HP - Chapter 17

Typhoon Night Murder Files 12

"Could you explain a bit more clearly?" Ji Zhou couldn’t hold it in anymore and spoke aggrievedly. "Aren’t we a team? Don’t we have the most basic trust between partners?"

Zhong Xu asked, "Why did Zhou Zhi cheat on Mu Xingchao?"

Zhou Zhi replied, "Back in high school, I liked a girl, but she later became Mu Xingchao’s first love. Mu Xingchao didn’t cherish her, which left her disheartened. She transferred schools, and in the end, she failed the college entrance exam. I wanted to take revenge on Mu Xingchao."

Ji Zhou protested, "Can you guys hear me? Am I mute? Have I been talking this whole time without actually making a sound?"

Zhong Xu pressed further: "Elaborate on Zhou Zhi’s psychology."

Zhou Zhi had always been the model child other parents spoke of—well-groomed, gentle, and considerate, outstanding both in his studies and later in his work. Looking back on his life, the darkest thing he ever did was his secret affair with Xu Shuangyuan.

That day was a small gathering; several people didn’t attend, and Mu Xingchao also couldn’t make it due to last-minute matters.

After the gathering, Zhou Zhi was supposed to take Xu Shuangyuan home. But as he gazed at her beautiful face, he suddenly thought of the girl he had once liked in his youth. A surge of relentless malice toward Mu Xingchao welled up in his heart. He leaned down and lightly brushed his lips against Xu Shuangyuan’s cheek.

He thought that if Xu Shuangyuan avoided him, he would stop. But she only looked at him quietly and did not move away. Neither of them had drunk much, so what happened next unfolded naturally, and they were both completely sober.

Ji Zhou’s jaw dropped, and he instinctively asked, "But what about Xu Shuangyuan? From what I know, she’s a very ambitious woman. Now, as the executive assistant of Mu Group, her career is smooth sailing and she’s bound to climb higher. If she leaves Mu Xingchao, she’ll be losing a lot."

Zhou Zhi nodded slightly. "True, she is very ambitious, which is why she knows her goals well. Choosing Mu Xingchao was never for love but for her career. Since that’s the case, if men can cheat, then of course she can too."

At this, Ji Zhou gave a soft chuckle. "So your hearing improves intermittently, huh? Now you can hear me again."

"Then, has Zhou Zhi ever done anything to harm Mu Xingchao?" Zhong Xu asked Zhou Zhi.

Zhou Zhi frowned. "I’m not sure. But Zhou Zhi isn’t exactly a good person... Oh, by the way, there’s a box of sleeping pills in the suitcase. But Zhou Zhi doesn’t have any sleep disorders, so for now I don’t know what it means."

"You’re bold to say that. Aren’t you afraid of being taken for the murderer?"

"This is my sincerity," Zhou Zhi said with a faint smile. "I hope we’ll have a pleasant cooperation."

Once again ignored, Ji Zhou felt like nothing more than an unnecessary, abandoned person.

But he wouldn’t back down. Not one to be left out, he immediately picked up the thread: "Speaking of Mu Xingchao, I also have something to say."

Zhong Xu said, "Spill it."

Getting a response, Ji Zhou was overjoyed, not caring in the least that it was a cold shoulder.

When Sang Long was a child, he was a rebellious troublemaker. Every few days, his teachers would summon his parents, who were left heartbroken, weeping day after day.

This wasn’t Sang Long’s true nature. He had once been an upright, well-behaved child. But during one summer vacation, he met a delinquent boy who shattered his sense of right and wrong. Together they smashed windows for no reason, stole money from younger children, learned to smoke, and committed countless misdeeds in just two months. It was the perfect example of “near vermilion, one turns red; near ink, one turns black.”

It wasn’t until a family crisis struck that Sang Long finally woke up. He began to cherish the present and worked hard to atone for his past mistakes. What he never expected was that he would encounter that same delinquent boy again—and he recognized him instantly. Jiang Zhi’s classmate, Mu Xingchao—it was him!

Unfortunately, Mu Xingchao had no memory of him at all. What angered Sang Long even more was that Mu Xingchao’s personality was completely different from when they had first met as children.

"Did Sang Long want revenge on him?"

Ji Zhou nodded. "He already acted on it… Let me think, I remember it was at a gathering three years ago, also on a typhoon night!"

Sang Long had a habit of following the news.

That day, he saw reports warning that the typhoon was fierce and that people should avoid dangerous things like glass. Yet, filled with resentment, he deliberately helped the drunken Mu Xingchao onto a sofa right beside the floor-to-ceiling window, secretly hoping the storm would snap the tree in the courtyard and send it crashing into the glass.

Best if it smashed Mu Xingchao half to death!

Sang Long thought bitterly.

"Sang Long is impulsive, but he also believes in fairness," Ji Zhou explained. "He thought Mu Xingchao deserved a lesson, so he did this. Later, when Mu Xingchao wasn’t struck by the tree that typhoon night, Sang Long didn’t care anymore. In his eyes, he had already carried out his revenge; the fact that it failed was simply fate."

Zhou Zhi turned to Zhong Xu. "Do you have any leads now?"

There was too much information—too fragmented. It all needed to be connected into a single line.

How could it be linked together?

Or rather, how could the scattered puzzle pieces of this story be assembled?

The key was to find the most crucial and distinctive piece; once that was discovered, the surrounding pieces would naturally fall into place.

Perhaps Zhong Xu’s silence lasted too long, for Zhou Zhi couldn’t help but ask: "You’ve also completed an extra task, haven’t you? What’s the key clue?"

After speaking, he added, "The fact that the three of us are gathered here proves we can trust one another. You’re more willing to trust us too, aren’t you?"

"I don’t know yet," Zhong Xu said slowly.

"Don't know?" Zhou Zhi was momentarily stunned, then suddenly realized. "You obtained an item?"

Zhong Xu opened her palm. Resting quietly in the center was a golden key.

It could open any lock—but only once. Which lock should be chosen so as not to waste it?

"We must catch the killer as soon as possible. But that also means we don’t have much time; we can’t go unlocking every single room to search for evidence," Zhou Zhi reacted quickly. With his prior game experience, he immediately understood the function of the key.

"Xu Hangquan, Xu Hangjia, Mu Xingchao, Cui Shuying, Xu Shuangyuan, Liang Qing, Zhou Zhi, Sang Long… there are still so many rooms we haven’t searched." As he listed the names, Zhou Zhi’s expression grew solemn. Then he looked Zhong Xu straight in the eye. "If you trust us, you can prioritize excluding Zhou Zhi and Sang Long’s rooms."

"The game won’t set up a dead end—especially not at this level. Its puzzles won’t be too difficult. And the ‘optional objective’ is, ‘If you are not the killer, try to ensure as many players survive as possible.’ That means the players who aren’t the killer have to cooperate in order to gather more clues and push toward the truth."

"This is also why I chose to cooperate," Zhou Zhi concluded calmly.

Beside him, Ji Zhou bobbed his head enthusiastically and said with delight, "Our team is really great!"

But Zhong Xu, tucking away the key, looked unusually cold. "I can make my own judgments. There’s no need to deliberately act all heartfelt."

As she spoke, she was already at the doorway.

Her reaction gave Zhou Zhi a sudden headache, and he asked instinctively, "Which room are you going to?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt certain she would ‘rebel’ by not even looking back and answering with silence.

"Mu Xingchao."

To his surprise, she gave a direct answer.

Zhou Zhi looked at the door that had just closed and suddenly smiled. "Come on, Ji Zhou. We’ll be the shields."

The flashlight beam swept across the desk, where a photo frame sat. In the photo, Mu Xingchao stood beside a man—their eyes and brows were so similar, they clearly looked like brothers.

That photo frame hadn’t been there during the earlier room tour; it must have been placed by Mu Xingchao himself.

Was it his older brother, or his younger?

Zhong Xu quickly found the answer.

Beside it lay a magazine. Opening it revealed an interview with Mu Xingchao.

In it, Mu Xingchao explained that he had a younger brother named Li Yang, with whom he shared a close relationship. Although their parents divorced when they were in elementary school due to irreconcilable differences—Li Yang taking their mother’s surname and moving to the UK—the two brothers had kept in contact over the years. Mu Xingchao even described himself as a brother-con, utterly devoted to his younger sibling.

The words “brother con” (弟控) were circled, and someone had written beside it: “What does ‘brother con’ mean?”

Mu Xingchao described Li Yang as a sunny, outgoing, and exceptionally talented person—good grades, numerous hobbies, loves music, can make desserts, and practices boxing… his younger brother was practically capable of everything, completely overshadowing him, the older brother.

The only consolation was that his younger brother wasn’t interested in photography; he usually took terrible photos and hadn’t joined the photography circle. Otherwise, the older brother would have had no strengths left to compare with him.

“A new character?” Zhong Xu closed the magazine and looked at the photo again. “I don’t like suddenly appearing new characters, unless…”

She crouched down and pulled a box of ointment from the suitcase. It was all in English, and Zhong Xu could roughly tell what it was for. “Scar repair… I remember Xu Shuangyuan and Cui Shuying mentioned in their conversation that Mu Xingchao had a serious car accident three years ago, right?”

She put down the ointment thoughtfully. Then, the flashlight beam hit the bottom of the suitcase, and something vaguely familiar flashed before her eyes.

Zhong Xu immediately moved the clothes aside and took out the item beneath.

It was a book.

Silent Island.

Unlike the second-hand book in Song Musi’s suitcase, this was clearly new, even with the dust jacket intact. It appeared unread.

The dust jacket had a recommendation blurb, with the words “limited release” particularly eye-catching.

Zhong Xu opened the book and flipped through it, confirming that the content was identical. Just as she was about to close it, she noticed an invoice tucked inside.

[Discovered—DVD Player Invoice]:

A portable DVD player from the UK, rechargeable model.

Hearing that Song Musi’s guesthouse was about to open, Mu Xingchao had decided to prepare a congratulatory gift for the occasion. After all, friendships are maintained through gestures like gifts.

But what gift should he give?

Mu Xingchao had drawn inspiration from Song Musi’s social media:

She had posted DVDs of TV series she bought in middle school, expressing nostalgia. Since she missed the past so much, she would definitely need a DVD player to revisit classic films and shows, right?

Zhong Xu put the invoice back into the book, returned it to its place, and continued searching the suitcase.

But she found nothing else.

Suddenly, she remembered something. Raising her hand, she directed the flashlight onto a drawer of the desk.

During the room tour, Mu Xingchao had casually placed the vintage camera that Song Musi had specially arranged into this drawer, showing he no longer engaged with photography.

Even if he no longer did photography, was it necessary to specifically put the camera in the drawer? Fear? Disgust? Nervousness? Or concern about something?

Zhong Xu pulled open the drawer. The vintage camera still lay there quietly.

For some reason, she had a feeling there was more to this drawer.

The flashlight swept the drawer again; the camera was the only item inside. As she prepared to close it, a sudden intuition made her reach to the top of the drawer—there was something there.

Mu Xingchao seemed very worried that if his room were searched, this item would be found, so he had deliberately hidden it.

“Interesting,” Zhong Xu said with growing curiosity. She took it down and discovered it was a letter.

Unfolding the letter, she read a single line:

“Li Yang, you have to save me. I think my friends want to kill me.”

1. 小分队 (xiǎo fēn duì) - Small team/squad

2. 信任 (xìn rèn) - Trust

3. 绿了 (lǜ le) - "Cheated on" (Chinese slang: literally "greened", meaning betrayed romantically)

4. 总助 (zǒng zhù) - Executive assistant 

5. 弟控 (dì kòng) - "Brother con,” Japanese-derived otaku term for obsessive brotherly affection

6. 朋友圈 (péng yǒu quān) - "Social media moments" (WeChat feature showing friends' updates)

Characters (Players)

• 终栩 (Zhōng Xǔ)

  • Role: Protagonist 

  • Game Role: Later assumes the identity of 宋慕思 (Sòng Mùsī), the idealistic guesthouse owner with a hidden agenda tied to her friend’s death.

• 季舟 (Jì Zhōu)

  • Role: Self-proclaimed "萌新" (newbie)

• 老玩家 (Lǎo Wánjiā, Veteran Player)

  • Role: Experienced survivor

• 瘦弱男人 (Shòuruò Nánrén, Thin Man)

  • Role: Terrified newbie

• 眼镜男 (Yǎnjìng Nán, Glasses Man)

  • Role: Silent observer

~~~~~~

• 宋慕思 (Sòng Mùsī) – The protagonist; a quiet, introspective young woman who organized the friends' gathering and owns the 民宿 (guesthouse). Hides complicated past relationships.

• 江栀 (Jiāng Zhī) – Outgoing and sociable; Song Musi’s close friend (闺蜜) but also entangled in a love triangle involving Sang Long. [Been Dead Prior]

• 崔书颖 (Cuī Shūyǐng) – Another extroverted friend in the trio; makes Song Musi feel like a third wheel at times.

• 桑隆 (Sāng Lóng) – Jiang Zhi’s current boyfriend and Song Musi’s ex; their past relationship is a hidden source of tension.

• 骆方 (Luò Fāng) – A timid, cowardly classmate whom Song Musi dislikes. Later revealed to have a peanut allergy. [Dead]

• 徐杭泉 (Xú Hángquán) & 徐杭佳 (Xú Hángjiā) – Self-centered siblings; both are classmates disliked by Song Musi. [Dead]

• 周至 (Zhōu Zhì) – A smooth-talking, socially adept classmate (possibly a surgeon); Song Musi finds him insincere.

• 梁青 (Liáng Qīng) – An insecure and overly sensitive classmate; another person Song Musi dislikes.

• 牧星朝 (Mù Xīngcháo) – A hypocritical rich kid (富二代) with a photography hobby; Xu Shuangyuan’s boyfriend.

• 许双园 (Xǔ Shuāngyuán) – Proud and arrogant; Mu Xingchao’s girlfriend, whom Song Musi resents.

• 林怀平 (Lín Huáipíng) – Jiang Zhi’s cousin who joins the group through her; displays incompetent arrogance, disliked by Song Musi. [Dead]

• 陈警官 (Captain Chen) – A recently acquainted police detective; annoys Song Musi by replying slowly to messages.

Sevyn here ~~~

I agree with Zhong Xu, introducing new characters out of nowhere is meh, unless it's executed really well...

Enjoy!