I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 183: Chapter 181: Separate Questioning

After questioning the director.

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen then questioned Xu Jinlan.

Xu Jinlan was truly terrified.

Her face was pale, and she had just thrown up twice. She was extremely weak.

”I don’t know anything. I was just lying in there. I was so scared. I didn’t want to get in, so I just kept talking.”

”Then suddenly, something touched me. I was so scared that I screamed. I thought it was some kind of prank the production team had set up.”

”Ever since the first episode of this show, they’ve been trying to scare us. The lights would suddenly go out, and then something would jump out from nowhere. It’s terrifying.”

”If I had known it would be this scary, I wouldn’t have come. I would have been better off joining that wilderness survival show.”

”Did you notice anything different while you were lying inside?” Su Miaoyi asked, her voice softening.

”It was too dark inside. I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t see anything at all.” Xu Jinlan wrung her hands, her body trembling slightly. ”I don’t know. I don’t know anything. All I know is that when they opened the coffin, I ran out. Then... then a little while later, they said someone was dead.”

”There’s a vengeful spirit. We summoned a vengeful spirit. A spirit killed him, a spirit killed him.”

”I said it was bad luck, that I didn’t want to get in, but they forced me. And now look, something happened. Will I be next? Is everyone here going to die?”

Su Miaoyi took her hand. ”The police are involved now. There won’t be another murder.”

”The police are just people. How can people stop a vengeful spirit from killing?” Xu Jinlan gripped her hand back. ”What do I do? What do I do? Am I going to die? Am I? Am I?”

”We will ensure your safety,” Lu Zhishen said. ”There’s no such thing as ghosts in this world.”

”That’s not true! They just exist beyond human perception. It doesn’t mean they’re not real.” Xu Jinlan’s eyes widened, her gaze fixed and vacant.

Su Miaoyi asked, ”How did Liu Namo treat you?”

”He was good to me, very good.” Xu Jinlan suddenly looked around. ”He treated me very well. He was a good person, a very good person.”

”You took off your mics and went behind the room. What did you talk about?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”He told me to do a good job on the show, and that he’d buy me a bag after we were done filming.”

Su Miaoyi pulled her hand away and touched Xu Jinlan’s forehead.

Xu Jinlan had a fever.

”She’s running a fever,” she said, looking at Lu Zhishen.

Lu Zhishen stood up. ”I’ll go tell Captain Zhuang and arrange for her to be taken to the hospital.”

”And have someone else come in,” Su Miaoyi added, pressing her fingers to her temples.

A moment later, Lu Zhishen returned and called in someone from the props team.

”My name is Tao Chuan. I’m the head of the props team.”

”Did you put the padding inside the coffin?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Yes,” Tao Chuan said. ”The wood we used wasn’t the best quality. The padding was to prevent the cast members from getting scratched by splinters or something.”

”You built the coffin as well?”

”Yes.”

”How did you determine the size?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Based on the cast members’ heights,” Tao Chuan explained. ”It’s a prop, after all, so people have to be able to lie down in it. The director gave us their height and weight data, and we built it according to those specs.”

Lu Zhishen showed him the photo he had taken. ”This rectangular hole cut into the bottom plank... was this here when you built it?”

”No,” Tao Chuan said with certainty. ”I worked on this myself. When we built it, there was definitely no hole. The director didn’t ask for it, and we wouldn’t give ourselves the extra work.”

”Did you know that the floor underneath the coffin is hollow?” Su Miaoyi asked, studying his expression.

Tao Chuan shook his head. ”No. When a location is used for filming, a lot of things get changed to meet the crew’s needs. Maybe the last production team needed it that way, dug it out, and forgot to fill it back in.”

...

There were too many people, so they split into several groups, clearing out space in the east and west side rooms to conduct individual interviews.

Besides Liu Namo and Xu Jinlan, the other three main cast members were two women and one man.

The two women were Meng Yan and Ji Yue.

The man was Xu Yu.

As it happened, Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen were the ones to question Meng Yan.

Because Cheng Jue had participated in the show, she knew a bit about it.

Meng Yan was Liu Namo’s ex-girlfriend.

She had also received quite a few resources from him.

Now, she had a certain level of fame and a solid fan base.

”Most people would be a little reluctant to appear on the same show as their ex-boyfriend,” Su Miaoyi remarked.

”Yes. And I am reluctant, very reluctant,” Meng Yan said with a sigh. ”It hasn’t even aired yet, but there’s already a lot of buzz. So many people are cursing me out, cursing him out.”

”Then why did you still agree to participate?” Lu Zhishen asked.

Meng Yan looked at him. ”It’s not something I have a choice in. My agency accepted the job for me. If I refused, I’d be blacklisted. What could I do?”

Su Miaoyi frowned.

”We don’t have a say; the investors are the ones with the power,” Meng Yan said. ”There’s nothing Liu Namo wouldn’t do to launch his new girlfriend’s career. The show needs buzz, and me, the ex-girlfriend, on the same show as the current girlfriend? That’s the best buzz you can get.”

”Even if the show turns out to be a pile of crap, as long as that topic is there, the ratings won’t be bad. There’s no way around it. If you want to make money, you have to put up with it.”

”In this day and age, who doesn’t have it tough? Who doesn’t have to put up with things at work? It’s the same for everyone.”

”What kind of person did you think Liu Namo was?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Generous. Whatever you wanted, he would give it to you, he would make it happen,” Meng Yan said.

Su Miaoyi looked at her.

After a moment, Meng Yan looked back at her.

They held each other’s gaze for a moment before Su Miaoyi asked, ”Is that all?”

Meng Yan nodded. ”I am where I am today because of his help. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. As for love... no matter who you’re with, it all ends the same way. When it’s over, it’s over. There’s nothing more to say. It was a mutual arrangement.”

...

Xu Yu and Ji Yue were being questioned by Chu Xingrou.

While Liu Namo and Xu Jinlan were in the coffin, the other three cast members were all in the main hall, also filming.

None of them left the filming area.

They also checked the footage. For now, they had only reviewed the content from around the time of the incident.

They hadn’t found anything unusual; everything seemed normal.

When Liu Namo and Xu Jinlan were lying in the coffin,

a camera had also been installed inside.

Although it was pitch-black inside, it was set to night-vision mode.

You could still see the two of them in there.

At first, they were just lying there normally.

Xu Jinlan was talking constantly and clutching at Liu Namo’s clothes.

Liu Namo’s mouth was also moving; he was saying a few things as well.

Then, not long after, Liu Namo began to struggle.

Xu Jinlan clutched her head and screamed.

The director said he thought Liu Namo’s movements were just an attempt to scare Xu Jinlan.

But his movements were so small they were hardly noticeable. And after just a few seconds, he stopped moving.

It was only because Su Miaoyi had empathized with him through the video that she sensed he was struggling.

It really wasn’t obvious in the recording.

Since the camera placed inside had no audio function, everything was silent.

Xu Jinlan kept screaming with her head in her hands for a while. She was still screaming when they opened the coffin, and then she ran out...