S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 218

The Intelligent Killer 23 – Routine

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Zhao Jue devised a very "unconventional" method to "trap" Yu Yang – a path that no one had considered before.

Zhao Jue called Irina again, asking her to play another role.

Irina initially said she was busy with rehearsals and wasn't interested...

But Zhao Jue mentioned, "It's to deal with a scumbag stalking girls..."

Before he could finish, Irina said, "I'm on my way!" and hung up the phone.

Not long after, Irina appeared at the entrance of the SCI office in a rage, "Where's the scumbag?!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang invited her in and briefly explained Yu Yang's misdeeds.

This time, Zhao Jue assigned Irina the role of pretending to be Wang.

Since Zhao Hu had secretly brought Wang back, Yu Yang shouldn't know that Wang was already at the police station.

However, Zhao Jue didn't intend for Irina to pretend to be Wang to "lure the enemy", but to pretend to be Wang's "corpse".

After arranging the entire plan, everyone dispersed to carry out their part of the "plot".

First up was Jiang Ping.

Once the police surveillance system was activated, Yu Yang was quickly found through facial recognition.

At that moment, Yu Yang was at a design company, presumably working.

With some time before he finished work, the SCI team quietly took Irina back to Wang's house, and everything proceeded according to plan.

At five-thirty, Jiang Ping sent a message, "The kid is off work."

Zhao Jue contacted Zhan Zhao and the others, who were already near Wang's house, "Let's start!"

......

After work, Yu Yang first drove to Wang's company and waited for a while... not seeing Wang come out. He guessed Wang might have left early or was working late.

Not waiting any longer, he drove home. Parking near a convenience store, he walked to the bus stop, glancing at his watch.

Just then, a bus arrived. Yu Yang hid nearby to observe... but Wang wasn't among those who got off.

Yu Yang figured Wang might have taken leave from work recently, perhaps ready to move or to visit a real estate agent.

He planned to stake out the area and wait for Wang to return to see where she was moving.

Crossing the bus stop, Yu Yang went to the convenience store to buy some food.

Just as he picked up a bottle of drink, several police cars sped past with sirens blaring, turning into the nearby neighbourhood.

Yu Yang was a little puzzled – Why were there police cars? Did Wang call the police again?

Thinking of this, Yu Yang smirked disdainfully and shook his head – Wang had called the police so many times she was probably on a blacklist by now, no police officer would believe her anymore...

As he approached the checkout with his drink, he noticed no one was at the counter.

Yu Yang frowned and asked, "Is anyone here?"

After calling twice, a young man ran out of the back storeroom.

Yu Yang had investigated before. This convenience store was run by a brother-sister duo, with the brother handling stock and the sister handling the till...

"Sorry about that." The brother took off his gloves and came over to ring up the sale.

Just then, the door opened and the sister returned.

"Brother! Brother!" The convenience store sister rushed in hurriedly.

Her brother looked at her helplessly, "Where did you run off to?"

"A murder happened in the neighbourhood!" The sister hurried over to her brother, gossiping as she helped Yu Yang check out.

"A murder?" Yu Yang and the brother asked almost simultaneously.

"Yeah! A homicide!" The sister still seemed unsettled, "The woman who died came to our store this morning to buy things!"

Her brother was also surprised, "Who?"

"The young lady with short hair, really slim and pretty," the sister said. "I just found out from the security guard. He said she kept saying someone was stalking her, but no one believed her. The cleaning lady went to their building to clean and found her door unlocked, and blood all over the floor! When she went in, she saw the woman had died terribly, scaring her out of her wits!"

The brother frowned, "Was she killed by that stalker?"

"Most likely! SCI is here! They said she wasn't the first! Several girls who were stalked have been killed... There's a serial killer on the loose in S City!"

The brother became quite tense when he heard, "Is it a pervert who specifically stalks and kills single women?"

His sister nodded, expressing – fear!

Her brother quickly took out his phone to call a friend, asking him to find a man to help out, deciding not to let his sister watch the store until the murderer was caught.

The siblings continued chatting, not noticing that Yu Yang, who had paid and taken his things, looked pale.

He walked out of the convenience store with his drink and bread, glancing towards the neighbourhood... Due to the corner, he couldn't see what was happening inside, but there was indeed a row of police cars parked, and a crowd gathered.

Summoning his courage, Yu Yang walked over...

Inside the neighbourhood, the police had set up a yellow cordon.

Luo Tian and Bai Chi were taking a statement from the security guard.

The security guard looked particularly guilty and a bit panicked, saying that if he had believed her at the time, things might have been different. They all thought she was paranoid... If they had taken her seriously, maybe the girl wouldn't have died.

On the other side, Qin Ou was taking a statement from the cleaning lady. She was terrified, crying and saying, "What a tragedy! Who could be so cruel? Such a young girl!"

Luo Tian and Qin Ou were both comforting the security guard and the cleaning lady, feeling guilty for deceiving these kind-hearted people and scaring the cleaning lady. But for the sake of effect, no one except the SCI team knew this was just a "performance."

Bai Chi took out his phone and called Zhan Zhao. In reality, he had spotted Yu Yang arriving and was notifying the others to move to the next phase of the "performance".

At this moment, the crowd watching from a distance started to stir.

A team of police officers emerged from the apartment building, with Gongsun holding a toolbox, and the officers pushing a gurney with a body bag.

The body was placed in a black body bag, and behind them, Ma Xin was holding an evidence bag containing a bloody kitchen knife.

After the body was loaded into the vehicle, the forensic van drove off...

Once the van doors were closed, Ma Xin quickly unzipped the body bag.

Irina, covered in fake injuries, sat up and asked Ma Xin how realistic her performance was and whether she had scared the cleaning lady too much.

Ma Xin and Gongsun praised her acting skills from a professional perspective, saying she played a very convincing corpse!

Yu Yang watched the police car drive away, frowning slightly. When he turned back... he saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walking out of the apartment building.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou reported the results of their questioning to Bai Yutang, while Zhan Zhao stood with his hands behind his back, looking around.

Zhan Zhao's gaze slowly swept over the crowd... and he saw that outside the crowd, Yu Yang was already turning to leave.

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and took out his phone to contact Zhao Jue, "He's gone."

"Are you sure he saw the knife?" Zhao Jue asked from his end.

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Mhmm, he should have seen it."

Satisfied, Zhao Jue hung up.

At that moment, he was in a surveillance van with Bai Ye and Jiang Ping.

Earlier, Issel and Eleven snuck into Yu Yang's home and made some minor modifications... also installing hidden surveillance equipment.

Yu Yang hurried home, still in shock. On one hand, despite stalking and causing the tragic ends of so many women... this was the first time he had encountered such a situation. He could understand if Wang had committed suicide, but she had been murdered?!

And the most troubling part was the murder weapon the police presented in the evidence bag – a wooden-handled kitchen knife that looked very familiar.

Yu Yang had designed a set of kitchen knives before and had even won an award for it. This was the same wooden-handled knife, and he still had the competition set at home.

Although the knife set had won an award, it had never been commercialised due to various reasons, meaning... there was only this one set in existence.

Because it had been part of a competition, each knife had detailed markings of the competition year and entry number, making it easy to trace the participant's information as long as you found the organisers.

Yu Yang quickly ran back home, opened the door, and as soon as he entered the living room, he suddenly slipped...

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye watched the surveillance footage of Yu Yang falling flat on his back, both with a smirk – Serves him right!

Yu Yang got up, feeling something cold and sticky in his hand. When he raised it to look... he saw it was covered in blood. Terrified, he scrambled to his feet and looked around, seeing blood-stained clothes scattered around the room, and the set of knives on the table... missing a long, pointed boning knife.

Yu Yang quickly walked over to the knife block to confirm that one was indeed missing, his head buzzing with realisation.

He understood something was terribly wrong, and when he turned around... he noticed that he had stepped in blood when he came in, leaving bloody footprints all over the white floor.

Yu Yang looked at his bloody hands, the footprints, and the bloody clothes on the floor, his own clothes...

The murder weapon could easily be traced back to him, and considering his history of stalking women, despite having won those cases in court... it was clear he would be the prime suspect.

In his panic, Yu Yang realised someone was framing him – Who could it be?!

Thinking it through, he suddenly noticed that besides the knife, something else was missing... Where did the laptop he placed on the table go?

In the surveillance van, while watching Yu Yang frantically searching for his laptop, Zhao Jue asked Jiang Ping, who was examining the contents of Yu Yang's computer, "How's it going?"

Jiang Ping looked disgusted, "This guy is a total pervert! He has a bunch of photos and videos on his computer, all secretly taken! Just this evidence alone confirms he's a stalker and a voyeur, enough to put him away for a long time. What a disgusting creep!"

"And the game?" Zhao Jue asked.

Jiang Ping typed rapidly on his computer, "Wait a minute, I need to change the location setting first..."

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye continued watching the surveillance – Location setting?

At that moment, Yu Yang, having searched the entire house without finding his laptop, took out his phone to track its location.

The result... the tracking showed it was moving, seemingly in a car, heading towards the technology park.

Yu Yang kicked over a chair in frustration, pacing in circles, then suddenly picked up his phone and dialled a number.

On his laptop screen, his phone's interface appeared.

Everyone turned to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping took a sip from his thermos, "He's tracking his laptop, hacking into this is a piece of cake..."

After a drink, Jiang Ping checked the number Yu Yang was calling.

The phone rang for a long time before a groggy voice answered, "Hello?"

"You fat bastard!" Yu Yang shouted angrily, "Did you do this?!"

Zhao Jue and Bai Ye looked at Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping had already identified the phone number's owner – The owner of the number was a man named Huang Dong, and looking at the photo, he was indeed quite fat.

Jiang Ping scanned Huang Dong's information and found that he and Yu Yang were a match made in hell, the very epitome of scumbags.

Huang Dong was also a habitual harasser of women, but unlike Yu Yang's stealthy stalking, he had three recorded cases of sexual harassment. He was also a violent offender, with multiple counts of assault. His victims included an ex-girlfriend, a female neighbour, a woman he encountered while jogging... and most shockingly, his own mother.

Huang Dong was a deadbeat who ran a car repair shop, barely earning enough to cover his legal fees, and spent a few months in jail every year or so, never learning his lesson.

After reviewing Huang Dong's record, the team's collective disdain was palpable.

Meanwhile, Yu Yang and Huang Dong were already arguing over the phone. Yu Yang accused Huang Dong of killing his target and framing him, calling him an idiot and saying no wonder he was kicked out of the beta test group. Huang Dong retorted, calling Yu Yang insane, claiming he had gone mad from playing the game.

After a few more heated exchanges, Huang Dong hung up.

Jiang Ping checked Huang Dong's address and sent it to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Nearby, the rest of the SCI team listened to the progress through their earpieces.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou were the first to head to Huang Dong's address.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt that Zhao Jue's plan had achieved its initial goal since Yu Yang mentioned Huang Dong being "kicked out of the beta test group", indicating he was also a former beta tester.

After the call, Yu Yang thought for a moment and dialled another number.

Jiang Ping's screen displayed a series of numbers, saved in Yu Yang's contact list as – Game Customer Service.

Bai Ye and Zhao Jue both focused on the screen – He took the bait!

‿︵‿︵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 29, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin