S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 102

Countdown from the Murderer 32 – Antidote

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Dong Yuan seemed to have hired Li Feng to investigate something beforehand, as a segment of video from the hard drive in his safe surprised both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

In the video, Li Feng secretly captured Mark Fan together with two individuals, whom no one would have expected to be connected.

One of them was Sun Xi.

If Sun Xi's connection with Mark Fan could be explained, the other one was rather bizarre – Wang Meiyun's cousin, Li Linlin.

What puzzled them the most was that Li Linlin and Sun Xi seemed intimate when together...

"This doesn't add up, this doesn't add up..." Zhan Zhao suddenly felt a myriad of thoughts rushing into his mind, muttering to himself as he swiftly considered various possibilities.

Bai Yutang instructed Jiang Ping to investigate any connections between Li Linlin and Sun Xi while glancing back at Secretary Zhang, who still looked bewildered.

"Do you know her?" Bai Yutang had already asked Secretary Zhang about Sun Xi, whom he didn't know, but regarding Li Linlin...

"I do, Linlin is Meiyun's assistant." Secretary Zhang replied.

"Didn't they fall out already?" Bai Yutang inquired.

Secretary Zhang looked puzzled, "Fall out? Well, it's true that Linlin isn't working as Meiyun's assistant anymore, but the main reason is that she wants to continue her studies. It seems..."

As he spoke, Secretary Zhang waved his hand, "Ah, those two cousins quarrel all the time, it's not something new. Meiyun might seem assertive on the surface, but in reality, there are many things she's not clear about, especially contracts and business matters, she heavily relies on her cousin. This time, when trouble arose, it was her cousin who came to the company to handle things from start to finish..."

"What did you say?" Bai Yutang interrupted him, "Has Li Linlin been to your company these past few days?"

"Yes." Secretary Zhang nodded.

"Has she met your boss?" Bai Yutang asked, "When was the last time they met?"

"Yesterday morning..."

Just as Secretary Zhang finished speaking, Zhan Zhao called out to Bai Yutang, "Yutang!"

Bai Yutang walked over.

Zhan Zhao had opened the second segment of video.

The first segment showed Li Feng displaying the photos he had taken, while the second segment seemed to show Li Feng presenting some "hands-on experiment" to everyone.

This time, the filming location switched to a bedroom.

Li Feng first showcased the two paintings hanging on his wall, the ones Zhan Zhao and the team found in the convenience store freezer, which later led to both Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen falling victim to the curse.

The first half of this video segment showed records on Li Feng's sleep.

The video fast-forwarded, displaying the scene of Li Feng suddenly waking up to clean his camera that night. In other words, the video recorded Li Feng sleepwalking and getting up to clean his camera.

From the clock on the wall, it appeared that Li Feng had sleepwalked for about an hour that night.

The second half of the video was from the following evening.

Li Feng took out a bottle of medicine.

This bottle of medicine was too familiar to everyone in the SCI team.

In this case, this particular bottle of medicine, known for its addictive properties, had been repeatedly involved. 

Mark Fan died from overdosing on this medicine, Wang Meiyun carried it in her bag, Sun Xi swapped it with Mark Fan during their collision, and the pharmacist's message left for everyone also mentioned taking this medicine.

Now, in Li Feng's video, this was already the fifth appearance of this bottle of medicine.

Li Feng took a pill out from the medicine bottle, opened the capsule and then poured out approximately two-thirds of the powder, leaving less than one-third remaining.

He swallowed one pill and then went to bed... After that, everything was normal, and he did not experience any more episodes of sleepwalking during the night.

This segment of the video helped Zhan Zhao and the team fully understand the miraculous effects of this medicine!

"This medicine can resist hypnotic effects!"

Zhan Zhao finally understood that this medicine was similar to an antidote, and the dosage varied for each individual. During their previous investigation, they suspected that Mark Fan's bottle of medicine had been swapped with Wang Meiyun's bottle, which might have been arranged by Mark Fan himself in collaboration with Wang Meiyun. However, when they left the hotel, Sun Xi swapped it with another bottle. The forensic department stated that Wang Meiyun's fingerprints were found on the bottle.

Based on all the current clues, Zhan Zhao speculated, "Previously, didn't Hu Zi ask whether there were two bottles of medicine or three? In reality, there were three bottles. Wang Meiyun prepared two bottles of medicine in advance. One bottle contained pills with only about one-third or less of the amount of powder, which is the amount she usually takes. The bottle prepared by Mark Fan contained the normal recommended dosage of medicine. However, Wang Meiyun also prepared another bottle by combining a normal bottle of medicine with the portion of powder poured out from her first bottle. So, these three bottles of medicine are, one with a low dosage, one with a high dosage, and one with a normal dosage. Wang Meiyun kept her low-dosage bottle in her bag, and gave the high-dosage bottle to Sun Xi. On that day, when Mark Fan swapped Wang Meiyun's medicine, he took the low-dosage one and put the normal one in Wang Meiyun's bag. When leaving the hotel, Sun Xi took advantage of the collision to swap the high-dosage one with Mark Fan's low-dosage one. The result was that Wang Meiyun had a bottle of normal dosage medicine in her hand, which she didn't take. Mark Fan had a bottle of high-dosage medicine, thinking it was a low-dosage. And the truly low-dosage bottle ended up in Sun Xi's hands."

Everyone understood the method of swapping the medicine bottles.

Bai Yutang pondered, "So, the dosage of a single pill in Mark Fan's bottle of medicine is actually about five times that of Wang Meiyun's bottle?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Mark Fan should have known the dosage Wang Meiyun needed to take, and he also knew that each pill in her bottle contained only about one-third of the normal dosage. From Mark Fan's behaviour of taking the medicine, it seems he also needed to take it, but his dosage was larger than Wang Meiyun's. He thought he was taking a low-dosage of medicine, so he increased the dosage. But in reality, he took a high-dosage of medicine and increased the dosage, which meant he ingested about five times the amount he should have taken. That's why he was poisoned to death."

Bai Yutang felt the need to clarify who wanted to kill whom.

"Firstly, Mark Fan swapped medicine with Wang Meiyun. If Wang Meiyun had taken the medicine, she would have taken three times her normal dosage and might have died." Bai Yutang said, "So, Mark Fan wanted to kill Wang Meiyun, right?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

"Sun Xi swapped the high-dosage medicine with Mark Fan's medicine, and since the medicine bottle had Wang Meiyun's fingerprints on it, it indicates that Wang Meiyun gave it to Sun Xi... So, Wang Meiyun also wanted to kill Mark Fan?"

Beside them, Bai Ye, who had been listening all along, couldn't help but frown, "Then why did Wang Meiyun take three steps instead of directly swapping her low-dosage bottle for the high-dosage one? This way, even if Mark Fan had swapped it and then went back to take it, he would still have died."

"This indicates that the bottle of high-dosage medicine might not have been prepared by Wang Meiyun for Mark Fan." Zhan Zhao said, "Perhaps Wang Meiyun gave the high-dosage medicine to Sun Xi, originally intending to harm someone else, but Sun Xi took matters into his own hands and swapped the medicine with Mark Fan's, thereby causing Mark Fan's death..."

"So, who did Wang Meiyun originally intend for Sun Xi to kill?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment, "Besides Mark Fan and Wang Meiyun, who else is taking this medicine?"

With that sentence from Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang suddenly paused and asked, "The pharmacist?"

"Captain! Found it!" Jiang Ping, who was investigating the relationship between Li Linlin and Sun Xi, suddenly exclaimed.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang immediately went over to see.

Jiang Ping said, "When Li Linlin and Sun Xi were studying, they volunteered at the same nursing home. Based on the timeline, they crossed paths."

As he spoke, Jiang Ping pulled up a photo and the address of that nursing home.

"It's a private nursing home, with excellent facilities and a large area." Jiang Ping explained, "I checked, the owner's surname is Wang, but there are no photos available."

"But when I searched for their activities, I found a group photo of social workers, nursing home staff, and the owner."

As he spoke, Jiang Ping pointed to a photo.

In the centre of the photo stood the pharmacist himself. Does that mean the owner of this nursing home is the pharmacist?

"And there are three familiar faces there!" Jiang Ping signalled for everyone to take a closer look.

Indeed, in this group photo, besides the pharmacist, there were three people they knew.

Sun Xi and Li Linlin stood together, with Li Linlin holding onto Sun Xi's arm, a level of intimacy which suggested they were either a couple or very close friends. But what surprised them even more was another person in the photo – Mark Fan's assistant, Nurse Jin!

Bai Yutang suddenly felt that everything made sense, "Although we found Wang Meiyun's fingerprints on Mark Fan's medicine bottle, there was actually no medicine inside. The dosage of the medicine in Wang Meiyun's bag was normal, and there were plenty of pills. If Mark Fan wanted to swap them, the number of pills should have been roughly the same. After swapping, Mark Fan took Wang Meiyun's medicine. Even if his dosage was higher than Wang Meiyun's, he wouldn't have swallowed the entire bottle, there should have been some left. But if the remaining pills were found by us, we would have discovered that the dosage of each pill was different. In order to avoid being discovered, the only person who could have disposed of the remaining pills in Mark Fan's bottle is the one who discovered the body first, his assistant, Nurse Jin."

Zhan Zhao also agreed with this speculation, "Furthermore, could it be that Wang Meiyun gave the high-dosage medicine to Sun Xi to poison the pharmacist? But since the pharmacist claimed that Mark Fan's death had nothing to do with him, it seems Sun Xi took matters into his own hands and swapped the medicine with Mark Fan. So, did Sun Xi want to kill Mark Fan? Then why did he also kill Dong Yuan?"

"Could it be related to Li Linlin?" Bai Yutang pondered and instructed Jiang Ping to check Li Linlin's communication records.

Since Li Linlin had left contact information when she inquired at the police station before, Bai Yutang decided to take a chance.

As a result, Jiang Ping indeed found that Li Linlin had made calls during both the time Dong Yuan was killed last night and the day Sun Xi bumped into Bai Yutang and then walked into the alley.

"So, it might not be Qian Yu wanting to kill Mark Fan, but Li Linlin and Sun Xi... Could there be two groups with intertwined interests here, leading to this outcome?" Zhan Zhao glanced at the information about the nursing home and asked Jiang Ping, "Is this nursing home quite large?"

Jiang Ping nodded.

Bai Yutang also felt that they might have cracked the case. "If Sun Xi and Li Linlin are the ones who killed Mark Fan, then their connection to the pharmacist is at that nursing home. So..."

Zhan Zhao also seemed excited. "Could it be that the pharmacist's hiding place is in that nursing home?!"

Bai Yutang immediately contacted Bao Zheng. Because the countdown for the pharmacist was based on the premise of an explosion, the police's bomb disposal team needed to rush to the nursing home first.

In addition, Bai Yutang sent someone to go and arrest Li Linlin and Nurse Jin.

Zhan Zhao felt hopeful and thought about asking Bai Ye if he should contact Zhao Jue to go arrest the pharmacist together.

But when he turned back, he found Bai Ye staring at the computer screen, reading information about the nursing home, and his expression... how to describe it? It was somewhat peculiar.

‿︵‿︵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 25, 2024 by Angel