S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 81

Countdown from the Murderer 11 – Exposure

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived at Wang Meiyun's house with great expectations, wanting to see the painting that can change a person.

But it turns out that all of the "Flower Vine J" paintings owned by Wang Meiyun have been switched.

At the same time, there was a safe hidden under the floorboards of Wang Meiyun's home, which even her close friends didn't know about, and the contents were missing.

While this disappointed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, they also realised that this was not a simple murder case.

The security of the neighbourhood where Wang Meiyun lived was quite strict, and it would have been difficult for her to come and go out unnoticed.

In addition, the three paintings in the room were not stolen but switched and replaced with three fake ones that were hung in their original locations.

From the content of the pictures, it was impossible to tell whether they were real or fake, and it could only be subjectively said that the "feeling" was not right.

It's only been half a day since Wang Meiyun's incident. Her mother had just come to her house the day before to help her clean up and said that the paintings were still in their original state at that time.

In other words, within a day or two, or maybe even just an hour or two, the paintings were moved.

To do this, there would have to be manpower and material resources at least! This was not something that one or two people could handle.

Bai Yutang originally wanted to ask Jiang Ping to help him check the surveillance of the neighbourhood, but before he could make the call, Jiang Ping's call came in.

When he answered the phone, he told him to turn on the TV, saying that something had happened.

Zhan Zhao picked up the remote control on the table and turned on the TV...

The local news was broadcasting an emergency situation live.

On an overpass in downtown S City, a man was preparing to jump off.

Under the bridge was the busiest road in the city, with dense traffic.

The roads above and below the bridge were blocked, and there were many media outlets gathered around, leading to chaos on the streets.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had a closer look at the man sitting on the narrow edge outside the overpass – He looked familiar!

"Isn't this Qian Fu?" Zhan Zhao looked at the man who was almost sitting in mid-air in surprise, it was the rich businessman Qian Fu who had just erupted in a cheating scandal with Wang Meiyun this morning.

"Didn't he go home?" Bai Yutang was a little confused as to where this was going, so he asked Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping told Bai Yutang the general situation.

After Qian Fu was brought to the police station to make a statement, he was allowed to go home.

Qian Fu drove himself from the hotel to the police station. When he was going back, just after his car came out of the garage, the reporters at the entrance caught sight of him and started to follow his car.

As a result, after driving onto the elevated road, Qian Fu's car suddenly went sideways and crashed directly into the guardrail.

He got out of the car, climbed onto the railing of the bridge and jumped to the outside of the bridge.

The reporters all stopped and got out to film it, and of course, someone reported it to the police at the same time.

Under the overpass was the city's main road, which had heavy traffic. The traffic police were afraid that he would suddenly jump down, what if he caused a car accident below? So, they had to close this section of the road for the time being.

Seeing that the evening rush hour was about to start, the road was bound to be congested in a while.

The police had to send a negotiator to persuade him to come down. The fire brigade also arrived, and they were putting an inflatable cushion below the bridge.

The media were having a field day today. When they were about to get off work, instead of ending the show, they started a more explosive one.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both felt puzzled. Qian Fu was not so agitated when he was in the hotel just now, why did he suddenly start going crazy?

"What stimulated him?" Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping said he wasn't sure. The negotiator had just arrived and didn't dare to approach yet for fear of irritating him, he had to wait for the fire brigade's air cushion to fill up.

At the same time, Zhan Zhao's cell phone rang.

Looking at the name "Bao Sir" on the caller ID, Zhan Zhao hesitated to answer it.

Bai Yutang reached over and pressed the answer button, and Bao Zheng's roar immediately came from the phone, "What the hell are you guys doing!"

Without even turning on the speakerphone, his voice was already so loud that even Mother Wang and Li Linlin were shocked.

Zhan Zhao felt quite aggrieved, "What does it have to do with us..."

"He is the one you guys caught and released!" Bao Sir doesn't care about this, "You guys get him down for me! Immediately, right now!"

Bao Sir yelled and hung up the phone.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had no choice but to rush to the overpass to save the man first.

Bai Yutang drove towards the place where the incident was happening, while Zhan Zhao turned on his cell phone to watch the live broadcast. Various private media were broadcasting the situation at the scene of the incident from various angles, and there was also an anchor standing underneath the bridge and narrating the situation.

Zhan Zhao shook his head and said, "These people really don't mind making a spectacle of things."

At this time, the fire brigade's air cushion was ready, but the problem was that under the bridge was a wide road with four lanes in each direction, and the edge Qian Fu was sitting on was long enough for him to walk to where there was no air cushion.

The negotiator who came this time was the head of the police department's negotiation team, Kong Lei, a grey-haired, very elegant aunt. She also had some difficulties when she looked at the scene. Should she talk to him on the bridge, or under the bridge?

You could see him from under the bridge, but then you'd have to shout with a loudspeaker.

You don't need to use a loudspeaker on the bridge, but you can't see his expression, which doesn't make it easy to talk...

In fact, Kong Lei has been eating melons all day today and was aware of Qian Fu's current situation, but the media has been up in arms about his background for a long time. This cheater is a habitual offender, and Wang Meiyun is not his first mistress. Qian Fu is considered a famous scum, it is reasonable to say that his skin should be very thick, so why is the reaction so big this time?

To be on the safe side, Kong Lei first called Zhan Zhao.

Once Zhan Zhao looked at the caller ID on his phone, he breathed a sigh of relief and said to Bai Yutang, "It's Aunt Kong at the scene."

Bai Yutang nodded. Kong Lei was very experienced and should be able to handle it better.

The call was connected.

Kong Lei then asked, "Xiao Zhan ah, will you talk to this man or should I talk to him now?"

"Aunt Kong, how's his mood?"

While Zhan Zhao was talking to Kong Lei, he took Bai Yutang's cell phone and continued to watch the live video feed. From the live feed, Qian Fu's expression wasn't agitated.

Kong Lei observed Qian Fu's expression and his behaviour, and also felt that there was something wrong, "It looks like his expression is overly calm, but his behaviour is not."

At this time, exclamations came from the live broadcast screen. Qian Fu was seen standing up, walking along that narrow stone edge, and walking forward to the next lane, where there was no inflatable cushion.

The group of firefighters hurriedly dragged the air cushion, but Qian Fu did not sit down, and instead, at an unhurried speed, walked over... and walked over...

Zhan Zhao frowned as he noticed that Qian Fu seemed to be observing the media below.

"Xiao Zhan ah," Kong Lei's voice came again, "he looks like he has a desire to communicate."

"Are there firefighters on the bridge?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Kong Lei said that there were, both above and below.

Zhan Zhao then said to have a firefighter on the bridge deliver a loudspeaker to Qian Fu to see if he would accept it.

Soon, a firefighter on the bridge placed a loudspeaker near Qian Fu.

Qian Fu walked over and picked up the speaker.

He looked back and saw that a fireman had also appeared not far from him.

The air cushion under the bridge moved once more, and the two firefighters who were experienced narrowed down the distance Qian Fu could move, keeping him in the position with the air cushion.

Kong Lei also grabbed a loudspeaker, but before she could start communicating with Qian Fu, Qian Fu raised the loudspeaker and shouted to the media below, "Don't fall for it, you guys!"

This statement, however, confused everyone present – Fall for it?

"That person is not Wang Meiyun at all!" Qian Fu continued to shout, "Wang Meiyun has already been killed by them! This Wang Meiyun is a shape-shifter!

Kong Lei held her cell phone and continued to ask Zhan Zhao, "Xiao Zhan ah, did he say shape-shifter or transgender?"

Zhan Zhao held his forehead – This sister is also a godly person, the situation is like this and she's still in the mood to gossip...

By this time, Bai Yutang's car had already driven to the vicinity of the incident.

When the car stopped and Zhan Zhao got out, he heard Qian Fu continue to shout down from the bridge, "This Wang Meiyun is a lizardman transformed! She is a monster! It's because I discovered her secret that she wants to kill me to silence me! She's afraid that I'll expose the organisation behind them! They are aliens! Aliens!"

Bai Yutang stopped the car and reached out to press his eyebrows without wanting to get out.

When Zhan Zhao heard these words, he found them somewhat interesting and quickly ran over to Kong Lei's side.

In the SCI office, the crowd that was watching the live broadcast with milk tea in their hands choked several times when they heard these words from Qian Fu.

At the door of the office, Bai Jintang happened to walk in.

Brother Bai walked over to Gongsun, raised his head to look at the live image on the TV, and asked why the TV was so blurry. Aren't they all 4K or 8K now?

Jiang Ping said that it was a live broadcast on the Internet, and there were a lot of live bloggers on the scene.

Gongsun asked Bai Jintang if he knew Qian Fu.

Bai Jintang nodded, "Qian Fu is a famous playboy with a ton of mistresses, but this person is not stupid."

Everyone felt that Big Brother Bai seemed to have something in his words

Bai Jintang pointed to the image on the TV, "This is a strange and humiliating move. If he was caught cheating, he would be seen as a scumbag, but in this situation, he would be considered a psychopath, right?"

Everyone nodded, Qian Fu was the image of a very scummy psychopath at this point.

Jiang Ping was scrolling through the online comments. Originally, Wang Meiyun's name was the headline today, while Qian Fu was a nobody, with many media outlets not writing his name and instead using "a rich businessman" or "Qian" to refer to him. But now the name "Qian Fu" has already made headlines.

"Aiya, this is a picture of social death." Jiang Ping couldn't help but sympathise with this man, "The whole internet is laughing at his paranoia. Lizard people and other conspiracy theories are just stories, how could he really believe them?"

......

Bai Yutang eventually got out of the car. Qian Fu had been holding a loudspeaker and shouting from the bridge that Wang Meiyun was a lizardman in disguise, that the real Wang Meiyun had been kidnapped by some organisation or was already dead, and that that organisation was going to kill him or something like that...

Captain Bai was overcome with embarrassment.

The captain of the fire brigade took the walkie-talkie and asked Kong Lei if she wanted to keep talking. Or should they kick him down, the air mattress was below and the firefighters were ready above.

Kong Lei looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao said to the fire captain, "No, when he's done shouting, just go over and give him a hand, he'll be very cooperative."

Sure enough, after shouting for a while longer, Qian Fu let out a long breath, looked up and reached out, handing the loudspeaker to one of the firefighters.

Two firefighters then reached out and pulled him up.

The police officers went over and took him away, and the reporters down below immediately dispersed, all of them having to work overtime tonight.

The negotiation team under the bridge was even more baffled. After screwing around for half a day, what exactly was Qian Fu's purpose?

Kong Lei asked Zhan Zhao, "Is he pretending to be crazy on purpose?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, taking out his cell phone and continuing to browse the web.

Sure enough, the video of Qian Fu shouting was edited into a short video that went viral, and it was also made into an emoticon. Netizens began to make fun of him in all kinds of ways...

The drama unexpectedly subsided before the evening rush hour, and the traffic police immediately cleared the road and guided the traffic through.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao also returned to their car.

Bai Yutang was a little puzzled and asked Zhan Zhao, "Qian Fu did this on purpose?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Not long ago, there was a very sensational case of the 'Doomsday Cult' over in the United States. There was a woman who believed in the Doomsday Cult, and as a result, she not only killed one of her sons and one of her daughters but her brother and her ex-husband. A few of her acquaintances around her all died one after another as well. "

Bai Yutang asked, "So? What's the connection to this case?"

"It's not that this incident has anything to do with this case, but it made me understand Qian Fu's purpose for doing this." Zhan Zhao said, "That woman had a very close girlfriend. After the incident, she kept giving interviews. Even if she was insulted by people saying that she was a friend of the devil and used the bloodshed to gain attention, she didn't care, she just wanted to expose herself to the public as much as she could."

After listening, Bai Yutang thought for a moment and understood Zhan Zhao's meaning, "As that woman's friend, she felt that her life was in danger and that exposing herself to the public could better protect her. Although she would get scolded after becoming famous, she would also be safer, because the attention was so high. That cult would have to think about it before they tried to kill her, right?"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, "And what Qian Fu said is actually not unreasonable."

Bai Yutang couldn't laugh or cry, "Which part is reasonable?"

"Didn't we also feel that Wang Meiyun's reasons for wanting to kill him were unfeasible?" Zhan Zhao teased Bai Yutang, "But if it's because he discovered the secret that she's an alien, then an alien wanting to kill him to silence him becomes reasonable!"

Bai Yutang laughed, "It's fine for you to say that to me, but are you planning to go back and say that to Bao Sir as well?"

Zhan Zhao hummed, "I'm not afraid..."

Before he finished speaking, his phone suddenly rang.

The hand Zhan Zhao was holding the phone with instinctively shivered, "Bao Sir didn't install surveillance in the car, right?!"

Just picking up the phone, and the caller ID was – Zhao Jue.

‿︵‿︵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 13, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 27, 2024 by Angel