S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 91

Countdown from the Murderer 21 – Patient

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It wasn't clear whether Zhou Ping's appearance was suspicious or deliberate, but all of a sudden, the entire case became clearer.

However, given his previous track record of being full of shit, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't trust him one hundred per cent.

But Zhou Ping did provide valuable clues.

When the forensic team had investigated the cause of Mark Fan's death previously, Gongsun had suspected it.

From the preliminary analysis, Mark Fan took the medicine by himself and was not forced to take it. But the pharmacist said he didn't commit suicide, so it's very likely that he did take the medicine himself, but it was switched!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both had some suspicions about his assistant at the time, but there was no evidence.

Listening to the clues provided by Zhou Ping, it seems that the conclusion was imminent – Mark Fan left the Four Seasons Hotel with the medicine, and was bumped into by a person dressed as a delivery boy on the road. That person secretly changed the bottle of medicine when he helped him pick it up... That's why Mark Fan died from taking the medicine after he returned to the clinic.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang – Is this a good method? Change the bottle of medicine?

Bai Yutang said – It's not difficult!

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin. The two of them first asked Zhou Ping to go to Jiang Ping to make a sketch of the appearance of the delivery boy.

The result was that when the sketch was made, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned... This person was no other than the kitchen boy who bumped into Bai Yutang when they went to the Four Seasons Hotel that day.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both looked at Zhou Ping, their hearts were not more trusting of him, but more and more suspicious of him, why? Because they are too similar!

Zhan Zhao asked Zhou Ping calmly, "Have you encountered this person since then?"

Zhou Ping shrugged and said that he had just seen him hit Mark Fan the day before yesterday, and after the murder yesterday, he moved out of the hotel.

"So have you seen him before?" Bai Yutang then asked.

Zhou Ping shook his head.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both kept quiet and stared at him.

Zhou Ping let the two look at him furtively, and smiled bitterly, "What's wrong now?"

"You stayed on the twenty-sixth floor," Bai Yutang asked him seriously, "and you remember so clearly what the delivery guy involved in the accidental collision looked like when you looked out from the window on the twenty-sixth floor?"

The rest of the SCI also looked at Zhou Ping – This was a bit of a stretch. Looking at people walking on the ground from the twenty-sixth floor, their faces might not even be visible.

"Ai," Zhou Ping sighed, "sure enough, it doesn't work to omit some of the steps when talking to you guys."

Everyone frowned at him – Can't you be honest? Why are there so many problems?

Zhou Ping winked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Have you two forgotten what I do? I have equipment."

Saying that, Zhou Ping took out a DSLR camera with a telephoto lens from the camera bag he was carrying, took out the memory card in the camera and handed it to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping took it.

Checking the photos in the memory card, he saw that Zhou Ping had been almost constantly following Mark Fan over the past few days, and the camera had really captured the image of Mark Fan and a delivery boy crashing into each other that day.

After all, Zhou Ping was a professional journalist and his photography skills were top-notch. One of the photos clearly captured the face of that delivery boy, and indeed, it was the same one that crashed into Bai Yutang that day.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, and Bai Yutang frowned – From these photos, Zhou Ping didn't just happen to mention it at all, but had long been targeting this delivery boy and was deliberately mentioning the collision in front of the two of them.

Jiang Ping printed out that photo and handed it to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang took the photo and asked Zhou Ping, "Tell me honestly, have you investigated this person?"

Zhou Ping was quite the drama queen and sighed again, "Ai... it's not easy for me to gather some information, so we should at least be courteous, shouldn't we?"

Everyone felt that it was funny – How dare you impose conditions?

"If you guys go to the mental hospital to check on Qian Yu, can you bring me along?" Zhou Ping asked with a smile, "That mental hospital refuses visits from people other than family members, I applied several times but couldn't get in."

Bai Yutang nodded, "You mean, in exchange for us taking you to the mental hospital, you'll tell us about this person, right?"

Zhou Ping smiled, "Captain Bai is indeed a smart man."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao smiled and said to Zhou Ping, "How about this, you tell us about this person, and in exchange, we won't prosecute you for obstructing the investigation, and we won't hold anything against you for using us to take pictures of Wang Meiyun before, how about that?"

"Erm..."

Zhou Ping opened his mouth and looked at the two, "Don't be so stingy..."

Bai Yutang signalled to Zhao Hu and Man Han with his eyes.

Hu Zi took out his handcuffs, and Ma Han went to collect his camera bag.

"Alright, alright!" Zhou Ping hurriedly softened, "I'll tell you guys, okay!"

Zhao Hu and Ma Han both squinted at him, feeling that this kid wasn't being too honest.

Bai Yutang also lost his patience, "If you keep hiding anything, I'll really be rude to you."

Zhou Ping was honest and replied, "When I followed Wang Meiyun and Mark Fan, I saw Wang Meiyun contacting that killer."

As he said that, he took out another memory card, and Zhou Ping reluctantly handed it to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping checked the contents of the second card.

He saw that there were more photos in this card, as well as videos.

Zhou Ping had captured the scene where Mark Fan, Wang Meiyun and that killer met.

Although there was no sound, it was clear from their mannerisms and expressions that it was Mark Fan who introduced that killer to Wang Meiyun.

And what was even more surprising was that the waiter who was in charge of receiving these three people in the café at that time and helping them order food was actually that delivery boy.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both a little puzzled after watching this – Who exactly was this person? From the looks of it, it wasn't an accident that they bumped into this person that day.

Bai Yutang felt that this was not an ordinary character, because when they bumped into each other, that person's demeanour and behaviour showed no signs of suspicion whatsoever, and moreover... why would he do such a thing?

"Awesome, isn't it?" Zhou Ping laughed, "I also watched the video several times before I accidentally discovered it! After that, I went to that café to investigate, and the owner of the café said that this person claimed to be called Sun Qin, an apprentice in the kitchen of the Four Seasons Hotel. He had some time off in the afternoon, so he came to work as a temporary labourer. The boss said that he was paid by the hour, and after only two days of work he said that the hotel had a group of guests and would not be coming for a while."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were a little moved – Could it be that he was still in the hotel...

Both of them looked at Zhou Ping.

Zhou Ping clicked his tongue, seemingly seeing what the two were thinking, and spread his hands, "I went to the hotel and asked, there's no such person at all."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were both disappointed, although both of them were indeed somewhat mentally prepared.

With the photo and an unknown name, Jiang Ping first contacted the hotel's manager and asked him to confirm the photo.

The manager said that the man was indeed not an employee of the hotel, but his uniform belonged to the hotel's kitchen.

The manager went to the kitchen to ask around. One of the cooks said that he had seen this person, who claimed to be a new deliveryman and had helped deliver the meals twice. However, he hadn't come back after leaving the hotel yesterday, and the guests had called to complain that the meals hadn't been delivered.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang then associated it with yesterday's situation... So did that little brother deliberately bump into the two of them then run away? What's the point?

Bai Yutang felt that something was wrong, so he took out his cell phone to contact Zhao Zhen at home and asked him to help check the clothes he wore yesterday.

Zhao Zhen was puzzled, but still went to the laundry room to find the jacket Bai Yutang had worn yesterday, feeling the pockets and shaking it out.

Zhao Zhen was quite meticulous, and after carefully checking it over, he said there was nothing.

Zhan Zhao asked him to check his clothes.

Zhao Zhen was a little speechless. He didn't know exactly what this group of people were up to, but after some searching, he didn't find anything unusual on Zhan Zhao's clothes.

This was strange.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both looked at each other – Why did he come over and crash into them?

Bai Yutang gently stroked his chin and muttered to himself, "After that collision yesterday, there was a bit of a delay, at least five minutes."

Zhan Zhao asked, "You suspect that that person was deliberately slowing down our entry into the hotel?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to check the surveillance outside the building at that time.

Jiang Ping quickly found the footage of that man colliding with Bai Yutang that day.

After the collision, he ran towards one end of the path with his empty box, but didn't go into the back door of the kitchen. Instead, he stood at the entrance of the alleyway, looking around and taking out his cell phone to make a call.

The man's anti-surveillance sense was quite strong, and his cell phone screen had a privacy screen, so it was impossible to see the contents of his screen from the surveillance. And when he spoke, he covered his mouth with his hand, so there was no way to analyse what he said from his lips.

After he finished speaking, he casually threw away the delivery box, turned around and walked away from the alleyway, and in a short while, he was out of the surveillance range.

After some examination, Jiang Ping still couldn't find his identity, and his name was estimated to be fake.

But this person was definitely not an ordinary person, and he was currently upgraded to the primary suspect.

Bai Yutang asked the forensic department if the fingerprints on that medicine bottle had been checked.

The forensic department said that two sets of fingerprints were found, one was Mark Fan's and the other was someone else's, but there was no record of this person in the fingerprint database.

Bai Yutang asked Luo Tian and Qin Ou to take the forensics department to look for the delivery box that was thrown away, there should be fingerprints on there as well. They should go back and compare them with the ones on the medicine bottle to see if they are the same.

As soon as Bai Yutang hung up the phone, Ma Han's phone rang.

The caller ID was an unknown number.

Zhao Hu was also curious, and his eyes asked Ma Han – Eleven?

Ma Han nodded and walked down the hallway to answer the phone. Zhao Hu followed him out and stood in the doorway, blocking the curious Zhou Ping.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both felt that Zhou Ping was sneaky, and always felt that he had something to hide.

Zhao Jue, who was sitting on the sofa and swiping his tablet for fun, also glanced at Zhou Ping twice, seemingly with a little bit of interest.

Ma Han spoke on the phone for a while and walked back.

Bai Yutang asked Zhao Hu to bring Zhou Ping to the interrogation room again.

When he was gone, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both asked Ma Han – How is it?

Ma Han shrugged helplessly, "Eleven looked at the photo but didn't recognise the killer. He said he'd ask around for me. He just called to say no one knows him, so this person probably isn't the killer. He even asked me about his method of killing. I described the general situation to him, and Eleven said this guy must be crazy."

Perhaps it was an unintentional remark, but Eleven's casual comment gave Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang a clue!

Indeed, no matter how you look at it, this person's behaviour seems insane. A crazy person would naturally go to a mental hospital!

The two immediately asked Jiang Ping to investigate Mark Fan's patients and the patients of that mental hospital where Qian Yu was staying.

Not long after, Jiang Ping shouted, "Found it!"

‿︵‿︵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 2, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 2 2024 by Angel