S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 106

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell 06 – Haunted House

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Ma Han and Zhao Hu pursued to the roof. Many of the power supplies of these buildings are new energy sources, and the top floor was covered with a lot of solar panels. In addition to the harsh reflections, it was also very obstructive to the line of sight, and it was very difficult to look for anyone who was sneaking around the back.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu took out their guns, the two of them separated and flanked on both sides.

At this time, police officers with loaded guns came up one after another. Ma Han and Zhao Hu gestured to the crowd, signalling them to block the doorway and flank from the outside.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu checked row by row. When they reached the fourth row or so, Ma Han suddenly whistled to Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu raised his head, and Ma Han winked at him, signalling for him... to look down.

Zhao Hu followed the direction of Ma Han's gaze and saw a pair of dry feet exposed under the panels in the previous row.

Zhao Hu frowned, "Hey, come out."

Ma Han stared at the legs and was keenly aware that the man moved slightly – at the very least, he reacted to Zhao Hu's words.

Zhao Hu took a step back and sidestepped to look at the previous row, and at the same time, the thing suddenly scurried back...

Ma Han raised his hand and fired a shot.

The bullet hit the other party's shoulder, but the other party did not have any reaction and directly rushed to the entrance.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han immediately chased... while the police officers at the entrance saw a dry corpse that seemed to be human and didn't seem to be rushing towards them at an extremely fast speed, and they were all a little nervous.

Just as the crowd froze, someone behind them jumped up and grabbed the door frame, then kicked out with both feet in a smooth motion, and without any deviation, kicked the dry corpse right in the face...

"Ah..."

At the same time Zhao Hu and Ma Han arrived, they saw that dry corpse being kicked away by Bai Yutang who had run up and shrieked after landing heavily...

The two looked at each other – it could scream!

That dry corpse immediately scurried up after landing. It didn't choose to run towards the escape door this time, but pounced on the several police officers who came to encircle it not far away.

These police officers looked quite young, and one of them was a female police officer who seemed to have little experience. They have never seen this kind of scene, the female police officer holding the gun seemed to be struggling mentally.

Zhao Hu frowned – Fuck! Newbie!

Ma Han had just hit the shoulder of that monster, and it didn't seem to react, so this time, he simply fired a shot at its chest...

The crowd then saw that the bullet shot directly through the left side of the monster's chest where the heart should be, and the monster's body flinched slightly... obviously in pain.

But the bullet still passed through its chest and grazed the cheek of that female officer on the opposite side.

This time, the female officer woke up, only to be shocked that that thing had almost arrived in front of her eyes, and she heard Bai Yutang shouting in the distance, "Shoot!"

The female police officer was shocked... but after all, she was professionally trained, her shaking hands did not mean that she would not shoot. She held her gun with both hands and pointed it at the monster's head, and fired a shot...

After a gunshot, the crowd clearly saw the bullet penetrate the top of the monster's forehead and fly out again... but there was not a drop of blood. The monster pounced on the female officer who was standing by the railing, and together they rushed over the balcony.

"Yaaaah!"

That female officer screamed miserably. Fortunately, Zhao Hu and Ma Han had already rushed to the railing, and they each grabbed one of her feet with one hand and dragged her up.

Bai Yutang rushed to the side of the railing... and saw that the monster fell straight down more than twenty floors, but just as it got close to the ground, it suddenly stopped.

Bai Yutang frowned... The thing swayed in the air for a few moments before jumping downwards, plunging into the flowerbed and darting out of the neighbourhood, startling countless nearby residents.

The police officers downstairs rushed out to chase, but the monster was too fast and too skinny, after passing through the railing, it disappeared into the alleyway between the floors. The police officers chased it out of the district and after turning a few corners, there was a road with heavy traffic in front of them. This neighbourhood was downtown, and just outside it was the busiest street, where there were people everywhere.

When that monster fell just now, by coincidence, it fell straight outside the window in front of Zhan Zhao and the others.

Zhan Zhao watched it fall from the building with his own eyes, but when it reached the bottom, it magically hung in mid-air.

"Is there a rope hanging from it?" Xu Lie couldn't help but ask, "How is that possible? Or is it magic?"

Zhan Zhao also frowned, "It's indeed bizarre."

Bai Yutang was a little miffed as he let someone escape before his eyes.

Looking around him, the female officer was obviously scared silly, holding her gun and shaking. She was pretty good, she flew out of the building with her hand still clutching the gun, and a few of her colleagues went to comfort her.

At this time, Zhan Zhao ran up and had a look at the female officer's condition. He said that she might need some psychological treatment, but she should not be in any serious trouble. As expected of an expert, after comforting that female officer with a few words, the female officer stopped fidgeting, cried a couple of times to vent out the emotions that almost got her killed just now, and gradually became normal.

Bai Yutang stood at the edge of the building frowning. Ma Han and Zhao Hu came over and asked, "Head, what should we do?"

Bai Yutang also realised that the problem was rather serious, no matter whether it was a person or a dry corpse, it was an extremely dangerous existence. What the crowd couldn't understand was why there was no reaction after being shot? It didn't make sense!

"Captain Bai."

At this time, Old Wang from the forensic department came over, holding a test tube in his hand to show Bai Yutang. He saw that there was a bit of mud and dust in it, as well as a slug.

Bai Yutang looked at him with some confusion.

"Blood!" Old Wang said with some excitement, "The bullet that Xiao Ma Ge shot him through the heart with just now soaked with blood, and the slug got stuck on a piece of photovoltaic plate, which was also stained with blood."

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were overjoyed – It could bleed! Let's go back and have Ma Xin use those advanced instruments to properly check what exactly the composition of this blood is.

The people from the forensics department were on the roof to collect evidence, while the other officers searched the building.

Bai Yutang called Zhao Zhen to ask, "A person jumped from the twentieth floor or so, and suddenly stopped when they got to about one or two floors from the ground. After bouncing twice in the air, they jumped, landed and escaped..."

Zhao Zhen didn't wait for Bai Yutang to finish, and said, "There was a rope hanging around the tenth floor."

"The tenth floor?" Bai Yutang asked.

"About that, the fact that he can float up and down means that the rope has elasticity." Zhao Zhen said, "Since the dry corpse you mentioned seems to be very light, then it should be around the tenth floor. If it was lower than the tenth floor, it'd probably have hit the ground. But if the rope is too long, it might fly outwards, and the longer the rope, the worse it is to control. But this kind of thing isn't likely to be done by someone with little experience."

Bai Yutang frowned.

Zhan Zhao came over to his ear and said, "According to Cheng Mu's information, he likes to skydive."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao – could it really be Cheng Mu?

Zhan Zhao spread his hands.

After that, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao took Zhao Hu and Ma Han and went to the tenth floor.

It wasn't known if it was a coincidence or if there was really some hidden secret – the occupant of the tenth floor was none other than the owner of the property who had been killed by the dry corpse and then hidden in the trunk of Xu Lie's car.

"Liu Yu." Zhan Zhao looked at the condo owner's information, "Such a coincidence?"

Bai Yutang asked the building's security guard to open the door to Liu Yu's house, and the group went in to look and found the room to be messy. The window was open, and there was an elastic rope tied to a post in the room, and looped around the windowsill a few times.

Bai Yutang walked over and pulled the rope up to have a look – Poking his head out of the window, he found that the rope was hung outside by a transparent pole, which was not very visible from upstairs. The pole had broken, probably due to the weight of the man tugging on the rope as he fell.

Bai Yutang called Jiang Ping and asked him to investigate Liu Yu's information, not sure how the investigation was going.

Jiang Ping had been analysing the video, and Liu Yu's information had already been investigated, but he hadn't had time to look at it yet. After Jiang Ping opened it and took a look, he exclaimed, "Wow! Head!"

Seeing his surprise, Bai Yutang reckoned that he had a clue, so he pressed the speakerphone button and placed it on the table.

"That Liu Yu... is unbelievable!" Jiang Ping exclaimed.

"But he looks very downcast ah." Zhao Hu pulled out a box of empty wine bottles from under the table, somewhat speechless.

"Those who live in this building should be either rich or wealthy, right?" Ma Han asked.

"In the past, he was the president of a certain company, and he was doing pretty well, but then there were some problems with his private life, so much so that it affected his business, and... wow!" Jiang Ping couldn't help but say, "That building is spectacular!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't quite understand and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Boss, do you know what kind of woman he was looking at?" Jiang Ping asked.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao glanced at each other, urging him, "Don't hold out on us!"

"He was looking at a married woman." Jiang Ping said.

"Oh..." Everyone nodded, so...

"And?" Bai Yutang asked.

"And it's the wife of a good brother who's in the same building as him, who's known him for more than ten years." Jiang Ping continued, sounding rather gossipy.

Everyone frowned.

Zhao Hu couldn't help but shake his head, "What kind of brother is he?"

"His good brother lives on the twenty-seventh floor..."

"Xu Lie?!" Everyone was shocked.

"Xu Lie is married?" Zhao Hu was surprised.

"It's the resident before Xu Lie." Jiang Ping said slowly, "It's only been about a year since Xu Lie moved into this building."

"Oh..." Everyone nodded.

"And?" Zhan Zhao was curious.

"The previous occupant was also surnamed Xu." Jiang Ping smiled and said, "And also has a bit of a connection to our case."

Everyone was bewildered – what was going on?

"That person's name is Xu Sun." Jiang Ping then asked, "Does that sound familiar? Isn't it scary?"

The crowd froze.

"Xu Sun?!" Zhan Zhao was startled, "The one who killed his wife and dismembered her body? The one who came back on the same flight as us and died next to the Wheel of Caleb crate?"

Jiang Ping nodded, "Yes."

"No way?!" Zhao Hu was surprised, "Xu Lie lives in his house?"

Bai Yutang also felt that things were a bit weird and told Jiang Ping to, "Speak clearly!"

"It's like this, Xu Sun and Liu Yu were originally close friends and partners in business, but Xu Sun liked to spend his days drinking, and his petite wife at home was left out in the cold. His good brother Liu Yu was more decent, and he helped to look after his sister-in-law, so he watched and saw himself into bed."

Everyone's mouths subconsciously twitched – an eight o'clock ethical drama ah?

"Later, Xu Sun found out and fought with his wife, and then fell out with Liu Yu... But at that time, Xu Sun still loved his wife, so he moved with his sister-in-law, which was about two years ago." Jiang Ping said, "Who knew that the year after that, his wife superficially promised him that she would break off contact with Liu Yu, and Xu Sun began to behave and hoped that he could start over again. But who knew that the wife's heart had changed, she cooperated with Liu Yu to cheat Xu Sun out of his money, and also kicked him out of his company... causing him to go bankrupt and have nothing but debt. So in the end, Xu Sun slaughtered his wife and dismembered her body. When he wanted to go and slaughter Liu Yu, he was stopped by the police... Counting on his resourcefulness, he escaped and then fled the country, and was not captured until just a while ago."

The crowd nodded – so that's it.

"However, he was unable to repay the loan after he was bankrupted by his wife and brother back then, and he had some business debts, he also committed murder and fled, so the bank auctioned off a part of his real estate, of which was this condo, which was later purchased by Xu Lie."

"To buy this kind of house, Xu Lie really doesn't care about anything." Zhan Zhao lamented.

"It's cost-effective." Jiang Ping said, "A house in this location can't be bought easily. Besides, Xu Sun's murder and body dismembering was done elsewhere, and this isn't a murder house, so I guess Xu Lie himself doesn't know much about it, and it's the real estate agent who helped him get it, so if he thought it was a good deal, he would quickly get his hands on it."

Bai Yutang had someone call Xu Lie down, and sure enough, Xu Lie was not clear about who the previous owner of the house was and only knew that it was a bankrupt business owner, so the house was sold to offset the debt... he did not expect it.

"No way?!" Xu Lie grinned with disgust, "I have to move, this is a fucking murder house!"

Zhan Zhao gently poked Bai Yutang, said, "If Xu Sun died suddenly next to the Wheel of Caleb and his soul came to life after entering the Wheel of Caleb, then his return here to kill Liu Yu would not be a coincidence but an intentional return to take revenge, and then he would not be going to Xu Lie's house, but back to his own home..."

Everyone listening frowned, and Zhao Hu got covered in goosebumps.

"Then..." Xu Lie suddenly interjected, "that Porsche, which was also bought with the house, was probably this brother's as well."

Everyone turned to stare at him.

Xu Lie said, "When I bought the house along with the parking spot, the real estate agent said that the car was not bad, and that it was a good deal selling it for 90% of the price. I thought it would be a good deal, so I bought it. But then I lent it to a friend who had a car accident and crashed it. The repair cost was more than what I bought it for, so I just didn't repair it and left it in the garage."

Everyone looked at each other silently.

"So it's not a coincidence that he was near the car. After he killed someone, he didn't actually throw them into Xu Lie's trunk, but into the trunk of his own car..." Zhan Zhao said, raising an eyebrow at Bai Yutang.

For a long time, Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, "Then how do you explain the missing football?"

"Erm..." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and looked at the sky, "This?..."

"I know!"

Zhao Hu suddenly raised his hand.

Everyone looked at him.

Zhao Hu stroked his chin and imitated Zhan Zhao's usual lofty look, slowly coming up with a sentence, "It might happen to be that... Xu Sun is also a Manchester United fan..."

After Zhao Hu's words, everyone looked at him, speechless.

After a long time, Bai Yutang sighed. Behind Zhao Hu, Ma Han raised his hand and smacked the back of his head!

......

After sealing off several of the sites, Bai Yutang had the people from the forensic department carefully collect evidence. On the other end, Jiang Ping called and said that the autopsy report from Gongsun's side had come out, and the other people that SCI had sent out to investigate had also come back, so Bai Yutang took Zhan Zhao and the others back to the police station first. This case is complicated, and the tone is randomly guessing conclusions, so it is better to investigate again.

Before leaving, the crowd took Xu Lie with them, and along the way, they heard Xu Lie holding the phone and angrily arranging things. It seemed that he was going to stay at someone else's house for the night.

When he finally hung up the phone, Zhan Zhao asked him, "Do you have the contact information of the real estate agent who introduced you to the house and car?"

"Mhmm... I was introduced by a friend of mine." Xu Lie said, then called and asked his friend, before hanging up the phone and saying to Zhan Zhao, "They resigned and quit, and my friend doesn't know where they are now."

Zhan Zhao nodded and wrote down the name of that real estate agent, asking Jiang Ping to check it out.

The crowd's car passed by the entrance of the cinema. Lou Waigua pointed at the giant poster and said to Xu Lie, "I heard that the box office is raging!"

Xu Lie leaned over the car window to look at the advertising billboards outside and sighed, "I'll never make another ghost movie again."

Bai Yutang was concentrating on driving the car, when he saw Zhan Zhao typing a lot of words and sending out a text message.

After a while, his cell phone meowed.

Zhan Zhao glanced at the reply and flattened his lips.

Bai Yutang asked, "What did Zhao Jue say? Does it have anything to do with their side?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "He said it's not quite their style, so it shouldn't be related."

‿︵‿︵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 8, 2023 by Angel

Edited: November 23, 2023 by Angel