S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 93

Countdown from the Murderer 23 – Memory

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Wang Meiyun revealed her "real face" in front of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, changing her previous slightly clumsy image and becoming a "completely new person".

"Do you have any evidence to say that I bought a murderer?" Wang Meiyun looked at her fingernails and asked with a smile on her lips.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned slightly.

"I'm just toying with Qian Fu." Wang Meiyun smiled as she looked at the two men, "I already had a mental breakdown, and my psychiatrist prescribed me the wrong medication, causing me to suffer from depression and a lapse in judgement. When Qian Fu was courting me, he told me he had divorced his wife, so I got carried away and fell in love with him. And then you guys swooped in and took photos with a reporter, causing a big scandal. A psychopath killed a detective who was following us and then climbed down the ventilation duct to my bathroom to hide. I didn't notice this, yet it became that a weak woman like me hired a murderer to kill. Do you have any evidence?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at her – You personally confessed to the crime in the hotel room earlier.

Wang Meiyun reached out and held her forehead, "Mark Fan wanted to pursue me but couldn't, so he intentionally prescribed the wrong medicine to make me delirious. I was scared by you guys at that time, and I confessed after I had an emotional breakdown. I was just talking nonsense, I didn't want to kill Qian Fu at all! If you don't believe me, ask Qian Fu. I never asked him to marry me. If I knew he wasn't divorced, I wouldn't have stayed with him! If you are saying that I bought the murder, do you have any proof?"

"Ho ho."

In the observation room next door, Zhao Jue shook his head, "We've been fooled! This woman is not simple."

Ma Han frowned and said to Zhao Hu, "Coincidentally, Su Li is really a psychiatric patient."

"There is no record of Wang Meiyun giving money to the murderer, or a recording of asking him to go kill someone..."

"You haven't seen that murderer before?" Bai Yutang asked.

Wang Meiyun spread her hands, "No."

Zhan Zhao pulled out the photos that Zhou Ping had taken in which Mark Fan had introduced Su Li to her and showed them to her.

When Wang Meiyun saw it, she immediately reached out and held her forehead, "My head hurts, I've told you that Mark Fan prescribed me medication indiscriminately, and as a result, it messed up my sanity. There are so many things I don't remember! Besides, so what if I've seen him? I see so many people every day, how would I know who would go out and kill someone?"

After saying that, Wang Meiyun slumped on the interrogation table in pain, "I feel uncomfortable. That murderer wanted to kill me last night, I'm the victim!"

In the end, Wang Meiyun pretended to be a weak woman and cried, stating that she was confused by her medicine and was the victim!

Next door, Ma Han and Zhao Hu watched and shook their heads. Zhao Hu even lamented, "After all this, are we being played?"

However, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were relatively calm in this agitating situation.

Zhan Zhao looked at Wang Meiyun who was performing to her heart's content and had a question – She could have gotten away with it like this a long time ago, so why did she only come out with this move now...

Just as he was thinking, he saw Bai Yutang suddenly pick up the photo of the mental hospital and asked her, "You could have gotten out of this a long time ago, so why are you pretending to be crazy?"

Wang Meiyun raised her eyes to look at the two calm people across from her and didn't say anything.

Zhan Zhao also glanced at the photo in Bai Yutang's hand and asked Wang Meiyun, "Do you want to go to this hospital?"

Wang Meiyun sat up, crossed her legs and asked, "Are you two done asking? I'm going to take a rest after I've been questioned, I won't say anything after this, I insist I'm not guilty!"

Next door, Zhao Hu couldn't help but complain, "Does this sister have a split personality? How come her expression changes from one moment to the next."

But Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang obviously wouldn't be fooled like that.

"I heard that only family members are allowed to visit this hospital." Bai Yutang pointed to the picture of the hospital and looked at Wang Meiyun, "Who are you trying to visit unsuccessfully, to the extent that you're resorting to killing and pretending to be crazy just to get inside?"

Wang Meiyun's expression very subtly changed a little.

Zhao Jue, who was observing her every move next door, narrowed his eyes slightly, "Right, that's the key!"

"You being with Qian Fu, is it really just for these few paintings?" Zhan Zhao naturally shared the same opinion as Zhao Jue, observing Wang Meiyun's faltering, "Or is it that he has a younger brother who also lives in this hospital."

Wang Meiyun suddenly reached out and slapped the table, "I said I didn't kill anyone! You guys have wrongly accused me!"

Bai Yutang waved his hand at her, "We've finished asking what we wanted to ask, we'll send you back to the detention centre in a while."

Bai Yutang asked Ma Han and Zhao Hu to send Wang Meiyun back to the detention centre and to bring Su Li over.

Wang Meiyun frowned, seemingly unable to understand what Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were playing at.

Walking out of the interrogation room and walking through the hallway towards the elevator, Zhao Jue was standing on the side of the hallway.

Watching Wang Meiyun walk past, Zhao Jue reached out and gently touched his chin, pondering.

In the interrogation room, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stood up and moved around.

Both of them felt that Qian Yu might be the key to this case. What exactly was in that mental hospital? Could it be that it was some kind of base like the special prison that held Zhou Anming before?

But Zhao Jue had already given them all the documents of the organisation's bases, and there was no such thing as a psychiatric research facility.

Although full of suspicion, the case has progressed. After all, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's goal is not only Wang Meiyun. From all indications, the two suspected that Wang Meiyun was just a pawn, and there were more powerful figures in the background.

Soon, Ma Han and Zhao Hu, who had sent back Wang Meiyun, brought that dangerous psychopath, the assassin Su Li.

Unlike Wang Meiyun, Su Li was wrapped in a straitjacket because he was extremely dangerous, a standard "outfit" for an extreme felon.

Zhao Jue was still standing in the same position in the hallway, watching Su Li walk past him.

Unlike Wang Meiyun who barely noticed Zhao Jue, when Su Li passed by Zhao Jue, it was as if he suddenly saw something novel. He kept staring at Zhao Jue, and he kept turning back until he was brought to the interrogation room.

Once Su Li was brought into the interrogation room and secured in his seat, Ma Han and Zhao Hu returned to the observation room next door.

Su Li kept twisting his head, looking in the direction of the observation room's one-way mirror.

When Ma Han and Zhao Hu entered, they noticed Su Li's eyes and became a little curious.

Zhao Hu even pulled Zhao Jue to the side.

Su Li was still staring in the direction he was just staring at.

Zhao Hu sighed in relief.

Zhao Jue looked at him with some confusion, as if asking – What's wrong?

Zhao Hu pointed at Su Li and said, "That kid has strange eyes, I thought he could see through."

Zhao Jue blinked, reached out, patted Zhao Hu's head, and said as if he were teaching a child, "It's impossible for humans to see through! The structure of our eyes doesn't have that function."

To the side, Ma Han glanced at the two who were having a conversation.

Zhao Hu listened to Zhao Jue's words and stroked his chin with a taut expression, "That's it ah..."

Zhao Jue nodded, "Mhmm."

As he said that, he took out a piece of chocolate candy from his pocket and gave it to Zhao Hu, "Eat the candy."

Zhao Hu dislodged the sugar paper and ate the candy.

Zhao Jue asked him again, "The wind accompanying ears also don't exist either, do you know why?" (Angel: Wind accompanying ears is the literal meaning of the sea and door god Shunfeng'er, 顺风耳, who has the ability to hear any sound carried upon the wind.)

Zhao Hu nodded his head and also pointed to his ear, "Because there's no such function, right?"

Satisfied, Zhao Jue fished out another candy and gave it to him.

On the side, Ma Han shook his head speechlessly.

......

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also noticed that Su Li was staring blankly at the one-way mirror on one side, but of course, it was just a mirror if you were looking at it from inside the interrogation room.

Bai Yutang reached out and gently tapped the tabletop.

Su Li immediately turned his head back.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang with some curiosity – How do you know he's more sensitive to movements than words?

Bai Yutang didn't understand what Zhan Zhao was wondering, so he reached out to switch on the camera.

"Tch."

In the observation room next door, Zhao Jue muttered in dissatisfaction, "Monster reaction."

To the side, Zhao Hu whispered, "Know why?"

Zhao Jue looked at him.

Zhao Hu handed him a candy, "It can be done without such features, it's called instinct."

"Ahem."

On the side, Ma Han, who was drinking water, choked.

In the next room, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, who still had their headphones on, both silently lowered their heads and reached out to block their mouths, trying not to laugh.

Zhao Jue looked at the candy in his hand and looked up at the grinning Zhao Hu.

Zhao Hu raised an eyebrow at him with the candy in his mouth – Eat it.

Zhao Jue narrowed his eyes slightly and Zhao Hu hurriedly dodged and ducked behind Ma Han.

Zhao Jue peeled off the sugar paper and ate the candy, nodding his head as he did so – Huskies really are a magical existence!

Having calmed down a bit, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang raised their heads and looked across at Su Li.

Su Li was also sizing them both up.

After looking at them for a while, his eyes continued to be empty.

Zhan Zhao was intrigued by his reaction, as was Zhao Jue in the monitoring room.

......

"You have a memory impairment."

"This person may have a memory impairment."

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue spoke almost simultaneously.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao – Memory impairment? Amnesia?

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Bai Yutang frowned – Not good.

"Memory impairment?"

Ma Han and Zhao Hu both asked Zhao Jue as well – What kind of disease is it?

"It's when there's a time limit for memory, and when you reach that time limit, you'll forget everything." Zhao Jue pointed to his head, "Just like a fish."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han were surprised.

Hu Zi rubbed his chin, 'Now that you mention it, his expression does resemble a fish, especially those eyes!'

Ma Han also noticed. Indeed, as Zhao Hu said, this person's expression strangely resembled that of a fish.

"Because he doesn't blink much." Zhao Jue said, "Fish don't have eyelids and don't blink."

Su Li grinned at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao – So how long can he remember?

Zhan Zhao was also helpless. The most common memory cycle for this kind of memory impairment was one day, usually with sleep as the dividing line. Once he wakes up, he will have forgotten everything that happened before, which was equal to emptying a hard drive and starting everything from scratch.

Sure enough, Su Li's memory limit was one day.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. That's why Wang Meiyun was so confident in feeling that the police couldn't prosecute her, because even if she had hired Su Li, he would no longer remember it.

At the same time, the two also felt that Wang Meiyun did not have the ability to hire Su Li at all, because unless she hired him and he did it on the same day, Su Li would have forgotten it the next day.

Zhan Zhao frowned – Memory impairment was considered a very rare type of mental illness, how come he hadn't heard of Su Li's case? And this kind of patient, which hospital dared to let him be discharged just like that?

Bai Yutang reached out and rubbed his brow, helplessly looking at Zhan Zhao – That is to say, he only remembers things from the time he woke up this morning until now, right? Then what should I ask?

Zhan Zhao was also in a bit of a bind.

However, just as the two of them didn't know where to start, something interesting happened.

Su Li spoke without waiting for the two of them to open their mouths, "That person."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang then saw him pointing at the one-way mirror glass on their side.

The two also glanced in the direction of the mirror.

"Which person?" Zhan Zhao thought about it and asked him, "The one with long hair?"

"Mhmm." Su Li nodded.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu both looked at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue was also staring at Su Li, and there was a soft "Oh" from his mouth.

"What about that person?" Bai Yutang asked.

"I've seen him before." Su Li said.

Zhan Zhao was slightly stunned.

Bai Yutang, on the other hand, was puzzled – Didn't you say that there was only one day of memory?

Zhao Hu and Ma Han both looked at Zhao Jue in bewilderment as well.

"Where have you seen him before?" Zhan Zhao asked Su Li.

Su Li thought for a moment and replied, "Flowers!"

"Flowers?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao glanced at each other – What flowers?

Su Li expressionlessly said, "A painting with flowers in it."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both subconsciously looked in the direction of the mirror, as if asking Zhao Jue – Do you understand what he's saying? It sounded like a tongue-twister.

Next door, Zhao Jue held his chin and nodded, "I probably know what's going on."

‿︵‿︵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 26, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 13, 2024 by Angel