S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 78

Countdown from the Murderer 08 – Flower Vine J

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File TS-2075.

All files that begin with TS have been placed on hold. Usually, these cases are special, but they have been placed on hold due to the sudden death of the suspect or a sudden interruption of the case.

File 2075 is known as the "Flower Vine J" case.

The graphic symbol "Flower Vine J" is the signature of a deceased painter. His original name was Paul J, and his career was divided into two phases.

In the first stage, Paul's painting style was quite refined and neat, and although his level was not low, he had no special features. His works could only be used as decorative paintings, which did not fetch a high price.

In the first stage, Paul was a rather ordinary decorative painter who lived a comfortable life and ran a gallery.

The turning point in Paul's creative career occurred when he was thirty-two years old, when he suffered a serious heart attack. Although the medical staff tried their best to save his life, he fell into a coma.

When Paul's family thought he might become a vegetable, Paul miraculously woke up after nearly six months in a coma.

This should have been a very good thing. After the medical miracle, the young painter was discharged from the hospital and restarted his life.

But no one expected... that after waking up from a coma, Paul was no longer the original Paul.

The originally disciplined painter had a sudden change in painting style. He began to draw a large number of works in a strange style. His signature also changed from the original ordinary floral J to a J made up of flowers and vines.

After the change of style, Paul's paintings began to be favoured by major collectors, the price also rose, and his reputation became more and more famous.

After an auction house fetched a high price for one of his paintings, he recorded an interview for a television programme.

This was Paul's only television interview.

In this interview, the host compared Paul's works before and after his coma, and asked him if it was this coma that changed his style of painting, as well as... what those bizarre works of his were actually depicting.

The answer Paul gave was astounding.

He said that during the time he was in a coma, he actually travelled to another world, a world where a higher level of civilisation exists, and where he met the gods.

Throughout the entire episode, Paul spoke eloquently about what he had seen in the other world, and said that he had glimpsed the true nature of the universe as well as mankind.

This episode caused quite a stir when it aired. At the time, many people said that he was crazy, others said that what he might have experienced was a near-death experience that produced hallucinations, and others said that he was a liar who was just trying to sell his paintings. Of course, there were quite a few people, especially some conspiracy theorists and those who believe in mysticism, who believed that he was telling the truth.

But generally speaking, controversy and naysayers are helpful in terms of the value of an art collection, and Paul's fame grew in the collecting world, with many people bidding high prices for his paintings.

In addition, the most mind-boggling thing was that Paul's paintings seemed to have some kind of appeal. Many collectors would continuously chase after his works, claiming that his works were like maps of the otherworld and that the more they collected, the more they would be able to understand the otherworldly situation.

Originally, this series of events was only considered to be in the realm of art creation and art investment, and there wasn't much of a problem.

But what happened later became a big problem.

The people who collected Paul's artwork started to act strange.

The police investigated several murders in a row, where the perpetrators had brutally murdered their lovers with little reason. And as the police investigated these murders, they discovered a shocking coincidence – these murderers all had a collection of Paul's works in their homes, and they, themselves, had an unnatural admiration for Paul's paintings and for the otherworldly.

As more and more similar cases occurred, the "Flower Vine J" paintings became known as "death paintings".

At that time, some psychologists suggested that Paul might have implanted some kind of psychological suggestion in his paintings, and it was this kind of suggestion that caused people to develop a creepy sense of fear when viewing the paintings, thus increasing the mystery of the paintings.

In the end, Paul was sued, his paintings were removed from major galleries and auction houses, and most of the "Flower Vine J" works were destroyed.

Early one morning after his indictment, Paul's maid found him dead in his home from a drug overdose.

The case that shocked the art world ended with Paul's death, and the works of "Flower Vine J" disappeared from the public eye due to a boycott by the art world. But it was also because of this incident that "Flower Vine J" works were given sensational connotations such as evil worship and mysterious power, and circulated in the black market. There were buyers who would secretly purchase his paintings, and of course, some imitations appeared on the market.

Interestingly enough, the imitations, no matter how well they were painted, couldn't cause any damage.

Since Paul lived in the last century, the "Flower Vine J" was basically an urban legend that belonged to the art world, and almost all of Paul's works that could be found now were imitation paintings.

Zhan Zhao read the file of "Flower Vine J" like a novel, and after reading it, he took the folder and slammed the desk, "There is no reason! It's too much!"

After saying that, he picked up the phone on the desk to make a call.

The rest of SCI looked at Zhan Zhao's reaction curiously.

Zhan Zhao called Bao Sir and protested when he got through, "This is a typical case of psychological suggestion! Why have I never seen this file before?"

On the other end of the phone, Bao Sir seemed to be eating an apple, crunching and chewing for a while before replying, "Aren't you not high enough in rank?"

Zhan Zhao drew a breath of cold air, "I..."

"Or is your skill level not sufficient?"

Bao Sir's verbal attack stuck two knives straight into his vitals. Zhan Zhao opened his mouth with a shocked face, and just as he was about to retort a couple of sentences, on the other end, Bao Sir continued to nibble on the apple, "Hurry up and solve the case!" After saying that, he hung up.

The phone was hung up with a click. Zhan Zhao raised his hand to smash the phone, but Jiang Ping swooped over and caught it, "Don't hurt my phone!"

Zhan Zhao indignantly looked at Bai Yutang – I'm angry!

Bai Yutang shook his head and pressed the angry Zhan Zhao into a chair beside him, stuffing a slime that Bai Chi used for de-stressing into his hand in the process, and he himself walked towards the door.

At the doorway, Gongsun had already walked over with a photo and handed it to Bai Yutang, saying, "Just now, Ma Xin went to take a photo of Wang Meiyun, and she also had this 'Flower Vine J' tattoo on her arm.

"Did she say what kind of tattoo it was?" Bai Yutang asked.

Gongsun shook his head, "She won't say anything right now."

Bai Yutang stared at the photo and frowned while showing Gongsun that file 2075.

Gongsun took it and flipped through it, but at the same time, he heard a strange crunching sound coming from the office.

Gongsun raised his head to look into the office and saw Zhan Zhao sitting on the swivel chair, a large piece of slime in his hand, which he pinched until it crunched.

Gongsun pushed up his glasses and asked Bai Yutang, "What's wrong? Are you under that much pressure?"

Bai Yutang waved his hand while asking Gongsun, "Zhao Jue went to see Brother?"

"Mhmm." Gongsun looked at the information and nodded, "He said that he took him to a grave. By the way, your brother said that we would have dinner together this evening. Also... in a few days, the Bai Group is going to have an event, the twins are asking if it's been safe lately and if there are any perverts out in the neighbourhood."

Bai Yutang was slightly stunned, "What kind of activity is being organised"

Gongsun finished reading the information and felt that it wasn't in his area of research and wasn't interested, so he returned it to Bai Yutang and replied, "A film festival!"

Bai Yutang couldn't help but repeat, "Film festival?"

"Mhmm." Gongsun nodded.

"That means his company's group of disaster stars are all going to attend?" Bai Yutang felt that his older brother might have felt a little puffed up because the organisation had been destroyed. He had an accident with a dinner party, yet he dared to stage a film festival...

"When exactly?" Bai Yutang was a little worried.

"It's been planned for quite a long time. According to the plan, it's two weeks from now." Gongsun also felt that the timing seemed to be a bit subtle.

Bai Yutang then felt that it wasn't right, "Isn't two weeks... exactly the time limit set by the pharmacist?"

......

As they were chatting, the elevator doors opened with a ding.

Chen Jiayi and Jiang Nan walked out with a young girl who looked like a college student. Chen Jiayi waved at Bai Yutang and ran over in a couple of steps. After catching a glimpse of Ma Han in the office, she immediately ran in.

Jiang Nan also greeted Bai Yutang and introduced him, saying that the girl she brought was called Li Linlin, her assistant's best friend. She worked as Wang Meiyun's assistant for three years in the past, and she and Wang Meiyun were cousins, so she was very affectionate and familiar with her.

Li Linlin had an anxious look on her face and asked Bai Yutang, "Captain Bai, how is my cousin's situation now?"

Bai Yutang said that her emotions were quite stable now, but she had bought a murderer, the crime was quite serious.

"Buying... buying a murderer?" Li Linlin was shocked, "She's really crazy! My cousin's bumped into evil!"

Bai Yutang commented – Bumping into evil probably couldn't be used as a reason to reduce her sentence for her.

"Really!" Li Linlin, however, seemed to be adamant about this statement, "My cousin wasn't like this before! It's all because after she bought that painting, she's gone all out of whack..."

After Bai Yutang heard "painting", he signalled for Li Linlin to wait for a moment, and asked Bai Chi to take her and Jiang Nan to the questioning room together.

Turning back, Bai Yutang whistled to Zhan Zhao, who was still sitting on the swivel chair and looking at the pictures while pinching the slime.

Zhan Zhao raised his head, and Bai Yutang hooked his finger at him, signalling – Let's go!

Zhan Zhao put his things down and ran out.

The two of them went out together and prepared to go to the interrogation room when they saw the elevator doors open again and Luo Tian and Qin Ou walked out.

After SCI brought the criminals back just now, Wang Meiyun, who wasn't much of a threat, was placed in the interrogation room. On the other hand, the murderer whose name wasn't even known yet was sensed to be very dangerous, so he was first arranged to be placed in the room used for detention.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou were responsible for escorting him, but in the end, something almost happened just before they arrived at the detention room.

That person suddenly attacked the police officer escorting him before entering the room, and that police officer's nose was made to bleed by his elbow. Fortunately, the one escorting him was Luo Tian, so he was able to hold him down, otherwise he may have actually escaped.

"That kid is probably a professional killer." When they exited the elevator, Qin Ou and Luo Tian were chatting.

Bai Yutang asked if the man spoke. Luo Tian and Qin Ou both shook their heads. He hadn't said a word until now, and he always had a smile on his face, looking especially nervous.

"He's very strong, his movements must have been professionally trained." Luo Tian felt that this person might have a criminal record, and said that it would be best to have Jiang Ping check it out.

Bai Yutang nodded and turned around to enter the interrogation room with Zhan Zhao, ready to listen to what this cousin who insisted that Wang Meiyun had "bumped into evil " had to say first.

......

Seeing Chen Jiayi come, Ma Xin ran out of the forensic room next door.

Ma Xin was quite nosy and came over to inquire from Jiayi, "I saw Wang Meiyun before, I didn't think she was so crazy, what's going on?"

Chen Jiayi slightly mysteriously said, "In fact, Wang Meiyun is not the first!"

Ma Xin was surprised. Ma Han also heard it and asked, "Not the first?"

"No!" Chen Jiayi nodded, "Her older sister committed suicide after killing her lover, but her older sister was not very famous and her family asked for a low-profile treatment, so the company later said to the public that she had retired and emigrated."

"Ooh, is this contagious?" Zhao Hu naturally wanted to join in when he saw that there was a lively scene, and asked curiously, "Is her older sister also a mistress?"

"No! Her older sister killed her own serious fiancé. The two were a perfect match, so I don't know what kind of problem she was having." Chen Jiayi took the milk tea given by Bai Chi and shook her head as she drank it, "It's said that it's all related to a painting!"

‿︵‿︵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 10, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 27, 2024 by Angel