As soon as the "Murder on the Orient Express" reading challenge started, a large number of readers clicked the read button.
Even though it is already early morning in the West, there are still many mystery fans waiting for this new mystery work.
Deng Ge entered the reading state very quickly, and for a while he was already addicted to it. The movement of holding food in his hands began to become intermittently inactive.
On the other side, Jiang Yuan was struggling with how to reply to the message, but did not pay attention to Deng Ge's status.
"Murder on the Orient Express" is not too long, about a little over 100,000 words, but it is still divided into three chapters, which are the facts about the case, the testimony of witnesses to collect clues, and the final Poirot chapter.
Analyze the case based on existing clues.
In this shared reading challenge, the facts and testimonies are released in advance.
However, only the facts have been announced at the moment, and the testimonials will not be available online for another two days.
At this time, Deng Ge's eyes were completely attracted by the text on the mobile phone screen, and he fell into the world of the book.
The first scene in the book is next to a train. The time is five o'clock in the morning and the season is cold winter.
The French lieutenant, a character whom Deng Ge was not familiar with, was bidding farewell to Poirot. From the conversation between the two, he learned that Poirot had just solved a case and was preparing to take the train to Stamboul for a few days.
After saying goodbye, the train started moving. Poirot woke up and noticed the other two passengers on the train.
They are Miss Mary Debenham, a governess from England, and Colonel Arbuthnot from India.
The two passengers had a brief interaction on the train, and then the train arrived in Stamboul safely.
Deng Ge's thoughts followed Poirot's footsteps to Stamboul and checked into the Tokarin Hotel.
The telegram received in the hotel indicated that the case in London had made progress, which broke Poirot's plan to travel, and he could only leave in time for the Orient Express that night.
While dining in the hotel restaurant, Poirot happened to meet his good friend Mr. Booker, the director of the International Coach Company who was also from Belgium.
Mr. Booker will also take the Orient Express tonight. During the conversation, Poirot also noticed two special guests in the restaurant.
There was a pair of master and servant, the young man was about thirty years old, and the older one was about sixty or seventy years old, which made Poirot feel as vicious as a beast.
Two chapters later, Deng Ge has already adapted to the process of setting up the mystery novel and has firmly memorized the characteristics of the characters that appear.
At night, the Orient train finally started running, and the sleeper car was full of people for the first time. Fortunately, there was a passenger in room No. 7 who did not get on the train, so Poirot avoided going to the ordinary car.
After the train started moving, the readers had a rough picture of the group of passengers in the dining car the next morning.
What is unusual is that the vicious old man named Reicester, whom Poirot met in the hotel before, finds Poirot.
Claiming that he was being targeted, he hoped that Poirot could take over his case.
But there were few cases that could impress Poirot at the moment, so Poirot rejected Rachel's case.
That night, some unusual movements occurred in the carriage.
Poirot was awakened by some noises in the middle of the night and learned from the conductor that the train was stuck due to snow.
Early the next morning, the passengers gathered in the dining car. At this time, Mr. Booker sent someone to invite Poirot, and then learned that Rachel, who lived next door to Poirot, had been murdered in the middle of the night.
——
"Have you finished eating?" Jiang Yuan's voice broke Deng Ge's immersive reading.
Just a moment ago, Jiang Yuan received invitations from Ye Xuanqi and Lu Qingge to celebrate the New Year together.
Regarding these two invitations, Jiang Yuan struggled for a while and both gave a positive answer.
A year ago, Jiang Yuan might have refused such an invitation.
But now that one year has passed, Jiang Yuan's mentality has changed a lot.
In other words, when you are alone for a long time, you will feel lonely from time to time.
Jiang Yuan himself attributed this feeling of loneliness to two reasons. On the one hand, he was indeed lonely, which was a bit like nonsense literature.
On the other hand, there are the emotions left over from the predecessor. It can be seen from the fact that my parents did not come home during the Chinese New Year. No matter how much care I have for my predecessor, it is limited.
Under the influence of such a family environment, the predecessor naturally grew into a person who lacked love.
Jiang Yuan fully accepted the memory of his predecessor, and was somewhat affected by it.
So I am quite excited about this invitation to celebrate the New Year together.
However, he still explained to Ye Xuanqi that it would take a few days before he could return to Shanghai, and explained that he was going to participate in the Spring Festival Gala recording.
After Ye Xuanqi received Jiang Yuan's reply, she was first surprised that Jiang Yuan was going to the Spring Festival Gala.
Then I quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Although I had the courage to send out the invitation, I still felt that it was a bit outrageous to bring my ex-boyfriend to meet my parents during the Spring Festival.
Now this situation is better to avoid this.
On the other side, Lu Qingge felt somewhat regretful when he saw Jiang Yuan replying so quickly.
Unlike Ye Xuanqi, she really wants to bring her ex-boyfriend to meet her parents.
However, Lu Qingge thought about it for a moment, showed a subtle smile on his face, and then sent a message to Jiang Yuan.
Jiang Yuan was walking back to the recording studio with Deng Ge, and stopped when he received the news.
"What's wrong?" Deng Ge turned back curiously.
"It's okay." Jiang Yuan shook his head and forced a smile on his face.
The message interface on the phone showed the message Lu Qingge had just sent, "My parents will always remember you."
Only then did Jiang Yuan realize that he was definitely no longer lonely during the Spring Festival, but he always felt that there might be some social death scenes.
After struggling for a while, Jiang Yuan patted Deng Ge on the shoulder and said, "I want to ask you a question."
Deng Ge was anxious to go back to the recording studio and continue watching "Murder on the Orient Express", but he still nodded and said, "Ask me."
"That's right. If your ex-girlfriend invites you home for dinner to meet your parents during the Spring Festival, how would you respond?" Jiang Yuan asked.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Hearing this, Deng Ge shook his head, "How could such an outrageous thing happen?"
Then after carefully observing Jiang Yuan's expression, Deng Ge came back to his senses and quickly advised, "Then I definitely can't agree to it, Duoshe will die!"
"What if you've already agreed?" Jiang Yuan got stuck.
The expression on Deng Ge's face suddenly became wonderful, and then he gave Jiang Yuan a thumbs up. It's really a long time since we've seen each other.
Then he added, "Don't forget to tell me about the follow-up when the time comes."
Jiang Yuan: "."
After returning to the recording studio, Jiang Yuan took out the blanket he had left in the recording studio with ease, lay down on the sofa and started taking a lunch break.
Taking advantage of his lunch break, Deng Ge once again devoted himself to the story of "Murder on the Orient Express".
When he was interrupted by Jiang Yuan, the case had just happened and it was getting to the exciting part. Deng Ge couldn't wait to read it.
At the same time, in the West, the famous mystery writer Karl was also reading "Murder on the Orient Express".
He expressed on social media that he wanted to participate in the "Orient Express" reading challenge, and he was very serious about it.
Karl is still very much looking forward to the new work released by the most shining star in the world of reasoning in the past year, which is generally recognized internationally.
The previous "Roger Mystery" and "ABC Murders" have given Carl a lot of inspiration.
Participating in the challenge this time also has some meaning in wrestling with Jiang Yuan.
If you can guess the truth before the mystery is officially revealed, you will still feel a sense of accomplishment.
Karl read the part about the case very carefully.
Based on the noises Poirot heard in the middle of the night, as well as the time when the clock at the scene stopped, including the doctor's speculation, it is believed that the case should have occurred around one o'clock in the middle of the night.
But what really interested Karl was the way Rachel died.
The death methods in the previous two Poirot series were relatively simple, but this time Rachel seemed to have been stabbed to death with random knives.
According to the forensic examination, there were more than a dozen knife marks of varying depths and sizes on the body of the deceased.
From this point of view, the murderer was probably mentally unstable when he committed the crime.
But then it was discovered that one of the wounds was even stabbed with his left hand.
This unusual way of death caused Karl to start his own reasoning.
In Karl's view, either the murderer was in an unstable state, there was a second person present at the scene, or the murderer deliberately caused it to cause confusion.
Karl thought and shook his head. It was too reluctant to make a judgment based on the current clues.
He simply lowered his head and continued reading.
In addition to describing the condition of the body, Poirot also found a young man named McQueen who was beside Rachel.
According to an interview with McQueen, it was revealed that Rachel was not the real name of the deceased.
Similarly, McQueen did not have a good impression of Rachels, and learned that Rachels had received two different threatening letters two weeks ago.
After learning valuable information, Poirot came to the crime scene to inspect.
In addition to the unusual nature of the wound, Poirot also discovered some other important clues at the scene.
There was a small piece of paper that was burned almost to ashes. Poirot used some chemical means to reproduce the handwriting on the paper.
Written on the paper is "Remembering Little Daisy Armstrong"
From this clue, Poirot learned Rachel's real name, Cassetti.
Then another case is introduced, and the last chapter of the first chapter is a description of this old case.
Cassetti does have the same instinct as Poirot, he is a scumbag.
This old case that has been reopened is called the Armstrong Kidnapping Case.
At that time, there was a colonel named Armstrong, and his daughter Daisy was kidnapped.
The kidnappers demanded a huge ransom, but after the Armstrongs paid the ransom, they discovered the child's body.
The kidnappers had already brutally killed the children when they were demanding ransom.
What happened next was also a tragedy. Colonel Armstrong and his family passed away one after another after this incident.
A few months later, the Cassetti gang was arrested and had committed many similar cases.
But the leader, Cassetti, took advantage of legal loopholes and escaped, changing his name and traveling leisurely abroad.
After reading this paragraph, Karl couldn't help but tut, and expressed the same opinion as the characters in the book, feeling that such people deserved to die.
However, when Carl was about to continue turning the pages, he found that the page was stuck.
This is the end of the factual chapter released on the first day of the shared reading challenge. The subsequent testimonials will have to wait for a while longer.
This abrupt ending of the reading experience made Carl unable to help but curse at him late at night.
I was reading the top part, but suddenly it was gone. It was really sad.
However, this long-lost feeling reminded him of the fun of reading mystery novels in magazines when he was a child, and he thought about it a lot.
However, other readers are not so open-minded and have already started heated discussions on forums and other platforms.
【Why is it suddenly gone?】
[I have to say, it’s quite exciting, and the reading is very visual. 】
[I don’t have any clue about this part, I can’t guess the murderer at all.]
[The next testimonial chapter is the focus, it’s actually released in two installments!]
[It’s rare to see so much ink written on the murderer’s wound. I wonder what kind of trick it is this time.]
[You must be very confident to be able to engage in such an activity. I wonder if any readers can guess it. 】
——
The first chapter was very short, and readers at home and abroad read it quickly and started a heated discussion.
In the recording room, Deng Ge was also a little puzzled, and it was over when he looked up.
So Deng Ge woke Jiang Yuan up rather resentfully and started the afternoon recording work.
While Jiang Yuan was recording, Yang Chao also sent several messages to Jiang Yuan to give feedback on the effects of this promotional activity.
Thanks to the previous accumulation of popularity, many readers participated in the event.
This has directly made "Murder on the Orient Express" the most popular work in recent times.
The launch of shared reading activities also led to heated discussions among readers about the plot of the book.
Some forums have even launched many versions of reasoning and conjectures based on existing storylines.
At the same time, there are also many urgings for the follow-up testimonials to be released online, which all illustrates the enthusiasm of the activity.
Foreign publishing houses have also bought advertising space on some social media, allowing more people to participate in this activity.
That is to say, the book has not been officially launched at this time, otherwise Jiang Yuan would have received the achievement value reminder from the system.
In one afternoon, Jiang Yuan successfully completed the recording target set for today.
Before leaving the company, Jiang Yuan looked at his schedule. He would fly to the Imperial Capital the day after tomorrow to attend the rehearsal of the Spring Festival Gala.
After thinking for a moment, Jiang Yuan looked at Deng Ge and said, "Let's record another song tomorrow."
Then he left Xingyuan Entertainment and returned home.
Early the next morning, the activities for "Murder on the Orient Express" were still hot.
Some online anchors even used this event to launch live broadcasts.
Jiang Yuan himself also promoted this event on the Internet.
In addition, Jiang Yuan also did not forget to promote the finals of "New Famous Songs".
After several days of intense publicity, the final broadcast day of "New Famous Song" has arrived in a blink of an eye.
