Chapter 19 Puzzle

Assistant: Is the professor there?It's me. Professor: Oh?It is you!After I retired, the number of people who came to my house decreased a lot. I heard that after I retired, you were promoted to associate professor? Assistant: Huh~, this position was taken by an excellent young man transferred from other places!I can't hang out with those brats, so now I want to aspire to be a suspense novel critic.That kind of profession seems to only need to listen to the outline of the story and then comment on it. Professor: Huh?Actually not so. Assistant: Fortunately, a certain Tansha asked me to explain a library.If this thing can be done well, I can complete a gorgeous makeover.But in practice, I have encountered some difficulties. You see, it is this book that needs my review.

Professor: Oh, so it belongs to Keigo Higashino!Come to think of it, you came to me with his before, saying that you wanted to use it as a seminar material or something. Assistant: Yes.This writer is said to be good-looking, but not very good-natured, until the end of the novel did not specify who the prisoner is.It really hurts my brain to write a puzzle. Professor: This novel is the second wave of a wave of deduction of murderers through interaction with readers!I have also said before that compared to the difficulty of reasoning, it has gone up to another level. People who have not read the previous article are unlikely to write a review of this work.

Assistant: So I paid a visit to you, Professor. Professor: What an unpromising man!Then you first talk about the difference between this work and the previous one. Assistant: It's too simple. There were two suspects in the previous article, but this time there are three people.One more suspect. Professor: Fool!Everyone knows this superficial thing, listen carefully, not only that, you have to focus on the difference in the "person" in the novel.Except for the first chapter, which introduces the background of the case, the previous article is fixed from the perspective of the brother of the deceased.That is, 'the same third-person point of view'.Although some of the information he learned was deliberately 'omitted' by the author, it can be said that almost all of it was presented to the readers.This time is different.

Assistant: Oh, it was written from the perspectives of the three suspects. Professor: Yes.All chapters are written from the 'first person point of view' of these three people.Except for a few places, it basically repeats seven times in the order of Kamibayashi Takahiro-Suruga Naoyuki-Yuki Sasa Kaori to describe the entire process of the story development.The so-called "first-person same perspective", since the premise is a puzzle novel, there will be no false descriptions in the narrative part, but this may not be the case in the dialogue part.And you must always bear in mind that whenever you come across a psychological description of a situation, you will always omit something more or less.

Assistant: Hey, it's really complicated.Are there lies in the dialogue, omissions in the narrative... Professor: Let me just talk about the preparation work, and now I will help you solve the puzzle! Assistant: The theme of this case is still the love and hate between men and women. Professor: Yes.Adultery with close relatives, a man whose love is taken away by a sword, and a woman who wants to maintain her dignity after being abandoned, all kinds of entanglements related to love and emotion are written in it.It's an essential ingredient to add color to a dull mystery novel.However, if it would be too space-consuming to describe the motives and reasons of each suspect, let's cut directly to the core of the puzzle.

Assistant: Junko Langoka was abandoned by Hodaka and committed suicide.And the murderer stole the drug-infused capsule she made and secretly exchanged it with Hotaka's rhinitis medicine, but I have no idea who the real murderer is. Professor: First, let's check the suspect's chances of getting the poison capsule.The Nao no Suruga chapter from page 43 and the Kaori Yukisa chapter that follow are important chapters to kick off. Assistant: Yukisa Kaori and Suruga Naoyuki stole a capsule from Junko's room respectively. Although Takahiro Kamibayashi had no chance to get it directly, one was included in the threatening letter sent to the hotel room.

In this way, all three of them possessed poisonous capsules. Professor: On the other hand, the movement of the medicine tank is also very important.The day before the wedding, Hotaka discards two capsules he found at home that he has no memory of.Then he handed over the empty medicine cans and bottles to Miwako for safekeeping.On the day of the wedding, after Miwako took a capsule and put it in the medicine jar in the lounge, the medicine jar was passed in the following order: Miwako—Yuki Sasa Kaori—Nishiguchi—Suruga Naoyuki—Hotel waiter—Hodaka.Nishiguchi and the hotel waiter are two well-intentioned outsiders, and it is obvious that Yukisa Kaori and Suruga Naoyuki have no chance to secretly exchange capsules.

And the medicine bottle in Miwako's hand has been recovered by the police. According to Kaga's disclosure, the remaining 9 capsules in it have not been filled with poison.Plus the one that Miwako put in the medicine jar, the one that Hodaka drank with coffee mixed with coffee a few days ago in front of Miwako, plus what Hodaka said, "Oops, the medicine seems to be invalid, obviously just took it Had' This sentence deduces that he has also eaten one.In other words, this is a medicine bottle that has just been unsealed, which can rule out the possibility of Zhunzi mixing poisonous capsules in it.

Assistant: After the case happened, all relevant personnel gathered at Hodaka's mansion. Yukisa Kaori handed over the capsule she stole in Junko's room, and then Takahiro Kamibayashi also handed over the capsule attached to the threatening letter to Kaga .Suruga Naoyuki claimed that the capsule he had stolen had been discarded.However, as his situation got worse, he confessed that he was the sender of the threatening letter, and Kaga also proved it.On the next page, based on the testimony of Miwako, it is proved that Takahiro Kamibayashi did not have the opportunity to approach the handbag in the lounge.Huh?In this way, all the suspects were ruled out one by one.

Professor: Hmph, up to this point, people have the illusion that no one is likely to commit a crime. It does not mean that this writer is an ordinary person.Later, new clues were revealed, that is, the number of poison capsules made by Junko Langoka.The rhinitis medicine Zhunzi bought was new and unopened. After page 403, Kaga's speech is worth noting, that is, the part that finds out the whereabouts of all the 12 capsules that Zhunzi has tampered with. Assistant: Kaori Yukisasa and Naoyuki Suruga took one respectively, Junko used one to commit suicide, and Junko sneaked into Hodaka's room and put them in the medicine jar (thrown into the wastebasket by Hodaka), Yukisa Kaori saw the remaining six pills in the bottle, plus the one that was divided into two, making a total of twelve pills.

Professor: No, you miscalculated.What Kaga meant was that, counting the one that was divided into two halves, there were still six grains left, which meant that there were only five grains left in the bottle.Then one of Kaori Yukisasa or Naoyuki Suruga might take another one later. Assistant: Oh?So the two are still suspects. Professor: After page 425, there was another revelation: Takahiro Kamibayashi witnessed the scene where Zhunzi secretly changed the poison, and picked up the two capsules Hodaka threw into the wastebasket, and then used a cat to test the toxicity of the capsules.In this case, Takahiro Kamibayashi also had the opportunity to drop the capsule when he had dinner with Miwako on the eve of the wedding. Assistant: Wow!The three suspects came back to life at the same time!But even if the whereabouts of all the capsules are found out, the murderer cannot be pinpointed by these data. Professor: Then, Kaga gave the last clue to complete the puzzle: one of Miwako's bags, medicine bottles, and medicine jars had fingerprints from an unknown person. Assistant: Hmm... Although the ins and outs of the capsule are complicated, it seems that Yukisa Kaori has no chance to secretly change the capsule, but the remaining two people can't... Professor: Yes, in fact, the capsule's whereabouts alone cannot solve this puzzle.Let me tell you clearly that those unidentified fingerprints left on the medicine jar belong to Hotaka's ex-wife.It is possible that Shinbayashi Guihong put the poisoned capsules into Miwako's medicine bottle the night before. If so, then the one that Miwako randomly took out was poisonous.But in this case, the fingerprints left on the medicine cans cannot explain it.At this point, the beginning of the novel caught my mind again.There is a place that implies that there are two medicine jars, right?Including the whereabouts of another medicine canister, and most importantly: it is also hinted somewhere that there is a chance for a person to replace the medicine canister, not the capsule.After you understand these three points, you will naturally be able to name the murderer, right? Assistant: I finally understand!Now I can be a suspense novel critic too!