S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 22

The Card Murderer 22 – Theatre Troupe

---

In broad daylight, a living person had been kidnapped from a parking lot filled with surveillance cameras. How was that even possible?  

The police immediately mobilised to carry out a rescue operation.  

Guided by the directions provided by Pei Xiu, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao drove towards the theatre.  

Almost at the same time as their car arrived, Ma Han and Zhao Hu also arrived.  

A police patrol car was parked at the entrance of the theatre, and two officers had just arrived, searching for the way in.  

This area was part of S City's new district, which was repurposed from an old industrial site. The entire place had a distinct steampunk aesthetic, with walls covered in rivets and pipes running in all directions, and the buildings themselves looked like metal-clad boxes, making it impossible to tell where the doors were.  

To make things even trickier, the outer sections of the buildings were lined with metal staircases, some purely decorative, making it difficult to distinguish which were real and which were fake.  

Pei Xiu got out of the car and pointed to the rear, informing everyone that they had come to the back of the theatre by mistake. They needed to go around to reach the front entrance.  

Following his lead, they ran forward and soon saw the open-air car parking lot.  

A few vehicles in the parking lot immediately caught their attention, not only was there the red SUV used in Zhou Li's abduction, but there were also two nearly identical cars, differing only in age, with number plates that were just one digit apart.  

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged glances – Mingdi and Pei Wen's cars?  

Pei Xiu was startled when he saw the car and shouted, "Damn it!" before hurrying towards the main entrance.  

The so-called front entrance of the theatre was a battered wooden door on pulleys that looked more like the entrance to a junk-filled warehouse and didn't even have a lock.  

The door was half-open, and the inside was unlit, shrouded in darkness. The entrance was cluttered with cardboard boxes, folding chairs, and other miscellaneous items.  

Just as Pei Xiu was about to push the door open and rush inside, Bai Yutang grabbed him, instructing him to stay outside.  

But Pei Xiu refused to comply. Before he could argue, Zhan Zhao gestured for him to stay by his side and wait. Right now, they were dealing with a kidnapper and a hostage, if violence broke out, untrained personnel would only make things worse.  

Bai Yutang, Zhao Hu, and Ma Han quickly divided their tasks, and then, along with the two patrol officers, entered the building.  

Watching Bai Yutang and the others draw their guns, Pei Xiu grew even more anxious, Don't hit my sister!  

He turned to look at Zhan Zhao, only to find that Zhan Zhao didn't seem concerned with what was happening inside the theatre. Instead, he was carefully studying the vehicles.

Pei Xiu followed Zhan Zhao and asked, "Nothing's going to happen, right? Could my sister run into the kidnapper?"  

Zhan Zhao replied, "With that bodyguard following your sister, unless the kidnapper has some kind of heavy weapon, there's no way he could harm her."  

Pei Xiu was momentarily stunned before nodding quickly. "Right! Kevin's with her! It should be fine..."  

After inspecting the red SUV, Zhan Zhao moved on to examine the two cars parked side by side.  

The exteriors of the two vehicles were identical, but the interiors were completely different. Inside Mingdi's car, there was only one decoration – a small hedgehog.  

Zhan Zhao smiled – The hedgehog looks a bit like Gao Min when she was both sleep-deprived and pressuring him for a manuscript... unusually irritable.  

Pei Wen's car, on the other hand, was all flashy and gaudy, cluttered with various trinkets and stuffed toys, almost like an exhibition of Mingdi-themed merchandise.  

Frowning at the red SUV parked next to the two cars, Zhan Zhao asked Pei Xiu, "If you were the kidnapper and you brought someone here, only to find a single available parking spot... would you really park so neatly within the lines?"  

Pei Xiu scratched his head and noticed that the two SUVs and Mingdi's car were parked perfectly straight, whereas his sister's car was slightly crooked.  

"Your sister even has the same car model as Mingdi, so why didn't she put a little hedgehog inside as well?" Zhan Zhao continued to ask.

Pei Xiu looked utterly confused, his mind a jumbled mess, he had no idea what Zhan Zhao was getting at... Just then, a loud bang echoed from inside the theatre.  

"I'm going!"  

Pei Xiu stopped thinking altogether and sprinted inside.  

Zhan Zhao was about to follow when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two people approaching. He halted and turned to look in their direction.  

It was an interesting duo, Mingdi and Kevin.  

The two walked side by side, pushing a pair of rolling clothing racks loaded with costumes covered in dust bags. Each of them also carried a tray with four cups of coffee.  

Zhan Zhao's brow furrowed slightly as he muttered under his breath, "Not good..."  

As Kevin and Mingdi reached the entrance, they were momentarily taken aback upon seeing Zhan Zhao. "What are you doing here?"

Before Zhan Zhao could answer, a sudden scream rang out from inside the theatre.

Kevin immediately dropped everything and rushed inside, while Mingdi handed the coffee to Zhan Zhao before dashing in as well.  

Zhan Zhao held the coffee and looked at the two rows of clothing racks. Taking out his phone, he called Jiang Ping and asked him to check the surveillance footage along the road, there was a chance that the SUV had transferred the kidnapped victim somewhere else after leaving the publishing house's parking lot.  

......

Meanwhile, inside the theatre, it was even more chaotic.  

Kevin heard that it was Pei Wen who was screaming and had assumed something had happened, only to barge in and find Pei Wen chasing Pei Xiu around with a pillow.  

Dressed in a robe, Pei Wen swung the pillow at her brother while he dodged frantically, feathers flying everywhere.  

Bai Yutang was putting away his gun and taking out his phone to make a call. Ma Han and Zhao Hu were standing nearby with Gao Min, while several patrol officers and some theatre troupe staff were huddled together, and there were also a few actors from the play, all dressed in costumes. One of them seemed to have been beaten, with a swollen face and applying a cold compress.

......

Earlier, when Bai Yutang, Zhao Hu, and Ma Han had stormed in... they found that none of the theatre's rooms had actual doors, only thick plastic curtains hanging in the doorways. Combined with the dim lighting, the entire place looked like something out of a horror film.  

The first room beyond the front entrance was a utility area, and past another curtain lay the performance space.  

This small theatre had no raised stage, just a circle of chairs surrounding an open floor that served as the stage.  

Right now, the scene unfolding in the middle of it was quite "shocking".  

On a steel frame bed that looked like a simple dissection table lay a woman dressed in a white nightgown, her body covered in bloodstains, with playing cards scattered all over the floor.

Two men in white lab coats were "fighting" beside the corpse, while another woman stood off to the side, casually flipping through a script while eating an apple. There were also a few people sitting on chairs, watching.

"Who are you?"  

At that moment, the woman with the apple looked up and spotted Bai Yutang and the others barging in, especially the two uniformed patrol officers behind them, and was surprised.  

The two doctors who were "fighting" also turned around, and one of them, not paying attention, lost their balance and bumped into the lamp stand by the bed.

The lamp crashed to the ground with a loud bang, sending sparks flying everywhere.

The crowd scattered in all directions, and even the "corpse" was startled, tumbling off the bed.  

Bai Yutang frowned – When the corpse lifted her head just now, her face was revealed, it seemed to be Pei Wen...  

Just as Bai Yutang was wondering what these people were up to, Pei Xiu came rushing in from outside, shouting, "Wen Wen!"  

Coincidentally, the room only had two lamps, one had just crashed to the floor, leaving only the other one still standing.  

In the dim light, Pei Xiu burst through the door and immediately spotted a man in a white lab coat looking highly "suspicious" and grabbing his sister, who was covered in blood...  

"I..." Pei Xiu used all the moves he had learned at the gym to deal with Mingdi, charging forward and landing a punch on the doctor.  

In the chaos, he stepped on something.  

The theatre staff hurried over to break up the scuffle, insisting it was a misunderstanding.  

Still confused, Pei Xiu turned to check on his sister.  

Pei Wen was sitting on the ground, staring at his foot.  

Pei Xiu looked down and realised he had stepped on something. As he lifted his foot... Oh no. He had just stepped his sister's favourite limited-edition chibi Mingdi keychain, snapping the little figurine's head clean off.  

As a result, Pei Wen let out a sharp scream, grabbed a pillow, and started chasing after her brother to pummel him.  

Kevin ran in at that moment and froze, staring at the chaotic scene before him.  

The girl who was eating an apple earlier was quite angry, asking Bai Yutang and the others what they were doing barging in. They were rehearsing a play!

Bai Yutang frowned, sensing that something was off. "Zhou Li isn't here?"  

"Xiao Li just messaged to say she couldn't make it today," the other man in a white coat who hadn't been punched replied. "So we asked Wen Wen to fill in for her."  

"Where's the message she sent you?" Bai Yutang gestured – Show me the phone.  

Several people pulled out their phones and showed him.  

Zhou Li's message had been sent to the theatre's group chat. It was brief, saying she really couldn't make it today and asking them to find someone to cover for her. It was followed by two emojis, one of a little person sticking out their tongue and one of a spade heart.

Bai Yutang immediately called Jiang Ping. Jiang Ping reported that he was already looking into it, but the car had passed through several areas without surveillance, the route must have been mapped out in advance.  

Bai Yutang turned to look at Zhan Zhao, who had just entered behind Mingdi.

Zhan Zhao nodded – The murderer had deliberately parked the car here to mislead them. However...  

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found it odd, why had all these people gathered here at such a precise moment?  

Meanwhile, Pei Xiu was covered in feathers, looking thoroughly aggrieved after being pummelled by his sister.  

Zhan Zhao didn't immediately question why everyone was there. Instead, he asked about Zhou Li's car at the entrance.  

The theatre staff were all stunned – Zhou Li's car?

They went outside and stared at the red SUV for a long moment, and the troupe members were all asking each other...

"Is this Zhou Li's car?"  

"No way, isn't Zhou Li's car silver-grey?"  

"I've never seen Xiao Li driving this car."  

A strange thought struck Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang at the same time. They immediately called Jiang Ping, instructing him to check both SUVs.  

Jiang Ping quickly checked and reported back saying that this indeed car belonged to Zhou Li, she bought it less than a month ago.  

"Here we go again..."  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both had a bad feeling. Fang Jie back then, Wang Qiu this time, and now Zhou Li. Two cases weren't enough to confirm a pattern, but with three, they could start to see a clear connection!  

Wang Qiu had also bought his car less than a month before his death. There had been a red heart symbol on the ground when he was found, and he had been framed as Zhang Yuancheng's killer.  

Fang Jie had likewise bought his car less than a month before he died. Though his death was a suicide, he had been the one who murdered Lao Chen's wife and daughter.  

This time, Zhou Li had been kidnapped. The text message she had sent included a black spade symbol, the same one on the corpse of the illustrator "Cotton Candy" found at the cemetery yesterday.  

Zhou Li had also bought her car less than a month ago. If the previous pattern held, did that mean... Zhou Li was being framed as Cotton Candy's murderer?  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other  

Bai Yutang put on gloves and reached for the car's trunk...  

There was a soft click, the trunk hadn't even been locked.  

Bai Yutang frowned and pushed it open...  

Fortunately, the trunk was empty. No bloodied corpse, no scattered black spade cards.  

But there was something inside.  

In the otherwise empty trunk was a single sheet of paper, as if torn from a notebook. It was a "suicide note", one eerily similar to the one found in Wang Qiu's case.

‿︵‿︵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: March 30, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 1, 2025 by Soojin