S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 70

The Murderer Is Not Human 03 – Provocation

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The teenager sitting on the handrail of the corridor tilted his head, staring down at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang with some curiosity.

Zhan Zhao gave a slight nod to Bai Yutang, who turned around and walked towards the stairs.

The teenager's gaze moved with him, when Zhan Zhao suddenly coughed.

…?… The teenager turned his head back and gazed at Zhan Zhao again.

He saw Zhan Zhao extend a hand to him, spreading five fingers.

The teenager was slightly puzzled when Zhan Zhao extended another hand and similarly opened five fingers to him.

Seemingly attracted by Zhan Zhao's movement, the teenager looked at him in confusion.

At that moment, Zhan Zhao suddenly tightened all his fingers and clenched them into fists.

The teenager gazed at his action for a moment, then frowned, seemingly a bit displeased.

Zhan Zhao slowly withdrew his hands and held them up in front of him. First he looked up at the teenager and gently raised an eyebrow, guiding his eyes to look at his own hands and then at the teenager's hands… As he did so, the teenager slowly gazed down at his own fingers.

He saw that his hand was grasping the knife and the puppy's head, five fingers closed together.

Somewhat confused, he looked back… but saw that Zhan Zhao was smiling at him and then slowly opened his hand…

The young man stared at Zhan Zhao's movements, seemingly possessed. He slowly let go of his hand and stared intently at the five open fingers…

The object in his hand fell as his hand unfolded, ‘Clang ~~’ the sound of the knife making contact with the marble floor was loud and clear ~~

The young man was awakened by the sound and jerked his head to look at Zhan Zhao. At that moment, Zhan Zhao raised his hand and threw his hand right towards the young man, making a gesture like throwing, and his mouth lightly cried out: "Catch!"

The young man's eyes raised with the swing of Zhan Zhao's hand, all the way upwards, trying to find the "thing" he had just thrown.

As he was sitting on an extremely thin iron railing, he jerked his head backwards… and lost his balance instantly, falling backwards towards the corridor behind him – Bai Yutang, who had already taken advantage of him not not paying attention, flashed behind him.  He reached out and caught him with ease. From there, he was hugged from behind and brought down.

The young man was hugged down from the railing and he suddenly started screaming and kept struggling and kicking, like a scared little beast.

Bai Yutang held him with both hands, but did not dare to use too much force for fear of hurting the child, so he had to support him and let him kick and punch. Turning his face, he asked Zhan Zhao downstairs: "Cat, what's wrong with him?

"Xiao Bai, just hold on for a while!" Zhan Zhao called out to the top floor, then asked the maid crouching to the side, "How can I get him to calm down?!"

"Ah..." the maid was a little perplexed and stammered for half a day, "Hold… him and pat him on the back… for a while…"

Bai Yutang, who was upstairs heard it and before he could react, the child in his hands suddenly stopped struggling, perhaps because he was tired…

He gently put him on the floor…

The teenager suddenly turned around and jumped into Bai Yutang's arms, smothering his head ~~

Gently patting his shoulder, slightly comforting… Bai Yutang looked up at Zhan Zhao who walked upstairs: "Cat…"

Zhan Zhao frowned and shook his head, "He's extremely ill."

It didn't take long for the teenager to quiet down and sit dully at the table, eating the snacks the maid brought over.

Zhan Zhao asked, "What's his name?"

The maid named Anna said in her not-so-fluent Chinese, "It's… Jemily."

Zhan Zhao turned his head to look at the teenager again and found that he seemed to be reacting to his name. He was relieved, the situation was a little better than expected.

According to Anna, Carlos's wife died half a year ago, and then Jemily suddenly became abnormal one day ~~ sometimes he would kill small animals with a knife and then dismember them ~~ or just make a big fuss like he did just now. He was nevertheless dumb even after recovering from the situation.

Regarding Carlos' death, Zhan Zhan and Bai Yutang didn't say anything more because soon, Lu Fang would arrange for someone to come and inform him of the case and contact Carlos's other relatives overseas.

Together, Zhan Zhan and Bai Yutang went upstairs to Carlos' study, looking for clues about the case.

After a quick look around the study, Bai Yutang frowned, "Cat, don't you think something is missing?!"

"Hmm…" Zhan Zhao nodded, "Photos~~"

"That's right." Bai Yutang looked at the flashy paintings hanging on the walls of the room, and the delicate artefacts on the table and in the cupboards, "If he really loved his wife, it is not right that only half a year has passed by… yet there is not even a single photo in the room~~"

Zhan Zhao suddenly walked out of the study and went to Jemily's room, and looked around, "He has not received treatment, nor has he taken any medication."

The two men left Jemily's room and returned to the study.

"I think…" Bai Yutang rubbed his chin, "Carlos doesn't seem to love his child~~"

"Well~~ that really doesn't look much like a child's room. There isn't a toy, not even a poster…" saying this, Zhan Zhao suddenly froze.

Bai Yutang smiled and went over to him, "Cat, what's wrong? Remember something?"

“…No…" Zhan Zhao's face was slightly blushed, "No."

"Ah…" Bai Yutang tapped his forehead, "Come to think of it, I remember when you were a kid you had so many toys in your room, and posters. And there was a very large non-invertible toy ~~ all bought by your father, right ~~"

Zhan Zhao glanced at him and muttered in a small voice, "… he always leaves as soon as he puts them down…"

Bai Yutang laughed out loud: "Do you want him, a big man, to say, 'Baby, daddy bought you a toy'~~ not to mention your dad is so cool..." (Angel: The nickname used was baobao, 宝宝, which in English is baby. This is used when talking to children, not the same ‘baby’ we use when talking to a lover.)

Zhan Zhao had nothing to say. Looking at the white mouse next to him smiling smugly, he lifted his foot and stepped on its tail… After stepping on it and leaving Bai Yutang who was in pain and baring his teeth, he turned to look at the papers on the desk in the study and walked away.

Bai Yutang stood behind Zhan Zhao, looking at the person in front of him who had been nervous for many days, and he gradually relaxed his shoulders. The whole person seemed to have relaxed somehow, and a relieved, faint smile appeared on his face ~ ~ ~ relieved.

The depression in his mind was greatly alleviated by Bai Yutang's remark, and Zhan Zhao felt a warmth slowly flooding out – perhaps there were many things he didn't know about. He should look on the bright side and not let the suspicion and mistrust blind his eyes.

After calming down, the two carefully flipped through the papers on the table, and soon, a stack of photos caught their attention ~~

"Cat, what's this?" Bai Yutang picked one of them up, and saw that the lighting was hazy, very much like a snapshot. Everything in the shot was blurred, except for one pair of eyes, which were unusually clear.  And in the eyes, the implication of panic was so disturbing that it sent shivers down one's spine.

There are more than a dozen other photos like this, with different eyes, but with the same frightened look.

Underneath the photos, there was a new photography magazine.

Zhan Zhao picked it up and flipped through it, quickly finding an article and pointing it out to Bai Yutang: "Xiao Bai, look here! These photos are the masterpieces of Tian Zhong's photographs."

"Tian Zhong?" Bai Yutang thought for a moment, "The one who was in the lounge this morning!"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "He seems to be very famous."

Looking at the photo, Bai Yutang shook his head, "He should just go make horror movies~~ I really wonder what he showed the models to get them to show such a look…"

"Let's take them back." Zhan Zhao put the photos together with the copy of the magazine into a file bag and put it away. The two searched again and found no particular clues, so they turned around and left.

Rushing all the way back to S.C.I., the two men were anxious to know the results of the autopsy and walked into the office – why was there no one there?

That's when a gasp of surprise was heard from the forensic room next door.

The two men looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly, these brats ~~

Quickly rushing to the forensic room, they saw all the S.C.I. members, whether field or internal, gathered in front of the autopsy table.

Even Bai Chi was in there, but his face was pale and his hands were still tugging at the corners of his shirt.

"What are you all doing?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Captain~~" The crowd turned back to look at Bai Yutang.

Gongsun pointed at the dissection table and grimaced.

Only then did the two men notice that Gongsun had taken the body out, and what was even weirder was that the body remained square and how strange it looked…

"How did it get like this?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao asked in unison.

Gongsun sighed, "Only the head is from Carlos."

"What?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and approached the dissection table.

With a little force, Gongsun reached out and removed the head of the corpse together with the skin from the shoulder. They saw a square, twisted corpse with a large hole excavated from where the head used to be, and despite the similarity – the corpse was a fake!

"I was just fooled by this piece of skin, blood and folded up look~~~" said Gongsun with a remorseful look on his face.

Zhan Zhao stared at the corpse for a moment, "Which means… this isn't a curse at all~~"

"Did the use of a blindfold… create a curse?" Bai Yutang looked down and pondered, "Why is it…”

At this moment, with a bang, the door was violently pushed open and Lu Fang entered with a grim face and a serious expression, "There are some things you'd want to see!"

The crowd froze and quickly followed Lu Fang out.

When they got to the office, Lu Fang turned on the TV and they saw that it was a special broadcast.

"It's live." Lu Fang said, "The location is right at the museum."

A female anchor was seen explaining the case that happened this morning with some excitement in her voice… ’There is CCTV surveillance in that special display room… and the whole thing was filmed. From the morning when Carlos carried the safe in, until the crowd went in and opened the case’~~ More coincidentally, even Carlos's face inside the safe was captured clearly…

The anchor explained the ancient Tu Xi civilization and the curse! At the end she says that a guest has been invited. And with that, Akasha appeared on camera, eerily shouting "A curse… it is a curse..."

Turning off the TV, Lu Fang frowned, "Saw it all?!"

"Why is the CCTV footage exposed?" Ma Han and Zhao Hu, who had just gone to watch the footage, were puzzled.

Zhao Hu took out a disc, "When I retrieved it, I clearly told the administrator not to leak it…"

"There's also a video!" Lu Fang sighed and put a disc into the DVD player; it was a clip from the news broadcast.

A refined man in his thirties was being interviewed.

"His name is Shang Luo!" Lu Fang said, "The organiser of this event and the owner of the 'Falcon Security Agency' who is in charge of security for the show this time."

"Shang Luo?!" Bai Yutang frowned, "This bastard has a very unclean background."

"Exactly!" Lu Fang nodded, "Both the Narcotics Division and the Economic Division have him listed as the number one troublemaker!"

Shang Luo was facing the camera, looking calm as he pointed to the fake box corpse in the central part of the exhibition hall and said, "Don't worry. In fact, this is the real box corpse!"

"What?!" The crowd in the room was stunned.

On the screen, Shang Luo smiled smugly, "In fact, the safe Mr. Carlos moved into the special display room this morning was empty… Because there have been many unfortunate events in Mr. Carlos' home recently, he suspected that the curse was the cause, and so, he made this special arrangement – never thought it would end up like this."

"So what happens to this real box corpse?" The anchor followed up by asking, "I heard you've paid a lot of money for this. Aren't you afraid of the curse?!" 

"Haha~~" Shang Luo laughed elegantly and said to the camera, "I believe in ancient civilization and even more in modern science… As far as I know, this case has been handed over to S.C.I. to handle. Even a big case like the magic murderer was easily solved… I am sure that the elite police department will soon give me an answer to reassure us collectors and researchers – about whether the murderer is human or not."

After saying that, Shang Luo smiled and turned to leave. The anchor was still excitedly introducing the scene, and because of this morning's incident, the number of people visiting the museum instantly multiplied by several times ~~ there were even many people who wanted to offer hefty prices for the box corpse, and related items about the Tu Xi tribe.

As he pressed the remote control, Lu Fang took a deep breath, "The police station's phone is about to be blown up…"

Zhao Hu raised his foot and kicked a chair beside him, "Motherfucker, this kid is honestly looking for trouble!"

"Hu Zi~~" Ma Han pulled Zhao Hu, who was about to storm out, "Calm down."

In fact, not only Zhao Hu, but everyone else were furious too.

"I can stall for a while first." Lu Fang said, "However, the media attention is too high ~~ there is a lot of pressure on you guys this time…" As he was saying that, his phone suddenly rang, and when he picked it up, his face changed and he hurriedly turned on the TV.

They saw that it was still at the museum, and the scene was already in chaos, with cameras shaking and dashing inside while the crowd screamed and ran out.

The camera moved through the hallway and arrived in the same lounge as earlier.

There was a man lying on his back on a sofa in the lounge, his eyes wide open and staring at the camera - it is Tian Zhong, the photographer.

Morris was shouting "Call the police! Call an ambulance!"

Akasha was also in some unknown spot. The camera didn't show her, but she could still be heard shouting "It's a curse… a curse…"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were staring at the TV screen, unable to speak. It wasn't for any other reason, but for the look in Tian Zhong's eyes; it was exactly the same as the photographs they had just found in Carlos's house, which he himself had taken – a frightened and abnormal look.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: February 24, 2022 by Turtle

Edited: March 29, 2022 by Angel