S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 4

The Card Murderer 04 – Where

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived at the entrance of the villa. Since the forensic and crime scene investigators were still collecting evidence, they didn't bring Gao Min inside. Instead, they found a female officer to accompany her while she waited at the door.

Crossing the entrance hall, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stopped at the doorway of the living room, where they observed Zhang Yuancheng's corpse.

At that moment, Gongsun was also standing in front of the coffee table, examining the corpse.

Ma Xin and Xiatian were taking photographs, one capturing images of the corpse, while the other documented the bloodstains and the playing cards on the floor.

Gongsun picked up a long pair of tweezers, lifted the red clothing of the deceased, and discovered that instead of a human body, the outfit was stuffed with straw bound together with copper wire.

"Oh..."

This was clearly beyond Gongsun's expectations.

"No wonder it could stand upright." Gongsun handed the tweezers to Xiatian and instructed him to check the pant legs and shoes as well.

Following Gongsun's instructions, Xiatian lifted the pants and shoes in turn. The pants were also filled with straw, while beneath the shoes were two circular brass bases.

Gongsun turned and saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, so he gave them both an introduction to the corpse. "It's actually a scarecrow! First, they used copper wire to tie the straw into a standing posture. Then, they inserted it into two brass bases with thin rods to keep it upright. And... have you ever seen those hawthorn candy vendors on pedestrian streets at tourist sites? The head and hands were skewered onto the straw figure, just like candied hawthorn, keeping everything in place."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at Gongsun speechlessly – Somehow, hearing this explanation from your mouth makes it sound especially unsettling...

"Where are the rest of the corpse?" Bai Yutang asked.

Gongsun shook his head, and the several officers from the forensics team also confirmed that they hadn't found them in the villa.

"How long has he been dead?"

"Very fresh, within the last twelve hours." Gongsun pointed to the heart, which was still dripping with blood. "But this definitely isn't the crime scene."

Ma Xin and Xiatian nodded in agreement.

"To set up something like this, there would have been blood spatter everywhere, but there's none on the sofa or coffee table, just some pooled blood on the floor." As Gongsun spoke, he pointed to the bloodstain on the ground and the marks on the victim's clothing. "These were deliberately poured on. This amount of blood couldn't have come from just these body parts, and there are no dripped blood trails indicating movement nearby..."

Gongsun then simulated how the crime scene was likely staged. "The victim was first killed somewhere else. The head and hands were severed, and the heart was dug out, then they were placed in sealed bags, along with a separate bag of blood. If the perpetrator was working alone, a backpack would have been the most practical option. Then, carrying the scarecrow, they entered the villa, positioned it in front of the sofa, swiftly affixed the body parts, and finally poured out the blood..."

As Gongsun spoke, he pointed at the glass coffee table. "The perpetrator climbed onto the coffee table, poured a bag of blood onto the floor, put the empty bag back into their backpack, scattered the playing cards, then climbed down and left the scene."

"So..." Gongsun bent down, aligning his eyes level with the coffee table. He raised his hand and switched on his flashlight... Several clear footprints appeared on the surface of the glass.

Xiatian skilfully took out a scale ruler and placed it next to the footprints, while Ma Xin began taking photographs.

"Judging from the direction of the footprints," Gongsun pointed behind the sofa, "they went out through the back door."

"Over here." Old Wang from the forensics team placed a few markers on the ground. "They didn't just exit through the back door, they entered through it as well. There are straw scraps on the floor."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang carefully stepped around the markers and walked to the kitchen, then out through the back door.

By now, the rain had stopped, but the wind remained strong, rustling through the trees in the forest.

Near the broken section of the fence and the path leading into the forest, several forensics team members had also marked footprints.

Further ahead, a group of search-and-rescue personnel had gathered in the woods, accompanied by search dogs.

A shawl had been left hanging on the fence, providing a scent trail for the dogs. However, since it had rained heavily earlier, the tracking might be affected.

Now that the rain had stopped, the dog handlers let the dogs sniff the shawl and confirmed the direction to search.

Soon, all the dogs locked onto the same direction...

However, instead of heading into the dense forest on either side, they ran straight ahead, towards the same path that Ai Hu and his team had passed through earlier, leading to the main road.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu followed the search team through the woods and back again but found no one. The dogs kept circling the same spot, showing no interest in either side of the forest.

"The footprints leading into the woods belong to a single person," a member of the forensics team reported to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. "They're from a pair of women's trainers, size thirty-seven. Based on the stride length, the woman was approximately 1.61 to 1.62 metres tall. She ran out in a panicked state, tumbling and scrambling. When she broke through the fence, she tripped and fell, bracing herself with both hands before getting up and continuing to run. At one point, she also slipped. But the mountain path isn't too steep, she wouldn't have rolled downhill. After falling, she got up and kept running."

"Was anyone chasing her?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The forensics team all shook their heads. "There are only her footprints."

"What about the footprints on the coffee table?" Zhan Zhao turned back.

Ma Xin, who had followed them out, said, "The shoe prints on the table are a size forty-two, likely from an adult male, estimated to be at least 1.75 metres tall."

"If no one was chasing her, why did Liu Jing run?" Bai Yutang glanced back at the villa's back door, then at the forest ahead. "And why did she run towards the secluded back door instead of the front door, where more people were around?"

"Could it be that when Liu Jing returned, the murderer was still inside the room, blocking her path to the front door, so she had no choice but to run towards the back?" Zhan Zhao pointed to the back door. "Maybe when she ran out, the murderer was standing at the back door, forcing her to escape into the forest?"

Bai Yutang considered this and agreed it was a possibility, but it didn't fully explain everything... Based on the footprints, the murderer had left through the back door after staging the corpse. Liu Jing had entered through the front door. The moment she crossed the entrance hall, she would have seen the corpse. Even if the murderer was present, she should have run out the front door... So why did she run out the back?

"And why didn't she call for help? She only let out a single scream." Ma Xin tried to picture the scene, it must have been terrifying. But there were plenty of people around, the neighbouring villas all had their lights on, and the campground at the foot of the mountain was packed with hundreds of tents. In such a situation, shouting for help seemed like the more helpful choice. Putting herself in Liu Jing's shoes, if she had been at the scene at that time, she would never have chosen to run into the pitch-black forest on a stormy night... Was there a specific reason?

At that moment, Ma Han and Zhao Hu returned.

Both shook their heads at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao. They had followed the trail through the forest to the highway, where the search dogs stopped, barking nonstop, and refused to go in any other direction.

The search team confirmed that, based on the dogs' reactions, Liu Jing had indeed passed through the forest and reached the roadside, where her scent abruptly disappeared.

"Her scent vanished... Does that mean she got into a car or something?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han both nodded.

Bai Yutang immediately called Jiang Ping, asking him to check the surveillance footage from the roadside at the tunnel entrance.

Jiang Ping was in a bit of a dilemma. He explained that he had already reviewed the footage, but the cameras near the tunnel had blind spots, only capturing the tunnel entrance and not the exit.

Bai Yutang frowned – So the most crucial stretch of road had no surveillance coverage.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment before turning to the forensics team. "Did you find a cell phone?"

"Yes, one was found on the sofa behind the deceased." A member of the forensics team ran into the villa and returned with a phone sealed in an evidence bag, handing it to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao powered on the phone and saw that it was locked with a passcode, and the screen displayed two missed calls.

After thinking for a moment, Zhan Zhao entered "17215" as the password, and the phone unlocked successfully.

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao – This isn't just a coincidence, right?

Zhan Zhao nodded.

There were two missed calls, one from Liu Jing and another from "Mother-in-law."

Zhan Zhao then opened the messaging app and found the last conversation between Liu Jing and Zhang Yuancheng – it was all messages from Liu Jing, asking where he was, why he hadn't arrived yet, saying she wouldn't wait any longer and was heading back... Zhang Yuancheng hadn't responded at all.

After some thought, Zhan Zhao sent a message to Liu Jing: "Where are you?"

A moment later, he actually received a reply, just a smiling emoji, followed by two words – At home.

Zhan Zhao looked over at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang frowned.

The two of them immediately returned to the villa and found Gao Min, who was anxiously waiting. They asked her to call Auntie Liu and ask if Liu Jing had gone home.

Gao Min picked up her phone and dialled Auntie Liu's number. After just two rings, Auntie Liu answered. Before Gao Min could even ask, the voice on the other end said, "Xiao Gao'ah, Jing Jing is home."

Gao Min sighed in relief and looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang – Jing Jing was fine and had already gone home!

But unlike Gao Min's relief, the SCI team exchanged glances – She saw her husband's corpse and then just went home? That didn't make any sense!

Then, they heard Auntie Liu continue on the phone, "Aiya, what the hell is Zhang Yuancheng doing? They were supposed to go out together to relax, but my daughter ended up coming home in the middle of the night, soaking wet, wearing just a thin top, and had to take a taxi back on her own. She hasn't said a single word since she got back and locked herself in her room. What the hell is he doing? He's not answering his phone..."

Gao Min opened her mouth but didn't know how to respond. Zhang Yuancheng was dead, he couldn't possibly have sent Liu Jing home...

Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao aside and asked in a low voice, "So Liu Jing ran out of the forest and took a taxi home?"

Zhan Zhao nodded – That's what it looks like.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han were both puzzled – Was it really that easy to catch a taxi in that area at night?

Bai Yutang, however, was staring at the phone in Zhan Zhao's hand. "So was it really Liu Jing who replied to you?"

The team exchanged glances – The more they looked at that smiling emoji, the eerier it seemed...

Hu Zi felt the hairs on his arms stand on end. Tugging at Ma Han, he muttered, "I swear I've seen a horror film with a similar plot!"

Ma Han also asked, "Could Liu Jing have killed her husband?"

"Where's the rest of Zhang Yuancheng's body?" Bai Yutang thought they needed to find the primary crime scene first.

Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment before sending another message: "Then where am I?"

"Aren't you at the villa?"

"What about the other parts?"

Moments later, a laughing emoji popped up on the screen, followed by a string of numbers: "51241946"

"What the hell?" Zhao Hu turned to Ma Han.

Ma Han shook his head.

Tapping the phone against his chin, Zhan Zhao asked, "Is anyone here familiar with the local area?"

Zhao Hu went to fetch the campground manager.

Zhan Zhao asked the manager, "Are there any landmarks with arrows nearby?"

"Arrows?" The manager thought for a moment. "Oh! There's a construction site next to the campground where we're planning to move the parking lot... So we put up a lot of signs with arrows to redirect drivers..."

Everyone headed towards what the manager called "next to the ground."

It turned out to be just on the other side of the café.

Sure enough, there were plenty of signs directing vehicles to take a detour.

"Cat," Bai Yutang reached out and pointed ahead.

In the darkness, next to the largest sign with a fluorescent arrow, a "person" was leaning against it.

The figure wore a large straw hat and was sitting on the ground, slumped against the signpost.

The hat was so big that it completely covered their head.

The team rushed over to have a closer look and immediately frowned... Underneath the straw hat, there was only a torso, no head.

Bai Yutang instructed someone to notify Gongsun that they had found the rest of the body. At the same time, he looked around... and sure enough, since this was a construction site, there were no surveillance cameras nearby.

Zhan Zhao was still looking at his phone and sent another message – Who are you?

The reply came in the form of a heart suit symbol, accompanied by a smiling emoji.

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Author's Note:

Let's put our brains to work, can you figure out why "5 1 24 19 4 6" represents an arrow?

Hint: It's similar to how Zhan Zhao previously deciphered the "sparrow" password, but that one was a single-layer cypher, this one is a double-layered code.

Another hint: Liu Jing and Gao Min are both editors.

The solution will be revealed in the next chapter.

‿︵‿︵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: March 7, 2025 by Angel

Edited: April 18, 2025 by Soojin