S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 41

Murderer vs Murderer 14 – Capture the Wolf

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After taking a look around the wolf-raising apartment, Zhan Zhao stopped in front of one of the walls. There was nothing in the whole apartment apart from one abstract painting on the wall. He didn’t know what was painted, he just knew that it was a lot of lines that were twisted together.

“Cat, is there something wrong with this painting?” Bai Yutang leaned over to take a look.

“Hmm.” Zhan Zhao shook his head hesitantly, “I can’t explain it, but I keep thinking that there is something weird.”

“Bring the painting back to the station.” Zhan Zhao said to one of the members of the forensic department. “Bring back all of the pieces of paper as well.”

The forensic department carefully collected samples from the scene. Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao out of the building and took Luo Tian to the factory where Ai Hu rescued the victims.

After arriving at the factory, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang saw Ai Hu leading a group of officers to guard the entrance in a tight line. They had also put up the yellow police tape, which had attracted a lot of onlookers.

Bai Yutang looked helplessly at Ai Hu, who wagged his tail and ran up to them with an expression of expectation. “This kid is to exaggerated. At first glance, I thought that this was Resident Evil.”

“Captain, don’t say that. It’s pretty scary inside. Go and take a look yourself if you don’t believe me.” Ai Hu said as he led them inside.

“Three people were rescued in total?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“Yes.” Ai Hu nodded, “They all looked so miserable, but the most important part was that they weren’t totally conscious.”

“Not conscious?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, “Why were they unconscious? Were they in coma?”

“No.” Ai Hu shook his head, “They were stunned and had no reaction at all.”

“Huh?” Bai Yutang was curious, “Are you sure they weren’t conscious? Maybe they underwent acupuncture.” (Angel: the author uses 点穴了, which is a type of Chinese martial art that beats the opponent using acupoints.)

“Acupuncture?” Ai Hu and Bai Chi spoke in unison, “Was it really acupuncture?”

Everyone was speechless.

The group proceeded to enter the factory. It was an old-fashioned weaving factory that had many old knitting machines neatly arranged inside. Behind an iron door to the side of the factory, there was a dark space and an enclosed storeroom. There were a lot of wires and barrels of fuel inside. At the end of the storeroom, there was a staircase going down; the bottom of the staircase was even darker than the main factory.

Ai Hu and the others went down the staircase, using a military flashlight to light up the way. Zhan Zhao turned back to Luo Tian and Bai Chi, “You guys go back to the workshop to see if there is anything suspicious.” The two turned and walked back towards the workshop.

“Cat, are you afraid that Luo Tian will remember his unpleasant past?” Bai Yutang leaned into Zhan Zhao’s ear and whispered, “You’re so kind.”

Zhan Zhao smiled at him. He kicked Bai Yutang when it was dark so no one could see him.

The stairs had seventy-seven steps that loped back and forth, going deeper and deeper. The further down they went, the stronger the smell of rotten mold became; it made everyone frown.

When they reached the bottom, it was a cold concrete floor. There was a pipe that ran along the ground that had a faucet near the stairs. The concrete floor was unusually cold and wet. It could be seen that it was often washed with water… Everyone looked around and saw that the dark wall had lines of white paint randomly painted on it… Zhan Zhao stared at the lines.

“Cat, the arrangement of the lines is the same as in the abstract painting.” Bai Yutang stared at the wall and asked “What do the lines mean?”

Zhan Zhao touched his chin and asked Ai Hu “When you rushed in, you only saw the three people that were locked up. You didn’t see anything else, right?”

“There was nothing else.” Ai Hu shook his head. “The upper door was open, so we assumed that the guards had already escaped.”

Zhan Zhao suddenly laughed. He pulled Bai Yutang back and said “Xiao Bai, let’s go catch the wolf.”

“Huh?” Bai Yutang was confused as he was pulled into the car by Zhan Zhao. Everyone followed them curiously. They all thought ‘Why are we catching a wolf? Hasn’t the wolf already been caught?’ They were so curious and had no choice but to follow Zhan Zhao.

The car drove to the hospital and the team got out.

“Dr. Zhan, Captain Bai.” The well-known brain surgeon Zhou Lei was in charge of the three victims.

“How are they?” Zhan Zhao asked him.

Zhou Lei shook his head, “Their condition doesn’t look good. I asked the nurse to wash them and change their clothes. While the nurses were working, the three didn’t react at all. It was almost as if they were dead.”

“Really?” Zhan Zhao opened the door to their room and walked in with Bai Yutang and the others.

As expected, there were three people laying on their beds in the room. They were all staring blankly at the wall, as if they were in a daze.

Zhan Zhao walked in front of each person, looking at them one by one. He looked at each one for thirty seconds before moving to the next. Finally, he stopped in front of the person by the window and looked at him carefully.

All three of them were in their thirties and had mustaches. They didn’t look Chinese, but they were from somewhere in Asia.

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao curiously. They heard him suddenly ask “Who gave him a bath? Does he have a wolf tattoo on his body?” As soon as his voice fell, the man on the bed suddenly jumped up and went straight for Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao felt that his arm was grabbed and he was violently pulled back by Bai Yutang. He saw Bai Yutang step forward and kick the man directly in the ribs.

“Ow…” The man let out a scream similar to that of a wolf and he fell to the ground heavily.

As he fell, the two other people got out of their beds. They rushed towards Zhan Zhao and the others with their claw-shaped hands, staring eyes, and open mouths. They looked like beasts on the attack.

Zhao Hu moved to grab his gun but Bai Yutang waved his hand. He stepped froward and dextrously passed between Zhao Hu and Zhan Zhao. He stretched his hands out and grabbed the shoulders of the two men. Before they had a chance to turn their heads, Bai Yutang raised his feet and kicked the back of both of their knees, causing them to kneel down. Bai Yutang grabbed their heads and smashed them together. The two collided with a ‘bang’ and they fell to the ground holding their heads.

“Handcuff them!” Bai Yutang ordered.

The police officers came over and handcuffed the three men.

“Have these two stay here to be examined by a doctor; they may have taken a lot of hallucinogenic drugs.” Zhan Zhao instructed the police officer. “As for this one,” he pointed at the one who was kicked by Bai Yutang, “He’s got at least two broken ribs. Once he is looked at by a doctor, take him back. He is the one who was in charge of guarding the factory!”

Everyone was dumbfounded; it was so easy to catch them.

“Is this the Bai style fighting technique?” Luo Tian asked Zhao Hu who was next to him. “It’s really fast.”

“It is. So far, there has been nothing that can’t be solved by his style’s three points; he’s fast, accurate, and ruthless.” Ai Hu triumphantly said. “I used to be able to do the third point!”

“Yeah, yeah, you are so great.” Zhao Hu chased Ai Hu away and took the man back to the SCI office.

“Cat, where did they come from?” Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao. “How did these werewolves appear?”

“They really are werewolves.” Zhan Zhao smiled, “Let’s go back and I’ll do an experiment for you.”

Back at the SCI office, the first thing they heard was Gongsun’s roar coming from the forensic room, “Why is there a wolf?! Last time it was six golden retrievers and this time it’s a wolf! What do you take the forensic room for? A zoo?!”

“Why is Gongsun so angry?” Bai Yutang asked in a bit of surprise. “Why did the dog handler put the wolf in the forensic room?

Both of them snickered.

As he walked into the office, Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping to take a photo of the abstract painting and then print it out on a piece of A4 paper. Zhan Zhao then found a pair of scissors and began to carefully cut out all of the white lines. Everyone stood curiously watching Zhan Zhao.

At that moment, Ma Han and Zhao Hu returned from the bathroom with dark expressions on their faces.

“What’s the matter?” Bai Chi asked in a low voice when he saw the two of them.

Ma Han stood back and looked at Zhan Zhao cutting the paper with a cold face. Zhao Hu leaned in and whispered to Bai Chi, “Xin Xin is in the forensic room sewing the pieces of thawed corpses back together with a needle and thread. She is telling them that she promises to give them back a full body. She is also reviewing their anatomy as she does it.”

Everyone gasped, but they heard Zhao Hu continue, “There is something even worse. Gongsun is feeding the frozen ribs that he uses to make sweet and sour pork to the wolf in the cage.”

Everyone imagined the scene together: Ma Xin and Gongsun are in the forensic room. Ma Xin is sewing a dead human back together with a smile on her face and Gongsun is squatting in front of the cage, feeding the wolf pieces of dead pork. It’s horrific…

Zhan Zhao continued to carefully cut out all of the white lines from the A4 sheet of paper. He put the lines on the desk and arranged them one by one. When he was done, an image appeared on the desk.

Everyone leaned over to take a look and saw that he had made the image of a wolf. Everyone looked at each other.

“Cat, what is this?” Bai Yutang remembered that it was the same as the one he saw on the woman’s leg. The wolf was a large white wolf that had an indescribable expression with a hint of evil in it.

“Is this painting related to the sudden abnormality of those people, or could it be related to the campus dismemberment case?” Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao smiled and leaned over the desk to explain to everyone, “Do you remember the story of the wolf child?”

“I remember!” Bai Chi said. “There were two sisters that were taken away by a wolf after they were born. The wolf raised them until they were adults. When they were adults, they were rescued and taken back to civilization. However, they were already accustomed to living as a wolf and found it difficult to adapt.”

Zhan Zhao nodded, “Other than wolf children, there are also leopard children, monkey children, and others. All of the animal children have something in common, they all imitate the animals that raised them. Humans are born with the innate ability to imitate others, and they will imitate anything around them. In addition, the production of any expression is actually a kind of emotional catharsis. For example, when you laugh, it is a catharsis of happy emotions, and when you cry, it is a catharsis of sad emotions. Of course, the one we care most about and the one that is the most likely cause of murder, is the catharsis of anger. (Angel: A catharsis is an emotional release. According to psychoanalytic theory, this emotional release is linked to a need to relieve unconscious conflicts. The American Psychological Association defines catharsis as "the discharge of effects connected to traumatic events that had previously been repressed by bringing these events back into consciousness and re-experiencing them.")

Everyone nodded. Although it was convoluted, they were still able to understand the meaning of his words,

“When a person is angry and anxious, they will usually become violent. An extremely angry person can easily lose control and is easily influenced.” Zhan Zhao said, “For example, if a person is extremely angry and wants to kill someone, if what comes to mind is their family, then they will control themselves and not act on their anger. However, if nothing comes to mind, they will find the most direct way to release their anger. Therefore, it’s okay for a person to feel that way for a day or two, but if they can’t restrain their anger, they will subconsciously find the most direct and violent method to save themselves.” Zhan Zhao pointed to the image of the wolf head. “This is the suggestion that was used to stimulate those people. They used wolves to stimulate wolf-like actions. With this method of stimulating a murder, after the first murder, there will be a second murder… It’s a never-ending cycle!”

 ‿︵‿︵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 30/31, 2021