S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 149

Screen Murderer 45 – Progress

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Chen Fu was defeated by Zhan Zhao and honestly explained what happened.

When he went to Zhao Jue's house to hide the USB drive, both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought he seemed quite sharp, how could things have escalated to this point?

Chen Fu said Chen Gui purely set him up.

He was hiding at Chen Gui's house, pretending to be Chen Gui to work at the moving company. With his help, Chen Gui had more free time and always went to find Xiao Liu.

One day, Chen Gui came back drunk again and told him that Xiao Liu's family had taken another loan, and Xiao Liu was planning to leave everything behind and emigrate with her husband, never to return.

But the very next day, Chen Gui came back saying that Xiao Liu's husband, Boss Wang, was dead.

Chen Fu was shocked and asked Chen Gui if he had killed him.

Chen Gui said no, that Boss Wang was killed by someone else. He mysteriously handed Chen Fu a USB drive, saying that Xiao Liu mentioned that Boss Wang was planning to use it to blackmail someone, which is why he was killed.

As soon as Chen Fu saw the USB drive, he knew something was wrong.

Chen Gui didn't understand computers and didn't have one at home, so he asked Chen Fu to check what was on the USB drive.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at Chen Fu – The USB drive should be Boss Wang's, but Jiang Ping had said that the USB drive was new and empty.

Seeing Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang staring at him, Chen Fu said, "I... accidentally lost that USB drive."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned, "What?!"

Chen Fu scratched his head in frustration, "Didn't I hide a USB drive in that villa before? I still had another one."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded – This must be the one later hidden at Xu Lie's house.

"What about the one Chen Gui gave you?"

"Since I didn’t bring a computer from home, I decided to borrow one from a friend. I casually put the USB drive in my trouser pocket. When I went out to find a friend and got a laptop to bring home, I found a hole in my pocket when I touched it..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at Chen Fu in surprise – No way...

"I hurried back along the way to look for it, but I couldn't find it after searching everywhere. In the end, I had no choice but to buy an identical USB drive from the computer market."

"Chen Gui asked me what was on the USB drive, and I tricked him by saying it was all encrypted hidden files, and without a password, it couldn't be opened. Chen Gui was clueless about computers and believed me, taking the USB drive with him."

"But he didn't come back that night. The next day, he returned wearing a dirty woman's dress, saying Xiao Liu was dead."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang calculated the time, it should be the day they ran into Chen Gui at the flower market.

"Chen Gui told me Xiao Liu was killed, and he narrowly escaped with his life," Chen Fu sighed. "We discussed it and decided to lay low for a while. I was scared that the fake USB drive would cause trouble for them, so I asked him about it. He said he hid the USB drive in a flowerpot at the orchid shop next to the flower shop. We hid outside and, while eating at a restaurant, we saw the news... Then Chen Gui pointed at someone and said that was the person who killed Xiao Liu."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang could guess who it was, it should be Secretary Zhang, who often appeared with Wang Meiyun during her public appearances.

"We found a quiet place to discuss it. We figured this was a big scheme. Wang Meiyun was just a small celebrity who suddenly got a big company, so there must be something fishy. Secretary Zhang personally committed the murder for her, and Boss Wang had talked about blackmailing someone. Maybe he was killed because he tried to blackmail Wang Meiyun. So, there's no doubt that the USB drive must have incriminating evidence against Wang Meiyun." Chen Fu shook his head helplessly. "Chen Gui felt indignant but didn't dare go back to the flower shop to get the USB drive. So, he called the shop next door, trying to buy the flowerpot, but when they asked too many questions, he got suspicious and hung up."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang couldn’t laugh or cry, all over an empty USB drive... it was hard to tell who was tricking whom.

Chen Fu continued, "We’re currently being chased from both sides and nowhere is safe. But aside from my love for computers, I also enjoy acting. I often go to the film city to be an extra and made some friends there. Later, when I was working at the moving company for Chen Gui, I happened to move Xu Lie, and on a whim, I copied a few keys and kept them."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang shook their heads – It was fortunate he ran off before Xu Lie moved in, otherwise, Xu Lie would have likely hung him outside the building, as was customary.

"Why were you wearing Chen Gui’s clothes?" Zhan Zhao asked, puzzled.

"Chen Gui was afraid the police would mistakenly think he was Xiao Liu’s murderer. Although he didn’t know much, he had watched enough TV dramas to understand fingerprints and shoe prints." Chen Fu said helplessly. "We were hiding at Xu Lie's place because it had the best view for monitoring the Dong Group. When we saw you coming up, we split up and ran. I wore Chen Gui’s clothes to divert your attention, while Chen Gui actually hid on the roof."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang laughed in exasperation – These two were indeed quite clever, knowing how to hide right under their noses.

"Where did Chen Gui hide afterwards?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"He hid in an empty apartment in the building next to Xu Lie's house. We had previously helped move there, so we knew it was temporarily unoccupied and the lock was broken, easily picked." Chen Fu said. "Chen Gui was obsessed with that USB drive. I couldn't do anything about it. Later, we saw on the news that Secretary Zhang was arrested for killing Wang and Liu, which meant Chen Gui was no longer a suspect. That's when we dared to go home. Chen Gui called Wang Meiyun to confront her, but a man showed up and gave us a large sum of money."

"We'd never seen so much money in our lives. He said if we helped him with one thing, there would be another large sum of money to come." Chen Fu sighed. "We were supposed to pretend to kill Wang Meiyun during a film festival rehearsal and then get caught. We were to accuse Anna of instructing us to do it. Since the police had been looking for Chen Gui, he could claim Anna hired us. The poison in the syringe wouldn't be lethal, so even if we were guilty, we wouldn't get heavy sentences. Dong Group has excellent lawyers who would help get us out, and besides, the money was so great that even if we were jailed for a few years, it would be worth it. We'd still have enough to live comfortably for the rest of our lives."

After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang finished recording Chen Fu's confession, they asked, "Didn't Chen Gui love Xiao Liu? How could he take money from her killer?"

Chen Fu smiled wryly and looked down. "I guess everything has a price..."

"Why did you hide the other USB drive in Xu Lie's house?" Bai Yutang asked, puzzled.

"Why...?" Chen Fu murmured. "When I was hanging around the film city as an extra, I really envied Xu Lie... rich, handsome, successful, with lots of friends... and plenty of women who liked him."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang silently noted their disdain – What's the use? Chen Mi didn't even care about him. Xu Lie had been pursuing him for over a year without even holding his hand, just walking his dog at most.

"I had a wicked thought at the time. If Xu Lie found the USB drive and played that game, would he get into trouble..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance and frowned. "You had no personal grudge against Xu Lie, so you harmed him out of jealousy?"

Chen Fu spaced out for a moment, then nodded. "Why is the world so unfair..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't feel like discussing life's fairness with him. The urgent task was to find the missing USB drive.

They instructed Luo Tian to take Chen Fu into custody and then rushed to find Jiang Ping, hoping he could check the surveillance footage to locate the USB drive.

When Jiang Ping heard that he didn't even know the specific location, he had no choice but to shake his head, "It's too difficult."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, then pulled out his phone to call Zhao Jue.

After turning on his phone, he saw several missed calls and remembered the barely alive Viper left hanging there.

Bai Yutang called Zhao Hu and Ma Han, who were in charge of surveillance, while watching Jiang Ping's monitors.

Zhao Hu, Ma Han and Qin Ou had already set up surveillance equipment near Viper's hospital room. Viper was indeed still very weak, just lying or sitting in the room without doing much else.

Zhan Zhao smiled and signalled Bai Yutang – Let him wait a bit longer; there was no rush.

Originally intending to call Zhao Jue to ask if he had any friends who could help, Zhan Zhao changed his mind and dialled Bai Ye instead.

When Bai Ye answered and heard Zhan Zhao's request, he asked Zhao Jue to answer it.

Zhao Jue, picking up the phone, sounded annoyed, asking why Zhan Zhao called Bai Ye instead of him directly.

Zhan Zhao confidently replied, "No reason, just wanted to chat with Uncle Ye more."

On the other end, there was the sound of Zhao Jue hitting Bai Ye with a pillow.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, exasperated – Was he teasing Zhao Jue or setting up Uncle Ye?

Bai Ye, feeling innocent, received a few hits from the pillow but didn’t understand why he was being hit.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Jue about finding the USB drive. Zhao Jue said he could introduce someone to help, but it would cost them.

Zhan Zhao agreed without hesitation.

Zhao Jue gave him a phone number and was about to hang up, but Zhan Zhao asked him to pass the phone back to Bai Ye.

Zhao Jue handed the phone to Bai Ye.

When Bai Ye picked up, Zhan Zhao asked very obediently, "Uncle Ye, what kind of fruit do you like?"

Bai Ye thought for a moment, "Uh... anything is fine..."

"Xiao Bai likes cherries. Do you like them too?" Zhan Zhao continued.

"Mhmm, I quite like them..."

"Alright, goodbye, Uncle Ye." Zhan Zhao said before hanging up. He then told Bai Yutang that Bai Ye also liked cherries.

Bai Yutang thought for a moment, and then he and Zhan Zhao went online shopping for cherries to send to Bai Ye. Seeing that the strawberries looked good, they also decided to buy some for Mia.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Should we get something for Zhao Jue, too?"

Zhan Zhao jokingly said to buy him a couple of lemons... but he quickly added a few mangoes to the cart instead.

Meanwhile, Zhao Jue asked Bai Ye, "What did he say to you?"

Bai Ye glanced at Zhao Jue, "Uh..."

Zhao Jue squinted, his gaze becoming increasingly dangerous.

Bai Ye pointed outside, "The fish seems to have jumped out..." and quickly slipped away.

Zhao Jue threw a pillow at the sofa in frustration – Damn kitten!

Zhan Zhao called the number Zhao Jue had given him. A young-sounding, lazy female voice answered.

Zhan Zhao mentioned that Zhao Jue had referred him and asked for her help finding something.

The person on the other end asked for detailed information about the lost item and the circumstances surrounding its loss, then gave a price, stating that referrals from Zhao Jue cost double.

Zhan Zhao was speechless – He had expected a discount for mentioning Zhao Jue's name, not a price hike.

However, Zhan Zhao didn't haggle and agreed to the price, asking how long it would take to find the item. The person said it depended on the situation and hung up.

No sooner had he hung up than the phone rang again.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were momentarily stunned, thinking it couldn't be that fast.

When they saw it was Zhao Hu calling, they relaxed.

"Hu Zi." Bai Yutang put the call on speaker.

"Boss! It's incredible. We’re lucky we didn’t go in earlier, or we would have fallen into the trap!" Zhao Hu's voice was tinged with excitement. "We've made a major discovery!"

‿︵‿︵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: May 17, 2024 by Angel

Edited: November 18, 2024 by Soojin