S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 67

Password Murderer 07 – Ghost Story

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After Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao returned to the police station, the first thing they did when they went upstairs was get some water. Zhan Zhao pressed Bai Yutang during their whole trip back, so his mouth was dry. However, the mouse refused to tell him what happened, so he unhappily grinded his teeth.

The rest of SCI had ended work and left the office already; only Bai Chi and Luo Tian were left on night duty.

Zhan Zhao, who had nowhere to go, took a look at Bai Chi, who was sitting cross-legged on the sofa and reading Zhao Zhen’s autobiography. It turns out that he had bought it to read during his night duty. Then he took a look at Luo Tian. He was leaning back on the chair and frowning while looking at the book in his hand; his expression looked too painful for someone who was reading a book.

“Cough cough…” Zhan Zhao coughed. The two people who were engrossed in reading looked up at him.

“Brother, you are back. Did you find any clues?” Bai Chi asked.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Chi with a smile, “We did. By the way, Chi Chi, let me ask you something.”

“What?” Bai Chi put his book down and asked.

Zhan Zhao moved a chair over and sat down, looking at Bai Chi, “Have you ever had haunted things happen in your previous school?”

Bai Chi froze for a moment. He looked around and saw that Bai Yutang was also looking at him. He nodded and said, “There are…. Some.”

 “Let’s talk about them.” Zhan Zhao said with interest.

“You want to talk about it now?” Bai Chi thought for a while, then said, “Well, most of them are types of ghost stories that are very popular in every school, like human head mops, um… and back-to-back stories.” (Angel: here are examples of human head mops stories and back-to-back stories. They are in Chinese, but if you are on desktop, Google Chrome should auto-translate it for you.)

Zhan Zhao nodded and listened to Bai Chi as he continued.

“We used to have a third teaching building at the police academy. There was a girl and a boy who died inexplicably in it.” Bai Chi said, “They both took too many sleeping pills and everyone found them dead in the classroom the next day, and then…”

“Then?” The group of people moved their chairs closer and sat next to Bai Chi, “What happened next?”

“Then, when people in the school went to study in the evening, they would see two wandering figures.” Bai Chi said, “Then everyone said that it was haunted.”

Everyone nodded. Bai Yutang became interested and listened carefully.

“Later, a classmate from my department went to study late at night. When he was leaving, he wanted to turn off the lights, but he saw a girl sitting alone in the last row. He walked over and wanted to remind her not to stay out alone too late because the building was haunted at night.” Bai Chi stretched his hand up to close the collar of his shirt, and continued, “Then, the girl raised her face, and the guy saw that it was white and a little blue, and that her lips were purple. She grabbed his hand, and spoke in a cold voice, ‘Who said I’m the only one here, he’s still here.’, while pointing to the seat next to her.”

"He?" Everyone was surprised.

"That classmate looked at the seat next to the girl, and saw a man's head on the chair. It’s face was blue, and it was watching him. As it winked, the head slowly said…”

As Bai Chi said this, Jiang Ping, who was always forgotten about, slowly made his way behind Bai Chi. He suddenly put his head on Bai Chi’s shoulder and whispered, “Chi… Chi…”

“YA AH AH AH AH…” 

The police officers on duty in the office downstairs heard a terrible scream come from the SCI office… Bai Chi screamed enough for the whole year.

Jiang Ping really wanted to scare Bai Chi, but he didn’t expect Bai Chi to be frightened this badly. Bai Chi’s loud screams, in turn, scared Jiang Ping. Jiang Ping ran to grab Luo Tian’s arm while Bai Chi rushed forward to hug Zhan Zhao. After a long time, Bai Chi slowly calmed down and looked back at Jiang Ping while trembling. “Why are you scaring me like this…” When he finished speaking, Bai Chi looked over at the door of the office, then screamed again and tightened his grip on Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao felt his ears buzzing.  Everyone looked in the direction that Bai Chi was looking and saw a dark figure suddenly appear in the door. At that moment, everyone was taken aback. When they got a better look, everyone calmed down.

It was indeed a dark shadow; they saw Bao Zheng standing in the doorway, wearing a black suit, and showing a depressed look on his face.

“Bao Sir…” Bai Yutang called out to him. Bai Chi climbed down from Zhan Zhao with a weeping face, and Jiang Ping released Luo Tian’s arm.

“What are you doing?” Bao Zheng frowned.

As soon as Bao Zheng finished asking, a white shadow flashed behind him and a gloomy voice replied, “Telling ghost stories…”

Everyone in the room clearly saw Bao Zheng’s dark face turn white for a moment. He turned his head sharply and saw Gongsun standing behind him with a smile.

Bao Zheng took a deep breath, and tried to maintain his calm demeaner as he turned and walked away.

When Bao Zheng left, everyone looked at each other and couldn’t help laughing.

The police officer on duty downstairs wondered what SCI was doing. 

Watching the elevator door close in front of him, Bao Zheng clenched his teeth in anger, ‘Boys, I’ll make you all clean the toilets one day!’

“Is it too late to tell ghost stories?” Gongsun walked in with interest, “If it’s not, I have a lot of ghost stories to tell! I have seen a corpse that was supposed to be dissected move by itself!”

“Ah!” Bai Chi looked at Gongsun with a pitiful expression, “Stop talking, I’m on duty tonight.”

“What are you afraid of? Luo Tian will be with you.” Zhan Zhao reminded Bai Chi.

Bai Chi glanced at Luo Tian and saw that he was calm and relaxed, “Big Brother Luo, aren’t you afraid?”

Luo Tian looked at Bai Chi somewhat incomprehensively, “What are you afraid of?”

“That… ghost… but…” Bai Chi comforted himself, “They don’t exist anyway.”

“Who said they don’t exist?” The group didn’t expect Luo Tian to say something so surprising, so they listened to him earnestly, “On the island, I used to see zombies that would come out in the middle of the night and eat people. They were buried in the ground and would dig their way out.” (Angel: The zombie used here is a type of ghost in Chinese folklore called the stiff corpses, jumping corpses, or moving corpses. In Chinese folklore, it refers specifically to the ghosts that are turned into stiff corpses after death because the corpse is too yin. They are inhumane and out of reason. They stretch their hands horizontally forward, and use their legs to jump continuously to move. Except for the head and limbs, other parts of the body are difficult to move.)

“Heh…” Bai Chi took a breath. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other — ‘Who said Luo Tian doesn’t have a sense of humor?!’

“Shall we change the subject?” Bai Chi looked at Bai Yutang.

“If there are no more ghost stories, then I will go back.” Gongsun got up and wanted to leave, but was stopped by Zhan Zhao.

“Gongsun, how long have you been a forensic pathologist?” Zhan Zhao asked him.

Gongsun looked up in thought, “It’s been ten years.”

“Have you heard of the case where the Normal University dorm caught fire a few years ago?” Bai Yutang asked, “It was a case where five students died.”

Gongsun was taken aback. Thinking about it, he nodded, “There is indeed such a case… It was about six or seven years ago.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked together “Do you still remember the details?”

“I was not the person who did the post-mortem examination.” Gongsun thought for while, then said, “The case should have been closed as an accidental fire back then… The school paid the parents of those students a lot of money. They also paid someone to do a lot of ideological work before suddenly going silent on the matter. It brought a lot of trouble.”

“Are there any doubts in the case?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked at the same time.

Gongsun raised his eyebrows, “Is it official? I didn’t participate in the investigation, so I won’t comment.”

“What about a private statement?” Several people asked at the same time.

“Private…” Gongsun thought for a while and laughed, “Let’s put it this way, it’s not so much an accidental fire, it’s better to say that all five students spontaneously burned. That convinces me more.”

Everyone was taken aback, “Why?”

Gongsun smiled and shook his head, “Everyone who saw it said that some of the corpses were burnt black and unrecognizable, right?”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao frowned slightly and nodded.

“You saw it when you were there today. The building is okay, you can’t even see traces of a fire from the outside.” Gongsun smiled, “In a fire, most people are killed by smoke inhalation, very few actually burn to death. If the people were burned black, then the building would definitely be burned black! Also, that dormitory building is not too high. I don’t believe that the boys couldn’t have gotten out if they were awake. For boys like them, it’s better to jump from the third floor than to burn to death in a fire. Besides, they could open the door and go out… There are too many ways to leave. How is it possible for them to be so stupid and wait there to be burned?”

“You didn’t raise such a doubt during the investigation?” Bai Yutang asked Gongsun.

Gongsun smiled and shrugged, “I am a forensic pathologist, not a detective. It is not my duty to reason and investigate cases. I only provide clues to those responsible for reasoning and investigating.” After speaking, he turned around and went out.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other, felling a little helpless. Gongsun was right, the problem has to do with the person in charge of the case.

“Brother.” Bai Chi asked the two, “Do you think the fire has something to do with Liu Mei’s case?”

“Hmm…” Zhan Zhao touched his chin and looked over at Jiang Ping, “Jiang Ping…”

Jiang Ping had already started typing on his keyboard, “All of the information has been brought up.”

Everyone walked over and looked at his computer. They saw that the information was very detailed. Apparently, the forensic pathologist in charge of the autopsy at the time was very confused about the cause of death of the students, so he took lots of photos and made lots of notes.

Zhan Zhao patted Bai Chi, “Go and call Gongsun to have him look at the photos.”

“Oh!” Bai Chi nodded. After walking a few steps, he turned around and pulled Luo Tian, “Well, let’s go together…”

Jiang Ping printed out all of the photos, and Bai Yutang looked at the information, “The forensic pathologist at the time was called Qiao Weiming… Check his information. Why haven’t I heard of this forensic pathologist?”

“Okay.” Jiang Ping entered the name into the personnel database and searched, “Bai Sir, this forensic pathologist resigned seven years ago.” Jiang Ping replied, “Moreover, he resigned for unclear reasons.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other — ‘Such a coincidence?’

“Print a copy of the photo and information, and then check the whereabouts of this person now.” Bai Yutang said to Jiang Ping.

“Okay.” Jiang Ping printed out all of the information, admiring as he read it, “Boss, this forensic pathologist is quite capable. He received his PhD in forensic science at such a young age.”

Zhan Zhao took the file and looked at it for a while, then nodded, “It’s true.”

Not long after, Bai Chi and Luo Tian returned with Gongsun.

“Gongsun, do you recognize this forensic pathologist?” Bai Yutang showed him the information.

“En.” Gongsun glanced at it and nodded, “Qiao Weiming, a very powerful forensic pathologist.”

“Why did he resign?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“Want to inquire about gossip?” Gongsun asked with a smile, “Then you will have to ask Bao Sir, I don’t know much.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and smelled something fishy.

“Take a look at the information, is there any problem with the autopsy report?” Zhan Zhao passed the autopsy report to Gongsun after he finished reading it.

Gongsun picked up the autopsy report and sneered as he flipped through it, “If you want me to comment, then these photos are very interesting.”

“Why do you say that?” Bai Yutang leaned over to look.

Gongsun explained, “The text on the autopsy report is very simple, it refers to an accidental death. However, the details of the photos he took don’t support that… Obviously, this report was not written according to the original intentions of the forensic pathologist. His original intention can be seen in the photos.”

“In other words, the forensic pathologist received a certain pressure and wrote the report against his will, then later resigned because of guilt?” Bai Chi looked at Gongsun.

“Heh…” Gongsun stretched his hand out to touch Bai Chi’s head, “You are so cute.” After he finished speaking, he looked at Bai Yutang, “I will go back and look at the autopsy report in detail. I will give you the conclusion tomorrow.”

Bai Yutang nodded. He picked up his jacket and said, “Let’s end here today. Those who should be off work are off work.” After that, he left with Zhan Zhao.

Bai Chi leaned against Jiang Ping and asked, “Jiang Ping, can you play some soothing and sunny music to listen to? Or play some cartoons?”

Jiang Ping couldn’t laugh or cry.

“How do you plan to investigate this?” Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang when he got into the car, “This case seems a little strange.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Bai Yutang started the car and smiled at Zhan Zhao, “Cat, how about we go explore the haunted house tomorrow?”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Poor Bai Chi 🤣

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

Translated: April 22, 2021