S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 101

Countdown from the Murderer 31 – Safe

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both taken aback when they saw the case, the investigative direction of which was gradually becoming clear, suddenly take a turn for the worse.

Dong Yuan, the boss of Wang Meiyun's company, was found dead in the company's parking garage.

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt somewhat regretful, not only because Dong Yuan might have held crucial clues to the case, but more importantly, they felt he died somewhat unjustly.

If he hadn't insisted on driving to meet them late at night but instead visited during the day, perhaps he wouldn't have met such a fate. After all, SCI's office wasn't far from here, even reachable by foot during the daytime...

Zhan Zhao handed Dong Yuan's phone to Jiang Ping for investigation, to see if there were any clues.

The result revealed that Dong Yuan's phone was filled with photos of artworks – It turned out he also had a hobby of collecting art pieces.

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived at Dong Yuan's office, they indeed saw a telescope by the window.

Bai Yutang leaned over for a look, feeling somewhat speechless. The telescope was indeed aimed at the Bai Group’s building, but his older brother's office windows were all one-way, so nothing inside could be seen.

After going through Dong Yuan's desk, they found only business-related documents and nothing suspicious.

The security guard contacted Dong Yuan's secretary, Secretary Zhang.

Secretary Zhang was basically Boss Dong's right-hand man, having followed him for over a decade. Upon hearing the news of his boss's death, he seemed genuinely unable to accept it, appearing genuinely saddened rather than putting on a show.

Bai Yutang asked him to calm down a bit, then started with some simple questions, such as whether Dong Yuan had been acting unusual recently or if he had any enemies.

Secretary Zhang sighed slightly, "Well, if we're talking about enemies, in business, there are inevitably a few competitors. But Boss actually had a good personality, and was very polite to people. If he didn't like something about someone, he'd just talk behind their back, never confront them."

Xiao Ding agreed with this, Dong Yuan was quite good at handling people.

"As for anything unusual..." Secretary Zhang frowned, "things did get increasingly strange after Wang Meiyun's incident... If you think about it, the blow to the company from her incident wasn't as significant as when Jiang Nan left for Bai Group. Boss was just as unsettled back then."

"After Wang Meiyun's incident, did he mention anything?" Zhan Zhao asked Secretary Zhang to be specific.

Secretary Zhang pondered for a moment, then said, "The strange thing was, initially, he didn't seem to care much. I remember the photos were first posted by reporters on social media, and then it just blew up. When the PR department came to report to Boss, he wasn't surprised at all. He even joked that Wang Meiyun wanted to switch to working behind the scenes anyway, so this was a good opportunity for her."

"But then the news started getting more and more outrageous. When we heard it involved a murder and a detective died, Boss began paying attention to the news. Later, he saw the video of Qian Fu going crazy on the bridge. That video was quite ridiculous, wasn't it? I remember watching it with him in the company cafeteria. Many employees were laughing hysterically, and I found it amusing too. And I thought this news would overshadow Meiyun's news. You know how those internet memes trend nowadays... But at that moment, Boss' expression was off. Instead of laughing, he looked serious, murmuring something like, 'This is bad... they might have noticed.'"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both pressed, "What did he mean by that? Did you ask him?"

Secretary Zhang shook his head, "I didn't pay much attention at the time. He went upstairs without even finishing his meal. After that, he seemed preoccupied, spending the next two days in front of his computer researching something. This afternoon, he even asked me about you guys."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were somewhat surprised, "He asked about us?"

"Mhmm," Secretary Zhang nodded, "he asked if Bai Jintang's brother was involved with that SCI, investigating Wang Meiyun's case. I said yes, and then he told me to cancel tonight's reception, saying he had something to attend to. I asked him what it was, but he didn't say. He just looked tired, like he hadn't been sleeping well these past few days."

"Where does he usually live?" asked Zhan Zhao.

"It depends on how busy he is. Boss is a workaholic, when he's not busy, he goes home, but when he's busy, he stays at the company."

"Is he married?" Zhan Zhao inquired.

Secretary Zhang shook his head, "Boss is quite the player. He definitely has lovers, probably quite a few, but for him, the most important thing is his career, and his true love is the company."

Bai Yutang thought for a moment, then took out a photo of Sun Xi and asked, "Have you seen this person?"

Secretary Zhang stared at it for a while, then shook his head, "I don't think so, doesn't ring a bell."

"Do you know about this mental hospital?" Zhan Zhao showed Secretary Zhang a picture of the psychiatric research centre.

Secretary Zhang shook his head again. He didn't have any impression of Qian Yu or Su Li, but when Zhan Zhao showed him a photo of Mark Fan, Secretary Zhang said, "I've seen this person!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at him.

Initially, they thought Dong Yuan might have consulted Mark Fan as well, but Secretary Zhang's explanation seemed bizarre, "This person was introduced to us by Meiyun at a reception. His name is Mark, he's an art investment advisor."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both paused, then asked him, "Are you sure?"

"Mhmm," Secretary Zhang nodded, "he even visited the company. I remember him well, Boss bought two paintings through him."

"Is your boss a professional art collector, or does he just dabble?" Zhan Zhao inquired.

"He's quite professional. Boss says real estate, jewellery and bonds don't appreciate as fast as art, so whenever he has spare money, he likes to invest in art. He has a lot of it at home."

"Which two paintings did he buy from Mark Fan? Do you know?" Bai Yutang asked.

Secretary Zhang nodded, so Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went with him to Dong Yuan's apartment.

Dong Yuan lived in an apartment in S City, a duplex with a specially decorated large collector's room filled with various artworks.

Dong Yuan's approach to art collecting seemed very utilitarian, as if it were solely for resale purposes, and everything was categorised based on its appreciation potential.

Secretary Zhang rummaged through drawers and cabinets, scratching his head, "Strange... where are those two paintings?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's attention, however, was now focused on a sofa in the living room.

The layout of this living room felt somewhat similar to Wang Meiyun's home, and the carpet seemed slightly askew. They wondered if there might be a safe hidden under the sofa...

Bai Yutang decided to move the sofa aside and lifted the carpet underneath... Bingo! Underneath the carpet was a safe embedded in the floor.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang grew concerned – The carpet and sofa seemed to have been moved before. Could it be that whatever was inside had already been taken?

Both of them looked at Secretary Zhang.

Secretary Zhang shook his head in resignation, evidently unaware of the safe's existence.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao – The password?

Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment. When Secretary Zhang entered earlier, he had opened the lock with a password.

Zhan Zhao entered the password once, but it showed as incorrect.

After some thought, Zhan Zhao tried entering the password in reverse.

This time, it showed as correct, but the safe still wouldn't open.

This safe was obviously more advanced than Wang Meiyun's. After entering the password, only one panel could be moved. Beneath this panel was a fingerprint scanner and a keyhole, requiring both fingerprint recognition and a key to open.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged a glance, seeing this as a positive sign – Perhaps the contents inside hadn't been stolen yet.

They asked Secretary Zhang if he had the key.

Secretary Zhang shook his head – He had never seen the key.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, looked around, and finally headed straight for a blue vase placed on a display cabinet in the corner.

He picked up the vase and shook it, making a rattling sound. To Bai Yutang's ears, it sounded particularly beautiful, as if the vase was praising Zhan Zhao's intelligence.

Zhan Zhao reached into the vase and pulled out a key.

But the problem was... even with the password and the key, they still couldn't open the safe because it required a fingerprint. Dong Yuan was already dead, so they couldn't exactly drag his body over to unlock the safe, could they?

Moreover, it was the early hours of the morning. Opening this kind of safe required calling the company to send specialised personnel to unlock it.

Bai Yutang decided to try their luck and called Qin Ou.

Qin Ou arrived with a toolbox and, after some work, managed to open the safe within ten minutes, spinning a screwdriver as if to say – This is child's play.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at him in puzzlement – Bomb disposal requires such training?

Qin Ou shrugged, indicating – This falls under industry secrets!

With the safe successfully opened, unlike the situation at Wang Meiyun's house, Dong Yuan's safe still contained plenty of items.

In addition to two paintings, there was also a hard drive inside the safe.

Bai Yutang called Jiang Ping and handed the hard drive to him.

Meanwhile, Zhan Zhao opened the two paintings wrapped tightly in black plastic.

As expected, they were two of Flower Vine J's paintings... or rather, Qian Yu's paintings.

After receiving confirmation from Secretary Zhang, indeed, these two paintings were the ones Dong Yuan had bought from Mark Fan.

Secretary Zhang mentioned that Dong Yuan was generous, and for him, the price of these two paintings was just a meal's worth. He couldn't understand why he didn't put several valuable paintings worth tens or hundreds of millions inside instead of hiding these two relatively worthless ones so securely. Secretary Zhang also confirmed that these two paintings were previously just casually placed on the shelf, like other items that needed to be sold, meaning that they must have been hidden away in the past few days.

Jiang Ping brought his laptop, plugged in the hard drive, and began examining the data inside.

There was only one folder on the hard drive, named – J.

Jiang Ping opened the folder, revealing numerous images and two video files.

From the thumbnails, it was clear that they were all artworks by Flower Vine J, including the ones Wang Meiyun had received and the ones in Li Feng's hands.

Opening the first video, they saw a messy room.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found it somewhat familiar and suddenly realised – it was Li Feng's detective agency!

As expected, a person appeared in front of the camera. He adjusted the camera angle, then moved a chair from the desk and sat in front of the camera. It was indeed Li Feng, who was still sporting a full beard, which indicated that this was filmed during his investigation into Wang Meiyun's case...

"Ahem." Li Feng cleared his throat and addressed the camera, "I've found what you asked me to look into."

With that, Li Feng produced two photos – one of Wang Meiyun and the other of Qian Fu.

"They indeed are having an affair." Li Feng said as he pulled out a stack of photos he had taken secretly. Some showed Wang Meiyun with Mark Fan, while others depicted Qian Fu and Wang Meiyun together.

"These two should be fake," Li Feng pointed at the photo of Wang Meiyun with Mark Fan.

"These two should be real." Li Feng continued, pointing to the photo of Wang Meiyun with Qian Fu.

"This person is definitely not an art consultant," Li Feng pointed at Mark Fan. "he runs a clinic, he's probably a psychiatrist."

As he spoke, Li Feng produced another photo, "This is his clinic..."

"Pause!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exclaimed simultaneously.

Jiang Ping quickly pressed the pause button.

In the photo that Li Feng was currently showing, it was a shot of Mark Fan's clinic.

In the photo, Mark Fan was walking out of the clinic with two individuals. However, the presence of these two individuals alongside Mark Fan made Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang furrow their brows – Why were they both there at the same time?

‿︵‿︵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 30, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 27, 2024 by Angel