169: Finale

Six individuals, six votes. Both Lu Siyu and Lu Haochu were suspecting Su Hui. If there were other votes for him, he would lose this round.

Su Hui was usually composed, and this calm demeanor was often the best disguise in games.

But this time, he was somewhat nervous about the outcome.

The game ended, and the shop owner personally came out to count the votes. The result was quickly revealed.

General Li, Prime Minister, and even Su Hui’s votes went to Lu Haochu, totaling three votes.

Lu Siyu and Lu Haochu both voted for Su Hui, totaling two votes.

Empress Zhang’s vote went to the Prime Minister.

The shop owner announced, “The murderer has successfully escaped. The true culprit of this round is Lord Su, and the murderer wins.”

The other players were a bit surprised and slightly dazed, not immediately reacting.

The shop owner repeated, “It was Lord Su, the Regent, who poisoned the Emperor in the secret chamber.”

Then everyone understood and looked at Su Hui together.

The Prime Minister’s younger brother nodded at Su Hui, “Big brother is an expert. I accept my defeat gracefully. I never doubted you from start to finish.”

Empress Zhang pointed her finger, “Ah, I must change my habit of judging people by appearance in the future.”

Lu Haochu twisted his handkerchief, “How could the murderer be me? I’m just a scapegoat…”

The Prime Minister also sighed, “I appear to be a commoner. Why would anyone vote for me?”

Empress Zhang said, “I’m sorry, I’ve only played a few times, and with your role secretly embezzling funds, you seemed more like a villain…”

The shop owner continued with a sense of ceremony, presenting a badge to Su Hui, “This is our winner’s badge.”

Su Hui thanked and took it, squinting to read the four characters on the badge: “Deceiving the Heavens and Crossing the Sea.”

With the results announced, the group still seemed a bit bewildered.

Several players reviewed the entire case, and the shop owner showed them evidence and details they hadn’t noticed, revealing the truth at last.

Lu Haochu said, “Detective buddy, you’re sharp. If not for your vote, I would’ve been even more wronged.” This time, Su Hui disguised himself quite well, and Lu Haochu only began to suspect him in the final stage.

Li Yanyan sighed, “Now I finally understand what the detective meant with the hints. I’m so clueless.” She turned to Lu Siyu, “But why didn’t you just say it outright then? You’re the detective; if you had directly said it, we surely would’ve voted the same.”

Lu Siyu explained, “In a modern society, the Regent’s actions would undoubtedly break the law, but in the historical context at the time, within the feudal society, the Regent killing the Emperor and taking his place, I somewhat agree with.”

This game had a somewhat reversed setup.

Lu Siyu, by adopting the Regent’s character, considered that in the same circumstances, he might have made the same choice. That’s why he saw through Su Hui’s identity but didn’t explicitly reveal it, only offering slight hints to the other players.

In his view, while the detective role could guide the investigation, it shouldn’t overly influence the players’ voting choices.

To him, the process of the game was far more important than the victorious outcome.

Combining the two, although Lu Siyu voted for Su Hui, he did slightly go easy on him. Otherwise, the result would have been entirely different, and Su Hui might have lost.

Lu Haochu, hearing this, accepted the outcome, “I’ll take the blame as a little eunuch and step down, letting the Regent ascend. It’s saving the common people. I’ve ‘sacrificed for the country’.”

Li Yanyan nodded, “When you think about it this way, even though I lost the game, the ending is still satisfying.”

The shop owner chuckled, “This game is a bit different from conventional ones. The murderer’s setup seems virtuous, while the roles of the Emperor and Prime Minister are the antagonists. I hope everyone enjoyed today. Let’s take a few group photos for memory, and we can display them on the big screen.”

The two girls had put on rare beautiful makeup and couldn’t wait to take pictures for keepsakes, even wanting some selfies.

The middle table was quickly moved aside by the staff, and everyone gathered around the dragon throne, using a folding screen as the backdrop. They posed in different ways and took several photos. The shop owner looked at the pictures and said, “These photos turned out great. Can we display them on the big screen?”

Su Hui hadn’t spoken yet when Lu Siyu stood up and said, “Boss, my job has special requirements. It’s okay for everyone to take personal photos, but maybe we shouldn’t display them.”

The owner said, “Alright, I’ll instruct the staff to keep them confidential.”

The game officially ended, and everyone went to the dressing room to remove their makeup.

Lu Siyu changed clothes first, let down his hair, and looked like a refreshing and fair, handsome young man. He walked over to Su Hui and said, “Professor Su, you played well.”

Su Hui replied, “In the end, you still saw through me.”

Winning this round was not easy for him.

Su Hui thought for a moment and asked, “By the way, you previously came for training at Hua Police, right?”

Lu Siyu addressing him as Professor Su confirmed his earlier guess.

Lu Siyu nodded, “Professor Su still remembers me.”

Su Hui praised him, “I remember, you wrote excellent papers.”

Lu Haochu’s makeup was simpler. He had changed his clothes during this time and handed them over to Professor Su.

Lu Haochu pulled Lu Siyu enthusiastically, “Little brother, little brother, you played well. I felt like we clicked. Can I add you on WeChat? We can play murder mystery games together in the future.”

Lu Siyu, “Adding WeChat is fine, but I live in the South City and only come here occasionally.”

Lu Haochu was a bit disappointed but took out his phone to scan the QR code. He thought for a moment and said, “You look familiar. Have we met somewhere? Also, you have the same surname as me, Lu. Maybe we’re relatives from a few hundred years ago. Has your family always been in the South City?”

Lu Siyu explained, “I didn’t originally have the surname Lu; I took my grandmother’s surname.”

Lu Haochu slapped his forehead, “Oh, so you have an uncle living in Lin City?”

Lu Siyu was taken aback. Things couldn’t be this coincidental, right? “Is it in the west district of Lin City?”

“Yes, exactly, in the yard with the big banyan tree.” Lu Haochu confirmed the relationship, extremely excited. “I knew you looked familiar. Could you be my grandma’s nephew?”

“… “Lu Siyu fell into thought. This grandma’s nephew sounded a bit off, like a derogatory term.

Lu Haochu thought for a moment and was even more certain, “My grandpa might be your grandma’s brother. I think I met you during Chinese New Year when I was a kid.”

Back when Grandpa Lu was alive, the house was always filled with a large group of relatives gathering for a meal, collecting red envelopes, and the like.

Such a distant relative could be considered close or distant, depending on how you looked at it.

Lu Siyu remembered that the uncle had passed away quite early, and he had visited there when he was young, so he had some impression of him.

After his grandma passed away, they lost contact, and the relationship with those relatives gradually faded.

When Lu Haochu mentioned this, Lu Siyu also remembered that he had met a lively little cousin during Chinese New Year when he was young, and it seemed to be the person in front of him.

Lu Haochu was calculating, “I didn’t expect to meet a relative while playing murder mystery! Should I call you cousin?”

Lu Siyu hesitated for a moment, nodded, not sure how to respond.

He originally thought that after his grandma passed away, there weren’t many relatives left in the family.

But unexpectedly, he had encountered a distant cousin here.

During this time of confirming their relationship, Su Hui changed clothes and received a message from Lu Junchi urging him.

They had been playing this round of the game for quite a while.

Lu Junchi and Song Wen had moved to the sixth-floor barbecue restaurant and invited them over for a meal.

Lu Haochu had successfully established their relationship and now had his arm around Lu Suyu’s shoulder, introducing him to Professor Su, “Professor Su, I said, why is the detective so excellent? This person is my brother too!”

Su Hui frowned, “Why are you calling someone ‘brother’ just because you lost the game?”

Lu Haochu protested, “He really is my cousin! My long-lost little cousin. Little cousin, I’m going to introduce you to my real brother!”

He explained to Su Hui, creating a tongue twister-like explanation.

Su Hui massaged his temples, “Congratulations on your successful cousin recognition. However, you shouldn’t hang on to your cousin so much…”

Lu Haochu was just too excited, without much restraint.

Su Hui, even with poor eyesight, could still see that Lu Siyu was somewhat unsure how to handle this situation.

Only after Lu Haochu let go of him did Lu Suyu reply, “I just recognized my cousin; I’m excited!”

Lu Siyu licked his lips and said, “It’s fine.”

Although he wore a cold expression, he didn’t reject the sudden appearance of this cousin. He simply hadn’t interacted with relatives for a long time and didn’t know how to handle it.

Lu Haochu was still bombarding him with questions, asking where he lived here and how many days he planned to stay. It continued until Lu Siyu’s phone rang, receiving a message from Song Wen’s urging.

Lu Siyu apologized slightly, “I have dinner plans with friends tonight, so I might have to excuse myself. I’ll still be here tomorrow. Let’s meet up then.”

Only then did Lu Haochu let him go.

Seeing Lu Haochu’s slight disappointment, Su Hui comforted him, “Let’s head upstairs too, so we don’t keep your brother waiting.”

Lu Siyu glanced at the message’s address, “My friend told me we’re having dinner upstairs, on the sixth floor.”

“We’re also going to the sixth floor.” Lu Haochu felt hopeful again, pulled Lu Siyu, and said, “Have your friend wait for a bit, let’s meet my brother first. He’s your cousin too; a few minutes won’t matter.”

The three of them went upstairs together, Lu Haochu leading Lu Siyu into the barbecue restaurant.

Lu Junchi and Song Wen had been waiting for a while. When they saw them come in, everyone started introducing themselves.

“Brother, this is my cousin, your cousin.”

“This is my colleague and little brother.”

“This is my friend…”

After all three of them introduced themselves, they froze.

What a coincidence.

Su Hui pulled out a chair and sat down, pressing his temples, “Give me the menu. You Lans can slowly get acquainted.”

After a five-minute acquaintance process…

Lu Junchi finally accepted everything, and Song Wen sorted out the relationships between a few people.

The dishes started to arrive one after another.

Lu Haochu pointed to the barbecue, “Come, come, since we can gather here today, it’s all fate! Don’t be shy, everyone’s family.”

This barbecue restaurant was quite famous. The first dish served was roasted squab, tender and fragrant with crispy skin. These were young pigeons, only around ten days old.

Next came snowflake beef and grilled beef tongue. Each dish was cooked to perfection, emitting an enticing aroma.

Even Lu Siyu, who was very picky about food, was very satisfied with the dishes from this restaurant.

As they enjoyed the delicious food, they chatted about cases at the police station and various pieces of gossip.

The owner of the restaurant personally came over and served them the specialty dish of the restaurant, grilled “Ti Deng” eggs.

The so-called “Ti Deng” eggs were small chicken eggs that hadn’t hatched yet. They were strung together in a bunch, golden in color, resembling little lanterns. When you ate them, the outer part was crispy, and the inside was sweet, with a texture and taste that were incredibly delightful.

After finishing this dish, a large plate of grilled oysters was brought out, each oyster as big as a palm, around twenty of them in total.

After trying two of them, Su Hui said he was full.

Lu Siyu put down his chopsticks after eating one.

Lu Haochu was still encouraging him to eat a few more, but Song Wen said, “His stomach isn’t well, let him eat less.”

Lu Siyu officially ended the battle, resting his chin on his hand, quietly watching, his expression resembling that of a little fox.

So, the result was that the remaining three men faced a large plate of oysters. They were finding it a bit difficult to eat them all, but not eating them felt like a waste.

When had Lu Haochu ever enjoyed such an open and satisfying treatment of eating oysters to his heart’s content? He urged, “Come on, brothers, eat up. These oysters are especially fresh, full of juice, very tender. They’re incredibly flavorful and sweet.”

Lu Junchi patted Lu Haochu. For some reason, every time Lu Haochu called them brothers, he thought of a meme of Zhang Fei from the Three Kingdoms. He sighed, “Little brother, if you like them, eat a bit more.”

The joyful gathering quickly came to an end. In the end, Lu Junchi footed the bill; among those present, more than half were his younger brothers. Letting Song Wen pay for it wouldn’t be right.

Lu Haochu made arrangements to exchange contact information with Lu Suyu and suggested they keep in touch online, and to come and play murder mystery together whenever he visited.

After they went downstairs, the sky had already turned completely dark.

Song Wen took Lu Siyu to the hotel.

Lu Junchi dropped Lu Haochu off at the school, then drove Su Hui home.

After showering and getting into bed, Lu Junchi changed into his pajamas and asked Su Hui, who was already in bed, “Why did you order so many oysters today?”

Su Hui looked innocent, “Don’t you really like oysters? The waiter said they’re the restaurant’s specialty. I thought since there were many of us, I’d order a large portion. Who could have known that Lu Suyu would have even less appetite than me.”

Su Hui continued, extending his foot to hook around Lu Junchi’s leg, “I heard that oysters can relieve work stress and prevent osteoporosis. Do you like them?”

Like them? How could he not?

He smelled the fresh fragrance of Su Hui, who had just showered.

He liked it to the point that he couldn’t sleep.

Lu Junchi pulled him closer for a kiss, blowing a breath into his ear and saying, “Great, then tonight, be prepared to stay up all night.”

Author’s Note

With this, all the extra chapters of this story have been updated.

Professor Su and Captain Lu will continue to live their lives happily.

Thank you, little angels, for your support.

If you like this story, please give it a five-star rating.

I’ve already started outlining the next book, “Deadly Forensic Doctor.” This one will be a bit longer, and I hope it can be a breakthrough for me.

I’ll do my research well, accumulate more drafts, and I’m planning to start it in the first half of next year.

For the specific release date of the new book, you can follow my Weibo of the same name. I’ll update any news there.

Once again, thank you to the readers who have been with me all this way. Love you~ 

(*/ω＼*)

THE END

TN:

Wuwuwu. I can’t believe we’ve come to the end. After over an year, it’s finally done. Thank you for everyone who stuck through to the end and for your comments and support. They made this long ass journey worth it. Also thank you for enjoying my random tirades and lectures/lessons. See you in the next bloody mind-bending journey!

If you enjoyed the story, give it a rating on NU and recommend it to your friends!

Due to popular demand, I’ve decided to pick-up the author’s other novel, Criminal Investigation Files!

LINK!