All-rounder Artist

It’s hard to imagine that such a classic work, highly acclaimed by the detective association, was written by a novelist with little detective writing experience—

Chu Kuang is indeed prolific.

He writes fantasy novels, excels in short stories, and straddles two major areas. He is acknowledged as a genius in the world of fiction.

However, his real detective writing can be summed up in a single work, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”, and with this one entry into the world of detective writing, Chu Kuang brought a storm of narrative trickery!

As for his short story “The Fall of the Dondon Bridge” published last month, people didn’t pay much attention to it.

To put it in kind words, that’s Chu Kuang’s enrichment and complement to narrative trickery.

Less so, he’s mocking readers out of boredom and taking a large sum of blog manuscript fees by the way, drawing enough attention.

Up to now, the impression Chu Kuang left on the detective writing circle was still just a genius who enjoyed fooling around and teasing his readers with his narrative tricks.

Not until Chu Kuang published “Murder on the Orient Express” did all disputes in the detective circle crumble before this work.

No one called Chu Kuang a frivolous trickster anymore.

Nor did anyone say that Chu Kuang was just fooling around with readers in virtue of his talent.

He is more of a master of detection, causing occasional laughter, but with profound insights!

He completed a detective show, initiated and concluded by Poirot, with an almost devout ceremonial sense!

From narrative trickery to tradition…

From playful creation to classical mystery…

As a constant character, Poirot is already showing a trend toward canonization!

As the creator of Poirot, at this point, Chu Kuang has also become the “newbie” of monstrous talent in the eyes of detective writers!

Well, Chu Kuang is still a newcomer by the number of detective works.

But this newcomer is terrifyingly formidable, and no detective writer is willing to describe Chu Kuang as a “newcomer” anymore.

So, “monstrous” is the appropriate term.

This is a title that belongs to Chu Kuang, because it’s hard for everyone to regard Chu Kuang as a newcomer. Who else would have such a high starting point when they debut?

“Chu Kuang has blurred the boundaries of the detective circle. If we say he is a top-tier detective writer, his works have made it into the top ten in the detective rating. He has overwhelmed Leng Guang, a top-tier detective writer, in the literary duel. Yet if we say he is a top-tier detective master like Carter, he has only written two detective stories! Well, I think ‘The Fall of the Dondon Bridge’ is not a detective story.”

The industry has a habit of grading different writers.

However, they found that Chu Kuang cannot be graded.

His qualifications were too shallow and his upper limit too high. Chu Kuang now only has few works. No one knows what level Chu Kuang will reach in the future.

Anyway, the wretched loser in this literary duel, Leng Guang, is a bona fide top-tier detective writer. This could be used as a reference to assess Chu Kuang.

Some shook their heads, “Leng Guang crashed quite badly this time.”

Some held a different opinion, “It’s not disgraceful to lose to ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, because anyone would be the same.”

A sigh from the former, “But he nonetheless lost, becoming a backdrop for Chu Kuang.”

The latter seriously retorted, “Didn’t you notice that nobody is scoffing at Leng Guang? He may have lost, but he demonstrated his skills. It’s just that the opponent was too inhuman.”

As the two sides were about to argue, a senior remarked:

“Nobody has the right to ridicule Leng Guang. For all the detective writers present, anyone who faces ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ will experience the same outcome.”

“What would happen?”

“They will surely perish.”

A silence fell over the detective circle.

Chu Kuang’s “Murder on the Orient Express” is an almost invincible work. As that senior said, it’s not about Leng Guang. Anyone who confronts this novel will die.

…

The ripple continued to spread, starting from the detective forum and eventually sweeping across various related platforms.

On the official website of the detective association, “Murder on the Orient Express” has been included in the top ten of the rating leaderboard.

The comments on the novel were like those of other high-rated detective novels, full of praise.

“Chu Kuang’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ adopted the purest traditional flavor, presenting to the readers a grand feast of detection!”

“With more and more detective novels on the book market starting to use similar templates, we often see a gruesome case occurring. The detective arrives and conducts an unexplainable investigation, following up with some seemingly baseless detective work, or even disappearing for a few days in order to find clues. When the truth is revealed, an astounding secret is exposed, and we as readers can only marvel without fully understanding. However, what Chu Kuang brings readers is a fair duel with the detective, and also offers us humanitarian contemplation outside of the case. This is incredibly rare.”

“Yes, in order for the conclusion to be sufficiently unexpected, regardless of the case or the detective’s investigation, the more perplexing they can manage, the more perplexing they will be. So while the conclusion is astonishing indeed, I always feel that what I read before was useless. I only need to see the case occur and the final reveal by the detective. The investigation feels like I am complete idiot, not understanding anything, only regularly seeing the detective’s knowing smile. But when the detective finally reveals the solution, I finally understand what happened in the case.”

“Where’s the promised confrontation between the reader and the detective?”

“The work of Chu Kuang this time is completely different. You don’t have to guess what kind of investigation the detective did. The author lays out every step of the detective’s investigation and the evidence obtained in front of the reader, inviting the reader to join the detective in cracking the case. I inevitably get involved. The author does not try to trip up readers in terms of specialized knowledge, investigative situations, or evidence, and makes up for readers’ disadvantaged reading position as much as possible, offering a platform for thinking. He does not dwell on issues such as investigations but leaves room for plot twists, which still make sense. The reader is allowed to guess and think according to the development of the plot and the gradual increase of evidence, draw conclusions and overturn their own conclusions, and then continue to guess and think…until the answer is given, the reader’s thinking has been following the plot development, and the answer given both makes sense and is invariably unexpected. So the reader can’t help but admire the author’s meticulous thinking and ingenious planning.”

“Those detective stories that are afraid to tell readers the investigative details and case evidence are indeed afraid readers will guess the result too soon and lose interest in the story. But this should involve an exploration into the story structure and plot, rather than a petty cleverness that conceals and confuses readers, or deifying detectives. Readers are not just placed in a position equal to the characters in the story, but they also fail to find enjoyment and gain respect.”

“After all this verbosity, there’s actually just one sentence: Chu Kuang was divine this round.”

The tone smacks of a self-media, suspected of either stepping on some or boosting others. However, it reveals a fact implicitly:

Chu Kuang has won over the discerning traditional mystery lovers.

It was not long ago that Chu Kuang’s reputation in the detective circle was teetering on the brink due to “The Fall of the Dondon Bridge.”

However, once “Murder on the Orient Express” was published, the world seems to have changed.

In this world, there is someone who will never change.

This person is the well-known Chu Kuang advocate, Shen Jiarui, who stated on the Tribe: “It is said that there is a term called ‘God’s Move’ in Go. ‘Murder on the Orient Express ‘ is Chu Kuang’s God’s Move!”

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PS: This chapter was written in the hospital, the circumstances affected the state, it will be revised later, please bear with it.