Forced to Act out a Strange Script with a Rival - Chapter 109

Soon, Wen Xiuzhen sent over the story for the second arc.

The narrative continued to use the female college student, Jiang Zi, as the primary perspective. Due to the murder case in the previous arc, the apartment formerly rented by the “childhood friend sister” couldn’t be leased out. Weak, helpless, and pitiable, the college student ended up taking over the lease from the “Rich Second Generation” (fuerdai) landlord. Unable to refuse, she was forced to rent the place, and in exchange, she had to work as a detective’s assistant to offset her rent through labor.

As it turned out, while this landlord was a wealthy socialite, she was also a highly motivated one who ran her own private detective agency.

Unfortunately, judging by her performance in the first case, this detective belonged to the “whoever she suspects is definitely innocent” category—a muddled investigator whose deductions served better as a process of elimination for the real culprit.

Thus, the duo—the confused wealthy detective and the weak college student with strange supernatural abilities—officially made their debut, and the second case unfolded.

The Second Case: An “ABC Murders” in a Snowbound Manor

The second case was quite intriguing, utilizing a “Blizzard Manor” (closed-circle) style mixed with an ABC murder motif.

• The Setup: The detective receives an invitation from a fellow mystery enthusiast and takes her assistant, Jiang Zi, to a luxury villa deep in the mountains. The villa is soon cut off from the outside world by a heavy blizzard.
• The Cast: Aside from the protagonists, the participants include a retired judge, a viral suspense influencer, a top medical student, a mystery novelist, and several other veteran mystery buffs—all of whom are notably female.
• The Incident: On the first night, as the storm begins to rage, the first murder occurs. The host of the gathering is found dead in the library. The scene is gruesome: the body is seated neatly in a chair, but the head is missing, and the crime scene is disturbingly clean.

Panic spreads like an invisible plague. When the group tries to flee and call the police, they discover the snow has blocked all roads down the mountain and the signal is dead. The classic “Blizzard Manor” trope is in full swing.

As these self-proclaimed logical thinkers try to find the killer through motive and clues, a second and third murder occur in quick succession, shattering what remains of order and hope. To find the truth and survive, the assistant uses her psychic abilities, but she can only capture fragmented information. Everyone is trapped in a fog, unsure of how to break the deadlock.

Logic and Revelation

The overall suspense in the early stages is expertly crafted. With just a few lines, the author vividly depicts the character traits of everyone present. However, the highlight remains the interaction between the leads: the naive heiress and the timid student.

As the case deepens, the bond between the two strengthens. Just as the detective falls into danger and prepares to sacrifice herself to protect her assistant, Jiang Zi has a flash of inspiration and solves the entire puzzle.

1. The Decapitation: The removal of the head wasn’t for horror, but to confuse the identity of the deceased.
2. The Trick: The killer used a pre-prepared headless corpse to faked their own death, allowing them to hide in plain sight as a “ghost” within the castle.
3. Classic Tropes: The subsequent murders utilized fishing lines for locked-room mysteries, ice for delayed-action devices, and architectural layouts for “impossible” kills.

While these methods aren’t necessarily new, they are executed perfectly by the author. When the truth is revealed in one fell swoop, it provides a satisfying sense of logical clarity.

The Hook and the Confrontation

However, a new mystery arises: Where did the substitute headless body come from?

The story soon reveals a chilling connection. Police investigations later show that this body belonged to the killer from the first case—the one who had killed the “childhood friend sister” but mysteriously vanished.

Even though the second case is “solved,” a thick fog still surrounds the connection between the two arcs. More importantly, the killer of the second case wore the exact same red bracelet as the childhood friend sister, yet the police can find no link between them. The script ends abruptly once more, throwing out more questions than answers—a masterful cliffhanger.

This unfinished ending acted like a hook, snagging Li Ting’s mind. She sat there, tapping her finger unconsciously against the edge of the phone, lost in thought.

“So, is the story exciting?”

A voice spoke beside her, carrying the slight hoarseness and lethargy of someone who had just woken up. It brushed against her eardrums like a feather. Li Ting looked up to find Xiao Xiao.

While Li Ting was immersed in the story, Xiao Xiao had woken up and was now standing before her with breakfast. The morning light outlined her with a soft glow; her cheek still bore a faint mark from the pillow, but her eyes were clear as a rain-washed sky, looking at Li Ting with a hint of inquiry.

“Yes, it is indeed interesting. The screenwriter is very talented,” Li Ting replied, collecting herself. She handed the phone back naturally, offering an objective critique.

Si Xiao Xiao smiled and sat down beside Li Ting, taking the phone with one hand and handing the breakfast over with the other. Just as her fingertips were about to touch the phone case, she paused and let out a soft sound of surprise.

“Eh? This is my phone?”

Li Ting suddenly remembered the phone call. A flicker of subtle embarrassment crossed her face as she explained, “I’m sorry. Your phone rang this morning, and I took the liberty of answering it. Then, Director Wen sent the script directly to your WeChat…”

“But no matter the reason,” Si Xiao Xiao said, the smile remaining on her face like a perfectly painted mask—flawless, yet lacking warmth, “using someone else’s phone isn’t quite right, is it?”

She tapped the phone screen nonchalantly with her fingertip, her tone airy yet carrying an unmistakable edge of authority.

Was Xiao Xiao angry?

A strange emotion welled up in the depths of Li Ting’s heart. Something seemed to be slipping beyond her control, leaving her with a sense of uncertainty. She was about to explain herself when Si Xiao Xiao spoke again.

“How about a trade? Let me see your phone, too.”

Having reached this point, Li Ting had no room to refuse. Thus, she handed her phone over.

Si Xiao Xiao took it, but she didn’t immediately check it as she had suggested. She simply held it loosely in her palm as if it were an inconsequential object. Her attention quickly returned to the script on her own screen. Her eyes swept over the text, and as she read, she posed the core question as if in passing: “Are you going to act in it?”

Li Ting recalled the promise they had made to each other amidst the dense steam of the previous night, and the courage that had been born because of her. Without a moment’s hesitation, she nodded firmly. “I promised you, didn’t I?”

She noticed it—Xiao Xiao hadn’t called her “Sister.”

Consequently, unease began to spread through her heart, and she started to hope—Since I have kept my promise, then you must keep yours, too.

Please don’t leave me.

Si Xiao Xiao suddenly snapped her eyes upward. In that instant, it was as if the dark clouds had vanished and the morning sun had risen; a brilliant, unreserved surprise exploded in the depths of her eyes, nearly overflowing.

But she quickly realized she had lost her composure and pressed her lips together tightly, trying to suppress that overly bright joy. Her long lashes fluttered rapidly to hide the shimmering light in her gaze. She gave a slight nod and let out an extremely reserved, single-syllable sound from her throat: “Oh.”

Xiao Xiao—the cute Xiao Xiao, the simple Xiao Xiao, the “good girl” Xiao Xiao.

Li Ting couldn’t help but want to smile along. She had long since understood how to handle Xiao Xiao. The tight string in her heart seemed to loosen slightly. Taking advantage of the moment, she decided to press her advantage.

“Xiao Xiao, you’re the one who led me out of my inner demons and gave me the courage to face my past. So, I want to be with you.”

On a sudden impulse, Li Ting reached out and took Si Xiao Xiao’s slightly cool fingers, wrapping them tightly within her own warm palm. She gazed into Si Xiao Xiao’s eyes, her tone softer and more solemn than ever before.

If Xiao Xiao was too enthusiastic, Li Ting would subconsciously want to retreat; but when Xiao Xiao turned tsundere, it felt like a waste not to tease her. Moreover, the strangeness Xiao Xiao had displayed last night and today had piled up in her heart like shards of ice, giving rise to a powerful sense of crisis.

It felt as though something was about to escape her grasp. No—she would never allow that!

However, the moment those words of vulnerability and dependence left her lips, the color drained from Si Xiao Xiao’s face at a visible speed, turning her deathly pale. Her forced composure and tsundere act shattered like a fragile glass mask.

“Then what is our relationship?” she asked again, staring down at their intertwined hands with a furrowed brow. This was the third time she had asked this question.

This time, Li Ting did not hesitate. she spoke firmly: “We are lovers. On the Ferris wheel, we kissed, didn’t we?”

The light in Si Xiao Xiao’s eyes flickered violently, like a candle in the wind on the verge of being extinguished. She stared at Li Ting with a gaze so sharp it seemed capable of piercing through any disguise to reach the depths of her soul. Then, the corners of her mouth tugged into an extremely bitter, even cruel, arc.

“It was just a kiss.”

She spat out those five words one by one, clearly. Her voice wasn’t loud, yet it was like a bloody, ice-tempered blade. With precision, it plunged deep into the softest part of Li Ting’s heart.

The bloody knife had been driven home, and all Si Xiao Xiao had done was take the words Li Ting had once said and return them—word for word, laden with cold irony and accumulated resentment.

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