The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case opens with the Sheriff inviting Mr. Zhong to visit an antique spaceship exhibition.

The tour guide explained that this antique ship was not only historically significant but also the site of an unsolved mystery.

The previous owner had once invited ten guests aboard for an interstellar voyage. When the ship returned on autopilot, nine of those ten guests were dead, and the remaining passenger had vanished without a trace.

The most bizarre part was that each death followed the sequence of a nursery rhyme. This rhyme could be found everywhere on the ship, with various translated versions even embedded into the center of the dining table, as if fate itself had decreed it.

 

[

"Ten friends, nine chairs—

One is out, sprawled beneath the ground;

Nine friends, eight chairs—

One is out, standing upside down;

Eight friends, seven chairs—

One is out, in the chimney found;

Seven friends, six chairs—

One is out, off acting all around;

...

One friend, one chair—

Sits alone, pondering the mystery."

]

 

This nursery rhyme originated from an ancient Blue Planet children's game called Musical Chairs. When the music stops, whoever doesn't have a seat is eliminated and must face the corresponding punishment from the song.

 

[

The Sheriff said, "Well, great detective? Was I right to bring you here? I knew you'd be interested."

But Mr. Zhong replied, "I already know the answer to this case. If you want to know, I can share it with you."

"What? You've already figured it out?"

"No. This was the first case I ever failed to solve."

Then Mr. Zhong revealed a shocking secret:

"I am the missing passenger."

Mr. Zhong drifted into his memory:

"I was sixteen that year, and one day, I won this trip in a lottery. I only found out later that I wasn't lucky, but rather I had been chosen.

I was so excited about winning that I let my best friend sneak aboard with me. So people didn't know that there was actually one more passenger than what the rumors say."

Sixteen-year-old Mr. Zhong was called Little Zhong, and his best friend was called Little Shi.

Fearless and inseparable, the two were famous local boy detectives who often solved cases together. When Little Zhong received the invitation, he immediately brought Little Shi along, reasoning that in everyone else's eyes, the two of them were practically one person anyway.

The two boys boarded the luxurious antique ship, along with other guests who had been invited for various reasons, with each seemingly harboring secrets of their own.

Once aboard, they discovered that the ship's owner wasn't present. Only a servant was there to receive them. The servant explained that the owner would arrive separately by shuttle, and that it was more important for the antique ship to depart first.

Thus, eleven passengers, including the servant, found themselves stranded and isolated in space.

Because of their clashing personalities, friction quickly arose. As the group argued noisily around the dining table, an electronic voice suddenly shattered the tension:

"I am the Judge of Justice, and I shall pass judgment upon you. You believe yourselves to exist in the gray area between black and white, but the light of justice shall tear you apart.

Gao Shu, you committed the murder of Wu Li on the first day of the Year of the Tiger.

Ka Fei, you murdered Cha Ye on the second day of the Year of the Rabbit.

.…

Among you exists one who is absolutely innocent. Welcome, our detective, Little Zhong.

You shall directly judge my crimes.

May the halo of justice crown us all."

]

 

Between Yongye's reputation and Xun Ming's promotional boost, The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case exploded in popularity the moment it began serialization.

Dedicated mystery fans immediately created character relationship charts.

One character was a physicist, invited by a colleague named so-and-so, but that colleague seemed to have broken their promise. According to the electronic voice, the physicist had killed someone named so-and-so.

All eleven characters were mapped out, and even Little Zhong himself was listed as a potential future suspect. Readers took meticulous notes on every detail, eager to solve the mystery before Yongye revealed the ending.

Moreover, Mr. Zhong himself had admitted that his younger self had failed to solve this case.

So if they could solve it, wouldn't that make them even better than Mr. Zhong?

Driven by a touch of vanity, readers began combing through the text for every possible clue, analyzing each line until it was worn smooth. Then they waited eagerly for the next update.

Meanwhile, some curious onlookers went to check the Reader's Digest forums to see Xun Ming's reaction.

Neither Xun Ming nor Yongye left a comment, as if they'd reached some tacit understanding.

But Xun Ming hadn't updated Chaos Gale either!

Readers flooded his comment section with mentions and strings of question marks. What's going on? Did his old illness flare up? Is he going to abandon the story halfway again?

Xun Ming finally replied in the Chaos Gale comment section:

"Watching the show. Waiting for him to finish."

The real situation, of course, was that Xi Yujin was frantically writing and couldn't manage both novels at once.

But to readers, this looked like proper literary duel etiquette. You post a chapter, then I post a chapter; neither of us steals the other's spotlight, and we compete purely on skill to attract readers.

Seen this way, Xun Ming actually seemed somewhat... polite?

Xun Ming's image gradually became more three-dimensional in readers' minds. At his core, he was an arrogant novelist who looked down on everyone. Despite being perfectly capable of writing crowd-pleasing power fantasies, he insisted on writing lingering, melancholic love stories, yet he still showed some courtesy to his friends. Humans really are complicated creatures.

As a result, readers stuck at the bottom of Xun Ming's update pit either drifted over to True and Fake Aristocrats or came to observe this Yongye, who had supposedly been mentored by Xun Ming. After reading several chapters, they realized something:

Why does The Nursery Rhyme Murders get more terrifying the further you read?

The story unfolds from Little Zhong's perspective.

Having been designated as the innocent one, all passengers competed to prove their innocence to him. Little Zhong was still just a teenager, and the pressure was immense. Fortunately, Little Shi was by his side, helping him analyze everything.

This Little Shi had first appeared in Ghost Killer and clearly shared a deep history with Mr. Zhong. Readers had been curious about their story, and their interactions here were somewhat surprising. It turned out Mr. Zhong hadn't always been so decisive and capable. His reasoning was still quite rough back then, and he was even somewhat self-conscious when others praised him. Little Shi, on the other hand, was outgoing and enthusiastic, always inadvertently piercing through people's defenses with the fewest words possible.

The two friends initially theorized that the ship's owner was hiding somewhere on board, but no matter how hard they searched, they couldn't find any hiding place.

Soon, the first passenger died. He lay rigid on the floor of the lowest deck, matching the first line of the nursery rhyme.

Everyone assumed he had been strangled, but Little Zhong discovered that he was actually poisoned. Only then did it dawn on him: perhaps the killer was among them.

Readers opened betting pools in the comments to guess the killer. With only eleven characters, minus Little Zhong and Little Shi, that left nine suspects. The killer had to be among them, and surely someone would guess correctly.

By now, readers had learned not to assume there was some psychic-powered assassin at work. There's no such thing as a perfect crime, and everything can be traced within the objective, material world.

But one passenger aboard the ship didn't see it that way. A somewhat eccentric passenger kept insisting there was a hidden killer, whom he claimed he'd seen with his own eyes.

Little Zhong was under enormous psychological pressure, and his reasoning process was so hesitant that it frustrated readers to no end.

Some readers who hadn't yet seen Little Zhong dominate a case went to read Xun Ming's Chaos Gale for a quick dose of satisfaction.

Then two more passengers died in succession, each following the nursery rhyme's pattern. The atmosphere in the book grew heavier and more tense.

Little Zhong proposed that everyone stay together and sleep in the dining hall. Then he personally chopped up all the chairs in the room.

Previously, whenever a passenger died, a chair would be destroyed along with them. To break the nursery rhyme's sequence and to calm everyone down, Little Zhong destroyed all the chairs preemptively.

Readers were stunned when they read this:

"Hahaha, was Mr. Zhong always this intense?"

"Finally, some relief! Now Little Zhong's going to start properly deducing, right?"

But the unexpected kept happening. An elderly gentleman fell into a narrow puppet display case, apparently impaled by a blade inside. By the time everyone found him, his blood had stained half the display case, and his body was completely motionless. They couldn't even retrieve the corpse, so they simply covered it with a cloth.

The surviving passengers began to break down, loudly blaming Little Zhong and then accusing each other of lying. Anyone could be the killer. The eccentric passenger declared that everyone had committed real crimes and was destined for punishment.

"Four are already dead. Seven passengers remain. Excluding Little Zhong and Little Shi, that leaves five."

Readers continued their heated discussions.

"One out of five. The odds of guessing the killer are high now."

"Watching these passengers blame each other, I kind of feel like they deserve it. And the way they yelled at Little Zhong, dumping all the blame on him, is so frustrating."

The group split up.

Little Zhong fell into a slump for a while, but Little Shi encouraged him to keep searching for the truth. His reasoning abilities seemed to level up instantly, becoming calmer and clearer, and readers saw hope for finding the answer again.

Little Zhong returned to the crime scenes to re-examine everything.

Readers cheered him on from outside the book. Some said, "I thought of that too!" while others said, "I can't believe I missed that!" Everyone was eager to point fingers at who among the remaining passengers was the real culprit.

Another passenger died horribly.

But Little Zhong gained more clues; this time, he would surely find the killer.

A passenger who had just been speaking moments ago suddenly died.

Only three suspects remained, and Little Zhong had locked onto the true culprit. His reasoning this time was complete and airtight. The killer had exploited a psychological blind spot, using a method so bizarre it was unprecedented. Every reader was convinced by this.

"Go! Time for a brilliant deduction to catch the killer!"

But when Little Zhong arrived at the dining hall, the suspect was already dead at the table, with blood pooled across the floor.

Little Zhong froze.

The readers froze too.

What? This one is dead too?

They looked back at their notes, but not a single theory had panned out!

Had the entire reasoning process been wrong?

Oh, right! The case intro mentioned that Little Zhong's deduction failed. So that's what it meant. No matter. Little Zhong was young then, but they were experienced.

There is only one truth! The choices are down to two! They'd definitely get it right!

The remaining two suspects furiously blamed Little Zhong and even pushed him down the stairs. Fortunately, Little Shi rushed out to protect him.

Readers were outraged. Pushing a child? Shameless! One of them has to be the killer, and the readers have to rely on Little Zhong to solve the case soon enough.

However, the next chapter update brought another reversal.

After the two suspects finished yelling at Little Zhong, they suddenly turned on each other, each accusing the other of being the killer. In the ensuing struggle, one of them was killed!

Readers' jaws dropped, especially those who had been adamant that the now-dead one was the killer.

So... does this mean that the surviving passenger is the final culprit?

The last surviving passenger stumbled toward Little Zhong in a daze, screaming: "There's a ghost! A ghost! We were wrong! We were all wrong!"

Then, laughing maniacally while coughing up blood, the remaining suspect died after convulsing violently.

All dead.

No one survived.

Readers were utterly dumbfounded.

 

[

Little Zhong returned to the dining hall and found a single intact chair sitting in the center. It appeared so abruptly, as if staged by fate itself.

He had clearly destroyed all the chairs. Yet this one was clean and pristine, like it had just come from the factory.

Little Zhong thought he could hear something, as if someone nearby was singing that nursery rhyme...

"Two friends, one chair—

One is out, grinning with utmost glee.

One friend, one chair—

Sits alone, pondering the mystery."

Yes... This chair had been prepared for him.

Little Zhong sat down, ice cold all over, clutching his head as he broke into sobs.

]

 

"AHHH!!! The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case just ended like that?! Who's the killer?! Everyone I suspected died! WHO IS IT?!"

"There's still one more chapter, don't panic. But I really can't figure out the killer anymore. Is it Little Shi? But he was by Little Zhong's side the whole time!"

"God... what if there really is a ghost... This is the scariest case I've ever read. I'm trembling under my blanket."

Countless readers begged for the next chapter.

They had all been following the case from Little Zhong's perspective. As his psychological pressure gradually increased, readers naturally felt anxious too. Watching Little Zhong get blamed and shoved around made them feel like they were about to explode.

And the text kept dropping in details that became more disturbing the more you thought about them:

"A string of footsteps echoed down the corridor, but when the door was opened, no one was there."

"The gramophone suddenly started playing music, but the gramophone had been broken for ages."

Readers declared: "Even if this weren't a detective novel, it would definitely be an amazing horror story! Thank goodness it's serialized on Materialist Archive! Materialism will protect me!"

They deeply empathized with the oppressive atmosphere, and many stayed up all night studying materialist philosophy. None of Yongye's previous cases had done as much to promote materialist worldviews as The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case.

His popularity continued to climb, and he once again broke his own records.

Xi Yujin noticed that Flying Duck Novel Network had given Ginseng Spirit another promotional push, so he sent out his other pen names to stir things up.

 

[

Xun Ming: @Yongye, barely readable. Where's the ending?

Canghai: Stayed up all night reading! Suddenly want to add some supernatural content to my new arc.

Yongye replied to Xun Ming: Barely writing.

Yongye replied to Canghai: Thank you for reading. I'm really looking forward to it.

]

 

The readers immediately erupted with a fresh wave of gossip-fueled excitement.

"Hahaha, why do I feel like Yongye gets all passive-aggressive with Xun Ming? He's not like this with anyone else."

"Wait… don’t tell me the killer in The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case is actually a ghost?!"

"Huh? Are there really ghosts on Earth?? I get it now! Earth has two intelligent species: humans and ghosts. Now I'm kind of scared. Will these Earth ghosts... come to outer space?"

Flying Duck Novel Network's trending topics were completely buried.

The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case reached its final chapter amid tremendous anticipation.

 

[

Suddenly, a hand appeared in front of Little Zhong. He looked up, and it was Little Shi.

Little Shi said, "Thinking alone is too exhausting. Good thing I smuggled myself here. Don't worry, even if there's a ghost, I'll protect you."

Little Zhong stared at him blankly. His gaze slowly drifted past Little Shi to what lay behind him: the puppet display case that held the old gentleman's body, now covered with a cloth.

Little Zhong rose from the chair and walked over. He pulled off the cloth and discovered that the corpse looked exactly the same as it had days ago.

Little Zhong studied the body for a moment, then reached out and knocked on the glass. The corpse didn't react. Suddenly, Little Zhong flew into a rage and smashed the glass like a madman who had lost his mind.

Then, the corpse moved.

The old gentleman opened his eyes inside the narrow puppet display case and said: "I've lost, young detective..."

]

 

Readers held their breath, and reading that last line sent electric chills down their spines.

There really was a ghost! The corpse came back to life!

No wait... materialism prevails. This was a fake death. Of the nine suspects, only the old gentleman remained. So the killer was YOU all along! The old gentleman who "died" halfway through!

The old gentleman slowly explained his grand ambition.

He was already at death's door, and his only remaining wish was to create an unsolvable mystery. That's why he first invited Little Zhong to ensure that even a detective couldn't crack his puzzle.

Furthermore, he didn't want to harm innocent people. So he invited individuals from various places who had committed unforgivable crimes, intending to execute them one by one on this antique ship.

As the ship's owner, he used the passengers' secrets to blackmail them into walking down certain corridors at certain times, picking up specific forks, and discovering hidden passages, all to create false leads and psychological pressure to make everyone believe that a twelfth person truly existed. Meanwhile, he used their cover to eliminate his targets one by one.

His hunched frame meant he only needed to hide in the narrow puppet display case at key moments to fool everyone. No one would ever suspect the corpse of being the killer.

Finally, he only needed to stab himself in the heart with an ice pick, which would melt and make the murder weapon disappear, creating the illusion that the ship's owner had killed him.

Then Little Zhong would leave the ship empty-handed and announce to the world that this case was unsolvable.

But at the last moment, Little Zhong suddenly realized the truth and pulled back the curtain. The old gentleman's scheme fell apart while it was just a little bit away from success.

The victim who died midway was the killer all along.

This was possible?!

It could be written like this?!

Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None formula had been imitated countless times on Earth, so Earth readers might not have been too surprised. But for cosmic readers encountering detective fiction for the first time, this was an enormous shock.

All that fog and suspense and horror: all of it had been building toward this final, earth-shattering reversal. That moment of sudden clarity was an unforgettable experience.

First came shock, then boundless joy!

Reading a good book doesn't just heal mental chaos; it also brings the joy of wandering through a new world. Books are a second life, and of course, you want that journey to be as thrilling as possible.

Looking back on the reading experience—feeling outraged at the passengers' actions, sympathizing with Little Zhong, being terrified by the atmosphere, and then finally having that "aha!" moment—it made readers' scalps tingle with satisfaction that left a lingering aftertaste.

"Yongye... is truly powerful..."

Some readers reread the entire text repeatedly, growing more amazed each time. Objectively speaking, there were some obvious bugs in the murder methods. For instance, how did the old gentleman predict the passengers' psychology so accurately? But given the tense, thrilling atmosphere of the book, it mostly held together.

If they had been in Little Zhong's position, they probably would have been completely baffled.

If they had just been bystanders who saw the antique ship return—finding only a mentally shattered child and nine corpses aboard—they couldn't even begin to imagine how to solve it.

The old gentleman had nearly achieved the perfect crime!

His mad yet meticulous character leaped off the page, but did his actions count as justice?

As for the eight murdered passengers, did they deserve their fate, or was their punishment too extreme? Readers debated endlessly.

Human nature, psychology, crime... Yongye had pushed everything to the extreme.

But knowing Little Zhong's story wasn't over yet, everyone continued reading with anticipation.

 

[

The old gentleman said, "But my puzzle still fooled everyone. I still succeeded. All that remains is my death. Young detective, can you keep this secret and fulfill my final wish?"

Little Zhong replied, "Impossible! You're not a mastermind who planned for everything. You're just too cowardly! You wanted a detective as a witness, but only chose me because you were afraid someone stronger would expose you.

You are too arrogant. You thought you could control others' fates, but you couldn't! You claimed to be delivering justice, but you actually had no compassion at all. Their crimes were just an excuse for you to toy with people's minds.

I'm going to destroy your puzzle and make you face the law!"

The old gentleman gasped: "You two... You were supposed to be on the same side, yet you made opposite choices..."

Of course, the old gentleman's plan had flaws. He hadn't anticipated that Little Shi would also board the ship.

In fact, Little Shi had actually witnessed the old gentleman rise from the dead, but he'd said nothing.

The old gentleman coughed violently, struggling to breathe. Haltingly, he recited the nursery rhyme:

"Eleven friends, ten chairs—

One is out, sprawled beneath the ground

...

Three friends, two chairs—

One is out, grinning with utmost glee.

Two friends, one chair—

One is out, buried in flames' decree.

One friend, one chair—

alone to ponder the mystery..."

The old gentleman's new nursery rhyme included Little Shi.

He seemed about to say something more, but Little Shi activated a mechanism, which sent an ice pick plunging from above to deliver the old gentleman's final judgment.

Little Shi turned to the stunned Little Zhong, "I've discovered that compared to solving riddles, I prefer creating them... He inspired me... Little Zhong, let's complete the final nursery rhyme together."

Little Shi lunged forward and pressed a cloth over Little Zhong's face. Little Zhong immediately lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he was already at the port, and Little Shi had vanished without a trace. Later, the nine-death mystery of the antique ship became a famous riddle throughout the stars.

In the antique ship exhibition, crowds came and went. People were fascinated by the fresh, thrilling mystery, and they even laughed at the exaggerated parts. They didn't care about the truth, nor about the lives that were lost.

When the sheriff heard the truth for the first time, he was speechless for a long while.

Mr. Zhong said, "I know Little Shi is just as clever as I am. The old gentleman's riddle released a demon... I shouldn't have brought him aboard. I failed to solve the old gentleman's nursery rhyme, so I must stop Mr. Shi."

"Now, I have an appointment to keep."

Mr. Zhong walked to the dining table. Somehow, a business card had been nailed there at some point. It belonged to a criminal psychologist, Mr. Shi.

Mr. Zhong took the card.

"Wait! I'm coming with you! What if that guy kills you?" The Sheriff finally snapped out of it and hurried after him.

]

 

The final chapter of The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case was titled The Appointment.

The first case Mr. Zhong failed to solve, and his missing childhood friend had become his greatest knot of regret.

While reflecting on this, readers also began looking forward to the confrontation between these two. Would that nursery rhyme really come true? What fate awaited Mr. Zhong and Mr. Shi?

"This was so good! I really want to collect a physical copy."

"I can't wait for the next case!  It feels so exciting! Mr. Shi is really such a twisted character. Can Mr. Zhong win?"

"Wait, I think I found another detail. The order of the passengers' deaths corresponds to the severity of their crimes. I just looked it up, and apparently Blue Planet has a place called Hell..."

A large number of discussions spread to every corner of the book forum. It even turned into a trending topic on the local network of the Panshi Galaxy.

Everyone enthusiastically discussed the plot twists and complex character relationships.

This spawned another topic:

"I've been hearing about The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case for a long time, but I was too busy to read it. To avoid spoilers, I even stayed away from Materialist Archive. I just went to Flying Duck Novel Network for some trashy dog-blood drama.

Then today, an author updated with a note: 'Have you all read The Nursery Rhyme Murder Case? That case where the old gentleman faked his death to kill people.'

I completely exploded!!! I got spoiled like THIS?!"

"Getting spoiled really sucks. Poor OP, you lost the chance to experience a great book's twist. But the truth is still interesting, check out Little Zhong and Little Shi's interactions at least. It's pretty sweet!"

"I think we need anti-spoiler etiquette. Not spoiling the killer before someone reads a mystery novel should be common sense. OP, you can look forward to Yongye's next case."

Everyone was eagerly anticipating Yongye's next case, only to discover that he had posted a hiatus notice.

What's going on? Does your Blue Planet literary scene take turns being pigeons (serial droppers)?

In the Reader's Digest comment section, many readers often camp to catch authors who leave comments, so they quickly spotted Yongye's message.

 

[

Yongye: Submission complete. Please evaluate. @Yujin

Canghai: I submitted too! @Yujin

Xun Ming: I’m not done yet, just wait a bit. We're so close, how could I possibly delay an update? @Yujin

]

 

"Yongye and the others write on different sites, so the data calculations differ. It made sense for someone from Blue Planet to judge. This Yujin seems well-respected." Readers happily ate their melon.

"Suddenly kind of jealous of Yujin. He probably gets to read tons of manuscripts and personally pester authors for updates."

"I'd pay money for the chance to personally pester Xun Ming for updates."

"Me too!!!"

Aboard the Tidal Peace, Xi Yujin was brainstorming ways to boost Canghai's popularity. He had a grand plan in mind, but the stage wasn't ready yet. Canghai's popularity was still lacking.

"Looks like I'll have to let you ride Xun Ming and Yongye's popularity."

Xi Yujin steeled himself and said heartlessly to his Canghai Account: "Let’s do a real literary love triangle."

Fortunately, a piece of news saved Canghai and prevented the three novelists from turning into a My Lover Loves Someone Else situation.

The Flash Empire sent an invitation, announcing they had partially restored the Ancient Tomb Code and were cordially inviting extraterrestrial beings to view it. They planned to use this as a promotional event for the physical book release.