S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 119

Special Files – Collector 04 – Patient

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The SCI weekend dinner at the food city had turned into a collective adultery bust. No one cared about eating anymore, they were all busy helping Mia protect her parents' love.

The two parties involved, Issel and Kalin, were behaving quite normally, ordering food, chatting, and enjoying the scenery. Issel even lowered his head from time to time to glance at his phone, showing no attempt whatsoever to hide it from Kalin sitting opposite him.

No matter how Bai Yutang looked at it, this behaviour didn't seem like cheating to him, so he asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao had been resting his chin in his hand, observing for quite a while, and gave his professional opinion. "For most people, cheating would naturally involve being secretive and cautious, but Issel himself is an expert at observing emotions, so he might very well be doing the opposite instead."

"You mean not seeing things that happen very close to you?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao thought it was possible. "The more open and above-board you are, the less likely you are to arouse suspicion, right?"

Bai Yutang glanced over again, and at that moment Issel also lifted his head to look in their direction, prompting everyone to hurriedly turn away.

Issel, slightly puzzled, asked Kalin, "Is there something on my face?"

Kalin shook her head.

"They've been staring at me all the way here. What's wrong with them that they can't just eat properly?" Issel looked completely speechless.

Kalin chuckled but didn't say anything.

Just then, the dishes began arriving one after another.

Mia was still discussing strategies with Ma Xin and Qi Le when a pudding was placed in front of her.

Mia blinked at the twins.

The twins spread their hands – We didn't order it.

Mia looked around and saw Kalin from a distance making a gesture of eating at her.

Mia picked up a spoon, took a bite, and pulled a face...

The twins, seeing her reaction, were curious – Not good? This is our best-selling pudding!

Mia continued eating spoonful after spoonful, and it wasn't as though she disliked it. But she ate while fuming, typing out a message on her phone.

Not far away, Gongsun was holding a glass of red wine when his phone pinged. He glanced at it as he sipped, and almost choked...

Bai Jintang, seeing Gongsun nearly choke on the wine, took his phone and looked. It was a message from Mia – Which part of the brain should be cut out to prevent cheating?

Bai Jintang shook his head, set the phone down, and thought that if Issel carried on like this, his life would be in danger.

As more food was served, the restaurant grew lively. The chefs in the food city really did have considerable skill.

At the twins' table, the milk warmer dinged.

Xiao Ding picked up the bottle to feed Xiao Yumi just as a waiter walked in from the entrance carrying a huge bouquet of black roses.

Mia had her head lowered to peel a prawn when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the waiter's back... This waiter might have been wearing a suit, but looked very much like a woman... A woman disguised as a man?!

Mia was startled – Could it be the mistress showing up in person?

The waiter, carrying the flowers, walked towards Kalin and Issel's table. Just as she was about to reach it, the white-gloved hand slipped into her pocket to pull something out...

Issel looked up and saw it. He set down his knife and fork and had just opened his mouth to speak when suddenly... a gust of wind swept past.

The waiter's hand, which had been reaching into the pocket, was pushed back, the hand holding the flowers was twisted behind her, and the bouquet fell.

Issel's quick reflexes allowed him to catch the flowers, while the waiter cried out "ow, ow..." Sure enough, it was a woman's voice!

By the time everyone realised what was happening, they saw Mia pinning down the waiter while Issel knelt on one knee, catching the flowers.

The whole restaurant froze, staring at them.

Holding his wine glass, Gongsun felt the waiter looked a little familiar, and asked Bai Jintang, "Isn't that the restaurant manager?"

Bai Jintang, somewhat helpless, sipped his wine. "Maybe they're short-staffed, so they came to help out..."

When Mia grabbed the person and had a look, she realised she had the wrong person. She quickly let go and bowed apologetically.

Just then, the twins rushed over. Xiao Ding tugged at Mia, saying, "This is the manager, not a mistress!"

The manager pulled the hand out of her pant pocket and revealed a black velvet jewellery box, which she handed to Issel.

Da Ding wanted to apologise to the manager, but the manager, with an expression of "I totally get it", whispered, "So it really is an affair, isn't it!"

Everyone froze.

Issel looked utterly bewildered. "An affair? Who's having an affair?"

Then he looked at Kalin with a wronged expression – Are you seeing someone else behind my back?

Kalin blinked – Huh?

This time, Mia was even more shocked – Mom's also cheating? In her head, five words flashed instantly – Each playing their own game!

Da Ding hurriedly dragged the agitated manager away. The manager was still muttering, "I've seen this a lot. A man invites his wife to dinner upstairs, then gives them flowers and jewellery, eight times out of ten, he's cheating!"

Xiao Ding shook the deeply shaken Mia, while the others all forgot about eating, curiously watching what was happening over here.

Issel looked at the flowers and the jewellery box in his hands. What did the manager just say? Giving flowers and jewellery meant cheating... so am I the one cheating?

Kalin reached out to take the flowers, then accepted the jewellery box. She opened it to find a black crystal bracelet inside and handed it to Issel for him to put on her wrist.

Once it was fastened, she admired it for a moment and thought it looked quite nice.

Just then, Issel's phone lit up again.

Mia noticed it was the same chat window, but this time the messages weren't from the other party, they were being sent from Issel's side.

Mia tilted her head – Dad hasn't touched the phone, so why is it sending messages on its own?

At the same time, Issel also froze, staring at the phone as he said to Kalin, "There's movement."

Kalin took the phone he handed her.

Mia leaned closer for a peek and tilted her head...

On the screen, the "mistress" had sent another string of eerie threats, and then a reply appeared: You did very well.

Mia stared at the phone for a while and noticed something odd – The mistress's speech bubbles were coloured, but the replies on this side weren't. This meant that the mistress's messages were being sent from this phone, while the replies were what had come back from the other side?

Mia's little brain worked overtime, and she immediately figured it out – Her father's phone had a mirroring app installed. It mirrored the content from another phone, so both the photo on the home screen and this chat window were actually from the other device.

Kalin waited a moment, but when only that one message came through, she asked Issel in confusion, "What does this mean? Has that person shown themselves?"

Issel shrugged. "That's beyond my capabilities."

As he spoke, he gestured towards Zhan Zhao, who was peeking curiously not far away – Zhao Jue isn't here, should we ask him?

By now, Xiao Ding had quietly retreated back to his own table, shaking his head at the curious onlookers along the way – Seems like it isn't an affair after all...

Da Ding also came back then, gossiping to Xiao Ding, "That restaurant manager seems to know loads of juicy gossip!"

Xiao Ding curled his lip – Of course, the manager at the hotel next door knows even more!

Issel looked at Mia in confusion.

Realising it had all been a complete misunderstanding, Mia immediately bolted, running back to the twins' table. She hid beside Xiao Yumi's stroller, peeking out with half her head to watch her parents.

The twins sighed – Ah, the hearts of children are truly pitiful...

Mia quietly pulled out her own phone, disbanded the "Catch-the-Cheater Task Force", and sat down obediently to eat. She looked rather embarrassed, but her mood had obviously improved. Seeing the child smile, the twins ordered her some nice food, letting her eat in peace.

Bai Ye also nodded – Like I said, even if Issel were given a hundred times the courage, he still wouldn't dare.

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao, who was focused on eating seafood – Cat, didn't you say it was not seeing things that happen very close to you... does this count as a crash?

Zhan Zhao calmly praised the chef's skill with an air of complete serenity, as though nothing had happened!

......

After the meal, each couple went off hand in hand, leaving only Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao, Issel, and Kalin in the restaurant.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had originally intended to head back after eating, but Issel had just sent a message to Zhan Zhao saying he wanted to consult him about something.

And in any case, Zhan Zhao would have to rush to finish his manuscript when he got back, so he might as well stay a little longer. If he got too sleepy, he could just go straight to bed and leave the manuscript for tomorrow...

The four of them found a table to sit together, and Issel handed his phone over to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

With his explanation, the two understood.

This phone was indeed Issel's spare. When someone called him and his main phone went unanswered, the call would automatically be redirected to the spare.

As for the chat window and photos on the screen, they were mirrored from another phone. In other words, Issel was monitoring the activity of that other phone, which belonged to the girl in the photograph.

"Her name's Xiaoxue, the daughter of a friend of one of my friends," Kalin explained. "She's currently in the prison ward of T Hospital."

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao frowned slightly and once again studied the woman in the photo.

T Hospital was a highly specialised institution in S City, most of its patients were those with severe mental illnesses. The special feature of this hospital is that it has a prison ward housing individuals who had committed murder or other serious crimes but were diagnosed by professional institutions as having mental illnesses. These individuals were extremely dangerous and had to be kept isolated from society, but their mental conditions were so unstable that some were even considered too dangerous to be sent to regular prisons.

This prison within the hospital was referred to by professionals as the "T Zone". Zhan Zhao was one of those professionals, he was occasionally invited to participate in psychiatric evaluations.

T Zone contained a large number of "research samples", though Zhan Zhao didn't visit often, since SCI's own cases already provided him with plenty of material to study.

"How many people has she... killed?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Kalin stretched out her hand, and one hand wasn't enough, she had to use both hands to indicate twelve.

Bai Yutang looked incredulous. The girl didn't seem more than twenty-something, what had she done to kill twelve people?

After thinking it over, Bai Yutang asked, "Is she... one of a generation?"

Kalin and Issel both shook their heads. "She isn't... though whether there's some connection, that's still unclear."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look.

"I've never seen her case... didn't she commit her crimes locally?" Zhan Zhao found it unreasonable, with a case this serious, he should have some impression of it.

"She's a very particular type of criminal, she committed her crimes in A City, and she's twenty-four this year," Kalin explained.

"Only twenty-four this year?" Bai Yutang was even more shocked. "She's not some experimental subject with special abilities, and she looks petite, so how did she manage to kill twelve people?"

"Ai." Kalin sighed. "Xiaoxue had been a very well-behaved and timid girl since she was a child. She always looked delicate and weak, as though she had no ability to hurt anyone. But that's when she was ‘normal'. Occasionally, she would have abnormal episodes, becoming extremely paranoid and showing violent tendencies. Despite being such a small person, she could suddenly burst out with tremendous strength. The earliest sign appeared when she was eight years old. She held an eleven-year-old boy underwater and nearly drowned him. Fortunately, the swimming coach discovered it just in time."

Bai Yutang found it hard to believe, and glanced curiously at Zhan Zhao – Could such a small child really be so aggressive? Split personality?

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, feeling it was unlikely.

"Her parents were quite rational. They believed their daughter must have some sort of problem, so they took her to be examined. But brain scans showed nothing, and even psychologists found no issues, the little girl appeared perfectly normal. Yet when she was twelve, she pushed a classmate off a building at school... Fortunately, the playground below was under renovation and piled with sand, so the classmate only sustained minor injuries."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged another look – This is terrifying, practically a ticking time bomb.

"Later, her father contacted my friend, asking me to find someone more ‘professional' to help him. I originally wanted to ask Zhao Jue, but he was busy investigating the organisation, so he recommended a psychology professor from X University."

The moment Zhan Zhao heard "professor from X University", something stirred in his mind and he asked, "Which professor?"

‿︵‿︵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 22, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 26, 2025 by Angel