S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 210

The Intelligent Killer 15 – Provocative

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Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue left Sun Jian's dormitory in different directions, preparing to see who could catch the culprit first.

The bystanders were left in a dilemma, unsure of whom to follow.

The twins made the easiest choice: Da Ding ran after Zhao Jue, while Xiao Ding followed Zhan Zhao.

Zhao Zhen looked at the remaining people and asked, "Want to place a bet?"

Big Brother Bai and Gongsun both expressed – they would follow Zhao Jue, Zhan Zhao was still a bit inexperienced.

Xiao Bai Chi linked arms with Zhao Zhen and chased after Zhan Zhao. Zhao Zhen thought Zhao Jue was a bit more reliable... but Bai Chi dragged him away.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu, being accustomed to watching Zhan Zhao catch thieves, decided to follow Zhao Jue, while Eleven and Issel did the opposite, following Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

In an instant, the group split into two.

Zhan Zhao pulled Bai Yutang to the right and walked to a door across the corridor.

Although many people in the building were not around, some teachers without classes were there, and most of them had their doors open, coming out to inquire about the situation.

Later, when the police asked the teachers to stay in their rooms, most left their doors slightly open or watched from the doorway, observing the situation outside.

To the right of Sun Jian's room were three rooms: one next to his and two opposite. The room next to his was locked, the first door on the right was slightly ajar, and the second door was closed.

Zhan Zhao knocked on the slightly ajar door.

A middle-aged man with glasses and a hairstyle full of wisdom quickly emerged.

Zhan Zhao briefly inquired about the teacher's name, then pointed to the two closed doors opposite and asked, "These two rooms, which one has a class today?"

"Uh..." The teacher pointed to the door next to his, the second door on the right, "Professor Xu is resting today, I'm not sure if he's in, and no one lives in the room next to Sun Jian's."

"Is Professor Xu also in the mechanical engineering department?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The teacher nodded, indicating all three were professors in the mechanical engineering department.

Zhan Zhao asked, "Did you hear any noise earlier?"

The teacher shook his head, saying he was gaming with headphones on and only knew about the incident when his teammates mentioned it.

Zhan Zhao nodded and pointed to Professor Xu's door.

Bai Yutang went to knock on the door.

After knocking a few times, there was no response.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao gestured – Continue knocking.

Bai Yutang had to keep knocking. After a while, an impatient voice responded, "Who is it..."

With the sound of footsteps, the door opened.

The room, with its curtains drawn, was dimly lit. A tall middle-aged man in a dressing gown, looking sleepy, appeared as if he had just been awakened.

Zhan Zhao sized him up, smiled, and asked, "Have you been sleeping?"

"Yeah..." The man yawned and asked in confusion, "Who are you?"

Bai Yutang showed him his ID and looked back at Zhan Zhao.

With his hands behind his back, Zhan Zhao smiled and asked, "Are you ill?"

"Ah..." Professor Xu nodded, "I've had a cold for days."

Zhan Zhao nodded and kindly reminded, "No matter how clean you wash the cup, cyanide residues can still be detected."

Professor Xu's mouth fell open, "What?"

"Stop pretending." Zhan Zhao winked at him, "I saw your dorm room curtains open from downstairs earlier. You probably thought of this trick when you heard us knocking next door, right?"

Bai Yutang asked, "It was you who poisoned Sun Jian, right?"

Professor Xu's sleepy expression vanished, replaced by tension. "I didn't know it was poison... He told me it was a laxative... I didn't know he would die after taking it... And it wasn't my decision to make it look like a suicide."

"Who gave you the drug?" Bai Yutang asked.

"It was my stu..." Professor Xu started to say, just as Zhao Jue and Bai Ye came up the corridor, with Ma Han and Zhao Hu dragging someone along.

Zhan Zhao pointed to the person and asked Professor Xu, "Is it him?"

Professor Xu nodded tearfully, admitting it was him.

Bai Yutang looked at him, thinking, you dared to harm others but not to admit it? Look at you...

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue glanced at each other while Gongsun arranged for the forensics team to collect evidence from Professor Xu's room, and asked Brother Bai, "So who won?"

"Both caught someone!" Xiao Bai Chi declared – It's a tie!

Zhao Zhen reminded from the side, "There's a main culprit and an accomplice... aiya."

He didn't finish before Bai Chi pinched him.

Zhao Zhen rubbed his arm and nodded, "Right, it's a tie."

So how did Zhao Jue's group catch the culprit?

Earlier, Zhao Jue went straight out of the dormitory building to the cordon and observed the crowd of onlookers.

Zhao Jue, with his hands behind his back, looked at the onlookers, both students and faculty, and pointed to a male student in a hoodie, saying, "It's him, bring him here."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han exchanged a glance – Who?

Fortunately, at that moment, a boy in a hoodie turned and ran.

Zhao Jue and out and gestured for Zhao Hu and Ma Han – Go!

As Hu Zi and Ma Han chased after the boy, they felt something was off, this command was only used by the canine unit to deploy the police dogs.

However, the boy, wearing slippers, tripped after a few steps. He barely got up before Zhao Hu grabbed him by the collar.

When they brought the boy back, Zhao Hu and Ma Han asked Zhao Jue – What was going on?

Zhao Jue pointed at the boy's pocket.

Zhao Hu searched his pocket and found a phone.

Zhao Jue took the phone, scanned the boy's face, then opened the chat app and showed it to Zhao Hu and Ma Han.

It displayed a chat history between two people planning to poison Sun Jian.

In the chat logs, there was nothing about one party lying to the other about the laxative, and both of them only referred to "the drug".

Zhan Zhao, after reading the chat history, frowned at the two – Caught red-handed, you idiots.

These two had a teacher-student relationship; the young man was Professor Xu's student. Xu and Sun had a good relationship with no conflicts of interest, so Professor Xu had no motive to kill Sun Jian, but he did it nonetheless.

The forensics team found two identical cups in Professor Xu's room.

Professor Xu explained that the school gave out a cup every year, and the teachers all used the same style. He knew Sun Jian's drinking habits, he liked to drink black tea, especially strongly brewed tea. So, he took a poisoned cup to Sun Jian's place, pretending to borrow something.

When Sun Jian went to get the item, he took the opportunity to switch the cups.

After drinking the tea, Sun Jian died immediately.

The SCI team, specialised in solving complex cases, thought this method was too crude. They also took both cups, instead of leaving the non-drugged one, which raised suspicion.

Professor Xu's explanation was amusing. He said he was afraid of leaving his cup behind, as it could contain DNA evidence.

Everyone looked at him, unsure whether to call him smart or stupid.

Professor Xu said the student gave him the drug. After killing Sun Jian, they made it look like a suicide. One went back to the room pretending to be ill and asleep, and the other went outside to watch.

Zhao Hu was curious and asked Zhao Jue, "Master Zhao, how did you know it was him?"

"Because of the shoes," Zhao Jue said.

Shoes?

Everyone looked down at the slippers on the student's feet.

Zhan Zhao slightly pursed his lips and let out a nonchalant hum.

Bai Yutang glanced at him – Careless.

Zhan Zhao sighed.

The captured student was wearing slippers, the kind rarely worn outside.

Sun Jian's corpse was wearing sneakers, which were clean.

Cyanide is a potent poison, death is almost immediate.

The tea was black, and the tea could have spilt on the slippers as he drank. It's easy to find black tea stains on slippers... The tea stains on the floor can be wiped off, but the tea stains on cotton slippers cannot be wiped off.

In a panic, the student swapped shoes with Sun Jian. Why not with Professor Xu? Their shoe sizes were very different.

From the beginning, Zhao Jue thought the hanging body looked strange because Sun Jian's clothes and shoes didn't match, and there were no slippers in his dorm room.

Bai Yutang looked at the two ridiculous culprits, "Are you two idiots? Such an obvious poisoning, and you try to fake a suicide?"

Professor Xu pointed at the student, accusing him of deceiving him into thinking it was just a laxative.

The student's face turned pale as he countered, saying it was the professor's idea and that he merely helped stage the scene.

The two started arguing, biting at each other like dogs.

"Enough, did you two sign a contract with the woman in red?" Zhan Zhao interrupted.

They both quieted down and nodded. Professor Xu even asked, "This doesn't count as premeditated murder, right... We didn't know it was poison! We just followed the woman in red's instructions, she is the mastermind! Faking the suicide and taking pictures of the suicide note were all things the woman in red told us to do. And the note was genuinely written by Sun Jian, it was left on the desk!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned. They didn't care whether these two were genuinely clueless or pretending to be, but this case would be tricky to prosecute. They insisted the woman in red told them it was just a laxative, claiming ignorance and coercion, making it difficult to prove they acted intentionally.

The teacher and student seemed smug, thinking they could escape serious punishment, convinced they wouldn't face the death penalty or be charged with intentional murder.

"You won't get away with it."

At that moment, someone was heard speaking.

Everyone turned to see Xu Lie leaning against the door.

Earlier, Chen Mi and Xu Lie hadn't participated in catching the culprits. Xu Lie had been in a daze after reading Sun Jian's note.

Chen Mi stood silently beside him, watching Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue catch the culprits... As a former police officer, Chen Mi found their smugness infuriating. It was always dangerous when hooligans were educated. He didn't know what kind of deal they made with the woman in red, but they were trying to minimize their losses.

Xu Lie, usually reckless and impulsive, seemed calm now.

But there are some people who are normally silly but very composed in critical moments. Zhao Hu was also someone like this.

Xu Lie looked at the teacher and student and asked, "Do you think the law will punish you?"

Without waiting for an answer, he shook his head, "It's the woman in red punishing you. Her punishment for you is to face the consequences of murdering Sun Jian. You think you can outsmart her? Have you seen what happened to my three roommates? The punishment only gets worse."

The teacher and student glanced at each other. Although they tried to maintain their composure on the surface, it was obvious that the two had panicked, and their faces changed.

Bai Yutang told them to think it over and had the officers take them away.

Zhan Zhao asked the officers to slow down, then asked the twins, "Are the reporters gone?"

The twins said no, they were just being held outside.

Zhan Zhao signalled to let them in and announce that Xu Lie helped the SCI catch the culprits.

Xu Lie looked at Zhan Zhao.

Bai Yutang thought for a moment and asked Zhan Zhao, "Is this fighting fire with fire?"

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, "Xu Lie is the only one who can overshadow the woman in red now."

The twins looked at Big Brother Bai.

Big Brother Bai wasn't in a good position to make a decision, so he looked at Chen Mi.

Chen Mi looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Zhan Zhao pulled Bai Ye over and pushed Issel and Eleven towards Xu Lie, indicating – Three bodyguards!

Seeing Chen Mi hesitate, Zhan Zhao also nudged Zhao Jue over – Extra protection!

Bai Ye didn't mind, grabbing the reluctant Issel and Eleven and nodding at Chen Mi.

At this point, Xu Lie spoke, "Let's do it."

Everyone looked at him.

Xu Lie took out his phone, opened his live-stream account, and said, "The woman in red or whatever is a hoax, the murderers have been caught by SCI and I!"

He then pointed the camera at the dumbfounded teacher and student.

"They teamed up to murder Sun Jian, and the so-called suicide note was fake." Xu Lie pointed at himself, "This is Xu Lie issuing a challenge. Woman in red, if you exist, come and kill me! If you can't, get ready to be caught. You're just a piece of trash hiding behind the internet! And to those thinking of making deals with her, wait and see if she can take me out first before deciding."

Everyone was shocked, and the twins held their foreheads.

It was too late for Bai Yutang to stop it. Xu Lie ended the stream with, "I'm waiting for you!"

Bai Yutang looked over, seeing Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue smiling and rubbing their hands.

The twins checked online, finding a flood of reports with sensational headlines like "Xu Lie Challenges the Woman in Red", "Battle Between Man and Ghost Imminent..."

Gongsun thought Xu Lie might have overdone it and quietly asked Bai Jintang, "Isn't this risky?"

Big Brother Bai didn't mind, "If anything happens with this bodyguard lineup, then there's nothing more to say, I'd respect her as a real ghost!"

Zhao Zhen shook his head, "It's not like we haven't dealt with real ghosts before."

Everyone recalled Bai Ye and Bai Yutang slashing the "female ghost" during the ghost ship case and felt confident – Our chances of winning are pretty high!

‿︵‿︵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 22, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin