S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 117

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell  17 – Big Breakthrough

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Bai Yutang drove the car, following the address provided by Jiang Ping, and drove the group to find that Fang You, the person most likely to be F so far.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han drove and followed Bai Yutang's car, and this time, Zhan Zhao didn't sit next to Bai Yutang, but sat in the backseat.

In the backseat, Chen Mi sat, looking at Zhan Zhao who was sizing him up, and slightly raised an eyebrow, "What are you thinking?"

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and said, "I want to know some details."

"Details?" Chen Mi was slightly puzzled.

"You met Fang You when you were a child, and you also came into contact with your father... so you probably have some memories of F, you just didn't pay attention to them." Zhan Zhao said.

Chen Mi nodded, "So you want to hypnotise me to help me remember?"

"Are you willing to cooperate?" Zhan Zhao asked rhetorically.

"Hypnosis to help recover memories is a very common thing, I was too young at the time and most likely did forget some things." Chen Mi shrugged indifferently, "With your expertise and status I have nothing to worry about."

Zhan Zhao nodded in satisfaction, "So, please relax."

Chen Mi subconsciously looked at Bai Yutang, who was driving, and asked, “Doing it like this... won't have any effect on him?"

Zhan Zhao tsked twice, shaking his head with a disgusted face, "Don't worry, he's a wild animal, he won't be affected."

Bai Yutang glanced helplessly at the rearview mirror.

Chen Mi then cooperated and relaxed, leaning back in the backseat, "Just ask."

Zhan Zhao looked at the time, "I need to deeply hypnotise you."

Chen Mi looked at Zhan Zhao, which meant – what's the difference between deep and shallow?

Zhan Zhao said, "Simply put, I don't want to affect your life or cause you to feel any bad emotions."

Chen Mi understood the words but didn't comprehend the meaning, so he continued to look at Zhan Zhao.

"In any case," Zhan Zhao said, “your current state is that you have loving relatives, the right job, the feeling that everything is on track, and a demented big star who is crushing on you... But your biological parents are rather special after all, so there may be some memories from your childhood that you simply don't want to remember. So my professional advice is – if you don't particularly want to know about your parents, I'll try to do my best to leave no traces."

Chen Mi stared at Zhan Zhao for a moment and asked, "That is, after you hypnotise me, ask what you want to ask and then wake me up, I won't remember what I remembered or what I told you at all, right?"

Zhan Zhao snapped his fingers and nodded, “Your comprehension is very good!"

Bai Yutang smiled and shook his head as he drove.

Chen Mi felt a little magical, "Can this even be done?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, then whispered, "But Bao Sir prohibits it."

Chen Mi smiled and raised an eyebrow, "I think it's a good method."

"Then..." Zhan Zhao sat back, “let's begin."

Chen Mi nodded, then Zhan Zhao performed deep hypnosis on him for about five minutes or so, after which, Chen Mi entered a state similar to a deep sleep.

Zhan Zhao began to ask questions.

When Chen Mi woke up again, it felt like he had just closed his eyes for a moment.

But at this time, Bai Yutang's car was already parked in front of a neighbourhood, and Zhan Zhao was sitting beside him, frowning slightly as he looked at him.

At this time, there were only him and Zhan Zhao in the car. Bai Yutang wasn't there, and the jeep that Zhao Hu, Ma Han and the others had driven earlier was parked on the side, and no one was there either.

Chen Mi subconsciously raised his hand to look at his watch, then opened his mouth wide – Surprisingly, an hour had already passed.

"No wonder I'm a little thirsty." Chen Mi sat up, and Zhan Zhao handed him a bottle of mineral water.

Chen Mi took a sip and looked at Zhan Zhao, "Looking at your expression it seems like you've asked something."

"A lot." Zhan Zhao nodded, then, hesitated.

"What?" Chen Mi asked. He suddenly had some regrets about doing deep hypnosis, which instead caused him to be curious.

In addition, Chen Mi also felt that it was a little scary. This kind of hypnosis, apart from the passage of time, the hypnotised individual couldn't notice any difference at all! In other words, no individual could say with certainty that they had not been hypnotised.

"I've discovered two things..." Zhan Zhao looked at Chen Mi for a moment before saying, "I'm afraid there's no way to avoid changing your life."

Chen Mi, on the other hand, looked at Zhan Zhao in disbelief.

"The first is that..."Zhan Zhao said, "Fang You is not that F, but he has a relationship with F. Perhaps we're going in the wrong direction, or perhaps it's a way to find F."

"So..." Chen Mi was a little puzzled, "it seems to have little effect on my life... What about Bai Yutang and the others? "

Zhan Zhao pointed outside, showing Chen Mi.

Chen Mi followed the direction of Zhan Zhao's finger and looked out the car window. He saw that not far away stood a lot of people, almost everyone from SCI came. There were also yellow lines and police officers, giving the feeling of a crime scene.

Chen Mi rubbed his eyebrows, "I wasn't unconscious for a day and an hour, was I?"

"Only an hour." Zhan Zhao smiled.

"And then?" Chen Mi asked, "What happened?"

"Yutang and the others found a corpse in Fang You's house, Gongsun is analysing it." Zhan Zhao said.

"Was it Fang You who died? " Chen Mi asked.

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Not sure. "

“Are they different from the photo?" Chen Mi was curious.

"It's not a matter of the same or different." Zhan Zhao replied, "The body has already dried up, it looks like it's been dead for years."

Chen Mi frowned, "Then who was the one who looked for Xiao Yu's signature two days ago?"

"Everything is yet to be investigated." Zhan Zhao replied.

Chen Mi looked at Zhan Zhao for a moment and asked, "You said two things... If one thing is about the case, then the other is what you said would affect my life?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Do you want to hear it?"

Chen Mi hesitated for a moment, "What do you think?"

"You might hate me in the future if I don't say anything." Zhan Zhao said.

Chen Mi was shocked, "That serious?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "But I'm not sure what the outcome will be if I say it."

Chen Mi, as the original bomb disposal team leader, thought he had nerves of steel, but Zhan Zhao wasn't an alarmist, and this scared him a bit, so he took a deep breath to adjust himself and said, "Go ahead."

When Zhan Zhao was about to open his mouth, Chen Mi reminded, "Try to be gentle and not provoke me."

Zhan Zhao was amused by him and shook his head, "Then let's take it step by step. Before Grandpa Chen knew you existed, you were born from your father's outside woman, so you and Chen Yu are half siblings, right?"

Chen Mi nodded.

"But I searched your memories, and from some of the things your father said in those memories... I'm certain that you and Chen Mi are actually full siblings." Zhan Zhao said.

Chen Mi was shocked, “Full siblings?!"

Zhan Zhao nodded "You were living with your mother in the early days, then your mother passed away and you were sent to an orphanage."

Chen Mi nodded.

"That was not your biological mother, just a foster mother." Zhan Zhao continued, "Chen Yu grew up with her grandfather and didn't live with her parents either. The mother of the two of you isn't your father's Bonnie and Clyde partner."

"Wait!" Chen Mi frowned, "You're saying... that Yu Feng wasn't my father's wife?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Not at all, the two of them were just partners who worked together, the so-called husband and wife relationship was precisely to cover for your mother. Of course, the two of them were very close, they could be said to be good friends with deep feelings, but it was definitely not that kind of relationship! Your father should have only had one woman in his life, and he and that woman gave birth to you and Chen Yu."

Chen Mi was silent for a long time and said, "This isn't bad news, at least you've let me know that my father has another good quality."

Zhan Zhao sighed and said, "The thing is, your and Chen Yu's birth mother, should still be alive."

With one sentence from Zhan Zhao, Chen Mi froze.

After a long time, Chen Mi reached out and pointed at himself, "My... my mother is still alive?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Although Zhan Zhao gave Chen Mi a buffer and did not immediately split out "your mother is still alive”, the amount of information was obviously still so large that it was somewhat difficult for Chen Mi to digest all at once.

Chen Mi thought for a while and asked a silly question, "Does my mother know that Xiao Yu and I exist?"

"Of course she knows, it's impossible for a woman to not know that she has children even after carrying a baby to term, right? And she came to see you." Zhan Zhao said, "You and your sister, were forced to be separated from your mother at birth."

Chen Mi was puzzled, "Why?"

"To protect you two." Zhan Zhao said.

Chen Mi frowned, a little nervous, "Why? Is her identity special? What kind of person is she? Is she in danger?"

Saying this, Chen Mi suddenly seemed to think of something, "Someone wants Xiao Yu's DNA, is it to find her?"

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and nodded, "I've been thinking about it as well, it seems like it's the only possibility."

"What else did you find?" Chen Mi felt that this process of having to learn about one's past through another person was strange, "How about you hypnotise me a little more and ask for a clearer picture, or let me see what she looks like."

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "No need."

Chen Mi was slightly stunned.

Zhan Zhao picked up a tablet from the side, "If you want to see her appearance, here it is."

Chen Mi took the computer, and a woman's face came into his eyes. He looked at the photo of the young woman on the tablet for a long time, “She looks like Xiao Yu..."

Zhan Zhao nodded, “Mhmm, Gongsun just looked at the photo, Chen Yu's eyes and mouth are very similar to hers, while you have perfectly inherited her nose and facial contours."

Chen Mi stared at the photo and slowly said, "I've seen her!"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Childhood memories are easily activated by certain stimulus triggers, the memories are always in your head, they won't disappear, they're just lost."

Chen Mi nodded, staring at the photo, and asked, "Who is she?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Only basic information was found, a lot of other details were deleted."

"Deleted?!" Chen Mi found it unintelligible, "How could it be done..."

"Jiang Ping said that it might be the work of a hacker." Zhan Zhao was a bit regretful, "But we still found a lot of clues, her real name is Qin Yanfen, she's a graduate student in archaeology."

"Archaeology?" Chen Mi was surprised, "But my father is a thief, how could the two of them have crossed paths?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Jiang Ping shouldn't be able to trace the course of their relationship, but there is a very interesting observation."

Zhan Zhao said, pointing at Qin Yanfen's cheeks, "She seems to love to smile, do you feel that her smile is somewhat like someone else's? Especially this kind of carefree smile."

Chen Mi was silent and finally sighed, "Is this the reason why I liked Qin Ou in the beginning?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Many boys have an Oedipus complex, that feeling of love you first developed for Qin Ou was just out of a sense of familiarity. Your subconscious loved this woman's smile very much, so you were attracted to Qin Ou's smile after seeing him."

Chen Mi held his forehead. Zhan Zhao was indeed a psychologist, he was still analysing psychology at a time like this.

"She's just an ordinary graduate student in archaeology, this kind of student should be found everywhere right..." Chen Mi was puzzled, "What's so special about her?"

Zhan Zhao suddenly nodded and said, "I found a connection between her and this case."

"What connection?"

Zhan Zhao clicked on another piece of information to show him, "Your mother's tutor when she was studying, was this person."

Chen Mi saw that the photo was of an old man wearing glasses and looked at Zhan Zhao somewhat blankly.

"This old man's name is Shen Bo, he is the archaeology professor who was attacked and ended up losing his life yesterday at the research institute for the Wheel of Caleb." Zhan Zhao said.

Chen Mi was completely dumbfounded and frowned, "That old man has something to do with the case you guys are investigating, does that mean my mother has something to do with this case as well? And someone wants to find her through Xiao Yu, why?"

“It's a gradual process." Zhan Zhao continued on, "When Shen Bo died, Bai Yutang and I were the last to see him, and his dying words were, 'Tell F, I'm sorry'."

Chen Mi nodded. He could only look at Zhan Zhao with a puzzled expression now, completely unable to think for himself.

"I asked Jiang Ping to check and found that all the information, including papers and whatnot, from when your mother was studying are gone, but we found out that your mother was very good at painting, and... she had a painting that was documented because she won an award."

Zhan Zhao said, and clicked open a painting.

Chen Mi glanced at it and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, "Is this where my talent for disarming bombs comes from?"

Zhan Zhao smiled and nodded, "A boy's IQ is perfectly inherited from his mother."

He saw the painting that Qin Yanfen won the award for. It was a very precise line drawing, which had a somewhat avant-garde style as well as a three-dimensional structure, with a sense of beauty within the rigour...

"I sent the picture to a person who is very knowledgeable about paintings." Zhan Zhao took out his cell phone and showed it to Chen Mi.

Chen Mi saw that Zhan Zhao's text message was sent to "Long Hair", and was somewhat puzzled.

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow and mouthed to him, "Zhao Jue."

Chen Mi naturally knew who Zhao Jue was, and was a little more spirited.

Then he saw that Zhao Jue's text message only had one word – genius.

Chen Mi inexplicably felt a little flattered, there shouldn't be many people who were praised by Zhao Jue as "geniuses".

"But what I noticed wasn't your mother's talent for painting, but..." Zhan Zhao pointed to the bottom of the painting, to a signature, and said, "Take a look."

Chen Mi looked at the place where Zhan Zhao pointed his finger, the inscription was only a beautifully written "F", with the date of the painting below.

Chen Mi was dumbfounded.

Zhan Zhao said, "Do you remember how your father left an incorrect method of disarming the bomb on the bomb record, and then wrote a sentence about how F is commonly used, so be careful of F?"

Chen Mi nodded.

"Sometimes, many words don't mean what they say literally." Zhan Zhao smiled.

Chen Mi frowned, "Do you think it's some sort of secret code that my dad left for my mom?"

"Or it has some other meaning." Zhan Zhao said, "This F, it seems to have a deep meaning! By the way, in your memory, your dad called your mum A’Fen. At that time, you were still just learning to speak, and you called her the way your dad called her, but vaguely pronounced it as ‘aifu’. Presumably, because of this, she changed her signature to an F."

Chen Mi opened his mouth, unable to return to his senses, but then he looked at the painting again, "This painting was painted when she was in school, so..."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "She took maternity leave in her first year of graduate school, that should have been when you were born."

Chen Mi put down the tablet. Right now, besides being full of doubts and confusion, he was no longer able to think, "Is my mother the F that you are looking for?"

Zhan Zhao said, "The key now is whether she is in danger."

"Or..." Chen Mi looked up, his complexion somewhat miserable, "is she a bad person?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, understanding where Chen Mi's worries lay. A father of the century like Chen Xinglong had already made the two siblings, Chen Mi and Chen Yu, suffer a lot, there was no reason why now that they were just living a little better, another mother who might have a bigger case associated with her would pop up. Originally, he had always felt that Qi Le was ill-fated, but now that he thought about it, Chen Yu was no better than her.

"We will keep it a secret from Chen Yu." Zhan Zhao could see Chen Mi's worry, "You can find the right time, look at the right situation, and then choose whether or not to tell her and Grandpa Chen."

Chen Mi nodded, signalling that he needed time to sort things out.

Zhan Zhao finished saying what needed to be said and opened the car door to get out.

At this time, Bai Yutang walked back and looked at Chen Mi in the car, raising an eyebrow at Zhan Zhao, "How was it?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, indicating that he had finished talking, and asked Bai Yutang, "Is it Fang You who died?"

"It's not clear yet," Bai Yutang said, “but Gongsun said it's been three years since he died."

"Three years?!" Zhan Zhao frowned, "Wouldn't that mean that he had already died back when the exhibition space was rented out?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "The body was hidden under the floor, but the room was very clean with the feeling that someone had been using it. But it's a single family house, and the next door neighbours don't know this family, they only heard that the family had emigrated abroad long ago, and that the house was used to host a friend for a while when he came, and it was usually empty. I've asked Zhao Hu and the others to investigate the owner of the house specifically."

Zhan Zhao nodded, feeling helpless. This was the rhythm of another clue getting disconnected.

"Everyone in the forensic department is busy." Bai Yutang raised an eyebrow at Zhan Zhao, "Do you want to go take a look?"

Zhan Zhao nodded and walked towards the neighbourhood with Bai Yutang.

At this time, the phone rang.

Zhan Zhao took out his phone to take a look at the caller ID and narrowed his eyes.

Bai Yutang moved over to take a look and saw that the caller was 'Long Hair', and was somewhat unable to laugh or cry, "You changed Zhao Jue's name again?"

Zhan Zhao was helpless, hesitant to pick up the phone.

Bai Yutang took the phone and answered, "Hello?"

"It's me."

On the other end of the phone, instead of Zhao Jue's slightly punchable voice, it was Bai Ye's low voice.

"Bai Ye?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao moved over and listened close to Bai Yutang's ear.

"The painting that Zhan Zhao just passed to Zhao Jue," Bai Ye seemed to be somewhat concerned, “do you guys know the person who painted it?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, and Bai Yutang said, "Not very well, but we want to find her."

"I think I can help you guys find her." Bai Ye said.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were pleasantly surprised, "Where is she?"

Bai Ye was silent for a moment before saying, "Sitting on the sofa opposite me, drinking tea with Zhao Jue."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang opened their mouths wide, and after a long time, Zhan Zhao stepped on a cigarette case on the roadside, "Here we go again, that long haired one is everywhere!"

As he was dissatisfied, Zhao Jue's lazy voice came from the other end of the phone, "Is that little kitten from the Zhan family cursing me?"

Bai Yutang wasn't in the mood to be cheeky, and asked Zhao Jue in disbelief, "Is Qin Yanfen really at your place? That means this case and you guys that year..."

"Hey!" Zhao Jue interrupted Bai Yutang, "Nope! It has nothing to do with my side, she just came to seek help."

Saying that, Zhao Jue said, "She said that she only wants to see you two, and that Chen Mi and Chen Yu can't be allowed to know."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other - It seemed like... the rhythm of a bright future ahead!

‿︵‿︵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: December 15, 2023 by Angel

Edited: December 21, 2023 by Angel