s actions. What else could they do?
They couldn’t stab him and then run.
The eyes of the God’s Eye System were spread all over the city.
The players were unfamiliar with the place and the people and so they simply couldn’t escape as smoothly as Sister Man, who was still on the wanted list and dared to snatch a head from law enforcement’s hands.
It was still two cars that returned to the Investigation Bureau.
One car had Gu Yian and Lu Zize. The other car was the three players, two females and one male.
There was even a small episode on the way back. At the start, the car carrying the three players was driven by that new male player whose loud mouth last evening had him spend the entire night with Lu Zize and Brother Yong.
At first, he was terrified of getting in the car and said he was afraid of ghosts suddenly appearing. Lu Zize even comforted him, saying that if there was a ghost then he could just kill it.
The female players believed the new male player said this because he wasn’t at ease with them driving.
So, this new male player was forced into the driver’s seat by the two female players.
However, the new male player had been sleepy this entire time and so, because he was exhausted while driving, they nearly had a car accident.
Fortunately, the two female players had their driver’s licenses and put it in use midway.
Although the car Lu Zize and Gu Yian were in was at the front, Gu Yian also vaguely saw the car with the players twist strangely in the rearview mirror.
Lu Zize seemed to have seen the same scene.
He opened his mouth and said, “It wasn’t me, I didn’t do anything.”
Gu Yian sat in the passenger’s seat without speaking. She remembered that the driver was that sleepy male player, so it wasn’t a surprise he would have an accident.
The cause of this accident was reasonable and it also made her a little hesitant at the moment. Could it be that she really shouldn’t doubt Lu Zize?
The cars arrived at the entrance of the Investigation Bureau.
The electric retractable gate automatically recognized the cars Gu Yian and the others were in.
The gate opened slowly.
At this moment, Gu Yian looked at the office building in front of her and a corner of her thoughts seemed to have been opened up.
Last night, law enforcement of all people had to be led by an investigator to enter the Investigation Bureau and they couldn’t trespass. However, the funeral home people were unobstructed.
The Investigation Bureau also had a weapons storage and several places that couldn’t be entered without authorization.
They, as investigators who obtained director level authority, couldn’t even go to the weapons storage and so on. Perhaps they also couldn’t enter those places that required authorization as investigators.
Didn’t that mean the existence of investigators was just a cover? The purpose was to conceal other existences inside the Investigation Bureau.
Furthermore, the Investigation Bureau never had a director but, as investigators, they could use a specific method to obtain director level authority.
Didn’t this mean that the so-called director was actually not fixed?
Because there was no such thing as a director.
If there really was a director, then it could only be that hidden existence.
These matters churned inside Gu Yian’s brain.
Gradually, it pointed to an existence that was pervasive and everywhere, but which had been ignored by her until now.
The God’s Eye System.
The God’s Eye System that was in charge of everything in the City of Innocence had its true body inside the Investigation Bureau.
The car stopped.
Lu Zize unfastened his seat belt and glanced at Gu Yian. She sat in her seat, motionless.
“Yian?”
Gu Yian turned around and looked at Lu Zize.
She asked, “You said you haven’t lied to me?”
Lu Zize looked at her questioningly.
Then he immediately nodded, his expression calm.
Gu Yian pointed to the camera in the car and asked, “Then is this right below here?”
Lu Zize watched her and his eyes had a hint of praise.
He nodded again.
Gu Yian said, “Then you are? The master or the rebel?”
Lu Zize chuckled, “Aren’t we all people who want to overthrow it?”
Gu Yian thought of Tang Jiu’s words for an instant.
Tang Jiu said his goal was her.
She had been in the game and couldn’t see as clearly as Tang Jiu.
His goal had indeed been her.
“You believe I’m your partner and they’re just pawns?” Gu Yian asked this question.
“No,” Lu Zize denied with a faint smile.
Gu Yian could roughly guess Lu Zize’s way of thinking now and changed her question. “Is it because they’re not qualified enough then?”
The smile in Lu Zize’s eyes deepened but he didn’t answer.
Gu Yian didn’t need him to answer. His response just now already silently agreed to what she had said.
She unfastened her seat belt and pushed the car door open.
Immediately, the activity outside fell into Gu Yian’s ears.
She was slightly stunned.
Because in front of her eyes the driver’s door of the other car was half open and, through the open gap and in the yellow glow of the car lights, she could see the male player in the back seat leaning through the middle and stabbing wildly into the body of the female player in the passenger seat with the knife in his hand.
There was already no sound from that female player.
But the male player was shouting madly, “I’m going to kill the ghost! Kill the ghost!”
Had he been hypnotized?
