S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 68

Password Murderer 08 – Facts

---

Early the next morning, Bai Yutang was awakened by the sound of the alarm clock, and he felt aches all over as he sat up. Last night, the cat grabbed his collar and shook it all night, attempting to force him to tell the story from that year. A certain mouse carried forward the spirit of patriotism and he would rather die than surrender to torture. Although he was radiating an aura of ‘if you don’t tell me, I’ll kill you’, in the end, a certain cat, who was slightly weaker, got tired and ground his teeth in his sleep, “Dead mouse, kill you!”

Bai Yutang rubbed his sore neck. Turning his face, he saw that Zhan Zhao was sleeping with his arms wrapped around the quilt. He squinted his eyes and leaned over, squeezing his chin and kissing him.

Zhan Zhao buried himself deeper in the quilt and whispered, “Annoying.”

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, untied Zhan Zhao’s pajamas, and kissed his belly.

“Ah…” Zhan Zhao was awakened. As soon as he opened his eyes, he was kissed by Bai Yutang.

It took about thirty seconds for him to wake up. When he saw the mouse happily raining kisses down on him, he raised his foot and attempted to kick him…

As work hours approached, the two people who were planning to fight still got up obediently, got washed and dressed, then left for work. At the pastry shop downstairs, Bai Yutang bought two sandwiches and milk tea. Plugging the mouth of a certain cat who was still holding on to his hatred, he drove towards the police station amidst the enthusiastic farewells of the girls in the pastry shop.

“Are we really going to the haunted house?” Zhan Zhao asked while eating his sandwich, “You think that mute uncle is suspicious?”

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, “There are too many doubts in the old case. This time, Liu Mei died there inexplicably. I think that mute uncle is weird.”

“That’s true.” Zhan Zhao held his sandwich in his mouth, then helped Bai Yutang unwrap his and held it in front of him.

Bai Yutang lowered his head and took a bite, speaking as he chewed, “By the way, let’s go to the school and ask the principal or a teacher to see if there are any clues.”

“I’m more interested in that forensic pathologist.” Zhan Zhao put down the sandwich, then inserted a straw into the lid of his milk tea. He drank from his cup while holding Bai Yutang’s up to his mouth.

“You mean that Qiao Weiming?” Bai Yutang thought for a while, then said, “He thinks that the behaviour was quite righteous. Did you hear something different from Gongsun’s words?”

Zhan Zhao nodded, “Gongsun’s tone seems to be unsatisfactory towards him, and he didn’t seem to have left for a formal reason.”

“Jiang Ping should be able to find his information.” Bai Yutang drove the car into the parking lot, “Let’s see what he is doing now.”

As soon as their car stopped, another black car rolled in. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other; it was Bai Jintang’s car.

The car stopped beside Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao. Bai Jintang got out and opened the door for Gongsun.

“Big Brother.” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang called out to him obediently, and the two looked at each other — ‘Gongsun is really good. Big Brother always opens his own door, but today he opened the door for someone else. Is he already tamed?’

Gongsun got out of the car with a thick book and a pile of materials in his hand. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were a little surprised.

“Gongsun, what did you bring? Why is there so much?” Bai Yutang asked puzzledly.

“Some information on fires.” Gongsun said, “I went to the library this morning. After reading the autopsy report yesterday, I felt that the students died suspiciously.” While he was speaking, Bai Jintang had already taken the materials from him and began to go upstairs with Gongsun.

“Big Brother?” Bai Yutang asked, “Are you going up too? If it’s just carrying the materials up, I can help with that.”

Bai Jintang looked at the curious Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, and smiled, “I heard that you are going to visit the haunted house today. I happened to be taking a break, so I came to participate in the activity.” After he finished speaking, he held the materials with one hand and put his other arm around Gongsun’s shoulder. They walked over to the elevator and pressed the button.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other — ‘The investigation is regarded as entertainment by Big Brother.’

When everyone was waiting in front of the elevator, they saw a big Jeep pulling into the parking lot. The car stopped and Zhao Zhen opened the door. Seeing the group of people waiting for the elevator, he smiled and said hello. Everyone knew that he was there to pick up Bai Chi.

The elevator door opened and Bai Chi, who had been on duty all night, walked out. Seeing the four people waiting at the door, he greeted them one by one.

“You’re alone?” Bai Yutang asked, “Where is Luo Tian?”

“He said he is not sleepy and that he can sleep in the lounge later. Anyway, he would have had to come back in the afternoon and he is too lazy to go back.” Bai Chi yawned and asked Zhao Zhen, “Yang Yang was sent to school?”

Zhao Zhen nodded. Bai Chi walked towards him and heard Bai Yutang ask, “Chi Chi, will you go to the haunted house later?”

“Uh…” Bai Chi was taken aback, just thinking about it made him unable to say anything.

Zhao Zhen asked with great interest, “Haunted house?”

Bai Chi’s face turned pale. Knowing that something bad was about to happen, he grabbed Zhao Zhen’s arm and pulled him towards the car, “No, it’s nothing…”

“What haunted house?” Zhao Zhen asked Bia Yutang, “I have a day off today.”

 Bai Chi glared at him, “Do you have every day off?!”

Zhao Zhen held down Bai Chi. He looked up at the four people by the elevator door and listened to Gongsun say, “Oh… There was a five-corpse murder in a school a few years ago. The dormitory building was abandoned for many years, and there was recently a supernatural event that happened.”

They saw a big smile on Zhao Zhen’s face, “I was suddenly inspired for a new magic trick…” After he finished speaking, he pulled Bai Chi into the car and said, “Chi Chi, you will go to sleep when we get back and we will visit the haunted house in the afternoon!”

“We’ll go to the place that Bai Chi’s knows first, you can join us later!” Bai Yutang shouted to Zhao Zhen at the moment the elevator doors closed.

Zhao Zhen raised his hand to close the car door, and Bai Chi became angry, “You are going by yourself.”

Zhao Zhen started the car and spoke to Bai Chi, “We will go to the haunted house in the evening, which happens to be the time of the devil. I will bring some spiritual props with me to see if there are any ghosts that I can catch and raise.”

Bai Chi resentfully looked at Zhao Zhen’s excitement, thinking about how to fool him later. He simply hid under his quilt and pretended to sleep.

……

The elevator door opened at the door of SCI’s office. Bai Yutang and the others walked in. Everyone was in the office. They were all young people and were all very interested in the haunted house, so everyone was gathered together discussing it.

As Bai Yutang entered the office, everyone turned their heard, “Captain, Dr. Zhan…” Then they all saw Bai Jintang, “Big Brother Bai.” Looking at Gongsun, everyone felt a chill; Gongsun was covered in a murderous aura and was smiling. It seems as though he has discovered something interesting.

Bai Jintang smiled and seemed to be in a good mood. He didn’t want to disturb everyone’s work, so he laid down on the sofa in Zhan Zhao’s office for a bit.

“Everyone to the conference room.” Bai Yutang tilted his head to the crowd, and everyone walked to the conference room together.

“Captain!” Jiang Ping took out a few printed papers and a few books, “Look at this!”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other. Bai Yutang took the document that Jiang Ping handed over and frowned slightly when he saw it. Zhan Zhao picked up the books and looked at them. He saw that the author of the three books was ‘The Eleven Sins’, and the titles of the books were 《The Next Body》, 《The Next Victim》, and 《The Next Way of Death》.

“Heh…” Bai Yutang handed the information to Zhan Zhao, “Qiao Weiming is ‘The Eleven Sins’, he wrote these books.”

“What?!” Zhan Zhao was taken aback. After processing the information for a long time, he looked dumbfoundedly at the crowd, “What do you think about this?”

The expression on everyone’s face was similar; they were all shaking their heads and couldn’t understand.

Bai Yutang thought for a while, then flipped to the back page of the information and asked Jiang Ping, “Even his address was obtained?”

Jiang Ping raised his eyebrows, “I hacked the publishing house where the books were published and even checked his account number. I checked his bank account, and he is quite poor.”

“Impossible.” Zhan Zhao said, “With such a big-selling book, it is impossible to have no money from signing and selling.”

Jiang Ping took out a list and said, “He has lots of income, but he also pays a lot of money.”

“Huo…” Zhao Hu took a look at the list, “The royalties are millions of dollars at a time, and they are all spent in less than six months. How does he spend it?”

“Does he have a job now?” Zhan Zhao asked, “Or is he writing full time?”

Jiang Ping shrugged, “In addition to writing books, he doesn’t do any other work. There are several magazines that ask him to write columns, they are mostly medical journals.”

Zhan Zhao nodded and looked at Bai Yutang.

“Since there is an address, let’s pay him a visit.” Bai Yutang smiled, “I am very interested in what environment people who write this kind of book live in all day.”

Everyone nodded.  Zhan Zhao remembered something and asked everyone, “Where did this book come from?”

Everyone looked back at Luo Tian.

“Were you reading this last night.” Zhan Zhao asked.

Luo Tian nodded, “I happened to see it when I brought Yang Yang to the bookstore a few days ago.”

“You bought all three?” Bai Yutang asked, “You like his books?”

Luo Tian shook his head, “I have killed people. After only a few glances, I felt that this author also seems to have killed people. It felt very strange, so I bought them all.”

Everyone looked at each other. Bai Yutang frowned deeply and looked at Luo Tian, “You got that from reading it?”

Luo Tian shrugged, “I don’t know, that’s how it feels to me.”

Everyone in SCI has experienced a lot of battles. To be honest, everyone has killed someone, of course, only those that should be killed. However, everyone looked at each other and looked at the books without feeling the same way. They all raised their faces and looked at Luo Tian puzzledly.

Luo Tian smiled, “Killing to save someone is not the same as murdering someone maliciously.”

“En.” Zhan Zhao flipped through the book and nodded, “I have read this book before and there is indeed a strange feeling. It was appropriately described by Luo Tian.”

“Don’t guess about it.” Bai Yutang stopped the puzzled crowd, “I will go and have a look with Cat. Luo Tian, are you sleepy?”

Luo Tian shook his head, “Not sleepy, I will go too.”

Bai Yutang nodded, and he heard Gongsun next to him, “I’ll go too.”

Everyone looked at him in surprise, “You will go too?” Then they turned their faces to look at Bai Jintang, who was resting in the office, saying in their hearts — ‘What if Bai Jintang wakes up and Gongsun is not here?’

“Gongsun, are you interested in that forensic pathologist?” Zhan Zhao curiously leaned over to look at the autopsy report in his hand, “You found something incredible?”

Gongsun nodded and sternly said, “The five children were definitely murdered!”

Everyone frowned. In addition to confirming that the forensic pathologist lied at the time, this conclusion also had many deep meanings. On one hand, why did the police station conceal it, and on the other hand… why were the children murdered?

Gongsun smiled, “Don’t worry, it’s exaggerated.” He took out a few books and showed them to everyone. They saw that one was about flammable chemicals, and that the others were about various types of burns and scalds.

Gongsun laid the pictures flat on the table and said, “Of the five dead children, four died on their beds and one died on the ground, as if he woke up and wanted to go down to ask for help.”

Everyone nodded.

Gongsun continued, “Look here… The front of the four corpses are almost charred, but the back burns are not serious. That is, they burned while lying flat on the bed. The fire started from above. Normally, it is impossible for the fire to burn the corpses like this without damaging the building!” Gongsun said, opening the catalog of chemicals, “They used a combustion aid, and their purpose was clear. It was to burn people!”

Everyone glanced at each other and nodded.

“But the corpse on the floor was charred on the front and back.” Zhan Zhao pointed at a photo.

Gongsun smiled, “That’s right.”

Bai Yutang frowned, “That is to say, those four students were sprayed with a combustible chemical while lying on their backs, then burned to death without resisting… Only the fifth person was completely covered with the combustible chemical, and burned to death alive?”

Gongsun nodded, “If he’s different, what made him special?”

Zhan Zhao suddenly looked up at Gongsun, “You mean, he did it to himself?”

Everyone took a deep breath.

Gongsun raised his eyebrows, “The door was locked and the window was closed, no one could get in or out.”

“In other words, it was the fifth student who burned the four students to death before setting himself on fire?” Bai Yutang looked at Gongsun.

Gongsun shrugged, “It’s possible.”

Zhan Zhao frowned, “If that’s the case, the school and the police concealed it, and the families didn’t pursue it… It makes sense. Something unusual must have happened between those students.”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

I love how the extended SCI family is treating the investigation as a source of entertainment. 😂

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

Translated: April 23, 2021