S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 121

Mad Doctor Murderer 16 – Experience Mad Doctor Town

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In the midst of the confusing case, another deceased person appeared, and one that none of the SCI crowd had expected – Cen Yi!

"Wasn't someone protecting Cen Yi, how did he die?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

"And died in a place that no one would have expected." Bai Yutang led the crowd to the scene of the murder, "Next to the highway in Mad Doctor Town."

"Was it where they filmed the scene in Mad Doctor Town?" Bai Chi was surprised, "How could..."

"The police officer in charge of protecting him said that he suddenly said he wasn't feeling well yesterday and went to the hospital. While they were waiting at the door, Cen Yi escaped through the window. Just now, the police said that a male body was found, and the body had an ID card on it, indicating that it was Cen Yi." Bai Yutang gave a general description.

"Having to use the ID card to identify the corpse?" Gongsun was curious, "Why? Was the corpse disfigured?"

"It appears to be." Bai Yutang drove the car while muttering to himself, "A dead Qin Tian and a dead Cen Yi, the killer shouldn't be killing people according to the movie."

"Does that Mad Doctor Town have anything to do with this series of cases?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "Why were we exposed to this movie before the case?"

The crowd all looked at Bai Chi.

Bai Chi blinked, "I saw it at Dr. Qiu's dentist's office, and Yang Fan was there that day."

"Dr. Qiu..." Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin.

"Brother, do you suspect Dr. Qiu?" Bai Chi came over, "But she has nothing to do with this case, there are so many rooms in the clinic, and Yang Fan and I picked the room ourselves, and the CD was something she casually had there, so it couldn't be intentional, right?"

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to investigate Dr. Qiu's background, hoping it was unrelated, so that he could rule out suspicion and maybe even get some clues.

Soon, the car drove to the town where Mad Doctor Town was filmed, with a highway ahead. The area was off the beaten track, and when this film was shot back then, it was a renovation of an originally deserted village. It is said that there was a chemical factory out back before, which led to sudden pollution, so the village wobbled until now and no one has demolished or rebuilt it. From a distance, it really looked like an empty village that had been infested by zombies.

"It turns out there's this kind of place in S City." Bai Chi stood beside the car and saw a large barren field in the distance. The wild grass grew close to half a man's height, and in the middle of the field, there was an erected iron frame, similar to the one used to tie scarecrows, with a corpse tied to the top in a cross shape.

Bai Yutang and the others sprayed some insect repellent on their bodies, after all, with grass this high, a bite from a tick or something like that could be bad. The crowd walked across the field of tall grass and up to the body.

A police officer was standing by and taking pictures when he saw Bai Yutang coming, "Captain Bai, here are the identification documents of the deceased."

Bai Yutang took a leather wallet, which belonged to Cen Yi and contained a driver's licence and ID card.

"His car is over there." The officer reached out, and pointed in the distance at a black Buick that had overturned.

Bai Yutang tilted his face to look at the body, which had been erected high up and tied like a scarecrow to an iron pole, and frowned, "Why is his face bloody?"

"Probably pecked by a bird." Gongsun said, "He could have been badly injured or already dead based on the overturned state of the car, and with blood or wounds on his head, being hung that high would have easily attracted scavenging birds like crows."

"He did have a lot of crows perched on him when we found him." The officer briefed Bai Yutang, "We asked the villagers and they said that this field was originally a ploughed field for growing wheat. Because there were particularly a lot of birds and crows in this area, and the crows were very aggressive, this stand was purposely made to hang scarecrows to scare the birds. Later on, due to pollution and compensation issues, the villagers moved out en masse and the area has been deserted until now. A few months ago, children from a nearby village hung a national flag here," He said, pointing to a flag that had been thrown away a short distance away.

The forensics officer took photographs for evidence and carefully put the flag away.

The police officer then said, "The one who called the police was that aunt."

Zhan Zhao and the others then saw a middle-aged woman in her forties or fifties standing by the grassy field not far away, talking to a female police officer, with two small children standing next to her.

"The children found the bodies?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Yes." The constable nodded, "It seems that the pollution has stopped since the factory was abandoned, but because of the compensation and the transfer of usage rights, the village will not be able to be reclaimed until next year. The children from the neighbouring village love to play games here. Today, those two brothers found that the flag was gone and that a large flock of crows were crowding someone, so they ran into the field and got scared silly when they took a look. When they went back and told their aunt, that aunt called the police."

Bai Yutang nodded as the officer finished his explanation and left. Bai Chi and Luo Tian went to ask the farmer's wife and got the same answer that the officer had given.

Afterwards, the SCI crowd stood in front of the iron frame, looking up at Cen Yi's body.

"This iron frame is a good three metres high, isn't it?" Qin Ou observed the construction of the frame, "The stone foundation for anchoring it into the ground is one metre high, the upper iron frame is two metres, and the width appears to be around one and a half metres."

The crowd nodded.

"Cen Yi is around 1.8 metres tall, an adult male, and although on the thin side, he weighs at least seventy kilograms." Gongsun made a visual assessment, "To carry such a person up and then secure him, one person would definitely not be able to do it, right?"

The crowd nodded.

At this time, Qin Ou, who was looking at the car in the distance, beckoned the crowd to go over.

Bai Yutang and others went over. Qin Ou pointed to the marks made by the car along the way and said, "The car rushed off the highway at high speed, and it charged in diagonally, so it should have been forced. It landed here heavily after two consecutive rolls, which is a serious traffic accident. You can see that the left side of the car has been dented. According to the direction of the car, it should be that Cen Yi was speeding to Mad Doctor Town when a car at least one size bigger than the Buick suddenly rushed from the side. Judging from the force of the impact, I guess it was a big Jeep."

The crowd nodded, thinking: firefighters don't analyse the cause of accidents the same way.

Gongsun squatted down to look at the top of the crushed driver's seat, "Cen Yi was probably dead before he was dragged out of the car."

Bai Yutang noticed that the seat belt on the driver's seat was buckled and deduced that Cen Yi should not have been wearing a seat belt when he drove, so it would be strange if he didn't die after flipping twice like this.

"Why did he shake off the police to escape and drive wildly to come to Mad Doctor Town?" Zhan Zhao stood by the car and couldn't figure it out.

Afterwards, Gongsun and Ma Xin took the forensic department to look at the body and think of ways to get the dead man down.

The SCI crowd took two officers each and spread out in all directions, carrying out a blanket search of the field.

Not long after, Zhao Hu jumped up and shouted to Bai Yutang in the distance, "Chief, there's a cell phone on the ground!"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and ran over to find that there was a white cell phone on the ground. Picking it up and looking at it, the phone showed that a call had been interrupted.

"It should have flown out of the car window when the car rolled over." Ma Han visually measured the distance, "Cen Yi was probably on the phone when he had the accident!"

Zhan Zhao switched to the caller information and found that Cen Yi's car accident was in the early hours of this morning, no wonder no one noticed. He had driven away from the hospital in the afternoon yesterday. In other words, there were ten or so hours in between when they had no idea where he had gone.

The call had been made by Cen Yi, and the contact showed – X.

"X?" Bai Yutang frowned and exchanged a glance with Zhan Zhao. Could it be the same X as the one Thomas had texted earlier?

When Zhan Zhao checked his phone, he saw that yesterday afternoon, Cen Yi had indeed received a text message from X. The text message read – She's in my hands, I don't want her to die, meet me at the usual place.

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to trace the phone number, but it turned out to be a temporary number as well, which was no longer available.

Zhan Zhao stood there with his arms crossed, "'She's in my hands’... a woman?"

"Does that mean that another woman has been kidnapped?" Bai Chi was a little worried, "Is the usual place this Mad Doctor Town?"

All of them frowned and looked towards the small, deserted town.

"If Yu Xiaofeng's death is because of Hao Ling's case, then are Qin Tian and Cen Yi because of another case?" Bai Chi asked, "It doesn't feel like they have anything to do with Hao Ling."

"But the killing methods are very similar." Bai Yutang shook his head, "It happened close together and the cases feel like a good fit. Also, that X is suspicious, and furthermore, Qin Tian, Cen Yi and Chen Kefeng are all from the same company, it feels very subtle."

"They are related."

Zhan Zhao's words made everyone look up at him.

Zhan Zhao opened Cen Yi's text messages for the crowd to see, and they saw that one of the people Cen Yi chatted with more often was signed as Xiaofeng. Looking at the mobile phone number, it was the same number as that of Yu Xiaofeng, who was now lying on the autopsy table.

"The two of them actually knew each other, and they're both dead?!" Bai Chi was surprised.

Zhan Zhao showed him the text message. Bai Chi took a glance at the content and frowned, "How disgusting!"

The crowd was curious and went over to look, and found that most of the text messages sent between Cen Yi and Yu Xiaofeng were *very* steamy, with bold and fiery words.

"The two of them are lovers?” Qin Ou tsked twice, "Isn't the age gap a bit big?"

"I guess it's just a physical relationship." Zhan Zhao finished reading the text messages one by one with interest, "A lover's relationship should be more concerned about the other person's health and emotions, these text messages are all vulgar words, there's no real emotion to be seen at all."

"Cen Yi is kind of an out-of-date star, Yu Xiaofeng is young and beautiful, her family is well off, and feels quite snooty. It doesn't seem like they should have gotten together.” Gongsun was puzzled.

"Cen Yi..." Ma Xin ran over and immediately frowned as soon as she heard the gossip, "Yu Xiaofeng has very high requirements for men! She doesn't like those older than herself."

"So sure?" Zhan Zhao asked her.

"I've been classmates with her for so many years after all... Yu Xiaofeng is a standard face-controller, and she likes proper guys, preferably those who are studying in college and some mixed-race type of beautiful guys."

The crowd frowned, "Tastes that picky?!"

Ma Xin couldn't stop nodding, and looked at the text message and frowned, "Yu Xiaofeng is being superficial to Cen Yi, and seems to hate him."

"You can tell that too?" Luo Tian was curious.

“I am a woman!" Ma Xin shook her head, "Yu Xiaofeng is a beautiful woman, or at least an heiress, how could she talk to someone like that?"

The crowd pondered. That’s right, even to a lover, it was rather rude to send such text messages.

Ma Xin suddenly felt some sympathy for Yu Xiaofeng, "Does she have any leverage over Cen Yi? And Cen Yi's attitude was subtle!"

"How subtle?" The SCI group of men listened with an open mind to Ma Xin's enlightenment.

Ma Xin thought about it, "Cen Yi seems to have been belittling her, and it's mental torture. I don't know if there's physical torture. And you guys think about it, such a text message is enough to sue him for sexual harassment, yet he sent so many in a row, simply courageous."

Bai Yutang thought about it, "Before Yu Xiaofeng died, she received a phone call and someone asked her for money, it seems that she was also being blackmailed and coerced."

Hearing what Bai Yutang said, Zhan Zhao stood still and seemed to think about it, then turned around and walked in the direction of the car.

When he reached the car, he knelt down and reached into the car.

"Cat, what are you trying to get?" Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao, signalling – I'll do this kind of rough work.

When Zhan Zhao saw him get into the car, he said, "Yutang, look under the seat cushion to see if there's a SIM card."

Bai Yutang was puzzled, but started rummaging around as Zhan Zhao said, and finally, between the car seat and the cushion, he found a SIM card.

"Cat, how did you know that?" Bai Yutang was amazed.

Zhan Zhao smiled mischievously, "I'm smart!"

Bai Yutang looked at the sky and handed him the card.

Reaching for the card and dragging Bai Yutang out in the process, Zhan Zhao loaded the card into the phone that Cen Yi had. Sure enough... it was the same phone that called Yu Xiaofeng yesterday.

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly.

Bai Chi asked, "So the person who called and threatened Yu Xiaofeng and blackmailed her was Cen Yi?"

"No..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, however, denied it in unison, and also shook their heads at the same time.

Everyone looked at the two in confusion.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, "You also doubt it?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "This SIM card is too deliberate."

Zhan Zhao smiled and nodded, and said to Gongsun, "Gongsun, test Cen Yi's DNA and identify him."

At this time, Gongsun had just led the team to put Cen Yi's body down, and as soon as he heard what Zhan Zhao said, he froze and turned back to ask, "You suspect that he is not Cen Yi?"

The crowd looked at each other with blank faces.

"Cen Yi's car, clothes, ID, and phone..." Luo Tian felt strange, "If it's not Cen Yi, then who is it?"

Zhan Zhao looked at the Mad Doctor Town not far away, “Let’s go into the town and search it."

The SCI crowd could not quite keep up with Zhan Zhao's jumpy thinking, but since he said so then it must be right, so they walked together towards the Mad Doctor Town.

Just as they reached the entrance of the town, they heard a rumbling sound coming from the distant sky.

Bai Yutang tilted his face up and saw dark clouds rolling in the sky, lightning and thunder looking frightening above this empty field of grass.

"Let's go to the town for shelter first.” Zhan Zhao pointed to the largest building in the Mad Doctor Town ahead of him.

Bai Chi thought of the movie plot, his eyebrows wrinkling, “That is the hospital. The zombies in Mad Doctor Town all ran out of the hospital funeral home...” Before he finished his sentence, the back of his neck was pinched by Zhao Hu, "What are you afraid of, Gongsun is following us, do you know what ghosts see sorrow is?" (Angel: Ghost see sorrow is the name of an old custom used to avoid ghosts.)

To the side, Gongsun rolled his eyes at him.

Everyone was walking towards the hospital, and by now, the sky was dark, with dark clouds overhead and raindrops falling.

When the crowd was ten metres away from the hospital, there was a sudden flash of lightning in the air.

‘Crack!’ A bright and clear bolt of lightning broke through the clouds... and the dark second floor windows of the hospital lit up. The crowd could clearly see that there was a person standing at the window of the first room on the left of the second floor.

"Wow!" Zhao Hu gave a startled jump, "Is that a prop?"

"It's so big..." Gongsun, however, suddenly spoke up.

Zhan Zhao and the others were stunned, "What's big?"

Gongsun frowned, "The size! According to the scale, that man is a good two metres tall, right?"

“En!" Ma Xin nodded, those who studied medicine were more sensitive to this aspect after all, "A big one!"

As soon as the crowd heard that he was over two metres tall, they suddenly thought of the palm print on the chair found in the burnt down wooden house in the woods of Qingshan – a big, burly man with very big hands!

"That man is moving!" Not to be outdone, Bai Yutang was an outstanding pilot, combined with the fact that he didn't watch TV or surf the internet on a regular basis and had excellent habits, he had amazing eyesight and saw at a glance that the man was moving – he was alive!

"Don't let him get away!" Bai Yutang led the men to encircle the hospital.

Zhan Zhao followed behind Bai Yutang and whispered, "If it's a giant like that, it's possible for one person to tie the body to a stand!"

Bai Yutang nodded – suspicious indeed!

By the time they reached the hospital entrance, it was already completely dark, and there was thunder and lightning.

This Mad Doctor Town was a deserted village, and there was no electricity. The dilapidated building was pitch-black, and there were black and red bloodstains on the floor from the shooting of the film, as well as props that were scattered and had collected dust – mostly bloody organs and limbs, which looked eerie.

‿︵‿︵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 29, 2022 by Angel

Edited: October 11, 2022 by Angel