WOYE Chapter 40 [Fourth Day Part Two]

Editor: SeriesCircuit

“Absolutely not,” Yang Song rolled her eyes. “We all saw what happened last night. Li Sinian, I don’t know whether it is because you are short-sighted or if it is because you have some other motives but Liu Xin is dead to me. If I don’t vote him out today, I won’t be able to sleep at night.”

Li Sinian shook his head and said, “Liu Xin can’t be a werewolf. I checked. It is up to you to decide if you want to believe me but the machine never lies. If you are adamant that he is a werewolf then, can you at least answer me this, why would he have chosen to take action yesterday, especially given that by doing what he did it would have been equal to seeking his own death? Furthermore, no matter what you tried yesterday you still couldn’t prove without a doubt that he is in fact a werewolf.”

Fang Daichuan lowered his head and frowned.

“It cannot be denied that Liu Xin believes me to be a seer, right? You saw what happened last night. Liu Xin told me ‘I will kill you because you are a seer.’* Isn’t this letting the cat out of the bag? If he really is a Werewolf, what benefit could he possibly derive from revealing himself?” Although Li Sinian has been struggling with the fever, his body is still hanging on. While his speech is not as spry as usual, his tone was still firm.

(T/N: in chapter 32)

Indeed, everyone who was present last night had heard Liu Xin’s bombshell, wherein, he revealed that Li Sinian was the real seer. Last night he just stood there, surrounded by the utterly miserable weather, laughing wildly to himself as he announced to them all: “My life in exchange for the seer’s, what a bargain!” *

(T/N: during chapter 33)

Yang Song frowned sceptically: “Of course, the benefit he would gain is that the real seer would no longer be a piece on the chess board, as it were! He even said he was willing to exchange his life with the seer and, yet, you still believe he is not a werewolf? Is it possible that both of you are werewolves? Yesterday it was Fang Daichuan who claimed he was the seer. How did Liu Xin know that Fang Daichuan was lying and that you are the real seer? Don’t tell me that you two discussed this prior to that night?” The more she said the more suspicious she became.

Although the conversation between them was becoming increasingly heated, Liu Xin seemed completely indifferent to the entire situation. To the point where it was almost as if he was watching a show unfold rather than being an active participant.  He didn’t respond to anyone’s words nor did he talk to anyone, as if what was happening right in front of him did not concern him at all. 

The other people at the table were also acting like they were watching a show but the reality is that what happened really had nothing to do with them either. Chen Hui wanted to interject but was held back by Du Wei. The girl looked back at her boyfriend, bit her lip and lowered her head.

Li Sinian looked around for some time and took in everyone’s reaction. He smiled bitterly at Yang Song: “Do you really think being a seer is a good thing? If he hadn’t uncovered my identity, Fang Daichuan would have shielded me. So why would I wait till now to act? As for how he figured out my role, I was thinking it over last night and after some careful consideration the only thing I can think of that exposed me is the fact that I used, ‘先知’ rather than ‘预言家’, like everyone else.”

(T/N: Okay, so a lengthy explanation is below. Also, yes, I did purposely leave the words in Mandarin so you guys as the reader could easily see the difference.  Since with the English translation, the difference is nowhere near as apparent).

Fang Daichuan suddenly had an epiphany.

He had also been wondering about the oddity of it all. Even if Liu Xin is a werewolf, why would he know that I am not the real seer? Furthermore, why is he so hellbent on Li Sinian’s life? It is true, that in most versions of the werewolf game I have played or watched before, the person who can check other people’s roles is typically called 预言家. I don’t know if it is some underhanded trick by the island owner or if they simply prefer a more traditional style, but the word on the character card is indeed 先知.  With one slip of the tongue, Li Sinian and I have let the cat out of the bag. Under normal circumstances, this distinction would hardly be anything of note. Yet, since the others used the more common name that would mean that the person who had obtained the real card would be the only one to accidentally say the word on the card instead.

“Everyone has misunderstood one very important detail. That being, this isn’t just a board game. You are all looking for wolves using the board game logic system, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that this is happening in reality and this “game” has very real and very dire consequences. A life for a life is the least beneficial way to play because even if the wolves win so what? You’re still going to die.” Li Sinian half leaned back on the chair, looking exhausted, his face was terribly pale. Only a pair of light-coloured eyes, shining sharply as he looked intently at Liu Xin’s expression, was what remained of his usual self, as he explained, “As long as you can unravel yourself from the knots that you have created, many things that are seemingly incomprehensibly tangled together can be quite easily understood. Liu Xin is not a wolf, so he dared to come after me because he had no reason to fear any counter-attack I made. He can attack me but I have no way to fight back. However, one thing we have all overlooked is, where did his poison come from? When you searched Zhao Chu on the first day, only three bottles of poison were found so where has the last remaining bottle gone since then? Was it used when Beer Belly was stabbed? Or has it been hidden by someone else? I would advise all of you werewolves to go back and carefully look for the poison you have hidden to see if it is still there. In this game, you don’t need to be a wolf; as long as you have poison you can kill people.”

Liu Xin raised his lips and smiled, and he couldn’t help applauding Li Sinian: “Wonderful, your logic is impeccable, but the facts are far less exciting than you think. I’m not as good at scheming as you think. In reality, the process of things was far less elaborate. My previous role was indeed in the villager faction. While in that role I found an item card hidden in the woods one day, which contained a bottle of poison and a faction transfer card. After you verified my identity, I used the machine to switch to the werewolf faction. I was afraid that you would find out and reveal what role I was. So, logically, I chose to try and kill you before you would get the chance. This is the whole truth.”

Li Sinian shook his head: “I don’t believe it, if I were you after deliberately making me check who you were and after successfully changing faction, I definitely wouldn’t use poison to kill the real seer.”

Li Sinian sneered, his voice loud and clear: “Because you’re not that witless. Despite your guise.”

Liu Xin’s expression faltered a little.

“I guess,” Li Sinian stared at Liu Xin’s face, “Your role should be one that has the upper hand when it comes to voting. Meaning that you either have the role of the Idiot or some wild card? Since you are not trying to save your own life, in the context of this far too real game, I can only use real-world logic to fathom why you would choose to act this way. Clearly, you have deliberately distracted everyone. To place yourself in the limelight like that is beyond risky, so the question remains. Who are you protecting? It can’t be Mrs Song as you didn’t mean to vote for her yesterday. It is not Du Chaosheng either, who was familiar with you or, at least, that is what it looked like on the surface because he is now dead. It should be someone who seems to have no relation to you whatsoever, but the truth is a different matter. Whomever it may be that you are protecting, know your efforts will have been in vain as they will get their turn on the chopping block just like the rest of us.”

Li Sinian’s eyelashes trembled slightly as he lifted his eyes abruptly, his gaze pinning Liu Xin in place as he chewed his lips and asked, “Is it Niu Xinyan or Du Wei?”

Liu Xin’s expression hardened.

His fingers rubbed his chin, he hadn’t slept all night and he looked a little sluggish. A slight stubble had begun growing on his chin. He looked dishevelled and desolate, except for his eyes, which were burning brightly. He placed his gaze on Liu Xin’s wrist, “The main link seems to be Du Chaosheng. You and he wear the same watch. Are you a couple? You were originally working under him, and you are familiar with him. Listening to the way you two talk, you seem to be engaged in finance-related work together. Are you his asset consultant? * Or maybe a financial lawyer? * Either way there seems to be some “secrets” between Du Chaosheng and his secretary. You know about these things so you must have a close relationship. Du Chaosheng once visited Niu Xinyan’s house during the night. He seems to be aware of the fact that she has been a widow for many years. Yet, he still chose to visit a widow’s place by himself in the dead of night. Perhaps you have had a connection with Niu Xinyan for all these years? Or was it with the secretary back then? Is Du Wei the secretary’s son?”

https://www.investmentmagazine.com.au/2009/04/selecting-the-right-asset-consultant-the-tom-babic-way/

https://bestaccreditedcolleges.org/articles/finance-lawyer-job-description-duties-and-requirements.html

Every time Li Sinian said something, Liu Xin’s expression became increasingly uglier. Du Wei, on the other hand, was so shocked by his hypothesis that all seemed able to do was turn his head and look at Liu Xin in complete bewilderment, only to see that Liu Xin’s face was ghostly pale.

“Don’t spout nonsense!” Niu Xinyan was so angry that she almost swore. Usually, she was good-tempered and she has been gentle and soft throughout the whole ordeal, but she was so surprised by Li Sinian’s irresponsible speculation and so angry because of it that her voice rose an octave higher: “I’m innocent, whether it is Du Chaosheng or Liu Xin, it has nothing to do with me, don’t slander me!”

Li Sinian hooked the corner of his mouth and said insincerely, “Forgive me if I spoke out of turn and offended you, in such circumstances, all I can do is apologise for any offence I may have caused, but you must know that the conclusions I have drawn are far from wild guesses. Since I was unfortunate enough to draw the seer card, then that means I am responsible for everyone. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Oh, come on, Fang Daichuan internally rolled his eyes; you’ve kissed your own son and you still try to call yourself innocent? [T/N : The kiss is on chapter 24]  Fang Daichuan’s brain could not keep up with Li Sinian’s. So, he just took Niu Xinyan’s reaction as them acting overly pretentious in order to pull a wall over everyone’s eyes. “In summary, don’t vote for Liu Xin today. Before I can figure out his purpose, I implore you to keep him for a round. Even if it is true and he really is switching sides, he only has one bottle of poison to his name so he is not a threat to us.” Li Sinian said sincerely, “Let’s vote for Ding Zihui today.”

(T/N: Alright so about this, as you can see, during chapter 10 the words written on the card are [先知, Xiānzhī] which means seer. However, the more commonly used words would be [预言家, Yùyán jiā] which can still be interpreted as ‘seer’ but can also mean other things like ‘prophet’. If I was sticking to the raw completely then I should have actually used ‘seer’ and ‘prophet’ to show the distinction between the two but I didn’t for the sake of simplicity. For example, take this dialogue from chapter 27, shown below:

“…Who is the seer? You must have checked me last night. Come out and tell us your result.”

It’s a pity, Fang Daichuan thought, the seer has already determined that you are a wolf so he didn’t check you.

Both sentences use [预言家], which, again can mean either ‘seer/prophet’.  As both would fit well. Though, as this is a Werewolf Game story, I decided to use the proper term (seer) instead, because, in my humble opinion, it is the right thing to do.

I will admit that to some, this can be seen as a mistake and I realise that my translations are not perfect. So, if you noticed something wrong, please tell me so I can both fix it and also learn from it.

Anyway, if I can find the time in the future, I will make sure to go through the previous chapters and change the words to either prophet or seer where appropriate. In the hope that it will make it easier for you, the reader, to pick up on the clues as fast as Li Sinian does. But from this point onwards the distinction between the two is no longer mentioned since the player with that role has been revealed. Hence, why from this point on I will just be using the term ‘seer’. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy note.)

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