S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 20

The Card Murderer 20 – Shadow

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found that the more they talked about the Pei family's secrets, the more they uncovered, and the clues became increasingly chaotic.  

Just as they were about to continue their questioning, Pei Tian walked past the corridor, glanced through the glass window, and came to a stop.  

Pei Yun and Pei Xiu both looked towards the door.  

Pei Tian opened the door and stepped inside. "Dr. Zhan, it's been a long time! Are you finally getting ready to write a new book? Hahaha!"  

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, while Bai Yutang sighed silently behind him – Just how many deadlines had this cat missed...  

"Where's Wen Wen?" Pei Tian saw that Pei Yun and Pei Xiu were both seated. "Aiya, she promised to have dinner with me after the meeting!"  

Pei Yun smiled, while Pei Xiu muttered, "Next door, Mingdi's here."  

Pei Tian clicked his tongue and sat down on the sofa, chatting with Zhan Zhao. "Dr. Zhan, you're a psychology expert. Think of a way to talk some sense into my daughter! They say a woman chasing a man is like a thin veil, but she's practically draped herself in Mingdi's stuff from head to toe! This isn't even a hint any more, it's an outright declaration! And let's be honest, our family's circumstances aren't bad at all. If Mingdi had even the slightest interest in her, he'd already be my son-in-law by now, wouldn't he? But now he avoids her, which means he has no interest in her at all! The man isn't taking advantage of her wealth or her looks, he's simply keeping his distance without saying anything harsh to hurt her feelings. That proves he's a decent guy, and we should be thanking him for that rather than disrupting his life, right?"  

Zhan Zhao nodded. Pei Tian was certainly a man who understood things clearly.  

Pei Tian rambled on, turning to Pei Yun and Pei Xiu. "You two, as her elder siblings, have been through it yourselves. Don't just spoil her, you need to reason with her! If necessary, give her a good scolding and wake her up. Handsome men are useless! You can't eat handsome. The most important thing in choosing a partner is character..."  

Pei Yun and Pei Xiu rolled their eyes to the ceiling in unison, it seemed they had heard this speech far too many times before.  

Pei Tian was about to continue his lecture when Pei Yun suddenly reached out and pointed at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang beside him, asking, "Dad, if you were a woman, which one would you choose?"  

Pei Tian opened his mouth, looked at his son, then at Bai Yutang, and stroked his chin. "Eh..."  

Pei Xiu was instantly fuming – Dad, do you really have to hesitate that obviously?!  

Meanwhile, Zhan Zhao continued nodding in agreement – If someone was as handsome as Yutang, then yes, it could be a meal.

Pei Tian also had a look of sudden enlightenment on his face and nodded – If you put it that way, I suppose they really can't be compared. I always thought my son looked decent enough...  

Pei Yun nodded – So it's completely understandable that Wen Wen likes Mingdi. If a failed romance is a waste of time, then of course it's more psychologically balanced to waste it on a handsome guy!

Bai Yutang and Pei Xiu both held their foreheads – Perhaps they should just get back to discussing the case.  

"Dad, they're not here to talk about a new book." Pei Xiu gestured towards the threatening letter on the table.  

Pei Tian glanced at it and clicked his tongue. "Ai, things like this show up from time to time. Just toss it in the trash."  

"But this time, it's a bit different," Pei Yun said. "It's linked to the case in this morning's news, the crime scene also had these playing cards."  

"The playing cards are just a gimmick," Pei Tian seemed unconcerned. "This time, Mingdi's book promotion used a lot of playing cards."  

Pei Xiu nodded. "That's true, there were loads of these cards at the rehearsal venue as well."  

"They used these cards at the stage rehearsal?" Bai Yutang asked. "Ones without numbers, just patterns?"  

"Yeah." Pei Xiu nodded. "If they had numbers, people might say we were promoting gambling or something, so we specially made this batch as props."  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both asked, "These were made specifically for your theatre group?"  

"Mhmm, we needed a lot of them, there's a scene where the stage is covered in playing cards," Pei Xiu explained. "So we had a lot custom-made, and there are several boxes stacked backstage."  

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment. "That scene wasn't in the novel..."  

Pei Xiu shrugged. "A stage adaptation can't follow the novel completely. Mingdi's books have a lot of psychological descriptions, but you can't just have the audience sit there listening to endless narration, right? Some artistic adjustments are necessary."  

"You just made that up," Pei Yun muttered.  

Pei Xiu corrected her, "It's a necessary artistic adaptation!"  

Pei Yun questioned, "Changing the entire ending counts as artistic adaptation? Obviously, you rewrote the script yourself and made Zhang Yuancheng take the credit for it. Now Zhang Yuancheng is dead... Are you sure it has nothing to do with the script?"  

Pei Xiu frowned hearing this. "What kind of person would kill someone because of a script? There aren't that many lunatics in the world."

Pei Yun nodded. "Exactly, out of all the lunatics in the world, you had to run into a few!"  

"Ai..." Pei Tian quickly raised his hand to stop the two from bickering any further, but it was clear he had taken in Pei Yun's words. He turned to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao with a hint of concern. "You two, could the murderer be connected to those other incidents as well?"  

"Incidents?" Zhan Zhao asked. "You mean the so-called curse on your family?"  

Zhan Zhao's question was rather direct, he wanted to gauge Pei Tian's attitude towards such claims.  

Pei Tian, however, didn't seem offended. Instead, he was rather composed. "Ai... My family's origins are a family secret, it's like being possessed by an evil god. If any of you can solve the mystery of our family, I'll commission a statue of you and put it right in front of our building!"  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both pictured that scene and shook their heads in unison – No need, really no need.  

"Can you tell us the details?" Zhan Zhao asked.  

Pei Tian appeared more seasoned than Pei Yun and Pei Xiu. Smiling, he said, "Dr. Zhan, I know exactly what SCI is capable of. I've dealt with your Bao Sir and with Jintang before. Are you telling me you didn't investigate me before coming here? You must already have at least sixty or seventy per cent of the information about me and my kids, so just ask directly... Whatever you want to know, go ahead and ask. If I start from the beginning and miss something, you'll just think I'm deliberately hiding things, won't you?"  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look – This old man won't be easy to deal with.  

Pei Yun shot Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang a somewhat displeased glance – So you two were testing me just now, huh?  

Pei Xiu popped open a can of cola, took a sip, and glanced at Pei Yun with a smug expression.  

"Then, let's start with the woman with bandages on her face in the basement." Zhan Zhao got straight to the point.

"There's no such woman," Pei Tian shook his head.  

Pei Xiu and Pei Yun both seemed to have expected this response and sighed.  

Zhan Zhao gestured toward his two children – Both of them said they saw her when they were young.  

"They weren't the only ones," Pei Tian said unexpectedly. "I saw her too."  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged another glance, this statement is a bit contradictory...  

"I dreamt about them seeing her," If it weren't for Pei Tian's utterly serious tone, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang would have thought he was messing with them.  

"Dr. Zhan, have you done any research on prophetic dreams?" Pei Tian asked.

Zhan Zhao shook his head but indicated that he was interested in the topic.  

"Our old mansion that burned down, there was probably something wrong with it," Pei Tian smacked his lips and spoke mysteriously. "As long as I lived there, I occasionally had nightmares, and they were always incredibly accurate. I even dreamt of my wives' deaths before they happened! Truly uncanny!"  

"Speaking of your wives' deaths..." Zhan Zhao tried his best to steer the conversation away from the supernatural. "Why did you, so quickly..."  

Bai Yutang rarely saw Zhan Zhao struggling to frame a question... but then again, it was a difficult one to ask. He couldn't exactly say, 'Why did you seamlessly replace one wife after another? Was it for the inheritance?'  

Pei Tian chuckled and shook his head, signalling that they needn't be so cautious. "I had my own reasons. On the one hand, I was lonely. On the other hand, I wanted to have more children."  

Instinctively, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at Pei Yun and Pei Xiu across from them. The siblings were clearly used to Pei Tian's way of speaking and didn't seem to care much.  

"After my older brother and my first wife passed away, I kept thinking, this family is just me and these two kids left, surrounded by a pack of distant relatives eyeing us like wolves. And these two kids are strange, they're troublemakers, they're unlucky and they're fools. All they do is bicker all day. If something happened to me and I died before them, what would they do..." Pei Tian gestured at Pei Yun and Pei Xiu. "So I really wanted to find them a reliable stepmother and have more kids, to expand the family. That way, if the family was united, those greedy relatives wouldn't dare plot against us, right?"  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged another glance before looking at Pei Yun and Pei Xiu.  

The siblings sat there, shaking their heads.  

"The two wives I married after that were both great, proper ladies from wealthy families, well-educated, gentle, kind, loved children... But the moment they married me, they died... In the end, it wasn't that I didn't want to get married again, it was that no one dared to marry me, not even to date me! You know why my business kept growing bigger and bigger? Because I had nothing better to do! I've been living like a eunuch for the rest of my life!"  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were completely stunned by what the old man said, they never expected such a direction...

The more Pei Tian spoke, the angrier he became. "The other day, I saw Bao Sir on a date with Jiang Nan... I was jealous! I obviously have so much more money, and I'm so good-looking, yet I've been single for over twenty years, and not a single beautiful woman is willing to be with me! They all think I killed my wives! Why would I kill my wives? Money is not as good as beauty! Obviously I am Jiang Nan's fan!"  

The old man pounded his chest.  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were completely dumbfounded. They glanced across the table... Pei Yun and Pei Xiu were holding their foreheads and covering their faces, their ears were red, and they were too embarrassed to look up.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.  

Zhan Zhao nodded – Facts prove that Pei Wen inherited her father's obsession with good looks and star-chasing tendencies.  

After Pei Tian finished speaking, he calmed down, sipped his cola, then said to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Apologies, I got a bit carried away," and asked them to continue asking questions.

"I still want to ask about the woman with the bandaged face," Zhan Zhao continued. "Since you dreamt that your children would see her, and they did see her, why do you say she doesn't exist?"  

"Ai, I think I have a rough idea of what's going on. The issue lies with my older brother," Pei Tian explained. "Aside from when he was having an episode, he was actually a great older brother. He pampered the kids in the family and loved to tell them stories. It's just that the stories he told were horrifying and caused a serious childhood shadow. When I was a kid, and later when Xiu and Yun were kids, we all heard him tell the same story about a woman in the old mansion's basement, her face wrapped in bandages."  

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin. That actually made sense. This answer not only explained why the children thought they had seen a ghost but also why Pei Tian dreamt of them seeing a ghost. It was simply a case of daytime thoughts manifesting as dreams.  

This kind of case was common, especially in children. If an adult absentmindedly mentioned something scary, like warning a child that there was a monster under the bed... the child might actually dream of that monster, thus leaving a childhood shadow. As they grew up, they would forget the details of the original story but vividly recall the terrifying imagery from their dreams, making it feel as if it had truly happened.  

Theoretically, it can be explained, but in reality, is this the case? Pei Xiu seems to have seen the woman since then... Was that also just a dream?  

Zhan Zhao wasn't entirely convinced and turned to look at Bai Yutang.  

Bai Yutang was sipping his water. Before arriving, he had been certain this family was highly suspicious. But after talking to them for a while, he was no longer so sure; either they were all masterful actors, or they were just a bunch of eccentrics.

‿︵‿︵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 28, 2025 by Angel

Edited: May 19, 2025 by Soojin