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nTranslator: MintCatnip Editor: Chrissy

nCould people really manipulate their memories?

nThe answer to this question used to be affirmative and would be replied right away. But now, Xiang Wan was somewhat uncertain.

nThe question Bai Muchuan threw to her had left her deep in thought.

nThe recent events, be it bizarre or coincidence, she often had a feeling that they were fictitious.

nThe case was a mess.

nShe used to write in the direction of her own plot outline, which was smooth.

nBut 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 her novel.

nStaying up to update her novel? She wanted to do that as well, but she was unable to.

nThis 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.

n…

nXiang Wan did not have a good sleep.

nHer 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.

nIt 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.

nIn the end—she was exhilarated instead.

nAhhhhh! Oh my god! Second Young Master Mu updated a chapter! she exclaimed inside her head.

nShe ignored the time and sent Fang Yuanyuan a “harassment” message to inform her before reading the update with relish.

nEvery word in Second Young Master Mu’s book was like gold. They were very precious to her.

nShe 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.

nIt had been a week since Second Young Master Mu last updated.

nThe long wait for updates was always torturing for 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.

nAfterward, 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.

nToward Second Young Master Mu, Xiang Wan felt admiration and envy but was never jealous.

nIt could be said that Xiang Wan’s real idol was Second Young Master Mu. She was never a fangirl of any artiste 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.

nThere was hardly any romance plot in his book, but she still liked it nonetheless.

n“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.”

nA chapter with more than 3,000 words had ended.

nWonderful and exciting, the ending of the chapter left a huge cliffhanger on the minds of the readers.

nXiang 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…

nUnfortunately, not only Xiang Wan, but nobody from the circle of online literature had ever met Second Young Master Mu in real person.

nHe 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.

nHe 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.

nThe Second Young Master Mu was also “god-like” in Xiang Wan’s heart.

nBut even with her reverence for Second Young Master Mu, Xiang Wan still stared at the laptop, unable to type a single word.

nWhen she had no direction for the main plot, she was unable to write anything.

nDing!

nThere was an **S from Detective Bai.

nIn this era, there were too few people using **S to communicate, but he was one of them.

n“Send over your work when you’ve completed it!”

n“…”

nXiang Wan felt uncomfortable due to the writer’s block.

nWas this man still waiting for her to write the chapter and send it to him?

nWishful thinking!

n“I’ll only update tomorrow night, no hurry,” she practically snorted when she replied.

nHowever, Bai Muchuan’s tone was even colder.

n“Didn’t you say that you wanted to accumulate more experience with real life cases so you can write a good mystery novel?”

n“Even so, there’s no need to go all out, right? Staying up all night can cause sudden death.” Xiang Wan punched a message back.

nBai Muchuan did not reply for a long time.

nXiang Wan gave it a thought and felt that his message did not seem quite right.

nIt seemed as if there was some kind of hint?

nShe 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 to go to bed early. I’ve slept and woken up. Goodnight!”

nAfter 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 page. After that, she yawned and lay on the bed.

nShe took a look at her mobile phone and found that Bai Muchuan had replied to her message.

n“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…”

nEh? Eh? Eh?

nXiang Wan took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes a few times before she was sure—she did not see wrongly!

nIs Bai Muchuan crazy? Employ me as an advisor?

nShe did not even have the graduation certificate and the degree certificate from Zhong Zheng. It was obviously impossible to become a legal advisor.

nIf so, what would be her employment? An inference expert? A master with the supernatural “foresee” ability in murder cases?

nPffft!

nXiang Wan was amused by her own thoughts, and she was more energized now.

nI’ll write!

nSecond 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.

nWith regards to this aspect, it was in line with the direction of her original general outline.

nSince she was currently unable to deduce the direction of the real case, why not write it according to her already established general outline?

nRight! She’s writing her novel “Murder The Dream Guy”, not “The Actual Records of the 720 Case”. She should not deviate from her original direction.

nAfter thinking it through, Xiang Wan found it much easier to write.

nShe 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.

n…

nNevertheless.

nShe was still too naive.

nHow was it possible to write the whole case in just a night?

nIn the morning, she sent the document to Bai Muchuan.

nBai Muchuan got Nanny Li to bring breakfast over to her as well as giving her an order before he left for work—to continue writing and not leave the house until she finished the entire story for the case.

n“… What?”

nNoooo!

nThis is too incredulous!

nXiang Wan totally could not figure out the reasoning behind Bai Muchuan’s actions.

nBoth of them had nothing to do with each other—wasn’t it too absurd for her to continue staying in his house?

nThey 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.

nWhat the hell is this?

nCould it be that her plot matched with the case development again?

nDid Detective Bai think that she had supernatural powers in terms of making inferences for the case?

nOr, did he think that her life could be in danger?

nWhen she thought of this possibility, Xiang Wan felt a quiver of fear.

nSeriously, from the time the case happened until now, there were some matters that she was unable to explain herself.

nWith that being the case, which place could be a safer option than staying in a detective’s house for her to continue writing?

nWrite! Stay and write! she told herself.

n…

nTwo days later, it was sunshine after rain.

nIt was July 27, where the day was welcomed by sunshine.

nOn that day, it was the seventh day of tycoon Zhao Jiahang’s death. The case had once again taken a horrifying turn.

n“Murder The Dream Guy” was consecutively updated for three days, the case in the book had undergone a series of dramatic reversal of events.

nAh Sheng was not the murderer!

nHim 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.

nThe one who tampered with the SUV was Er Niu.

nBefore 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.

nThe one who killed her was actually tycoon Zhao Jiahang himself.

nHe killed her, buried her, yet he died in the hands of his victim.

nIt sounded a little convoluted. The ending was even more convoluted.

nThe 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.

nThe real murderer…

nHe… might be smiling under the sun.

n…

nAn hour after Xiang Wan published her update on July 27, the police released the latest development of the case on their official Weibo.

nThe result was almost the same as the novel.

nAfter thorough investigations, Wang Tongsheng was not the real murderer.

nThe half fingerprint found on Zhao’s SUV actually belonged to the dead Er Niu.

nEr Niu’s death was not accidental as well. She was murdered by Zhao Jiahang.

nThe victim was the murderer, the murderer was the victim.

nThey had died. They were murderers, and yet they were not the murderer.

nAt 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:

n“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.”

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