S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 80

The Culinary Murderer 32 – Memory and Smell

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Zhan Zhao asked Zhu Yi, "Do you know where exactly you cut him with that CD at the time?"

"The neck!" Zhu Yi said with great certainty. "Because I think my fingers brushed against his chin, I touched something rough, probably stubble... something like that!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang analysed the situation. This was no minor matter, the broken CD was effectively a weapon. According to Zhu Yi's description, it wasn't a superficial cut, she had likely stabbed that half-disc into the person's neck. If it had hit a vital spot, the culprit might not have survived. If not, it might have pierced a slightly further back area. So, the serial killer they were trying to find might have a scar somewhere around the shoulder or neck.

By this point, the events from back then had become quite clear, and at this moment, a shared question was troubling the three of them.

"Why... was the case closed back then as a runaway found by her family?" Wen Xiaorou couldn't help asking. "That culprit might have been seriously injured. If they'd investigated at the time..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded, they might have uncovered a great deal of evidence or even caught the culprit.

"Ai..." Zhu Yi sighed helplessly. "After the aunt at the café helped me call the police, my mom and dad came with them. Turns out my mom saw it was raining that afternoon and tried to call me, and when she couldn't get through, she and my dad split up to look for me. My dad knows me better, he followed some clues and found my rain poncho and phone in the park. They panicked and immediately called the police. When I saw them arrive, I don't know if it was the relief or what... but everything went black and I fainted. When I woke up, it was already three days later, and I couldn't remember anything about what had happened!"

Bai Yutang and Wen Xiaorou both looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao frowned. This kind of situation was entirely possible. On one hand, Zhu Yi had sustained a serious head injury; on the other, she had been traumatised. It was very likely she had experienced retrograde amnesia.

"When the police questioned me at the time, I said I couldn't remember anything. My parents thought it was a good thing that I didn't remember, so I wouldn't be left with any psychological scars or anything like that. They said I had run away from home and found my way back." Zhu Yi sighed again. "But I can't really blame my parents, they were both terrified after that incident. My dad continued to pick me up and drop me off at school until high school, which made me the laughingstock of my classmates. I couldn't even get a boyfriend because of it, so as soon as I became independent, I moved out to live on my own."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were helpless too, she had actually experienced retrograde amnesia at the time... But the two of them did a quick calculation and realised that Zhu Yi had been the last victim. Could it be... that the killer had been seriously injured by that one blow of hers?

"When did you start to remember things?" As a psychologist, Zhan Zhao naturally knew that this kind of retrograde amnesia could gradually resolve itself over time.

Zhu Yi said, "Since then, I would occasionally have nightmares, and then, the memories slowly started coming back, bit by bit. At first, I thought they were just nightmares, but gradually everything became clearer, and in the end, I remembered it all. But..."

Zhu Yi hesitated for a moment and then whispered, "That was when I finished middle school and was starting high school. I didn't tell my mom and dad... I was afraid they'd worry. They'd been on edge ever since that incident, and if I'd told them I'd actually been kidnapped and the culprit still hadn't been caught, they'd probably have tied me to themselves... And besides, so much time had passed..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded. At the end of the day, Zhu Yi had been a victim, and the fact that she'd survived was already incredibly fortunate.

Wen Xiaorou patted her and told her that saving herself had already been an extraordinary thing to do.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhu Yi curiously, "If you didn't tell your parents, did you ever tell anyone else?"

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao.

Why had Zhan Zhao asked that? Because, in a subtle way, he felt that Zhu Yi's description of what had happened back then was very similar to Bai Chi's dreams! Dark tunnels, the sound of dripping water, running into a wall while fleeing, some kind of monster chasing behind... It was as though Bai Chi had seen Zhu Yi's dream.

"I told my best friend!"

"Where did you tell her?"

"In our high school's infirmary!" Zhu Yi recalled. "It was during the summer term, just as school had started and we were doing military training. One of the drills involved crawling through a tunnel, I was shaking with fear, and the instructor thought I'd got heatstroke and told my best friend to take me to see the school doctor. The doctor told me to lie down for a bit... so my friend took me to rest in a side ward. She could tell something was wrong and asked me what was going on, and I just couldn't hold it in any more, so I told her everything about what had happened!"

"High school...?" Zhan Zhao had a rough idea now of how Bai Chi's psychological trauma had come about.

"Yes!" Zhu Yi nodded.

"Was there anyone else in the ward with you at the time, besides the two of you?"

Zhu Yi thought for a moment, then nodded. "I think so. The bed next to us had the curtain drawn, I think there was a boy from the neighbouring class, studying Chinese medicine, asleep in there."

Zhan Zhao held his forehead, finding it all far too ridiculous.

Bai Yutang had caught on as well and asked Zhan Zhao, "So Bai Chi was the boy resting from heatstroke..."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Chi Chi probably really did have heatstroke, he was in a semi-conscious state, and while drifting between sleep and wakefulness, he heard the whole story... and that's what turned into psychological trauma."

Bai Yutang was both amused and exasperated, he'd never imagined that Bai Chi's mental scar had come about like this.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhu Yi, "How much can you remember now about the culprit? The more detail, the better."

"Hmm... He was wearing a raincoat the whole time, it was either black or a dark grey. His height was about... one metre seventy-five. I couldn't really tell his build, because of the raincoat, but he didn't seem like a fat person, and his head wasn't particularly big."

"Not a big head?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked in unison.

"Yes!" Zhu Yi recalled. "I only caught one glimpse, it was when he came charging out of the woods. It was raining heavily, and he seemed to be wearing either black-rimmed glasses or swimming goggles, anyway, his eyes were blocked by something. And with the rain pouring down and everything happening so quickly, I couldn't see clearly."

"Try to remember more details," Zhan Zhao guided Zhu Yi. "While you were in the tunnel, besides the sound of water, did you hear anything else? Or smell anything, any kind of scent?"

"A smell... ah, something sweet."

"Sweet?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought for a moment. Could it have been the smell of blood, due to her injury?

"The sweet smell of coconut."

"Coconut?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other, Such a specific sweetness?

"Yes... like coconut mooncakes, that kind of sweet smell." Zhu Yi wrinkled her nose. "So ever since then, I haven't liked anything with coconut flavour. But the one good thing that came out of that experience was that I fell in love with coffee. Whenever I feel anxious or something's upsetting me, just smelling coffee makes me feel especially calm."

Zhan Zhao nodded in understanding. After all, when Song Yi escaped danger back then, it had also been the smell of coffee, though her memory of the event had briefly disappeared, the sense of safety that scent brought her still remained.

"What about that person's voice?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"I only heard his screams... when I stabbed him," Zhu Yi frowned, it was clearly a painful memory. "That sound was terrifying..."

"In what way was it terrifying?" Zhan Zhao prompted her to describe it, or to imitate it, if she could.

"It was first like a 'ngh' sound, then an 'ah!' The 'ngh' was probably from pain, and the 'ah' sounded more like an angry shout. The voice was really deep, really rough, and... how should I put it? I don't know if it was because I was scared at the time or if the memory's distorted, but it felt..."

"How did it feel?"

"It felt... not human."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't quite understand, and Wen Xiaorou asked too, "Not human, as in, like an animal?"

"No..." Zhu Yi tried to explain it in a way that was easier to grasp. "Have you seen Star Wars? Just like that 'I am your father!', deep and muffled."

"Muffled?" Bai Yutang thought for a moment. Could the culprit have been wearing a mask or some kind of face covering? But Zhu Yi had said that when she struck him, her hand had touched a rough surface, like stubble...

Zhu Yi had recalled as much detail as she possibly could, but given the circumstances at the time, there truly hadn't been much she could know.

After sitting a little longer and finishing their coffee, the three of them said goodbye to Zhu Yi and headed back to the bureau.

After getting into the car, Zhan Zhao looked at the report that documented both the original case and its dismissal, and asked Bai Yutang, "Who was responsible for closing the case back then?"

Bai Yutang looked at him. "So you think there's something off too?"

Zhan Zhao countered, "Don't you think there's something off?"

Bai Yutang nodded. "Indeed, even with the unusual circumstance of the victim's amnesia, her rain poncho and phone were found in the park, and she herself was found seriously injured in a completely different place, that's clearly a kidnapping. How could the case have been dismissed just like that..."

"Is the case file complete? Does it say exactly where Zhu Yi was found at the time? Maybe we can locate that tunnel, Zhu Yi mentioned a big iron gate and the sound of dripping water." Zhan Zhao looked through the case log, where a responding officer's signature was recorded. It hadn't happened too long ago, so they should be able to find it quickly. He decided they'd get Jiang Ping to look into it once they got back.

Zhan Zhao glanced at Wen Xiaorou, who was sitting in the back seat, staring into space in silence.

Zhan Zhao turned and asked, "What do you think?"

Wen Xiaorou looked at Zhan Zhao, then raised her hand to cover her mouth and mimicked the famous line from Star Wars: "I am your father!"

Zhan Zhao stared at her, seeming to grasp what she meant. "You think... the culprit is not necessarily a man?"

Bai Yutang frowned too and glanced into the rearview mirror.

Wen Xiaorou pointed at herself. "I'm also one seventy-five, with platform shoes, I'm one eighty. How much does a middle school girl weigh? All the victims were on the slim side, an adult woman could've moved them just fine."

Zhan Zhao asked Wen Xiaorou, "Why do you suspect the killer might be a woman?"

"Two reasons," Wen Xiaorou replied. "First, Zhu Yi mentioned the attacker had a small head. At the same height, a woman's head tends to appear smaller."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded. "And the second?"

"The voice."

"The voice?"

"Mhmm." Wen Xiaorou raised her hand, miming the action of gripping something and thrusting it towards her own jaw. "To feel stubble, the strike couldn't have landed at the back, it had to be at the front... I mean, if a broken CD was jabbed into the front of the neck, the killer should've been gushing blood, yet they still managed to cry out twice, which suggests the windpipe and arteries weren't hit. So what rough surface did she touch? Could the attacker have been wearing a head covering?"

"A head covering..." Zhan Zhao seemed to be thinking about something.

"The tunnel was completely dark, wasn't it? Why would someone wear a head covering in the dark?" Wen Xiaorou felt like every detail was somehow off.

At that moment, Bai Yutang, who was driving, suddenly said, "Zhu Yi witnessed her landlord escaping, and the landlord was wearing one of those instant noodle alien headpieces... I already thought that was odd."

Zhan Zhao frowned. "The instant noodle alien wasn't even around at the time, was it?"

Bai Yutang nodded. "But could there be a connection? And what are the odds she just happened to be living in that exact landlord couple's house?"

Zhan Zhao sighed, this case really was strange...

Just then, his phone rang. He picked it up and glanced at the screen, it was Big Brother Bai calling.

"Big Brother..." Zhan Zhao answered, only to be met with a backdrop of chaotic noise. He was puzzled. "Hello?"

"Mhmm," came Bai Jintang's voice, sounding distinctly irritated.

"Big Brother?" Zhan Zhao asked, confused, and was just about to ask where he was.

Then he heard Bai Jintang ask, "Whose bright idea was it to let those three enter the contest? Bai Ye's one thing, but what the hell are the other two?!"

Zhan Zhao was still puzzled when a loud boom came through the phone.

Zhan Zhao was shocked. "No way... did they really blow up the kitchen?"

"Bring ten fire extinguishers home with you!" Big Brother Bai sighed. "Isn't cooking oil supposed to be non-flammable?! How the hell did the fire start?! The pot Yutang bought before has a hole melted through it! Now the whole place reeks of chemicals..."

Zhan Zhao hurriedly waved at Bai Yutang, meaning – Get home quickly!

‿︵‿︵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 14, 2025 by Angel

Edited: September 17, 2025 by Soojin