Chapter 49: A Good Play

In the VIP seats behind Akiwara Yuto and Asano Aiko, Miyagawa Yosuke was talking to the vice president of Tokyo Woman's Christian University next to him.

Seeing the stage play begin, the other party stopped talking very politely, and he also breathed a sigh of relief, moving his body toward the back of the chair to make himself lean more comfortably.

After setting his posture, he moved his gaze to the stage.

He was also a bit curious about how the stage play based on a detective novel, which the vice president mentioned, would be performed.

Miyagawa Yosuke is a detective novelist, and his debut time has been more than 30 years, which can be completely counted as an old-timer.

But besides the identity of a detective novelist, he is also a professor at Waseda University, and his main research field is European and American detective literature.

The main reason he came to Tokyo Woman's Christian University this time was because of the other party's academic invitation; as for watching the stage play, it was actually just incidental. However, since the other party invited him so strongly, it didn't matter to come over.

But to be honest, he didn't have much interest in this stage play performance arranged by the university; after all, he didn't know how many professional stage plays he had seen, and as for the rehearsals by college students, he assumed it would be just like that.

And what script could the other party use to perform? Currently, there are not many excellent detective stage play scripts on the market.

With this contempt, he relaxed his posture, preparing to take the opportunity of watching the stage play to have a good rest; after all, he still had to participate in a series of meetings later.

After a while, as the lights in the hall dimmed, the lights on the stage began to turn on, and the stage play officially began.

Under the lights in the darkness, a pair of "siblings" lying on the ground slowly got up.

The sister stood up, explored the dark environment around her, patted a large door, and shouted loudly: "Is anyone there? Is anyone there!"

The brother also woke up at this time. He followed his sister's movements and began to grope around.

But except for the large door, there was only bread and water on the ground, as well as a foul-smelling ditch (prop) in the room.

Finding nothing, the "siblings" soon began to panic, and their expressions became extremely fearful.

The two patted the large door together and lowered their heads to shout at the crack in the door: "Save us!"

But no matter how they patted, there was no response from the outside world.

Hungry and tired, the two fell asleep leaning against each other.

After watching this scene, Miyagawa Yosuke sat up straight; he was suddenly a bit interested.

What is going on with this scene?

Could it be that the siblings are constantly getting clues to escape the locked room?

A voice-over came, indicating that it was the second day.

The "siblings" woke up on the cold ground and found that another piece of bread and a small bowl of water were passed through the crack in the door.

It seems the kidnapper doesn't want them to starve to death?

At this time, the brother said he wanted to go to the bathroom, and his sister told him to go to that foul-smelling ditch to solve it.

At this time, the sister took a look at the foul-smelling ditch, gestured, and found that the width was just right for her brother.

She muttered to herself: "This might be the only way to survive!"

So she asked her brother to swim upstream and told him to call the police for help immediately after he got out.

Although the brother felt that the foul-smelling ditch was disgusting, under his sister's threat, he had to crawl in and swim.

At this time, the lights dimmed, and then lit up in another place nearby. The sister also disappeared, and another young woman appeared, meaning the brother swam to another room.

"Ah!" This young woman screamed after seeing the brother swimming over.

The brother hurriedly climbed ashore and explained the reason to her.

The lights dimmed twice again, meaning the brother swam through two more rooms. Then the brother swam back to the room where he was and saw his sister again.

The sister said with dissatisfaction: "Why did you come back, idiot!"

The brother said aggrievedly: "I can't get out!" Then he reported the situation one by one.

After learning that there were three more women being held upstream, the sister couldn't help but be a little surprised, but she continued to order: "Try swimming downstream through the ditch."

The brother responded with disgust: "Sister, you go yourself."

"It's because I can't get in that I'm asking you."

"This is not asking, it's an order."

Although he complained, the brother still swam. This time he also encountered three rooms.

The first room held a female college student who had just been caught, the second room was empty, and the third room was a mentally deranged woman.

That mentally deranged woman, after seeing the brother climb ashore, immediately pounced on him, grabbed his hand, and said excitedly: "Did you see it? That guy comes to kill every day at 6 o'clock, and blood and body fragments flow along the ditch."

At the same time, she grinned and said: "Everyone will die."

The brother subconsciously looked at the foul-smelling ditch and suddenly found a lump of something like a woman's hair. He was so scared that his face turned pale, and he immediately swam back to find his sister.

After learning this news, the sister was silent.

At this time, it was 6 o'clock in the evening (voice-over), and the "siblings" squatted in front of the foul-smelling ditch, finding nothing, and felt relieved in their hearts.

Perhaps that woman was just scared crazy, so she was lying?

Miyagawa Yosuke became more and more interested after seeing this scene; he was very curious, this doesn't seem to be traditional honkaku detective fiction?

However, how exactly is this screenwriter going to design it so that the siblings can escape? It can't be a tragedy, right?

He thought for a moment, sat up straight, and decided to watch it carefully.

The third day arrived, and the sister gave her brother a task to go to other rooms to collect supplies.

Hearing this, the brother swam to the woman's room on the far left and requested: "My sister asked me to ask what everyone has brought; collecting them might come in handy."

The woman asked: "Isn't it only you who can be saved?"

"As long as one person is saved, then everyone can be saved, right?"

Hearing the brother's answer, the woman felt that what he said made sense, so she gave the brother a condom and told him to take it back.

From her, the brother also learned that the other party had been locked up for 6 days.

Subsequently, the brother went to other rooms one by one and collected other supplies, including lipstick, keys, room cards, notes, and the previous condom.

Seeing the things he collected, the sister was so angry that she couldn't get over it, because these things obviously had no help for escaping. She asked angrily: "Did you ask everyone properly? Is this all there is?"

The brother pouted and said aggrievedly: "I asked everyone."

Then he added a piece of information, which was that a newcomer had come to the empty room yesterday, who was said to have been caught while jogging.

After listening, the sister thought for a moment, as if she realized something. With the help of the dim light, she picked up the lipstick.

On the wall, she drew 7 boxes in a row, indicating the 7 rooms where they were being held.

Then she marked the numbers on them, indicating the time each had been locked up.

With the brother's addition, the sister found that this row of numbers decreased from left to right, which were 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0—6 refers to the woman on the far left, who had been locked up for 6 days, and 0 refers to the crazy woman on the far right, whom the brother said "disappeared."

Upon hearing the words "disappeared," the sister couldn't help but tremble all over.

The brother immediately added: "Maybe she was released."

The sister was noncommittal; she decided to verify the crazy woman's information again.

At 6 o'clock that evening, the siblings guarded the room's foul-smelling ditch again and began to stare fixedly at the flowing water.

But like last night, the foul-smelling ditch did not change.

The sister breathed a sigh of relief and was about to leave when the brother suddenly saw something and pulled her back.

At this time, the stage lights flickered, and the prop playing the foul-smelling ditch was suddenly hit with "red" lights, just like the color of "blood."

At the same time, thrilling music played, making people feel creepy when they heard it.

The brother pointed at the blood-red foul-smelling ditch in a panic and said: "This clothing and nail art belong to the person who gave me the condom yesterday."

The sister also became afraid; she hugged her brother, and the two began to cry bitterly.

It was the fourth day.

The brother swam to the room of the next woman who was about to be killed, lowered his head, and told her, "The kidnapper will kill one person every day in order; if you don't want to die, you must think of a way."

The other party was frightened after hearing this.

After a moment of silence, the woman said to the brother in an inexplicable tone: "You can live here without being killed. Being able to sneak in the ditch is really enviable."

The brother saw that the other party's expression was very gloomy.

He wanted to explain but didn't know what to say, so he could only swim back.

After returning to the room, the sister asked him: "Did you tell that person it was her turn today?"

The brother shook his head, "No, if you were her, what would you think? Would you want me to tell her?"

Upon hearing the brother's answer, the sister's expression was very complex; she opened her mouth but didn't say anything.

She stood up and muttered to the distant audience: "My brother is still young, he can't die here! No, I must find a chance to escape."

On the fifth day, the brother repeated yesterday's action and came to the room of the woman who was about to be killed today.

This woman seemed to know that she was about to be killed, so she took off the extra clothes on her body and let the brother take them for his sister to use.

She took off the necklace she was wearing, muttered silently for a while, and solemnly placed it in the brother's palm.

She looked at the brother and said with a solemn expression: "You must live."

At this time, the time had reached 5:45, only 15 minutes away from the kidnapper's killing time.

The woman began to grab the brother's palm tightly and sobbed.

Seeing the time pass, the brother began to say nervously: "Someone is coming, I will be discovered."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, her face changed several times, and she reached out and hugged the brother, "He's coming to kill me, I don't want to die alone, don't... don't..."

The large door slowly opened at this time, and the sound of a chainsaw and footsteps slowly came in. The brother wanted to leave quickly, but the woman's arms were getting tighter and tighter, making him unable to break free.

At 6 o'clock in the evening, the sister still didn't wait for her brother to return.

The lights turned red again, shining on the ditch, showing the color of "blood."

The sister knelt on the ground and began to shed tears helplessly.

Seeing this scene, everyone in the audience couldn't help but gasp, including Miyagawa Yosuke, who became more and more interested in this stage play, completely discarding the contempt he had at the beginning.

Asano Aiko saw this scene but felt afraid; she was someone who had read the original work, but even though she knew the result, she still couldn't control herself.

She subconsciously grabbed Akiwara Yuto's hand on the side of the seat and held it tightly.

Akiwara Yuto felt his right hand being grabbed and was a bit surprised, but didn't think too much, just feeling that Asano Aiko was a bit too timid.

Just as the sister started to cry, she heard the sound of paddling in the ditch; it turned out that her brother had swum over from next door.

She hugged him directly and cried bitterly, "I thought you were killed too."

The brother complained that she was hugging him too tightly while talking about what happened this time.

At the moment the door was half-open, the woman finally found her conscience, let go of her hand, and let him leave.

He took the opportunity to dive into the ditch and began to escape quickly.

After seeing his sister, the brother was silent for a while and began to describe the murderer he discovered: "I didn't see the other party's face, but he was tall and big, holding a chainsaw, and the two of us couldn't beat him."

At the same time, he pointed to the large door and said that he heard the sound of the door bolt when the other party opened the door.

After listening, the sister walked to the large door, took out the room card from the items, inserted it into the gap between the door and the wall, and slid it from bottom to top.

At this time, the voice-over came again.

"This large door is controlled by a door bolt, not a chain or anything else."

"But even if we know, what way is there to escape?"

"There is only one day left before the siblings are killed."

The lights dimmed, and the voice-over sounded, indicating that it was finally the last day at 6 o'clock in the evening, which was the day the murderer arrived.

With a "heavy" sound of footsteps, the large door slowly opened, and a masked man holding a "chainsaw" prop walked into the room.

From the dim light, one could vaguely see the sister hiding the "brother" behind her.

Seeing the kidnapper, the sister stood up, her thin figure appearing exceptionally tall at this time. She shouted hysterically at the kidnapper: "I won't let you touch a finger of my brother!"

The kidnapper ignored her and walked slowly toward them with the chainsaw.

When he reached the siblings, he picked up the chainsaw and slashed it down.

The sister jumped away, letting the chainsaw slash the "brother."

But the "brother" slashed open by the chainsaw was actually a dummy made of clothing.

At this time, the real brother stood up from the darkness of the ditch and began to rush toward the large door.

The kidnapper was about to chase after him to kill the brother, but was dragged down by the chainsaw in his hand, and the sister also rushed up just in time, hugging the kidnapper's thigh.

The kidnapper couldn't shake off the entanglement for a while and could only watch helplessly as the brother ran out the door, put down the door bolt, and closed the large door.

The lights on the stage went out, but the sound of a chainsaw, a woman's laughter, and tearing sounds could be heard vaguely from the speakers.

At this time, the voice-over sounded again.

"The brother remembered his sister's instructions and went to other rooms to open the large doors."

"Everyone was saved, except for the sister."

"The woman's laughter stopped, and the sound of a chainsaw cutting the iron door came from the room again, but the door showed no signs of deformation."

Under the stage lights, the brother knelt on the ground, and tears couldn't stop falling.

At this time, the curtains slowly lowered.

After watching this, Miyagawa Yosuke let out a long sigh.

He knew the stage play was over, but many scenes still appeared in his mind like a revolving lantern: the kidnapper's cruelty and perversion, the victims' different reactions before death, and the sister's sacrifice to save her brother.

This is by no means a simple locked-room escape detective story; this is a pair of siblings' self-survival in a desperate situation.

Where on earth did the women's university get this script?! It couldn't have been written by the students themselves, right?

He looked at the actors who came out on stage to thank the audience, was stunned for a while, and then couldn't help but applaud vigorously.

And in the theater, the applause had long since become one, and it didn't stop for a long time; everyone believed that this was an excellent stage play.

There is no doubt about this! ===== CHAPTER 50 =====