S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 25

The Card Murderer 25 – Old Photo

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Bai Ye was in the newly built greenhouse studying the skylight's lighting conditions when he heard what sounded like the warehouse door being opened. The old wooden door made a loud rumbling noise as it was pushed, creating quite a commotion.  

Stepping out of the greenhouse, Bai Ye looked towards the warehouse and saw two small dogs that usually liked to follow Zhao Jue around sitting at the entrance, wagging their tails.  

Bai Ye found it a little odd. The warehouse stored a large amount of "not-so-important" materials, mostly old case files, books that Zhao Jue had read, and various miscellaneous documents.  

Any files Zhao Jue considered useful were kept in the study on the second floor of the villa. The things in this warehouse had been piled up for about half a year without being touched, and Zhao Jue had even mentioned burning everything inside along with the warehouse to use as fertilizer for the flowers.

"Cough, cough, cough..."  

Inside the warehouse, Zhao Jue was on a ladder, rummaging through the top shelf of a bookcase. He pulled out a folder, opened it, and was immediately choked by the dust, nearly falling off the ladder.  

Standing below, Bai Ye also found the air filled with dust. Covering his mouth and nose, he asked, "What are you doing?"  

"Cough, cough..." Zhao Jue waved away the dust with one hand while handing two folders down to Bai Ye for him to hold.  

Bai Ye took the folders, opened one, and saw that it contained some very old medical records.  

Then Zhao Jue handed down a box.  

Bai Ye set the files aside, took the box, and opened it. Inside were several documents.  

He picked up one and flipped through it, discovering that it contained crime scene photos. Judging from the distribution of bloodstains, it seemed that a shocking level of slaughter had occurred.

But as he looked at it, Bai Ye suddenly had a strange sense of familiarity...  

Last night, when he had gone to deliver the blade to Bai Yutang, he also saw a scene of excessive slaughter in an RV.  

Although crime scenes varied greatly, Bai Ye's experience told him that there was a subtle similarity between the two.  

"Ah, found it." Zhao Jue pulled a folder out from the pile of documents and tossed it to Bai Ye.  

Bai Ye caught it, and Zhao Jue climbed down from the ladder, clapping his hands.  

As they carried the stack of documents out of the warehouse, Bai Ye asked Zhao Jue, "Is this the case that Yutang and the others are investigating?"

Zhao Jue took out his phone and showed it to Bai Ye. "Kitten just sent me a very strange photo. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before, there's a sense of familiarity."  

Bai Ye glanced at the phone. It was the photo of the bandaged woman at the end of the corridor.  

Staring at the image, Bai Ye frowned slightly.  

"What do you feel?" Zhao Jue asked him.  

"Not a good feeling," Bai Ye didn't dwell on it, but at first glance, he felt very uneasy about this photo, in every possible way.

"I told you I'd seen this photo before." Zhao Jue flipped through the folder in Bai Ye's hands, stopped at a particular page, and pulled out a photograph to show him.  

It was an old, almost worn-out picture, almost identical to the one Zhan Zhao had sent to Zhao Jue. The only noticeable difference was that the digital version had likely been restored, its clarity and brightness enhanced to make the photo clearer.

The paper photograph, whether due to being stored for a long time or some other reason, looked even more unsettling than the one on the phone.  

"What is this photo?" Bai Ye flipped through the other folders and noticed that almost all of them were labelled 'Card Experiment'.  

"Card Experiment?" Bai Ye frowned at Zhao Jue – Is this another remnant of the organisation?  

Zhao Jue, however, waved a hand. "For once, this really has nothing to do with the organisation. The card experiment was actually just a rehabilitation therapy method, and it's quite effective for certain conditions."  

Zhao Jue continued, "This case happened many, many years ago. A private rehabilitation centre experienced a severe violent incident. Almost all the doctors, nurses, and patients on duty that night were wiped out. At the time, there were two theories, one suggested that the patients went into a collective frenzy and killed each other, while the other speculated that someone hired a hitman to carry out this massacre...... The only clue left behind was a doctor lying in the corridor, clutching a camera in his hand. The final image he captured before he died was this photo."  

Bai Ye looked at the picture again, and that strange, unsettling feeling returned.  

"This photo, isn't it amazing?" Zhao Jue asked him.

Bai Ye nodded.  

The photo had actually been taken from a low angle, but because it isn't close, the upward angle isn't very obvious.

At the end of the corridor, the open door was letting in some light. However, the door wasn't directly facing the corridor, it was slightly tilted to the side. This suggested that beyond the corridor's end, there was another corridor... In other words, the hallway formed a Y-shape. The place where the doctor was lying was on one of the branches of the Y.

The open door was located at the junction where the other branch met the main corridor.  

But the most unsettling element was, of course, the woman standing there barefoot, lifting the hem of her dress, her face almost entirely wrapped in bandages.  

She appeared to be standing at the intersection of the three paths, both in front of the door and at the end of the corridor. She could either step inside or walk forward.  

And most eerily, she was looking directly at the camera, as if she had noticed the photographer.  

Her face was almost entirely bandaged, leaving only her eyes visible. Yet, those eyes conveyed an ambiguous emotion.  

One could interpret her expression as fear, as if she were fleeing and had turned back in panic for one last glance.  

Or one could think that she just happened to walk by in a very eerie manner, noticed some movement in the hallway, and then glanced that way.

It was even possible that she had just stepped out of the door, seen something in front of her, and was about to go back, glancing back as she walked.

In short, the odd positioning, the peculiar movement, and the unusual camera angle allowed for countless interpretations of this photograph.  

There was also something particularly unsettling about the way she lifted her dress as she walked.  

The way she lifted her skirt wasn't demure, but rather it had an almost comical quality, as if she was deliberately trying to appear sneaky.  

Also, because the photos were slightly blurry, many things, especially the woman's emotions, can only be filled in by the imagination, which might lead to some people thinking she is crying while others think she is smiling.

Like Bai Yutang, Bai Ye had an acute sensitivity to danger and the unknown... A photograph filled with so many uncertainties was enough to make both of them feel deeply uneasy.

"But when they did the final body count, this woman wasn't among them," Zhao Jue said.  

"So, either she escaped, or she was the murderer?" Bai Ye looked at the photo again. "Although this woman is very strange, she doesn't have a drop of blood on her, and she's barefoot, even the soles of her feet were so clean."

"Not only was she missing from the deceased," Zhao Jue continued, "she wasn't among the survivors either."  

"What do you mean, not among the survivors..." Bai Ye was puzzled.  

"I mean there are no medical records, no treatment history, or any admission procedures for her," Zhao Jue flicked a finger against the photograph. "She's an undocumented person."

"Even hospitals have undocumented people?" Bai Ye frowned.  

"This was a private rehabilitation centre, of course there were undocumented patients." Zhao Jue took the photo and pulled out his phone to take a picture of it. "Heh, this time I can really squeeze something out of Kitten!"  

Bai Ye looked at him a little speechlessly – Both of them are already so busy they barely had time to eat, sleep, or even date. If he had a lead, why not just share it directly?  

Zhao Jue smirked smugly – No chance!  

Bai Ye himself was a bit curious and asked Zhao Jue, "So, the murderer was never caught?"

Zhao Jue waved the photo in his hand. "This woman was the prime suspect at the time, or the only one who got away alive."  

"And what was the final conclusion?" Bai Ye asked. "Was it a single perpetrator or mutual slaughter?"  

Zhao Jue smiled faintly. "Take a guess."  

After thinking about it, Bai asked, "Was the crime scene faked?"  

Zhao Jue smiled. "I also had this suspicion at the time, but unfortunately, there was no time for a thorough investigation. The rehabilitation centre was sold off, the families of the victims received hefty compensation, and in the end, the case was officially closed as mutual slaughter."  

"Where was this rehabilitation centre located?" Bai Ye asked.  

"Hmm... Ah! That new amusement park." Zhao Jue thought for a moment. "It's roughly around that area."  

Bai Ye frowned – Near the newly built amusement park?  

......

After passing through Sparrow Tunnel, Bai Yutang pulled over near the campground.  

As Zhan Zhao unbuckled his seatbelt, his phone chimed.  

Zhan Zhao picked it up and glanced at the screen.

As soon as Bai Yutang got out of the car, he heard Zhan Zhao exclaim "Ah!"  

Pei Xiu also turned to look in his direction – What's going on?  

Zhan Zhao pushed open the car door and stepped out while calling Zhao Jue. "Why do you have this photo?"  

Zhao Jue, holding his phone, said leisurely, "Kitten, a new restaurant just opened nearby. It's getting cold, it's almost hotpot season!"  

Zhan Zhao glanced at his phone. "I didn't ask about food!"  

"Besides hot pot, their desserts are said to be quite good. It's almost time for persimmon season again!"

Standing by the car, Zhan Zhao impatiently tapped his foot as he held the phone. "Fine, I'll treat you to whatever you want to eat... Talk about the photo!"  

Zhao Jue chuckled. "Then tonight for dinner..."  

"There's no time tonight! We have a meeting in the afternoon, an investigation in the evening, and the forensics room still has a pile of corpses!"  

"Ai..." Zhao Jue continued to dawdle. "I really want to eat hot pot today, and I also want to eat persimmons..."  

Beside him, Bai Ye shook his head speechlessly – Just earlier, Kalin and Mia had brought back a whole bunch of persimmons.  

Zhan Zhao took a deep breath to control his temper. Bai Yutang watched him in confusion – What are you doing?

Zhan Zhao showed Bai Yutang his phone screen.  

After looking at it, Bai Yutang was just as shocked. He nodded at Zhan Zhao – He can eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

Zhan Zhao had no choice but to compromise. "Can you say it now?"  

"Mm-hmm... Let's discuss it over dinner tonight, bye~" Zhao Jue cheerfully hung up.  

Zhan Zhao stared at his phone in a daze for three seconds before raising his foot to kick the car door... Bai Yutang quickly pulled him back.  

At the campground, Luo Tian and Qin Ou, who had arrived first, were approaching with the forest rangers.  

At the intersection, Zhao Hu and Ma Han's car pulled up as well.  

Everyone was a little surprised, those two had set off the earliest, so why were they the last to arrive? And it looked like they had someone in the back seat...  

When the car door opened, Zhao Hu and Ma Han got out, followed by Eleven from the back seat.  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were puzzled – Were Zhao Hu and Ma Han late because they went to pick up Uncle Chopsticks?  

Ma Han gestured towards Eleven. "He knows quite a lot."

‿︵‿︵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 31, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 2, 2025 by Soojin