S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 74

The Culinary Murderer 26 – Who's Who?

---

While everyone at SCI was analysing Fang Beibei's motives, the elevator doors opened and Xiaofei walked out with a sullen-looking Wen Xiaorou.

Once inside the office, Xiaofei greeted the others, then pointed to Wen Xiaorou.

Wen Xiaorou was still muttering, "Told them to hang a banner and they wouldn't... how is that reasonable, huh?!"

Since the whole incident had happened rather suddenly, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang could only come up with a temporary solution.

Bai Yutang questioned Wen Xiaorou in detail about her meeting with Fang Beibei the previous night.

Wen Xiaorou gave a rough account, after all, there was a recording, so there wasn't much else to uncover.

Suddenly, Xiaofei asked, "What about that phone call from earlier?"

"What phone call?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao asked in unison.

Wen Xiaorou said it was just a nuisance call, only the sound of dripping water...

She had said it casually, but Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance and became serious.

They pulled out their phones to check the number, and sure enough, it was the same one Bai Chi had received the night before!

The two of them asked Wen Xiaorou how much she knew about Tan Wen's case back when they were still in school.

Wen Xiaorou shook her head and said she didn't know anything, just remembered a few teachers going around looking for people. Later, the vice principal died, there were ghost stories going around the school for a while, and then the term ended and they were off for the holidays...

"Wait a minute..." Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered something and asked Wen Xiaorou, "You mentioned before that you and your parents really liked the noodles at Tan Wen's parents' shop, didn't you?"

Wen Xiaorou nodded. "Their noodle shop was pretty close to my dad's jiu-jitsu studio."

"Then you must have seen Tan Wen's parents before!" Zhan Zhao asked a question that was somewhat redundant.

Wen Xiaorou looked at him suspiciously – Of course I have.

"Then during the time the school was searching for Tan Wen, did you see her parents at all?"

Wen Xiaorou frowned and thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No... weren't her parents busy looking for her? I don't remember them coming to the school."

"Were any students involved in the search back then?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang shook his head – Probably not. After all, we were just secondary school students. The teachers might have gone looking, but that would have been to help the police. The main parties responsible for the search were the police and school authorities. Later on, the cave search would definitely have involved professional rescue teams.

"So back then, during the search, the only people confirmed to have had contact with Tan Wen's parents were Teacher Guan and the vice principal, right?" Zhan Zhao asked. "The vice principal is already dead, so..."

Wen Xiaorou looked at Zhan Zhao in confusion. "What's the issue? Why are you focusing on her parents?"

Bai Yutang recounted how they'd also received the strange phone call with the dripping water sounds the night before, how they'd gone to investigate at the school, and how they'd overheard what Old Wang the security guard had said... He said everything.

After listening, Wen Xiaorou looked completely baffled. "Her parents were just two regular people running a noodle shop, weren't they? Sure, the noodles were really good, but come on, isn't this a bit too much? What is this, some kind of suspense film plot?"

Xiaofei, on the other hand, felt that it made some sense. Fang Beibei's actions gave off a strong sense that she was deliberately trying to drag Wen Xiaorou into the mess, but what could she gain from that?

"Tsk."

At that moment, Jiang Ping, who had been keeping an eye on things online, gestured to the others that there had been some developments. "Captain Rou, if this keeps up, you're going to become an internet celebrity..."

Wen Xiaorou frowned and leaned over to look. "What internet celebrity?"

"As soon as Fang Beibei's interview came out, people started digging up dirt on you. They even found old videos of you competing in jiu-jitsu matches, and that one from the police sports day where you slammed Hu Zi into the ground has gone viral..."

The moment Zhao Hu heard that, he immediately objected. "No way! Who leaked that?!"

Ma Han patted him – Thankfully, it was that clip they circulated. There was another one where someone snatched something from you with just one hand. That one was even more entertaining...

"The forum's gotten even livelier. Someone said Fang Beibei used to be a bully back in school and that birds of a feather flock together, so you must be no better..."

Wen Xiaorou was so furious that she hit Zhao Hu with a book. "Slander! Libel! Personal attack!"

"But you're actually quite well-liked," Jiang Ping continued. "Lots of people are defending you, saying you've got integrity. Some of your old classmates said you two were never close, and even mentioned that Fang Beibei always talked behind your back... Wow, Captain Rou, is your nickname hubby or something? Why are so many people saying they're your wife?"

Wen Xiaorou was genuinely curious. "Who's calling me hubby?"

Xiaofei rubbed his forehead beside her, while Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked a little puzzled by the direction this was going...

Just then, as she was watching an old video of herself competing as a child, Wen Xiaorou suddenly let out an "Ah!"

Everyone turned to look at her.

It was as if something had just come back to Wen Xiaorou, and she said, "I remember back when I was in school, I won a competition once, and my dad took me and the jiu-jitsu team out for noodles to celebrate. Tan Wen's dad even made us some special off-menu dishes. I think we even took a group photo that day!"

"A group photo?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked in unison.

"Let me ask..." Wen Xiaorou rang her dad and asked about the photo.

As it happened, Xiaorou's mom, aside from being a drama addict, also loved making photo albums. She'd kept detailed albums of her daughter's life from childhood onwards, organised by date, they had over a hundred at home.

The couple started searching at home and, sure enough, found the photo album from that post-competition celebration.

And just as Wen Xiaorou had said, there was indeed a photo of her dad, tipsy and grinning, standing beside the noodle shop owner, who was in fact Tan Wen's father.

In other photos, Tan Wen's mother was also visible, serving dishes.

This meant they now had clear photos of both parents.

Wen Xiaorou passed the photos to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping ran a facial recognition search through the database.

A few minutes later, the screen displayed the results, and there was a match.

As soon as Jiang Ping saw the folder marked with a "D" code, he frowned. "These two people are already dead."

"Dead?" Everyone was shocked.

"Look at the date of death." Jiang Ping pointed to it. It was ten years ago, and it was the exact day Tan Wen went missing.

Everyone was stunned – Could things really be that eerie?

Jiang Ping opened the folder. "But the names recorded for the deceased weren't Tan Wen's parents, they were two completely unrelated names. The cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning, an accidental death."

They compared the photos of the deceased to the ones on Wen Xiaorou's phone, which her father had sent her, and there was no doubt they were the same two people.

"So the parents who joined the school in the search for Tan Wen back then were impostors?" Zhan Zhao frowned and thought for a moment, then nudged Bai Yutang. "What if the vice principal's death wasn't an accident either?"

Bai Yutang also thought it was possible, perhaps the vice principal had been taking the blame for years. "The first person to go to Tan Wen's home at the time was Guan Mei. If the parents were impostors, then the only one who'd have seen them face-to-face would be her. She'd be the most convincing witness."

Zhan Zhao asked Wen Xiaorou, "Can you get in touch with Teacher Guan?"

Wen Xiaorou said that someone in their class group chat might still have her contact information.

After asking around, she really managed to find a phone number.

Zhan Zhao called it, but a man's voice answered on the other end... and from the sound of it, he didn't seem very old.

Zhan Zhao thought he might have dialled the wrong number and asked tentatively, "May I speak to Teacher Guan?"

"Who's looking for her?"

Zhan Zhao replied, "I'm one of her former students. May I ask who you are?"

"I'm her son. My mom's not in the country at the moment, what do you need her for? I can pass the message on."

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang. He had a feeling that besides the voice on the other end, he could also hear the meowing of a cat.

Bai Yutang heard it too. With all the cats at his own home, he knew well that cats might be quiet most of the time, but the moment you pick up the phone, they always come over to meow at you.

"Oh... when will she be back?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"First tell me who you are," the person on the other end said, probably thinking Zhan Zhao was slightly suspicious.

"We're from the police station." As Zhan Zhao said it, he suddenly felt as if he were pulling a phone scam.

Sure enough, the other party became even more cautious. "The police station? Why are the police looking for my mom?"

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang and said, "I'm Zhan Zhao, your mom should remember me."

"Zhan Zhao?" The person on the other end suddenly laughed. "You mean that Zhan Zhao from SCI? Zhan Zhao from Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang?"

"Yes..."

"Then you really are one of my mom's students, she even mentioned you two once while watching the news." The voice now sounded more relaxed. "She'll be back on Saturday for one of her students' wedding banquets..."

"A student's wedding?" Zhan Zhao asked. "Yu Hui's?"

"That's right, are you two going too? Then you'll probably run into her."

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao nodded and asked, "And what's your name?"

"Guan Xiaoyue."

......

Upon hearing the name, both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned.

Everyone gathered around the phone on speaker was also taken aback... That Guan Xiaoyue?

Ma Han nudged Zhao Hu – Your soulful chef.

"Oh... I might contact you again." Zhan Zhao decided to hang up for now and think it over.

"Okay~"

Guan Xiaoyue seemed to have quite a cheerful personality.

After the call ended, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang simultaneously fell into confusion... Was it yet another coincidence? After so many years of working cases, this was the first time they had encountered such a complicated web of personal relationships.

Bai Yutang dragged the whiteboard over, intending to draw a relationship chart to straighten out their thoughts.

Meanwhile, Wen Xiaorou, who was standing nearby, didn't seem to know who Guan Xiaoyue was. She took out her phone and looked him up...

Staring at a photo of Guan Xiaoyue, Wen Xiaorou looked at it for a long time. She zoomed in and out, tilted her head this way and that, studying it thoroughly.

Xiaofei asked her, "What is it?"

"Hmm..." Wen Xiaorou opened a few photos that her dad had just sent her from his phone. After finding one, she zoomed in and showed it to the others.

In a photo from that noodle shop gathering years ago, a little boy was sitting in a corner at a table doing his homework.

Wen Xiaorou zoomed in on the little boy's face in the photo, then searched on Jiang Ping's computer for one of Guan Xiaoyue's advertisement photos, finding one taken from a similar angle.

She placed the two photos side by side and asked, "Is it just my imagination?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned and stared intently at the images.

At that moment, Ma Xin walked over with a cup of milk tea, curious to see what was going on. After standing there for a moment, she said, "Same person."

Everyone turned to look at Ma Xin. "Are you sure?"

Ma Xin pointed at the ears of the boy in the photo and those of Guan Xiaoyue. "The shape of a person's ears is as unique as a fingerprint. Plus, the facial structure and features are almost proportionally enlarged. It's definitely the same person."

Everyone was stunned, looking at one another – So Guan Xiaoyue is actually the younger brother who had never appeared in the Tan Wen disappearance case? Then... why had he become Guan Mei's son?

"Look at this..." At that moment, Jiang Ping, who had been going through the victim's file, suddenly called everyone over. "In the section where it lists who claimed the bodies of Tan Wen's parents, there's a name and a phone number."

Everyone leaned in to have a close look. The signature was extremely messy, but it looked like the characters for "Wen Wen". The identity was listed as "daughter", and the phone number left behind looked oddly familiar.

Bai Yutang and Wen Xiaorou checked their phones at the same time – It was the same number that had the dripping water sound.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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: June 1, 2025 by Angel

Edited: August 24, 2025 by Soojin