S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 15

A Requiem for a Murderer 15 – Hiding the Corpse

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“Someone died?” Everyone stared at Gongsun.

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, “You’re saying they died normally, right?”

Gongsun blinked, “Is there a normal and abnormal way of dying?”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, then looked at Gongsun, “Well, your expression is a bit different than usual when you’re examining corpses… besides you’re with Brother…”

The corner of Gongsun’s mouth twitched as he rubbed his chin, “Speaking of which, this was all his fault. Your brother really needs to go pray.”

“What does this have to do with my brother?” Bai Yutang just finished asking when the door opened and Bai Jintang entered. He had just finished washing his hands and was wiping them with his high quality handkerchief. He was puzzled, “This is really bad luck, this happens every time.”

“What’s wrong?” Zhan Zhao was confused.

Zhao Jue also came over out of curiosity. Gongsun looked over at Bai Jintang, who looked back at Gongsun as he touched his forehead. This was the signal: You should explain it.

Gongsun scowled and explained, “Well, as you know we drank a bit right?”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded; that’s right, usually after you get drunk, one thing leads to another… And from their knowledge, Bai Jintang gave alcohol to Gongsun so they could have drunk sex. 

“As we were drinking… We started…” Gongsun touched his chin.

“Started what?” Everyone tilted their head, staring at both of them.

Gongsun felt embarrassed.

Bai Jintang glanced up at the ceiling before pulling Gongsun over, “Let’s just demonstrate, then you’ll understand.”

“Hey!” Gongsun shouted, but it was too late. With one swift motion, Bai Jintang pushed him up to the wall, letting everyone enjoy the scene come to life when he suddenly stopped. He looked over at everyone, “And that’s pretty much it.”

“That’s it?” Zhao Jue was furious, “What happened next? If you stop now you are going to get kicked by a donkey…” (Lei: Usually “Kicked by a donkey” means stupid or out of your mind, Zhao Jue is saying them stopping here is a troll)

Before he was finished talking, Zhan Zhao pulled on his hair, “Stop spouting nonsense.”

“I didn’t want to stop here either.” Bai Jintang answered confidently, but also bitterly. “I even wasted a bottle of good wine.”

Everyone glared at him – Of course!

“Then what happened?” Bai Jintang, the only one who had some sense left, asked Gongsun.

Gongsun pointed at the wall behind him, “Maybe I bumped into the spot by coincidence, but the drywall came off, and a human hand fell on my shoulder like a mummy.”

The group couldn’t help but pinch their lips – no wonder why their faces changed colours, their focus was interrupted... it was even a bit creepy.

“You’re saying there was a dead person in the wall?” Bai Yutang scowled, “Where’s the corpse?”

Gongsun responded, “It’s still in the wall. The infirmary’s door is locked, so nobody will be able to enter.”

“How long have they been dead for?” Bai Yutang asked.

Gongsun shook his head, “I have to do a thorough examination to find out. The insides of a wall makes the circumstances special, there will be bugs feeding off the corpse, so I can’t determine the time of death just from the surface. But based on the appearance, the drywall is very dirty, so quite some time should have passed.” 

“There is a corpse inside the school’s infirmary walls. This is definitely weird.” Zhan Zhao raised his head and asked Zhao Jue, “Did your investigation include unsolved cases?”

Zhao Jue quickly shook his head, “This is my first time hearing about this!”

“Why don’t we go check it out, take the corpse out to examine the cause of death?” Zhan Zhao asked Bai Jintang.

Bai Jintang was perplexed, “But… this is not in the scope of our investigation. If there is a murder case, we should immediately contact the police, or else we would be disrupting the crime scene.”

Everyone looked at each other, he had a point.

“However…” Zhao Jue was standing to the side, slowly saying, “maybe we’ll startle the snake in the grass, stumbling upon some clues, but then giving up halfway, getting disciplined by Bao Sir…”

The corner of Bai Yutang’s mouth slightly pinched.

Zhan Zhao tapped on his shoulder, “Why don’t you ask Bao Sir, have him send word to the local police. We do have the administrative right to handle cases and have other police departments assist us in anything we need.”

Bai Yutang thought for a moment before taking out his phone and handing it to Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue smirked, put some numbers in and put the phone on speaker. Not long after, Bao Sir’s voice came through, “Hello?”

“Honey~”

“Pffff…”

Everyone listened to the phone as Bao Sir coughed after almost spitting out his tea, then they all collectively smirked – That was hilarious!

Zhao Jue cheerfully said, “We found a corpse.”

Bao Sir sighed, “Does it have to do with the investigation?”

Bai Yutang nodded, “Yes.”

After a moment of silence, Bao Sir continued, “Alright, you guys go ahead and continue investigating, I’ll contact T City’s police force.”

Everyone was shocked and confused – Was it really that easy to get Bao Sir on board? Is there a wand in Zhao Jue’s hand or something? He makes talking look so easy.

“Oh man, as expected of Black Bao Sir, he can really get with the program!” Zhao Jue teased Bao Zheng.

Bao Zheng also laughed, mimicking Zhao Jue’s way of talking, “Hey, do you know anything about throwing yourself in a trap?”

“What?” Zhao Jue doesn’t understand.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also glanced at each other, during this time, a cold voice said through the receiver, “So you’re in T city.”

Zhao Jue jumped and everyone’s hairs stood on end as he quickly hid behind Bai Jintang. Zhan Zhao was puzzled, who could it be that they scared Zhao Jue so badly?

“What are you doing over there…” Before the voice could finish, Bai Jintang hung up the phone. Everyone looked at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue had a sad face on as he grabbed Bai Jintang’s sleeve, “I’m screwed!”

Bai Jintang didn’t smile, “Who told you to be so giddy?”

Zhao Jue pouted, “No more surprises! Black Bao Sir is a meany!”

“Who was that?” Zhan Zhao asked, wondering why Zhao Jue was so on edge, “What surprise?”

“Nothing.” Zhao Jue turned around, bringing everyone out the door.

Zhan Zhao gave Bai Yutang a look, who hurried and patted Bai Jintang on the shoulder, “Brother.”

 Gongsun  also got dragged to the side by Zhan Zhao.

“Who was it?” Bai Yutang asked his brother.

Bai Jintang’s eyebrow twitched, “You guys will meet them later.”

“You’ve been close with Zhao Jue recently,” Bai Yutang continued, “Does it have anything to do with Bai Ye?”

Bai Jintang was confused, then laughed and shook his head at Bai Yutang, “You’re younger than me yet your memory is worse than mine. Bai Ye passed away a long time ago, you saw his headstone.”

“You sure?” Bai Yutang asked, “But Zhao Jue mentioned Bai Ye before, they described him differently.”

Bai Jintang simply nodded, not saying a word.

“Then what do you think happened?” Bai Yutang pressed on.

Bai Jintang reached over and patted him on the back, “Regardless of what happens, you’re still my brother.”

Bai Yutang scowled, “Huh?”

Bai Jintang smiled faintly, “Don’t give Dad a hard time.”

Bai Yutang pursed his lips, looking away. Ever since Bai Jintang’s incident, he had issues with Bai Yunwen. Even though he doesn’t say it, if he can avoid Bai Yunwen he will, he even started going home less.

“If he doesn’t want me to remember, he must have his reasons.” Bai Jintang smiled.

“Then what are you and Zhao Jue investigating?” Bai Yutang furrowed his brows, “If you tell us, we can help with the investigation.”

“The problem is I don’t even know.” Bai Jintang shook his head, “Perhaps you and Zhan Zhao have some sort of misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?”

Behind the two of them, Zhan Zhao looked at Gongsun in confusion. Bai Yutang was in front interrogating Bai Jintang, and of course, Zhan Zhao wasn’t going to let Gongsun off the hook either, asking him questions as well.

Gongsun’s answer was, “Truth be told, I also asked Jintang in the past, why he should hide so many things from you guys. But he said you guys might have misunderstood.”

Zhan Zhao folded his arms, “What misunderstanding?”

Gongsun leaned over, “To put it simply, it seems like the more he doesn’t want you guys to know, the more curious you guys get...”

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, as if he understood a bit more. Behind them, Zhao Jue smirked, a sly smile shown on his face.

“Meeeeeeeowww!” Everyone looked at the direction where the noise came from.

Zhao Jue awkwardly took out his phone, receiving a text. Using a cat’s meow as a ringtone, everyone at SCI was already used to it and didn’t think it was weird. It’s just that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang’s ‘meow’ ringtone was a recording of Luban; it was super cute and soft. But Zhao Jue’s ringtone wasn’t like that; for example, Bai Chi’s ringtone was recorded from a kitten, Zhan Zhao’s was recorded when Luban was angry, and Bao Zheng’s was Luban’s meow from when he was going potty. But Zhao Jue’s ringtone sounded as if Luban’s tail was being stepped on, the sound of pain and misery.

Zhao Jue handed the phone to Zhan Zhao, “Take a look at what got sent over.”

Zhan Zhao curiously opened the phone only to see a single text – I’ll be there in a few days, you better stay still.

…

“Just that?” Zhao Jue tried to come closer to look.

Zhan Zhao hid the phone from him, squinting, “What are you scared of?”

“Who says I’m scared?!” Zhao Jue was not happy.

“If how you’re acting is not being scared then what is considered scared?” Zhan Zhao thought the matter was funny, “Look at you, you don’t even want to look at your phone.”

Zhao Jue put his phone back into his pocket mumbling, “I’m afraid of the hassle.”

“Hm…” Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, “I want to ask you a question!”

“What?”

“Two questions.” Zhan Zhao raised two fingers while looking at Zhao Jue, “When talking about the misunderstanding, is it talking about chaos?”

Zhao Jue raised his eyebrow, “Oh?”

“It’s hard for me to imagine what situation caused you, my dad, Uncle Bai and Bao Sir to investigate a case for so many years and not find a lead. What’s more interesting is that you guys would rather erase Brother’s memories than let them recover. I don’t think the memories would scare Brother, but if you would go to the point of wanting to erase his memories, then I can only think of chaos!”

Zhao Jue looked at Zhan Zhao, “Continue.”

“Perhaps… you couldn’t find the truth for a long time because you guys were in turmoil; the memories from the cases of that year, even you guys don’t know which ones are real and which ones are fake, so it was very chaotic. So you guys chose to selectively reveal some clues of the case to us, and hide the majority. Because knowing too much can make you confused between what’s real and what’s fake, compared to someone who doesn’t know anything, it’s more chaotic.”

After Zhao Jue finished listening, he covered his mouth and started to laugh.

Zhan Zhao scowled, “Did I guess wrong?”

Zhao Jue was laughing so hard that he had to let out a breath, “You are indeed smart, already thinking about this point.”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows and asked Zhao Jue, “Was it really that then? So that’s why you were interested in psychology, hypnosis, and suggestion?”

Zhao Jue raised a finger, “What’s the second point?”

Zhan Zhao pursed his lips, “Then if everything was chaotic, the truth may not be the truth and the reality may not be the true reality, so how many Bai Yes were there?”

Zhao Jue was slightly stunned, raising his head to look at Zhan Zhao, his colours didn’t look so good.

Zhan Zhao folded his arms, “Why are there people who look like Yutang, I was always curious.”

Zhao Jue didn’t say anything, and after a few seconds of silence, he yawned, “Guess if the cafeteria is serving tomato egg stir fry.”

Zhan Zhao can tell Zhao Jue was trying to change the subject and got mad, “Every cafeteria serves tomato egg stir fry!”

Zhao Jue bolted behind Bai Jintang, then turned to Zhan Zhao and made a face, “Scary cat!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were able to ask to clarify some things, but also didn’t get things clarified. Both of them were frustrated, but there was no other way.

Everyone entered the school’s infirmary office, closed the door… and glanced at the large crack in the drywall.

“Such a big crack.” Zhao Hu stared at Big Brother Bai in shock, “Did someone break this wall or something?”

Bai Jintang tugged on his tie – this was nothing!

“Why is there such a large hole?” Bai Yutang stood next to the crack in the wall, looking inside. He saw the corpse in a dry state leaning forward, with one hand sticking out from the crack. The corpse’s arm was mutilated and broken, the bones were visible, and it was wrinkled and yellow.

“Speaking of which,” Gongsun joined him and sniffed the corpse’s hand, “this is my first time seeing a corpse this colour.”

“Yeah, does this person have liver problems? Why is its entire body yellow?” Bai Chi also smelled the aroma, pinching his nose, “And smell of sulphur?”

“Sulphur…” Gongsun took his tool box and wanted to break some parts of the drywall so he could take a better look at the corpse when Da Ding and Xiao Ding came to help.

Just as they broke a part of the drywall, something black rolled out of the crack. Everyone looked at it and felt sick.

“Such long hair.” Zhan Zhao was shocked, only to see that the corpse’s hair was very long, from its head going down its back, past its ankle, and it was still in good shape.

“Is it a woman?” Bai Chi asked.

“Long hair doesn’t always mean it’s a woman.” Gongsun looked at the quality of the hair, “Maybe it grew after they died, look at its fingers.”

The group huddled together to try to look into the crack, one glance at the corpse’s fingers and everyone was shaken up. They were very long and curved inward around 4-5 inches.

“It is true that once a person dies, their fingernails and hair will continue to grow. But isn’t this length a bit too abnormal?” Zhan Zhao was bewildered.

“This is definitely not normal.” Gongsun shook his head, examining closer, “I wonder if this has something to do with the yellow skin.”

As they were discussing, they heard a ‘boom boom boom’ from the door, as if someone was knocking, which startled everyone.

Gongsun coughed, “Who is it?”

“Doctor, my student suddenly passed out during lecture, can you please take a look.” It was a female teacher’s voice.

“Oh…” Gongsun quickly stood up. Everyone felt a bit awkward, the room wasn’t super large and everyone was squeezed inside; on top of that there is a dry corpse. The teacher was standing right outside the door, and once it opened she would be able to see the corpse.

“You can assist her to the ward next door, I’ll be over there in a second.” Gongsun responded. Zhan Zhao was peeking through the peephole and saw the teacher with a boy carrying a passed out girl.

Zhan Zhao looked back and motioned to everyone that they had left.

Gongsun changed into his white coat and started to leave, Zhan Zhao also followed in a rush.

Bai Yutang grabbed Zhan Zhao’s arm asking, “Why are you going with him?”

“We know that teacher, I looked over her information.” Zhan Zhao mysteriously smiled, “It’s that assassin, Xue Yan.”

Everyone raised their brows – Her?!

‿︵‿︵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: January 11, 2023 by Lei

Edited: January 17, 2023 by Angel