radicalducati Chapter 125 Therefore, it's best to stop playing detective games in moderation.
Chapter 125 Therefore, it's best to stop playing detective games in moderation.
Chapter 125 So, it's best to stop playing detective games in moderation (5k)
The person in front of me, and the survivors who have already passed away in the tunnel, all came from the railway tracks in the north.
In Bai Shuyuan's mind, that railway track had already been marked as a usable northward passage, and it might have high value.
At least for now, the route to Longshan Mining is likely still open. The route, the terrain, the potential dangers and opportunities—countless intelligence needs were listed in her mind.
However, she was not prepared to ask the person in front of her any questions related to these matters for the time being.
Uncovering these details means a long and exhausting inquiry.
Given the man's current broken and battered physical condition, forcibly questioning him would be nothing short of inefficient torture.
She has little interest in such inhumane practices; it doesn't align with her code of conduct. Therefore, those issues can be set aside for now.
However, she had another, simpler question to ask. Even if it was just to satisfy her innate curiosity, she really wanted to know what had happened on that train.
Similarly, the way you ask the question needs to be carefully considered.
Bai Shuyuan's gaze refocused on the man's face, which held a mixture of hope and torment, and a rather clever interrogation plan formed in her mind.
She stepped forward, raising her voice slightly and slowing her pace.
"I want to know what happened on the train," Bai Shuyuan said bluntly, without any intention of beating around the bush.
"But considering your physical condition, describing it directly would create unnecessary burden. Therefore, I prefer to use a different approach."
Bai Shuyuan paused for a moment to make sure the man's consciousness could keep up with her logic.
"Next, I will make some speculative judgments based on the existing clues. You only need to respond with the simplest words, such as 'yes' or 'no'."
This can conserve a man's energy to the greatest extent possible.
"You got off the train from Longshan Mining, right?"
This question astonished the man. How could the person in front of him know these things? He opened his lips, struggling to utter syllables expressing his disbelief: "—Yes. You—how did you know?"
"It's very simple," Bai Shuyuan explained simply. "Your clothing suggests that you likely trekked along the railway tracks to the vicinity of the overpass. And we just discovered a dedicated train belonging to Longshan Mining in the train tunnel in the northern suburbs of Xinmao."
Upon hearing this, a complex array of emotions flashed across the man's face. However, he ultimately said nothing, simply nodding silently.
"Was it just you and the child on your back the only two people you walked from the railway tracks all the way to the vicinity of the overpass?"
"----more than."
"I understand. So, you weren't the only survivor who left the tunnel. But right now, only you and your child have survived. Is that correct?"
"----yes."
"Leaving the relatively safe tunnel doesn't make sense. So, were you forced to leave due to internal team conflicts, or rather—internal strife?"
"—Yes." It seemed that this was a humiliating memory he was unwilling to face, and a resentful light flashed in the man's eyes.
Bai Shuyuan didn't make any statement, but after waiting for a moment, she said in a calm tone, "In a sense, you are very lucky."
The man's expression clearly showed some confusion.
"Because everyone who remained in the tunnel was already dead."
"They merged into a new monster, which we completely wiped out just a few hours ago."
"----ah?"
An overwhelming sense of disbelief washed over the man's face.
Bai Shuyuan waited quietly for a few seconds.
After confirming that he still possessed the most basic thinking ability to support a conversation, she continued to speak.
"Your expression tells me that you have no idea what happened on the train after you left. That's normal."
Her words sounded like a reassurance, but more like a way of providing a reasonable starting point for the subsequent questioning.
Let's rewind to before you left.
"A closed survivor group tends to split up in several fixed patterns."
"The first possibility is uneven distribution of resources. However, it appears that you carried some food and water with you when you left."
"Although it's not much, it's enough to prove that you didn't turn against each other because of hunger. Am I right?"
"----right."
"The second possibility is a divergence of paths." She continued using this classic process of elimination.
"For example, the team had a huge disagreement about whether to stay in the safe tunnel or head to the next destination, and you, or rather, all of you, were in the minority."
"----no."
A look of pain crossed the man's face, as if to say, "If only it were this simple."
Bai Shuyuan captured this complex emotion.
Very good, we're closer to the bullseye. The root cause isn't a strategic dispute, but rather a more obvious internal conflict.
"Then, the third type: internal team trial."
"Someone on your team has been accused of a serious crime. And you oppose the trial, or do not accept its outcome—"
"yes!"
The man practically uttered the word before he could.
Having pinpointed the correct direction and observing the man's reaction—which revealed considerable agitation—the subsequent guessing becomes much simpler.
"The crime being tried is 'murder,' right?"
"----yes."
Therefore, a murder case that could trigger a trial of the entire team and ultimately lead to its division would likely involve a victim who is a very key member of the team.
"I think the victim is the leader of your team."
"Yes." A slight regret.
"So, the one who orchestrated this trial and ultimately banished you was the new ruler who came to power after the leader's death?"
"Yes." The hatred was palpable.
Very well, all the elements are in place. A leader dies, an opportunist rises to power, a trial is held, and an exile is imposed.
"So, you're questioning the identity of the person accused of being the 'murderer'?"
Bai Shuyuan posed this logical question.
This time, however, the man hesitated. He didn't give an immediate answer as before, but rather hesitated.
Seeing this reaction, Bai Shuyuan's thoughts shifted instantly. Her hesitation likely stemmed from a flawed premise in the question.
"So, what you're questioning is the 'murder' itself?"
"right!"
He even disregarded their earlier agreement to conserve energy, struggling to utter the words that had been suppressed in his heart: "This doesn't seem like murder at all!"
Despite his exhaustion, he began to painstakingly and stubbornly recount the facts he knew.
The group listened quietly.
The story begins uneventfully.
After finding the tunnel as a refuge, the survivors held a small celebration.
The man, who was the leader, drank a lot of alcohol after surviving the ordeal and went back to his own carriage to sleep.
The next morning, when everyone was brought to that place, they saw the man's corpse.
The man described the scene with difficulty: the deceased's face was completely purple, his body was wet, and he smelled of vomit.
Immediately afterwards, another person in the team pointed to some strange marks on the deceased's neck and insisted that the man had been strangled.
He pointed the finger at a man who wasn't very popular with the team.
The man became emotional at this point. He repeated his initial defense: apart from the leader, the rest of the people hadn't drunk much.
Furthermore, he slept far away, with more than a dozen people in between, and someone was keeping watch at night. It's impossible that he couldn't hear any noise at all; that doesn't make sense.
However, his protests ultimately failed.
Even more bizarrely, he, along with several others who raised similar questions, were treated as accomplices and exiled from the tunnel.
Little Green's brain was rapidly processing the information it had just acquired.
A bluish-purple face is a typical sign of asphyxiation, and could indeed be interpreted as strangulation.
The body was wet, which doesn't seem to have a direct connection to death by suffocation. If it were interpreted as strangulation, this would be an unnecessary step.
The suspect's motive is unclear and the method of committing the crime is difficult, proving that this accusation is quite plausible.
Mass exile is a common phenomenon under the pressure of the apocalypse, where irrationality is prevalent and only a few people are needed to incite it.
"So—it was that guy who presided over the trial who killed your old leader in order to become the leader, and then framed him?" Xia Zhaozhao asked.
"No, that's not right." Bai Shuyuan said that if it was premeditated murder, a more flawless scene could have been designed.
This scene is full of contradictions and doesn't seem like something a normal person would do.
Xiao Lü also felt confused, suffocated, wet, and the marks on her skin were quite strange—these words were quite disordered and could not form a complete logical loop.
Until, suddenly, Xia Zhaozhao's previous complaints popped into her head uncontrollably.
【Ah—the toilet's clogged. I'll have to catch that little dragon and shape it into a toilet plunger!】
I've got it.
Xiao Lü suddenly raised her head, her gaze precisely fixed on the man, and asked a question that surprised everyone.
-
"Was your leader killed in the penultimate carriage of the train? And was he the only one who could use the toilet there?"
The man paused for a moment, not understanding why the topic had jumped to this point, but still subconsciously said yes.
It seems that these fragments can be assembled into a qualified event sequence, albeit a somewhat absurd one.
She looked at the man and said directly, "Your initial judgment was correct."
"That was not a murder at all."
She shared her thoughts with everyone:
The leader, alone in the middle of the night, went to the toilet and vomited due to drunkenness. He died of suffocation from the clogged toilet, alcohol, and vomit.
In that case, the previous doubts can be explained. The strange mark on the neck was not a ligature mark, but rather a mark made from the edge of the toilet.
And the one presiding over the trial wasn't some cunning schemer. He was simply in the right place at the right time.
When he was the first to discover the body, he instantly realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and that he was a lucky one.
A seemingly insignificant accident, like the butterfly effect, triggered a strange tragedy.
Xiao Lü paused, looked at the man's face, which was contorted with shock, and added one last sentence: "However, it seems that the real lucky ones are perhaps you and your child."
Or, based on his own reasoning, it might have sparked a strange comedy.
After all, if none of the preceding events had occurred, the man and his child would have both died in the tunnel.
In the end, it was Xia Zhaozhao who broke the silence in the ward first.
"Alright! Let's not dwell on the past!"
Her voice was full of energy, as if she was trying to use the volume to dispel all the heavy memories in the room.
"You're now under our top protection, so you'd better stay alive, you hear me!"
Little Green watched this scene without saying anything.
After getting the answer she wanted, Bai Shuyuan quietly left the ward.
She clearly had little interest in such occasions for emotional exchange, or rather, she felt she had already accomplished her task.
When Xiao Lü followed her out, she heard her giving orders to Jiang Fu in her usual monotone tone.
The general idea is to use all broad-spectrum antibiotics, in extremely high doses, in combination, and to clean and disinfect all wounds daily.
The three of them rose into the air again, and the hospital rapidly shrank beneath their feet.
"Hmm... With such a tough life, she shouldn't die from infection, right?" Xia Zhaozhao muttered to herself.
After flying for a while, Xia Zhaozhao suddenly sidled up to her without warning.
Little Green's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively ducked to the side. Could this guy have been infected with some kind of female-specific virus by a wolf?
As a result, Xia Zhaozhao just excitedly grabbed her arm, as if she had discovered something new.
-
"I suddenly thought of something!"
"Um?"
"When we arrived, the toilet was clogged, but that doesn't mean it was always clogged when the incident occurred!"
Xia Zhaozhao discovered the key point.
"In other words, the story might be far more dramatic than you're guessing!"
She couldn't wait to start selling her reasoning.
"I think the guy who presided over the trial might have drugged the leader's drink, which is why the leader couldn't move and suffocated to death in the toilet!"
"Brother Naihuo doesn't know the killer's final whereabouts either—or perhaps the accused killer is actually in cahoots with the guy presiding over the trial? This is a ruse!"
Xia Zhaozhao chattered on and on, pointing out different possibilities.
"No, no, no! I have an even cooler idea!"
She became more and more excited as she talked, completely immersed in her own brainstorming.
"No one person was the mastermind! Everyone present at the time participated!"
"They collectively killed the troublesome leader, then conspired to create a scapegoat, and banished everyone who questioned the story to keep the secret!"
"—That wasn't your idea at all; it was Agatha Christie's idea."
Xiao Lü made a sarcastic remark, but inwardly she was extremely shocked.
What shocked her was not Xia Zhaozhao's reasoning, which was commonplace in detective novels.
What shocked her was:
Xia Zhaozhao actually thinks about these things?
Seemingly guessing what Xiao Lü was thinking, Xia Zhaozhao immediately gave her a resentful look.
"Um—what kind of image do I have in your heart?"
Xiao Lü chose to ignore her little emotional outburst.
"These lines of reasoning are indeed logical, but they are unnecessary."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because those people are all dead."
Xiao Lü's tone was very calm.
"Of the two people who survived that conflict, one was a child with no memory of the incident, and the other had just accepted our reasoning."
She paused, then continued, "The version we presented is the most favorable explanation for the man who survived."
"It's simple enough, reasonable enough, and enough for him to let go of the past and move on. That's enough."
"In a situation where all evidence has been completely destroyed by the monster, a story accepted by everyone is the truth."
"And—" Xiao Lü suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Bai Shuyuan beside her.
"That lung contained components of a teratogenic substance, right?"
Bai Shuyuan nodded.
"Yes. Only malformed fetuses exhibit this kind of structurally disordered, functionally imperfect engulfing."
"Fortunately, none of the survivors were insane. So, it could only take this form in the end, evolving in a similar way to the mother insect."
"I see—" Little Green said softly.
All the mysteries surrounding that southbound train have now been resolved.
However, a thought suddenly and uncontrollably surfaced in Xiao Lü's mind.
Could the loud rumbling sound produced by the lungs and brain with each breath also be a kind of echo from memory?
It is the last impression that remains in the subconscious of some of those who were swallowed up: that their leader did indeed suffocate to death.
This shared memory also helped shape the monster's external form, ultimately transforming it into this lung-brain hybrid.
She didn't voice this guess.
Because it really doesn't matter anymore.
On the top floor of the bank, in the boardroom that Xia Zhaozhao had forcibly occupied.
At this moment, a comforting aroma of food, so out of place in this apocalyptic world, fills the air.
Shi Yao was standing in front of the induction cooker, carefully turning the sizzling contents of the pot.
Those were the supplies Xia Zhaozhao had found in her building during the early days of the apocalypse—some cured meat and seafood.
Shi Yao couldn't stand it anymore, so she simply disposed of these things.
Peach, sitting on the sofa with her knees drawn up to her chest, held a small notebook in her hand, writing something in it from time to time like a reporter.
Her gaze would always unconsciously drift towards that quiet figure in the corner of the room.
The wolf was sitting by the window, quietly watching the rain outside.
Although Peach had roughly figured out the child's personality through previous feedings and conversations, an invisible pressure made her hesitant to speak easily.
She could only suppress her overflowing curiosity for the time being, planning to ask all the questions at once when Xiao Lü returned.