There's definitely something wrong with this murder mystery game

"He died of asphyxiation."

In the fields, the forensic examiner who had followed them examined the scene and furrowed his brow in confusion.

Choking to death on one's own vomit wasn't unheard of, but for this detective to suffocate mysteriously in the middle of the night in a melon field was very odd indeed.

The villagers standing nearby watched them nervously, their faces a mixture of simplicity, honesty, and a bit of fear of the officials.

Although they had agreed to call the police, before the police arrived, some villagers had spontaneously cleaned up the things in the melon field, at least clearing away the suspicious chunks of flesh and blood.

If those things had been left there, it really would have been impossible to explain the situation with ten mouths, and it was unclear what the village chief was thinking, insisting on getting the police involved.

Some villagers couldn't help but complain inwardly.

Meanwhile, Xu Shuo, holding the little girl, took a detour and circled back to the field.

The police were surprised to see the Acting Village Chief of Qingliu Village bring a five- or six-year-old child to the crime scene, but Xu Shuo had made up his mind that he wouldn't let go until tonight!

The little girl was well-behaved, quietly eating her snacks without speaking, just curiously observing these strangers and looking at the things in the field.

"Comrades, you've worked hard. Why not go over to my place for some tea and rest?" Xu Shuo said with a smile.

"Acting Village Chief, about this matter..." the leading officer looked towards the field, tilting his head.

"Let's talk as we walk," Xu Shuo interrupted before he could finish, turning to leave.

Three policemen and the forensic examiner glanced at each other, nodded, and after leaving one person to watch the scene, the rest followed Xu Shuo away.

The villagers watched their retreating figures, exchanging glances and whispering among themselves.

...

Xu Shuo led them to sit in the ancestral hall.

Compared to going back to his own house, it was closer, and anyway, no one usually came to the ancestral hall. It was a waste not to use such a large space.

"Acting Village Chief, with today's incident, the problems in your village aren't just a little bit anymore. And now, it's an outsider who's run into trouble," said three officials sitting in the main hall of the ancestral hall while drinking tea, their words loaded with implication.

With the soft little girl in his arms, Xu Shuo smiled and said, "Actually, I called you over here because of these issues. I don't know if you believe it, but all this is caused by a monster in our village."

"What monster? You can't talk nonsense. I know Qingliu Village is special, but everyone knows that is all fake," an officer rolled his eyes, put down the teacup, and said, "Acting Village Chief, let me make this clear, the detective has quite a reputation, and we can't settle this matter privately!"

"If we intended to hide anything, we wouldn't have called the police."

Xu Shuo shook his head, his face filled with sorrowful sighs, "It's just because of this that I'm at a loss."

Hearing him speak like this, the three exchanged glances, their expressions still full of doubt and distrust.

After all, in this day and age, since the founding of the country, becoming a spirit was not permitted, and they certainly wouldn't take seriously the superstitious talk of mountain spirits and ghosts among the country folk.

Then, Xu Shuo went on to say, "Believe it or not, why don't you comrades stay tonight and see for yourselves? I've also been struggling with how to deal with that monster. Since you are not afraid, why not stay and help out?"

"You're not planning on faking something, are you?" the policeman looked at him skeptically.

"When you catch that monster tonight, you'll know whether I'm talking nonsense or not," Xu Shuo said with a helpless look, "If someone is indeed faking it, you comrades surely won't be overpowered, right?"

"Heh, your reverse psychology won't work on us!"

"I have a jar of old liquor at home that's been buried for over twenty years and has never been opened, but I don't know if it's good or not."

"We can't drink alcohol during duty."

"The old gentleman also hid away a canister of Da Hong Pao tea..."

...

In any case, these few policemen were still kept behind by Xu Shuo, though they were unwilling to stay at the Village Chief's house and instead took up residence at a rural B&B at the entrance of the village.

The detective's body had been moved out of the fields, but the rural B&B staunchly refused to let such filth in, so it was temporarily wrapped in a straw mat and placed outside, looking as pitiful as could be.

Meanwhile, Xu Shuo, staring at the progress bar on the Character Card which still showed no advance, felt somewhat worried.

The only criteria to fill Zhang Shou's bar was to take revenge on Mr. Guo and to expose those events to the public.

The method to fill Qiuzi's was quite special; after it was activated, it just filled up slowly on its own. And when he offered to give the starring role to Xuena, it immediately filled halfway and then completely, once the murderer who killed him was found.

But this Acting Village Chief's progress bar wasn't moving at all!

He had already brought his dad some food, but the progress bar didn't budge, and even after seeing the monster at night, it still wouldn't move.

Really high maintenance.

Sighing, Xu Shuo carried the little girl back to his own home, only to see the female journalist seated at the living room table, writing and drawing something.

She didn't avoid him when she saw him come in; she merely glanced up and then continued with what she was doing.

It was truly unusual, the journalist didn't even go over to pry for news when the police arrived.

"What are you doing?" Since the other party wasn't avoiding him, Xu Shuo naturally went over to have a look.

"Acting Village Chief, what do you think is the reason behind the appearance of 'Green-Faced Fangs'?" The female journalist stopped her writing, smiled up at him, and then couldn't help but let her gaze drift towards the little girl he was holding.

Xu Shuo raised an eyebrow but did not speak.

The female journalist withdrew her gaze and continued, "When that thing attacked me last night, I noticed it seemed unable to chase me out of the fields. I found that strange, so I did a little investigation.

"To tell you the truth, I discovered it last night acting on behalf of the Huang Family. Since it could leave the fields to abduct people from the village, this indicates it definitely isn't confined to that place.

"Later, I heard that there are disputes among the villagers here, and more or less something has happened to each."

At this point, she paused and looked at Xu Shuo again.

Xu Shuo took the opportunity to sit in the chair next to her, his rough fingers resting on her notebook, following one name to another, saying, "If we follow these relationships, below Elder Huang should be Old Zhang, because the two had had a pretty bad falling out over a water diversion issue with their fields."

"Is it related to Old Mr. Li because he stole something that was Elder Zhang's family heirloom?" the female journalist said quickly: "After that issue came to light, Old Mr. Li claimed that 'Green-Faced Fangs' had done it."

In fact, the vase was sold the very day it was stolen, which is why it was never found.

The villagers attributed their own deeds to a legendary monster; those rumors, while labeled as false, were in some ways true, only that humans were the culprits.

While they were using this legend to seek riches, the real "Green-Faced Fangs" actually did come into being.

The people with their own schemes indeed bred a "ghost"!

The female journalist took a deep breath and spoke earnestly, "So, if I'm not mistaken, all this is actually the doing of the villagers themselves, right?"

Xu Shuo, however, didn't continue on this topic and chuckled, "Before we discuss that, how about we first talk about what exactly should be written in the promotional report about the village?"

The female journalist: "..."

She sensed a hint of danger.

More importantly, why hadn't the task been completed when she had already followed this train of thought to its conclusion?

What step had she not fulfilled?