S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 69

The Culinary Murderer 21 – Taste and Memory

---

They had originally gone to investigate a murder case, but the clues all turned out to involve instant noodles, mobile games, and points cards, areas rather "foreign" to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

After digging for a long while, the forensics team uncovered three bodies buried in the courtyard.

Gongsun and Ma Xin examined them and concluded that they had been dead for about a year, and were possibly the original landlord family.

The bodies were sent back to the SCI office.

By the time Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang returned to the office, it was almost time to go home.

Ai Hu and the others came to hand over the case. There was now a huge pile of clues, chaotic and complicated, so Bai Yutang decided they'd hold a meeting the next morning to sort through everything.

Technically, there was still a pair of murder suspects on the run, the couple who had disappeared after the body-dumping case on the bridge.

But why weren't Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang in any rush? Because something rather strange had come up... The wanted couple and the landlord couple didn't look the least bit alike in the photos, but DNA information had been recorded for both, and shockingly, it was the same. That was a little uncanny.

In other words, the fake landlord couple were actually the missing pair, the murderers of "Guan Mei"... But how could they look so different? Disguises?

Strangely enough, it seemed plausible. After all, the suitcase used for dumping the body was the same type... Could it be that these two were the ones who killed Tan Wen back then? What exactly were they? Suitcase wholesalers?

This was the first time SCI had encountered a case where the investigation hadn't even properly begun, yet the killers were already dead and a deluge of clues came crashing down on them, as if urging them to quickly go and look into Shi Yanshuo and that case from Tan Wen's student days too!

And that wasn't all. Bao Sir called to say Fei Mu would be joining SCI for the investigation. Fei Mu even brought over a hard drive, saying, it's all material, have a look and we'll meet tomorrow.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang silently stared at the hard drive in their hands... Good grief. In the past, handovers just involved a few sheets of paper, if it was serious, maybe a CD. The economic crimes division's reputation was well-earned, how many terabytes was this hard drive?

Once they'd packed up all the material to take home and go through, everyone clocked off and went home.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went to the forensic room to check in. Gongsun said he had to work overtime tonight and probably wouldn't be back until after midnight, so the two of them should leave with Bai Chi first.

But when Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang left the forensic room, they realised there was a problem – Where is Bai Chi?

He wasn't in the office, the archives, or the break room. Where had Xiao Bai Chi gone?

Just as they were looking, Bai Chi strolled slowly out of the bathroom.

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao looked at him and noticed his complexion didn't look good. Did he have an upset stomach?

Bai Chi said he had an upset stomach.

Bai Yutang asked him what he had eaten.

Bai Chi thought for a moment. He hadn't really eaten anything, just a mochi a moment ago.

"Could it be hard to digest?" Zhan Zhao asked if he wanted to go to the hospital.

Bai Chi said it didn't seem that serious, and he didn't have diarrhoea, he just felt nauseous and like he might retch.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang knocked on the door of the forensic room.

Ma Xin came running out to have a look.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both pointed at Bai Chi to say – He ate your mochi and got sick, have a look.

Ma Xin took off her gloves, checked Bai Chi's condition, and then told him to lie down on the sofa. She pressed on his stomach a bit and finally said, "How about we draw some blood and run a toxicology test...?"

Bai Chi was so frightened he kept shaking his head, saying he already felt much better and would just take some indigestion medicine when he got home.

So Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took him home first.

On the way back, the three of them stopped by the convenience store near their place and picked up two bowls of Instant Noodle Alien noodles, specifically choosing the signature seafood flavour to try together.

They also spotted some mochi in the refrigerated section and grabbed a few more.

When paying, Zhan Zhao asked the cashier, "Does this mochi need to be kept in the fridge?"

The cashier said it would taste better chilled, but it didn't have to be refrigerated.

......

When they got home, as soon as they walked through the door, a group of big and small cats swarmed over to them.

Bai Yutang casually set the shopping bags down on the coffee table and went to feed the cats.

The twins saw that it was a convenience store bag and curiously opened it to see what delicious food there was.

They pulled out two bowls of instant noodles, looked at each other, and then simultaneously turned to observe Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Xiao Bai Chi lay down on the sofa for a bit, leaning against Lisbon, in the same spot where Zhao Zhen usually liked to lie.

Zhao Zhen wasn't around, no idea where he'd gone.

Lisbon seemed to notice that Bai Chi wasn't feeling well and nuzzled his big head against him.

Zhan Zhao asked the twins, "Where's Big Brother?"

The twins pointed upstairs while making a face.

Zhan Zhao probably understood the twins' look – it meant Big Brother was in a foul mood.

"What happened?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

"Isn't the food competition starting next week? They've started doing promo events," the twins were clearly annoyed. "That whole jumping-off-the-building incident only just blew over, and now Fang Beibei's saying she wants to strengthen the security."

"Security?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

Bai Chi, on the opposite sofa, also looked over.

"She said she's received loads of threatening messages or something... afraid someone's going to hurt her," Xiao Ding was rather speechless. "So we agreed to upgrade her security level, but now she insists on hiring private bodyguards. If she wants to hire bodyguards, she can, but she says the bodyguards have to follow her around at all times, not allowed to leave her for even a step."

"Follow her around at all times?" Zhan Zhao thought. "So the bodyguard has to appear on camera during filming too?"

The twins rolled their eyes towards the ceiling. "We asked the same thing, and she said she didn't care..."

"So today they did a rehearsal, and that bodyguard kept blocking the camera, even shoved some of the other contestants. The whole competition's unworkable like this!" Da Ding pouted, shaking his head. "Then, during the afternoon rehearsal, Xu Lie showed up."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi were puzzled – What was Xu Lie doing there?

"Aiya, he's the guest for the first episode," the twins said, growing more and more annoyed. "There are a few little fans of A'Lie in the crew. When they saw him, they rushed up asking for autographs and photos. A'Lie was doing his thing, and one of the girls apparently got in Fang Beibei's way, and her bodyguard shoved her aside. The girl lost her footing and fell."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi thought about it – So basically, they assaulted Xu Lie's fan right in front of him?

The twins stared at the ceiling. "You know what A'Lie's temper's like, doesn't even matter if it's his fan or not, if a grown man lays a hand on a young girl and he sees it, how could that end well? He went right up and gave that bodyguard a flying kick... the whole scene was chaos."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi now understood why Big Brother was angry.

The twins stamped their feet. "Such a waste for that to happen during rehearsal! If it'd been during the live broadcast, how brilliant would that have been? Absolute travesty!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi couldn't laugh or cry, So you're not upset that it turned into a mess, but that it wasn't messy enough, is that it...

"Tsk." The twins shook their heads. "I have no idea where Fang Beibei found that bodyguard, he's just some tall guy, completely useless, couldn't even take on A'Lie."

At that moment, Bai Yutang came out carrying a big bag of cat food, cat meals, and Lisbon's beef patties. He lined the food up in a neat row, watching the big and small cats eat, while commenting, "Of course a normal bodyguard wouldn't be able to take on Xu Lie."

"Fang Beibei's managed to offend the whole production crew in one go," Xiao Ding felt that this period was quite difficult. "And are those people easy to offend? Loads of people were filming the whole thing, and sure enough, the footage went online in the afternoon, saying she was throwing her weight around. The crew told her to apologise, or they'd refuse to film any scenes with her in them. But Fang Beibei absolutely refused to apologise, instead, she said Xu Lie assaulted her bodyguard and that she was going to sue Xu Lie... Then the crew said it was her bodyguard who struck first, so they were going to sue her and the bodyguard. Basically, it's a complete mess..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi thought it wasn't exactly a loss. "Is it getting a lot of attention?"

The twins said the topic was already trending heavily online, it was just that Fang Beibei was really difficult to deal with. It'd be best if she could apologise to the crew, otherwise they had a feeling more trouble was bound to happen.

......

While they were still chatting, Zhao Zhen came back, followed by a few assistants pushing several large suitcases. It looked like some new props had arrived.

As soon as he walked in, Zhao Zhen spotted Bai Chi lying on the sofa and came over to ask if he wasn't feeling well. He didn't look great.

Bai Chi, afraid of worrying him, said it was nothing. Zhan Zhao told Zhao Zhen about the situation.

Still worried, Zhao Zhen took Bai Chi straight to the hospital.

When the twins heard it was once again connected to Fang Beibei, they just clicked their tongues – This person is difficult to deal with.

......

Bai Yutang boiled some water, preparing to make instant noodles.

The twins insisted on having a bowl, so in the end, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang shared one bowl, and the other was stolen by the twins.

To ensure it was "authentic", Bai Yutang didn't add anything extra, he just followed the instructions on the package to the letter.

It did taste quite good, but Bai Yutang only had one mouthful before stopping, because it inexplicably reminded him of crime scenes and that minced meat.

Zhan Zhao, on the other hand, ate quite happily, thinking it might taste even better with a bit of wasabi.

"Yutang, I think you'll probably associate this flavour with the case for quite some time," Zhan Zhao remarked. "Taste and smell... both reinforce memory."

The twins asked, "So all that stuff about 'the taste of childhood' and 'flavours from when you were little' is based on the same principle, right?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "That's why you should make good use of your sense of smell and taste to improve your quality of life. For example, choose a perfume you really like the scent of and spray it on yourself whenever you're in a good mood or something nice happens. After a while, that perfume becomes your healing scent. When you're feeling down, a quick spray can lift your spirits. The same goes for food, you can use a certain type of food to anchor specific memories... like rewarding yourself with a particular flavour of cake every time you do well in an exam. Years later, when you eat that same cake again, you'll recall the sense of accomplishment from back then."

The twins looked at Bai Yutang sympathetically. "So you smelled instant noodles at a crime scene?"

Bai Yutang shrugged, instant noodles weren't essential for him anyway.

"Then what should we do?" The twins turned curiously to Zhan Zhao. "Can you forget it?"

Zhan Zhao said it depended on the situation. "Sometimes, memories can be triggered by some other sensory cue, and there's not necessarily a regular pattern."

......

Around ten at night, Gongsun finally finished work and came back, and Bai Chi returned with Zhao Zhen as well.

Bai Chi went for a check-up and there was nothing wrong. On the way back, he strolled around with Zhao Zhen and seemed to be in a good mood.

Zhan Zhao's eyes were seeing double from reading so much material. He lay on the sofa, letting Bai Yutang put eye drops in for him.

By around midnight, everyone who had been busy all day had taken a shower and gone to bed...

The night was quiet and still.

Until a sudden scream shattered the peace.

Bai Yutang violently opened his eyes, and Zhan Zhao rubbed his eyes groggily, "Was I dreaming, or did someone just scream..."

Bai Yutang threw off the covers and got out of bed. "Sounds like it came from next door..."

He opened the door. The twins were also holding pillows and peeking out from their doorway.

Big Brother Bai's room door was open too.

Everyone's eyes simultaneously turned to the still-closed door of Zhao Zhen's room.

Bai Yutang walked to the door and was just about to knock when suddenly someone shouted again... This time, everyone clearly heard it was Bai Chi calling out.

Bai Yutang hurriedly opened the door.

Zhao Zhen was sitting on the bed, anxiously watching Bai Chi kicking the covers inside the blankets.

Bai Yutang realised Bai Chi was probably having a nightmare. The noise was quite loud, so he beckoned to Zhan Zhao, who was sleepily stepping out of their room.

Zhan Zhao came to the door to see what was happening, opened the door fully, and went inside, first heading to the bathroom.

A moment later, Zhan Zhao came out holding a bottle of shower gel, Zhao Zhen's usual brand.

Zhan Zhao poured some shower gel onto his hand and rubbed it between his palms, then held his hand up to Bai Chi's nose.

After a while, Bai Chi, who had been kicking around restlessly, calmed down.

Zhan Zhao told Bai Yutang to call Bai Chi's phone... Bai Chi's phone on the bedside table began to vibrate.

After a few vibrations, Bai Chi moved and gradually woke up, instinctively reaching out to grab the phone.

Zhan Zhao signalled to the twins by the door to turn on the light.

The twins switched on the light, and Bai Chi closed his eyes again.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Zhen to call him.

Zhao Zhen gently patted Bai Chi, "Chi Chi..."

After adapting to the light, Bai Chi fully woke up and lay on the pillow in a daze.

Gongsun came over and reached out to feel his forehead – it was cool and clammy with cold sweat.

Zhan Zhao asked with great interest, "Chi Chi'ah, what did you dream about?"

"I dreamt..." Bai Chi had just started to speak when the phone on the bedside table vibrated again.

Zhan Zhao looked around.

Bai Yutang shook his head to indicate it wasn't him calling, and no one else was holding a phone.

Bai Chi looked puzzled as he picked up the phone, the caller ID was a number he didn't recognise.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Angel: Hi guys, I'm back! Thanks for waiting~ Taking the week off was definitely the right choice, I got lots of rest and didn't look at anything to do with translating this week. But now we are back to our regularly scheduled programing.

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

Translated: May 27, 2025 by Angel

Edited: August 22, 2025 by Soojin