S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 111

The Culinary Murderer 63 – Who is the Master?

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed the GPS signal from Ma Han's car all the way to the old hangar.

As they got out, they saw Zhao Hu together with several SWAT officers carrying out a few unconscious girls.

When Zhao Hu saw Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao arrive, he tilted his head slightly towards the hangar, signalling to them.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang rushed inside to find Eleven and Issel standing to one side, while Ma Han had Shi Yanshuo in handcuffs on the other side. All four of them were doing the same thing, looking up at the top of a small plane.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao also looked up, just in time to see someone leap down from the top of the plane.

Issel and Eleven both took half a step back, shaking their heads as Yu Hui crashed to the ground with a loud thud.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also lowered their heads to look at Yu Hui, who had fallen so hard she was almost "deformed". At any rate, the knuckle duster on her hand was definitely bent out of shape.

On top of the plane, Wen Xiaorou jumped down, carrying a backpack.

Bai Yutang went over to check on Yu Hui. Wen Xiaorou had controlled her strength, her blow was neither too light nor too heavy.

Zhan Zhao, however, turned his attention to Shi Yanshuo.

The so-called "tycoon" was muttering to himself. To Ma Han, it sounded more like swearing and cursing, saying things like "bunch of useless idiots, good for nothing..."

Bai Yutang asked Issel and Eleven quietly, "What just happened?"

"Oh!" The two of them immediately lit up with gossiping expressions and explained to him.

"The girls were fighting."

"Spectacular."

"They fought from under the plane all the way up to the top."

"That girl can really fight."

"Looks like she could send a cow flying with one punch."

"She's a pro, that flying kick was definitely professional!"

"Very practical, Bai Ye often uses that kick on people."

Bai Yutang thought for a moment, then turned sideways and demonstrated, "This move?"

Issel and Eleven both nodded, then at the same time shook their heads – Put your leg down, are you just showing off your long legs?

At that moment, Wen Xiaorou came over, rifling through the bag.

"What's this?" Wen Xiaorou pulled out a black, phone-sized device and asked Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang took the device and examined it, but he didn't know what it was for.

"Anything else in the bag?" Bai Yutang asked.

Wen Xiaorou turned the bag upside down and gave it a shake, and something else fell out.

Bai Yutang caught it with his quick reflexes and found it was an Allen wrench.

"A wrench?" Wen Xiaorou and Bai Yutang were both a little puzzled. Yu Hui had been carrying this backpack the whole time and was obviously in a fugitive state. When someone was on the run, what would they carry with them? Naturally, only the most important things, the things that could save their life... So why bring a wrench?

Bai Yutang reached back and pulled Zhan Zhao, who was going through Shi Yanshuo's bag, over to him.

Coincidentally, Zhan Zhao was just pulling a wrench out of Shi Yanshuo's bag.

When he saw the wrench in Bai Yutang's hand, Zhan Zhao brought his own over, and when they compared them side by side, they were exactly the same.

"Huh?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both turned to look at Shi Yanshuo.

Shi Yanshuo was still in that same muttering-to-himself state. Yu Hui had already been pulled up and handcuffed by Zhao Hu. She appeared far more stable mentally than Shi Yanshuo, but when she caught sight of the puzzled looks from Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, she just sneered and didn't say a word.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han took them away first to escort them back to the station.

Bai Yutang went up into the plane to inspect it. When he came down, he said to Zhan Zhao, who was still studying the two items, "This plane can't fly very far. There are two parachutes on board. They must have planned to fly near X Island and then parachute out."

"X Island?" Zhan Zhao thought for a moment. "There aren't many boats around there, are there... After parachuting there, where were they planning to go? Just set themselves adrift at sea?"

Bai Yutang shook his head, he didn't know either. The waters around X Island are vast. With so little to go on, even if there had been a boat to pick them up, it would be difficult to find.

"X Island?" Eleven suddenly leaned over with great interest. "Is that the same X Island Bai Ye's been researching lately? He said the waters around that island are a shipwreck hotspot."

"That's right, that's why few ships pass through there..." Zhan Zhao still felt something was off. He turned to the two of them. "Uncle Ye's been researching that island recently?"

Just as Eleven was about to nod, Issel suddenly shot him a look.

Uncle Chopsticks instantly shut his mouth, cleared his throat, and glanced around. "Well, if that's settled, shall we get back to practising our fish-slaying?"

Issel nodded, saying Bai Ye seemed to be planning to make egg fried rice for the next competition!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at the two of them in confusion – What does egg fried rice have to do with killing fish?

The two of them ran off as if fleeing.

Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang, "Where's Uncle Ye?"

"Uncle Ye?" Bai Yutang thought for a moment. "At home?"

Just then, Jiang Ping's scan of the black device yielded results. "Boss, this is a navigation module from a diving propulsion unit."

"Diving?" Zhan Zhao pulled the Allen wrench out of the bag and suddenly understood. "Ah! This thing is for opening a door!"

"Opening a door?" Bai Yutang was baffled. "What door?"

"How did Shi Yanshuo and Yu Hui meet?" Zhan Zhao reminded him. "Didn't the two of them often go diving together?"

Bai Yutang frowned, thought it over, and suddenly realised. "Could it be that they have a base near X Island, underwater?"

Zhan Zhao shook the Allen wrench in his hand. "Remember that documentary on underwater structures we watched? A lot of the negative-pressure doors could only be opened and closed by turning the valves with a wrench... And think about it, Fei Mu investigated again and again but never found any special channels of communication for them... could it be that everything is hidden underwater?"

Bai Yutang felt the analysis made sense, then suddenly thought of something. "Then Uncle Ye..."

Zhan Zhao pulled Bai Yutang towards the exit. "Didn't Uncle Ye look into shipwrecks before? He seems to know a lot about them, and he hasn't shown up today either..."

When they reached the doorway, they saw Wen Xiaorou on the phone. As soon as she spotted them, she waved them over.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang quickly ran over to her.

Wen Xiaorou said, "Xiaofei just told me Bao Sir gave him some coordinates. They've located a suspicious cargo ship. The coast guard already has planes ready and has gone out to sea to make arrests."

"A cargo ship?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look, then asked, "Just a ship?"

Wen Xiaorou nodded.

"Where?"

"He said it's near X Island."

Zhan Zhao took the phone and asked Xiaofei where those coordinates came from.

Xiaofei was a little stunned. "Bao Sir gave them..."

"Where did Bao Sir get them?"

Xiaofei was amused. "You'll have to ask Bao Sir that..."

Zhan Zhao could hear a lot of noise on the other end, so he asked, "Where are you?"

"On the plane, we've already spotted that cargo ship." Xiaofei finished speaking and hung up the phone.

Zhan Zhao immediately called Bao Sir and asked how they had found that cargo ship near X Island.

Bao Sir said, "Bai Ye gave it, he's got a friend at sea..."

"Bullshit, making friends out of thin air!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang suddenly realised that Uncle Ye had probably known from the start, right from the moment he gave them that "bobbit worm" example, that this case involved a ‘treasure' hidden under the sea. Damn!

Hearing how worked up Zhan Zhao was, Bao Sir wasn't the least bit surprised. Instead, he asked, "So, have Shi Yanshuo and Yu Hui been caught?"

"They've been caught, and the girls have all been rescued..."

"Then once SWAT and the coast guard make their arrests, the case can be closed." Bao Sir was about to hang up.

"Wait!" Zhan Zhao pressed, "Did Uncle Ye only mention the cargo ship? Didn't he say anything else? Like shipwrecks, a base, a submarine maybe?!"

After hearing that, Bao Sir suddenly laughed. "You two, do you get it now?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, who was leaning in to listen to the phone with him, asked, "Get what?"

"Why Bai Ye is Zhao Jue's guardian!" Bao Sir heard Zhan Zhao gasp on the other end and drove the point home. "A treasure sunk in international waters, of course it belongs to whoever finds it! Did you two really take Bai Ye for an honest man? Use your heads... Still, it's better for Bai Ye to pick it up than for that gang of pirates to move it first."

After hanging up, Zhan Zhao looked at the two modules in the bag and asked Bai Yutang, "If we go and look for it now..."

But Bai Yutang shook his head. "This kind of navigation system needs a signal source. If Bai Ye had found it earlier, he would have dismantled everything that needed to be dismantled. Even if we went now, even if we found the diving propulsion unit and installed the modules, we probably wouldn't be able to find the location. Without navigation equipment, how could we search underwater?"

Zhan Zhao tapped his chin with his phone. "Then how did Uncle Ye find it?"

"Didn't he live by the coast for quite a while before? It was only because of his hint that we found the landlords' secret chamber. But judging from the outcome, everything was a trap laid by Shi Yanshuo and Yu Hui. Their tactics, schemes, and layouts, it feels like they've got a textbook for it."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "They must have built it up starting from those pirates..."

"When Uncle Ye saw the anchor tattoo, he knew they were Dutch. Do you remember the case he told us about before, the case where his landlord's son's boss had hidden a body in a secret compartment? That case never had a proper beginning or end, and Uncle Ye never said whether the culprit was caught in the end. Thinking about it now, could it be that Shi Yanshuo and Yu Hui are part of the same ‘family' of criminals?"

Zhan Zhao was amused. "So when we drove to the seafood market, Uncle Ye already knew what was going on, didn't he? He also knew that this group definitely had a huge sum hidden in the sea, and the reason he helped and even joined the competition..."

Bai Yutang nodded. "To make money... Not only did he find the treasure, he also pocketed an appearance fee. And we did solve the case, and caught everyone..."

Wen Xiaorou, who had been listening nearby, understood too. "Sure enough, Xiaofei really can judge people quite well..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both turned to her curiously, "What did Captain Xiao say?"

"Well, there was gossip in the team that Zhao Jue was the big boss behind everything, but Xiao Fei said he felt Bai Ye was actually the ultimate boss, with that hidden-master aura about him..."

Eleven and Issel, who were waiting in the car, were amused and shook their heads at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang – You two, you actually think Bai Ye is an honest man...

Bai Yutang nudged Zhan Zhao. "Cat, looks like even Zhao Jue doesn't know..."

Zhan Zhao realised it too. Throughout their analysis of the case with Zhao Jue, Zhao Jue truly hadn't known. Which meant Uncle Ye hadn't told him either!

Zhan Zhao suddenly felt a little more balanced...

On the way back to the police station, Zhan Zhao sent a message to Zhao Jue, complaining that Uncle Ye was pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger.

In the end, he got scolded by Zhao Jue, saying – You two are the real pigs, only pigs would believe he was some honest fellow!

Zhan Zhao muttered under his breath – You didn't know either, you're a pig too!

Meanwhile, Wen Xiaorou asked Bai Yutang, "So from beginning to end, Shi Yanshuo and Yu Hui were in the same group. They lived as two separate groups, and once they discovered that an avenger had appeared, they would join forces to set it up, draw the police into the game to catch a third party, then shed their skins like a cicada, abandon the liabilities, and take off with the hidden escape funds. Is that the routine?"

Bai Yutang nodded. "That should have been their way of survival... But if Uncle Ye encountered similar people years ago, then perhaps, there are other cities in the world where people like them are distributed."

"So was there ever a third party?" Wen Xiaorou asked curiously. "Su Hai, Tan Wen, and the others, were they all just passively dragged into it? Targeted before they even began their revenge?"

"Hmm..." Bai Yutang countered, "Where did this case actually begin?"

Wen Xiaorou thought for a moment. "From... that couple's disappearance?"

But Bai Yutang shook his head. "I feel like it should have started around the time Zhang Wei fell from the building. From Zhang Wei falling to his girlfriend Guan Xiaohong, then to Fang Beibei... it all revolved around our school and Teacher Guan."

Bai Yutang then told Wen Xiaorou the analysis he and Zhan Zhao had done the night before. "The first cases we came into contact with, the missing couple in the residential complex, then Zhu Yi's case, the key clues were the cat doll and the Instant Noodle Alien. These clues traced back to Guan Xiaoyue, who was Fei Mu's informant in his investigation of Shi Yanshuo. In other words, with that lead, we could trace it back to Shi Yanshuo. Then Yu Hui coincidentally ran into us at the shopping mall, invited us to the wedding, and in doing so actually drew us into the trap. Zhang Wei's death was a bit redundant, and his way of death was not easy to control."

Just then, Zhan Zhao's tablet received a video from Jiang Ping.

Zhan Zhao opened it, had a look, and smiled faintly as he handed it over to Bai Yutang.

After reaching their conclusion yesterday, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had asked Jiang Ping to look for surveillance footage near the scene on the day Zhang Wei jumped. The angle of the camera wasn't facing the spot where Zhang Wei fell, but rather across from it... And from the footage, it was clear that in the instant before Zhang Wei fell, he had indeed seen something!

‿︵‿︵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 11, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 14, 2025 by Angel