611

Chapter 611: Psychological Trap

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The news spread so fast?

Xiang Wan was perplexed and tapped on the notification to look at its contents.

The article was a simple one. It didn’t elaborate on the contents of the ‘Murderer’s script’, but cited that the death of Xu Siqi and the ‘Murderer’s script’ had been published on a certain social platform. It was also accompanied by some screenshots of the original article…

This smelt like entertainment tabloid news.

Xiang Wan then tapped on the link, which would lead her to the source.

The contents of the script were identical to the one she found at Zhang Houfa’s house.

Yup, it was identical.

Obviously, someone had deliberately published this on the internet.

In order to create public panic, there was even a sentence that warned of an impending death.

“The one who deserved death has died. The first episode has ended. Stay tuned for the second episode. By then, who will be the next one to die?”

These creepy words were in red and bold.

The Internet was shocked.

It was buzzing with activity.

“Goodness! There will be another death?”

“This could be a prank and the script is fake. Someone is just trying to scare everyone after Xu Siqi’s death.”

“The one above me is so clever! Hurhur, do you know how Xu Siqi died? Unless it’s the police, otherwise, who would know about the details? Do you think you can write a script just because you want to? Silly!”

As the netizens left their comments, there were some who mentioned Xie Wanwan:

“Isn’t Xu Siqi the girl who worked for Xie Wanwan as her assistant? Why did she want to turn to acting when she’s doing well?”

“Xie Wanwan is the one who recommended her to that Mr. Zhang…”

“Hurhur! I think she had ulterior motives for doing so. A woman like Xie Wanwan wouldn’t be willing to groom her young and beautiful assistant to become a celebrity unless there’s something…”

“It’s to get investment for Meng Entertainment Group…”

“Maybe she recommended her yet at the same time she was worried that she might be overshadowed. Maybe it was all her doing…”

“I take it that I’m watching a drama show. I want to ask for a stronger storm and more exciting plots…”

The netizens were always like this. Majority of them did not have the ability to discern right from wrong and tend to go along with the tide… Hence, it was actually easy to manipulate them…

Xiang Wan took about three minutes to read through all these and put down her phone.

Xie Wanwan was like a packet of explosives.

Wherever she went, the explosives would go off.

She was forever a hot topic of discussion, as well as the target of haters…

Xiang Wan puffed a sigh and decided to get back to writing her plot outline.

As she wrote her outline, her thoughts suddenly wandered off elsewhere and seemed to have thought of something else. She opened the chat window to send Bai Muchuan messages. “I was combing through my plot outline and realized that ever since the case of ‘The Temptation of the Rich & Famous’ to the current murderer’s script, we seemed to have accidentally stumbled upon a psychological trap?”

Bai Muchuan was currently inside the interrogation room and thus, he did not give a reply.

Xiang Wan was not bothered by that fact. “In the past, I always felt that there must be an ‘Ultimate Boss’. I used to call that person ‘The Manipulator’, who was behind all of these cases… Right from the 720 case to the Fountain Goddess case, the series of cases at the film set of ‘The Grey List’, the cases relating to The Temptation of the Rich & Famous, the ‘zombie’ case… I’ve been so certain of the presence of the Manipulator and firmly believed in it throughout. But I forgot that reality is actually different from fiction…

“The mysterious ID in the reviews and comments page had disappeared long ago.

“It’s like that person doesn’t exist anymore. After Cui Ming’s death, he never showed up again.

“From that case to Tu Liang’s death, Meng Chi got arrested and An Ying got caught… The ultimate bad guy behind all of these, couldn’t they be different people?”

Xiang Wan looked at her own messages and mulled over them.

Not long after, she sent another message.

“I’m being poisoned, poisoned by novels!”

She had treated the cases as novels, that there must be a link or a conspiracy theory behind all of these. In fact, it was simply the work of habitual thinking which could happen to a person. Like leveling up and killing monsters in games, she thought there was a big boss behind all of these, and usually, the big boss was the same person throughout. But if she broke the cases up and looked at them, it was actually clear that after Cui Ming’s death, things had changed…

“Before Cui Ming died, Cui Ming was that manipulator. After his death, someone took over and became the manipulator. Initially, I thought that the manipulator should be An Ying as An Ying has the motive to do all of these. However, An Ying’s now held at the detention center…

“The murderer’s script and the ‘zombie’ case displayed similar traits, I’m pretty certain that the series of cases are being divided into two stages. The initial stage was directed by Cui Ming. The later stage is an extension and development of what he had done – it started off with ‘Operation Heaven’s Wrath and now, it’s the murderer’s script. Let’s call this new boss, manipulator X. Manipulator X might be somewhat related to the past cases but he might not have participated in them. In addition, he and Cui Ming, An Ying…”

Xiang Wan stopped typing at this moment. She suddenly thought about the reddish marks on Xie Wanwan’s neck that day…

The one who tried to force himself on her should be Zhang Houfa.

The one who brought Xu Siqi away was also Zhang Houfa.

That meant, Zhang Houfa had originally wanted Xie Wanwan.

“Also… Manipulator X and Xie Wanwan should have some kind of relationship with each other. If not for the fact that Meng Chi is in the detention center, I would have thought that… Manipulator X is Meng Chi.”

No!

No!

It’s a mess!

Xiang Wan rubbed her temples.

If all these thoughts were to be cleared up one by one, it would be cumbersome and painful. But she could obviously feel that Xie Wanwan was involved in all of these cases the whole time, whether it was before Cui Ming’s death or after Cui Ming’s death…

Well, she was involved as she was a victim.

She had always been a victim.

A psychological trap…

A psychological trap that had been preset…

Xiang Wan grabbed her hair as she felt a throbbing headache.

Knock! Knock!

Someone knocked on the door.

“Who’s that?”

Xiang Wan was pulled back to reality from her thoughts and lifted her head suddenly.

“It’s me!” Salimu pushed the door open.

This young fellow now sported a crew cut for the new year and seemed especially lively. He had a cheerful, infectious smile that could make others feel glad. “Teacher Xiang, guess what good news I’ve brought you?”

Eh?

Brought her good news?

Xiang Wan looked at him doubtfully for a moment before cracking up in laughter. “Since when have you learnt to leave others hanging? Hurry up and tell me.”

“Heheh!” Salimu pulled and sat on the chair opposite her desk. There was a happy, proud look on his face. “Didn’t Boss ask me to crack the mobile phone of the deceased? Guess what I’ve found inside!”

Seeing that he was in such a good mood, Xiang Wan was even more confuzzled.

“Didn’t you already share with everyone what you found during the case analysis meeting this morning?”

Everyone in the meeting saw Xu Siqi’s personal information and notes that she stored in her Cloud, as well as the mention of the murderer’s script that morning. Salimu was the one who found them…

“Don’t tell me, there’s more?” Xiang Wan sounded elated when she thought of the possibility.

“You’re right!” Salimu snapped his fingers cheerfully and leaned forward, as though he was saying a secret that others couldn’t hear. “I recovered everything the deceased had deleted for the past one week and found a surprising discovery…”

Xiang Wan asked excitedly, “What did you find?”

Salimu: “The deceased actually deleted something from her notes… The other party actually gave her a drive that contained the said script… However, it was not clear if it was a flash drive or whatever drive. The other party said to pass that to Xie Wanwan…”

Xiang Wan furrowed her eyebrows. “Is there any difference between this deleted sentence and those that you’ve previously cracked?”

Both messages mentioned about the script and to pass the script to Xie Wanwan…

“It’s the drive!” Not waiting for Salimu to answer her, Xiang Wan thought it over herself. “Now there’s a drive… and the problem comes back again. Why did Xu Siqi delete this message?”

Salimu showed both hands. “I don’t know…”

A drive. A script.

It was kept in a drive. Where was it then?

Xiang Wan suddenly thought of something and waved at Salimu.

“Come! I’ll show you something.”