S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 162

Special Files – Witches 09 – The Perfect Plan

---

Fang Dongshun explained the entire process of his crime to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

He had indeed planned to get rid of Wang Aizhen and Du Ping, but Fang was essentially a very cautious person. He wanted to eliminate the two of them without affecting himself. He had considered many methods, staging an accident, hiring a killer... but he always felt that each carried a certain amount of risk.

Sometimes, he would watch films and TV shows about serial murders and whimsically think, why hasn't a murderer just gotten rid of those two?

A few days later, Mei Wen moved into the villa with her son, saying she had a big fight with Du Ping at home. While the child was asleep, she quietly told Fang Dongshun that a teacher at the school had seen the child's drawings and thought he might have some psychological issues, suggesting the parents go in for a chat.

Mei Wen, not being very educated, asked Fang Dongshun to pretend to be the child's uncle and go to the school.

Fang Dongshun was quite worried on the one hand, as it was his own son after all, but on the other hand, he found it strange. How could a little kid in kindergarten have psychological problems?

He went to the school alone to see the teacher.

The teacher didn't suspect anything, thinking Fang Dongshun looked refined and cultured and was probably a highly educated relative of the student, which was why the parents entrusted him to come. The teacher even thought communication would be easier with him.

The teacher took out a few crayon drawings.

Fang Dongshun understood immediately and felt quite embarrassed.

The teacher was also quite embarrassed. As the saying goes, children speak without restraint, and children's paintings often do not hide anything.

The homework assignment was simply to draw 'me and my family'.

Fang Dongshun's son, nominally still Du Ping's son, was called Du Lele.

In Lele's drawing, on one side was his dad, and on the other side was his mom, who was holding another man's hand. He had drawn two crosses on his mom's and that uncle's faces... it was obvious to anyone what this meant.

The teacher, being quite responsible, told Fang Dongshun, "If there are any emotional disputes between adults, try not to let them affect the child. At this age, children haven't formed their basic worldview. If there are too many negative emotions in their lives, especially disputes between adults, it could have a very serious impact on them."

Fang Dongshun took the drawing home and, not thinking much about it at the time, discussed with Mei Wen what to do.

Later, Mei Wen asked, "Do you want to find a psychiatrist to counsel the child, like they do on TV?"

Fang Dongshun thought it was feasible. After all, he had plenty of money, so he asked a friend to find a good child psychiatrist.

Then someone introduced him to Dr. Ding Liying, also known as Ding Ying.

After leaving the organisation, Ding Ying continued his research while monitoring several seventh-generation test subjects and working in child psychiatry to cover his tracks.

Despite his unremarkable appearance, Ding Ying was very knowledgeable and excelled in both psychology and biological genetics.

His involvement in child psychology was actually related to his seventh-generation experimental project.

Fang Dongshun, after being introduced, found Ding Ying and showed him the child's drawings. He didn't hide anything and explained the family situation.

Fang Dongshun explained that he was about to divorce his wife, and Mei Wen would also be divorcing, and they would eventually live together, so he hoped the child could adapt in advance and needed psychological counselling in this regard.

Fang Dongshun told Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang that Ding Ying's office was a two-storey building. The first floor was a reception room, and the second floor had many bookshelves, possibly his private study.

While talking with Ding Ying, Fang Dongshun heard the sound of pages turning upstairs and asked if there was someone up there.

Ding Ying said it was his assistant, who was helping to organise materials.

At the time, Fang Dongshun didn't think much of it.

Ding Ying suggested bringing the child the next day, he might have the child draw more pictures and then create a treatment plan.

Fang Dongshun agreed.

The next day, he and Mei Wen took the child to the clinic.

Ding Ying asked Lele to draw some pictures while Mei Wen waited on the sofa, and Fang Dongshun stepped out for a cigarette.

While at the door, a young man who looked like a university student passed by carrying a pile of documents and accidentally bumped into him, scattering the documents.

Fang Dongshun helped him pick up the items and noticed that some of the documents contained photos of corpses, all hanging upside down in a cornfield, and there was also a painting.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked him what kind of painting it was. He said it was an oil painting with the same arrangement as the corpses.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang showed him the oil painting.

Fang Dongshun nodded and said it was the same one.

After seeing the photos of the corpses and the painting, Fang Dongshun asked the young man, "What is this?"

The young man, looking very tired, casually replied, "Oh, I'm helping Teacher organise materials."

Fang Dongshun pointed in the direction of the office and asked, "Is that your teacher?"

The young man nodded.

Fang Dongshun frowned and pointed at the photos of the corpses, asking, "Are these real?"

The student smiled, looked around, and whispered, "Of course they're real."

As he was about to leave, he seemed to remember something and asked Fang Dongshun, "Are you sure you want to leave your child with him?"

Fang Dongshun was slightly taken aback and asked, "Is there a problem?"

The young man picked up the photos of the corpses and shook them, asking, "Isn't this a problem?"

Fang Dongshun was shocked and asked, "What do you mean?"

The young man smiled, shook the photos, and said, "A serial killer, he's also one of my teacher's patients."

He yawned and added, "They still haven't caught him. Apparently, he was a patient twenty years ago and recently started committing crimes again. We're organising materials for the police."

Fang Dongshun was stunned and asked, "Your teacher is helping the police catch a serial killer? Wouldn't my child be in danger here?"

"Catching them?" The young man seemed amused. "Of course the goal is to make sure the police don't catch them! If they catch him and find out he has mental issues treated by my teacher, what then? Besides..."

The young man seemed quite gossipy and whispered to Fang Dongshun, "I heard from former students that the serial killer is actually the teacher's son!"

The young man patted him on the shoulder, "If you have money and time, spend more of it with your child. At such a young age, relationships can be easily nurtured. Why see a psychiatrist? You might end up creating problems where there are none."

With that, he shook his head and walked away.

Fang Dongshun, however, stood there, not only shocked but with a stupid idea brewing in his mind, like steam rising from a pot, ready to burst out sooner or later.

With these thoughts in mind, Fang Dongshun returned to Ding Ying's office.

At this time, Lele had already drawn many pictures. While these drawings were relatively normal, Fang Dongshun watched his child flip through the sketchbook, page by page, and his plan gradually took shape.

By then, Fang Dongshun had already conceived a "perfect crime plan" to frame someone and disguise the crime as a serial murder case, ready for execution.

......

After hearing how Fang Dongshun conceived this case, Bai Yutang frowned – That the young man seemed to be guiding Fang Dongshun...

Zhan Zhao also turned to look.

At this moment, Zhao Jue, who was sitting on the sofa behind them, had also changed his posture. From his earlier disinterest and disdain, he now sat with his chin resting on his hand, looking forward with keen interest and bright eyes.

"What was that young man's name?" Bai Yutang asked him.

Fang Dongshun shook his head and said he hadn't seen him again after that... he was just an ordinary-looking university student.

Zhan Zhao had already gleaned many clues from this story but wasn't in a hurry. He gestured for Fang Dongshun to continue.

Fang Dongshun, on the one hand, had Mei Wen take the child to see the psychiatrist weekly while on the other hand, he prepared his plan. He asked Mei Wen to temporarily pacify Du Ping, and he himself kept Wang Aizhen at ease, waiting for the right moment to act.

First, he modified the basement under his garage. When he bought the villa, he had specifically chosen it for this hidden basement, which now finally came in handy.

After setting up the basement, he found a way to get some organophosphates and taught Mei Wen how to administer them, tricking the unsuspecting Du Ping and Wang Aizhen into taking them. Thus, the two unfortunate people died at the hands of their loved ones.

Fang Dongshun drove overnight to a cornfield in the suburbs.

He and Mei Wen worked together to set up the scene and handle the bodies. He had even prepared cement in advance and left fingerprints.

The reason he did this was that when he picked up the documents that day, he saw a document that read – modus operandi: smearing cement on the face and hands, leaving relatives' fingerprints, coercing relatives into helping dispose of the bodies.

After dealing with the bodies, Fang Dongshun and Mei Wen went back.

The next day, he took his son to see Ding Ying and noticed that Ding Ying seemed a bit agitated.

Fang Dongshun knew that his plan was likely ready to be implemented.

On the third day, he had Mei Wen stay in the basement with their son while he handled the child's drawings, leaving them in the room.

Then Fang Dongshun called Ding Ying, saying he had received a strange phone call telling him not to bring his child to the clinic anymore. The caller had said that all problems had been solved for him and that his family could now live peacefully and undisturbed.

Hearing this, Ding Ying was stunned and asked what the caller's voice sounded like and if they had said anything else strange...

Fang Dongshun said, "He told me to go to Sanbo Bridge in the suburbs."

Ding Ying then rushed to Fang Dongshun's house and drove with him to the suburbs.

When Fang Dongshun and Mei Wen had previously disposed of the bodies, they had taken an old road he was very familiar with, having collaborated with a local cement factory before. It had rained the night before, leaving the old road full of mud pits, so the car was covered in mud, which he deliberately hadn't cleaned.

When they reached the suburbs, Fang Dongshun parked the car outside the surveillance area, and Ding Ying got out to ask for directions.

Then, the two of them arrived at Sanbo Bridge and found a pair of men's and women's shoes under the bridge... which Fang Dongshun and Mei Wen had prepared in advance, belonging to the deceased.

Seeing the shoes, Fang Dongshun immediately wanted to call the police.

But at that moment, Ding Ying begged him not to report it and promised to handle it if given more time.

After a period of "internal struggle", Fang Dongshun was "convinced" by Ding Ying.

Ding Ying told him to go home, pack up, and quickly find a place to hide with his wife and child. He promised to take care of things there.

Fang Dongshun agreed. After returning home, he painted that picture on the wall in the backyard and pinned two Polaroid photos of the corpses.

Then, he deliberately parked the car outside the garage, went into the basement, and called Ding Ying, saying there was a suspicious person painting on his garden wall.

Ding Ying rushed to his house immediately.

By then, no one was home, and the car wasn't properly parked.

Ding Ying called him to ask what was going on, and Fang Dongshun said he got scared and took his wife and child to his in-laws' place to hide.

Relieved, Ding Ying said he saw the car wasn't properly parked and thought something had happened.

Fang Dongshun said he had asked a friend to drive them, and in the rush, they didn't lock the car, so he asked Ding Ying to help park it.

Ding Ying, suspecting nothing, parked the car and even closed the villa gate for him before hurriedly leaving.

Afterwards, Fang Dongshun, Mei Wen and their son stayed in the basement for two days, and the police arrived around the time he had anticipated.

Originally, in Fang Dongshun's plan, this was a perfect way to frame Ding Ying's "son", the serial killer, for the murders.

Fang Dongshun, cautious and cunning, told the police that their child had been kidnapped and that he and Mei Wen had been coerced into handling the bodies, insisting it was all Ding Ying's doing.

This approach had two possible outcomes.

First, if the police didn't catch Ding Ying, he would likely protect his killer son and then disappear himself.

The second possibility was that even if Ding Ying was caught, all evidence pointed to him, and for the sake of his son, he would take all the blame.

As for the only flaw, Lele's testimony was simple to handle. Ding Ying was a psychology expert and could easily be said to have manipulated the child into saying whatever he wanted.

In short, Fang Dongshun thought this would be a perfect crime, flawless.

However, what he never expected was that Ding Ying would die! And die early. Suddenly, his perfect plan was exposed.

After Zhan Zhao finished listening, he pondered. In fact, the case had more flaws than just the timing.

From the moment he saw the child's sketchbook, he had sensed something unreasonable – It's normal for a child to hate his parents who argued around him. He might be angry at his father, his mother, and the new father figure his mother found for him... But he had no reason to hate Wang Aizhen. The child had probably never even met Wang Aizhen, so why would his drawings show a desire to get rid of someone he likely had never met?

Zhan Zhao clicked his tongue quietly, he felt that he wasn't stable enough. Indeed, there was a lot he should learn from Zhao Jue.

Meanwhile, the usually "stable" Zhao Jue was anything but calm at the moment.

He grabbed a pen and paper, moved closer to Fang Dongshun with a face full of excitement, and asked eagerly, "What did the gossiping young man look like? Describe him in detail! Quickly!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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 31, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 10, 2024 by Soojin