S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 85

Countdown from the Murderer 15 – Disappearance

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Hearing what Zhan Qitian said, Zhan Zhao and the others were all surprised – Are there really lizardmen?

Zhan Qitian waved his hand, "I'm not crazy, even if someone was really monitoring him, I wouldn't think of aliens! Besides, if aliens can only monitor a person through human means, then why should we worry about aliens? What's the difference between them and outsiders?"

Bai Yutang nodded at Zhan Zhao – Indeed, he is your father, and his thoughts are similar to your theories.

Zhan Zhao looked at the sky, signalling for his dad to stop talking about nonsense and get to the point!

Zhan Qitian reminisced, "Well... At that time, in order to make sure that he was not pretending to be crazy, we watched a lot of surveillance videos. When Qian Yu went out, he was often frightened and would suddenly run like mad. I found that, I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, he would often meet the same people in different places. At that time, surveillance was already very popular, but the video clarity was not as high as it is now, and the technology of face recognition only became popular later. So we could only rely on the naked eye to identify... I noticed that there was a man who often appeared in the video, and never dressed up in the same way. One time he was wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase, another time he was cleaning in a caretaker's outfit, and another time he was riding by with a gym bag on his back."

Everyone frowned at this – It was indeed suspicious, this was a typical disguise stakeout.

"Unfortunately, at that time, there was no machine assistance, and the clarity of the video was not high enough, so there may have been errors in the judgement of the naked eye... Moreover, the object of the investigation was mainly Qian Yu, who is indeed not normal." Zhan Qitian was helpless, "Three different mental illness experts have issued certificates."

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, seemingly intrigued, and mumbled to himself, "Maybe... normal people may not be able to detect it, it's because he's not normal that he detected it instead."

After learning about Qian Yu's matter, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt even more compelled to have a good chat with Qian Fu, so they went to the interrogation room together.

Everyone else was busy with their own business, and those who had nothing better to do went to listen outside the interrogation room. Zhao Jue also went along, seemingly a bit interested.

Zhan Qitian pulled Bao Sir away and said that they would go to Yunwen's house to watch soccer, that they would need to keep a close watch on him tonight and that he was not allowed to stay alone.

......

In the interrogation room, Qian Fu sat there and waited for half a day.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were relatively considerate, they brought him a cup of hot milk tea and put it on the table.

Qian Fu picked up the milk tea and took a sip, looking at the two men.

Bai Yutang turned on the recording equipment. Qian Fu was dissatisfied, "I'm the victim, why are you guys treating me like a suspect? "

Zhan Zhao reminded him, "What you did this afternoon was a criminal act."

Qian Fu flattened his mouth, "I have no other choice! If I didn't make such a mess, if Wang Meiyun doesn't get me killed today, someone else will try to get me killed tomorrow!"

Bai Yutang was adjusting the machine on the side and didn't seem to be in a hurry to ask questions.

Zhan Zhao chatted with Qian Fu and asked him, "How are you doing now? Are you in good shape? We can ask tomorrow if you're tired."

Qian Fu sipped his milk tea and shook his head to say no, "It's good to talk to you guys, I can't sleep alone anyway."

"Where's your family?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Ai..." Qian Fu let out a long sigh, "There's too much media, so I've asked my wife to take the child and go elsewhere to avoid it."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "You have a wife and child, but still go out to mess around?"

Qian Fu of course knew that he was in the wrong, but knowing that he was in the wrong didn't mean that he wouldn't continue to behave like this in the future.

Zhan Zhao shook his head and asked him, "Do you know the dead person, Li Feng? He died for you."

Qian Fu laughed dryly and asked, "Do you have a photo?"

Zhan Zhao took out Li Feng's photo and showed it to him.

Qian Fu looked at it, thought about it, and said, "Oh... I've seen him, he probably followed me for a while."

"You know that he's a private detective, right?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Qian Fu shrugged.

"Aren't you curious why he followed you?"

Qian Fu laughed and picked up his milk tea, "Having a love affair with a star, it's normal..."

"He was hired by your wife to investigate you."

"Cough cough..."

When Zhan Zhao said this, Qian Fu choked on the milk tea and coughed so hard that he pounded his chest.

Zhan Zhao pulled out a tissue and gave it to him.

Qian Fu was shocked, "My... my wife knows?"

"Heh." Zhan Zhao seemed to find it funny, "Why do all men think that their wives won't find out that they are cheating? The truth is that when most people cheat on their partners, their partners are the first to notice!"

Qian Fu took the tissue and wiped his mouth.

"Let's not talk about your domestic affairs for now." Zhan Zhao saw Bai Yutang sit down after adjusting the machine, so he asked Qian Fu, "Explain what happened this afternoon."

Qian Fu frowned, "I've already told you that I'm in danger and that someone is trying to kill me..."

"Is there any evidence?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Wang Meiyun has no reason to kill me!" Qian Fu said, "I've thought about it for a long time and I don't think it makes sense! She and I were originally just playing around..."

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows and looked him up and down, which meant – Big Brother, have you looked in the mirror? If Wang Meiyun wanted to play, she wouldn't play with you, is her taste so strange?

Qian Fu bristled, "I have money..."

"Wang Meiyun is very rich herself." Zhan Zhao was unforgiving, "Her wealth is not inferior to yours. With her condition, if she did it purely for the sake of money, she could find someone a hundred times richer than you, so why did she play with you? Have you never suspected it?"

Qian Fu was a little unhappy and didn't want to talk to Zhan Zhao. He turned his head to Bai Yutang and asked him, "I heard that you are Bai Jintang's younger brother?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "That's what my brother said just now."

Qian Fu looked at the sky.

Zhan Zhao knocked on the table, telling him to hurry up and speak.

The people watching in the observation room next door were quite curious. Zhan Zhao didn't seem to have this style when interrogating suspects in the past, why was his style strange today?

On one hand, Zhao Hu was quite afraid of Zhao Jue, but on the other hand, he quite liked to talk to him. He smiled and went over to ask him, "Master Zhao, what's this approach?"

Zhao Jue's gentle eyes looked at Zhao Hu as if he was looking at a husky, and patiently taught him, "Qian Fu is a big wimp, it's a waste of time to trick him, you can just scare him directly. Moreover, Wang Meiyun is a very strong woman. Qian Fu likes this type of person, indicating that he is a person who enjoys being in a disadvantaged position. He will naturally cooperate with you if you are strong."

"Ooh." Zhao Hu had an educated expression on his face.

Zhao Jue nodded with satisfaction, his eyes full of affection – Understood it in one go! What a smart husky!

Ma Han shook his head silently on the side.

As Zhao Jue analysed, Qian Fu was surprisingly cooperative in answering the question despite being wronged and injured even by Zhan Zhao, "She wants me to help her find the painting."

"What painting?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Qian Fu said he wanted a cell phone.

Bai Yutang took out a cell phone from the evidence bag next to him that was filled with his belongings.

Qian Fu opened the phone's photo album and found a picture, which he showed to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

The two of them lowered their heads to take a look. Just from the style of the painting, they could ascertain that it was another Flower Vine J painting. This one was unusually gloomy, and depicted a looming monster hidden in a dark corner.

Zhan Zhao was intrigued as he picked up his cell phone to take a closer look – They had looked at several of Flower Vine J's previous works, and it seemed that there were different stages of creation. In terms of maturity, Zhan Zhao felt that Li Feng's paintings were probably an earlier stage in the collection, Wang Meiyun's was probably a middle stage, while this one was clearly quite seasoned, and was probably a later stage work.

"The Monitor," Qian Fu said, "is a work of Flower Vine J's more mature style of creation, and one of his later masterpieces."

"Do you know this artist well?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Qian Fu shrugged, "Wang Meiyun is particularly interested in this artist's works and she's happier when she's given a painting by Flower Vine J than when she's given jewellery. To be honest, Flower Vine J's paintings aren't that expensive, they're just harder to find."

"Isn't this painting prohibited from being auctioned?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"It's because it's forbidden to be auctioned that I was asked to help find it ah, it would be easier if it could be auctioned." Qian Fu shook his head, "The level of this painting is actually quite average, and if it wasn't banned, it probably wouldn't be worth much. This artist is famous for relying on legends and mysterious events, and there is the possibility of forgery. This kind of thing isn't popular nowadays. The price won't rise and the collection won't necessarily retain its value, but it's simply very difficult to find! It feels like someone has been collecting this series of paintings."

"Did Wang Meiyun tell you why she is collecting this kind of painting?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Whenever I ask her, she finds an excuse to evade it." Qian Fu rubbed his neck and seemed to be a bit tired, "Ai, so troublesome, lust lowers people's alertness to crises."

Zhan Zhao saw that he was a little tired, so he changed the topic and stopped chatting about Wang Meiyun, "Why lizard people?"

Qian Fu raised his head.

Zhan Zhao asked him, "There are thousands of ways to pretend to be crazy, why lizard people?"

Qian Fu then drifted off a bit and froze for a while as he muttered to himself, "When I think of pretending to be crazy, it reminds me of my younger brother, who used to always yell out lizardman lizardman..."

Zhan Zhao stared at Qian Fu, observing the change in his expression when he mentioned his brother.

In the monitoring room next door, Zhao Jue was also carefully watching Qian Fu's expression through the one-way glass window.

Just then, the door to the observation room suddenly opened, and Xiao Bai Chi rushed in, telling Ma Han and Zhao Hu, "Something happened!"

Both of them were stunned.

In the interrogation room, Bai Yutang's cell phone suddenly pinged. He took it out and suddenly stood up.

Zhan Zhao looked at him in puzzlement.

Bai Yutang tilted his head at him and signalled – Let's go out and chat.

Zhan Zhao followed Bai Yutang out.

Qian Fu was confused and asked, "Are you done talking? Are you coming back? If you guys go out, bring me some snacks, I'm hungry!"

......

Closing the door to the interrogation room, Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang, "What's wrong?"

Bai Yutang showed Zhan Zhao his cell phone and he saw on the screen – Your suspect injured the guards and escaped.

The one who texted Bai Yutang was the guard over at the detention centre.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han also came out, "Didn't they increase the guards, how did they escape?"

At the end of the corridor, Luo Tian was walking this way while talking on the phone. He was probably communicating with the detention centre.

"Captain." Luo Tian said to Bai Yutang, "Just now, the guards over at the detention centre noticed that the assassin hung himself, so they opened the door and went in to try to save him. It turned out that the kid wasn't hanging at all, he was holding on to the wall, deliberately letting the guards see his feet hanging in mid-air, and he injured the guards and escaped. The detention centre is now fully sealed, he definitely can't escape. He should still be in the building right now, but the problem is that when the detention centre's side looked at the CCTV, he suddenly disappeared from the screen!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both puzzled, "Disappeared?"

Luo Tian nodded and pointed to his phone.

On the other side of the phone, the emotional detention centre officer seemed to be looking at the surveillance video, and his shouting voice could be heard on this side even without speakerphone being turned on.

"Light! A light!" Several officers were shouting, "That light flashed and that person disappeared into thin air!"

Bai Yutang felt novel when he heard it. Why did he run into all kinds of evil things today? Such a big living person disappeared in a flash of light?

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin with an excited face, "Ooh! Not only are there lizardmen, but also wormholes?!"

Zhao Jue was as excited as him, "Maybe it's time travelling or parallel space movement!"

‿︵‿︵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 17, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 11, 2024 by Angel