S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 108

Mad Doctor Murderer 03 – Subtle Connections

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What Gongsun brought was a partial autopsy report of that artwork corpse, which was several pages thick, and it was the result of the DNA extracted from the skin by Ma Xin for identity verification.

The patchwork skin on the surface of the corpse was compared and confirmed to have come from different people... The key problem was that those people did not have any information recorded and could not be identified.

Zhan Zhao frowned after reading the information, "In other words, these people are not dead, not reported missing, and there are no relatives looking for them?"

Gongsun nodded, "But don't look at the skin on the body, it's just skin, it's quite large and it's a complete skin, once a living person removes such a large piece of skin, it's impossible for it to heal on its own without seeking medical attention. Xin Xin and I have checked a lot of medical records, and there are no recent records of such patients being admitted to major hospitals in S City."

"Can't find out the identity, not even the medical records... Then where did that much skin come from?” Zhan Zhao frowned, "That's interesting, where are the eyes?"

Gongsun shook his head, “Xin Xin even checked the hair, it's quite a huge project to determine exactly how many human body parts it's made up of, because it was just discovered that the hair is all different!"

"Could it be someone with no relatives?" Luo Tian asked, "A vagrant with no relatives or friends or something, as long as the corpse is disposed of properly, the death would be unnoticeable!"

"Could it be possible that it was taken from someone who died of natural causes?” Zhan Zhao began to use his extraordinary imagination, which he had honed by watching horror films regularly, "Like funeral parlour staff, mortuary make-up artists, crematorium keepers?"

The crowd all looked at him with admiration.

Bai Yutang, however, shook his head, "It's a serial murder case all right." Saying that, he turned the autopsy report to the last page and showed it to Zhan Zhao and the others, “Look at what was written here, 'The epidermis is free of any decay, first embalming treatment, no corpse spots'."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "If it was a funeral home or crematorium… it indeed would have been refrigerated first, and some would have even been left for a few days, it would have been difficult for the skin not to decay and not be destroyed, there would have at least been corpse spots."

"The absence of corpse spots can only mean that the skin was cut off directly after the person died, or that the skin was cut off while they were alive.” Gongsun shrugged slightly, "You could indeed start looking into the murder to see if anyone has been lost recently."

"There's a lot of investigative work involved here." Bai Yutang frowned at Gongsun, "And it's not 100% certain that it's a serial murder, so I guess Bao Sir won't let us investigate."

Gongsun's eyebrows knitted together – not happy!

Zhan Zhao winked at Bai Yutang – Gongsun wanted to meet the person who had made the corpse, right?

The crowd held back their laughter.

Bai Yutang thought about it and handed the information to Jiang Ping, "To be honest, I also have some special feelings about this case, it might not be that simple, try to find out more clues!"

"Yes!" Jiang Ping took the information and started to think of all the ways to find clues.

The others remained idle in the absence of clues.

Bai Yutang went to dinner with Zhan Zhao, but just as he reached the elevator, his phone rang.

When he picked it up, it was Bai Jintang calling. "Brother?"

"Are you free?" Bai Jintang asked on the other side.

"What is it?" Bai Yutang wondered.

"Something's happened."

Bai Jintang said one sentence and Bai Yutang just frowned, “Uh, you mean that star named Qin Tian who died?"

Bai Jintang was silent for that moment, "No, it's another one."

"Another?! Brother, do you really want to go and pay your respects!" Bai Yutang shook his head with emotion and sighed, and Zhan Zhao came over, "What's wrong? Another death?"

"Who's dead this time?" Bai Yutang asked him with a sigh.

"It isn't a death." Bai Jintang said, "The situation is a bit complicated, so come and deal with it when you're free, and bring Xiao Zhao with you."

"Oh?" Bai Yutang was puzzled, and after looking at Zhan Zhao, he went downstairs with him.

The two of them drove to the Bai office building and saw Da Ding and Xiao Ding standing at the entrance, waving at the two of them.

Bai Yutang parked the car in front of the building and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Ding thought for a moment and said mysteriously, "A very, very bizarre thing!"

Zhan Zhao looked at the sky, "Can you two stop selling the story? What's going on?"

The twins took the two of them up to the top floor together and opened the door to the office, where they saw Bai Jintang sitting at his desk reading papers with several stern-looking men in black beside him. These men, whom Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both knew, were Bai Jintang's bodyguards and would normally be responsible for protecting Gongsun.

"Brother?" Bai Yutang looked at Bai Jintang in confusion, and saw him nudging his mouth across the room, gesturing for them to look at the sofa by the door.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang faintly froze and turned their faces to look over, and saw a person sitting on the sofa against the door.

The man was pale, thin and in poor spirits, dressed in black, sitting on the sofa with his hands clenched in fists, staring straight ahead.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao would never have known this man originally, but they happened to have watched a film starring Qin Tian just now, so they had a strong impression of him.

This man was the other actor who had acted with Qin Tian in that horror film 《Mad Doctor Town》 back then, Cen Yi.

Cen Yi's mental state aroused Zhan Zhao's suspicion.

Bai Yutang walked over to Bai Jintang and asked, "What's he doing?"

"Half a month ago, Cen Yi claimed that he might be receiving death threats, so I offered him protection." Bai Jintang said, "But half a month has passed and he's fine, but Qin Tian is dead. Just now, he came over to me and said he was definitely the next to die. He and Qin Tian are both actors in my company and normally have some personal friendship, so they both may have run into some kind of trouble."

"Oh... because he’s a public figure and you're afraid of drawing hype or something, aren't you?" Zhan Zhao asked.

“En." Bai Jintang nodded, "The point is that when I ask him anything, he can't say a word and reacts strangely, so I want Xiao Zhao to see if he's sick."

Zhan Zhao walked over to Cen Yi, who looked more like he had lost control of his emotions due to over-stress and fatigue, and asked him, "Cen Yi, we are the police, who wants to kill you?”

"If you can't run away, you can't run away for the rest of your life!" Cen Yi was talking to himself there.

This line sounded familiar to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. They had just watched the movie 《Mad Doctor Town》 starring Cen Yi and Qin Tian, in which Cen Yi portrayed a village doctor and had this line.

"Cen Yi?" Xiao Ding went to pat him, “Oh, get your soul back."

But Cen Yi shook his head and said to himself, "Xiao Liu, they will kill us in a moment, you go first!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, a little speechless, it was another movie line! Xiao Liu was the teacher played by Qin Tian.

Bai Jintang looked at a bodyguard who was shadowing him and nodded to him.

That bodyguard then came to explain the situation to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, "We've been following him for a few days now, and this often happens to him, like he can't get out when he enters the character he once was."

Zhan Zhao thought about it and asked Bai Yutang, "What was the name of his character in Mad Doctor Town?"

"It seems that they all called him Doctor Wang." Bai Yutang replied.

As soon as the name ‘Doctor Wang’ was uttered, they saw Cen Yi look up at the two of them, seemingly reacting.

The two of them looked at each other, unable to laugh or cry. Was this Cen Yi too deep into the drama, or was he not quite normal?

However, a question arose for Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang – Why did this happen after Bai Chi watched that movie? Although it wasn't Mad Doctor Town that Bai Chi watched, the packaging of the disc was! And the contents seemed to be inextricably linked. Cen Yi and Qin Tian were the parties involved again... Was it just a mere coincidence? If not coincidence, then where did this go wrong?

"Doctor Wang," Zhan Zhao padded over and asked Cen Yi, "who is after you?"

Cen Yi stared at Zhan Zhao for a long time, then suddenly frowned and slapped his head. Afterwards, as if he had woken up from a nap, he gently rubbed his hands over his eyes, "Hmm..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, and the twins peered over, “Oh, Cen Yi, are you okay?"

Putting his hands down, Cen Yi looked at the crowd and shook his head, "Yes..."

"What were you doing?" The twins wondered.

"I... might have been a little overwhelmed by Qin Tian's death." Cen Yi frowned, looking very tired.

The crowd looked at each other – what kind of tricks was this kid playing?

Zhan Zhao smiled, "So are you okay now?"

"I'm fine." Cen Yi shook his head and stood up, "I'd better go first." After saying that, he turned around and walked away.

Everyone in the room stared blankly.

Bai Jintang lit up a cigarette, and the bodyguards reacted by rushing out after him to protect him.

The twins asked Bai Jintang with a start, "Aiya boss, it’s so scary!"

"Is he sick?"

Bai Jintang asked Zhan Zhao with a cigarette in his mouth, "What's going on? Is he sick or not sick?"

"Not sick." Zhan Zhao shrugged his shoulders slightly.

Bai Yutang nodded, "I think so too!"

"Then what is it?" Bai Jintang raised his head and looked at the two, "Was it deliberate?"

"He probably just wanted to contact us and bring this case to our attention, but didn't want to draw too much attention to it." Bai Yutang rubbed his chin.

"Indeed, and the breaking point would have been when he came to you, that is, half a month ago." Zhan Zhao smiled.

The twins pondered for a moment and understood, "In that case, Cen Yi came to us half a month ago after sensing some danger that might endanger his and Qin Tian's lives. Now that Qin Tian is dead, he feels even more insecure, so he approached you guys, without making a big deal out of it, to directly alert you to investigate this case! Qin Tian's death is not simple?"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both nodded, "That's the only explanation!"

After that, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang wanted to go back, but were pulled by the twins and taken to dinner.

The Bai building was very big, and the two were taken by Da Ding and Xiao Ding to the canteen of the acting company, where it was said that the food was the best and you could see beautiful people while eating. It's a pity that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang are not very sensitive to entertainment and fashion, so even if a star really appeared in front of them, they would not be able to recognize them.

The four of them sat down to eat, and although Zhan Zhao did not recognise them, he still looked around rather curiously.

At this time, four people walked in the door.

The two girls in front of them were familiar to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang: Qi Le, who had just left the police station, and Chen Yu, who had not been seen for a long time. In addition, there were two boys behind them, one handsome and spiky and the other tall with long hair and braids. This was Qi Le and their band.

Qi Le and Chen Yu came running over with their food in their hands. The two older boys behind them knew that these two were police officers and that they were colleagues of Qi Le's boyfriend, but they were not familiar with them, so they followed them and sat down.

Naturally, most people in a band have personalities. The hedgehog was the guitarist, a bit quirky and seemed to be a very lively person, and the big, tall guy was the bassist, cool and didn't talk.

"Where's Huzi?" Bai Yutang saw Qi Le alone and couldn't help but ask.

"Went back!" Qi Le pouted, “Elm head!” (Angel: Elm head is an idiom used to describe someone who is stubborn, uncivilised, or unenlightened.)

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang laughed. Seeing that Chen Yu had called her grandfather on time before dinner to tell him not to forget to take his medicine, they asked, "How is Grandpa? By the way, where is your brother?"

Since the last case, Chen Mi's identity had become somewhat sensitive, how could the son of Bonnie and Clyde be a police officer? In addition, he had received some criticism for acting privately. Although Bao Zheng would have liked to keep him, Chen Mi did not want to make things difficult for his colleagues in the department. In addition, Qin Ou also went back to work at the police station, and with the so-called see you up, see you down, he simply resigned. (Angel: See you up, see you down is an idiom that describes frequent encounters.)

"Grandpa is still like that, but now that he has Brother to play chess with, he doesn't have to go to the park every day." Chen Yu smiled and said, "Brother is also very good, very filial to grandpa and loves me, and his business is also very good."

"Doing business?" Bai Yutang was curious, what kind of business would the original bomb disposal unit master do if he changed his profession.

"Targeted demolition." At Chen Yu's words, Zhan Zhao coughed and gave a thumbs up, "Good job!"

The twins introduced the two boys in the band to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. The hedgehog head was called Chen Kefeng and the taller one was a half-breed with no Chinese name, everyone called him Kevin. He didn't speak Chinese very well, so he didn't speak.

Qi Le and their band were very popular and have a great future.

Hedgehog Chen Kefeng looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang and asked Zhan Zhao, "You're the magical psychologist?"

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows slightly, waiting for him to say something.

"I've heard that you can tell what people are thinking just by looking at them, right?" Chen Kefeng leaned over the table and asked Zhan Zhao with a smile, "Then what do I want to do next, tell me."

Zhan Zhao blinked as he held his coffee, and Chen Yu kicked Chen Kefeng.

Chen Kefeng rubbed his knee, a little unconvinced.

Zhan Zhao put down his cup, smiled, and said, "You want to ask Chen Yu to go see a movie tonight, a movie that you recently made a cameo in, where you showed your love for her, and then you're going to show your love again during the viewing, creating a romantic opportunity so that your courtship will be successful."

"Pfft..."

It was Chen Kefeng who sprayed tea, while to the side, Kevin's mouth fell wide open and Qi Le pounded the table with laughter.

Chen Yu had a red face.

Chen Kefeng took a napkin to wipe his mouth, as if he was a bit shocked, and looked at Zhan Zhao, "You... how do you know?"

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow again, "Do you want to know how many times you can succeed?"

Chen Kefeng was surprised for a moment, and Chen Yu gave him a fierce glare. Chen Kefeng scratched his head and wanted to pursue the question, but Chen Yu ran away with her sandwich, and he hurriedly chased after her.

Bai Yutang looked at the backs of the two and asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat, how do you know?"

Zhan Zhao touched the bottom of his butt, took out a gossip magazine and put it on the table, "I just read it while waiting for the food, gossip magazines are very powerful."

The crowd couldn't help but twitch the corners of their mouths.

They were laughing and joking when suddenly, a commotion was heard outside, followed by Chen Yu's screams.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both shocked when they heard the scream, wondering if Chen Yu and Qi Le were possessed by the god of misfortune or if they were under an evil spell. Why is there always something going on?!

Everyone rushed outside and pushed through the crowd to see Chen Yu sitting on the ground and Chen Kefeng lying on the side with a crossbow arrow stuck in his chest. The arrow had been shot in the left side of his chest, and it was not clear whether it had injured his heart, but he was already unconscious.

Zhan Zhao had called the police and an ambulance, and Bai Yutang asked Chen Yu, who was in a state of shock, "What's going on?"

Chen Yu came back to her senses, "A woman, a woman just shot him, she was probably a doctor, wearing a white coat with a stethoscope and holding a crossbow!" As she said that, she pointed to the end of the corridor in front of her, "She turned left and went out!"

‿︵‿︵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 12, 2022 by Angel

Edited: September 6, 2022 by Angel