S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 11

Witness of the Three Murderers 11 – Death Collector

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't expect Kalin to have any clues about this mysterious Grim Reaper. Sure enough, Zhao Jue had brought them here for a purpose.

It was Kalin who heard Zhao Jue's comment about the Grim Reaper and asked, "What is that?"

Zhan Zhao took out his cell phone and showed Kalin the picture of the drawing Gongsun had made.

Kalin glanced at it and frowned, "What is this?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both turned around and looked at Zhao Jue with a puzzled expression, which meant – They obviously don't know ah!

Zhao Jue looked at the sky, "Show her the picture of that bug."

Zhan Zhao showed Kalin the picture of that black butterfly.

When Kalin saw it, she froze slightly and frowned, "This butterfly..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at her expression and felt that there should be an opening, so they quickly asked, "Have you seen it before?"

Kalin thought for a moment and asked, "Are that Grim Reaper and this butterfly related?" Saying that, her fingertip gently poked Zhan Zhao's cell phone screen and slid to the picture of the Grim Reaper before, "But this butterfly shouldn't be raised by him."

"This person has become unrecognisable in disguise, how do you know he didn't raise the butterfly?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Kalin shrugged indifferently, "A certain feeling. The person who raised this butterfly should be a bit more interesting."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned as they looked at Kalin. In other words, Kalin didn't know who raised the butterfly and didn't recognise this Grim Reaper, so what kind of clues could she provide?

Eugene had his fill of gossip and asked, "What case are you investigating? It seems very interesting, tell me more about it!"

Zhan Zhao looked at Kalin – Right, tell us in more detail.

Bai Yutang asked before Kalin said anything, "Why did you make so many fake corpses?"

Kalin slowly replied, "Interest."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly.

"Let me show you guys something." Kalin led the group out of the kitchen and, after seven turns, into a room.

This appeared to be a study. It was large, and the walls were full of all kinds of books... However, if you looked closely, they weren't novels, but notebooks.

Zhan Zhao was a bit puzzled, was this a database?

Right in the middle was a large desk, which had a computer, a variety of information, as well as some educational toys. There were hundreds of Rubik's Cubes alone, and many of them were outside the realm of the Rubik's Cubes that normal human beings play with.

Bai Yutang saw that there were various game consoles on the desk, and felt that this table was somewhat familiar. It seemed that Jiang Ping had every game console.

Zhan Zhao looked at the various game boards on the table and thought: this should be Mia's playground.

Mia had eaten her fill and followed along, sitting alone and reading a comic.

Kalin naturally sat down by the computer. Zhan Zhao moved over to take a look at her computer screen and noticed that it was Fight the Landlord...

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were somewhat unable to laugh or cry.

Kalin reached out and waved her hand in front of Mia's eyes, attracting her attention before pointing to the bookshelf on the wall and showing her Zhan Zhao's cell phone.

Mia glanced at the phone and saw that it was a picture of a butterfly, then she stood up and ran to the bookshelf to pull out a notebook.

Bai Yutang then saw her climb high and low as she kept pulling out books, before finally stacking up a tall pile and bringing them back to set them on the desk.

Zhan Zhao was a bit curious, what were all these? Flipping through one, he found that it was newspaper clippings, or... more like the collection of archival materials on the bookshelves of Gongsun's forensic doctor's office.

Each clipping book was plastered in great detail with photos of a corpse from various angles, the cause of death, and so on... It was simply a forensic examination report done by Gongsun.

Zhan Zhao scanned the bookshelf and asked, "Is each scrapbook a murder case?"

Kalin nodded and shook her head, "I'm not sure if they're murders, in any case, they're deaths."

Zhan Zhao looked around and said, "There are at least ten thousand books of clippings here."

Kalin indifferently said, "This is just a rather special part, there are many more, I can take you on a tour if you're interested."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other – Collecting addictions ah! Compared to collecting photos of corpses, Xu Lie's kind of nerdy behaviour of collecting figures was far too normal!

Bai Yutang was a bit puzzled, "Why are you collecting so many photos of corpses?"

Kalin shook her head, "It's not photos of corpses that I collect, don't get me wrong, I don't have any quirks. What I collect are just death events."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned slightly, "Death events?"

"Take a look at these selected books and you'll understand." Kalin pointed to the newspaper clippings that Mia had picked out, "The only thing I can offer you guys are these clues."

Zhan Zhao quickly began flipping through them, and eventually, he flipped all of these notebooks open and laid them flat on the table.

Bai Yutang walked over to take a look and couldn't help but frown. He saw that on each page that Zhan Zhao had picked out, next to the corpse, there was a black butterfly.

Bai Yutang took Zhan Zhao's cell phone and compared it to the black butterfly on it – It was exactly the same!

Bai Yutang couldn't help but frown.

Zhan Zhao suddenly asked Kalin, "You made so many deceased dummies, are you studying how they died?"

Kalin laughed and looked up at Zhan Zhao, "Do you have a jumpy mind, or do you simply say whatever comes to mind?"

Zhan Zhao found a chair and sat down, "Why are you studying so many deaths?"

"Guess." Kalin faintly raised the corner of her mouth.

Zhan Zhao asked, "Looking for something?"

Kalin smiled, "To be exact, I'm looking for someone."

Zhan Zhao stared at her for a long time before nodding, "I probably understand, a clever approach!"

Kalin smiled with satisfaction and moved over to Mia's side, asking her as if she was coaxing a child, "Do you want to exchange numbers with Brother?"

Mia tilted her face up to look at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao handed Mia his cell phone.

Mia quickly entered a number and pressed the call button.

The cell phone in Mia's pocket then vibrated. She fished it out and tapped on the contact input, handing it over to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao entered a string of characters.

Mia joyfully pressed save and Eugene teased her, "He cheated you ah! Using numbers as a name..."

Mia blinked and tapped the contact list for Eugene to see.

Eugene looked dumbfounded, the screen was full of bizarre numbers.

Zhan Zhao winked at Mia.

Mia smiled and put her phone away.

Eugene looked at the sky – Creatures from a different dimension!

Bai Yutang asked Kalin, "Is it okay if we take all this information with us?"

Mia shrugged indifferently, indicating – take whatever you want.

Zhan Zhao stood up and thanked her.

Kalin glanced at Bai Yutang again, who was collecting the information behind Zhan Zhao, and suddenly said, "Practise your sword well."

Bai Yutang froze and looked up at her.

Kalin smiled, "Don't neglect to practise just because the Bai family has a good bloodline."

Bai Yutang looked at Kalin, thinking that she probably hadn't finished speaking.

Kalin smiled and looked at the rows and rows of newspaper clippings on the wall, "There's never a shortage of strong and vicious people in this world."

Bai Yutang withdrew his gaze and didn't say anything.

Zhan Zhao said goodbye to Kalin and Mia.

Bai Yutang helped hold those materials, and Zhao Jue and Bai Ye also said goodbye and left together.

Before leaving, Zhao Jue hugged Kalin and whispered something in her ear.

Kalin nodded and walked Zhao Jue to the door.

After everyone had left, Eugene, who had closed the door of the warehouse, returned to the room and curiously asked Kalin, who was looking at the butterfly tree, "After talking for half a day, we didn't get anything out of them, but they left quite satisfied."

Kalin used a bamboo stick to gently poke at an insect chrysalis and faintly said, "Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang are both smart people, and there is no better clue than a dead body. The key to solving the mystery of death is, of course, death itself..."

Eugene crossed his arms with a smile and asked her, "What about you? Did you find what you were looking for after collecting so many deaths?"

Karin slowly turned back to Eugene and flung her hand at him.

The corner of Eugene's mouth twitched slightly.

Kalin left a smile of unknown meaning and turned to walk away.

Eugene turned back silently and saw a butterfly pinned to the wall behind him with a bamboo stick.

Shaking his head, Eugene walked over to look at it and lamented, "Poor thing ah..." As he said this, he pulled out the bamboo stick, but unexpectedly, the butterfly fluttered its wings and flew away.

Looking at the bamboo stick and the hole in the wall, Eugene grinned, "Terrible woman..."

......

Early the next morning.

The SCI members who had taken a night's rest returned to the office, only to see Bai Yutang already sitting at the desk reading the information and Zhan Zhao standing in front of the whiteboard, which was plastered with photos of various corpses.

Everyone looked at each other and sat down, looking at the scrapbooks that were spread all over the table.

"What is this..." Gongsun was surprised and held one up to look at it, "Why are there all these photos?"

"Look at these pictures..." Ma Xin picked out a few of the books to show Gongsun and realised that they were the very same ones they had investigated before, the photos of the bodies from those three murders. The difference was that there were more complete photos than the ones they had on hand.

"Some of these are the photos taken in the forensic lab!" Ma Xin was shocked, "A few of them were even taken by me!"

Jiang Ping frowned as he looked and pondered, then hurriedly ran to turn on his computer and started tapping away on it. Afterwards, Jiang Ping jumped up, "Who opened a backdoor to the police department's database system? I can't believe I don't recognise the signature of a hacker at this level!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other – It was probably Mia who did it.

Zhan Zhao walked over to Jiang Ping and asked him, "Shall I introduce you to a friend who plays games?"

Jiang Ping pointed at the system, which meant – What about this? Should I seal it up?

"Doesn't matter." Zhan Zhao spread his hands, "She shouldn't need to collect them anymore."

In the distance, Zhao Jue, who was eating breakfast on the sofa, raised his eyes to look at Zhan Zhao, then smiled faintly.

Bai Yutang also asked Zhan Zhao, "You think Kalin has already found the person she was looking for?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "There's no confusion in her eyes at all. Those aren't the eyes of someone who seeks an answer, but the eyes of someone who has found one."

The crowd listened for half a day and were completely unable to understand what the two were talking about.

Zhao Hu scratched his head and looked at the photos of all those corpses in disgust, "What is this? A serial murder case?"

Just as Zhao Hu finished speaking, Zhan Zhao had already pasted the last photo and raised his hand to slap the whiteboard, "That's right! A serial murder case!"

Everyone raised their heads and looked at the whiteboard that was covered with photos of corpses.

Ma Han couldn't help but ask, "How many people did the murderer kill?"

Zhan Zhao drew a circle on the whiteboard, "So far, these are the ones whose bodies have been found."

Gongsun held a few photos and frowned, "The techniques are indeed the same, all disguised as accidental deaths."

As he spoke, Luo Tian reached out, picked up the picture of the Grim Reaper on the table and asked, "Is this person the murderer?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head and picked up another picture, "This is the murderer."

Everyone looked at the photo in Zhan Zhao's hand together, then froze... They saw that what Zhan Zhao was holding was a picture of the black butterfly.

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao in disbelief.

Bai Chi asked, "The murderer is the butterfly?"

"The clue to finding the murderer is the butterfly." Bai Yutang replied, "What we're trying to catch this time, is the serial killer with the most murders in the history of SCI."

‿︵‿︵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: January 9, 2024 by Angel

Edited: March 15, 2024 by Angel