S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 15

Smiling Murderer 14 - The Real Murderer

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Gongsun’s fierce words stunned everyone.

“They didn’t die because of the death smile poison?” Zhan Zhao asked again.

Gongsun shook his head.

“Huh?” Everyone was confused, “Then why did they smile before they died?”

“After inhaling laughing gas the whole way, it would be strange not to smile! And also, didn’t the car stop slowly?” Gongsun asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Laughing gas has a hypnotic component! They stopped the car before falling asleep! Then were killed right away!” Gongsun said angrily, “Laughing gas will decompose when exposed to heat, I told you that the nitrogen content was high!”

“Gongsun,” Zhao Hu couldn’t help but ask, “what is laughing gas?”

“Nitrous oxide! A kind of anesthetic often used by dentists.” Gongsun said, “I just had the officers take their car apart, and they found a canister of nitrous oxide under the seats. The valve was open and the gas had leaked out!”

Zhan Zhao and the others nodded, in this case, their deaths can be explained.

“It looks like they were fully prepared!” Bai Yutang said, “Otherwise, why would they hide the nitrous oxide canister under the seat?”

“They inhaled too much, probably knew that they were poisoned and wanted to open the window to dissipate it, but it was too late.” Gongsun said, “Nitrous oxide is a medical anesthetic. Its medicinal properties are clear and well calculated. People with knowledge of pharmacology can accurately calculate how much time inhaling laughing gas is needed to kill a person!”

“So meticulous, did the second personality do it?” Bai Chi asked.

“Hmm…” Zhan Zhao touched his chin, seemingly thoughtful, and muttered to himself, “Probably not… this case is probably a web, and we just found a corner of it.”

“Cat, what did you think of?” Bai Yutang asked.

“This does not seem to be done by that person’s second personality, and the behaviour does not conform to his psychology!”

“Why do you say that?” Bai Yutang asked.

“His second personality is cautious and does not have paranoid behaviours, so it will not be obsessed over the fact that three people must die together.” Zhan Zhao frowned.

“Is it the third personality?” Bai Chi asked.

“It’s not like the third personality.” Zhan Zhao shook his head, “The third personality is not so meticulous, and it doesn’t fit with his violent character.”

“Then how can we explain it?” Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

“Someone else did it.” Zhan Zhao said, “This case is far from over, the murderer should have been instructed by another person.”

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao, waiting for his explanation.

“Hmm…” Zhan Zhao thought for a while, then asked, “Jiang Ping, is there a topographic map of that community?”

“There is.” Jiang Ping handed Zhan Zhao the topographic map of the community. Zhan Zhao opened it and took a look, then frowned slightly, “Sure enough.”

“Sure enough what?” Everyone asked, looking at the map.

“There are two gates to this community, one on the east and one on the west.” Zhan Zhao said, “The place we went to is the east gate, and there is another gate, the west gate… The place where we caught the murderer walking out with the bomb in his bag was close to the west gate.”

“Cat,” Bai Yutang said, “you mean that they did go to the community to pick someone up, but they were supposed to pick them up from the west gate, not the east gate? After all, it’s a big detour from the west gate to the east gate. Later, the murderer discovered that we were following them and that the man was running away. Then he changed his plan and had to gather a new third person, so he wanted the car to stop at the east gate?”

Zhan Zhao nodded, “Let’s calculate the time. When we arrived, we passed through the west gate. It can be said that we went from the west gate to the east gate and bypassed half of the community… Doing so, we wasted nearly ten minutes.”

Everyone nodded.

“Then… if they had agreed to meet at the west gate, and the other person got into the car with a bomb,” Zhan Zhao asked, “what would have happened?”

“An explosion.” Bai Chi said.

“And there may be smiles on the faces of the corpses… of course, as long as the bodies still have faces… However, if the bodies exploded, it would be difficult to tell if they were poisoned or not.”

“Correct.” Gongsun nodded.

“In addition, if it explodes in the back seat, the nitrous oxide tank would also be blown up and it would be mistaken for a fire extinguisher.” Zhan Zhao said. “This is truly seamless and the clues would have all been broken. It’s evident that this person’s thoughtfulness is above that of the second personality of this murderer! They are quite difficult to deal with.”

Everyone nodded.

“Then why did Wang Aihu, the one driving, take a detour to the east gate?” Shen Zhongyuan asked, “He probably didn’t take that call.”

“It’s very simple.” Zhan Zhao smiled, then asked Bai Chi, “Chi Chi, do you remember, when we passed by the west gate, was the gate open or closed?”

Bai Chi thought for a while, and the scene from that time flashed in his head… it was played backwards, just like it was rewinding… and the west gate was – “It was closed!”

Zhan Zhao smiled.

“Ah!” Bai Chi was taken aback suddenly, and said, “I’ve seen this person before!”

Zhan Zhao smiled and nodded, “That’s right! You saw his back. He happened to be walking back when we passed by the west gate!”

“That’s right!” Bai Chi nodded quickly, “I remember, there was such a person, but no one paid attention to him!”

Everyone stared at each other, looking at the two of them speechlessly, wondering – Is that his brain or a high-powered camera? Isn’t it too evil?!

“If the gate was closed when they passed by the west gate, the murderer would have gestured to them from behind the gate and told them to go to the east gate… and they would go there!”

“But…” Shen Zhongyuan was puzzled and asked, “why was the west gate closed?”

“That’s right, did the security guard listen to the murderer?” Jiang Ping asked, picking up the phone and calling the property manager of the community. The property manager gave them the phone number of the guard room at the west gate, but no one answered the phone. 

“Is it because the guard is not there? Or did something bad happen?” Zhao Hu asked.

Zhan Zhao smiled and said, “Actually, there is another possibility.”

“What is it?” Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao.

Bai Yutang asked him, “He is the security guard?”

Zhan Zhao smiled and patted Bai Yutang on the shoulder, “As expected of Captain Bai, your brain is fast!”

Jiang Ping frowned, called the property manager again, and asked for the name of the security guard. The name he got was Xu You. He heard that he had suddenly made a report that afternoon saying that the west gate was broken and could not open, and that they had to wait until tomorrow for someone to come and fix it.

Everyone was overjoyed, it seems that they guessed well.

“Jiang Ping, search for this person.” Bai Yutang walked to his computer and instructed Jiang Ping.

Zhan Zhao and the others also surrounded his computer as Jiang Ping found Xu You’s information… After screening it for a bit, he sifted out a photo and found that… it was the person they had just caught.

“It turns out that his name is Xu You.” Bai Yutang thought for a while, then looked at Zhan Zhao. Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, Bai Yutang asked Zhang Long, “Did he have a cell phone in his belongings?”

“Yes.” Zhang Long found his cell phone from the evidence bag, and Bai Yutang handed it to Jiang Ping, saying, “Check who he has talked to.”

“Yes Sir.” Jiang Ping began to investigate.

“Zhang Long, Wang Chao, you go to the property management company to investigate Xu You’s background. Zhao Hu, Ma Han, you go as well. When they go to the property management company, you find Xu You’s residence, remember to bring the forensic department with you. Go with Ma Xin, and remember to pay attention to the matter of evidence collection!”

“Yes Sir!” The four of them left the SCI office.

Liu Qing suddenly asked Zhan Zhao, “Doctor, I am still a little confused. Why did the car stop on time when it reached the east gate? And the people just so happened to die?”

Zhan Zhao hesitated for a while, frowned slightly, and said, “They were going to pick someone up, so they will naturally stop at the east gate.”

“Oh, that’s right!” Liu Qing patted his head, “I really can’t think straight.”

But when everyone looked at Zhan Zhao again, they saw that he had a different look on his face.

Bai Yutang put down the information and said, “Prepare to interrogate Xu You, go and look up the clues about him and the person who escaped.”

“Yes Sir!” Everyone nodded, and Zhan Zhao was taken away by Bai Yutang.

When the two went out, Liu Qing seemed to feel that the atmosphere was not right, so he scratched his head and asked, “Uh… did I say the wrong thing?”

Shen Zhongyuan shook his head helplessly and said, “You, you’re right, you really can’t think straight!” 

Liu Qing felt a little wronged and asked, “What’s wrong with me?”

Shen Zhongyuan glared at him and asked, “When the car arrived at the gate, didn’t we want to rush over? Dr. Zhan refused to let us approach because he was afraid that there was a bomb in it. He even called over the bomb squad!”

Liu Qing nodded, “So what?”

Bai Chi sighed lightly and said, “Brother must be thinking that if we approached it earlier, maybe Wang Aihu and Guo Cheng wouldn’t have had to die.”

……

Liu Qing was stunned, touched his head, and said, “This… how can you say that? If there was a bomb in the car at that time, wouldn’t we all have been killed?”

“Brother wouldn’t think that way.” Bai Chi said.

“Actually, it’s not like that.” Gongsun said, “Wasn’t the car window open? After a certain amount of laughing gas is inhaled, a person will definitely die. This has nothing to do with an early or late rescue, there is no need to blame himself.”

“Should we go tell him?” Liu Qing asked, “I kinda feel guilty about it.”

Gongsun smiled, “Did you not see Bai Yutang pulling him out? You just realized it, but he would have realized it a long time ago.”

“Uh… I always wanted to ask,” Shen Zhongyuan asked, “what is the relationship between Captain Bai and Dr. Zhan?”

“Lovers.” Everyone answered in unison.

Shen Zhongyuan and Liu Qing showed surprised expressions on their faces. Gongsun narrowed his eyes to look at them and asked, “What? You can’t accept it? We’ll kick you out of the team if you can’t accept it!”

Everyone was a little weak. Shen Zhongyuan and Liu Qing hurriedly waved their hands and shook their heads, “This… we don’t care, don’t care, it doesn't affect anything.”

“En.” Gongsun nodded, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger, looked at the two for a while, then turned away.

Jiang Ping approached the two and said, “Our captain’s older brother and Gongsun are also lovers, and they are already married.”

“Oh.” The two nodded.

“There are also Bai Chi and Zhao Zhen, who are lovers.” Jiang Ping whispered, “Remember, Brother Bai, Zhao Zhen, and Gongsun, don’t mess with these three people, they are very scary!”

Liu Qing and Shen Zhongyuan looked at each other and nodded nervously.

Everyone smiled and dispersed.

…...

Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao out of the SCI office and said, “Cat, don’t think about it.”

Zhan Zhao smiled, “I’m not thinking about it.”

“The word cranky is clearly written on your forehead!” Bai Yutang pointed.

Zhan Zhao rubbed his forehead, glanced at Bai Yutang helplessly, and sighed softly.

Seeing that he seemed to be better, Bai Yutang stretched his hand out and gently held his hand, “You also know that it has nothing to do with you.”

Zhan Zhao nodded and sighed softly. After all, he is a sensible psychologist who knows how to analyze the situation, so he will not be sorrowful, just a little emotional.

The two were about to go back, but they suddenly saw Gongsun hurrying over, “Xiao Bai, Xiao Zhan, go and take a look, that Xu You is not normal!”

“Not normal?” Zhan Zhao was taken aback and asked, “Changed again?”

Gongsun shook his head, “He… he fought with himself.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were a little dumbfounded and they frowned, and Zhan Zhao said, “This is new, the personality splits to the point where they fight with themselves? I have to take a look!” After speaking, he ran away in a hurry, mumbling, “A rare species!”

Seeing that Zhan Zhao was relieved, Bai Yutang was relieved, and he followed Zhan Zhao to the room where Xu You was detained. Everyone in SCI had heard about this strange news and came to watch.

In the interrogation room, Xu You was talking to himself.

Everyone arrived only to see him suddenly turn cold, “If it weren’t for you, how could it be like this?”

Soon, he became another person again. Appearing arrogant, he stretched his hand out to tidy up his tousled hair and sneered, “You’ve got to be kidding me… You didn’t expect him to betray us?!”

“Why don’t you losers disappear?” After the man spoke another sentence, he started to grab his arm and toss himself around the room. Sometimes defensive, sometimes beating himself, sometimes cursing, and sometimes yelling in pain… What’s more exaggerated is that sometimes he will try to persuade and his voice will become soft and meek, “Don’t fight you guys!”

……

“Whoa.” Liu Qing said, “Fortunately, there are only three personalities. If there were more than a dozen of them, wouldn’t it be a gang fight, is it enough to be busy alone?”

Everyone was a little dumbfounded. Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, “Cat, how is it?”

“Hmm.” Zhan Zhao frowned, looked at the busy Xu You behind the one-way mirror, and said, “Something’s wrong…”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

I got called back to work again, yay! I actually started last week, but this week my manager decided to schedule me for 40+ hour weeks until school starts again in September 😭 I'm going to try my best to stick to my upload schedule, but if I miss a chapter, please forgive me. I don't want to go on hiatus because I really want to read it myself and I read as I translate it soooooo 🤷🏻‍♀️

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

Translated: August 4, 2021