S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 202

The Intelligent Killer 07 – The Same Approach

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In Lin Tian's peculiar villa, the SCI team found a hidden secret room.

Opening the door, they saw a narrow space in front of them with a staircase descending on the right.

Bai Yutang, holding a flashlight, walked down, with Zhan Zhao following.

The basement was dark but felt spacious.

Bai Yutang shone his flashlight around, discovering many cabinets. At the bottom of the stairs, there was an electric switch.

Bai Yutang pulled the switch... and instantly, the basement lights turned on.

The two of them stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the basement lit up... it looked like a massive server room.

Rows of black hard drive cabinets had small lights flickering, and the hum of fans whirring filled the room.

Behind several rows of hard drive cabinets, there was a large table with several monitors on it. A projection screen was slowly descending from the wall in front.

As the projection screen formed a wall-sized screen, the computer automatically booted up, and the nearby projector lit up.

An AI-generated image of a little girl appeared on the projection screen, seemingly booting up. The little girl tilted her head eerily from side to side, occasionally making a soft "hehehe" sound.

Zhao Hu took one look and exclaimed, "Oh my God," before running back upstairs.

Bai Yutang told him to call Jiang Ping over.

Ma Han glanced down from the top of the stairs and also found the scene too eerie. Lin Tian's agent was the most terrified, hearing the little girl's laughter from downstairs and covering his ears in fright.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao walked around the basement server room, both puzzled – The server room was hidden in Lin Tian's house.

Zhan Zhao took some photos and sent them to Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue asked for the address and said he would come over with Bai Ye.

After hanging up, Zhan Zhao saw Bai Yutang standing in front of the large screen, looking up.

The computer had booted up, showing a login page that required a password.

The username field displayed the word – Witch.

Bai Yutang looked back at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and walked to the desk.

The screen mirrored the computer desktop, indicating it was a projection of the desktop.

Zhan Zhao entered a string of numbers, and the computer successfully logged in.

Bai Yutang looked back at Zhan Zhao, puzzled.

Zhan Zhao said, "The anniversary of Che Dongming's death."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly.

At this moment, the computer suddenly spoke, "Searching, the anniversary of Che Dongming's death..."

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin – Was the function similar to those AI smart speakers... Except the voice wasn't mechanical but rather a little girl's simulated voice, which sounded odd.

Bai Yutang also felt that the voice wasn't genuinely cute like a child's but imitated by an adult... He didn't know why, but it gave a strange, eerie feeling.

Soon, the other SCI members arrived.

The forensic team was returning to the police station from the cemetery. Bai Chi had just contacted Gongsun, who said that bone fragments were in the urn, which might be promising.

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye also arrived, bringing Mia with them.

Mia followed Jiang Ping down, and the two computer geeks curiously examined the equipment.

Mia gestured to Jiang Ping, who nodded and operated the computer, checking the system.

Zhao Jue stood in front of the screen with Zhan Zhao, both looking up at the eerie little girl on the screen. It was probably the ugliest screensaver they had ever seen...

Bai Yutang and Bai Ye stood to the side, occasionally glancing in one direction from time to time – at a hard drive cabinet in the corner.

Zhan Zhao noticed this and tapped Zhao Jue on the shoulder.

Zhao Jue turned around to see Bai Ye and Bai Yutang staring at the cabinet, with Bai Yutang sniffing silently and frowning.

Zhan Zhao walked over and patted him, asking, "What's wrong?"

Bai Yutang looked around at the others who were working normally and asked, "Do any of you... smell something strange?"

Zhan Zhao tilted his head and sniffed, detecting a musty smell, perhaps due to the basement's concrete floor.

Zhao Jue clicked his tongue.

Zhan Zhao turned back to see Zhao Jue glancing at Bai Ye.

Bai Ye smiled slightly and held out his hand.

Zhao Jue, reluctantly, pulled out some money and handed it to him, looking like he had lost a bet.

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at them in confusion.

Bai Ye pointed to the cabinet just as Zhao Hu walked around the corner.

Zhao Hu examined the cabinet, and Ma Han walked over as well.

Bai Ye gestured for them to pull it open.

Zhao Hu found no good place to grip, as the cabinet was metal and similar to the other hard drive cabinets, except it had no lights on and was covered in dust, looking broken.

The two of them pulled together, but instead of the door opening, the cabinet fell over.

Zhao Hu saw the part facing the wall and couldn't help but exclaim, "Damn! It's a fridge!"

They turned the fridge around, and with a forceful yank, the fridge door flew open with a clang.

"Fuck!"

With Zhao Hu's shout, a rigid object tumbled out of the fridge, crashing to the floor amid a scattering of ice shards...

Now everyone smelled the strange odour, a strong stench of decay.

The officers covered their noses and backed away, staring at the object that had fallen out of the fridge – a frozen corpse.

The corpse was frozen solid, wrapped in plastic wrap, and covered with a layer of ice, making the face hard to see.

Zhao Hu frowned and moved closer, wiping the ice off the corpse's face with a napkin and asking Ma Han, "Does it look familiar?"

Ma Han examined it closely and was surprised, "Che Dongming?"

"What?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also rushed over to look.

They compared the corpse with the photos they had of Che Dongming and found they were basically the same.

"How long has he been preserved?" Ma Han noted that the corpse was relatively intact. Although it had a bit of a smell... it didn't look like it had been frozen for years.

"It looks like he hasn't been dead for long," Zhao Hu voiced everyone's thoughts.

Judging by Che Dongming's corpse, he definitely wasn't in his twenties. Given their earlier suspicions, they had thought Che Dongming might be the mastermind behind everything. So why was he dead too?

......

On the other side, the forensic team had just returned to the SCI office. Gongsun and his team took out the bone fragments from the urn and handed them over to the forensic department.

After testing, the forensic department found that they could extract DNA.

They compared the data with Che Dongming's records, and the conclusion was that it belonged to the same person.

Gongsun was puzzled – Was it really Cha Dongming who died?

The people in the forensic department had a different opinion.

Old Wang, holding a fragment, told Gongsun, "This bone shows no signs of high-temperature cremation."

Gongsun frowned, "Would this happen with the high-temperature furnaces at modern crematoriums?"

Old Yang shook his head, "At fifteen hundred degrees, even if it doesn't turn to ash, it's unlikely to preserve DNA so well."

"So, these bone fragments were intentionally placed in the urn?" Gongsun speculated, holding Che Dongming's file, "Perhaps someone tampered with the hospital records to fake his death..."

Old Yang nodded, agreeing with Gongsun's theory.

Just then, Gongsun's phone rang, it was Bai Yutang.

As soon as Gongsun answered, he said, "Che Dongming might really not be dead!"

Bai Yutang, looking at the frozen corpse, replied, "Whether he's dead or not, you'd better come and check yourself."

Gongsun didn't understand, "What?"

Bai Yutang sent him a photo of the corpse. Seeing it, Gongsun immediately set off with his forensic team to Lin Tian's villa.

......

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked Lin Tian's agent to have a look at Che Dongming's photo and see if he had ever seen this person with Lin Tian.

The agent thought for a moment and said he had seen him once, but not here, it was at Lin Tian's apartment in the city.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned – Why hadn't he mentioned Lin Tian's apartment in the city earlier?

The agent quickly shook his head. "The company rents the apartment in the city. Sometimes Lin Tian stays there temporarily when he's busy with work, but he doesn't keep personal items there."

"When did you see this person with Lin Tian?" Zhan Zhao pointed to Che Dongming's photo.

"Just last month. Lin Tian was going to a shoot, and when I went to pick him up, I saw him and this person coming out of the apartment one after the other. It was unusual because Lin Tian rarely had personal friends around, so I asked who he was. Lin Tian said he was a neighbour from the same building."

"Take us there," Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang instructed. They told the others to wrap things up and then got in the car with the agent to go to Lin Tian's city apartment.

As they left, Gongsun's forensic team arrived.

Running to the basement, they found the room wasn't too cold, and fearing the corpse would thaw, they had put it back in the fridge.

Gongsun opened the fridge and examined the corpse, frowning, "Strange!"

"Hasn't been dead for long, right?" Zhao Hu asked.

Gongsun nodded, "It looks like it's been dead for less than a month..."

"So, Che Dongming faked his death back then but recently died for real?" Zhao Hu asked, "Can you determine the cause of death? Wasn't he supposedly very ill? Was it all an act?"

Gongsun did a quick examination of the corpse and shook his head, saying they needed to take it back to the lab to thaw it out properly and examine it.

Ma Han found a transport vehicle, and they loaded the entire fridge into it.

Jiang Ping and Mia analysed the basement's computer, discovering it was the mainframe for the AI "Witch," and found the system surprisingly "simple".

In the car, Zhan Zhao received a call from Jiang Ping. After hanging up, he told Bai Yutang, "It's confirmed, it's the AI's mainframe."

Bai Yutang glanced at the agent in the rearview mirror, saying nothing more but giving Zhan Zhao a look – Should the search team still infiltrate Magic to find it? And wasn't Lin Tian supposed to be just a pawn? Why was everything at his place?

Zhan Zhao smiled, "It's similar to those serial killers we've dealt with before. We want to find the AI, so they gave it to us!"

The car drove into the city centre, the apartment building where Lin Tian lived was located in a busy area with dense foot traffic.

Bai Yutang parked in the underground garage, following the agent's directions.

After getting out, they surveyed the surroundings.

Zhan Zhao sent the address to Jiang Ping, asking him to check the surveillance from the past month, Che Dongming should have appeared.

Following the agent upstairs, they found Lin Tian's apartment on the twenty-third floor.

When the elevator doors opened, the apartment was the first on the left.

Since it was company property, the agent had the key. He took out the key to unlock the door, but Bai Yutang suddenly stopped him.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, who was listening at the door – What's wrong?

Bai Yutang pointed to the door, indicating, "Someone's inside!"

‿︵‿︵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: July 11, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin