S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 11

The Innocent Murderer 11 - The Body

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Bai Yutang's words made Zhan Zhao stunned and he raised his face to look at him. Unsurprisingly, Bai Yutang saw that his eyes were red... There was a pain in his heart, but there was also a hint of sweetness. To be honest, at first, Bai Yutang was very happy to find that Zhan Zhao was so frightened. This shows that Cat values him, but now, he can't express regret.

"You said... you know where the corpse is?" Zhan Zhao asked again, "How do you know? What inspired you just now?"

Bai Yutang smiled slightly and said, "Cat, when I was hanging, being pulled by Luo Tian on one side and Pang Ji on the other, it felt like I was about to be ripped into two!"

Zhan Zhao's eyes flashed after hearing this. It looked like he had thought of something, but he was not sure. He looked at Bai Yutang in a daze.

Bai Yutang smiled slightly, "When I realised this just now, the inspiration came just like that, and then I looked up... and I saw that thing!" Bai Yutang walked behind Zhan Zhao and gently dragged him. Zhan Zhao's chin tilted to one side, "Look, what's that?"

Opposite the International Hotel, there is another six-star hotel, the Century Hotel. When it was built, the two buildings were originally supposed to be connected by a sky bridge, so the construction style of the two hotels was basically the same. Complementing each other, it feels like the two halves are the same. Later, for technical reasons, the sky bridge never ended up being built.

"... Half and half?" Zhan Zhao suddenly realised, the two looked at each other and said in unison: "Red wine and steak!"

After finishing speaking, they ran out, ignoring the SCI members who were still in a daze. Luo Tian and Ma Han looked at each other, only thinking about keeping up with them.

After running out of the International Hotel, the two rushed straight across the road and ran towards the Century Hotel.

Luo Tian asked Ma Han as he ran, "What's wrong with Bai Sir and Dr. Zhan?"

Ma Han smiled at him, "They must have found a big clue!"

After entering the hotel, the two rushed straight to the reception desk. The receptionist on duty recognized Bai Yutang at a glance and said with a smile, "Master Bai, why are you here?"

Zhan Zhao was surprised and asked Bai Yutang, "Your brother bought this building too?"

Bai Yutang shrugged, "How would I know?"

The receptionist's face was full of a professional-level smile, "What do the two young masters need?"

"Help me investigate something. After four o'clock this evening, who ordered red wine and steak using room service?" Bai Yutang said, "It's for the case we are currently investigating!"

"Oh... okay!" The receptionist hurriedly turned on the computer to search, and said, "There are a total of six rooms that have ordered wine and steak."

"Call the rooms one by one!" Bai Yutang said seriously, "Find the one who can't answer the phone!"

"Uh..." The receptionist was embarrassed, "It's getting late now... won't this affect the guests' rest?"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other, this receptionist was a good employee. When they go back, they should ask Brother to increase his salary. 

Zhan Zhao laughed, "Can't you just find a random excuse to use? You are cooperating with the police who are handling a case, isn't that good enough?"

"Right, right!" The receptionist hurriedly dialled the phone numbers one by one.

Zhan Zhao looked at the phone numbers the receptionist had pressed. The first three were answered. The receptionist told the guests that there was fruit available to be brought up before they go to bed and asked if they wanted it. 

When he pressed the fourth phone number, 215425, Zhan Zhao suddenly frowned, as if lost in thought.

The phone rang nearly ten times, but no one answered. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked the receptionist, "What is the name of the guest who checked in?"

The receptionist checked and said, "Oh, it's An Lingli."

"Surname An?" Bai Yutang was taken aback, "Is the ID card registered? How old are they?"

The receptionist brought up the information, checked it, and said, "She is nineteen years old. She checked in at four this afternoon. The room number is 1407."

Bai Yutang nodded and said, "Find someone to help us open the door!"

"I can take you!" The receptionist found the door card and took Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao into the elevator. Soon, everyone came to the door of room seven on the fourteenth floor.

They knocked on the door, but no one answered. Seeing Bai Yutang nod to him, the receptionist inserted the door card into the card reader and the door opened.

There was a strong smell of perfume mixed with a hint of sweetness in the room, which made people feel very uncomfortable.

When the receptionist inserted the key card into the power switch next to the door, the whole room lit up.

"Ah..." The receptionist screamed in surprise, because in the originally dark and empty room, there was a woman sitting at the table. She sat there quietly, her eyes widened, staring at the people at the door.

"Scared me to death... Miss, why are you... ah ah ah..." The receptionist said and took a closer look. When he could see her clearly, his whole body froze. For an ordinary person, it is not easy to see such a scene and not be affected; it's hard not to scream or faint after seeing such a sight.

Everyone from the SCI team also gasped. They saw that the woman sitting in the seat was quite young, but her face was blue and white, a colour that no living person would be. Her eyes were wide and she stared at the door blankly. She was wearing a dress, a luxurious evening dress, with both hands motionlessly on the table.

However, if you look closely, you will find that there is a bright red blood mark on her neck. The seams were not neat, and it was obvious that this girl's face should not be matched with such a mature figure.

In addition, her gorgeous dress and snow-white skin were stained with blood. There was also a large pool of blood on the ground. The head was placed on the body, and the girl wore the same dress as Pang Xiaoqin.

Bai Yutang looked for a long time before turning around and whispering to Ma Han, "Notify Gongsun to come back again... Who has seen Uncle An's daughter before?"

After a while, Zhao Hu slowly raised his hand. His voice was a little weak, "I... I have seen her."

"Is this her?" Bai Yutang asked.

After being silent for a while, Zhao Hu nodded, his eyes flushed, "Boss, God doesn't have eyes!"

Everyone was sad.

"There is a piece of paper." Zhan Zhao approached slowly, and carefully pulled a piece of paper out from between the corpse's hand and the table. When he looked at it, he slowly read it out: "Give this to An Youdao. Thank you for your care this time." At the bottom right corner of the paper, there was also a smiling face with a tongue sticking out. It made people feel strange. For the first time, Zhan Zhao felt that this cute expression could be so terrible. 

Not long after, Gongsun rushed over with people from the forensic team. Uncle An also came to see. He fainted when he saw his daughter's body.

Zhan Zhao held the piece of paper tightly and didn't want to show it to the old man. To be honest, An Lingli, an innocent young girl, ended up like this because a bad guy wanted to retaliate against her police officer father. If the old man knew that his daughter died in vain because of him, he might really break down.

Everyone present was quite in agreement, and no one mentioned the matter of leaving a message.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang couldn't bear to see Uncle An's sadness anymore, so they walked out of the room together and called the person in charge to check the hotel's surveillance video.

The surveillance video was not damaged this time, and Zhan Zhao and the others saw the complete picture.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon, An Lingli dragged a small suitcase and opened the door of the room with the key card. After half an hour, a person wearing a black hoodie suddenly walked into the camera. Looking at the ratio between them and the door, this person's height was around a metre seventy-five.

This height was the most troublesome. Because the murderer had wrapped themselves up very tightly, it was difficult to judge whether this was a shorter man or a taller woman.

They saw them walking to the door of An Lingli's room and looking around. The moment they turned around, everyone saw their face clearly. This person's face was covered by a Doraemon mask. Doraemon smiled cutely on the mask and only two holes were cut in the place of the eyes. Suddenly remembering the unfinished Doraemon puzzle in the first dismemberment case, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt for the first time that Doraemon, a cute character, had such a terrifying side.

The person reached out their hand and took a weird card out from their pocket; it was a forged chip card. The card was inserted into the card reader and the door was opened. The person in black walked in and closed the door... and everything was calm.

At about five o'clock, the door opened again. The person in black took a large black leather box and placed it at the door.

After a while, an employee came over, picked up the leather bag and turned away. The footage captured by the camera continued until the employee snuck away through the back door.

Afterwards, everything was calm again. At around seven o'clock, Pang Xiaoqin ran to the door wearing a formal dress. Everyone became interested and saw that the door was quickly opened. The people watching did not know what was said to her, but Pang Xiaoqin burst into laughter and entered the room happily.

About half an hour later, the door to the room was opened again. The person was still in a tight black pullover with a Doraemon mask on their face. The only difference was that now they were dragging a big birthday cake in their hand. 

Zhan Zhao felt nauseated inexplicably. He shook his head and said to Bai Yutang, "It seems that the murderer is an acquaintance of Pang Xiaoqin."

"No wonder." Bai Yutang smiled, "This Pang Xiaoqin was already fierce enough, but she didn't expect her friend to be stronger than her.

"Now, in addition to checking the identity of the person in black, it is also necessary to find out why An Lingli suddenly came to such a place, and what the relationship between her and Pang Xiaoqin is."

"Go and call that employee." Bai Yutang instructed. 

Not long after, a trembling little employee came over and looked up nervously at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, "What...what... ah~" He turned his face and saw Pang Xiaoqin's body. The employee screamed in fright.

Zhan Zhao asked him, "Were you here to collect garbage in the afternoon?"

"Mhmm." The waiter nodded, "The guest called and told me to do it."

"Was the guest male or female?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"I couldn't tell." The waiter tilted his head, "I couldn't hear them clearly on the phone."

"When you threw out the trash, did you think it was heavy?" Bai Yutang asked, "You lifted it up with one hand."

"It wasn't heavy at all!" The employee explained, "They said it was writing waste paper or something.

Bai Yutang frowned, even more puzzled, but he heard Zhan Zhao say, "The murderer hypnotised him during the phone call."

"Can you do it without looking at the other person's eyes?" Bai Yutang was surprised.

"This person... is not simple!" Zhan Zhao muttered to himself.

After sending the employee away, Bai Yutang suddenly asked, "By the way Cat, did you think that the number was weird when you saw the receptionist call it?"

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and sighed, "I really can't hide anything from you, you mouse."

"What's the problem with the phone number?" Bai Yutang asked.

"The phone number is 215425." Zhan Zhao looked up at Bai Yutang, "2, 15, 4, 25, what letters do these numbers represent in the English alphabet?"

"2, 15, 4, 25..." Bai Yutang stroked his chin and thought: "b, o, d, y... body?! The corpse..."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Did anyone else try to decode the numbers before reading the answer? I felt like such a big brain when I got it. (‾-ƪ‾)

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

Translated: March 15, 2021

Re-edited: December 7, 2023