Chapter 83: The Source of the Script
Yes, Chu Jiang suspected that the driver had already died, and possibly died from... the Ghost Chess Game!
This was a supernatural event that took place in Luozhou City, and Chu Jiang remembered it very clearly. At that time, there were three unsolved incidents in Luozhou City: The Stretching Ghost, Ghost Crying, and Ghost Chess Game.
After resolving the Stretching Ghost incident, Chu Jiang naturally wouldn't bother with the remaining two cases and left them for Fang Tianci to worry about.
Little did he expect that as soon as he arrived in Luohe City today, with the idea that taxi drivers are well-informed, he casually asked and found out something extraordinary.
In this world, there are no two ghosts that are completely identical. Therefore, when the ghost asked Chu Jiang to play chess, he couldn't help but become alert.
If the ghost in Luohe City is really the same as the one in Luozhou City, then the problem becomes a bit troublesome.
This is highly likely a ghost of B-grade!
Because it has clearly broken free from geographical constraints, even though Luozhou City is not too far from here, it takes three to four hours to drive.
I hope not...
It took half an hour from the airport to Riverside University. As soon as he got off the car, he received a message from his assistant: indeed, a taxi driver surnamed Hu died in a rather mysterious way.
Because it's the only case, they are still investigating whether it's haunted or not.
That's the end, whatever comes will come.
Chu Jiang is now heavily in debt, he walks towards Riverside University with a blank expression and hands in his pockets.
When entering the school gate, Chu Jiang had to show his identification before being allowed in. The university was not completely evacuated at the moment.
The reason is simple, there is only one university in this local area and many people live on campus all year round. If all the personnel were completely evacuated and it got spread online, it could easily cause a big commotion.
Under the condition that the incident didn't escalate, the police have only cleared out the personnel from the main building and the surrounding buildings, claiming that there was an accidental fire. Several fire trucks also arrived at the scene to assist.
Crossing the barricade, Chu Jiang arrived in front of the main building, and Officer Lin of the police had some surprises in the temporary tent.
Is this the newly appointed person in charge? He looks much younger than the previous one, and seems to be similar to the students in this school.
Inside the tent, there were only a few police officers. As soon as Chu Jiang arrived, he asked them some simple questions.
The results were similar to the previous information, but Officer Lin mentioned one thing, "The playwright is on his way here. Should we wait for him or...?"
"Wait." Chu Jiang was not in a hurry at all. "First, call the drama club students over."
......
Soon, the seven university students were taken to the tent in front of the main building.
They were a mix of boys and girls, with some still showing fear on their faces.
"When can we go home? I want to go back," a girl said with a teary voice.
Officer Lin approached them, saying, "I understand that you're scared right now, but being afraid won't solve anything. You don't want to live in fear when you go back, do you?"
"The person next to me is an expert who specializes in handling these types of situations. He will ask you some questions next, so please cooperate to the best of your ability."
The students looked at Chu Jiang, who was only "a little older" than them, with a hint of doubt. Even though Chu Jiang was currently wearing a white shirt and suit, he looked like a mature elite in society.
Even though the person in charge had a uniform, Chu Jiang didn't want to wear that thing. It looked too childish and he wondered who designed it. Besides, he hadn't seen any person in charge wearing a uniform before; they all dressed casually.
"Who is the president?" Chu Jiang looked indifferently at the crowd and asked.
"Me." A girl with glasses weakly raised her hand.
"How did this drama club come about? In the past, were there any strange rumors?"
"Our drama club has a normal history. It was created by the previous seniors, and there are no special rumors."
"It's just a group of students with similar interests coming together to form a club for fun. Nobody gets paid, and we even have to raise money to buy costumes and props."
Listening to the other's detailed answer, Chu Jiang continued to ask, "Who came up with the idea to perform this new play, and who suggested finding someone to write the script?"
"Me." A tall boy anxiously raised his hand, "In a little while, our school will celebrate its 40th anniversary."
"When it was the club's turn to report their program, everyone just said we could perform anything, like 'Romeo and Juliet'."
"But I thought, that play has been performed to death. Even if we put in a lot of effort, it won't leave a deep impression on the audience."
"So I thought, isn't murder mystery popular now? Let's find someone to write a new script that is thrilling and scary enough."
"If this performance is a great success and remembered by the audience, not only will new students join, but the school might also allocate funds to support the club in the future..."
Chu Jiang nodded, "Who is paying? Who wrote it?"
"I came up with the idea and naturally I am paying for it," the tall boy replied, "The writer is also from our school, a graduate from before."
"He claims to be a writer, who used to write online novels, but failed; so he changed careers and now works as a copywriter for some unknown mobile game company."
"I have a friend who knows him, so I contacted him on QQ and asked about the cost of writing a script."
"He said he hasn't written this type of script before, so he asked his peers for advice and quoted a price of three thousand."
"Only three thousand?" Officer Lin couldn't help but ask. In his mind, writers and scriptwriters seemed to make a lot of money.
The president of the drama club couldn't help but explain, "Authors without a reputation don't earn as much as one might imagine for their written scripts."
"Take the example of script sales. A [Boxed set] of unlimited copies of a script is only priced around 500."
"A city only sells three copies of the limited edition script, with each priced around 1800-2000."
"The exclusive script, which is only authorized to one person, costs around 3500-4500 per copy."
"The script that Xiao Gao bought is exclusive. Maybe the author lacked confidence, so the price was slightly lowered."
After thinking for a moment, Chu Jiang said, "Raise your hand if you've had a supernatural encounter today."
A male and two females on the right side raised their hands, including the girl who mentioned wanting to go home.
"Who suggested having the rehearsal in the afternoon?"
This time, it was the president who answered, "I did, but I didn't realize there would be a last-minute class in the afternoon, so only a few of them, including Xiao Li, went."
Chu Jiang asked in detail not only to gather information but also to observe everyone's reactions.
Although it's unlikely for a person to manipulate a ghost to do things, if humans understand the rules of ghosts' killings, there is actually a possibility to utilize them for murder.
In the files of the research institute, there were mentions of similar cases.