S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 38

Murderer vs Murderer 11 – Self-Mutilation

---

The questioning period continued on in a strange way; the students were more concerned about things such as whether or not Bai Yutang had bought his sports car with his salary, how well Zhan Zhao’s book sold, if Gongsun had ever encountered a corpse while dissecting another corpse, how many people Ma Han had killed as a sniper, and so on.

After they concluded, everyone looked at the principal. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but Zhan Zhao was the one who said it out loud, “There is a problem with the quality of students in your school!”

Next up was the legendary graduation assessment. The principal brought everyone outside to the training yard. There were 15 people in the graduating class; they split up into three teams of five people. Each team was going to be given a simulation that would be randomly selected. All that the SCI members needed to do was to evaluate the performance of the three teams as they worked through their simulations.

Bai Yutang took a look at the three simulations. The first simulation was to rescue hostages from a bank robbery. The second simulation was an arson case in which the team had to find the clues at the scene and catch the person who set the fire. The third simulation was to find clues in a dismemberment case.

Bai Yutang returned the simulation details to the principal and asked “You can simulate a bank robbery and an arson, but how can you simulate a body dismemberment?”

“Oh, well we have a forensic department… And we do receive donated corpses… And then we…” The principal replied with a smile.

The SCI members felt a bit nauseous when they heard it. When they thought about the teachers dismembering the corpse for the simulation, they all felt a little dumbfounded.

“How were the teams formed?” Zhan Zhao asked the teacher. “Were the five students randomly grouped or were they grouped based on their expertise?”

“Oh, we let them choose their own groups and then they will draw lots to determine their simulation.” The principal replied.

Zhan Zhao wanted to tell him that this was a serious evaluation, not a mission played on a TV show, but after he thought about it, he chose not to. Anyway, the principal’s intentions are not just about education.

The students gathered in the training yard and the groups began to draw lots.

“Why are there not fifteen students present?” Gongsun looked at the ten or so students that were in front of them. “There are three or four missing.”

“Wow…” Bai Chi exclaimed, “They dare to be late for their graduation exam? That’s incredible.”

The students looked at each other and shook their heads.

“Aren’t you all in the same class? Don’t you know where your classmates are?” The teacher next to the principal asked the students harshly.

One student replied in a low voice, “Meng Kuangyue and the other three didn’t interact with the rest of us. As for the class monitor, I don’t know where he went. He is a massive fan of Dr. Zhan. He was super excited two days ago when he was informed of his upcoming visit, but he wasn’t present at the lecture today.”

The principal frowned deeply, “Call them and tell them that they will fail if they do not get here in ten minutes!”

“We have the class monitor’s phone number but we don’t have Xiao Meng’s.” Several of the classmates looked at each other.

The SCI members looked at the situation in front of them. Zhan Zhao whispered to Bai Yutang “There were rumours that this year’s students don’t get along with each other. It turns out that they were telling the truth.”

Bai Yutang smiled slightly and said “Who knows what the situation is. It’s best if we suggest that the principal moves the exam to another day, that way we won’t have to oversee it.”

At that moment, several teachers came over with the props needed for the simulations and prepared to set up the scenes. One of the students took out their phone and called the class monitor. At the same time, they all heard the sound of a cell phone ringing.

The class monitor didn’t answer the student’s phone call and the cell phone around them never stopped ringing. The principal asked them “Who’s phone is ringing?”

The teachers all shook their heads; it was none of theirs.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other — ‘Why do their voices sound so dull?”

“Principal, the class monitor didn’t answer.” The student said to the principal with a sad expression.

“Call them again!” The principal ordered.

The student had no choice but to dial the class monitor’s number again. Coincidentally, the strange ringing started again.

Everyone was stunned. The students looked at each other; some of their faces showed horror while others showed excitement.

“Is it an invisible person?” One of the more imaginative students spoke up, arousing the suspicion of the others.

The SCI members were also speechless. Gongsun rolled his eyes, “You have all watched Harry Potter too many times.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other with a strange feeling. Luo Tian, who was standing close to the students, walked over to them and took the cell phone from the one student’s hand. He ended the call and the ringing stopped.

The crowed fell into chaos and the students all started talking. The SCI members turned their attention to one of the teachers. The teacher was in his thirties. He wore glasses and was holding a black bag in his hand. His face had turned pale and he couldn’t close his mouth as he looked at the bag in horror.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao walked over and Luo Tian dialed the number again. Sure enough, the noise came from the bag.

“What’s in the bag?” Bai Yutang asked the teacher who had started trembling.

“The… the dismembered… corpse from the forensic room.” The teacher was almost unable to finish his sentence.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other. Zhao Hu took the bag and opened it. He frowned and turned back to look at Gongsun.

Gongsun asked him to put the bag on the ground. He reached into his pocket and took out a pair of disposable gloves.

The corner of Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao’s mouths twitched — ‘Why does Gongsun take gloves with him whenever he goes out? It is an occupational disease?’

Gongsun rolled his sleeves up before reaching into the bag. He searched for a bit before he found the cell phone and pulled it out.

Everyone was dumbfounded. Gongsun saw the caller ID on the phone and asked the student who had made the call “Your name is Wang Peng?”

“Uh… yes.” The student was frightened.

“Ah!” A few students screamed. They pointed to the bag and said “Could it be… the class monitor?!”

The other students were frightened when the words fell. As they started discussing, they heard the principal roar “What nonsense are you spouting?! It’s only a cell phone. This corpse clearly came from the forensic laboratory!”

Gongsun put the phone down and asked the principal “Who’s corpse are you using for the simulation? What is their age, gender, and body size?”

“Uh… The corpses we get are all elderly people that passed away from illnesses. They don’t have much value for criminal investigation anatomy, so we used one of them for the simulation.”

“Elderly?” Gongsun couldn’t help but smile, “And died of an illness?... This corpse is a young male.”

“Heh…” Everyone took a breath. The teacher holding the bag fainted on the spot.

“Are you sure?” Bai Yutang walked over and squatted down to look at the corpse.

Gongsun raised his eyebrows, “If it was a donated corpse then it would have been dead for a while and would have undergone an embalming process. However, this corpse is still very fresh; it’s been dead for a day at most.”

“No… That’s impossible!” The principal exclaimed. “How could that be possible when I watched the teachers dismember the body? How did it become someone else?”

Gongsun looked at the agitated principal and said “The dismemberment technique is very precise. The person who did it must have done a lot of research on human anatomy.”

Bai Yutang sighed and looked at Zhan Zhao — ‘He always complained when there was nothing to do. Now that there’s something interesting, isn’t he too excited?’

Zhan Zhao shook his head — ‘This is a bit weird. Why do I feel like someone sent us this body on purpose?’

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows — ‘The body showed up today, not yesterday or tomorrow.’

“Hmm” Gongsun spoke suddenly. “This bag is not enough for a whole corpse. The corpse of an adult man would take five or six bags that are this size. Where are the other bags?”

“Uh… we scattered them around. There are four others in total.” A teacher replied.

“Go look for them all.” Bai Yutang ordered his team. Turning to the principal, he said “Cancel the exam today. Secure the scene and disperse the irrelevant people. You and your students can go and wait in the auditorium. We will come find you after we investigate the scene.”

“Uh…” The principal wanted to say something but Bai Yutang had already taken his cell phone out to get more officers to come to the scene.

After a while, police cars arrived at the police academy. The officers set up the yellow police tape and the training yard was surrounded by curious students.

“These are all of the bags.” The teachers brought over the four other bags that contained parts of the corpse.

Gongsun opened them and said “These all match the description of the donated corpses. It seems that only that one bag was replaced.”

Bai Yutang looked at the bags of corpse parts and called the SCI members over. “Luo Tian and Bai Chi, go to the auditorium and talk to the teachers and students. Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long, and Zhao Hu, you guys go and try to find the other missing students. Jiang Ping, investigate the social background of the victim.”

Everyone went off to complete their tasks. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao asked a teacher to bring them to the dormitory of the victim.

“His name is Li Fei.” The teacher said while he led the way, “He is the class monitor of the elite class. He was an all-round talent and was especially good in the civil and military aspects… Ah, what a pity.”

“It’s not yet possible to conclude that the victim was Li Fei.” Bai Yutang said. “All we can prove now is that the victim was a young male. The rest of the results will come from an in-depth autopsy.”

The teacher sighed at the though of Li Fei’s death and continued to lead the way.

“By the way, what is the situation with Meng Kuangyue and the other students?” Zhan Zhao asked. “No one in their class has their phone numbers?”

“Oh… Those three students are Meng Kuangyue, Qian Qiming, and Qian Qiling. Qian Qiming and Qian Qiling are twins. The three of them have a very good relationship but don’t usually talk to the other students.”

“I see.” Zhan Zhao nodded. “By the way, where was the corpse left after it was dismembered?”

“The body was dismembered last night.” The teacher replied. “Overnight, it was kept in the freezer in the forensic lab. It was taken out this morning to thaw before being taken to the training yard for the simulation.”

“Who has access to the corpses?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Actually, no one would usually dare to enter the forensic lab so there are no protective measures. The body was just placed on the table unattended.”

“Are there security cameras?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“They are all classrooms, why would we have had security cameras set up?” The teacher was helpless.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other — ‘This case is quite strange. Was it just a coincidence that we discovered it or was this specially prepared for us by the murderer?’

“We are here.” The teacher had brought the two to a dormitory that looked a little shabby. “Li Fei’s room is on the third floor.”

“Who is his roommate?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“It is Wang Peng, the one who tried to call him.” The teacher said as they opened the dormitory. “There is also another student. The accommodations of our school are pretty good, especially for those who are in the elite class. We take good care of them, so there are three living in each room.”

 “What about Meng Kuangyue and the others?” Zhan Zhao asked. “Can you take us to their room after this?”

“They don’t live at the school.” The teacher shook his head and said, “They rented a room off campus.”

“Is that against the rules?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Of course it’s against the rules.” The teacher shook his head, “But these students have paid for the dormitory. The dormitory was reserved for them, but they just wouldn’t live in it. We couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Do you know their off-campus address?” Zhan Zhao asked.

The teacher shook his head apologetically, “I really don’t know. They wouldn’t tell any of the teachers. If you ask the others students, it’s possible that one of them knows.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded and opened the door to the room.

As soon as the door was opened, the three of them were taken aback; they saw a person sitting on a chair with their back to them.

“Who…” The teacher was very surprised. Before he could finish speaking, Bai Yutang stretched his hand out and pointed to the foot of the chair that the man was sitting on.

The teacher looked in the direction that Bai Yutang was pointing at and almost fainted; there was a large pool of blood on the ground.

Zhan Zhao frowned and walked to the other side of the chair. Bai Yutang saw Zhan Zhao’s eyes suddenly widen; it seemed as though there was something wrong.

Walking over, Bai Yutang stood next to Zhan Zhao and took a look. He saw that it was a male student in his twenties with a small flat head, who was wearing a clean white shirt and jeans. However, the snow-white shirt was covered with blood and his open eyes and dilated pupils indicated that he was dead. The weirdest part was that the deceased’s left shoulder and arm were gone, along with his right foot. His left right was on the table and it was holding a knife that had blood on it. In front of him, there was a black plastic bag on the table that had some pieces of flesh in it…

Bai Yutang took a deep breath. The most terrible thing was that the deceased had a weird smile on his face. However, judging by the stiffness of the smile, it was clear that someone deliberately forced the deceased to smile after he died; it made the smile look even more creepy.

“Who is this person?” Bai Yutang asked the teacher who came up behind them trembling. The teacher was not timid, but when he saw the scene, his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and they knew in their hearts — ‘It’s no wonder the teacher was frightened. The corpse looked like he was cutting off his own flesh and putting it in the bag.’

Bai Yutang looked for a while before suddenly saying “Clean up the door.” (Angel: 清理门户了 – This is a saying that means to get rid of the dirty and the bad things from the house. In this situation, it means that gangs will ‘clean up the door’ and get rid of the traitors.)

“Huh?” Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang in confusion.

“For gangsters, the thing they hate the most is being betrayed or ratted on” Bai Yutang whispered. “I’ve seen this form of punishment before. There are large-scale gangs that specialize in dealing with traitors. They like to use self-mutilation…”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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 29, 2021