S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 57

Misplaced of the Three Murderers 04 – Investors

---

Fei Mu, the supervisor of the economic division, loaned his office's sacred animal, an Old English Sheepdog "Mwah Mwah", to SCI to help, and after learning about the case, Fei Mu suddenly ran down the stairs.

About five minutes later, Fei Mu ran up again, holding a thick stack of information.

Placing the information on the table, Fei Mu asked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "T. Biotech, ever heard of it?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded.

On the side, Gongsun, who was sitting and reading the information, also raised his head and asked, "The biotech company that suddenly went bankrupt due to the theft of dangerous drugs before? The stock plummeted when the news of the theft was released, and I just heard Jintang talk about it a few days ago. The owner seems to have jumped off a building, he wasn't even thirty yet."

"I also saw it on the news." Bai Chi also came over, "The news didn't specifically say what kind of dangerous drug it was, and it caused a lot of speculation during that time."

Fei Mu introduced to the crowd, "The one who jumped off the building is the founder of this technology company, Stephen."

"A foreigner?" Bai Chi wondered, "Looking at the news, he looked Asian."

"His real name is Xu Tianming."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "I think I've heard this name before..."

"He's a graduate of X University, this kid has a super high IQ and received the highest scholarship every year."

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao remembered, "There was indeed such a student, when I was teaching at X University, I heard people talk about him."

"These kinds of high-achieving students rely on funding from others to start their own businesses; simply put, he puts up the brainpower and investors put up the financial resources." Fei Mu drew out a piece of information and said, "What caught our attention is actually not Stephen himself, but his investors."

Fei Mu spoke as he flipped through the information and drew out a photo to place on the desk.

In the photo was an old man with a head of grey hair, who was estimated to be in his fifties or sixties and was wearing a pair of glasses, which gave him a well-mannered appearance.

Zhan Zhao picked up the photo and looked at it, asking, "Who is it?"

Fei Mu: "Xia Rui."

"The missing billionaire?" Bai Chi asked, "I've seen his case in the database."

"Xia Rui disappeared half a month ago when he went on an expedition to the jungles of South America, and his whereabouts are still unknown." Fei Mu said, taking out a few more documents, "There are rumours that he has already died or has been kidnapped, but in my opinion, it's more likely that he fled in fear of his crime."

"You guys have been investigating him for a long time?" Zhan Zhao flipped through the documents and asked Fei Mu, "What has he done?"

"He appears to be just an ordinary businessman on the surface." Fei Mu said, "It seems that he is particularly interested in biotech companies and has invested in several biological research institutes. But the strange thing is that none of these institutes have existed for more than three years, and every time, accidents happen. The technical backbone disappears, the research products are stolen, or the person in charge accidentally dies or commits suicide. It's similar to what happened to Stephen."

"How many cases are there in total?" Bai Yutang asked.

"So far, four companies have been investigated, and the time span is around ten years, in which Xia Rui has invested almost a hundred million US dollars."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "That's a large amount of money, so what kind of things has he researched and developed?"

"The most amazing thing is that there is nothing." Fei Mu shook his head, "Neither has he developed any medicines nor declared any research projects."

"You mean he invested a hundred million for nothing?" Gongsun frowned, "Then what was stolen?"

"It's said that it involves trade secrets, and there's no record of it." Fei Mu spread his hands, "The direction of our investigation, in the beginning, was to suspect Fei Mu of money laundering, but the more we looked into it, the more we realised that this old man was more like an ingrate who invested blindly."

Bai Yutang put down the documents and asked, "So he invested money in something, but couldn't find out what it was? Because the research results were stolen in the end?"

"That's right." Fei Mu said, pulling out a few more photos, "These are some photos of his house."

The crowd gathered around to look at the photos and saw that this rich man was engaged in some kind of strange insect culture worship. They saw that in his mansion, there were decorations with "insect" elements everywhere, as well as all kinds of insect specimens.

"Huo!" Zhao Hu looked at it with a look of disgust, "Won't you have nightmares living in this mansion?"

"Do you think he is related to our case?" Zhan Zhao asked Fei Mu.

"It's not just the bugs, there's something else." Fei Mu pulled out a form, "We checked his financial transactions, besides investing in those companies, he also purchased special services many times."

"Special services?"

"Here." Fei Mu pointed to a few rows in the table, "Purchased drone photography services from Sky Technology many times at a high price."

"Have you investigated what he photographed?" Bai Yutang asked.

Fei Mu nodded, "We couldn't find any relevant filming information. We went to this company and enquired about it, but the user profiles are all confidential. I also consulted other companies that do drone photography, and the price was only a tenth of this one."

"This is indeed quite suspicious." Zhan Zhao nodded after reading all the information, "Eighty-ninety percent kind of suspicious!"

While everyone was chatting, Bai Jintang walked in from outside the office.

Brother Bai was holding a wooden box in his hand, which looked like it should be a bottle of wine. He entered and handed it to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang accepted the wine with some confusion, looking at his older brother.

"Dad was looking for this vintage wine before." Bai Jintang lightly said, then reached out and pulled Gongsun, pointing to the wall clock, "It's dinner time."

With that, he was about to pull Gongsun away.

Zhan Zhao picked up Xia Rui's photo on the desk and handed it to Bai Jintang, "Brother, do you know him? Xia Rui!"

Bai Jintang took the photo and glanced at it, frowned slightly, and after taking a closer look, asked, "What did you say his name was?"

"Xia Rui." Bai Yutang repeated.

Bai Jintang raised his head in confusion and looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Isn't his name Zhang Rui?"

Everyone froze and then looked at Fei Mu together.

Fei Mu shook his head vigorously, "No no no! Xia Rui! A missing person case was filed, his surname is Xia."

Bai Jintang indifferently put down the photo, "Then maybe I remembered it wrong, after all, it was many years ago..."

"How many years ago is many years ago?" Zhan Zhao keenly sensed that there should be some article inside.

Bai Jintang thought for a moment, "Ten... eleven or twelve years ago, I met him at a banquet abroad."

"You still remember after so many years?" Gongsun asked Bai Jintang, "You two had an exchange at that time?"

Bai Jintang nodded, "That banquet was organised by a university to find funding for some projects. This person was a bit weird, he came over and introduced himself as Zhang Rui, asking about things."

Gongsun was a bit concerned, "What did he ask you?"

Bai Jintang said, "He said he had seen me before."

Gongsun narrowed his eyes, "So cliché?"

The crowd was also a bit surprised to hear this. Zhao Hu secretly poked Ma Han and asked in a low voice, "Someone dared to take the initiative to strike up a conversation with Big Brother Bai ah?"

"He wasn't striking up a conversation, it was more like a routine." Bai Jintang said nonchalantly, "He said that he had seen me somewhere before, that I was with a man with long hair, and that the man was proficient in psychology..."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "He was talking about Zhao Jue?

Bai Jintang, "It indeed sounded like it from his description, so I was more wary."

"Did he fund any projects?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Jintang thought for a moment, "Some biological projects, I guess, I didn't pay too much attention, but speaking of which..."

Bai Jintang took that photo and looked at it for a while, "He also looked like this ten years ago."

Zhan Zhao asked for the name of the university again, and had Jiang Ping look it up... It wasn't too difficult, and he quickly found those schools and project sponsors from more than ten years ago. As it turned out, there wasn't any problem with Brother Bai's memory, there was indeed an investor named Zhang Rui among the investors back then, and after Jiang Ping investigated, Zhang Rui's photo also appeared, which was almost exactly the same as Xia Rui's.

"There are two identities?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Maybe more than that." Jiang Ping tapped the computer and began to investigate the mysterious tycoon, "Back then, Zhang Rui was also a tycoon who disappeared in the jungles of South America, and some of the projects he invested in were also related to biotechnology, and as a result, all of them went bankrupt... The project leaders either died accidentally or committed suicide. "

"He probably changed his identity to protect himself." Fei Mu frowned, "It's the same old trick this time, maybe he'll change it to Zhao Qian Sun Li or something Rui and continue his research."

"What exactly is he researching?" Zhan Zhao was getting more and more curious the more he thought about it. He fished out his cell phone to take a picture of Xia Rui and sent it to Zhao Jue.

About half a minute later, Zhao Jue sent a text message back.

Zhan Zhao stared at the text message for a long time, his brows furrowed.

Zhao Jue had sent a question mark over and didn't seem to recognise the person in the photo.

To make sure he didn't get the wrong idea, Zhan Zhao asked again, "Don't you recognise this person?"

Zhao Jue replied, "Never seen him before."

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang also frowned, it was unexpected.

Fei Mu was naturally confused, and when he saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang starting to make eye contact, he asked, "Do you guys want to investigate the case together? I still have quite a lot of information on my side."

Zhan Zhao nodded and told Bai Chi to go downstairs with Fei Mu to get the information.

Not long after, Bai Chi brought up a cardboard box.

Gongsun stroked his arms and rolled up his sleeves, "I don't believe I can't find out what exactly he is investing in the research and development of, let me see..."

However, just before he finished speaking, he was dragged away by Bai Jintang to eat.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Could he be the one who hired the drone to steal the bug specimens?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Mhmm! I think it's possible."

......

In a certain small hotel in Manaus, which was located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, Zhao Jue put down his cell phone and sat on a rocking chair, lost in thought.

At that moment, the door to the room opened and Bai Ye walked in. He seemed to have been outdoors for the past few days and had tanned a lot.

"Did you find them?" Zhao Jue asked.

"He was seen at a nearby restaurant yesterday." Bai Ye replied, "I set up surveillance, as long as he shows up, he won't be able to escape."

Zhao Jue picked up his cell phone and showed Bai Ye the picture that Zhan Zhao had sent.

Bai Ye looked at Zhao Jue suspiciously, "How do they know we're here to catch him?"

"They probably don’t know, but by some sort of coincidence, I guess, we found the same person." Zhao Jue smiled with a bit of helplessness, "It really is predestined."

Bai Ye took out his laptop and started monitoring, asking Zhao Jue as he did so, "Are you sure he'll show up?"

Zhao Jue gently rocked twice in his rocking chair, "Just like a snake moulting its skin, once every twelve years, of course it will return to the safety of its nest."

At that moment, Bai Ye's mobile phone rang.

Bai Ye pulled it out and looked at it, frowning, "Someone's coming to make trouble."

This obviously didn't exceed Zhao Jue's expectations either, as he continued to whisper nonchalantly, "Taking advantage of your illness to kill you, that's the attitude the bad guys should have..."

Bai Ye raised his head and saw Zhao Jue smilingly as he stared at the two lines of conversation with Zhan Zhao on his cell phone. The corners of his mouth were slightly hooked up, and the two faint nasolabial folds outlined a slightly cunning curve.

......

In the SCI office, everyone was busy preparing for tonight's action.

Zhan Zhao sat on the swivel chair, leaning against the back of the chair and staring at the cell phone in his hand.

After Bai Yutang finished reporting the action plan to Bao Zheng, he walked back carrying a bag of dog food and tugged on the back of the chair as he passed behind Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao leaned back and saw Bai Yutang staring down at him.

Noticing that what Zhan Zhao was looking at was the statement that Zhao Jue had sent him on his cell phone, Bai Yutang smiled.

Zhan Zhao sat up straight and asked him, "You think it's a bit strange too?"

Bai Yutang nodded.

"What's strange?" Gongsun, who had come back after eating and was trying to read the information, noticed the conversation over there.

"Zhao Jue actually answered so dryly that he doesn't know him." Zhan Zhao shook his head, "There's something wrong with this tone and he's not curious about this person's identity at all, it's a bit abnormal."

"Speaking of which, he left in quite a hurry this time." Xiao Bai Chi, who was reading the information together with Gongsun, seemed to remember something and said with less certainty, "Zhen said that before he left he took a big bottle of anti-mosquito spray along with him, and he seemed to say something about how the Amazon is full of bugs."

When Zhan Zhao heard this, he thoughtfully went "Oh~" and muttered to himself, "Such a coincidence..."

‿︵‿︵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: February 19, 2024 by Angel

Edited: May 16, 2024 by Angel