S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 2

Smiling Murderer 02 - New Jurisdiction

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“The death smile is just an illusion.” Gongsun held a watermelon milkshake in his hand and looked at the strange smile on the face of the corpse that had been washed and placed on the dissection table.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang watched Gongsun sniffing the milkshake while staring at the strangely smiling corpse, “The condition the Phoenicians suffer is not a secret anymore, it is facial muscle twitching caused by the toxins in saffron cress. Toxic ingredients that can cause facial muscle twitching are very common, just like the three smiles poison used in Jin Yong’s novels, it must be this kind!”

The corner of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang’s mouths twitched unconsciously, “Gongsun, don’t talk about science and fiction together…”

“Huh?” Gongsun looked up at the two of them, “Don’t you find it very humorous? I used this example in anatomy class and my classmates said it was funny.”

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were unable to lower their heads. Bai Yutang pretended to clean his ears while lowering his voice to speak to Zhan Zhao, “So those who study forensic medicine are abnormal…”

Zhan Zhao responded in a low voice, “I don’t know what kind of topics Brother usually discusses with him.”

“Ahem.” Gongsun cleared his throat. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked back and listened to Gongsun continue in an icy cold tone, “Recently we have been talking about his abdominal muscles not being very symmetrical. As long as he exercises his upper oblique muscles more, he can improve and eventually develop an extremely perfect abdomen.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both had the urge to hit the wall at the same time… In their minds, Bai Jintang was leaning against the bed, and Gongsun was leaning on him, seriously telling him about his abdominal muscles… This picture can make people crazy just thinking about it.

“Huh?” During Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang’s random thoughts, Gongsun suddenly put down his milkshake, lowered his head, and looked at the neck of the deceased. There was a clear red mark and some signs of broken skin.

“What caused this?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked, “It seems like he was strangled by a very thin rope.”

“En.” Gongsun took the pendant of the smiling death mask out of the evidence bag on the side, took the rope, and compared it, “It may have been caused by this.”

“This scar does not seem to be natural.” Bai Yutang said, “It looks like he was strangled and then the rope cut through his throat… this rope is quite rough.”

“En… If you are not mistaken, the poison was probably administered here.” As Gongsun spoke, he pulled the pendant out from the evidence bag with tweezers, took a small piece of rope from the pendant, and inspected it. After a while, the test result came out. Gongsun glanced at it without saying a word, and nodded.

“Gongsun,” Zhan Zhao looked at him, “how about sharing the information?”

Gongsun looked at the two of them, “Drugs were detected on the rope of this pendant, indicating that the rope was soaked in drugs. This rope is a very rough hemp rope, as long as it was pulled hard enough… it may have caused the abrasion on the neck of the deceased… and lead to the poisoning.”

“That’s why the timing of the poison was so good?” Zhan Zhao asked.

‘That’s right, the toxicity of this death smile poison is quite high and the incubation period is very short, it is not an exaggeration to say that it could be arrow poison wood. In short, after being poisoned, the effects will appear very soon, starting with hallucinations. The hallucinations are quite scary, most of them are falling from a cliff, or having demons and monsters chasing you… Wait, that’s probably why he said ‘Don’t kill me’. Also, the timing of his going crazy downtown was very good.” (Angel: Arrow poison wood is a highly poisonous plant that has a highly toxic sap. Once it contacts human or animal wounds, the poisoned person’s heart may be paralyzed, their blood may coagulate, and they can die from suffocation.)

“The person who poisoned him wanted to cause as many casualties as possible?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Gongsun shrugged, “You are a psychologist, I should ask you about this.”

“Where did his gun come from?” Bai Yutang frowned. 

At this time, Bai Chi ran in, “Brother, the identity of the deceased has been found,”

Bai Yutang reached out and took the information handed over by Bai Chi. Zhan Zhao leaned over to see…

“His name is Liu Song, a 25-year-old male, who graduated from the Department of Chemistry at T University.” Zhan Zhao looked at the information, “Currently assisting his tutor Mo Liangguang in developing new drugs with X Company, mainly for the treatment of facial nerve paralysis.”

“Heh.” Gongsun laughed suddenly, “That’s right, saffron cress, which is the main ingredient of death smile poison, has a medical effect that can be used to treat human facial nerve paralysis. Not only that, it can also be used to restore beauty.”

“Beauty?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned at the same time, “Beauty from poison?”

Gongsun put down his milkshake, “How is poison used for beauty? The bold attempts for gaining beauty in human history can be said to be incredible. They include corsets, swallowing tapeworms to lose weight, using semen to dye hair, using snakes for massages, and…”

“Okay, okay.” Bai Yutang stopped Gongsun from continuing, “Spare me, it’s almost time for dinner.”

“Oh.” At this time, Ma Xin wandered into the room with one hand in her pocket and a big three-tiered burger in her other. She was chewing while walking, and said, “You men who are naturally beautiful are the culprits for women who sacrifice their health in exchange for beauty.”

“Xin Xin,” Bai Chi looked at Ma Xin, “why do you eat all day? Also, why do forensic pathologists always seem to be eating but never get fat?”

Ma Xin approached with a smile, “Chi Chi, you should call me Sister Xin Xin.”

Ma Xin squinted at him, will you say it?

Bai Chi flattened his mouth, could it be that he looks easy to bully? Ma Xin has never bullied others, but she has begun to bully him.

After teasing Bai Chi for a while, Ma Xin suddenly turned to Bai Yutang, “By the way, Bao Sir is coming at a fast pace. His face is super dark, his adrenaline is obviously rising, and his blood pressure is high! In non-academic language, he would be described as angry.”

Bai Yutang felt his eyelids twitch, and he looked at Zhan Zhao, “Cat, the wind screams!” (Angel: The wind screams is code for being in a bad situation and taking the initiative to run away quickly.)

Before he could finish speaking, they heard someone shouting at the door, “What are you talking about? Making excuses or talking nonsense?!”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao raised their eyes and saw Bao Zheng standing at the door with an ugly expression. Bai Yutang laughed twice, “Bao Sir, how could you say such vulgar…”

“I’m mad at you, you two come to my office!”  After speaking, he turned around and left.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other, discouraged.

Bai Chi was puzzled, and asked Ma Xin and Gongsun, “We haven’t made any mistakes lately, why is Bao Sir so angry?”

Gongsun raised his eyebrows, and put down the scalpel in his hand, “Forget it, it seems that this corpse is not mine anymore.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao said goodbye, and everyone bowed their heads as they left to see Bao Zheng. Bai Chi was very puzzled. Seeing that he didn’t understand, Gongsun said, “Xiao Chi Chi, do you know how many cases SCI has solved recently?”

Bai Chi thought for a while, then said, “We have been solving crimes almost every day this month, and we have arrested a lot of criminals. Why is Bao Sir unhappy?”

“That’s the problem.” Ma Xin said, “SCI is an elite force, which is specially used to solve big cases. It was originally proved to be better than the officers in other departments, therefore, it became taboo in the police department. However, no big cases have appeared recently, so all of the cases accumulated by other teams have been dealt with… In other words, doesn’t it just subtly prove the incompetence of the other teams? Since SCI is so good, what can the other teams do? After this, cases big and small will be handed over for SCI to handle.”

Bai Chi frowned, “But… when I asked them for the information, I asked them clearly. They were cases that were unbreakable or too old, so they were brought here… How could they complain after the case was solved?”

“Oh, this is office politics.” Gongsun took out a box of fried noodles from the small refrigerator and put it in the microwave to heat up, “Everyone applauds you on the surface, but you don’t know what they say behind your back. So, Bao Sir angrily brought them to his office, but it was just a gesture, mainly for the colleagues in other departments. He is the director and he must always handle things fairly, otherwise, it will arouse criticism. Therefore, it is not certain whether he will scold them after entering his office… Well, he probably won’t.”

……

“You two better not think that I won’t scold you today!” Bao Zheng slammed the table in his office, shouting at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances, the old man went crazy again.

“Captain Bai, can you see how many cases you have solved this month? What are you doing? Do you want to be a super detective? Why do the other departments even show up? Should everyone in the police station just leave open cases to SCI?!”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao wrinkled their noses at the same time, and did not speak.

“I heard Zhao Hu was injured today.” Bao Zheng said, “You are so good, do you know that you are all elites in SCI? You took them to the street to catch gangsters, do you even want to take the jobs of the patrol officers?”

Bai Yutang lowered his head, softly muttering, “That was an emergency.”

“What?” Bao Zheng stared at him.

Bai Yutang stayed silent, and he looked at Zhan Zhao – What’s the matter with the old man? So angry?

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows – I guess he was constipated this morning

“Stop exchanging glances!” Bao Zheng roared, “Your SCI is for investigating big cases, as for other cases, people from Interpol and other departments will investigate!”

“There have been no cases recently.” Bai Yutang muttered, “We can’t just sit in the office getting moldy.”

“Then go investigate old cases!” Bao Zheng said.

“They are all from twenty years ago.” Bai Yutang replied, “I’ve seen the information a long time ago… the criminals may all be dead now.”

“Who asked you to check the ones you have?” Bao Zheng glared at them, then flipped through a box on the table, and found a small key.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, a little curious.

They saw Bao Zheng stand up, walk to the cabinets along the wall, open the top left row, take out a few file bags, and hand them to Zhan Zhao.

“There are a few outstanding cases here, all within the last five years.” Bao Zheng sat at his desk, and grabbed his cup of tea, “If you want to investigate, just pick one of these cases.”

“Bao Sir?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked puzzledly, “Why didn’t you give it to us before? Are they private cases?”

Bao Zheng gave them a blank look, “This was not a case from S City before.”

“Huh?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang opened the file bag and looked inside.

“Oh… it’s from Nancheng?” Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao understood. Recently, a document was issued stating that there have been certain changes in urban planning. An area originally belonging to the southern outskirts of K City has now been transferred to S City. Therefore, the area of S City has expanded a bit, and the jurisdiction of the police station has expanded with it.

“There used to be a Nancheng sub-bureau,” Bao Zheng said, “half of the people in the sub-bureau went to the K City bureau and the other half came into our bureau. These cases were unsolved cases from the Nancheng sub-bureau.”

“Ha.” Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao sighed, looking at the thick pile of materials, “Nancheng is not a big place, but there are a lot of cases.”

“In fact, there are not that many, it’s mainly information… The Nancheng sub-bureau was small in scale and belonged to the vacuum zone where the two major cities intersect, therefore, criminals often take advantage of the loopholes. In just a few years, several criminal police captains died in the Nancheng branch.”

“Is it because of these cases?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“En, I suspected something was going on, so I brought the cases here.” Bao Zheng nodded, then looked at Bai Yutang, “Can you solve it? If you really want to show your face to me, you have to solve these cases for me! Don’t go to the streets to catch gangsters all day, killing chickens with a sledgehammer! Do you know how wasteful it is? If Zhao Hu died today, what would you have done to compensate me?! You are all worth money to me, don’t you know that?”

The corners of Bai Yutang’s mouth twitched, and he smiled at Zhan Zhao. Although they were scolded, they were very happy to have a case.

“By the way, there are two officers in Nancheng who are familiar with this case. In the afternoon, I will ask them to go to the SCI office to explain the case to you. You are not familiar with Nancheng, let them show you the way or something. That’s right, you two should observe how they are… If they’re not good, I will divide them into the criminal police teams, but if they’re good, you can choose to keep them yourselves, both of them are quite famous.”

“Who are they?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked in unison.

“Liu Qing and Shen Zhongyuan, have you heard of them?” Bao Zheng asked.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang blinked and shook their heads and at the same time, “I haven’t heard of them.”

Bao Zheng was weak, “Then you two go back and ask Wang Chao, Ma Han, and the others, I guess that they have heard of them. Also, solve the case as soon as possible, you hear me?!”

“Yes Sir.” Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao agreed and went out with the information.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Oooh, two potential new teammates!

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

Translated: June 19, 2021