S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 48

The Card Murderer 48 – The End of the Liar

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Lin Fei.

Pei Tian's third wife, who had died an unnatural death, her cause of death was driving off a cliff at the roadside, resulting in a fatal crash.

Just like Pei Tian's previous two wives, the circumstances of her death were highly suspicious, but no flaws could be uncovered. What set her apart from the first two, however, was that Lin Fei's body had been severely damaged, and her identity had been confirmed through ID documents and personal belongings found with the corpse.

It was precisely such a detail that caused the oversight. As previously uncovered by SCI, Lin Fei had not died, but had been replaced and imprisoned in a rehabilitation centre, where she became one of the many patients used for drug trials.

However, the "business" was not going smoothly.

Internal conflict had arisen within the rehabilitation centre. One faction was obsessed with drug testing, while the other was fixated on making money. At the same time, one group aimed to use drugs as a tool and profit through fraud, while the other took a more direct and brutal approach, believing fraud was secondary and that selling drugs was the better way to make money.

As a result, following a major accident during a drug trial, a large number of patients escaped the medical centre, including Lin Fei.

From that point on, the bandaged woman, originally used by the con artists to scare people, became a nightmare haunting the con artists themselves.

At the same time, the rehabilitation centre responsible for capturing people for drug trials changed its thinking. Drug research was halted, and in its place came large-scale drug trafficking and fraud.

The survivors of the rehabilitation centre, along with the families of those survivors, began tracking down the drug dealers and con artists.

Both sides engaged in mutual slaughter, and a large-scale battle of revenge and counter-revenge unfolded in the shadows.

Until one day, a journalist's investigative notebook suddenly disrupted the entire balance.

Liu Jing, who suffered from a brain tumour, developed a secondary personality during her illness.

This personality discovered that her husband, Zhang Yuancheng, was once involved in a small drug-dealing group during his student years, and that their activities had caused a number of casualties. Among the victims were the wife and daughter of Lao Chen, the editor at her magazine. The culprit had been a drug dealer, one of Zhang Yuancheng's friends...

With her inherently upright nature, Liu Jing could not accept this and began investigating her husband.

Whether it was for self-protection or some form of subconscious avoidance, Liu Jing's secondary personality investigated Zhang Yuancheng's past on one hand, while on the other fabricated evidence to deceive her primary personality into believing that Zhang Yuancheng had been unfaithful.

That's why Liu Jing and Zhang Yuancheng went to the campground villa to get a divorce, which was the beginning of this case.

The reason they went to that particular villa was because, during her investigation, Liu Jing's secondary personality had discovered that the campground, the abandoned rehabilitation centre, and the old Pei family residence, all located in the Sparrow Mountain region, were part of the stronghold of the secret drug trafficking group.

Because Zhang Yuancheng had once been involved with that drug-dealing group himself, Liu Jing's investigative notebook became extremely important. The notebook instantly became an object both sides were desperate to get their hands on... and by coincidence, Liu Jing's illness had made her behaviour unpredictable... she had actually sent the notebook to Lin Ruo, a friend of Mingdi's who had absolutely nothing to do with any of this, causing the vital notebook to mysteriously vanish.

Zhang Yuancheng was also a rather complex figure. In his youth, he had "strayed down the wrong path", but later made every effort to turn over a new leaf. In recent years, he had become obsessed with "theatrical" performance, though in fact the theatre troupe served as the base of operations for their revenge organisation. As for him being seen secretly meeting with Zhou Li, it had not been an affair, but the two of them exchanging intelligence.

The turn of events between Liu Jing and Zhang Yuancheng directly brought SCI into the investigation of this case.

The string of murders, along with the deliberate taunts aimed at SCI by the "murderer", all had a single purpose... to have SCI arrest both the drug traffickers and the avengers alike.

And the one orchestrating all of this from behind the scenes, was Tu Zi.

To Tu Zi, Lin Fei and the other avengers represented his worst nightmare. As long as these people continued their revenge, he could never live in peace. And the remaining drug dealers from the old rehabilitation centre were, to him, nothing more than toxic assets, ticking time bombs that could go off at any moment. He had already made enough money; now, all he wanted was to clean up his record and live out his twilight years in peace.

The revenge led by Lin Fei and the others was still in the investigative phase... because they had only traced the drug trafficking ring, but had yet to identify the true mastermind behind it all.

All this time, they believed the person behind it was the doctor who had conducted their drug trials, the scapegoat whom Tu Zi had arranged to take the fall.

In other words, this case could be perfectly wrapped up if SCI were to investigate in the usual manner for hunting a serial killer: arrest the murderous drug-dealing group, apprehend Lin Fei and the others seeking revenge, and finally uncover the dying doctor, along with the diary recording his crimes.

Tu Zi's identity was nothing more than that of one among many victims from back then, he had simply survived, nothing else.

But as fate would have it, he encountered Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue.

While Tu Zi had been clinging to that sense of security he felt around Bai Ye, he had failed to notice that a true "demon" was lurking at Bai Ye's side.

If the bandaged woman had merely been a nightmare fabricated by con artists to swindle money, it was not until the moment Zhao Jue appeared in the back seat of his car that he finally understood what it felt like to be targeted by a genuine demon... It was all over, everything had been in vain.

Lin Fei looked at the man sitting opposite her, plain-looking, utterly unremarkable, and couldn't help but find it somewhat laughable. After all these years, the mastermind she had been searching for had turned out to be someone like this... someone who so easily destroyed other people's lives, all for the sake of profit.

When the truth finally came to light, Bai Yutang asked Lin Fei why she hadn't escaped and reported it to the police at the first opportunity.

Lin Fei's answer was simple. All the survivors were officially classified as mentally ill, and every one of them had suffered severe trauma and devastation from the drugs. Many still hadn't escaped their hallucinations or addictions... no one would believe a mentally ill drug addict's report. If anything, they risked being sent right back.

Once the path of revenge had begun, there were countless things beyond their control. And more importantly, they could not risk exposing their identities and bringing harm to their families.

......

After the case was successfully solved, it triggered a whole series of chain reactions, uncovering a large number of individuals involved. Several long-standing cold cases were finally solved through confessions from the drug dealers.

Due to the complexity of the case and thanks to Gao Min's genuinely good writing, the investigation report was turned into a bestseller, gaining quite a bit of attention.

In addition, Liu Jing's operation was a success, and her secondary personality vanished completely.

Several of the victims, including Zhang Yuancheng, had once taken part in the drug trade themselves. They had been used by the organisation as scapegoats or silenced as disposable pawns.

However, SCI proved far too difficult to deceive. Every layer of disguise was ultimately torn away.

Once the case was concluded, the weekend arrived, and the SCI team prepared to finally take a well-earned two-day break.

Early on Saturday morning, before dawn.

At the edge of the driveway in front of the garage at Big Brother Bai's villa, Zhan Zhao stood there, tilted his head back, and let out a yawn.

Bai Yutang drove the car out and opened the door.

Zhan Zhao, still half-asleep, climbed into the car and continued yawning.

Bai Yutang glanced helplessly at Zhan Zhao, who looked so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. "Didn't you say yesterday you were going to sleep until noon? Why are you up so early?"

Zhan Zhao cast a faint, lingering glance at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang shook his head. "I'm just going out to buy groceries, you insisted on coming along."

"Wrong!" Zhan Zhao held up a finger and wagged it. "You're going grocery shopping with Uncle Ye, how could I possibly miss such a prime opportunity for human observation?"

Having said that, he yawned again.

Bai Yutang didn't quite understand what this cat wanted to "observe" about humans, but no matter how much trouble his cat caused, he could only indulge him, so he set off to pick up Bai Ye.

It had all started when Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had dinner at Zhao Jue's house and tasted Bai Ye's seafood rice. The dish had been so delicious that Zhan Zhao nearly "meowed" out loud. Bai Yutang had decided he wanted to learn how to make it from Bai Ye.

Since they both had some free time today, Bai Ye had arranged to go seafood shopping with Bai Yutang and then cook together afterwards while teaching him.

Seafood shopping, of course, meant getting up early. When Bai Yutang got up that morning, he discovered that Zhan Zhao had also gotten up and was insisting on tagging along to the market.

Zhan Zhao's reason was simple, he was currently conducting a personal study on human observation, apparently related to sound, and needed to collect a large amount of data. The environment of an early morning market was a sample Zhan Zhao hadn't yet recorded, so he was treating this as a field survey... And, besides that, he was quite eager to watch Bai Yutang and Bai Ye shopping together, just imagining the scene amused him.

When they arrived at Zhao Jue's house, they saw Bai Ye already waiting by the door, with a very sleepy Zhao Jue beside him, yawning nonstop.

Meanwhile, in the car, Zhan Zhao had already fallen asleep.

With the two sleep-deprived ones settled in the back seat, Bai Yutang and Bai Ye took the front seats and drove to the market.

The place they were heading to was rather far, a newly built market by the sea, said to be the largest seafood distribution centre in S City. Major restaurants from within the city and several surrounding cities all went there to purchase seafood.

Recently, Bai Yutang installed a large freezer at home, intending to stock up on the fish and prawns that Zhan Zhao loved to eat.

Bai Ye was holding a list, Mia had written down a whole load of dishes she wanted to eat. Sitting in the front passenger seat, Bai Ye kept turning around, studying the trunk of the car to see if there would be enough space.

Bai Yutang said that if it wasn't enough, they could pack things on-site, there were same-day fresh delivery services that could bring it all straight to the house.

Before dozing off again, Zhao Jue muttered, "What are you buying, a whale?"

Bai Yutang and Bai Ye said in unison, "Whale hunting is illegal, okay!"

But Zhao Jue was far too sleepy to come up with a retort. He closed his eyes, tilted his head, and just like Zhan Zhao, hugged a pillow in the back seat and fell asleep.

Bai Yutang shook his head and started the car. He really didn't understand why those two insisted on coming along. Wasn't it more comfortable to stay home and wait for the meal?

......

Neither Bai Ye nor Bai Yutang liked listening to music while driving, so the car was very quiet. Though they both weren't particularly talkative on their own, they actually had no trouble chatting when they were together, and their interests were quite aligned.

Bai Yutang had already noticed that Bai Ye could cook noodle and rice dishes from all over the world, and not the kind you'd find in hotels or restaurants, but proper homemade recipes with incredibly authentic and down-to-earth flavours. In Zhan Zhao's words, Uncle Ye's cooking was "next level", in a completely different league from all those flashy online celebrity chefs.

Eleven once mentioned in conversation that Bai Ye was someone with extremely broad experience. He'd been to many places and spent time in various urban slums. His cooking skills were outstanding because the recipes he'd learnt were all for feeding family, not for serving customers.

"Uncle Ye, have you ever thought about entering a competition?" Bai Yutang asked while waiting at a red light, having noticed a huge billboard at the roadside that reminded him of something the twins had mentioned before.

The Bai Group recently opened a large shopping mall, packed with internet-famous food outlets. The twins teamed up with a food programme to launch a culinary competition, and the top three contestants would receive a large cash prize and plenty of publicity. Lately, promotions for this contest have been all over the major platforms.

Bai Ye was amused by Bai Yutang's suggestion and said the prize money wasn't even that great, it'd be more profitable to help them catch a couple of wanted criminals.

Bai Yutang reckoned that Bai Ye's seafood rice would easily place in the top three if he entered. However, he added, "The twins are getting a bit too full of themselves lately, daring to hold such a big competition in the new Bai Group building. Let's just hope nothing goes wrong..."

Bai Ye thought that was a bit much, what could possibly go wrong in a cooking competition...

Bai Yutang just shook his head over and over – Don't underestimate Big Brother's power.

......

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Since it's the end of the case, only one chapter today~

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: May 5, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 12, 2025 by Soojin