S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 14

Smiling Murderer 13 - Tip of the Iceberg

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“Brother,” Bai Chi poked the depressed Zhan Zhao, “that… bomb, why was he carrying a bomb in his bag?” 

“Oh,” Zhan Zhao came back to his senses, “this… is related to the behaviour of Guo Cheng and the others before. I think that person originally wanted to kill Guo Cheng and them with a bomb.”

“En.” Everyone listened carefully, but still didn’t understand what was going on.

Zhan Zhao organized his thoughts and said, “Think about it, if all three got together in a car and died together, all of them would have died from the death smile poison. The other option is to have everyone die from an explosion. Which one is more convenient for hiding clues and is more of a deterrent to us?”

“Explosion!” Everyone nodded.

“My judgement on the bomb is actually an emotional judgement.” Zhan Zhao said, “Through the other party’s psychology, I can determine their state of mind and emotions when encountering a particular situation. From there, I can speculate on their behaviour, as well as the details. Think about it, by the end of the incident, especially when dealing with Guo Cheng and the others, it was almost always the third personality, wasn’t it?”

“En.” Everyone nodded.

“The third personality is manic and angry. This personality has its own characteristics. Their own failures will be taboo, they will be very extreme, and will retaliate severely once they fail to find an opportunity.” Zhan Zhao said, “Look at the remarks on his letter, his attitude is very arrogant. We found clues about him and he was very dissatisfied. Looking at the person’s writing to analyze their emotions, it is very important to focus on the insignificant words, from there, we can analyze their letter!” With that said, Zhan Zhao took out the letter.

My name is K, and I am a killer.

As you can see, in this case, I am the planner behind the scenes. I didn’t intend to alarm the police, it’s just that Liu Song didn’t listen to the advice given, and some accidents happened. The distress caused to you because of our research, I deeply regret it. However, you can rest assured, this series of cases has come to an end. You can judge Guo Cheng and Wang Aihua as the final murderers in this case. Please stop following the clues related to me, relying on just those, it is impossible to catch me. Secondly, although I killed someone, my creed is consistent with what you insist on.

K

“In the content of the letter, we can remove all of the words that explain the facts and leave the irrelevant auxiliary words, and we will be left with the following words: 

My name ‘is’ K, ‘and’ I am a killer.”

‘As you can see’, in this case, I am the planner behind the scenes. I ‘didn’t intend’ to alarm the police, it’s ‘just’ that Liu Song didn’t listen to the advice given, ‘and’ some accidents happened. The distress caused to you because of our research, I ‘deeply’ regret it. However, you ‘can’ rest assured, this series of cases has come to an end. ‘You can’ judge Guo Cheng and Wang Aihua as the final murderers in this case. Please stop following the clues related to me, ‘relying on just those’, it is impossible to catch me. ‘Secondly’, ‘although’ I killed someone, my creed is consistent with what you insist on.

“Please pay attention to these irrelevant words: ‘as you can see’, ‘didn’t intend’, ‘just’, ‘and’, ‘deeply’, ‘can’, ‘you can’, ‘relying on just those’, ‘secondly’, and ‘although’.” Zhan Zhao listed, “Between the lines, he was fighting to win, he wanted to show humility, but he is a character who does not know how to be humble, so his humility came across as a provocation.”

Everyone took the letter and read it, and sure enough, once those words are removed, the whole letter looks significantly less harsh.

“From his letter, I speculated that his mental state at the time was…” Zhan Zhao said slowly, “If I lose, I will be back. I am stronger than you. I want you to be shocked, annoyed, and even more frustrated than I am this time!”

“En,” Shen Zhongyuan nodded, “I can understand this feeling, indeed, people sometimes have so much hate that they will develop this kind of mentality.”

“This is actually quite normal, right?” Zhao Hu said, “For example, if you lose 3-0 this time, then you have to win at least 3-0 next time, though it’s best to beat them 5-0 or 6-0, otherwise it’s hard to get rid of this hatred.”

“Well, in principle, yes.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “This is a method of emotional release. Modern society is under great pressure, we may suffer a lot of humiliation, neglect, or injustice in our lives… In many cases, it is impossible to release our emotions, so they will be passed on.”

“That… so you guessed that he originally wanted to kill them with a bomb?” Liu Qing asked.

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “Think about it, almost all terrorists in the world use bombs when they carry out terrorist operations… Of course, there are also some that use biological or chemical weapons, but something like poison gas requires certain conditions and targets everyone indiscriminately, so these are ignored. Do you know why they like the effect of an explosion so much?” 

Everyone looked at each other. Although they often see news about supermarkets in high-incidence areas of terrorist activities exploding and seeing a lot of civilian deaths, they rarely think about why they prefer bombs, they just think that bombs are convenient… But when they think about it, a bomb is actually inconvenient. For example, it is easy to detect and has no flexibility.

“The effect of an explosion is very different from the effect of a stabbing.” Zhan Zhao said, “Almost everyone likes to see divergent things, such as fireworks, flowers blooming, or even umbrellas opening.” (Angel: Divergence refers to something, generally light, spreading from one point to its surroundings.)

Everyone frowned, thinking about the nuances between the behaviours that Zhan Zhao described… It is indeed the case.

“It’s like the saying ‘there’s nothing good about demolishing a house’, right? No one will go and watch it normally, but when the house is being demolished with explosives, there may be hundreds and thousands of people waiting around to watch, and it may even be broadcasted on live TV… because people like to watch. As for why, no one can give an explanation… but in fact, it is from an instinctive liking.” Zhan Zhao explained, “From a psychological point of view, this is also a person’s love for these diverse and destructive behaviours.”

“Divergence… destruction…” Everyone pondered.

“As I just said, in real life, we have too much pressure that we cannot vent, so we like to see these divergent and destructive things. In every Hollywood blockbuster, how many such scenes are there? It is undeniable that these scenes will almost always appear in the trailer used to attract the audience before the movie premiers, which shows the human love for such destruction!”

“En, I seem to understand a little bit.” Bai Chi nodded, “The third personality wants to enjoy the feeling that the explosion would bring him, and he also wants to see the frustrated expressions of everyone when we see the explosion!”

“Correct!” Zhan Zhao nodded, “Think about it, if we didn’t chase them and instead let that car drive to its designated place, pick up the last person, and then explode, killing all three people… how frustrated would we all have been?”

Everyone nodded.

“Most importantly, if it exploded, we would be the first to know and would have the strongest emotional reaction, making the murderer feel very happy! From another perspective, if the three people were all poisoned to death, it might have taken a while for their bodies to come to our attention. If it was first brought in as a traffic accident or as sunken bodies, it wouldn’t be as shocking!”

After listening, it dawned on everyone that Zhan Zhao picked just one of the many killing methods that was in line with the murderer’s mentality at the time, and he guessed that he would use a bomb.

“Captain Bai.” At this time, someone pushed the door open. It was Xu Qing, the mechanic who was dismantling the bomb.

“San Ge.” Bai Yutang looked at him. Xu Qing had some qualifications and he was not too young. Because his nickname was Lao San, Bao Zheng and the other elders call him Xu Lao San, while Bai Yutang and the younger generation call him San Ge.

“Has the bomb been analyzed?” Bai Yutang asked.

“En, it’s an earth cannon!” Xu Qing smiled, “It’s easy to make!” (Angel: the term used was 土炮, which is earth cannon, and originally refers to the artillery that fired black powder during the period from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age.)

“Where did he get the black powder?” Zhan Zhao asked in a puzzled manner, “There are no reports of missing black powder in S City, right?”

Xu Qing put the bomb on the table and opened it for everyone to see, “It’s from the inside of flower tubes” (Angel: Flower tube, 花筒, is a Chinese word that means a firework shaped like a tube.)

“Flower tubes?” Everyone looked at Xu Qing curiously, and Bai Chi asked, “So it’s just a firework?”

Xu Qing smiled, “Xiao Bai Chi, fireworks and pyrotechnics are two different concepts.” (Angel: The author used two terms that both translate to ‘fireworks’. I changed one to pyrotechnics because that made the most sense to me in English.)

Bai Chi smiled awkwardly, “That’s right… It seems that one of them is set off by themselves, and the other is set off in a gun salute.” (Angel: A gun salute is when a cannon is fired when a grand ceremony is held or when guests are welcomed to salute.)

“This may be a clue for you.” Xu Qing said, “Do you know the shotgun?”

Everyone nodded, “We know!”

“The state controls firearms. Even if you have a gun license, the supply of bullets is limited every year. Do you know where to get gunpowder if you make your own bullets?”

Everyone shook their heads – this is too difficult.

“Firecrackers.” Xu Qing laughed, “An ordinary firecracker is divided into two explosions; the first makes the ‘bang’, and the second makes the ‘pop’. The ‘pop’ sound is useless, it comes from yellow gunpowder. The ‘bang’ sound comes from black powder. This thing is so powerful, ah, if you filled up this whole packet, as long as there is a detonator, it could blow up a building!” (Angel: Black powder the traditional powder used in old firearms while gunpowder is the powder that is being used in modern firearms. Black powder is still often in fireworks. What gets me with this is that the author called yellow powder useless, when in reality, yellow gunpowder, which is smokeless gunpowder, is more powerful than gunpowder.)

“Where did the detonator come from?” Bai Yutang frowned.

“Here comes the clue!” Xu Qing smiled, “Two days ago, there was a case that began to be investigated. Isn’t there a quarry in the suburbs west of Nancheng?”

“En.” Everyone nodded, and Luo Tian asked, “Did it come from the quarry?”

“That's right.” Xu Qing nodded, “The quarry needs to blow up parts of the mountain every day to fetch rocks, so there is a gunpowder depot on site. Half a month ago, the quarry lost two thousand detonators.”

“Two thousand?” Everyone looked at him with their eyes widened.

“Right?!” Xu Qing said, “Haven't you seen that the entire quarry is closed? If this case is not solved, it will be a big deal.”

“Why didn’t you have us investigate such a big case?” Bai Yutang seemed to have some opinions.

“Hey, don’t blame me for playing the game.” Xu Qing waved his hand, “The higher ups are not allowing us to say anything so as to not cause mass panic.”

“It’s no wonder the quarry hasn’t been working the last few days.”  Liu Qing and Shen Zhongyuan looked at each other – it turns out to be like this.

“So, this kid probably knows the whereabouts of the detonators?” Bai Yutang asked.

“No.” Xu Qing shook his head, “This year, fireworks and firecrackers have been banned, unexpectedly, they were still set off. Every year around New Years, you can buy a lot of luxurious fireworks for hundreds of dollars, but what was taken this time was TNT! Every year, when we watch the fireworks during the festival, we and the fire department have a headache.”

Everyone laughed. Bai Yutang patted Xu Qing on the shoulder and said, “Brother, you've been very helpful, this clue is useful.”

Xu Qing smiled and whispered, “I just reported the situation to Bao Sir, and I saw him making calls… Maybe this case will go to you! You SCI members must show your face well!”

Everyone laughed. Xu Qing took the bomb and wandered out.

“Investigate the places where a large number of flower tubes and fireworks were purchased during the Spring Festival.” Bai Yutang told everyone, “Also, check the incident about the missing detonators from the quarry.”

“Aren’t we not allowed to check?” Liu Qing and Shen Zhongyuan asked.

Bai Yutang smiled, “We just got news from the bomb disposal team and we don’t know what else is connected to this. Besides, weren’t we just told to keep it quiet?”

Liu Qing and Shen Zhongyuan looked at each other, and they both had the same idea – it’s so fun to follow a smart person.

At this moment, they heard a ‘bang’ and the door was kicked open.

Gongsun came in aggressively. Bai Chi patted his chest and said, “Scared me to death, I thought the bomb just went off.”

“Gongsun?” Seeing Gongsun’s murderous appearance, Zhan Zhao asked, “Is there a clue?”

“We were cheated!” Gongsun threw the papers in his hand onto the table and said, “Guo Cheng and the other two were not poisoned by the death smile poison at all!”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

This chapter was hard because there are many Chinese words for different types of fireworks and explosions that we just don’t have in English; we call basically all types of fireworks the same thing, ‘fireworks’, with the exception of sparklers and firecrackers. I tried my best to find the right English words, but I left in the direct translation and added a note whenever I couldn’t find an appropriate English word.

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

Translated: August 3/4, 2021