Chapter 132 - COULD YOU RIP MY CLOTHES, PLEASE?

SHEN JI YUN felt like his brain just blanked out after hearing that.  He stared at Luo Yan.  His long black hair cupped his small face.  His white skin seemed to be glowing under the orange hue of light from the torches that lighted the chamber.  His big peach blossom eyes were blinking at him.  His luscious red lips seemed to be pouting at him.

Shen Ji Yun swallowed hard.  If he didn't have a poker face, then his whole face would have probably already turned red by now.  But he could feel his ears heating up.  If not for the dark surrounding, the rabbit would definitely have noticed his red ears.  Another thing he should be thankful for.  

"What?" he managed to say after a while.

"I want Brother Ji Yun to tie me up," Luo Yan repeated.

"Why would you want me to do that?" he asked after making sure that he didn't hear it wrong.

Luo Yan almost laughed seeing the expression on Shen Ji Yun's face.  Granted, there's hardly really any expression on his face.  But by now, Luo Yan could tell just by the scrunching of his brows and the downward movement of his mouth that he probably thought that what Luo Yan said was a bit incredulous.  

"I have an idea.  You see, when I was talking to Guiying – that's the name of the girl wearing a yellow robe – I learned that assassinating Prince Lin Rong was not part of their plan.  The crown prince was their only target tonight.  Either Guiying was so low in the rank that she wasn't told about that part of the plan or killing the older prince really wasn't part of it.  My bet is on the latter."

"I understand.  But what does that have to do with you asking me to tie you up?" Shen Ji Yun asked, still confused.

Luo Yan chuckled.  "Brother, Ji Yun, patience.  Let me finish first.  Anyway, as I was saying, poisoning the older prince was not part of the plan.  Which meant that whoever poisoned Prince Lin Rong, it wasn't Guiying or any girls from Yuexing Pavilion.  Someone else did it.  From the type of poison used, this someone is definitely also connected to Wei.  And I bet Madam Ru knows who it is.  We just have to get it out of her."

"And getting it out of her involves tying you up?" Shen Ji Yun said, obviously still hadn't gotten over the 'tying him up' part.

"So we could make it seem like you tortured the information out of me.  You will tell her that you know that Yuexing Pavilion is working with one of Prince Lin Rong's sons.  That she was the one who gave the poison to one of them.  The poison that caused the older prince to vomit blood and collapsed."

What Luo Yan just said finally got Shen Ji Yun's thoughts on the proper order.  He was silent for a while, contemplating and analyzing all the details he just heard.  And he immediately understood what the rabbit was trying to say.

"If none of the girls from Yuexing Pavilion was responsible for Prince Lin Rong's attempted assassination, then the only people who could have poisoned him were the two people sitting beside him – his two sons.  They must have done it when the smoke appeared.  Literally using it as a smokescreen to cover their action."

Luo Yan smiled, he truly liked it when he's talking with smart people.  "Based on my experience with the poison, it's very fast acting.  If Prince Lin Rong was poisoned before the smoke bomb was thrown, then he should have collapsed sooner.  But he didn't.  He collapsed after the smoke disappeared.  There were three people closed to him during that time.  The crown prince and his two sons.  We both know it couldn't be the crown prince, being the other target himself.  So it could only be one of the older prince's two sons."

Shen Ji Yun nodded, silently agreeing with the rabbit's analysis.  "But how do we get this Madam Ru to admit her connection to them?"

"We don't need to.  We just have to see her reaction.  These NPCs, they're programmed to react differently when certain keywords were mentioned."  

That's what Luo Yan noticed during his talk with Guiying.  That made it more fair to the players.  After all, if they couldn't find any clues by observing NPCs reactions, then solving these Mysteries would take too much time.  Surely, this game wasn't that evil to not even give them that.    

Shen Ji Yun stared at Luo Yan and couldn't help but be amazed by how his brain worked.  The quick thinking and in-depth analysis just showed how smart he was.  It was really admirable.

"But do we really need to make it look like I tortured you?  Your character was not someone who's not supposed to know anything about this whole ordeal.  It wouldn't be believable to say that I got the information from you," he said, voicing his concerns.  

It wasn't because he didn't want to see him tortured, even if it was an act.  Truly, it's not because of that.

"I know.  Just tell her that I overheard her talk with Guiying.  That I found out that they're from Wei.  That would be enough," Luo Yan answered with confidence.  "If not, then we'll just improvise."

Shen Ji Yun sighed.  Looked like he couldn't really talk the rabbit out of this.  Then, he would just play along.  And if it didn't work, as the rabbit said, they just needed to improvise.  "Okay.  But simply tying you up wouldn't make it look like you were tortured."

"Well, yeah.  That's why I'll rip some part of my clothes.  And also put dirt and blood on my face.  It's so dark here, she wouldn't notice that I'm not really hurt.  Especially if lying on the ground.  But I do think this body doesn't have the strength to rip even a single fiber of this robe.  So, Brother Ji Yun," Luo Yan turned to Shen Ji Yun and smiled.  "Could you rip my clothes , please?"

And, once again, Shen Ji Yun felt his mind going blank.