S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 83

Password Murderer 21 – Find the Murderer

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“Find the murderer?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, then looked at Zhang Hua puzzledly, “What kind of game is it?”

Zhang Hua was silent for a while before answering, “We… played it in a club.”

“Club?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned, “Be more specific!”

Zhang Hua smoked his cigarette, “We didn’t have a lot of things at that time, and computers weren’t that popular. After school, we liked to listen to CD’s and such.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and nodded. After listening to Zhang Hua’s explanation, Ma Han and the others were very interested, so they stood by the door smoking and listening. When Ma Xin left, there was a gap in the door. Bai Yutang specifically left it so that their voices could be heard outside, and most importantly, the people outside could observe Zhang Jianqi’s expressions to see is there are any changes.

“We had six people in the dormitory, me, Hao Mo, Wang Liang, Liu Ming, Chen Zinan…” Zhang Hua inhaled the cigarette and continued, “Actually… Actually, Wang Liang and the three of them are not as bad as everyone says. After the incident, we made it up because we were afraid of taking responsibility!”

"What?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were shocked, and everyone outside the door frowned.

“Sometimes they would fight, joke around, or skip class, but many university students do those kinds of things. Wang Liang and the three of them seem to be fierce on the surface, but they are just like their classmates. Because they want to form a band, they are a little maverick and they don’t like to socialize with those nerds in the class.”

“In other words, the four of them didn’t gang rape Ye Ling at all?!” Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhang Hua shook his head, “It just so happened that they were all dead and Ye Ling went crazy, so we just…”

“It’s your father that came up with it, right?” Bai Yutang asked, “Otherwise, why do the teachers and students have the same view of the problem?”

Zhang Hua hesitated for a moment, then nodded. The SCI member standing at the door looked at Zhang Jianqi and saw that his face flushed and his head bowed in disappointment, it didn’t look like he was lying.

“Tell me about that club.” Bai Yutang said, “What exactly is it?”

 “En.” Zhang Hua nodded and slowly began to tell Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

“At that time, we had a lot of free time. Ye Ling was a school flower at out school, as she was very beautiful. She started dating Hao Mo.” Zhang Hua smiled bitterly, “Hao Mo came from the country side, he was very poor and pure… We all felt that a girl like Ye Ling was actually not suitable for him.”

“Are there any problems with Ye Ling?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“Ye Ling is the daughter of a wealthy family, and she is very sophisticated. How many boyfriends has she had?! She was only with Hao Mo because he was handsome. In fact, she associated with many different boys, it’s not a secret in the school.” Zhang Hua said, “The five of us were unable to persuade Hao Mo, so we wanted to show him Ye Ling’s true face in hopes that she would leave him alone, so that she didn’t hurt Hao Mo in the future… In order to improve her relationship with us, she took us to a club.”

“Club?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhang Hua nodded, “That called, called Yedu Club, is an underground music club with DJs and a lot of foreign music. There was some European and American psychedelic music that we have never heard before, heavy metal…”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt a headache starting…

“The people in there were crazy, so we thought it was cool at the time. Wang Liang and the others liked music, and they were crazy when they went there.” Zhang Hua shook his head repeatedly, “We had a very good time in the club, we were happy and our relationship with Ye Ling improved. Later, we made many friends who were older us, some of whom were alumni, so…”

“Alumni?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were taken aback.

Zhan Zhao took out the photos to show Zhang Hua, “Did they look like these people?”

Zhang Hua took the photos and looked at them. He pointed to Xu Zhong, Wu Qianliang, Wang Youyi and Zhang Han, and spoke in a trembling voice, “At that time… everyone was playing that game together.”

“Really?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both happy; they found an intersection!

“At that, we not only met them, but also several other people.” Zhang Hua said.

“Do you remember their names?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhang Hua shook his head, and pointed to Wu Qianliang’s photo, “We didn’t use our real names at the time. I might recognize them if I saw a photo, but as for their names, I don’t know.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, then took out the photos of Liu Fang and Qiao Weiming to show Zhang Hua, “Look carefully, were these two people in the club?”

Zhang Hua took the two photos and looked at them for a long time, then put Liu Fang’s photo down, “This person definitely was not!”

“What about this one?” Zhan Zhao asked, pointing to Qiao Weiming’s photo.

“Uh…” Zhang Hua seemed uncertain.

At that time, Gongsun, who had been listening outside, came in holding a marker in his hand. He took the photo of Qiao Weiming, drew a mustache under his nose and a beard on his chin, then drew over the gold-framed glasses, making them black-framed. He showed the photo to Zhang Hua, “What if he looked like this?!”

“It’s him! It’s him!” Zhang Hua suddenly became excited, “Code 11!”

“Code 11?” Zhan Zhao asked Zhang Hua, “It that his name?”

“It’s the code he used when we played the game!” Zhang Hua said, “We had fourteen people playing the game in total, so we called each other code names.”

Zhang Zhao thought for a while, then asked, “There were six in your dormitory, four with Wu Qianliang, one with Qiao Weiming, and one more with Ye Ling… That makes twelve in total. Who are the other two?”

“There was one of our classmates called Wang Mingli.” As soon as Zhang Hua spoke, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other… She was in the principal’s office and had said that Wang Liang and the others were worthless… She really lied with her eyes open. (Angel: Lying with your eyes open is a saying that originally meant to speak blindly with your eyes open, which evolved into lying showing no moral principles.)

“And the other one?” Bai Yutang asked.

“I don’t know, they’re Code 1.” Zhang Hua replied, “Our numbers were assigned by lottery, and the one who initiated the activity was Code 11.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao frowned — ‘Qiao Weiming came up with it?! His suspicion is indeed the highest!’

“How do you play the game?” Zhan Zhao then asked.

“It was like this. At that time, we were obsessed with Western psychedelic music. The lyrics were very violent, and they included all kinds of murder, arson, abuse, and massacre. We still thought that it was great at the time, and were very enthusiastic. The music was brought from a foreign country by Code 11. He borrowed the CDs for us to listen to, and then we became good friends. The kid seemed to be very capable and rich, as he was able to get such things.”

Gongsun raised his eyebrows, “In addition to serving as a forensic pathologist, Qiao Weiming also taught. His income should have been high, and he had a lot of opportunities for oversea exchanges as a pathologist.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded. Qiao Weiming may be fishing, as people who like this kind of music are bound to be willing to play with him.

“The game is like this.” Zhang Hua said, “The fourteen of us drew lots, and one of them has the word ‘murderer’ written on it. The person that drew it must do everything possible to kill us, but if we discovered them as they killed us, then the game would end!”

“Kill you?” Bai Yutang couldn’t laugh or cry.

“The game is a simulation of real life. We live our lives normally, but the murderer must find a way to kill us. We had to frequently meet each other or hang out in pairs so that the murderer had a chance. This also gave us a chance to check for the murderer. The sign of being killed was to draw a line on the neck with a red marker.” Zhang Hua made a gesture on his neck, “It’s like being cut with a knife.”

“What then?” Zhan Zhao asked, “Who was the murderer?”

Zhang Hua was silent for a long time, then shook his head and laughed, “I don’t know.”

"Huh?" Bai Yutang was puzzled.

“At that time, Hao Mo was the first to be killed.” Zhang Hua said, “A line was drawn around his neck, but he couldn’t tell us who the murderer was, and he couldn’t talk to us because he was already dead. The second person to die was Wang Liang… Next were Xu Feng, Liu Ming, Chen Zinan. Everyone except for me were marked with a red line on their necks. Later, when I arrived, I caught the murderer before he killed me. It was Code 1.”

“The mysterious person?” Zhan Zhao was surprised.

“That’s right.” Zhang Hua nodded, “Because the murderer was caught, the game was terminated. This game was very exciting, so we were happy to play along. That night, we went out to celebrate and drink, and we were preparing to play more exciting games in the future.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and shook their heads, these students were too empty.

“When we celebrated that night, Hao Mo and the others didn’t come.” Zhang Hua said, “Because I went directly to the bar after class, Hao Mo said he would pick up Ye Ling, and the four others skipped class and said that they would come later, but none of them showed up… Then Ye Ling came by herself and said that she couldn’t find Hao Mo, and that she thought he came with me.”

Everyone frowned. That day… it should be the day of the fire.

“We celebrated and drank there…” Zhang Hua shrugged, “I seemed to have drunk a bit too much, but Ye Ling sent me home later.”

“The lights were turned off at that time, and the mute uncle who was guarding the door was not there. Ye Ling said that she wanted to go up to see why Hao Mo didn’t go, so she secretly walked with me to the room.” Zhang Hua’s face showed a look of horror, “We went to the dormitory and found that the door was unlocked. As soon as we entered, we smelled a strange smell.”

“Strange smell?” Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, and Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, saying in his heart, ‘It really is weird!’.

“I found that they were all lying on their beds, so I wanted to wake one up. I nudged Wang Liang who was closest to me… but I found him cold and tough. I nudged him a few times but he didn’t wake up. When I went to pat his face, I felt something squishy on my hand. I took a look and it was blood… Blood!” Zhang Hua shook his head, “Ye Ling went to nudge Hao Mo, but he didn’t wake up either, and there was blood all over his neck…We were so frightened. We took out a lighter and turned it on. I took a closer look and saw that Wang Liang was staring at me with his eyes wide open… He was dead… There was a line drawn on his necks and his throat was really cut… We were scared and I started shaking… Then I don’t know what happened, but the body caught fire. The fire moved down the bed and onto the other beds!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang understood immediately that the strange smell should have been the smell of a combustion aid.

Zhang Hua spoke faster and more became increasingly excited, “I… I was terrified. At that moment, Hao Mo, who was fully on fire, suddenly sat up… He was not dead!” Zhang Hua stood up, “I didn’t know that he was not dead. Ye Ling and I were so scared that we went crazy. Ye Ling wanted to yell, but I covered her mouth… After all, it was a fire that I ignited, the person that I killed. Hao Mo began to walk towards us, I was terrified, and…”

“Then you took Ye Ling away and closed the door?” Bai Yutang said coldly, “Ye Ling was over stimulated, so she went crazy?”

Zhang Hua nodded, “That night, the mute uncle was not in the security room, so Ye Ling and I ran back. I went back home, and Ye Ling was already abnormal at that time… Then the next day… Everything was still so shocking. My father thought I was weird, so he asked me what I was going through. I told him everything, and he…”

“He made up a lie to help you cover it up?” Bai Yutang asked.

Zhang Hua nodded sullenly, “I… I really don’t know why this happened. I wanted to go to the bar and ask the other people several times, but I couldn’t do it… I didn’t dare.”

At that time, Zhang Jianqi walked in and comforted Zhang Hua, then spoke to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, “Officers, all of these mistakes are my fault.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and shook their heads.

Outside the door, Ma Han pinched out the cigarette in his hand, and saw Bai Chi rubbing his arms, “What’s the matter?”

Zhao Hu cursed on the side, “Damn, I just got goosebumps all over!”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

This case is so complicated...

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

Translated: May 6/7, 2021