S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 71

Password Murderer 11 –Doubtful

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"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked Luo Tian with great interest.

Luo Tian looked at the house. Bai Yutang smiled coldly and started the car, “We’ve already left yet he is still looking out the window, that is really disgusting.”

Gongsun and Zhan Zhao causally glanced at the house and saw Qiao Weiming standing in a window on the second floor. He was wearing glasses and standing there gloomily looking down at the car with half of his face covered by the curtains.

Zhan Zhao suddenly turned to look out the other side of the car, “He seems to able to see to cemetery from the second floor.”

“Abnormal.” Gongsun turned to look at Luo Tian, “What’s not right?”

“He just said that his facial nerves are paralyzed, but why can he make other expressions?” Luo Tian asked.

Gongsun smiled, “Forget it, it’s not facial nerve paralysis at all. If someone has a stroke and suffers from facial paralysis, all of their facial muscles are paralyzed and it impossible for them to make other expressions.”

“Then why does he say that he has facial paralysis?” Zhan Zhao asked in a puzzled manner.

“Don’t you think that his smile is weird?” Luo Tian asked, “I have seen that kind of smile before.”

“Huh?” Bai Yutang looked into the rear-view mirror, and Zhan Zhao and Gongsun looked at Luo Tian, “Where did you see it?”

Luo Tian was silent for a while, then said “I used to laugh like that.”

Bai Yutang stopped the car on the side of the road and turned to look at Luo Tian, “What do you mean?”

Luo Tian looked at him, “It’s a pure muscle control method of laughing.”

“Hmm…” Gongsun touched his chin, “That’s kind of interesting.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and waited for Luo Tian to continue talking.

“When we were training on the island, because killers have to manage their facial expressions, everyone mastered a set of facial expression. We could make expressions for emotions such as anger, sorrow, and joy. However, they were all fake because we only controlled the muscles and didn’t actually feel those emotions.”

“Only muscle control, no emotions… Well Qiao Weiming’s expression just now looked a little like that.” Gongsun nodded.

“Is there any difference between the expressions you are talking about and not smiling?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Smiling but not laughing actually has emotions behind it.” Zhan Zhao seemed to understand a little bit, “In retrospect, when Qiao Weiming laughed just now, he felt that it was a situation where he should laugh, so he laughed. At that moment, he seemed to a little negligent, and then he became more and more normal.”

“Isn’t it also possible that he was confused because he was sleepy?” Bai Yutang asked, “Didn’t he just wake up?”

“Because he just awoke, the expressions he showed at the beginning were the most real, later, he had a certain amount of disguise.”

Bai Yutang asked Luo Tian, “Would you laugh like that?”

Luo Tian nodded, “At first, I didn’t pay attention to it because it became a habit. Later, Yang Yang told me that laughing like that was scary. When I looked in the mirror, I was also taken aback. It was Yang Yang who taught me for a few days, so I now know that the most important thing is emotion.”

“Hmm… Interesting.” Zhan Zhao muttered to himself thoughtfully, “It’s really interesting.”

“Cat, what’s interesting?” Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao as he started the car and drove forward. As soon as his voice fell, his phone rang.

Zhan Zhao took the phone out of Bai Yutang’s pocket and saw that it was Ma Han. He answered up the call and asked Bai Yutang, “Xiao Bai, Ma Han said that they are all at the school. Should they act first or wait for us?”

Bai Yutang quickened his speed and said, “Let them act first. Have them find the principal and ask for a list of all of the personnel involved in the incident that year. If they are still at the school, we will all gather together when we arrive in ten minutes.”

After Zhan Zhao relayed the message, he returned the phone to Bai Yutang’s pocket, then took out his own phone and searched the glove compartment of Bai Yutang’s car.

“What are you looking for?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Where is the SIM card?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“Heh…” Bai Yutang couldn’t laugh or cry, “In the card box inside.”

Zhan Zhao stretched his hand out, grabbed the box, and found the SIM card. He opened his own phone and exchanged the SIM card. Zhan Zhao picked up the information on Qiao Weiming and found his phone number.

“What is that SIM card?” Gongsun asked curiously.

“This number is registered with Luban’s name, you can call whoever you want, hehe.” Zhan Zhao smiled, “No real person can be found attached to this number.” After speaking, he wrote a few words on a piece of paper and handed it to Luo Tian, “Just tell him this in the most gloomy and expressionless voice.”

Luo Tian took the note and looked at Zhan Zhao in a daze.

“Just do it.” Zhan Zhao smiled at Luo Tian as he dialed the phone number and turned on the speakerphone.

Luo Tian took the phone, and after a while, someone answered “Hello?”

Everyone was taken aback; the one who answered the phone turned out to be a woman.

“Hello? Who is it?” The woman continued to ask. Luo Tian looked at Zhan Zhao, a little at a loss. Zhan Zhao pointed to the paper that Luo Tian was holding.

Luo Tian nodded and asked “Is Qiao Weiming there?”

“Yes, wait a moment.” Then came the voice of the woman as she turned her head to call someone, “Weiming, call.”

After a while, Qiao Weiming’s voice came from the other end of the phone, “Hello, hello, this is Qiao Weiming.”

Everyone was taken aback; how did he suddenly turn from that gloomy uncle just now into a kind intellectual? Luo Tian looked at Zhan Zhao as of to ask ‘What else?’

Zhan Zhao nodded and motioned for Luo Tian to continue.

Luo Tian spoke gloomily, “Qiao Weiming, you will pay the price for what you did one day!”

The person on the other end of the phone was stunned for a moment, before becoming darker and asking “Who are you?”

“I know what you did.” Luo Tian spoke in a low and gloomy voice, “I know your secret.”

There was no response from the other end of the phone for a while, then there was a long burst of laughter before the phone was hung up.

Everyone had only one thought at that time; that laughter was really disgusting.

“What does this mean?” Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao puzzledly.

“It means that things are far more complicated than we thought.” Zhan Zhao blinked profoundly. He leaned against the car window, propping his chin up, and began to think about it.

Everyone glanced at each other and did not interrupt him.

Soon, the car arrived at the entrance of the school. Everyone got out and hurried into the school.

Everyone from SCI was waiting at the entrance of the teaching building.

“Captain!” Zhao Hu spoke to Bai Yutang, “The principal, the teacher of that class, and all of the other insiders are inside.”

Bai Yutang nodded. As he walked into the teaching building, he saw several people standing in front of the bulletin board; Bai Jintang was yawning, Zhao Zhen was looking around, Da Ding was holding yogurt in one hand and a school bag in the other, Xiao Ding was holding Luoyang, and Luoyang was very interested in the things on the bulletin board.

“Yang Yang?” Luo Tian called out.

“Dad!” Luoyang hadn’t seen him all night because Luo Tian was on night duty. After Xiao Ding put him down, he rushed over and hugged Luo Tian’s legs.

“Why are you here?” Luo Tian touched his hair puzzledly, “Daddy is working.”

“Uncle Zhen said that you are going to visit a haunted house today when he came to pick me up from school, so he brought me along with him.” Luoyang answered honestly.

Bai Chi glared at Zhao Zhen dissatisfiedly and Zhao Zhen looked at the sky.

“What about you?” Bai Yutang looked at the twins weakly.

The twins shrugged, “We’re protecting Big Brother while having a spring outing.”

“We can’t leave Yang Yang home alone, right?” Zhao Zhen shrugged a little innocently and everyone was speechless.

Luoyang is smart and cute, and all of the SCI members have special feelings towards him. Luo Tian is sometimes busy and it can be inconvenient for a single man to take care of a child, therefore, everyone pitches in to help. Whoever has time will take Luoyang in for a few days. If nobody can take him, they will give him to Mother Bai or Mother Zhan. Of course, Luoyang likes Ma Xin the most.

Bai Jintang smiled at everyone, “You go take care of the case first, let’s walk around.” After he finished speaking, he left with the twins.

Ma Xin picked up Luoyang, “Yang Yang, let’s go visit the university. You will also go to university in the future. Which university do you like?”

“I like Uncle Zhan’s school!” Luoyang replied, putting his hands around Ma Xin’s neck with an indescribable intimacy… But this is the only young woman that he has come into contact with in his life.

Ma Han saw the group walking away, and Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao heading upstairs. As everyone followed, he raised his hand and patted Luo Tian, “Hey, Xin Xin is actually pretty good. Would you like to think about it?”

Luo Tian looked at him weakly, “Don’t joke around.”

Zhao Hu also nodded, “Yeah, Brother Luo, don’t listen to Ma Han’s nonsense. He just wants you to be with Xin Xin so you have to call him brother!”

“Screw you!” Ma Han walked behind Zhao Hu and kicked his ass. After kicking, Ma Han patted Luo Tian on the shoulder, “Think about it, okay?”

Luo Tian waved his hand, “Why are you pushing your sister into the fire pit?”

As he spoke, they had already reached the door of the principal’s office. Bai Yutang knocked on the door, but the door was not closed. There were several people sitting inside, and they all stood up.

“Yo… Captain Bai.” The principal quickly greeted him, shaking hands with the group and letting them in. “I am the principal, and my surname is Bai, Bai Fangqin.” The principal introduced herself. (Angel: This ‘yo’ is not the ‘yo’ that we use in English, it is an onomatopoeia used to express surprise.)

The group discovered that the principal of Normal University was a female in her fifties who looked like an old intellectual. She was dressed very plainly, wore glasses, and had short hair.

Bai Yutang and the others took a seat. There were three other people in the room. One was a very young woman with fashionable dark curly hair who looked less than thirty years old.

“This is one of the teachers at out school.” The principal said, “Her name is Wang Mingli. She used to be classmates with those students and was the monitor of that class. Later, she took the postgraduate exam and stayed here as a teacher.”

Bai Yutang nodded. Next to Wang Mingli was a male teacher. He was in his thirties and looked very serious, with his hair combed into the old-fashioned center split.

“This is Sang Boqi, the teacher in charge of the students back then.” After Bai Fangqin finished speaking, she pointed to a large old man wearing a white coat next to him, “This is our school doctor who has been here for many years, called Wang Hua.”

After everyone was introduced, Bai Fangqin spoke straightforwardly, “Well, Captain Bai, while I was talking on the phone with Director Bao, I found out that you are going to reopen the case of that year to investigate… So we have to cooperate.”

Bai Yutang nodded, “You don’t need to be nervous, we are just looking at it.” After speaking, he glanced at Zhan Zhao beside him.

Zhan Zhao nodded slightly, “Then we will save time and start right away. First of all, I want to ask, among the details of the case that you know, does anyone have any doubts?”

Everyone looked at each other, then saw Wang Mingli raise her hand and whisper, “I have doubts.”

“Oh?” Zhan Zhao asked with a smile, “What are you doubtful about?”

“The boy who set the fire was called Hao Mo… I just want to say that he is a rare good person, it is impossible for him to do such a thing.” Wang Mingli was silent for a while, then gritter her teeth and continued, “In addition, the other four boys that burned to death were scumbags, they deserved to die.”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Luoyang is more than just the team's sunshine, he is the kid of the whole family (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

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

Translated: April 25, 2021