S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 68

Misplaced of the Three Murderers 15 – Crazy Alumni

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In the SCI office, there seemed to be some sort of plan brewing.

Bai Ye, who just returned, found that the amount of information he had and the amount that Zhao Jue had seemed to be unequal. Zhao Jue fell asleep as if he understood everything, but Bai Ye obviously did not understand anything... It was clear that the two of them came back together.

He wanted to ask Bai Yutang about it, but Bai Yutang imitated Zhan Zhao's tone of voice, and as soon as he opened his mouth, Bai Ye "resigned".

Eventually, Bai Ye's gaze fell on the whiteboard across the room. The side that was originally filled with photographs had been turned over by Bai Yutang, and on this side, several complex patterns had been drawn with a marker.

These drawings were the invisible patterns hidden in the "skin" from the previous case, and Bai Ye, like Bai Yutang, felt uncomfortable after looking at them.

Instinctively turning his face away from those patterns, Bai Ye turned around and saw Zhao Jue looking at him.

The two of them looked at each other, neither saying anything.

After half a minute of this stalemate, there was a ding sound. The elevator door outside the office opened, and Chen Yin walked out with Zhao Qin.

Chen Yin complained as soon as he entered, "I say, the way you guys find me could be a little gentler. The principal came straight to my classroom and said the police are looking for me, rumours are going to be flying all over the place tomorrow!"

Zhan Zhao shook his cell phone, which meant – We called you, but you didn't answer.

Chen Yin was helpless, he walked in and found a chair to sit down, asking, "Why are you looking for me?"

Zhan Zhao first signalled for him to look at the insect corpse on the table.

Chen Yin and Zhao Qin both exclaimed as soon as they saw that the insect was dead.

"How could it die!"

"What a pity!"

Zhan Zhao stretched out two fingers, indicating that there were two things, "Firstly, the bug didn't die naturally, it was designed to die."

Zhao Qin was puzzled, "Why murder a bug?"

Zhan Zhao felt that this was a good question to ask, so he nodded, observing Chen Yin in passing.

Chen Yin seemed to have something on his mind, he was frowning as he looked at the dead insect.

"Second," Zhan Zhao continued, "this is not the original one, it was switched."

With one sentence from Zhan Zhao, Zhao Qin was stunned, reacting in much the same way as the others did when they heard about this – Why would it be switched? Aren't all the bugs the same?

On the other hand, Chen Yin's face changed as if he had received some sort of shock. He held onto his chair and sat down, muttering to himself under his breath, "Was there more than one?"

When Zhan Zhao heard this, there was an undetectable rise in his eyebrows, as if he had already anticipated Chen Yin's reaction.

Bai Yutang also noticed Chen Yin's condition, so he asked him, "Do you know something?"

Chen Yin frowned, "Actually, the first time I saw this bug..."

"You said that someone wanted to destroy the world or something, right?" Bai Chi was also curious, "Wasn't it a joke?"

"I do hope it was a joke." Chen Yin sighed softly, "To be exact, I've had this idea since I saw someone stealing these insects..."

Everyone nodded. Indeed, the trigger for everything was the stealing of the insect specimens, but it was Zhang Rui who hired someone at a high price to steal the bugs, so what was the connection between the two?

"Insects..." Gongsun asked the confusion in his heart, "How are insects going to destroy the world? Is it a sci-fi film?"

The crowd began to think of various types of films in which insects destroyed the world... for example, alien bugs invading the earth, locusts wreaking havoc and eating up all the food, or parasites creating zombies out of human beings... But in general, they were all artistic exaggerations that were not real.

"This is something that started when I was in college." Chen Yin told the crowd about an experience he had when he was in school.

"At that time, I was working part-time at a nature museum after school, mainly in specimen restoration and such. The nature museum where I worked was divided into three pavilions, the prehistoric and animal pavilions had more tourists, while the insect pavilion had relatively fewer people. One night, I worked overtime until midnight, and when I went back, I found that the insectarium was lit up in the darkness in the distance. I originally walked over to take a look just out of curiosity, but I ended up running into that person."

Chen Yin paused slightly, "I only know that his surname is Qian, he has the nickname Crazy Qian, and he graduated from our school."

"Crazy in what way?" Gongsun was curious.

"Firstly, he's obsessed with insects but is not an entomologist. Secondly, he always talks about destroying the world and keeps saying that he can cultivate a bug that can destroy the world."

With this introduction from Chen Yin, the crowd felt that although they had never met him, his words and actions were, indeed, a bit crazy.

"The scene of my first encounter with him that day at the insectarium really shook me, so much so that I still remember it clearly after so many years." Chen Yin recalled the scene, "When I walked in, there were so many bugs flying around in the insectarium. There was also a dark-skinned, unshaven middle-aged man, dressed in khaki-coloured overalls and wearing a pair of black-framed, prescription glasses, which made his eyes look so incongruously large. He stood in front of a large steel table, which had a dead rat on it, and, with tweezers, he was tinkering with the carcass. A swarm of bugs buzzed around him, of all varieties. He had his head down and a 'heh heh heh heh' laugh was coming out of his mouth. I felt like I'd walked into some kind of horror movie."

The SCI crowd, listening to Chen Yin's description, all felt that he should have turned and run at that time...

"After I walked in, he probably heard my footsteps and raised his head to look at me... At that very moment, I felt that those insects also paused for a moment..." Chen Yin thought about it and was still somewhat afraid, "That kind of atmosphere, it was as if those bugs would come to attack me if he gave the order."

Everyone frowned as they listened – So evil?

"But he seemed to be very excited at that moment, and when he saw me come in, he suddenly shouted at me 'It worked! It worked!'!"

The crowd couldn't help but think, if they were in his place, what would they have chosen at that time?

That person was very weird and the scene was also very frightening, but curiosity would make them choose to walk over and take a look, right?

Of course, these people do not include Bai Yutang. Captain Bai, who had a cleanliness obsession, frowned and felt that at the sight of the "insects", he would have turned around and walked away.

"I walked over and saw that on the table in front of him, in addition to the dead rat, there was a large pile of drawings. That rat felt like a petri dish he was using to incubate insects…" When Chen Yin said this, he saw Bai Yutang's slightly disgusted expression, so he automatically skipped this part, "What he was seriously studying at the time were the drawings. I just took a cursory glance at the drawings, and the drawings depicted an insect with a complicated structure. Although I am not an entomology major, I have still studied insects a little bit... That was an insect that was not 'reasonable' at all and could not exist in nature. But the man was so excited that he danced around and said that it was the most perfect form he could conceive so far! It's the first step to destroying the world!"

The entire SCI staff was rather speechless as they listened, wasn't this really a psychopath?

"I also thought at the time that he might have a bit of a brain problem, so I didn't stay much longer and hurriedly left." Chen Yin said, "Later on, I enquired with my senior who worked with me at the museum, and the senior said that this person is our alumni, known as Crazy Qian, also known as Insect Lunatic, and is indeed not normal."

Chen Yin spread his hands, "The matter happened a long time ago, and I never met that alumni again after that. With the recent theft at the nature museum, I suddenly thought of that 'design' of his, and even though the insect wasn't the same as the one drawn in his design, it felt like the principle was pretty much the same. So I wondered if it could be related to him, but I heard that Crazy Qian was dead."

"How did he die?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"That's unclear."

Chen Yin immediately called and contacted a few of his former classmates, and quickly managed to find out that Crazy Qian's real name was Qian Yumin, and that he had indeed died.

"He passed away due to cancer three years ago."

It's easier with a name, Jiang Ping found Qian Yumin's information, "This person has a lot of criminal records, mostly complaints of harassment, as well as disturbances and petty thefts... There are a lot of petty problems."

"What about psychiatric history?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"He was released every time he committed an offence because there was a certificate from a doctor certifying that he was mentally ill." Jiang Ping quickly read through Qian Yumin's short personal record, "This person has always worked at the Museum of Natural History, with no papers related to anything and no academic achievements."

Bai Yutang asked Ma Han to bring Zhang Rui and show him a picture of Qian Yumin, asking him if he recognised him.

Zhang Rui took one look and shook his head, saying he didn't recognise him.

Zhan Zhao asked him, "Who gave you Lacewing Seven?"

Zhang Rui said he caught it by chance.

Chen Yin didn't believe it, "This isn't a naturally occurring insect at all."

"His memory of this is inaccurate." Zhao Jue spoke at the right time, "It was tampered with."

"Eh?" Zhang Rui looked like he had been dealt a significant blow as he asked Zhao Jue, "Didn't you already help me disarm..."

"What I helped you disarm was just your self-destruct button, who knows how much you've been tampered with previously? Your fondness for insects might have been artificially programmed as well." Zhao Jue said while reaching out to slap the back of Zhang Rui's head.

Zhang Rui covered his head and yelped.

After listening to Chen Yin's account, Bai Yutang felt that the clues he obtained were also limited, so he had to turn around and ask Zhan Zhao, "Cat, what does this have to do with your plan?"

Zhan Zhao nodded to Bai Yutang with a smile. Instead of being disappointed, he was happy and asked Jiang Ping, "Can you find the doctor who gave Qian Yumin his certificate?"

Jiang Ping clicked on a record of the certificate, "It's a doctor from a private clinic with an English name, named Mark Fan."

"Look into this doctor."

Zhan Zhao didn't say anything, but Zhao Jue suddenly stood up and came closer to the computer screen, urging Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping hurriedly looked up this doctor's information and quickly pulled up a bunch of documents...

Zhao Jue reached out and held down the mouse, scrolling the wheel to quickly browse through those documents before finally suddenly stopping on a file and hooking his finger at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao went over to look at it and saw that it was a psychiatric certificate that Mark Fan had given to another patient. Coincidentally, the crowd recognised them – Liu Jin!

"Liu Jin had his earliest one-half deficiency syndrome looked at by him?" Zhan Zhao was surprised.

Zhao Jue nodded, excitement appearing in his eyes.

"Look for a picture of this doctor."

Jiang Ping immediately started searching and quickly found a photo that was published in a psychological magazine, which was in an article that introduced Doctor Mark.

Although his name was English, his appearance was that of an Asian. He was a middle-aged uncle with an ordinary appearance, and based on the year of the magazine, he was estimated to be in his fifties now.

"Huh?" Bai Chi looked at the picture, "Have I seen this person before..."

Everyone turned back to look at him.

Bai Chi thought for a moment and ran to his desk to go through some documents before eventually finding a photo, confirming it, and running over to show it to the crowd.

What Bai Chi found was the only group photo with Zhou Anming in it that they had found during their investigation of Zhou Anming.

Bai Chi pointed to a person in the group photo and said, "Is it the same person?"

Jiang Ping pulled up the photo to compare, and the result was that through the computer's confirmation, although there was a difference in age, it was indeed the same person!

"This Mark Fan is Zhou Anming's former colleague?"

"Wait!"

Jiang Ping, who continued to go through the information, exclaimed, "This Mark Fan also has a statement retained by the police department."

"The police investigated him?"

"This transcript was recorded by the economic section, didn't Fei Mu and the others investigate Xia Rui's disappearance at that time?" Jiang Ping printed the document, "At that time, there was an investigation into Xia Rui's health. Xia Rui had been visiting Mark Fan's private clinic, so the police approached Mark Fan to ask him about it, and he came to the police station."

Zhan Zhao and the others all turned to look at Zhang Rui, who was standing on the side with a confused expression on his face – Xia Rui was Zhang Rui's alias, he had invested in many biological experiments over the years, and it was him who collected the insects and who sent the insect to Zhan Zhao...

"Is that man your psychiatrist?" Bai Ye asked Zhang Rui.

Zhang Rui was dumbfounded and shook his head vigorously, "When have I ever seen a psychiatrist? Never!"

Bai Yutang then asked Bai Ye who this Mark Fan was.

Bai Ye turned his face to look at Zhao Jue.

The SCI crowd watched the two men's reactions with surprise, "You two don't know this man? Isn't he a member of the organisation?"

Bai Ye shook his head, "There's no such person..."

"Kitten."

At this time, Zhao Jue tugged on Zhan Zhao with an expression of excitement, "Found it!"

Zhan Zhao's expression was similar to Zhao Jue's, also a little excited, and he nodded, "It's him!"

"Who is it?" Bai Yutang and Bai Ye asked together.

Zhan Zhao spoke, "Didn't I say it last night? There are over ten billion rats on earth..."

Bai Yutang and Bai Ye looked at the sky together and rolled their eyes.

Zhao Jue tilted his head in thought and gave Zhan Zhao a pat on the back, "This analogy is good! Simple and easy to understand."

Everyone else wanted to hold their jaws – This is called simple and easy to understand?

On the side, Chen Yin spoke out to correct him, "Over ten billion is only a projected number, there are no exact statistics on how many rats there really are."

Zhao Hu felt like his head was going to explode, why did they suddenly start talking about rats?

Zhan Zhao grabbed the car keys from the desk and threw them to Bai Yutang, "I'll explain to you guys on the way, let's go find this doctor first!"

‿︵‿︵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: March 2, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 6, 2024 by Angel