S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 104

Countdown from the Murderer 34 – Origin

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A proverb goes: "When a person is about to die, their words are often wise." However, reality proves otherwise. Not everyone has a moment of enlightenment before death. Some people, until their last breath, are only pondering how to harm others.

To Zhao Jue, the pharmacist was nothing but a moth stuck in a spider's web. The more it struggles, the tighter it gets entangled, ultimately becoming a feast for the spider.

SCI has arrested a bunch of people. It can be said that this time almost all the involved individuals have been apprehended, and they are all guilty. This case could be called an all-villain scenario.

Of course, the gains of this case were not limited to this. Through investigation, they found that the real headquarters of the organisation is not Mark Fan’s clinic, but a nursing home.

In this nursing home, not only did they find almost all the materials left by the organisation, but many of those elderly people were also members of the organisation.

The abundance of archives and research materials would keep SCI busy for a long time.

Although the case had been cracked, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt somewhat defeated, especially Zhan Zhao.

Zhao Jue had never seriously helped them investigate cases before; it was mostly incidental encounters during investigations, and he wasn't particularly keen on it.

But this time, after several days of frantic investigation, Zhao Jue had cracked the case in just one day. Without his assistance, there may have been much heavier losses this time.

Although Bao Zheng usually said that Zhan Zhao was inexperienced, Zhan Zhao never took it seriously. But today, he truly felt that compared to Zhao Jue, he was indeed a bit lacking, so he felt extremely aggrieved.

Bai Yutang had a different feeling from Zhan Zhao. He didn't really care about winning or losing against Zhao Jue, but he knew they should indeed be thankful to him this time.

The pharmacist's plan was to use Mark Fan's case to lure them to that building, where the organisation and SCI would meet their ends together. It also aimed to draw out Zhao Jue and then have Sun Xi kill him, as he believed both he and Sun Xi had taken the "antidote" and were immune to hypnosis.

On their way back, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Can medication really make you immune to hypnosis?"

Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment and replied, "Actually, many medications can make people immune to hypnosis."

"Many?" Bai Yutang was surprised.

Zhan Zhao smiled and said, "But to be precise, there is no medication that can guarantee immunity to hypnosis."

Bai Yutang found this statement contradictory.

Seeing his confusion, Zhan Zhao continued, "Let me give you a simpler example. There are many medications that can treat headaches, but is there any medication that can guarantee you never get a headache again after taking it?"

Bai Yutang thought for a moment – When put that way, it made sense...

"Hypnosis is more of a form of influence or interference than control." Zhan Zhao explained. "That medication may just happen to have been found to be immune to Qian Yu's paintings, but many people are immune to Qian Yu's paintings without taking any medication. Not a single SCI member got caught, did they? It's just those few idle relatives."

Bai Yutang also chuckled. "So immunity is just an illusion or a coincidence?"

"More precisely, it's an extravagant hope, isn't it? It's that feeling of a desperate person grasping the only straw of hope," Zhan Zhao said, "the last hope must be real, absolutely beyond doubt."

Back at the police station, everyone conducted extensive interrogation work and gradually unravelled this "complicated" case.

This case had multiple "origins," occurring for different purposes, entangled by different stances, and concluded in different ways.

Sun Xi and Li Linlin, including Nurse Jin, were not ordinary people; they were young members of the organisation...

Nurse Jin vehemently claimed ignorance about Mark Fan's affairs, but it was all nonsense. Not only did she understand, she also participated and helped the pharmacist keep an eye on Mark Fan.

Sun Xi was a descendant of organisation members and received assassin training from childhood. Living a seemingly normal life, he frequently visited the nursing home under the guise of volunteering.

Li Linlin was Sun Xi's schoolmate. After a chance encounter, they started dating, and eventually, Sun Xi recruited her as a member of the organisation too.

As a psychologist, Mark Fan was originally specialised in sourcing experimental "samples" for the organisation, and he was highly experienced in this field.

With the death of the organisation's elders, the organisation gradually began to disintegrate, like a ship veering towards doomsday.

However, Mark Fan's livelihood relied on continuing his "business," so he started sourcing "samples" for other organisations in need.

Upon discovering Qian Yu, Mark Fan "sold" him to that research institution, which led to the subsequent events of Qian Yu's "awakening."

Once the organisation gained some understanding of that research institution, they also became interested.

Sun Xi infiltrated the institution as a nurse and conducted years of investigation.

Meanwhile, Su Li, as one of Mark Fan's patients, was also groomed by the organisation from a young age. Originally, the pharmacists intended to train Su Li to assassinate Zhao Jue, so they frequently showed him videos about Zhao Jue in an attempt to instil memories in him.

Sun Xi was Li Linlin's boyfriend, so naturally, he knew Wang Meiyun. However, Wang Meiyun was unaware that Sun Xi ultimately takes orders from the pharmacist.

All of Wang Meiyun's actions were dictated by Qian Yu.

In simple terms, the relationships of the characters in this case are as follows:

Li Linlin and Sun Xi are in the same faction, taking orders from the pharmacist.

Wang Meiyun, Zhou Ping and Qian Fu are in the same faction, taking orders from Qian Yu.

Mark Fan and Su Li are in the same faction; Mark Fan mostly plays both sides, and Su Li is his tool.

These three groups of people are intertwined with different purposes.

As for the two deceased individuals, Li Feng and Dong Yuan, they were just unlucky bystanders with no connection to them. They were killed because they discovered their secrets.

......

The first origin of this case was: during experiments conducted on Qian Yu at the research institute, it was discovered that his paintings had the ability to hypnotise people, and... everyone fell under its spell, except for one patient who had been using addiction-relief medication for a long time and was completely immune.

Since the research institute was funded by pharmaceutical companies, drug production was necessary, so they began studying the components of that type of drug.

This so-called "research result" was discovered by Sun Xi, who then informed the pharmacist.

Upon obtaining this medication that could resist hypnosis, the pharmacist felt like he had struck gold, and the entire organisation was elated.

So much so that later on, they focused on studying this drug... They unanimously believed that if Zhao Jue was a magician, then this drug was the key to breaking his magic.

However, to be honest, even with the "antidote," they didn't have a "poison" of the same level as Zhao Jue's to test it with.

But SCI and Zhao Jue's investigation of them was getting closer and closer.

It was at this time that an unexpected event occurred.

The second origin of this case: Qian Yu's awakening.

Originally suffering from delusions, Qian Yu, after being closely studied and operated on by the research institute, suddenly realised that he was actually at the top of the food chain. So Qian Yu wanted to escape from the research centre.

Wang Meiyun's senior sister was actually Qian Yu's first victim.

Qian Yu's paintings contained a lot of suggestive messages that could confuse people's subconscious.

The reason why several professors at the research institute were so obsessed with his so-called "hypnotic" ability was actually because they were under his control.

In addition, Qian Yu learned about the existence of such a special organisation through Mark Fan, which piqued his interest.

Qian Yu, along with his brother Qian Fu, journalist Zhou Ping, and his fervent admirer Wang Meiyun, borrowed Mark Fan's hand and used Su Li to kill Li Feng.

Why did they want to kill Li Feng?

Qian Yu used the research centre to create a character like Flower Vine J, this was actually to amass wealth.

By employing this tactic to kill Wang Meiyun's sister initially, they subsequently utilised it to amass a considerable amount of money.

Recently, they had targeted Wang Meiyun's boss, Dong Yuan.

However, Dong Yuan himself might not have been easy to control, he's quite sensitive... At first, he only thought that Wang Meiyun and Mark Fan might be trying to trick him out of money, so he hired Li Feng to investigate.

Li Feng happened to have also taken on the task of investigating Qian Fu's wife, and the more he investigated, the more secrets he uncovered.

Qian Yu wanted to investigate the organisation through Mark Fan. As a "newcomer", he urgently needed the organisation's research on hypnosis to enhance his skills.

The organisation found the "antidote" to counter hypnosis through Mark Fan. Naturally, the fewer people who knew about this, the better. Eliminating competitors would secure their exclusive possession of it.

And the common enemies of both sides were Li Feng and Dong Yuan, who accidentally knew too much.

When both sides lacked strength but wanted to annihilate each other, what was the best method? Introducing a third party – SCI.

The bottle of medicine Wang Meiyun gave to Sun Xi was originally intended for him to use to poison the pharmacist.

To what extent did the organisation fear Zhao Jue? They were so afraid that even when they had a dream at night, they woke up suspecting that they had been hypnotised by Zhao Jue.

Therefore, as soon as they learned of the existence of such a miraculous drug, they began to take it. Originally meant for addiction withdrawal, it became an addiction for these people.

However, it's quite dangerous for those who do not have an addiction to take this drug, so they had to reduce the dosage.

Those who dealt with Qian Yu's paintings also took it, so these few small pills became crucial to determining the life and death of these people.

Sun Xi, who originally took orders from the pharmacist, naturally wouldn't poison him. Instead, he exchanged the drug with Mark Fan.

And Mark Fan exchanged drugs with Wang Meiyun because he didn't want to lose Su Li as a pawn.

Wang Meiyun wasn't foolish at all; she knew she might "kill the wrong person" a long time ago, but she acted arrogantly because she knew that Su Li, the one sent to kill, couldn't accuse her.

As a result, things started to become chaotic, with both sides carrying out their actions for different purposes, and the cases became intertwined.

So, after this chaotic battle, who emerged victorious?

In terms of means, the pharmacist's side was clearly superior to Qian Yu's side.

But in terms of the final outcome, Qian Yu's side emerged victorious.

SCI successfully located the organisation's headquarters. For the pharmacist, whether he was convicted or not was irrelevant because he would soon be dead. Before dying, he was harshly humiliated by Zhao Jue, and it's likely he wouldn't rest in peace even after death.

Sun Xi, Su Li, Li Linlin and Nurse Jin were all guilty.

Sun Xi and Su Li were guilty of straightforward murder charges, and the evidence against them was indisputable.

Li Linlin and Nurse Jin were guilty of aiding and obstructing the investigation.

But it was different for the other side.

There was no direct evidence against Qian Yu, Wang Meiyun, Qian Fu or Zhou Ping.

From written documents and evidence, Qian Yu appeared to be a thorough victim.

Qian Fu had a breakdown on the bridge and an affair with a female celebrity, but to be honest, half a month later, no one would probably remember who he was.

As for Wang Meiyun, Su Li couldn't accuse her at all. Even if the police brought up the testimony during the investigation process, she could evade it for various reasons, and at most face minor charges.

Zhou Ping also managed to skirt around the edges successfully. He had been misleading the police all along but left no evidence behind.

The stories he told about his neighbour's experiences were all fabricated to lead the police to discover the research centre. His nurse friend who was transferred was not suffering from amnesia at all, she simply hadn't experienced any of those events, and the so-called missing nurse didn't exist, they were all fabrications.

But no matter what, without any evidence, they couldn't be convicted.

In this chaotic situation, whether it was coincidence or carefully planned, the result remained the same.

The organisation was destroyed, the research centre was destroyed, but Qian Yu walked away free.

In SCI's "great victory", there was a hint of regret.

However, would Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang turn a blind eye to Qian Yu's group? Of course not! If Dong Yuan's death could be attributed to Sun Xi and the organisation, then Li Feng's death, in fact, was mostly the responsibility of Qian Yu's group.

SCI would undoubtedly make this group pay for their crimes.

......

The author has something to say:

Case 21 has concluded. Starting tomorrow, I'll be updating with Case 22, which is a case sparked by Big Brother Bai's film festival, and SCI will have a showdown with Qian Yu in this new case.

The fifth volume will conclude with Case 23. (Angel: LIES! There's also case 24 that has 38 chapters...)

After that, there should be a sixth part. After the organisation's affairs are wrapped up, there are still many other cases waiting for SCI to unravel.

‿︵‿︵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 31, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 27, 2024 by Angel