S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 97

The Culinary Murderer 49 – Dangerous Variables

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Fang Beibei had been ruthlessly dealt with by Big Brother Bai and, effectively in front of the whole world, confessed to poisoning, murder, and attempted murder.

The incident instantly dominated media headlines, and the food competition's popularity exploded.

The SCI team couldn't help but sigh – Not only has Big Brother Bai caught the murderer, but he's even brought evidence... and shown off his romance!

Zhan Zhao thought this new style of one-way mirror was excellent, their interrogation room was far too ordinary and should be upgraded!

Zhao Hu complained to Ma Han, "I used to think Big Brother had all his attention on Gongsun and never did anything serious, but turns out his power's just too overwhelming to use casually!"

Ma Han nodded in agreement. He really is impressive...

Everyone instinctively looked at young Bai Chi – You're the only white rabbit in the Bai family! A deviation in the bloodline?

Bai Chi was displeased – Who are you calling a little white rabbit?!

At that moment, Gongsun, the other half of the showy couple, came over holding two reports.

"Toxicology analysis report," Gongsun handed one of the reports to Bai Yutang. "The toxic substances found in the mochi and capsules matched those found in the bodies of Zhang Wei and Guan Xiaohong."

Bai Yutang held the report, pleasantly surprised. "Conclusive evidence..."

Gongsun nodded. "One murder and two attempted murders, she can't escape this, go search her house and her workshop... In any case, the poison was either made by her or given to her. If she made it, we'll find traces, if someone else gave it to her, we might just catch the mastermind."

Bai Yutang shook the document. "This is no petty crime, her only chance of surviving is to expose everyone else involved!"

Zhan Zhao also felt Big Brother had done them a great service this time.

"There's another one." Gongsun handed over another document. "Guan Xiaoyue's DNA report."

Everyone in the room looked up.

"Guan Xiaoyue's DNA is a perfect match with the DNA on the medal, Tan Wen's brother. Her fingerprints match too." Gongsun nodded. "Guan Xiaoyue is Tan Wen's younger brother."

Although they had more or less already guessed it, seeing the actual evidence still moved them.

Zhan Zhao couldn't figure it out. "Why was he adopted by Teacher Guan?"

"Could we..." Zhan Zhao nudged Bai Yutang. "ask Guan Xiaoyue?"

Of course Bai Yutang wanted to. The two looked at Fei Mu.

Fei Mu had witnessed the entire scene of Big Brother Bai capturing Fang Beibei. Although she wasn't part of his investigation, Fei Mu had been deeply shocked.

Seeing the two looking at him, Fei Mu spread his hands – Guan Xiaoyue's target is Shi Yanshuo. When Fang Beibei poisoned him just now, Shi Yanshuo was also present... Fang Beibei didn't seem to have a motive to kill Guan Xiaoyue. Shi Yanshuo's sudden appearance is very suspicious, so Guan Xiaoyue's safety is now a concern...

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at him for a long time, tilting their heads – So can we or can't we?

Fei Mu nodded – You can have a chat.

Zhan Zhao took out his phone and looked at Bai Yutang – Should we message Uncle Ye and ask him to try to get Guan Xiaoyue to meet up after dinner?

Bai Yutang thought it was a good idea.

......

At that moment, Bai Ye was walking through Shi Yanshuo's canning factory with Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue.

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin had just watched the livestream in the car and chatted all the way.

"Bloody hell..." Guan Xiaoyue patted his chest. "I used to speak ill of Big Brother Bai, I was so ignorant..."

Qian Lin looked at him with admiration. "Did you miss the key point? She tried to kill you!"

Guan Xiaoyue blinked and drew a sharp breath. "Right..."

Qian Lin was exasperated, but also curious. He asked Guan Xiaoyue, "What grudge do you have with her? Why would she want to kill you? It's a bit risky, isn't it? This time she pissed off Bai Jintang and got caught... otherwise, she might've tried to kill you again. Think about it, you're a judge, you have to eat whatever she gives you!"

Guan Xiaoyue nodded vigorously, pointing at Qian Lin and then at Bai Ye. "By that logic, you two are the same... taking my life wouldn't have been hard!"

Qian Lin grimaced. "I'm living a good life, why would I risk my life to save yours?"

Guan Xiaoyue turned to look at the silent Bai Ye.

But Bai Ye didn't seem interested in their chat. Once inside the cannery, he'd been observing the surroundings.

This cannery was half enclosed, half open, and fully mechanised. Aside from the "tight" security, they'd barely seen a single worker after they entered.

Bai Ye paid attention to the surveillance cameras covering nearly every corner and suddenly stopped.

When Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin saw him stop, they stopped too and turned to look at him.

Bai Ye looked at the two of them. "You two are obviously best friends, why are you pretending to be strangers?"

The sudden words stunned Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin.

Bai Ye took out his phone and glanced at it, only to find that he couldn't get any signal.

Bai Ye asked them, "You both really wanted to visit this cannery before, right?"

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue exchanged a look.

"You just couldn't find a good excuse, and Shi Yanshuo never agreed. But today, you used our supposed collaboration as a reason to visit, and he agreed, right?"

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin stared at Bai Ye, seemingly realising something was off.

As the three stood there, strange mechanical noises came from both the front and back. The noises were like the clicking of some kind of mechanical bearing.

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin turned in opposite directions toward the sounds.

Bai Ye looked around and walked toward a wall.

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin turned back and saw Bai Ye reach a building about two storeys high. He judged its height, then used a corner of the wall to leap up in a few steps and land on the roof.

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin stared up in shock, wondering how he did do that, it looked like special effects. Then, out of the corners of their eyes, they noticed something moving on both sides.

The two turned and both shouted, "Fuck!" They finally understood where the mechanical sound came from. Down both ends of the path came two lines of robotic dogs.

These mechanical dogs were like the four-legged robots commonly seen at tech exhibitions; no heads, just a flat panel on four legs, used to carry things.

Guan Xiaoyue had once wanted one to collect parcels. They looked cute at exhibitions, but now, they seemed terrifying...

Qian Lin saw a few of the mechanical dogs walking towards them and slapped Guan Xiaoyue. "What kind of sci-fi film are we in?!"

Guan Xiaoyue didn't think it was that sci-fi... they were just some delivery robots...

Before he could finish, a mechanical arm extended from each robot dog's back, leaned forward, locked into place, then began to spin with a harsh metallic friction sound. They were chainsaws.

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue were dumbfounded. After saying "fuck" a few more times, they realised, "Have the robots gone rogue? Is today the start of the human-machine war?"

From the rooftop, Bai Ye, who had a bird's-eye view of the surrounding situation, analysed the situation. "Isn't this factory for canning fish and meat? Large fish are flash-frozen and then mechanically handled and cut, these mechanical dogs must be customised for the cannery."

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue nodded blankly. "Is that so..."

Bai Ye nodded. "You two will become canned goods soon... I guess..."

The two exchanged a look and ran to the wall, shouting up, "Handsome guy, help us!"

Bai Ye noticed there was still no signal on the rooftop, there must be interference.

A large number of mechanical dogs were surrounding them, along with some driverless vehicles. The scene really did feel quite sci-fi.

But Bai Ye found it odd – Using all this to kill someone is over the top, it feels more like they are blocking the way...

Bai Ye crouched down and asked the two, "You two, where is the tunnel you are looking for?"

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue were stunned, then both pointed to a long factory building in the distance.

Bai Ye stood on the roof, looked toward the factory, and frowned thoughtfully.

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue saw him standing there in a daze. The chainsaw dogs had walked nearby but hadn't come closer, just paced in place.

......

In the SCI office, Zhan Zhao frowned at his phone. "Weird..."

Bai Yutang looked up. "What is it?"

"I sent two messages and both failed." Zhan Zhao frowned and tried calling Bai Ye, but the call wouldn't connect.

Bai Yutang stared at Zhan Zhao for a moment, then suddenly shouted, "Oh no!" He waved to Ma Han and Zhao Hu and rushed out.

The three of them disappeared in an instant. Xiao Bai Chi sensed something was wrong and asked Zhan Zhao what had happened.

Zhan Zhao signalled to Jiang Ping. "Alert the bomb squad and fire department."

Wen Xiaorou looked up too. "Bomb squad?"

"Not good!" Zhan Zhao muttered to himself, "I should've realised earlier..."

Everyone was confused and asked Zhan Zhao what was going on.

Zhan Zhao said, "From what we saw this morning, why is the security so tight for a cannery?"

"Because it's a suspected murder scene?" That had been everyone's assumption.

Zhan Zhao pointed at the table, where photos of Shi Yanshuo's ex-girlfriends were laid out. "The missing girls!"

Everyone suddenly understood. "Could they be locked up in the factory?"

Bai Chi thought about it and thought it was reasonable. "Right, no wonder the surveillance and security were so strict..."

"Shi Yanshuo probably monitored his ex-girlfriends. When we brought Xiao Ai and Nana in, he knew how far we'd gotten in the investigation, and that's why he suddenly went to Big Brother's food city. His main purpose was probably to get Fang Beibei to kill Guan Xiaoyue, he must have some handle on Fang Beibei. He probably also knows Guan Xiaoyue's identity."

"Fang Beibei failed to kill him..." Bai Chi also realised how serious the problem was, "and Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin just happened to visit his factory. If those missing girls are really inside..."

"Destroy the bodies and eliminate all traces!" Zhan Zhao opened and closed his hands, miming an explosion. "Take out Guan Xiaoyue and the whole factory, then claim it was an industrial accident that caused the explosion... He might not know where exactly the girls are held, but he's definitely got an escape plan. Once it's about to be exposed, he'll blow it all up. Probably won't even leave ashes."

Everyone looked at each other – That, it feels like there's no solution. The explosion must be remote-controlled. Uncle Ye, Guan Xiaoyue, and Qian Lin went to the factory together. Shi Yanshuo must be watching them. He'd blow them up too... Aren't they in danger?

"Not necessarily..." Zhao Jue spoke up at this time.

Zhan Zhao nodded. "If he wanted to blow it up, he would have done so long ago. There hasn't been any movement until now, unless..."

Zhao Jue checked his watch. "If there's going to be a turning point, it should be right about now..."

Just as Jiang Ping was curious about what the "turning point" was, he received a call from the criminal police team. Shi Yanshuo's mother, Wang Zhen, just reported that her son had been kidnapped. The kidnappers wanted her to bring ransom to the canning factory, or they'd throw him into a meat grinder.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue exchanged a glance – Here it comes!

Although Gongsun had been listening the whole time, he hadn't quite followed. Now he finally caught something and curiously asked Jiang Ping, "How much ransom did they ask for?"

Jiang Ping said, "Two hundred and fifty..."

Gongsun blinked. "Only two hundred and fifty thousand? That little? Shi Yanshuo's worth at least a few million."

Jiang Ping shook his head. "It's two hundred and fifty yuan... but they want Wang Zhen to deliver it in person."

Gongsun laughed. "Are they joking?"

Jiang Ping clicked on the photo of Wang Zhen sent by the kidnappers, which he received from the criminal police team. "Doesn't look like a joke..."

Zhan Zhao and Gongsun leaned over to look. It was a video, Shi Yanshuo hung upside down from the ceiling, his head barely half a metre from a meat grinder.

Zhan Zhao quickly called Bai Yutang and updated him. "They've probably moved the victims, we need to find them as soon as possible, the other side will definitely try to eliminate them quickly..."

"Tch..." Bai Yutang frowned. "How do you hide that many people... Where could they stash them in such a short time?"

......

Inside the factory, the situation had grown incredibly bizarre.

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin had actually managed to scramble onto the roof, helping each other up.

They breathed a sigh of relief, only to realise they were surrounded on all sides by mechanical dogs. The scene looked surreal.

But Bai Ye just stared off into the distance at the factory, unmoving, just staring blankly, as if he was thinking about something.

Suddenly, Bai Ye muttered to himself, "Underground parking garage..."

......

Bai Yutang was quite familiar with the road in front of him. They'd just brought Zhu Yi here that morning, but instead of going straight to the factory, he drove into the underground parking garage they'd used earlier that day.

‿︵‿︵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: July 26, 2025 by Angel

Edited: October 20, 2025 by Angel