S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 1: Chapter 23

The Digital Killer 23: Mad Infatuation 

Gongsun woke up in a daze, finding himself sleeping in the bed of his own bedroom. The sunlight filtering through the sheer curtains filled the room with bright light.

He checked the alarm clock on the nightstand—it was nine o'clock.

He remembered yesterday...

Shaking his head, which was still a bit groggy, Gongsun climbed out of bed. He walked into the living room to take a look around; Bai Jintang was already gone.

The bottle of 1986 Bordeaux red was sitting on the coffee table, pinning down a note beneath it:

"The wine is a gift for you. I have things to take care of, so I'm leaving first. Yutang and the others will arrive at your place in the morning. Remember not to leave their side for the entire day today!

Also, have Yutang check the fifth window on the thirteenth floor of the building opposite yours.

— Bai Jintang"

Gongsun recalled the events of last night and originally felt a stomach full of rising anger, but looking at that bottle of 1986 Bordeaux red... forget it.

He walked into the bathroom, turned on the tap, and glanced up at himself in the mirror, only to freeze instantly.

Why was he wearing pajamas??

He remembered distinctly that he hadn't changed clothes when he went to sleep last night! A bad premonition washed over him.

Gongsun unbuttoned his pajamas, and right there on his stomach, he shockingly saw several lines of red handwriting, written with a red oil-based marker:

"Bai Jintang was here. The development rights for this area belong exclusively to Bai Jintang; all other unauthorized personnel are strictly prohibited from approaching. Postscript: What a great body!!"

"That bastard!" Gongsun furiously slammed his towel onto the floor. "Shameless! Depraved! Bastard!..."

Swearing all the while, Gongsun used a wet towel to scrub his lower stomach... except the oil-based marker wouldn't wash off at all!

Ding-dong~~ Ding-dong~~

The doorbell rang. He hurriedly threw down the towel and buttoned his shirt; it had to be Bai Yutang and the others.

Walking resentfully to open the door, Gongsun plotted that he absolutely had to drag Bai Jintang out to exact a thorough and satisfying revenge!!

When he opened the door, however, he froze.

The person standing at the doorway looked rather exhausted. His messy hair and slight stubble made him look somewhat disheveled, but he was still wearing that same white lab coat, an gloomy face, and deep dark circles under his eyes.

"You... why are you here?" Gongsun was somewhat surprised by this person's sudden visit.

The man stared at Gongsun and let out a smile, opening his mouth to say, "I wanted to see you." His voice was brokenly hoarse.

Gongsun stared blankly at the man before him. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine, and he abruptly reached out to slam the door shut, but unexpectedly, the man shoved the door open with immense force.

Caught off guard, Gongsun lost his footing and fell backward. As he tumbled, a sharp pang shot through the wrist he used to brace his body; it was sprained.

The man had already stepped inside from the doorway. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a white square handkerchief and closed in on Gongsun, who was down on the floor.

"Why?" Gongsun retreated backward, but the man pounced forward viciously.

Gongsun struggled to climb up, but the man's movements were swifter and fiercer, pressing the square handkerchief firmly over his nose and mouth.

Gongsun's consciousness gradually slipped away. In his fading vision, he saw only the man's sinister smiling face before he immediately plunged into darkness.

Why? Chen Jing...

Chen Jing gently released his grip as Gongsun had already fainted. Stretching out a slightly trembling hand to touch Gongsun's cheek, he suddenly let out a hoarse laugh. "Ha... ha... I told you long ago that you are mine... you're mine."

Because of the situation involving Zhao Jue yesterday, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had tossed and turned until very late before falling asleep, only to be awakened early in the morning by the ringing of a mobile phone. Bai Yutang picked up the phone, and seeing that the caller ID displayed Gongsun, he felt puzzled...

"Hello?"

"Huh? I clearly dialed Little Zhao's number, so why are you answering, Yutang? Could it be that Little Zhao is sleeping right next to you at this very moment? Oh my! Congratulations, Yutang! As the saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way. It turns out Heaven truly doesn't let down those who put in painstaking effort—relentless steel has finally been forged into a soft ribbon wrapped around your finger!!"

"..." It took Bai Yutang a full ten seconds to digest those words. "Big brother?? Why do you have Gongsun's phone?"

"I'm at Gongsun's house. Yesterday I was abandoned by certain unconscionable younger brothers and became homeless, so I had no choice but to seek shelter with someone else."

"..." Bai Yutang was speechless. He glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand—it was eight-thirty.

"You didn't wake me up first thing in the morning just to complain, did you?" Bai Yutang yawned as he rolled out of bed.

"Come over to Gongsun's house immediately."

"What for?" Bai Yutang asked, perplexed.

"You'll know when you get here. He might be in some trouble."

"What?" Bai Yutang jolted. "What kind of trouble could Gongsun be in?"

"Cut the chatter and get over here quickly! I'm heading out now, so that's that."

"Hello? Brother? Hello!!"

Bai Jintang had already hung up.

"What's wrong?"

Bai Yutang's voice woke Zhan Zhao on the bed.

Because he needed to "protect" Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang had moved directly into the cat's den starting from yesterday. After a night of soft pestering and hard soaking, he had finally achieved his goal of sharing a bed and pillow with the cat.

Clutching the blanket, Zhan Zhao crawled up in a daze, feeling incredibly sleepy. "What is it? To be in such a rush?" Suddenly, the blankets heaved a few times, and Lu Ban poked out his furry head, rubbing and licking against Zhan Zhao... meowing with a face full of pure bliss.

Bai Yutang tapped his chin with his phone and suddenly said, "Cat! Get up!"

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The two drove and rushed down to the street beneath Gongsun's apartment building.

"Your big brother didn't say what happened?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang as they stepped into the elevator.

"No, he just said Gongsun was in trouble or something."

The elevator stopped on the eleventh floor. Stepping out, the two froze—the door to Gongsun's home was wide open.

Exchanging a glance, they sprinted inside.

The apartment was very tidy, except for some disarray right at the entryway—particularly a few footprints on the floor and a white square handkerchief...

"Gongsun?!" Bai Yutang checked every room, but there wasn't a trace of Gongsun anywhere inside or out.

"Yutang, look!" Zhan Zhao picked up the note on the coffee table and handed it to Bai Yutang.

Sweeping his eyes over the note, Bai Yutang hurriedly raised his head to look at the building opposite. With just one glance, he cursed, "Damn it!" and bolted outside. Zhan Zhao quickly followed.

"Which apartment is the fifth window on the thirteenth floor?" Bai Yutang rushed into the building, grabbing the security guard to demand answers.

"Ah... what do you guys want?"

Zhan Zhao quickly pulled out his credentials. "We're police."

"Uh... that, that's an empty unit, no... nobody lives there..." the security guard said tremulously.

"The keys!" Bai Yutang's face was completely severe, prompting the guard to hastily fish out the keys.

The two reached the thirteenth floor rapidly. Bai Yutang drew his gun, while Zhan Zhao inserted the key, twisted it, and immediately darted to the side. Behind him, Bai Yutang kicked the main door open and charged inside.

There was no longer anyone inside, but the sight within the room left the two of them utterly dumbfounded.

They saw a rough, completely unrenovated concrete shell of an apartment. Positioned before the massive French windows was a high-powered telescope and several video recording cameras. The floor was an absolute shambles, strewn with smashed vessels and torn photographs. The entire wall was completely plastered with photos of Gongsun—all of them stalker shots: sitting on the sofa watching television, drying his hair after taking a shower, tying his necktie, making a phone call...

Bai Yutang turned around in circles on the spot, scratching his head in sheer anxiety. Why hadn't he rushed over just a bit faster?!

Zhan Zhao scanned the photographs at lightning speed and suddenly said, "I know who it is..."

"What?" Bai Yutang nearly jumped. "Who?"

"The one from the funeral parlor!"

Hearing this, Bai Yutang grabbed Zhan Zhao and ran outside, dialing his phone as he sprinted. "Wang Chao, take the brothers to the funeral parlor to arrest a makeup artist named Chen Jing. He kidnapped Gongsun! Move fast!"

Leaping into the car, Bai Yutang mounted the police siren, slammed his foot on the accelerator, and the car sped furiously toward the funeral parlor.

"How did you know it was Chen Jing?" Now driving on the road, Bai Yutang finally opened his mouth to ask Zhan Zhao.

"It's possible that from the very beginning, we've been played."

"...What do you mean?" Bai Yutang overtook a car, cursing under his breath, "If only I had a helicopter right now!"

"Those photos—the shooting technique, the composition, the lighting... they all feel incredibly familiar, like I've seen them somewhere before!" Zhan Zhao gripped the handle on the car roof tightly.

"..." Bai Yutang fell silent for a moment. "The photos of dead people that Chen Jing gave to Gongsun."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Everyone was stamped after their death. Whether at the hospital or the funeral parlor, someone who could smoothly come into contact with the corpses..."

"A makeup artist!" Bai Yutang frowned. "He was the one who organized completely unrelated cases together, fabricating them into a serial murder case."

"Exactly!" Zhan Zhao said. "Because it happened to get tangled up with Wu Hao and his group's cases, it caused us to expand the scope of our investigation."

"Wu Hao was killed by him." Bai Yutang accelerated. "Chen Jing's physical characteristics match the description given by the prisoner!"

Zhan Zhao shook his head. "His behavior is an extreme form of paranoia. He must have received some kind of stimulus to make his actions escalate like this."

"It's definitely my brother."

"Mm... he has a cleanliness obsession, and he absolutely will not tolerate anyone else laying hands on the things he likes... Your brother spent the night at Gongsun's house last night, so he found it entirely intolerable."

"Will Gongsun be in danger?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao went quiet for a moment, deducing based on the man's behavior. "It is highly probable that he will kill Gongsun..."

"What? Doesn't he like him?"

"Didn't you see those photographs? He is a person with a very intense desire for exclusive possession, or rather, control. He cannot tolerate being resisted. What kind of person is absolutely obedient and will never resist?"

After listening to Zhan Zhao's explanation, Bai Yutang said with a hint of despair, "...A dead person..."

Inside a gloomy room, upon the freezing cold floor, Gongsun lay dressed only in his thin pajamas. The bone-chilling cold rising from the ground caused the effects of the anesthetic to pass quickly.

Gongsun slowly opened his eyes. The first thing that caught his view was a thick layer of stains on the ceiling. Beside him was a portable rechargeable lamp, casting a dim, sallow light.

"You're awake?" A hoarse voice rang out right by his ear.

Gongsun turned his head, only to see Chen Jing kneeling beside him, lowering his head to gaze intently into his eyes.

Due to the anesthetic, Gongsun felt his limbs grow immensely heavy, leaving him unable to move a single fraction of an inch.

"Why...?" Gongsun appeared to be muttering to himself.

"Hehe..." Chen Jing let out a self-deprecating laugh. "Naturally, you wouldn't understand why, because you have never once spared an extra glance at me..."

Gongsun went quiet for a short while. "Did you fake the cases as well?"

"That's right!" Chen Jing said with a touch of melancholy. "Originally, it was just to make you notice me. I just didn't expect that you guys would actually establish a formal case to investigate it."

"Heh... absurd. For the sake of this, you went out and killed people?"

"Absurd? You think it's absurd?!" Chen Jing suddenly became highly agitated. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?!"

Standing up irritably, he paced back and forth with rapid strides. "I... ever since the first time I saw you... I... you actually dare to call it absurd?"

Halting his steps, Chen Jing looked down at Gongsun with a dangerous expression. "Is it because of that man?"

Gongsun frowned. "Do you think everyone in the world is as perverted as you are?"

"..." Upon hearing Gongsun's words, Chen Jing's eyes gradually narrowed. He suddenly froze entirely because he spotted the two lines of red writing on Gongsun's stomach:

"Bai Jintang was here. The development rights for this area belong exclusively to Bai Jintang; all other unauthorized personnel are strictly prohibited from approaching. Postscript: What a great body!!"

Chen Jing's eyes began to bloodshot, his breathing turned rapid, and his body shook unstoppably with agitation, as if it could not withstand that surge of fury.

Just at this moment, a soft chuckle sounded from behind him, and a voice completely devoid of warmth rang out: "Are you illiterate? How can you recklessly touch someone else's property?"

Before Chen Jing even had time to turn his head, a wave of agonizing pain shot through his shoulder. With a sharp snap, his shoulder blade was crushed by the person behind him.

"Ah~~~~~" A hoarse, miserable shriek split the air.

Tossing Chen Jing to a spot not far behind him, Bai Jintang spoke to the figures shrouded in the darkness: "Drag him out."

"Yes!" Two nearly identical responses echoed from the shadows, piercingly cold. Although Chen Jing was vicious, he was swiftly subdued and subsequently marched out.

Helping Gongsun up from the freezing floor, Bai Jintang asked with a smile, "I helped you guys catch the killer. How are you going to reward me?"

When Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao arrived, they saw the other members of the S.C.I. rushing out of their police cruisers as well.

The group stormed into the funeral parlor, searching all over, yet they couldn't find a trace of Chen Jing or Gongsun anywhere.

Just as they were burning with anxiety, the door to the cremation room swung open, and Bai Jintang walked out carrying Gongsun in his arms. Following out behind him were two people who looked and dressed exactly alike, dragging the killer—Chen Jing.