Chapter 4874: Strange Wonder, Marvelous Drama (Eighteen)

"Why are you so late?" Stark asked curiously, looking at Steve. "You were always the first to arrive when we watched movies before. Could it be that you're embarrassed to come because my personal movie far surpasses yours?"

"I've been a bit busy lately." Steve let out a soft sigh, his face showing signs of fatigue. Stark eyed him suspiciously as he walked into the theater, shouting after his back: "Don't be too surprised later—my movie will definitely have higher box office than yours!"

Steve waved his hand without turning back.

Natasha wore a sapphire-blue long dress to save face. She looked at Stark standing at the door and asked, "Am I the last one to arrive?"

"Not quite, ma'am—there are still a few people who haven't come." Stark said, "But you usually arrive earlier than this."

"Ah, because I'm not really into suspense films." Natasha shook her head. "The Soviet Union isn't a very suspenseful country, and there's no atmosphere for deduction or anything like that. I can't imagine how to find the killer."

"You'll definitely be shocked." Stark smiled.

"Oh, by the way, I heard you fainted during filming." Natasha asked with concern, "Are you okay?"

"It was anxiety-induced respiratory arrest from tension." Stark sighed. "Later, due to weakened immunity, I ran a fever for several days. Fortunately, everything turned out fine in the end."

"You should carry some medicine with you." Natasha reminded him, "Listen more to Shiler's advice, don't let your medical funds go to waste."

After saying that, Natasha walked in. Stark watched her retreating figure and shook his head helplessly. If it weren't for Shiler's advice, he wouldn't have fainted this time at all.

Then came Peter and Gwen. Peter explained, "I spent some time picking up Gwen—was I late?"

Stark gave him a hug, then said, "No, hurry in—the movie's about to start."

They both went in. Then came Shiler. Stark studied him carefully, confirmed it was Greed, then walked over. "Why are you also this late?"

"I just took in a few more patients." Greed said, "Has the movie started yet?"

"Not yet." Stark also turned and walked inside, "You're the last one—we can't start until everyone's here."

They entered the screening hall together. This wasn't a premiere, just an internal test screening. But the editing was mostly done, so this version won't differ much from the eventual release.

Actually, this can be considered a low-budget film—investment in sets and personnel wasn't high. Yet the director and crew are quite big names, giving off a feeling of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Because the team is very professional, filming went quickly, and post-production was lightning fast. All told, it took about half a year—summer hadn't fully arrived yet, and they were already in the wrap-up phase.

Stark and Shiler took their seats in the back row, and the movie began shortly after. Everyone stared fixedly at the screen, because this film indeed has a very gripping opening.

Chris deliberately sped up the opening's pacing, first establishing Stark's identity to raise audience expectations, then using a corpse falling from the sky for the first jump scare.

At the moment the corpse fell from the sky, the screening hall erupted in startled cries. Considering everyone here is battle-hardened, making them scream means this scene was quite successful.

Next, the pace slowed slightly, introducing Stark's youth, focusing on his anxiety symptoms. Interspersed were some hallucinations, letting the audience viscerally feel that Stark's mental state is not quite normal.

This inevitably makes people wonder: Is this corpse Stark's hallucination? If not, did he kill it?

But at this point, most people with common sense would think it's impossible. After all, this is Stark's personal film—he couldn't possibly play a murderer here, or he'd be destroying his own reputation, right?

Precisely for this reason, most people first ruled out Stark. He couldn't possibly make such a film, dragging himself into public controversy. Though it's an external-factor mystery, it still makes sense.

Moreover, the later appearance of Shiler and Strange—honestly, they practically have "murderer" written on their faces. Everyone silently urged Stark to snap out of it and start reasoning, or skip reasoning altogether and just grab these two and be done with it.

Of course, some mystery enthusiasts began analyzing which of these two is the real killer. Though they look alike, and as the plot progresses, each reveals part of their suspicion. For example, Shiler keeps staring at Stark and even follows him down the hallway. As for Strange, his attitude toward Stark is somewhat odd, as if harboring some hostility.

Most people think Strange is more suspicious—partly because his appearance is genuinely more aggressive, and partly because his motive is stronger than Shiler's.

Shiler and Stark know each other, and from what we heard, they've known each other since childhood, are close brothers. And since they haven't seen each other in a long time, they shouldn't have any grudge.

But Strange is a waiter, possibly living a tough life, so he might want revenge on society—or just be envious of the rich. Many mystery films have this kind of killer: a downtrodden person driven mad by life, going on a killing spree to satirize reality.

At this point, many audience members were waiting for Stark to reveal the truth. But when Shiler stepped forward and began reasoning, they realized for the first time how serious the problem was.

Many mystery novels follow the Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction, one of which is crucial: the detective cannot be the killer. Because if they were, the author's information advantage would be too great—they could hide all unfavorable clues, then throw out various red herrings, leaving readers forever unable to follow the detective's logic, which is unfair to readers.

Modern mystery films basically follow this too—to establish a relatively fair reasoning environment, not everything can be the director's move. So, Shiler's suspicion was ruled out.

Then it must be Strange. Just as everyone thought that, Strange leapt up and flew.

Yes, he flew—right from the balcony to the rooftop, his eyes still flashing with magical light. This finally made all viewers realize: it's not that the Strange in this movie and the Supreme Sorcerer in the magic school film are played by the same actor—no, they are the same person! This guy can do magic!

The Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction also include one that sounds like racial discrimination: no Chinese people in detective stories. The author himself did indeed make racist remarks, but actually, this rule means no supernatural powers in detective fiction—because back then, Westerners thought Chinese people knew kung fu. If a detective story suddenly featured someone who could punch through walls with Iron Sand Palm, it would be impossible to investigate, violating the fairness principle—so no such characters allowed.

Although many mystery novels now include supernatural powers, they must disclose it upfront to readers. Otherwise, it's unfair. Since this film didn't announce it beforehand, Strange's suspicion is basically ruled out too—after all, if magic were used in the crime, there'd be no traces left, making reasoning impossible.

With both ruled out, the problem becomes even more serious. Shiler isn't it, Strange isn't it—so who is?

The audience quickly recalled the opening scene, where Stark saw many people in the mirror. At first they thought it was a ghost film, but later plot developments explained it—Stark often sees hallucinations. So could it be that Stark went insane and committed murder?

The plot then unfolded exactly as they imagined. Strange brought Stark upstairs, and the first crime scene he saw before his eyes, covered in blood, was the bathroom.

Adding to that, later shots of black shadows appearing in the bathroom seemed to keep suggesting: Stark is mentally ill and killed everyone who entered the bathroom—he actually filmed himself as the murderer!

The audience had their accusations ready, but the film's focus quickly shifted to the key question: why was the corpse thrown down from the skylight? Even if Stark accidentally killed someone, the disposal wasn't his doing—he has an alibi, which could even serve as proof he didn't do it.

As the film reached its mid-to-late section, things became confusing again. The suspicions of the three main characters were all ruled out, so the audience started looking among the supporting cast. Shiler's reasoning direction seemed to be searching for the killer among these socialites at the banquet.

At this point, some viewers thought it was getting dull. Because the early buildup didn't focus on the killer, then suddenly pulling out a random passerby as the culprit—this isn't good plotting, even bordering on bad film.

But that thought didn't last minutes before another twist arrived—this time revealing the relationship between Stark, Shiler, and Strange, which is completely opposite to what the audience thought.

The audience believed the two brothers had a good relationship, but upon reuniting, they nearly broke apart. Meanwhile, they thought Stark and Strange had a bad relationship—or no connection at all—yet they actually share a deep history.

In this flashback sequence, Stark suspected Shiler had swapped his anxiety medication and even deliberately guided him into hallucinations, leading to a big fight. Yet Stark had once, unintentionally, helped Strange, who was living a difficult life. Strange wasn't here to harm him—but to save him.

At this point, suspicion shifted back to Shiler. Clearly, this might be Shiler deliberately framing Stark—first destabilizing his mental state, making him commit murder by accident, then exposing him. As for motive, it's easy to find: rich family inheritance disputes.

Strange might have discovered Shiler's plot and wanted to help Stark. And in the film's second half, the detective role genuinely shifted to Strange, who exposed Shiler's conspiracy.

At this point, the mystery seemed solved—it was Shiler setting a trap to frame Stark.

In the end, Shiler seemed still to be resisting stubbornly. Accompanied by urgent drumbeats, he launched into a series of seemingly absurd deductions, ultimately concluding—Hampton is haunted, and the manor hides a killing monster.

These deductions sound utterly baseless, exactly like a bumbling killer desperately spouting nonsense in his final defense. Most viewers thought the same.

But some true mystery fans realized that, logically and evidentially, Shiler's reasoning here is actually correct. All human suspects have been thoroughly ruled out—so whatever remains, no matter how implausible, must be the truth.

Moreover, this was foreshadowed earlier. Whether it's the people appearing in the mirror or Strange using magic, it shows this is a supernatural world, thus fulfilling the fairness requirement of mystery fiction.

Chris pulled off a camera trick—constantly emphasizing Stark's anxiety to make viewers believe what they see are just anxiety-induced hallucinations. Meanwhile, using external factors, he hinted that Strange is the Supreme Sorcerer, a non-canonical Easter egg character who shouldn't participate in world-building.

This successfully made viewers, in a story full of supernatural phenomena, firmly believe this world has no ghosts.

And of course, the ending was unexpected. When the monster hanging from the ceiling dropped down and slowly raised its tendrils, the earth began to scream.

The screening hall fell silent as if dead. Natasha's fingertips trembled: "Was that final scene where the monster drops down acted? …Right?"

Barney swallowed hard: "Hard to say."