S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 215

The Intelligent Killer 20 – Similarities

---

Zhao Hu discovered that the woman being followed by Yu Yang was a twenty-six-year-old office worker named Wang. 

Wang's situation was very similar to that of Chen – single and living alone, smart and independent, with a stable job, and everything was in the initial stages of development. Her social and interpersonal relationships were being built, and everything was moving in a positive direction.

However, at this moment, an unexpected danger intruded into their lives, depriving them of the most basic and important need – a sense of security.

Everyone's life needed a foundation, and how well one lived was like a building erected on this foundation; first, the foundation had to be solid.

A healthy body and a safe environment were the two most solid pillars of this foundation. With these two in place, the building could be built higher, and one could pursue happiness and dreams.

Once either of these pillars had a problem, everything above would collapse, and life would fall into chaos.

Wang recounted her experience to Zhao Hu and Ma Han in the car. Through the phone, Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, Zhao Jue, and Bai Ye in the other car were also listening.

Wang lived in a neighbourhood diagonally across the street from Yu Yang's neighbourhood. Her daily life was quite regular. On weekdays, she started work late, so she could sleep until nine or ten in the morning, then go to a convenience store to buy some food, head to her company, work until eight or nine in the evening, have dinner, and return home around ten.

Wang's job benefits were also good. She had weekends off and would plan social and leisure activities for herself.

If there was anything unsatisfactory in her life, it was the ten-minute walk from the bus stop to her home after work every night.

This route was fine during the day, but problematic at night.

Around ten o'clock, she would take the last bus home.

Wang would get off the bus and walk to the convenience store. The section from the bus stop to the convenience store was relatively lively, especially with the lights and pedestrians at the convenience store entrance.

However, the five or six-minute walk from the convenience store to her home was very quiet.

The green belt at the entrance of her neighbourhood was well-maintained. During the day, it was a place where residents walked their dogs and took walks.

But from ten to ten-thirty at night, this five or six-minute walk was almost deserted. The green belt, which looked beautiful during the day, became a natural barrier at night, with dark shadows behind the trees and bushes.

Moreover, there was a near-right-angle turn in the green belt. After turning, one could see the gatehouse of the neighbourhood... This meant that the nearly hundred-meter stretch from the convenience store to the turn was not visible to anyone from either end.

Initially, Wang didn't think much of it, but recently, she always felt someone was following her while walking this route.

At first, she just heard footsteps behind her but saw no one when she looked back.

But after a while, a man in a black hoodie started appearing behind her.

This man didn't come from the bus, nor from anywhere else, but whenever Wang walked to the quietest part of the road, he would suddenly appear a few meters behind her.

With a bit of thought, one could guess that he was hiding in the woods, waiting for Wang to pass before following her.

This would terrify anyone. The first time Wang was followed, she ran in fear, turning the corner and rushing to the security room at the gatehouse to report being followed.

However, when the security guard checked the path, there was no one there.

This happened several times, making Wang anxious every time she came home from work.

There were no surveillance cameras on that section of the road, and although Wang reported to the security guards multiple times, no one else saw her being followed.

Eventually, Wang reported it to the police. The police investigated but found no evidence of someone following her.

The police weren't negligent; they even stationed two officers near her route during her off-hours.

However, after a few stakeouts, they saw no sign of her being followed. Coupled with the security guard's claim that she was being paranoid, the case was closed without resolution.

Wang remained anxious for a few days but, noticing the stalker hadn't reappeared recently, she relaxed a bit, thinking the police stakeouts had scared him off.

Just when Wang thought she could return to her normal life, another "strange" thing happened.

One day, after coming home from work, Wang lay down on her bed and noticed that the angle of the television on the cabinet opposite her bed had changed.

She was used to sleeping on the left side of the bed, so the TV was angled towards the left side of the bed. But this day, she found that the TV was angled towards the right side...

She felt something was off.

Then, she carefully observed her room and noticed that some items seemed to have been moved. Finally, she went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and found a bottle of drink that she had never bought.

Wang was terrified and immediately ran downstairs to find the security guard and called the police.

The police came and first investigated the surveillance footage.

However, the surveillance inside the building did not capture any suspicious individuals coming in or out.

Since Wang had reported several times, and the security guards and police had not found any issues, they couldn't start investigating the matter of her household items being moved.

As a result, the police and security guards began to suspect that Wang might have some mental health issues... Even Wang herself started to doubt if she was hallucinating or being overly paranoid.

Wang originally planned to move, but the location was convenient... and finding a new place to rent would take time, moving was troublesome, and she needed to work every day... So, she had to change the lock and install surveillance cameras in her apartment.

A few days later, everything seemed to return to normal.

Just as Wang breathed another sigh of relief... she encountered Yu Yang at the entrance of her apartment.

Wang was entering the building as Yu Yang was coming down the stairs. They brushed past each other.

Wang inexplicably felt that this person's figure was very similar to the one who had been following her.

But Yu Yang just walked away without looking back at her, and she wondered if she was overthinking it.

When she reached her door, she found it open.

Wang didn't dare to enter and quickly went downstairs to find the security guard.

The security guard looked at her with a resigned expression, as if to say – You again? Maybe you should see a doctor?

But since she reported that her door was open and suspected someone had broken in, the security guard followed her to check.

However, when they reached her door, it was closed.

Wang was at a loss for words, and under the security guard's suspicious gaze, she called the police again.

The police entered the apartment and checked it thoroughly, finding nothing unusual. The lock was intact, and there were no signs of a break-in.

However, Wang found that the surveillance camera she had installed in her room was missing.

Wang immediately explained the situation and took out her phone.

She had installed an app to upload the real-time footage to the cloud.

But when she opened her phone, the app was missing. Additionally, she noticed that her phone's wallpaper had been changed to a photo of a boy she didn't recognise, and the boy's face was the same as Yu Yang's, whom she had just encountered in the corridor.

Wang was emotionally distraught and tearfully explained the situation to the police.

To the average person, it might indeed seem like Wang had some kind of mental illness.

Among the officers who came to check was a female officer, who, possibly out of a sense of empathy as a woman, offered to stay with Wang that night.

In the evening, the female officer said she wanted to check Wang's phone and investigate the man in the replaced wallpaper photo.

But then something strange happened again: Wang's phone password suddenly stopped working, always showing incorrect password messages. Neither facial recognition nor fingerprint recognition worked either.

Faced with Wang's renewed breakdown in fear, the female officer took her to the hospital's psychiatric department.

After an examination, the doctor concluded that Wang was severely sleep-deprived and that her nervous tension might be causing hallucinations.

Indeed, Wang hadn't slept well for days. She was too scared to sleep at night, constantly fearing that someone could easily enter her home.

Wang was almost in a state of utter despair, calling for help in vain.

She had taken a few days off from work, only working half-days for the past few days. She would return home before dark and stay awake at night, sleeping only when daylight came. She was also in the process of looking for a new place to move.

In this desperate situation, SCI appeared.

When Zhao Hu showed his credentials and provided a photo of Yu Yang, Wang seemed to see a ray of hope – at least this proved that she wasn't crazy, and that the stalker indeed existed.

Everyone who heard her story felt for her, it was truly a tragic situation, enough to drive anyone mad.

What was most surprising was that Wang said she had seen the news about the woman in red and had wanted to contact her, willing to sign a contract even if it meant going to hell with the stalker. But after hearing that the woman in red was just another stalker, she gave up. As she spoke, she pulled a hammer out of her bag, explaining that she carried it every day to and from work in case the stalker attacked her.

On the other end of the phone, Zhan Zhao asked Wang if she had experienced any hallucinations in her daily life.

Wang admitted that she had. She often felt the man in black suddenly appear beside her, only to find no one there after being startled. At this stage, she could tell that what she saw might not be real, but she couldn't control it... She thought she might have some sort of stress disorder.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue partially agreed. This phenomenon was indeed similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, but at the same time... there was also the possibility that she had been hypnotized.

When they arrived at the psychiatric hospital, the group gathered at the entrance.

Zhan Zhao briefly told Wang about the experiences of another victim, Chen, who the same person had stalked.

The more Wang thought about it, the more terrified she became. Looking up at the hospital, she felt that in ten days or so, she might end up there herself.

Bai Yutang went to the front desk to contact Chen's attending physician. They had already spoken on the phone, and the doctor was waiting for them in his office, with Chen present.

Walking through the hospital's pristine white corridors, Wang asked Zhan Zhao in confusion – Why is that person doing this? Did they do something wrong to be targeted by someone like that?

Zhan Zhao shook his head and told her not to think that way, "In this matter, you did nothing wrong. The one at fault is the person stalking you. When a bad person does something wrong, it's the bad person who needs to reflect, not the victim."

As they spoke, they arrived at an office door in the hospital.

The atmosphere inside the office was quite relaxed, with a bright and spacious environment.

An older doctor was standing by the window making tea, and a girl in a hospital gown was reading a newspaper at a nearby table, this was Chen.

Bai Yutang knocked on the door, and the two inside turned their heads.

The doctor put down his cup of tea and came over to shake hands with Zhan Zhao and the others, inviting them to sit on the sofa.

Wang entered the office and looked at Chen sitting at the table.

Chen also looked at her... The two stared at each other, their expressions similar, both somewhat puzzled.

Wang was the first to speak, asking Chen, "Have we... met somewhere before?"

Everyone seated on the sofa turned their heads.

Chen nodded, staring at Wang. After a long pause, she said, "At Magic Company's interview..."

"Ah!" Wang remembered too, nodding. "Yes, we met at the interview! We were both rejected and took the elevator down together."

The SCI team all frowned – sure enough, it was related to that company!

‿︵‿︵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: July 26, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin