S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 119

Screen Murderer 15 – Replace

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In the forensic lab, Gongsun was completely stumped after searching for half a day without finding out what the murder weapon was.

Ma Xin and Xiatian cautiously observed while Gongsun furrowed his brow, staring at the computer screen where the system automatically simulated the shape of the murder weapon, lost in thought.

Half an hour passed, but Gongsun remained motionless, standing there.

Ma Xin and Xiatian felt the anxiety growing amidst the infinite stillness.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent office,

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were also reviewing the information on the two deceased.

They had intercepted the flower and bird market case from the criminal police team downstairs. Forensic Doctor Yang also couldn't confirm the murder weapon, and the case was at a standstill.

The style of Forensic Doctor Yang's forensic lab was primitive, in stark contrast to Gongsun and the others' cyberpunk style.

Lao Yang didn't use computer simulations for the murder weapon, he followed traditional procedures.

Being elderly and suffering from various ailments, Lao Yang delegated the task to several young interns, who bought hundreds of pounds of melons and simulated the murder process using various "weapons".

The whole process was exceptionally "brutal", and the handling of the "bodies" was crude – the police teams downstairs received melons of unknown causes of death on several floors, making them nearly vomit.

But even after several days of experiments, Lao Yang still couldn't determine the murder weapon, leaving him frustrated.

When the group of Lao Yang's students in the forensic lab heard that Gongsun was coming for the bodies, they breathed a sigh of relief. Lately, they had been having nightmares about killing melons, so they hurriedly packaged the bodies to send up.

In the SCI office, everyone was also discussing what the murder weapon that killed Jin He was.

The police officers and forensic experts had different approaches, the forensic experts focused on science, while the officers were more concerned with practicality.

Firstly, it was quite simple. Setting aside everything else, how could one cause wounds that simultaneously penetrated through a person's chest and the back of a bench? Was it done by human force or mechanical force?

Among the group, Qin Ou provided a similar type of injury – a blast injury.

Everyone looked at Qin Ou, "Explosion?"

Qin Ou nodded, "Putting metal, such as steel balls, into a bomb can cause this type of injury, with even greater force than a gunshot."

"But there was no explosion nearby!" Qin Ou immediately overturned his feasible solution after proposing it.

"To cause this type of injury, there must be a considerable amount of explosives, and even then, this only ensures the force but not the accuracy."

Everyone nodded in agreement – Indeed.

"What about hydraulics?" Ma Han asked.

Everyone frowned and thought for a moment, then shook their heads – Of course, there were many tools and devices that could create this penetrating effect, but they all required specific conditions!

Even firing a gun required bullets, and the key was that nothing was captured on surveillance.

Hu Zi shook his head, "Like shooting a ghost movie."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Zhao Hu together.

Hu Zi was sipping on his milk tea, chewing on the pearls, and seeing everyone gaze at him, he felt quite puzzled – What?

"Shooting a movie…"

Zhan Zhao muttered to himself and then turned to ask Bai Yutang, "That day, we saw them shooting in studio two, there were green screens and green people."

Bai Yutang nodded.

Everyone looked at Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping stroked his chin, "Green screens are mainly used for post-production special effects."

"Unless..." Jiang Ping seemed to be inspired by something, turning back to stare at that segment of the video, "Has the video been replaced?"

"Is that possible?" Everyone asked Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping watched the video while supporting his chin, "It's a possibility."

Everyone became energised; the possibility of tampering was a good lead!

"This surveillance system is relatively new and is a humanoid-triggered system." Jiang Ping explained. "The surveillance isn't recording twenty-four hours a day, or more accurately, it is recording, but the storage isn't triggered unless something humanoid appears in front of the camera. Therefore, the recorded videos are in segments. Segmented videos are easier to replace than the entire footage and are less likely to be detected."

Everyone nodded – Nowadays, many smart doorbells and dash cams also have this triggering system.

"Although we can watch the video continuously, in fact, it's the result of several continuous segments playing together. Segments with no one in the frame aren't recorded. But just like shooting a movie, because the background is the same, and the camera angle doesn't change, so when stitched together, it appears as a complete video segment."

"You mean if one small segment is replaced by another small segment with the same duration and background, it wouldn't be detectable?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Jiang Ping nodded, "That would require Jin He to have previously recorded surveillance footage at the same location and time, then copied that segment."

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to explain the process in detail.

Jiang Ping then drew a schematic for everyone and explained it thoroughly.

"Firstly, record the process of Jin He being killed, for example, a segment of about thirty seconds. The start of this segment is when Jin He enters the surveillance footage, and it ends when he rushes out of the flowerbed. After Jin He runs into the alley, the surveillance camera is turned off. Then, copy the pre-recorded video into the surveillance storage. Jin He only needs to ensure that he rushes out of the flowerbed within those thirty seconds. At that moment, the surveillance room turns on the camera and continues recording. This way, both in terms of time and playback effect, it appears as a single continuous segment of video, and the hole through the wooden board..."

"It was prepared in advance..." Zhan Zhao interjected, then frowned, "When Jin He rushed out of the bushes..."

"He wasn't shot!" Bai Yutang also understood the steps involved, "Jin He might have indeed intended to play a prank and pretend to be dead to scare people, but this whole process was meticulously planned in advance to kill him. He was killed after he walked out, meaning, the wound through his chest was created right under our noses?"

"Then who killed him?" Zhao Hu and Ma Han were also present at the time, but they didn't notice more details...

"Collaboration!"

Bai Yutang suddenly said, "Tang Xing and someone else collaborated, just like performing a magic trick."

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, "How did they collaborate?"

"When Jin He suddenly rushed out, Tang Xing was so startled that he jumped up, making quite a commotion, and for that split second, it diverted our attention." Bai Yutang said. "And in that split second, Jin He was killed. At that moment, when Tang Xing approached him and pushed his chest, he might have taken something or covered something up."

"Indeed, it seems that only Tang Xing had the opportunity to act."

"What kind of weapon could kill someone in that instant without us hearing a gunshot, and with no one nearby?"

"Steel needles and small explosives."

At this point, Qin Ou spoke up again, "Didn't they say Jin He liked playing pranks and teasing people? There are many small explosive devices used to simulate gunshot wounds on the nearby sets filming the gunfight scenes. It's like a blood bag attached to the chest, then a weak explosive device that creates the visual effect of being shot. Jin He also liked using props from the set to play pranks. Could it be that he had planned with someone to fake his death as a prank, but then the props and surveillance were tampered with to create the illusion of him being killed by an unknown weapon? If there was a certain level of explosion force, combined with a properly driven steel needle, it could create this kind of puncture effect, as long as a small device was hidden in the blood bag."

"Tang Xing is the only one who touched Jin He's body at the scene, so he's indeed highly suspicious." Bai Yutang nodded.

"Wait..." Zhan Zhao suddenly asked Bai Yutang, "If Tang Xing is involved in this, then isn't he very dangerous? And it's highly likely he's the culprit!"

Bai Yutang also felt that things were getting bad "Er..."

Zhan Zhao widened his eyes, "What about Zhao Jue..."

"Hola~ Amigos!" 

At that moment, a warm greeting came from the door, startling everyone.

At the office entrance, Issel was carrying a backpack and waving his hand to greet everyone.

Behind him, Mia poked her head out and waved to everyone.

Zhan Zhao and the others stared at the two of them.

Issel tilted his head, feeling the atmosphere was somewhat strange.

Mia gestured to her dad, asking – What's wrong with them?

Issel shrugged – Who knows?

"How many people are at home?" Zhan Zhao asked Issel.

"Huh?" Issel was puzzled, and Mia blinked.

"Is Bai Ye there?" Zhan Zhao's first thought was... if Bai Ye is there, everything should be fine, right?

Issel nodded.

"Is everyone there?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Where's the person I sent over this morning?"

"They're sleeping," Issel replied.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao hurriedly dashed out.

Zhan Zhao dialled Zhao Jue's phone number first.

......

Meanwhile, at Zhao Jue's house.

After finishing breakfast, Zhao Jue and Eleven sat at the table watching the news. They were quite gossip-oriented, having opened two livestreams, one monitoring the airport and the other the entrance to the Dong Group's building.

Bai Ye was watering plants outside.

On the sofa, Tang Xing was wrapped in a blanket, asleep.

However... although in a state of "sleep", Tang Xing's eyes were open.

Tang Xing, lying on the sofa wrapped in a blanket, had a different expression from the panicked and timid one at the SCI office. His face now showed no emotion.

Underneath the blanket, Tang Xing's hand gently lifted and touched the side of his mouth.

Then, he moved his mouth, skilfully using his tongue to push something out from the side of his mouth – a flat, slender piece of metal.

Tang Xing held the object in his hand, then slowly sat up, watching Zhao Jue and Eleven, who were sitting at the table with their backs to him, engrossed in discussing the gossip and debating who between Wang Meiyun and Anna would win.

Tang Xing stood up slowly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a lighter. He placed the metal piece into the lighter...

Then, gripping the lighter as if it were a gun, he slowly raised his hand. At that moment, Zhao Jue's phone suddenly rang.

Startled by the ringtone while watching the livestream on his phone, Zhao Jue picked up the call. "Hello? Kitty, are you also watching the livestream?"

"Livestream, my foot! Just now, the person I sent over–"

Before Zhan Zhao could finish his sentence, there was a sudden bang.

‿︵‿︵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: April 12, 2024 by Angel

Edited: September 26, 2024 by Angel