S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 83

The Culinary Murderer 35 – Remember

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After a full night of hellish cramming, Eleven and Issel were completely transformed.

In the morning, Bai Yutang sent the two of them to Bai Ye's house when he went to work. After Bai Ye signed for them, Bai Yutang took Zhan Zhao back to the bureau to work.

Uncle Ye gestured for Eleven and Issel to catch up on some sleep first, they'd be doing a rehearsal later, and if they didn't meet the standard, he'd be returning them to Bai Yutang for more tutoring that night.

But Issel and Eleven were full of confidence, assuring Uncle Ye there was no need to worry. Not only did they now possess common sense, they had principles, and from now on, they would support healthy eating!

Just as they finished speaking, they entered the house only to see Mia holding a bottle of maple syrup and drizzling it all over her breakfast pancakes, layer after layer.

Issel quickly took the bottle away, shaking his head while holding the plate, indicating that the muffin was too unhealthy... Then he handed a banana to Mia and took away her vanilla ice cream.

Mia's eyes widened, and she stared blankly for thirty seconds as she watched her dad hand her a new sugar-free muffin, telling her to eat it with a banana and yoghurt. Is the yoghurt sugar-free? Buy a sugar-free brand next time!

The banana slipped from Mia's fingers – Dad's broken! Where's the dad who used to buy me chocolate ice cream for dinner?!

Zhao Jue watched in confusion as Eleven opened the fridge to look for apples and earnestly declared that apples could only be eaten in the morning from now on.

Uncle Ye suddenly realised – Bai Yutang, there's something!

......

After parking the car at the bureau, Bai Yutang yawned and rubbed the back of his neck.

Zhan Zhao glanced at the sleep-deprived Bai Yutang with concern. "If you're tired, go lie down in the break room for a bit. There's not much going on this morning, just a meeting with the economic crimes division at ten-thirty."

Bai Yutang waved him off, indicating – It's okay, I actually took a nap last night. Uncle Chopsticks and Issel were mostly improvising.

Zhan Zhao teased him, "How was it? Do you feel a sense of accomplishment?"

Bai Yutang sighed helplessly. "Yes, the kind of accomplishment you feel when you release an evil dragon and open Pandora's box!"

Zhan Zhao couldn't help but laugh as he pushed him out of the car, saying they could watch their rehearsal in the afternoon after the meeting. It felt like these two would be re-educated by Uncle Ye again.

Bai Yutang thought to himself that, as satisfying as it might be to watch Uncle Ye beat the pair of them down, he really hoped they wouldn't end up dragging him down. They had to win that prize money!

......

Once they arrived at the office, everyone was already there. Jiang Ping had prepared a set of discreet recording and monitoring equipment, which Uncle Ye and the new chef duo would be wearing later on.

Bai Chi had just gone upstairs to fetch a pile of documents and handed them to Zhan Zhao, saying they'd be needed for the meeting later.

Zhan Zhao was a little speechless. Why did the economic crimes division need more paperwork for a meeting than he ever did for his editorial meetings? Wasn't everything supposed to be paperless these days? Not environmentally friendly at all!

It was another busy day in the forensic room. Gongsun had to examine the dismembered corpse from the murder case, as well as the body of Guan Xiaohong, who had "accidentally" died in the hospital.

That pair, Guan Mei and Guan Xiaohong, had names that perfectly mirrored those of another mother and daughter duo. Whether that was connected to the case remained to be seen.

In addition, there were also the bodies of the fake landlord couple, the remains dug up from the landlord's house... and Zhang Wei, who had fallen from a building.

At this point, the forensic room's freezers were completely full.

Given the high number of identity swaps and identical names in this case, Gongsun's top priority was to confirm the identities of all the bodies.

Ma Xin and Xia Tian wheeled out several machines from the storage room, clearly ready for a serious day's work.

......

Meanwhile, Ma Han and Zhao Hu had traced the origin of the anchor.

Thanks to a reminder from Uncle Ye earlier, the team had already learned about the connection between the production date of the anchor and the font of the lettering. Following up on that, they discovered the anchor had been manufactured by a ship anchor company, but it wasn't sold individually. According to the factory, that particular model of anchor had been specifically designed to accompany a yacht, meaning it was only available to yacht buyers. This yacht had been custom-made by a yacht association for its senior members, only ten were produced in total. Among those ten senior members, a familiar name appeared once more before their eyes – Shi Yanshuo.

The yacht was purchased five years ago, but the time of death for the skeletal remains was twelve years ago... In other words, it had clearly been a case of secondary body disposal.

Even if the victim had been killed by Shi Yanshuo, and even if a second disposal had been necessary, surely he wouldn't be foolish enough to use a yacht anchor that could easily be traced back to himself... So had done it?

The person who dumped the body likely had one of two goals: the suitcase and the anchor pointed investigators to Shi Yanshuo's mother, Wang Zhen, and to Shi Yanshuo himself. That suggested it was either a framing attempt... or a deliberate clue left for the police.

The remains suspected to be Guan Xiaohong's, along with Tan Wen's student ID... On the surface, it looked like Tan Wen's disappearance case from back then was tied to Shi Yanshuo and his mother. But looking deeper, did the person who dumped the body really believe the police wouldn't uncover the victim's true identity? That they'd assume the deceased was Tan Wen based solely on a student card?

Another point of suspicion was the student ID card.

The student ID card had indeed faded as a result of prolonged submersion in water, but that still left many possible relationships between the card and the corpse.

The key was to determine exactly when the anchor from Shi Yanshuo's yacht had gone missing. This timing was crucial, and it had to be confirmed by Shi Yanshuo himself.

In fact, with so much evidence already pointing to Shi Yanshuo and his mother, they could bring the two in for questioning at the bureau. That would also give them a chance to check whether Shi Yanshuo had any injuries on his neck.

The challenge now, however, lay in the fact that Bao Sir had ordered SCI to cooperate with the economic crimes division and not to interfere.

In other words, unless they could find concrete evidence that Shi Yanshuo had committed murder, SCI wasn't allowed to approach him.

Everyone felt frustrated at being unable to act despite having a direction, especially Zhan Zhao, who was so anxious he kept bouncing his leg. When the wedding day came, they couldn't probe too obviously either, if they were discovered and ended up jeopardising the economic crimes division's case, Bao Sir would surely give them a merciless scolding.

......

Fortunately, at that moment, Jiang Ping had found a lead. "Boss... I used that canning factory for location targeting and checked nearby takeaways. Guess what..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both turned to look at him.

"There's a place called Taotao Café near the canning factory," Jiang Ping said. "That street's part of an old commercial area, with shops that have been run by long-time locals for over ten or twenty years."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang leaned in for a look. "Is that the café that helped Zhu Yi call the police when she escaped all those years ago?"

"Maybe," Jiang Ping pulled up a picture of the shopfront from a food delivery platform.

The café wasn't very big, and there really were steps outside the door...

Zhan Zhao sent the photo to Zhu Yi and asked her if it was the right shop.

Zhu Yi seemed to study it for a while before replying, "The front seems to have been renovated, but the steps and entrance look familiar. I remember there was a clothing shop next door, and there was a black mannequin in the display window."

Bai Yutang had Jiang Ping check on street view, and indeed, the café was next to a clothing shop, an old sportswear brand, with a mannequin in the window, and the layout matched Zhu Yi's memory quite closely.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt it was worth investigating. If the killer had been seriously injured back then, it would've been difficult for him to emerge from that "tunnel" without drawing attention. Maybe one of the shopkeepers along the street had seen him. At the same time, they could confirm whether that canning factory had indeed been the scene of the crime.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhu Yi if she'd be willing to come along since they might have found the scene of the crime.

Zhu Yi said yes.

Zhan Zhao was quite thoughtful. Worried that Zhu Yi might experience a stress reaction, he asked Wen Xiaorou if she'd like to come too.

Wen Xiaorou, having been placed on mandatory leave by Bao Sir because she'd been tailed, was barred from returning to work until the danger was deemed over, so she'd been napping away in the SWAT dorms. As soon as she heard Zhan Zhao mention investigating a case, she thought it sounded far more interesting than sleeping and came running over to the SCI office.

Then, when she heard Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had arranged for undercover agents to investigate Fang Beibei, she was even more intrigued and decided she'd be staying with SCI for the next few days.

Ma Han, Zhao Hu, Luo Tian and Qin Ou didn't have much to do either, so they all decided to get in the car to go together, which also gave Bai Yutang a chance to catch up on some sleep during the ride.

They picked up Zhu Yi and drove to a parking lot near the old commercial street. Everyone got out and walked into the street on foot.

Memory was a strange thing, sometimes, all it took was a familiar scene to bring everything flooding back.

As Zhu Yi looked at the street ahead, it was as if she could see herself from all those years ago, running madly through the night, dressed in her school uniform, and covered in blood. Even after all these years, she could still feel that suffocating sense of panic.

They walked up to the entrance of the café.

As luck would have it, a plump auntie happened to be coming out just then, carrying a bag of used coffee grounds... She'd just got through her busiest time that morning and was tidying up the shop.

She looked up and saw several people standing at the door, so she asked, "Dine in or takeaway?"

Zhan Zhao said they'd eat in.

Smiling warmly, the auntie invited them all inside to take a seat.

Everyone ordered their preferred coffee. Bai Yutang asked for a latte, which made Ma Han and Zhao Hu glance at him in confusion – Captain, you're not on the unsweetened black Americano team today?

Bai Yutang said he'd drunk black coffee all night and wanted a latte, what was wrong with that?

Wen Xiaorou went over to the glass display at the counter, had a good look, and bought a slice of cheesecake.

But once the cake was brought over, everyone said they wanted a bite, so the auntie brought them a whole one instead.

While they were waiting for their coffee, Zhan Zhao asked Zhu Yi, "Is this the place?"

Zhu Yi nodded. It was, she remembered this auntie in particular, she'd put on a bit of weight since then, but even her hairstyle hadn't changed.

Zhan Zhao pulled out his tablet and checked it. "Then that pretty much confirms the canning factory as the scene."

Zhan Zhao looked up and noticed that while the auntie was making coffee, she glanced at Zhu Yi several times, seemingly trying to confirm something.

Zhan Zhao touched his chin, feeling a bit puzzled... After so long, could the auntie still remember Zhu Yi? Was her memory really that good? After all, she must meet lots of people every day.

Just then, the coffee was ready. The auntie brought the tray over and was handing out the coffees. Suddenly, Zhan Zhao pointed at Zhu Yi and asked her, "Auntie, do you still remember her?"

Zhu Yi was taken aback and looked up. The auntie also paused for a moment, then immediately clapped her hands and said, "Ah! So it really is you!"

Zhu Yi was surprised too, pointing at herself, "Auntie, you still remember me?"

"How could I not remember!" The auntie laughed. "Your parents came looking for me not long ago"

Everyone from SCI was stunned. Zhu Yi was also stunned. "My... my parents?"

"Yes," the auntie sat down on a nearby chair and explained, "They said you barely remembered anything from back then, but luckily, your memory has been coming back these past few years, and they're looking for clues to help you piece it together. At first, I couldn't remember what you looked like, but then they showed me photos of you as a child and grown up, and I finally remembered. When you came in just now, you looked familiar!"

Zhu Yi looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang with a confused expression.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment, then suddenly took out his phone, pulled up a photo of the fake landlord couple, and showed it to the auntie, asking, "Was it these two?"

The auntie took the phone, glanced at it, frowned slightly, and nodded, "Yes, it's these two. They look a bit younger in person than in the photo... and they dressed a bit more fashionably too."

The auntie seemed to sense something was off. She looked around and asked, "Who are you people?"

Bai Yutang took out his ID and showed it to her.

Zhan Zhao, very interested, rested his chin on his hand and asked the auntie, "Has anyone else come asking you about this before?"

"Oh... a few years ago, a police officer came by," the auntie said.

"A police officer?"

"The officer who came when the case was first reported. He asked a lot of questions and was very thorough, so I remember him." The auntie then went to fetch a cardholder, flipped through it, found a business card, and handed it to Bai Yutang. "He also left me a phone number and said if the girl came back or if anyone else came asking about the case, to let him know."

‿︵‿︵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 16, 2025 by Angel

Edited: September 24, 2025 by Soojin