All-rounder Artist

Chapter 320: Chapter 299 Fooling Around_1

The story began with an introduction of the case:

Flora poisoned her alcoholic husband, inheriting his wealth and becoming the wealthiest woman in the village.

There was also the wealthiest man in this village, named Roger.

Roger’s wife had died many years ago.

Perhaps both of them had lost their spouses and empathized with each other, so they fell in love.

Roger planned to marry Flora.

Before marriage, Flora told Roger: “I killed my alcoholic husband. This secret is known by someone in the village who has been continually threatening me with it recently and has extorted a lot of money from me.”

Roger was shocked.

He was a just person, unable to accept that the woman he loved had murdered her husband.

Although he did not plan to report Flora, their engagement ended without a hitch.

However, Flora was still the woman Roger loved deeply, so he asked Flora: who was the one secretly extorting her behind her back?

He wanted to help Flora get out of this trouble.

Flora didn’t answer immediately, but told Roger to wait for two days.

As a result, Roger received news of Flora’s suicide.

Before he could grieve, Roger soon received a suicide note from Flora…

No one knew if Roger had read that letter.

Because that letter was missing, and Roger was found dead in his study, his neck slashed with a knife.

The novel was written in the first-person perspective, that is, from the perspective of the village doctor, Xie Shepherd.

Writing fantasy novels in the first person is often a taboo, but it’s fine for mystery, thriller or detective types of novels.

The first-person perspective could enhance the reader’s sense of immersion.

“A quite conventional opening.”

Cao Dezhi commented softly:

“In all likelihood, the murderer is the one who blackmailed Flora. He likely killed Roger and took Flora’s suicide note for fear that his blackmail would be exposed.”

It wasn’t hard to guess.

From the current content, the story is moderately compelling.

Cao Dezhi couldn’t help but feel a bit let down.

If only pursuing decent sales, Chu Kuang’s pen name is the best guarantee.

But if he wants a huge success in sales, then it would depend on the quality of the detective novel—

Compared to steady success, Cao Dezhi naturally hopes for this work to be a huge hit!

“Perhaps it’s a bit rusty because it’s the first time writing a mystery?”

Cao Dezhi evaluated inwardly: “For an author who is writing a mystery for the first time, this is really not bad. From this perspective, Chu Kuang is deserving of the title ‘GOAT author’.”

Actually, it’s not that Chu Kuang didn’t write it well…

There’s nothing wrong with Chu Kuang’s writing style in this detective novel.

The problem is that Chu Kuang wrote too conventionally.

Out of ten detective novel writers, five could write like this.

So, it isn’t unique!

However, Cao Dezhi still read on. A moderate hit was also good, as their mystery department was so desperate that they didn’t even have moderately successful works.

Moreover…

As a mystery enthusiast, he enjoyed the process of solving the puzzles.

And the ultimate pleasure for a mystery enthusiast is undoubtedly discovering who the murderer is before the detective does in the book!

Soon, the story moved on to Chapter Three.

A new character appeared at this point, a detective named Poirot!

According to the novel, Poirot was a renowned private detective who had cracked many major cases, recently moving to the village and spending his days growing pumpkins in his yard.

“A detective that suddenly appears?”

Cao Dezhi raised an eyebrow.

Detecitve Poirot was an outsider to the village. An outsider suddenly moves in, and two people in the town die in succession?

Is it a coincidence?

Cao Dezhi was a bit suspicious that the detective was the murderer.

If this was the set up, this novel might be a bit unconventional and offbeat.

However, after reading a dozen or so more pages, Cao Dezhi dismissed this suspicion.

Poirot was indeed a detective, and the first-person narrator, Xie Shepherd, became Poirot’s assistant once the latter started investigating the case.

Then who was the murderer?

The police suspects Roger’s adopted son Ralph Paton.

Yet, Cao Dezhi decisively ruled out him as a suspect. The one who most looks like the murderer in a murder case is often the least likely to be the murderer; they are just red herrings set up by the author.

As a matter of fact, Poirot didn’t suspect Paton either.

This detective seemed to be quite competent.

And as the story kept developing, with more and more characters involved, Cao Dezhi’s reading experience gradually began to change.

“This is getting interesting…”

The difficulty of the case was steadily increasing, the number of suspects was increasingly growing, and the readability of the story seemed to be rising gradually.

First was Roger’s friend, Blunt.

This was a strong man. At the time of Roger’s death, he happened to be visiting Roger’s house.

Furthermore, Blunt had no money, but liked Roger’s niece, who happened to have a special relationship with Roger’s adopted son, Ralph Paton!

So this guy could very well have killed Roger, then framed Paton, so he could get the girl…

“Could it be him?”

Cao Dezhi began his brainstorming, shifting his gaze to another character in the book.

The skinny, meticulous, lively and cheerful manservant Raymond.

This person didn’t seem to have any major issues, but in detective novels, the ones who seem least likely to be the killer often turn out to be the killer!

Soon after, Cao Dezhi’s attention was drawn to other characters…

There were many characters related to the case.

And with every individual implicated in this case, it seemed everyone had their own secrets!

Poirot even purposefully gathered everyone together and pointed it out:

“All of you have concealed some facts from me. Maybe you thought those facts were irrelevant to the case and chose to protect yourselves, but the key to solving the case might be within the facts you’ve concealed.”

Cao Dezhi thought Poirot was frustrated.

What surprised him was that Poirot was not troubled at all, but rather showing off, “But it’s okay, I will figure out everything.”

How should I put it?

It was more like a challenge to the murderer.

“Very soon, I will find you.”

Statements like this one made Dezhi suddenly realize that he was starting to like this detective.

But who could the murderer be?

Dezhi was getting anxious.

As the chief editor of the mystery department with a long history, he had been able to identify the murderer in 80% of the detective novels he had read before the detective in the story had solved the case!

But this time, he was unable to make a definitive conclusion.

That was because each character had an alibi, and each character was also hiding part of the truth, making the case even more complex.

The case was like a line in the grass.

There must be foreshadowing hidden in the story, indirect evidence of who the murderer is, but after reading two-thirds of the content, Dezhi still couldn’t accurately guess the murderer!

Chu Kuang was really doing a good job.

This case, if not prepared and planned with enough patience, it would be hard to write so complexly, yet within the complexity, Chu Kuang continued to clear up the fog through the detective’s hand.

“Now that I have suspected everybody who can be suspected, who then, is the murderer?”

This had become the thing Dezhi cared most about, he would rather skip to the end right now and see the truth!

But he held back.

The enjoyment in reading a detective novel lies in the reasoning during the reading process, once the murderer is known, it’s hard to feel the thrill anymore.

At this point, Cao Dezhi suddenly realized that he had been completely absorbed by “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”!

This is a really good case!

The planning and arrangement of the entire case were very beautiful!

This made Dezhi, on one hand, anxiously want to find out who the murderer is, and on the other hand, finding it more and more interesting!

It turns out that fantasy writers can also write such beautiful detective novels!

The initial feeling was average, but perhaps that was because this novel takes a while to get heated.

Well…

Drawing conclusions now seems to be a bit early too.

If Chu Kuang is just bluffing and the final murderer can’t make the reader have a sudden realization, then this book can’t be considered ingenious.

Thinking of this.

Dezhi anxiously continues to read the book.

The last few chapters, he read word by word, sentence by sentence.

But the further he read, the more uneasy he became because the murderer was still hidden in the mist. Even as the story progressed to the latter part, Dezhi himself couldn’t find the answer!

“Could it be that the murderer is not on the list of suspects?”

If that’s the case, Dezhi would definitely curse loudly!

Because this behavior is just like a horror movie, scaring the audience into jumping from time to time, but when it comes to the end, the director tells you that all of this is because the protagonist has a mental illness, so he is imagining it…

Go to Hell.

Chu Kuang wouldn’t play this kind of trick, would he?

With the frustration of not being able to guess the murderer and the worry about whether the ending can explain everything, Dezhi finally reached the third-last chapter.

The chapter was titled “The truth is revealed”.

This is the third-last chapter of the novel. Chu Kuang didn’t choose to reveal the solution in the last part; it seems like there’s still a summary of the whole case…

“I admit, I can’t guess who the killer is.”

Dezhi felt a bit heavy, he began to worry that the ending of this novel couldn’t satisfy him completely.

At the end of the chapter.

Poirot revealed the truth: “Who is familiar with Ackroyd and knows that he bought a dictation machine; who knows certain mechanical principles; who had the chance to take the dagger from the silver cupboard before Flora arrived; who had a container that could hold the dictation machine; who had a few minutes alone in the study while Parker was making a call to the police… ”

Reading up to this point, Dezhi suddenly stood up from the computer!

His eyes, wide open like copper bells!

His breath, at this moment, became extremely coarse!

Shock!

Tremor!

Never expected!

The whole book’s killer he guessed turned out to be…

Xie! Shepherd!

Yes, it’s “me,” Xie Shepherd, the first-person narrator!

The whole story was shown from Shepherd’s perspective. From Poirot’s appearance to Shepherd becoming Poirot’s assistant, Dezhi never suspected Shepherd during this process!

It’s not that he’s not smart enough!

It’s because he, had been fooled by Chu Kuang!

The fooling was so thorough!

Who could guess that “I” was the murderer?

When the reader opens “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”, they would probably rule out Shepherd in an instant!

This person has witnessed the development of the entire case as a participant, and at the beginning listed an alibi…

But it was all fake!

The characters’ alibis started being overturned in the middle of the story, but by that time, Dezhi’s attention was already completely attracted by several major suspects!

“Damn it!”

Dezhi felt like he had been thoroughly fooled. Which detective novel would mislead readers like this, with the murderer being “me”?

It was simply cheating the reader’s feelings—

Dezhi felt like he should be raging mad.

But for some reason, after he blurted out a curse, his face suddenly turned red, and his eyes filled with embarrassment.

He really didn’t want to admit it, but a very subversive fact at this moment was:

He actually felt…

ecstatic?

That was a kind of pleasure that filled his heart after being gorgeously humiliated by the author!

And when he finished reading the following two chapters of explanation, understanding that the entire story of “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” was actually Shepherd’s confession…

Dezhi had a thrill.