S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 40

Murderer vs Murderer 13 – Madman, Woman, Wolf

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“A wolf?” Zhan Zhao frowned slightly, “Why is there a wolf in the residential community?”

The wolf that Bai Yutang threw against the wall seemed to be hurt. It shrank against the corner of the wall and bared its teeth at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang looked at it, then spoke to the people behind him, “Tell the K-9 unit to bring a cage and call the dog handlers to bring the equipment to catch the wolf.”

“We’ll wait for the dog handlers to arrive before doing anything.” Bai Yutang closed the door with his backhand.

“Who’s there?” Luo Tian suddenly shouted as he turned his face to look down the hallway. They saw a figure flash and run away.

Bai Yutang and Luo Tian turned around and chased them. Bai Chi and Zhan Zhao hurriedly followed.

“Ah!” A woman’s scream came from the hallway. Bai Yutang and Luo Tian rushed towards the scream. They saw a teenage girl who was caught by a man in black clothes who was holding her tightly. He had his hand around her neck and was backing into the corner while speaking to Bai Yutang and the others, “Don’t… don’t come, don’t come!”

Bai Yutang frowned slightly. He looked back at Zhan Zhao – ‘Cat, does this person have any mental issues?”

Zhan Zhao took a step forward and looked the man up and down. It’s no wonder Bai Yutang suspected that there might be something wrong with the man; he was wearing tattered clothes, but they looked like they should have been intact when he put them on. His outfit indicated that he should have an office job, however, the state of his clothes made it seem as though he had been wandering in the wilderness for a month. His whole body was dirty, his hear was greasy and glued together, and his face had a lot of scratches. He looked very dark and dirty but his eyes were wide open… He looked a bit manic.

"He’s definitely abnormal." Zhan Zhao said briefly.

“Can you talk him down?” Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

“I can try.” Zhan Zhao looked at the panicked girl; she was wearing a school uniform that looked like it belonged to a high school. High schools were currently on summer vacation, so this girl had probably come back from attending a cram school.

Zhan Zhao took another step forward and carefully looked at the man again. He saw that although he was holding the girl’s neck, the man would occasionally glance at her; it was as if her was afraid of hurting her. Although his appearance was distorted by the tattered clothes and the dirt, Zhan Zhao could see that he looked to be around 40 years old and that he was wearing a ring on the ring finger of his left hand.

“Your little girl is ten years old this year, right?” Zhan Zhao suddenly asked.

“My… my little girl?” The man was a little stunned and he looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao blinked, “By the way, what is her name?” He said and gestured at the ring on his finger.

The man looked down at his ring finger and nodded, “Oh, xiao… Xiao Ting.” He shook his head blankly and asked, “Do you know her? Have you seen Xiao Ting? Where is she? I can’t find her… I can’t find our home.”

Zhan Zhao tilted his head and showed a confused expression, “Are you confused? Don’t you live in that room?” As he spoke, he pointed behind the man, “I saw Xiao Ting just now.”

“Ah… I live there?” The man exclaimed excitedly. “I’m back… my wife, I’m back…” As he spoke, he pushed the girl away and rushed in the direction that Zhan Zhao had pointed in. Once he passed Zhan Zhao and the others, Luo Tian grabbed him and pressed him against the wall.

The girl was so scared that she started to cry. Bai Chi approached her to comfort her and asked “Do you recognize that man?” He pointed at the man.

“Let me go! I won’t go with you!” The man yelled, “You have no right to do this to me! I want to go home… Go home…”

The girl shook her head and said “I don’t know him… I, I want to go home.”

Bai Chi nodded. The girl wanted to turn and leave but Zhan Zhao suddenly said “Wait!”

The girl stopped and looked back at Zhan Zhao.

With his hand behind his back, Zhan Zhao gently tugged on Bai Yutang.

“Where do you live?” Zhan Zhao asked the girl.

The girl hesitated before asking “Who are you?”

“We are police officers.” Bai Chi replied from beside her.

“I live in the building opposite of this one.” The girl seemed to be a little distrustful of everyone. She looked at Zhan Zhao with pitiful eyes and said “I have to go home; my mother will scold me if I’m late.”

Zhan Zhao looked at her, then he smiled and asked in a low voice “Which building is opposite of this one?”

The girl was taken aback and she looked at Zhan Zhao nervously, “My mom said that I can’t just tell people my address.”

Zhan Zhao nodded and smiled, “Did you just come back from a cram school?”

“Well, yes.” The girl replied.

“You didn’t go home right away. Why did you come to this building?” Zhan Zhao asked coldly.

“…” The girl was taken aback and he face suddenly changed, “I…  I’m looking for my friend.”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, “Don’t pretend. Your face and body may look sixteen, but your eyes are thirty!”

As soon as his voice fell, they saw the girl raise her eyebrows. She pulled a knife out from behind her and tried to pounce on Bai Chi. At the same time, Zhan Zhao stepped aside and Bai Yutang rushed up to hold her back. Suddenly, an object flew towards the girl and hit her nose… it was a cell phone.

“Hmm…” The most painful part was that the bridge of her nose was hit. The girl covered her nose and lowered her head, slowing the nosebleed.

“Don’t move.” Bai Chi drew his gun and aimed it at her, “Who are you?”

Bai Yutang walked over and picked up the phone. He handcuffed the girl and pushed her aside. Upon closer inspection, she was a small woman who was wearing a think layer of makeup. Zhan Zhao was correct; she really was thirty years old.

The woman suddenly turned and attempted to kick Bai Yutang when he was unprepared. Bai Yutang raised his hand to block her foot. The woman wanted to run but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She raised her foot to try to kick him again. Bai Yutang frowned. He pressed the woman against the wall and said “You’d better not move; I don’t want to hit a woman.”

The woman struggled for a long time but couldn’t get out. Knowing that she had met a master, she gave up and stopped struggling.

“This woman is very skilled; she is not an ordinary person,” Luo Tian brought the madman over and said to Bai Yutang, “He has traces of being tied up on his wrists.”

“What the hell is going on?” Bai Chi looked at the two weird people who they had caught; one was a ragged madman and the other was a fake high school girl who had master skills. There was also the apartment that had the wolf…

Zhan Zhao squatted down. He looked at the man and then the woman. After thinking for a while, he spoke to the woman “You came here because you chased him. You brought a knife with you because you thought that this place would be a good place to deal with him.”

Zhan Zhao didn’t expect the woman to respond. As long as he watched the subtle changes in her expression after listening to his words, he would be able to know if he was right or not.

“It seems that I guessed correctly.” Zhan Zhao nodded. He stretched his hand out and gently lifted the man’s eyelids, taking a look at his eyes. “He has been suffering for a long time. It seems that he has had a nervous breakdown, but he is not actually crazy. You imprisoned him. There are scratches on his face and his clothes are tattered, but not overly tattered. In other words, he was not the only person you imprisoned.” Zhan Zhao was not surprised to see the woman’s eyes widen slightly. He continued, “They were kept in a dark, dirty, and damp place. They felt desperation every day. You injected them with drugs daily. By now, they should have reached a certain level of reaction to the drugs. However, this man may be special as the drug didn’t have the same effect on him. Then one day when you weren’t prepared, he managed to escape and you chased him… In order to keep your actions a secret so you could continue to imprison the others, you needed to deal with him; he has seen too much to be able to be free.”

The woman’s breathing became a little faster. Zhan Zhao saw her nervousness and continued, “You have skills. It’s easy to catch those who are weak, but why did you wait until you got here? There is only one reason: there is no place that is hidden enough near your base of operations and this is the closest hidden place.”

The woman took a breath and her face turned pale.

“When you said that you lived in the same community, there was a moment of hesitation… I guess that you aren’t in the building in front of this one, but rather a building behind this one.” Zhan Zhao stood up and looked at the man. “It’s impossible for him to run more than 100 meters in the condition he is in. He also had to walk up so many stairs… I would guess that he came from a warehouse on the main road behind this building. The best thing about the warehouses is that they have basements and walls around them. Due to that, even is someone yells for help, no one would be able to notice them.”

Bai Yutang took out his cell phone and called Jiang Ping. He asked him to check all of the factories and warehouses near the main road that are located in a 100-meter radius of the building. He also asked him to notify Ai Hu and have him send a large number of police officers over.

Not long after, Jiang Ping called back, “There are only three possible locations.”

Bai Yutang handed his cell phone over to Zhan Zhao, who spoke to Jiang Ping, “Have Ai Hu and the officers go in and search them now. Make sure they all bring weapons as they may encounter resistance… Yes, have them bring the police dogs.”

Looking at the woman again, he saw that her face was pale. She looked at Zhan Zhao in horror and spoke, “You are not a human being.”

Zhan Zhao glanced at her indifferently before he looked back at the man. He was struggling against the wall and continually repeating that he wanted to go home. He coldly replied to the woman, “You are not human.”

Not long after, the K-9 unit arrived with the cage. Two dog handlers entered the room wearing anti-bite suits and got the wolf in the cage. The members reported to Bai Yutang, “Captain Bai, it has been caught.”

Bai Yutang looked at the wolf and asked the members of the K-9 unit, “It this a wolf?”

“Yes.” The dog handler nodded. “It’s a pure wolf, not a wolf dog.”

“Do you know what variety of wolf it is?” Zhan Zhao asked, “Why does it feel like it’s a little too small?”

“It’s still a pup.” The dog handler smiled and said, “It’s no more than four months old. This is a Siberian snow wolf. I don’t know where they got it from.”

“Snow wolf…” Zhan Zhao frowned slightly, “Aren’t snow wolves white?”

“Heh…” The dog handler was amused by Zhan Zhao. “Dr. Zhan, white wolves are rare and they are generally the pack leaders. They are shrewd and unlikely to be caught like this.”

“Let’s bring it back to the SCI office. Make sure to get some food for it.” Bai Yutang said, “It’s so thin, it’s almost starving to death.”

“Okay!” The K-9 unit returned to the police station with the cage and the rest of the SCI members arrived. Zhang Long and Wang Chao escorted the two people back to the police station. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao walked into the room that the wolf came from.

“Wow…their taste is really poor.” Zhao Hu wrinkled his nose. “It feels like a wolf den. It’s so smelly that it’s impossible to live here.”

Bai Yutang nodded. At that moment, his cell phone rang. “Hello, Ai Hu? How is it?”

Ai Hu panted, “Captain, we rescued three people who were imprisoned in a factory. However, there was no one guarding them. They probably ran away before we arrived.”

“Send those people to the hospital and take good care of them. We will ask them questions later.”

“Okay.” Ai Hu agreed, without forgetting to add, “Captain, this place is fucking evil. You need to come and see it. I will leave some people to protect the scene.”

“Okay, we will be there in a while.” Bai Yutang hung up and looked at Zhan Zhao, “Cat, everyone was rescued, just as you had guessed.”

Zhan Zhao nodded and said “Why do you think the madman came into this building? Was it just a coincidence or was it planned?”

Bai Yutang thought for a while and smiled. He leaned in to Zhan Zhao’s ear and said “When that woman tried to kick me, I saw a wolf tattoo on her thigh. Could that be connected?”

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang, “Dead mouse.”

But Bai Yutang when continued, “Cat, how about you get a mouse tattooed on your butt? I want a white one!” Zhan Zhao was speechless…

 ‿︵‿︵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 30, 2021