S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 88

Toothless Murderer 11 – The Beginning of the Pendulum

---

The SCI crowd returned to the police station to sort out the clues currently at hand.

This case was getting weirder and weirder. They thought that they would catch the boss next, but they didn't realise that the ones they caught were all pawns, and the true target of the one hiding behind the scenes was indeed SCI.

However, why does he hate everyone in SCI? This is still unknown... There may be unjustified love in the world, but there may not be unjustified hatred, there must have been some kind of intersection!

"Could it be the murderer of a previous case or someone who has been arrested by SCI?" Bao Zheng was a little worried, "Otherwise, why is there such hatred?"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, who tugged on Xiao Bai Chi, "Chi Chi, how many people have we offended over the years?"

The corner of Bai Chi's mouth twitched, this could be answered without a superb memory – definitely a lot!

"He did specifically mention the people around us." Gongsun was more concerned about this, "This means that the other party has some knowledge of us, but if we have a stalker, there's no reason why we wouldn't have noticed!"

"Speaking of stalkers," Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "do you remember that time when we went to the Western Mountain area, there was a yellow car following us that flashed its lights?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "That half of an egg yolk?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "That car was also downstairs when we arrested Li Rui yesterday."

Zhan Zhao frowned and stroked his chin, "Coincidence? Although that car is ugly, it's not exactly rare..."

"Was it a yellow hatchback?" Gongsun suddenly asked.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded their heads together and looked at Gongsun, "How do you know?"

"I also saw it when I went to the gas station with Jintang that day." Gongsun said, "Jintang thought that car was following us."

Bai Yutang frowned.

"That's a bit suspicious." Zhan Zhao said rather seriously, "Both of the brothers have a dog's intuition... so it's better to check it out."

"I'll look for that car." Jiang Ping extracted the video footage of the nearby traffic cameras based on the time everyone said they saw the little yellow car, and soon, he intercepted the licence plate number of the yellow car when it appeared the three different times, and once he compared it – it turned out to be really the same car.

"According to the licence plate, the owner's name is Wang Yue, they're twenty–five years old, female, and a news reporter." Jiang Ping handed Bai Yutang this reporter's address.

Bai Yutang raised an eyebrow at Zhan Zhao, which meant – Go pay a visit?

Zhan Zhao nodded. Out of curiosity, Bai Chi and Gongsun also went along, and Bai Yutang brought along Ma Han and Zhao Hu. In addition to continuing the investigation, all of them called the people around them and told them to pay attention to their safety.

They drove to the neighbourhood where the female reporter's house was. She lived in a remote area, and according to the address, it was an old house on the outskirts of the city. The house was quite large, so it was estimated that the family was well off.

Bai Yutang walked over and rang the doorbell.

Not long after, an old lady with a head full of white hair walked out, opened the door and looked at the crowd with some confusion, "Who are you looking for?"

"Is Wang Yue here?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Oh, Xiao Yue lives in the city, not in the countryside." The old lady replied, "She rented a place there after she graduated from university and found a job in the city."

"Do you have her address in the city?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Er..." The old lady hesitated, looked at the crowd, and asked, "What are you looking for her for?"

Bai Yutang took out his badge, "We're the police."

"Ah!" The old lady was startled, "Did something happen to Xiao Yue?"

"No need to be nervous." Zhan Zhao said, "We're looking for her to gather some information."

"Oh... that house she rented is on Fuhua Street, it's not downtown." The old lady said, "Xiao Yue is used to living in an old house and doesn't like tall buildings."

After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked for the address, they drove away.

However, just as the car drove to an alleyway that was not visible from the old house, Bai Yutang stopped the car.

"What do you think?" Bai Yutang asked the crowd behind him.

"The old lady lied." Zhan Zhao replied.

Gongsun nodded, "Mhmm, she lied!"

Bai Chi scratched his head, "How can you tell?"

Zhan Zhao reached out and touched Bai Chi's head, "So innocent. The old lady firstly emphasised that she wasn't there, and secondly cared about who we were."

So the crowd got out... and walked back.

When they walked to the gate, they happened to see the door open, and a girl in her twenties came out with a big bag on her back. Behind her, there was also the old woman from just a moment ago, who asked worriedly, "You really didn't do anything bad ah, don't scare Grandma..."

The two sides met, and the grandmother and grandchild stopped awkwardly.

After standing for a while, Wang Yue asked, "How did you guys know I was here?"

Zhan Zhao smiled, "Your grandmother is honest and won't lie."

Wang Yue laughed dryly, "That's right, how could she have fooled you."

"How about we go in and have a chat?" Bai Yutang was polite.

Wang Yue nodded, and her grandmother grabbed her and instructed, "Explain to the police properly."

Wang Yue was speechless, "Grandma, I've said I didn't do anything!"

The crowd went in and sat down, and Wang Yue's grandmother went to pour the tea.

Bai Yutang showed her three screenshots of her licence plate, "Can you explain?"

Wang Yue looked at the crowd and called out to the kitchen, "Grandma, don't make the tea, I'm going out with them for a bit."

With that, Wang Yue said to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "I can't say it clearly, I'll take you guys to see something, you'll understand!"

......

Everyone looked at each other in disbelief, but they still went out the door with Wang Yue.

Wang Yue sat in Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's car and led the crowd to the old house she rented. Her house was in the suburbs, not too far from the city, there were a lot of people and the flow of people seemed to be a bit complicated.

Zhan Zhao asked Wang Yue in confusion, "Why do you live here?"

"I like places where the market is a bit more lively. I don't like the feeling of living in a concrete box in a high–rise building, and not knowing the neighbours on my left and right, it's not interesting at all." Wang Yue said, asking Bai Yutang to park the car in the open space in front of a small shop, "The house I live in is in the back."

As she spoke, Wang Yue led the crowd to the back of the small shop, through several narrow lanes.

Wang Yue greeted and passed by the old lady washing clothes, the uncle killing fish, the aunt plucking chicken feathers, the children running all over the place, and the dogs basking in the sun at the entrance of several courtyards along the way.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other – The people were friendly enough.

"I like it to be lively." Wang Yue said as she finally stopped in front of a small courtyard and opened the door, inviting the crowd in.

An uncle next door came back pushing a motorbike and was quite puzzled when he saw them, "Huh? Yue Yue, didn't you go on a business trip? Back so soon?"

"I haven't left yet." Wang Yue said with a smile.

In the courtyard, a large black dog ran over and wagged its tail at Wang Yue, there were also two calico cats napping on the stone platform on the side, and there were rattan chairs, various flowers and plants in the courtyard; the flavour of rural life was strong.

Zhan Zhao analysed it – This girl loves life and has an optimistic personality, she does not have any characteristics of a murderer.

Wang Yue invited everyone to sit down in the living room and poured tea for them.

"I rented this house after I graduated from university, and I've lived here for almost a year." Wang Yue introduced.

"What do you want us to see?" Bai Yutang asked.

"The things I'm showing you are in the stove room." Wang Yue said, leading the crowd towards the stove room.

"There's a stove room, huh?" Zhao Hu thought the house was quite novel.

"The previous tenant of this house died in a car accident." Wang Yue said, "The owner of the house has long since emigrated abroad, and the house was entrusted to the agent to rent. By coincidence, I wanted to rent an old house, and came to take a look at it and was very satisfied, so I stayed here. The cat I have likes to sleep in the stove at night. About a month ago, I cleaned out the hay section of the stove, ready to replace it with a sponge mat for the cat, so that it doesn't bring a field of grass clippings with it wherever it goes... But when the hay was all raked out, I found this!"

Saying this, Wang Yue pointed at the darkened floor inside the stove to show the crowd.

Bai Yutang squatted down to take a look and found that on the floor inside the stove, there was an iron door with a lock.

The entrance to the stove was large enough for a person to climb in and out.

Wang Yue climbed in and removed a set of keys from an unseen part of the stove, showing it to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "I climbed in and found a set of keys hanging on the inside, so I opened the iron door." As she spoke, she unlocked the iron door and lifted it, "There turns out to be a basement under here."

The crowd looked at each other in disbelief.

Wang Yue climbed down, and Bai Yutang and the others followed.

"I did call and ask the agent about this. The agent asked the owner of the house, and the other party said that this was an air–raid shelter dug by his grandfather in the past, so I don't have to bother about it, and it can be used as a storage room. But I didn't tell them that there is something else inside!"

The crowd followed Wang Yue and climbed down into this hidden basement, and only then did they understand what Wang Yue was referring to as "something else".

This basement was set up like a studio, with desks, computers, and an entire wall plastered with newspaper clippings, photographs, and so on.

The most surprising thing for Bai Yutang and the others was that almost everything was related to their SCI!

Everyone spread out to take a closer look.

There were a lot of photos on the wall, all of which were of SCI members and their families and friends. In addition, there were a lot of newspaper clippings about their cases. It seemed that this person was doing a very careful study of SCI.

"From the earliest days when SCI was just established and solved its first case, he started paying attention to us!" Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "He's been investigating and researching for at least a few years. You can see that all of these photos were secretly taken over a long period of time, and because he followed us sporadically, he didn't draw our attention, right?"

"The camera equipment is here." Zhao Hu found a box with some cameras and some super telephoto lenses.

Ma Han looked at some of the photos, "The shooting distance should be very far."

"Brother, there's so much detailed case information!" Bai Chi found a lot of photocopied texts from the work table, "These are all documents that can only be obtained from the police department's internal data room, and some cases are still classified, how did he get them?"

Bai Yutang looked at Wang Yue on the side, "Why are you following us?"

"I'm not following you guys!" Wang Yue said, taking out a document from the desk and saying. "Take a look."

Wang Yue flipped to a page and handed it to the crowd.

Looking at that page, the date written was the day that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went to Western Mountain to look for Chang Yan's diary, and it also stated the target – Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, the method of elimination – crash and die.

Zhan Zhao's eyelids raised – Crash and die?

Underneath it was written a detailed plan to use a transport truck to crash into Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's car on the most dangerous road, causing the two to die in a car accident.

Bai Yutang stroked his chin – That road section, happened to be the one where he noticed Wang Yue's car following with flashing lights.

On the second page, the time written was when Gongsun and Bai Jintang went to the hotel inauguration, which happened to coincide with Ye Fu's death.

Targets – Bai Jintang, Gongsun Ce, method of elimination – poisoning.

A detailed plan is also written underneath. The other party prepares poison and puts it in the champagne or water that Bai Jintang and Gongsun would drink during the banquet, causing the two of them to die.

However, this plan did not come to fruition because of Ye Fu's death.

Gongsun thought about it, that was the time they saw Wang Yue's car flashing its lights at the gas station, and it indeed raised both of their vigilance.

"You went that day because you wanted to save us?" Zhan Zhao asked Wang Yue.

Wang Yue nodded, "I'm a reporter, I've essentially read all of this information, and I have an understanding of SCI. I think that you are all good people, and if anything happens it is a public loss, so I drove... However, I went there twice and suspected that this plan was just casually written. Because I didn't notice any trucks tailing you guys on the motorway that day. And that reception didn't even take place!"

"What about last night?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Why did you appear downstairs at Li Rui's house last night?"

"Who is Li Rui?" Wang Yue shook her head and said, "I went there yesterday because of this!" Saying that, Wang Yue flipped to the middle of the booklet, and saw that there was a page with the time and location from last night, with a line in red underneath – The beginning of the pendulum.

"The beginning of the pendulum..." Bai Yutang frowned slightly and asked Wang Yue "Why did you run away in a hurry?"

"I went there yesterday, but I didn't see anything strange, I just saw a lot of police cars downstairs, so I started to wonder if I had fallen into some trap. It would be troublesome if I was taken advantage of or misunderstood to be related to the murder." After saying this, Wang Yue took a letter out of her bag, and it was addressed to SCI, "I put the key to this house in it, as well as the secrets in the stove, and I was going to send it to you guys before I ran out of the country by myself to take shelter, it just so happened that I had an interview to do abroad... I always felt a bit scared, and I was afraid of being involved in something so terrible. Every time I look at the information around this room, I feel very weird. What kind of person would spend so much time studying you guys? It feels very evil."

Zhan Zhao tore open the envelope. The contents were the same as what Wang Yue had said, and there was a key to the front door.

"So you told the neighbours about the business trip?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Mhmm, I want them to take care of my dogs and cats for me." Wang Yue was helpless, "That uncle mentioned it a few days ago, saying that someone had been sneaking around in front of my door, and I was so afraid of being killed or something, so I was going to wait a month or two before coming back."

Zhan Zhao nodded to Bai Yutang – She shouldn't be lying.

Bai Yutang asked Ma Han and Zhao Hu to investigate the previous occupant of this house and the cause of his death.

Bai Chi and Gongsun went to find the uncle next door and asked him about the person who had been hanging around in front of Wang Yue's house before.

"Do you know anything about the previous tenant who had an accident?" Zhan Zhao asked Wang Yue.

Wang Yue shook her head, "I don't know him, but he died almost a year ago!"

Zhan Zhao frowned at Bai Yutang, "He died a year ago, but the plan was written until yesterday, and only after the 'beginning of the pendulum' did it stop! It seems like someone is fulfilling his last wish?"

"A pendulum doesn't stop on its own once it starts." Bai Yutang crossed his arms and looked around, "Someone inside the police station must be sending information out, we need to investigate who among the people entering and exiting the data room is paying special attention to the SCI."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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 3, 2023 by Angel

Edited: September 28, 2023 by Angel