S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 40

Ghost Ship Murderer 06 – Guillotine

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The stamp on Chen Fei's hand was not the Emilia, but a strange symbol in the shape of an "H", but it didn't seem to be a letter, and it was close to the character "工", because the stamp was round and it seemed to make sense any way you looked at it.

"What is this?" Zhan Zhao asked the crowd around him to see if they could think of anything.

But they all shook their heads – they couldn't think of anything.

So the crowd in the forensic room shifted their gaze back to Chen Fei's shoulders.

What is the coolest thing to cool off in summer? Not ice cream, nor air conditioning or electric fans, but the wisp of a ghost...

No matter how hot the summer is, if a ghost suddenly comes out of nowhere and says "hi" to you, you can still break out in a cold sweat.

The two small handprints on the shoulders of Chen Fei's corpse were just like caterpillars full of pinpricks, making people wake up with a cool chill in the middle of the heat.

Zhao Hu grinned, "Evil!"

"A child shouldn't have the strength for this." Gongsun calmly analysed Chen Fei's size, "He's not very strong but he's not skinny either, a child shouldn't be able to subdue him.

Ma Xin cut Chen Fei's top open and looked at his back, shaking her head in apparent confusion and looking at Gongsun.

Gongsun also looked puzzled.

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked him.

"If it was a child, then their body should be very short. They were able to hold down Chen Fei, so he must have been on his back. People have a lot of strength when they are struggling and dying, you can see the handprints left behind so clearly, so you can imagine how much strength the killer used to hold him down... Then it can be deduced that in other locations, some marks would have been left as well.

"That's right." Bai Chi nodded, "If he had been on his back, there would have been knee marks on his spine, even if he had been on his stomach with his legs sandwiched… there would have been marks on his ribs, but he didn't, his back and under his ribs were nice and clean."

"The handprints aren't reversed either." Bai Yutang frowned, "It can't be caused by pressing on the other side, only this side... so how exactly did he get them?"

"Unless..." Zhan Zhao turned his face to look at the crowd, "they were flying in mid-air and pressing..." As he said this, he pressed Zhao Hu's shoulder, which caused Zhao Hu to jump up in shock.

"Son of a, evil creepy!" Zhao Hu rubbed his goose bumps.

Bai Yutang also felt that the case was strange and that there were no clues.

Zhan Zhao took out his cell phone and called Lin Ruo, "Is there any documentation of Emilia's height and weight?"

Lin Ruo was quite surprised to hear this and thought about it, "It seems that there is a description of her having a moderate figure, but she was working as a maid serving a lady, so it's unlikely that she was too petite, right?"

Everyone looked at each other, how could this be related to such a petite handprint?

"Hey, you guys aren't coming yet?" Lin Ruo urged on the other end, "I'm about to start over here, it's getting dark!"

Everyone was so focused on studying the corpse that they didn't even notice that it was getting dark.

When Bai Jintang saw that Bai Yutang and the others had a case to work on, he said, "Just tell him if you don't want to go."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao shook his head with his hands in his pockets, "We should have a good talk with Lin Ruo, besides, he's in danger."

Bai Jintang nodded and the journey continued.

Thirty minutes later, the group drove to the villa where Lin Ruo was having his party.

Zhan Zhao stood in front of the white iron gate, looking at the large rose garden, the European castle-like building behind it and the fountain with Roman period style statues, frowning and shaking his head.

"What?" Bai Yutang looked at him in confusion.

Zhan Zhao crossed his arms, "There's really no shortage of rich people in this world."

Bai Jintang walked to Zhan Zhao's side, "You should stop working at SCI, take a team of people out to set up a private clinic, take on a few wealthy people as their private doctors, then give lectures and publish more books every year, and invest in luxury properties everywhere when you have money, you will be very rich in a year and a half."

The corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched, and after a long time, he uttered one word, "Crooked!"

The gates slowly opened and the SCI crowd walked along a white stone path. In the rose garden in front of them, white tables and chairs were neatly arranged, and there were workers dressed in white going in and out carrying trays full of delicacies.

There were quite a few well-dressed people at the front.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, how should they put it – The open-air party held in Bai Jintang's villa was a bit more interesting, the meal was cooked by Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao's two mothers, the ones carrying the plates were the SCI crowd, the ones washing the dishes were the ones eating and not cooking, and the one preparing drinks was Bai Chi... not the so-called “world famous chef" here.

Bai Jintang reached out and patted Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang on the shoulder and whispered, "Forgive them, they were born tall, rich and handsome and haven't seen much of the world, you can't make them live like losers..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at Bai Jintang, unable to laugh or cry.

They saw Bai Jintang raise his hand to greet someone in the distance.

"Jintang! This way." Many people came to greet Bai Jintang and all seemed to be familiar with each other.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang led the SCI group to follow them, while Gongsun walked unhurriedly at the side, with the attitude that he would throw a flying knife at anyone who dared to mention the word "socialite"!

There were a lot of people and it was chaotic, so they introduced each other.

Chen Jiayi was also there. She was very sharp-eyed and there were many beautiful women here, so she hurriedly pulled Ma Han aside and watched closely.

Zhao Hu crossed his arms, "Look at Sister Jiayi, looking at Xiao Ma Ge as if she was going to eat someone. Aiya, this girl looks quite flamboyant, I wonder if she will change her heart after a few days."

"Sister Jiayi is not that superficial!" Ma Xin stood aside with a drink, holding Luo Tian with one hand while telling Zhao Hu, "She believes in God, dreams of being a housewife, and is ready to quit acting to be a happy daughter-in-law and give birth to a football team for Brother or something."

"Wow..." Zhao Hu looked at Ma Xin, "You girls don't usually have any restraint in your conversations, huh?"

"Restraint from what?"

A voice from behind him made Zhao Hu shrink back in shock, Qi Le and the girls had arrived. Qi Le rushed forward and grabbed Zhao Hu's shoulders, causing him to jump up and shake his shoulders, "Amazing."

Qi Le frowned at him, "What's the matter with you?"

Zhao Hu then told her about the case just now, causing Qi Le to grab his arm, "It's so scary!"

Chen Yu was holding Lan Xi, and all four sisters had company, it was sweet to the point of spilling out.

......

Zhan Zhao felt that he could not watch, and Bai Yutang went to the side to get some food.

"Hey." Zhan Zhao reminded Bai Yutang, "Your brother and Qi Le are both here, if these two calamities collide together, the consequences could be serious."

"Don't be a crow's mouth." Bai Yutang was speechless, "I've got them all keeping an eye on Lin Ruo." (Angel: A crow’s mouth is used to describe someone who only says hateful things.)

"Taste the lychee wine?"

As they were talking, a person next to them walked up and handed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang two bottles of wine.

As Lin Ruo introduced just now, the man handing out the wine was Stephen, the owner of the garden and one of the top-ranked diamond kings in S City, but he had a childhood friend and fiancée called Lily.

Stephen was a very likeable young man. Most people in IT were a bit different from those in traditional business, as they were techies and simple people. Stephen had a head of curly hair, like a college student, and smiled quite cheerfully. While handing wine to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, he pointed to Jiang Ping, who was studying lamb chops at the back, and asked Bai Yutang, "Can I poach? That man is a genius!"

Bai Yutang smiled, "Jiang Ping is one of the top hackers in the world, if he leaves the police station, he won't be able to go anywhere near a computer from then on."

"Sure enough..." Stephen seemed to feel sorry.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang opened the lychee wine and took a sip, both finding it delicious.

"Ai." Stephen sighed again and looked to the other side.

When Zhan Zhao saw him glancing at a cute short-haired beauty, he asked, "Is that Lily?"

Stephen was kinda shy, "Lin Ruo said you can see through hearts and also control them, so tell me, in a moment I'll..."

"En." Zhan Zhao didn't wait for him to finish, smiling and nodding, "She probably guessed what you want to do today and is already prepared, so don't worry and do it boldly, it will be successful."

"Yes!" Stephen cheered happily, saying thank you as he turned and ran away.

"No wonder the rose garden has white cloth and white tables, it turns out to be a marriage proposal." Bai Yutang took a sip of wine and asked Zhan Zhao, "Do you think they know about Ding Yuan's death?"

"It was reported in all the major newspapers today." Zhan Zhao nodded, "They should know about it."

"Is there any more lychee wine?"

At this time, a man ran up to them and asked.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him and felt that he looked familiar. Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered... this pretty young blond man was a recent rising star in the golf world and seemed to have won several championships in a row, but Zhan Zhao didn't like to play so he didn't know much about it. He had talked about it when he had dinner with his dad a while ago. Zhan Qitian seemed to admire him quite a bit, saying he was a genius. What was his name again? That's right, it's Ryan.

Bai Yutang took an uncorked bottle of wine from behind him and gave it to him.

"Thanks." Ryan's Chinese was good and he looked around, seemingly for a bottle opener.

It might have been taken away by someone, there was none around.

Ryan, obviously one of those people who can't take care of themselves, gave it to a waiter beside him, "Help me uncork the bottle."

The waiter had to take it away to find a bottle opener in the kitchen.

Bai Yutang reached for the bottle, tapped the top on the edge of the table and handed the bottle to Ryan.

Ryan took the bottle with stars in both eyes, "So handsome!"

Zhan Zhao coughed.

After Ryan finished speaking, he ran off to the other end already to fool around with others... crazy.

"This group of people doesn't seem to be difficult to get along with."

Zhao Zhen walked over and found two bottles of wine, he naturally uncorked them in different ways, while chatting with Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

"You are part of that group too." Bai Yutang saw him pass the bottles of wine over and gently clinked them against his.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Zhen, "By the way, has that person contacted you recently?"

"Which person?" Zhao Zhen asked knowingly.

"That guy with the very long hair." Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes.

Zhao Zhen shook his head helplessly, "Zhao Jue, right? No, I haven't seen him for a long time since what happened last time."

"Is that so?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "I wonder what he's working on."

"What, you miss him a lot after not seeing him for so long?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, who drank the sweet lychee wine that had a faint sour taste to it.

At this time, the two brothers, Lan Qi and Lan Xi, came up to them, followed by Luo Tian and a distraught Ma Han and Zhao Hu. Behind them, a group of girls had gone crazy after drinking, and the crowd did not dare to approach.

"How's your body?" Bai Yutang asked Lan Qi about his recent condition.

"Healing nicely." Lan Qi raised his hand, the stitches could still be seen, but they didn't make people feel any discomfort, rather they could detect the beauty of the stitches.

Zhan Zhao suddenly felt that although Bobby was dead, Lan Qi's survival was the best testimony to his legendary experience, and when Lan Qi and Hao Ling got married and had children, Bobby's legend, in turn, would continue from generation to generation. Of course, it was hoped that their offspring would all be like Hao Ling, inheriting Bobby's amazing medical skills but also having a kind and benevolent heart. With the qualities of Lan Qi and Hao Ling, there should be no problem.

"Uncle!"

On the side, everyone was drinking when Ma Xin suddenly ran up and got behind Luo Tian.

Luo Tian looked back at her and saw that her hair was messed up, so he tidied it up for her, very thoughtfully, "Drink less, you can go back later and go crazy with alcohol again."

Ma Xin pursed her lips and slipped something into his hand, "Do me a favour later."

When Luo Tian looked at the object in his hand, he saw that it was a pebble and looked at Ma Xin with some confusion.

Ma Xin pointed to a black spherical object hanging on the second floor in the distance.

"That one, it's hanging too high and the string to open it broke, take the stone and throw it later, remember to do it after Stephen's successful proposal!"

Luo Tian understood and nodded, "I got it covered."

Ma Xin kissed him, turned around and ran away.

Luo Tian turned around and saw Zhao Hu coming up, "Uncle~, I also want..."

The crowd was amused, and Luo Tian raised his hand to smack him on the head.

While things were getting rowdy over here, there was already an uproar at the other side.

The crowd turned around and saw that in the middle of the garden, Stephen was already down on one knee holding Lily's hand.

The other girls were covering their mouths, and those who were ready to scream were ready to scream.

Luo Tian held the pebble, visually measured the distance feeling very relaxed and was ready to throw the stone when Lily nodded her head.

"Emilia..."

Just as Stephen was about to call out his lover's name with affection and propose to her, suddenly... someone said "Emilia".

All of a sudden, the atmosphere was a little stiff.

When everyone came back to their senses, they felt that the voice was very strange, as if it was the voice of a child or, perhaps, a woman with a childish voice. It carried a strong nasal sound, not like the pronunciation of someone who was used to speaking Mandarin.

Bai Yutang looked around, but there were too many people and too much noise, and he was not prepared at all, so he couldn't figure out where the voice came from.

"Yaaah!"

The moment the atmosphere suddenly froze, Lily was suddenly seen covering her mouth in horror and screaming, reaching out to point at the distant greenhouse.

She screamed as if she had been subjected to something that tore her heart out. Stephen glanced back and hurriedly covered her eyes, as if he too had seen something terrible.

Bai Yutang ran over to the direction they were looking at and frowned as he waved to the few people behind him, saying to Lin Ruo who also ran over curiously as he did so, "You all stay in the courtyard and don't move."

Bai Yutang took Luo Tian, Ma Han and Zhao Hu and ran towards the greenhouse in the distance, while the others stayed in the middle of the garden while Jiang Ping took a headcount.

Zhan Zhao stood at the front, directly opposite the greenhouse, looking at the near-tragic scene in the greenhouse where the lights had been turned on at an unknown time.

Halfway up the greenhouse hung a human head, with blonde hair, a charming face, burgeoning youth… it was just that his eyes were wide open in shock and there was still blood left in his severed neck, it was impossible for him to have survived – It was Ryan, the talented golfer.

Bai Yutang ran outside the greenhouse, found the glass door ajar, opened it and went in. He saw that in the greenhouse, in front of a wall of roses, there was an oddly shaped black shelf with Ryan's head hanging from it, and below it, lying on its side, was Ryan's body, and in front of the body, a fallen guillotine.

"What is this thing?" Zhao Hu muttered to himself.

"Guillotine."

At that moment, Gongsun walked in with Ma Xin, and Zhan Zhao also reached the entrance to the greenhouse.

"Just died." Gongsun examined the body and frowned, "Not more than ten minutes."

The crowd couldn't help but sigh, stifling their sorrow at the fall of a young genius.

Bai Yutang blamed himself a little, they had focused all their attention on Lin Ruo, not realising that there were others who could fall victim.

"Yutang."

At this moment, Zhan Zhao suddenly called out to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang turned around.

Zhan Zhao pointed to the shelf and said, "That guillotine, it seems to be able to move up and down, move the blade up and take a look."

Bai Yutang walked over and pushed the guillotine up with his gloves on, and there was indeed an opening in the shelf where the guillotine hung.

When the crowd took a few steps back, the stamp on Chen Fei's corpse flashed before their eyes – The guillotine, when raised, was in the shape of an "H", which also resembled a vertical "工".

When they thought of the indistinct "Emilia" in the air just now, the summer heat of the night suddenly dropped to a freezing point.

‿︵‿︵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: April 2, 2023 by Angel

Edited: April 15, 2023 by Angel