S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 103

The Culinary Murderer 55 – Hunt

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Shi Yanshuo and Yu Hui both clearly had shady backgrounds.

Shi Yanshuo was suspected of being a pervert, and Yu Hui had killed after being a pirate and taken another's place. The pirates had set their eyes on Shi Yanshuo, perhaps for the treasure hidden inside the Siren's Wing statue? But why insist on marriage?

Bai Yutang thought that with the abilities of this group of pirates, stealing or robbing would have been far easier than marriage, wouldn't it? Besides, Shi Yanshuo must have noticed something...

Zhan Zhao's speculation, however, was that Shi Yanshuo and his mother might have noticed the scar on Yu Hui's shoulder and wanted to use her as a scapegoat, shifting the blame for the case back then onto her.

But this plan seemed to exist only in theory; in practice, it should be very difficult to pull off.

Everyone had no choice but to look at Guan Mei, asking her for a detailed analysis.

Guan Mei agreed to recount the events of that year.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao didn't bother going to the interrogation room, instead, they let her sit in the office and recount it to everyone there.

......

Back then, because Tan Wen could not be found, the school had been under great pressure, especially her form teacher Guan Mei and the vice principal responsible for the search. Rumours were rampant, all blaming their negligence for the girl disappearing without a trace.

Because Guan Mei herself also had a daughter, she could especially empathise with the grief of Tan Wen's parents, and so she always paid attention to their emotions.

Tan Wen's parents closed down their business to search for their daughter full-time, proving how much they valued her safety. Yet strangely, Guan Mei felt that they did not understand their daughter at all, which was highly unusual.

Guan Mei began to harbour doubts, so she mentioned it to the vice principal – the one who later committed suicide.

Public opinion of the vice principal was extremely negative, as everyone blamed his irresponsibility for Tan Wen's death.

But as someone directly involved, Guan Mei knew the vice principal rather well. Although he was very strict with students, he was not the kind of bad teacher who shirked responsibility. There were many reasons why he returned to the school first, the main one being that many students said they had seen Tan Wen in a yellow raincoat, sitting at the bus stop waiting for a bus!

After Tan Wen disappeared, the vice principal was consumed with guilt. He and Guan Mei were the only two people who had direct contact with Tan Wen's parents, and the vice principal also had sensed that something was terribly wrong.

He instructed Guan Mei to go with Tan Wen's parents to search, while he came up with a plan of his own, sneaking into Tan Wen's family's noodle shop to investigate.

At the time, the two of them thought that these parents were somewhat suspicious. Although it's said that even a tiger would not eat its cubs, they couldn't rule out the possibility of such inhuman parents harming their own child and then pretending to be the victims.

Guan Mei tried her best to keep Tan Wen's parents occupied, while also worrying about the vice principal.

It wasn't until evening that Guan Mei suddenly received a photo from the vice principal. It was a family portrait featuring Tan Wen holding an adorable little boy, who should have been her younger brother. Behind her stood a couple who appeared to be her parents. The photo was likely taken at their family's old noodle shop.

The problem was... Guan Mei realised that these parents were not the same couple she was in contact with. In other words... those two weren't the real parents of the murdered child, but impostors pretending to be her parents!

The sheer volume of information overwhelmed Guan Mei. She forced herself to remain calm and not give herself away, waiting to discuss privately with the vice principal later, and ideally report it to the police.

But the vice principal never contacted her again, and her calls went unanswered. She had no choice but to delay until evening before heading home.

As soon as she got home, she noticed something was wrong.

The moment she opened the door, a strong smell of blood hit her. On the floor in the entranceway, there was even a large pool of blood.

Guan Mei's head buzzed. These past few days, she'd been searching for Tan Wen. Her daughter had been the sensible one, telling her to go and search for the student and not to worry about her. But now... as a single mother, her daughter was Guan Mei's whole life. She frantically rushed into the rooms to search, but apart from the blood on the floor, there was no trace of her daughter.

Just as she was about to call the police, the door suddenly opened, and three people entered, or rather, four.

Guan Mei stared in horror at her daughter, at Tan Wen, and at the tall man behind them. The man was holding a child who appeared to be injured.

Completely overwhelmed, Guan Mei stammered incoherently. On the one hand, she was overjoyed that her daughter was safe and thrilled that Tan Wen had been found. But at the same time, she was bewildered by the blood on the floor. What on earth had happened?! And... who was this man who had come back with them?

While Guan Mei was still reeling, the man had already placed the boy on the sofa, then turned to the window, standing watch there, his manner very cautious.

Guan Mei looked at her daughter and at Tan Wen, and asked, "What on earth... is going on?"

Guan Xiaohong pointed at the man and said, "This is Su Hai, he saved us."

"Oh..." As a well-mannered educator, Guan Mei, upon hearing her daughter say so, did not think of anything else but first expressed her thanks to him.

However, Su Hai appeared extremely aloof. He only nodded at her and continued gazing out of the window.

From his movements and expression, Guan Mei could tell he was probably not an ordinary person, but she set that aside for now, because her attention was drawn to the boy.

Tan Wen was crouching by the sofa, looking anxiously at the boy's condition. His head was wrapped in thick bandages, and there was blood on his face. He looked badly injured.

"Shouldn't we take him to the hospital?" Guan Mei asked anxiously.

"We can't!" Tan Wen jerked her head up, and Guan Xiaohong shook her head vigorously too, twisting her fingers anxiously, her expression visibly anxious.

Only then did Guan Mei notice her daughter's hands were red, covered in dried bloodstains.

"You're hurt?" Guan Mei quickly pulled her precious daughter over to check and found that her arms and head were scraped, with bruises on her neck and arms as well, as though she had been in a fight. From a young age, Guan Xiaohong had always been obedient and sensible. Guan Mei had never seen her quarrel with anyone, let alone fight.

Just as the scene descended into chaos, Su Hai, who was standing by the window, spoke up.

His demeanour was remarkably calm, his tone matter-of-fact as he explained what had happened to Guan Mei.

The girl in the raincoat that the students had seen that day wasn't actually Tan Wen, but a girl who looked very much like her. That girl was about the same age as Tan Wen, but had been trained since childhood in ways no ordinary child would be, and her combat ability was extremely high.

The girl was about the same age as Tan Wen, but she had received all kinds of training since childhood, training that ordinary children wouldn't receive, making her exceptionally skilled in combat.

At the bus stop, she had pretended to be going home early and had been seen by the other students. Afterwards, she took off the raincoat and took a side path back up the mountain, arriving at a cave entrance.

Inside that cave lay an unconscious girl, Tan Wen.

Earlier at the planetarium, Tan Wen had run into Fang Beibei. Fang Beibei thought her appearance strange and asked her, "Huh? I just saw you down at the bottom of the mountain, didn't you go home?"

Tan Wen immediately realised her family might be in danger, and hurriedly slipped away from the group to go down the mountain. Halfway down, she was knocked unconscious. When she woke up, she found herself lying at the entrance of a cave. At the entrance of the cave stood a girl who looked strikingly like her, and whose clothes, hairstyle and appearance were exactly the same as hers. She was looking at Tan Wen with her head tilted, and she was holding a triangular, stone-like black object in her hand.

Tan Wen sat up.

The girl raised her hand and tossed a stick to her.

Tan Wen held the stick, somewhat puzzled.

"Only one of us can live today. If you kill me, then you can continue to be Tan Wen. If I kill you, from now on I will be Tan Wen." The girl smiled, her gaze fixed on Tan Wen. It was a look a girl of that age absolutely should not possess. Tan Wen felt as if she were the prey and the girl the hunter, and this was the moment she was to be hunted down.

"Better move quickly..." The girl suddenly reminded her with a wicked grin, "If you're too slow, your younger brother will become someone else too..."

The girl chuckled triumphantly, but she did not notice that the moment she mentioned Tan Wen's younger brother, Tan Wen's gaze had already hardened.

In fact, a few days earlier, Tan Wen had noticed someone following her. And inside her backpack, someone had slipped a note which read – Someone wants to replace you. When necessary, kill those who threaten you, otherwise, you'll be killed!

Most people might dismiss such a note as a prank, but Tan Wen had a nagging feeling that malicious eyes were watching her.

That's why she had gone to the jujitsu gym beforehand to learn self-defence from Coach Wen. Among the people she knew, Wen Xiaorou was the strongest, and Tan Wen had watched Wen Xiaorou's matches before. There were a few moves that had looked especially useful.

After learning them, Tan Wen practised relentlessly at home. Because she shared a room with her younger brother, he picked up a few moves by watching her.

In the end, the one who walked out of the cave alive was Tan Wen.

It proved that Coach Wen was really skilled. When Tan Wen asked him to teach her self-defence, Coach Wen had misunderstood, thinking Tan Wen had suffered school bullying and was being picked on by classmates. So the moves he taught her were all designed for confronting opponents of similar height and age.

Her attackers probably hadn't expected Tan Wen to have trained, let alone her unexpected moves. Combined with the warning on that note, she struck with particular ferocity. The moment she heard that her younger brother was also in danger, her temper flared. They were both girls of the same height and weight after all, why should she be afraid?

Injured and wanting to avoid attention, Tan Wen threw on the raincoat and sprinted home. But once she got home, she realised something was wrong. The two people moving about inside were not her parents.

While she was at a loss as to what to do, someone suddenly grabbed her from behind, covered her mouth, and dragged her into a car to hide.

Although Tan Wen was terrified, she was completely unable to resist. She only heard the person who had grabbed her whisper, "You can't go back. The murderers who killed your parents have taken over your home. Your younger brother is still alive."

The voice behind her was merciless and cold, yet it sounded so real, stating the facts word for word... When Tan Wen heard the first sentence, she knew she had already lost her parents. An overwhelming wave of grief washed over her, but before she could break down, the second sentence came: her younger brother was still alive. She couldn't collapse yet!

Tan Wen regained her composure in an instant.

The one who had saved her was Su Hai. He told her, "They have many people."

As he spoke, he took out a triangular stone.

"Ah..." Tan Wen recognised the stone. The girl who had attacked her earlier had tried to smash her head with it.

"This is their custom. When they seize an identity, the children must do the killing themselves. The hunt is a rite of passage." Su Hai gave her an address. "This girl is also one of the targets to be replaced. Someone should be going to kill her tonight. You've already killed one. This one, there are two of you, find a way to kill her. Your brother is still in surgery, but he is out of danger. However, his location has been exposed, and someone will go to kill him. I will go to save him now, and you go to save the girl. I will find you later!"

Tan Wen rushed to the address and rescued Guan Xiaohong.

The two girls joined forces and killed the fake Guan Xiaohong, using that very same stone she'd dropped on the ground.

After Su Hai's brief explanation, Guan Mei finally understood this matter of identity replacement, but she found it utterly unbelievable.

Guan Mei suggested reporting it to the police.

Su Hai, however, shook his head. "Those people are very well-informed. Whenever a replacement fails, they disappear quickly. If you call the police now, all you'll have are the bodies and the killers."

As he spoke, Su Hai pointed at Tan Wen and Guan Xiaohong. "They're highly professional. They have contingency plans for every possible accident. Taking them down won't be easy."

‿︵‿︵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: September 5, 2025 by Angel

Edited: October 31, 2025 by Angel