Lu Yuwen thought it over, then put forward a hypothesis:

“Is there a possibility… that the killers operate under a constraint? For instance — that each of them can only kill one person per day. Yesterday, the guest in Room 305 was murdered. So in the moment of urgency, the attacker could only knock me unconscious instead.”

“That’s very plausible.” Bai Youwei nodded. “If their objective is to kill five guests, they could have gone on a direct killing spree right from the start of the game and achieved their goal quickly — but they haven’t. That means there must be some kind of restriction in place.”

Zhu Shu nodded along as well. “Exactly. When the game first began, everyone was still unfamiliar with their objectives — that would have been the most opportune time to strike, and they had anesthetic agents in their possession too, which would make dealing with anyone easy. The rules would have had to impose a limiting condition, or it would have been completely unfair to the other players.”

“Perhaps the restriction is even stricter than that…” Bai Youwei thought it over slowly. “For instance — one kill per day, and each of the five killers must personally be responsible for one death.”

“If that’s the case, they’d have to coordinate, wouldn’t they?” Su Man’s eyes went wide involuntarily. “Otherwise two of them might target the same person, or someone might kill more than they’re supposed to.”

Bai Youwei said: “So after every kill, all five of them are compelled to gather and discuss the next target. But congregating like that risks drawing attention — hence the passing of notes. And worrying that the notes might be exposed, they encrypted them, substituting a code that only the killers themselves could read.”

Su Man was muddled for a moment, then grasped it dimly. “So you’re saying the characters on that paper represent their next intended victim?”

Bai Youwei picked up the note and fell into silent thought.

The inn held fifteen guests in total. Setting aside Yan Qingwen’s five-person team and the unfortunate murdered woman, this message — out of the remaining nine people — at least five of them would be able to read it…

“Let’s run a small, harmless experiment.” Bai Youwei said.

…

Lu Yuwen’s period of wakefulness this time was somewhat longer. After holding on for roughly an hour, he drifted back into drowsy sleep.

Bai Youwei wrote out a series of notes, and together with Zhu Shu and Su Man, went downstairs to find the Inspector and made a sincere proposal:

“Inspector, since the coded message on that paper is written in Chinese characters, there’s a strong likelihood the killer knows Chinese. We’ve written a few things of a personal nature on these notes, and we’d like to show them to the other guests to observe their reactions. If anyone can read them, their expression will inevitably betray something.”

The Inspector listened and expressed his approval. “That is indeed a clever approach. And just what have you written on them?”

“Naturally, something designed to provoke an emotional response.” Bai Youwei held the prepared notes in hand and fanned them loosely, the way one might wave a folding fan. “Inspector, would you accompany us? Simply as a witness.”

“With great pleasure, my dear.” The Inspector rose without hesitation, straightened his handlebar moustache, and said, “I shall see for myself what kinds of slip-ups these people make.”

Bai Youwei smiled. “Shall we begin on the second floor?”

The first room on the second floor, Room 201, was Su Man’s — they skipped it and went to Room 202.

The woman holding the baby opened the door, her expression sullen as she looked at them. “What do you want? I’m in the middle of getting my baby down for a nap.”

“We’ve found a new note in one of the vases and we’d like you to take a look — see if you can make anything of what’s written on it.” Bai Youwei smiled and held out a small slip of paper.

On the note was written: *The child in your arms looks like something dredged up from a sewer drain.*

The woman pinched her brow and scanned it briefly, then snapped back without ceremony: “Can’t read it! None of you yellow-skinned people can read it — so how would I? Get out.”

Bai Youwei withdrew her hand, smiled pleasantly. “Sorry to disturb you. Goodbye.”

—