S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 67

Ghost Ship Murderer 31 – Twin

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As the boat headed for the open sea, Qin Ou was wearing headphones and following Jiang Ping's instructions to adjust the complicated mechanical case, muttering to himself, "This stuff is up to par with the secret service guys."

Zhao Jue was still playing go with the young girl.

Zhan Zhao crossed his arms at the back and watched Qin Ou adjust the machine, while Ma Han, Zhao Hu and Luo Tian followed Bai Yutang and went for a walk around the outside to learn more about the internal structure of the Emilia.

After about half an hour, Qin Ou finally got the functions of the case figured out, and took out a tablet computer from his bag and handed it to Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao turned it on and found that it was a surveillance screen of all the cabins outside. It turned out that Bao Zheng had arranged for Jiang Ping to install surveillance on the big Emilia outside.

At this time, Bai Yutang and the others came back.

"Oh boy." Zhao Hu shook his head as he entered, "This ship is really bloody."

"It looks like a bit more of a prop though, not like the real thing." Ma Han spoke up.

"Oh?" Zhao Jue padded over with interest, "What makes you think so?"

Ma Han looked at him, and from the side, Zhao Hu hurriedly pulled Ma Han a little away, "Don't look at his eyes, be careful of being divided."

Zhao Jue narrowed his eyes and was just about to say a few words when the young girl tugged on his shirt, "It's your turn."

Zhao Jue immediately smiled and turned back to continue playing. The crowd was not sure if it was their own illusion, but they felt that this young girl was very fond of Zhao Jue.

"This boat is indeed too new and too clean." Luo Tian went to a side table and chose to sit for a while as he said, "If it really was the ferry that suffered the catastrophe back then where so many people died, then there's no reason why the bodies were all carried away, the blood stains are so intact, and there's no debris left behind."

"Blood coagulates so quickly that it always leaves a blank space after something has been taken away." Ma Han shook his head, "But there aren't any here, all the blood is clean, some of it looks like paint splashed on, and the colour has stayed too vibrant for so long."

"A replica of the Emilia, huh." Zhao Hu bristled, "Is it a carnival? What's the point of building it?"

As the crowd was talking, they saw Qin Ou suddenly look up and take a headset to Bai Yutang, "Captain, Bao Sir is looking for you."

Bai Yutang put on the headset, "Bao Sir."

On the other end of the phone, Bao Zheng was silent for a moment before speaking, "The police officer responsible for protecting Jiang Nan was injured just now and was admitted to the hospital."

Bai Yutang was surprised, "What about Jiang Nan?"

When Zhan Zhao heard the words "Jiang Nan", he froze slightly and went over to put his ear to the headset to listen.

"Jiang Nan is missing, and the police officer is badly injured and is still being saved, the situation is still unclear." Bao Zheng frowned.

Bai Yutang indicated that he understood then looked up at Zhan Zhao, "Jiang Nan was also kidnapped? Could it be that she was kidnapped together with Lin Ruo? "

"Why would they kidnap Lin Ruo and then Jiang Nan?" Zhao Hu didn't understand, "Did the two of them cross paths? Besides, if Han Wei really did it, why would he kidnap Jiang Nan?"

"Hmm...." Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, thinking.

Bai Yutang scrolled through the tablet looking at the various surveillance feeds, and he saw Stephen and the others in the wheelhouse of the ship.

There were four people who were visible. One was Stephen whom they knew and had seen before at the banquet. A few others looked familiar, all gentry boys who had appeared at Stephen's engagement banquet. There was another one standing outside the cabin, and a dozen bodyguards in black clothes standing around.

"There's quite a crowd." Bai Yutang frowned.

"Did you look at every cabin?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang, "No one else?"

Bai Yutang shook his head and asked, "Who else do you think would be there?"

After thinking about it, Zhan Zhao asked Qin Ou to ask Jiang Ping if there were any cameras installed in the nooks and crannies.

Jiang Ping said that there were no cameras installed, but on the outside of the boat, there were a few cameras with movable angles that could essentially provide coverage of the whole boat.

Zhan Zhao asked Qin Ou to manipulate them.

Bai Yutang stared at the camera and was confused as to what exactly Zhan Zhao was looking for.

Just as the camera was slowly moving, Bai Yutang suddenly shouted, "Stop."

Qin Ou hurriedly stopped the camera and looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang frowned and pointed at the corner of the boat in the camera, "Look here." All of them went over to look, and saw a man crouching in a very hidden corner at the stern of the boat.

The man was crouched at the stern where the lifeboats were kept, covered by a reflective curtain. He was holding a compass in his hand and had just lifted the curtain to look up at the stars.

"Han Wei?!"

The crowd shouted out in surprise when they saw the man's face clearly.

"Why is Han Wei on the ship?" Everyone subconsciously looked at Zhan Zhao.

They saw Zhan Zhao faintly raise his eyebrows, the expression on his face was clearly – Sure enough!

"So, it wasn't Han Wei who kidnapped Lin Ruo?" Luo Tian asked.

"Look." Ma Han gestured for the crowd to continue watching.

They saw Han Wei agilely scramble out of the lifeboat, leap up to the second floor and hide directly behind the railing... Just as he hid, a man in black who was on patrol passed by with a flashlight. When he was gone, Han Wei went back to where he was just now and continued to take cover behind the curtain.

"That was such a swift move." Zhao Hu's mouth opened wide, "He knows kung fu?"

"I can't tell." Ma Han frowned, "He looked gentle and even a little weak at the hospital."

Bai Yutang sneered, "With that movement he made just now, it's clear that he is highly skilled."

"Is that possible?" Luo Tian found it unbelievable, "It's amazing that his muscles didn't shrink after being immobile for years like that, eight years in a vegetative state and he moved like normal after adjusting for a short while."

"About this, you previously said it was originally impossible unless..." Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, "What comes after unless?"

Zhan Zhao smiled and turned back to ask Ma Han, "Earlier, I asked you to check the duty roster, have you done so?"

"Yes!" Both Ma Han and Zhao Hu nodded their heads.

"Did you find anything strange?"

"Yes." Ma Han nodded, "That hospital has a rotating duty system, but there is a gap in the duty hours of the various floors. I don't know why, but every morning from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. and every afternoon from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., there are no doctors or nurses on duty on Han Wei's floor, and at that time, they all have to go to the other floors of the inpatient department, and the doctors and nurses on the other floors don't come at that time."

"So, Han Wei is not monitored twenty-four hours a day? Rather, he lies alone for one hour each morning and evening every day?" Luo Tian frowned, "I don't understand, is it that he woke up long ago and has been pretending to be unconscious, and just gets up and moves around for two hours every day to maintain his muscle strength, or..."

Seeing that Luo Tian was a little confused, Zhan Zhao smiled.

"There's only one explanation for everything." Zhao Jue interjected.

Zhan Zhao glanced at him.

Before Zhao Jue could open his mouth to steal his thunder, he heard Bai Yutang say, "Twins."

"Twins?!" Everyone was startled.

Zhao Hu's mouth opened wide, "The two brothers change shifts on time every morning and night to sleep, huh?"

"It's too easy to blow their cover, isn't it" Zhao Hu rubbed his temples, "It's unacceptable that they could be twins."

"It would be good if there was an inside man at the hospital." Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, "The female ghost that knocked out He Ying."

"Speaking of which, why did that female ghost attack He Ying?" Luo Tian was puzzled.

"The main purpose should be to use He Ying's mouth to talk about the Blue Undead and lure us to discover Blue Doll's plan." Zhan Zhao said.

"But... is there any proof that it was really twins pretending to be Han Wei?" Zhao Hu couldn't figure it out.

"It's just speculation, we should have a conclusion soon." When Zhan Zhao finished, Qin Ou nodded again and signalled for Bai Yutang – The phone.

Bai Yutang picked up the phone, and the person on the other end was not Bao Zheng but Gongsun, "I've checked the hair samples taken from the hospital bed that Xiao Zhan asked me to investigate, and confirmed that the DNA belongs to two people, who are presumably brothers, as it's very close."

When everyone heard this news, they all looked at Zhan Zhao with their mouths wide open.

"You told us to look at the timeline when you came back from the hospital that day." Ma Han did not understand how Zhan Zhao suspected that Han Wei was not one person but twins, "Why?"

"Because of coincidence." Zhan Zhao replied dryly, "You guys went and he woke up, how could it be such a coincidence?"

Zhao Hu rubbed his neck, "I always thought there was something wrong with that kid, dare I say it was because of pretending to be a vegetable?"

"But there should only be one real Han Wei." Bai Yutang muttered to himself as he watched the surveillance footage.

"Head, why did you start to not speak Chinese too?" Zhao Hu was depressed.

"I mean, the Han Wei who became friends with Lin Ruo, went to sea with him, met the Emilia, had a shipwreck, and ended up becoming a vegetable." Bai Yutang said, "After all, these experiences can't be faked, and when interacting with Lin Ruo, if it was two different people, there's no way Lin Ruo wouldn't have noticed, after all, they were together every day."

"In that case, Lin Ruo came to see Han Wei every day during the day, so the one who was lying during the day was the real Han Wei, and the one who woke up and spoke about the Emilia was also the real Han Wei, while the other one, his twin brother, was the one who was lying at night?"

"Quite the opposite." Zhan Zhao shook his head, "The one during the day is not the Han Wei who was interacting with Lin Ruo, but the twin brother, he may not even know Lin Ruo at all, Han Wei just came to sleep at night."

"I see." Zhao Hu nodded, "Although they are twins, their personalities are very different. Han Wei is probably more gentle, while his brother is the one who is cool as hell and squatting at this moment, therefore, we feel it's awkward because he is pretending to be Han Wei. It's easy to pretend to be sick and weak, but it's hard to switch personalities!"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Han Wei should indeed have been a vegetable for a while, then woke up and carried out this step of the plan."

"So, Han Wei captured Lin Ruo?" Ma Han asked.

Bai Yutang shook his head, "I don't think Han Wei would hurt Lin Ruo."

"Didn't you hear the old couple, Lin Qianci kept saying that they don't like Han Wei because they think he will change Lin Ruo, but they didn't say that they think he is dangerous." Zhan Zhao said slowly, "The reason I brought up the point that Yutang doesn't know about inferiority has another significance. Father Lin and Mother Lin felt that there was something wrong with Han Wei, but it was really just out of a parental instinct to protect their child; they could tell that Han Wei seemed to have other intentions when he was around Lin Ruo. And Han Wei may indeed have had another purpose in approaching Lin Ruo in the first place."

"What purpose?" Everyone's thoughts were now completely led by Zhan Zhao, unable to think independently and feeling the inquisitiveness brought on by their poor intelligence.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang said, "The security system of Lin Ruo's house was broken, but doesn't it feel strange?"

Ma Han nodded, "A killing of this scale doesn't look like someone from the outside sneaking in to do it."

"And those security guards are highly trained." Zhao Hu added, "To be taken out so soundlessly feels like a surprise attack by someone they know."

"Could it be an inside job?" Luo Tian frowned, "The security department is all dead, all that's left are Lin Ruo's parents, the butler and a few maids… The gardener?"

Zhan Zhao smiled and asked, "If the gardener suddenly went to the door of the young master's room and you were the bodyguard, would you be on alert?"

Luo Tian nodded, "Then... the butler and the maids?"

"It's unlikely that it's the butler, who has supposedly been serving the family for decades, and who is indeed quite old, so he should be powerless." Bai Yutang smiled, "It's the maids."

"But there is another thing that has given me inspiration." Zhan Zhao smiled, "Guess why Jiang Nan was also kidnapped?"

The crowd looked at him helplessly – We just asked you because we can't guess.

Zhan Zhao crossed his arms and squinted his eyes with a laugh, handing the picture of Han Wei's brother that had just been frozen in place to the young girl who was concentrating on her go game to look at, asking, "Who is he? "

The young girl glanced at it and narrowed her eyes, "Brother."

Everyone was startled.

Bai Yutang frowned slightly, "Is he also… Blue Doll?"

Zhao Jue smiled, "Twins, there is more than one pair."

Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue, "When Bruce was researching Blue Doll, he mentioned that there was a key condition, but it didn't state which one. In this case, it seems that the answer is – twins!"

Zhao Jue nodded, "Blue Doll, they are all twins..."

Everyone was speechless and wanted to kick Zhao Jue in the face – If he knew, he should have said so!

"There's one detail to pay attention to." Zhan Zhao said, "When Han Wei left, the camera caught his movements as being somewhat stiff at first."

"That means he was lying down for more than twelve hours." Bai Yutang said, "So, the two brothers didn't change shifts for the past few days. After all, they are now protected by police officers all day, and it would be easy to be discovered if they changed shifts. So this Han Wei is here, and that Han Wei, where did he go?"

"The one who kidnapped Lin Ruo wasn't Han Wei, or Stephen, so who could it be?" Zhao Hu scratched his head, "Could it be this girl's twin sister?"

"Hu Zi." Zhan Zhao suddenly turned his face to look at Zhao Hu seriously.

Zhao Hu was startled, "Wh-what?"

Zhan Zhao smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "Actually, you are seriously quite smart."

Zhao Hu hurriedly retreated to the side and pinched himself, Zhan Zhao did not give him any suggestions right, basically patting his shoulder and snapping his fingers are not good.

Zhan Zhao smiled and continued, "Besides her twin sister, there should be another person, that is him, the one who kidnapped Jiang Nan."

......

Lin Ruo woke up amidst the swaying, a sway that he knew full well had been caused by a boat travelling through the waves.

Shaking his head, which still hurt a little, he opened his eyes, and his previous experience came back to him, leaving him unable to believe it was real... Just a moment ago, he was holding the branch office's renovation renderings, when the door suddenly opened, and one of his family's maids ran in and slapped him on the back of the head, and he passed out... and the moment he fainted, he saw the blood-covered floor in the doorway, and the body that had fallen on the ground.

"Uh..." Lin Ruo sat up, clearing his consciousness, and looked around to find himself in a bed in a small room. After moving his limbs, he found that his hands were not tied and there were no restraints. He was about to take a closer look around when he noticed that there was someone else, a middle-aged woman with short hair, lying on another bed to one side.

"Jiang Nan?" Lin Ruo recognised the person in the opposite bed by the faint light of a chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

"Jiang Nan!" Lin Ruo went over and checked her breath first, and found that she was still alive, so he pinched her philtrum and shook her twice.

Soon, Jiang Nan also woke up. She was a strong woman who would never lose her sanity for any reason, so she quickly cleared her mind and remained calm. After seeing the person in front of her clearly, she froze, "Lin Ruo? How did you... you were captured too?"

Lin Ruo nodded, "Who captured you?"

Jiang Nan had a confused look on her face, as if she still couldn't figure it out after thinking about it, "I..."

Before she could finish her sentence, the door of the room suddenly opened with a click, and a person walked in.

‿︵‿︵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: July 1, 2023 by Angel

Edited: July 7, 2023 by Angel