S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 165

Special Files – Witches 12 – Strange Occurrences

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Gui Jiali seems to know about the car accident that occurred at Sanbo Bridge earlier.

"Not an ordinary car accident?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both asked for details.

Gui Jiali said, "It's like this, three years ago, the funeral home received four skeletons, which had been highly decomposed from prolonged immersion in water. I looked at them and said that it was impossible to restore them, the workload would be too immense, so I suggested we talk to the families about direct cremation. But the director said there were special requirements, and the families wanted to perform a ritual."

Everyone frowned.

Gui Jiali smiled and said, "I also told the director at that time that we should not promote feudal superstitions, what kind of ritual..."

The director then explained the whole story to me.

"Five years ago, in a village on the outskirts of the city, a section of the guardrail on a bridge called Sanbo Bridge was broken, and there were very obvious skid marks on the surface of the bridge. At that time, the villagers reported it to the police. After examining the scene, the police suspected a car accident had occurred, so they asked the village head to go door to door to inquire and also called in a salvage team to search the river. The river under Sanbo Bridge isn't deep, and the water isn't swift. The salvage team searched for a day but didn't find a car. The police thought that, if lucky, perhaps there had indeed been an accident, but the car had only damaged the guardrail and hadn't fallen into the river, so it had driven away on its own."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao recalled the situation at Sanbo Bridge. The guardrail had been completely replaced, indicating the damage must have been quite severe... The bridge wasn't wide either, so it was hard to imagine that the car didn't fall off after causing such severe damage.

But the two didn't press further and continued to listen to Gui Jiali.

"However, after investigating the village, they found there was an issue with one household. Near Sanbo Bridge lived a family headed by Shen Xin, the owner of a cement factory, who was in his forties at the time. Shen Xin's household consisted of five members, his seventy-year-old mother, a daughter, and a son. The elder daughter, Shen Yan, was the child of Shen Xin and his ex-wife Wang Hua, and was sixteen at the time. Shen Xin and Wang Hua had divorced, and Wang Hua had remarried and moved to the city. Shen Xin's new wife, Lu Hui, had a six-year-old son, Shen Mingming. The family lived together in a self-built villa. When the village head conducted door-to-door investigations, they found that no one from the Shen household came to open the door. Shen Xin's white sedan, usually parked in the yard, was also missing. More strangely, the lights and air conditioning in the house were on, suggesting they had only stepped out briefly. However, repeated calls to Shen Xin went unanswered, and several visits to knock on the door yielded no response. Later, the police investigated, and a neighbour, an elderly man, mentioned hearing the sound of Shen Xin's car door and engine the previous night. When asked about the time, the elderly man estimated it was around midnight, as he heard it during a nocturnal visit to the bathroom. Neighbours found this unusual, as Shen Xin's mother never went out and usually watered plants or hung laundry at that time, but she hadn't been seen all day. The village head contacted Shen Xin's ex-wife, Wang Hua, who said she had spoken with their daughter around 10 PM the previous night. The daughter seemed normal and hadn't mentioned going out. However, subsequent calls to her daughter also went unanswered.

With their years of investigative experience, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang judged that something was seriously wrong...

"The police found the situation suspicious and decided to break into the Shen household. Inside, the house was neatly kept, and everything appeared normal except for the lights and air conditioning being on. Suspiciously, all the family's cell phones and wallets were on the bedside tables, and the bedsheets were turned down as if they had been recently used. The clothes in the wardrobe drawers were neatly arranged, with no signs of packing or preparing to leave. Additionally, an odd detail was that while all the shoes in the entryway's shoe cabinet were there, only three pairs of clean, packaged slippers, adult-sized, were present, presumably for guests. Given the family's composition, there should have been five pairs of slippers, including various sizes for men, women, and children."

Upon hearing this, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both felt that the situation was exceedingly bizarre.

Zhao Hu also asked, "So, you're saying this family encountered some emergency in the middle of the night, left in a hurry wearing pyjamas and slippers without taking their phones or wallets, drove off, and then had a car accident, crashing into the guardrail? But the car and bodies weren't found in the river?"

Gui Jiali nodded – Well summarised! That was indeed the police's initial assessment.

Zhao Jue gave an approving nod to Zhao Hu – Seems the husky is getting more capable.

Everyone found the case very strange, but it was clear there was more to come.

"After this incident, the police dispatched personnel to thoroughly search downstream, but still, they couldn't find the white sedan, nor the bodies of the Shen family." Gui Jiali continued. "Shen Xin's ex-wife, Wang Hua, also couldn't find her daughter. It's said she even hired a private detective to look for her. Since Shen Xin's cement factory was poorly managed and on the brink of bankruptcy, many suspected Shen Xin staged the accident to escape his debts, making it look like he had died."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought about it – Indeed, this was a plausible scenario.

"This case was eventually classified as a missing persons case and left unresolved. The cement factory was restructured and its operations improved." Gui Jiali, who had clearly researched this case in detail, said, "But three years ago, two years after the incident, a large fishpond not far from Sanbo Bridge was drained for road construction... In the mud at the bottom of the pond, a white sedan was found. Some villagers immediately recognised it as Shen Xin's missing car and reported it to the police. When the police investigated, they found four highly decomposed skeletons inside the car. Forensic analysis identified them as an adult male, an adult female, an elderly female, and a young boy."

Everyone asked, "What about Shen Xin's elder daughter, Shen Yan?"

Gui Jiali shook his head, "She wasn't found."

Everyone frowned... What was going on?

Bai Yutang recalled the terrain around Sanbo Bridge, "If the fishpond was drained for road construction... then it should be near the new road, right?"

Gui Jiali nodded, "The new road cuts right through the fishpond."

Bai Yutang probably knew the location, frowning, "That's neither too far nor too close... It's unlikely that the car went off the bridge and straight into the fishpond, the angle doesn't seem right."

Gui Jiali nodded repeatedly, "Mhmm! That's the story as the director told it."

Zhao Jue was curious, "So, what kind of ritual did the deceased's family want to perform?"

Gui Jiali smiled slightly, "What the family wanted me to restore wasn't the faces of those four skeletons, but the face of the missing elder daughter, Shen Yan... They had prepared burial clothes and hoped I could use resin to reconstruct Shen Yan's face so that she could be included in the memorial service."

Everyone was baffled when they heard this.

Bai Yutang asked, "Shen Yan's body hasn't even been found, why hold a funeral for her? Did her mother Wang Hua agree to this?"

Gui Jiali's expression became increasingly mysterious as she spoke softly, "It was her biological mother, Wang Hua, who made this request. I found it suspicious at the time, A mother would never acknowledge her child's death without seeing the body, especially since she's only been missing for two years, how could she give up searching so quickly? Some parents keep looking for their children even after twenty or thirty years! Right?"

Everyone nodded – It was indeed suspicious.

"But this case was treated as a traffic accident, and the forensic autopsy didn't reveal much. Any evidence that might have existed would have been washed away or eaten by fish after two years in the pond." Gui Jiali said, pausing briefly. Before anyone could object, she continued, "However! This case piqued my curiosity. I told the director I could help the family, even though it would be a lot of work, and I could also restore the faces of the other skeletons... Guess what happened?"

Everyone looked at her intently.

"The family insisted on only restoring Shen Yan's face, and nothing else. I even offered to do the other restorations for free, but they refused." Gui Jiali said, standing up and going to a file cabinet. She pulled out a brown file folder, "Because I was so curious, I called a friend of mine."

As Gui Jiali opened the file folder, she said, "You should know her, her name is Hou Yingqi."

Bai Yutang rubbed his forehead, and Zhao Hu exclaimed, "Bold Hou?"

Gui Jiali nodded enthusiastically, "Indeed, she's quite famous!"

Hou Yingqi was a self-media content creator and somewhat of a minor internet celebrity. She used to be a radio host, famous for her late-night ghost story programs. Presumably an enthusiast of paranormal and supernatural phenomena, she had a sharp mind and clear logic, creating many popular programs over the years. When mass media transitioned to online platforms, she started her own media channel, focusing on investigating paranormal events.

The SCI team often encountered her at crime scenes, as she was more diligent than professional investigative journalists when a major case occurred.

Hou Yingqi frequently received mysterious event information from her audience and would take her investigation team to look into these events, creating shows from the footage. Several movies had been adapted from cases she provided, making her somewhat of a... well, not an authority, but definitely a "professional" in this field.

Gui Jiali looking for her was indeed a good choice.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Have you seen the episode about this case?"

Zhan Zhao immediately shook his head, "There are a total of a hundred and thirty-four episodes, updated every Wednesday, this episode doesn't exist."

Everyone silently glanced at Zhan Zhao – So you're a fan...

Zhan Zhao nodded, "This show is perfect for watching while eating!"

Ma Han added, "Xin Xin loves watching it too, it's a staple in the forensic lab."

Zhan Zhao had also been introduced to the show by Gongsun.

Bai Yutang asked Gui Jiali, "So, did Hou Yingqi find anything in her investigation?"

Gui Jiali nodded.

Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "With such a good topic, why didn't she make an episode about it?"

Gui Jiali lowered her voice, "She didn't dare to."

Everyone was stunned – Bold Hou has things she doesn't dare to do? This is the woman who's slept in haunted houses to investigate ghost stories.

Gui Jiali sighed, "The more Yingqi investigated, the more she realised this wasn't a simple case. The clues she found were increasingly bizarre, and it scared her so much that she eventually stopped the investigation. She even saw a psychologist for several months."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, "There was indeed a period when her updates stopped, she said she needed a break. Was it because of this?"

Everyone's curiosity was now thoroughly piqued, even Bai Ye asked, "So what did she find that scared her so much?"

‿︵‿︵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: June 2, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 16, 2024 by Soojin