S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 76

The Culinary Murderer 28 – Errors and Omissions

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Bai Ye agreed to take part in the food competition and to go undercover to investigate Guan Xiaoyue and Fang Beibei, a great piece of news for SCI.

Although what finally persuaded Bai Ye was the sizeable cash prize, by the time the story reached Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, that detail had been conveniently filtered out. In their version, Uncle Ye wanted to help them.

The twins were overjoyed as well. Fearing Bai Ye might change his mind, they grabbed their briefcase and rushed to Zhao Jue's home to get the agreement signed.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought about it and decided to head over too. While they were at it, they also intended to stop by the Wen household to look for Wen Xiaorou's parents.

Right now, the only people who had truly had contact with the Tan family, or rather, the ones most familiar with them, were Wen Xiaorou's parents.

Wen Xiaorou had already fallen asleep, and Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't wake her. They decided to go and meet up with Bai Ye first and deal with the rest later.

......

Coincidentally, just after the two of them left the office, Xiaofei turned up at the SCI office with an older man in tow.

This uncle was nearly 1.9 metres tall, broad-shouldered and handsome, though he was carrying an insulated lunchbox with a cartoon bear printed on it, which looked rather cute.

Who was this uncle? None other than Wen Xiaorou's biological father, Wen Mao, who had also been Bai Yutang's childhood jiu-jitsu coach. Because of that, everyone called him Coach Wen or Teacher Wen.

Wen Mao had just received a call from his daughter asking about the noodle shop owner, which had made him a bit concerned, so he brought some food over, wanting to ask what was going on while delivering a meal to her.

But Wen Xiaorou wasn't at home. When Wen Mao arrived at the SWAT office, Xiaofei told him she was sleeping in the SCI break room.

It had been a while since Wen Mao had seen Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, so he said he'd use the opportunity to drop off the meal and visit Xiao Bai and Xiao Zhan as well.

Xiaofei led the way to the office, only to find out the two had just gone out, and Xiaorou was still asleep.

Bai Chi made the uncle a cup of tea and said the captain and the doctor had originally planned to pay a visit to the Wen household. He sent them a text urging them to return sooner.

With nothing else to do, Wen Mao took a seat to wait and had a look around the SCI office while he was at it.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han could tell at a glance from his build that this man was an expert.

Wen Mao asked Xiaofei whether he'd eaten yet, and Xiaofei said he was just about to.

Wen Mao told him to go ahead and eat Wen Xiaorou's portion, once she woke up, she could go to the cafeteria herself. Otherwise, the food wouldn't taste good if it sat too long.

The SCI team, ever curious, found it rather gossip-worthy that Father Wen seemed so familiar with Xiaofei, affectionately calling him Xiaofei with every other sentence. (Angel: Xiaofei's name is spelt 肖飞 and pronounced Xiaofei, while the affectionate Xiaofei is 小飞 or Xiaofei.)

Zhao Hu, having nothing better to do and being naturally outgoing, struck up a conversation with Wen Mao. He asked whether he happened to have anything that could be used to verify the Tan family's DNA.

Everyone turned to look at Zhao Hu in admiration – Truly a social butterfly, to be able to ask something so directly.

The uncle was caught off guard by the question. He rested his chin on his hand and said, "DNA... uh..."

"Does this DNA stick around just from touching something?"

"That's right." Everyone nodded. Hu Zi had always had ridiculous luck, maybe this was another case of a blind cat stumbling upon a dead rat, maybe there really was...

"But would it still be there after a long time?" Wen Mao then asked.

"That depends. As long as not too many people have handled it, it should still be there." Gongsun had just walked in to fetch some documents and joined the conversation when he heard it. 

"Oh..." Wen Mao said. "Xiao Rou's medal, that time we went to the gathering, Old Tan held it for quite a while. Even showed it to his son, told him he should win a gold medal like that one day."

Gongsun asked, "After all these years, has anyone else handled the medal?"

Wen Mao shook his head, "Well, not exactly, it's usually kept in a display case. My daughter's got loads of medals, my wife often takes them out to look at when she's got nothing to do."

Everyone sighed silently... Gongsun frowned as well – It probably wouldn't be there any more...

"The child's mother is very meticulous," Wen Mao continued. "Every time a medal came home, she'd wrap it in a layer of film, mostly to keep it from oxidising. You know how those kids' gold medals are, they're not exactly high quality, leave it for a while and it turns into a bronze medal."

"What kind of film?" Gongsun asked quickly.

"That kind of film they use in watch shops to wrap watches," Wen Mao replied.

Gongsun's eyes lit up – Promising!

"And Mr Tan's son touched it too?"

Wen Mao nodded, "Mhmm."

Gongsun was thrilled – Not only could they have the Tan family's DNA, they might even find Tan Wen's younger brother's fingerprints!

Gongsun declared that they couldn't wait any longer and told Ma Xin to grab the forensic kit so they could collect evidence.

Wen Mao called his wife to let her know, and Luo Tian drove Ma Xin and Gongsun over to retrieve the medal.

Zhao Hu glanced curiously at Wen Mao... he had a feeling the man had more to say.

Xiaofei noticed as well, and asked between bites of his meal, "Uncle, is there something else on your mind?"

"Er..." Wen Mao rubbed his chin. "At first I didn't think much of it... but now that you've mentioned the Tan family noodle shop, I feel I should say something."

Hu Zi immediately dragged a chair over and sat down opposite him. "Uncle, go ahead, relevant or not, just tell us!"

The others nodded in agreement.

"Tan Wen went missing, didn't she?" Wen Mao said. "I remember the girl a bit. She's quite rebellious, a bit like Rou Rou in some ways, very stubborn and strong-willed. I've even taught her a few self-defence moves."

"Self-defence?"

"Mhmm." Wen Mao nodded. "One day, she suddenly turned up at my studio and asked if I could teach her a few self-defence moves, the kind that actually worked."

The SCI team all frowned – A girl that young making such a request out of the blue, did she sense some kind of danger? Or was someone bullying her?

"I thought at the time that maybe she was being picked on at school, so I taught her a few moves. She picked them up quite quickly," Wen Mao recalled. "It was less than a month before she disappeared."

Everyone frowned, thinking there was something strange. They listened as Wen Mao went on.

"Later, she disappeared, and the case was all over the news. I went to the noodle shop, originally I was thinking I'd bring some of the people from the studio to help look for her, but..." Wen Mao frowned. "That day I knocked on the door of Old Tan's noodle shop, the lights were clearly on, and there should have been people inside, but no one answered the door."

"They didn't open the door?"

"Mm." Wen Mao nodded. "I thought maybe Old Tan thought I was from the media, so while knocking, I called out, 'Old Tan, it's Lao Wen from the jiu-jitsu studio! I came to see if I could help out...' But no one responded, not a single word. The Tan family have always been very mild-mannered, it just felt odd. Still, I figured they were going through something terrible and might not want to see anyone, which was fair enough. So I took my people and went searching without disturbing them further. However..."

Everyone was surprised – Uncle knows quite a bit...

"I mentioned we went out to look, right? There was someone at my studio whose home was near the observatory, so he knew the area quite well. As soon as he heard a child had gone missing, he asked whether she might have gone into one of the karst caves, so we went to check there."

Ma Han did a quick mental calculation and suspected that Wen Mao and his team had probably been among the first to search the cave, which made the whole thing seem even more off.

"Did you hear the problem?" Wen Mao asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Later on, I saw the news, they said a rain poncho belonging to Tan Wen had been found in the cave, and that's how they concluded it was an accident." Wen Mao shook his head. "But we should've been there before the official rescue teams, and we never saw any rain poncho. If we had, wouldn't we have reported it to the police straightaway?"

"So someone put the rain poncho there later?" Zhao Hu asked Wen Mao. "Then why didn't you say anything at the time?"

"I did," Wen Mao said helplessly. "I told the rescue team in charge of the search, but guess what?"

Everyone was curious.

"Other people involved in the mountain search had also been into the cave, some said they saw the rain poncho, others said they didn't. There were even claims that someone had seen the child's ghost in the cave. So no matter what anyone said, they just assumed you were mistaken, didn't see clearly, or were talking nonsense." Wen Mao said helplessly, "You all know I know Yunwen..."

Everyone paused for a second, trying to remember who "Yunwen" was. After a few seconds, it clicked – Ah, Captain Bai's father.

"I'd originally wanted to talk to Yunwen about it, I thought it all seemed a bit odd and maybe it wasn't just an accident. But as luck would have it, my wife got knocked into on a footbridge, fell, and broke her ankle. I had to look after her and our daughter, and just couldn't get away. A few months went by in a flash. By the time I thought of the case again, the whole Tan family had already moved away..."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han exchanged a look when they heard that, then both asked, "Auntie was knocked over? Was it deliberate or an accident?"

"Heh." Wen Mao gave a cold laugh. "That thought crossed my mind too at the time, so I went to have a look at the footbridge where it happened. It's a really wide bridge. My wife had been going down, holding the handrail. She said the person who hit her came running from behind and she even felt them shove her. But that person never once looked back, just ran off after knocking into her. It really did feel deliberate... There weren't that many cameras back then either. I reported it to the police, but they never caught the one who did it. Luckily, she'd been holding the handrail when she fell, so she didn't fall all the way down, otherwise, it wouldn't have been just a fracture. I thought about it and couldn't think of anyone who'd hold a grudge against me. I vaguely felt it might've had something to do with the Tan family, but there was no proof... so I figured maybe I was just overthinking it."

Everyone frowned. Zhao Hu and Ma Han didn't believe it was a coincidence, especially since Wen Mao had clearly announced "I'm Lao Wen from the jiu-jitsu studio" when he knocked on the noodle shop's door that first time...

"After that, everything went back to normal, nothing else happened..." Wen Mao paused, then remembered something. "A few years ago, when Xiao Rou graduated, we took her abroad on a trip. At the airport, my wife suddenly told me she'd just seen a girl who looked exactly like Tan Wen."

Everyone looked at Wen Mao – Was she sure?

Wen Mao smiled. "That's what I asked her too, she said she really looked exactly like her. My wife's got an eagle eye and a great memory, if she said the girl looked like Tan Wen, then she must have looked like Tan Wen. So I had a look around the airport, but I didn't find her in the end, and didn't think much of it after that."

Wen Mao finished speaking and sighed. "Back then, I even wondered whether the whole family might've faked their deaths, for money or something... But then again, that family never struck me as bad people, and the noodle shop business was doing very well, surely they weren't short of money... ai..."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han didn't think it was for money either. After all, the couple had died on the very day Tan Wen disappeared. So what was the truth? Could someone have killed the couple, then used the case of Tan Wen's disappearance to scam money from the school? That kind of scheme would be way too risky.

The corpse in that suitcase, the one wearing Tan Wen's student ID, was it really her? If her younger brother wasn't dead, could she still be alive too?

......

At Zhao Jue's villa.

The twins had spread out a thick stack of agreements all over the table and were handing a pen to Bai Ye, urging him to sign.

Zhao Jue and Kalin were helping go through the contracts.

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived, the twins were just getting Bai Ye and the others to fill in the application forms for the cooking competition.

To enter, you had to at least fill in a name, it helped with promotion, too.

You could use your real name or a stage name.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found a sofa to sit on, thinking the situation was getting interesting, even chefs have a stage name!

Bai Ye was just as puzzled. "Stage name?"

"A fake name's fine too, real names are a bit inconvenient, right? Stage names are great..."

Eleven and Issel had to fill out forms too. In the name field, they wrote "Chopsticks" and "Radar".

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang silently muttered to themselves, Calling a chef Chopsticks was still acceptable, but Radar? What next, Soup Spoon? That way Chopsticks and Spoon could be a matching set! What about Uncle Ye then? Call him Bowl?

The twins were curious. "Uncle Ye's been making his way through the culinary world for so many years, surely he's got some kind of nickname?"

Everyone leaned over to see what Bai Ye had written when he finished and realised it was an English name: Ivan Vought.

They all tilted their heads. Uncle Ye's surname was Bai, right? "Vought" could pass as a surname, but Ivan?

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both stroked their chins – He is called Ivan? Why? A pun on "Yi Wan"? To go with the chopsticks and spoon theme? Uncle Ye is funny after all! (Angel: Yi Wan, 一碗, a bowl)

Nearby, Issel grinned and said, "He does have a nickname, it came from foreigners mispronouncing 'Ye Bai,' and then Ivan came from them mispronouncing the nickname."

"So it started as a mispronunciation of his real name, which became a nickname, and then got mispronounced again into a fake name?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both intrigued. "What was the original nickname that turned into Ivan?"

"Evil," Zhao Jue raised his head and said slowly, "Evil White."

‿︵‿︵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: June 3, 2025 by Angel

Edited: August 24, 2025 by Soojin