S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 100

The Culinary Murderer 52 – Three Misconceptions

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"What's the Siren's Wing?"

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue, sitting in the back, listened to Bai Ye and Wen Xiaorou chatting in the front seats, but they couldn't make much sense of what they were saying.

However, they had heard the term "Siren" from their uncle before! They had even looked it up, it was a sea monster. But back then, they hadn't been sure if they'd misheard it or what...

Bai Ye looked thoughtful. "No wonder there was a Dutchman, and an anchor..."

"Dutchman?"

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue exchanged a glance – They had heard of that too!

Bai Ye asked Wen Xiaorou with some interest, "You're so young, how did you know about the Siren's Wing?"

Wen Xiaorou smiled. "I have a friend..."

In the backseat, Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue immediately raised their heads to look – Here it comes! Pulling a friend out of thin air!

I don't know if they'd been tricked too often, but they look quite vigilant.

Bai Ye also glanced at Wen Xiaorou. It was an instinctive reaction, after spending so much time with Zhao Jue, he'd been tricked often enough that it had become a conditioned response... However, judging from Wen Xiaorou's demeanour, she didn't seem like someone who would make things up.

"When I'd just graduated and joined the SWAT team, I participated in a security operation. We were divided into two teams. My team protected a lady, and the other team guarded a collection of exhibits. Among them was a badly corroded and damaged statue, it was a woman who was half human and half fish, and she was not good-looking at all, she also had a pair of wings on her back."

"The Siren's Wing?" Bai Ye also recalled seeing that statue before. He asked Wen Xiaorou, "That friend you mentioned, does she have a birthmark here?"

Bai Ye pointed to the area above his left eyebrow.

Wen Xiaorou nodded. "About the size of a grain of rice, red."

Bai Ye nodded, clearly already knowing who she was referring to.

In the backseat, Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue were completely lost.

Guan Xiaoyue was a bit annoyed – These people, just because they are a few years older and have seen more, speak as if they are encrypting their words.

"I was originally assigned to provide close protection for that lady, but... one day she made me a very strange request. She said she'd observed me for a while and thought I might be able to help her."

Bai Ye nodded slightly, as though he understood the implication. Wen Xiaorou had practised Brazilian jiu-jitsu since she was a child, and her father, a coach, ran a jiu-jitsu gym. The people she was most familiar with were those involved in combat sports. Regardless of gender, age, or build, a person's traits were easiest to notice during combat practice. That was why she'd instantly spotted something wrong with Yu Hui earlier...

"She asked me to go and see if there was anything suspicious when the exhibition was being set up," Wen Xiaorou recalled the scene at the time. "When I arrived, I found that there was something wrong with one of the people decorating the venue. This person looked like a man from the outside, but I suspected it was a tall woman disguised as a man. As soon as I found her, she also realised that I had found her... Then she pretended to go get something and bolted."

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue listened intently. "Did you catch her, Sister?"

"Unfortunately not, but I did tear off a piece of her scalp."

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue instinctively touched their own heads – It sounds painful.

Bai Ye, however, picked up on something. "A wig?"

"Mm-hm!" Wen Xiaorou nodded. "The material of that wig was unusual, it felt prickly when I touched it. When I yanked hard, it also felt somewhat rubbery and a bit soft... I think I ripped it open, and saw this part exposed..."

As she spoke, Wen Xiaorou pointed to the back of her neck. "I saw half a tattoo, almost identical to the statue on display – a winged, extremely ugly mermaid."

Bai Ye thought for a moment. "So that's why you suspect the person who attacked Zhu Yi might be a woman?"

"I didn't think too much about it at first, but Zhu Yi mentioned that when she attacked the person in the dark with the CD, she felt something prickly... I don't know why, but it caught my attention, and I kept thinking about what happened back then. I've never felt that sensation again, and it's deeply etched in my memory..." Wen Xiaorou took out her phone, searched for information about Shi Yanshuo's wedding, and stared at Yu Hui's photo for a long time. "I shouldn't be wrong! This person does look a lot like Yu Hui, but she's not Yu Hui."

Bai Ye asked, "You mean Yu Hui is the woman you failed to catch in the museum back then?"

Wen Xiaorou nodded. "If you go by the timeline, the time I tore her wig was after Zhu Yi's kidnapping case. She didn't have a scar on her neck then, so she probably wasn't the one who kidnapped Zhu Yi. But she's definitely not Yu Hui. The scar on her shoulder now should have been caused by tattoo removal. But tattoo removal scars are usually closer to burns, not this kind of wound... So did she get this scar by accident, or was it intentional..."

"It must have been intentional," Bai Ye said. "Otherwise it wouldn't be so perfect."

"Sure enough..." Wen Xiaorou picked up her phone. "Should I tell Captain Bai and Dr Zhan?"

Bai Ye glanced at Bai Yutang, who was not far from the car and was talking to Xiaofei with a frown. He guessed that the other two missing girls had not been found yet.

"Just call Zhan Zhao directly." Bai Ye took out his own phone. Regarding the Siren's Wing, maybe he could ask Eleven.

......

Zhan Zhao received Wen Xiaorou's call. After listening to what she said, he froze in place.

After a long time, Zhan Zhao hung up the phone and patted his head, realising a serious oversight. From the moment they'd met Yu Hui, that scene, the atmosphere, and her self-introduction, they hadn't been very familiar with her to begin with. Then, with the Shi Yanshuo connection, he and Bai Yutang had never doubted Yu Hui's identity! They might have suspected her motives, but never suspected she might be an impostor!

"Oh my..." Zhan Zhao scratched his head and muttered to himself, "It's just like one of those 'It's me, it's me' scam calls! It's impossible to guard against..."

......

In the office, the others all glanced at him curiously – Scam calls?

"Check Yu Hui," Zhan Zhao nudged Jiang Ping.

"Yu Hui? Haven't we already checked her?" Jiang Ping pulled up Yu Hui's file.

"Find a photo of her from when she was a child," Zhan Zhao said. "Preferably a newspaper photo from a competition, not one you can find in her file."

Jiang Ping started searching for photos.

Because Yu Hui had participated in many competitions as a child, there were quite a few news images, though, how clear could newspaper photos be? And there was the problem of her transferring schools midway...

"Transferring midway..." Zhan Zhao took the printed competition photos along with all the ones he could find of Yu Hui as a child and as an adult, and asked Gongsun to compare them.

Gongsun took a magnifying glass and carefully studied the pictures side by side.

"Hmm..." Gongsun wasn't entirely sure either. "The school-age photos and the adult ones are clearly the same person, but the childhood swimming competition photo is too blurry. However, overall, they feel very similar..."

Zhan Zhao stared at the pictures in thought, then asked Gongsun, "If someone wanted to impersonate a person and live under their identity, would it be better to start when they were young?"

Gongsun looked at Zhan Zhao. "Well... there would definitely be fewer social ties than an adult, I suppose. For a child, most things are decided by their parents. Transfer them to another school, especially in another city, and their social circle would quickly be replaced..."

The others all nodded in agreement.

After hearing this, Zhan Zhao was silent for a while, but shook his head, "It's not up to the adults to decide, but the children."

Gongsun and the others were all a little confused, "The child decides?"

Zhan Zhao held up Yu Hui's childhood photo along with the newspaper one, then asked an apparently unrelated question: "Why Tan Wen?"

Everyone stared at Zhan Zhao. Although they knew him well and understood his tendency to jump to conclusions due to his intelligence, sometimes the words he suddenly said made it easy for people to doubt his mental state.

The other two geniuses in the police station, Gongsun and Fei Mu, also stared at Zhan Zhao in a daze. After a while, both furrowed their brows and suddenly went, "Oh..." before saying, "That's right, children..."

"What about children?" Big Brother Bai was probably hungry and wasn't following the conversation, busy eating his cake.

Zhan Zhao sighed. "The key is to find a child who looks the part. The parents or relatives don't matter, they're going to be replaced anyway."

Everyone was silent for a long time, thinking it over. The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it became...

Moreover, if one or several children needed new identities, where would you find the 'replacements' options, that is, children who looked like them?

Everyone looked shocked, their worldview shattered. "S... school?"

"That body in the box..." Zhan Zhao asked, "She looked a lot like Guan Xiaohong, didn't she?"

Gongsun nodded.

"But it wasn't Guan Xiaohong or Tan Wen, right?"

Gongsun nodded again.

A smile suddenly appeared on Zhan Zhao's face. "Another preconceived misconception. Why does the dead person have to be the victim?"

Everyone was confused – Isn't the murdered person the victim?

"Why couldn't it be the perpetrator?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"The perpetrator?"

"Guan Mei adopted Guan Xiaoyue, right? Guan Mei's own daughter, Guan Xiaohong, has never shown her face, and neither has Tan Wen..." Zhan Zhao asked, "Doesn't that make you think of something?"

Everyone shook their heads – What should they think of?

"Why is Guan Mei so low-profile? Guan Xiaoyue has been seeking revenge on Shi Yanshuo, but has never looked for his sister Tan Wen, and his sister's body has never been found!" Zhan Zhao asked continuously, "The only person who had contact with the Tan family back then was Teacher Guan..."

Everyone was on edge – So? Spit it out already!

"Whether it's Guan Xiaohong or Tan Wen, the two girls might not be dead!" Zhan Zhao pointed to the photos of the remains on the table, "This body may have been originally intended to replace Guan Xiaohong. And Tan Wen, didn't she specifically run to Coach Wen to learn self-defence? She must have discovered something! We are still missing some fragments in this process, but let's speculate..."

Zhan Zhao gestured at the photo. "Guan Mei resigned and stayed so low-profile, yet never went to the police... Could it be because the two girls killed this person?"

Everyone stared at Zhan Zhao in stunned silence. This leap of imagination...

"If Yu Hui is fake, then the real Yu Hui should have been replaced by the current Yu Hui, who then transferred to another school. The family's situation may be the same as that of Tan Wen's parents. Tan Wen's parents were killed, and her younger brother was seriously injured. At that time, the only one who could save the two siblings was Teacher Guan! Then Teacher Guan and her daughter should have been together with Tan Wen and her younger brother at that time! Under what circumstances would a girl who looks very similar to Guan Xiaohong die? And why was her body wearing Tan Wen's student ID?"

Everyone followed Zhan Zhao's train of thought, and the more they thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, though the information was still incomplete...

"And... I think Guan Mei must have had help," Zhan Zhao murmured. "That uncle who rescued the dog!"

......

"The Siren's Wing."

By now, Big Brother Bai had finished his cake, put down his plate, and said, "Shi Yanshuo owns one."

Everyone looked up at Bai Jintang. "Big Brother, you know that statue?"

Fei Mu quickly flipped through his notes. In the catalogue of Shi Yanshuo's collection he'd compiled, that statue wasn't listed at all. He hadn't even heard the name!

Everyone stared at Fei Mu in surprise – You didn't know? You've tailed him for three years like a paparazzi, haven't you?

Fei Mu looked confused. "That's not right..."

"That's right." Zhan Zhao nodded. "How long has Yu Hui even been around? They had a flash marriage!"

"Wait a second!" Big Brother Bai was confused. "So is that pervert actually Shi Yanshuo and his mother? Or his wife? Or someone else?"

Gongsun reached over and scratched Bai Jintang's chin, then popped a macaron into his mouth, urging him to eat more.

"So Shi Yanshuo can't be cleared of suspicion, right?" Bai Chi asked. "So many ex-girlfriends have accused him!"

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin and nodded. "Right, so many people have accused him... That's practically ironclad evidence. But what if that's yet another misconception?"

"If it's not, how could he be cleared?" Gongsun couldn't figure it out. "No matter how you look at it, Shi Yanshuo can't be cleared!"

"That's right," Zhan Zhao nodded again. "I can't figure it out either. We'll have to see what the rescued girls in the hospital say..."

......

At the hospital, Ma Han and Zhao Hu stood outside a ward with Mia, peeking down the corridor at Zhao Jue, who was on the phone.

At first, Zhao Jue didn't seem particularly irritable, he appeared to be calling someone to come to the hospital to help.

But whatever the person on the other end of the phone said made Zhao Jue very angry. It seemed that their conversation hadn't gone well. The person was unwilling to help and said something that angered Zhao Jue.

As Zhao Jue slammed the phone down, the elevator doors opened.

Lan Qi was carrying a baby carrier with a baby sitting on his chest, holding a bag of baby supplies in one hand and a briefcase in the other. He stepped out of the elevator and crossed paths with Zhao Jue in the corridor.

Lan Qi shook the briefcase, as if to say – My father-in-law's research notes.

The baby in the carrier saw his father raise his hand and raised his own in return, calling out to Zhao Jue, "Hi!"

Zhao Jue stared at the baby for a moment, then bent elegantly to pick up his phone, turned his head, and stormed off muttering curses.

The baby seemed to have inherited his grandfather's and mother's exceptionally high intelligence, learning to speak very quickly.

Lan Qi heard the baby open his mouth wide and mimic Zhao Jue's swearing. Horrified, he looked around to make sure the baby's mom wasn't nearby.

Mia shook her head with Ma Han and Zhao Hu, and glanced at Zhao Jue, who was walking back – How could you be like this, Master Zhao! Be careful in front of the baby!

Zhao Jue glanced back at Lan Qi, who was frantically teaching the baby not to swear. He originally wanted to make a sarcastic comment when he suddenly seemed to think of something, and muttered with a frown, "Even if he doesn't understand the meaning, he can still learn to say it..."

‿︵‿︵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: August 9, 2025 by Angel

Edited: October 24, 2025 by Angel