Chapter 395: Murder Within the Script

The moment Xiao Yu uttered the phrase “shell-shedding”, a crisp notification sounded in his mind.

【Ding! Case successfully triggered.】

【Police God case sign-in initiated.】

【Would the host like to sign in?】

Xiao Yu was stunned.

If he remembered correctly, the system only activated when a case had truly begun, but that didn’t make sense.

If his deductions were accurate, this case should have been relatively easy to solve.

So then, could it be that there was something deeper, something still hidden beneath the surface?

The thought weighed on him heavily, silencing him for a moment. He had this strange sense, like someone in the shadows was setting him up.

“What’s on your mind?”

Wang Dong noticed his little brother zoning out and gave him a nudge.

“Brother Wang, what were your thoughts when you first joined National Security?” Xiao Yu deflected the topic casually, trying to cover up his moment of distraction.

“My thoughts?” Wang Dong straightened his back, clearly preparing to deliver a rousing speech. “Walk the righteous path of mankind, carry the banner against the wind. Take no bribes, visit no brothels. A National Security agent brings peace to the people’s hearts.”

“Pffft!” Xiao Yu nearly spat his cigarette. “Come on, be serious.”

Even monkeys wouldn’t cast this guy as comic relief.

“Heh heh.” Wang Dong chuckled, cheeks flushing. “I came from the military. I don’t have your fancy police academy education. But if I had to sum it up…”

He grew a bit solemn.

“I’d say, ‘The righteous path through the world is one of hardship.’”

Xiao Yu was moved for a moment.

The righteous path is one of hardship. So that’s the belief you’ve clung to all this time?

‘We’re the same kind of people.’

Xiao Yu smiled, nodding. Then, silently, he said in his mind, ‘Sign in.’

　　

【Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully signing into the case.】

【System reward granted: Skill — Acting Expert.】

【System mission issued: Solve the Pen Fairy Murder Case.】

【Time limit: 25 days.】

【If the host completes the mission within the time limit, bonus reward: System Skill — Pistol Shrimp Blast.】

【Failure will result in loss of the granted skill.】

【Countdown begins—】

Countless fragments of information, techniques, and instincts related to acting flooded his body.

‘Another skill I can’t use right now.’ Xiao Yu sighed inwardly. ‘But even if it’s useless now, who knows when it might come in handy? And that Pistol Shrimp Blast… Just by the name, it sounded powerful.’

Only twenty-five days?

This case clearly wouldn’t be easy to crack.

He pushed aside the system prompts and brought his thoughts back to the investigation.

Was his theory actually plausible?

He picked up the surveillance footage and reviewed it again. Watching carefully, frame by frame. Until—

“Little bro, what did you mean earlier by ‘shell-shedding’?” Wang Dong couldn’t hold back anymore and asked.

“In the video, there are always two people with their backs facing the camera,” Xiao Yu said while studying the footage. “At the start, it’s very likely the first two victims were those two, but it’s not certain. Like I said before, what if this surveillance footage is just a performance?”

“If it’s all an act, then what we see might be completely false.”

Wang Dong mulled that over. He could see the logic. Just because something was captured on camera didn’t make it the truth. Xiao Yu wasn’t the only one who understood that.

If the surveillance footage was staged, then another possibility emerged:

The six victims were killed after filming.

The murderer simply needed to arrange the bodies to mimic the deaths shown in the video. This was common in certain cases—fabricating a crime scene.

“Of course, that’s just one scenario.” Xiao Yu nodded, his eyes sharp. “Another possibility is that someone started killing during the act. Just like I said earlier—shedding the shell.”

“Even though two people had their backs to the camera at first, all six victims’ faces eventually appeared,” Wang Dong said, confused. “So how could they have swapped out?”

“Why not?” Xiao Yu pointed at a frozen frame on the tablet. “When the red-dressed woman appeared, the camera focused entirely on her. All six participants had retreated out of frame. The girl appears first, then the guy. It’s like they both stepped back into view on purpose—only to be killed by the red-dressed woman. We can’t say for sure that the two people who re-entered the frame were the same as the ones who left it.”

“If it was just acting…” Wang Dong frowned. “Why bother with body doubles?”

“Remember what I said earlier?” Xiao Yu’s tone turned cold. “The first girl and the second boy just stood there, not resisting at all—almost like they expected to die. What if, by that point, they were already dead?”

Wang Dong’s heart skipped a beat.

That would explain why they didn’t move.

“We’ll know for sure if we reenact the scene ourselves,” Xiao Yu said quietly. “Let’s simulate the crime.”

***

Xiao Yu, Wang Dong, and four Group Two officers sat around the table.

The two group leads played the roles of those with their backs to the camera.

“Now the red-dressed woman appears,” Xiao Yu announced, gesturing to the side.

A seventh person walked out, controlling a puppet.

“Now we begin to scatter.”

The six of them pretended to flee in all directions, vanishing from the camera’s field of view.

At that moment, Xiao Yu mimicked drawing a blade and swiftly thrust it toward Wang Dong’s neck.

Then he shoved him forward.

Wang Dong, playing the girl, was pushed into the camera’s view.

The puppet handler walked right along the camera’s edge, making it look like the red-dressed puppet was floating.

Xiao Yu slipped around the edge of the view, rejoining the puppet handler from behind. 

He pantomimed stabbing again, then quickly took over the puppet, shoving the handler into frame. He maneuvered the puppet toward Wang Dong’s position, mimicking the stabbing motion.

Then he shoved Wang Dong into the shadows.

Reaching toward Wang Dong’s left eye, he mimed pulling something out—pretending to hold an eyeball—and fed it into the puppet’s mouth.

The puppet chewed.

Xiao Yu then guided it toward the next “victim.”

He positioned the puppet to cup the man’s head and simulated a brutal biting motion.

At that moment, the last two candles were extinguished. The room plunged into darkness.

In the pitch black, Xiao Yu tossed the puppet aside, mimed gripping a knife again and turned toward the remaining three people.

The hunt… had begun.