Muchuan and Xiang Wan - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: The Smiling Murderer Under the Sun
Translator: MintCatnip Editor: Chrissy

Could people really manipulate their memories?
The answer to this question used to be affirmative and would be replied right away. But now, Xiang Wan was somewhat uncertain.
The question Bai Muchuan threw to her had left her deep in thought.
The recent events, be it bizarre or coincidence, she often had a feeling that they were fictitious.
The case was a mess.
She used to write in the direction of her own plot outline, which was smooth.
But as her novel got closer and closer to the actual case, she began to get a little hesitant. She was at a loss of how to continue writing.
Staying up to update her novel? She wanted to do that as well, but she was unable to.
This was probably the aspect where the creative writing industry differed the most from any other job—the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
…
Xiang Wan did not have a good sleep.
Her body was asleep, but her brain was awake. Weird story plots kept popping inside her brain, accompanied by some kind of mournful music that made her vexed and fazed, tossing and turning away.
It was 2 a.m., she gave a yawn and opened her mobile phone, thinking that she might cultivate some sleepy feeling by doing some reading.
In the end—she was exhilarated instead.
Ahhhhh! Oh my god! Second Young Master Mu updated a chapter! she exclaimed inside her head.
She ignored the time and sent Fang Yuanyuan a “harassment” message to inform her before reading the update with relish.
Every word in Second Young Master Mu’s book was like gold. They were very precious to her.
She read each word carefully, as all the obsessed fans of Second Young Master Mu would do. They would still treat him like their first love even though he “abused” them thousands of times. 1
It had been a week since Second Young Master Mu last updated.
Long wait for updates were always a torture to the readers. For the author, it was a test of their popularity. However, Second Young Master Mu was still Second Young Master Mu—even if he updated weekly, his popularity did not even suffer a dip, and there was even a feeling of “scarcity marketing”. The more he did that, the more readers cherished him. Every time he updated, the readers acted as though they had discovered a treasure and would go around spreading the word.
Afterward, the readers would start to analyze the case, put things in order, and make inferences. There would be numerous posts that had several times more words than the original content.
Toward Second Young Master Mu, Xiang Wan felt admiration and envy but was never jealous.
It could be said that Xiang Wan’s real idol was Second Young Master Mu. She was never a fangirl of any artist nor got infatuated with any young and charming male stars. She only favored Second Young Master Mu and was contented to be his fangirl, to the extent that the reason she chose to write mystery fiction was all because of her love for her idol.
There was hardly any romance plot in his book, but she still liked it nonetheless.
“The real murderer was very cunning. He did not lurk in the dark but was tasting his self-perceived fruit of victory under the sun. However, he did not know that the sunlight might not be able to keep him safe but expose him instead, enabling the police to have the opportunity to bring him to justice.”
A chapter with more than 3,000 words had ended.
Wonderful and exciting, the ending of the chapter left a huge cliffhanger on the minds of the readers.
Xiang Wan felt as if her heart and lungs were crying for more. She felt like entering Second Young Master Mu’s brains to have a good look…
Unfortunately, not only Xiang Wan, but nobody from the circle of online literature had ever met Second Young Master Mu in real person. 1
He was the leader of detective mystery fiction, a well-respected and mighty figure being held on a pedestal. Yet he never participated in any event, nor accepted publicity interviews of any nature and never once showed his face.
He was a mysterious, low profile iconic author in the mystery fiction genre that attracted countless numbers of speculations from fans which caused Second Young Master Mu to get labeled by fabricated godly terms.
The Second Young Master Mu was also “god-like” in Xiang Wan’s heart.
But even with her reverence for Second Young Master Mu, Xiang Wan still stared at the laptop, unable to type a single word.
When she had no direction for the main plot, she was unable to write anything.
Ding!
There was an SMS from Detective Bai.
In this era, there were too few people using SMS to communicate, but he was one of them.
“Send over your work when you’ve completed it!”
“…”
Xiang Wan felt uncomfortable due to the writer’s block.
Was this man still waiting for her to write the chapter and send it to him?
Wishful thinking!
“I’ll only update tomorrow night, no hurry,” she practically snorted when she replied.
However, Bai Muchuan’s tone was even colder.
“Didn’t you say that you wanted to accumulate more experience with real life cases so you can write a good mystery novel?”
“Even so, there’s no need to go all out, right? Staying up all night can cause sudden death.”
Bai Muchuan did not reply for a long time.
Xiang Wan gave it a thought and felt that his words did not seem quite right.
It seemed as if there was some kind of hint?
She gave a frown as she couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Then she grinned and sent another message, “Detective Bai, it’s better go to bed early. I’ve slept and woken up. Goodnight!”
After sending the message, she read Second Young Master Mu’s latest chapter two more times before putting down her mobile phone and typed an approximate 2,000-word review on the laptop and posted to her idol’s review and comments section. After that, she yawned and lay on the bed.
She took a look at her mobile phone and found that Bai Muchuan had replied to her message.
“If you’re able to continue writing the case with a similarity of around 80 to 90 percent before the police solved it, I can make a request to the higher-ups to make an exceptional appointment to employ you as the advisor for the Criminal Investigation Unit…”
Eh? Eh? Eh?
Xiang Wan took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes a few times before she was sure—she did not see wrongly!
Is Bai Muchuan crazy? Employ me as an advisor?
She did not even have the graduation certificate and the degree certificate from Zhong Zheng. It was obviously impossible to become a legal advisor.
If so, what would be her employment? An inference expert? A master with the supernatural ability to foresee cases?
Pffft!
Xiang Wan was amused by her own thoughts, and she was more energized now.
I’ll write!
Second Young Master Mu had said that the murderer might not be hiding in the dark, but could be out in the open, under the sun.
With regards to this aspect, it was in line with the direction of her original main outline.
Since she was currently unable to deduce the direction of the real case, why not write it according to her already established general outline?
Right! She’s writing her novel “Murder The Dream Guy”, not “The Actual Records of 720 Case”. She should not deviate from her original direction.
After thinking it through, Xiang Wan found it much easier to write.
She had already thought out her original outline as well as the finer details of the story plot. She gritted her teeth and pulled herself out of the bed.
…
Nevertheless.
She was still too naive.
How was it possible to write the whole case in just one night?
In the morning, she sent the document to Bai Muchuan.
Bai Muchuan got Nanny Li to bring the breakfast over to her as well as giving her an order before he went to work—to continue writing and not leave the house until she finished the entire plot for the case.
“… What?”
D*rn it!
This is too incredulous!
Xiang Wan totally could not figure out the reasoning behind Bai Muchuan’s actions.
Both of them had nothing to do with each other—wasn’t it too absurd for her to continue staying in his house?
They were not friends, not relatives, and neither were they lovers. Such a strange relationship made her uncomfortable and sticky; especially when facing Nanny Li’s ambiguous gaze and Bai Lu’s killer eyes, she was particularly exasperated.
What the hell is this?
Could it be that her plot matched with the case development again?
Did Detective Bai think that she had supernatural powers in terms of making inferences for the case?
Or, did he think that her life could be in danger?
When she thought of this possibility, Xiang Wan felt a quiver of fear.
Seriously, from the time the case happened till now, there were some matters that she was unable to explain herself.
With that being the case, which place could be a safer option than staying in a detective’s house for her to continue writing?
Write! Stay and write!
…
Two days later, it was sunshine after rain.
It was July 27, where the day was welcomed by sunshine.
On that day, it was the seventh day of tycoon Zhao Jiahang’s death. The case had once again taken a horrifying turn.
“Murder The Dream Guy” was consecutively updated for three days, the case in the book had undergone a series of dramatic reversal of events.
Ah Sheng was not the murderer!
Him being arrested by the police was not what was previously stated. He had deliberately planned in a way for the police to apprehend him. He was actually the scapegoat that the murderer had cleverly planted to take the blow.
The one who tampered with the SUV was Er Niu.
Before her death, she had tampered with the SUV to murder the tycoon, who was the dream guy of many women. However, before Zhao Jiahang had gotten into the fatal accident, she had died of heart failure.
The one who killed her was actually tycoon Zhao Jiahang himself.
He killed her, buried her, yet he died in the hands of his victim.
It sounded a little convoluted. The ending was even more convoluted.
The author threw another mysterious hint at the conclusion of the case—they were all dead, they were all murderers, and yet they were not the actual murderer.
The real murderer…
He… might be smiling under the sun.
…
An hour after Xiang Wan published her update on July 27, the police released the latest development of the case on their official Weibo.
The result was almost the same as the novel.
After thorough investigations, Wang Tongsheng was not the real murderer.
The half fingerprint found on Zhao’s SUV actually belonged to the dead Er Niu.
Er Niu’s death was not accidental as well. She was murdered by Zhao Jiahang.
The victim was the murderer, the murderer was the victim.
They had died. They were murderers, and yet they were not the murderer.
At the end of their statement, the editor of the official police Weibo even issued a warning by summarizing Second Young Master Mu and Xiang Wan’s novel:
“The real murderer maybe smiling under the sun. However, what he did not know is, being under the sun may not always be safe but expose himself instead, giving an opportunity for the police to nab him.” 1