S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 13

The Card Murderer 13 – Heart of Spades

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Zhao Hu and Ma Han pulled the bookshelf aside, revealing a massive skull on the wall behind it.

Of course, it wasn't a real skull but rather a pattern.

The skull was formed using playing cards, all placed face down, with black backgrounds and gold designs. As the bookshelf moved, the wind it created caused the cards to tremble, making the entire skull appear to "writhe."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han both looked disgusted – What the hell is this?

However, compared to Luo Tian and Qin Ou's situation, Ma Han and Zhao Hu's playing card skull was child's play.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou had run into real trouble.

Mingdi and Lao Chen had driven straight into the cemetery.

Outside of specific holidays like the Qingming Festival, cemeteries were usually empty, especially at this time of night. Who in their right mind would come to a cemetery in the dead of night?

Luo Tian didn't dare follow too closely. They were the only two cars on the road, if he stayed too close, he would definitely be spotted. When he saw their car pass through the gates, he hesitated, debating whether to drive in or park and go on foot.

After driving for a while, Luo Tian reached a hillside within the cemetery. Up ahead, Mingdi's car was parked at the intersection, still running.

Qin Ou clutched his seatbelt and shook his head, there was no way he was walking into a cemetery at this hour.

Luo Tian switched off his headlights and drove up the hill as quietly as possible.

Fortunately, Mingdi's headlights made it easily visible in the darkness.

Qin Ou called Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang to update them on the situation.

When Bai Yutang answered, he was baffled. "Why would they go to a cemetery in the middle of the night?"

Luo Tian stopped the car, frowning at the situation ahead... The car appeared empty, had they gotten out?

The two exchanged a look before stepping out of the vehicle.

They walked forward to check, and sure enough, Mingdi's car was empty.

Just as Qin Ou and Luo Tian were scanning the cemetery, trying to figure out where the two had gone, a sudden flash of light flickered from behind a tree, and someone darted out.

"Whoa!"

Both sides were startled, and even Zhan Zhao on the other end of the call was caught off guard. Bai Yutang asked, "What's wrong?"

In the darkness, Luo Tian and Qin Ou clearly saw that the person who had just run out of the bushes was Mingdi, holding a flashlight, with Old Chen following behind him.

"Who are you?!" Mingdi looked warily at the two people who had suddenly appeared. Luo Tian squinted at the flashlight that Mindy was waving, while Qin Ou still had his phone in hand, connected to Zhan Zhao.

With the speakerphone on, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang clearly heard Mingdi's voice come through, "Who are you?"

"Give him the phone," Bai Yutang said to Qin Ou.

Qin Ou handed the phone to Mingdi.

Mingdi looked at the two of them in confusion. However, Qin Ou had a trustworthy face and didn't look like a bad person, while Luo Tian had a refined and steady demeanour.

Mingdi reached out and took the phone. On the other end, Zhan Zhao's voice came through, "They're both from SCI, I sent them to tail you."

"Oh..." Mingdi seemed to understand now, and asked the two, "Police?"

Qin Ou and Luo Tian both nodded. On the other end of the call, Bai Yutang was about to ask why they had come to a cemetery in the middle of the night, but before he could, Mingdi and Lao Chen suddenly exclaimed, "Over there! Over there!"

They both pointed in the same direction as if they wanted to show Luo Tian and Qin Ou something.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou followed them through the trees into the cemetery.

This section of the cemetery consisted of small burial plots, arranged in circular formations along the slopes of the hill.

Directly ahead, there was a large tree, and hanging from it seemed to be a white bundle.

Luo Tian reached out, took Mingdi's flashlight, and shone it towards the tree... There, hanging from the tree, was a person.

The body was suspended upside down, completely wrapped in a large white sack, with only the head exposed.

On top of the head, there appeared to be a pair of white ears, resembling mouse ears.

"Captain, we've found another body," Luo Tian took a photo of the body and sent it to Zhan Zhao. Then, he turned to Mingdi and Lao Chen. "What exactly is going on with you two?"

The victim's eyes were wide open, it appeared to be a woman.

Qin Ou stepped forward to examine the body, then turned back and shook his head at Luo Tian.

Mingdi glanced at Lao Chen.

Lao Chen took out his phone and handed it to Luo Tian and Qin Ou to see.

On the screen was a message from someone called "Cotton Candy," sending a location, which was where they were at the moment. There was also the number 127, and two emojis, a little mouse and a spade heart.

"So, you know the deceased?" Luo Tian asked.

Lao Chen nodded. "She was an illustrator for our magazine."

Luo Tian and Qin Ou informed them that they couldn't leave, they had to go back to the police station later to give a full statement.

Mingdi nodded in agreement. Lao Chen took out a pack of cigarettes, seemingly intending to light one up.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou immediately stopped him – This is a crime scene, Uncle!

Lao Chen put the cigarettes away, patted his trousers, and looked visibly uneasy.

Mingdi said to him, "Why don't you wait in the car?"

Lao Chen nodded and went to sit in the car. Before leaving, he glanced back, then said to Luo Tian and Qin Ou, "You two... be careful."

Luo Tian and Qin Ou exchanged a glance before looking at Mingdi – Be careful of what?

Mingdi pointed towards a grave behind the tree where the body was hanging and whispered, "Plot 127."

Luo Tian and Qin Ou both looked at him – So what?

"His wife and child," Mingdi frowned as he gestured subtly towards Lao Chen.

Luo Tian and Qin Ou instantly understood and fell silent, especially Qin Ou, who turned to glance at Lao Chen sitting in the car.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had initially planned to continue discussing things with Zhang Yu and Chen Feng, but they hadn't expected a second body to be discovered so soon, so they had no choice but to head straight to the cemetery.

As they got into the car, Bai Yutang contacted forensics and the medical examination teams. Both teams had only just returned to the police station, still swamped with work from the previous case, only to be hit with another one. They couldn't help but complain – SCI seemed to have some kind of "buy one, get one free" deal, either months would go by without a single murder, or they'd get multiple cases back to back.

On the way to the cemetery, Zhan Zhao received a photo from Zhao Hu, it was of the skull on the wall.

Holding his phone, Zhan Zhao frowned. "This skull looks familiar."

"Aren't all skulls more or less the same?" Bai Yutang noticed raindrops appearing on the windshield and turned on the wipers. "It's raining again."

Zhan Zhao glanced at the weather forecast. "It shouldn't be heavy... Ah!"

A sudden realisation struck Zhan Zhao, he now understood why the skull looked so familiar. "It's very similar to the decorative skulls used for Mexico's Día de los Muertos! There's a decorative feel to it."

"Mingdi went looking for Lao Chen, received a message, and didn't report it to the police. Then the two of them drove to the cemetery in the middle of the night... The timing is too much of a coincidence," Bai Yutang frowned. "But they were under police surveillance almost the entire time, and their alibis are solid."

"Besides..." Zhan Zhao had something on his mind. "The body was hung right in front of the graves of Lao Chen's late wife and child..."

Bai Yutang nodded, the location of the body disposal was indeed unusual.

"What kind of situation would lead to a body being hung upside down in front of a grave?" Zhan Zhao wondered aloud.

Bai Yutang considered it for a moment. The first possibility that came to mind was, "A blood sacrifice to his wife and child?"

"You also think Lao Chen might be seeking revenge?" Zhan Zhao felt that the connection to Lao Chen's family felt deliberately placed... Given the unresolved doubts surrounding the old case, revenge was too obvious a motive, so all the clues that appear will point to revenge. If all the deceased were linked to that past hit-and-run, then Lao Chen would be the most likely suspect. In other words, their first priority now was to reinvestigate that hit-and-run case...

At that moment, Jiang Ping called.

Jiang Ping had found a lot of clues.

"I've identified the third person in the group photo," Jiang Ping said. "Guess who it is?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were puzzled – Guess? Did that mean it was someone they knew?

"It's Pei Xiu."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were momentarily stunned, did they know someone called Pei Xiu? They thought it over but couldn't recall anyone, yet the name sounded somewhat familiar.

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin. "Seems to be some kind of business elite, I've seen him in magazines before."

"You've heard of his father, Pei Tian, right?" Jiang Ping asked.

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow, Pei Tian had written a recommendation for one of his published books. "The chief editor of a magazine?"

"Exactly! A media tycoon, their group owns several major publishing houses in S City. In recent years, Pei Xiu has been stepping in to take over from his father, talking about expanding into new media and such."

"He was classmates with Fang Jie and Wang Qiu?"

"That's right! They were in the same class for a year during middle school in K City," Jiang Ping scanned through the information. "Pei Xiu stayed with his grandmother in K City for a while during middle school. After a year, he transferred back to S City, went abroad for high school, graduated from university ten years ago, and returned to S City. But he didn't even stay six months before heading overseas again. He only moved back last year. His father's health hasn't been great these past few years, so he's probably back to take over the business. Their company is a family-run enterprise, and every relative from the seventh aunt to the eighth uncle has a share, so the relationships are quite complicated. There are also several others around Pei Xiu's age who could take over... and their group has business dealings with the Bai Group."

"Why did he go to K City for a year during middle school?" Zhan Zhao, as always, focused on a unique detail.

"That was the year his mother committed suicide. Pei Xiu seemed to be hit pretty hard, so they sent him to live with his grandmother," Jiang Ping scanned the report. "After a year, he recovered and transferred back. But this part only appears in gossip magazines, there's no official record of it."

"So his mother really did commit suicide?"

"Yes! She drowned herself in a swimming pool."

"Where exactly?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were both puzzled.

"I'm looking into the case now, it's particularly bizarre. His mother jumped into their own swimming pool to commit suicide, and it was in the shallow end, the water didn't even reach her chest. Plus, his mother was a good swimmer and often swam," Jiang Ping said. "That day, there happened to be some kind of party at their house, and everyone was in one garden, while his mother drowned in the swimming pool in another garden. Since a suicide note was left behind, it was ruled as suicide."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt that the direction of the case was becoming increasingly bizarre, with more and more people getting involved. They might need to draw a chart.

Jiang Ping still had a lot of clues to investigate, so he hung up for now.

Zhan Zhao looked for some magazines related to the Pei family to read.

In a business empire, once inheritance issues are involved, there's quite a bit of drama.

Zhan Zhao read through several reports as if he were reading a novel. By the time he finished, Bai Yutang's car had arrived at the cemetery.

The two of them got out and saw that the forensics team had already arrived. Several large floodlights had been set up, illuminating the scene almost as brightly as daylight.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao first went to examine the body in the cemetery... Ma Xin was taking photos of the corpse.

When Gongsun saw the two, he waved them over.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked over, getting a closer look at the body.

The deceased woman was very young, seemingly in her early twenties.

Her outfit was extremely strange. From a distance, she appeared to be wrapped in a white sack. But up close, they realised that the white fabric was actually a full-body mouse mascot costume. Her feet and head were exposed. Her hair was heavily coated in styling wax, making it unnaturally sleek, even while hanging upside down, not a single strand fell out of place, all plastered neatly to her scalp.

She was also wearing a headband. On closer inspection, the headband was fixed to her ears, likely to prevent it from slipping off.

Attached to the headband were two beige mouse ears, with a black spade-shaped hair clip tucked between them.

At the back of the white mascot costume, there was a matching beige mouse tail.

Her ankles were bound with a yellow nylon rope, suspending her upside down from the tree.

Beneath her head, a large pool of blood had soaked into the ground, scattered with a heap of playing cards, all featuring the spade suit.

Using a long pair of forceps, Gongsun lifted a section of the deceased's clothing for Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang to see... that just like Zhang Yuancheng's body, there was no flesh, only straw.

Judging by the scene, the killer was making it explicitly clear to the police – He was the same person who had killed Zhang Yuancheng.

When Zhang Yuancheng's body was found, the murderer had sent a text message as a clue. So, to find this victim's body... was there a similar message?

Gongsun gestured toward Mingdi's car at the intersection – The message was sent to Lao Chen.

The two of them went to borrow a phone from Old Chen.

‿︵‿︵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 21, 2025 by Angel

Edited: May 16, 2025 by Soojin