S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 104

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell 04 – Missing Fighter

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Jiang Ping used the latest set of equipment "donated" by Brother Bai to do a bit of high-definition processing of the videos, and then placed them on a new large screen in the SCI office and showed it to the crowd.

During everyone's vacation, the SCI office underwent a renovation, which Bai Jintang hired someone to do, and now it was modernised to look like a sci-fi film.

The crowd watched the images on the screen, and the effect was even better than a horror film.

The video recordings were silent, but it was possible to clearly see the victims' mouths as they spoke.

Zhao Zhen was proficient in lipreading and looked at it, helpless, "That person ran and shouted 'help, there are ghosts ah...'"

Everyone frowned.

The height of the dash cam was much lower than the surveillance camera, the distance was much closer, and the picture seen was much clearer.

The content of the video was that the owner who just got out of the car, out of curiosity, went into the corner of the yellow car to take a look, and the crowd could vaguely see that there seemed to be a person squatting behind the car.

That owner just stood behind that person for about two or three seconds, and then turned around and fled in horror. His facial expression could be seen to be extremely distorted, and he should have been in a state of shock.

At the same time, something in the shape of a human behind him swooped in and grabbed him by the head, and the man was yanked down and dragged into the shadows behind the car.

There was a moment when the assailant dragged the bloody owner out, looked around for a bit, and finally spotted the yellow car's trunk that could be opened, so he threw the body in, closed the trunk, turned around, and walked away.

Jiang Ping captured a large number of pictures that were shocking to the eye and matched them with the photos of the body that Ai Hu and the others had sent up.

There were a few screenshots that clearly captured the attacker's appearance – dry limbs, skeleton-like face, wrinkled skin and those two black holes in the eye sockets.

Zhan Zhao pulled out the photo of the "dry corpse" that attacked Zhang Yang at the airport earlier.

"It's the same person, right?" Bai Chi compared the two sets of photos.

"Yes, I compared them." Jiang Ping said, taking out the comparison of the two sets of photos and showing them to the crowd.

"Is this thing... human?" Gongsun stroked his chin with slight interest, looking at the face of the dry corpse in the picture, "The facial features are consistent with the structure of a human skull, it doesn't look like it's some kind of mutation nor does it look like it's a facelift."

"By calculating the proportions," Jiang Ping had already done a precise analysis, "this person is around one metre eighty in height and weighs just over a hundred pounds."

"That thin?" Bai Chi frowned, "How can someone that thin have that much strength?"

"The machine simply calculated it by his size." Jiang Ping said.

"If a real person has this kind of structural proportions," Gongsun examined it for half a day and shook his head, "then they're really just skin and bones."

Bai Yutang took out the photos of the corpse and Forensic Doctor Yang's preliminary autopsy report and looked at them for a while, frowning, "This thing eats people?"

Zhan Zhao immediately came over, "Really?"

At this time, the elevator door opened and Ma Xin, who had gone downstairs to fetch the body, was holding a document. A young forensic doctor behind her helped to push the body, and came out to worship Gongsun in the process.

Jiang Ping asked Gongsun, "The forensic room has been renovated, have you gone to see it?"

Gongsun froze and rubbed his chin, "Oh?"

"Lord Ming," Ma Xin asked Gongsun from the doorway, "do you want to put the body in the freezer or on the autopsy table?"

"Autopsy table, I'll be right there." Gongsun said.

Ma Xin then took the young forensic doctor to the forensic room, and about ten seconds later, there was a startled shriek.

Gongsun ran over and the crowd followed towards the forensic room.

Opening the door of the forensic room... everyone opened their mouths wide.

Bai Yutang held his forehead helplessly. The construction of this forensic room was even more sci-fi than the office next door. It was a mess of all kinds of instruments that they had never seen before, and next to the dissecting table was a thick stack of manuals for all kinds of machines. Even the ones used to crush things were of a uniform style with various crystal skulls.

"Mother ah!" Zhao Hu grasped the door frame and refused to go in.

The young forensic doctor from downstairs knelt in front of the dissecting table to look at the exhaust system underneath, enviously rubbing the legs of the table "Ah! The basement is in ancient times compared to this!"

Zhan Zhao curiously asked Gongsun, "Did Brother not get modern facilities for Old Yang?"

Gongsun propped up his glasses and said, "I mentioned it to him before, but Old Yang didn't like it, he said he likes the style of the ancient times."

Everyone looked at the sky.

Gongsun walked into the office as the young forensic doctor and Ma Xin propped the black body bag onto the autopsy table. Ma Xin frowned as she opened the zipper.

The young forensic doctor gave Gongsun the forensic report that Old Yang had asked him to bring and said, "There are traces of gnawing on the body, and the internal organs are severely destroyed."

"No way..." Bai Chi frowned, "Really cannibalistic?"

"We haven't had time to analyse it specifically yet." The young forensic doctor said as the elevator doors opened and Old Yang came up with another body, "Wow! So this is the new forensic room, nice."

Behind him, another assistant pushed in Zhang Yang's corpse.

Ma Xin scanned the two corpses with the stereoscopic scanner.

Gongsun shows the photos of the dry corpse to Forensic Doctor Yang.

Forensic Doctor Yang frowned as he wore his glasses, "How is it possible that just a skeleton is left yet it still has so much strength?"

"I also think it's unlikely." Gongsun tapped on a screen and played the video of the attack that Jiang Ping sent over for Forensic Doctor Yang to see.

Forensic Doctor Yang stroked his chin, "It really looks like a zombie from a zombie film!"

Several forensic doctors were studying the physiological structure of the "dry corpse".

Bai Chi and the others were observing Ma Xin operate the advanced 3D scanner to analyse the data of the corpse.

Bai Yutang suddenly asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat, could it be another freak left over from whatever experiments Zhao Jue and the others did in the past?"

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "But so far, no such style has appeared."

"There is something strange."

At this moment, Ma Xin, who had analysed the corpse, suddenly raised her head.

Everyone went over to look.

Ma Xin clicked on a touch screen to the side a few times and pointed out a set of data, saying, "There is metal residue on top of the incision. The smooth surface of the cut should be caused by the same knife, and based on the shape of the wound the initial deduction of the simulated knife's shape is... like this."

Saying that, Ma Xin pointed to the computer that automatically simulated a model of the knife. It could be seen that it was the kind of hand-held knife used by the special forces, with a sharp edge on the front and a ring-shaped blade similar to the surface of an axe on the back.

"So it wasn't torn open by claws nor caused by teeth?" Bai Yutang asked.

"There are some gnaw-like marks, but no saliva was found on the body." Ma Xin quickly tapped the screen, "There was a set of fingerprints scanned."

"Fingerprints?" The crowd came over to look.

Ma Xin ran the fingerprints through a comparison search, and after about three seconds, a match surprisingly appeared.

"There's a match?!" Everyone was shocked.

Zhan Zhao squatted down and began to study the strange scanner as well as the data analyser, "This machine solved the case!"

Bai Yutang helplessly dragged Zhan Zhao up and nodded to Ma Xin to display the comparison results.

Ma Xin displayed the comparison results. They saw that the fingerprints belonged to a man, named "Cheng Mu", male, born in 1979. He left for Romania ten years ago, then disappeared and has not been found. Occupation – Muay Thai Featherweight Champion.

"Featherweight?" Bai Yutang frowned, "Featherweight is a metre eight?"

"No." Ma Xin shook her head, "According to the official data provided, Cheng Mu's height is one hundred and sixty five centimetres and he weighs one hundred and ten pounds."

Saying that, Ma Xin pointed at herself, "Just about the same size as me I guess."

"So what happened to his body?" Zhao Hu was curious, "Was it stretched?"

"Probably some kind of make-up." Zhao Zhen came closer, rubbing his chin and looking at the screen, and after a long time, he frowned "Could he be wearing the skin of a dry corpse?"

At the door, Zhao Hu, who was nursing a mint to relieve stress, sighed, "The taste is getting heavier each time!"

"Cheng Mu..." Bai Yutang muttered to himself, reciting the name, "The Muay Thai champion from ten years ago?"

"You recognise him?" Zhan Zhao was curious, he remembered that Bai Yutang had learnt Muay Thai at that time as well.

"I haven't heard of the name, but I know a few Muay Thai club coaches, so there might be someone who knows him." Saying that, Bai Yutang took out his phone and scoured through it.

After making three calls in a row, coincidentally, there was really someone who knew Cheng Mu.

Bai Yutang hung up the phone and saw that Gongsun and the others were ready to enter the autopsy stage, so he assigned the work.

Bai Chi contacted the archaeological team for some details about the Wheel of Caleb.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou went to the airport to investigate.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han went to the parking garage below Xu Lie's house to look at the scene.

Zhang Long and Wang Chao went to investigate Zhang Yang's background.

Bai Yutang, on the other hand, took Zhan Zhao and went to a Muay Thai boxing club in S City.

People like Zhan Zhao, who usually never exercised, had the impression that most of the boxing clubs should be the kind of places where there were dirty tires all over the place, and where dark, bare-chested muscular men were hugging sandbags and swaying around. But this club looked very high-class, with bright and clear windows.

"Xiao Bai."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were asking the attendant at the counter when a fat old man in his fifties ran down from upstairs, smiling brightly, "Hahaha... how did you remember me?"

Bai Yutang greeted him, "Coach Wang."

As he said this, he introduced Zhan Zhao. This old man was the owner of this club and a famous Muay Thai coach called Wang Jianhua.

Wang Jianhua exchanged pleasantries with Bai Yutang and led the two upstairs to his office.

To walk to Wang Jianhua's office, one had to walk through a corridor, and on both sides of the corridor, there were different sparring rooms, as well as some mechanical workout rooms, with glass doors and white walls and floor-to-ceiling windows, it was very high-class.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and looked over from room to room, finally stopping at the door of a sparring room with its curtains drawn.

Bai Yutang saw that he wasn't moving, so he asked, "What is it?"

"Ho ho, have you seen the star?" Wang Jianhua walked over and pointed at the sparring room, saying, "There's a big star practising in there."

Bai Yutang was puzzled and looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao pointed to a gap where the curtain was not blocking the door.

Bai Yutang glanced inside and frowned slightly – he saw that the person boxing inside was Xu Lie.

Bai Yutang asked, "Xu Lie also fights here?"

"Yes, he's also my student, and has learnt for years." Wang Jianhua nodded, "He likes Muay Thai a lot, and comes often."

Bai Yutang thought for a moment, "Does he know Cheng Mu?"

"Knows ah, he's Cheng Mu's junior." Wang Jianhua nodded.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other – Cheng Mu appeared in the parking garage under Xu Lie's house, killed someone, and put the body in the back of his car, could it be a coincidence?

"What's wrong?" Wang Jianhua was a little curious when he saw that the two of them looked different.

"Nothing, let's go into your office to talk." Bai Yutang said.

The three entered the office. Bai Yutang and Wang Jianhua sat down, while Zhan Zhao looked at the trophies in the display case as well as the various group photos.

"Which one is Cheng Mu?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Oh, the first one from the left at the top!" Wang Jianhua said.

Zhan Zhao looked at the photo carefully.

Unlike that horrible dry corpse face, the Cheng Mu in the photo was small yet strong, with dark skin and sharp eyes, and a good appearance, just a little fierce feeling.

"Ai, Cheng Mu went to Romania ten years ago, and he disappeared." Wang Jianhua shook his head, "He was the first champion I taught, ai..."

Bai Yutang nodded and asked, "Do you know why Cheng Mu went to Romania?"

"To chase his girlfriend." Wang Jianhua said.

"Girlfriend?" Zhan Zhao asked with interest, "A foreigner?"

"No, that woman is a photographer, she ran to Romania to take photographs. Cheng Mu chased her very closely, but when the police asked the woman afterwards, she said that she didn't run into Cheng Mu in Romania." Wang Jianhua said as he took out a photobook and flipped through it, finally flipping to a photo to show Bai Yutang.

"She's the girl Cheng Mu was chasing, I don't remember her name specifically." Wang Jianhua said, "She used to be a photojournalist, she took a set of photos for Cheng Mu, and Cheng Mu fell in love with her."

Bai Yutang took that photo and sent it to Jiang Ping, asking him to check the identity of that female reporter.

"Er, Xiao Bai ah, did something happen to Cheng Mu?" Wang Jianhua frowned, "To be able to send out your SCI to investigate, is he dead?"

Bai Yutang smiled, saying that it was still under investigation and had to be kept secret, then asked, "How is Cheng Mu's character?"

"He's a pretty good guy." Wang Jianhua said, "Although he's a bit withdrawn, I haven't seen him bully or get rough with anyone."

"Does he have any family?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

"Er..." Wang Jianhua shook his head, "I'm not sure about that, he didn't talk about his family."

Bai Yutang nodded, and noticed that Zhan Zhao was leaning against the glass doorway, looking into the corridor with interest.

Bai Yutang leaned back and saw that in the corridor, Xu Lie was wiping his sweat with a towel while dialling a phone number. But the call seemed to have gone unanswered, and he paced back and forth in the corridor with a disgruntled look on his face.

Zhan Zhao opened the glass door a little, and heard Xu Lie muttering to himself, "Bastard, not answering the phone again?!"

At this time, at the end of the corridor, a short yellow-haired young man holding mineral water ran over. Based on his image, he should be the one Qi Le and the others said was 'Lou Waigua'.

"Brother Lie, you're calling Brother Chen again, didn't he tell you to get lost?"

Xu Lie glared at him.

Yellow Hair handed Xu Lie water, while gesturing behind him.

Xu Lie turned around and saw Zhan Zhao standing in the doorway.

Xu Lie raised an eyebrow, thinking that this man looked familiar.

Yellow Hair reminded in a low voice, "The boss's younger brother, that S something I psychologist."

"Oh..." Xu Lie remembered, so he walked over in the direction of the office, pushed open the door and asked in a carefree manner, "Has the murderer been found yet?"

Zhan Zhao suddenly asked him, "What's your relationship with Cheng Mu like?"

Xu Lie was stunned and asked, "Cheng Mu? The missing guy?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Xu Lie shrugged, "Not very good."

"Not good?" Zhan Zhao was curious, "You two have a conflict?"

"That's not true, we just don't know each other well." Xu Lie wiped his sweat and went to Bai Yutang's side to sit down while raising an eyebrow at him, "Have a few moves? They all say you're very good."

Wang Jianhua teased Xu Lie, "Don't make a fool of yourself ah, Xiao Bai is a master."

"Hehe." Xu Lie wasn't annoyed and was just about to say a few more words when his phone rang.

Xu Lie hurriedly took it out and seemed to be very happy.

Zhan Zhao noticed the change in his expression and raised an eyebrow slightly.

However, seeing the caller ID, Xu Lie wilted again, it was obvious that the person calling was not the one he was waiting for.

"Hello." Picking up the phone, Xu Lie spoke in a lazy manner.

"Huh?"

After listening to the phone call, Xu Lie felt puzzled and hung up, "They must be sick."

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"My manager said that my house was broken into." Xu Lie looked annoyed, "They really know how to pick a good time, picking the time when I'm not there to go."

After saying that, Xu Lie stood up with an angry grunt and asked Lou Waigua to get a car, saying that he wanted to go home first.

Zhan Zhao suddenly said, "Let's go too."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao somewhat strangely.

"Right, you guys are police officers, it saves me from having to call the police." Xu Lie waved at the two.

Bai Yutang stood up, and after saying goodbye to Old Wang, he asked Zhan Zhao as he walked outside, "Do you think you can find clues by following Xu Lie?"

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "Mhmm, it feels like there's something."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

My last two exams for the term are tomorrow and I have been down with a cold or the flu since the start of the weekend. I'm so not ready for the first one in the morning 😭 It'll also be my first time leaving the house since getting sick, thankfully my boyfriend delivered some groceries and medicine for me today.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: November 1, 2023 by Angel

Edited: November 23, 2023 by Angel