บท 13: Can the Dead Kill?
บรรณาธิการ: Chrissy
"If you walk away from the light, you will eventually reach the end of darkness. Crime is one of them."
Xiang Wan wrote the opening lines in her laptop. When she thought of what Detective Bai had instructed, she pouted, deleted that line, and rewrote the opening.
"As the saying goes, life is like a muddy path leading to death—one should try to choose people with similar values to walk down the path together. Rong Xiaonuan's biggest mistake was that she had mixed with the wrong people and plunged into this bottomless vortex of darkness. At this moment, she was sitting on a hard bench in the office of the Criminal Investigation Unit, looking at the wise and brilliant detective who was in front of her, full of regret—"
Cough! So cheesy!
Why did I have the urge to giggle? thought Xiang Wan.
Anyway, it was Rong Xiaonuan who was full of regret, not her.
Rong Xiaonuan was the female protagonist in her novel "Murder The Dream Guy". Same as Xiang Wan, she was not a popular author, either.
Xiang Wan followed Detective Bai's instructions to write the plot. In the beginning, it was still fine, but as it was not according to what she had in mind, she began to lose control before she reached 1,000 words.
The story jumped so much that it was illogical!
Which murderer would go frame an author who could hardly make ends meet?
There was no feud or resentment, unless the murderer was insane?
"Urgh, I can't continue anymore."
Bai Muchuan had yet to come back to the office, so Xiang Wan called him directly, "Detective Bai, I need to earn my keep, too. The plot and details you wanted me to write is totally incompatible with my main outline. If I write that, my book will be ruined!"
Bai Muchuan seemed to be busy.
There was someone talking next to him. Xiang Wan could faintly make out two keywords—"fake car number plate" and "fingerprint" respectively.
Then Bai Muchuan seemed to have moved to another place as there was no more background sound.
"What did you say?"
Xiang Wan quickly turned around and found that he was standing behind her.
This man had well-defined facial features and an indifferent disposition.
His eyes gazed at her with indistinctive emotions.
Cough! Xiang Wan cleared her throat.
Does he know that looking at someone like this makes it very easy to make one's heart confused and troubled?
"Detective Bai, I earn a living as an author. I can't just write stuff blindly into my story. If I'm unable to fill up the holes in my plot, my book would have a crappy ending!"
Bai Muchuan's eyelids drooped slightly as he looked at her from top to bottom.
The young woman held her head stubbornly and refused to budge.
He was silent for a moment. "If you don't write according to my plot, your book will still fail. But if you follow my plot to write your story, it might be able to survive."
He's rubbing salt into the wound!
Xiang Wan's cheeks started to feel warm. "I have my own thoughts. I don't want to deviate from my main outline, moreover I…"
"You just don't get it!" Bai Muchuan did not sound like he was joking in the slightest bit. "You have everything to gain if you write according to what I've said. First of all, you'll help the police solve the case, so that you can stay away from trouble the soonest possible. Next, you'll be able to promote the popularity of your novel. Imagine this, if you released the case details in your novel before the police publicized them to the public, what kind of effect will it have?"
Eh?
Xiang Wan stared at him with wide-opened eyes.
Although Zhao Jiahang's death was the talk of the town and occupied a spot under the breaking news for the past few days, the details of the case were not disclosed by the police. Therefore, the general public didn't know the progress of the case.
Due to this, the case was being speculated and inferenced by many inquisitive keyboard warriors as well as the general public!
If Xiang Wan released the details of the case through her novel, and then followed by news of the police solving the case, it was bound to cause a stir.
"Maybe?" She smiled somewhat awkwardly.
"Why not?" asked Bai Muchuan.
"Wouldn't it be considered a dishonorable act?" Xiang Wan looked down, one of her fingers rubbing her chin.
"Hope against hope." Bai Muchuan raised his eyebrows at her, as if he was a teacher who was invigilating his students. Then he looked at the time again.
"Hurry up and write! I'll be back later."
"…"
And so he left.
About half an hour later, Xiang Wan was on a roll, writing as much as she could when suddenly, her hands stopped tapping away on the keyboard.
What did he mean by 'hope against hope'?
Was he trying to say that she was hopeless? That she was unable to write a popular book—and he was the glimmer of hope sent to save her?
Oh heck!
Xiang Wan's unyielding spirit was being activated. The emotional pressure greatly pushed her writing speed. This time, she wrote the story according to her own experience. She felt a raging surge of literary thoughts as though she had magic. The rapid tapping sounds of the keyboard even attracted several glances from the people around…
Something that was made up would not be as expressive or vivid enough when compared to personal experiences.
Xiang Wan wrote so fast and smoothly that she felt she couldn't stop even if she had stepped on the brakes!
Two hours later, she was ready to conclude the chapter. She took a deep breath and typed the last sentence.
"Rong Xiaonuan finally knew that the wise and brilliant detective was called Fang Yelan—a guy who possessed looks that made people nervous, worked in a nervous way that made people nervous, as well as having a slightly nervous brain."
Haha! Finally!
She stretched herself on the chair and looked at the wall, totally freeing her brain when suddenly, she heard a cold voice above her head. "You're done?"
Xiang Wan looked up, turned around, and found that Bai Muchuan seemed to have a strange expression. She followed his line of sight to the unlocked laptop screen where it showed the chapter she had just written. "Well? Is there a problem?"
Bai Muchuan furrowed his eyebrows and walked to the opposite desk. "Send me that!"
Ten minutes later…
Bai Muchuan finally spoke, "This character whom you used 'wise and brilliant' several times to describe, Detective Fang Yelan… If he's really so nervous, he would have been kicked out of the police force!"
Xiang Wan had a confused and ignorant face. "Didn't you say to make the detective in my story 'wise and brilliant'?"
Bai Muchuan took a glance at her emotionlessly before he changed the topic suddenly, "The police officer who chased after a black car with the female protagonist—Officer Gu Yusheng—the way you described him, that is what wise and brilliant really mean!"
Haha!
Xiang Wan's little prank gained her a lot of "feel good" points.
However, she would never admit that.
She looked at Bai Muchuan innocently but deliberately used professional terms in her industry to explain herself. "The plot tension is different, so the personality of the character shown is different as well."
Bai Muchuan started to edit the chapter quietly.
What smooth typing skills!
Xiang Wan peered over curiously and noticed that Detective Bai was actually using WuBi chinese input method to type. His typing speed and editing skills were of professional grade.
He was actually… editing, her, work?
Xiang Wan stood frozen once again.
Twenty minutes later, a revised chapter was sent back.
Bai Muchuan gave a simple command, "Update now, immediately!"
… This is my story, my novel, why are you calling the shots? Xiang Wan snorted with displeasure inside her head. She did a quick scan and found that there were some slight changes which greatly improved the writing style, making it more confident and firm. In addition, the logic and twist that had plagued her previously were handled perfectly.
"No wonder a good detective can write novels."
Xiang Wan remarked with heartfelt admiration. Now, she started to see Bai Muchuan in a different light.
"Detective Bai, if you write a novel, it will definitely be popular!"
Bai Muchuan sat there leisurely without answering.
After she published the chapter, he said, "Continue to write the next one, you have to publish that before dawn. Follow this plot outline: The police found the alleged black car abandoned under a highway. After some investigation, the car was found to have been installed with a fake car number plate. However, the driver who abandoned the car had left behind some fingerprints, and the police sent them for matching…"
He stopped.
Xiang Wan waited for a few seconds before tilting her head. "What's next?"
Bai Muchuan suddenly smirked, his eyes curved upward. "It was found that the fingerprint was a match with the one found on the murdered tycoon's SUV. The suspect was identified, and the police immediately carried out the arrest. They managed to nab the suspect outside his rented home."
Xiang Wan thought about the time. "It doesn't seem right? The fingerprint results are probably not out yet?"
Not to mention that Zhao Jiahang's SUV only had half of a vague fingerprint, even if it was a complete and clear fingerprint, that process would still need time.
Sure enough, Bai Muchuan calmly replied, "It has been sent to the Evidence Appraisal Center, there will be results soon."
Xiang Wan laughed, "How can you be so sure that the two fingerprints will match?"
Bai Muchuan's eyes formed into a squint as his gaze swept across her face with a slightly mysterious expression.
He suddenly spoke in a low but languid tone, "What if my guess is right?"
"Guess?" Xiang Wan could not understand where his confidence came from but still felt admiration for his conjecture.
"Er Niu is the lover of the deceased, this is your plot," said Bai Muchuan. "Similarly, you can also design her boyfriend as a skilled worker in a prestigious car modification club. The SUV that killed its owner was his handiwork. Er Niu had followed what she saw from the female protagonist's novel for the method of murder. In other words, the two of them had conspired to kill the deceased…"
Xiang Wan was speechless for a moment.
"Detective Bai, is your memory not too good? I have already updated the latest chapter as per your requirements—Er Niu is dead! How can the dead conspire to kill someone?"
Bai Muchuan looked at her intently. "The dead can certainly kill someone."
Xiang Wan's face was full of exclamation marks. "If I write like that, it would no longer be a mystery fiction but a thriller, a horrifying ghost story."
Bai Muchuan stayed silent for a while.
"If you write what I've said, you'll become an author with supernatural powers who can write criminal cases before they actually happened."
Xiang Wan was stunned.
She took quite a while to come back to her senses.
Bai Muchuan will not randomly speculate all this content, she thought.
Looks like the police has definitely gotten ahold of some clues!
"Alright." Xiang Wan was looking at his icy and dashing face when she laughed suddenly. "What's the motive of Detective Bai helping me like this?"
Bai Muchuan and Xiang Wan's eyes met in mid-air.
After a while, he stood up without any expression and got Huang He to come over.
"Get ready! At nine o'clock tomorrow, we're holding a press conference to report the progress of the case!"
So was that the reason why he wanted her to publish the next chapter before dawn as the police had a press conference the following day at 9:00 a.m.?
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