S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 118

The Murderer Who Returned From Hell 18 – Box

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Zhao Jue's call brought an important witness to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, however, the problem was...

"What do you mean you can't tell us where you are?!" Zhan Zhao took the phone in Bai Yutang's hand and decided to argue with Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue was helpless, "I'm at a secret base!"

Zhan Zhao wanted to know even more, "Where is the secret base? "

"My home!" Zhao Jue retorted, "It's very secret!"

Zhan Zhao was speechless, "Why would Qin Yanfen know about it if it's very secret?"

"Because an acquaintance told her, we know the person she sought help from." Zhao Jue replied.

"Who?"

"Secret!"

Bai Yutang then saw Zhan Zhao grinding his teeth at the phone.

Bai Yutang had no choice but to take the phone back and ask, "Then how are we going to meet her?"

"I'll have Bai Ye send her over to your side." Zhao Jue said.

Bai Yutang froze slightly and asked, "You're not coming together?"

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows and curiously came over to listen.

Zhao Jue's end was slightly silent for a moment, then he smiled, his pleasant voice coming from the other side of the receiver, "You guys miss me?"

Bai Yutang was embarrassed and looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao came over, "What are you busy with?"

Zhao Jue smiled, "Busy having fun, I'll come find you guys in a while."

Zhan Zhao muttered, "Who asked you to come?"

Zhao Jue laughed a few more times, "Bai Ye said he'll send her to SCI in half an hour, but..."

"But what?" Bai Yutang frowned slightly, but his eyes were looking not far away.

He saw that Chen Mi had already gotten out of the car, and was lighting a cigarette as he leaned against the car door, looking somewhat tired as he had a heavy heart.

"There are very powerful people after her." Bai Ye said on the other end of the phone, "It will probably take some effort for you guys to ensure her safety."

"How powerful are the people after her?" Bai Yutang was curious.

"Erm... how can I put it, not quite the human kind." Bai Ye organised his words.

Bai Yutang frowned, his mind inexplicably flashed back to the dry corpse Cheng Mu had impersonated a while ago... and the small child who had attacked Shen Bo but disappeared, as well as... the strange dry corpse that had disappeared beyond the wall.

"She said she would cooperate with your investigation, but on one condition." Bai Ye said.

"What condition?" Bai Yutang asked.

"She said that she can't tell Chen Mi and Chen Yu about her existence." Bai Ye said.

Bai Yutang frowned. Zhan Zhao heard it from the side, and glanced at Bai Yutang, and they both asked, "Why?"

"She said it's for the best." Bai Ye replied.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, who nodded, but it was obvious that Qin Yanfen didn't expect that Zhan Zhao had already found Chen Mi's past from amongst his memories.

"Alright, let's go back to the police station now." After Bai Yutang and Bai Ye said goodbye, they hung up the phone.

In the distance, Chen Mi was still smoking and dazed, holding Zhan Zhao's tablet in his hand and looking at Qin Yanfen's picture on it.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao in a low voice, "What should we do?"

Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang in return, "What do you think?"

Bai Yutang was helpless, "You're the psychologist, you have the final say."

Zhan Zhao spread his hands, "This kind of emotional problem is far beyond the realm of psychology."

Bai Yutang thought about it and walked over to Chen Mi.

Zhan Zhao watched from the side.

He saw Bai Yutang arrive at the car and say a few words to Chen Mi.

Chen Mi frowned slightly, seemingly considering something, and finally, he nodded.

Zhan Zhao took out his cell phone and sent out a text message, then put the phone away, squinted his eyes, and smiled a little.

"You usually have that smile when your pranks are successful, don't you?"

At this moment, Gongsun was seen walking over with a toolbox.

Zhan Zhao then asked, "How's the body? Have you confirmed who it belongs to?"

"This body has been dead for at least twenty years." Gongsun's reply was out of Zhan Zhao's expectation.

"Twenty years? Not three years!" Zhan Zhao found it unbelievable, "Shouldn't it have rotted to the bones?"

"It's been properly air-dried." Gongsun spread his hands, "In fact, it's really impossible to trace without professional means, and this time, it was Xin Xin who gave the professional opinion."

Zhan Zhao was slightly stunned.

At this time, he saw Ma Xin walk over with a plastic bag, and inside were some torn fabrics.

"Why did you judge the body to be from twenty years ago?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Ma Xin showed the plastic bag in her hand to Zhan Zhao and said, "No matter whether it's from the material, the taste or the design style, it's something only someone from twenty years ago would wear."

Zhan Zhao was surprised.

“Then," Ma Xin took out another bag and showed it to Zhan Zhao, “look at this receipt, it was found in the pant pocket of the corpse."

When Zhan Zhao looked carefully, he saw that the receipt was issued when he bought the glasses, and the company that issued the receipt was a university, the cost was twenty-five dollars, and the date was... 1987.

What Zhan Zhao frowned at was not the time that was too long ago, but the company that issued the receipt... This was the university that Qin Yanfen attended back in the day, which was the school where Shen Bo taught back in the day. Who is this person? Student or staff?

"The deceased is male, about forty five years old." Gongsun said.

"It could be a teacher from back then." Zhan Zhao said, "Didn't Brother get a machine that scans skeletal faces and constructs portraits from them? Have Jiang Ping use the generated photo to compare it to the faculty and staff of this university back then, then check if there's any relationship with Shen Bo."

Gongsun nodded, "I was thinking the same thing, but that machine is very unpleasant!"

Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "Why is it unpleasant?"

Gongsun pushed up his glasses, "It only scans skeletons and refuses to scan living people!"

The corner of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched, Gongsun's evil taste was indeed acting up again.

After that, Zhan Zhao went to the scene and analysed the room owner's psychology before hurrying back to the police station with Bai Yutang.

When everyone arrived at the SCI office, they saw Bai Ye, Ma Han and Zhao Hu standing in front of the SCI office just chatting, a scene that was, how should I put it, a little weird.

Bai Yutang and the others stepped out of the elevator and Bai Ye pointed at the door, "She's already here, so I'll leave first."

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded and said goodbye to Bai Ye.

Bai Ye looked at the two of them, inexplicably feeling that the two of them looked like well-behaved children as they waved goodbye to him... Subsequently, Bai Ye shook his head and entered the elevator.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, that expression that Bai Ye had on his way out just now, it had a very meaningful look to it.

"What were you guys chatting about so happily?" Ma Xin curiously came over to ask Ma Han and Zhao Hu.

"Oh, Xiao Ma Ge asked about Eleven's recent situation." Zhao Hu had a quick mouth, "I just asked what they've been up to recently."

"Eleven is in contact with them?" Bai Yutang was curious.

"Yes." Zhao Hu pointed to Ma Han who was opening a small box in the room, "Eleven also left something at Bai Ye's place, saying that it's a birthday gift for Xiao Ma Ge."

On the one hand, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were anxious to see Qin Yanfen, on the other hand, the blood of gossip was churning again. What would Eleven send Xiao Ma Ge?

Just as the two men moved a little closer, they saw Ma Han pick up a thin brass chain from the box, and at one end of the chain, there was a bullet hanging.

Ma Han shook the chain, and the corner of his mouth moved gently.

Zhao Hu nosily approached, "Xiao Ma Ge, what kind of bullet is this?"

Ma Han said, "This bullet is from a long time ago... a long, long time ago." After saying that, he hung the chain on his neck, collected the box, and went back to his work in a good mood.

Everyone stroked their chins as they looked at Ma Han's appearance – It feels like there's a story!

Bai Yutang coughed gently, poked Zhan Zhao and pointed not far away, at the vaguely opened door to the lounge.

Zhao Hu said, "Just now, Bai Ye brought an aunt over." Saying that, he gestured at the information on Qin Yanfen that Jiang Ping had looked up on his computer, signalling - that's her.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao nodded.

The two walked to the door. Zhan Zhao reached out and gently pushed the door open. At this time, the scene was... a little subtle.

They saw a middle-aged lady in her forties, very thin but very temperamental with a pretty face, sitting on the sofa, and Dunbu was lying on his back beside her, accepting a rubdown of his fur.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. Dunbu was so well behaved, could he feel the blood relationship with Chen Mi in her?

Qin Yanfen raised her head and saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

The two walked in, Qin Yanfen reached out and pointed at the door, "Can you close the door?"

At the door, the crowd that had long been lined up by the wall ready to gossip were all slightly disappointed.

At this moment, Chen Mi was seen walking to SCI's door.

Qin Ou looked at him and looked back at the door of the lounge room.

Bai Yutang had no choice but to walk to the door and gently close it.

Everyone looked at Chen Mi together again.

He happened to see the closed lounge room door, so he didn't come in and went to the door to sit and wait.

The crowd couldn't help but frown.

Zhao Hu lightly touched Ma Han with his arm, "Why is it like this?"

Bai Chi was also puzzled, "How can a mother not see her own children?"

"There should be a reason." Ma Han said.

Luo Tian saw Chen Mi sitting alone at the door, so he asked, "Should we go personally comfort him?"

The crowd glanced at each other, and finally all looked at Qin Ou, which meant – you're the only one who knows him well.

Qin Ou was also a bit helpless, then suddenly seemed to remember something and looked around, puzzled, "Eh? Where's Xu Lie?"

Everyone froze, then together they looked at the door of the lounge room.

Jiang Ping said, "He seemed to say just now that he was going to take a nap inside the lounge room."

Everyone blinked – It seemed like Xu Lie had just been lying on the sofa, but had been bullied by Dunbu to roll off the sofa, so he hugged a pillow and indignantly went to sleep on the mattress behind the sofa.

"So..." Everyone tacitly decided not to disturb Xu Lie's sleep and turned back to continue to keep themselves busy.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at the very ordinary middle-aged woman in front of them.

Bai Yutang poured a cup of water for Qin Yanfen and sat down next to Zhan Zhao, choosing just to listen this time and letting Zhan Zhao study this woman's heart.

After sizing up Qin Yanfen for a while, Zhan Zhao asked, "Are you Chen Mi and Chen Yu's biological mother?"

Behind the sofa, Xu Lie, who was originally napping with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes.

"Yes." Qin Yanfen gently nodded.

"Back then, why did you abandon those two siblings?" Zhan Zhao's voice was soft and his tone was calm, it was clear that he was just probing without the intention of making any accusations.

Qin Yanfen was silent for a while, then said in a low voice, "In the beginning, because of his father's identity, we couldn't disclose our relationship, so after I gave birth to him..."

At the door of the SCI office, Chen Mi's cell phone suddenly rang. He took it out and found that it was Xu Lie who was calling.

Originally, with Chen Mi's current mood, he shouldn't pick up that bastard's call, but for some strange reason, he pressed the answer button, and at the same time, instead of Xu Lie's voice coming from the other end of the phone, there was a somewhat lighter, but very clear voice of a woman speaking, "So after I gave birth to him, I lied and said that he had already died prematurely, and he was given to his father and his partner, Yu Feng, as his son, and handed over to a friend to raise."

"And then what happened? Why did you never recognise the two siblings?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

"At first, I just wanted to cover my tracks and wait for their father to wash his hands in gold before we could live together. In those earliest years, I would go and stay with Xiao Mi whenever I was free, but Xiao Yu, I never stayed with her. Fortunately, she had her grandfather... In short, their father and I were selfish and childish back then... By the time we wanted to make amends, it was already too late." Qin Yanfen sighed.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't really want to listen to these things very much. Parents abandoning their children was nothing more than an overlap of tragedy and misfortune, so what was there to listen to, let alone about someone they knew.

So the two just wanted to focus on this case.

"Are you F?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Qin Yanfen smiled and said, "Yes and no."

"What does that mean?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were puzzled.

"Everything that has happened to me is because of this F," Qin Yanfen let out a long sigh, “everything is because of that project."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang listened attentively.

"More than twenty years ago, I had just graduated from graduate school. One day, my professor approached me and a few other students to work on a project together." Qin Yanfen looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "We dug something up and opened it."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked, "What was it?"

Qin Yanfen suddenly laughed, smiling somewhat ruefully, "Pandora's box."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both frowned slightly.

"The box that took away all of our happiness." Qin Yanfen sighed, reached out, and from a bag to the side, took out a box wrapped in paper and placed it on the coffee table in front of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

The two froze, both staring at the paper package.

Qin Yanfen nodded, "This is it."

Saying that, Qin Yanfen took out an iron, rusty box that had obviously dated back a long time from the paper package and opened it.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang froze as they looked at the contents of the box.

‿︵‿︵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