S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 91

The Murderer Is Not Human 23 – The Oriole in the Back

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After taking a break and returning to the SCI office, the group experienced what it meant to be in a state of rapid change. Just yesterday, the case was still confusing, but 24 hours later, they found out that the case was close to being solved.

As soon as the group sat down in the conference room, Lu Fang brought news: "Xiao Zhan, you really got it right."

"How is it?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Just as you said, Lu Yan, Qu Yanming, Zhou Lu, and Qiu Yu all filed lawsuits, indicating that they were instructed and confused by Shang Luo, and although these few people were involved in the case, they were all considered attempts, so apart from Qu Yanming who injured Xiao Zhan, the others have all been released on bail."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "What about the two in the hospital?"

"They both still don't know that Shang Luo is dead, and have been under confinement for the past few days, according to your instructions." Lu Fang continued, "Also, Akasha had no knowledge of the forged Tu Xi civilisation, but is suspected of fraud and has been charged."

"The surveillance on Feng Jie can also be lifted." Bai Yutang added, "Now that the truth is out, there is no longer a reason for special protection."

Zhao Hu was puzzled and looked at Zhan Zhao and then at Bai Yutang, "Head, they've all been released, so where is the secret line?"

"Don't worry, we'll find out once it gets dark." Zhan Zhao smiled faintly.

Afterwards, Bai Yutang made a certain arrangement, and the crowd took their orders and left.

At 9:30 pm, S City Hospital.

A dark shadow slipped into the special ward at the back of the inpatient department.

In the special ward's duty room, Ma Xin put down her newspaper and stood up. She went downstairs, walked into an office, and closed the door.

"That's all?" Ma Xin asked Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao who were waiting in the office.

"That's good." Zhan Zhao replied as he stared at the display on his desk. This office had been converted into a surveillance room, and Jiang Ping had installed cameras in the duty room.

"Is the medicine all ready?" Bai Yutang asked Ma Xin.

"It's all set." Ma Xin pointed to the medicine on the display, which was on a metal tray on the duty room table, "According to what you have asked me to do, I came to this duty room at this time every day for half an hour, and when I left after half an hour, I took the medicine to the two people's rooms and pretended to give it to them."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "That's enough."

Bai Chi listened in disbelief to the side, "Brother, why do you have to do this?"

Zhan Zhao gently tapped his chin and asked him rhetorically, "After Shang Luo's death, everyone else can get off, except for these two, it is almost impossible for them to get off. Even if it is proven that they are insane, they killed several police officers. If you were them and you had accomplices, what would you do?"

Bai Chi faintly stared, “... I would have given up all of my companions to reduce my own sentence."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "So, those accomplices would definitely find a way to dispose of them."

"Dispose of?" Bai Chi thought for a moment, "Oh, I see, those two convicts have special police officers watching them, it's not easy to kill them, so the murderer will definitely come to observe. Therefore, we deliberately let him find out that Ma Xin has this habit of walking away for a while at this time every day, and when she returns, she will go to deliver medicine to the prisoners."

"Right, so this is the best time to get your hands on the drugs." Bai Yutang pointed at the screen and said, "Here it comes."

The crowd gathered around and saw the screen clearly showing a man entering the duty room. He quickly switched a few of those drugs and then left in a hurry.

"How could it be him?" Bai Chi was surprised.

"Heh..." Bai Yutang sneered, looked at his watch, and said to Ma Xin, "It's almost time."

Ma Xin quickly went out the door and returned to the duty room, humming a little tune as usual, and went off with the metal tray to deliver the medicine.

The man who had been snooping around hidden in the stairwell had a small smile on his lips as he turned to leave.

"The target is out." Bai Yutang picked up the walkie-talkie and said to the crowd guarding the hospital entrance, "Everyone take turns watching him from now on, find his lair for me."

After Ma Xin brought the medicine into the prisoner's room, however, it wasn't the prisoner waiting inside, but rather the officers from the forensic section, who took the medicine, collected the evidence, and rushed back to SCI. A few moments later, they received a call from Gongsun who said that the medicine contained high levels of methylmercury in its composition. Methylmercury can affect human brain cells and severely damage a person's nervous system, and can lead to mental disorders and even insanity leading to death.

After listening to Gongsun's account, Zhan Zhao turned off the speakerphone button on the phone and looked up to a shocked Xu Yadong and said, "Well? Do you still not want to talk about it?"

Xu Yadong had just watched the surveillance footage of the drugs being poisoned in the duty room, and having heard Gongsun's phone call, he let out a long sigh and said, "I'll talk..."

Zhan Zhao came out of the room, and a police officer escorted Xu Yadong away. At the same time, Bai Yutang also came out of the other room. The two exchanged gains and found that Xu Yadong and Wu Kai had given the same account - neither of them had lied.

Bai Yutang rubbed his eyebrows, "Although I was prepared for this, hearing it in person is still a bit unbelievable."

"Still, once all impossibilities have been eliminated, then what remains, no matter how unbelievable, is still the truth." Zhan Zhao stuck his hands in his pockets, "Your favourite, Sherlock Holmes said that."

Bai Yutang had a disapproving look on his face, "Cat, you remember wrongly, my favourite is not Sherlock Holmes."

Zhan Zhao was taken aback, "Haven't you loved Sherlock Holmes the most since you were a child? When did it change?"

"Cat, you have a poor memory." Bai Yutang came up to his ear and said, "My favorite is you."

... Zhan Zhao blushed, not knowing what to say, and glared at him, "Let's go, it's time to close the net."

Bai Yutang followed, and the two of them were just about to go out when Ma Xin, who had hurriedly arrived, grabbed them, "Don't forget what you promised me."

"Don't worry!" Bai Yutang said, "In a week? The case will be closed tomorrow and I will send Ma Han to you right away."

"Thank you~~" Ma Xin ran off happily.

After the two of them left, they received a call from Zhao Hu saying that they had locked in their target. Bai Yutang asked for the address and drove Zhan Zhao there with him - the final closing of the net.

In an apartment building in a neighbourhood in S City, in room 212, there were several people celebrating, clinking glasses of wine and greeting each other as if there was some kind of happy occasion.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. One of them went to open it and froze when he saw the crowd at the door.

“What's the matter everyone?" Bai Yutang took the lead and walked in, asking the few people in the room, "What's going on, so happy?"

Following behind Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao and all the SCI police officers walked in.

There was champagne and food on the table, the floor was a mess, and the walls were covered with posters and posters about the Tu Xi civilisation, similar to some kind of religious gathering.

There were six people in the room: Feng Jie, Lu Yan, Qiu Yu, Zhou Lu, and two of Mo Ning's students.

When the six of them saw the large number of police barging in, their faces paled a little, but then they calmed down. Lu Yan asked, "What are the officers here for? It's not a crime to have a party, is it?!"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "It's not a crime to have a party, but it's strange that all of you know each other."

"We know each other from work, what's wrong with that?" Qiu Yu said.

"Are you guys celebrating the death of everyone who knew?" Bai Yutang smiled slightly, "Don't get too happy yet, I want you to meet two people." With that, he waved to the door and two officers escorted Xu Yadong and Wu Kai in.

Upon seeing the two men, the crowd visibly froze, and then they all paled.

"Let's talk about the truth." Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, "First of all, the one who killed Carlos was Feng Jie."

"You're talking nonsense!" Feng Jie got agitated, and Zhao Hu next to him glared at him, "What are you yelling about?"

"Xu Yadong and Wu Kai are in charge of the patrol area, which happens to be near the scrap car factory." Bai Yutang followed Zhan Zhao's words, "It should be that they happened to run into you killing someone and took the opportunity to extort money from you… We've checked, and the two of them had a large amount of extra money in their accounts, all transferred through your account. What’s even more interesting is that the two of them later gave their boss who they shot dead, Luo Peng, a sum of money, which it seems was discovered by his boss... and was then blackmailed just the same."

"If Luo Peng alone was killed, it might have aroused suspicion." Zhan Zhao said, "So you simply pretended to be crazy, and you presumably promised that you could get them both out in the end... In fact, you wanted to get rid of them both from the start."

Seeing Feng Jie lower his head, Bai Yutang said in a cold voice: "We have done our investigation, you are not at all as simple as a small security guard in Shang Luo's company. On the contrary, Shang Luo trusts you very much, after his death, the company will be left aside for now, but all Shang Luo's business in the underworld will be taken over by you."

"As for the others..." Zhan Zhao scanned the crowd, "Lu Yan, you were not only Carlos' secretary, you were also his mistress, helping him to take charge of a large amount of overseas assets. Once he dies, those properties would be yours. You and Feng Jie conspired to kill him and create the illusion of a box corpse chamber ~~ and it was this case that made Shang Luo think of using the mystery of forging the Tu Xi civilization to make their fake box corpse appreciate rapidly... which, I guess, was also something you reminded him of, Feng Jie."

"Your situation is similar." Bai Yutang pointed to Qiu Yu: "Originally, you wanted to kill Fu Yishan and embezzle his property, however, the plan was disrupted by us and did not succeed. Later, you went to assassinate Shang Luo because you were really greedy and also wanted to take over Shang Luo's box corpse business that they had been running."

"The two students of Mo Ning... you have been under Mo Ning's control, helping her paint, yet signing her name to your work. And Zhou Lu... who originally seemed the most inconspicuous, in fact, you are a freelance writer... who was the ghostwriter that Xiao Lu, the first writer to die, had been using, and you created a novel that she took and published, simply because she was more famous than you." After saying that, Zhan Zhao shook his head, "You all have an insatiable and ruthless boss. But what they didn't expect was that you guys, who they have been grooming, or have been oppressing, are even more insatiable and ruthless than them. They made a play to create a Tu Xi civilisation, and you made a play to make a Tu Xi civilisation to control them."

"Morris coincidentally killed Tanaka for similar reasons to yours, and you guys were afraid that he would interfere with the plan, so you tried to kill him and destroy Tanaka's studio in the process." Bai Yutang looked at the crowd, "In fact, you are the real Tu Xi, a cloak, a mask, plus a voice changer. You took turns pretending to be Tu Xi to deceive Shang Luo and the others, so that they developed a plan to earn money by forging the Tu Xi civilization, and when they succeeded, you then killed them and seized the results, to take a magpie's nest and sit back and enjoy the benefits... really clever!"

"It's just a pity that human calculations are not as good as heaven's." Zhan Zhao smiled, "These two little cops and Morris who suddenly appeared have disrupted your plans."

The crowd bowed their heads, there was nothing more to say, their dreams had gone down the drain and they were waiting for a prison sentence.

Bai Yutang ordered, "Take them all back." The officers handcuffed the six men and escorted them back to the police station.

Carlos, Mo Ning, and Xiao Lu, the three murders were solved in one go, and the case was now completely clear.

After Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao left, they called over the SCI team and said, "Everyone go back and deal with the aftermath. Ma Han, you stay here, the rest of the team go!"

"Chief, what is it?” Ma Han wondered.

"Well~~" Bai Yutang looked back at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao gave Ma Han a ticket and said, "This ticket is for tomorrow morning at 8am to W Island. When you get on the plane, protect the important person sitting next to you, her trip is about a week long, you have to protect her the whole time, without leaving an inch."Ma Han took the ticket and was a little confused, "What big shot?"

"Cough..." Bai Yutang coughed and spoke seriously to Ma Han, "Remember, you accompany her properly on this trip for a week, no returning early. If I find out that you left halfway or didn't do your duty, I'll kick you out of the team!"

Ma Han gulped and nodded, "I understand~~"

"Alright, go home and pack your things." Afterwards, Bai Yutang waved his hand.

After the crowd had withdrawn, leaving Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang alone, the smile on their faces gradually faded away. Bai Yutang turned back to Zhan Zhao, "Cat, are you going there next?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "There are some things that I want to confirm."

Afterwards, Bai Yutang drove the car and drove Zhan Zhao to the prison in S City. Once again, the two of them arrived at the special cell.

The prison guards brought out Qu Yanming, who, compared to his previous tightly closed mouth with a dishevelled face, now looked calm and unusual. When he saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, Qu Yanming smiled faintly and did not speak, waiting for the two to speak.

"You already knew the truth about this case but didn't say anything. You ran off to kill Akasha and deliberately didn't succeed in order to just disrupt the case and give us clues and watch the group continue." Zhan Zhao asked him, "Why did you do that?!"

Qu Yanming raised his eyebrows slightly and said softly, "Everyone has to face his own life and everything that life brings to him."

Zhan Zhao stared at him for a moment, "Is this your philosophy of life, your motto, or something else?"

"It's the law~~" Qu Yanming smiled faintly, reaching up to press his index finger to his lips and whispered, "The law that people, always, have to follow."

..................

"Cat, wait a minute!" At the entrance to the prison, Bai Yutang chased after Zhan Zhao and stopped him from rushing outside, "It's not certain that this has anything to do with Zhao Jue."

"It has nothing to do with him!" Zhan Zhao controlled his emotions, "But Qu Yanming is a follower of Zhao Jue! He's using those theories of his to create more lunatics!"

"I'll take you there, so don't rampage." Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao into the car, started it up, and drove towards Zhao Jue's gallery in the city centre. After the car drove for a while, Zhan Zhao slowly calmed down. Bai Yutang smiled slightly and asked, "Cat, are you angry that Zhao Jue's theories have harmed people, or are you angry that he has provoked you again?"

Zhan Zhao did not make a sound, but his face was a little red. Bai Yutang laughed: "Is this considered a competition between geniuses~~"

The two of them arrived at the gallery, and when they walked in, they were stunned to see that the decoration of the gallery had changed, but the Italian boy named Andy was still in charge of the gallery.

"Where's Zhao Jue?" Bai Yutang asked him.

"Who's Zhao Jue?" Andy wondered.

The two men looked at each other with a bad feeling

Bai Yutang walked to the second floor of the gallery to check, and sure enough, the upstairs had been packed away, as if Zhao Jue had never existed.

Zhan Zhao stood alone in the middle of the gallery, looking around at the paintings on the wall. Andy suddenly stared at him. Zhan Zhao noticed his gaze and asked, "Do you have something to say to me?"

Andy was a little confused, "I've never seen you before, but after seeing you I suddenly wanted to say something, something I really wanted to say..."

Zhan Zhao nodded: "Go ahead."

Andy's expression suddenly became strange. He smiled slightly and said to Zhan Zhao, "Do you know that once the most precious thing is taken away from you, even the most powerful person will go crazy..." After he finished, he looked up at Bai Yutang upstairs.

"... Huh?" After Andy finished speaking, he rubbed his head and asked Zhan Zhao in confusion, "What did I just say?"

Zhan Zhao gently patted Andy's shoulder and whispered something to him, and Andy's eyes gradually drifted away. Zhan Zhao stared into his eyes and said in a cold voice, "You tell him that if he dares to touch my most precious thing, he should know the consequences. I am the same as him in essence, and the fact that he has survived until now proves that he also has his most precious thing."

After saying this, he walked over and pulled Bai Yutang, who was walking down from the stairs, out of the gallery with quick steps.

Standing in the downtown area at midnight, looking out at the surging tide of people, one could see the flashing neon of the commercial street nearby, the tall buildings towering in the distance, the barrier lights on top of the buildings glowing blood red, reflecting in the night sky covered with stars, looking a bit resigned... Zhan Zhao subconsciously held onto Bai Yutang's hand, feeling the warmth coming from his palm... The man seemed to sense his uneasiness, gently rubbing the back of his hand with his fingers, as if in a comforting manner ~~ Eventually, peace returned to his heart once again. Zhan Zhao took a deep breath, turned back, saw that Bai Yutang was looking at him with a smile on his face, and came over and said: "Cat, it's over. Let’s go home, tomorrow is a new beginning."

..............................

At noon the next day, the car that was escorting Taber mysteriously disappeared, and Taber was nowhere to be found.

S.C.I., the mystery continues…

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: September 6, 2022 by Angel

Edited: September 8, 2022 by Angel