Chapter 6: Analysis

The shop owner was a middle-aged man wearing a short-sleeved shirt. His hair was on the longer side, and he looked a bit disheveled. Holding a bowl of rice, he stared intently at his computer screen, binge-watching a show.

He Jueyun walked around the shop before stopping by the counter. He leaned down and pointed toward the top of the rolling shutter. “Hello, boss. How’s business lately?”

With his mouth full of food, the owner replied without turning his head, “Not bad.”

He Jueyun asked, “Can you manage when it gets busy? With so many students coming and going, it must be hard to keep track of everything, right?”

“It’s fine.” The boss finally set down his bowl and sized him up. “Wait, who are you?”

“Sorry to bother you.” He Jueyun pulled his badge from his breast pocket. “Police. Just asking a few quick questions.”

He said it was just a casual chat, but it was hard for any ordinary person to stay relaxed around a police officer.

“Oh, I get it.” The middle-aged man stood up from his armchair, cleared his throat, and said, “You’re here to investigate the suicides of those two girls, right?”

He Jueyun put his badge away. “Yes. Although the cases were closed as suicides, the families of the deceased are still struggling to move on. They want to know the underlying reasons why their daughters chose to end their lives, and they begged us to keep looking into it. It’s nothing official, just a casual inquiry.”

The middle-aged man nodded understandingly. “It’s good that we have responsible officers like you. Such young kids, gone just like that. The parents deserve some closure.”

He Jueyun asked, “Do you have any leads?”

The boss looked a bit embarrassed. “Actually, nothing very useful. Your colleagues came to take my statement once before, but I was too nervous then and missed a lot of details. After you guys left, the more I thought about it, the more I felt I should have done more, so I saved the security footage. I couldn’t spot anything wrong with it, but maybe you guys can? If you want it, I can give it to you right now.”

To prevent theft and ensure he could capture the students’ faces clearly, he had installed cameras both inside and outside the rolling shutter. Based on their positioning, they could capture about half the street outside.

Since the convenience store was located on the only path leading to the dormitory building, as soon as the bodies were found, the owner, who had watched plenty of detective dramas, proactively saved the surveillance footage. He had stored it on his computer ever since.

The boss smiled, crinkling the corners of his eyes and looking rather simple and honest. “Even though my cameras didn’t capture the exact spot you want to see, they’re high-definition! Much better than the ones the school has!”

He Jueyun was stunned. He hadn’t expected things to take this turn.

“Zhou Nansong… no, the second girl who jumped. Do you still have the footage from the day she committed suicide? What about the footage from the days leading up to it?”

“I kept the footage for the entire week of both girls’ suicides! I’ve never seen anything like this before. Two students dying so close together is just too bizarre! At first, I even thought there was some kind of conspiracy.” The middle-aged man spoke excitedly, spitting slightly as he did. He grabbed a tissue nearby, wiped his mouth thoroughly, and continued, “Hardly anyone ever jumps from this dorm building, and now we get two in a row. Besides, I had a pretty strong impression of both of them. It’s just too coincidental.”

He Jueyun instantly perked up. “There must be a lot of students coming and going at the school. You can recognize them?”

The man said, “I don’t actually know their names, but they looked familiar. The first girl who jumped lived in this dorm building. Her family wasn’t well-off, and she seemed to be a student from a low-income family. To save money, she often came to buy items that were close to their expiration dates. I felt sorry for her, so I’d set things aside for her on my own initiative.”

He Jueyun nodded, offering occasional hums of agreement to keep him talking.

“The second student came from a much wealthier family. Don’t girls love pretty things? I often stock nice stationery, and she was one of my best customers! Notebooks, pens, tape, stickers, she loved them all,” the boss said. “They seemed to be best friends. The long-haired girl was quite generous and would occasionally buy the other girl meals.”

He Jueyun asked, “Did you notice anything unusual about them in the days leading up to their suicides?”

“Well, if someone is planning to kill themselves, they’re definitely not going to act normal. The second girl stopped coming to my shop before she jumped. I saw her on the street once, and she looked completely out of it, like a lost soul. There was clearly something wrong,” the boss sighed, shaking his head. “Tsk, the pressure on high school seniors is just too much. I heard people say the first girl had a poor background and her parents put a lot of pressure on her. Once her grades dropped, she couldn’t take it and jumped. The second girl was affected by her, which is also tragic. I hear a lot of students have depression nowadays. One slip-up, and they’re gone.”

He Jueyun asked, “What do you think? Is it really like what they say?”

“I don’t know! If I could tell, I would’ve called the police myself!” The boss leaned forward, looking sincerely into his eyes. “Officer, is there anything else you want to ask?”

He really was a helpful citizen.

He Jueyun smiled faintly and asked, “Are there any other students who left a strong impression on you?”

“Yes, the girl who just left.” The boss lowered his voice, glanced out through the glass door, and pointed in Qiong Cang’s direction. “That girl right there. She used to come here to buy weird things, like prank toys. Once, I even saw her get into an argument with… you know, the second girl who committed suicide, the one with long hair. They were arguing until they were red in the face and almost came to blows. Fortunately, a very pretty girl held them back. Oh, that girl was truly beautiful, and she spoke in such a soft, gentle voice.”

He Jueyun asked, “Did you hear what they were arguing about?”

“What else do girls argue about?” The boss mimicked them perfectly, pinching his throat to speak in a high-pitched voice. “You’re shameless! No, you’re shameless! You’re even more shameless! You’re the most shameless! Why are you acting like this? None of your business!”

He Jueyun was amused by his performance.

After finishing his dramatic impressions, the boss quickly turned serious again and sighed. “It’s hard for everyone, hard for everyone. I see that girl outside has been looking pretty down lately. Some of the rumors going around the school are quite nasty, targeting her. It would be great if things could be thoroughly investigated and cleared up. First High School really needs to strengthen its mental health education for students so no one else gets hurt.”

He Jueyun sighed with emotion upon hearing this. “Let’s hope so.”

The owner said, “Watch the shop for me here. I’ll go inside and copy the files for you.”

“Sure,” He Jueyun waved. “Thanks, brother.”

Five minutes later, the owner walked out with a hard drive. He slowed his steps halfway, looking up to glance at He Jueyun, pursing his lips with a look of hesitation on his face.

He Jueyun smiled and said, “Go ahead. Say whatever comes to mind, it’s fine. Maybe some clue is hidden in there.”

The owner then said, “The very pretty girl I mentioned just now, the one with long hair and a soft voice, the really pretty one. Every time she came over, there would be guys following her and stealing glances, so she left a really deep impression on me. I just remembered that she was on pretty good terms with a few people. You could go ask her; she definitely knows more than I do.”

He Jueyun asked, “With who?”

“The one at the entrance, and the two who jumped off the building,” the owner said. “Before those two had their accidents, they both hung around her quite a bit. But I heard they were in the same class to begin with, so it seems normal for them to hang out, right?”

He Jueyun’s brow twitched. He had a faint premonition that he had grasped a key point. He asked seriously, “Does that girl have any defining features?”

“She’s the school beauty,” the owner said. “It’s universally acknowledged. Just ask anyone and you’ll find out.”

“Alright…” He Jueyun smiled and said, “Thanks, brother. That’s very helpful.”

The owner replied, “Glad I could help.”

·

The viewers in Sanyao’s Live Stream Room were highly conflicted.

“The owner was pretty straightforward. It looks like Wang Dongyan went too far with her pranks on Zhou Nansong, causing Zhou Nansong to have a mental breakdown and commit suicide. She was the perpetrator of school bullying, but in the end, she became a victim herself. Sigh.”

“If everyone has guessed it, that means it’s definitely wrong. “

“The Player’s objective is to escape the death ending. Under these circumstances, isn’t resolving Wang Dongyan’s guilt the hardest part? Go find the victim’s family, kneel down, and apologize?”

“…Please don’t, I beg of you. The last Player did exactly that, and it left me feeling physically and mentally uncomfortable. What kind of anti-social plot is this? You dog developers¹, get out here and face your doom!”

“Do you think this big boss who knows the Dog-Beating Staff Technique would do something like kneeling and apologizing? I feel like if it really came to that, she’d rather just jump off the building.”

“Right now, the evidence points too clearly in one direction; I can’t think of a second answer. But based on my years of experience lurking in live streams, I feel like it’s not that simple.”

·

A quarter of an hour later, He Jueyun walked out of the shop. As soon as he stepped out, he saw Qiong Cang sitting on the ground, staring blankly at the small flowers and grass in front of her without moving. The clothesline pole behind her pointed straight up, looking like an antenna searching for a signal.

He Jueyun waved his hand in front of her face. “Hey.” Which channel is this?

Qiong Cang blinked, remaining in her position without moving, and asked, “How did it go?”

He Jueyun said, “I got the surveillance footage.”

Qiong Cang finally reacted, looking up in surprise. “There’s surveillance footage too?”

From this angle, He Jueyun’s figure looked exceptionally tall. He brandished the hard drive in his hand and said, “It seems the owner is a fan of mystery dramas. He was quite meticulous and saved the surveillance footage from that week. Since Sanyao loaded this data in, it means there might be key evidence inside.”

Qiong Cang nodded, then fell back into the same numb state as before.

He Jueyun walked halfway around her. After a moment of deliberation, he spoke up, “By the way, Wang Dongyan might not be a perfect victim. The one playing ghost might have been her.”

Qiong Cang calmly picked up the topic. “To be precise, she was the previous one playing ghost. And to be even more precise, there is still a certain difference between playing pranks and playing ghost.”

“Right. Her roommate could be considered… a messenger of justice who surpassed the master?” He Jueyun said. “The shop owner once saw Wang Dongyan and Zhou Nansong arguing, and there were rumors about her in the school. The people around her are also ostracizing her because of Zhou Nansong’s death. The sequence of events is actually quite clear.”

He Jueyun curled his lips, letting out a slightly sarcastic laugh. “No matter how you look at it, it’s a complete mess.”

Qiong Cang did not respond.

He Jueyun stared at her for a moment. Unable to read her current emotions, he simply sat down beside her and spaced out with her.

Who knew how much time passed before the school bell rang, and speakers from all directions began playing the same melody.

The teaching area was far away from them, so this area remained quiet.

He Jueyun couldn’t help but ask, “My friend, what are you thinking about?”

“I was thinking that, so far, all kinds of evidence seem to be pointing toward school bullying as the cause,” Qiong Cang shifted slightly, leaning her body toward him. “Whether it was Zhou Nansong’s suicide or Wang Dongyan’s seemingly self-inflicted atonement, the essence of it all is school bullying. Even if no one anticipated this worst-case scenario.”

“Evidence can point in a guided direction?” He Jueyun frowned. “Evidence is evidence, unless it’s fabricated.”

Qiong Cang slowly shook her head. “You can’t look at it that way. This is a fully simulated game, and the participants’ clues are found from NPCs. Everyone who has played the game will subconsciously assume that NPCs are responsible for guiding the plot and that they won’t lie. But in reality, the roles the NPCs play are human. Humans lie, make mistakes, and get misled.”

He Jueyun thought her idea was bold, perhaps even a bit far-fetched. “All the NPCs making a mistake together?”

Qiong Cang said, “Yes. I went over the case. Currently, we have two ways of obtaining evidence: witness testimony and physical evidence. Looking at the physical evidence, there are no details that explicitly indicate this was an incident of school bullying. All assumptions about school bullying are reflected through the reactions of the people around them. This situation occurs because, in the general atmosphere, most people truly believe that Wang Dongyan directly or indirectly caused Zhou Nansong’s death. At the very least, they believe she is the primary cause. They then conveyed this belief to us. Right?”

He Jueyun nodded, his expression grave. “Yes.”

Qiong Cang followed up immediately. “Why?”

He Jueyun was puzzled. “What do you mean, why?”

“Assuming these assumptions all hold true,” Qiong Cang said, “judging by Zhou Nansong’s popularity, she wasn’t a loner. Would someone with a normal social life take such a drastic step as suicide just because of a classmate’s prank? She doesn’t seem like the type of submissive student who has no ability to fight back.”

He Jueyun said, “Because her best friend’s suicide by jumping off the building gave her a massive psychological shock. I mean, she might have already been dealing with some mental health issues. Wang Dongyan’s prank was just the trigger.”

“Exactly!” Qiong Cang said. “Judging by the reactions of the other students, they felt a certain sense of justice and very little guilt, which shows they genuinely believed they were doing the right thing. If Wang Dongyan’s prank had been too extreme, her roommates and classmates would have stepped in to stop it early on. But if it wasn’t that extreme, if it was just a trigger, why did everyone pin the primary blame on Wang Dongyan? Shouldn’t the main cause be the psychological trauma from the first victim’s suicide? Or are ordinary high school students just that extreme?”

Hearing her words, He Jueyun finally grasped the bizarre, unspeakable detail that had been nagging at his intuition. A train of thought in his mind instantly clicked into place.

He looked at Qiong Cang, his eyes shining with sudden clarity.

“And why did Wang Dongyan herself feel such intense guilt? Just because of a malicious prank? According to our previous deductions, she was already experiencing severe anxiety before Zhou Nansong even committed suicide. That doesn’t add up. The logical chain on the surface seems smooth, but it feels more like it’s exploiting the students’ anxiety. It doesn’t convince me.”

Qiong Cang shifted her posture, resting her chin on one hand. She clicked her tongue. “I really can’t wrap my head around it. Is it because I never had a normal high school experience?”

He Jueyun murmured, “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. As long as Zhou Nansong’s death is framed as a case of school bullying, and then Wang Dongyan commits suicide, the whole thing can be neatly wrapped up. It’s the simplest, most believable, and most sensational narrative. The term ‘school bullying’ alone carries enough weight to capture public attention.”

If analyzed from the perspective of a conspiracy, the sheer malice hidden behind this affair was enough to send a shiver down one’s spine.

The reality was that it hadn’t ended with Wang Dongyan’s suicide. In a way that went completely unnoticed by the public, it had claimed the lives of five people in succession.

Qiong Cang’s tone remained flat. She delivered her sharp analysis with absolute composure. “Besides, up until now, this has clearly been a drama involving three people, yet one of them has remained completely invisible. There is no information or evidence about her whatsoever.”

He Jueyun narrowed his eyes. “Victim number one, Tian Yun.”

Qiong Cang said, “There is definitely a key figure missing from this puzzle, someone who can connect everyone together.”

He Jueyun’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “There is. There’s one person.”

He looked at Qiong Cang, letting out a barely audible sigh of relief. “The prettiest girl in your class. The convenience store owner mentioned that she was on good terms with all three of them. Before Tian Yun and Zhou Nansong committed suicide, they had both been seen walking with her.”

A slender figure immediately came to Qiong Cang’s mind. The girl had been sitting by a bright window, bathed in sunlight, possessing the kind of beauty that instantly commanded attention.

The system’s description of her was very brief.

“Xiang Qingxi.” Qiong Cang’s hands, resting at her sides, clenched slightly as she sat up straight. “She is also a student from a poor background.”

·

The viewers in the Live Stream Room: “…”

“I’m on my knees.”

“Men are silent, women weep², and netizens weep in silence. 【Humble】”

“Can you not slap us in the face³ so quickly next time? It’s embarrassing. Give us some face, boss. 【Slinking away】”

“【Sorry to bother】It turns out that the exact same exam paper and questions can lead to two completely different answers. Damn.”

“Even though my reasoning is light-years behind the 92-point boss, we reached the exact same conclusion! Rounding up, that basically makes me a boss too. 【Awesome】”

“I knew it. An NPC with such a detailed character model was never going to be just an extra.”

“I suspect she got the script beforehand, and I have proof.”

Translator’s Notes