S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 166

Special Files – Witches 13 – Photos

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Gui Jiali spoke of a friend of hers, Hou Yingqi, a social media influencer who had once enthusiastically investigated the mysterious car accident involving the Shen family.

However, the outcome was quite different this time...

Hou Yingqi was known for her professionalism and boldness. Firstly, she wasn't the type to seek attention through sensationalism, everything she did was thoroughly investigated. Most mysterious events were solved under her scrutiny. And even if she didn't solve a case, it wouldn't scare her off from investigating...

Seeing everyone's curiosity, Gui Jiali suggested, "Shall we have some tea together? We're all familiar with each other anyway!"

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang nodded.

The two then looked at Zhao Jue and Bai Ye, who had no objections either.

Gui Jiali called Hou Yingqi to arrange a meeting.

Originally, they wanted to find a quiet tea house or café, but Hou Yingqi seemed still uneasy about the matter and asked if they could find a "safer" place, definitely not somewhere like a funeral home or morgue where there were dead people.

Everyone glanced at each other, "Safe... how about the police station?"

Unexpectedly, Hou Yingqi rejected the idea, saying that the police station also had a forensic lab and a morgue!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances – Since when did Bold Hou start fearing the dead?

After much deliberation, Zhao Jue said, "Let's go to my studio."

Everyone agreed it was feasible.

Hou Yingqi asked, "Is it safe there?"

Everyone thought – How could they prove that Zhao Jue's place was safe? They couldn't exactly tell her that it was home to a bunch of top-tier fighters...

Zhao Jue calmly provided evidence, "I have over a dozen dogs there."

Hou Yingqi immediately agreed and arranged to meet everyone an hour later.

Everyone's curiosity was piqued – What exactly was she afraid of?

Eager to find out the results, they bid farewell to Gui Jiali, left the funeral home, and headed to Zhao Jue's villa.

Zhao Jue's villa was quite lively. As soon as they entered the yard, a pack of dogs happily ran up to them, surrounded them, and wagged their tails.

Zhan Zhao estimated that the number of dogs had not decreased but rather increased, and asked in confusion, "Didn't you say you were looking for adopters?"

Zhao Jue got furious upon hearing this, "I've already given away several, but that kid from the adoption centre somehow latched onto us, and now they send any new dogs to me! There's no time to find people to adopt them."

As he spoke, Zhao Jue handed some flyers to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Take these to the police station and post them! Didn't I ask you to distribute them before? Did you just throw them away?!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt wronged – They had distributed them at the police station! If no one adopted the dogs, there was nothing they could do. The officers were too busy to take care of pets, and they couldn't bring dogs to work.

Zhao Hu took the flyers and asked, "Why not distribute them at the dessert shop? What's the use of posting them at the police station..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were taken aback and turned to look at Zhao Hu.

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye exchanged glances and handed all the flyers to Zhao Hu.

Hu Zi held a stack of flyers, and Bai Ye and Zhao Jue each patted him on the shoulder – Brilliant!

Relieved of one of his worries, Zhao Jue's mood immediately improved, and he led everyone inside.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded at Zhao Hu.

As Hu Zi walked inside with Ma Han, he said, "I've discovered there's a problem with these geniuses."

Ma Han looked at him – Are you sure there's only one problem?

Zhao Hu whispered, "They severely lack common sense."

Ma Han thought about it and nodded, "That's true."

Surrounded by a pack of cheerful dogs, the group walked along a tree-shaded path and arrived at the courtyard by the koi pond.

Under the grape arbour, Mia was sitting on a swing, reading a book.

On the porch in front of the villa, Issel was chopping vegetables to feed the turtles and rabbits.

Eleven was repairing a motorcycle.

Mia looked up and saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arriving, and she immediately waved.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang waved back. The child had a light in her eyes when she smiled, which made people happy just to see her.

Issel brought vegetables to feed the rabbits and handed half a carrot to Mia.

Eleven looked up and observed everyone, then shook his head, swinging his wrench as he quipped, "Haven't seen you for a few days, and there's another big case already? Do you emit some kind of scent that attracts weirdos?"

The group looked at Eleven with some confusion. Zhan Zhao even reached up to touch his face and asked Bai Yutang, "Can you tell?"

Bai Yutang pinched his chin and scrutinized him – When there's a case, he looks more energetic. Otherwise, he's usually lazy.

After waiting for a while on the porch, they heard the doorbell.

Soon, Hou Yingqi appeared with a large bag.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were somewhat surprised to see her... Hou Yingqi had always exuded a particularly competent and sharp aura, usually dressed in sportswear or professional attire for her livestreams. But today, she wore a very feminine dress and even put on cute makeup, the crowd almost didn't recognise her.

Zhao Hu whispered to Ma Han, "Does she have a partner?"

Ma Han doubted that getting a partner would change someone's dressing style – Maybe she's attending a wedding...

Of course, while the group speculated, it wasn't appropriate to ask directly.

Hou Yingqi didn't care about their speculations, she pointed to the door, indicating – let's talk inside!

They all entered the villa together and settled in the living room.

Issel had just made some fruit and vegetable smoothies, and he served everyone a glass of healthy drink.

Hou Yingqi seemed to need some psychological preparation, as she held the glass and drank most of the fruit smoothie in one gulp, making everyone feel a bit of a toothache.

After calming her nerves, Hou Yingqi asked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Why is your SCI investigating the Shen family's car accident? Did something happen?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't go into detail, they just said that while investigating a murder case, they came across some related clues about that area, and that led them to the Shen family's case, so they wanted to know more details.

Upon hearing this, Hou Yingqi murmured quietly, "Sure enough, something happened... I knew there was a problem in that area!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance. Zhao Jue asked her, "What did you find out back then?"

Hou Yingqi opened her bulging bag and took out a laptop and a camera.

After quickly connecting the devices, she said, "You're absolutely right, that place is definitely problematic!"

Once the devices were connected, she took out a bundle of documents from her bag.

Even Zhao Jue began to suspect whether this girl also had some special abilities, how else could she fit so many things into that backpack? It looked like it weighed at least thirty pounds, yet she carried it around everywhere, all while wearing high heels... quite impressive.

Hou Yingqi first took out a photo and placed it on the table.

The photo showed a couple, an elderly woman, a female student, and a young boy.

"These are the Shen family members." Hou Yingqi introduced.

The group frowned slightly as they looked at the photo.

Though it was supposed to be a family portrait... Although the group were together, it didn't have the atmosphere of a family photo at all, Instead, it seemed very eerie.

The background of the photo was the small villa they lived in, with a white car parked in front.

In front of the car, the Shen family members seemed to be standing in order of age, arranged for the photo.

All five people in the photo, dressed in white clothes, were expressionless as they stared at the camera.

"Wow..." Zhao Hu couldn't help but exclaim as he looked at the photo, "They look like they're taking ransom photos after being kidnapped."

"It does seem like they're not very happy." Bai Ye also found the photo strange.

Everyone looked at Hou Yingqi.

Hou Yingqi said, "This was the only family portrait found in the Shen family's house, and it was displayed in the living room."

Zhan Zhao flipped the photo over, somewhat surprised.

There was a date written on the back of the photo.

Zhan Zhao calculated the date and the time of the incident, "It was taken exactly three days before they went missing?"

"Why would they have such a photo displayed in the living room..." Everyone felt puzzled. The photo inexplicably emitted a sense of foreboding.

Apart from feeling puzzled, Bai Yutang was also curious about how Hou Yingqi obtained these photos, "Did you enter the Shen family's house?"

"I did, I looked through it from top to bottom." Hou Yingqi waved her hand upon seeing the sceptical looks from the officers present, "Wang Hua hired a private investigator to find her daughter Shen Yan's whereabouts, and I went in with the detective. It was all part of a legitimate investigation!"

Zhao Jue felt the photo was slightly strange but didn't think much of it, so he asked, "Did you find anything else?"

Hou Yingqi squinted slightly and signalled, "Everyone sit tight!"

Everyone looked at each other in confusion – Sit tight?

"Turn off the lights!" Hou Yingqi pointed to the ceiling.

Mia took out a tablet to turn off the lights... but it was still quite bright outside, so the room remained fairly illuminated.

Hou Yingqi seemed somewhat dissatisfied, and Mia immediately tapped a few times on the tablet... Suddenly, the thick curtains around the room automatically closed.

The living room was now dimly lit.

Hou Yingqi nodded in satisfaction and took out a UV flashlight from her bag, the kind used to detect bloodstains.

The others became increasingly puzzled by her actions but patiently continued to watch.

Hou Yingqi turned on the flashlight and shone it on the photo of the family of five.

As the purple light illuminated the photo, everyone subconsciously gasped. Mia grabbed her father's sleeve and pointed to the photo, indicating how impressive it was!

Issel nodded while shielding his daughter's eyes.

Under the UV light, each person in the photo turned into a skeleton.

Zhao Jue took the flashlight, picked up the photo, and carefully examined it. As he looked, he heard him praise, "This is extremely professional!"

"Impressive, right?!" Hou Yingqi continued, "I've had experts examine it, and it turns out someone used a special invisible ink to draw detailed skeletal diagrams on the five people in this photo. After examination, all the skeletons were accurately positioned, and the gender and age matched perfectly with the individuals in the photo!"

Everyone found it amazing – Without some professional knowledge or artistic skills, it would be impossible to achieve this effect!

"And that's not even the most bizarre part." Hou Yingqi took out a densely written notebook, opened it, and flipped through it.

"The police records at the time stated that of the four bodies salvaged, each one was missing a bone." Hou Yingqi handed the notebook to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao flipped through it.

The notebook was not only detailed but also had diagrams.

It marked that Shen Xin's body was missing the fourth rib on the left side, Lu Hui's body was missing the fibula of the left leg, the elderly woman was missing the radius bone of her right hand, and Shen Mingming was missing the sixth rib on the left side.

"The flesh and organs of the four bodies found had already decomposed, but because the corpses were in the car, the skeletons were well-preserved. However, each body was missing a bone. Look at those drawings on the photo!"

Everyone scrutinised the drawings and indeed found that each skeleton in the photo had a certain degree of deficiency, with each person missing one bone, mirroring the situation of the real skeletons almost exactly.

Everyone was stunned.

Zhan Zhao, on the other hand, carefully examined the drawing of Shen Yan on the photo.

After careful comparison, Shen Yan's skeleton was intact... corresponding to the fact that her body had not been found.

"Could she still be alive?" Bai Yutang asked.

Hou Yingqi shook her head, "Don't rush to conclusions. You have no idea how terrifying this case really is!"

‿︵‿︵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