Chapter 095: The Murderer

Although the production crew had given them no hints at all, none of the people here were fools. Song Wan did not really believe that Li Fan would fail to guess anything.

But since Li Fan had already said he wanted to form an alliance, she would not be foolish enough to expose him outright.

Song Wan exchanged a glance with Guo Feng and nodded. “All right then, Brother Li. But you absolutely cannot betray us.”

Li Fan naturally agreed.

The three of them formed an alliance, and the others were not about to fall behind. Soon, a temporary team had come together.

Only Zheng Fang was left alone, forced to leave in embarrassment because of the exchange between Song Wan and him.

Now that they had allied, there was no reason to keep everything from Li Fan anymore.

As soon as they got into the car, Li Fan could not wait to ask Song Wan, “After the production crew’s text message came, why did you think Zheng Fang was the one who kidnapped the director? Had you already found some clue so early?”

Song Wan shook her head at once, her expression uncertain. “Actually, we’re not sure whether the culprit is really Brother Zheng, but…”

She looked at Guo Feng, only to see that Guo Feng was utterly convinced. “It has to be Zheng Fang. Song Wan, you’re just too kind, which is why you’d think Zheng Fang isn’t the culprit.” His eyes rolled, his face dark with resentment. “This is the final episode. Who knows what kind of tricks the production crew will pull? What Zheng Fang said before was really far too suspicious.”

Li Fan, however, did not quite agree with Guo Feng. Song Wan, kind? Was he kidding?

Song Wan had often teamed up with Guo Feng and Zheng Fang before, and the internet had already spawned pairings between Song Wan and Zheng Fang as a father-daughter duo, and between Song Wan and Guo Feng as a sibling duo. Their popularity was extremely high, even surpassing the Wan-Jing pairing that the show had intentionally or unintentionally hyped.

So where had that popularity come from?

First, Zheng Fang and Song Wan were both rather open in personality, so their group produced joke after joke and memorable lines, naturally earning them the most screen time from the production crew.

Second, the atmosphere between the three of them was good; they really did feel like a family.

And third, which was the most maddening of all, and the part everyone else resented most—

Song Wan was practically cheating. Not only did her intelligence and emotional awareness crush everyone else, but her stamina was even better than the young and robust Wu Jin’s, and she was especially fast. But even that was not enough. After all, Qin Hui was the smartest of them all.

Yet Song Wan’s luck was outrageously good.

When everyone searched for the same thing, the others often had to turn the place upside down to find a single item, but what about Song Wan? She could wander casually to some random spot, not even looking seriously, merely strolling around for fun, and the thing would just appear right in front of her.

Because of this trait, even Qin Hui, whose intelligence was absurdly high, was practically driven to tears by Song Wan almost every time. As for the others, there was no need to mention them.

Someone like Song Wan would probably only be considered “kind” by Zheng Fang and Guo Feng, right?

Li Fan turned his head, and the expression caught on camera made one want to pity him for three seconds.

But he had just teamed up with Guo Feng and Song Wan. If he pointed this out now, it would definitely cause discord within the team. Besides... the one who would get tricked today was not him, so he could smile and enjoy the show.

Even though Li Fan would later be slapped in the face by his own arrogance and scheming after the episode aired, at this moment he was indeed in a very good mood.

Li Fan: After being bullied all season, finally getting a chance to bully someone else, and you still won’t let me enjoy it a little?

Song Wan seemed somewhat unwilling to believe it, yet unable to convince herself otherwise. She let out a helpless little laugh and fell silent.

Only Li Fan was left confused, while kind-hearted Guo Feng hurried to explain to him, “Wasn’t nobody calling us to start working earlier? We all went to ask the director, and then we found out the director was gone. At the time, Zheng Fang didn’t look especially panicked at all. He just told us that maybe one of our fans could not stand how the production crew had tortured us all season, so they kidnapped the director.”

Guo Feng still found it unbelievable to this day. “Then the text message came just now, and its contents were practically identical to what he said. It’s hard for us not to suspect him. Otherwise, how did he know what the message said?”

Li Fan was a little stunned, but he quickly spotted the flaw in that logic. “But if Zheng Fang really were the culprit, he couldn’t possibly have told you the contents of the text directly, could he? Wouldn’t that be deliberately arousing your suspicion?”

“That’s exactly the part I’ve never been able to figure out, which is why I’ve never been able to determine whether Brother Zheng is the culprit,” Song Wan sighed, seeming troubled.

Only then did Li Fan remember that Song Wan had always doubted Zheng Fang’s guilt.

In contrast, Guo Feng had been insisting all along that Zheng Fang was the culprit.

Still, that made sense. Among their iron triangle, Guo Feng had always been the physical powerhouse, which is to say he was all brawn and no brain.

Ahem. Li Fan turned his head and met Guo Feng’s eyes.

Guo Feng thought Li Fan was asking for his opinion, and immediately clenched a fist. “It has to be that bastard Zheng Fang! Think about it: how many times have we worked with Zheng Fang this season? If he were the culprit, wouldn’t it be way too heartless not to give us even a single hint?”

So you think that since Zheng Fang chose to be the culprit, he would still have a conscience?

Or are you saying that, with how much you suspect Zheng Fang, you actually think you have a conscience?

Li Fan stared at Guo Feng in astonishment, then received a friendly pat on the shoulder from Song Wan.

“Brother Li, you’ll get used to it.”

“Hey! Song Wan, save me some face in front of Li Fan!” Guo Feng was unhappy and kept glowering at Song Wan. “How can you undermine me in front of Li Fan?”

“But...”

Li Fan finally could not hold back. “Guo Feng, you’re the one undermining yourself!”

Because of this interruption from Guo Feng, Li Fan’s suspicion of Zheng Fang dropped considerably, but he still could not completely dismiss it.

The best he could do was stay wary from a distance.

Song Wan clearly intended to do the same, so after she saw Zheng Fang in the mall, she immediately turned and ran, wanting nothing to do with facing him head-on.

Zheng Fang was so angry that he practically stamped his feet on the spot. “Song Wan, I really am not the culprit. Why don’t you believe me?”

Hearing this, Song Wan stopped. After hesitating for a moment, she said, “I am willing to believe you, but Brother Guo says the culprit must be you. I... I think what he said makes a lot of sense.”

“Guo Feng?” Zheng Fang had not expected that answer. “Why would he say for sure that I’m the culprit? Just because what I said happened to match the production crew’s text?”

Song Wan looked back while retreating step by step. “Maybe.”

Zheng Fang grew anxious and wanted to come closer, only to frighten Song Wan. She immediately turned and ran again.

With no other choice, Zheng Fang could only shout to stop her. “Hey, hey, don’t run! I’m not coming over, all right? Just stay there. I won’t come over!”

Song Wan hesitated for a moment, then finally stopped. “Brother Zheng, I still don’t think you’re the culprit for now, but that coincidence of yours is just too... Brother Guo said that might very well be the clue you left for us, so... Brother Zheng, you should hurry and find the clue the production crew left behind, then clear yourself of suspicion.”

After leaving him with that warning, Song Wan ran off without the slightest hesitation.

Zheng Fang could not stop her even if he wanted to.

“Is the production crew messing with me in this episode? Why is the whole game set up exactly like one of my jokes? If I were Guo Feng, I’d suspect I was the culprit too!” Zheng Fang blinked, so angry he was speechless. “Damn it...”

He turned around, deciding to take Song Wan’s advice and quickly began searching for clues.

About five minutes later, he found a note inside a suit.

Director, you are truly detestable! Why did you make my idol look so ugly?

Zheng Fang blinked. “Idol? Ugly?”

He spun around on the spot several times, then had a flash of insight. “Idol is usually used for young people, right? And if it says my idol was made ugly, that means this fan likes a young celebrity who is very good-looking!”

He clapped his hands together and could no longer restrain himself. “So the possible culprit has to be either Song Wan or Wu Jin!”

After thinking it over, he locked his gaze directly on Wu Jin. “The culprit has to be him!”

He practically could not wait to turn around and go find Song Wan. “I still trust Song Wan and Guo Feng the most, but Guo Feng is now absolutely convinced that I’m the culprit. If I go to Guo Feng with the clue now, he might even think I forged it! So my top priority right now is to find Song Wan and tell her that the culprit is Wu Jin!”

He hurried into the elevator, but before he even reached his destination, a broadcast voice rang out:

“Players, you have thirty minutes left to search for clues. In thirty minutes, you will proceed to the first round of voting to identify the culprit. Please find the voting room and cast your vote before then, or the director will be executed.”

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