Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Even so, it’s still pretty far-fetched!” At the dinner table, Wu Xiumin opened her hands and voiced her doubts. “If you say that this case has anything to do with the characters in the film, it really doesn’t make sense.”
“I know. It’s a little far-fetched!” Zhao Yu admitted. “But, since we want to conduct a thorough case investigation, no clue can be ignored! Now that this is even a slight possibility, I’ll have to look into it.”
Unlike Wu Xiumin, Zhao Yu’s attitude towards the relation between the case and the film plot was obviously more positive. This was because Zhao Yu felt that yesterday’s side adventure was too strange. In the past, as long as he could arrive at the side adventure location on time, he could always encounter something relevant to it.
However, last night, when he came to the lighthouse according to the instructions, he got a few points for no reason. He had found nothing at all!
Zhao Yu thought that this must be a hint from the Miracle System, meaning that there must be something important about the lighthouse. After all, whenever he saw the lighthouse, he got points.
At first, he thought that there was something in the lighthouse, but Captain Dou told him that the police had searched both inside and outside the lighthouse, and it was impossible for them to neglect anything. That was when Zhao Yu had turned his attention to the film plot.
Since the film was also titled “Lighthouse,” he thought that the side adventure must have something to do with it… However, he had to admit that Wu Xiumin’s concerns were logical for several reasons…
Firstly, there were only three characters in the original murder: the lighthouse couple and the rescued sailor. In the end, the keeper was killed and the sailor was sentenced to death. So, if the original characters in the story were still alive, then the murderer could only be the wife of the lighthouse keeper!
However, even if she was still alive, she must be an old lady by now. So, he found it hard to figure how she could have possibly participated in the murder.
Unless…. She had a child! Her child might have known that the film was being made by the crew would, which would clearly affect the mother’s reputation. In anger, the child might have killed the six people!
But… Zhao Yu still knew that this possibility was quite tiny. Even if there was really a child that existed, it would be almost impossible for this child to kill people over the mother’s reputation alone. It was far more likely that the child would simply go through legal means to seek retribution and justice if the crew really damaged the child’s mother’s reputation.
The second concern that Zhao Yu needed to address was that, if the case was related to the wife, he would need to explain the clues that were left on the dead people. As Qiao Ruxue’s affair was absolutely unknown to outsiders, the murderer must be familiar with the crew members. Otherwise it was impossible for the murderer to know so many things.
Just these two concerns alone were enough to dismiss this possibility that Zhao Yu was thinking about. However, Zhao Yu was the kind of person who wouldn’t give up so easily. Therefore, when faced with the above two concerns, he unexpectedly came up with a bolder and more surprising guess.
Zhao Yu thought that, if he must address these two concerns, then there was only one explanation remaining. He guessed that one person in the film crew was either the wife of the lighthouse keeper herself… Or… Was her descendant!
When Zhao Yu explained his deduction to the other two in his small group, Wu Xiumin was shocked again and dropped yet another piece of cake, while Zeng Ke almost spit out all of the juice that he had just drank.
Wu Xiumin exclaimed, “Leader, your imagination is truly amazing! You could be a scriptwriter. In fact, I believe that you could surely write better stories than Cai Jinda!”
Zhao Yu rolled his eyes. “Nonsense. Cai Jinda is dead! How dare you curse me by comparing me to him?”
Just after Zhao Yu expressed his shocking deduction, Zeng Ke found something on his laptop. “I just checked… It appears that two of the people in the crew are from Quliang!”
“No way! Really?” Zhao Yu gasped. He and Wu Xiumin were stunned upon hearing this.
“They are Xu You and Cai Jinda!” Zeng Ke said. “Xu You is from Liuhuangshan, which is right near Quliang, while Cai Jinda is a Quliang local!”
Zhao Yu bowed his head and said, “Cai Jinda is the scriptwriter, and ‘Lighthouse’ was adapted from a story about Quliang. As such, it would be very hard to believe that he had nothing to do with the original event!”
Zeng Ke nodded in surprise as he said, “But, Cai Jinda is dead. If he committed the murders, how could he die?”
Wu Xiumin was also puzzled. Suddenly, Zhao Yu opened his mouth wide and said excitedly, “It seems that we have to verify all of the deceased’s identities, especially Cai Jinda’s and Xu You’s, as they are both from Quliang. One of them was burned, while the other one was killed by a stone. We must confirm that the two corpses are really theirs!”
Zeng Ke shook his head, then said, “But, you can’t fake deaths, can you? Now… Technology is so developed!”
“I still think that this has nothing to do with Cai Jinda!” Wu Xiumin shook her head and said, “Cai Jinda started the film project. If he didn’t want to make the story known to others, why in the world would he want to film it? Many things would need a better explanation for me to believe that he was the murderer.”
“Regardless, we have to follow this clue!” After wrapping up the explanation of his deduction, Zhao Yu began to assign tasks. “Xiumin, you don’t need to go back to Yongjin Island today! Instead, you stay in Quliang and investigate the event that happened on the island.”
“Okay!” Wu Xiumin agreed.
“If there is time, conduct a thorough investigation of Xu You’s and Cai Jinda’s histories in Quliang to see if they are related to the three people in the original story,” he then added.
Wu Xiumin agreed and said, “I think we also must include Guo Yihang. He is from Caohai City, which is adjacent to Quliang. So, maybe Guo Yihang was also involved in this as well!”
“OK!” Zhao Yu nodded, then said to Zeng Ke, “You will come back to the island with me. We’ll talk to Li Qian, Zhang Yong, and the Champion Pictures executives again. This time, we need to know all about how Cai Jinda started the production of the film!”
“Okay!” Zeng Ke nodded, then closed his laptop and said, “Leader, I think we need to investigate all of the crew members who participated in the actual shooting of the film. We might find someone else related to the lighthouse or Quliang.”
Zhao Yu nodded. “Let’s get started! If this clue can’t get us to the truth, this case will be really troublesome!”
