S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 74

Password Murderer 14 – The Fog Is Getting Thicker

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At the south teaching building, Bai Yutang and the others successfully blocked Zhang Jianqi in the office, then Bai Yutang asked Ma Han to bring Bai Fangqin over. Entering the door of the office, Zhang Jianqi and Bai Fangqin looked at each other, very embarrassed.

Bai Yutang didn’t speak, but moved a chair over and sat down, looking a the two with a smile.

“Captain Bai…” Bai Fangqin couldn’t stand it and she smiled awkwardly at Bai Yutang, “We didn’t intentionally conceal…”

“It wasn’t intentional?” Bai Yutang interrupted Bai Fangqin before she finished speaking, “Zhang Hua was a person involved in the case at that time. Zhang Jianqi was clearly in charge of the liberal arts department, but he lied to the police and said that he was in charge of the science and engineering department with the purpose of disassociating himself from the case. This is no longer just a hinderance to the investigation of the case, it is simply misleading the investigation, which is a crime. Both of you are principals, don’t you have a sense of the legal system?”

Both Bai Fangqin and Zhang Jianqi flushed red. Neither of them was young anymore. In addition, generally speaking, the work of principals is to teach others. They didn’t expect that they would be taught today, and that they would be taught by a young man in his twenties.

“In fact, Principal Bai was trying to help me.” Zhang Jianqi said to Bai Yutang embarrassedly, “If you want to blame someone, blame me… She helped me because I asked her to.”

Bai Yutang shook his head and looked at Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin and looked at Zhang Jianqi. After a long time, he asked, “Principal Zhang, you should be fidgeting at this time, right? Why were you still interested in playing with the students? In other words, because the basketball court is close to the old dormitory, you wanted to see the situation… But it’s too far away to see anything, or… You didn’t care about the content of our conversation at all. Do you care about something else?”

Zhang Jianqi’s face turned pale, and he smiled at Zhan Zhao, “I have read your book… I didn’t expect you to be more godly than the book says.”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, “Does it have something to do with your son? Does he make you feel like something is wrong?”

Zhang Jianqi sighed, “Zhang Hua was a good kid at first, he was good with his studies, had a good character, and was quite spirited… There was nothing to complain about. But since that incident, he seemed to have been stimulated by something and gave up on himself. He fooled around all day and didn’t even get his diploma… He originally wanted to take the post-graduate exam, but…”

“Why did Zhang Hua go through this change?” Bai Yutang asked, “Have you asked him about the details of the case back then?”

Zhang Jianqi shook his head, “I have asked him many times, but he has never told me.”

“Where is he now?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“I’ve been hiding it from you, and it’s because of this.” Zhang Jianqi shook his head, “Zhang Hua has been acting like this for several years, not acting like a human, nor like a ghost. However, in the past few days, although he didn’t know what was wrong, he seemed to have figured it out suddenly and has returned back to his original state.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other — ‘This is new.’

“His mother and I were very happy, but when we later asked Director Bao about the case, I learned that you were going to investigate it again. I was afraid that when you brought the case up, it would stimulate him again, so I did something stupid.”

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao and raised his eyebrows — ‘Cat, is he reliable?’

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and spoke to Zhang Jianqi, “Analyzing your son’s behaviour, his previous change was caused by the stimulation, and his subsequent change was only for self-preservation. A situation like his is very serious. Your son has either figured out that that he is alright, or he has forgotten that matter… However, those two possibilities do not exist. There is only one reason for him getting better, that is, the knot in his heart has been untied.”

“Knot… Knot in his heart?” Zhang Jianqi frowned slightly, as if he didn’t understand.

Zhan Zhao thought for a while, “We would like to see your son.”

“Uh… This…” Zhang Jianqi seemed a little embarrassed.

“Don’t you want the best psychologist to look at your son?” On the side, Gongsun spoke to Zhang Jianqi with a smile, “Even if your son suddenly healed, aren’t you still terrified? Don’t you want him to fully cure it?”

Zhang Jianqi hesitated for a moment, then nodded, “Okay! I’ll call him. He is in class now and is going to take the entrance exam for a foreign university, so time is tight.” After he spoke, he called his son.

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Jianqi spoke to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, “I have come to an agreement with Zhang Hua. When he is done school today, I will pick him up, and then… Where can we meet?”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other, “Just at the police station.”

Zhang Jianqi nodded.

“Let’s talk about the mute uncle.” Zhan Zhao looked up at Zhang Jianqi and Bai Fangqin, “Why let such a terrible person be an employee?”

“Uh… He is very nice.” Zhang Jianqi and Bai Fangqin both said, “Although he looks a little scary…”

Zhan Zhao shook his head, “Being a good man is not the reason for keeping him as the caretaker of the old dormitory… What is his background? Why is he the caretaker? And is he really mute?”

Bai Fangqin and Zhang Jianqi looked at each other, and there was some embarrassment present in their expressions.

“Is there something you can’t say? Bai Yutang asked, “He is just an employee of the school.”

“His name is Chen Jianxian.” Zhang Jianqi sighed, “He used to be a student at our school. There was a fire that broke out fourteen years ago that made him what he is today… Because the school was still very small, the fire was because we cut corners with the equipment, which ultimately caused him to be like that. At that time, we gave his parents some money for the purpose of not talking about it. His parents promised not to mention it, but we had to guarantee Chen Jianxian’s future. It’s just that Chen Jianxian’s face is like that. He can’t be a teacher or anything, and he is mute, so he can only be the administrator at the boy’s dormitory, but he was paid as a regular employee.”

“You mean… There was a fire fourteen years ago?” Zhan Zhao looked surprised.

“Correct.” Zhang Jianqi nodded, “Fortunately, no one else was injured, only him.”

“No one else was injured, he was the only one?!” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other — ‘This is really evil’

“Can you show us the information about his classmates back then?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhang Jianqi nodded, then went to the file cabinet to look for it, “I have photo albums of all of the previous students, as well as graduation photos and so on.”

As he spoke, he pulled out the photos from fourteen years ago and handed them to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao took them. Everyone came to look at them, and they saw some old photos.

“Chen Jianxian…” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked for the name on the student registration forms. They saw Chen Jianxian’s name and photo on the third line. Everyone frowned… Chen Jianxian looked really good when he was young. He was a good-looking boy who had spirit, he definitely could not be compared to the mute uncle who is not like a human, nor a ghost.

“Huh?” Bai Chi, who was looking at the graduation photos from the side, suddenly called out, pointing to the person in the middle of the photo, and asked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, “Brother, does that person look familiar to you?”

Everyone leaned over and saw that although the person Bai Chi pointed at was still young, they could all immediately see the shadow of another person from him; he was the kidnapper, Xu Zhong, who was nearly killed a few days ago!

“Ha…” Everyone glanced at each other.

Gongsun shrugged, “It’s incredible.”

“It’s really Xu Zhong!” Zhan Zhao found his name and photo on the registration form. Then he looked through it again, “Wait…”

Everyone turned to look at him and saw Zhan Zhao pointing to one of the photos, “Wu Qianliang!”

“The one who jumped off the building?” Bai Yutang hurriedly went over to look at it… Everyone opened their mouths in surprise.

“Uh… What’s the matter?” Zhang Jianqi and Bai Fangqin glanced at each other, and looked at the surprised faces of the group in confusion.

“These two students were classmates with Chen Jianxian?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhang Jianqi took the registration form and looked at it, “Yes, they should have been roommates as their student numbers are very close. They would have been in a dorm with six people in total.”

“If I told you that Wu Qianliang committed suicide by jumping off a building and almost killed Xu Zhong, what would you think?” Zhan Zhao suddenly looked up at the two of them. Zhang Jianqi suddenly started shaking and he looked shocked.

“What did you think of?” Zhan Zhao looked at him, “You were suspicious from the moment you heard it, weren’t you?”

Zhang Jianqi swallowed nervously and spoke after a long time, “Actually… Back then, someone had said that Chen Jianxian was always bullied by his roommates. The reason why he didn’t escape when the fire broke out was because his roommates had locked him in the restroom and did not save him after the fire started.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, and everyone thought of the books on the shelf near the mute uncle’s bed: 《Othello》, 《Hamlet》, 《Family Revenge》, 《The Count of Monte Cristo》, and 《Wuthering Heights》…

“This is indeed the best revenge.” Gongsun shrugged, “Is there a more guilty death…Guess what Xu Zhong was thinking when he looked up and saw Wu Qianliang falling towards him?”

“That Wu Qianliang screamed before landing. According to his previous behaviour of jumping from the building, he should have been deceived.” Zhan Zhao said, “As he approached the ground, he saw Xu Zhong. He should have thought about a lot before he died, but it was too late to regret because he was already dead.”

“Are dormitories assigned based off of students numbers?” Bai Yutang took the dormitory registration form and asked Zhang Jianqi, “Who are the other three?”

“Uh… I’ll check.” Zhang Jianqi hurriedly took the registration form, “I found it, here, Zhang Han, Wang Youyi, and Liu Fang.”

“Do you have their current contact information?” Zhan Zhao asked, “Their work or something?”

“Uh… It’s been too long… But we have their ID numbers...” Before Zhang Jianqi had finished speaking, Ma Han had already called the SCI office and told Jiang Ping all of their personal information, asking him to check the current situation of those people.

Soon after, news came from Jiang Ping: Zhang Han was a teacher after graduation, Wang Youyi quit his job to do business after working in an institution for a while, and Liu Fang became a photographer. But what shocked everyone the most was that Zhang Han and Wang Youyi were both dead: one died in a car accident and the other committed suicide… Only Liu Fang was still alive, working in a photo studio in S City.

“Let’s go!” Bai Yutang hung up, leaving Ma Han, Gongsun, and the others to continue to ask the principals about the case from that year, and took Zhan Zhao, Bai Chi, and Luo Tian with him to the photo studio where Liu Fang worked.

‿︵‿︵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: April 26/27, 2021