S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 17

Smiling Murderer 16 - The Disappearing Murderer

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Zhan Zhao and the others rushed to the door of He Lan’s private clinic. When they arrived, they saw a crowd of lively onlookers. The surrounding police cars and the faintly visible yellow cordon made everyone nervous.

“No way.” Liu Qing frowned, “So coincidental?”

“It’s hard to tell.” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang opened the door and got out, walked to the outside of the crowd, separated the crowd, walked in, and saw the busy police officers.

“Captain Bai?” A police officer with sharp eyes saw Bai Yutang, and Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao discovered that… indeed, He Lan’s clinic was surrounded. A bad premonition instantly surged in their hearts.

“What happened?” Bai Yutang asked the police officer.

“Dead.” The police officer replied, “Doctors and nurses from this psychology clinic.”

“How many?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both widened their eyes and asked.

“Two.” The police officer replied. “They’ve been dead for a long time and it stinks.”

“Have your people withdraw first and guard the scene.” Bai Yutang took out his phone and said, “SCI is taking over this case.”

“Yes Sir.” The police officer went to inform his team leader. A moment later, the team leader ran over. He was one of Ai Hu’s past teammates, named Chen Zimo, “Captain Bai.”

Bai Yutang is Chen Zimo’s idol. He ran over excitedly and asked, “You are taking over this case? I said it, this death is so weird that it certainly isn’t an ordinary murder.”

“Weird?” Zhan Zhao was puzzled, and asked, “What’s weird about it?”

“The two deceased are smiling.” Chen Zimo shook his head, “Looking at it too long will cause you to have a mental shadow.” (Angel: A mental shadow refers to when you experience or see something that you are unable to forget.)

Bai Yutang and the others frowned.

“Who found the body?” Zhan Zhao asked Chen Zimo.

“The older woman in charge of cleaning.” Chen Zimo said, “That older woman belongs to a cleaning company that signed a contract to clean once a week. She has the key, opened the door to go in, smelt the stench, then found the body and called the police.”

Bai Yutang nodded, and together with Zhan Zhao, walked into He Lan’s private clinic.

“Cat, what do you think?” Bai Yutang asked as he walked in.

“Killing people to silence them.” Zhan Zhao said helplessly, “What I am worried about now is whether Xu You’s family and friends are also in danger.”

The style of He Lan’s clinic is simple and modern, and it looks very high-end and clean.

“Why did they want the aunt to come and clean this up?” Bai Yutang walked to the door of He Lan’s office and saw two bodies in the room, both female, one lying on the floor, a nurse in her twenties, and one sitting in an office chair, which was He Lan.

The corpses of the two people seemed to have been stored for a long time and had begun to stink. The smell of the corpses could not be compared to the general corpse smell, this one made people gag and was instinctively creepy.

Zhan Zhao put on shoe covers, walked inside the room, looked around and found nothing unusual. He then walked over to the corpses, and saw that the faces of the two corpses had a strange smile on them.The corpses had already turned black, and it seemed that they had been dead for a really long time.

“They have been dead for so long and no one has noticed?” Bai Yutang felt a little strange.

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded and felt puzzled, “He Lan has a strong personality and seems to be the loner type, but if this little nurse doesn’t even have a family, that seems a bit suspicious.”

“Captain.” At this time, the other SCI members also arrived.

“Oh, there seems to be two more.” Gongsun came in carrying his case, “This is a killer group, right, killing so many people?”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked, “Gongsun, didn't you go back to see the mummy?”

“It was a lie!” Gongsun's face was full of displeasure, just now Bai Jintang had lied to him! After going back and finding out that he had been tricked, Gongsun was about to jump to his feet when Bai Jintang carried him upstairs, but there was no one else in the villa, just the two of them. In the words of Bai Jintang – You can shout, no one will come to help you even if you shout.

Fortunately, at that time his phone rang. Gongsun kicked him and ran away. Bai Jintang leaned back on the sofa smoking a boring cigarette and viciously reminded him, "I'll wait for you to come back tonight to treat you properly."

So Gongsun decided to work overnight tonight.

“You all go out and look at something else first.” Gongsun put on his gloves and signalled for the forensic team to start taking evidence, while saying to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, “Leave it to me here, I'll call you guys when it's done.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao nodded and went out.

Bai Chi and Liu Qing had already gone outside to ask neighbors and people nearby for clues when Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exited the clinic and told everyone to ask around. Bai Yutang then went to look for the older woman who opened the door.

The older woman said that she opened the door that morning, found the bodies, then freaked out and called the police, she didn’t know anything else.

Zhan Zhao thought for a while then asked, “Auntie, when you came in, was the door locked or unlocked?”

The older woman thought for a while then replied, “It was locked.”

Zhan Zhao frowned, thought about it again, then asked, “When did you come?”

The older woman looked at Zhan Zhao and said, “Uh… in the morning… at six or seven o’clock… I always come in early and clean up before Dr. He and the others go to work.”

When Bai Yutang heard this, he frowned slightly and exchanged a glance with Zhan Zhao, who nodded to him. Bai Yutang walked to the side, pulled a police officer over, and asked in a low voice, "What time did that older lady call the police?"

"Not that long ago." The officer replied, "We put the cordon up less than an hour ago.”

Bai Yutang looked at his watch, it was now noon. Turning back to Zhan Zhao, he asked, “Auntie, why did you call the police only now?”

“Huh?” The older woman seemed to hesitate, and said, “Oh… I was a little scared, I didn't dare to say anything, so I ran home, and then ...... my son said that this kind of thing should be reported to the police.”

“Your son said so?” Zhan Zhao asked suddenly.

The older woman was anxious and waved her hands as she explained, “This… has nothing to do with my son.” 

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, she was more or less saying that it had something to do with his son.

“Where is your son?” Bai Yutang asked.

“No… I don't think it's his fault. Although Xiao Mei was fighting with him, he certainly didn't kill her.” The older woman explained, “My son loves Xiao Mei very much. He looks immodest, but he is very good and filial by nature.”

“Xiao Mei?” Zhan Zhao thought for a while and asked, “Is that the nurse?”

“That’s right.” The older woman nodded, “My son and that young girl went to high school together, and then my son went to college and the little girl went to medical school. They kept in touch and they got to know each other without realising it. A long time ago, one of my son's friends was sick, so he brought him here to see a doctor. Dr. He was very nice and said that we were already in a difficult situation and that his friend happened to have a rather rare and strange disease that she could use for research, so she didn't take the money.”

“What’s his friend’s name?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked at the same time.

“Uh… his surname is Xu.” The older woman recalled.

“Xu You?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“Right, right.” The woman nodded quickly.

“Where is your son now?” Zhan Zhao quickly asked.

The older woman became unhappy and said, “I said… it’s not my son…”

“It’s not that.” Zhan Zhao frowned, “Your son is in danger, where is he?”

The older woman was dumbfounded and asked, “Really?”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang said, “Auntie, He Lan died because of what happened to Xu You.”

“Huh?!” The older woman opened her eyes wide.

“Auntie, tell me, where is your son?” Bai Yutang pulled her in the direction of the car. Liu Qing followed. Bai Chi also wanted to follow, but Zhan Zhao waved his hand at Bai Chi and said, “Chi Chi, go back when you’ve finished collecting evidence here.”

Bai Chi was taken aback. He knew that Zhan Zhao was telling him to go watch Zhao Zhen's performance, but… 

As he was hesitating, Shen Zhongyuan ran up, patted Bai Chi on the shoulder, got in the car with Bai Yutang and the others, and left.

The older woman told Bai Yutang the address of her house, and Bai Yutang told the dispatchers to instruct the police officers patrolling the neighborhood to rush there first. He then handed the phone to the older woman and said, “Call your son.”

“I can’t get through.” The older woman said urgently, “His phone has been turned off these days.”

“Tsk…” Zhan Zhao frowned and asked, “Why? Auntie, tell me the truth, what is going on?”

“I…” The older woman hesitated for a moment, then honestly said, “It’s because A'Jing came home very late last night. He has been arguing with Xiao Mei these days, so I talked to him a bit. Who knew that he was crazy drunk and would say that Xiao Mei hasn't been in touch for almost a week. He also said that Xiao Mei had an affair with Doctor He, and he scolded her with lots of harsh words.”

Liu Qing was stunned and asked, “Having an affair? They’re both women, right?”

“That’s what I said too.” The older woman sighed and said, “But A’Jing said that nowadays, what women value most is money and status, and they don't care if a man is a good man or not. He even made harsh remarks about killing those two women.”

“Then what?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“After he started drinking, he got a phone call out of the blue, then sobered up and rushed out without saying a word. He came back an hour or so later, looking unwell, and fell back asleep. Then I opened the door early this morning and saw that Xiao Mei and the girl were dead… I was scared to death, I thought that my little boy had really done something stupid last night while he was drunk. But then I asked him after I got home, he was also terrified, said no, and said… that I should hurry up and call the police. Then I called the police and pretended that I had just opened the door and found the bodies, too timid to say…”

After listening, everyone looked at each other and were speechless. This older woman is really…

When they arrived at the older woman’s house, the police car that arrived first was parked at the entrance, but the police officer was not there. Bai Yutang and the others ran upstairs. It was a simple building with five floors in total, and the older woman's house was on the third floor.

Bai Yutang and the others went up to the third floor and the door to the first house around the corner was open.

Feeling that something was wrong, Bai Yutang took out his gun, dashed to the doorway, looked inside, and saw a police officer lying on the ground.

Liu Qing entered the house but didn’t find anyone else inside. 

Zhan Zhao squatted down to check the police officer’s injuries. There was an open wound on his abdomen which seemed to be made by a knife, but he was still breathing. He called for an ambulance and more officers. The older woman was a bit anxious. She went inside and found that her son was not there, so she shouted, “A’Jing…”

“Shh.” Shen Zhongyuan hurriedly pointed his finger at her, signalling – Don’t make a sound.

Afterwards, Shen Zhongyuan and Liu Qing subconsciously looked at Bai Yutang, and Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao looked at the officer's position and posture while lying down; he was reaching out, pointing to the left corner of the door… signalling – they went upstairs!

Bai Yutang took Liu Qing and ran out, while Shen Zhongyuan stayed behind with Zhan Zhao to look after the injured man and the desperate older woman. 

Rushing up to the fifth floor, Bai Yutang and Liu Qing dashed silently to the door of the walkway when they heard a voice coming from the walkway. (Angel: It is a building where the entrance to all the units is on an exterior walkway. As I have never heard of the proper term for this, I have decided to just call it a walkway.)

A man shouted, “Don’t come over here… the police are coming! My mom said that SCI is coming.”

Liu Qing and Bai Yutang looked at each other. Bai Yutang gently opened the hidden door and saw two people facing each other at the end of the walkway… One is a young man in a white hoodie, wearing a baseball cap, standing against the wall unarmed, and staring at the person in front of him with some fear.

A short distance away from him stood a young man dressed in black, with a bloody knife in his hand and a mask on his face.

Bai Yutang and Liu Qing entered the walkway. The young man in white saw Liu Qing gesturing to him to keep quiet, but his eyes had already aroused the suspicion of the man in black… and he suddenly turned around violently.

Bai Yutang and Liu Qing both saw what he looked like and froze. They saw that he was wearing sunglasses and a mask… and the most exaggerated part was that he was full of bandages, just like a mummy. It was obvious he didn’t want people to recognize him.

As soon as the man saw Bai Yutang and the others enter, he turned around and ran.

Bai Yutang chased after him, but the most unexpected thing was that the man did not hesitate to leap over the walkway guardrail… and jump into the air…

“Really?!” Liu Qing rushed over to the guardrail and looked down. Bai Yutang also frowned and looked… but the most unexpected thing for both of them was… that the man had disappeared into thin air, and there was no body on the ground downstairs.

At this time, a police car had stopped at the bottom. Zhao Hu and Ma Han got out, and Liu Qing shouted, “Hey, is there anyone down there? Did anyone fall down just now?”

Zhao Hu and Ma Han looked at each other and both shrugged their shoulders, somewhat puzzled… and looked in all directions – Was there anyone there?

Bai Yutang made a gesture to them, signalling – Lock down the building, search!

The two nodded and guarded the door, calling for more officers to be sent over.

“Uh…” Liu Qing rubbed his eyes and asked, “Captain… did I see that wrong?”

Bai Yutang frowned and shook his head, turning back to the young man called Ah Jing, who seemed paralysed with fear and was leaning against the wall sighing. (Angel: The man is named Ah Jing, and his mother refers to him as A’Jing, this confused me for a bit when I saw his name written here for the first time.)

“Come back to the police station with us.” Bai Yutang said.

Ah Jing nodded, looked up at Bai Jintang, and asked, “Where is my mother?”

“Downstairs.” Bai Yutang replied.

“Ah…” Ah Jing nodded, relieved, and he said, “Don’t blame her, she’s never studied and doesn’t know anything. To think that I killed someone is nonsense, I didn't kill that person.”

Bai Yutang put away his gun and looked at him, “Can't even say something reasonable.”

Ah Jing looked up at the sky and rolled his eyes as Bai Yutang asked, “How old are you, and who is Xu You?”

Ah Jing scowled and said, “Twenty-three, he's my drinking buddy.”

At this time, Zhan Zhao walked up.

“What about that officer?” Ah Jing asked.

“Sent to the hospital,” Zhan Zhao said, “he won’t die.”

“Oh.” Ah Jing patted his chest, “I was scared… thanks to that brother, I’m not dead.” At this time, the older woman rushed up, hugged her son, and started crying. While this Ah Jing looks like a little ruffian, he is still quite filial, coaxing his old mother to stop crying.

“The man ran away?” Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang.

Liu Qing hurriedly waved to Zhan Zhao, saying, “Hey, Dr. Zhan, what do you think of this trick… a person jumped down from the fifth floor and vanished”

“What?” Zhan Zhao was taken aback. He walked over to the guardrail and looked down.

Bai Yutang nodded, “It was abnormal, we watched him jump over and disappear in a flash.”

Zhan Zhao blinked and frowned, “How is that possible?”

‿︵‿︵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: August 16, 2021