S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 104

The Culinary Murderer 56 – Unexpected Discovery

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Guan Mei told the SCI members how Guan Xiaohong and Tan Wen had escaped danger back then, and the SCI members all frowned as they listened.

First of all, could Tan Wen and Guan Xiaohong's killings count as self-defence? It should, after all, have been a life-or-death situation. If they hadn't killed the other person, they would have been killed. It fell under exceptional circumstances.

Of course, guilt or innocence wasn't for them to decide. The case would inevitably go to court, where the judge would have the final say.

"Why didn't they call the police?" What Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang couldn't understand was this point, especially since Tan Wen could have easily proved that her parents were impostors...

"I actually argued with Su Hai about reporting it to the police back then," Guan Mei said. "But before we could quarrel for long, I got a call about the vice principal's suicide."

"So he didn't commit suicide?" Gongsun found this suspicious. "Who called you?"

"It was the police officer who was assigned to search for Wen Wen back then." Guan Mei sighed.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both felt that something seemed off with the process and looked over at Gongsun.

Gongsun stroked his chin and pressed further, "That police officer called you and directly said the vice principal had committed suicide?"

Guan Mei nodded.

"That's not right..." Gongsun frowned. "The vice principal died in the middle of the night, and you got the news at midnight. Shouldn't a forensic doctor have performed an autopsy first before declaring it a suicide? How could it have been announced as suicide straight away and notify you so quickly..."

"And the school security guard clearly said he saw a figure in a yellow raincoat. That means we can't rule out homicide." Bai Yutang began to have his own thoughts – Could it be that the police officer responsible for investigating the missing-person case back then had been problematic? Logically, that shouldn't be possible... that case had received so much media attention...

"You're right," Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment. "The public opinion at the time really had shifted because of the vice principal's suicide. Then came the backlash against Teacher Guan, and afterwards..."

Guan Mei nodded. "Exactly, and there were even people threatening Xiaohong."

"Those people are extremely cautious," Guan Mei continued. "Normally, if a replacement failed, they would vanish without a trace, never to be seen again. And Su Hai said they rarely act on such a large scale as a group. Usually, in one place, they would only replace one child, otherwise, it would easily arouse suspicion. But they seemed to be fixated on S City. Su Hai tracked and investigated them for years and found that S City seemed to have something or someone that interested them. For our safety, I needed to move Xiaohong elsewhere, but relocating and starting a new life required time to prepare. On top of that, Wen Wen wanted to investigate the murderer of her parents and refused to leave S City, so we delayed for a while. That was why later on Xiaohong ended up being kidnapped..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both understood now, so that had been the timeline.

"At first, I thought it had been that group who kidnapped Xiaohong, and I was so frightened that I contacted Su Hai. But Su Hai said he'd been watching them closely this whole time and that they hadn't acted recently. Besides, Xiaohong's substitute was already dead, so what use would it have been to kidnap Xiaohong?" Guan Mei sighed. "Thankfully, not long after she disappeared, Xiaohong managed to escape and return on her own. Although her neck was injured, she was otherwise unharmed..."

After she finished, everyone thanked Zhu Yi again, but Zhu Yi hurriedly waved her hands. "No, no... Heaven has eyes."

"But it was precisely because of that incident that Su Hai began to pay attention to Shi Yanshuo's family. Once he investigated, he discovered the purpose that group had in S City."

"The generation of Wang Zhen, Shi Yanshuo's mother, started their business by smuggling under the guise of fishing. Although they appeared to be in the fishery business, how could fishing alone have amassed such wealth? It was only a front. They maintained a large fleet of ships, smuggling and laundering money for three or four generations. At the same time, after so many years of treasure-hunting at sea, they had obtained quite a number of valuable items," Guan Mei explained. "They should have had something that group wants."

"Is it the statue of the Siren's Wing?" Bai Yutang asked. "Are there treasures inside?"

Guan Mei smiled faintly. "You really have found out quite a bit."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both chuckled – The external support is strong, and talent is plentiful in this area.

But Guan Mei shook her head. "Money, truly didn't matter. There are things far more useful than money."

Guan Xiaohong took out that triangular stone. It was exactly the right size to fit in her palm.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang reckoned this must have been the weapon used by the attackers back then.

"Is this the triangle from Phoebe's Triangle?" Bai Yutang asked.

"This thing is incredibly mysterious," Guan Mei demonstrated to everyone. "Although its legend claimed it was used to predict disasters and such, in reality, it was a murder weapon."

"It's a weapon in itself?" Gongsun had always been puzzled as to why the murderers would choose this triangle as a weapon. The wounds it caused were very distinctive, almost recognisable at a glance. And in practice, it wasn't very handy to use, op awkward to hold...

"This thing comes in different sizes, depending on the size of a person's hand. The perfect size is one that fits exactly in the palm, not too big and not too small. So, children's versions would be smaller, while adults' would be larger. The victim's build has to be similar to the attacker's, and then, if it's brought down on the same spot on the head, the fatality rate is extremely high and the wound leaves no blood... But if the blow fails to kill, or if the attacker's build doesn't match the victim's, then no matter the angle, as long as it strikes right at the back of the head, even if the victim doesn't die, they will have no memory of being attacked, and retrograde amnesia will develop."

After Guan Mei finished explaining, both Gongsun and Zhan Zhao became deeply interested in that stone. Could it really be so mystical?

"At sea, there are many strange legends. Many ships would carry odd ornaments. To outsiders, they seemed to be charms for warding off evil. But in reality, those were all specialised lethal weapons."

It was the first time the SCI members had ever heard such a theory. "Specialised lethal weapons?"

"All of them were designed to strike the head. After the head sustains trauma, people will undergo strange changes, it's more effective than curses. Losing memory, hallucinations, even altering memories, altering personality... all sorts of effects can be achieved by using special implements to inflict head injuries."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned, but before they could ask further questions, Bai Ye suddenly spoke. "So the injuries are deliberately inflicted, and there are matching sets of weapons?"

Guan Mei nodded. "Yes! According to legend, the method had been devised by a cook who was responsible for preparing food on a pirate ship. Before that, the cook had been a surgeon..."

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both thought of Bobby. Could it be him?

But Gongsun shook his head. It didn't sound like Bobby's style, after all, Bobby was a doctor. This felt more like a killer...

"It wasn't Bobby." Bai Ye's expression suddenly grew solemn.

Everyone turned to him. "Not Bobby? Then who was it? Uncle Ye, you know?"

......

"The First Generation..."

In the hospital, several neurosurgeons gathered to study the condition of the three patients. All three were out of immediate danger, but they had all developed the same strange lesion: retrograde amnesia.

Zhao Jue sat on a chair outside the ward, leafing through Bobby's notes that Lan Qi had brought. Mia was beside him, playing with the baby.

After finishing the notes, Zhao Jue went on to skim a section of Bobby's diary.

Bobby had left behind extensive written records; some were professional medical research notes, others were cryptic diaries. Aside from his unusual mental state, Bobby had also used a form of cypher to record certain important matters.

Among them was an account of Bobby's experience serving as a ship's doctor after his prison escape. These passages were extremely disorganised, Bobby combined text with coordinates, encrypting them according to compass directions. Reading them was immensely taxing, though that depended on who was reading.

Most people couldn't decipher them, and even clever people would find them laborious. To Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao, they simply thought that Bobby was rather mischievous.

Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao had both read these records before, but hadn't been particularly interested, as the subject matter wasn't their field.

However, after seeing the condition of the three rescued girls, Zhao Jue suddenly recalled something. Revisiting the notes with this in mind, he reached his own conclusion, "The First Generation!"

Lan Qi and Mia both glanced at Zhao Jue. Lan Qi clearly didn't understand, while Mia seemed to half-understand, but she recognised the expression on Zhao Jue's face, it was the look he wore when he had uncovered something extraordinary.

......

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang listened to the answer Bai Ye gave: "The First Generation."

"The First Generation?!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were especially alert to this kind of matter, and they both turned their attention to Bai Ye.

"The First Generation doesn't refer to a specific generation, but rather was a collective term for a type of research," Bai Ye explained. "In the early days of the organisation, the methods were quite unconventional. Fields like psychology came into play much later... Where does human beings' wildest imagination originate?"

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment. "Legends?"

Bai Ye nodded. "The very first branch of research the organisation phased out was an institute dedicated to collecting all sorts of related legends. You know, the wildly outlandish ones, immortality, mind control..."

Zhan Zhao scratched his head. "I don't recall seeing any records about this branch of the First Generation in the material Zhao Jue gave me..."

"Because they were too absurd, so he never bothered researching them." Bai Ye shook his head. "But even sifting for gold in the sand, however far-fetched the legends, if you collect enough of them, some contain grains of truth. Among the wild tales, two categories held a shred of plausibility: one concerned neurology, the other cranial trauma. Put simply, internal medicine and surgery."

"Hmm..." Gongsun found this somewhat plausible. "To be fair, it's not entirely out of the question. With internal medicine, manipulating endocrine functions can indeed alter a person's emotions, though achieving precise control is difficult. As for trauma, that would just be the kind of crude procedures from early medicine..."

"That was part of the organisation's embryonic phase of research, long since eliminated." Bai Ye studied the triangular object. "But this seems like the kind of thing that the First Generation would have been interested in..."

"So those people and Shi Yanshuo both use this method?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao felt uneasy. Zhu Yi was another example, she had narrowly escaped with her life and then developed retrograde amnesia. The girls Shi Yanshuo had kidnapped should be in the same situation. That was troublesome, there would be no witnesses...

Gongsun picked up the mask Guan Xiaohong had produced earlier, now sealed in an evidence bag. "We might be able to extract Shi Yanshuo's biological information from this."

Bai Yutang frowned – Just this little bit of evidence wouldn't be enough!

"Besides this triangle, you mean there are other murder weapons capable of controlling the human brain and behaviour?" Gongsun and Zhan Zhao began leafing through the photos of artworks provided by Fei Mu, searching for ones that might serve as murder weapons.

"But what does this have to do with the wedding the day after tomorrow?" Bai Yutang asked Guan Mei. "What do these two groups want to get from each other by having this wedding?"

‿︵‿︵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