S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 64

The Culinary Murderer 16 – Witness

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Zhu Yi realised that when she had been on the phone just now, someone had been standing right outside her room door. Goosebumps instantly swept over her, and she was suddenly wide awake.

It was probably the adrenaline, she sprang up from the bed like a carp flipping out of water, dashed to the door in two steps to confirm it was locked, then, as though bursting with cosmic power, dragged the nearby table over to block the door. She then ran back to the window, confirmed that it was locked and had burglar bars, and quickly picked up the phone to call the police...

Just as she pressed 110 on her phone, she saw someone downstairs carrying a black suitcase, hurrying away. The person pushed open the side gate and ran into the alley opposite.

Zhu Yi stood frozen with the phone in her hand. The 110 operator had been saying "Hello?" for some time before hearing Zhu Yi mumble, "The Instant Noodle Alien."

"What?" The 110 operator finally heard the person on the other end speak.

"I saw the Instant Noodle Alien!"

The operator on the other end sighed deeply. A colleague nearby looked over curiously – What's wrong?

The operator covered the headset, "Probably another drunk one, says she saw the Instant Noodle Alien."

"The Instant Noodle Alien?"

The colleague opened a drawer, took out a cup of instant noodles meant for a late-night snack, and pointed at the logo on it, a cartoon octopus with a head of curly noodles. "That Instant Noodle Alien?"

The operator shrugged and asked Zhu Yi, who was still muttering on the other end of the line about having seen the Instant Noodle Alien, "Can you be more specific? Are you in danger right now?"

"Ah..." Zhu Yi seemed to have snapped out of it and recounted what had just happened.

At first, the operator had assumed from the mention of the Instant Noodle Alien that she was drunk or playing a prank. But then Zhu Yi explained that someone had been chopping meat downstairs for nearly three hours, that when she called her landlord, the ringtone had come from just outside her door, and that she had just seen someone in an Instant Noodle Alien hat running off with a suitcase... Zhu Yi finally made it clear that, judging from the back, it seemed to be a man wearing an Instant Noodle Alien hat.

The operator immediately contacted patrol officers nearby and told Zhu Yi to lock her door, wait for the police, not to open the door for anyone, and not to leave the room no matter what noises she heard.

Zhu Yi wanted to find something for self-defence, but after rummaging through her things, the only thing that seemed remotely useful was a wooden coat hanger. She quickly grabbed it and crouched by the window, watching the outside.

Fortunately, after only about five minutes, the sound of police sirens rang out from outside.

A police car pulled up at the main entrance. Two officers got out and, seeing the small side gate open, pushed it open and entered.

At that moment, Zhu Yi opened the window upstairs and waved at the two officers.

The officers nodded at her, signalling for her to stay in the room and not move.

Both officers were now staring at the ground floor of the house.

The front door was wide open, and the lights were on inside.

The two officers entered the house.

Zhu Yi, by the window, couldn't see what was happening downstairs. The police hadn't called for her, and she didn't dare go out on her own, so she simply clutched the coat hanger and waited anxiously by the window.

Roughly ten minutes later, the two officers came out. One of them glanced up at the upper floor and, upon seeing Zhu Yi, waved to her.

Zhu Yi immediately pushed the table aside, opened the door, and ran downstairs.

Once downstairs, Zhu Yi peered curiously into the ground floor of the house. She was a little worried about the landlord and his wife. Could that Instant Noodle Alien have been the one chopping meat just now? What if it was chopping a corpse...

One of the officers asked her, "You said that just now when you called your landlord, the phone rang outside your door?"

Zhu Yi nodded.

"And then you saw a man wearing an Instant Noodle Alien hat running off? Carrying a suitcase?"

Zhu Yi nodded again and couldn't help asking, "How are Uncle and Auntie Landlord?"

Both officers shook their heads, indicating that there was no one inside the house, no bodies, no signs of a struggle, no chopped meat, no dumplings or buns, nothing at all...

Zhu Yi was rather bewildered.

"Do you have the landlord's number?"

Zhu Yi handed her phone to the officer and pointed to the topmost number in her recent calls.

The officer dialled it. After two rings, the call connected, and a woman's voice came through. "Hello?"

The officer confirmed her identity. She was indeed the landlady, and she said she and her husband were at their daughter's place.

The officer asked if they hadn't been home earlier. The girl renting the upstairs apartment had called the police, saying the two of them had gone missing.

The landlady replied that they hadn't been home, that they always visited their daughter at weekends. She even asked if that girl had been drinking again.

"Oh... I see." The officer had the phone on speaker, and Zhu Yi, standing beside him, recognised the landlady's voice and felt even more confused.

Zhu Yi was just about to say something, but the officer had already hung up and waved her off.

The other officer contacted a colleague, gave them the phone number, and asked them to locate its current position, while also requesting that the forensics team and pathologists be dispatched to the scene.

After making the call, the two officers retrieved a roll of yellow cordon tape from the patrol car to secure the scene and asked Zhu Yi to sit in the police car. They told her she would need to be taken in shortly to give a detailed statement.

Zhu Yi hesitated slightly, watching the two officers. "But wasn't Auntie Landlord just on the phone..."

The younger officer asked, "It's three in the morning, what sort of aunt picks up the phone after two rings at three in the morning?"

Zhu Yi thought about it and realised he had a point. But still, what was going on? Could Auntie be the murderer? Had she chopped up Uncle? That didn't make sense. The Instant Noodle Alien who'd run off clearly had the back view of a man.

Zhan Zhao gave a summary of what had happened to the people in the car.

The three in the car also felt this case was rather out of the ordinary.

Gongsun asked Zhan Zhao curiously, "So what's it got to do with a horror movie?"

Zhan Zhao asked, "Isn't it terrifying?"

Gongsun and Ma Xin both expressed – It's just so-so.

"Then let's move on to the follow-up." Zhan Zhao opened two more reports.

"One is the forensic team's investigation report. They found a large amount of blood residue in the kitchen and bathroom of the house. It had been there for quite a long time and had been thoroughly cleaned. Some fresh fragments of meat were found in the kitchen, along with traces of brain tissue splatter... all very small." As he spoke, Zhan Zhao pointed upwards. "On the ceiling."

"That means the sound of chopping meat really was someone dismembering a body..." Gongsun and Ma Xin were both forensic doctors, they weren't the least bit afraid of dismemberment and looked at Zhan Zhao – So where's the horror movie element?

"The police investigated the homeowner's details and found that the listed landlords were a family of three, a couple in their fifties and a daughter in her twenties," Zhan Zhao continued. "They showed Zhu Yi a photo of the landlord couple from the registration records, and she didn't recognise them."

Everyone was stunned.

"Ah!" Ma Xin clapped her hands. "A cuckoo in the magpie nest!"

Bai Yutang and Gongsun were also surprised. "So Zhu Yi had been living in that house for nearly a year, interacting daily with that landlord couple... and they weren't the real landlords?"

"It's highly likely they were the murderers of the actual landlord family." Zhan Zhao nodded. "The couple might be professional killers using stolen identities for cover. They claimed to go visiting family every weekend, but in truth, the landlord's daughter was probably already dead. Their weekend trips might have been missions. Zhu Yi leads a very busy life and keeps to a very regular routine at home... But the situation that night is still a little abnormal."

Bai Yutang agreed it was odd. "Logically, the fake landlord couple should've known Zhu Yi would be home at that time. If they wanted to chop meat, they could've done it during the day. Doing it in the middle of the night was bound to attract attention from upstairs."

"And according to their usual pattern, the landlord couple shouldn't have been home that night at all. So now the most important point is..." Zhan Zhao closed the file. "To confirm whether the woman who spoke to the officers on the phone that night was actually the landlady Zhu Yi knows."

"She was certain at the time, wasn't she?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao nodded. "But the girl had quite a fright, first when she was startled at the scene, then again when she realised she might've been living with two murderers for the past year. Later, when the police questioned her about details, she learned that in the ground floor kitchen and bathroom alone, they'd found over twenty distinct DNA samples. In other words, the number of people killed in that house might go well beyond just the original landlord couple... All in all, the more you think about it, the more terrifying it becomes."

Ma Xin also expressed sympathy. "That's so tragic, what a huge psychological shadow."

"She's completely confused now, she's not sure if the voice she heard that night belonged to the landlady, not sure whether the person she saw was male or female, and not even sure if it was the Instant Noodle Alien."

Gongsun asked, "Is that normal?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "It's entirely normal. Eyewitnesses are important, of course, but what they say, especially if it's a sole eyewitness, isn't always reliable. That's not to say they're deliberately lying, but that it's often beyond their control. Everyone has a different temperament and reacts differently under stress. It's just like getting an injection, some people watch the needle without flinching, while others turn their heads away and absolutely refuse to look. Extreme fear and intense shock can cause distortions in a person's memory. Also, short-term memory and long-term memory are not the same. For example, if you asked Zhu Yi to identify the landlord couple, she definitely wouldn't get it wrong. But the Instant Noodle Alien that night, she only caught a fleeting glimpse, so it's very likely she misremembered. As for voices, that's even more complicated. If the landlady's voice was very unremarkable, then it'd be easier, right from the start, she'd have assumed it was unidentifiable. But if the voice was distinctive, say, a unique tone or a regional accent, it's actually easier to be misled, or to start thinking you've been misled."

Ma Xin asked, "So, a distinctive voice actually makes people more prone to self-doubt?"

"Exactly, it makes people question everything they were previously sure about," Zhan Zhao replied. "Zhu Yi must be in a very confused state right now, she needs to have a proper conversation."

"She's probably not just confused, she's in real danger too," Bai Yutang said. "She was the only witness that night. If she hadn't decided to make that call, who knows what might have happened..."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "According to the investigation, the final call made to the landlord that night showed the phone was on the move, located very close to the scene. It was likely someone driving around the area. After that, the signal was lost. The officers traced the signal to an alley, where they found a phone smashed and discarded in a corner. The data's still being recovered. The ground was wet, which is making recovery very difficult."

"Zhu Yi saw someone carrying a suitcase running into the alley, there must have been a car, or an accomplice in a car, waiting nearby. The vehicle wasn't parked at the front entrance, but inside the alley, which shows the person was experienced." Bai Yutang frowned. "But why dress like an Instant Noodle Alien? If they were worried about being seen by neighbours upstairs or caught on nearby CCTV, wouldn't wearing a hat do? The method seems both professional and amateur at the same time."

Zhan Zhao simply spread his hands.

"Where's Zhu Yi living now?" Ma Xin asked. "Surely she doesn't dare stay in her old place any more? Wasn't the café she worked at quite nearby too? She probably doesn't dare go back there either, right?"

"She's currently staying at a safe house provided by the police, it's quite far away. She's had to stop working for now too, it's a completely unmerited disaster," Zhan Zhao said. "We'll check in on her later. She probably needs some psychological counselling, ideally the kind that involves regular sessions. Of course, the most important thing is still catching the killer, only then can she start over."

"Speaking of which..." Ma Xin asked, "Did you know the Instant Noodle Alien brand was created by Lin Ruo?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang instinctively glanced at the rearview mirror. "Lin Ruo?"

Gongsun was curious as well. "Wasn't Lin Ruo in gaming? How did he end up in the food business?"

Ma Xin seemed to have heard some gossip on the matter. "Lin Ruo, Xu Lie and Mingdi, they often team up for online games, don't they?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both rolled their eyes towards the sky – This group of idle people.

"One time, Xu Lie got hungry while gaming late at night and made himself a bowl of instant noodles, but he accidentally knocked it over and spilt the whole thing onto the octopus pillow he was hugging. They were video chatting at the time, and the other two took a screenshot of the moment, saying Xu Lie looked like he was holding an alien. From then on, their team was called the Instant Noodle Aliens. Later, the three of them somehow got to know a culinary genius and started a convenience food brand called Instant Noodle Alien. It's not just noodles, they also sell snacks, the kind you eat while gaming... Sales are pretty good. Lin Ruo's the boss, and Xu Lie and Mingdi are shareholders," Ma Xin explained, pulling up a photo to show Gongsun. "Zhu Yi probably saw this hat that night. This piece of merchandise is incredibly popular, it's a soft toy octopus with curly noodle-like strands on its head. The middle is hollowed out, and where the face should be is a hole where you can insert a ball-shaped pillow with different facial expressions to use as a pillow. There are loads of designs. You can also wear it on your head like a hood. It's all over the internet, memes, short videos, it's gone viral. Everything's sold out. Lin Ruo was in gaming animation, right? He's put out loads of short animated clips and even a mobile game... Xu Lie and Mingdi help with the promotion too."

After seeing it, Gongsun simply said he didn't understand the aesthetic and handed the phone to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao looked at the bizarre octopus hat and sighed – Useless knowledge has increased again... Though the pillow is rather cute, can I get a few to keep at home?

Bai Yutang's thought – There probably aren't any aliens in this world. If there are, they'd have come down ages ago to give those three idlers a good thrashing.

‿︵‿︵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 21, 2025 by Angel

Edited: August 11, 2025 by Soojin