Chapter 73
“Something’s- something’s happened! Someone, help!” the male lead shouted in panic.
He had successfully summoned people with his loud voice.
“Mr. Amuro! You’ve come at the perfect time… hiss, why do I feel a faint killing intent? Is it my imagination?”
“Teacher An’an, you’re so fast too! But teacher, why is your face so red? Lack of oxygen?”
Fan An: No one will think you’re mute if you don’t speak.
As they spoke, several of the main actors rushed over. Everyone witnessed the tragic scene in the room.
In the center of the room, Director Ochi was lying face down on the floor, motionless. The floor was covered in shattered glass.
“When I entered the room, Director Ochi was already on the floor,” the male lead said in a panic. “He was the only one in the room.”
According to the male lead’s own account, he had come to the director to discuss the script. When he had knocked, he had found that the door was unlocked and no one had answered from inside, so he had pushed the door open himself.
“KYAAAAAAAA—!!!”
A critical hit upon opening the door. The male lead had let out a sharp shriek like a screaming chicken that had been stepped on, successfully waking up everyone on the same floor.
“Everyone arrived so quickly,” the male lead said with a lingering fear. “As expected, because of the haunting, everyone has lost their nightlife.”
He had thought he had said something very relatable, but he found that Mr. Amuro, who seemed so good-tempered on the set, had glanced at him with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
The male lead, confused and helpless: Did I say something wrong again?
He looked pleadingly at Teacher An’an, who had an unusual relationship with the blond young man.
Suspect An: (killing intent rises.jpg)
The Male Lead: No, how did I offend you two?
“Director Ochi is still alive. He’s just passed out,” Furuya said, walking over to Director Ochi and squatting down to check his pulse. “Where’s the on-site doctor?”
The doctor didn’t live on this floor and was a little late. After entering the room, he quickly came over to give Director Ochi first aid.
“It’s a coma caused by a heavy blow to the head,” the doctor said. “Fortunately, it’s not serious. He’ll wake up tomorrow after a night’s rest.”
The assistant breathed a sigh of relief. If the matter had been too big and they had needed to call an ambulance, they would definitely have been in the papers tomorrow and hounded by reporters.
“Since the director is fine, let’s not call the police,” the assistant said in a negotiating tone. “Notifying the police won’t do anyone any good.”
The male lead immediately nodded in agreement. “That’s right. I don’t want to be questioned by the police.”
The moment he finished speaking, he found that Mr. Amuro had glanced at him again, making his hair stand on end.
He: Is even my breathing wrong?
“It’s fine not to call the police, but the culprit hasn’t been found yet,” the female lead said. “Who on earth attacked Director Ochi?”
This was not Beika Town, and the people present were not Beika residents who were used to murder, death, and eight eggs. A director being attacked in the middle of the night was enough to cause panic among the others.
(T/N: “Eight eggs” is a placeholder for something absurdly common in Beika, a running gag.)
The thought that the culprit might be hiding among them made the main actors unable to sleep or eat.
“Isn’t there a detective here?!” the male lead said, remembering the crew’s special consultant. “What do the police know about solving cases? It has to be a detective—Mr. Amuro, what do you say?”
Furuya: …Are you a minefield dancer?
How do you manage to offend someone the moment you open your mouth?
Director Ochi had been attacked and was in a coma. The hotel manager had immediately pulled up the surveillance footage.
“The surveillance shows that from the time Director Ochi entered the floor until he was attacked, no guests from other floors entered or left this floor,” the manager said, pointing at the monitor.
In other words, the culprit was still on this floor. The culprit was a guest staying on this floor.
“What’s the use of showing us the surveillance of the emergency stairs and the elevator?” the assistant said with a look of disbelief. “What about the corridor surveillance? The male lead said the director’s door was unlocked. The culprit probably knocked on the door as an acquaintance. The surveillance must have caught it!”
The Manager: “Well…”
“The corridor surveillance was turned off, wasn’t it?” Fan An said. “The red dot on the camera isn’t lit.”
A group of people followed the direction of her finger and saw the surveillance camera disguised as an antique lamp.
The others: “So hidden! Generally speaking, would an ordinary guest pay attention to the location of the hotel’s surveillance cameras?”
In a tacit moment, everyone suddenly remembered Teacher An’an’s bloody and stormy past record.
Very absurd, yet very reasonable. Fan An, without doing anything, was voted onto the suspect list by everyone.
This was Suspect An, the eternal interference in the “pick one of three” of suspects.
“Besides Teacher An’an, the male lead is also very suspicious,” the assistant pointed out.
“Isn’t this a common trope in detective novels? The person who reports the crime is the killer. They take the first step to destroy the evidence that is unfavorable to them, and then use everyone’s habitual thinking to exclude themselves from the suspect list. Very suspicious!”
The Male Lead: “Huh?”
He looked left and right helplessly, only to see the other main actors avoiding his gaze, their faces written with: Bro, I really want to believe you, but you’re so damn suspicious.
Pick one of three suspects. Two people were already on the suspect list. Who was the last lucky one?
The assistant’s gaze wandered among the other main actors. A shadow blocked the light in front of him.
“Casually accusing others, yet excluding yourself from the suspects. Mr. Assistant, don’t you think you’re also very suspicious?” Furuya said coldly.
“If I remember correctly, you live in the room next to Director Ochi, and you’re his assistant. Did you really not hear anything?”
The assistant was intimidated by his aura and subconsciously took a step back. Then, embarrassed by his own gaffe, he said angrily, “What nonsense are you talking about? You’re just…”
You’re just trying to get revenge on him because you heard that the person you like was being treated as a suspect. A personal vendetta. Is this what you call a detective?
Malicious speculation and slander rose in the assistant’s throat. He craned his neck and met Furuya’s gaze.
The assistant was met with a pair of terrifying Bourbon eyes.
“Did I hear a goose honk?” An’an asked, puzzled.
“A sound like a goose being strangled. Did anyone hear it?”
“I heard that there are swans in the lake in the cherry blossom forest,” Furuya said, his tone gentle as he spoke to the girl. “When we have a break, let’s go and see them together.”
“Can we bring bread to feed them?” the dark-haired girl was clearly very interested in the swans. “If it’s honey toast, I want to eat it too.”
Furuya readily replied, “Then I’ll prepare some more.”
The assistant stood to the side with a pale face. Seeing this, the male lead sympathetically patted his fellow sufferer’s shoulder.
The switch between being firm and being gentle was instantaneous, the double standard obvious—didn’t this description sound very familiar?
The Male Lead: Teacher An’an was like this to me yesterday too.
Lingering affection VS a “looking at a dog” gaze.
“This is not the place to talk. Can everyone please move to the hotel lobby?” the manager said, trying to mediate.
“Actually, if we want to know who the killer is, we can just wait for Director Ochi to wake up. He might have seen the culprit’s face.”
“No,” Furuya said. “Director Ochi definitely didn’t see him. Or rather, the killer is sure he didn’t see him.”
“Otherwise, he wouldn’t still be trying to confuse the issue.”
The main actors asked in surprise, “Eh! In that case, does Mr. Amuro already have a clue as to who the killer is?”
The blond young man smiled. He didn’t answer directly, but instead agreed with the manager’s suggestion. “Let’s sit down and talk. It’s tiring to stand.”
Everyone moved to the hotel lobby and sat down at a long table. The manager had someone bring some soothing herbal tea and matching snacks. The nerves of the main actors, which had been frayed by the haunting incidents of the past few days, finally relaxed.
According to the normal procedure of a case, the suspects would speak first.
The Male Lead: “I was the first to discover the body, ah no, the unconscious version of Director Ochi.”
Suspect Male Lead’s testimony is as follows:
Because of the haunting incidents of the past two days, his spirit was on the verge of collapse today. After work, he had been holed up in the hotel watching the popular science program that Teacher An’an had highly recommended, “Inspector Megure’s Guide to the Law: The Survival Status of Criminals in Beika Town—Three Years to Life Imprisonment.”
Inspector Megure’s generous and powerful voice and Beika’s amazing death rate had slightly comforted his terrified heart. The thought that his starting point had at least not been in Beika made him suddenly feel that a haunting was nothing. Ghosts are not as scary as people!
The mysterious power of Beika had encouraged him. The male lead’s scene tomorrow was very important. He had decided to bravely go out and ask the director about the script.
“At that time, the lights in the corridor were flickering, and the bloody handprints on the walls were still dripping blood, but miraculously, I wasn’t very scared.”
The male lead clutched his heart. “Is this the power of the ‘Inspector Megure’s Guide to the Law’ series? Teacher An’an is a divine doctor!”
An’an: Really? You like my reading list?
She would strongly recommend her favorite “Beika Town Murderers’ Collaborative Publication” series. To see it is to earn!
Suspect Director’s Assistant’s testimony is as follows:
He, like the male lead, had been tormented by the haunting incidents and had also received Teacher An’an’s group message link.
When the haunting happened again tonight, the assistant had worn headphones and turned the volume up to the maximum to listen to Inspector Megure’s legal education. Unlike the male lead, he had not been encouraged by the mysterious power of Beika. On the contrary, he had been scared out of his wits and had been trembling under the covers.
“I didn’t dare to go out at all,” the assistant said timidly. “Mr. Amuro asked me why I didn’t hear anything when I lived next to Director Ochi. It’s because I was wearing headphones and listening to Inspector Megure’s legal education.”
The link Teacher An’an had shared was terrifying.
Finally, it was Suspect An’s turn to speak.
“I was reading the script in my room,” she said. “I only came to the corridor after I heard the male lead’s scream.”
The other main actors were the same as her. Everyone had been in their rooms, doing their own thing. Even the assistant, who had found it suspicious that Suspect An knew the corridor surveillance had been turned off, didn’t say anything to question her.
“Reading the script all the time?”
The one who questioned her was the detective. The blond young man raised an eyebrow. “Teacher An’an, it’s not good to lie.”
“Are you going to pretend that what you just did didn’t happen?”
Furuya, who was sitting across from An’an, separated by a long table, smiled. “Or give me an explanation. Why didn’t you sit next to me?”
He had specially left the seat next to him empty. But the girl, who had been so close to him just a few minutes ago, had ignored the empty seat and had very deliberately sat opposite the blond Public Security officer.
She had arrived at Director Ochi’s room a step later than Furuya, also because she had not left directly from Furuya’s room, but had returned to her own room through the connecting door, and then had opened the door to enter the corridor.
A cover-up.
Just kissed, and now you want to distance yourself from me?
The blond young man was faintly exuding a ghostly resentment. An’an thought of the kiss that had almost been interrupted.
The timing of the interruption had been too coincidental. Even she had had the fleeting thought of “let’s just forget about it,” but her wavering had been torn apart by Furuya’s next move.
Her and his relationship had started because of her courage. His and her reconciliation was because of his persistence.
How is this not a two-way street?
‘We’ve already kissed. I should give him a proper title,’ the girl mused.
Otherwise, what was this kiss? A famous actress having a secret affair with her ex-boyfriend in a hotel, so passionate and lost in the moment that she didn’t know which way was up?
The thought of the paparazzi’s excited face when they wrote this headline made An’an feel that she couldn’t let them get this huge amount of traffic for free.
The “ex” in ex-boyfriend should be removed.
“…The principle of avoidance,” she began.
“If a detective and a suspect are lovers, no matter how brilliant the reasoning, people will accuse it of being biased, right?”
“That’s why I deliberately sat opposite you. But it was completely useless,” An’an complained.
“Your reasoning had better be impeccable,” she huffed. “Otherwise, I’ll write in my police report: because my boyfriend doesn’t understand romance, I was wrongfully imprisoned.”