Near dinner time, Lu Ning went to check on Rennix again.
In one afternoon, she had finished reading "The Lament of Gray Peak" and half of "Ten Days at Rosemont." The ending of "The Lament of Gray Peak" is an ending that is close to the annihilation of the whole group. Only the final protagonist is left with an open description. I don't know what it is. In short, the story behind it involves the ancient sacrifices to the gods and changes in the age of the gods. .
As for "Ten Days in Rosemont", it is a very interesting travelogue. This town has an obvious characteristic, that is, the old people are warm and hospitable, while the young people are indifferent or even disgusted with outsiders. This distinct situation is It has already aroused the curiosity of some readers, and the story of how Tsuburaya Temple Sora tries to find ways to build a good relationship with local young people and find out the reasons makes people want to read on.
It’s just that she doesn’t have that much time. There’s a family dinner tonight.
The process was similar to the previous round. After the examination, Rennix took Lu Ning directly to find several other professionals, and then came to the family banquet restaurant.
There was no change in the seating order of the fourteen people. Under the chairmanship of Rennix, the atmosphere became slightly more serious this time, but Rennix still pointed out the possible problems that each child would face one by one.
But towards the end of the family dinner, something happened.
"Has everyone finished eating?" Rennix asked.
Everyone nodded.
"Okay, next, the seven of you, plus Milia and Arisa Saotome, will come to meet me according to the order of succession. Escher will arrange this. After meeting, you can leave on your own."
After saying that, Rennix stood up, used his crutches to open a small door on the side of the restaurant, and walked in.
Escher bowed slightly to everyone: "Since the master has given this order, all the young masters and ladies, please take a break. Master Lanewood, if you are ready..."
"Of course, Uncle Escher, I'm always ready." Lanewood stood up with a smile.
"Okay. If you need anything else, just ask the servants here. Master Lanewood, please come with me."
Linewood followed Escher into the small door.
Lu Ning was drinking herbal tea while thinking about what happened with this increase.
When she was controlling Rennix, she let Rennix perform this part by himself, but this did not happen. Are there any triggering conditions for Rennix to do this? Or will your performance have such a big impact on your character?
Lanewood walked out the door about three minutes later. Of course, this person won't show anything on his face. The smile that appears when he goes in is exactly the same when he comes out. Then Escher called Dimitri and walked in.
Lu Ning counted the time by counting the time, mentally remembering the time these people talked. It took Dimitri five minutes to come out, Felicia's time was four minutes and forty seconds, Ito Juno's six minutes and fifteen seconds, Huo Yinglong's three and a half minutes, Cynthia's four minutes and ten seconds, and Mayuri Daida's five minutes. Fifteen seconds.
Milia and Arisa Saotome, who entered later, took longer, seven and a half minutes and eight minutes and forty seconds respectively.
Of course, no one left on their own. Even those who went in first would sit back and wait for the people behind.
After the last Arisa Saotome came out, Escher announced that everyone could leave and Rennix needed to rest. Everyone then stood up and said goodbye politely, and then... it was time for a few professionals to have a one-on-one chat.
"Doctor Lu, I...may be killed tonight." Dimitri said to Lu Ning after being polite.
His words were very similar to what Lu Ning heard from Orlando, and he finally handed something similar to a receiving device to Lu Ning.
This thing had never worked before, but Lu Ning still studied it after returning. This receiver cannot be easily cracked, at least not with her current abilities, and it is not continuously monitored. It needs a signal from Dimitri to update the information.
Looks like it won't be opened until bedtime.
Then, Lu Ning continued her reading, but today she just finished reading "Ten Days in Rosemond Town" and then went to bed. After all, some situations were likely to arise tonight, and she needed to recharge her batteries.
Lu Ning didn't sleep well that night, but nothing woke her up.
At around 7:30, she woke up in a daze and could still hear the sound of rain hitting the window.
so quiet.
A strange feeling suddenly lingered in Lu Ning's heart. Due to this environmental problem, she was quite sensitive to various changes around her, but now except for the sound of rain, she heard no other sounds.
This is not quite right. The sound insulation effect here in the main building is at the level of ordinary buildings. Although the floor is carpeted and there is no sound of walking, you should be able to hear other sounds if you listen carefully. For example - the subtle sounds of maids wiping and sweeping when they get up early.
Lu Ning quietly rolled out of bed and held a knife that she had prepared in her hand. She was not afraid of death, it was just a chance to lose a round.
Once the door opened, the corridor was silent.
The servants should have gotten up long ago.
Lu Ning took a step outside and heard a noise next to her. Watanabe Fuchiko, who lived in another room, also poked her head out, glanced at Lu Ning, and asked, "Why is it so quiet?"
"I don't know, the servants are not here."
"Then...call a few more people."
The two immediately knocked on the door and found Orlando and Han Xizhe. Kuzumi Heizhen also heard the sound coming out during this period. Hearing this unusual situation, he looked a little panicked. The five of them walked to the maid's room on the first floor together.
"I think something might have happened." Han Xizhe said seriously, "Howard's servants must have gone through strict training. Even if there are one or two who get up late by chance, the rest will definitely not be late, not to mention the fact that there are... Scheer is here. Now... tsk."
After yesterday's incident, everyone's mentality has already changed, but for these few, they can be said to be in the same camp now. After all, they are all outsiders.
Arriving outside the servants' room, Orlando tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"Tsk, can you help me?" Orlando looked at the door of the servant's room and planned to knock on it.
Han Xizhe and Kuzumi Heizhen went over together. The three of them knocked together more than a dozen times, and finally opened the door with a loud noise.
"The maid lives on the left. You don't have to hit the door." Kuzumi Heizhen looked inside the house with some breathlessness. The maids also live in separate rooms. There is a small hall outside where there are many clothes for changing. basket.
"No need." Lu Ning opened a small cabinet on the wall. There were keys for each door. In the lower right corner of the cabinet were the common keys used by servants. She took one off and opened two doors directly. Door: "You guys look at the valet's side, we'll look at this side."
Orlando nodded and rushed into the valet's bedroom. Lu Ning and Watanabe Fuchiko walked into the maid's side.
Almost unsurprisingly, the servants all died in their beds.
They lay there quietly, as if they were still enjoying a sweet dream. But one of each person's limbs was nailed to the bed board by a sharp metal cone. Jasmine was the left hand, rosemary was the right hand, iris was the left foot, and mint was the right foot.
Lu Ning stepped forward to inspect the body and found no obvious trauma except for the penetrated parts.
"The cause of death may be poison or drug stimulation." Lu Ning looked at the punctured locations. "It's hard to tell from the amount of bleeding whether it was inserted before death or before death, but this kind of injury will definitely not be immediate." Even if they die, they will not be allowed to lie so peacefully."
"So... it is impossible to know the cause of death unless an autopsy is performed?" Watanabe Fuchiko asked.
"Yes. And I'm not a professional forensic doctor. Even if I do an autopsy, I probably won't be able to tell." Lu Ning shook her head.
The situation on the male servant's side was the same as that on the maid's side. Everyone died as if they were asleep. The difference was that the male servants' eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were sewn up with threads.
"If the murderer is not cruel, then it has some symbolic meaning to him." Orlando pulled up the sheet and covered the body. "Destroying the body is something like this..."
"Now the servants are all dead... We have to inform everyone about this." Lu Ning said, "And since something happened to the servants, where are the others?"
The five people hurriedly took the keys and started knocking on the door in each room to confirm.
After there were no servants, the main hall suddenly became a lot quieter. Even if there were five people running up and down, it seemed a lot emptier. Immediately afterwards, everyone found Pan Shen's body in his bedroom, his face was blue and purple, and he showed obvious symptoms of poisoning.
The other deceased was the housekeeper Escher. He was sitting on a chair in his room, his expression as quiet as if he had fallen asleep, but a sharp cone passed through his chest at the heart, nailing him to the chair. .
Ten people?
It was even crazier than the first round. On the first night after the seder, the number of people on the island was reduced by a quarter.
Lu Ning felt a chill, because this time it was most likely not the behavior of tourists. Among the twelve tourists participating in this scene, the craziest group, Mayuri Shiroda and Takaya Kanzaki, would not do such a thing at this time. There are no tourists here who are so bloodthirsty that they don't even care about collecting scene information.
In other words... it's the behavior of the characters within the scene.
In the previous scene, tourists almost all regard the special killing methods at the scene as a sign of tourists, because only tourists have this motive. But now it seems...it seems that this rule is about to be overturned.
"What? Mr. Escher is dead?"
"Mr. Pan Shen is also dead? All the servants were killed?"
"frenzied……"
When Rennix's children arrived at the main hall, many people were in disbelief after hearing the news.
This time, the seven children and the people they brought to the island were not killed.
While the people downstairs were shocked, Gustave and Justina came downstairs.
"Renix did not intend to handle this matter personally. His actual words were, [Leave this matter to my children to handle.]" Gustave said.
"It seems that father really hopes that we can inherit his family business." Linewood said solemnly, "Brothers and sisters, I know that everyone has some thoughts about each other privately, but I still feel that using bloody and violent means The head of the family who is determined by his methods cannot take care of the Howard family well."
"If you have anything to say, just say it, Lanewood." Dimitri crossed his arms and said very defensively.
"Let's handle this murder case. Whoever can solve him will be more qualified, how about that?"
"Child's play." Cynthia snorted coldly, "Of course it is better to find professional detectives to solve cases. What we want to inherit is the Howard Consortium. What we look at is business ability. How can we use this incident to solve the case?" judge?"
"I'm a private detective." Zhai Jingqiu said, "Of course I rarely take on murder cases, usually investigations and the like, but compared to everyone here, I think I am more experienced."
"The case needs to be solved, but I don't agree with the decision of the heir based on this." Huo Yinglong said with a cold face, "The decision of the heir is clearly written in the family rules. There is no need to add extraneous details."
Linewood shrugged and gave up.
"Dr. Lu Ning has seen all the scenes. If you have any findings, you can tell me here," Zhai Jingqiu said. "And you may also need to explain your whereabouts last night to see if there is any alibi. This is basic. I hope everyone will cooperate with us in eliminating suspects."
"No problem." Felicia nodded, "Please cooperate with all the guests. Uncle Gustave, you..."
"This is a proper process." Gustav sat on the sofa next to him, "Let's get started."
Lu Ning told everyone the inspection results. Everyone saw the scene anyway. As for the specific cause of death of everyone except Pan Shen, she also said that she couldn't tell by just looking at it. She could only judge that the time of death was around 1 to 3 o'clock in the night, and nothing else.
Unlike when Orlando played in the last round, Lu Ning did not play herself too "competent" this time.
"These few clues are not enough... Then tell us where you were at that time last night." Zhai Jingqiu sighed.
However, at that time, most people's answer was the same, sleeping or about to sleep. Except for the two couples who slept together, the others slept separately, and there was no way to prove that they were not present.
The case suddenly returned to its starting point.
"Why don't we think about it from another angle?" Dimitri suddenly said, "Regardless of how the murder was committed, didn't the murderer also do things like nailing stakes and sewing facial features? Let's make an estimate. How long does it take for all this to happen? Has anyone heard any strange noises?"
"The suturing is not very professional. It just sews the parts together roughly with thread. As long as you have the tools, it doesn't take long to do it." Orlando said, "As for nailing the stakes, it's even simpler, just a hammer. It can be done.”
"Okay, so where are the tools and hammers you mentioned now?" Dimitri spread his hands.
