S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 60

Misplaced of the Three Murderers 07 – Patient

---

It wasn't clear what message Zhan Zhao had picked up from Zhao Jue's English statement, but suddenly, he was talking about investigating some mysterious event.

And when Zhan Zhao asked this question, Bao Zheng, who happened to be present, really remembered a case he had handled before.

Zhan Zhao pulled a chair over for Bao Zheng to sit down and talk slowly, and while the others were busy with the matter at hand, all their attention was focused on this side, listening to Bao Sir tell the "story".

"That case was indeed almost thirty years ago." Bao Sir said, "S City happened to have some other cases at that time, which were quite sensational, so this case was covered over, moreover, it was a juvenile crime, so many people have never heard of it."

"Juvenile crime?" Bai Yutang frowned slightly, "What case?"

"At that time, that case was known as the Zhou Chen case." Bao Zheng sighed, "We were all still young at that time, and we didn't have much experience in handling cases."

"Zhou Chen..." Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao, on the other hand, looked at Bai Chi.

Xiao Bai Chi had read all the case information over the years, and a lot of the information from the old cases handled by Zhao Jue had been burned, so there were very few clues.

But Bai Chi still remembered the name Zhou Chen.

"The juvenile delinquent, right!" Bai Chi told the crowd, "I've read the case record, it's very brief. Zhou Chen had a younger brother named Zhou Guang, and the two were twins. In an accident, Zhou Guang died from drowning. It was later ascertained that he was pushed into the water by Zhou Chen."

Everyone frowned, "He killed his twin brother?"

"Not only that," Bai Chi shook his head slightly helplessly, "he also killed several classmates and his own mother."

The crowd drew a cold breath as they listened, what kind of juvenile delinquent was this ferocious?

"Zhou Chen was only sixteen years old at the time and was classified as a juvenile delinquent. He was eventually identified as a serious psychopath, and is still serving his sentence in a special prison."

Zhan Zhao finished listening and asked Bai Chi, "What does this have to do with the mysterious event?"

Gongsun was also puzzled, "And biological sciences? A nature museum?"

Bai Chi shrugged, "The information was all burnt by Zhao Jue, so there is only a very simple record. And apart from Zhou Chen's ferocity, it didn't feel like he had much skill in committing crimes, so the police quickly grasped the evidence of his killings and caught him in a very solid manner, leaving little doubt in the case."

Everyone turned their faces to look at Bao Zheng.

Bao Zheng shook his head slightly, "This case, in fact, is quite evil."

Everyone looked at Bao Zheng, waiting for him to elaborate.

"This case, it happened not long after I joined the police station. I was at the crime scene where Zhou Chen's brother Zhou Guang died." Bao Zheng frowned, recalling the situation, "I still remember, it was early August and it was a sauna-like day, especially hot. Zhou Guang died at the reservoir. At that time, many students would go swimming at the reservoir in the summer, and drowning cases happened from time to time, so when we received the report, we only investigated it as an ordinary drowning incident. But when I arrived at the reservoir, I felt that the atmosphere was not quite right. There were a total of five students who reported the case. In addition to Zhou Guang's brother, Zhou Chen, there were four other students, two males and two females, all of whom were in the same class and were usually good friends who played together. Usually, when a friend dies, you have to cry, right? Or panic and get emotional, right?"

Everyone nodded.

"But strangely enough, those few students, including Zhou Chen, each stood with a strange look on their faces, with no expression of sadness at all, and they didn't even look at each other or make any sort of eye contact." Bao Zheng seemed to still feel uncomfortable recalling it now, "It wasn't just me who felt it was strange, the few other police officers who were there with me at the time didn't feel it was quite right either. At that time, our captain was more experienced in handling cases, so he told me that the kid probably didn't accidentally drown, but was killed by these kids."

"Did they kill Zhou Guang together?" Bai Chi asked.

On the side, Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin and gently shook his head, asking Bao Zheng, "Bao Sir, you said that those few students didn't make eye contact with each other?"

Bao Zheng nodded.

"Mhmm hmm~" Zhan Zhao hummed meaningfully, "Zhou Guang wasn't killed by them collectively."

"Why do you say that?" Bai Yutang asked.

"It's not the reaction of an accomplice. If they killed him together, then the more typical reaction of accomplices would be to constantly make eye contact with each other." Zhan Zhao sat on the swivel chair and shifted rhythmically, "Not making eye contact with each other is a reaction of fear."

"Fear?"

"Mhmm." Zhan Zhao nodded, "These few students were frightened, and they all wanted to hurry up and end this matter, preferably without any connection to themselves at all."

After hearing what Zhan Zhao said, Bao Jue smiled helplessly, "At that moment, I returned to the police station and told Zhao Jue about the matter. After he heard it, he said pretty much the same thing as you just did."

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Zhao Jue said that the murderer should be one of these five students, most likely Zhou Guang's twin brother Zhou Chen." Bao Zheng continued, "Because as the only relative, he should be the most agitated one, but the fact that he was calm means that he was the most abnormal, so we could focus on investigating this student."

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao, and Zhan Zhao nodded, he also made the same deduction.

"I investigated this student, Zhou Chen, and found that he was extremely suspicious." Bao Zheng said, "Even though they are twin brothers, Zhou Guang was a model student who excelled in both character and academics, with good grades and obedience. Zhou Chen, on the other hand, was a troublemaker with poor grades who often got into trouble and had a bad track record."

Hearing this, the others nodded, while Zhan Zhao shook his head, his face puzzled.

Bao Zheng happened to see this and suddenly laughed, pointing at Zhan Zhao and saying, "At that time, when he heard about the two brothers, Zhao Jue also had this reaction."

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Is there anything wrong?"

Zhan Zhao stopped shaking his head and his expression became serious, "Something isn't right... If this was the case for Zhou Chen, it wouldn't be enough to make others fearful, on the contrary, even if he wasn't the murderer and those four people teamed up to frame him, he'd still be a key object of suspicion because of his usual bad behaviour. That kind of personality wasn't enough to make him so terrifying that those four people were so abnormal. Furthermore, it's also very off for this kind of character to be so calm after his brother's death."

Zhan Zhao shook his head while muttering to himself, "Could I have made a mistake?"

Bao Zheng couldn't laugh or cry, "Zhao Jue also wondered if he had made a mistake and wrongly accused Zhou Chen."

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao somewhat speechlessly.

Zhan Zhao was slightly dissatisfied, "That long-haired spirit and I are just close in our reasoning methods, normal reasoning would lead to this conclusion."

Bao Zheng nodded, "Absolutely, you two are the most normal in the entire police department."

Zhan Zhao's eyes gradually grew dangerous.

Bai Yutang waved his hand between the two and asked Bao Zheng, "Bao Sir, how did the case develop after that?"

"It started to get sinister after that." Bao Zheng said, "At that time, there weren't as many surveillance cameras as there are now, and there were very few clues. Just when I didn't have much of a clue, Zhou Chen's mother came. She said something had happened to her son..."

Zhan Zhao grasped the back of his chair and unconsciously moved towards Bao Zheng, his expression focused. It was obvious that this had aroused his interest.

"Zhou Chen's mother said that the night of Zhou Guang's accident, Zhou Chen suffered from a sleepwalking condition. He slept in Zhou Guang's room and got up at night to drink milk... Zhou Chen was said to have hated the taste of milk so much that he never drank it, but Zhou Guang was bound to drink it every night or he couldn't sleep well. "

Hearing this, everyone was puzzled – What's the situation?

"The next morning, Zhou Chen began to say that he was Zhou Guang. His whole personality changed, he wore Zhou Guang's clothes, and even his own mother thought that this was the younger brother, not the older brother. And after Zhou Chen arrived at school, he took an exam, and the results unexpectedly came out to be Zhou Guang's grades, in the top ten of the whole school. It's important to know that Zhou Chen had always been at the bottom of the list before, and he had never even made it into the top one hundred of the whole school. Moreover, this kind of exam can't be faked, if you can usually only score fifty or sixty, how can you suddenly score a hundred?"

Zhan Zhao was now getting close to Bao Zheng, and asked with narrowed eyes, "Could it be that the dead one is Zhou Chen, and the living one is Zhou Guang? Zhou Guang's intelligence feels more in line with the conditions of a murderer!"

Bao Zheng was about to say, "At that time, Zhao Jue asked the same thing," but then he felt that Zhan Zhao's narrowed eyes didn't look like Zhao Jue's, but rather like Luban's...

Holding back his laughter, Bao Sir shook his head, "Zhou Chen's mother said that Zhou Chen had burnt himself as a child because he was so active and naughty, and had a large burn scar on his left arm, which Zhou Guang didn't have, and that this son of hers who had survived had a scar on his arm. I also checked it out, and upon looking at it, it was a trace left behind from a burn many years ago, it was simply impossible to fake it."

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and hesitated, "Split personality?"

"It's possible." Bai Chi said, "Isn't there often this kind of plot in films and television dramas? Maybe the younger brother died, and the older brother produced the younger brother's personality because of guilt..."

Before Bai Chi finished, a slight disgust appeared on Zhan Zhao's face, "Those are all made up by the scriptwriters, the majority of split personality cases are created when one is violated, and the personality is formed slowly, it's not like personalities just split themselves up."

At this time, Zhao Hu silently reached out his hand, indicating that he had an immature idea...

Everyone looked at him.

Hu Zi clicked his tongue, "It doesn't sound like a split, but rather like a ghost possession."

The others hesitated for a moment and also nodded, ready to accept Zhan Zhao's tirade.

But who knew that Zhan Zhao would also nod, "It does have a bit of a ghost possession vibe to it."

Bao Zheng reached out to touch the back of his neck, and Zhan Zhao suddenly pointed at him, "Did you say it was a ghost possession back then as well, and then got laughed at by Zhao Jue?"

Bao Sir was embarrassed and waved his hand, "Ai, let's be serious."

"Then how did it develop after that?" Bai Yutang, being the only serious person, brought the topic back to the case.

"At that time, it just so happened that there was a very sensational murder case in S City, so the police resources were all deployed to investigate that case. Since there was no evidence that Zhou Guang was murdered, this case could only be closed as an accident. But within a few days, tragedy struck." Bao Zheng said, and kinda blamed himself, "Actually, at that time, Zhao Jue had warned me that there was something strange about Zhou Chen and that I should pay attention to this kid... It was also my negligence."

"Just three days after that, the few students who were at the reservoir at the time other than Zhou Chen all died, and they were all murdered." Bao Zheng sighed, "From the shoe prints and fingerprints left at the crime scene, as well as the witnesses, everything pointed to the murderer being Zhou Chen. When we went to his house to arrest him, he happened to kill his mother. There was so much blood on the floor at that time. How could he still look like a student, he is a perverted murderer in his own right."

"So afterwards, Zhou Chen was identified as a serious psychopath?" Bai Yutang asked.

Bao Zheng nodded, "He was put in a special prison. At that time I asked him whether he was Zhou Chen or Zhou Guang, and he just smiled at me. That smile, I still remember it even now, it was like..."

Bao Zheng seemed to be trying to search for adjectives, "How can I say it... like the smile of a bad guy who has succeeded in his plot. In short, looking at it made me particularly angry!"

"Didn't Zhao Jue go to see him?" Zhan Zhao suddenly asked.

"Of course he went." Bao Zheng shook his head, "Zhao Jue was very interested in Zhou Chen. He went to see him several times and even made some notes. As for what exactly they talked about, I don't know, but Zhao Jue asked me to find out where Zhou Chen's father was at that time."

"Right." Everyone asked, "His biological mother died, so where did his biological father go?"

"His father's name is Zhou Anming." When Bao Zheng said this, he looked at Zhan Zhao in front of him and paused for a moment.

Zhan Zhao stared at the change in Bao Zheng's expression and asked, "A biologist?"

Bao Zheng nodded helplessly, "Mhmm!"

Zhan Zhao gestured at the computer for Jiang Ping, who knew that Zhan Zhao wanted to look into this Zhou Anming's details.

"Didn't Zhou Chen say where his father was?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Zhou Chen said that his dad is dead."

"What?"

"He said he pushed his dad into the river." Bao Zheng crossed his arms, shook his head and sighed, "We sent people to recover his body at that time, but the river flows through to the ocean, how could we fish it out? There was no news of his dad, he just disappeared into thin air, and because there was no body, it was just characterised as a disappearance."

"At that time, I asked Zhao Jue what he thought of this case, and whether he thought there were a lot of doubts." Bao Zheng finally wrapped up the story he was telling, "Zhao Jue said, this is not a case, this is a mystery, the kind that can be classified as an urban legend, a mysterious event!"

"Urban legend..." Zhan Zhao muttered after his swivel chair moved over to Bai Chi, "Chi Chi, find out what the top ten urban legends are."

Bai Chi was a little awkward, "This... it's different everywhere, isn't it, and so many of them are ghost stories."

"Look for it, give me a list of all of them." It wasn't clear what Zhan Zhao wanted to check. When he finished, he stood up and asked Bao Zheng, "Bao Sir, is Zhou Chen still alive?"

Bao Zheng thought for a moment, "I haven't heard that he's died, why don't we call and ask?"

Jiang Ping called and inquired with the special prison. Upon checking, Zhou Chen was indeed still alive. He had been in a prison for the severely mentally ill for the past thirty years and was still there.

Zhan Zhao grabbed his jacket and beckoned to Bai Yutang, signalling in high spirits – Let's go see him!

‿︵‿︵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 23, 2024 by Angel

Edited: May 30, 2024 by Angel