S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 12

The Innocent Murderer 12 - Provocation

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"Some things are really strange." Gongsun said with a frown, rushing to the autopsy.

"Why is it strange?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang leaned in puzzledly.

"Look here." As he said it, Gongsun pointed to the zipper on the back of Pang Xiaoqin's evening dress.

"What is it?" Bai Yutang stared at the zipper, and saw a small piece of pink material in the delicate black zipper that was still shining with crystal light.

"It's nail polish." Gongsun raised the hand of the deceased and showed it to Bai Yutang. He saw that Pang Xiaoqin's fingernails were painted with the same pink nail polish that was on the zipper. On the middle finger of her right hand, there was clearly one piece that was chipped off; it should be the one stuck in the zipper.

"What does this mean?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other.

Gongsun shook his head helplessly, and beckoned to a female colleague from the forensic department, "Look at it. Is there anything strange about it?"

"There is!" The female colleague touched her chin and nodded. She said, "This kind of nail polish takes a long time to dry; It takes at least fifteen minutes... Pang Xiaoqin would have put on the evening dress before the nail polish dried."

The group of men on the scene nodded together and humbly thought that the analysis made a lot of sense.

"But... this dress of hers looks very expensive at first glance. Most people would wear the clothes before applying nail polish." The female forensic officer said seriously, "You would think that if your nail polish is not dry then it would be smart not to scratch your nails on something and stain your clothes."

"Of course. When a woman is dressing up, she either puts her clothes on first and then polishes her nails, or waits for her nails to dry before putting on her clothes."

"In other words, Pang Xiaoqin originally wanted to wait for the nail polish to dry before putting it on, but something happened and she had to put on a dress in a hurry." Bai Yutang nodded, "It's really strange, how could someone like Pang Xiaoqin attend a grand banquet like this and allow a piece of her nail to be smudged?"

"It's very strange." Zhan Zhao looked around, "There is no trace of struggle or fighting at all in this scene..." Having said this, Zhan Zhao frowned suddenly, as if thinking of something.

"What's wrong Cat?" Bai Yutang noticed that there was something wrong with Zhan Zhao and asked, "What did you find?"

"I'm going to watch the surveillance video again!" After Zhan Zhao finished speaking, he ran back to the surveillance room, put on the video, and repeatedly watched the murderer themself inserting the key card to enter the room.

"Look here!" Zhan Zhao pointed at the doorknob in the picture, "Look!"

Bai Yutang leaned close and stared at the doorknob, and suddenly took a breath, "Before their hand touched the doorknob, the doorknob moved!"

"And look!" Zhan Zhao pointed at the face of the person in black and said, "Although it is hidden by the mask, it can still be seen that they nodded slightly."

"An Lingli knew he would come!" Bai Yutang frowned, "From what Pang Xiaoqin did later, she also knows the murderer, and their relationship is very good!"

"Oh, what is their relationship?!" Zhao Hu scratched his head, "This is too messy!"

"That's right." Wang Chao nodded, "There must be a reason for murder. Mutilating the bodies like this, the killer must hate her father's guts. Anyways, now we have everything except for the motive."

"Right." Ma Han looked at Bai Yutang, "Boss, don't you think that this case seems to be related to the dismemberment case, and the dismemberment case is related to the Ripper case... all the cases are related. It has something to do with Fang Wo, it's inextricably linked, and it's not clear whether it's related or not. Also, this head belongs to An Lingli, and the body belongs to Pang Xiaoqin. When you think about it, you have to separate things and get everyone involved. Confused."

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao couldn't laugh or cry. Zhao Hu handed a glass of water to Ma Han, "Xiao Ma Ge, drink some water, you are about to faint."

Everyone went back to smiling and laughing, but everyone thought that Ma Han had a point. These cases may seem to be unrelated, but in fact they are related. There seems to be an inexplicable connection here, which makes people feel confused and weird.

The scene was sealed off and the evidence was collected. The SCI members left the scene with their tired bodies.

"The autopsy report will not be ready until at least tomorrow morning." Bai Yutang said to everyone, "It is estimated that we will continue to work hard again tomorrow. Let's go back tonight, have a good rest, and recuperate your energy!"

"Yes sir!" Everyone dispersed.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao walked to the side of the car and were about to open the door when Zhan Zhao suddenly uttered "Huh".

"What?" Bai Yutang was puzzled.

"Xiao Bai, what is this?" Zhan Zhao reached his hand out and grabbed a piece of white paper from the door of the front passenger seat of the car. "It was clipped to the window of the car."

Bai Yutang walked around the car and walked to Zhan Zhao's side. When he leaned over to take a look, he saw a line of red words written on the white paper: "This is God's will."

"Weird!" Bai Yutang took the white paper, turned it around, and found that there was nothing but the four red letters.

Bai Yutang asked the parking attendant, "Who has been near this car?"

"Oh..." the parking attendant smiled, "Master Bai, your car is a global limited edition. Most people passing by will take a closer look and take pictures."

Bai Yutang asked, "Do you have a camera in the parking lot?" He said as he looked around, and he saw cameras in all four corners, "Take us to the monitoring room!" After speaking, Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao, who was already yawning, and they went to the monitoring room.

The video of the parking lot up to the present time was collected, and Bai Yutang drove himself and Zhan Zhao home.

Cats are just like this; when they don't want to sleep, you won't get to sleep either. They will hit you with their soft paws and meow at you from next to your pillow to wake you up to accompany them. However, if the cat wants to sleep, then no matter how you squish it, whether you squish it, make it long, round, or square, it won't wake up and will continue sleeping.

It's late and Zhan Zhao has been very tired these days, so he is now in a semi-conscious state. He was leaning on Bai Yutang's shoulders, holding the seat belt with both hands, opening his mouth slightly, and falling asleep. Bai Yutang felt alarmed when he looked at it; no matter which way Zhan Zhao moved, he might fall off.

After finally getting home, Bai Yutang decided to take Zhan Zhao inside. He got out of the car and carefully went to carry the other person out of the car. Zhan Zhao opened his eyes in a daze, closed them again, and turned lazily. After turning over, he put his arms around Bai Yutang's neck, hummed twice, and then went to sleep.

"Huh..." Bai Yutang looked at the sky, "this cat... using me as a bed."

When he walked to the door, he was thinking about how to open the door with the key but suddenly saw a bunch of flowers at the door.

"Flowers?" Bai Yutang squinted his eyes and stared at the bunch of red roses, they inexplicably felt a bit dazzling. The flowers were a bit too dark, making him feel uncomfortable. 

"Cat." Helpless, Bai Yutang still decided to wake Zhan Zhao and let him see, "Cat."

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao looked up at Bai Yutang with his sleepy eyes and a look of being upset that his dreams were disturbed.

"Mhmm~~" Bai Yutang motioned for Zhan Zhao to look at the ground with his eyes.

Zhan Zhao followed his line of sight, saw the roses on the ground at a glance, and quickly woke up.

"Why are the flowers such a colour?" Bai Yutang gently placed Zhan Zhao on the ground and asked in a low voice.

"It's really weird!" Zhan Zhao took out his phone and took a picture of the flowers. After taking it, he looked at Bai Yutang.

Nodding, Bai Yutang lifted his foot and gently kicked the bunch of flowers. When the flowers moved aside, they revealed a shallow pool of red liquid. There was blood on the ground.

"What is it?" Bai Yutang frowned, knelt down and looked closely. He saw a small envelope among the flowers. The white envelope was stained with blood, which was unspeakably dazzling.

Reaching out, Zhan Zhao took out a napkin, covered the envelope with the napkin, and pulled it out of the flowers.

The mouth of the envelope was not sealed, and when he opened it, there was something inside. Zhan Zhao pulled out the contents, and saw that it was a folded page with yellow highlighter on it; 'Psychology, a science, is a medical technique used to treat diseases and save people, not to commit crimes. Illusion...'

"My book?" Zhan Zhao clearly remembered that this sentence was written by him in the introduction of the second book.

"What else is there?" Bai Yutang stared at the envelope.

Zhan Zhao found that it was a small plastic bag, which felt like a stamp bag for collecting stamps. Inside it was a blood-red petal. He couldn't tell what the flower was, but it was very bright red.

"What should we do with this, Xiao Bai?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"It doesn't matter." Bai Yutang shrugged, pointing to the phone and said, "Anyway, we took photos of it. Such disgusting things, let's wait for the aunt who sweeps the floor tomorrow morning to clean them up." After speaking, he took the key to open the door, pulled Zhan Zhao in, and closed the door.

After taking a shower, they lied down on the bed and looked at each other with big eyes.

"Still not sleeping?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

"Can't sleep anymore." Zhan Zhao looked depressed, "I was woken up by the bunch of flowers."

"Not tired?" Bai Yutang felt energetic when he heard it, "Then let's do some refreshing activities... pft~"

Before Bai Yutang finished speaking, Zhan Zhao hit him in the face with a pillow.

Taking the pillow off and seeing Zhan Zhao still looking thoughtful, Bai Yutang also put away his laughter and said seriously: "I'll just say it... it's aimed at you.

"Mhmm..." Zhan Zhao also had to admit it, looking up at the ceiling and thinking, "I didn't offend anyone. Who would target me and kill so many people... Why?"

Bai Yutang shook his head and reached out to pinch Zhan Zhao's nose, "I say Cat, you are so confident when you encounter other people's things. How can you be so confused when you encounter your own problems? Aren't you the number one psychologist?!"

"Who said that?" Zhan Zhao stared at him. "In fighting there is always a clear winner and loser. However, when it comes to writing, things aren't that clear. If you saw I am number one then tomorrow I will be hounded by my colleagues."

"For those in the psychology field, there are many who have worked hard for fifty years and have still not achieved what you have in just a few years. As a psychologist, the professional articles written by you have reached the top of the ratings list. As the SCI psychology consultant and the head of the think tank, although you are only the head of the think tank, which psychologist is more beautiful than you?"

Thud, another pillow flew over.

"I told you not to talk nonsense again." Zhan Zhao stretched his hand out to grab a pillow from Bai Yutang and placed it under his head. "This case has implicated a lot of people. Besides us, do you think they are targeting Gongsun and Brother? And Zhao Zhen..."

"Are you worried... he can't trouble us so he will trouble our friends and relatives?" Bai Yutang thought for a while and said, "Cat, you must have an intersection with the murderer. Think about it. Who is suspicious?"

"... Speaking of suspicious..." Zhan Zhao seemed to have an epiphany, "I seem to have thought of something."

‿︵‿︵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 15, 2021

Re-edited: December 7, 2023