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nTranslator: MintCatnip Editor: Chrissy

n“If you walk away from the light, you will eventually reach the end of darkness. Crime is one of them.”

nXiang Wan wrote the opening lines in her laptop. When she thought of what Detective Bai had instructed, she pouted, deleted that line, and rewrote the opening.

n“As the saying goes, life is like a muddy path leading to death—one should try to choose three people with similar values to walk down the path together. Rong Xiaonuan’s biggest mistake was that she had mixed with the wrong people and plunged into this bottomless vortex of darkness. At this moment, she was sitting on a robust chair in the office of the Criminal Investigation Unit, looking at the wise and brilliant detective who was in front of her, full of regret—”

nCough! So cheesy!

nWhy did I have the urge to giggle? thought Xiang Wan.

nAnyway, it was Rong Xiaonuan who was full of regret, not her.

nRong Xiaonuan was the female protagonist in her novel “Murder The Dream Guy”. Same as Xiang Wan, she was not a popular author either.

nXiang Wan followed Detective Bai’s instructions to write the plot. In the beginning, it was still fine, but as it was not according to what she had in mind, she started to lose control before she reached 1,000 words.

nThe story jumped so much that it was illogical!

nWhich murderer would go frame an author who could hardly make ends meet?

nThere was no feud nor resentment, unless the murderer was insane?

n“Urgh, I can’t continue anymore.”

nBai Muchuan had not come back to the office so Xiang Wan called him directly, “Detective Bai, I need to earn my keep too. The plot and details you wanted me to write is totally incompatible with my main outline. If I write that, my book will be ruined!”

nBai Muchuan seemed to be busy.

nThere was someone talking next to him. Xiang Wan could faintly make out two keywords, “fake car number plate” and “fingerprint” respectively.

nThen Bai Muchuan seemed to have moved to another place as there was no more background sound.

n“What did you say?”

nXiang Wan turned around quickly and found that he was standing behind her.

nThis man had well-defined facial features and an indifferent disposition.

nHis eyes gazed at her with indistinctive emotions.

nCough! Xiang Wan cleared her throat.

nDoes he know that looking at someone like this is very easy to make one’s heart confused and troubled?

n“Detective Bai, I earn a living as an author. I can’t just write stuff blindly into my story. If I’m unable to fill up the holes in my plot, my book would have a crappy ending!”

nBai Muchuan’s eyelids drooped slightly as he looked at her from top to bottom.

nThe young woman held her head stubbornly and refused to budge.

nHe was silent for a moment. “If you don’t write according to my plot, your book will still fail. But if you follow my plot to write your story, it might be able to survive.”

nHe’s rubbing salt into the wound!

nXiang Wan’s cheeks started to feel warm. “I have my own thoughts. I don’t want to deviate from my main outline, moreover I…”

n“You just don’t get it!” Bai Muchuan did not sound like he was joking in the slightest bit. “You have everything to gain if you write according to what I’ve said. First of all, you’ll help the police solve the case, so that you can stay away from trouble soonest possible. Next, you’ll be able to promote the popularity of your novel. Imagine this, if you released the case details in your novel before the police publicize to the public, what kind of effect will it have?”

nEh?

nXiang Wan stared at him with wide-opened eyes.

nAlthough Zhao Jiahang’s death was the talk of town and occupied a spot under the breaking news for the past few days, the details of the case were not disclosed by the police. Therefore, the general public did not know the progress of the case.

nDue to this, the case was being speculated and inferenced by many inquisitive keyboard warriors as well as the general public!

nIf Xiang Wan released the details of the case through her novel, then followed by news of the police solving the case, it was bound to cause a stir.

n“Maybe?” She smiled somewhat awkwardly.

n“Why not?” asked Bai Muchuan.

n“Would it be considered a dishonorable act?” Xiang Wan looked down, a finger rubbing her chin.

n“Hope against hope.” Bai Muchuan raised his eyebrows at her, as if he was a teacher who was invigilating students. Then he looked at the time again.

n“Hurry up and write! I’ll be back later.”

n“…”

nAnd so he left.

nAbout half an hour later or so, Xiang Wan was on a roll, writing as much as she could when suddenly, her hands stopped tapping away on the keyboard.

nWhat did he mean by “hope against hope”?

nWas he trying to say that she was hopeless? That she was unable to write a popular book—and he was the glimmer of hope sent to save her?

nOh heck!

nXiang Wan’s unyielding spirit was being activated. The emotional pressure greatly pushed her writing speed. This time, she wrote the story according to her own experience. She felt a raging surge of literary thoughts as though she had magic. The rapid tapping sounds of the keyboard even attracted several glances from the people around…

nSomething that was made up would not be as expressive or vivid enough when compared to personal experiences.

nXiang Wan wrote so fast and smoothly that she felt she couldn’t stop even if she had stepped on the brakes!

nTwo hours later, she was ready to conclude the chapter. She took a deep breath and typed the last sentence.

n“Rong Xiaonuan finally knew that the wise and brillant detective was called Fang Yelan—a guy who possessed looks that made people nervous, worked in a nervous way that made people nervous, as well as having a slightly nervous brain.”

nHaha! Finally!

nShe stretched herself on the chair and looked at the wall, totally freeing her brain when suddenly, she heard a cold voice above her head. “You’ve finished?”

nXiang Wan looked up, then turned around and found that Bai Muchuan seemed to have a strange expression. She followed his line of sight to the unlocked laptop screen where it showed the chapter she had just written. “Well? Is there a problem?”

nBai Muchuan furrowed his eyebrows and walked to the opposite desk. “Send me that!”

nTen minutes later…

nBai Muchuan finally spoke, “This character where you use ‘wise and brilliant’ several times to describe—Detective Fang Yelan. If he’s really so nervous, he would have been kicked out of the police force!”

nXiang Wan had a confused and ignorant face. “Didn’t you say to make the detective in my story ‘wise and brilliant’?”

nBai Muchuan took a glance at her emotionlessly before he changed the topic suddenly, “The police officer who chased after a black car with the female protagonist—Officer Gu Yusheng—the way you described him, that is what wise and brilliant really means!”

nHaha!

nXiang Wan’s little prank gained her a lot of “feel good” points.

nHowever, she would never admit that.

nShe looked at Bai Muchuan innocently but deliberately used professional terms in her industry to explain herself. “The plot tension is different, so the personality of the character shown is different as well.”

nBai Muchuan started to edit the chapter quietly.

nWhat smooth typing skills!

nXiang Wan peered over curiously and noticed that Detective Bai was actually using WuBi chinese input method to type. His typing speed and editing skills were of professional grade.

nHe was actually… editing, her, work?

nXiang Wan stood frozen once again.

nTwenty minutes later, a revised chapter was sent back.

nBai Muchuan gave a simple command, “Update now, immediately!”

n…This is my story, my novel, why are you calling the shots? Xiang Wan snorted with displeasure inside her head. She did a quick scan and found that there were some slight changes which greatly improved the writing style that was more confident and firm. Not only that, the logic and twist that had plagued her previously were handled perfectly.

n“No wonder a good detective can write novels.”

nXiang Wan remarked with heartfelt admiration. Now, she started to see Bai Muchuan in a different light.

n“Detective Bai, if you write a novel, it will definitely be popular!”

nBai Muchuan sat there leisurely without answering.

nAfter she published the chapter, he said, “Continue to write the next one, you have to publish that before dawn. Follow this plot outline: The police found the alleged black car abandoned under a highway. After some investigation, the car was found to have been installed with a fake car number plate. However, the driver who abandoned the car had left behind some fingerprints which the police sent them for matching…”

nHe stopped.

nXiang Wan waited for a few seconds before tilting her head. “What’s next?”

nBai Muchuan suddenly smirked, his eyes curved upward. “It was found that the fingerprint was a match with the one found on the murdered tycoon’s SUV. The suspect was identified, and the police immediately carried out the arrest. They managed to nab the suspect outside his rented home.”

nXiang Wan thought about the time. “It doesn’t seem right? The fingerprint results are probably not out yet?”

nNot to mention that Zhao Jiahang’s SUV had only half of a vague fingerprint, even if it was a complete and clear fingerprint, that process would still need time.

nSure enough, Bai Muchuan calmly replied, “It has been sent to the Evidence Appraisal Center, there will be results soon.”

nXiang Wan laughed, “How can you be so sure that the two fingerprints will match?”

nBai Muchuan’s eyes formed into a squint as his gaze swept across her face with a slightly mysterious expression.

nHe suddenly spoke in a low but languid tone. “What if my guess is right?”

n“Guess?” Xiang Wan could not understand where his confidence came from but still felt admiration for his conjecture.

n“Er Niu is the lover of the deceased, this is your plot,” said Bai Muchuan. “Similarly, you can also design her boyfriend as a skilled worker in a prestigious car modification club. The SUV that killed its owner was his doing. Er Niu had followed what she saw from the female protagonist’s novel for the method of murder. In other words, the two of them conspired to kill the deceased…”

nXiang Wan was speechless for a moment.

n“Detective Bai, is your memory not too good? I have already updated the latest chapter as per your requirements—Er Niu is dead! How can the dead conspire to kill someone?”

nBai Muchuan looked at her intently. “The dead can certainly kill someone.”

nXiang Wan’s face was full of exclamation marks. “If I write like that, it would no longer be a mystery fiction but a thriller, a horrifying ghost story.”

nBai Muchuan stayed silent for a while.

n“If you write what I’ve said, you’ll become an author with supernatural powers who can write criminal cases before they actually happened.”

nXiang Wan was stunned.

nShe took quite a while to come back to her senses.

nBai Muchuan will not randomly speculate all these content , she thought.

nLooks like the police has definitely gotten hold of some clues!

n“Alright.” Xiang Wan was looking at his icy and dashing face when she laughed suddenly. “What’s the motive of Detective Bai helping me like that?”

nBai Muchuan and Xiang Wan’s eyes met in mid-air.

nAfter a while, he stood up without any expression and got Huang He to come over.

n“Go get ready! At nine o’clock tomorrow, we’re holding a press conference to report the progress of the case!”

nSo was that the reason why he wanted her to publish the next chapter before dawn as the police had a press conference the following day at 9:00 a.m.?

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