S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 47

The Card Murderer 47 – Meet

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In the hospital's ward area, Mia was sitting cross-legged on the bay window, playing a game.

Eleven was sitting beside her, hugging a pillow and dozing off.

It was already dark outside, but the lights in the ward were on. Tu Zi, lying in bed, stirred and woke up.

Mia looked up at him.

Tu Zi sat up. At that moment, medical staff entered the ward to check on Tu Zi.

The nurse pulled the curtain around the bed, and Mia walked out with her phone, seemingly heading to the washroom.

Soon, the examination was finished, and the doctor and nurses left.

After a while, Mia returned to the ward and glanced at the bed.

Tu Zi was no longer there, instead, two pillows had been stuffed under the bedding.

Mia ran over and poked Eleven.

Eleven opened his eyes, showing no sign of drowsiness, and asked Mia, "All done?"

Mia nodded and gestured to him – Dad's car is downstairs.

Eleven got up and stretched. "That kid's really cautious. Lying in wait for so long, my back's almost broken."

Mia used her bear's paw to thump his back.

As the two of them walked out together, Eleven asked Mia, "Are Zhao Jue and the others coming back for dinner?"

Mia waved the bear's paw – I don't know, if all goes well, they probably will.

......

In the hospital's underground parking garage, a man wearing a white coat, a face mask, and glasses was walking quickly towards a car.

He reached out and tugged the door. Realising it was unlocked, he swiftly opened it and got in.

Sitting in the driver's seat, the man let out a long breath.

He didn't bother taking off the obstructive outfit but instead quickly started the car, preparing to drive off.

But out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a figure wrapped in bandages in the rearview mirror.

"Ahhh!" He screamed, and just then, a Jeep drove over and stopped directly in front of his car, blocking the way.

The Jeep's window rolled down, and Zhao Hu stuck his head out for a look, holding up a pair of shiny handcuffs – Buddy, your time's up!

Inside the car, the man was gripping the steering wheel with both hands, still panting. His eyes darted about as if desperately trying to find a way to escape.

At that moment, someone behind him spoke, "I've met people like you before."

The man looked up at the rear-view mirror.

In the dark back seat sat Zhao Jue, dressed in black, with a loosely wrapped bandage around his head.

His hand was stretched out, slowly unravelling the bandage, loop by loop, as he spoke. "When a person has nothing, they want everything, the one thing they don't care about is safety. But when a person has everything, they care about nothing except safety."

"A life is a life, a person is a person, how can one be so worthless, and another so valuable?" Zhao Jue finished unwrapping the bandage from his head and looked ahead at Tu Zi, who was staring blankly into the rearview mirror. "The reason you like staying around Bai Ye isn't just because of the safety. There's another illusion, you think that one day, you'll be just like him, able to let go of the past and live in peace."

At this point, Zhao Jue suddenly laughed, as if he'd thought of something amusing. He reached out and poked Tu Zi in the back, his tone mocking, "Do you really think you deserve that?"

Leaning against the back of the front seat, Zhao Jue teased him, "Garbage tossed into a beautiful garden only gets thrown out. When choosing your ending, the first thing you have to do is figure out what you are, a vine that might bloom, or a pile of shit."

Tu Zi's lower lip began to tremble at those words.

Just then, the car door opened, and Zhao Hu gestured for him to come out.

Tu Zi stepped out of the car trembling, unsteady on his feet and looking pale and sickly.

"Cut it out." Hu Zi cuffed him. "I just looked at your test results, you're perfectly healthy."

With that, he escorted him into the car.

After Tu Zi was pushed into the back seat, he found that there were already a doctor and a nurse inside, both handcuffed. These were the ones who helped Tu Zi escape from the ward earlier.

Zhao Hu got in too, waved at Zhao Jue and said there were no seats left.

Zhao Jue nodded, signalling them to go ahead.

At that moment, another car drove up. It was the one picking up Mia and Eleven, driven by Issel.

Zhao Jue got into the car. Mia gestured to ask him what he wanted to eat, they wanted to have crayfish.

Zhao Jue gave it some thought, decided it sounded good, and nodded while pulling out his phone to contact Bai Ye.

......

After all relevant individuals were arrested, SCI entered the interrogation and case-closing phase.

During this period, public interest in the case remained high. Because a video had been captured by reporters showing Bao Sir subduing a giant bodyguard at the Pei family villa, all sorts of rumours were spreading wildly across the internet.

Bao Sir even specifically asked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang to hold a press conference to explain the case in detail and respond to some questions.

In the end, Gao Min, holding Liu Jing's notebook, wrote an extensive investigative report. The length was nearly that of a novel, thoroughly explaining the bandaged woman case that had shocked the entire S City over the past few days.

Zhan Zhao also read the article on his tablet and wondered why Gao Min kept urging others to write books, surely she'd do a fine job herself. At any rate, she wrote much better than Mingdi.

It was a complicated, yet not so complicated story.

At the beginning of the story, there was a long list.

These past few days, Gongsun had been leading the forensics and pathology teams deep into the mountains of Sparrow Mountain. Based on the confessions of those arrested, they uncovered a large number of buried remains. Most of the victims had been sacrificed in drug trials, and some were innocent hospital staff.

Alongside the remains, they also dug up a number of cards.

While investigating Tu Zi's illicit gains, they found a dying old man in one of his holiday villas near an amusement park.

This elderly man had lost all ability to move, surviving only with the help of medical equipment.

Most of the cards found with the remains bore fingerprints, prints that matched those of the old man. They also found half a box of unused cards at his home.

In the old man's bedside drawer, they found a thick diary spanning over thirty years, detailing every instance of drug testing, murder, burial of bodies, and so on.

Who was this man? He was the doctor who had prepared the turnip hole for Tu Zi, the root of all evil, and the final insurance policy Tu Zi had prepared for himself: the card murderer.

......

The juvenile delinquent, A'Jie, who had escaped from the juvenile detention centre, had met his criminal mentor deep in the mountains, a mad psychiatrist who viewed his patients as lab rats and his colleagues as turnips, a serial killer.

It must have been a kind of twisted fate, Tu Zi and the doctor were perfectly "in sync", forming a special "master and apprentice" bond.

The union of two natural-born evildoers led only to a series of vile crimes.

However, human beings are extremely fragile creatures, and they are prone to developing occupational diseases. No matter the profession, if one did it every day, one would inevitably be affected by it.

Doctors spent their lives dealing with pharmaceuticals. The medicine they produced could effectively manipulate human emotions, driving people mad, agitating them, addicting them, making them behave irrationally, rob others, ruin their own lives, and ultimately, die.

Perhaps it was due to prolonged exposure to such substances that the doctor himself grew more and more "unhinged" by the day.

Those past large-scale massacres at the rehabilitation centres had, in fact, been the doctor's doing.

That was why, when SCI examined the remnants left in the ruins, they could sense the madness and enjoyment from the scene... So what was the truth behind the bandaged woman? Why, when it had clearly been the doctor committing the crimes, was all the evidence pointing towards the bandaged woman? Why was the suspected perpetrator always her? And how did those terrifying urban legends about the bandaged woman come about?

It was one of the many despicable means concocted by a habitual criminal to evade responsibility, by creating a scapegoat.

What is the best kind of scapegoat? The kind with a big profile, one that could never be caught.

In other words, the bandaged woman never truly existed, it was merely an image fabricated by the doctor.

The bandaged woman had also been a crucial component of their scams, concealing the face was the best form of disguise.

By the same logic, no matter what crime they ultimately committed, it could always be blamed on the bandaged woman.

Unlike the doctor's irritability.

Tu Zi, who had joined the fraud syndicate with a singular focus on making money, had his own kind of occupational illness – paranoia.

Although Tu Zi had started out as a con artist and eventually rose to become the secret boss behind the entire scam operation, his official identity had always been that of a survivor of the hospital massacre. His seed capital had come from insurance compensation; his later wealth had been earned through legitimate business ventures. He was so fearful, so cautious, that everywhere he lived had to be under surveillance. He lived like a rabbit because he was afraid of the bandaged woman... because he was a survivor.

And what was the most important aspect of a scam? It wasn't the deception itself, it was the scheme... The groundwork laid at the start was the foundation of all fraud. Everyone had their own role and persona within the scam, and Tu Zi's brilliance lay in the fact that he had removed himself from the scheme early on.

......

Inside the SCI office.

Zhan Zhao was leaning on the sofa, holding a tablet and sipping milk tea as he read.

Bai Yutang was lying on the same sofa, using Zhan Zhao's lap as a pillow, napping.

Zhan Zhao noticed that a fair amount of condensation had formed on the surface of the milk tea cup, so he held the cup above Bai Yutang's forehead.

Finally, a cold droplet of water fell onto Bai Yutang's forehead.

Bai Yutang reached up and touched his forehead.

Zhan Zhao suppressed a laugh and shifted his leg upwards slightly.

At last, Bai Yutang opened his eyes and looked at him – Cat, you're supposed to be a proper pillow!

Zhan Zhao asked him, "Didn't you go over to Uncle Ye's place last night? How is he?"

Bai Yutang thought for a moment. "Everything seems normal."

"Wasn't he upset after learning about Tu Zi?" Zhan Zhao was a little concerned. Bai Ye had always treated Tu Zi rather well, he'd even saved him more than once. Who would have thought that the seemingly harmless, even slightly cowardly survivor, would turn out to be the most devious one, the mastermind behind it all?

"He really acted very well," Bai Yutang then asked Zhan Zhao curiously, "When did you and Zhao Jue start suspecting him?"

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao thought for a moment. "From the moment I saw the surveillance setup at his residence."

Bai Yutang was a little surprised. "I started doubting him after hearing his account of being attacked by the bandaged woman... What was wrong with the surveillance at his hotel?"

"There were too many cameras, and they were placed too conspicuously." Zhan Zhao wiped the condensation from the cup with a tissue, then glanced up at the wall clock.

"It's almost time," Bai Yutang also checked the time and sat up.

At that moment, they heard the sound of the elevator doors opening.

Bao Sir and Pei Tian walked in together, followed by Pei Yun, Pei Xiu, and a pair of identical twins pushing a wheelchair.

Seated in the wheelchair was a woman, estimated to be in her fifties.

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao stood up, and Zhan Zhao kicked the sofa.

Behind the sofa was another one, positioned back-to-back...

After Zhan Zhao's kick, on the back sofa, Zhao Jue sat up hugging a cushion, looking around blearily, clearly not fully awake yet.

Zhan Zhao walked over and helped push the wheelchair to the doorway of the adjacent interrogation room.

Bai Yutang asked the woman in the wheelchair, "Are you sure you want to see him?"

The woman nodded.

Bai Yutang reached out and opened the door to the interrogation room.

Inside the interrogation room, Tu Zi, dressed in a prison uniform and wearing handcuffs, was seated at the table.

‿︵‿︵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 4, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 1, 2025 by Soojin