Park Shi ——— a record of the embers.

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This is the final chapter of the whole affair.

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I have recorded the events that happened in the dog meat shop from August 1st to 4th. But every time I reread the first nine chapters of the notebook, I couldn't help but smile bitterly.

It's also an autobiography I wrote for myself (it can be classified as a suspenseful autobiography). Can this passage be what some call a "self-fulfilling prophecy"? My own language had a great influence on my thinking, and in the end, the genre of this notebook became a little bit "suspenseful".

Suppose ten years later, I had completely forgotten what had happened at the Dog Meat Factory, when I found it in the drawer of my desk and read the first nine chapters of this notebook.

What would I think?

Can I really tell the truth of the matter accurately?

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Now, it's kind of funny just to think about it.

From this point of view, at the end of my note, I have written down some words, which may be regarded as the "answer essay" that I have written for my future self.

Did ——— Anzheng really commit suicide?

If it was killed, then who was the murderer?

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In the following, I will record my conclusions on this issue.

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An Zheng was found at the scene at the time.

——— large barrel room on the second floor is in a state of full secret room.

There were only two doors at the entrance to the vat house. The two doors were tightly closed, and there was hardly a single gap, so it was impossible to use threads, needles, etc.

There are also no suspicious traces on the iron pins and pins, and the possibility that the murderer used candles, wooden sticks, etc. to create the scene of the secret room has also been ruled out.

And afterwards, after my careful observation, the possibility that the murderer used ventilation windows and drains to do things was also denied.

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I also came up with a relatively simple method, which is to break the iron pin directly above, try to keep it balanced, and then close the door forcefully, relying on vibration, to let it reset and fall into the iron pin. And I tried it on the ground.

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It turned out that it was difficult for the iron pins of the large barrel house to maintain a vertical upward state, and the rotating shaft was also loose, so it was almost impossible to keep the iron pins in a vertical upward state.

Through the above verification, the answer is already clear at a glance.

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———In that notebook, I wrote this passage.

———I think he may have been killed. No, maybe I have to think so.

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Why do I "have to think that"?

There is, of course, a basis for this.

In other words, the "secret room" itself is seamless, but the "absolute letter" found in An Zheng's room makes me suspicious.

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——— in that letter, An Zheng said that he had harmed Lei Mu, and he remembered the scene very clearly.

But——— however, I know that Raimu was not harmed.

Raimu wasn't killed by him, and not only that, but none of them harmed her.

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I understood this fact when I was observing Remu in the large room.

——— she died not from a broken throat, but from a heart attack.

The face is dark, the skin is clammy and cold, and the hands and feet are bruised.

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She didn't die from a broken throat.

At that time, several young people were so drunk that they couldn't tell the difference between east and west, and they didn't even notice that one of them was still holding a dagger across her neck.

That's the truth of the matter.

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Although I knew the truth of the matter, I didn't tell them. When the wind dagger approached Reimu, I specially covered her face with clothes, not wanting them to know the truth at all.

This was because I was calculating ——— exaggerate the accident as a murder to prevent them from reporting the errand.

Regardless of whether she died of illness or died here, as long as something happened, a large number of guards would definitely come to investigate.

This is not a good thing for me, and it can even be described as a threat.

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Because of this, I didn't devour the "absolute letter" in a hurry.

I can't help but suspect that ——— it was not written by An Zheng himself, but by someone else's imitation of his characteristic handwriting.

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Next, let's consider the issue of "secret rooms".

What exactly do I want to do through the observations and attempts mentioned above?

I just want to prove that there is only one method used by the murderer to create the "secret room scene".

After ruling out other possibilities, there was only one way left. That's what I want to prove.

So what's the only modus operandi?

——— it goes without saying that it is to harm people with ice cubes.

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Lift the iron pin diagonally, put ice cubes underneath it, and secure it. In this way, the door is closed, and when all the ice cubes are melted, the iron pin will fall into the mouth of the iron pin due to its own weight.

The killer used this old-fashioned method.

———However, the killer made a mistake.

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The killer was bent on using ice to create a "secret room scene", but on the night he carried out his plan, there was no vital ice in the dog meat shop.

Because that night, the lamb has been turned into a dish. There is no need for ice cubes to keep it fresh, and the lid on the jar is open and melts quickly.

At least in the dog meat shop, you can't make ice cubes.

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In this way——— there may be only one thing that can be thought of.

——— murderer was to run out of the valley, put the snow in an empty jar, and bring it in.

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The day, which had been gloomy, changed dramatically from the afternoon onwards.

While everyone was talking about what to do with Thunderwood, I went to the kitchen to make them tea. The scene I saw through the dark window at that time is still fresh in my memory.

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——— entire sky was covered in thick dark clouds. The trees in the forest swayed in the wind with moisture, and the earth had long since lost its color.

It was raining heavily. This also means that the snow outside the valley has already accumulated very thickly and silently.

It has been like this all these years, when it rains in the valley, it has to snow outside the valley.

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After dark, the rain did not get less, but became heavier.

When I took the burden of thunderwood to the incinerator, it rained even harder.

Although he held an umbrella, he did almost nothing. Every step was a struggle, and when I got to the incinerator, I felt that the distance was twice as long as usual.........

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In that climate, I was nervous when I rushed out of the room because I was drunk and delirious.

We hurried after him, and when we finally caught him at the gate of the courtyard, he was already sinking his head in a puddle, and his hands and feet were constantly fluttering there. If we abandon it, we will surely be drowned in less than half a moment.

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I went back to the past and nagged for a long time, in short, that night, if you want to create the final scene of An Zheng into a "secret room state", you can only bring in the snow outside the valley, and there is no other way. If so, there is only one person who can do this.

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It goes without saying that it can only be the young man's ——— wind dagger.

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First of all, if the murderer wants to get snow, he can only go out through the front or back door, and there is no other way.

That night, the front and back doors were locked, and it was impossible to open them from the inside without a key.

The next morning, I checked and there were no signs of prying on the door. There are two keys on the door, which are kept by the wind dagger for the rest of the night.

——— murderer is the Wind Dagger.

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In the middle of the night, Feng Dagger found an excuse and ran to An Zheng's room, and took advantage of his unpreparedness to strangle him by the neck with a rope from behind, killing him.

The corpse was then moved to the vat room, where he faked the illusion of suicide, and then replaced the ice with snow from an empty jar to create the final chamber.

He didn't think there would be any handwriting identification talents, so he left the forged "absolute letter" in the room.

Finally, he returned the empty jar to the table in the guest room.

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The next morning, when he got up before me and came to the meeting room, he touched the empty jar on the table to the ground, and there was still water in it.

And the night before, Feng Ji turned the wine jar upside down, and emptied all the wine inside.

——— despite this, there was still water in it, which proves that someone put snow in it during the night.

——— repeat, the murderer is the wind dagger.

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But why did he harm An Zheng?

It was not difficult to find out his motives.

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It can be summed up in one concise word, which is "sanity".

On the afternoon of the second day after the young men arrived, in the cloister of the great room, he said resolutely——— to himself, the so-called "God" is the reason of the self, or "I".

——— at the time, I could feel his absolute willpower.

But such a teenager, that night, was unfortunately involved in an unexpected turmoil. That's it.........

The woman dragged him into the boring assembly. The next day, when he woke up, he found the woman in the house with a stab cut in the throat (on the surface). And the door to the scene was also blocked from the inside, and only four people, including himself, were suspects.

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It must have been one of the four who killed Thunderwood, but I don't know who was the murderer.

Among them, everyone is possible.

Maybe he was in the chaos and confusion, and he was confused for a while, and he hurt Lei Mu, but I don't know.

How distressed and depressed he was when he thought about it!!

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When he knew that there was a secret passage on the floor of the large room that led to the cellar, his distress eased a little. Because if the scene is not completely sealed, then the possibility that the four of them are murderers will be somewhat reduced.

But when he learned that the door of the secret passage could only be opened from the large room, he was as distressed as he had been at the beginning.

I think that when he was drunk and temporarily out of control, he proposed to lock the front and back doors, and the reasons he gave were all true. Including his request to keep the key, that didn't mean anything else.

When he returned to the room, there was only one person left, and his thoughts were unstoppably concentrating in one direction.

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At the time, he must have thought so.

I may have become a murderer in a state of losing my mind, and I can't bear this "fact", but others have already acquiesced to this "fact". It must not be left unchecked, and it must not be .........

So he made a decision.

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This "fact" must be changed, and it is not an unspecified one of the four of them who has harmed Thunderwood.

It's a specific person other than himself——— who wants to make such a change.

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So he attacked An Zheng. Then fake the suicide scene to make us all believe that An Zheng is the murderer who killed Lei Mu, so as to change everyone's inherent minds.

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Under your own clear will, get rid of a person, and thus free yourself from the pain of a suspected murderer.

The reason why Wind Dagger chose An Zheng as a victim was because An Zheng had many conditions——— he was short in stature, his handwriting was easy to imitate, and he had other motives for suicide in addition to Lei Mu's affairs.

The above is my conclusion about An Zheng's death.

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Now, I sit at my desk in the cloister of the great room and write down the last section of my notes.

Carlo, the black dog, crouched at my feet, wagging his tail from time to time.

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September.

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The dog meat shop is back to its former tranquility, and the incident of a month ago is like a nightmare.

I don't know if the young people who returned to Kyoto——— especially the wind dagger——— really regained their peace of mind.

Every time I think of that young man, I can't help but compare him to my old self ———.

Then, the mood becomes depressed. That was more than a decade ago.

On the other side, in the courtyard, I put the painting I had drawn by hand in the corridor of the cellar.

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The apparition overlapped with the one I had earlier, swaying before my eyes.........

Yes!!

All right. Don't think about it anymore.

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I gently put my left hand on my heart, checked my heartbeat (I'm used to using my left hand), and thought ——— past let it pass. In the future, I will live in this courtyard for the graves of those who sleep underground for the rest of my life.

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It was going to get dark soon, and the weather outside the house was bad yesterday and today, and the rain never stopped. Maybe it's because of my state of mind, but I think there seems to be something agreeable in the sound of the rain.

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The end of the valley is very quiet, especially on quiet nights, and there is not the slightest noise except for the sound of rain.

Mountains stand behind the Dog Meat Restaurant, and the highest peaks here rise to more than a thousand feet. Tender yellow orange groves surround the houses, and the gloomy sky has no clouds.

In the quiet of the night, the buzzing of bees can be heard among the flowers. The old oak tree behind the house was very old, and the wind had broken many dead branches. It has experienced numerous storms, heavy rains and thunderstorms.

It may be able to tell a lot of strange stories, but this night, it is very quiet, and there is not a single sound.

As far as the eye can see, the surroundings are green and orange, yellow and golden, and the air is filled with the fragrance of ——— rain.

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Next.

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The clouds are low this morning. Last night's rain, though not heavy, made the land moist and fertile.

Imagine a morning like this, with mountains, clouds, and sky in harmony.

Sitting at the gate of the courtyard this morning, time seemed to be far away.

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Sitting there alone, overlooking the valley, long, wide, you can even count how many trees there are.

Looking at the magnificence of the earth and the valley, forgetting time,

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In September, in this valley of long nights all year round, the seasons are as usual.

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