S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 107

Shadow Murderer 15 – Crime and Punishment

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There was something eerie about the atmosphere in the interrogation room. On the table was a cardboard box with a white human skull sitting next to it and a stack of old black and white photographs. The bearded man sat expressionlessly on a chair in front of the table, his eyes staring blankly at the contents.

Outside the one-way mirror, Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang and Ouyang Chun were quietly observing.

Bai Yutang frowned at the bearded man behind the glass and shook his head, "It definitely wasn't him that night..."

"But the bearded man you saw on the Dark Night Kingdom monitor that night was indeed the one who hit you..." Zhan Zhao was a bit puzzled, "Could it be that Wei Yong was mistaken?"

Bai Yutang turned and asked Luo Yang, who was sitting not far away and waiting, "Is this the only one with a big beard? Is there anyone else?"

Luo Yang was baffled by the question, "He is Uncle Big Beard, what other person?"

"Was he there when we went to the Dark Night Kingdom that night?" Zhan Zhao also asked.

"Why would Uncle Big Beard go to a place like that?" Luo Yang tilted his head in amusement, "He hates places with a lot of people, and he hates it when people fight, he's timid."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, it seemed there was something hidden inside... the Dark Night Kingdom and Chen Jie, neither of them should be able to escape from it.

"Can you tell me a little bit about your reasons for tracking this person?" Ouyang Chun asked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang somewhat helplessly, "I think it is necessary for us to exchange the information we have in order to better cooperate."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and nodded to indicate that Ouyang Chun had a point, and the three of them gathered together to exchange information about the case.

"Which fish are you trying to catch with this line you've set up with Lan Chenglin?" Bai Yutang asked first.

"The one you caught and then let escape – the number two leader of the Athletic Club, Taber Terence." Ouyang Chun replied with a smile.

A look of surprise appeared on Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's face as they waited for Ouyang Chun to elaborate.

"According to the information we have, Taber has been gaining strength over the past few years, and Spato, the leader of the Athletic Club, can no longer control him. The two seem to be separated, and it is only a matter of time before they go their separate ways." Ouyang Chun carefully explained to the two men, "If Taber wants to be independent, he must have people, money and territory, he already has people, he is still earning money, but sooner or later he will have it, the most troublesome thing is the territory."

"The land in America belongs to Spato, and Europe to Leonard. If Taber wants territory, he'll have to fight here." Zhan Zhao nodded in understanding, "The reason he came to buy the box corpse last time was to make money as fast as possible."

"To be able to enter the country so smoothly and escape so quickly after being caught by the police..." Bai Yutang looked at Ouyang Chun with a smile, "So you guys were certain that there must be a spy within the police."

Ouyang Chun nodded, "We went through multiple investigations and identified that Lan Chenglin and Yu Qingyan had colluded with Taber, and that multiple local bosses in power had been killed recently – so we guessed that it should be related to Taber."

"And you guys intended to work with the anti-gang unit to follow the trail?" Zhan Zhao nodded and was just about to speak when out of the corner of his eye he saw Luo Yang carefully pour a glass of water and quietly slip into the interrogation room.

When Bai Yutang tried to stop him, Zhan Zhao gently waved his hand and walked over to the one-way mirror to watch what was going on inside.

He saw Luo Yang running over with the water, walking up to the bearded man and asking in a whisper, "Are you angry?"

The bearded man's originally dull eyes gradually took on a hint of radiance, and he turned his face to look at Luo Yang beside him, gently shaking his head.

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow and said with some surprise, "He loves Luo Yang a lot."

Bai Yutang and Ouyang Chun also saw some clues and, without speaking, continued to watch.

Xiao Luo Yang was relieved to see the bearded man shake his head and handed over the cup, "Want some water?"

The bearded man nodded and slowly drank the water from Luo Yang's slightly tilted cup, which soon became empty.

"Want some more?" Luo Yang asked.

The bearded man shook his head and subconsciously looked at the one-way mirror.

Luo Yang smiled and said, "Don't worry, they're not bad guys."

The bearded man listened and nodded.

Luo Yang turned his face to look at the skull on the table and asked, "Have you ever done anything bad?"

The bearded man clearly froze, and then nodded silently.

Xiao Luo Yang seemed to be a little sad and opened his mouth to ask again when the door was opened. Zhan Zhao walked in and called out to him, "Yang Yang, you can't just come in here."

Luo Yang looked at Zhan Zhao and then back at the bearded man, and had to walk out. Zhan Zhao handed him over to Bai Yutang and looked at the door, gesturing for Bai Yutang to take him out, he could not listen to the questioning that followed.

Bai Yutang understood and took Luo Yang out of the interrogation room, leaving him with Bai Chi who took him to go and have something to eat together, before hurrying back himself.

Seeing that Zhan Zhao had gone in alone, Bai Yutang wanted to follow him, but he saw Zhan Zhao waving his hand at the mirror and had to stand still. Ouyang Chun was rather curious, "Do you two have a connection?" Bai Yutang smiled and said nothing, looking intently into the interrogation room.

Zhan Zhao walked into the interrogation room alone, sat down opposite the bearded man and whispered, "Is he your son?"

The originally indifferent bearded man jerked his head up, froze for two seconds and then began to shake his head desperately.

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly and said, "Don't worry, Yang Yang is outside and can't hear anything."

The bearded man stopped shaking his head upon hearing Zhan Zhao's words, but then noticed the smile at the corner of Zhan Zhao's mouth and immediately understood that he had been seen through, and could only lower his head in dismay.

"Yutang and I, the police officer who arrested you just now, intend to adopt Yang Yang." Zhan Zhao gazed at the bearded man's expression.

The bearded man lifted his head, his face full of surprise, then nodded heavily. As Zhan Zhao watched his actions, he suddenly felt a little sad for him, so he asked in a low voice, "Yang Yang is a good kid, don't you want to adopt him and raise him? He seems to like you a lot too."

The bearded man lowered his head for a long time, then shook his head silently, opened his mouth and said in an odd metallic voice, "He can't follow me."

Outside, Bai Yutang and Ouyang Chun both frowned as they listened to the man's voice, which sounded like it had been processed by a voice alteration device, with no discernible sound quality.

Seeing the look of surprise on Zhan Zhao's face, the bearded man stretched out his uncuffed hand and lifted his long beard, exposing his neck. Zhan Zhao then saw a short scar next to his Adam's apple. That was where the vocal cords were, the voice distorter had been directly implanted!

Bai Yutang looked amazed and asked Ouyang Chun, who was beside him, "Which organisation has this practice?"

Ouyang Chun shook his head profusely, "I have never heard of it."

Zhan Zhao pointed to the skeleton on the table and asked, "Who is he?"

The bearded man shook his head and did not say anything.

Zhan Zhao pushed the stack of photos in front of him again, "What are these?"

The bearded man continued to shake his head for a long time before saying, "Don't ask."

After that, no matter what else Zhan Zhao asked, he no longer answered. Zhan Zhao collected his things and prepared to leave, but just after taking a few steps, he turned back and asked, "By the way, do you know that there is another man with a big beard?"

The bearded man froze, his eyes widened as he stared at Zhan Zhao and asked, "Where is he?"

Seeing the tension in his eyes, Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and then asked, "Do you know about the Dark Night Punisher?"

The bearded man's eyes instantly became dangerous and his eyes were fixed on Zhan Zhao. Outside, Bai Yutang let out a low cry of "not good" and violently opened the door and rushed in. At the same time, the bearded man pounced on Zhan Zhao...

It all happened so quickly. One of the bearded man's hands was handcuffed to an iron chair, which was bolted to the floor and could not be pulled up by an ordinary person, but he pulled the chair up with one hand. When Bai Yutang rushed into the interrogation room, the bearded man had already pounced to Zhan Zhao's side, raised the chair to block Bai Yutang and said in a cold voice, "Don't come over, I won't hurt him..."

Bai Yutang stood two steps away with a cold face, his eyes fixed on Zhan Zhao to see how he would react.

Zhan Zhao still had a calm expression on his face, as if he had expected this to happen, and raised his hand in the direction of the one-sided glass with a wave, and Ouyang Chun, who had already pulled out his gun and aimed it outside the mirror, hesitated slightly, but still put it away.

"Let me go." The bearded man said simply to Bai Yutang.

Zhan Zhao turned his face to look at the bearded man and asked, "You want to find him? He's your enemy?"

The bearded man looked at Zhan Zhao somewhat feebly and said in a deep voice, "I still have work to do! When it's done, you can do whatever you want."

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow and said, "How about we work together?"

The bearded man froze, somewhat unable to respond.

Zhan Zhao took out a photo from his pocket and gave it to him, "Take a look, there's handwriting on the back."

The bearded man took the photo in his hand, it was the one that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had found in the car park of the police station, signed with the name 'The Dark Night Punisher'. The bearded man seemed to be hesitant, but he heard Zhan Zhao continue, "Don't you want to catch him quickly? If he lives one more day in the world, it's one more day of harm."

Bai Yutang closed the door behind him and smiled up at the bearded man, "You won't get out that easily."

The bearded man finally sighed, put down the chair in his hands, sat down somewhat dejectedly, and asked with a bitter smile, "How can we work together?"

Zhan Zhao walked over to the table, picked up one of the group photos of the children and asked, “These people, who are they?"

The bearded man stared at the photo for a long time and said indifferently, "Except for me and him, all the others are already dead."

Bai Yutang shook his head and smiled, "Not two, but three, right? Isn't Yang Yang the same?"

The bearded man raised his head and looked at Bai Yutang with a little smile on his face, "He won't be, you can protect him, and I can die with peace of mind."

Bai Yutang moved a chair and sat down, saying, "Tell us about yourself."

The bearded man shook his head, "I don't..."

"Cut the crap!" Bai Yutang glared at him, "When your son is young, his ears should be full of his old man's past, you better make it clear so I can answer Yang Yang later, why you didn't want him!"

The bearded man was stunned and turned his face helplessly to look at Zhan Zhao, as if to ask – how come you two don't have the same style?

Bai Yutang was so straightforward, he wouldn't look for big ideas like solving cases or punishing evil and promoting good, he would only say what he thought, and Luo Yang had the right to know exactly why his own father didn't want him.

Ouyang Chun also moved a chair outside the mirror and sat down, quietly waiting for the bearded man to recount his past. He had never been so curious about anyone. What could make a man live without seeing the light of day for so many years and not even dare to acknowledge his own son.

The bearded man was silent for a while, and finally nodded his head in a dishevelled manner, "I'll speak."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look – finally, they had won!

"Where do you want me to start?" The bearded man asked the two.

"What's your name and where are you from?" For the first time, Zhan Zhao felt like he was probing a mystery when he questioned his prisoner.

The bearded man pulled up his sleeve and revealed his arm to the two men. They saw a tattoo on the outside of his upper left arm, a string of numbers – 3-17-12

"This number is?" Zhan Zhao wondered. In addition, he and Bai Yutang were surprised at the same time, the bearded man's body was full of scars.

"Name." The bearded man said briefly, "Other than that, nothing."

Zhan Zhao stood up abruptly and picked up the stack of photos, rummaged through them, and sure enough, on one of them, he found a six- or seven-year-old child with a string of numbers on his left arm as well, none other than 3-17-12.

"This is..." Zhan Zhao's eyes widened in shock, his number had been tattooed on him at such a young age.

The bearded man took the photo and looked at it quietly, as if he was lost in thought. He looked at it for a while before he slowly said, "Does it look like Yang Yang?"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both nodded their heads, there was indeed a resemblance, which was why Zhan Zhao had recognised this one at once among the many photos.

"Does this number have any meaning?" Zhan Zhao called back the bearded man who was caught up in his memories and continued to ask questions.

The bearded man nodded slightly, "The 3rd generation, number 12 out of 17."

Hearing his words, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, their eyes full of confusion.

"Have you guys ever heard of neuro-sensitivity?" The bearded man suddenly asked.

Zhan Zhao nodded and said, "All human behaviour and sensations are transmitted to the brain through the nerves, and the brain transmits back to order the body to act. The lower the sensitivity of the nerves, the less information is transmitted to the brain."

Bai Yutang stroked his chin and said, "I remember that there was once someone who proposed that the combat power of soldiers could be increased by reducing the sensitivity of nerves, but it was not in line with human ethics and that person who proposed it suddenly disappeared afterwards."

The bearded man glanced at Bai Yutang, smiled lightly and said, "That's right, he is dead... so completely dead that he cannot harm anyone anymore." Saying that, he slowly turned his head, his eyes falling on the white skull.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look and drew a breath of cold air, asking in unison, "Could it be, he is..."

The bearded man laughed coldly and said, "His name is Allan Poe..."

The two men in the interrogation room and Ouyang Chun outside the interrogation room then listened to the bearded man, in his extraordinarily sad voice, tell an unusually cruel story.

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

In a small supermarket below the police station, Bai Chi bought an ice cream cone, carefully tore open the package, handed it to Luo Yang beside him, then bought one himself, took Luo Yang's hand, walked to the flower bed at the entrance of the police station, sat down and ate slowly.

Luo Yang licked the cone, a little distracted. Bai Chi gently patted his shoulder and asked, "What's wrong? It's not good?"

Shaking his head, Luo Yang looked up at Bai Chi and asked, "Brother Bai Chi, why did you become a police officer?"

Bai Chi was stunned and tilted his head in thought, "Well... most of the men in our family are police officers, so at first, I thought I had to be a police officer, and then, after I transferred to SCI, I learned a lot from my brother and the others, so I wanted to be a good police officer from the bottom of my heart."

Luo Yang nodded with seeming understanding and said, "At first, did you not want to be a police officer?"

Bai Chi nodded very honestly, “That’s right."

"Why do you want to do something you don't want to do?" Luo Yang reached up and held his chin dully, as if he was talking to himself, "Why, when Uncle Big Beard says he's done bad things, do I still think he's a good guy?"

Bai Chi reached over and stroked Luo Yang's head, saying, "People who have done bad things also have the right to change for the better."

Luo Yang raised his head and asked Bai Chi seriously, "So... after changing for the better, are you a good person?"

Bai Chi smiled helplessly, took a tissue to wipe the ice cream from the corner of Luo Yang's mouth and said, "There are some mistakes that can never be undone in a lifetime, so the punishment will follow for the rest of your life."

"Then he has already changed and has been punished." Luo Yang argued, "Knowing that you can change your mistakes, if you can't forgive him, then you can't like him?"

Bai Chi thought about it and said, "It doesn't matter if others originally forgave him, what matters is whether he can forgive himself, as for liking..." Saying this, he reached out and rubbed Luo Yang's hair, "Whether you like someone or not is your own business. It has nothing to do with whether that person is forgiven or not." While saying that, he shoved the pointed roll at the bottom of the cone into the dumbfounded Luo Yang's mouth, "There's chocolate here, it's very sweet."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: November 22, 2022 by Angel

Edited: December 29, 2022 by Angel