S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 43

The Card Murderer 43 – Mirror

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Eleven bought a sandwich and a salad from the hospital cafeteria, and also picked up a pudding for Mia. He stood in front of the vending machine with a plastic bag in his hand, trying to choose a drink.

"What should I get..."

Though he looked like a Sagittarius, he was actually a Libra, and Eleven was torn between black tea and oolong tea when a sudden commotion came from the inpatient building. As the elevator doors opened, two nurses ran out, shouting, "Where's security? There's a fight upstairs!"

Eleven didn't bother with the drink anymore and dashed upstairs.

Just as he burst out of the stairwell, a white figure flew straight at him.

Eleven quickly dodged, and a nurse shot past him and crashed into the wall with a cry.

As the nurse hit the ground, something clattered to the floor with a metallic clang right at Eleven's feet, it was a gleaming knife.

The nurse clutched her side and struggled to get up, raising her head to look at Eleven, who was standing at the emergency exit.

Eleven tilted his head slightly and glanced in the opposite direction.

Mia was standing at the door of the ward, one hand picking up a stuffed bunny from the floor, the other holding a can of cola.

Eleven cast a mildly sympathetic look at the nurse who'd just been beaten and asked, "Who are you? An assassin?"

The nurse stared warily at Eleven and reached out to grab the knife on the floor.

Eleven immediately waved his hands, meaning, "No, no, no..."

But before Eleven could finish, the nurse had already picked up the knife and stood up.

Just as she stood up, there was a sudden whoosh from ahead... something came hurtling through the air.

Eleven closed his eyes in sympathy... and the side of the nurse's face was smashed by a high-speed flying can of cola.

In an instant, both the can and the person's face were distorted...

When he heard the noise, Eleven opened his eyes to see the nurse flying out once again. The cola can exploded, spraying the floor like fireworks.

With a loud thud, the nurse hit the ground and immediately rolled her eyes back in a faint.

Eleven instinctively crossed his arms over his chest, then turned to look at Mia down the corridor, who was shaking out her wrist. Her posture was impressively professional, it looked just like the dashing pitcher they'd seen in the baseball game a couple of days ago.

Eleven pointed at the unconscious nurse on the floor, then spread his hands at Mia – Who's this?

Mia gestured – An assassin!

Eleven looked up at the ceiling – Again? How many assassins could there be in one day?

"Where's Bai Ye?" Eleven ran to the ward entrance and handed the plastic bag of food to Mia, only to find that Tu Zi was sleeping inside, but Bai Ye was nowhere to be seen.

Mia gestured and said, Ye Ye received a phone call and went out, and the assassin came in right after him.

Eleven frowned, pulled out his phone and called Bai Ye. "So he was lured away?"

The phone rang for a while but no one answered. Eleven scratched his head – Where is he?

......

Bai Yutang was driving to the hospital, still unsure of what the situation was. Zhan Zhao had asked Jiang Ping to access the hospital's surveillance footage.

Jiang Ping connected, but discovered that the cameras in the underground parking garage had been damaged, it looked like the equipment had been deliberately sabotaged.

How does someone sabotage surveillance cameras? The ones in the parking garage were all installed fairly high up.

Bai Yutang frowned – Was a gun involved?

At that moment, Zhan Zhao's phone rang. He thought it was Bai Ye calling and hurried to pick up, only to find that the incoming call was from Bao Sir.

Zhan Zhao was a bit puzzled, but answered the call, only to hear Bao Sir say, "The Pei family have called the police, they say Pei Wen's been kidnapped!"

"What?" Zhan Zhao was taken aback.

Bai Yutang also frowned.

Mingdi glanced at his phone... Sure enough, Pei Wen had made several calls to him earlier, but then suddenly stopped.

"Who kidnapped her?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bao Sir hesitated briefly before saying, "The mirror."

All three people in the car were stunned. Mingdi looked completely confused. "Who?"

"The mirror," Bao Sir repeated.

Bai Yutang was speechless. "Bao Sir, I'm in the middle of something here, don't joke around..."

"Who's joking with you? I'm telling you, the person who took her is the mirror."

Zhan Zhao asked in confusion, "Is there someone actually named Mirror?"

Bao Sir gave a helpless explanation. "Apparently, Pei Wen was practising yoga in the yoga room. The bodyguard was waiting outside, then, all of a sudden, he heard her scream... He rushed in and found the room empty, and one of the mirrors on the wall was shattered."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang immediately thought of the missing female student from when Pei Xiu was at university... but that case had seemed more like an insurance scam than someone actually being swallowed by a mirror.

"Could she have escaped through a window?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"That yoga room is in their own villa, supposedly, there are no windows, just a single door. The bodyguard was right outside it, and the rest of the family was all at home. No one saw her leave..."

"So what you're saying is... a locked room?" Zhan Zhao asked. "What about surveillance? Any cameras?"

"There's no surveillance inside the Pei home, only outside. But no one was seen coming in or going out," Bao Sir said, clearly troubled. "The Pei family are under a lot of media pressure at the moment, there's a crowd outside their gate, and none of them dare to go out... But they've searched the whole house, and she's just gone."

By now, Bai Yutang's car had entered the hospital grounds. Zhan Zhao asked Bao Sir if Zhao Jue was still at the police station.

Bao Zheng glanced over at Zhao Jue, who was sitting to one side looking at his phone, and nodded, saying he was still there.

Bai Yutang told Ma Han and Zhao Hu, who were following behind them, to go back and pick up Zhao Jue and head to the Pei family villa.

Ma Han turned the car around and headed back to the station.

Just as Bai Yutang was about to drive into the underground parking garage, Zhan Zhao pointed off to the side.

They saw Eleven running over, who opened the car door and got in. "Bai Ye's not answering his phone."

"Where's Uncle Ye?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Eleven pointed at the parking garage. "Someone saw him go in... and just after he left, someone posing as a nurse tried to kill Tu Zi."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both alarmed. "Is Tu Zi alright?"

"He's fine, Mia was there," Eleven raised a hand and waved it below his neck. "The attacker got knocked out and is tied up in the security office."

Bai Yutang stopped the car outside the parking garage, and everyone got out and ran towards the elevator.

None of them could get through to Bai Ye on the phone, which was unusual. The only possible explanation was that his phone battery had died.

They took the elevator down to B2. As soon as the doors opened, everyone spread out to search... From a distance, Bai Yutang spotted something on the ground reflecting light. He quickly ran over, picked it up, and frowned.

It was a cell phone... The screen was completely shattered, and a bullet was lodged in the device.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. They both recognised the phone, a folding screen model that Zhan Zhao had recently bought for Bai Ye...

Zhan Zhao started to panic. "Uncle Ye hasn't run into trouble, has he?"

But Bai Yutang didn't think that was likely. He doesn't believe anything could happen to Bai Ye, the only way to take him down would be to send in a fully armed special ops team.

"Don't panic, don't panic," Eleven waved his hand. "There's no blood and no sign of a struggle. The phone was probably dropped on purpose, someone probably took a shot and missed, and the phone was left behind deliberately for us to find..."

"Hey!"

Just then, Mingdi, who had been running around the parking garage, suddenly called out and waved from a distance. "Car!"

Everyone ran over... and saw Mingdi standing in front of a vehicle that they all found very familiar.

"Is this Pei Wen's car?" both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked him.

Mingdi nodded.

"Why is Pei Wen's car at the hospital?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, while Bai Yutang suddenly walked to the rear of the vehicle, reached out, and opened the trunk.

Only then did they discover the trunk wasn't locked, and inside... lay a person.

This person was wrapped entirely in bandages, like a mummy, but it clearly wasn't the bandaged woman, it appeared to be a man.

Bai Yutang reached in to check the man's neck and found that he was still alive, but completely immobile and unable to make a sound.

After a brief inspection, Bai Yutang found that many of the man's joints had been dislocated. It was obviously Bai Ye's handiwork.

Zhan Zhao also retrieved several bullets from the car, along with a disassembled gun and a silencer.

Bai Yutang quickly pieced together what had probably happened...

Uncle Ye had likely chased someone into the underground parking garage, only to be ambushed. The assailant had opened fire, and Bai Ye dodged and threw his phone out to confirm the shooter's location. The phone was hit, but it helped him pinpoint the attacker. After subduing the man, Bai Ye had probably been in a rush to deal with something else, so he "disassembled" both the man and the weapon, and tossed them in the trunk. The phone was deliberately left on the ground in plain sight, a clue for the rest of them.

"Was Uncle Ye able to open the trunk of this car because it wasn't locked to begin with?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"This car's parked in a rather out-of-the-way spot, not the kind you'd spot easily. Could it be that Uncle Ye found the car keys?" Bai Yutang frowned. "Maybe this guy deliberately left the keys behind to lure Bai Ye over before launching a sneak attack..."

"Looks like he left in a hurry, he probably went off to save someone."

Bai Yutang was about to call Jiang Ping to check the location of Bai Ye's car when his phone suddenly rang. The caller was Zhao Jue.

Bai Yutang quickly answered.

"Bai Ye's not answering the phone, is he?" Zhao Jue asked.

"That's right! His phone..."

"I'm sending you a location," Zhao Jue didn't sound anxious. "Go find him using the coordinates. It's probably an emergency, the phone's been sacrificed."

With that, Zhao Jue hung up.

Bai Yutang opened the location Zhao Jue had sent and saw a red dot moving on the map, heading in the direction of the campground.

After leaving the parking garage, Bai Yutang asked Eleven to go back and check on Tu Zi with Mia. He would send officers to strengthen security.

Eleven, still rather enthusiastic, asked, "Want me to have a word with him?"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao seemed to think it was a good idea and let Eleven chat with Tu Zi casually.

Once they were in the car, Bai Yutang received a message from Bao Sir saying that the SWAT team had been arranged and reinforcements could be dispatched at any time if needed.

Bai Yutang glanced at Mingdi, who had followed them into the car, and felt there might be a conflict soon. After all, Mingdi was technically an outsider...

Zhan Zhao patted him on the shoulder and told him to just drive. Even if they kicked Mingdi out of the car now, he'd go himself for Gao Min's sake... It would be even more dangerous for him to go alone, it was better to bring him along.

So Bai Yutang had no choice but to drive in pursuit of Bai Ye.

They had only just left the hospital when the phone rang again, this time it was Luo Tian and Qin Ou.

Zhan Zhao immediately had a bad feeling. Those two had been keeping watch on Zhou Li, something must have happened...

When he answered the call, Qin Ou's voice came through. "Boss, Zhou Li says she wants to go to the campground villa."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned. Going to the campground at a time like this?

Luo Tian glanced back at Zhou Li, who had changed clothes and voluntarily taken a seat in the back of their car.

Qin Ou informed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Zhou Li says the best place to carry out the ritual is the old hospital site at the campground. She also said it has to be filled with mirrors."

Zhan Zhao frowned deeply. "Mirrors again..."

Bai Yutang told Luo Tian and Qin Ou to take Zhou Li to the police station first, they'd head to the campground afterwards.

After ending the call, Zhan Zhao turned to Mingdi, who was still frowning and deep in thought, and asked, "You said you'd seen that tattoo before in the villa. Where exactly?"

Mingdi looked up. "In the mirror."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned – What is it with these people and mirrors?

"When I got out of the shower, the bathroom was all steamy," Mingdi said. "There was condensation on the mirror, and the pattern appeared in the mist."

Zhan Zhao confirmed, "Like when you breathe on a window and draw on it with your finger?"

"Exactly."

"So, was it drawn by someone while you were in the shower, or had the mirror been treated in advance?"

"I think it must've been done in advance using some special method, maybe a waterproof transparent coating," Mingdi analysed. "If someone had drawn it on the spot, it wouldn't have lasted long, and there would've been streaks of water running down. Also, the villa's shower is glass. If someone had come in while I was inside, I would've seen them."

"Could it be a kind of secret code for passing on information?" Zhan Zhao asked Mingdi. "Did you get a clear look at the time on the pocket watch?"

Mingdi shook his head. "The image wasn't complete. It looked like part of it had been wiped away, the part with the pocket watch."

"Then it was probably a message left by a previous occupant. After reading it, they wiped part of it away," Zhan Zhao muttered to himself. "But why not wipe it off entirely? Was there still some use for what remained?"

"Cat..." Bai Yutang suddenly spoke. "Don't you think the cost of this crime is a bit too high?"

"Cost?" Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

"Several people have died, and it's been a long time, also... there've already been two separate groups sent to kill Liu Jing and Tu Zi. Then there's the one Uncle Ye caught in the underground parking garage, and they were all armed." Bai Yutang frowned. Although this case was going in circles in mysterious places, do you know what the modus operandi reminds me of?"

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, then asked, "You mean illegal drug trafficking?"

"What else could it be about?" Bai Yutang couldn't figure it out. "Why go to all this trouble?"

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin. "If that's the case, then those abandoned rehab centres might've been used for drug trials?"

Bai Yutang nodded. "Don't be fooled by the varied murder methods, but secret hideouts, silencing witnesses, weapons, drug experiments, hallucinations, and all this stretched over such a long period... This case doesn't seem like the work of one person."

"Our previous analysis felt like some massive reality show. But now, it seems like there's huge interests involved behind the scenes," Zhan Zhao scratched his head, feeling that the clues were all tangled. "A reality show and contraband?"

Bai Yutang shook his head as well. Although we still don't know exactly what is going on, it couldn't possibly be that they really did it to "summon a demon" and caused so many deaths, right?

‿︵‿︵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: May 3, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 1, 2025 by Soojin