absurd deduction game.

Chapter 1110 The Unfortunate Astronomer

The sequence of events is actually quite clear.

"First of all, a week ago, those three students went to the school at night because they 'vaguely saw the figure of a monster,' which aroused their curiosity, and they were eventually killed by the Fantasy Princess. This happened about four days after the arrival of the first-stage deducer."

Yu Xing slowly organized the information and said, "The fact that the monster's figure was released means that someone had already opened that hand-drawn book before the students. But there were no earlier corpses at the scene, which means that Princess Fantasy did not attack the first person who opened it."

"So, the most likely scenario is that the first person to open the picture book is its owner, or rather, the person who placed it."

“This person deliberately used picture books to lure three students to their deaths, creating a bizarre murder case. His purpose was to attract the investigators who had already arrived in town to investigate.” He put down his water glass. “Although the process was delayed for various reasons, the goal was finally achieved tonight.”

“And the result was—” Yu Xing pointed to the actual files on the ground, “In the ‘Battle between the Investigators and the Monsters,’ all the files in the old archives were ‘accidentally’ destroyed. The school won’t blame the investigators; they’ll even thank us for dealing with the monsters. Naturally, they won’t pursue the matter of the destroyed files. And these destroyed ‘files’ will never be looked at again.”

Carlos's eyes flashed, and he immediately replied, "So, the person who placed the picture books had a real goal: to have all the files in the old archives destroyed legitimately and without anyone holding them accountable. The investigators were just a tool."

He was quick-witted and immediately connected it to their real objective: "Is it because we, or rather other investigators, might come across the astronomer from thirty years ago during our haphazard investigation? He doesn't want any possible information about that astronomer to be found."

Yi Qing waved her jade-bone fan and asked with a smile, "If that's the case, why didn't he secretly destroy or take away the target information when no one was paying attention during these decades? Since he could put it in a picture book, sneaking into the old archives should not have been difficult for him."

“Stealing a specific document is certainly easy,” Yu Xing said. “But if someone with ulterior motives finds a clue and comes to the archives to investigate, only to discover that a certain key document is missing, they will immediately lock onto the target and confirm their suspicions. This is tantamount to admitting guilt. Of course, there may also be other concerns that we are unaware of, which prevent him from simply stealing the document.”

"Then why not just burn this old archive room down?" Yi Qing asked again, his idea being much more direct and violent.

"Arson?" Yu Xing chuckled lightly. "Leaving aside the difficulty of setting fire to a school blessed by the Mother Goddess, once a fire breaks out, the school and the church will undoubtedly do everything in their power to track down the arsonist. That 'illustrator of the picture book' probably isn't entirely confident that he can completely evade the church's investigation. More importantly—"

He looked at the files piled on the ground: "Before this, these old files were ignored. If he rashly destroyed a pile of untouched things, wouldn't he be deliberately arousing suspicion? He obviously understands the principle of 'protesting too much'."

“The sudden outbreak of monsters in Yolikev Town over the past three months has attracted a large number of investigators,” a glint of icy blue flashed in Yu Xing’s eyes. “This is probably a variable that even the ‘illustrator’ did not anticipate. But this person reacted extremely quickly and immediately realized that this was both a danger and an opportunity.”

"The arrival of the investigator is dangerous, because someone might find out about his past that he doesn't want to be found out. But it is also an opportunity—the investigator becomes the perfect tool for him to 'justifiably' destroy all the files."

“If the files are destroyed in an ‘accident,’ then even if investigators later discover the astronomer’s identity and come to the old archives to find more detailed information, they will only find that… everything was ‘accidentally’ destroyed by their colleagues in their ‘ideal state’ when dealing with the monster incident. There will be no way to prove anything, and the clues will be cut off.”

The living room fell silent for a moment.

Carlos whistled: "Tsk, that's a good plan. The person behind it all is quite adept at intrigue."

Yi Qing chuckled, fanning himself: "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Little does it know that behind the oriole, there is a hunter. Interesting, truly interesting."

Yu Xing stood up, walked to the pile of real old files, and slowly scanned them with his eyes, which were like a precise scanner.

"Now, let's see how many secrets that astronomer, who went to such lengths to bury, was involved in."

They began organizing the files.

For a moment, only the rustling sound of turning pages filled the living room.

Unlike the previous battles against the fantasy princess, dealing with these vast and disorganized old files is an extremely tedious task that tests one's patience and attention to detail.

When these archives were hastily abandoned more than a decade ago, they were hardly sorted or categorized at all. The chronological order was chaotic, and faculty and staff files were mixed together with student information, meeting minutes, and even some irrelevant lists of miscellaneous items. Trying to accurately find information about a specific person from more than 30 years ago was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

To make matters worse, Yolikford Town University does not have an astronomy department.

This means that the "astronomer" mentioned in the travelogue is most likely just a teacher's personal hobby or side job, and his file may not contain a clear "astronomer" title. We need to carefully distinguish and speculate between the lines.

The two people and the ghost could only use the most clumsy method: quickly browse through the files, pick out the student files that were easy to identify at a glance, the recent files that were obviously out of date, and the purely transactional documents, and put them aside to narrow down the scope.

Just as the tidying up was about halfway done, the office door was gently pushed open.

Qu Xianqing and Zeng Lai walked in one after the other.

Qu Xianqing remained aloof and cold. His puppet body was like a tireless machine, running non-stop for two days without rusting.

Zeng Lai couldn't hold on any longer; his eyelids were drooping, and he kept yawning. His weakened spirit made him more prone to feeling exhausted than the average person.

"You're back?" Yu Xing didn't even look up, her gaze still fixed on a yellowed piece of paper in her hand. "How's things at the church?"

Qu Xianqing walked to the sofa and sat down, pouring himself a glass of water: "It's alright. I helped deal with a few corpses, participated in two purification rituals, and also inquired about the progress of other divination practitioners regarding church affairs. I've managed to become acquainted with that red-robed high priest and a few priests."

She said calmly, "The church has been the de facto power in this town for so many years, and it holds a lot of secret files and forbidden knowledge. It's a very deep place. I plan to work with Zeng Lai to focus on this line of investigation. We should be able to dig something out."

She glanced at Zeng Lai, who was slumped over with exhaustion, and said to Yu Xing, "He can't hold on any longer, let him go and rest first."

Yu Xing nodded.

Qu Xianqing then said to Zeng Lai, "Go to your room and sleep."

Zeng Lai felt like she had been granted a pardon. She mumbled, "Thank you, Sister Qu. Goodnight, everyone," and then practically groped her way upstairs with her eyes closed.

After seeing Zeng Lai off, Qu Xianqing naturally joined the ranks of those organizing the files.

She is extremely efficient; with a glance, she can quickly and accurately sift out useless information.

With Qu Xianqing's addition, the progress has obviously accelerated a lot.

Time slipped away silently as I turned the pages. The night outside the window remained dark, but dawn was not far off.

Suddenly, Yu Xing paused. His gaze fixed on a file with exceptionally thin paper and somewhat blurred handwriting.

The archive belongs to a geography teacher named Riel, and the record date is thirty-two years ago, which coincides closely with the period in which travel writer Edgar White was active.

According to the records, Riel was 27 years old at the time, married, and had a young son. He lived on Rose Avenue, not far from the university.

What Yu Xing noticed was that the file specifically mentioned in the "Remarks and Special Skills" section that Riel "was quite accomplished in both astronomy and geography, two interconnected sciences," and that he "had two years of adventurous experience" before becoming a teacher.

Even more noteworthy is the note at the end of the file: "He appears to have been blessed by the 'Knowledge Messenger' of the true god, and has shown extraordinary comprehension in the academic field."

His age, occupation, hobbies, and even adventurous experiences all closely match those of the "astronomer friend" mentioned in his travelogue!
“I’ve found one with a very high probability.” Yu Xing pulled out the file separately and placed it on the coffee table. “Rie’er, a geography teacher, was 27 years old 32 years ago. He loved astronomy, had adventurous experiences, and may have been blessed by the ‘Knowledge Messenger’. He lived on Rose Avenue. You should take a look too.”

Carlos, Qu Xianqing, and Yi Qing all came over to take a look.

“It looks plausible.” Carlos stroked his chin. “Next, we just need to confirm whether this Riel is still alive, or find his family and ask if he had a writer friend when he was young, and we can be pretty sure.”

“Rose Avenue…that’s an upper-middle-class residential area. If you haven’t moved, it should be relatively easy to find,” Qu Xianqing added.

Afterwards, the group found several other faculty and staff files from similar periods that had some special notes or interests. They set them aside as alternatives, planning to verify them separately the next morning.

When the clock struck four in the morning, the mountain of files piled up in the living room was finally sifted through.

Useful, potentially valuable files were sorted out, while the remaining large amount of useless scrap paper was collected by Carlos with a magic trick and stuffed into some unknown corner of another dimension, instantly restoring the living room to its tidy state.

“So, tomorrow…” Carlos stretched, “I’ll go check out the other potential targets?”

“Okay.” Yu Xing nodded. “I’ll go to Rose Avenue to find this Riel.”

“Zeng Lai and I will continue to go to church,” Qu Xianqing said.

Yi Qing waved his fan and said with a smile, "Then I'll just... wander around aimlessly, maybe I'll hear some interesting gossip."

With the plan set, the group dispersed to wash up and rest.

Yu Xing returned to her room, but instead of going to sleep immediately, she leaned against the headboard and sorted out her plans for tomorrow.

During the day, his destination is Rose Avenue, where he is looking for the Riel family.

If he's lucky, the family still lives at the original location, and he might be able to meet Riel himself, or his wife and son, and learn from them what happened back then and Riel's later fate.

If you have already moved, you need to ask your neighbors where you are going.

In the worst-case scenario, the entire family may be no longer alive, but even so, the neighbors might reveal a "tragedy by accident" or a "sudden relocation," which in itself is a clue.

In the evening, he was required to fulfill his promise to attend the art exhibition at the Glamour Gallery as Mrs. Funnel's companion and bodyguard.

Yu Xing's eyes flickered slightly as she thought of the art exhibition.

The gallery owner, Evan Clifford, creates paintings that harbor monsters that can influence people's minds, which is already highly abnormal.

The "Fantasy Princess" they encountered tonight was also represented by a hand-drawn book.

Although the forms of expression are not entirely the same, they all essentially involve entrusting extraordinary power to artistic creation in order to achieve a certain purpose.

It's hard not to draw parallels between these two things.

Perhaps the gallery owner and the person who placed the sketchbooks in the old archives—these two seemingly independent clues—will ultimately point to the same person, or at least the same force.
Yu Xing thought it would be quite interesting. Once he met the painter in person, he would be able to tell whether the painter was a nut to be cracked. Speaking of which, he would have to find time to eat with him.

His need for nutrients is inexhaustible; this is the very nature of trees—greedy and unrestrained.

Having made up her mind, Yu Xing temporarily suppressed the jumbled clues in her mind.

He closed his eyes, no longer suppressing his body's instinctive needs. His consciousness slowly sank, like tree roots penetrating the earth, entering a unique state of rest between sleep and meditation, restoring his energy while maintaining the most basic perception of his surroundings.

The next morning, Yu Xing returned to Wind Chime Avenue.

Grandma Pearl's bakery had just opened, and the air was already filled with the comforting aroma of freshly baked wheat.

"Good morning, Mr. Investigator." When Granny Pearl saw Yu Xing, a kind smile immediately appeared on her face. "What would you like today? The freshly baked raisin and almond rolls are quite nice."

"Good morning, Grandma. Two almond rolls, please." Yu Xing smiled and paid, casually taking over the conversation, "By the way, Grandma, I wanted to ask you about someone. Do you know a Mr. Riel? About thirty years ago, he was a geography teacher at the town's university, and I think he lived on Rose Avenue."

Upon hearing the name "Rui'er," Granny Pearl's smile froze for a moment.

A complex emotion flickered in the depths of her eyes, which always radiated warmth and kindness, as if a painful memory had been unexpectedly stirred up. The emotion was a mixture of worry, regret, and deep pity.

She subconsciously wiped her hands with her apron, her voice unconsciously lowering as if afraid of disturbing something: "Rie... sigh, why are you suddenly asking about him? That boy... he's such a pity, such an unfortunate young man..."

Yu Xing's heart stirred slightly.

More than thirty years have passed. If Riel were alive today, he would probably be about the same age as Granny Pearl.

When Kerr refers to someone as a "young person," it usually means only one thing—that person's life is already frozen in their youth.

He may have found the right person.