Rules Ch.183

Chapter 183: Snow Mountain (8)

Because the matter involved personal privacy, Lucas originally intended to take Ella aside and question her in private for more details.

However, perhaps due to a series of shocks—Professor Samuel’s death, seeing the corpse, and being questioned by others—Ella seemed to break down completely. She actually confessed everything while crying, as if she had given up on herself.

“Sob… I didn’t want this either, but the professor… he threatened me. He said if I didn’t obey him, I wouldn’t get my scholarship, and I wouldn’t even receive my degree certificate. My family isn’t well-off like the others. The professor said it would only happen once, so I agreed, but he… he secretly recorded it. He used the video to threaten me, so I had no choice but to listen to him…”

“Oh, poor girl.”

The blonde woman sitting next to Ella, Hilda, sighed sympathetically and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, gently patting her head.

The matter had been bottled up for too long. With even the slightest kindness shown to her, Ella immediately collapsed into Hilda’s arms and began crying uncontrollably.

“Tch, as expected. That professor looked all bloated and greasy—just by appearance you could tell he wasn’t a good person.”

“What a beast. Someone like him deserved to die!”

Since Ella was crying so hard that she couldn’t be questioned further, Lucas had no choice but to turn his attention to the other three students.

“Did you know about this?”

Under his sharp gaze, the three students either stammered or looked away in silence. Although none of them said it outright, it was obvious—they were all aware of the professor’s abuse of Ella.

Seeing their reactions, the group didn’t know what to say for a moment.

After waiting quietly for a while, until Ella’s sobbing slightly subsided, Lucas asked again:

“So, Ella, is that why you came to resent the professor—and killed him after sneaking into his room last night?”

“No! I didn’t kill the professor! Sob… it wasn’t me!”

“Don’t keep pretending. Out of everyone here, you’re the only one with both motive and a keycard. If the professor saw you entering the room, he would never have been on guard—maybe even the position of the body was something you made him take…”

Smack!

Fatima’s sharp words were cut off as Ella, her eyes red, suddenly raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face.

“Shut up!” The usually timid and self-deprecating Ella stood up from the sofa, her face flushed red like an enraged lioness. Her voice trembled with anger. “Yes, you’re so noble, aren’t you? Rich, powerful family, even the professor treated you with respect. But you’re not as clean as you pretend to be. Don’t think I don’t know—what happened to Hannah back then…”

Fatima had clearly never been slapped before. She froze, eyes wide, clutching her face in shock for a moment. Then, snapping back to reality, she let out a piercing scream and lunged at Ella, hands reaching for her throat. “You filthy bitch! How dare you hit me!”

Just as the two were about to violently clash, the people around quickly rushed in to pull them apart.

“Alright, alright, solving the case is more important right now.”

“Yes, let’s find the killer first…”

Although they said that, from the flickering expressions in everyone’s eyes, it was obvious—they had already begun to suspect Ella as the culprit.

“It wasn’t me! I’ve endured everything for so long already. The professor finally agreed to let me join his research. I had no reason to kill him at a time like this! And I don’t have the courage to kill anyone either, sob…”

“Who knows? Maybe you were overwhelmed by hatred and acted on impulse.”

“No, no, no, no, I didn’t! I didn’t!!”

“Enough, stop arguing for now.” Lucas’s head was starting to ache from the noise. “So far, Ella is indeed the most suspicious, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us are innocent. There’s still one thing I haven’t been able to figure out—disemboweling someone and removing their organs is extremely painful, so why didn’t any of us hear the professor scream last night?”

“Someone stuffed the professor’s mouth shut?”

“No. If something had been stuffed into his oral cavity, under extreme pain the victim would have struggled—biting, trying to vomit it out, or swallowing it. That would leave clear marks around the lips and mouth. But I examined it carefully: the victim’s oral cavity was clean. There were also no signs of struggle or scratching on his hands, which is almost unimaginable…”

As he said this, Lucas turned his head and looked toward Everly.

From beginning to end, she had been sitting there as if it had nothing to do with her—detached, distracted, as though no matter how many secrets were dug out from this group of people, it would not affect her solving the case at all.

To be honest, he felt a bit frustrated—but more than that, there was a strong sense of curiosity and investigative drive.

This case was difficult to solve.

On one hand, they were deep in the mountains with limited conditions. There was no forensic doctor or professional equipment, making it impossible to estimate the exact time of death, let alone extract fingerprints or bodily fluids from the corpse or crime scene for analysis.

On the other hand, as a novelist, Lucas could not conduct thorough background checks like the police, nor could he forcefully search suspects or inspect their luggage. This led to many crucial gaps in information.

In addition, due to the lack of enforcement power, even if he suspected someone was hiding something during questioning, if they steeled themselves and refused to speak, he had no way to obtain that information.

For a reasoning-based investigator who required a large amount of data to form strict logical conclusions, these conditions were nothing short of disastrous.

Of course, Lucas believed that if he was given enough time to investigate, he would definitely be able to peel back the layers and find the culprit. After all, the case itself was not complicated, and the pool of suspects was limited.

But Lucas had no intention of continuing the investigation.

Compared to this murder case, he was far more interested in Old John and the other three.

The four of them each seemed somewhat mysterious. It was as if a layer of fog surrounded them—clearly sitting in the lobby, calmly chatting with everyone in a very harmonious way, yet still carrying a faint sense of detachment, as though they did not truly belong in their surroundings.

Especially the girl named Everly. While Lucas himself still had no leads in the case, she had actually claimed she had already found the killer?!

How was that even possible—how could she have figured it out?

“Miss Everly, I have now shared all the information I’ve gathered. Next, it’s your turn… When the body was first discovered, you already claimed that you had solved this murder case. I’m looking forward to your reasoning.”

Lucas spoke in a seemingly polite tone, though his words carried a faint edge of sarcasm.

The people in the lobby clearly hadn’t expected Lucas to actually take the ramblings of a young girl seriously, nor to let her analyze the case in such a formal way. A commotion broke out among them.

Everly didn’t care about their reactions.

She nodded, stood up, and said calmly, “Yes, I do know who the killer is… If you want to know, follow me.”

“No way, is she serious?”

“Who knows. Even the famous Noah Pipe couldn’t find the culprit—what could a girl like her possibly know? She’s probably just used to being flattered and has gotten carried away, thinking people will believe anything she says.” Daniel spoke the loudest, his tone dripping with jealousy.

“By the way… where are we going?”

The buzzing discussions did not affect Everly at all. In the following time, she walked with an upright posture and steady steps, leading a large group of people around various corners of the inn.

Every so often, she would pause briefly and carefully search inconspicuous places—such as the hooks of hallway paintings, decorative lamps, flowerpots, and other overlooked spots. From these places, she would pull out one black object after another.

The devices ranged in size—some were as big as a fist, like cigarette boxes, while others were as small as buttons, cleverly stuck onto the iron hooks of wall paintings and blending seamlessly into the decorative patterns. Without careful inspection, they were nearly impossible to notice. Some required a power connection, while others were battery-powered and extremely compact…

Lucas, being experienced and knowledgeable, quickly realized what they were.

“You actually installed hidden cameras in the inn?!” he exclaimed, staring at Everly.

As a family-run inn, and out of privacy considerations, the lodge had not installed surveillance cameras in places like entrances or hallways, unlike most hotels. It was likely because of this that the killer had felt confident enough to commit murder so openly at night.

Yet who could have expected that among these twelve guests—this gathering of notable individuals—a strange mix of victim, killer, and amateur detective novelist—there would be someone like Everly?

She had actually installed miniature cameras throughout the first and second-floor corridors, and even outside the hotel windows!

To be honest, if she had done this anywhere else, she would have been reported to the police immediately. It was only because everyone was now trapped on a snow-covered mountain and urgently needed to solve the murder that the group suppressed their anger and said nothing.

“Alright, they’re all collected now. As long as we remove the memory cards and transfer the footage to a computer, the identity of the killer will be obvious—”

As Everly removed the last camera stuck outside the window and turned around to call everyone back, a sudden scream of terror came from the back of the group.

“AAAAAAAH!”

“Th-there’s been a murder!”

Hearing the scream, everyone instinctively turned toward the source of the sound.

At the very back of the group, Hilda had somehow produced a sharp knife. Just moments earlier, while everyone’s attention had been focused on Everly’s hidden cameras, she swung the blade cleanly and slashed at Daniel’s neck.

The blade pierced into Daniel’s neck, going in nearly ten centimeters. When it was pulled out, a surge of blood sprayed outward, splattering onto Fatima beside him. She had never seen such a bloody scene before—she froze for a moment, then let out a piercing scream.

At that point, Hilda seemed to have gone completely berserk. She yanked out the boning knife and, in one fluid motion, swung it toward the screaming girl.

Lucas sensed something was wrong and shoved Fatima aside, causing her to narrowly avoid the slash aimed at her neck.

But Fatima was clearly overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events. After regaining her footing, she did not seek help from the others around her. Instead, her legs went weak like noodles, and she stumbled forward, screaming as she fled down the corridor.

“Stop!”

Seeing this, Hilda roared. She kicked Lucas hard, and before anyone else could react, she grabbed her knife and chased after Fatima.

Daniel remained standing in place, bewildered and terrified. He clutched his neck while coughing up blood and making strange gurgling sounds.

That single strike had clearly severed both his carotid artery and his trachea. No matter how desperately he tried to press on the wound, blood continued to gush out like a spring.

Within moments, he suffocated and bled out too heavily to sustain himself, swayed, and collapsed to the ground with a dull thud.

“Help him… someone help him! Does anyone know first aid?!”

“Hilda is attacking Fatima! Someone stop her!”

The chaos in the corridor continued for quite a while. By the time Everly, Old John, and Lucas finally pushed through the crowd and ran toward Hilda, she had already caught up with Fatima.

She was now straddling the girl, frantically stabbing at her head and neck again and again.

Shhk! Shhk! Shhk…

The boning knife had a sharp tip and a heavy spine. Each strike produced a chilling sound as the blade met bone. Occasionally, when the angle was right, the knife would plunge into places without bone—like the mouth or eye socket—before being yanked out violently. With each eruption of blood, Fatima’s body would twitch slightly like a dying fish.

A large amount of blood flowed from the girl’s slashed throat, pooling into a wide puddle beneath Fatima’s body.

With injuries like these, and in the middle of a remote mountain, unless a miracle occurred, Fatima was clearly beyond saving as well.

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