Chapter 462: The Museum's Treasure

"It's not hard to see; anyone with a bit of psychology knowledge, if they observe carefully, can discover that your symptoms are not sleepwalking but Split Personality. You haven't been caught only because you haven't done any stranger acts that would draw attention," Xu Mo said. "Speak up, why murder."

Lao Ding nodded.

The medical staff in the ward indeed hadn't observed him closely; they just took his night-time habit of getting up to read as sleepwalking.

"Last night, when I got up to write something, I happened to catch that madman trying to run. He realized I saw him and charged at me with a slab of brick. To protect myself, I smashed him hard with my flashlight, and who would have thought he was so fragile that a single blow killed him."

"After killing, I felt a bit scared; I was going to run, but then I remembered the entrance camera had broken down two days ago, so it didn't record the murder, and... anyway you can't catch me. The more I thought about it, the more excited I got, so I decided to finish the job and dispose of the body. In my excitement, I even left a note at the scene to see if anyone would notice me."

Xu Mo was slightly surprised after hearing that.

"Wasn't you who broke that entrance camera?"

Originally, Xu Mo thought that the broken camera was also sabotaged by Lao Ding's Alternate Personality, to avoid being recorded during the murder.

But according to Lao Ding, he seemed to have no intentional desire to kill; it was an accidental death, and the camera's destruction seemed unrelated to him.

"No," Lao Ding shook his head. "The camera broke two days ago; I didn't do it, it's not my business."

Xu Mo nodded; although the case differed slightly from his conjecture, it was essentially the same.

At least he didn't mistake the true killer's identity.

"Where's the body? Where did you hide it?" Han Fei asked Lao Ding, looking at him.

"I tied it to a stone and sank it into the pond."

…

According to Lao Ding, the police indeed discovered the remaining body in the pond behind the artificial hill at the Mental Hospital.

The murder weapon, the body, and the killer were all found, and Lao Ding also confessed, so the case was declared solved.

The officers took Lao Ding, along with the body and some evidence, back to the Police Station.

On the way back.

Xu Mo looked with interest at Lao Ding's notebook.

Previously he had been focused on whether the handwriting matched that on the note found at the scene, neglecting the actual content.

The first page of the notebook boldly read: Dream of the Red Chamber, Chapter 81.

After a quick flip, Xu Mo discovered that Lao Ding's notebook contained his own completion of The Missing Forty Chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber.

No wonder the book's pages were torn at the edges; he was clearly trying to complete Dream of the Red Chamber... Xu Mo set the notebook down.

Xu Mo still knew a bit about Dream of the Red Chamber.

As one of the Four Great Classical Novels, Dream of the Red Chamber is actually incomplete; Cao Xueqin left only the first eighty chapters, while The Missing Forty Chapters were completely lost, and the versions people read now are the continuations by Gao E.

Many have tried to complete The Missing Forty Chapters, but without exception, their versions fall short.

If someone truly could complete the lost The Missing Forty Chapters with quality matching the first eighty, it would shake the Literary Community; those Redology Experts would likely break down doors to beg for the continuation.

At that moment, a prompt tone rang in Xu Mo's mind.

"You have successfully captured the criminal and earned a reward—The Missing Forty Chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber."

Hearing the tone, Xu Mo sat up straight instantly.

The System Reward given to Xu Mo wasn't some later completion, but Cao Xueqin's Original Manuscript!

The incomplete Dream of the Red Chamber can already be one of the Four Great Classical Novels; having a complete version now—what more could there be?

Not to mention anything else, those Redology Experts in the Literary Community would surely go crazy over this.

Noticing Xu Mo's odd behavior, Han Fei, who was driving nearby, subconsciously asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Xu Mo shook his head, not revealing that he possessed the Original Manuscript of The Missing Forty Chapters, but instead pointed at Lao Ding's notebook.

"Did you read the contents of Lao Ding's notebook?"

"I did; the handwriting matches the note left by the killer at the scene. What's up?"

"It's not the handwriting; I'm talking about the content. He wants to complete The Missing Forty Chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber, look."

Han Fei turned his head, glanced at the notebook's contents, then smiled and turned back to focus on the road ahead.

"Complete Dream of the Red Chamber? He really dares to think that; a bunch of scholars and experts can't do it, how could a self-taught guy who just learned to read and write manage it... But it's not impossible—what if he's a genius? How's Lao Ding's completed version? If it's decent, I'll show it to my father-in-law."

"Han Team's father-in-law is interested in Dream of the Red Chamber?" Xu Mo asked.

"More than just interested—do you know Redology? My father-in-law is a Redology Expert; those people care about completing Dream of the Red Chamber more than they care about their own children. His lifelong wish is to see a complete version, but I think that's a tall order; it would be enough if, in his lifetime, he could see a decent version completed by later people."

"No, no, no, it's not enough; your father-in-law's lifelong wish will be fulfilled soon—I already have a complete Dream of the Red Chamber in my hands..." But Xu Mo didn't continue the conversation, just smiled.

It so happens he owns a SirenBowuguan.

That museum currently lacks anything impressive, missing a prized treasure.

Xu Mo plans to place the Original Manuscript of The Missing Forty Chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber in it as the museum's prized treasure.

…

After returning home, Xu Mo eagerly retrieved from System Space the item the System Reward had just given— the Original Manuscript of The Missing Forty Chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber.

The Dream of the Red Chamber Original Manuscript was housed in a simply styled box.

Xu Mo opened the box and took out a stack of slightly yellowed xuan paper; although the paper is quite old, it is undamaged.

The ancient craft of making xuan paper differs from modern papermaking; the sheets are very thick, and high-quality xuan paper can survive for thousands of years without deteriorating.

Xu Mo didn't focus on the thick paper but on its contents: the The Missing Forty Chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin's Original Manuscript!