S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 25

The Innocent Murderer 25 – Secrets

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At five o'clock in the morning, Bai Yutang was woken up by the sound of breathing and the slight sound of something moving around on the bed.

Opening his eyes in a daze, Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao who was 'busy' beside him, "Cat, what are you doing?"

Zhan Zhao's current state was quite magical with his eyes closed, Bai Yutang never doubted that. He had never even dreamt that Zhan Zhao would actively open his eyes before seven o'clock in the morning. It's just that Zhan Zhao's head was immersed in the soft pillow and he seemed very irritable, he kept turning over and over, his hands rubbing his legs unconsciously.

Bai Yutang, who found it interesting, woke up and turned around to watch intently.

Zhan Zhao didn't realise it at all and kept moving.

Is this cat dreaming? Bai Yutang was puzzled and stretched out his hand to tap him, "Cat, what's the matter?"

Zhan Zhao turned over again, muttering like a dream, "Itch..."

"Itchy?" Bai Yutang was a little surprised and pulled Zhan Zhao over to check. "Where is it itchy? Were you bitten by a mosquito or something?"

After being hugged by Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao was still restless. Bai Yutang took a closer look and noticed that Zhan Zhao wanted to scratch his leg. 'So, it's the leg that itchy?' After watching for a while, Bai Yutang realised that the wound on Zhan Zhao's injured leg was beginning to scab and heal, hence the cat was itchy. He shook his head helplessly and got up. He went to the refrigerator and took out an ice pack which he carefully placed on Zhan Zhao's injury.

Sure enough, Zhan Zhao immediately calmed down. Bai Yutang put the ice pack in a cup sitting on the bedside table and laid back down. He reached over to hug Zhan Zhao, preventing him from being able to grab his legs.

Like this, whenever Zhan Zhao moved, Bai Yutang would put the ice pack back on his leg. He kept this system until the sky gradually brightened and Zhan Zhao woke up.

"Awake?" Bai Yutang poked Zhan Zhao's cheek with his hand, "What do you want to eat this morning?"

Zhan Zhao looked up at Bai Yutang. After taking a little bit to wake, he suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, "Hurry! What time is it?!"

"Wow... Cat, I wish you could always be this active when you get up." Bai Yutang was able to avoid being hit by Zhan Zhao as he sat up.

"Let's go! Let's drive to Uncle An's hometown." Zhan Zhao quickly grabbed his clothes and got up.

"It's only seven o'clock now." Bai Yutang was puzzled, "What do you want to check so early in the morning?"

"Uncle An's hometown is in the countryside." Zhan Zhao said while putting on his clothes, "Let's go there."

"His parents seem to have passed away long ago." Bai Yutang asked.

"Not to find his parents." Zhan Zhao smiled, "Let's find his wife's parents!"

......

An hour later, Bai Yutang drove the car and brought Zhan Zhao to Uncle An's hometown. It was a small county town on the outskirts of S City.

"Uncle An's wife's surname is Chang, Chang Xiaoyan. Her mother has passed away and now it's just her father living in the countryside." Bai Yutang looked at the information Jiang Ping had given them and added, "The old man is seventy-seven years old. Cat, let's not irritate him later, he might not know that An Lingli is dead."

"I understand." Zhan Zhao nodded, "I want to ask him about something else."

In the forensic room of the police station.

Gongsun was looking at all the materials of the previous cases when someone knocked on the door. Zhao Hu and Ma Han flashed in.

The two of them wanted to speak, but when they saw that there were some white milky objects in the two cups in front of Gongsun, the two called out tremblingly, "Gongsun..."

"What are you here for?" Gongsun picked up one of the two cups and spooned a piece of its contents into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed.

The two immediately felt their stomachs turned upside down. Staring at the two cups, they asked Gongsun, "What is that...?"

Gongsun glanced at them, "Brain."

"Brain..." The two swallowed, "Whose..."

Gongsun couldn't laugh or cry, "Tofu."

"Huh..." The two were dumbfounded.

"Why are you two here? Why are you being so sneaky." Gongsun asked, pushing up his glasses.

"Oh... we just went to Uncle An's locker and found a hat that Uncle An wore that forgot to bring back." Zhao Hu said, taking out the hand behind his back and holding it out. The hat was one that was usually worn by the elderly when they sleep. "Uncle An probably wore it when he stayed up late on duty."

"What are you doing with this?" Gongsun was puzzled.

Ma Han stretched his other hand out from behind his back and showed it to Gongsun. He saw that he was holding a piece of hair in his hand, "We found some of his hair in the hat. And we have An Lingli's body, don't we?"

Gongsun frowned slightly and asked, "You two want me to compare the DNA of An Youdao and An Lingli?"

Zhao Hu and Ma Han nodded.

"Why?" Gongsun was puzzled, "Do you suspect that they are not father and daughter?"

"Dr. Zhan seems to be particularly concerned about Uncle An." Zhao Hu whispered, "However, this is actually against the rules..."

Gongsun looked at the two coldly. He reached out to take his hair and pushed his glasses, "Rules? What rules? In the forensic room, I make the rules!" After speaking, he turned to do the DNA comparison.

When the two turned around and were about to go out, Ma Han suddenly stopped. He pointed at a newly added glass cabinet by the door, and said, "Zhao Hu, look at that!"

Zhao Hu took a closer look and saw that this glass cabinet was very delicate, with materials neatly arranged inside. In the middle of the materials, there were some "artworks"; a heart-shaped ashtray; a lighter in the shape of a finger; a flowerpot in the shape of a skull with two curly bamboos growing out of the two black holes in the eye; a fruit plate made of a pelvic bone with four oranges on it and each orange had a skull painted on with black marker; a large row of voodoo dolls that were all different shapes; and the wall behind the cabinet was covered with posters of curses. 

Ma Han and Zhao Hu tacitly began to refresh their memories and blocked out the scene in front of them. They turned around and left the room quickly. In their hearts, they felt that Gongsun's taste was really not understandable to ordinary humans.

Zhan Zhao's injury recovered quickly and he was able to walk around by himself again. After all, he didn't injure his bones, and was able to recover as soon as the wound scabbed and regrew. At most, he sometimes exerted too much force and felt a little bit of pain.

The two of them walked along the path for a while before they found the old man's residence. It was an old three-story apartment and the old man lived in room 101.

The gloomy corridor was full of debris and bicycles. Zhan Zhao noticed that there was a worn-out football in the pile of debris and frowned slightly.

They rang the doorbell, and after a while they heard an old voice responding, "Who is it?"

The two had bought some fruits along the way, and Bai Yutang shouted at the door, "Master, Uncle An asked us to come and give you some fruits."

There was an unlocking sound from the door. Soon, the door opened and a grey-headed old man poked his head, asking, "Who are you looking for?"

Bai Yutang repeated it again, "Uncle An asked us to see you."

"Oh..." The old man nodded faintly and let Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang enter. He reached out to close the door and asked, "Are you good friends?"

"We are." Bai Yutang put the fruit on the table, "He is busy these days, so we stopped by to see you when we passed by."

The old man nodded. Although his actions were slow, he did not look confused at all. Bai Yutang heaved a sigh of relief and turned his face to see Zhan Zhao staring at a picture frame on the wall. The expression on his face seemed a little confused.

Bai Yutang walked over and saw that it was a very old black-and-white photo. In the photo, the old man and a little girl were pictured together. The girl was holding a football in her hands with sweat on her face, but she was smiling happily. The girl's appearance and outline were a little similar to An Lingli.

Zhan Zhao looked at some photos that were sandwiched under the glass table and the expression on his face became even more confused.

"Cat, what's the matter?" Bai Yutang asked.

As soon as Zhan Zhao wanted to speak, he saw the old man coming out with two glasses of water. The two exchanged glances and hurried forward to take the cup.

"It's been a long time since visitors have been here." The old man sat down and looked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang up and down, "Youdao still has such young friends. If you didn't tell me, I would have thought you were Ling Ling's friends."

When Zhan Zhao heard the old man's words, he laughed "Master, we also know Ling Ling. We often play football together."

"Really?" The old man laughed, "Then you guys really came here at the wrong time, they were here yesterday."

"Ahem..." Bai Yutang choked on a sip of water and coughed suddenly. He rubbed his mouth while looking at Zhan Zhao – So evil.

Zhan Zhao didn't care at all. Instead, he continued to talk to the old man, "Ling Ling often mentioned you to us, saying that their ability to play football came from you."

"Haha..." The old man laughed and said, "Ling Ling has liked to play football since they were a child. They also said that if they were asked to join the national team, the national football team would definitely have made it to the world championships."

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and gave Bai Yutang a meaningful look. From their conversation, Bai Yutang felt a little strange.

......

Bai Chi had been following Zhao Zhen the past few days, and his experience could only be described as shocking because he has seen the magic training process with his own eyes. Bai Chi still didn't know what Zhao Zhen's so-called most powerful magic trick that he was preparing to perform was because he took the trick apart to practise different aspects individually; diving and escaping both accounted for a large majority of the practice.

Bai Chi saw Zhao Zhen tie himself up like a rice dumpling, but he was able to escape successfully within a minute of getting in the box.

But when Bai Chi approached to take a look, he found that Zhao Zhen had big and small injuries everywhere. Sometimes, Bai Chi really couldn't figure it out, so he asked Zhao Zhen, "Your family is already so rich and you are so capable. Why do you want to do magic? Even if you do magic, couldn't you just do it with newspapers and coins? Why make it so dangerous?"

Zhao Zhen smiled and pinched Bai Chi's chin, "Chi Chi, do you want to go to the Sahara?"

Bai Chi looked helplessly at the sky, "What? You're changing the subject again!"

Zhao Zhen earnestly said, "I'm serious, do you want to go?"

"Why are you going there, somewhere where even the birds don't fly?" Bai Chi raised his eyebrows.

Zhao Zhen smiled without saying a word and continued to practise. At this time, three people walked into the closed training room.

Bai Chi turned his head and saw the three magicians he had met at the banquet last time. Zhao Zhen's manager hurriedly went out and said, "Sorry, we are doing private training."

"What's the matter?" From the door, another person walked in; it was Yan Jiajia.

Bai Chi had a very bad impression of Yan Jiajia, and she was still their biggest suspect so far. He stood up nervously, watching from the sidelines, thinking about what Zhao Jue had said to him: "Tell Zhen, be careful when doing magic."

"I'm sorry, Miss Yan." Zhao Zhen's manager stepped forward to stop her, "You are not allowed to watch!"

Yan Jiajia seemed to be a little impatient, "Why are you so stingy? Doesn't magic exist just for people to watch?"

"This..." The manager was embarrassed. In a pool not far away, Zhao Zhen came up from the bottom, took off his diving goggles and flicked his hair. He said to his manager indifferently, "It's okay, let them see it."

Yan Jiajia glanced at Zhao Zhen for a while, then smiled slightly, "Magician Zhao, please continue."

Bai Chi saw a trace of interest flashing in Yan Jiajia's eyes, and immediately became alert. He walked over to a place near the pool to sit down so that he could see Zhao Zhen at all times.

Zhao Zhen hadn't dived all the way down this time. Looking from underwater, he saw Bai Chi's slightly nervous expression; Zhao Zhen smiled. The surface of the water was disturbed by the rising bubbles. The bubbles broke off into the shape of petals before slowly dispersing.

......

Zhan Zhao had been chatting with the old man for a long time, chatting back and forth, switching from one topic to the next, some things had meaning while others were meaningless chatter. As he listened, Bai Yutang felt that there was something wrong, but he couldn't find anything obvious so he wanted to say something.

Finally, Zhan Zhao got up and said goodbye.

Bai Yutang went out with a confused look. Before leaving, Zhan Zhao suddenly said to the old man, "Uncle, Ling Ling has a partner. Did you know that?"

"Really?" The old man was startled, and hurriedly stopped Zhan Zhao from leaving. "What kind of girl is she? Is she pretty? Is she a good person? Why didn't she bring her back to see me?

"You can ask her yourself next time she comes back." Zhan Zhao said goodbye to the old man and closed the door for him. He turned to see Bai Yutang standing there with his mouth open.

"What's the matter? Zhan Zhao asked him with a smile.

"Cat, you just said partner..." Bai Yutang adjusted his thought for a while before speaking, "The old man asked about a girl? Does he mean that An Lingli is a lesbian or..."

Zhan Zhao shook his head slightly, and walked outside, saying, "The old man always called An Lingli as Ling Ling, not as Li Li or Lingli."

Bai Yutang frowned deeply, "He may be talking about Lin Lin..."

Zhan Zhao nodded, and said, "An Youdao's wife called out for a child not a daughter!"

"An Youdao gave birth to a son?" Bai Yutang was shocked, "That..."

Zhan Zhao sneered, "That unknown suspect... It matches!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: March 18, 2021

Re-edited: December 21, 2023