S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 158

Special Files – Witches 05 – Seven Periods

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked Chen Feng to elaborate on the two victims.

Pointing at the photo of the male victim, Chen Feng said, "This man is called Du Ping. I think he was involved in transportation. He came to me last week, saying he was often away for work, and his wife cheated on him. Du Ping said his wife was young and beautiful, but she got pregnant before marriage at a young age, so she married him, even though there was a significant age difference. As a result, while he worked hard to provide for his family, his wife hooked up with her boss and wanted to divorce him. I heard her boss was also married."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both asked, "So what did you say?"

Chen Feng replied helplessly, "Of course, I tried to advise him, what else could I do? But such matters can't be resolved through advice alone. He wanted me to 'cast a spell' to make his wife change her mind and cause her boss to go bankrupt or something."

Chen Feng spread his hands, "After I sent him away, he never came back."

"What about this woman?" Bai Yutang continued.

"This woman is called Wang Aizhen. She said she had a childhood sweetheart, a boyfriend she grew up with, and they got married early. She dropped out of school early to work and support him through his studies. After he graduated and successfully started his business, he wanted to divorce her. When she investigated, she found out her husband had secretly fathered a child with his young and beautiful secretary..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned – The two victims had met some awful people. What kind of people were they involved with...

"Wang Aizhen wanted me to curse her husband to die miserably or something..." Chen Feng said rather helplessly, "Honestly, if I had that ability, I might have actually helped her cast a curse, but I don't. In the end, I could only advise her that it wasn't worth it for a man like that... But again, these things can't be resolved with advice. Wasting the best years of her life on this, who wouldn't find it hard to let go?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang listened. These seemed like family disputes, but if the deaths weren't so bizarre, the unfaithful partners would be prime murder suspects... The question is, why did both die in the same manner and end up in a cornfield?

Just then, Ma Han's phone rang. It was Ma Xin, asking if they had arrived at the fortune teller.

Ma Han said they had.

Ma Xin then said, "We found fingerprints on the bodies. There was cement dust on their faces and hands, and the fingerprints were very clear. A match was found."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both turned to look.

Ma Han put the phone on speaker.

Ma Xin continued, "The fingerprints were left on the dust, so they must have been placed there after death. Each body had two sets of fingerprints from different people, a man and a woman. Their names are Mei Wen and Fang Dongshun. We've also identified the victims. The fingerprints belong to their respective spouses."

Everyone was stunned.

"In other words, there were two murderers?" Bai Yutang asked. "The spouses of the two victims conspire to kill them?"

Chen Feng said, "Du Ping's wife is Mei Wen, and Wang Aizhen's unfaithful husband is Fang Dongshun."

Everyone was shocked – It was such a coincidence that Fang Dongshun was Mei Wen's affair partner, her boss, and Mei Wen was Fang Dongshun's secretary...

"Didn't they say there was a child..." Hu Zi realised as he spoke. It turns out Fang Dongshun had been involved with Mei Wen all along, and she married Old Du because she was pregnant with Fang Dongshun's child...

"So it was a family dispute all along?" Ma Han couldn't understand why a crime of passion was staged like a serial murder case.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also felt something was off... Why go to such lengths with the bodies?

"Not necessarily."

On the other end of the phone, Ma Xin expressed a differing opinion, "My lord says it might not be that simple!"

"How so?"

"The murderer left no fingerprints anywhere other than on the cement dust." Gongsun, who was likely beside Ma Xin, interjected.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance – Indeed, it was strange!

"There are fingerprints on the cement, indicating that the fingers touched the cement dust... So, if they touched anything else, the fingerprints should be even clearer." Zhao Hu said.

"It feels like the purpose of smearing cement on the victims' faces and hands was to leave fingerprints." Ma Han also felt this case was far from a simple crime of passion.

But they indeed found fingerprints and a motive. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked the criminal police team to bring Mei Wen and Fang Dongshun back to the police station for questioning.

Finally, Bai Yutang brought up the photo of the third victim, the bald, fat uncle, and showed it to Chen Feng, asking if he recognised him.

Chen Feng looked at it for a while, then shook his head, "I don't think I've seen him before, I don't have much of an impression."

Bai Yutang and the others decided to take Chen Feng back to the police station as well.

Zhan Zhao sent a message to Zhao Jue, saying he had some questions for him.

Zhao Jue replied that he would come to the SCI office shortly.

By the time everyone returned to the police station, Zhao Jue and Bai Ye had already arrived.

Zhao Jue pounced on Sesame Paste first.

The forensic team and the crime scene investigation unit, who had been gathering evidence in the cornfield, also returned, carrying large and small boxes into the lab.

At this moment, the elevator doors opened, and someone familiar to everyone entered along with Bao Sir. This person had appeared during a previous case investigation – Zhang Yu, a professional charlatan, funeral director, and reputed descendant of Zhang Tianshi. He had helped them during the hunt for the hunting family and had even done some feng shui for Big Brother... Although Big Brother hadn't had any change of fortune, so it was quite useless.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang curiously asked Zhang Yu why he was here.

Zhang Yu pointed at Chen Feng.

Chen Feng looked over pitifully.

Zhang Yu explained that he was Chen Feng's childhood friend, classmate, landlord, and roommate.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked up at the ceiling – What a godly duo!

Zhan Zhao told everyone who had no pressing tasks to go sit in the lounge, he wanted to discuss serious matters with Zhao Jue.

A group of people was ushered into the lounge. In the office, just as Zhan Zhao was about to question Zhao Jue, a call came in from the criminal police team.

"They're missing?" Bai Yutang frowned as he received the call. "Mhmm, issue a warrant for their arrest. They likely have a child with them."

Bai Yutang asked Chen Feng how old Mei Wen's son was.

Chen Feng wasn't sure either, "Du Ping didn't specify, probably around four or five."

Bai Yutang instructed the criminal police team to search quickly, including checking with their relatives to ensure the child's safety.

......

Zhan Zhao asked, "Mei Wen and Fang Dongshun are both missing?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "Their homes looked normal, with no signs of a hasty departure. Fang Dongshun's car is still in the garage. The criminal police team said it's a black SUV, covered in mud. They've already called the forensics team."

"Aren't they from the same company?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "Another team from the criminal police went to the company, but it's closed, and no one is there."

"Escaped to avoid punishment?" Zhao Hu asked.

Ma Han shrugged – It didn't seem likely.

......

Zhan Zhao placed the two victims' photos, a card, and Chen Feng's investigation materials on the table, looking at Zhao Jue – What's going on here? It seemed related to you!

Zhao Jue, unhurried, pulled out a folder he had brought with him, placed it on the table, and opened it. He handed a document to Zhan Zhao, "File No. 7!"

Zhan Zhao frowned. Zhao Jue had sorted and classified all the organisation's information.

Zhan Zhao picked up the cover page of the experiment project document and frowned, "Seventh generation?!"

Zhao Jue smiled slightly, "Mm-hmm, seventh-generation test products."

"The painting you are looking for..." Zhan Zhao took out the painting Zhao Jue had asked Chen Feng to find earlier, and asked, "The artist is a seventh-generation test product?"

Zhao Jue nodded, "The seventh generation was a relatively mild experiment. It was conducted in three experiments, divided into the early, middle, and late stages. The early phase had three sets of data, indicating that there were three test subjects, all of which failed. The middle phase had four sets, with three failed and one remaining. The late phase had three sets, one abnormal and two still intact. Therefore, there are three or four surviving seventh-generation test subjects."

"Or four?" Bai Yutang asked, "Two from the late phase and one from the middle phase. The fourth is the abnormal one from the late phase?"

Zhao Jue nodded.

"What does abnormal mean?" Bai Yutang was puzzled.

"Anything outside normal or discarded." Zhao Jue explained.

Everyone frowned.

"Escape, accidental death, participation in other experiments, mutations... are all possible."

"Seventh-generation test subjects are extremely dangerous. There are three or even four who completed the experiments and then escaped?" Zhan Zhao felt that the problem was serious.

"What characteristics do they have?" Bai Yutang asked curiously.

Zhao Jue held up a USB drive and asked if SCI had a meeting room.

Bai Yutang took the USB and handed it to Jiang Ping, and the entire SCI team moved to the meeting room.

Jiang Ping plugged the USB into the computer, and the projector displayed the files on the screen.

Zhao Jue, like a university lecturer, began to explain.

"The seventh-generation test subjects underwent mild genetic modification methods, unlike other radical techniques." Zhao Jue displayed another image.

The image showed a bald, bespectacled, short, and stout man.

The SCI team was stunned by the photo.

Zhan Zhao held up the photo and waved it at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue frowned when he saw the photo of the corpse, "Looks like my hypothesis was correct."

"Who is this person?"

"Dr. Ding Ying, codename Dandelion." Zhao Jue noticed that everyone was getting a little rowdy again, so he waved to them – Wait for me to finish the discussion before discussing, obey the classroom rules!

The SCI team urged him to continue quickly.

"Back then, the funding for the seventh-generation laboratory was quite strong, and the team had many participants from various fields." Zhao Jue said. "Dr. Ding Ying is a biologist. Although he looks like a fool, he's a genius in genetic improvement. However, he took a very dark path and was a textbook example of a mad scientist. All seventh-generation test subjects were test-tube babies, geniuses cultivated through optimised genes."

It sounded to everyone like some sort of illegal human experimentation.

"The seventh generation was built on relatively reliable data from the previous generations. For example, they improved intelligence a bit, physical strength a bit, appearance a bit..."

Everyone frowned, "So, everything was improved a little?"

Zhao Jue nodded.

"So the seventh-generation subjects were cultivated humans whose IQ, EQ, appearance, height, physical abilities, and so on were all slightly better than average."

Everyone frowned, thinking it sounded terrifying... This is the equivalent of being all-rounders, excelling in every aspect.

"What about the drawbacks?" Zhan Zhao asked. "Nothing in this world is perfect, everything has flaws. As advantages are magnified, so are the disadvantages."

Zhao Jue switched to another slide showing a set of data.

Zhan Zhao frowned.

"What's this?" Bai Yutang looked at the data-filled chart.

Zhan Zhao said, "Indexes of various psychological stimulation experiments."

Bai Yutang noticed all the data seemed similar and asked, "What's the issue?"

"No issues!" Zhan Zhao's answer was unexpected.

As everyone expressed their confusion, Zhao Jue added, "And that's the biggest issue!"

‿︵‿︵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 29, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 6, 2024 by Soojin