S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 4

Smiling Murderer 04 - Get Off the Horse

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(Angel: Get off the horse originally referred to the prestige that an official showed to his subordinates when he first arrived in office, and later generally referred to showing his power to the other party from the beginning.)

The car stopped at the gate of the Nancheng branch, and Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, and the others got out. They saw several cars at the gate of the branch, moving tables and chairs outside.

Bai Yutang walked over and asked a foreman who was moving a desk, “Are they moving?”

“Are you reporting a crime?” The foreman smiled, “This Nancheng branch has been dismantled. Now you have to call 110 directly and the general administration will send someone over.”

“Where are the original police officers?” Bai Yutang asked, “Is there no one on duty?”

“Not anymore.” The foreman waved his hand, said goodbye, and drove away.

“It looks like this trip was for nothing.” Zhan Zhao shrugged.

“Let’s go to the location of the crime.” Luo Tian walked over with the information, “The first three cases, that is those where the fingers of the corpses were cut off, were in an old house.”

“Is that the place where the crime happened or where the corpses were abandoned?” Bai Chi asked curiously, “Why was it in an old house?”

“It is said that these three high school students are residents that went to K High School. They disappeared after going out that Saturday, and their bodies were only found a week later. They were all rotten and bitten by rats, it was a mess.”

“So miserable.” Bai Chi frowned.

“Did this murderer work alone?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Well, it’s possible.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “Three high school boys are not easy to subdue, unless there is something special.”

“Head,” Luo Tian said, “this murderer is very interesting. The first time he killed, it was three high school boys, and he cut all their fingers off. The second time, it was three female college students, all of which had their hair shaved. The third time, it was three male doctors whose ears were cut off. The last three were old men who had their eyes dug out.”

“The people he killed have nothing in common,” Zhan Zhao frowned, “except for the groups of three… And these victims seem to know each other, right?”

“That’s right.” Luo Tian nodded, and spoke while reading the information, “The three female college students are classmates who went out for lunch together, the three male doctors worked in the same hospital and went out to drink together at night, and the three old men went out to exercise together in the morning.”

Bai Yutang walked back to the car with the others, started the car, and asked, “The places where the crimes occurred, the first was the old house, what about the others?

“The second one was in an abandoned factory, the third was on a ship that was out of service at the wharf, and the place where the old men’s bodies were abandoned is magical…” Bai Chi shook his head, “They were abandoned in the botanical garden not far from here… All of the corpses were only discovered after a long time passed… and most of the carcasses were decayed or damaged by animals, therefore it was difficult to carry out the investigation.”

“Twelve people have been killed, “Zhan Zhao frowned, “the murderer can be said to be an out-and-out murderer.”

“One of the male doctors was named Wang Ming, he was Liu Qing’s former high school classmate. The two were neighbors since childhood. Living close together, they had a good relationship… It is said that on the day he was killed, Liu Qing received a call from him, but the phone only rang twice before it was hung up.” Luo Tian said, “It is probably because of that that Liu Qing would be so intent on investigating this case.”

“His friend is a victim… it is indeed necessary to avoid suspicion,” Bai Chi said, “but… usually this situation will have the opposite effect. The more he is not allowed to investigate, the more he will want to investigate it himself… so it’s best to let him participate.”

“That was his superiors deliberately punishing him.” Zhan Zhao said lightly, “He can’t investigate no matter how much he wants to. Firstly, there is no information, so the possibility of finding a clue is very small. Secondly, even if he runs into him… the murderer could easily kill three men, he is either particularly powerful or has an accomplice… Liu Qing would be in danger. Even if the murderer can’t be found, they could place the blame on Liu Qing, killing two birds with one stone.”

“Everyone is a police officer trying to solve the case, why do they have to do this to each other?” Bai Chi whispered, “It’s too much.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, almost forgetting that Bai Chi had also been abused by others… Sure enough, no matter whether you are strong or weak… it is inevitable to be bullied.

“Let’s go to the old house first.” Bai Yutang asked for the location and drove to the old house.

The location of the old house was quite remote. It was in a small alley that the car could not fit in, so everyone had to get out of the car and walk.

“The murderer doesn’t seem to want the police to find the bodies.” Zhan Zhao touched his chin, “This is not in line with the characteristics of a perverted murderer.”

“What characteristics?” Bai Chi asked.

“Generally speaking, when a murderer is willing to leave his mark, he wants to be seen by people and wants to get the attention of the society… just like this murderer. He deliberately took away parts of the three people, which is tantamount to his own mark. Think about it, walking into a room and finding three undamaged corpses, with the exception of having their fingers cut off, or walking into a room and finding three decaying and deformed corpses that had been bitten by rats, that also had their fingers chopped off... which one stands out more prominently?” Zhan Zhao provided an analysis for Bai Chi. (Angel: Tantamount means equivalent in seriousness to, or virtually the same as.)

“That’s right.” Bai Chi seemed to understand, and he muttered to himself, “When people see a decaying corpse, they usually pay attention to the horrible appearance of the decaying corpse, and don’t pay attention to whether its fingers have been cut off… For a perverted killer, something is indeed wrong.”

“Generally, serial killers leave marks, and most of them are easy to identify, that is, you will think of him as soon as you see the corpse… For example, Jack the Ripper, Green River Killer, etc… Of course, it does not rule out that the mark the murderer wants to leave is based on the groups of three people. The parts he cut off could just be so he could store them.” Zhan Zhao said to himself.

“Brother, it’s really scary.” Bai Chi whispered from the side, “I don’t understand the mentality of those murderers.”

“That’s why it’s abnormal.” Luo Tian smiled.

The four of them walked to the front of the old house surrounded by yellow tape. Bai Yutang looked around and frowned, “Why don’t they even have a police officer… and there is no camera installed.”

“It seems that the Nancheng branch faced difficulties, chaos in management plus irresponsibility in doing things, and it was not talked about.” Zhan Zhao said.

“Let’s go in and take a look.” Bai Yutang shook his head, “It’s really messy, if the murderer comes back, wouldn’t it be impossible to get a clue?”

“Indeed, the murderer is likely to return to the murder scene.” Zhan Zhao followed Bai Yutang, with Luo Tian and Bai Chi following behind them, and they walked into the house together.

The house is really old, and there is a big crack in the wall; it can be seen that the building is about to be demolished.

“Bai Chi, did you bring your camera?” Bai Yutang asked. 

“I brought it!” Bai Chi took out a DSLR from his bag, which was given to him by Zhao Zhen on his birthday. The DSLR camera is relatively small and can be carried with you, but it is high quality, and there are many lenses; it’s fully equipped… Bai Chi had been obsessed with photography before, so Zhao Zhen specially bought it for him from abroad so that he could take it with him.

“Chi Chi, that camera is good.” Zhan Zhao was quite acquainted with cameras, so he leaned over to take a look, “You used this camera for the group of photos you took of Seaman last time? The picture quality is quite good.”

“En.” Bai Chi smiled, “I also used a coloured spider to compare the colours, and the effect was great.”

“Oh…” Zhan Zhao nodded.

“Cat, it wasn’t me who said it, but Seaman has a shameful name,” Bai Yutang muttered, “it might as well be called Simba” (Angel: Seaman, 希曼, is He-Man Seaman, the protagonist of a cartoon from the 1960s.)

Bai Chi and Luo Tian were helpless. Seaman was the name that Zhan Zhao gave the little white lion. Because of this, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang have been arguing.

“What’s so embarrassing, you liked to watch it when you were young, and you still learn… give me strength…” Zhan Zhao teased. (Angel: ‘Give me strength’ is a quote from one of the characters from the comic.)

The corner of Bai Yutang’s mouth twitched, and he complained in his heart… This is the disadvantage of childhood sweethearts.

“These photos of the scene show that the body was found inside that room.” Luo Tian pointed to the door of a room.

As usual, Bai Chi took a picture of the ground at the door… But just as the camera in his hand clicked, there was a slight… ‘click’ from the room.

Everyone was taken aback. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other – Is there someone in the room?!

Bai Yutang signalled Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi to move aside as he and Luo Tian reached to grab their guns, and outflanked both sides of the door.

At this time, the room went silent again.

Luo Tian stretched his hand out and quietly pushed open the door. Just as he was about to walk inside, suddenly… the door was kicked and it hit Luo Tian.

Luo Tian is very strong, especially when encountering a sudden attack, instinctually, he kicked the door back… The door was already aging, how could it withstand his kick… flying all the way into the room.

Before the door hit the ground, a figure flashed out and kicked towards Luo Tian… This person moved extremely fast, and he sent a roundhouse kick at him.

Luo Tian flashed back and it didn’t connect, but his hair was swept by a gust of wind… Luo Tian frowned, seeing the man kick again, he subconsciously took a step to the side…

At this time, Bai Yutang had already clearly seen that this person has a foundation in martial arts. Although Luo Tian has great strength and received formal training, he is not good at fighting. In other words, Luo Tian learned how to kill people before, but he hasn’t learned how to beat people. Therefore, at this point, he didn’t dare to attack casually… he was afraid he would really kill someone.

Bai Yutang saw that the man was coming at him fiercely, so he took a step forward, raised his foot to the man’s flying calf, and grazed the shin at the front of the calf…

The person was obviously taken aback, and Bai Yutang knew that the pain of being picked in that place was not normal. The kid hadn’t gone down, but just because the first kick hadn’t brought him down, doesn’t mean that the second kick can’t. Bai Yutang performed a side kick, and the man quickly backed away, feeling a strong wind sweeping across the door. A few of his hairs were swept, and he was slightly surprised.

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, he had decent skills.

The man retracted his leg and wanted to attack again, but Bai Yutang didn’t want to play with him anymore. At a glance, he saw that in the man’s open leather jacket, there was a gun pouch… Who this man was, it was clear at a glance.

Without waiting for him to attack again, Bai Yutang took the initiative, stepped aside, grabbed both of the man’s arms, and pulled.

The man turned around in the air and was knocked to the ground, but he seemed to want to support himself with one hand to prevent himself from falling… Bai Yutang smiled, raised his foot, and gently hooked his arm...

‘BOOM’, the man fell hard.

After falling to the ground, the man looked up at Bai Yutang, as if he wanted to get up, but he heard Zhan Zhao say: “Fighting again will destroy the crime scene.” 

The man was taken aback. Putting away his hostility, he patted the dust from his body and stood up.

At this time, they saw another person walking in from the back door, blankly saying: “Who are you? This is the scene of a murder, irrelevant people cannot come in.”

“We are…” Bai Chi wanted to answer, but Zhan Zhao waved his hand slightly and smiled, “If he really didn’t know who we are, he would have pulled his gun out long ago.”

After hearing this, the man shrugged helplessly, “Sure enough, I can’t hide from Dr. Zhan’s eyes.”

“Captain Bai is powerful and deserving of his reputation.” The person who had just fought with Bai Yutang stretched his hand out, as if to shake hand with Bai Yutang, “My name is Liu Qing, and he is Shen Zhongyuan. According to the arrangements of Bao Sir, we belong to SCI as of now.”

Bai Yutang looked at his hand, but didn’t shake it, and smiled, “I don’t think that someone who destroys the scene and acts on his own is qualified to be a police officer.”

Zhan Zhao smiled and held back his laughter… Xiao Bai was about to get off the horse. (Angel: I explained this at the beginning, but I will put it here again; get off the horse originally referred to the prestige that an official showed to his subordinates when he first arrived in office, and later generally referred to showing his power to the other party from the beginning.)

Sure enough, Liu Qing’s face changed slightly. Having his hand stretched out was a little embarrassing, but just as he was about to withdraw his hand, Bai Yutang’s tone changed, “But your skill is really good.”

Liu Qing was taken aback. Bai Yutang shook hands with him and said, “I am Bai Yutang, this is Zhan Zhao, and those two are Luo Tian and Bai Chi.”

Liu Qing looked back at Shen Zhongyuan. Shen Zhongyuan smiled awkwardly, “We are just here to check the scene.”

“En.” Bai Yutang nodded, “That’s right, let’s talk about it in detail.” After speaking, it appeared as if he suddenly remembered something, and he said, “Oh, by the way, you two didn’t come and report in, and you made the decision to sabotage the scene without authorization, go back and write a self-examination.”

“Self-examination?” Liu Qing and Shen Zhongyuan simultaneously widened their eyes and looked at Bai Yutang.

“En.” Bai Yutang nodded, “10,000 words per person, and use a pen. No typos are allowed. Give it to me tomorrow morning.” After speaking, he turned around and went out.

Bai Chi and Luo Tian laughed. This is probably more of a headache for them than forcing them to run a hundred laps.

Liu Qing looked bitterly at Shen Zhongyuan behind him, and Shen Zhongyuan stared at him fiercely.

“We are not from SCI!” Liu Qing suddenly said; it meant that Bai Yutang could not punish them.

“You mean that you don’t want to participate in the investigation?” Bai Yutang asked.

Liu Qing took a moment to look at Shen Zhongyuan, then asked, “You mean you will let us participate in the investigation as soon as we write the self-examination?”

Bai Yutang thought for a while, and said, “It depends on how you write… By the way, if you can’t think of what to write, just copy the sentence ‘unity is strength’ 10,000 times.”

Liu Qing and Shen Zhongyuan stood where they were. Although they realized that they would definitely not sleep tonight… the two exchanged glances, still full of surprise.

Bai Yutang went out, and Zhan Zhao nudged him with his elbow, “Not bad Xiao Bai, this trick was beautifully used preemptively.”

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, “What is this? The two can be settled, are you afraid of them? Trivial.”

‿︵‿︵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: June 22, 2021