S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 59

The Culinary Murderer 11 – Legendary Recipes

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Early the next morning, the SCI team, well-rested from the weekend, returned to the bureau full of energy, ready to start a new week.

In the morning, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang attended a meeting. There weren't any major cases for SCI to take over; the high-profile case of the missing couple from last week had made good progress, dismembered remains had been recovered, and a warrant had been issued for the suspect's arrest. The case would now be followed up by the criminal investigation team.

However, this week Forensic Doctor Yang was away attending an academic seminar, so Gongsun and his team from the forensic lab would be covering for him.

After the meeting, Ma Xin and Xiatian went downstairs to the forensic lab to collect the two boxes of body parts found yesterday.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were relaxed. Just as they stepped out of the elevator, they heard a commotion coming from the office.

Zhao Hu burst through the door, only to be caught by the collar and dragged back in by a hand. Hu Zi shouted for help.

Ma Xin caught sight of that hand and dashed into the SCI office, calling out, "Sister Rourou!"

Xiao Xiatian, pushing the freezer containing the dismembered remains on his own, peeked curiously into the office and saw an unfamiliar figure from behind.

He realised it was a handsome man he'd never seen before... Ma Xin rushed over and threw herself into his arms.

Xiatian glanced gossipingly at Luo Tian beside him. Has a romantic rival appeared? But then he thought, No, Ma Xin seems to be calling him "sister"...

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also entered the office and greeted the person, "You're here."

The person turned around, and Xiatian finally saw her face clearly. Sure enough, it was a young lady... and so tall!

Xiatian suddenly realised that this must be the legendary officer who could handle Zhao Hu with one hand, one of the police bureau's top three experts, from the SWAT team, Wen Xiaorou.

As it was nearly lunchtime, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang invited Wen Xiaorou to eat with them, chatting as they ate.

The police cafeteria was still quite busy at this hour, so the three of them found a spot in a corner.

Wen Xiaorou said that she stayed up all night chatting with her old classmates in their group chat and managed to dig up quite a bit of insider information.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded in satisfaction – they indeed found the right person.

"So, all of them are the real people?" Zhan Zhao first confirmed the targets. "That Guan Xiaohong is just someone with the same name?"

Wen Xiaorou nodded. "Zhang Wei and Fang Beibei are both the real ones. As for Zhang Wei's girlfriend, Guan Xiaohong, didn't we have a maths teacher named Guan Mei?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded.

"Teacher Guan's daughter was also named Guan Xiaohong, but it shouldn't be the same person, just a case of the same name." Wen Xiaorou sighed slightly. "Teacher Guan really had it tough. Back then, she was clearly the most responsible one, yet in the end, she had to take the blame."

"She resigned because of that disappearance case back then?" Zhan Zhao asked Wen Xiaorou if she knew the missing girl.

Wen Xiaorou nodded. "Her name was Tan Wen, she was in the class next to ours. Her family ran a noodle shop, though it wasn't a big establishment, it was said to have been in the family for three or four generations, and their noodles were absolutely amazing! It was ranked among the top three must-try noodle shops in the city! When I was little, I used to go with my parents all the time. I loved their crispy pork noodles! My dad liked the beef tendon noodles, and my mum loved the beef noodles. It's a pity we couldn't eat there any more."

"Her family didn't reopen the noodle shop after that?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Wen Xiaorou sighed. "After Tan Wen went missing, her parents closed the shop and kept looking for her. It's said her father already wasn't in good health, and the heartbreak made it worse. Later, the whole family moved to another city. If they ever reopened the shop, it wouldn't have been in S City... I remember she had a younger brother, much younger than her."

"So Teacher Guan resigned because of this incident?"

Wen Xiaorou nodded. "To be honest, the person who should have borne the greatest responsibility for the whole thing was the vice-principal! But didn't he end up dying in the swimming pool?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were already familiar with that. Even now, it was still considered one of S High School's top strange and supernatural incidents. Almost every year, there were students claiming to have seen someone in a yellow rain poncho near the swimming pool at night. And ever since the incident, the pool has been sealed off, so students have to go to an off-campus facility for swimming lessons.

"After the vice principal died, all the blame shifted onto Teacher Guan. Quite a few people said he had killed himself out of guilt and fear of punishment and even questioned why the other teachers didn't kill themselves too... In any case, the things people said were really vicious, and the pressure on Teacher Guan was enormous. She received many harassing phone calls, some of them even targeted her daughter... On top of that, Teacher Guan later got divorced and then resigned." Wen Xiaorou said that when she tried to find out about Teacher Guan yesterday, she discovered that information was hard to come by. After resigning, the teacher kept a very low profile and barely stayed in touch with anyone.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt that this already counted as quite a bit of information. Since they were only asking around casually, they didn't dwell on it and instead asked about Zhang Wei and Fang Beibei.

"Oooh!" Wen Xiaorou's tone lifted noticeably as she got onto the topic of those two. "There's so much gossip about those two! What I heard yesterday absolutely shattered my worldview!"

Zhan Zhao began by asking the question that had puzzled him the most so far. "Why are those two even together? They seem like totally mismatched people. And Fang Beibei was Zhang Wei's mistress? Why?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Wen Xiaorou shook her head and said meaningfully, "I wondered the same thing when I saw the news! What exactly did Fang Beibei see in Zhang Wei, right?"

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao nodded – Exactly, what's the point?

"It's about profit! Pure profit!" Wen Xiaorou explained to them in detail. "After Fang Beibei graduated, she couldn't find a suitable job. She took over a dessert shop and started selling sweets, but the business was lukewarm at best. Apparently, she racked up a fair bit of debt. Later, she tried doing social media. Because she looked decent, she became a minor internet celebrity, but still didn't earn much, because the stuff her shop sold was really ordinary, the kind of thing you could find in any other place. Until one day, she launched this viral mochi product, and it just exploded in popularity. Then she got investments and started her own brand. Eventually, she had franchised shops all over the country, that's when she really started to succeed."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang listened and found the whole entrepreneurial journey rather inspiring. But what did Zhang Wei have to do with any of it?

"Have you two ever tried that mochi?" Wen Xiaorou asked.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both shook their heads. Bai Yutang wasn't fond of sweet things, and Zhan Zhao had a rather eccentric palate, so they generally didn't go for ordinary snacks.

"It's nothing like the mochi you find on the market. And the flavour, other places have tried to copy it, but they just can't. Do you know why?" Wen Xiaorou asked mysteriously. "Zhang Wei may look like an ordinary guy with nothing going for him, but apparently, one of his ancestors, don't know how many generations back, was a chef. Not just any chef, but an imperial pastry chef who used to make desserts for the emperor."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked visibly surprised. They hadn't expected it to go in that direction at all.

The two of them were a bit taken aback – Is that even true?

Wen Xiaorou waved her hand. "Ai, don't be so quick to dismiss it. It's said that Zhang Wei's family has a handwritten recipe book that's been passed down through generations, traditional dessert recipes, all made with ancient methods, completely one of a kind. And Zhang Wei's mom, when she was alive, used to run a pastry shop herself. It was an old-style, traditional one... Ai, you know how it is, proper handmade pastries from little old shops are always tastier. But they don't make much money. Unlike the big businesses nowadays, the flavour might be average, but with good packaging, strong marketing, and wide distribution channels, the profits are on a whole different level."

Zhan Zhao felt that this did indeed explain why Zhang Wei and Fang Beibei ended up together.

"The recipe Fang Beibei used to make her mochi, the one she used to start her business, was from Zhang Wei's family heirloom recipe book?"

Wen Xiaorou nodded. "It probably was. And you know, Fang Beibei's always promoting herself as some sort of dessert genius, claiming all her creations are original. If Zhang Wei exposed the truth, would those big companies still want to work with her? Wouldn't it be better to just work with Zhang Wei directly? There must be loads of people out there willing to pay a fortune for that recipe book!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both a little curious about where Wen Xiaorou had gotten her information from. "The media have been digging into this for ages, but no one's mentioned anything like that, where did you hear it?"

"Ai, we had this boy in our class called Qian Lin. Back in school, he and Zhang Wei were inseparable, and they were neighbours too. He used to hang around in Zhang Wei's mom's pastry shop all the time, he was a chubby kid back then."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both found that it made sense – Of course, eating too many desserts would make you chubby.

"Qian Lin?" Zhan Zhao found the name vaguely familiar. "Which Qian Lin?"

"He's a social media star too, one of those handsome cake-making guys." Wen Xiaorou pulled out her phone and showed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang a video.

Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered where he'd heard the name before, the twins once played a promotional video for a food competition at home, and he'd been in it.

"He doesn't look fat at all," Bai Yutang didn't remember such a classmate.

"Didn't Zhang Wei's mom pass away a long time ago? The pastry shop closed down too. Qian Lin probably stopped eating sweets after that and slimmed down. Plus he had a growth spurt around middle school," Wen Xiaorou pointed at the promotional poster of Qian Lin holding a cake. "That low-calorie savoury cake of his is a viral hit too!"

"Savoury cake?"

"Mm!" Wen Xiaorou confirmed she'd tried it, someone in her team had bought one for a birthday. Apparently, you had to place your order two months in advance.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang suddenly found themselves oddly curious about what that cake tasted like... Should they ask the twins to see if they could get one to try?

The three of them were still chatting when, all of a sudden, a figure flickered ahead of them.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked up... only to see that the empty seat next to Wen Xiaorou now had someone sitting in it.

Wen Xiaorou also glanced at the man beside her, well-dressed in a suit, but looking thoroughly dejected. Before she could speak, she felt something furry brushing against her leg... She looked down, and saw the head of an Old English Sheepdog resting on her lap. Behind it, its cropped tail began wagging happily.

"Aiya, Mwah Mwah!" Wen Xiaorou immediately reached out to pet the dog.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked ahead at Fei Mu, the evidently sleep-deprived head of the economic crimes division. It was the classic "inherited" overtime face of that division, too many hours staring at data had left them all looking like underachievers the night before an exam they hadn't revised for.

Fei Mu leaned forward and whispered to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "I heard you two are going to attend Shi Yanshuo's wedding?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both widened their eyes at Fei Mu – Where did you hear that? You're far too well-informed, we hadn't even received the invitations yet!

"You two, do you know his wife?" Fei Mu asked. "Her name is Yu Hui."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded.

Off to the side, Wen Xiaorou, who was still giving Mwah Mwah some affectionate pats, turned her head. "Yu Hui?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked if she knew Yu Hui. Since both of them had been outstanding athletes and frequently represented the school in competitions, it was possible that they knew each other.

Wen Xiaorou said, "Yeah, I know her, she was on the school swim team. But we weren't exactly close. We were just talking about her in the group chat yesterday, sounds like quite a few old classmates have received her wedding invitation."

Fei Mu clasped his hands together in front of Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. "Sneak in a micro camera for me!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him blankly – Brother, this counts as illegal surveillance...

Fei Mu was practically ready to kowtow. "Please help me! Only you two can save the world! I'll be forever in your debt!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at him for a moment, then pointed at Mwah Mwah – You can repay us with him. Let him live in the SCI office, that'd do nicely.

Fei Mu gasped and hugged Mwah Mwah tightly – How about you take me instead and leave Mwah Mwah!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him with utter disdain, while Wen Xiaorou asked curiously, "Captain Fei, it's a wedding banquet, what exactly are you trying to film?"

Fei Mu pulled out his phone and showed them a whole string of pictures. "These."

Zhan Zhao scrolled through them one by one. They were all sculptures, and each one looked like some kind of antique.

"He's been laundering money through black market sales of cultural relics," Fei Mu said, clutching their hands. "The wedding's being held at his private estate, and there's a good chance these pieces are hidden there. As long as we get footage of them, it counts as a win!"

‿︵‿︵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 17, 2025 by Angel

Edited: August 8, 2025 by Soojin