S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 66

Password Murderer 06 – That’s How It Is

---

Bai Yutang followed the tall boy out of the cafeteria, calling out to him a few steps outside the door, “Classmate, wait a minute.”

The boy turned his face and was surprised to see that Bai Yutang had chased him out. He wanted to lower his head and walk away, but he heard Bai Yutang continue, "Do you know Lu Qi?"

"I don't know him." The boy wanted to speed up his steps and continue down the stairs, but Bai Yutang raised his hand and grabbed his shoulder.

The boy wanted to break away from his grasp, but was unsuccessful after a few attempts. He looked back at Bai Yutang with a little surprise, and there was a hint of panic in his eyes. Bai Yutang looked at the boy’s eyes and asked, “Do you know Liu Mei?”

Although it was late at night, the street lights on the campus were still bright enough for Bai Yutang to clearly see the instant change on the boy's face... It was clear in his heart that the boy knew Liu Mei.

"It's none of your business!" The boy frowned, looking at Bai Yutang's hand on his shoulder, "You let go, or I won’t be polite!"

Bai Yutang smiled and shook his head, "Do you believe that Liu Mei committed suicide?"

"..." The boy's shocked expression caused the corners of Bai Yutang's mouth to rise.

"Who are you?" The boy looked at Bai Yutang with uncertainty.

"What do you think?" Bai Yutang remained silent.

"I don't know." The boy shook his head, "What do you want?"

"Not much, I just want to inquire about Lu Qi and Liu Mei." Bai Yutang said lightly, "You seem to know something."

"I know who you are." The boy lowered his head, seemingly troubled. He looked up at Bai Yutang and said, "I didn't kill Liu Mei."

Bai Yutang was slightly taken aback. Frowning, he looked at the boy, "Why do you think I suspect that you killed Liu Mei?"

The boy's eyes flickered. At that moment, he suddenly saw a boy hurriedly running over from not far away, shouting, "Yang Fan!"

Both Bai Yutang and the boy looked up and saw that the boy was Lu Qi, the one that Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had seen by the pond earlier that day.

The first thing Lu Qi did after running over was pull the tall boy named Yang Fan as he anxiously spoke to Bai Yutang, “It has nothing to do with him!”

Lu Qi’s behavior surprised Bai Yutang, and he had some thoughts in his heart.

"Hmm..." A voice came from behind, "So that's how it is."

Bai Yutang turned around and saw that Zhan Zhao was already standing not far behind him, rubbing his chin and looking at the two boys with a smile.

After that, the four wanted to find a quieter place to talk, but it was really difficult to find a quiet place on campus before ten o’clock. The four of them had no choice but to go to the school gate and get into Bai Yutang’s car.

"Are you two lovers?" Zhan Zhao leaned on the back of the front seat and looked at the two boys behind him.

Lu Qi and Yang Fan looked at each other and nodded.

"What about Liu Mei?" Bai Yutang looked back at them, "What is going on?"

Yang Fan looked at Lu Qi, then stretched out his hand and grabbed his hand. Lu Qi nodded, "This is how it is... We met when we were in high school, and we applied to the same university in order to be together."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other — ‘Childhood sweethearts.’

"After going to university, we have been cautiously interacting, trying not to be discovered by others." Lu Qi continued, "...It is always sneaky, and it is very painful, but what we say may affect our lives. Yang Fan is the captain of the basketball team, and I am the chairman of the student union. We just want to survive these four years, and when we are fully independent, we can truly be together."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other again, thinking about it— ‘Fortunately we understood that later in life.’

"It's all my fault..." Yang Fan sighed, “Last Valentine’s Day, I drank some wine and we went to the forest together. Because of the ghost stories, no one goes there… I pretended to be drunk, but she was also there.”

“Oh…” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded, listening intently.

Lu Qi and Yang Fan were quite nervous at first, but they found that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang did not have any disdain or contempt for them, so they relaxed a little.

"What we didn't expect was that Liu Mei was also there that day." Yang Fan said, "Liu Mei liked Qi and chased him for a long time, but Qi ignored her. After following us several times, she discovered our secret… So she deliberately followed us and took pictures."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang raised their eyebrows.

"Later, Liu Mei took the photo and threatened me to be with her.” Lu Qi looked up at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, “I discussed it with Fang Yan and decided to just put up with it for a while… I actually hate her. So, when I was in class, I would turn off my cell phone. Unless she caught me around campus, I would try to hide as far away from her as possible.”

“So when you were in class that day, she called you because she couldn’t find you?” Bai Yutang asked.

"En." Lu Qi nodded, "When I heard that she drowned, I was dumbfounded, and thought that it was Yang Fan who did it..."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other; Yang Fan indeed had the motivation.

"In addition, I also really feel sorry for her, she was just too arrogant." Lu Qi said helplessly, "No matter how I reasoned with her, she wouldn’t listen.”

"Does anyone else know about this?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Yang Fan and Lu Qi looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Then...what about those photos?" Bai Yutang asked, "Did you get them back later?"

Lu Qi nodded, "Uncle Mute helped us get them back and burn them."

"Uncle Mute?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked in unison.

Lu Qi nodded and said, "That’s why I said he is a good person."

"How did he get them back for you?" Bai Yutang asked, "To be specific."

Lu Qi and Yang Fan looked at each other. Lu Qi said, "After I learned that Liu Mei drowned, I was afraid that they would find those photos... Every time Liu Mei asked me out, she would take those photos with her. She used those photos to blackmail me into following her wishes.”

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned.

"I was worried that the teacher would look through her bag and find the photo, so I went to look for it... but I discovered that her bag was not there." Lu Qi said, "I wondered if she had lost it in the woods, so I went there to look for it. Then Uncle Mute found me. He was holding a stack of photos and the SD card from Liu Mei’s camera.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned even more, and Bai Yutang shook his head, "They were the photos taken by Liu Mei?"

"En." Lu Qi nodded, "Because the computer in the dormitory is public, Liu Mei didn't save the photos. She just put them on the SD card and printed a copy.”

"Have you ever doubted..." Zhan Zhao asked, "Why the mute uncle had those things?"

Lu Qi was taken aback, thinking for a long time before asking, "Do you suspect that Uncle Mute is related to Liu Mei's death?"

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, "In my opinion, it is quite suspicious."

"No." Yang Fan said, "Uncle Mute is a good person."

"You have always said that he is a good person. Is there anything that can be explained?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Moreover, why didn’t you ask why he had the photos?”

Lu Qi nodded, "Uncle Mute lives in that forest. When we went to the forest to have some fun, he was the first person to find us there.”

Bai Yutang nodded, "What is his behavior like?"

"When he communicated with us, he used his cell phone to type out the words." Yang Fan said, “He told us that people might find this place and that if we wanted somewhere more hidden, he would help us out.”

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were taken aback — ‘So enthusiastic?!’

"The photos were stolen from Liu Mei’s bag when she was in the forest.” Lu Qi said.

"Stolen?!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were taken aback and looked at the two.

“He saw me while I saw on a date with Liu Mei and he angrily asked me why I betrayed Yang Fan and turned to a girl.” Lu Qi said, “I told him what happened, and he told me he would help me. When I was free, I took Liu Mei on a date into the forest, and Uncle Mute looked for opportunities to help me steal the photos back.”

Zhan Zhao nodded, and Bai Yutang asked, "You just said that the mute uncle lives in the forest?"

"Well, yes!" Lu Qi said, "He lives in that haunted dormitory."

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had a strange feeling, and Lu Qi continued, "Police officer brothers... Yang Fan really wasn’t the one that killed her!"

Zhan Zhao smiled and asked Yang Fan, "You received a text message from Lu Qi saying that there was a police officer coming to investigate the case, and then you saw us in the canteen inquiring about it, so you sat next to us to listen?"

Yang Fan nodded.

"In other words, you are actually laughing at Liu Mei, not Lu Qi." Bai Yutang looked at him, "You should hate Liu Mei, right?"

Yang Fan looked at Lu Qi, nodded, and said to Bai Yutang, "I hate her very much. To tell you the truth, I am really happy to know that she is dead. I can't bear her always clinging to Qi... but I didn't kill her. If I kill someone, whether it is discovered or not, Qi and I will never be able to be together in this life. I won't be so stupid!"

Bai Yutang nodded, "I understand. Do you have any possible clues?"

Lu Qi thought for a while and said, "Liu Mei is a very weird person. Generally, girls are very timid and never dare to approach that kind of haunted house, but she really likes this kind of stuff. She also likes watching horror movies. She doesn’t get along with the others in her dormitory, she doesn’t have any friends of the same sex, and she never talks about her family.”

"I see." Bai Yutang said to the two of them. "You two should go back soon. Don't go to that forest anymore. If you really want to be together, save some money and buy a house."

Before he finished speaking, Zhan Zhao glared at him.

"Police officer brothers..." Yang Fan spoke to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, "Can you guys not mention it. I don’t care, but he still has to take the postgraduate entrance exam and the doctoral exam. I don’t want to delay his bright future.”

Bai Yutang nodded. The two got out of the car, and Lu Qi asked, "Then, do I still have to go to the police station tomorrow morning?"

"If you think of anything, just come to the station or call us anytime." Zhan Zhao said.

"En." The two started walking back together.

"Wait a minute." Bai Yutang opened the door and got out of the car, beckoning to the two. The two looked at each other and walked to Bai Yutang's side. Bai Yutang whispered a few words to them. They both felt embarrassed, but they nodded, then they turned around and left.

"What did you tell them?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang curiously.

"I just taught them how to solve this problem in the future." Bai Yutang smiled indifferently.

"Oh?" Zhan Zhao was interested and asked, "And how would they do that?"

"Guess." Bai Yutang smiled, "Aren't you a genius?"

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes and asked seriously, "Xiao Bai, what would you have done if this happened to us in college?”

"Um..." Bai Yutang smiled, watching Zhan Zhao, "How do you know that it hasn't happened?"

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao was surprised, "What do you mean?"

Bai Yutang started the car, "Cat, should we go back to the police station or go home?"

"Wait, you have to make it clear!" Zhan Zhao grabbed Bai Yutang by the collar, "How do I know that it hasn't happened before?! Has it happened before? Why don't I know?! We never spoke about it in college!”

"We should go back to the police station, I want to check some information." Bai Yutang changed the subject.

"White Mouse, tell me!" Zhan Zhao grabbed Bai Yutang's collar and shook it vigorously! "If you don't tell me, I will crash the car and die with you!"

"Won’t tell you, guess!"

"Say it!"

"Won’t say it."

...

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Bai Yutang is so mean, just tell him 🤣

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

Translated: April 21, 2021