S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 63

Password Murderer 03 – Reasoning

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After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang returned to the SCI office, Ma Han sent them detailed information about the person who had jumped off the building and Xu Zhong. The person who jumped off the building was called Wu Qianliang. He was an office worker who was in charge of marketing for a foreign company, however, he was recently laid off. Because he was an older and honest man, his life had been very difficult after being laid off. Today, he broke into the foreign company where he used to work, then directly rushed at the window and jumped out without saying anything. 

“He just jumped after rushing to the window?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Yes.” Wang Chao nodded, “We asked the employees and they said that he jumped directly.”

“Did you find his phone?” Zhan Zhao suddenly asked.

“Yes, but it fell apart.” Zhang Long took an evidence bag and handed it to Zhan Zhao. He saw the broken parts of the cell phone inside.

Zhan Zhao took a look and asked, “Was it is his pocket or did it fall out?”

“We found it away from his body.” Zhao Hu smiled, “I asked his colleague and they said that it was in his hand.”

“Smart.” Bai Yutang nodded to him and turned to look at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao looked at the cell phone for a long time before speaking to Jiang Ping, “Check his cell phone number, when the last call was made or received, and what the content was.”

“Okay.” Jiang Ping started typing on the keyboard. 

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked over to the sofa and sat down. As soon as they were seated, Bai Chi handed over two special premium milkshakes. The two looked at each other and saw that Bai Chi’s tail, which hadn’t been exposed for a long time, began to flick back and forth. Knowing that something must be bothering the little thing, they asked, “What’s wrong?”

Bai Chi stared at Zhan Zhao and his eyes flickered as he asked, “Brother, how did you know that he kidnapped someone?”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, “Huh?”

“How did you infer that it was a kidnapping and that the child would be killed just from Xu Zhong passing by the jumper?”

“I’m also curious.” Luo Tian walked over with a chair and sat down with interest.

Zhan Zhao looked at the crowd, “Um… It’s not complicated.” As he said it, he raised his arm and nudged Bai Yutang, “What’s the famous saying of your idol?”

Bai Yutang blinked, “Which saying? My idol has many famous sayings.”

“The saying from 《Little Dancer》.” Zhan Zhao said.

“Oh…” Bai Yutang though about it for a while, “It’s not too difficult to make a series of inferences. Each inference is based on the result of the previous inference. In addition, the inference itself is also very simple. After you have done it, you can omit the excessive inferences in the middle and only tell people about the beginning and the conclusion. In this way, you can create an amazing and exaggerated reasoning effect.”

“Well, I know this saying.” Bai Chi nodded, “It’s a saying from Holmes.”

Everyone looked at each other, waiting for Zhan Zhao to explain in detail.

Zhan Zhao smiled, “In fact, in addition to reasoning, part of his behaviour was cliché. In other words, in addition to the inferences, some of my conclusions came straight from Xu Zhong himself.” 

The others moved their chairs over and sat down, listening to Zhan Zhao’s explanation.

“At first, when I saw Xu Zhong, he was nondescript. He looked like a down-and-out office worker. He was sweaty and nervous, but he was holding a large and very expensive bag in his hand. This is abnormal, right?”

Everyone nodded, “Right.”

“When we questioned him, he was obviously in a hurry to leave… This doesn’t fit the mentality of an ordinary passerby.” Zhan Zhao smiled, 

“Chinese people pay attention to not dying during a catastrophe, thinking that it must be a blessing. Generally, if he encounters such a situation, he would be very interested in telling everyone that he was really lucky that day. If he was just a step slower or a step faster, he would be dead… Also, he doesn’t look uneducated, so he must know the truth about cooperating with police who are handling a case.”

Everyone nodded as they listened to Zhan Zhao continue, “Of course, we can’t rule out that he was in a hurry to get to work, or just in a hurry, but what he emphasized himself denied that.”

After hearing this, Bai Chi thought for a while and said, “Oh… Yes, if he is in a hurry, normal people would repeatedly say ‘I am in a hurry, let me go first’, but he emphasized that he has already said everything that he should have and that he had nothing to do with it. He also seemed very afraid of talking to the police.”

“Correct.” Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang, “So an old fox immediately said to him ‘You shouldn’t have a job’. Xu Zhong didn’t answer him and instead tried to avoid the topic. You can infer that he was afraid of talking with the police because of what he was doing or what he was going to do.”

Everyone glanced at Bai Yutang, who raised his eyebrows.

“What about the kidnapping?” Everyone asked.

Zhan Zhao smiled, “Next, I noticed the differences in him, like him not wearing the wedding ring that would normally been worn every day. With these, we can infer his situation, right?”

“Right.” Everyone nodded. As long as they are good at observing, they can make inferences.

“Then I noticed his bag.” Zhan Zhao continued, “The bag was not compatible with the rest of his look. Because of this, I suspected that the bag was not his, so I simply told him that the contents of the bag had fallen out, and he looked down.”

Everyone nodded again.

“In addition to confirming that there are things in the bag that could not be shown to the police, this also confirmed that the bag was not his.” Zhan Zhao smiled, “If the bag was his own, then he would have some level of certainty about it. He understands that the bag was used to hold important things and must be checked repeatedly to ensure that nothing would fall out. However, he seemed to have no idea about the bag.”

“Oh…” Bai Chi nodded, “That’s right.”

“When Xiao Bai asked him what was in his bag, do you remember what he said?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“This is my privacy, you can’t ask about it.” Bai Chi recalled.

“That’s right.” Zhan Zhao smiled, “When a person makes a rejection, generally by saying ‘no’ directly, it means that they are mentally prepared. However, if you have to rely on a specific condition to say no, it shows that he lacks confidence and has doubts.”

Everyone looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang was drinking his milkshake. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, he said, “Well, it’s like two people who are quarreling. One said ‘I won’t let you go’, and the other said “Who is my dad? I will not let you go’. The latter lacks confidence in himself and needs to rely on external forces to emphasize it. What can hold the police back the most?”

“The law.” Everyone nodded together, turning their faces back to Zhan Zhao.

“At this point, we can be sure that the contents of the man’s bag are illegal. Looking at his appearance at that time, we guessed that it was money, so we signaled Ma Han and Zhao Hu to help us get the contents of the bag out. As it turned out, it really was money.” Zhan Zhao grabbed a sip of the milkshake and smacked his lips.

“What about the kidnapping?” Bai Chi asked, “There are many possibilities as to how he got a lot of money. Why guess that it was kidnapping and not robbery, theft, or blackmail?”

Zhan Zhao laughed and smiled, “This, in fact, is a formula to avoid the worst.”

“Avoid the worst?” Everyone tilted their heads in unison.

“Ahem…” Bai Yutang choked on the milkshake.

Zhan Zhao glanced at him and continued, “Actually, when I guessed that what he had in his bag was money and that he had done something illegal, the first thing that came to mind was why he was the one who was almost hit and not someone else.”

Everyone glanced at each other and nodded, “It is indeed a bit too coincidental.”

“This assumption is actually very simple.” Zhan Zhao continued, “It’s either a coincidence or a non-coincidence. We don’t consider coincidences. Now consider the non-coincidence… Someone wants to harm him!”

Everyone nodded, they raised their spirits and worked hard to listen to him.

“He didn’t die, and the person who targeted him failed, right?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Whether he is extorting or robbing, no matter what bad things he has done, it would be difficult to endanger other people’s lives… Only kidnapping can do this.” Zhan Zhao said seriously, “If his money is a ransom from kidnapping, then he must have another life on his back.”

Everyone glanced at each other and nodded.

“This is why I said the worst result.” Zhan Zhao sat down, “I want to avoid the worst result, so I deliberately asked people to investigate the kidnapping in front of him. His eyes showed shock and fear, meaning that my guess was correct.”

“Oh…” Everyone understood.

“At the end, it’s a bold hypothesis.” Zhan Zhao said, “Since the previous inferences hold true, then you can reverse inference that it is not a coincidence, right?”

Everyone’s expressions were blank, but they still nodded.

“In other words, if someone wants Xu Zhong to die, they can hit him with a heavy object. If it doesn’t work, then they must find a different method.” Zhan Zhao said, “The murderer wanted to kill him with the clever act of suicide, so as to not make people suspect that his death was a murder. Then, since he has been arrested, what is the best way to kill him without being suspected?”

“The kidnapped child dies unexpectedly, and then he was kidnapped and murdered!” Everyone suddenly realized it and Bai Chi looked excited, “So, when we saved the child, it is also a temptation to avoid the worst outcome because things were as we had inferred. Then the inverse inference is that someone deliberately caused this coincidence… In order to kill Xu Zhong!”

"En!" Zhan Zhao drank the milkshake and nodded in satisfaction, "Smart."

“The inferences in the middle can be omitted, and the beginning and conclusion become magical inferences.” Bai Chi nodded, “So handsome.”

While they were chatting, they heard clapping coming from the door, “What a wonderful reasoning.”

When everyone looked over, they saw Ma Xin standing at the door with documents in her hands.

“Xin Xin?” Ma Han looked over and called out to her, “Did the autopsy results come out?”

“En.” Ma Xin nodded, then spoke to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, “Gongsun is still examining Wu Qianling’s corpse. The one I brought is Lu Mei’s. Will it bother you if we talk about the case now?” While she spoke, she looked at Bai Yutang.

“No, no.” Bai Yutang waved at her, “This is what I’m waiting for. Is there a clue?”

Ma Xin nodded. She walked over and gave the document to Bai Yutang, “Lu Mei drowned.”

Everyone was a little disappointed, but Ma Xin continued, “However, a large amount of sulfonate and phosphate salt were found in Lu Mei’s lungs.”

Everyone widened their eyes as they looked at Ma Xin, “What are they?”

Ma Xin smiled, “They are the main ingredients of detergent.”

“Detergent?” Bai Chi frowned, “Even if there was detergent in the pond, it is impossible to have a large amount…” 

“So, Gongsun and I shaved her hair, and found something.” Ma Xin pointed to a photo in the documents in Bai Yutang’s hand.

There were a few clear cyan fingerprints on her scalp.

“She was thrown into the pond after being drowned in water.” Zhan Zhao said, “Detergent…”

“I’ve been to that pond.” Ma Xin said, “There is a public restroom nearby and the pool is indeed very clean.”

Bai Yutang closed the document and nodded to Ma Xin, "Good job!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

My brain was really tested this chapter ＞︿＜

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

Translated: April 18, 2021