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"!!!" Even Lucien was shocked this time. He truly hadn't known he was the killer; he had only wanted to take the fall for Zhen Liu.

Jin Zhuang wore an expression that said, See? I told you so. He had correctly guessed the killer and the method—what Professor Lu had taken from Doctor Zhen's home was not sleeping pills, but a synthetic poison labeled as sleeping pills.

That was also why Brother Hao had died.

Zhen Liu was the only one who showed no reaction to the outcome, because he had already guessed it.

But the game gave the players no more opportunity to discuss it. Everyone was separately sent into an isolated space, where they began reviewing the case and came to understand the truth behind the entire story.

The killer truly was Professor Lu, who had stumbled into it by accident, not Doctor Zhen, who had supposedly planned everything, nor Lawyer Jin, and even less so Second-generation Zhao or Basketball Qiao. However, the victim had not died beneath Professor Lu's frenzied knife strikes, but from poison. It was a case of an unintended consequence. Bitterly ironic.

It had been mentioned before that Doctor Zhen knew that combining Class A Poison with Class B Poison would accelerate its effects. His primary personality had even casually written that result on the prescription sheet.

But if Zhen Liu and the others had looked more closely at the time, they would have discovered that the prescription sheet contained more than just the result. It also included the experimental process and the improved result. Doctor Zhen had improved the Class A Poison and Class B Poison compound into a faster-acting version, but he later abandoned that version himself because he believed it would not leave him enough time to establish an alibi.

Still, the synthesized poison remained behind, only to be accidentally taken away by Professor Lu when he snuck into Doctor Zhen's home. At the time, he had genuinely thought it was a sedative.

As for the sedatives in everyone's bodies, the victim, Ying De, had drugged everyone with them in order to kidnap Second-generation Zhao. He had also accidentally ingested some himself.

Ying De truly had not drunk the water Professor Lu poured around eight o'clock. They had all been upstairs then, in Professor Lu's room, and the water had been left there. But later that night, when Ying De went upstairs to speak with everyone one by one—actually to confirm whether they had fallen asleep—he went to Professor Lu's room last and ultimately drank that fatal cup of water.

Ying De died by accident, while the inexperienced Professor Lu merely thought the sedative had taken effect. He raised his knife and brought it down, wanting to make the man stop breathing before Doctor Zhen's poison could take effect. But by then, the person Professor Lu stabbed was already a corpse.

Because Zhen Liu possessed the incomplete perspective of Doctor Zhen's second personality and had seen Professor Lu's character profile, he had formed a vague suspicion. But he had no evidence at the time and did not want to reveal the test results, so he decided to put himself in danger and use Brother Hao and himself to test what kind of medicine was inside Professor Lu's bottle.

Their deaths also proved that it truly was an extremely fast-acting poison.

Doctor Zhen's second personality had long since ceased wanting to live. He had killed so many people, and the education he had received from childhood to adulthood had left him unable to accept what he had become. As for the first personality, so long as he could kill Brother Hao, the final target of his vengeance, nothing else mattered.

It could be called an ending in which everyone got what they wished for.

Everyone got what they wanted.

Only Lucien remained immersed in the story, unable to pull himself out for a long time. Again and again, he replayed the moment Zhen Liu suggested that he go alone to meet Brother Hao. Zhen Liu had already anticipated the outcome then, yet he still chose to sacrifice himself to fulfill Professor Lu.

Thank you for loving me.

Though I can't return your feelings, this is probably all I can do for you.

Never place your happiness, anger, sorrow, or joy in someone else's hands, and don't become someone ruled by love. You really should be braver, but not for someone else—for yourself.

The Love God's Chosen were practically losing their minds in the comments.

[Ahhhhhhh, if this isn't love!]

[Get married right now, get married right now.]

[Waaah, I suddenly don't want to pair Little Beauty with God Lu anymore. I just want Little Beauty to be my ship.]

[That was so sweet, thank you. I'm dying from this ship.]

[You think you gave everything for him, but he's been giving things up for you too. This must be what it feels like to be loved.]

Lucien shut off the livestream. He did not want to keep listening to the Love God's Chosen ramble on with their love-brained nonsense, but the God of Love and Beauty himself promptly arrived uninvited.

A streak of pink light tore through space, and the God of Love and Beauty appeared before Lucien in a sparkling blaze of diamond-shaped light.

That day, the God of Love and Beauty had taken on a male form. He still wore a retro white robe, an olive branch crown, and carried the Glory Staff. With a toss of his dazzling golden hair, he looked every bit like a perfect Ancient Greek statue. The God of Love and Beauty's voice had also changed from the seductive female voice of last time into a male one—husky and deep, as though every word carried the wind and waves of the Aegean Sea.

Only, what he said was rather punchable: "Oh? You still failed."

Lucien had only just pulled himself free from the emotions stirred up by suddenly learning the truth, and he did not want to be disturbed. Not to mention that the cloying sweetness constantly radiating from the depths of the God of Love and Beauty's soul always made him frown.

Sweets were Lucien's lifelong enemy!

"What did I fail at?" Lucien lifted his chin slightly. The God of Lies and Cuisine could never fail.

The God of Love and Beauty calmly conjured a cloud for himself first, then leaped lightly onto it and sat down. Swinging his long legs, he said to his friend, "You were so obviously protecting that human in the game. Wasn't it because you wanted him to realize how much you had given him, how good you were, and then fall in love with you?"

Lucien: "..." He had been careless. He had forgotten that the God of Love and Beauty was just as bored as his Chosen and would watch the livestream from beginning to end.

No trick could escape the God of Love and Beauty's notice. He was merely puzzled. Tilting his head, he relentlessly asked Lucien, "Why, though? Are souls you've deceived especially delicious? Didn't you used to complain that the souls of people in love had no brains, and worry they would lower your IQ? Why are you so enthusiastic about it now?"

Lucien wore a deadpan expression and refused to answer.