S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 89

Lucky Murderer 19 – Corpse Transformation

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"Ah!"

Gongsun had just come out of the washroom when he suddenly heard a sharp, odd sound, which at first listen, seemed to be the sound of a woman screaming, or the sound of metal scraping against the floor after being dragged.

The washroom was on the west side of the hallway and the forensic room was on the east side, in the middle of which was SCI's office. Gongsun walked out of the washroom, if he heard it correctly, the sound seemed to come from the forensic room.

It seemed that many people had heard the scream, as Bai Chi and the others came out of the office. Gongsun walked right up to the door of the office and asked them, "The sound came from the forensic room?"

“Xin Xin is screaming?" Qin Ou also came out and looked into the forensic room.

"It can't be Xin Xin." Gongsun looked at the time, "She went to dinner with Luo Tian... Besides there are only corpses in the forensic room."

“Hmm..." The crowd nodded, even if the corpse had stood up, Ma Xin's reaction would have been the same as Gongsun's, who would have thrown a scalpel and not quite screamed like that, right?

The crowd walked in the direction of the forensic room. Pushing open the hidden door of the room, there was no one inside, several corpses were in the freezer and there was nothing on the table. Ma Xin and Gongsun were both clean and tidy.

Gongsun rubbed his chin, "Hmm... strange."

Bai Chi felt the hair on the back of his neck, gathered his collar, and asked Gongsun, "So what was... screaming just now?"

Gongsun also felt puzzled, he clearly heard the sound came from the forensic room!

"Did someone just come by?" Gongsun asked the crowd.

Zhang Long shook his head, "It's unlikely. To enter and exit the forensic room, you must go through the main entrance of SCI. There are so many of us, there's no way we didn't see it. There's also the security device, now you have to swipe your card to exit the elevator."

“Hmm..." Gongsun thought about it, then went over to open the glass cabinet and took out the various and varied weird gifts inside, all collected for him by Bai Jintang from around the world, and looked at them. The screaming clock had no power and shouldn't be able to make a sound, the mechanical watch screamed like a skeleton, and the watch wasn't on... What could make a woman's scream?!

Gongsun looked up and down, left and right, and finally... the crowd all moved their realisations to the freezer.

"Ahem." Bai Chi asked Gongsun in a low voice, "Is there a woman in there...?"

Gongsun looked up and thought, "It's all men ah... Well, but it's not necessarily, oh, it might be transformed, it's said that that kind of thing is gender-neutral."

"What is gender-neutral ah?!" The crowd all looked nervously at Gongsun.

"Really?" Bai Chi actually believed in this. A while ago, he had been listening to ’The Crematorium Story’ in the middle of the night, which made him nervous. He couldn't sleep at night without Zhao Zhen around, but he was afraid and still loved to listen.

The crowd was moving a little closer to the freezer when suddenly they heard someone behind them ask, "What are you doing?"

"Ah!"

Bai Chi and others were concentrating on the freezer, and were startled, and hurriedly turned back...

Only to see Bai Jintang leaning against the door with his hands in his pockets, asking Gongsun, "Is this a new kind of entertainment?"

"Brother, when did you get here?" Bai Chi asked Bai Jintang, patting his chest.

"Just arrived." Bai Jintang asked Gongsun, "Want to go for dinner?"

"Well... I'll say hello to them first and see if anyone is unhappy with the beds." Gongsun joked and reached out to open the freezer, but just as he opened it a crack, all he could smell was a foul stench hitting his nose.

“Wu!" Bai Chi was still drinking the milkshake in his hand, and when he smelt it, he almost threw up, and he ran out the door, covering his mouth.

Zhang Long and the others felt that something was wrong, "What stinks so bad?!"

Gongsun frowned and ran to the side to get a deodorant mask and put it on, gesturing to the crowd to stand back, and very eccentrically threw one to Bai Jintang. The crowd looked at each other and Gongsun shrugged, "Just two."

The others had to cover their mouths and noses with their sleeves. 

Gongsun first turned on the exhaust fan and then opened the freezer once again, pulling out the drawer where the corpse was placed...

Just as the corpse was pulled out, a pus-like yellow liquid dripped out of the side of the drawer and fell to the floor.

Everyone couldn't help but cover their stomachs, and Bai Jintang looked in surprise at the thick, yellow paste that rolled to the floor.

When Gongsun noticed that the zip of the bag where the body was kept was actually open, he knew – someone must have moved the body! He and Ma Xin had a very good habit of zipping up corpses when they were put in!

Looking inside the body bag, the vaguely visible skeleton was covered in a pink and yellow sauce-like substance. Gongsun reached out and peeled the whole bag open, dumbfounded.

He saw that the corpse had melted away almost in its entirety, the originally intact body turned into bones with flesh attached, as well as a bag of sauce.

"It can't be..." Gongsun shook his head and ran to pull open several other drawers to look at them as well... only to see that the other two corpses had also turned into a slimy consistency, while the other corpses from cases sent in before were fine!

At that moment, a voice could be heard from outside, "Wow... what are you SCI doing, it stinks so bad?"

Gongsun and others all looked back and saw that it was a few police officers from the economic crime section downstairs, all of whom looked in curiously. The economic crime investigators are civilians who have never worked at the grassroots level, mostly dealing with computer data. With a glance at the bag of meat sauce... they all covered their mouths and ran to the bathroom to vomit, yelling at the same time, "Oh my God, what kind of psychopathic killers are you catching?!”

Bai Chi kindly took frozen milkshakes to the crowd, "You can take it to settle your mind."

The crowd took a look at their panicked thoughts about milkshakes, then covered their mouths and ran away, shouting "Pervert!"

Gongsun frowned, plugged the drains below the autopsy bed, opened the air vent, and beckoned to Qin Ou on the side, "Help me move the body over. "

Qin Ou was very calm, probably because he was in the explosive team and had seen too many people blown to pieces, so he didn't feel much. He came over and put on gloves, helping Gongsun to carry the body bag to the table. The other two bodies were carried by Zhang Long and Wang Chao. Bai Chi felt that he could not be looked down upon, but Bai Jintang reached out and tugged on his collar, "No need to force it, vomiting in the bag would be bad, you can't even tell the difference.”

Bai Chi immediately felt a pang of nausea. Looking up and seeing Bai Jintang's slightly wry smile, Bai Chi screamed in distress – Brother is so mean!

Gongsun made a gesture to Jiang Ping to make a phone call, "Call Xin Xin back and call Xiao Bai and Xiao Zhan."

"Oh, okay!" Jiang Ping hurriedly ran off to make the call.

Ma Xin was eating with Luo Tian, and when she saw Jiang Ping calling, she thought a new clue had appeared, but instead she heard the other end of the line commenting, “Lass! Something big has happened, Gongsun wants you to come back and help with the autopsy."

"There's a dead person?" Ma Xin frowned.

"No! Those three corpses you examined last time have turned into meat sauce!"

"Ha?!"

......

"What's wrong?" Luo Tian saw Ma Xin freeze on the spot.

"Uh..." Ma Xin looked aside at Luo Yang, who was eating noodles in meat sauce happily, and smiled, "You guys eat first, I'll rush back to help Gongsun."

"Oh, then let's take it back and eat..." Luo Tian said but he saw Ma Xin desperately making eyes and waving her hands, and he knew there was probably some disgusting corpse, so he nodded his head and waited for Luo Yang to finish his meal to send him to school first.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had just entered the hospital to prepare to see Lian Qianyi when they received a call from Jiang Ping.

"What?" Zhan Zhao froze for about half a minute after hearing the call before coming back to his senses, "How is that possible?"

"What's wrong?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

"Well, those few corpses turned into meat sauce." Zhan Zhao's face was all scrunched up, "That scene should be quite disgusting, forget it, let's look at it when we go back, let's go see Lian Qianyi first."

Bai Yutang nodded, wondering in his heart, could it be that someone had touched the corpse?

There were two police officers standing at Lian Qianyi's door, guarding it vigilantly. The door to the ward opened, and when Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked in, they saw Yang Fan examining Lian Qianyi's body. He looked much better, but his face was pale and his eyes were... how to say it, a little dull.

After Yang Fan saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, he greeted the two.

Bai Yutang nodded, and Zhan Zhao followed Yang Fan out to ask about his condition.

"It's fine, it's just a superficial injury." Yang Fan flipped through the examination records and told Zhan Zhao, "The injury is stable, you can ask your questions now."

"That..." Zhan Zhao stopped Yang Fan, who wanted to leave, and asked, "could he be poisoned or something?"

"Poisoned?" Yang Fan was stunned and touched his head, "What kind of poison? Do you have any clues? I'll check him again."

"Is there a poison that can turn a person into a puddle of meat sauce?" Zhan Zhao asked seriously.

"There is!" Yang Fan answered even more seriously, "Wei Xiaobao's corpse-melting powder and the fake empress dowager's bone-melting palm!"

Zhan Zhao looked at the sky and rolled his eyes, Yang Fan was even colder than Gongsun. He hurriedly stressed, "I mean it!"

"Well..." Yang Fan stopped joking, thought carefully, and said, "in fact, human flesh is not much different from a piece of pork, there are really many ways to make a piece of meat into meat sauce ah! For example, liposuction is the process of liquefying fat and then sucking it out!"

Yang Fan did a move that made the corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitch, "Can you do that with an injection?"

"Of course you can." Yang Fan patted Zhan Zhao's arm, "Just inject some strong oxidants, humans are quite fragile creatures"

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Then is it possible to inject it while the person is alive and then melt away when they die? Or have been dead for a long time?"

"Well..." Yang Fan shrugged, “you'll have to ask Gongsun about that, he's more proficient than me, but people have different constitutions, this method of poisoning is too complicated and completely unnecessary."

"That's true, then can you check Lian Qianyi again?" Zhan Zhao said seriously, "I'm afraid he's been poisoned or something!"

"No problem." Yang Fan nodded, "I'll arrange for a full physical examination and poison test for him!"

"Okay." Zhan Zhao nodded and thanked him, saying goodbye to Yang Fan and returning to the ward.

Bai Yutang had already sat down to chat with Lian Qianyi and was slightly puzzled when he saw Zhan Zhao had returned – What was he asking Yang Fan? It took that long?

Zhan Zhao winked at him, signalling – talk later.

Bai Yutang looked back at Lian Qianyi, "Do you know who wants to kill you?"

Lian Qianyi didn't say anything.

"You seem to have a lot of secrets." Zhan Zhao walked over and sat down, "Tell us about it."

Lian Qianyi closed his eyes slightly, seemingly not too eager to cooperate.

Zhan Zhao took out the bullet-pierced pendant that he had hung around his neck and gently shook it, "There are three more identical ones."

Lian Qianyi's eyebrows twitched gently, and Zhan Zhao understood – he, Ah Mao, and the other three were probably related.

"Not going to ask about your father and brother?" Zhan Zhao then asked, very patiently, as he had yet to figure out Lian Qianyi's situation.

Lian Qianyi opened his mouth unexpectedly, answering indifferently, even a little heartlessly, "It has nothing to do with me... how those people are, it has nothing to do with me. "

"So heartless?" Bai Yutang inexplicably felt that Lian Qianyi seemed a little different from his earlier personality.

"Just an unworthy descendant." Lian Qianyi sighed lightly, speaking in a tone that felt old-fashioned.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance, this kid was speaking in a strange tone, could he really have memories of the past and think that he had lived for hundreds of years?

Bai Yutang didn't know how to describe this situation, so he said, "We know that you once had a disease..."

"It's not me who has the disease, it's you people." Lian Qianyi sneered, "The past that none of you know, the things that none of you have experienced... I know that you are just shallow people, live long enough to know that this world is full of lies and nothing can be trusted."

Zhan Zhao reached out and gently rubbed his chin, moving over to take a closer look at Lian Qianyi.

"Cat?" Bai Yutang looked at him in confusion.

"Well..." Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, “you seem to have changed a lot above your personality from the Lian Qianyi we rescued that day!"

Lian Qianyi was stunned for a moment, and Bai Yutang was thinking about it... sure enough!

Zhan Zhao observed his demeanour again and suddenly smiled, "Well... when the previous doctor said you were sick, did he say you might have a split personality?"

Lian Qianyi frowned, "I told you, I'm not sick at all."

"Drunk people always say they're not drunk." Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, "In fact, did you know that there are some people who, once they split their two personalities, can retain their memories of each other?"

Lian Qianyi was stunned.

"Let's say you are normal, but that split brother is not quite normal and thinks he is Li Lianying, you will also retain the memory of you being Li Lianying. In this world, there are many kinds of subtle changes that happen in the brain that can affect your whole thinking system, but you don't know it yourself."

"You need to cut the nonsense..." Lian Qianyi frowned, seemingly displeased with Zhan Zhao.

Bai Yutang could see some clues from the side... He remembered that Lian Qianyi had Zhan Zhao's psychology books in his car, and the Lian family had said that Lian Qianyi was a big fan of Zhan Zhao, so he should be excited to see his idol, right? Why is he so unkind...

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly and gave a wink to Bai Yutang, telling him to look at Lian Qianyi's chest. 

Bai Yutang understood, could it be that Lian Qianyi's transformation point was pain? Thinking of this, he raised his hand and gently tapped on Lian Qianyi's injured ribs.

"Ah..." Lian Qianyi shouted miserably, and Zhan Zhao hurriedly closed the door so that no one would find out that they were ‘abusing' the patient.

"Hiss..." Lian Qianyi drew cold breath one after another, looking at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang in disbelief, "You… you two..." He suddenly turned his face aside, and only after a long time did he slowly turn back.

At this time, Lian Qianyi’s expression suddenly changed as he looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, his whole person changed from being sharp just now to being timid, "You..."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao – Is it really a split?

Zhan Zhao did not say anything, he just stared at Lian Qianyi's eyes with deep meaning, and only after a long time did he say, "You have indeed read my book very carefully,"

Lian Qianyi was stunned.

Zhan Zhao spoke slowly and deliberately, "You acted very well, but you didn't have enough skill."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly – Pretending?

Lian Qianyi looked at Zhan Zhao blankly.

"You chose the wrong transformation point. If the split personalities have strengths and weaknesses, then when it comes to danger, the one that comes out will definitely be the stronger one!" Zhan Zhao smiled, "You are trying to use the split personality to cover up your special characteristics, right? Don't worry, although I am a psychologist, I believe in science, as long as the theoretical explanation is thorough, it is absolutely possible for it to exist in objective reality.”

A hint of something strange flashed in Lian Qianyi's eyes.

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao nodded, "Sure enough, I guessed right."

Lian Qianyi took a deep breath and smiled a little helplessly, "Sure enough, no one can fool you."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

As I mentioned on the Case 4 chapter this week, there won't be any chapters next week, as my parents are in town for my graduation.

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

Translated: May 29, 2022 by Angel