S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 101

Love Murderer 08 – Yellow Hair 

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Li Hao shook his hand helplessly and said, “It turns out to be SCI, you are very famous. By the way, I know that there is a renowned psychologist in SCI, Zhan Zhao. I have read his books, he is my idol!”

Bai Yutang’s eyelids twitched, and Zhan Zhao smiled at him, “I am Zhan Zhao, Mr. Li is also interested in psychology?”

The expression on Li Hao’s face was exaggerated and infectious. His mouth opened wide, as if he had seen an idol, of course… he did see an idol. Li Hao spoke quickly, “What a surprise, I didn’t expect that. I thought such an accomplished psychologist would be an old man who is more ancient than the times, I didn’t expect you to be so young.”

Zhan Zhao smiled, “You flatter me.”

Bai Yutang looked at Li Hao impatiently, “Mr. Li, let’s save the chat for later. We would like to ask about the theft of the artwork.”

“Oh, okay. Look at me, I got too excited.” After speaking, Li Hao patted his head and said, “Well, let’s go to my office and talk, this way please.” After speaking, he led everyone inside the art hall.

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang and raised his eyebrows — ‘This man looks very honest, unlike the usual business man, is he pretending?’

Bai Yutang was still worried about Li Hao’s obvious affection for Zhan Zhao. Seeing Zhan Zhao looking at him, he raised the corner of his mouth — ‘It’s best if he is pretending, otherwise he is too good-looking.’

Zhan Zhao looked away, thinking in his heart, ‘Xiao Bai was jealous! Oh yeah.’

When they arrived at Li Hao’s office, everyone sat down and looked around subconsciously. Judging by the decoration of the room, it is indeed an office belonging to an art dealer, even the tea cups on the table were artistic.

Seeing everyone’s expressions, Li Hao smiled, “Just laugh, I like to collect some weird things. Everyone, do you smoke?”

Everyone shook their heads. At that moment, a thin man brought four cups of tea and spoke to Li Hao, “President, there is a meeting in half an hour.”

Li Hao nodded, “Help me postpone it, I have something to talk about with these police officers.”

Bai Yutang waved his hand, “It won’t take too long, we just need to know about the situation.”

“Sigh… How can I just leave when you came!” Li Hao took out eight or nine thick hardcover books from the bookcase behind him, and said to Zhan Zhao, “Dr. Zhan, I am a super fan of your books. I buy any version of them that gets released. This is a rare opportunity, can you sign them for me? I have asked for a long time, but they said that you don’t sign books that you sell.”

Zhan Zhao smiled, took the pen, and signed a book for Li Hao.

Bai Chi looked a little surprised, and turned to look at Luo Tian. It was only now that he felt that Zhan Zhao was actually a best-selling author.

Luo Tian touched his chin and thought to himself, ‘Later, I’ll have Zhan Zhao sign for Yang Yang. When we leave, I must remember to get Yang Yang a good set of oil pastels and watercolour paints. The box of oil pastels he used last time seems to be finished, it had forty-two colours, I hear there are some with seventy-two colours.’

Bai Yutang looked a little upset at Li Hao’s diligent look, saying in his heart, ‘This business man’s skin is very thick, he really is a business man.’

“Mr. Li, what are the characteristics of the stolen artwork?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Oh.” Li Hao finally sat back, looking at Zhan Zhao’s signature on the book with joy, and answered Bai Yutang’s question, “Well, the silver candlestick, the fourteenth-century cross, the paintings about the vampire count, and the set of tools used by vampire hunters in the Middle Ages.”

Bai Yutang and the others had seen the photos of the lost collection earlier. They thought that it was just a candlestick, a cross, a portrait of a foreign beauty, and a rotten wooden box… but it sounds weird.

“You mean, the things stolen are all related to vampire culture?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“En.” Li Hao nodded, “So I suspect that the thief is a fanatical supernatural lover.”

“Supernatural?” Bai Chi was a little puzzled, “Like believing in the devil or something?”

“En.” Li Hao nodded, “The medieval royal collection exhibits attract the people who are most curious about this topic, but because these things are not very valuable… To be honest, because our exhibition hall is private and the value of the items are limited, things are almost never stolen. Our security measures are strict, there are surveillance cameras and everything. I can’t think of any thief who would take such a big risk to steal these few things that are not very valuable… Of course, from a cultural perspective and for the exhibitors, they are very precious, but for art dealers, they really are not valuable.”

Bai Yutang nodded, “Could it be for revenge, causing trouble, intra-industry struggles, or private reasons?”

“Oh, no.” Li Hao hurriedly waved his hand, “I am an honest businessman, and I do business that both buyers and sellers are satisfied with. Our art gallery has a very good reputation, and I am very careful in my own life, so there is no possibility of this.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, and Zhan Zhao asked, “What about the surveillance videos?”

Bai Yutang took out a copy of the disk, “I have watched it, it was edited by someone. The image was frozen all night, so it should be done by a professional museum thief.”

“Oh., we think so too, it’s just that we don’t understand why they did it.” Li Hao shook his head, “This exhibition is handled by foreigners. There are a lot of things involved, and an agreement was signed previously. It is currently half a month before the exhibition is complete. If I can’t find the artworks by that time, the I will face a relatively large loss. As I have said, my place is not state-owned, but private. Although there is insurance, art is difficult to provide 100% compensation for with this kind of insurance. The most annoying thing is that these artworks cannot be evaluated, so…”

Bai Yutang nodded, “We will try our best to help you find the lost property.”

“Wonderful.” Li Hao quickly smiled, “Then I will leave it to you.”

“Can you provide a more detailed catalog of the exhibits and introduce them to us?” Zhan Zhao asked, “Also, has Mr. Li been harassed recently? Or could it be an employee of your company? Anyone who you doubt is fine, please think if there are any clues that can be provided to us.”

“Oh…” Li Hao frowned slightly, thought about it, and said, “Um… Well, right now, I really can’t think of anyone.” As he spoke, he found a copy of a document, and passed it to Zhan Zhao, “This is a brief introduction of the exhibits.”

As he was talking, they saw the male secretary walk in again and whisper to Li Hao, “Mr. Wang is here.”

“En.” Li Hao frowned slightly, “Let him wait.” After the secretary left, Li Hao spoke to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, “Well, officers, I have thought about it, but I really can’t think of anyone. Why don’t you give me your contact information so that I can call you if I think of anything?”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other — ‘Li Hao is asking us to leave. It seems that Mr. Wang is a key customer, or maybe Li Hao doesn’t want us to meet him.’

Thinking about it, Bai Yutang handed him an SCI business card, “Just call this number.”

“Okay, okay.” Li Hao took the business card.

Bai Yutang and the other stood up and said, “Then we will leave.”

“I will send you out.” Li Hao eagerly sent everyone out, and spoke to Zhan Zhao, “Dr. Zhan, I’ll take the liberty to ask, can I give you a call?”

Zhan Zhao was taken aback for a moment. Looking at him, Li Hao smiled, “Oh… I am really interested in psychology. I wonder if it would be alright for me to call you occasionally, when you are not busy, to come out for a cup of tea?”

Bai Yutang smiled and said, “Mr. Li, you can just call the number I just gave you, we are all in the office. As for private cell phones, the police have regulations about not sharing them.” After that, he left with Zhan Zhao.

After leaving the office, Zhan Zhao looked at him — ‘Where is this rule?’

Bai Yutang glared at him — ‘Dead cat, you attract too many bees and butterflies.’

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows proudly, and Bai Yutang walked out with his hands in his pockets.

When they were going down the stairs, they saw that the secretary was bringing a fashionable young man with yellow hair up a relatively hidden staircase, and they walked towards Li Hao’s office.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, a little puzzled. The two of them stayed silent and left the art gallery.

After getting into the car, Bai Yutang drove back to the police station. He frowned slightly and said to himself, “I seem to have seen that yellow-haired man!”

……

After returning to the police station, Zhan Zhao put Lilia on the sofa.

Gongsun poked Lilia curiously, “This Lilia is really a Garfield!”

“Why do you think this?” Bai Chi asked curiously, “Isn’t Garfield fat?”

Gongsun waved his hand, “Do you think that it’s hair is long enough? It’s tail is thick and it’s body is good. The key is that it’s face, eyes, nose, and ears are all on the same line. This is called a three-points-one-line, it’s the signature look of Garfield. It also has folded ears. Looking like this, it can enter a beauty pageant. It is also a female cat. There are tens of thousands of cats like Lilia.”

“Really? Lilia is so valuable?” Bai Chi teased Lilia curiously. Lilia shook her tail and yawned nobly on the sofa.

Zhan Zhao nodded, “That’s right, it’s too wasteful to pair her with Luban, a ragdoll cat weighing 15 pounds!”

Bai Yutang walked over holding a document at his side, “That was his weight when we weighed him a month ago.”

Everyone was speechless.

“Here!” Bai Yutang held the document out towards Zhan Zhao, “Cat, who does this look like?”

Zhan Zhao took the document, looked at it, and frowned. He saw that it was a police officer’s personal file. There was a photo of a young man attached to the file. He had a good appearance, single eyelids, and a high nose. It was the man with yellow hair that they had just seen, however, in the photo, the man’s hair was black and messy. His name is Wang Yaode.

“Is he a police officer?” Zhan Zhao was surprised.

“He was an officer that was fired.” Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, “I can access all of the personnel transfers in the police station, so I was able to search until I found his file.”

“Why was he fired?” Zhan Zhao turned over the document.

“That person is called Wang Yaode?” Ma Han suddenly asked, “I heard from a previous colleague that this kid was a sniper. When he was out on a mission, he killed an important witness. Later, it was suspected that he was a mole, so they investigated him for a while, but he was fired without finding anything.”

“Which case was the witness from?” Zhao Hu asked.

“In a drug trafficking case. Because the only witness died, the drug lord was acquitted, and he is still able to be a businessman,” Zhan Zhao read the information and returned it to Bai Yutang, “It seems that this kid is a clue.”

“No wonder Li Hao didn’t want us to see him earlier.” Luo Tian said.

“En.” Bai Yutang nodded. At that moment, someone knocked on the door, and they all saw Bao Zheng standing there.

“Bao Sir, do you need something?” Bai Yutang asked.

Bao Zheng looked at his watch, “It’s late, you still haven’t gotten off work yet?”

Everyone realized that it was time to get off work.

“You two come with me.” Bao Zheng pointed to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, “Bai Chi and Gongsun too.”

“Where are we going?” Gongsun looked at Bao Zheng in confusion.

Bao Zheng smiled mysteriously, “You will know when you get there.”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

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

Translated: May 25, 2021