Chapter 154: Chapter 150 Assuming We All Died
"His clothes had more than just strawberry jam on them."
In the piano room on the second floor, the dancer placed a finger against his chin, his face in deep thought: "Moreover, the bloody traces in the dining room connect to the kitchen—it's completely feasible to surmise that the chef killed someone and then moved the body to the dining room to conceal it!"
The pianist was startled: "But the dining room is spotless. There's simply nowhere to hide a body."
"Does that matter?" The dancer raised his eyebrow: "As long as we know he killed someone, that's enough. With that Maitreya-like face of his, one can tell he's a backstabber."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The reasoning was so perfect that the three fell into silence. It was only then that they realized that the dancer's so-called 'suspect' was merely spouting nonsense!
He was just toying with them!
Xu Shuo spoke up at the right moment: "Why don't we all go downstairs and take a look."
The lawyer shook his head helplessly: "Let's go down. It's useless to just guess here, we might as well all brainstorm together."
The dancer instantly dropped his detective-like demeanor and, giggling, stepped forward to grab the girl's hand: "Little sister, let me help you."
...
Entertaining oneself solved nothing, so while the two in the living room were discussing, the five people who had finished discussing upstairs came down as well.
Two o'clock in the morning.
The seven people who had awoken two hours ago and suffered amnesia gathered again. In the luxurious and opulent villa, blood was splattered on the ground, bloody handprints marked the door, and chaos filled their view.
The dancer helped Xu Shuo sit on a clean sofa, while the others sat or stood in various places in the living room, secretly sizing up the lawyer and the female writer, with four people evaluating the chef from the shadows.
"I wonder if everyone has found any clues? Wandering around like this gets us nowhere. Let's share our thoughts," said the lawyer, leaning against a cabinet with a composed expression on his face.
"First, with all these bloodstains in the villa, let's not guess who the murderer is for now, but someone definitely died!" the female writer stated with conviction.
"There's a bullet in the living room, and it's been fired," the butler said, presenting the bullet.
The small metal bullet head reflected a cold gleam under the light.
Then, the bullet made its rounds, touched by everyone present.
Finally, the bullet reached the hands of the lawyer, who fingered the slightly worn bullet head, his face showing a peculiar expression.
Both the chef and the butler had thought of something obvious, and naturally, so had he—if there was anyone in the villa who could carry a gun, indeed it was most likely him, the host.
But then again, it might have been someone from outside.
"Did you find the gun?" the female writer asked.
The butler shook his head: "No gun. I found the bullet under a table. By the looks of it, it's very likely that the person who was shot was either sitting or standing near the sofa."
He pointed at a splatter of blood near the edge of the sofa as he spoke.
The chef immediately added: "Moreover, apart from the scattered manuscripts, there are no signs of a struggle or fight near the sofa. It seems the person was shot without much resistance."
The pianist scoffed: "But how could anyone just stand there and get killed?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly fell silent.
Everyone thought of something and simultaneously turned to look at the blind girl, who was sitting quietly on the sofa, silent as a maiden.
If indeed there was someone present who couldn't dodge or resist, it might only be her.
Although Xu Shuo couldn't see them turn their heads, he felt their intense gazes. Recalling what the chef and the pianist had said earlier, it wasn't hard for him to guess what everyone was thinking.
But...
He felt he didn't seem to be the dead person either.
On the surface, a blind girl who couldn't see anything, couldn't take care of herself, relied on others for shelter, and could only survive by living in constant fear—whom would she have made an enemy of?
Unless the murderer, after killing someone, realized there was another witness who heard the murder, and decided to take care of her as well.
Damn... that kind of made sense!
But these alone couldn't prove anything yet!
So, Xu Shuo confusedly raised his head towards the direction of the sounds, "What's the matter? Why has everyone gone silent?"
The dancer's voice, full of mirth, quickly responded, "We're thinking—since that's the case, let's tentatively confirm there's one victim shot to death, then let's move on to the second one, the bloody handprint on the door, what about that?"
The lawyer looked towards the door and narrowed his eyes slightly, "The handprint left behind has slender fingers and is angled approximately like this—"
He raised his hand to demonstrate, then continued, "Also, the blood spattered on the door is very likely from a ruptured carotid artery. Considering the position the victim was in when attacked, their height is probably around one seventy-five."
There are only two people here of that height, the female writer and the pianist.
The female writer has a tall figure and almost reaches that height with high heels on, whereas the pianist is about half a head taller than the female writer.
The atmosphere grew subtly tense once again.
The pianist's right hand, hanging casually at his side, twitched slightly, but his expression remained calm, and he even pondered thoughtfully as if deeply into his role, completely ignoring the glances shot his way by the others.
"Alright, now that we've established there's a second victim with a slit carotid artery, what about the kitchen?" The dancer took the lead again, summarizing before fixing her gaze on the kitchen.
"Judging by the amount of blood and the mess in the kitchen..." the butler said with a bizarre expression, "The victim must have been dismembered, I guess."
This was probably the most horribly killed person of them all.
So, it wasn't their fault for suspecting the chef.
In any crime, the prime suspects are always those in charge of the location where it took place.
The chef had sighed helplessly numerous times by now, saying, "The kitchen knives and the sink were indeed used, but I think this matter still needs consideration."
"Hey, don't get nervous, we're just checking the deceased at the moment, let's not worry about who the killer is for now," the dancer waved it off.
"The way you say it makes it sound like I'm the murderer," the chef tugged at the corner of his mouth.
However, he wasn't actually too concerned since the end of this script wasn't about finding the murderer, and his task wasn't to hide any evidence of his own crime.
At this point, the pianist, deep in thought, spoke up, "Having covered the first floor, let me talk about what I found on the second floor."
He raised his hand, signaling towards the spiral staircase to the rest, then continued, "The vase in the second-floor corridor was shattered, and I also found blood on the staircase's post. Is there a possibility that someone also died there?"
If it's a blow to the head, apart from the scenario where one manages to stand up with difficult, there's another outcome, death on the spot.
The decorations on the staircase's railing are sharp-edged pyramids, and unless connected with the bloody handprint on the door, the pianist felt that the possibility of instant death at the scene was greater.
As for the vase, that was the butler's responsibility to polish, and moreover, the script's introduction had a peculiar description of it.
Everyone turned to look at him.
So, the butler and the chef, who had just been trying to clear themselves of involvement, both now had potential motive to commit the crime!
More importantly, there were now four dead bodies.
So where exactly were the corpses?
On the sofa, Xu Shuo listened quietly to the voices of the others, picturing the situation in the hall and connecting the clues to depict what had happened.
The girl suddenly spoke up, "Then, let's assume another scenario—if any of us could potentially become victims..."