S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 78

The Murderer Is Not Human 11 – Multiple Murderers

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Wrapping the limp Zhan Zhao in a bath towel, Bai Yutang carried him out of the bathroom and put him on the bed under the covers. The cat was still grinding its teeth.

"Cat, are you thirsty?" Bai Yutang took a glass of water and asked Zhan Zhao, who was tucked under the blanket.

He felt thirsty after his bath, and after the intense exercise he had just undergone, he was extremely thirsty.

He nodded and stared at the cup in Bai Yutang's hand.

Bai Yutang smiled, took a sip of water and lowered his head...

The water that was fed from Bai Yutang's mouth into Zhan Zhao's mouth was half consumed, half evaporated. A certain thin skinned tender cat continued to act as a steam engine.

He had intended to let Zhan Zhao go to bed early, but Bai Yutang turned his face to see him wrapped in the blanket, his eyes blinking and blinking, seemingly sleepless, and asked amusedly, "What's wrong, Cat? You're still in high spirits?"

Zhan Zhao glared at him vigilantly, "I'm thinking about the case!"

"Right, you just said you had a clue." Bai Yutang said as he climbed onto the bed, helping Zhan Zhao up and picking up a bath towel to wipe his hair, "Tell me about it."

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and said, "We began our analysis with the first case, Carlos's death... At first, it seemed unbelievable. But now Qu Yanming and Lu Yan are both involved in the case..."

"Right." Bai Yutang nodded, "If the two of them teamed up, it would be easy to kill Carlos and disguise it as a secret room incident."

"Next, let's talk about Tian Zhong, Mo Ning, Xiao Lu, the first author to die, together with Akasha, Fu Yishan, and Luo Peng who didn't die..." Between them, do they have anything in common?!" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang.

"Common point..." Bai Yutang's action of drying his hair gradually slowed down, "They are all related to the Tu Xi culture... No, it is not known whether Luo Peng has any yet..." He shook his head, "Cat, I really don't have a clue. And, to add to that, a Morris who almost lost his life today."

"Morris is the key!" Zhan Zhao turned around and said. Even before he turned around, he collapsed holding his back, Bai Yutang smiled and helped, whispering in his ear, "What? Your back hurts, huh?"

Zhan Zhao glared at him fiercely and continued, "All these people have one thing in common, but Morris doesn't."

"How so?" Bai Yutang got serious.

"When Carlos died, Lu Yan, Qu Yanming was there; when Tian Zhong died, Morris was there; when Mo Ning died, two of her students were there; when Xiao Lu died, the specifics are unknown but the report mentioned a close friend of hers; when Akasha died, there was a regular visitor, Zhou Lu; Fu Yishan was surrounded by bodyguards and a very close secretary; Luo Peng was killed by two of his men, who had been under him for years..." Zhan Zhao finished and looked at Bai Yutang, "What do you think is the common point?"

Bai Yutang's eyes widened as he dropped the bath towel to his side, "That’s right, Cat!" He reached out and rubbed his head twice with some excitement, "Each of the victims had someone extremely close to them around them, Carlos, Tian Zhong, Mo Ning, including Fu Yishan, their murders were very clever set ups. However, it would have been easy to do if it was designed by someone close to them in the same way as Qu Yanming and Lu Yan's. And whoever killed Akasha and Luo Peng did not set up a plan, they were straight up crazy..." saying this, he glanced at Zhan Zhao, "If, indeed, they're crazy ~~"

"Smart!" Zhan Zhao nodded approvingly, "If Zhou Lu and those two cops are in the same situation as Qu Yanming and Lu Yan, and aren't crazy at all... then these cases are simple!"

"And then I also found a very interesting loop!" Zhan Zhao said, "Think about which case the crazy person started killing from?"

"Akasha..." Bai Yutang snapped to attention, "I see, Akasha was a variable, because we stopped Fu Yishan from being killed. The murderer had no choice and decided to kill Akasha in the spur of the moment. We bumped into him... and he pretended to be crazy!"

"And then what do you think about Luo Peng's case?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Similar to some kind of make-up call!" Bai Yutang smiled, "In that case, Akasha's case would have credibility and we wouldn't suspect that Zhou Lu was pretending to be crazy."

"Then again the Morris case..."

"And also the replacement ticket!" Before Zhan Zhao could finish his sentence, Bai Yutang picked up, "This way Qu Yanming's actions would also have credibility... and in the end, the only ones who were sacrificed were, in fact, Qu Yanming and Lu Yan!"

"As long as they both die and don't talk, and then prove that they have mental problems, then everyone else will be safe!" Zhan Zhao supported his chin with his hand, "This time, it's likely that there are multiple murderers – all related people! We originally always thought that there were only one or two murderers, and indeed all the cases are related. However, the techniques used are completely different.

"A mass crime of this scale, sacrificing Qu Yanming and Lu Yan is most likely to keep some bigger secret..." Bai Yutang's expression grew grim, "Cat, you also saw those box corpses in Tian Zhong's studio... maybe it has something to do with that!"

"We'll interrogate those two cops first thing in the morning and find a breakthrough from them!" Zhan Zhao said, "These two people, they are definitely pretending to be crazy!"

"Why are you so sure?" Bai Yutang was a bit puzzled, "Cat, they look really crazy."

"They are indeed very crazy!" Zhan Zhao nodded, "But a truly crazy person wouldn't be sensible enough to load their gun immediately after firing six shots..."

"Ah~~" Bai Yutang suddenly realised, "Right, if they were crazy, they should at least fire a few more shots with an empty gun..."

"And..." Zhan Zhao smiled and said, "remember the two shots fired by Bao Sir?"

Bai Yutang recalled, shook his head and laughed, "That old fox... was very clever. He shot them in the shoulder, not in the joint... If they were really crazy, this wound would certainly not have allowed them to meekly throw the guns and fall to the ground!"

"Well~~" Zhan Zhao nodded, "Their timing was very clever, if they didn't throw the gun at that time, they would definitely be killed!"

"Phew~~~" Bai Yutang let out a long breath, "No wonder the old man wanted us to solve the case in a week. So he already knows the breakthrough... Cat..." as he said this Bai Yutang stopped and lowered his head to lightly kiss Zhan Zhao's forehead, "Cat, you're really smart... It seems like every time we get into a desperate situation, you always manage to bring us out!"

Zhan Zhao turned his head sideways and rubbed his head twice on Bai Yutang's shoulder, "Xiao Bai, this time for the case, maybe we should call someone to help."

"......" Bai Yutang was silent for a moment and said with a sense of clarity, "Zhao Zhen... isn't it?"

Zhan Zhao closed his eyes and comfortably rolled over, sinking into the quilt, and said softly, "Xiao Bai, you're the best... Man of words and war..."

One second he was energetically talking about the case, and the next second he was asleep...

Bai Yutang shook his head helplessly, covering him with the quilt. He was just about to turn off the light when he heard Zhan Zhao, who had already entered a semi-sleepy state, suddenly shout in a daze, "I'm so mad at you! Can write, can fight, still on top... dead mouse!!!"

.......

In the S.C.I. office, Ma Han, who was on duty, was sitting in Zhan Zhao's office with his coffee, reading information that Bai Chi had found about the Tu Xi civilization, when someone suddenly knocked on the door twice. When he looked up, he saw Zhao Hu standing there with a pillow in his arms.

"Xiao… Xiao Ma Ge ......"

"Pfft... cough..." At this call from Zhao Hu, Ma Han spewed out the coffee in his mouth.

"Didn't you say you were sleepy?" Ma Han looked at him with a disgusted look, "Go to sleep now~~Da ge."

"I want to sleep here..." Zhao Hu hugged his pillow and rubbed himself in front of the sofa, "You do your work and ignore me."

"Hu Zi?" Ma Han frowned at him, "Are you sick?"

"No?" Zhao Hu shook his head, "I never catch a cold."

"Then you came here in the middle of the night to disgust me?!" Ma Han squinted, "The sofa in the lounge is more comfortable, right? And there's a bed too, why don't you sleep there and come here to squeeze on a small sofa?"

Zhao Hu sat up and said with a frustrated look, "That room... is not for people!"

"......" Ma Han then remembered and laughed, "I see... you don't want to stay with that statue of the Eagle King do you?! "

"And..." Zhao Hu said with a pale face, "the neighbouring room is the forensic room!!!"

"Isn't Gongsun there?" Ma Han held back his laughter, "What are you afraid of with him around? Who in this police station is more wicked than Gongsun? Ghostly sorrow!!!"

"He's the one I'm afraid of!" Zhao Hu shivered, "I'm afraid he'll get too caught up in studying box corpses... and experiment on me in the middle of the night, making me into a box corpse too!!!"

Shaking his head, Ma Han ignored him and continued reading. But then he heard Zhao Hu suddenly say, "Hey... am I seeing things?"

"What?" Ma Han heard that his voice seemed to be a little shaky and looked at him in disbelief.

Stretching out his fingers that shook and shook, Zhao Hu pointed to the door of the lounge and asked, "That... that Eagle King was not visible at all from this angle just now... why can you see it now?"

Ma Han smiled and looked up towards the lounge, and saw that the statue of the Eagle King that was originally in the corner had, at some point, stood at the door...

"......" Ma Han made a gesture to Zhao Hu, gesturing for him to continue talking. Zhao Hu understood, and the two of them continued to chat, but their eyes both glanced at the statue, the Eagle King.

A few moments later, something incredible happened – the statue slowly moved … or jumped… towards the door…

Ma Han and Zhao Hu both sucked in a cold breath, their hands pressing the gun at their waist at the same time. Zhao Hu asked in a whisper, "Brother… what is that thing ah? Why is it moving?"

Ma Han pondered for a moment and replied, "There's only one explanation... it’s  alive!"

"What??" Zhao Hu felt a little dizzy, "You still have time to scare me at this fucking moment?"

Ma Han glared at him, "I mean, this thing is dead, but what's inside could be alive!"

"Inside?" Zhao Hu snapped, looking at the form of the statue  again, humanoid and slightly larger... If it was hollow, a person would fit in just right..."

The two men pulled out their guns and were just about to rush out, when the door to the S.C.I. office was pushed open and in came none other than Bai Chi, Zhang Long, and Wang Chao, who had gone to Luo Peng's house to conduct a search.

Bai Chi walked in the front and pushed the door open violently, just in time to see the statue jumping through the door of the lounge...

......

Bai Chi and the statue stared at each other for three seconds.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ～～～～～～".

This scream was simply the scream of a whole year for Bai Chi.

Zhang Long and Wang Chao outside the door and Zhao Hu and Ma Han in the office were shocked by this scream and jumped up. Gongsun kicked open the door of the forensic room and rushed out; the staff on duty up and down the police station, who had just been shocked this afternoon, were also in a state of shock.

"What's that howling?!" Gongsun kicked open the door of the S.C.I. and saw the crowd in the office confronting the statue in a spooky manner.

After half a day in silence, Ma Han suddenly pointed to the statue and said, "Just now... it seems to have screamed too..."

Gongsun shouted at the statue, "Come out!"

There was no movement.

When the crowd was quiet, they heard a "whimpering" sound coming from inside the statue, like some kind of beast screaming or a human crying...

The face of Bai Chi paled a few more times.

Gongsun stared at the statue for a while before he suddenly stepped forward and fumbled for a while at the area around the statue's eyes. Then he pressed down, and heard a ‘click’, and a crack appeared in the middle of the statue.

Ma Han and Zhang Long, one on each side, pulled the statue apart along the crack, and heard a ’clatter’... The hollow statue looked like a clamshell and parted to the sides – there was a man standing inside, his hands were tied, his mouth was taped shut, and he looked familiar...

Gongsun recognized with a glance that he was the one who guarded the Box Corpse together with Qu Yanming that day, the other guard – Feng Jie.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: March 9, 2022 by Turtle

Edited: May 6, 2022 by Angel