S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 78

The Culinary Murderer 30 – Serial Cases

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Luo Tian discovered a suspicious vehicle, and it was related to Fang Beibei again. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt, so Luo Tian called Bai Yutang to inform him.

Bai Yutang was driving back to the station with Zhan Zhao when he received the call. Hearing the news, he found it a bit baffling. Is Fang Beibei targeting Wen Xiaorou now? Even driving over to keep watch on her parents?

However, Zhan Zhao said it probably wasn't Fang Beibei driving the car, and he showed Bai Yutang his phone. At that moment, Fang Beibei was live-streaming, with over a million people watching her make mochi.

Bai Yutang frowned. According to Luo Tian, the vehicle hadn't only appeared today, it had been keeping watch for some time. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became, so he asked Luo Tian to bring Xiaorou's mom to the station as well.

Luo Tian hung up and explained the situation to the auntie.

Xiaorou's mom picked up a dog leash and a cat carrier. Ma Xin helped by holding Rou Meimei's leash, while Luo Tian put the fat British Shorthair into the carrier. Xiaorou's mom locked the door, and they all headed to the police station together.

As Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao's car pulled up at the station, Luo Tian and the others arrived at the same time.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had seen Xiaorou's mom before at the jiu-jitsu club. Though they hadn't seen her in years, the auntie still looked young and pretty. Everyone exchanged pleasantries as they entered the elevator together.

Zhan Zhao took an interest in the husky named Rou Meimei, it didn't seem as daft as one might expect. When told to sit, it actually sat down.

Auntie laughed and said, "Meimei's half German Shepherd. Just like my Xiaorou, it only looks a bit daft."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both struggled to hold back their laughter. Gongsun showed Zhan Zhao the fat, handsome British Shorthair in the carrier and said it was called Rou Maomao. One dog and one cat, Meimei and Maomao.

When they reached the SCI office, Wen Mao was slightly puzzled to see his wife had come along too.

Xiaorou's mom, however, cheerfully greeted Xiaofei. Seeing he'd just finished eating, she even asked if he was full, had she known he hadn't eaten yet, she would've had the child's father bring more food.

Everyone looked on with a hint of gossip in their eyes. Oh ho~ The atmosphere of the mother-in-law looking at her son-in-law...

Wen Mao was even more confused, not only had his wife come, but she'd brought the cat and dog too.

Bai Yutang explained everything to him in detail.

Wen Mao frowned. "Someone's watching our place? Are they targeting us or Xiaorou?"

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to check the community's surveillance to determine when that vehicle had appeared and whether it had been tailing anyone.

The neighbourhood where Wen Mao's family lived was quite close to both the police station and the SWAT building, so many police personnel resided there, and the security was fairly robust.

Jiang Ping found that the car had indeed entered and exited the neighbourhood several days in a row, each time stopping for a while beneath the building where the Wen parents and Wen Xiaorou lived, before driving off...

"It doesn't really feel like surveillance..." Bai Yutang thought that using such a conspicuous red car for surveillance was absurd in itself. On top of that, it came mostly during the daytime and only stayed for short periods. What was the point?

Xiaofei was a little concerned too. Was Fang Beibei really that crazy? What was she trying to do?

But at that moment, Fang Beibei herself was still live-streaming, making red bean paste mochi, so it couldn't have been her driving. And that car looked so old, even if it was registered under her name, if they questioned her directly, she could easily come up with some excuse to distance herself from it. It wouldn't be easy to deal with...

But for now, they had to ensure the safety of the Wen family, after all, Wen Mao and his wife were key witnesses.

The problem was... where should the two of them be placed?

Xiaofei suggested, "How about they stay at my place...?"

Wen's parents both looked over at him happily – Stay at your place?

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at Xiaofei, speechless – Don't you also live in that same neighbourhood?

Xiaofei thought about it – Ah, right...

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at Rou Meimei. As for the dog... Isn't there still a spare room at Zhao Jue's villa? Why not set up a safehouse over there?

Zhan Zhao gave him a call to ask, and promptly got scolded by Zhao Jue.

Wen Mao, however, felt it wasn't necessary to make such a fuss. Any safehouse would do for a few days...

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang considered waiting until Wen Xiaorou woke up to discuss it with her. Just then, they heard Xiaofei ask, "Uncle, Auntie, would you mind staying in the countryside?"

Xiaorou's parents looked curious. "The countryside?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang remembered that Xiaofei's family home was in the outskirts of nearby K City. They'd heard someone mention before that his family owned a large farm or something...

Xiaofei proposed that they stay with his parents for a few days, they could treat it like a holiday. His parents had also said before that they'd love to have them over as guests.

Xiaorou's parents, cradling the cat and dog, were all smiles. That sounded just lovely...

The others quietly looked at the two elderly parents, beaming with satisfaction, and couldn't help but think of one phrase – Meeting the in-laws...

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both felt the arrangement was a good one. As for Wen Xiaorou, she could temporarily stay in the SWAT dormitory on her own, that place was unquestionably secure. And with her skills, anyone who tried to approach her with ill intent would basically be courting death.

Xiaofei made a call home, and Father Xiao said he would drive over to pick them up immediately!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang crossed their arms and looked at Xiaofei. Xiaofei smiled at the two of them, hung up the phone, and asked Bai Chi for a cup of milk tea.

......

When Wen Xiaorou woke up and came out of the break room, she heard her parents had taken the cat and dog and gone off on holiday to Xiaofei's family home. She was utterly bewildered – She only had a nap, what on earth had happened?

Just then, Gongsun came out of the forensic room with a report in hand, his expression rather serious.

"DNA extraction was successful, a set of father-son DNA was found on the medal." Gongsun handed the document to Bai Yutang. "We compared it with the skeletal remains we found. There's no biological relation."

"So the remains aren't Tan Wen's?" The two asked simultaneously.

Gongsun nodded. "We also recovered a partial fingerprint from a child, it's likely to be Tan Wen's younger brother's. If we can obtain Guan Xiaoyue's DNA and fingerprints, we'll be able to confirm that."

"Then..." Zhan Zhao asked Gongsun doubtfully, "whose remains were in the suitcase?"

"Same age as Tan Wen, and the estimated time of death was close, too," Gongsun said. "We can basically determine the cause of death, it was blunt force trauma."

"The anchor?"

"No," Gongsun shook his head. "I compared every part of the anchor with the injury on the skull. At first glance, the size of the wound was indeed similar to the nails on the anchor, but the wound's cross-section didn't match... Additionally, the blow came from above. The anchor doesn't really seem like a practical weapon in this case."

"From above?"

"Mhmm." Gongsun raised his hand. "Someone held a blunt object and struck from behind, delivering a downward blow. Judging from the point of impact, the attacker was significantly taller than the victim. The victim was around one metre fifty-five, and the attacker must have been at least one metre seventy-five."

"What was she struck with?"

"We still can't determine what the murder weapon was," Gongsun showed everyone an image simulating the weapon's shape based on the wound. It appeared to be a triangular-prism-shaped object.

"Triangular prism?" Everyone looked at Gongsun. "What is it?"

Gongsun shrugged – I don't know! The skeleton has been soaking in the sea for too long, and there's nothing left to analyse.

"If that's not Tan Wen, then why was Tan Wen's student ID found with her?" Bai Yutang realised that this case was tied to another murder. It had clearly been Tan Wen who went missing back then, so who was this dead girl?

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to check whether there were any other similar missing persons cases from around the same time.

Jiang Ping immediately began the investigation.

Gongsun said, "Xin Xin scanned the skull and is using AI to reconstruct the face. The composite sketch should be ready soon."

As he spoke, Ma Xin came running over with the photos. "It's done."

There were two versions of the image: one with long hair, the other with short hair.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at them, both feeling that the face seemed vaguely familiar. Before they could place it, Wen Xiaorou reached out and took the sketch, frowning as she studied it closely. "What on earth..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at her. "You recognise her?"

Wen Xiaorou stared at the picture for a while, then nodded. "That's Guan Xiaohong."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. "Guan... Guan Xiaohong?"

"I'm quite sure of it, that's Guan Xiaohong!" Wen Xiaorou said firmly.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other again. Come to think of it, she did resemble Guan Mei a bit... But didn't she return from studying abroad and become a fashion designer? How could she have died so young? Then who was the Guan Xiaohong now?

"Could it be that the sketch just happens to resemble her?" Ma Xin said that the AI reconstruction wasn't necessarily exact.

Wen Xiaorou wasn't sure any more either.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang. "If Guan Xiaoyue is Tan Wen's younger brother, could it be that Guan Xiaohong is Tan Wen?"

Bai Yutang frowned. "You mean, Guan Mei adopted the siblings? Then... her own biological daughter, Guan Xiaohong, is the one who died?"

"Boss."

At that moment, Jiang Ping had results. "At the time of Tan Wen's case, there were three other missing persons cases involving girls of a similar age."

"So, including Tan Wen, four girls in total went missing?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both went over to look.

"That's right, and look at the photos," Jiang Ping put the images of the missing girls on the desktop. "Don't you notice? They all look quite similar."

Zhan Zhao picked up the AI-reconstructed image and compared it to the three missing girls Jiang Ping had found. All of them bore some resemblance to the reconstruction: single eyelids, high-bridged noses, slim builds. What's more, the three missing girls had all had short hair, and the version of the reconstructed sketch Wen Xiaorou had pointed to was also the short-haired one.

"But Tan Wen didn't really look like this..." Zhan Zhao recalled.

Bai Yutang nodded as well. In his memory, Tan Wen hadn't looked like that, nor had she worn that hairstyle. The girls who had gone missing all looked like well-behaved, quiet types, while Tan Wen had been more rebellious back then...

"These three were never found?" Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping.

"No, two were never found, and one of them was recovered back then. The case file says she ran away from home and was later found by her family."

"Ran away from home..." Zhan Zhao flipped through the missing persons case files, then suddenly spotted something and pointed it out to Bai Yutang. "Here, each file recorded what the girl was wearing when she went missing. All of them say yellow rain ponchos, and it was raining when they disappeared..."

Everyone exchanged glances. Years of investigative experience had them all thinking the same thing – serial crimes!

The victims shared obvious similarities, and the weather at the time of the incidents was always rainy. These elements were far too consistent. A serial kidnapping and murder case...

Bai Yutang instructed Jiang Ping to check whether there had been any other similar cases of missing girls in recent years.

Jiang Ping ran a search. There were indeed quite a few missing persons reports for teenagers in that age group, but most of them had been runaway cases, and in most instances, the families had found the children. There were still some that remained unsolved, but none of them mentioned yellow rain ponchos.

"Do we have contact information for the girl who was found?" Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao wanted to ask her a few questions.

Jiang Ping printed out the girl's file. Zhan Zhao took one look and froze, then pointed at the girl's name and showed it to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang glanced at it and frowned. "This... is it just a coincidence?"

‿︵‿︵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 13, 2025 by Angel

Edited: August 24, 2025 by Soojin