S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 25

Witness of the Three Murderers 25 – Survivor

---

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found clues about G in Lan Qi's house, and were also surprised to find out that Lan Qi was once hypnotised by G. If not for the accident back then, Lan Qi would have died like the other expedition members who had contact with G.

Hao Ling was very nervous, but after examining Lan Qi, Zhao Jue told her that the hypnosis had failed and that Lan Qi would not have any more accidents. However, the suggestion for G's hand is still there. This was not difficult to undo, and it took Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao about five minutes to undo this suggestion for Lan Qi.

Thus, an interesting scene emerged. Lan Qi held the photo and exclaimed in shock, while Lan Xi and Hao Ling crossed their arms and shook their heads to the side, they had never seen Lan Qi so unsettled in their lives.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang borrowed the photo and prepared to go back to investigate that archaeological team.

According to the plan, after leaving Lan Qi's house, the group rushed to Chen Xiaofei's old house.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han were already there.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang got out of the car and walked into the warehouse.

"Has anything been found?" Bai Yutang asked Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu shook his head.

Chen Xiaofei crossed his arms, "I've already rummaged through it, my dad has been searching for so long, and there's not much useful information."

The people from the forensics department had already finished their work and packed up their things to leave.

Zhan Zhao turned around in the warehouse. Zhao Jue seemed to be interested in the few peas planted at the entrance, staring at the few white flowers on the dense branches and leaves.

Bai Yutang was leaning against the doorway of the warehouse, and Chen Xiaofei was squatting next to him, teasing a calico cat that had snuck over from the neighbourhood.

Bai Yutang suddenly asked Chen Xiaofei, "Did you really attend a summer camp in South America?"

"Ah!" Chen Xiaofei also remembered, he clapped his hands and tilted his face up to ask Zhan Zhao, who was looking at a wall calendar in the room, "When you first met me, how did you know that I had participated in a summer camp in South America?"

Zhan Zhao was stroking his chin as he looked at the wall calendar.

Behind Chen Xiaofei, Zhao Jue said, "Because you have an aura of an annoying kid with a good family, money, leisure and brains. You were able to catch that butterfly, which means that you have a certain understanding of it, and you should have investigated it properly, so a trip to South America is a must. And an annoying kid like you must have been spoilt at home, your mother couldn't possibly have agreed to you running off to South America alone, so you could only take part in the summer camp organised by the school..." Saying this, Zhao Jue turned back to Chen Xiaofei and winked.

Chen Xiaofei flattened his mouth and internally complained – Who is an annoying kid...

"You went to South America just to investigate butterflies?" Bai Yutang asked.

Chen Xiaofei scratched his head, "Mhmm! I went to the botanical gardens and the zoo, and I also went to the museum and the jungle... But those student summer camps are all just little things, and when we went around the outskirts of the jungle, the teachers dragged us out like we were going to disappear as a group."

Chen Xiaofei was quite dissatisfied, "If I had known Lan Qi back then, it would have been better, perhaps I would have been able to go and see that tomb..."

As he spoke, Chen Xiaofei saw Zhan Zhao reaching out for the calendar.

"Aiya!" He hurriedly ran in to protect the calendar, "This calendar was torn by my dad before he died, no one is allowed to touch it!"

Zhan Zhao patted him on the shoulder, indicating that he should not be so nervous, "Your dad understands your personality well."

Chen Xiaofei bristled.

Zhan Zhao reached out and took down the calendar, and behind the calendar was a snow-white wall.

Bai Yutang walked over.

Zhan Zhao reached out and gently knocked on the wall.

Inside the wall, there was a hollow echo.

Chen Xiaofei's mouth opened wide.

Ma Han handed a knife to Bai Yutang, who touched the wall, scratched a large cross with the knife, and then pried... The surface of the wall was knocked open, and there was a hollow, square space behind it.

Bai Yutang reached out and took out a wooden box from inside.

It was an A4 paper-sized rectangular camphor wooden box. The box was very heavy, and there was no lock on it, there was just a piece of iron that held it in place.

Bai Yutang placed the box on the table and asked Chen Xiaofei, "Do you want to open it?"

Chen Xiaofei looked at Bai Yutang, then scratched his head, reached out, lifted the iron piece and opened the lid of the box.

Inside the box, there was the smell of mothballs... Inside was a homemade leather notebook, which looked very rough but had a special kind of heaviness to it.

Chen Xiaofei reached out and picked it up, opened it, and saw a lot of messy characters written inside, which were very similar to the patterns they had previously seen on that mask and pendant through Gongsun's special colour filter method.

Chen Xiaofei frowned. It was like a heavenly book, completely unreadable, so he handed it over to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao flipped through a few pages and smiled faintly, "Your father was studying those characters."

Chen Xiaofei blinked, "I always thought that he was just a carpenter, and he was most skilled at merely random things."

"It's true that it's not his area of expertise." When Zhan Zhao said this, he looked at Chen Xiaofei very seriously, "But he was very dedicated to doing this and spent a lot of effort investigating."

Chen Xiaofei thought for a moment and asked, "Can you help?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

At this time, Bai Yutang's phone rang, and Bai Yutang went outside to answer it.

Chen Xiaofei went back to hang his father's wall calendar.

Zhao Jue also glanced at the notes and said, "Password?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Passwords in groups of four, freely combined into symbols, and then the symbols are connected into patterns."

Zhao Jue touched his chin, "Around tens of thousands of combinations, not that many."

"Hmm." Zhan Zhao nodded, "I'll go back and have Jiang Ping compile a programme, I can probably calculate it all in a day."

Zhao Jue smiled, "Give it to that little rabbit, he can probably calculate it all in half a day."

Zhan Zhao closed the notebook, "There are many things that the human brain can do, but we choose to leave to a computer, do you know why?"

Zhao Jue raised his eyebrows at him.

Zhan Zhao blinked, "Because computers don't get tired."

At this moment, he saw Bai Yutang walk in with a frown, "There's been another murder!"

Zhan Zhao was slightly stunned, "A murder case?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "A homeowner in the garden district went out for a walk after dinner and fell down the steps and died."

"Sounds a lot like an accident... but is it?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "The garden district is the one that Liu Jin lives in?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "Mhmm... then guess who the witness was?"

Zhan Zhao was surprised, "No way..."

Bai Yutang was also helpless, "Liu Jin went out for a walk at night and happened to see it. He said that the deceased didn't accidentally fall down, but was pushed down the stairs. Then... guess who the murderer that he saw was?"

"Yue Hai again?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang nodded.

"Then does Yue Hai have an alibi?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

"Zhang Long just went to confirm, Yue Hai was in his study after dinner. There were only servants in the house, and they all said that he hadn't left the house." Bai Yutang put away the phone, "But he was alone in the study."

"That means the alibi isn't particularly strong either is it?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang spread his hands, "Liu Jin is in the SCI office right now, you can go ask him."

"He isn't lying." Zhan Zhao said, "His one-half deficiency was cured through suggestion, and now his entire brain is in a state of disorder, it's hard to ask for real information from him."

Zhao Jue also nodded, "Indeed."

"This time may be a little different." Bai Yutang, however, shook his head.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue glanced at each other – Oh?

When everyone returned to the SCI office, they heard two barks before they even entered.

"Dunbu came?" Zhan Zhao looked into the office but did not see Dunbu... Next to the sofa in the SCI lounge, there was a beautiful big golden retriever.

Zhan Zhao remembered, that day in Liu Jin's house, they met a golden retriever called "Barry" that his granddaughter raised.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang nodded.

When everyone walked into the lounge, they saw Ma Xin sitting on the sofa, holding a box of biscuits in her hand, with a chubby little girl sitting beside her, who was Liu Jin's granddaughter.

Zhan Zhao's impression of this little girl was quite lively and cute, but at this moment, she seemed to be in some kind of shock, cowering into the sofa and holding the biscuits that Ma Xin had given her.

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly and looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang whispered, "Liu Jin wasn't walking by himself, he also brought his granddaughter and dog, so the witnesses this time are actually two people and a dog."

Zhan Zhao was surprised, and when he looked at the golden retriever again, he saw that it also seemed to be quite uneasy, and barked twice more.

Zhao Jue stroked his chin and observed the little girl, "She doesn't seem to have any problems, she's just frightened."

At this time, Bai Chi walked in, holding a picture of Yue Hai in his hand.

Bai Chi looked at Zhan Zhao and asked, "She seems to be frightened, is it okay to let her look at the photo now?"

Zhan Zhao frowned and stared at the little girl while asking, "Where is Liu Jin?"

"He's in the next room again, Zhang Long is taking his statement." Bai Chi said, "He happened to be at the bottom of the steps when it happened. His granddaughter was a little behind him, holding the dog. The deceased fell and died at the feet of that little girl, and she hasn't said a word since earlier."

"I remember Liu Jin's sons, one is a pilot and the other is a doctor right?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Mhmm!" Bai Chi nodded, "Her name is Liu Xing, her father is the doctor."

"Doctor of which department?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Er..." Bai Chi thought for a moment, "Emergency room doctor."

Zhan Zhao frowned for a long time and shook his head, "It wasn't the corpse that scared her."

Bai Yutang looked at Yue Hai's photo, "Is he the murderer?"

Zhan Zhao signalled for Bai Chi to go over and show her the photo.

Bai Chi walked over to Liu Xing and squatted down to show her the photo, asking as he did so, "Xing Xing, did you see this person earlier?"

Xing Xing stared at the photo for a moment and shook her head.

Bai Chi looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao said to Zhao Hu behind him, "Go get that mask."

Zhao Hu was slightly stunned, "That Grim Reaper mask?"

Bai Yutang nodded at him, and Zhao Hu ran to Gongsun's forensic office to fetch that mask.

He had just reached the office door with the mask when he saw Liu Xing suddenly burrow into Ma Xin's arms.

Both Ma Xin and Bai Chi asked, "Was he the one who pushed that man down?"

Xing Xing nodded, and not only did the little girl react, even Barry barked furiously at the mask.

Zhao Hu hurriedly retreated with the mask.

Soon, Barry stopped barking.

Bai Yutang frowned slightly and looked at Zhan Zhao.

At this moment, both Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue were stroking their chins, both of them had similar expressions, as if they had discovered something interesting.

Bai Yutang withdrew a step and said to Zhao Hu, "Put on the mask and walk in front of Liu Jin."

Zhao Hu looked at the mask with a disgusted face, but he still put it on and walked into the next room.

Almost simultaneously, the crowd heard Liu Jin's shouts, "It's him! It's him! The murderer!"

Zhao Hu rushed out and took off the mask, spreading his hands to the crowd – What's the situation?

"Is it the same as Lan Qi not being able to see G's fake hand?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Could it be that Liu Jin was also hypnotised by G?"

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and shook his head, "Hmm... this time is different, different ah different."

Zhao Jue also seemed to be quite excited, wagging his finger and asking Zhan Zhao, "When was it that he developed one-half deficiency?"

"About fifteen years ago." Zhan Zhao replied.

"A miracle!" Zhao Jue became excited, "It's no wonder he got one-half deficiency! Simply a miracle!"

Zhan Zhao also nodded, "Indeed."

The rest of the SCI crowd looked at each other in disbelief.

Bai Yutang was a little powerless, waving his hand at Zhan Zhao, which meant – Speak Chinese!

Zhan Zhao said, "It wasn't G who hypnotised Liu Jin, but someone else. Liu Jin, like Lan Qi, was originally doomed to die, but unexpectedly became a survivor!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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 21, 2024 by Angel

Edited: April 10, 2024 by Angel