S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 117

Mad Doctor Murderer 12 – Warning

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Chen Yin grabbed a grass snake and flicked its head with his fingertips. The snake curled up quietly on his arm and seemed very obedient.

"This snake can help me find the place." Chen Yin said.

"With a dead snake, it should be possible to find out from the composition of the food in their stomach and the isotopes accumulated from the growth process in their scales, which will confirm what kind of environment it once lived in, and thus help find the place." Gongsun analysed from a forensic perspective.

"Well, it doesn't really need to be this complicated, you guys got lucky." Chen Yin said, holding up the snake and showing it to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "This one is commonly known as the flower grass snake in folklore, different from all other kinds of snakes!" 

"You just said that those snakes are all from the tropics. This snake is indeed a bit more spiritual than the others!" Zhan Zhao nodded back, "If you don't pay attention, you really can't tell."

"Snakes are amazing animals, they are good at camouflage and adapting to the environment they live in. Grass flower snakes are mostly born in mountainous areas, and are one of the few types of snakes found locally in S City." Chen Yin smiled, "The local grass flower snakes will only be found in one place, I did a study when I was leading students before, the area around the Wild Tea Forest in Qingshan!"

"Wild Tea Forest?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned.

"Hmm." Chen Yin nodded, "The mountains around Qingshan in S City are rather treacherous and not a tourist area. It's very cheap to buy and sell forestry up there, a lot of it has already been sold, and there's a hillside where a lot of wild tea grows."

"Oh!" The crowd suddenly all felt as if they weren't from S City anymore, this was the first time they had heard that there was such a place.

"There are still wild tea leaves ah..." Bai Jintang muttered to himself.

"In the past few years, picking wild tea leaves has become very popular. Many people pay high prices for wild tea leaves to drink, and some people are excited to go up to the mountains to pick them themselves." Chen Yin said, "Therefore there were several incidents of tea pickers being bitten before, and the Mountain Forestry Administration in Qingshan asked people from our research institute to go and study it, just in case there were poisonous snakes living there. Then... we had found the exact same grass flower snake there."

"Then let's see if it has tea leaves in its stomach..." Xiao Ding clapped his hands and Da Ding kicked him, "How can a snake eat tea leaves?!"

"That's true...” Xiao Ding rubbed his head.

"Grass flower snakes feed on rats and frogs, regardless of whether they eat tea or not. There are general differences in the morphology of each snake due to the changes in their living environment."

Everyone shook their heads, isn't a snake just a snake? What's the difference?!

Chen Yin looked at the sky, "So that is why I said you guys got lucky, look!"

As he said that, he showed the crowd the tail of the snake, and they saw that a small peg-like thing was sticking out.

"What's this?" Bai Yutang moved over to look at it.

"A tracker we installed when we were doing research." Chen Yin smiled, "Good luck, right?"

The crowd was glad as well – what a stroke of luck!

"We released a total of ten snakes at the time, and each one had a tracker." Chen Yin said, calling his assistant and asking him to bring the car over, which contained the equipment for their field research. The tracker would clearly record the snake's number and characteristics, as well as the places it had been.

"What a big help!" Bai Yutang couldn't help but exclaim.

"Don't mention it." Chen Yin said, but his mood was downcast.

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Oh, Qingshan is somewhat elevated and the mountains are colder, so there might actually be a large gathering of snakes." Chen Yin said with a slight nagging feeling.

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao was surprised, "Didn't you just say that snakes wouldn't live in groups?"

"But they will collectively find a warm place to hibernate, just like keeping each other warm." Chen Yin smiled, "It doesn't matter because they are all hibernating, this is more likely to be seen in high mountain areas. I just want you to be mentally prepared, after all, such a large number of snakes..." Saying that, he reached out and patted the bucket containing the snakes. "of completely different species, are definitely raised by humans, and whoever is keeping that many snakes needs considerable expertise!"

"You suspect that whoever did this is an animal researcher like you?" Bai Yutang asked.

"He doesn't love animals." Chen Yin shook his head in disappointment, "Whatever he does, all I know is that his actions have led to the death of a large number of these snakes, and to kill that many lives at once, he must be a vicious person."

Zhan Zhao and the others nodded. Humans and animals were in fact the same, they all had lives. Humans had always lived in contradiction, being at the top of the food chain, feeding on animals, while at the same time having a moral and compassionate outlook, feeling that all beings were equal, and that killing animals was also killing.

Soon, Chen Yin's assistant arrived with his car.

The car stopped at the entrance of Bai Jintang's villa and a rather tall man, who looked very young, dressed in a T-shirt and work trousers, with the appearance of a student, got out of the car. He had a slicked back haircut and yawned as he spoke to Chen Yin, "Doctor, the car is here."

Chen Yin introduced to the crowd that this was his graduate student, named Zhao Qin.

“Surname Zhao." Zhan Zhao was still a bit sensitive to the word ‘Zhao', but no matter how you look at it, this student's characteristics don't look like he has anything to do with Zhao Jue.

Zhao Zhen reassured him, "We have very few family members, and the rest of our relatives are still abroad. Look, Zhao Hu is also surnamed Zhao, isn't he?"

Zhao Qin tilted his face to look up at Bai Jintang's villa, bowed his head without speaking, and went back to the car to get his equipment.

Zhan Zhao stood not far away and happened to see it, sensing the other party's subtle change of mood – it seemed to be, well, not so friendly.

"Scan this snake's tracker." Chen Yin handed the snake to Zhao Qin. Zhao Qin took a handheld scanner similar to those commonly used at supermarket checkouts, scanned it over the peg, then looked at the data displayed on the computer and told Chen Yin, "It's snake number seven."

"Check the previous route of travel and where it stayed as well." Chen Yin had him pull a sheet of data out and hand it to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

"It's been moving around Qingshan the whole time!" Bai Yutang frowned after looking at the icon, "This snake came straight out of Qingshan and went to the city, which was Xue Qin's house."

"The time of the crime is the same as what Xue Qin explained." Zhan Zhao nodded, pointing to the snake's previous range of activity and asking Chen Yin, "Is it normal to stay in one place for a fixed period of time like this?"

Chen Yin took the sheet and looked at it, asking Zhao Qin, "What do you think?"

Zhao Qin shook his head, "Of course it's not normal, this snake is in an awake state, it's not hibernating, it has to come out to find something to eat, how can it stay in the same place without moving?"

Chen Yin nodded and said to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "My opinion is the same."

"Then can we find out where the other snakes are now?" Bai Yutang asked.

"It's possible." Chen Yin asked Zhao Qin to pull up the previous information.

"There are five of them roaming around, and the other four are staying in the same place!" Zhao Qin said, "This place is either a hibernation site, or they've been captured by someone and locked up."

"Which do you think is more likely?" Bai Yutang asked him.

Chen Yin thought about it, "The latter is more than seventy percent likely."

Bai Yutang nodded and called the entire SCI team, as well as Bao Zheng, and they all went into the mountain together to look for the place where those snakes were being held, where they might be able to find clues to the person who had terrorised Xue Qin today.

But going up the mountain at night was not an easy task. Bao Zheng arranged for manpower and asked for assistance from the Forestry Administration. Chen Yin and Zhao Qin, who were familiar with the terrain, helped lead the way, along with some firefighters and forest rescue personnel, and a huge team entered Qingshan like it was an expedition.

Qingshan is not a high mountain, but the terrain is treacherous and densely wooded. The SCI members have been living in the city for many years, but when they are in the wild, they really feel like they are entering a primitive forest.

Zhan Zhao followed Bai Yutang as he walked along, asking the people in charge of patrolling the mountains for the Forestry Administration some questions.

"Are these places just deserted? The Forestry Administration doesn't develop them?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Do you usually pass by here on your mountain patrols?"

"Some of the hillsides are already private forest farms, so we don't come to patrol them!" The forest warden held a large flashlight, shining it while telling Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang about the situation.

"Private forest farms, do you know who the buyers are?" Bai Yutang asked the forest warden as he took the map and marked out the location.

The other party took a look and frowned, "This is..."

"What is it?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked in unison when they saw him hesitate.

"Uh, it's..."

"You can say it, there's nothing to be concerned about." Bai Yutang urged.

"The owner was a woman, but she's dead." The forest warden said helplessly, "She bought the land before and seemed to say that she valued the economic development value of the wild tea forest as a long-term investment. Unfortunately, she died in a plane crash three years ago, so the land has been abandoned and seems to have been transferred to her relatives, but we haven't seen anyone come. She was a very nice lady who seemed to be a professor at a prestigious university."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked together, "Is that professor's surname Hao?"

"Yes, Teacher Hao?!" Manager Lin nodded, "I've met her a few times, she was very cheerful, you guys know her?"

As soon as the crowd heard this, they all furrowed their brows – Teacher Hao had died in a plane crash, so why would anyone still be using this forest farm? Moreover, what concerned Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang most was that the victims happened to be Chen Keqing and the other students of Hao Ling's back then? Is there any connection between them?

Chen Yin, who was walking ahead with R and T, suddenly asked, "Is this Teacher Hao that you are talking about the graduate instructor of the Medical University?"

"Yes!" Zhan Zhao looked at him, "You know her?"

"I do!" Chen Yin nodded and asked Zhao Qin, who was holding R and T with a flashlight in front of him, "Is that the teacher you always told me about?"

Zhao Qin nodded and didn't say anything more.

Seeing that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang did not understand, Chen Yin helped to explain, "Zhao Qin is a child from the countryside, from a small mountainous area, his school fees were all financed by a kind-hearted teacher. And after he went to university and got a private scholarship, that scholarship was also set up by that teacher."

"That's Teacher Hao?" Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Qin, "So you've met her and gotten to know her?"

"Nonsense!" Zhao Qin said impatiently, "How can you not know a benefactor?"

Zhan Zhao's eyes narrowed slightly, this person had a bad attitude!

"Can you tell us something about her?" Bai Yutang asked.

"What is there to say." Zhao Qin said indifferently, "A good person died while doing a good deed, that's all."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other. From the beginning, they felt as if Zhao Qin was rather cold and even bad-tempered, but his looks and his attitude towards Chen Yin, did not suggest that he was a loner or difficult person to get along with.

Zhan Zhao could see from Zhao Qin's clothes and his favourite colours that this was a very cheerful person, but why did he treat them as if he had a prejudice against them?

"What did we do to offend you?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhao Qin froze and turned his face to look away.

"Ignore him, he has a police allergy and hates all police officers, he even hates security guards!" Chen Yin helped explain, "A child's temper!"

Zhao Qin grunted and led R and T to the front.

"Why do you hate the police?" Bai Yutang wondered.

"He used to aspire to be a cop." Chen Yin lowered his voice and whispered to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "I don't know why, but after that day, he started hating all cops!"

"That day?" Bai Yutang asked Chen Yin, "Did something happen?"

Chen Yin shrugged, "One day three years ago, he received a phone call and rushed out of the lab in a hurry, and only returned at night."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned slightly – Three years? Were they being paranoid?

"After he came back, he cried and screamed, and since then, he's developed a police allergy and never said he wanted to be a cop again." Chen Yin wrinkled his nose, "I didn't ask him specifically."

Bai Yutang slightly raised an eyebrow at Zhan Zhao, signalling – This student must know something! Vouch for it with a cop's intuition!

Zhan Zhao turned to Bai Yutang, and he took two steps forward to catch up with Zhao Qin. Bai Yutang followed behind, ready to work with Zhan Zhao to draw out this student's words

Zhan Zhao reached R and T first and patted the two German Shepherds on the head.

R and T maintain the fine bloodline of purebred German Shepherds, alert, friendly and sociable. They looked back at Zhan Zhao and wagged their tails at him.

"German Shepherds are so divine, our Luban can't do anything but eat cat food." Zhan Zhao smiled as he found a topic of conversation.

Zhao Qin gave a slight shrug, "Police officers nowadays are similar, they don't know anything besides getting paid."

There were quite a few police officers present and they all frowned at his words.

Zhao Hu was walking not far behind them, and when he heard this, he got a little angry and took a few steps forward, "Ugh, I say kid, you're not right!"

Ma Han looked at him with a look that said – why are you taking him seriously, he's not the only one who thinks that way.

"We're doing the most dangerous job!" Zhao Hu came over and argued with Zhao Qin, "You're dismissing all the hard work we've put in for so many years with one casual remark, so can I say that there's no difference between those of you who study animals and those who buy vegetables and kill pigs, okay?"

Zhao Qin turned around and gave Zhao Hu a fierce glare.

Zhao Hu stared back at him with big eyes – What are you staring at? I'm not even afraid of drug dealers and psychopaths, why should I be afraid of you?

Not speaking to him, Zhao Qin turned back and continued walking, giving R and T a glance as he did so, which looked like a warning to Zhao Hu about setting the dogs on him!

"Haiya!" Zhao Hu's temper was rising and Ma Han gave him a tug, signalling for him to stop for a while, there was no point in arguing with such people.

Zhao Hu bristled and walked aside unhappily.

Zhan Zhao, however, laughed and found it somewhat interesting. He walked up quickly and asked Zhao Qin, "Let me guess, you're angry with the police because they let you down, right?"

Zhao Qin grimaced and looked aside.

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao nodded, "It has something to do with Teacher Hao, doesn't it?"

Zhao Qin's eyebrows twitched slightly as he continued to walk with his head down.

Zhan Zhao picked up the corner of his mouth, "Teacher Hao didn't die in a plane crash, did she?"

Zhao Qin jerked his head up to look at Zhan Zhao, his eyes were full of surprise and some anger.

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Surely... that phone call, three years ago, was Teacher Hao's call to you?"

"Wow, you can even guess this?" Zhao Qin frowned at Zhan Zhao, "What are you ah? A witch or a wizard or something like that? Or a psychic fortune teller?"

Zhan Zhao tilted his face up with his hands behind his back and thought, "Then I'll be a bit more of a magician... Teacher Hao called to ask for help, you called the police and they didn't believe you, and eventually they blocked the news, didn't they?"

Just as Zhao Qin wanted to speak, in front of him, R and T suddenly jerked to a standstill, arching their backs and erecting their back hair, staring warily ahead.

"Something's going on!" Bai Yutang walked up.

"It's a sign of danger." Chen Yin told Zhan Zhao, "German Shepherds are very alert dogs, they might have spotted something.

"Do you guys smell anything?" Gongsun suddenly asked, "Something like roasting meat or burning wood..."

"A burnt smell!" Zhan Zhao nodded his head.

At this moment, Bai Yutang and Zhao Hu, who had run ahead of them, turned back and waved to the crowd, while R and T were right beside them, barking furiously at the distant mountain pass.

The crowd went over to take a look, only to see a wooden structure in the middle of the valley, which was burning brightly.

"Meow~"

Zhan Zhao's cell phone suddenly rang.

Zhan Zhao froze and took it out to see that it was an email, not a text message, that had been received!

After clicking on the email and reading it, Zhan Zhao frowned and saw that the content of the letter was simple, with only one sentence – Mind your own business!

"Is it more difficult to find the source if it's an email?"

At this time, behind him, Gongsun also took out his phone and showed it to Zhan Zhao, having received an identical email.

Everyone took out their phones to look at it, and it turned out that the entire SCI team received the same email.

Zhan Zhao suddenly smiled and looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang, on the other hand, was stone-faced, knowing that getting the emails of the entire team was not as easy as getting the mobile phone numbers of the entire team!

‿︵‿︵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: September 11, 2022 by Angel

Edited: October 4, 2022 by Angel