S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 105

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell 05 – Ghostly Shadows

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Xu Lie lived in a high-rise condominium in the centre of S City, and both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt that the building looked a little familiar.

The car drove into the underground parking lot and they saw the police cordon as well as police cars and scene investigators. Zhao Hu was questioning two building security guards.

Bai Yutang got out of the car and asked him, "Did you know that there was a burglary upstairs?"

"Xiao Ma Ge went up to see it." Zhao Hu said, "We only learnt about it when Xu Lie's agent came downstairs to look for the security guards just now, and I asked Jiang Ping to check the CCTV footage."

Bai Yutang nodded.

Zhan Zhao curiously made his way to the crime scene, and a few of the new girls from the forensic department briefed him on the investigation of the scene in detail.

They said that a clear bloody footprint and bloody handprint were found at the scene.

Xu Lie hurriedly went upstairs to see the theft of his own home. Bai Yutang saw that Zhan Zhao was surrounded by a group of girls from the forensic department like ants around honey, and somewhat speechlessly, he went up and patted him, and went upstairs together.

Just as they reached the door, they saw Lin Ruo wearing pyjamas and holding a mug of hot cocoa watching from the doorway.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang simultaneously remembered that Lin Ruo seemed to live in this condominium.

"Yo, tragic ah." Lin Ruo sipped his drink, teasing the foul faced Xu Lie as he greeted Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Zhan Zhao asked him, "How have you been lately?"

"Getting by." Lin Ruo smiled.

"Have you seen Han Wei and Han Ling recently?" Zhan Zhao then asked.

Lin Ruo shook his head without even thinking, "No."

Zhan Zhao squinted at him.

Lin Ruo wandered downstairs.

Zhan Zhao crossed his arms, "This kid, he must still be in contact with Han Wei."

Bai Yutang nodded, "It's a pity he won't tell us."

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, thinking about what Han Wei and his group were doing after defecting to Zhao Jue. Speaking of Zhao Jue, that shaggy hair hadn't been seen for a long time.

"It's okay..."

At this time, Xu Lie, who had gone into the house and looked around, ran out, holding a toolbox in one hand and patting his chest with the other with a celebratory look on his face.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at that toolbox and inexplicably felt – it looked familiar, where have they seen this kind of box before?

"How's the damage?" Bai Yutang asked him.

"I don't know, anyway, I didn't lose any of my treasures." Xu Lie's mood turned gloomy.

Ma Han walked out, accompanied by Old Wang from the forensic department.

Old Wang was experienced in scene investigation, he had seen many of these burglary scenes. He went in and looked around, then came out and said to Bai Yutang, "The person who entered the house seemed to be in a hurry, the thief shouldn't have wanted to steal anything of value, but rather, he was looking for something."

"Is there anything missing?" Bai Yutang asked.

The corners of Old Wang's mouth twitched, "Can't tell, there are a lot of valuable things in the room... but again, they don't look like they're worth much."

After saying that, he shook his head and walked away.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao glanced at each other, and saw Xu Lie calling the twins on the side, "My house was broken into and emptied!"

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang entered the house, they saw that the living room was so simple that it was similar to a standard hotel room; the furniture and other pieces were super simple, there was a punching bag hanging above an empty space in the middle of the room, and there were all kinds of fitness equipment scattered around, all of which were small pieces.

This house was very large, but there were only two rooms, a living room and a bedroom.

Walking into the bedroom, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang simultaneously frowned...

They saw that the bedroom walls were full of all kinds of shelves; shelves decorated with three layers of various toy models, such as Gundam, Transformers, Thor, Batman...

Lou Waigua had already counted two thousand models.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang silently glanced at each other, then turned back to look at Xu Lie who wandered in at the door – the legendary otaku figurine maniac!

The cabinet door in the living room was opened and there was a safe in the wall that was also pried open, but instead of cash, there were two limited edition Golden Saints in it...

Zhan Zhao held his forehead, would that thief have been so angry that he directly vomited blood and ran away?

"That thief shouldn't have come to steal money, or else he's a fool." Ma Han came over and said.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him together, which meant – is there money for him to steal in this house, it's all toys.

Ma Han pointed to the two Golden Saints and said to Zhan Zhao, "These two are worth several million... That wall full of toys inside adds up to more than this condo is worth."

The corners of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's mouths twitched – the money spent here is... incomprehensible.

Zhan Zhao gossiped with Ma Han, "You have researched it too? You don't look very geeky."

Ma Han indifferently raised an eyebrow, "Xin Xin likes to buy toys for Yang Yang, there are a bunch of model magazines at home which introduce these things."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded – oh...

Xu Lie looked around, went to the sofa and sat down, saying, "It seems like nothing was stolen."

"Maybe that thief doesn't know what he's looking at." Lou Waigua ran in and said to Xu Lie, "None of the figures were lost."

Xu Lie nodded, relieved.

A police officer from the forensic department came over and said to Bai Yutang, "Captain Bai, do you want to take a look?"

Zhan Zhao looked at him and walked with him to the door, and saw the officer from the forensic department pointing at the door lock, saying, "This door is a combination lock, and it can be said to be the most advanced and secure lock on the market at the moment. It's absolutely impossible to pry it open without knowing the combination."

Bai Yutang looked at the door. There were no signs that it had been forced open, so he asked Xu Lie, "Does anyone else know the password to your door?"

Xu Lie scratched his head, "Well... my agent, the twins, and Xiao Lou."

Everyone looked at Lou Waigua who was packing things on the side.

Lou Waigua, whose real name was Lou Zhan, scowled, "This kind of door lock is the easiest to open, but you won't believe me if I tell you."

Xu Lie nodded and pointed at him, saying, "Right, he also slipped in without knowing the combination, but it just so happened that I was at home that day."

"This kind of door lock is easy to open?" Bai Yutang asked.

Lou Waigua nodded, and as he spoke, he fished out a set of keys with a small ultraviolet flashlight for banknote detection, "This kind of flashlight can easily reveal the fingerprints on the combination, so you can determine which numbers they are, and write the numbers down yourself on a piece of paper according to the location of those numbers. Then watch someone enter the code once, memorise the hand position, and then come back and do it yourself according to the memorised position... The password comes out. I just watched his agent press it once and accurately got the password.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. This has a certain amount of technical skill, it takes a repeat offender to be able to do it... Xu Lie is just a rich otaku, what were they looking for in his house?

Just then, Bai Yutang's phone rang.

"Hello?" Bai Yutang saw that the caller was Jiang Ping, and reckoned that he had a clue.

"Boss! I'm scared!"

On the other end, Jiang Ping sorrowfully spoke.

Bai Yutang was somewhat speechless, "What are you afraid of?"

Zhan Zhao nosily came over.

Jiang Ping was even more sorrowful, "Ghosts!"

Bai Yutang was puzzled.

"Head, where's the tablet I gave you?" Jiang Ping asked.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

"Tablet."

Zhan Zhao took out the tablet that Jiang Ping had given them that had been modified in some way.

"Click on the 'portal' icon." Jiang Ping said.

Zhan Zhao clicked on it as he said... and an image immediately appeared on the tablet.

Bai Yutang looked at the screen and subconsciously raised his head to look around... It was the surveillance screen of this hallway in front of Xu Lie's house.

"Something is coming out." Jiang Ping said, "Hold on!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other. Ma Han came over to look, and Xu Lie also came over and asked, "What... shit! What is that thing ah!"

They only saw that, in the originally quiet hallway, the stairwell's security door suddenly opened and a person sneakily walked in ...

To say that it was a human being was entirely because that thing was walking upright on two legs, but from the outside, it really didn't look like a human being.

However, this dry and skinny figure, tattered bandages and the two black holes on that withered face... Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were already familiar with it – that Wheel of Caleb! It was also the dry corpse that had killed someone and dumped their body in Xu Lie's car.

"Fuck!"

Lou Waigua also saw it and screamed, "What the hell?!"

Xu Lie frowned, "How does it know the password to my door?"

Everyone was puzzled as well, and then they saw the 'dry corpse' nimbly pressing a series of numbers, before the door to the room opened and it flashed inside.

"I want to move!" Xu Lie was furious, "This is a haunted house!"

At this time, Zhan Zhao was still staring at the screen.

According to the time on the screen, about three minutes had passed since the man entered Xu Lie's house. They saw the elevator door open and Xu Lie's manager came out, he noticed that the door to the room was open and froze, then opened the door and went in. About ten seconds later, he ran out, making a phone call as he descended down the stairs. After about another half a minute or so, Ma Han came up with two security guards.

Zhan Zhao froze as Ma Han suddenly turned around and entered the house.

Xu Lie also froze.

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Ping asked Bai Yutang in a shaky voice, "Head, did you see anything wrong? This video hasn't been edited."

Bai Yutang raised his head and frowned at the room, "He went in and didn't come out."

"Holy shit!" Lou Waigua tugged at Xu Lie, "Brother Lie, the ghost is still in your house!"

Xu Lie felt a chill down his back.

In the room, Ma Han held his gun and signalled for the two officers from the forensic department who were collecting evidence to hurry out.

The two officers rushed out the door.

Bai Yutang also went in, closing the door with his backhand.

Zhan Zhao and the others waited nervously in the hallway.

At this time, Zhao Hu also arrived, and strangely enough, he didn't come up in the elevator, but rather he brought someone up from the security passageway and was holding a gun in his hand.

"Hu Zi?" Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu nodded, looked around, frowned, and stared at a few spots of red blood in the corner.

A police officer went over to take a look, then turned back to Zhao Hu and nodded, "It's blood."

Seeing that the door to the room was closed, Zhao Hu asked Zhan Zhao, "Where's Head?"

Zhan Zhao showed him the video, pointing to the door as he did so.

Zhao Hu frowned and said, "I just followed the bloodstains around the basement, and found that after that thing killed someone, it wandered around and ended up going into the stairwell. There were only bloody footprints going up, but not coming down, so I brought someone up here. The bloodstains were relatively scarce, but it seems like he came straight to this floor."

Zhan Zhao was a little puzzled as to whether that thing was a dry corpse or Cheng Mu from back then. Why did it walk up and how did it know the password to Xu Lie's house?

At this moment, the door opened.

Everyone looked up, and Bai Yutang was standing in the doorway with a confused look on his face. Behind him was Ma Han, who was putting away his gun while talking on the phone, seemingly calling the canine team to bring over a police dog.

"Well?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang shook his head, "We went through the entire house, there's no one!"

"No one?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "But he clearly went in and didn't come out, did he run away through the window?"

"No way… we're more than twenty floors up ah!" Zhao Hu widened his eyes, then thought, "But the dry corpse probably won't die from the fall right?"

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and asked Xu Lie who was ready to move, "Why does the dry corpse know the password to your apartment?"

"How would I know?" Xu Lie had goosebumps, "Didn't I only act in a ghost film?"

"Does Cheng Mu know the password to your apartment?" Zhan Zhao suddenly asked.

Xu Lie froze and looked at Zhan Zhao, then he reached out and scratched his head, "This... he might know."

Zhan Zhao was curious, "Aren't you not familiar with him? How come he knows your apartment password?"

"We used to use combination locks for the locker rooms in the club, I'm a person who has travelled the world using just one password for my entire life." Xu Lie raised an eyebrow.

Zhan Zhao seriously suspected that he had a low number of brain cells and could only remember one password.

"Speaking of which," Xu Lie asked Zhan Zhao with great curiosity, "why exactly are you guys looking for me? You keep asking about Cheng Mu, that kid didn't turn into a dry corpse after he disappeared and came back to look for me, right? Didn't I just take a football from him?"

"What football?"

At this time, Bai Yutang, who had gone to search the room again and was looking out the window in the meantime, came out.

"A football signed by a Manchester United star." Xu Lie said, "Cheng Mu is a Manchester United fan, I have a friend who deals with football memorabilia in the UK, so he asked me to help him get a football signed by a group of stars. He was quite happy when the ball was given to him, but he brought it back the next day and said he had to go on a trip and was afraid it would be stolen if he left it at home, so he left it with me for a few days first. So I kept it, but this long trip he was on was to Romania to pick up girls, and he ended up missing."

"What about the football?"

"I put it in the cabinet." Xu Lie said.

"Oh, I've seen that ball." Lou Waigua led the crowd into the room, but when he opened the cabinet... the metal shelf where he put the football was empty.

"Where's the ball?!" Lou Waigua looked everywhere, but the football was indeed gone.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other – No way? If that dry corpse was really Cheng Mu, then this was a ghost that had come back to get that signed football?

Zhao Hu crossed his arms and asked Ma Han, "What do you think?"

Ma Han was silent for a long time and said, "He must have really loved Manchester United..."

Fifteen minutes later, a police officer from the canine unit brought a beautiful Kunming dog up.

"Banban!" Zhan Zhao seemed to know the dog, and when the dog saw him, it immediately wagged its tail and came up. Police dogs were always calm and disciplined, and being so affectionate towards Zhan Zhao, it was evident that he was an old friend.

Zhao Hu curiously asked Bai Yutang, "Doesn't Dr. Zhan only love felines?"

Bai Yutang whispered, "This dog is said to have a canine personality split, and is one of Zhan Zhao's research subjects."

The corners of Zhao Hu's mouth twitched, and he tilted his head to look at Bai Yutang with a look that said – are you lying to me?

Bai Yutang raised an eyebrow and went in without comment.

Zhao Hu was stumped and asked Ma Han, "Canine personality split?!"

Ma Han spreads his hands – who knows?

After circling the room several times, Banban sniffed in the cabinet that housed the football, and finally walked over to the window, sat down, and barked twice at the window.

The canine officer then said, "They probably ran away through the window."

The people from the forensic department searched carefully, and indeed, on the edge of the window, they found a very tiny amount of blood, which should have been brushed on.

Opening the window, Bai Yutang looked outside... there was no hiding place outside, did that thing go down, or go up?

While thinking, Bai Yutang turned to look upwards, and saw that on the railing of the top floor, a person was lying on his back. His skeleton-like face looked down, and the two black holes where his eyes were were staring at him.

Bai Yutang immediately shouted, "It's on the roof!"

With his shout, Ma Han and Zhao Hu had already rushed out, and with the two officers in charge of helping to keep the elevator in place, Ma Han and Zhao Hu rushed straight to the rooftop.

When Bai Yutang looked again, the dry corpse had already disappeared.

‿︵‿︵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: November 6, 2023 by Angel

Edited: November 23, 2023 by Angel