S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 123

Special Files – Collector 08 – Mail

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Zhan Zhao and the others finished watching the video of Xiaoxue committing suicide in the ward. It really was suicide.

Xiaoxue was alone in the room the whole time, and she didn't contact anyone else.

Xiaoxue had indeed been in restraints, but whether it was a design flaw in the straps or some part of them had been damaged, one of her hands had somehow slipped out, and then Xiaoxue had freed herself entirely.

Judging from her condition, she must have had multiple fractures or dislocations.

Then she fashioned the restraint straps into something resembling a noose and ended her own life.

Hanging in the noose, Xiaoxue looked like a rag doll. No matter how Zhan Zhao looked at it, he couldn't help but feel it resembled the photograph he had received in the email the night before.

Yet after having that thought, Zhan Zhao instead began to feel uncertain.

Because human memory is prone to deviation, no matter how good one's memory is, errors will occur. Once you had preconceived doubts, many fragments of memory would automatically transform into evidence proving your conjecture. It was like suspecting someone of stealing an axe: once you thought it was him, everything you saw confirmed it.

At this point, the best approach was to pool everyone's wisdom. One brain might get muddled, but a group of brains would not.

The problem was, that email had disappeared...

Zhan Zhao kept pestering Jiang Ping with messages – Can it be recovered?

Jiang Ping was also helpless – How can a self-destructing email possibly be recovered?

While Zhan Zhao was entangled with his doubts, the others were horrified by Xiaoxue's "abnormality".

"She... didn't feel pain?" Bai Yutang looked at how Xiaoxue had almost torn herself apart before committing suicide. "Why was her expression so calm?"

Just then, Bao Sir phoned again, and Bai Yutang put it on speaker.

Bao Sir asked Bai Ye if he had had any contact with Xiaoxue.

Bai Ye was somewhat speechless. From the surveillance footage, it was obvious he had not gone inside and had been waiting at the door all along. Bao Xiao Hei clearly wanted to ask whether Zhao Jue had had any contact with Xiaoxue, but insisted on taking a detour.

Zhao Jue took out a crumpled brown file envelope from behind him, flipped through the documents inside, pulled one out, and said, "I don't know about any Xiaoxue. Prisoner 3408, isn't it?"

Bai Yutang took the file, glanced at it, and indeed, it was Xiaoxue's record, Xiaoxue's prisoner number was 3408.

"What did you go to T Hospital for?" Bai Yutang asked Zhao Jue with some curiosity.

On the other end, Bao Sir also fell silent. Clearly, this was exactly what he wanted to ask.

Zhao Jue clicked his tongue. "I just heard that Wu Wen was organising some sort of summer camp, so I asked around at the university about what he'd been up to lately. Apparently, he's been very active, looking as if he's ready to make a big splash... I'm a bit concerned about his professional competence. I heard he had set up a few research groups, and that he had some connection with T Hospital, bringing in a few special cases for the experiment teams to accumulate ‘real combat experience'. That's why I took notice..."

Zhan Zhao, who had been struggling alone with his memories, suddenly tuned in to this and asked Zhao Jue in a half-teasing tone, "So you're afraid he might mislead his students?"

Zhao Jue looked up at the sky. "I'm afraid he'll cause trouble without even realising he's caused trouble. Isn't there a prisoner in T Hospital that he personally put in there? He's never faced her himself, how can he guarantee that his students will be safe when they face her?"

"Then Xiaoxue's suicide... could it have something to do with his current research?" Issel quickly held his phone out to Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue swiped the screen with his finger, swiftly browsing the chat log, and a slightly puzzled expression appeared on his face. "That's not right... it should have been Xiaoxue who manipulated them to set a fire to cover her escape..."

Everyone was stunned.

Bai Ye immediately thought of that strange fire on the roadside last night.

Kalin and Issel, both confused, took the phone back and huddled together to read it again – Where in the messages did it suggest Xiaoxue was planning to escape? And arson?

Bai Yutang also glanced at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao tilted his head, thought for a while, and seemed to understand. He looked a little frustrated... He hadn't noticed at all yesterday...

Seeing his expression, Zhao Jue gave him a smug, wicked grin – Still too green!

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, sulking inwardly – Everything seems to be going wrong today!

"Should we investigate...?" Bai Yutang felt something was fishy, so he suggested to Bao Sir that they look into it.

But before he could finish, Bao Sir refused. "No need. The prison will close the case as a suicide. Without evidence, what's there to investigate?"

"But..." Zhan Zhao still wanted to try his luck.

Bao Sir reminded the two of them, "Aren't you going camping? You'll get the chance to meet those students and that professor then. Just... keep a low profile, a low profile!"

At that moment, Bao Sir actually felt relieved. At the very least, Xiaoxue's death should have had nothing to do with Zhao Jue... but the matter was still rather sensitive, especially where Zhao Jue was concerned, so it was better to be cautious.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao immediately understood and didn't insist any more.

And Bao Sir had a point, they should contact those students involved first.

Issel was still a bit confused. He had read through the exchanges several times and still couldn't see where fire and escape had been mentioned, so he looked at Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao took the phone and switched the language setting to English.

Issel and Kalin were stunned.

As soon as the dialogue text changed into English, although the meaning remained the same, its "shape" changed.

The conversation turned into pictures.

Those long passages of Xiaoxue's "passionate" curses formed patterns of flames, cages, and other images, along with certain letters and numbers.

"How..." Issel thought about it, then realised, "Ah... Xiaoxue first used English letters to make these patterns, then converted them into Chinese before sending. No wonder when she was swearing it seemed incoherent, I thought she was simply too agitated and having a mental breakdown..."

"So is this psychology, or cryptography?" Eleven, who had been following the drama all along, asked curiously.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue exchanged a glance, both somewhat puzzled. "She had already gained control over those students and had successfully made contact with the outside world, so why did she then commit suicide in the end?"

"She was a mental patient to begin with, so any abnormal behaviour was normal for her." Having confirmed that the matter had nothing to do with Zhao Jue, Bao Sir no longer pursued it and told Zhan Zhao and the others to enjoy their holiday.

"And another thing!" Bao Sir suddenly asked Zhan Zhao, "Your editor has been calling the bureau non-stop to urge you to submit your manuscript. How many manuscripts have you not submitted?"

After telling Zhan Zhao to hurry up and write his book, Bao Sir hung up, clearly changing the subject.

Everyone tacitly began packing their things. Camping and barbecuing required quite a bit of equipment, and Bai Yutang and Bai Ye went out to get the luggage boxed up.

The twins drove up in a huge RV, and everyone gathered around to study it.

Zhan Zhao didn't go out. His eyes were fixed on the file envelope in Zhao Jue's hand, and he leaned closer to sneak a look.

Zhao Jue quickly hid the envelope.

Zhan Zhao saw the logo of X University on the envelope and reckoned it was information Zhao Jue had obtained from acquaintances at the university acting as his "informants".

Thinking for a moment, Zhan Zhao poked Zhao Jue and asked him, "Do you have an email account?"

Zhao Jue looked at Zhan Zhao speechlessly.

For a moment, Zhan Zhao couldn't tell whether that meant he did or didn't, so he pressed, "Do you?"

Zhao Jue pulled out his phone, opened his email, and glanced at it. There were indeed two unread emails.

Two emails, one was a dispatch notice for some books he had purchased, the other looked like spam, "Electronic ticket..."

"Ah!" Zhan Zhao caught sight of that email at once. Seeing Zhao Jue about to open it, he hurriedly snatched the phone from him. "Wait!"

Zhao Jue looked at Zhan Zhao in confusion.

Zhan Zhao ran to the doorway and called out to Mia, who was outside eating barbecue.

Mia ran over, and Zhan Zhao explained to her how he had previously received a self-destructing email, asking whether there was a way to preserve such a message without it being destroyed.

Mia switched on the phone's video recording function and told Zhan Zhao to open the email.

Sure enough, the email Zhao Jue had received was identical to the one Zhan Zhao had received yesterday.

After the email was read, it vanished from the inbox shortly afterwards.

Holding a skewer of grilled meat, Mia gestured and asked Zhan Zhao – Isn't this a ticket? Since it self-destructed, how is the ticket supposed to be used?

Zhan Zhao also felt it was a problem.

Now that they had a video recording, they could compare. Zhan Zhao compared the photo of the hanged doll on the ticket with the image of Xiaoxue on the surveillance footage.

After studying it for a while, Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Jue, who was also watching from the side, "Is it a coincidence? Or am I overthinking it?"

Zhao Jue shook his head. "How could it be a coincidence?"

"So... the person who sent the email is related to Xiaoxue's suicide?" Zhan Zhao asked whether Zhao Jue had any leads, and also why the emails had only been sent to the two of them.

Zhao Jue thought for a moment, then asked Zhan Zhao, "Do you know anyone else who has taught psychology at X University?"

Zhan Zhao froze for a moment, then immediately took out his phone to ask a few professors he knew well.

Sure enough... every professor had received the same email. Some had already read it and found that the email had disappeared, while others who had not yet opened it were confused when they did.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Jue curiously, "So it's targeting psychology teachers at X University?"

"Do you know any other psychology teachers? Ones who haven't taught at X University?" Zhao Jue told Zhan Zhao to broaden the search.

Zhan Zhao contacted two from other universities, one at a university in S City and another in K City.

Neither of them had ever received such an email.

Zhao Jue stroked his chin. "That means it's only targeting X University."

"But you haven't taught at X University for a long time, have you?" Zhan Zhao was trying hard to find the common link.

"And I only registered this email address recently, it's mainly for buying books and collecting information." Zhao Jue seemed to be thinking back, wondering who could have got hold of his email address.

"Then what's the person sending the emails after?" Zhan Zhao thought to himself, hoping it wasn't another pervert. "Some kind of provocation?"

Zhao Jue chuckled. "Didn't the ticket have a QR code? Scan it and see."

Zhan Zhao thought that made sense and was about to use Zhao Jue's phone to scan it.

Zhao Jue hurriedly snatched the phone back and glared at him. "You computer idiot, don't mess with it. Wait till you're back at work and get that geek to do it for you!"

"That means waiting several more days until after the holiday..." Zhan Zhao grew impatient, he wanted to know right away.

Zhao Jue chuckled. "You're just trying every possible way to avoid working on your manuscript, aren't you?"

Zhan Zhao shot him a glance. "You and Bao Sir are actually on the same page for once..."

Zhao Jue jumped up at once. "Don't you lump me together with that amoeba, Bao Xiao Hei!"

Zhan Zhao picked up his laptop from the table and ran out. He would throw it into Bai Yutang's car and let fate decide whether he would write or not.

Once Zhan Zhao left, Zhao Jue took out his phone again and studied the recording of that email for a while, then compared it with the photo of Xiaoxue's death scene.

Just as he was spacing out, his phone pinged – a new email had been received.

‿︵‿︵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 30, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 26, 2025 by Angel