Meng Qiancheng hurriedly covered his mouth, but it was too late, and he immediately regretted it.
—He was too excited because he found an important clue, and besides, he really didn't see anyone when he came here just now. He was negligent for a while, and even forgot to make sure that Li Xiaoyu was the only one present.
When Gu Liang passed by Meng Qiancheng, he looked at his melancholy face, thought for a while, and said to Yang Ye: "Sorry, I heard that too."
It's already embarrassing enough, you husband and wife are entertaining my old man, aren't you
Meng Qiancheng said rather resentfully: "Forget it, let's come and see together."
Gu Liang followed Meng Qiancheng, from the lake in the north, through the peach grove on the right and the fruit grove on the left, all the way south to a vegetable garden.
The vegetable garden is square, with a few wooden stakes on the westernmost side.
At this moment, Housekeeper Hao, Mingyuan Rong and Mei Design were standing not far behind the wooden pile.
Butler Hao didn't speak and kept silent.
Mei Design was discussing something with Rong Mingyuan.
Gu Liang walked up to the stake and saw a pile of scorched, almost burnt to ashes there.
This ball of ashes is not out of order. Although it may have been blown out of shape by the wind because it has been placed here for a while, it can be vaguely recognized that this ball of ashes was placed in a certain shape before it was burned to ashes. kind of array.
Li Xiaoyu was the first to speak: "Hey! I know this! This is a pentagram! I played Onmyoji before, and Abe Seimei drew this! A five-pointed star in the middle, a circle outside, a pentagram!"
Gu Liang took a step forward, looked at the formation carefully, and immediately said: "Well, it's not bad to have a pentagram. It is generally believed that the five vertices of a pentagram represent earth, water, wind, fire, and composition The fifth element of human spiritual power. These five elements are the origin of everything in the world."
"Japanese Onmyoji, ancient Egyptian religion, Greek mythology, etc. all have pentagrams, but the meanings are not exactly the same. In this game, there should be other clues as to what the pentagram is for."
Li Xiaoyu was surprised: "How do you know everything?"
"I saw it when I was reading, but I don't understand it deeply, it's just superficial."
Gu Liang replied, then looked at Meng Qiancheng, "Where is the burnt doll you mentioned?"
"It's here with me." Dong Wan said, "Come and have a look."
The doll was indeed burned almost entirely, to the same extent as Feng's boyfriend who was burned to death.
It's just that her eyeballs weren't too damaged.
For a girl from a family like Rong Mingyuan, even the doll's eyeballs are made of genuine diamonds.
The fire burned the doll's beautiful face, but it could not destroy the pair of royal blue diamond eyes.
At this moment, the sapphire blue diamonds reflected mottled brilliance, lying quietly in the burnt black eye sockets, looking very weird.
A gust of wind blew, and the scorched eye sockets that had been burnt into filaments were directly shattered, and the diamond fell a little further, making it look even weirder.
Aside from the eyeball, there is one small part of the doll that is almost intact — the shoe on her right foot.
She was wearing red high-heeled shoes with ribbons. Probably when someone was holding her, they accidentally rubbed against her shoes, causing the shoe on her right foot to fall off. But the shoe didn't come off completely because of the ribbon that was attached to the instep.
When the fire spread, it burned her calves, feet, and most of the ribbon, but there was still a small strand of ribbon that was not burned, and the half-hanging shoes were relatively intact and were not affected by the fire.
On the side, Butler Hao was carrying a lot of evidence, one of which was the handbook recording which guest the doll was assigned to.
Meng Qiancheng took the manual from the housekeeper, and said in the direction of Gu Liang and Yang Ye: "Rong Mingyuan treats the dolls very carefully. Each doll has different hair color, diamonds for eyes, clothes and shoes. Now the hair and clothes are different. It’s hard to see things like that, but judging from the eyeballs and shoes, this doll belongs to Yang Ye’s room.”
"Well. I understand. It's just...why don't you want him to know about it?" Gu Liang asked Meng Qiancheng.
"This..." Meng Qiancheng coughed twice in embarrassment, "Don't you think he's a bit suspicious, and I want to trick him later."
"I really don't know why the doll in my room came here." Yang Ye said.
Meng Qiancheng: "When I played chess with Gu Liang, didn't you go to Taolin? It's just that you went to the lake in the north or the vegetable garden over there, so we couldn't see it. You may have come The vegetable garden burns dolls."
"I've only been to the lake in the north, and I was knocked out later." Yang Yedao, "If you suspect that burning dolls is related to Feng's boyfriend's death, then you should find the person who knocked me out."
Meng Qiancheng: "But you may also lie. You may have indeed come to the vegetable garden to burn dolls."
Yang Ye nodded: "Well, of course."
"The burning of the doll, the death of Feng's boyfriend, the relationship between the two, and the meaning of the pentagram, we still don't know. Next, why is the doll missing the right arm? Why is there a wound on the chest? I think, in figuring out On the basis of these, it makes sense to go to the timeline."
After Gu Liang said this, he returned to the pile of ashes and squatted down.
He reached out and touched it with his fingertips. The ashes were not hot, so he rummaged through the ashes with both hands.
It is not entirely accurate to say that the ashes describe the scorched black mass, because there are many charred black substances that have been burned into pieces, which are probably formed by the gelatinous things being burnt and then condensed together.
This kind of massive coagulation cannot be counted as ash, because it is relatively large.
Next, Gu Liang rummaged through it carefully, and he could still see some pieces of fabric that hadn't been completely burned.
Yang Ye also came over and squatted down at the moment, and turned over with Gu Liang.
Gu Liang glanced sideways at Yang Ye, then turned around and asked everyone, "Does anyone know the clue of the pentagram?"
For a moment, except for Li Xiaoyu and Meng Qiancheng, everyone else looked strange.
Seeing it, Gu Liang felt even more strange.
Everyone seems to have something, and a tacit understanding has been formed.
Soon Meng Qiancheng proposed to look at other places, and everyone dispersed one after another, leaving only Gu Liang and Yang Ye in this place.
"My intuition has come true, everyone seems to be suspicious of you." Gu Liang said to Yang Ye.
The vegetable garden became quiet, and Yang Ye whispered to Gu Liang, "I really know something about the pentagram."
Gu Liang: "..."
Yang Yedao: "But I can be sure that I am not the murderer. I have nothing to do with dolls or anything. So I didn't hide the evidence too much. The evidence is hidden in the sports car I drove. They will probably find it soon .”
"What kind of evidence is that?" Gu Liang asked.
Yang Ye: "My mother is a wizard, and there is a photo of her wearing a wizard robe with me in the car. On the back of the photo is a pentagram protection talisman drawn by her. The remaining clues of the pentagram are in my script."
"I mentioned in the plot that the pentagram can seal evil spirits. The specific method of sealing is-arrange items related to evil spirits in the shape of a pentagram, and then recite spells or something."
Gu Liang asked him: "You didn't mention fire?"
"No." Yang Ye said, "It has nothing to do with fire."
Gu Liang squinted at him: "If it weren't for being familiar with you before... I would have suspected you. You are too suspicious."
"So this is one of the reasons why the script is so difficult. For a good person, not only to find the real culprit, but also to find a way to clear himself of suspicion."
Yang Ye lowered his eyes and looked at the black mass in front of him. "These should be items related to evil spirits. But where did the evil spirits come from? Could it be that the doll came back to life and became an evil spirit?"
Gu Liang couldn't answer Yang Ye's words for a while, so he just picked up a piece of charred black lump, looked at it for a while, and said, "What are these lumpy things that burnt and condensed? It's a bit like plastic. If the evil spirit is a doll, according to you It is said that to seal evil spirits, items related to evil spirits need to be placed into pentagrams. Then these things that were burned to ashes are related to dolls, maybe her clothes, small plastic houses, small toys or something? "
"Yes, it's possible." Yang Ye said.
"Who would have these things? Shouldn't it be Rong Mingyuan?" Gu Liang asked.
Yang Yedao: "Rong Mingyuan likes dolls so much, I don't think she will burn them. Next, the storage room on the 6th floor is the one I avoided. There are many things related to dolls in it. Anyone can go in."
Tsk, I went into the storage room and had a chance to get doll related items. I know the pentagram, my mother is a wizard, and I have been alone in the direction of Taolin for a long time...
Yang Ye's suspicion was indeed too great.
Things weren't working in his favor.
Gu Liang once again sighed in his heart, if this was the first script he played, he would be suspicious of Yang Ye just like everyone else.
Yang Ye clapped his hands, continued to stare at the ashes, and then fiddled with them, trying to restore them to the shape of a pentagram.
During this process, Yang Ye said: "I must not be the only one who knows about the pentagram."
"But first of all, Li Xiaoyu can be ruled out. She and Rong Mingyuan are plastic girlfriends. From the perspective of personality, they probably can't touch the pentagram. Unless you find other clues. Besides, she said just now about the game of Onmyoji, echoing her usual escape. Character, she dared to be the first to mention the pentagram, maybe because she really doesn't know the meaning of the pentagram in this script."
"Let's talk about Mei Design. She is a doll designer. Since there are evil spirits in this world, as a doll designer, she should know some related taboos in this industry. What is the relationship between spirit bodies and dolls? She should understand. My mother drew a pentagram on my photo frame to protect me. Then Meiji may also know that the pentagram can be used as a talisman."
"Finally, there are three people in this villa, Mr. Rong, Rong Mingyuan, and Housekeeper Hao. They know the reason for the pentagram, which is the same as the beauty design. Rong Mingyuan likes dolls so much. The people in this villa should We all know some taboos."
Gu Liang smiled helplessly when he heard this. "I really don't know. My role is too sour. Hey wait—"
Gu Liang stood up, remembered something, and said, "I have to go to the back kitchen again."
"The kitchen? What do you want to see?" Yang Ye asked.
Gu Liang: "Chef's lounge, I remember there is a book that records the taste habits of each customer. The book is a bit thick, so I didn't read it carefully just now. But what you said just now makes me think I can take a closer look. For example... Yes No wizard or the like has ever come to the villa and mentioned anything related to evil spirits."
"Well, it's doable. But wait a little longer." Yang Ye said.
After hearing this, Gu Liang looked down and saw that Yang Ye had restored the ashes blown by the wind back into the shape of a standard pentagram. There is a five-pointed star in the middle and a circle around it, which is very regular in shape.
But upon closer inspection, some of the five-pointed stars, and the edge of a third of the circle, seem a bit too thick.
It's like drawing a pentagram with a pen, but in some places it looks like a few more strokes were drawn back and forth with the pen, resulting in uneven thickness of the entire pentagram.
Gu Liang frowned: "Why are some places thicker?"
Yang Ye destroyed the pentagram made of ashes, and stretched out his hand to push the whole ashes away.
At this moment, the pentagram pattern on the ground was immediately displayed.
This is the effect of the person who burned the dolls, who piled up doll-related items, clothes, small houses, etc. into the shape of a pentagram. After igniting, the soil below was also burned by high temperature.
Therefore, the land itself also has the shape of a pentagram.
"Are you a pentagram placed along the traces of scorched earth on the ground?" Gu Liang asked.
"Yes. Then I found that there seemed to be a lot of ashes. I arranged the excess ashes according to the principle of proximity, and all the edges of some were thicker."
Yang Ye twisted a piece of scorched black glued together with his hands, and said, "This kind of thing especially. This kind of plastic... other than a doll's small house, what else could it be?"
Gu Liang thought of something, his pupils dilated, and immediately said: "It may also be the doll itself. This kind of doll is probably made of resin or something. So I have an idea..."
Gu Liang stood up and looked around at the surrounding land. Everywhere was flat, and the soil showed no signs of renovation.
Gu Liang continued: "If we search the entire castle in a short while and don't find the doll's missing arm, it means... the arm may have been burned too."
"Okay. Let's go to Lao Mengtou first, let him, as a detective, take a good picture of the evidence and clues here, and then go to the back kitchen area to see the situation of the visitors."
After Yang Ye finished speaking, he stood up and looked towards the vegetable garden.
When they came just now, they came through the path between the peach grove and the fruit grove.
But there is a road across the vegetable garden, which can actually reach the direction of the main entrance of the castle.
Gu Liang followed his gaze, and at the same time took out the card map to check.
"At that time, the system asked us to go to the garden restaurant for breakfast. I noticed that there were two roads marked on the map. One was through the west door of the main hall where the banquet was held. That was the way we went to have breakfast; the other was from Go around the main entrance of the castle, go west through the main entrance, and then north, you can reach the restaurant. That road is separated from this vegetable garden by a fruit grove."
"So—" Yang Ye set foot on this road that no one seems to have taken so far, and said, "From here, you can pass through the fruit forest and take the second road that leads to the restaurant you just mentioned. Of course, you can also go to the main gate."
"That's right." Gu Liang walked along this road with Yang Ye, walked east through the fruit forest, and walked south for a while, and saw the main entrance of the old castle.
As Yang Ye expected, those players, including Meng Qiancheng, were surrounding Yu Zhanan's sports car to check.
Gu Liang thought for a while, and said: "So, I saw the direction where you, Ai's best friend, and Mei Design went to Taolin. The three of you may have been to the vegetable garden to burn dolls. But in fact, Steward Hao and Rong Rong Ladies and gentlemen may also have been to the vegetable garden, but they did not pass through the peach grove, but took another road. I don’t know if they have been there.”
"Yes. That's right. Except for you and Lao Mengtou, everyone may go to the vegetable garden to burn dolls."
After Yang Ye said this to Gu Liang, he took a few steps forward and called Meng Qiancheng, "Old Mengtou."
"Hey?"
Meng Qiancheng turned his head to look at the main entrance of the castle, then looked sideways at Yang Ye and Gu Liang, "How did you come out of here?"
Yang Yedao: "There is another road here. You can walk it with me. Remember to take the detective camera, and I will take some evidence for you."
"You still take me to take evidence?"
Meng Qiancheng muttered a few words, "You are very suspicious now, do you know what is in your car?"
"Yes. But I'm not the only one who knows about pentagrams. Come on."
Yang Ye held Meng Qiancheng's shoulders in a friendly posture, and led him to the vegetable garden.
Gu Liang didn't keep up with them, he just said: "You guys go to the vegetable garden, I'll go to the back kitchen to have a look. Save time."
"Okay. We will meet in the main hall later." Yang Ye said.
"Okay." Gu Liang nodded and walked towards the main entrance of the castle. There was only one day between the two times, but his state of mind was still very different.
Taking the opportunity of going through the main entrance, the lobby, and then the main hall, he carefully looked at the structure of the castle again.
The floor height of the lobby and the main hall is as high as two floors, which means that the first and second floors of the entire castle are hollowed out in the middle.
From the third floor to the sixth floor, let's take it as the accommodation area, which is the same as the buildings I usually see, one floor after another.
As for the lobby and main hall, it is different.
The three sides of the main hall are the garden, the back kitchen area and the terrace. The main hall has a large area and there is no other space.
But the area of the lobby is very small, and there should be a circle of space around it, both on the first and second floors.
But this part of the area, according to the system, is blocked.
Gu Liang could only see the thick walls on both sides of the lobby and the closed doors, but he couldn't see what was behind the walls.
This part of the first floor, plus the second to fifth floors, was cordoned off. But since the system said it had nothing to do with this script, Gu Liang could only guess that it might be related to other scripts later on, but in short, he didn't need to pay attention to it now.
After a while, passing through the main hall, Gu Liang went back to the chef's lounge, found the booklet recording the tastes of important guests, flipped through a hundred pages, and finally found a page that mentioned wizards.
"In 2X04, visitors to the castle: strange, annoying, but very important wizard. Taste habits of the wizard: don't like coriander, don't eat soy products, and like carrots very much. Remarks: He only stays for two days. "
"The chef's nagging: Great, Rong Mingyuan said that he traveled all over the world. After he left this time, he might not come again in the future. He is really troublesome. Today, I was a little old when I fried steak. He scolded for a long time. I really wanted to scold back, but I was persuaded by the gardener. The gardener said that this wizard is very powerful. Rong Mingyuan likes dolls, but this kind of doll is easy to provoke bad things, and the wizard came to remind her. "
"Gu Liang? Do you have any new discoveries?" Yang Ye's voice came from the direction of the main hall.
"Well, there are. Very important clues."
Gu Liang walked to the main hall with this very heavy booklet in his hand, and saw Yang Ye and Meng Qiancheng find a table and sit down.
Gu Liang stepped forward, put the diary on the table, sat next to Yang Ye, and said to Meng Qiancheng: "Old Mengtou, take a picture of this page."
Meng Qiancheng looked at him: "Why do you call me that?"
"I called after everyone." Gu Liang said.
Meng Qiancheng looked him up and down. "Sometimes I really don't know if you are an honest child, or if you are black-bellied, cold-humored and teasing."
Gu Liang smiled faintly, pointed to the word "wizard", and asked, "So, do you know that your home has been visited by a wizard?"
Meng Qiancheng said, "I don't know."
Gu Liang: "How could you not know?"
Meng Qiancheng: "My role, Boss Rong, didn't just sit back and enjoy his achievements and become a big boss. He worked hard and was always busy. When Mingyuan Rong grew up, he wasn't by her side. Speaking of it , Rong Mingyuan is also quite pitiful. Her mother remarried because I was too busy, and she hasn't taken her away yet... Tsk, although there is no such person in the script, but you say, if my ex-wife knows how rich I am now, she must I regret it to death."
Gu Liang interrupted Meng Qiancheng: "Back to the point. So, Rong Mingyuan was brought up by servants. You don't know about the wizard's visit."
Meng Qiancheng: "I really don't know."
"But Rong Mingyuan knows it, and Housekeeper Hao who takes care of her must also know it. So—"
Yang Ye looked at Meng Qiancheng and said, "I'm not the only one who knows about the wizard and the pentagram. Housekeeper Hao and Rong Mingyuan also know about it. Li Xiaoyu, I don't think she knows, but you can look for relevant clues. Finally, It depends on whether Su Lan knows about it. I suggest that the focus of the next step is to find Su Lan's clues, and in the discussion later, you can also focus on asking her about related matters. "
half an hour later. 6th floor.
Yang Ye and Gu Liang spent half an hour looking through each room.
There were no special clues in Su Lan's room, not even witchcraft and pentagrams.
She only has business cards that she designed as a beauty.
The business card reads—"Every doll is worthy of being cherished by human beings. Treat the doll well, and she will treat you well."
After checking each room, the two went to Meng Qiancheng's room.
When Gu Liang and Yang Ye went to the first floor, the rest of the people were searching for evidence on this floor.
They temporarily put all the dolls in the detective's room.
At the moment, Gu Liang picked up a doll and tried to see the condition of their throats.
But the doll's mouth couldn't be opened, so Gu Liang had no choice but to give up.
"What are you thinking now?" Yang Ye asked him.
Gu Liang looked at the dolls in the room, and said to Yang Ye: "Go to my room and talk."
After going to Gu Liang's room, Yang Ye first brought him a glass of water. "are you hungry?"
Gu Liang shook his head: "There will be something to eat in the centralized discussion room, it's okay. Let's discuss ideas together first. In this way, while there is still time, we can conduct a targeted search."
Gu Liang yawned and sat on the edge of the bed, Yang Ye dragged the sofa and sat opposite him. "You were looking at the doll's throat just now?"
"Yeah." Gu Liang got up and went to the cabinet where the dolls were placed at the beginning, picked up a card, and then sat down in front of Yang Ye, "Do you still remember this card?"
This is the first card placed next to the doll.
There are three sentences written on it, the first sentence is that the doll is a gift prepared by Rong Mingyuan for everyone.
The second sentence reads: "Everything has a soul, and if you treat the doll with care, it will bring you happiness too."
The third sentence is: "Rong Mingyuan treats her dolls very well, and hopes that every guest will love these lovely dolls as much as she does."
After reading this sentence, Yang Ye said, "Actually, the last two sentences of this card have the same meaning as the business card designed by Mei. That is the point - if you are nice to the doll, the doll will protect you."
"Yes, so at first I thought the doll was a stand-in. Rong Mingyuan treated the dolls very well, so the doll was born with a spirituality and would protect her."
"Mei Design stabbed her, and the symptoms reflected in the dolls are that all the dolls have a knife in the chest."
"Furthermore, you burned Rong Mingyuan's respiratory tract, and the doll's respiratory tract should be injured. But this cannot be seen for the time being."
"In the end, people who died of Ai's girlfriend's poison will have hearts on their arms. Then all the dolls should have hearts on their right arms. But now I don't know why, someone chopped off the arms of the dolls, and maybe put them in Wumang Burned together in the star spell."
When Gu Liang said this, he pressed the center of his eyebrows. "Now we found that, except for me and Detective Lao Mengtou, everyone has the possibility to go to the vegetable garden, and those of you who go to the vegetable garden are more or less related to pentagrams and witchcraft. You may be burning dolls people."
"But why, burning the doll will cause Feng's boyfriend to die? What is the connection between the two? This question is very important."
Gu Liang held the card and looked at it for a long time, his eyes stayed on the word "protection".
In the blink of an eye, he suddenly thought of something, sat up and looked at Yang Ye with a somewhat excited expression: "By the way, since you protect the baby, the baby will protect you. Then if you abuse the baby, will the baby take revenge on him? This The card emphasizes that the guests need to treat the dolls well, is it hiding this meaning?"
"If you follow this line of thinking..."
Yang Ye thought for a while, and said, "Then the only one who abuses the baby is Boyfriend Feng. Boss Rong and Steward Hao have lived here for a long time. It is impossible for them to have no opinion for so many years. I started to abuse them because of my opinions. Only Boyfriend Feng, who is about to become the host here, might not like the dolls and beat them."
"Then, there may be two stories about the doll."
Gu Liangdao, "The first story is that someone kills a famous lady, and the doll will protect her. The second story is that the person who abuses the doll will be retaliated by the doll. Boyfriend Feng is the one who was revenged."
Yang Yedao: "But the baby can't be the murderer, right? According to you, some of us were influenced by the baby and killed Feng's boyfriend."
Gu Liang nodded: "In this way, the story is relatively reasonable. First, boyfriend Feng abused the doll; then, the doll affected a certain person's mind, or possessed something, and let him kill Boyfriend Feng; finally, someone noticed this One thing, it may be the person who was affected by the doll, and after this person noticed it, in order to get rid of the influence of the doll, he burned the doll with a pentagram circle to destroy this 'evil spirit'."
"When voting, if there is no option for 'doll', then vote for this affected person."
After listening to it for a long time, Yang Ye said, "This brain hole is very exciting. We have been looking for the connection between Feng's boyfriend and the doll burning incident. In this way, everything has a perfect explanation. But we still need to solve two problems."
Gu Liang asked him: "I know the first question, the missing arm of the doll, there is really no way to explain it, I just guess, it may be related to the magic circle requirement to seal the evil spirit of the doll, this will be discussed later , and ask someone connected with witchcraft. What's the second question?"
Yang Ye looked at him and said slowly: "You forgot one thing. After our speculation, Feng's boyfriend was burned to death in an instant. This matter is very important—"