Newbie Scenario: Class Reunion (10)

[Isn't Zhen Liu a newbie?]

[How did he know the question-answering segment was a fixed part?]

[Awesome!!!]

[That makes sense. The killer must be deliberately stirring up trouble.]

[I don't think Professor Lu wrote it. Someone with his personality wouldn't be scared at all. If he did it, he wouldn't deny it.]

333 asked Zhen Liu that question on behalf of the viewers: how did he know the Q&A was a fixed segment?

Out of caution, Zhen Liu did not answer aloud. Instead, he wrote on the light screen visible only to himself and the viewers: --Of course I guessed.

In everyday life, Zhen Liu had always been cautious and meticulous. But when playing games, he became somewhat aggressive—a gambler at heart. Go big or go home. He always wanted to make a big bet. Which was exactly why he would never let himself engage in any real gambling; he knew his own weaknesses all too well.

After that little interlude, the first group discussion officially began.

Although Zhen Liu had already proposed the theory that the killer was sabotaging their unity, the seeds of suspicion had still been planted. When everyone presented evidence against others, there was inevitably a faint but impolite smell of gunpowder in the air.

Lawyer Jin got things off to a "good" start.

"When I lead group discussions, I generally don't go by the order of the rooms searched, nor do I go through the characters one by one. I summarize and categorize everything first, then go by different attributes.

"For example, today, let's start with everyone's motive for murder.

"Don't tell me you don't hate the deceased. I won't believe it."

Lawyer Jin laid out, one by one, the clues he had photographed concerning murder motives. The first person mentioned was Basketball Qiao. He had barely tried to hide anything at all. Zhen Liu suspected that almost everyone had found Basketball Qiao's little note, apparently written by the deceased to threaten him. It mentioned Basketball Qiao fixing matches.

Lawyer Jin proposed a novel theory. "Although Basketball Qiao's weakness appears to be match-fixing, I personally think this is more likely the reason he ended up so down-and-out. After his match-fixing was exposed, he could no longer get noticed by professional teams. Neither the sports bureau nor any team would take him, so he could only return to his hometown and teach children how to play Basketball. But that couldn't be used as leverage to threaten him, because match-fixing no longer affected his current life."

Basketball Qiao had already paid the price for fixing matches. It was not a secret he would defend to the death, much less a likely motive for murder.

Basketball Qiao himself also seemed utterly unconcerned. Perhaps it was not that he truly trusted some so-called agreement, but that he wanted to create a false impression—that match-fixing was his only weakness, and everyone could stop digging there.

After all, Basketball Qiao looked so completely unguarded. Who would think deeply enough to suspect that this might just be a smokescreen he had created?

Lawyer Jin would.

Lawyer Jin had never truly trusted anyone. He kept digging deeper and deeper, successfully digging all the way into the other man's family history.

"Do you still remember Basketball Qiao's introduction earlier?" Lawyer Jin turned on his recorder and replayed a segment of their earlier conversation. He had used his recorder before the evidence search even began, except he had recorded everything everyone said.

Zhen Liu suddenly understood. This was far more conclusive than taking notes with pen and paper. If anyone tried to twist their words, they could compare it to what they had originally said.

"Basketball Qiao said he had a brother who was abducted. And in my experience from playing so many scenarios, in order to strengthen the connections and interactions between player characters, many scenarios eventually turn into a huge family-reunion gathering. Besides..." Everyone's side quests were surely similar. Lawyer Jin did not say it outright, but he clearly had a mission to protect someone as well. From that, he inferred that Basketball Qiao's side quest might be to find his brother and protect him.

What kind of brotherly relationship could be used as leverage for blackmail?

Only then did everyone realize it, turning to look at Second-generation Zhao, who had arrived at the villa with Basketball Qiao last night.

"Second-generation Zhao didn't resemble his parents much as a child. Anyone who saw the phone's wallpaper probably had the same thought. After searching the phone with keywords, I found this interesting news article."

--Tycoon's son missing for three years successfully found.

What an evocative piece of news.

"Does Basketball Qiao's room look like someone had only been staying there for a day or two?" Lawyer Jin had photographed Basketball Qiao's bedroom, which was piled full of belongings. Looking at it carefully, it did not resemble short-term luggage, but rather all the possessions he had in the world. It even included his students' files. "I heard the deceased mention before that Basketball Qiao's meager coaching salary was nearly insufficient to cover his rent. So, if he really was driven out by his landlord, where could he have stayed?"

One answer was about to leap out: the villa.

"And why was Second-generation Zhao being so generous?"

Second-generation Zhao's face turned completely green. "Can't it be because of friendship between classmates?"

"So you admit Basketball Qiao really lives here." Lawyer Jin pushed up his glasses and smiled.

What Zhen Liu was thinking, however, was this: among the five murder suspects, there was one pair of brothers and one gay couple. So what was Lawyer Jin? The Orphan Card?

Newbie Scenario: Class Reunion (10)

In fact, Zhen Liu had always suspected that the person Doctor Zhen secretly loved was Lawyer Jin.

Why use the word "suspected"? Because Doctor Zhen himself did not know either. That was also why the first item in Zhen Liu's side quest was to find out who he secretly loved.

Rather than saying Doctor Zhen secretly loved someone, it would be more accurate to say that he secretly loved that irretrievable time in 2001. That was the year he had just started school. He had excellent grades, outstanding looks, and was very popular among the girls. But because of the halo of being the school's heartthrob, he suffered severe bullying from the boys, led collectively by the School Bully.

Classmates including Qiao Basketball and Second-generation Zhao had also, to varying degrees, subjected Doctor Zhen to verbal cold violence. Lawyer Jin, meanwhile, had been one of those who simply watched coldly from the sidelines.