S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 111

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell 11 – Return

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Bai Yutang called for Ma Han and Zhao Hu to drive out, and when they arrived at the entrance of the police station, both cars stopped. Luo Tian and Qin Ou carried the boxes they brought from Chen Mi and switched to Zhao Hu's car to go back to the police station to continue researching the information.

As for Zhao Hu and Ma Han, they got into Bai Yutang's car, which turned around to go to the research centre near the amusement park. The SWAT team's car was also already on standby, driving in the direction of the amusement park.

The area around the amusement park was not like the city, it was relatively empty, and this time, without Xu Lie, there wouldn't be any commotion.

But if there were still "dry corpses" out there, there was no guarantee that they wouldn't go after Chen Mi or Xu Lie again. Therefore, Bao Zheng sent a number of police officers to Chen Mi's condo to protect the safety of everyone. Grandpa Chen was taken to Bai Jintang's villa, as on one hand, it was safer there, and on the other hand, since the crowd had been busy again recently, he was able to help take care of Xiao Yi and Yang Yang, and the two children, including the small animals in the villa, loved Grandpa Chen.

Bai Yutang drove to the research centre. This kind of research facility naturally didn't have many people at night. It was quiet, but there were a few floors that were lit up, there were probably researchers on duty.

The SWAT team's car was already parked in front of the research centre.

Bai Yutang and the others got out and went to the SWAT command car.

The SWAT team member responsible for leading the team this time was called Xiaofei, and he was familiar with Bai Yutang.

"Captain Bai, we've searched both the amusement park and the research institute, we found no trace of that dry corpse. We're searching to the west and south, to the north are the highway and the woods, so it's more difficult to search."

Bai Yutang nodded and asked, "Is there anyone at the archaeological institute?"

"Yes." Xiaofei nodded, "I just came from over there, there's just a female researcher institute in, and she's very short-tempered."

Xiaofei shrugged rather helplessly.

Zhan Zhao guessed that the female researcher was probably Song Jiajia. She should indeed be very short-tempered these days, she lost someone else's national treasure and her research report doctoral dissertation fizzled out. She also has to undergo a large number of investigations, write all kinds of reports, be asked questions by all kinds of people, and answer the same questions over and over again, and the future of follow-up troubles is worrisome.

Zhan Zhao said to Bai Yutang, "Shall we go see Song Jiajia?"

Bai Yutang nodded, after all, if that dry corpse or whatever appeared here for no reason, it seemed like Song Jiajia would be its target.

Saying goodbye to Xiaofei, Bai Yutang took Zhan Zhao, along with Ma Han and Zhao Hu, and headed towards a small building not far away.

Zhao Hu looked around as he walked, "Is this research institute independent?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Mhmm, it seems to have been built not long ago."

"What is usually studied?" Zhao Hu was curious.

"It seems to be related to data archiving, as well as cultural relic identification and repair. There are a lot of advanced instruments that can be rented by certain organisations." Zhan Zhao said.

"State-run or private ah?" Zhao Hu wondered, "Shouldn't there be specialised archaeological departments ah, museums, national libraries and the like sharing these jobs?"

"It's private, so it takes on a large amount of private business." Zhan Zhao said, "For example, if anyone digs up a jar of ashes in their backyard, they can find someone from over here to identify it, as long as they pay according to the rules. Of course, it's mainly large-scale business, there's a huge demand for this kind of third-party authentication organisation right now."

"Oh." Zhao Hu nodded.

Unlike Zhao Hu's cheerful and talkative nature, Ma Han was mostly reserved. As he walked, he observed the terrain around him. This research institute's security was still relatively tight and modern.

"Who invested in this?" Bai Yutang asked curiously.

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "I'm not sure about this, I haven't looked into it."

As they spoke, the crowd had already arrived in front of the Archaeological Research Institute's building.

An old man in the duty room at the entrance was reading a newspaper. Seeing someone coming, he asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Bai Yutang took out his ID to show him, and Zhan Zhao said, "We're here to find Song Jiajia."

"Ai, looking for Jiajia again ah, that girl has been annoyed to death by you guys these days, it's not like it's that young girl's fault that some antique was lost." The old man grumbled while pointing at the stairs, "Go straight up to the second floor, the third office. If she's not there then go up to the third floor, she's probably in the lab."

Everyone nodded and went up to the second floor. The office door was open, but Song Jiajia wasn't there, so they went up to the third floor.

The entire third floor, starting from the stairs, was silver-white, the metallic walls and floors were spotless, and it had a cold and icy feel to it.

"What kind of lab do you need for archaeology?" Zhao Hu started asking questions again.

But before anyone could answer him, they heard a scream coming from the laboratory... a woman's scream.

Everyone froze. Bai Yutang quickly ran inside, Ma Han and Zhao Hu took out their guns and followed, and Zhan Zhao followed them in.

The laboratory was very empty, there were very large tables with various books piled up on them, and in front of a very large white machine on the left side, Song Jiajia was seen sitting on the floor.

"Song Jiajia?" Bai Yutang called out to her.

Song Jiajia, who was sitting on the ground, jumped in fright and looked back.

Seeing that she was clearly overly frightened, Zhan Zhao ran over.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han spread out and searched around the perimeter... This lab was sealed, and the windows around it were tea-coloured, so it was well sealed. Presumably, the ancient books have high requirements for the lighting conditions, and they can not be exposed to wind and moisture.

There was no one around nor were there signs of any broken windows.

When Zhan Zhao went to help Song Jiajia up, Bai Yutang asked her, "What happened?"

Song Jiajia's mouth was wide open at this time, with a look of horror combined with disbelief. She just stretched out her hand, pointing forward and gasping for breath in agitation.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked over in the direction of her finger, and saw that Song Jiajia was pointing at a large white machine similar to that of a hospital's CT scanner. There were two white metal beds behind the scanner, very much like the autopsy table in Gongsun's forensic room.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at the autopsy table behind the scanner.

They saw that something seemed to be placed on the autopsy table, covered with a white cloth, with a little bit of charred black edge exposed. It wasn't too clear what it was, but the outline formed by the rise and fall of the white cloth resembled a human's backside, albeit a little bit thinner.

Song Jiajia grabbed Zhan Zhao's sleeve and shook it, emotionally agitated, "I must have blurred eyes, or I'm psychotic, you take a look at me!"

The corner of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched – psychiatrists don't look at psychopaths, okay?...

At this time, Bai Yutang had already walked over to that autopsy table, reached out, gently lifted the white cloth and saw what was inside, and he couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise.

"Yutang, what is it?" Zhan Zhao asked anxiously.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, and lifted the piece of white cloth with one hand...

Underneath the white cloth, on the cold autopsy table, there was a dry corpse.

From the shape of the body, it was a very slim young man. The body was curled up in a way that exceeded the limits of human beings, the dry and thin young man's body was bent into the shape of a wheel. The dried up and intact body had some bandages wrapped around it in a scattered manner. The face of the dry corpse was clear, and the skin was intact without any breakage. Although it was already skin and bones, and although the eyes were no longer glowing but only empty black holes, the dry corpse was still permeated with an eerie beauty. There was no viciousness of an ordinary dry corpse, instead there was an inexplicable tranquillity, and under this kind of tranquillity and calmness, there was some kind of indescribable evil hidden. There were spell-like patterns on the surface of the corpse, and it was impossible to tell whether they were folds formed naturally by the skin or tattoos or patterns caused by branding. But whether it was the messy bandages or the bent bones, there was a sense of harmony that was brought out by age, natural and spiritual.

Zhan Zhao also opened his mouth wide in surprise. After a long time, he came back to his senses and asked Song Jiajia, who had been in an aphasic state with her mouth open, "What is that?"

Song Jiajia opened and closed her mouth several times before finally shouting in a hoarse voice, "The whe… whe... Wheel of Caleb ah!"

Song Jiajia nearly used all her strength to shout out this one sentence, then she climbed up, pounced over and knelt next to the counter to grope for her glasses and put them on to look at it carefully, "Re...returned! It really came back ah!"

The crowd no longer worried about the close to crazy state of Song Jiajia, but stared at the Wheel of Caleb that inexplicably "returned".

Zhao Hu patted Ma Han and asked, "Xiao Ma Ge, do you think it's a person in disguise?"

Ma Han looked at him and said, "Shoot it with a barrage of bullets and see if it sits up."

Zhao Hu really gave it some serious consideration.

Song Jiajia had already taken out the information to confirm the seal on the bandage, and at the same time called several of her research partners, saying excitedly, "The Wheel of Caleb has been found! It's in the research centre now, hurry back and identify it ah!"

Bai Yutang frowned slightly and walked over to Zhan Zhao's side, asking in a low voice, "What's the situation?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged and asked Song Jiajia, "How did you find it?"

Song Jiajia calmed down at this moment and was also confused, saying, "It's really inexplicable, I just came up to do the lab report after writing the information downstairs, and I did everything on that table." While saying that, she pointed to a desk not far away, on which there was a metal box, which should be an antique that Song Jiajia was preparing to appraise.

"Was the Wheel of Caleb there when you came in?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Not there!" Song Jiajia shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Bai Yutang asked.

"I'm sure!" Song Jiajia nodded while pointing at that box on the table, saying, "I just used the scanner and was standing right here! How can there be something on that table that I couldn't see?!"

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Then how did you find out later?"

"I started printing after I did the scanning." Song Jiajia pointed to a printing device next to the scanner, and indeed, there was a freshly printed chart on it, along with some data.

"I was analysing the metallic material on that artefact." Song Jiajia said helplessly, "I went back to write something else when I was waiting for the printout, but when I came back to get the printout, the moment I looked up, I saw that there was something extra on the metal bed."

Saying this, Song Jiajia became agitated, "You guys don't know! How much time have I spent on the Wheel of Caleb before! I screamed in shock when I saw the shape – it's definitely the Wheel of Caleb!"

Bai Yutang called and summoned the rest of the SCI.

Not a moment later, Gongsun and Ma Xin were the first to show up.

Jiang Ping had already gone to the surveillance room to copy the surveillance footage and opened his computer to watch it.

Gongsun and Ma Xin grasped the dissecting table and circled round and round to look at the Wheel of Caleb.

Even Bao Zheng was curious enough to follow. He looked Wheel of Caleb up and down and asked Bai Yutang, "Are you sure it's dead?"

Bai Yutang stared at the corpse for a moment, "I can't see any signs of it being alive."

Xiao Bai Chi arrived at Zhan Zhao's side and asked, "Why did the dry corpse suddenly appear?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged, everything is a mystery!

"Captain."

At this time, Qin Ou, who was watching the surveillance footage with Jiang Ping, suddenly shouted.

Everyone looked over.

They saw Qin Ou and Jiang Ping's faces turn white.

Jiang Ping trembled and waved to the crowd.

The crowd suspiciously gathered around.

They saw that on the surveillance screen, Song Jiajia opened the scanner to scan a metal box. After that, she pressed on the printer a few times and ran back to the table not far away.

Song Jiajia had her back to the scanner and the autopsy table at the time, and presumably for the sake of convenience, she didn't even sit down, bending over to write a report.

And at the same time, behind her, a silhouette walked into the coverage of the surveillance camera.

Everyone subconsciously opened their mouths wide...

They saw a thin, dry corpse in a bizarre state with its hands hanging down, walking unhurriedly behind Song Jiajia, all the way to the autopsy table, where it climbed up, and then... it bent its own body, and finally, covered itself with the white cloth...

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, and a rare look of astonishment appeared on his face.

"Yaaaahhhh!" Song Jiajia screamed.

The crowd also drew in a breath of cold air.

Song Jiajia was clearly terrified and screamed in disbelief as Ma Xin and Gongsun calmed her down.

In the end, Zhan Zhao guided her twice before she recovered from her out-of-control state.

And at this moment, Ma Han and Zhao Hu drew their guns and went to either side of the dry corpse that was still lying peacefully on the edge of the autopsy table, raising their guns and pointing at the corpse.

Bai Yutang also walked over and said in a cold voice, "Get up."

The image at this moment was quite bizarre.

The SCI officers were pointing their guns at the Wheel of Caleb on the autopsy table, and Bai Yutang told that dry corpse to get up.

But that dry corpse remained motionless and lifeless.

Zhan Zhao walked over to the autopsy table and stared at the dry corpse, fascinated.

At this time, Bao Zheng walked over and stared at the Wheel of Caleb for a while, then suddenly said to Gongsun at the side, "Dissect it!"

Gongsun's eyes lit up, and he fished out his scalpel. However, before he could get close to the corpse, he heard a shout from outside, "Stop, you have no right to touch it!"

Everyone frowned and looked in the direction of the doorway.

‿︵‿︵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 22, 2023 by Angel

Edited: November 30, 2023 by Angel