S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 21

Witness of the Three Murderers 21 – Skin

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In that creepy museum, a curator who was a suspected pervert appeared.

He was a bit excited, "It's been so long since anyone came to visit, it's a bit overwhelming!"

Bai Yutang sized him up and asked, "Is this museum of yours privately owned?"

"Of course, of course!" Kai Bin smiled and surveyed Bai Yutang, "Wow! This face can be considered the pinnacle work of human evolution..."

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes – Daring to flirt with his mouse!

Kai Bin smirked and surveyed Zhan Zhao this time. Slightly stunned, he put on his glasses again and made a surveying gesture, "You look smart, are you interested in doing a brain fluoroscopy?"

Zhao Hu looked at this curator from the back and thought about how creepy he looked, his type seemed like the type that would suddenly pick up a chainsaw and dismember a person.

At this time, Zhao Jue, who had been observing the "exhibits" in a glass column not far away, slipped back and stood behind the curator who was happily surveying the SCI crowd.

Kai Bin asked the crowd, "Are you here to visit? Or do you wish to purchase any exhibits?"

The corner of Zhao Hu's mouth twitched, "You sell the things here?"

"Of course!" Kai Bin smiled with his mouth so wide that his back teeth were almost visible.

Everyone had disgust in their eyes, but they still considered having Gongsun come and browse around.

"These rare treasures are waiting for someone who knows how to appreciate them!" Kai Bin got excited.

Ma Han looked at a huge, twisted, soon-to-be frog tadpole stored in a column off to the side that had grown human arms and legs, and looked to the sky, "They're all spliced corpses, aren't they..."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk!" Kai Bin wiggled his finger in disapproval.

They saw him reach out and point to that mermaid on the side, "This was found in the stomach of a giant sperm whale by a fishing boat in the Arctic Ocean!

Saying that, he pointed to the alien, "What crashed into the Siberian taiga and caused the big bang wasn't actually a meteorite, but a spaceship carrying aliens!"

Saying that, he pointed to that two-headed snake, "This was originally two snakes. One swallowed the other, but the other one bore out half of its body from the head of the head-first one, and the lower half of its body melted inside... So, the two of them turned into one!"

"And this!" Kai Bin did a double take in excitement, pointing to a glass column that held the body of a deformed baby, "This is the child born to a demon and a human! Look!" Saying that, he pointed at the spine of the infant child that had been growing tail vertebrae, "The devil's spine.. the devil's tail!"

Bai Yutang frowned at the museum curator who was in a state of exhilaration in front of him, a man who even from his perspective as a layman felt as if he should be sick.

Zhao Hu looked at Ma Han – What's wrong with this man? Evil worshipping?

Ma Han looked at those corpses with disgust, it didn't look like a museum, but like a circus.

After Kai Bin introduced the "collection" in front of him, he turned around and wanted to continue introducing the ones behind him.

But the moment he turned around, he saw Zhao Jue standing right behind him.

Zhao Jue had his hands behind his back, surveying him. One side of his mouth curled up slightly, and on his right cheek, a shallow line was visible.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows slightly.

Kai Bin maintained his rigid posture as he twisted around and turned back to glare at Zhao Jue.

After about five seconds.

Zhao Hu whispered to Ma Han, "This dude locked eyes with Zhao Jue for five seconds."

Ma Han nodded – He should have gone crazy already.

Just as the crowd was waiting for something bad to happen, Kai Bin suddenly cupped his face, "Ah! The devil's eyes!"

The other side of Zhao Jue's mouth also picked up.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin – Oh...

Bai Yutang was also puzzled – Was he not affected by Zhao Jue? Or did Zhao Jue not do anything to him at all? Or was he already affected, just not showing it?

Kai Bin stretched out his two chicken-claw-like, dry, thin hands and reached for Zhao Jue's face, but before he could touch it, he was yanked by Bai Yutang behind him.

Kai Bin turned back.

Bai Yutang showed him his credentials and said, "Can we talk in a brighter place?"

"Erm..." Kai Bin looked at the ID, seemed a bit surprised, and he became a bit more normal, "Police?"

......

Qiao Yuanxin's villa.

Ma Xin was holding a camera, carefully photographing the tree-shaped genealogy on the wall.

There were hardly any books, audiovisual products, televisions, computers or anything in the room, making Ma Xin wonder... What did this ex-wife of Qiao Yuanxin usually do?

Xiatian was in Qiao Xi's room on the third floor, looking through Qiao Xi's books.

Luo Tian also came over to look and asked, "What kind of books does he read?"

Xiatian showed Luo Tian, "Qiao Xi seems to have really been a bit of a devil worshipper when he was a kid, look at all the books he read about ghost legends, demons, hell, and so on."

Qin Ou plugged a USB stick that Jiang Ping had given him into an outdated desktop computer and booted it up.

The computer actually managed to light up, and the Windows 95 booting sound inexplicably gave the crowd a sense of time travelling.

Qin Ou called Jiang Ping.

The computer on Jiang Ping's side had already started copying the contents of the hard drive in Qiao Xi's computer.

Some pictures appeared on the computer from time to time. Qin Ou took a look and frowned, "Couldn't this Qiao Xi's childhood computer have been equipped with parental controls or something? How come there's so much scary content..."

As he was talking, Jiang Ping's voice came from the other side, "Boy, Qiao Xi is also a hacker."

Luo Tian and Qin Ou looked at each other, and Xiatian came over and asked, "A hacker?"

"Mhmm!" Jiang Ping said, "According to his age at that time, it's considered very impressive, he's even a member of Dark Shadows. Amazing, according to time, he's considered a senior member."

Luo Tian hadn't been back in the modern world for too long, and his computer knowledge was essentially taught by his son. What Dark Shadows? He had never heard of it.

Xiatian was more knowledgeable in this area and came over to say, "Dark Shadows is a huge hacker forum that belongs to the deep water network."

Luo Tian continued to scratch his head.

Jiang Ping said, "The cyber world isn't just those things we usually come into contact with. If the network is compared to the sea, the network usually used by ordinary people belongs to the area above the surface, there is also the area below the surface of the water as well as the area deep below the surface. Dark Shadows is a large forum in the deep water area, where a lot of cyber criminals are gathered."

Luo Tian frowned, "Isn't that dangerous?"

Qin Ou spread his hands, "That's why danger is everywhere. In the past, little kids used to roll in the mud every day at most, nowadays, little kids are mixing with the Matrix."

Luo Tian was a little worried, "Yang Yang often plays with computers, will he learn bad things?"

Qin Ou expressed the same worry.

Jiang Ping was helpless and gave a lesson to the two anxious eternal filial piety dads, "It's not possible to portray the internet as well as hackers purely in terms of good or bad. There are a lot of people in this world who are used to hiding in the shadows, but they aren't harming anyone, some just don't want to integrate into society. Everyone has their own way of surviving"... blah blah blah blah blah.

Jiang Ping turned on his chatterbox mode. Luo Tian and Qin Ou looked at each other and decided to go downstairs to the backyard and the greenhouse to take a look, while Xiatian continued to flip through the books.

The garden at the back of the villa only had a glass greenhouse, which was full of wilted roses.

Luo Tian tilted his face up. From the glass greenhouse, he could see the windows of the fourth floor above. In other words, from the windows of the fourth floor, he could see the greenhouse below. If the roof of the glass greenhouse was wiped clean enough, you should be able to see the roses in full bloom.

"Luo Tian."

Luo Tian was tilting his face back and staring at the barred windows upstairs through the glass roof when he heard Qin Ou calling him.

He turned back, only to see Qin Ou standing behind the flower stand, looking down at something.

Luo Tian walked over and saw that underneath a stack of flower pots behind the flower stand, something was pressed down. The tip of a yellow paper that was gathering dust was revealed, and there seemed to be words on it.

Luo Tian moved the flower pots out of the way, and Qin Ou picked up the yellow paper and felt that it looked somewhat familiar.

"Is this some kind of talisman?" Luo Tian asked, "Zhang Yu also drew one in the SCI office that day."

"But it seems a bit different from this one." Qin Ou asked, "Could it have been made by that Heavenly Master Hou?"

Luo Tian took out an evidence bag, "Let's take it back and show it to Zhang Yu, maybe he can recognise which of his colleagues drew it."

Luo Tian was packing up the evidence with Qin Ou when he heard his phone ring. He picked it up and found out that it was Ma Xin calling, "Uncle!"

Luo Tian looked upstairs, "What's wrong?"

"There's someone outside!" Ma Xin stood on the fourth floor and could clearly see a very suspicious person looking into the villa from outside the glass greenhouse, "He's also holding a camera!"

Ma Xin gave Luo Tian and Qin Ou the direction of the man, and the two remained calm and split up.

Qin Ou walked out of the greenhouse and headed towards the pool, while Luo Tian silently slipped out from one side with a cat's waist... When he climbed over the iron fence, he saw a sneaky middle-aged man, wearing an outdated yellow corduroy jacket with long messy hair that looked like a vagrant from a distance, carrying a very large bag, holding a camera in his hand, and excitedly snapping pictures in the direction of the villa.

Luo Tian went over and grabbed him.

"Ah!" The man jumped in fright and struggled to escape, but if caught by Luo Tian, it was almost impossible for an ordinary person to escape.

"I... I am a reporter! You guys don't have the right to arrest me! Obstructing the freedom of the press!"

That middle-aged man struggled incoherently.

At this moment, Qin Ou, Xiatian and Ma Xin all arrived at the backyard and saw Luo Tian arresting that strange middle-aged man.

"I knew there was something wrong with the Qiao family! Hahaha, the ghost lingers! The netherworld is still alive!" That reporter uncle shouted.

Qin Ou rummaged through his pockets and found that he really did have a press card, he was a reporter for a daily newspaper called Liu Tianxue.

"Such a big newspaper!" Ma Xin was puzzled, "How did they hire a reporter who isn't quite mentally normal?"

Ma Xin called the newspaper to inquire, and the newspaper's reply was surprising – Liu Tianxue was indeed a reporter for that newspaper before, but he was fired because of his mental problems, and it had been almost ten years ago.

Ma Xin asked an additional question, what news was he reporting on ten years ago when he was dismissed?

The answer given by the other party was – Qiao Xi's kidnapping case.

The crowd looked at Liu Tianxue, who was still frantically taking pictures and saying "the ghost lingers", and decided to bring him to the SCI office to let Zhan Zhao take a look at him.

......

As for Zhan Zhao and the others, at this moment, everyone followed the curator Kai Bin out of the gloomy exhibition hall, through the long corridor, and arrived at the curator's room at the end of the corridor.

The curator's room was surprisingly modern, with black glass walls and white tiles on the floor. Walking into this office, there was a feeling of "cold" and "hard".

Kai Bin invited the crowd to sit down and pressed the phone, seemingly asking someone to make five cups of tea to bring over.

"Everything on display in my museum is legal!" Kai Bin took out a large stack of documents from a drawer.

Bai Yutang asked, "You said that none of these exhibits belong to you, and you're just the curator, so who does this museum belong to?"

"My boss." Kai Bin sat down on a large black swivel chair, "But I haven't really met my boss, I came in through the recruitment application."

As he spoke, the office door was pushed open.

Zhan Zhao and the others finally saw the second living person to appear in this museum.

It was a young woman in her early twenties, wearing a white coat and dressed as a nurse. When this woman walked in, it startled the SCI crowd because her face was somewhat deformed, the left and right sides were asymmetrical and staggered rather badly.

The crowd fought back a stunned look before hurriedly averting their eyes, feeling that it was a bit rude to stare.

But the woman did not care, after serving tea to the crowd, she held the tray and went out again.

Zhan Zhao was a little puzzled and asked Kai Bin, "Why are the museum staff dressed like hospital staff?"

"Professional habit!" Kai Bin chuckled, "I was a doctor before I became a curator."

"How long have you been a curator?" Bai Yutang asked.

"It's been about twenty years." Kai Bin said and chuckled, as if he had thought of something interesting.

"Do you know someone called Qiao Xi?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Kai Bin blinked and shook his head, "I don't."

Everyone frowned. This person looked a little nervous, so it was difficult to judge the authenticity of his speech with the ordinary patterns of expression.

"Is there any way to contact the owner of the museum?" Bai Yutang asked, "I want to meet him."

"Well..." Kai Bin held his chin, "I can't help with this! Because I haven't met him either."

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang – He shouldn't be able to ask anything, so he might as well get back to the point.

Bai Yutang nodded and said to Kai Bin, "We came here today wanting to investigate the theft that happened in this museum. "

Kai Bin stared faintly, then shook his head, "The museum hasn't been burgled in recent years."

"It's a fifty-year-old case."

"Fifty..." Kai Bin's mouth opened wide.

"Fifty years ago the museum was robbed and the curator committed suicide because of it, you wouldn't be unaware of that, would you?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"I know!" Kai Bin stood up excitedly, "The crime scene is still perfectly preserved!"

This time it was Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's turn to be stunned.

Zhao Hu was at a loss, "What does perfectly preserved mean?"

Kai Bin beckoned to the crowd, "This way this way."

The crowd suspiciously stood up and followed him outside.

Kai Bin took them up a flight of stairs to the third floor and walked to a dilapidated door, on which was a piece of printing paper with the words "Exhibition Hall 11". In addition to this, there was also a piece of printing paper underneath, which was printed in red letters – "No uninvited personnel are allowed to enter".

The crowd was somewhat speechless. The fact that this museum has not gone bankrupt until now is really a miracle!

Kai Bin took out the key to open the door. They saw two metal bars placed inside the door, with a red chain spanning between them, blocking outsiders from entering. Inside was a rather open space with a few glass exhibition stands, which were rectangular and looked like glass coffins. From a distance, what was stored in the stands should be ancient corpses.

Kai Bin removed the chain and let the crowd enter.

Walking into this open exhibition hall, Kai Bin said, "This exhibition hall is the same as it was fifty years ago, and the exhibits have not been replaced."

"On display for fifty years?" The crowd was surprised.

"Ever since the first curator died, this exhibition hall has been closed." Kai Bin said, "There are a total of thirty-one exhibition areas in this building, all of which are from the owner's collection. The owner would send over a batch of exhibits at regular intervals and put them on long-term display, which is actually more like storage."

The crowd observed a few of the "exhibits", all of which were charred and dried corpses.

Bai Yutang frowned slightly, feeling that this kind of charred and blackened dry corpse was very familiar – The craftsmanship seemed to be the same as the two dry corpses nailed behind the door in the ancient castle.

"What were the stolen exhibits?" Bai Yutang asked.

"This way." Kai Bin led the crowd towards a coffin in the middle.

Right in the middle of the pavilion, there was a crystal coffin that was bigger than all the other exhibition stands around it, and inside the crystal coffin was a dry corpse wearing a black robe.

That dry corpse was fully clothed in a black robe, with only its face, hands and feet exposed.

Zhan Zhao took a look at the name of the exhibit, which was – Skin.

"What was stolen?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Kai Bin took a sheet out from the back of the stand and said, "A total of five things were stolen, a mask, a pair of gloves, a pair of shoes, a pendant and a bracelet."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. The mask should be the one Chen Xiaofei had in his possession, while the pendant could be Grandpa Chen's heirloom. Wu Qian mentioned that the kidnappers had kidnapped Qiao Xi because they wanted one of Qiao Yuanxin's bracelets... So, there was still a pair of shoes and a pair of gloves missing?

Thinking that the material used to make these items could be human tissue, just like the mask, everyone couldn't help but sigh – It really fits the name "skin"!

‿︵‿︵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 18, 2024 by Angel

Edited: April 8, 2024 by Angel