S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 83

Countdown from the Murderer 13 – Dreamland

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The crowd never expected the progress of the investigation to turn around. There was nothing at Wang Meiyun's house, but at Li Feng's house, they accidentally collected two paintings.

Bai Yutang asked the landlord what happened.

The landlord looked very frustrated and helplessly told the crowd what happened.

About half a month ago, because of the many complaints against Li Feng, he informed Li Feng that he decided not to renew his lease and asked him to find a place and move.

At that time, Li Feng didn't argue with him and hung up after hearing that.

He originally thought that things were over, but who would have thought that a few days later, he suddenly received a few photos sent to him by Li Feng.

It turned out that all the landlord's properties were owned by his wife's family, which meant that he was married to a rich woman.

At the same time, he secretly kept a mistress outside. If his wife knew about it, he would definitely be swept out of the house and his source of income would be cut off.

Li Feng had photographed all the scummy things he had done, how could the landlord dare to evict him? So he negotiated with him and wanted to buy the photos he had in his hand.

Li Feng didn't ask for his money, but handed him a paper bag and said that he should help him hide these two things, and that he couldn't tell anyone about them, not even a single word about them.

The landlord reluctantly agreed. Li Feng said he had to do something recently and asked him to help keep the paintings for a period of time, but also repeatedly urged that he was not allowed to look at the paintings inside, and was not even allowed to open the kraft paper packaging. When he was done, he would quickly move out, and the landlord would not have to worry about the photos, which he would delete.

The landlord had no choice but to agree, but the police suddenly came to his door today. He was a little worried, he suspected that Li Feng might have smuggled some artwork or something like that, and he was afraid of being implicated.

Bai Yutang asked him if there was anything else he hadn't said. If he hides anything else, he'll be charged with obstructing an investigation.

The landlord swore to God that there was nothing else! He really didn't know anything.

Zhao Hu also asked the young girl at the cash register just now, but she didn't notice too much. There were basically no clues.

But getting two paintings was the biggest clue.

Bai Yutang called the people from the forensics department to collect all the information from Li Feng's house, as well as the two computers.

Of course, considering that his residence had already been rummaged through, there probably wasn't much that was useful.

Returning to the car with the two paintings, Bai Yutang was kinda curious and asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat, how did you know that Li Feng asked the landlord to help store the paintings?"

Zhan Zhao said, "Looking at the room, I suspect that the two paintings might not have been stolen, which means that Li Feng hid them. That landlord didn't even come to collect the utility bills himself, if he just opened the door, he could have asked the young girl downstairs to do it for him. He ran here on his own, he just wanted to see what we were investigating, right? Li Feng attracted the police, as a landlord, he should be very dissatisfied with the tenant. He could have followed us in to see what was going once he opened the door, but he didn't come in and just waited at the door, feeling quite wary of Li Feng."

Zhan Zhao waved his hand as he said, "All the details combined, I felt that the landlord might have some kind of handle on Li Feng, and considering Li Feng's professional speciality, he scared him a bit. And also..."

Zhan Zhao suddenly whispered somewhat peevishly, "Isn't that uncle's head bald? But I found that he has two clip marks on both sides of his head, there's a sunburnt line at that location on his hairline, and the top of his head is especially white! That means that he wears a wig! But why didn't he wear it when he met us?"

The corners of Bai Yutang's mouth moved slightly.

Zhao Hu, who was listening to Zhan Zhao's analysis in the car behind him, had already burst out laughing.

Zhan Zhao winked, "Think about it, what's the point of pretending to be pretty at his age?! There must be someone outside!"

Bai Yutang shook his head helplessly, this cat's skin is its skin, the key is that the skin is cute! (Angel: I'm pretty sure that this, 猫皮归皮, is a play on the idiom 羊質虎皮, sheep quality and tiger skin, which means it looks like a tiger, but it is still a sheep. He is saying that Zhan Zhao is a cat inside and out.)

......

By the time the crowd returned to the SCI office, it was already dark.

Bai Jintang had already taken Gongsun and left with his family member first. Luo Tian, Qin Ou and the rest of them were still at the office, and were packing up their things.

Jiang Ping had just investigated the surveillance of Wang Meiyun's neighbourhood according to Bai Yutang's request, and said that the surveillance hadn't captured anything.

Bai Yutang couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

Zhan Zhao asked, "Has it been edited?

Jiang Ping shook his head, "It's a little more clever than editing, it was overwritten. Because there are a lot of cameras in that neighbourhood, a hacker hacked the surveillance system and overwrote all the footage from that time period with previous footage."

"Can it be recovered?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"It depends." Jiang Ping replied, "On my side, I first need to find out which time period was overwritten before restoring the content. If the monitoring was not switched off during that time period, the footage can be restored! If it was switched off, then there will only be a black screen, but we can still learn the time of the crime."

Zhan Zhao asked him how long it would take.

Jiang Ping said it should be done after dinner.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both thought it would be good to know the time of the crime. It was unexpectedly smooth this time!

Bai Yutang also asked Luo Tian how that Qian Fu was doing.

Luo Tian was quite helpless, "He's in the holding cell. Qin Ou and I asked him just now and he just played dumb, then he asked us to protect him, saying that the lizard people are trying to kill him."

Zhao Hu was a little disgusted, "This kid has a lot of money. If he thinks he's in danger, he should hire two bodyguards for himself ah, there’s no good reason for wanting the police to protect him. And the lizard people..."

At this time, a cell phone rang. Gongsun called to rush them, asking where they were and saying that if there was anything to do, it wouldn't be too late to do it after dinner.

Zhan Zhao said that they would come right away.

Bai Yutang was about to head out, but Zhan Zhao looked at the two paintings on the desk and asked, "Are these two paintings staying here?"

Everyone else subconsciously turned back and looked at the glass door – Although SCI's door can be locked, from past experience, it's not necessarily safe...

Bai Yutang picked up the paintings, "Then we'll put them in a safer place."

Everyone asked him, "Where should we put them?"

"The evidence room."

Hu Zi simply hummed and shook his head, seemingly not agreeing with him.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "It doesn't feel too reliable."

Bai Yutang asked, "Then where should we hide them? This is evidence and can't be hidden at home."

"It's not safe to hide it at home either!" Ma Han felt that he had to learn from past mistakes. It's not unheard of for evidence to be stolen, and this time, the people were able to transfer the paintings from Wang Meiyun's house without anyone realising it, so who knows if they'll go to the police station. If something goes wrong, it'll be bad!

Bai Yutang asked, "What should we do then?"

"Find a safer place to put them than the evidence room!" Zhan Zhao said.

"Where?" Everyone looked at him.

As Zhan Zhao was mulling it over, he heard the elevator door at the entrance open with a ding and Bao Sir walked in.

Seeing everyone still in the office, Bao Zheng frowned, "Why are you all still here? Didn't you say you were going to eat? I won't give you a raise even if you don't eat!"

Everyone groaned.

Zhan Zhao thought about it and asked, "Bao Sir, you're not going to the gathering?"

Bao Sir said that he had just finished eating in the canteen and he still had some documents to read, so he wasn't going.

Once Zhan Zhao heard that, he handed over the two paintings, "Then help us look after these!"

Bao Zheng looked at the kraft paper bag in disbelief and asked, "What are they..."

"Paintings! Help look after them, just put them where you can see them. They're important evidence, we'll come and get them after dinner!"

Bao Sir did not care much, he reached out and took them, waving his hand to the crowd, "Hurry up and go eat."

After saying that, he took the paintings and went upstairs.

Bai Yutang and the others closed the office door and went out to eat together.

......

Because SCI still had an active case on their hands, everyone was just having a normal dinner gathering.

Da Ding and Xiao Ding simply reserved a private room in Bai Group's newly opened hot pot restaurant, and the group of people got together to eat hot pot.

Zhao Jue also came, and brought a few fruit pancakes. Zhan Zhao and Zhao Zhen shared them, exclaiming that they were delicious. The others were glad that Zhao Jue did not bring one for everyone... and thanked Master Zhao for not killing them!

Bai Ye didn't come, he supposedly had an upset stomach.

Bai Yutang still thought that he should call to complain about that shop!

......

While the crowd was lively, the police building was rather quiet.

Bao Zheng was in his office looking at a file. The road outside was probably jammed with traffic, and it seemed a bit noisy at this point.

Bao Sir put down the document, poured a glass of water, and walked to the window of the building with it. Looking at the streets of traffic below, he suddenly became a little emotional – After so many years, it was surprising that things were really coming to an end. And, even after everything is over, it doesn't seem like anything particularly big will change... Time is really the most powerful existence.

While drinking his water, Bao Sir suddenly noticed the kraft paper bag that was placed on the sofa.

Zhan Zhao was mysterious while giving instructions. This was probably some important evidence, right?

Putting down the glass, Bao Sir went over, untied the rope on the kraft paper bag, and opened it.

The inner and outer layers were wrapped very carefully.

After opening it, there was a large and a small painting.

Bao Sir placed both paintings on the sofa, stood in front of the sofa to "appreciate" them for a while, and couldn't help shaking his head – What ugly paintings!

After drinking the water, Bao Zheng went back to continue reading the documents.

After reading for a while, he unconsciously raised his head again, looked at the two paintings, and once again spat – Really ugly!

Then continued reading the documents.

......

Time passed little by little.

When he finished reading the last document, Bao Sir stood up and moved his muscles, then looked at his watch, it was already half past seven.

Estimating that Zhan Zhao and the others would be back soon, Bao Sir walked to the sofa, picked up the two paintings and put them aside. He sat down on the sofa to read magazines and waited for Zhan Zhao and the others to come back...

After reading for a while, he felt a little sleepy...

......

Around eight o'clock in the evening, the SCI crowd finished their meal and returned to the police station together.

After eating a full meal, they were naturally refreshed, and would continue to investigate the case during the evening.

Jiang Ping went to look at the computer. The video recovery was almost done, there were about ten minutes left.

Jiang Ping rubbed his hands together, hoping that it wouldn't be a black screen after recovery.

Bai Yutang considered whether to interrogate Wang Meiyun in the evening, and waited for the video to be recovered before making a decision.

Zhan Zhao had those two paintings on his mind, so he put down his things and went upstairs to get them.

Bai Yutang went up with him, and just as the two of them entered the elevator, they saw someone follow them in.

Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue somewhat speechlessly, "Aren't you busy with whatever you're doing? Why are you still here?"

Zhao Jue was unhappy, "I'm going to find Xiao Black!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other and both looked at him – Were you kicked out by Bai Ye?

Zhao Jue seemed to have been stabbed in his sore spot. He snorted and muttered, "He's the one who doesn't know how to enjoy good food!"

Zhan Zhao agreed with this, "That pancake..."

Zhao Jue immediately resonated, "Delicious, isn't it?!"

Bai Yutang ignored the two who were enthusiastically discussing dark cuisine, and when the elevator doors opened, he stepped out, ready to grab the paintings and head downstairs.

However, when he walked to the door of the office, he saw that the door was open and the lights were on, but Bao Sir wasn't there.

Next to the sofa, there were two paintings. The kraft paper bag had been unwrapped and was placed on the table.

Zhan Zhao also walked in and asked, "Where is Bao Sir?"

Bai Yutang shook his head. His car keys and phone were still on the coffee table, and his suit jacket was on the sofa.

"He probably went to the washroom." Bai Yutang said.

"I told him not to leave the paintings!" Zhan Zhao was quite dissatisfied. The paintings were casually left like this without anybody around, it would have been better to just leave it in the SCI office.

Zhan Zhao went to pick up the paintings, while Zhao Jue leaned against the doorway, staring at the two paintings.

At this time, a person came over from the other end of the hallway.

Zhao Jue raised his head and saw that it was Bao Zheng walking straight over.

Raising his hand, he was about to say hello, but Bao Zheng didn't seem to see him and walked past him.

Zhao Jue turned his head back in some confusion and stared at Bao Zheng's back.

"Bao Sir."

Bai Yutang also saw it and called out.

Zhan Zhao walked out holding the two paintings and together with Bai Yutang, he watched Bao Zheng walk forward until he reached the door of a small room in front of him and opened it...

It was a small room where the cleaners put their cleaning tools.

They saw Bao Zheng open the door and walk in, take out a broom, and then start sweeping the floor of the hallway.

"Bao..."

Bai Yutang wanted to call out again, but Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao reached out at the same time to stop him.

Zhao Jue stared at Bao Zheng for a while longer and asked Zhan Zhao, "What do you think?"

Zhan Zhao held the paintings and voiced his opinion, "Sleepwalking?"

Zhao Jue nodded, clearly in agreement.

Bai Yutang was baffled by what he heard. Even if he was asleep at this time, he wouldn't be sleepwalking, right?

Zhao Jue thought for a moment, then backed a few steps away and signalled for Zhan Zhao to hold up the paintings for him to look at.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took one painting each and held them up for Zhao Jue to see, while keeping an eye on Bao Zheng who was seriously sweeping the floor.

"Heh."

Zhao Jue suddenly let out a laugh and asked the two, "Do you know what these two paintings are about?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both lowered their heads to look at the two paintings, and before they could answer, they heard Zhao Jue give his answer nonchalantly, "Dreams!"

‿︵‿︵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 15, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 11, 2024 by Angel