novelraw Chapter 7: The Locked Room Scene in a Snowstorm + All the Murderers
Chapter 7: The Locked Room Scene in a Snowstorm + All the Murderers
"What a novel concept."
"A group of people were trapped in a closed environment, unable to contact the outside world, and external rescue could not intervene, while the murderer was hiding among them."
"This setting greatly enhances the tension and suspense of the story."
Editor Peng Lai thought to himself, his opinion of the manuscript rising even higher.
On Earth, this mode is known as the "locked room mystery mode" or "island mode".
It originated in Agatha Christie's novel "And Then There Were None".
Its ingenious plot and subversive narrative structure have been referenced and used by countless mystery novels, films, television series and comics.
But this is the first time it has appeared on Earth.
Editor Penglai, seeing an opportunity, slowed down her reading pace and continued scrolling down.
The next morning, the train conductor found a Russian businessman named Reichet dead in his compartment.
Death details: He was stabbed 12 times, a gruesome sight.
On-site: The door to the private room was locked from the inside, and although the window was open, there were no footprints on the snow outside.
Contradiction: The deceased had received death threats and tried to hire X to protect him, but X refused.
He seemed like a despicable villain, and everyone appeared to have a motive to kill him.
Interesting. A locked-room murder?
Penglai, who was reviewing the manuscript, raised an eyebrow slightly.
Locked-room murders are a common crime tactic in suspense and mystery fiction, and have been overused by countless novelists and comic book artists, so it's not easy to come up with something new.
At the same time, the design of methods for murders in locked rooms is also recognized as highly difficult.
Background: When the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia was extremely short of goods, and a large number of merchants carried cash and goods to Moscow to resell them on the Orient Express.
The train departs from Beijing and leaves Erenhot, then enters Mongolia and Russia, where it spends six days and six nights in a lawless zone.
Many criminal gangs have sprung up.
Ratchett was one of them.
In a carjacking, he brutally murdered a 'couple'.
The other members of the gang have been arrested and sentenced by the Xia State police in accordance with the law.
But Reichert is Russian.
The Xia State police had no choice but to hand him over to the Russian police. (Principle of territorial jurisdiction, red line of national sovereignty)
Russian law once stipulated that if the police could not find conclusive evidence to prove a suspect's guilt within four hours, they must release him.
Ultimately, Ratchett escaped legal punishment by exploiting this loophole.
As X investigates, he discovers that the twelve seemingly unrelated passengers on the train are all connected to a train hijacking that occurred five years prior on the Orient Express.
X gathered everyone in the dining car and announced his findings, presenting two conclusions.
[First conclusion: The murderer is in this carriage, one of the twelve passengers in the carriage.]
They were the victim's family members, friends, and the officers who handled the case at the time.
In order to seek justice that the law could not provide, they formed a civilian jury and conspired to commit the murder.
They took turns stabbing the victim, symbolizing a belated trial and blood for blood on behalf of the geese.
Holy crap!
"They were all murderers!"
Penglai gasped, feeling a chill run down his spine.
In Xia Kingdom, no, in all of Blue Star's current detective novels, the murderer is usually hidden among one or a few people.
This was the first time he had ever seen a script where everyone was an accomplice.
This is a groundbreaking script!
This is the first scenario on Earth involving "collective crime" and "everyone being a murderer"!
X has uncovered the truth. What will he do?
Penglai was eager to know the answer to this question.
but...
"What are you looking at?"
The other editors in the group were drawn to Penglai's reaction and turned to look at him.
What kind of script could elicit such a strong reaction from him?
"A suspenseful mystery script, the first case in Detective X, 'Murder on the Orient Express'."
At everyone's insistence, Penglai briefly introduced the plot, and then everyone looked at the second conclusion.
[Second conclusion: The murderer was an outsider. He boarded the train while it was stopped, killed Ratchett, and then jumped off to escape.]
X suddenly laughed, and the twelve passengers echoed his laughter, applauding X's brilliant reasoning.
Outside the script, Penglai also laughed, and his laughter infected the other editors.
"The first conclusion is the truth, isn't it?" an editor whispered.
Although not explicitly stated in the script, the implications are clear enough.
If the murderer was an outsider, why were there no footprints on the snow outside the window?
Surely the murderer couldn't have left from another carriage?
"Who cares?" Penglai muttered, and began writing the preliminary recommendation report.
He plans to use his one direct referral slot per quarter to guarantee admission to this script.
A few hours later, the script for "Detective X" and Penglai's initial review report were printed out and appeared on the desk of Director Zhuo, the head of Tencent Pictures.
Director Zhuo, whose full name is Zhuo Yuanhang, is a senior producer recently recruited by Tencent Video. He is known for his sharp eye and willingness to bet on new themes.
At the same time, he was the driving force behind the public submission channel strategy.
He quickly browsed through the initial review and recommendation report and initial review evaluation from the editor, Penglai.
"A highly innovative suspense thriller script with the potential to become a blockbuster."
"Interesting, is this a direct recommendation from the editor?"
This is the first time in two months that an editor has directly recommended a work submitted to the public.
Editors can directly recommend candidates, and each editor has one slot, but very few editors use it.
If a script that was directly promoted is ultimately filmed and flops, the editor will not be held responsible by the system.
But rules are rules, and reality is reality.
In reality, someone has to be held responsible when such a problem occurs.
Who should take the blame, the director or the editor?
That's so hard to guess.
The answer is that both will be blamed: the director will have his performance bonus deducted (possibly), and the editor will be asked to leave.
Therefore, the editor will not use this spot unless they are very confident about the script.
Director Zhuo opened the script and began to read it carefully.
Lin Yi's submission to "Detective X" only included one case: "Murder on the Orient Express".
The original novel of "Murder on the Orient Express" is about 11 words long when translated into Chinese, but the screenplay is much shorter, about 3 words.
The light outside the office gradually slanted and dimmed.
Director Zhuo spent three hours reading the 3-word script.
After reading the last page, he took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long sigh of relief.
He looked exhausted, but his eyes shone with light.
Editor Penglai's judgment was correct.
In the domestic market, this script has the potential to become a hit due to its solid reasoning core, but it is unlikely to reach the level of a phenomenon that will be discussed by the entire nation.
It's so hardcore!
This is actually a drawback.
However, Director Zhuo saw far more than that; he saw a universality.
A universality that ignores cultural context.