S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 158

The Wisteria Murderer 02 – Related Matters

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed Zhao Jue, Bai Ye, and the new chef duo out to look at shop spaces... though the main purpose was really to help Zhan Zhao clear his head after he’d gotten himself stuck in a rut.

However, Zhan Zhao spent the entire journey still locked in a battle of wills with the AI, having “Got You” search for artworks related to wisteria.

Whether it was just their imagination or not, everyone felt that even the AI was getting a bit fed up with Zhan Zhao. Or perhaps it still held a grudge after being lectured by him earlier. In any case, the man and the machine exchanged barbed remarks the whole way, breaking into arguments every so often.

As always, Bai Yutang remained perfectly composed. He was looking through the floor plans of shops that Bai Ye had shortlisted.

All of the shops were located in the Bai Group’s food city and were part of the benefits offered to participants in the cooking competition. Since the rent was free, it was a fantastic deal.

The layouts varied from floor to floor. Bai Ye had selected three units that seemed particularly suitable and planned to inspect them in person.

The Bai Group’s food city had practically become a viral hotspot in S City. Business was booming, and during meal times, there were queues on almost every floor. Much of that was due to the cooking competition, but the livestream of Big Brother Bai capturing Fang Beibei had also been incredibly influential. That office had since become a must-visit spot.

The food city had originally contained many high-end restaurants, most of them on the upper floors. Bai Ye wanted to open a café restaurant focused on coffee, pizza, pasta, steaks, and the like... Ideally, he hoped to turn it into a chain brand, as this business model would suit the new chef duo best.

Bai Yutang also felt that this approach was feasible. If that was the plan, the shop shouldn’t be located too high up, the second or third floor would be ideal.

All three of the shops Bai Ye had chosen were suitable, but Bai Yutang preferred the corner shop beside the escalator on the third floor.

The twins strongly recommended that one as well. Opposite the escalator was Qian Lin's cake shop, while on the other side was Guan Xiaoyue's noodle restaurant, and then there was also the internet-famous shop selling Instant Noodle Alien merchandise, it’s always packed with people.

After parking the car, the group headed upstairs. The enormous aquarium in the food city was still there, making the place feel like an underwater theme park.

Zhan Zhao had been wearing an earpiece, listening to the AI list various artworks connected to wisteria. However, there were simply too many people in the food city, and the environment was far too noisy. He couldn’t hear anything clearly and had no choice but to take the earpiece off.

When Zhao Jue noticed that there was hardly any queue at a trendy milk tea shop, he poked Zhan Zhao and asked if he wanted a drink.

Zhan Zhao went over with him.

The new chef duo followed along, chattering nonstop about how milk tea should be consumed less often, how unhealthy it was, and so on...

Zhao Jue asked whether the two of them wanted any.

They said they did, one cup each, but with no milk, no sugar, no tapioca pearls, and no tea.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue silently looked at the pair – So they want two cups of water?

Neither Bai Ye nor Bai Yutang liked milk tea, but this shop's matcha coffee was quite famous, and both of them wanted to give it a try.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, who both hated matcha, looked at them with disdain – Coffee and matcha together? Is one bitter flavour not enough? Do you have to double the bitterness? I just don’t get it!

Bai Ye and Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, who had bought two packets of "super sour" gummies and started eating them while waiting for their drinks – You two have no right to mock others' taste! 

After getting his drink, Zhao Jue's attention was drawn to the blind-box vending machines in the main hall. After circling them once, he nodded in satisfaction. "Has that scam machine, the claw machine, finally been phased out? What's inside these boxes?"

Fortunately, Bai Ye reacted quickly and dragged Zhao Jue away before he could step into a second “abyss”.

When they reached the second floor, the first vacant shop on the left was one of their shortlisted locations. Next door was a women's clothing boutique, and the position of the shop seemed pretty good...

Just as Bai Ye and Bai Yutang were about to take a look, Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao each grabbed one of them and pulled them back.

"This one won't do!"

Bai Yutang and Bai Ye were somewhat puzzled – How can you judge it as bad without even looking at it?

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue pointed at the women's clothing shop. If someone tries on clothes and realises they've put on weight, they definitely won't feel like eating afterwards. You'll lose half your customers, let's go to the third floor!

Bai Ye and Bai Yutang considered it and felt there was actually some logic to the argument, so they followed everyone up to the third floor.

As soon as they arrived, they saw a sea of people. A huge crowd of young women occupied the entire corridor, forming several separate queues.

"Why are there so many people?" the new chef duo asked curiously, craning their necks to see the front of the queue.

"Wow!" The crowd noticed the new chef duo. The cooking competition had clearly become quite a phenomenon, and all three members of Bai Ye's team were recognised. People immediately grabbed their phones and started taking photos, while groups of fans came over asking for autographs.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue silently watched the new chef duo being surrounded – They've become internet celebrities!

Bai Ye naturally carried an imposing presence about him, so the young women kept taking photographs but didn’t dare to get close. At the same time, the crowd noticed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang and became curious about why SCI was there. Are they shopping? Or has a murder happened nearby? Has Big Brother Bai's curse started working again?!

Issel curiously asked the girls what they were queuing up to buy.

Everyone answered at once, explaining that Guan Xiaoyue had brought Jia Jia over for a signing event, and they were all there to buy Jia Jia’s blind boxes.

There was also going to be a film premiere at the cinema shortly afterwards, and everyone there was a fan of Xu Lie and Jia Jia.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang thought for a moment about who Jia Jia was before remembering the adorable golden shaded cat featured on the signboard of Guan Xiaoyue's noodle shop. Sure enough... Xu Lie and cats and dogs occupied the same rank in popularity.

"There's actually a cinema back there!" Zhao Jue manoeuvred through the crowd and looked back, discovering a descending staircase. The second and third floors were connected, and there was a cinema screening room.

Both Zhao Jue and Bai Ye thought this shop was great, a prime location, perfect for eating after watching a movie!

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao agreed that it was good, so Bai Ye called the manager responsible for allocating shop spaces in the food city.

Before long, a slightly plump middle-aged man wearing rimless glasses came hurrying over. He was one of the senior managers responsible for running the food city, and everyone called him Manager Wang. He had often been seen during the cooking competition.

Carrying blueprints and a set of keys, Manager Wang unlocked the vacant shop's door while simultaneously stuffing a stack of business cards from renovation and construction contractors into Bai Ye's hands.

When the door was opened, the interior of the shop was remarkably spacious and bright. Looking up, they saw an entire wall made of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the scenery of S City.

Both Bai Ye and the new chef duo felt there was no need to partition the space. The large open-plan layout was perfect as it was.

While they were looking around, two people came running through the doorway. It was Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue, who was carrying a pet backpack.

The moment they came over, the two of them started calling Bai Ye and the new chef duo "Uncle" and enthusiastically praised the shop's excellent location. They even offered to recommend renovation teams, behaving with impeccable politeness.

Zhan Zhao curiously glanced towards the doorway and discovered that the huge queue from earlier had completely disappeared. Zhao Jue also asked where everyone had gone.

Qian Lin gestured downstairs. "The movie’s about to start, everyone’s gone in to wait for Xu Lie."

As he spoke, he handed Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao a Jia Jia blind box each.

Holding the box, Zhao Jue examined it. What is this? A toy?

Bai Ye and Zhan Zhao both shook their heads vigorously at the pair – Don't tell him what blind boxes are, it's a middle-aged and elderly anti-addiction measure!

Guan Xiaoyue took off the backpack and unzipped it, and Jia Jia immediately climbed out.

Both Bai Yutang and Bai Ye were instantly captivated by the round and adorable golden shaded cat. Zhan Zhao reached out, intending to pet it, but Jia Jia immediately hissed at him.

Startled, Zhan Zhao quickly withdrew his hand. Looking puzzled, Guan Xiaoyue picked Jia Jia up, "That's strange, our Jia Jia is usually obsessed with good-looking faces..."

As he spoke, he handed the cat to Bai Yutang.

The moment Bai Yutang took it, not only did Jia Jia stop hissing, it repeatedly pushed its head into Bai Yutang's palm. Its tail stood upright as it tilted its face up towards him, rubbing against his hand with an expression of pure bliss.

Squinting at the shamelessly affectionate cat, Zhan Zhao reached out again... Only to be hissed at once more.

Zhan Zhao suspiciously sniffed his own hand. Is there some strange smell? Why are they being so harsh on me?

Zhao Jue decided to try as well, but ended up getting hissed at as well

Guan Xiaoyue leaned over and took a sniff before immediately asking, "Did you two eat those super sour gummies from downstairs?"

Both Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue nodded.

Guan Xiaoyue shook his head repeatedly, "Jia Jia hates sour and vinegary smells!"

Looking up again, they saw that after showering Bai Yutang with affection, Jia Jia had moved on to rubbing against Bai Ye. Both Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao suspected it had nothing to do with the sour sweets at all, the chubby cat simply liked Bai Ye and Bai Yutang's type. It was a superficial cat!

"By the way," Zhan Zhao suddenly said to Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin, "wisteria!"

Zhao Jue and the new chef duo all looked at Zhan Zhao speechlessly.

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin were equally bewildered. "Wisteria?"

"That's right!" Zhan Zhao nodded. "When you hear the word 'wisteria', what comes to mind?"

The two scratched their heads, then answered in unison. "Check-ins..."

After speaking, they looked at each other.

After all, they were childhood friends and best friends, they had probably remembered something from their school days and immediately started grinning foolishly at each other.

"Check-ins?" Zhan Zhao asked. "You mean going to places with wisteria and taking photos there?"

The pair nodded, saying it used to be really popular, but probably not so much anymore. You know those walls with graffiti on them? Sometimes there'd be wisteria hanging over the top of the wall like bangs, and a person painted underneath. They'd become internet-famous spots where people would go and take photos.

Zhan Zhao thought about it, he seemed to have seen videos like that before. "Were those real? I thought they were AI-generated..."

"Most of the ones now are AI-generated, but most of the older ones were real. It's actually because there are so many AI versions now that fewer people bother going to the real places."

"I see..." Zhan Zhao felt that this might actually be a useful lead.

Having made their decision, Bai Ye and the new chef duo settled on this shop. Manager Wang went off to prepare the contract and left them to discuss renovation plans.

Guan Xiaoyue and Qian Lin enthusiastically brought over catalogues full of renovation references for them. Qian Lin also handed Bai Ye an envelope, saying that it was from Uncle Su Hai.

Both Zhan Zhao's and Bai Yutang's ears perked up with curiosity about what was inside the envelope.

Bai Ye explained that it contained rose seeds, an extremely rare variety of purple rose that grew on an island.

"Purple..." Zhan Zhao murmured, his attention still firmly fixed on wisteria.

Bai Yutang shook his head helplessly. Zhan Zhao then asked Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue whether they knew any of those wisteria check-in spots.

The pair said they knew several, so Zhan Zhao immediately asked them to lead the way.

Bai Yutang followed along, while  Bai Ye and the others stayed behind in the shop to work on renovation plans. Zhao Jue looked around, decided to leave the money-making responsibilities to Bai Ye, and followed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang in search of wisteria as well.

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue first took them to an old residential area. It was quite close to S University and contained many concrete courtyard walls covered with all kinds of graffiti.

Behind one of the walls grew a wisteria vine. Its branches draped over the top of the wall and hung down in a great curtain, swaying gently in the breeze. Beneath the wisteria was a mural depicting a character from a currently popular comic series. As for who the character was, neither Zhan Zhao nor Bai Yutang had the faintest idea.

This place was just an ordinary residential area, it could hardly even be called a tourist spot. There were three trash cans placed diagonally across the road, and behind them was a community noticeboard wall covered in advertisements and announcements... many of which had already faded.

Not having gained any useful clues, the group moved on to the next stop.

The second location was beneath a newly built overpass. The scenery there was actually quite nice, like a small park, and at that hour, quite a few people were taking photos.

Several small wisteria plants had been planted there, and beneath each vine stood sculptures of girls, as though they were wearing purple floral crowns. It was indeed quite beautiful.

However, after glancing at the wisteria, Zhan Zhao suddenly turned around and stared at the massive pillar supporting the overpass in front of them.

He took out his phone, took a photo of the pillar, and asked Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue, “Anything else?”

“Uh...” The two of them said there was, and continued leading the way.

Zhao Jue and Bai Yutang both turned back to look at the pillar.

There were some white sheets of paper on it, as though posters or advertisements had once been pasted there, only to be partially torn away.

After taking a closer look, the two exchanged a glance and followed.

At the third location, they arrived at a historical site, an ancient city gate with defensive walls.

Surrounding it were covered walkways and murals, making it one of S City’s heritage attractions.

On one side of the city wall grew a wisteria vine said to be several hundred years old, climbing all over the wall.

However, Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, and Zhao Jue were not looking at the wisteria at all. Instead, they split up and scanned the surroundings. Wherever there were walls or pillars, they would stop to inspect them.

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue were a little confused – What exactly are these people looking for?

At that moment, Bai Yutang spotted a public restroom ahead. On its outer wall was a bulletin board covered with notices and advertisements, and he pointed it out to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue quickly ran over.

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue followed and saw the two of them flipping through the posted notices.

In the end, beneath a pile of advertisements and announcements, they found a half-torn poster stuck to the wall, faded by years of wind and rain – a missing person notice.

Zhan Zhao took out his phone. Just now, he had taken a photo of the pillar under the overpass – In the photo, there was also a missing person notice that had been mostly torn off, leaving only a small portion remaining.

“There was one at the first place too.” When he first saw it, Zhan Zhao hadn’t paid much attention, the missing poster looked extremely old. However, as someone with photographic memory, when he arrived at the second location and saw a similar one, he sharply realised it was the same poster.

The three missing posters were each damaged in different ways, but it was still clear they were searching for a young girl.

From the photo, most of the girl’s face could be seen. She wore glasses, had short hair, and a rounded face, making it hard to determine her age. Carefully deciphering the blurred text, you could faintly make out words like “first year”, “autumn”, “missing”, “generous reward”... The contact number left behind showed three digits, as well as “S City Police Bureau Zhao Ming X”.

“Zhao Ming...” Zhan Zhao felt that since there were two characters in the name, it should be fairly easy to find within the police system...

Sure enough, after having “Got You” search for it, there really was an officer in the S City police force whose name contained “Zhao Ming”. Her name was Zhao Mingxi, a female officer currently working as a civilian staff member in the archives department of the S City Police Bureau.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance and quickly ran back.

Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue followed behind, saying, “The missing posters have all been torn down, so that person must have already been found, right?”

......

Back at the bureau, Zhao Jue took Qian Lin and Guan Xiaoyue across the road to his own dessert shop to “broaden their horizons”, while Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went straight to the personnel department.

Police records were stored in several different places: paper files in the basement, a digital archive room upstairs, and several other branches holding various types of materials.

Zhan Zhao found Lu Fang, who checked the computer. “Oh, Zhao Mingxi works as an administrator in the archives section of the SWAT team.”

“The SWAT team has an archive department?” Zhan Zhao tilted his head, puzzled about what there was to store there. Videos of Hu Zi getting beaten up?

“Mostly attendance and duty records, it's a dead-end job...” Lu Fang lowered his voice. “The exile department.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look, immediately becoming interested in gossip. “What did she do to get exiled? Did she make a mistake?”

Lu Fang pulled up the file. “Mhmm, she indeed received disciplinary action.”

The two asked Lu Fang to elaborate.

“This file requires permission to view,” Lu Fang said, waving them off. “You’ll need Director Bao’s authority.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at him – Since we’re already here, why not reveal a little bit!

Lu Fang shrugged – Official procedures. Without permission, I can’t open it.

The two left the office and discussed it – Should we go ask Director Bao for clearance, or go find Officer Zhao?

Bai Yutang pointed at the half-torn, missing poster. “Let’s confirm who the missing girl is first. See whether it’s related to the case.”

Zhan Zhao agreed and immediately pulled Bai Yutang along toward the SWAT building next door.

‿︵‿︵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: June 5, 2026 by Angel

Edited: June 6, 2026 by Angel