S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 63

Misplaced of the Three Murderers 10 – Project

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang come to the special patient prison to see Zhou Chen, a juvenile delinquent from thirty years ago.

When they first met, Zhou Chen ignored the crowd and walked away, until Zhan Zhao called out "Zhou Anming".

Zhou Anming was the name of Zhou Chen's father, the biologist who, according to Zhou Chen's confession, was pushed into the river and drowned.

Zhou Chen stopped and turned back, sizing up Zhan Zhao.

Thirty years had passed, and the once juvenile delinquent had turned into a slightly vicissitudinous middle-aged man. Zhou Chen's aura was gloomy, and his eyes were filled with an unspeakable cunning. At first glance, he was a very difficult character to deal with.

"Zhou Chen," Shi Wen waved at Zhou Chen, "these two officers would like to ask you..."

Before Shi Wen finished speaking, Zhan Zhao gently waved his hand, interrupting him.

Pointing to the tables and chairs on the side, Zhan Zhao gestured to Zhou Chen – Come sit down and talk.

Zhou Chen didn't move, but his gaze followed Zhan Zhao, who had walked to the table and sat down on his own.

Bai Yutang did not sit down with Zhan Zhao, but stood to the side, observing the surroundings. The alarm had suddenly gone off just now, and according to Shi Wen, a prisoner had escaped.

In this world, no matter which prison, there was no bigger mess than a prisoner escaping. The coincidence that their first visit to the prison happened to coincide with an escape was very unnatural. Observing prison director Shi Wen's behaviour at this time, he was more nervous about the meeting between Zhan Zhao and Zhou Chen than the escaped prisoner. There was something fishy here at first glance.

Bai Yutang deduced that when Shi Wen came just now, he deliberately gave his secretary a cryptic message, such as, "Here comes a distinguished guest, make some first-rate tea," or something like that, to be able to interrupt them from asking about Zhou Chen.

Unlike Shi Wen's anxiety, the prison guard named Wu Lei was holding a walkie-talkie and asking about the situation outside, curious about which prisoner had escaped.

But the prison guard outside did not answer.

Wu Lei knocked on the walkie-talkie, confused as to why the person on the other end of the walkie-talkie wasn't there. Or was the device broken?

Bai Yutang glanced at his cell phone, and there was no longer a signal.

All signs indicated that this would not be a smooth meeting.

Bai Yutang remained vigilant.

Zhan Zhao's attention, on the other hand, was entirely on Zhou Chen.

Walking over to the table and sitting down, Zhan Zhao picked up a rose that had been cut.

This was a modified rose, thornless, multi-headed, with layers of forks on a single branch and nearly thirty buds at the end, which were wrapped in paper like a bouquet. The petals were bi-coloured, with two variations of orange, one darker and one lighter.

Zhan Zhao picked up the flower and looked at it against the sunlight. The colour of the flower was like the afterglow of the setting sun, like a Van Gogh painting, intense and wild.

Zhan Zhao looked through the gaps in the flower branches to Zhou Chen who was also looking at him not far away, and opened his mouth to say, "The same principle."

Zhou Chen's eyes changed a little when he heard these words.

"Misplaced person..."

As Zhan Zhao uttered those two words, a look of surprise appeared on Zhou Chen's face, while at the same time, Director Shi Wen took two steps backwards, seemingly wanting to slip out.

But before he could act, Bai Yutang had already blocked his path.

"The misplaced are the opposite of the inheritors. The inheritors all have defects, and the misplaced all have enhancements. The inheritors have a relative equilibrium, and the misplaced are just wild growths. Just like this bouquet of flowers, which is clearly just one flower but has grown into a tree. From plants to insects to mammals... experiments are conducted this way.

Saying this, Zhan Zhao looked back at Shi Wen, "I finally understand why he wanted to kill everyone in this prison back then... because he found out what this place really is, realised that he was the raw material for the experiment, and realised what you guys were trying to do... is that right?"

At this moment, Director Shi Wen's face was ashen, but the door was blocked by Bai Yutang, so he couldn't run away.

The prison guard Wu Lei heard Zhan Zhao's words and asked after him, "He? That doctor?"

Zhan Zhao looked at Wu Lei, "You think it's strange too don't you?"

Wu Lei nodded.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and gave him an "I don't understand" expression.

Zhan Zhao was not in a hurry and explained to Bai Yutang, "A few years ago, I came here to handle a case. You know about this, right?"

Bai Yutang nodded. That case was quite famous, and at that time, after Zhan Zhao completed his mission, he recommended Ma Han to him.

"This special hospital previously housed an anaesthesiologist, a doctor known as Doctor Death. He had previously used his position to kill over a dozen patients that he thought deserved to die and was eventually caught, identified as a psychopath, and imprisoned here." Zhan Zhao recalled the crime at the time rather patiently, as the details of the case were remembered quite accurately with his excellent memory. "After the doctor was incarcerated, one day, he suddenly took advantage of being unwell to go to the infirmary for a checkup, killed a prison doctor, and then used the medication in the infirmary to mix three bottles of medicine. The first bottle, he injected into the body of Wu Lei, a prison guard who was still a rookie at the time. This dose of anaesthetic made Wu Lei lose his self-control and turn into a puppet that followed his command. The other two bottles of the medicine, divided into bottles A and B, were separated into two fragile glass jars. The doctor swapped clothes with Wu Lei and hid the two glass jars in the two left and right pockets respectively. Then Wu Lei, wearing a prison uniform, kidnapped the doctor, who was wearing a guard uniform, and went to the roof of that small building across the street."

The crowd followed the direction of Zhan Zhao's finger and looked towards a building not far away.

"At that time of the day, most of the prisoners were in that building doing carpentry and receiving re-education." Zhan Zhao continued, "The prison authorities called the police, and Bao Sir had me present at the scene as well, with snipers in position."

Wu Lei just stood by and listened, nodding his head and saying, "At that time, although I was not under my own control, I could think. At that moment, I thought, it's over! I will definitely be shot in the head... As a result, that sniper took a shot and burst the doctor's head. At that time a lot of people ran towards me, but Dr. Zhan told everyone to stay away, then told me to stay still as well, to keep my posture and carefully touch the pockets of the doctor's coat, and then I felt the two bottles."

"If bottles A and B mixed, a chemical reaction would occur and a large amount of poisonous gas would be produced. The toxicity is extraordinary and the scope of harm is also very large, no matter what, no one in this entire building could have survived." Zhan Zhao finished and gently wiggled his fingers, "Then the question arises, why did the doctor do that?"

Bai Yutang frowned. It was indeed unnecessary, if the doctor wanted to escape the prison, he could disguise himself as the prison doctor he killed and escape with the assistance of Wu Lei, the prison guard under his control. If he wanted to kill the people in the building, he didn't have to go through the method of disguising himself as being held hostage, he could have just mixed the two bottles of medicine and released the gas unbeknownst to anyone... Why did he have to create a riot and also run to the roof of the building?

"Why did the doctor do that?" Zhan Zhao provided his own answer, "Because he didn't just want to kill the inmates and staff here... he also had someone specific he wanted to kill."

After saying that, Zhan Zhao turned back to look at Zhou Chen.

Zhan Zhao reached out, pointing at a spot on that building, "There are many spots to stand upstairs, why did he choose to stand at that corner?"

Zhou Chen also glanced in the direction of the roof of the building.

"Because you can see here... from there." Wu Lei suddenly looked like he understood something, in a state of sudden realisation.

"He was making sure that the people he was going to kill were all within the 'effective range'!" Bai Yutang glanced at Zhou Chen.

Wu Lei suddenly turned his head to look at Shi Wen.

Shi Wen hurriedly waved his hand, "Aiya! Dr Zhan's imagination is too rich..."

Zhan Zhao interrupted him and asked Wu Lei, "As the prison guard of this prison, do you think that there is some kind of secret hidden here?"

Wu Lei nodded, "The prison guards in this prison are divided into day and night shifts, and they never work opposite shifts, the guards on the day shift are forbidden to come here at night. I've been working for a few years, and I've never crossed paths with my colleagues on the night shift. In addition..."

Wu Lei nodded to Zhan Zhao, "Doctor, I think what you said about the doctor's situation is reasonable. Zhou Chen has always been held in solitary confinement, except for the visitors and a few special staff members, the other inmates are not allowed to have access to him. The prison's explanation has always been that the roses he cultivates are the prison's main source of income and that he is a very special prisoner, so he has to be held in special custody. I remember when I was holding the doctor hostage, he indeed kept turning his head to look in this direction, I just never would have thought of this at the time."

"So what secrets are you hiding in this prison?" Bai Yutang asked Shi Wen.

Shi Wen suddenly snatched the walkie-talkie from Wu Lei's hand as he quickly ran to Zhou Chen's side, shouting into the walkie-talkie as he did so, "Orange alert... orange..."

Just as he had just shouted two sentences, Zhao Hu's voice came from the other end of the walkie-talkie, "Orange what orange, reporting the weather ah!"

"Captain, are you guys alright?" Ma Han's voice also came, "Support has arrived."

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, and almost simultaneously, the sound of a helicopter came from overhead.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang raised their heads and saw a police helicopter stationed overhead. The cabin door was open, and Bao Sir poked half of his body out to look downwards.

Zhan Zhao waved above while asking Bai Yutang, "Did Ma Han and Zhao Hu call for backup?"

Bai Yutang couldn't figure it out either, "Perhaps the two of them found something out there?"

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, narrowed his eyes and shook his head, "It should be that someone alerted them."

Not long after, the iron door behind Bai Yutang slowly opened.

Ma Han came in with the SWAT team members and was relieved to see that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were fine.

SWAT team leader Xiao Fei had just received a call from Bao Sir, he thought that there was a mass escape or something going on in the special prison and was so scared that he brought a vehicle of loaded SWAT officers as he rushed over. But the prison was obviously operating normally, except for a guard at the entrance who was knocked unconscious.

Zhan Zhao told Xiao Fei to search all the prison staff, register all the day shift guards and doctors, and arrest all the night shift ones, including Director Shi Wen.

Xiao Fei seems to be in a bit of a dilemma – What are the charges?

At this time, Xiao Fei's walkie-talkie rang.

Just now, they got out of the vehicle and split into two teams, one followed Ma Han and they came to find Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, and the other, led by the vice-captain, followed Zhao Hu and went to check the basement following the map that Ma Han drew.

Xiao Fei received a report from the vice-captain, saying that the basement was nothing short of a horror lab and that someone was conducting illegal biological experiments there. There was also a small command room underground, and it was that command room that did the job of cutting off the cell phone signal just now. There were also weapons and a lot of dangerous drugs hidden.

Xiao Fei asked Zhan Zhao suspiciously, "What exactly is this place?"

Bai Yutang and Ma Han also felt that explaining this to Xiao Fei seemed a bit difficult.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and asked the SWAT team members who were full of doubts, "Have you seen Resident Evil?"

Xiao Fei and the team members all nodded.

Zhan Zhao succinctly pointed to the ground under his feet, "This is similar to the Umbrella Corporation's hive."

Xiao Fei let out a cold breath, "Are there zombies?"

Zhan Zhao waved his hand, "A low-end version, low-end! There are only perverts, no zombies."

Ma Han took two steps forward and whispered to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Just now, Zhao Jue contacted us and said that this is base number three."

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Sure enough."

Bai Yutang understood why Ma Han and the others had called for backup in time, and at the same time, Captain Bai looked at Zhan Zhao – How did Zhao Jue know so much about our actions? Is it possible that he is monitoring?

Zhan Zhao also tapped his chin with his cell phone... guessing that there was.

At this time, Bao Sir arrived with the rest of SCI.

Gongsun, Ma Xin and Xiatian's forensic team brought photographic equipment and were ready to visit this experimental base that they stumbled upon.

Bai Yutang told Luo Tian and the others to bring Zhou Chen back to the SCI office first.

Receiving the manually printed topographical map Ma Han made handed over by Zhao Hu, Zhan Zhao took a good look at it and checked on Ma Han's condition.

Zhan Zhao said to Ma Han, "Zhao Jue is probably using you as storage, he should have stored quite a lot of things in there."

Ma Han was somewhat helpless, "There's nothing bad hidden in there, is there?"

Zhao Hu took a flashlight and shone it in Ma Han's ear.

The crowd walked out of the prison and watched Zhou Chen being escorted away in the car, all feeling that there were too many questions that needed to be solved by Zhan Zhao.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "So is he actually Zhou Chen, or Zhou Anming?"

"Both." Zhan Zhao said, gesturing for them to follow the drawings and visit the underground lab first, talking as they went.

......

Previously, when Zhao Hu first saw this prison, he felt that it would be suitable for a horror film. When the crowd walked through the intricate corridors, found the entrance to the basement, and walked into the basement, it was as if they were in a real horror film.

The basement was mainly narrow corridors, which were dimly lit and smelled of a mixture of disinfectant, mould and rusty stench.

The polished concrete floors and yellowed walls, one room after another with hospital beds, dissecting tables, and some laboratories with all kinds of instruments, were styled like a retro-style horror game, and it felt as if a mutated monster would emerge from any corner at any moment.

"It's much less high-tech than the Umbrella Company's hive." Zhao Hu expressed his disappointment, "There's no clones or Red Queen."

"Because there's no danger of leaking the virus here." Zhan Zhao walked into an office, found some paperwork and handed it to Gongsun.

Gongsun flipped through them and had Ma Xin and Xiatian take all the documents and computers back to the SCI office to study.

By the time the crowd finished visiting the underground lab, the people from the police department's forensics department had also arrived.

The SCI crowd wrapped up and headed back to the police station. However, as the car drove back, everyone except Zhan Zhao was in a daze, none of them knowing exactly what had happened.

Bai Yutang reminded Zhan Zhao, "Zhou Anming and Zhou Chen."

"Then let's start with that case from thirty years ago." Zhan Zhao said, "It was a rather vicious, yet rather simple murder case, wasn't it?"

Everyone nodded.

Zhan Zhao first summarised the case, "Zhou Chen went swimming with his twin brother Zhou Guang and a few friends, which resulted in Zhou Guang drowning. After Zhou Chen returned home, he called himself Zhou Guang and gained Zhou Guang's behavioural capabilities. Originally, he was only able to score fifty in maths but was then able to score a hundred just like Zhou Guang. Zhou Chen has scars on his arms from the burns he suffered as a child, so he was indeed Zhou Chen, and the one who died was Zhou Guang. Afterwards, Zhou Chen killed his classmates who he went swimming with as well as his own mother and was arrested and imprisoned, where he explained that his father had long since been pushed into the river by him and drowned. His father, Zhou Anming, was a biologist. No one knew what he was working on, and his colleagues who worked on the same project as him all died in various accidents before he was killed. The case was closed, and Zhou Chen was put in a special prison, where he's been serving his sentence ever since."

Everyone nodded – That was the process.

"First of all, is this person Zhou Chen?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Based on the injuries on his arm, he indeed is." Bai Yutang had also observed Zhou Chen just now, and he did have a large burn scar on his arm.

"It takes time for burn scars to form, it's not something that can be faked at will." Gongsun also felt that the body was indeed Zhou Chen's.

"Then is he Zhou Guang?" Zhan Zhao then asked.

"Er..." The crowd didn't react. Why did Zhan Zhao ask this? It was already confirmed that it was Zhou Chen, how could it still be Zhou Guang?

"How can a person who can only score fifty points in maths suddenly score a hundred? How can a lactose intolerant person drink a bottle of milk every night?"

Zhan Zhao asked two questions, and everyone fell into deep thought, how was it possible?

"I'll ask it in a different way, can a person who can score a hundred in maths only score fifty? A person who has no problem with lactose digestion, will he gain the inability to drink milk?"

After Zhan Zhao's question, Bai Yutang frowned, "Are you saying that Zhou Chen's fifty in maths was intentional, and his inability to drink milk was also faked?"

"Further," Zhan Zhao didn't answer either and continued with his question, "how does a person who didn't even graduate from high school have a rich knowledge of biology with the ability of a biologist to improve plant genes and cultivate new roses after he went to prison?"

"Self-taught?" Zhao Hu asked.

Zhan Zhao was amused, "How did he learn? He's in prison."

"Erm..."

Zhan Zhao pointed at himself, "I had already finished university when I was sixteen."

Everyone was stunned.

"So Zhou Chen possessed the knowledge and ability in this area early on?" Bai Yutang was surprised, "Didn't they say that Zhou Chen was mischievous and got poor grades? Could he be a genius in disguise?"

"Disguised genius or possessed by a ghost, which is a bit more reasonable?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Everyone frowned... indeed...

"Why did he do that?" Zhao Hu was curious, "And why did he kill so many people in quick succession after going to the reservoir?"

"That's a good question, just how many people did Zhou Chen kill?" Zhan Zhao then asked.

"Zhou Guang, four of his classmates, his mom and his dad." Zhao Hu replied, "Seven people."

"Is there any difference among the seven dead?"

"Only his dad doesn't have a body." Ma Han said, "The others were all killed in blood, only his dad seems different."

"If he only killed Zhou Anming and not the others, and he didn't confess the crime himself, could the police have caught him?"

"There's no murder without a body." Bai Yutang shook his head, "It's difficult."

"What about Zhou Anming's colleagues who died accidentally?" Zhan Zhao asked, "One accidental death is understandable, two is barely acceptable, three is suspicious and four must be problematic. All of Zhou Anming's colleagues died!"

"Like another serial murder case." Bai Yutang seemed to have understood the direction of Zhan Zhao's induction, "Zhou Chen used brutal, efficient and undisguised methods to kill those other than his father. Whereas killing Zhou Anming was meticulous and left no trace... If the deaths of those colleagues of Zhou Anming were also related to him..."

"Then he has the ability to carry out crimes with precision!" Ma Han and Zhao Hu also understood the meaning, "That's very strange. He can obviously plan meticulous crimes to evade the law, why would he so simply and brutally go about killing people to get himself caught?"

"Because both abilities, he possesses them." Zhan Zhao smiled, "He can be a crude butcher or a highly intelligent criminal."

"So..." Bai Yutang also followed Zhan Zhao's rhythm at this time, "he can be Zhou Chen, or Zhou Guang or Zhou Anming?"

Everyone suddenly understood what Zhan Zhao had said earlier about plants, insects, and mammals...

Zhou Chen's situation seemed to be the same as the multi-headed rose he cultivated, and the mysterious insect that some unknown person had sent to SCI.

"We never knew what the research project of Zhou Anming, the biologist, was." As the car pulled into the police station parking lot, Zhan Zhao gave his conclusion before getting out of the car, "Perhaps Zhou Chen is his research project."

‿︵‿︵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: February 26, 2024 by Angel

Edited: May 30, 2024 by Angel