Volume 1 Chapter 25: Deductive Reasoning

  Alas, the data is hard to look at, can anyone help and give a few more flowers?

  Hua Lian Private Academy, Principal's Office.

  Including Jiang Qicai, no one expected that the principal would ask a question completely unrelated to security during the interview with the security guard.

  Strictly speaking, this is a reasoning question.

  Accompanied by the principal's low and deep tone, all four people present listened with rapt attention. It would be more accurate to say that they were deeply moved by the principal's mysterious and suspenseful tone rather than being drawn into the story itself.

  The story began like this:

  "In London, England, there was a little girl whose biological mother had died very early. She and her father lived in a suburban villa with a garden." Raising his head to glance at the principal's meaningful smile, Jiang Qi only then listened attentively to every word the principal said, also carefully analyzing each key phrase. For example, "a suburban villa with a garden".

  The little girl was afraid of loneliness, so she installed a mirror in her own room. When she was lonely, the image in the mirror could also accompany her. Every day, the little girl would look at the mirror, and sometimes she would wake up at night to look at it too. Before long, a woman approached her and her father for his wealth. After becoming her father's wife, that is, the girl's stepmother, this woman only discovered that she could not inherit the little girl's father's property because the little girl's father was going to leave all of this large sum of money to his own daughter.

  At this point, Jiang Qi furrowed his brow and muttered to himself in a low voice, "Mirror, I have to look into the mirror at night too..."

  The principal continued: "The stepmother knew that if the little girl died, all the property would naturally be inherited by her. So, the stepmother wanted to find an opportunity to kill the little girl. Similarly, the little girl also hated this woman very much and wanted her to die. Coincidentally, she saw a book about 'curse' superstition, and she deeply believed that using 'curse' could kill the woman she hated. It just so happened that she had a doll that her stepmother had given her when she first entered the house. So, the little girl followed the content of the book, treating the doll as her stepmother, torturing it with extremely cruel methods, such as stabbing the doll's eyes and heart with needles. After the torture, she hung the doll on the window. Of course, the stepmother saw everything the little girl did, and at the same time, the stepmother also discovered that the little girl had a habit of looking in the mirror!"

  "Coincidentally, there's a book about curses and superstitions? And even more coincidental is that there's a doll? And the doll is hung on the window?" Jiang Qicai's mind was racing with threads of thought, but his expression remained calm as he listened to the final crucial question of the story.

  The principal slowly said: "At the end of this story, the little girl finally got what she wanted. Three days before Easter, her stepmother suddenly died, but... on the night of the thunderstorm on Easter Day, the little girl also mysteriously died. What I want to ask is, how did the little girl die? Why?"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Qichen and the two women fell into silence.

  The final clue Jiang Qicai got from the principal's story was, "Easter, thunderstorm night..." Adding to the previous ones, it became, "Villa with a flower garden, mirror, also need to look in the mirror at night, cursed book, doll, hang the doll on the window, Easter, thunderstorm night!"

  It is clear that these key words are the keys to unlock this problem.

  Jiang Qicai repeatedly confirmed that he hadn't missed anything and tried his best to link these things together like a red thread in his mind. Although Jiang Qicai was very clever and had vaguely guessed the general idea of this whole thing, he still felt that there should be something missing in the question given by the principal.

  However, Jiang Qicai still kept his temper and smiled as he looked at what the other three had to say.

  Similarly, the principal also turned to the slightly fat man on the far left with an expectant expression, pointing at him and smiling: "Let's have you go first! Tell us, how did the little girl die? Why?"

  The man's face showed a hint of contemplation, and after some deliberation, he muttered: "Scared to death!"

  Jiang Qicai and the principal were both shocked at the same time. Because the principal knew the answer, while Jiang Qicai's answer, which he had just thought of after some deliberation, was also frighteningly correct.

  I didn't expect this fat guy's IQ is still quite high, and he actually thought of it together with me.

  The principal then asked, "How did he die of fright?"

  Fatso replied: "Scared to death by that lightning!"

  The principal and Jiang Qicai were both speechless at the same time.

  "After a long while, Jiang Qi finally said a sentence, 'Is this answer too ridiculous?'"

  "Damn it! How many questions do you have? You little scoundrel!" As for Jiang Qicai, the fatty obviously wouldn't be polite. And from this sentence, Jiang Qicai could also tell that this person was just a irritable and short-tempered individual, without any inner depth or cunning.

  This "small role" Jiang Qicai had never been taken seriously, so he just smiled calmly and didn't even bother to pay attention to him.

  The woman next to him couldn't help but glance at Jiang Qi a few more times and asked, "Then tell me, why is this answer impossible?"

  Jiang Qicai rolled his eyes in annoyance, "That little girl dares to look into the mirror at night, which proves that she still has a big temper. Do you think just a thunder strike can scare her to death?"

  The principal's eyes lit up, "Then tell me, how did she die?"

  Jiang Qicai thought for half a day and said slowly: "Scared... to... death!"

  “……”

  The fatty's face turned angry and he said, "Are you trying to fool me, you little scrawny thing?"

  Jiang Qicai's face was inscrutable, with a deep and mysterious smile, but he didn't say a word.

  The lady next to him shook her head and said, "I don't think he was scared to death!"

  "How did he die?" The principal asked again.

  "It must have been backfired by that 'curse' and ended up killing herself!"

  Hearing this, Jiang Qi burst out laughing and said: "Sister, you really have a great imagination, I admire you!"

  The lady frowned and said, "Am I wrong?"

  Jiang Qicai said, "Do you think there's really a curse in this story? Don't think it's that simple. Besides, I'm asking you, if the curse really had a backlash effect, wouldn't that little girl know about it? Why isn't it mentioned at all in the story? Take the simplest example, like the little girl cutting her own finger and dripping fresh blood onto the doll, maybe there would be a backlash effect. But this story doesn't even have a hint of that..."

  The lady's face turned slightly red as she argued strongly: "Even if the story didn't mention it, we can't ignore the possibility that it exists!"

  Jiang Qicai looked at her deeply, shook his head and stopped talking.

  The principal then turned to the third man and said, "Your turn!"

  This guy is obviously from a science background, and as soon as he opens his mouth, "There's a 30% chance of being killed by lightning, a 30% chance of being bitten back, and a 30% chance of being scared to death by lightning and then dying from the backlash!"

  The principal asked with a mixture of laughter and tears, "What about the remaining 10%?"

  "There's a 3% chance that ghosts exist in this world and the little girl was killed by one. There's also a 3% chance that the little girl choked to death while eating, drowned from drinking water, fell to her death on a mountain, died from illness, got run over by a car when she went out, and so on with all these accidental ways of dying! As for the remaining 1%, I think it's..."

  The principal didn't even bother looking at him now, the science student had no choice but to shut up and awkwardly picked at his own fingers.

  The principal turned his gaze to Jiang Qicai, who was the last one left, and asked: "Now it's your turn! You should also say something about your own views!"

  Jiang Qicai hadn't spoken yet, when the fatty next to him snorted in disdain and whispered, "Let's see what you can come up with!"

  The lady also looked dissatisfied.

  A man with a science background looked at Jiang Qicai with an unusual gaze, but it was clear that he didn't believe that Jiang Qicai's appearance and attire could produce any good answers.

  After all, in their eyes, this question is really too difficult. And Jiang Qicai is also really too young.

  Adding the principal, four people's eyes were instantly focused on Jiang Qicai. Jiang Qicai was calm and didn't rush to give an answer, thinking deeply for a moment, he rubbed his temples and looked at the principal's gold-rimmed glasses, saying: "This question you gave is not complete, there should be another very important hint!"

  As soon as this was said, all three candidates thought that Jiang Qi couldn't think of an answer and was pretending to be ignorant on purpose.

  But no sooner had he finished speaking than the principal suddenly stood up excitedly, and then quickly sat down, making a great effort to appear extremely calm as he said: "It's been a whole month now, and among all these applicants, you're still the first person to ask me this kind of question! You're very clever!"

  After hearing the principal's words, the two men and one woman beside him looked at each other in dismay, all thinking that their ears had serious problems!

  But the principal no longer had any interest in looking at them again, his gaze locked tightly on Jiang Qicai, as if he was looking at a treasure: "That's right, the most important clue is that there is another sculpture in the garden! And in this sculpture's hand, it is holding a bright red rose!"

  "What does sculpture or rose have to do with the little girl's death?" The two men and one woman were completely baffled by what Jiang Qicai and the principal were talking about.

  But Jiang Qicai's inspiration in his mind kept flashing, and with the hint of this line, everything was indeed connected. Jiang Qicai showed a confident smile, his hands moved from his temples to the table in front of him, and he lightly tapped out perfect notes on the surface of the table, "I can now confirm that the little girl's death is 100% due to being scared to death!"