S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 3: Chapter 15
The Magic Killer 15 - The Mutation
As a large contingent of police poured into the entertainment center, the previously chaotic situation began to grow orderly.
Gongsun sat inside Bai Jingtang's black Mercedes-Benz. The sealed car windows shut out the clamor of the outside world, and through the glass, he watched the people outside bustling about in silence... Gongsun suddenly felt as though the entire world had grown quiet.
Bai Jingtang lay quietly on the reclined passenger seat beside him. Aside from a slightly pale complexion, there was no other sign of abnormality; he looked simply as though he had fallen asleep.
Gongsun turned his head sideways, examining him earnestly. He had never imagined that someone as formidable as Bai Jingtang could just collapse like that upon a whim~~~ Or rather, the side Bai Jingtang displayed to the world was always his tough exterior, while his vulnerable side remained forever hidden from view... Even in the second before he passed out, he was still joking with him... Was a person like him destined to keep smiling even if he were to die the next moment?
Reaching out, Gongsun playfully pinched Bai Jingtang's nose and poked his cheek, watching the man who usually bullied him get bullied in return. It balanced things out in his heart, and the worry and panic from just a moment ago slowly drifted away into nothingness~~~
It was said that when a person was in a state of deep sleep, talking to them would cause corresponding images to appear in their mind.
Gongsun leaned in close and whispered softly into his ear, “You just ate a fly~~~”
Bai Jingtang's brows furrowed slightly, and his throat twitched lightly...
So fun!~~~
“There's a dog chasing you.” Gongsun pressed his advantage.
His brows furrowed even tighter, and his eyelids twitched slightly.
…………Suppressing a smile, Gongsun thought for another moment, leaned in closer, and murmured softly, “Gongsun says, if you don't wake up right now, he's going to dump you.”
Bai Jingtang suddenly stopped reacting~~~ Gongsun stared at him in puzzlement, only to see those tightly shut lips part slowly. The person who had been unconscious suddenly spoke up: “Even if I die, I'm waking up.”
...!..
Seeing Bai Jingtang's opened eyes and the trace of a smile within them, Gongsun was so startled he nearly cried out: “You—when did you wake up?”
“Just a moment ago.” Bai Jingtang smiled, reaching out—only to discover that his left hand was gripping Gongsun's hand with a tight hold.
“I can't let go. What should I do?” Lifting Gongsun's hand along with his own, Bai Jingtang asked with a rather shameless air.
“...” Gongsun remained silent. Glancing at his own fingers, which had turned white from pressure, he said softly, “It hurts~~~”
Bai Jingtang hastily let go.
The atmosphere was harmonious, and even the temperature of the surrounding air seemed to be rising slowly. Bai Jingtang felt this was a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity~~~ Just as he was about to utter some "sweet nothings," the car door was suddenly yanked open.
The twins poked their heads in simultaneously: “Boss! You're awake?!”
Staring daggers—these two blind-as-a-bat lightbulbs!! Bai Jingtang reached out with the intent of tossing them straight out.
Sensing the murderous intent radiating from Bai Jingtang's face, the twins waved their hands frantically: “Big brother, you'll definitely be happy when you hear this!”
“Gongsun was so worried about you just now, he was worried to tears!” Big Ding exaggerated the facts tenfold.
“I didn't...” Gongsun flushed as he tried to explain. Although he *had* been very worried at the time, he definitely hadn't cried~~~
“He even ignored his work and came running over to take care of you!” Little Ding exaggerated the facts tenfold once more.
“You guys...” Gongsun panicked.
“And there's more!!” The twins chorused in unison, multiplying the facts by a hundred: “He called you ‘Jing~tang~’ and even said as long as you were fine, he'd do whatever you wanted!!” With that, they slammed the car door shut with a loud *bang*.
“...” Gongsun ground his teeth in fury. Those damn twins, spinning wild tales out of thin air~~~ Although a portion of it was true, it certainly wasn't that exaggerated... Turning his gaze back to Bai Jingtang, he saw the man looking at him with an expression blending astonishment and utter bliss.
“Th... They're talking nonsense~~~ None of that happened.” Gongsun hastily tried to explain, only to be yanked forward by Bai Jingtang.
“Say it again.” Pulling Gongsun into his embrace, Bai Jingtang pressed a soft kiss to his ear, “Say my name.”
…………Gongsun hesitated slightly. Meeting the expectation shining in Bai Jingtang's eyes, he leaned close to his ear and whispered the name.
In return, he received an exceptionally tender, lingering kiss from Bai Jingtang.
“I... I'm going to do the autopsy~~~” Struggling away while panting lightly, Gongsun quickly pushed open the door and fled~~~ Bai Jingtang remained alone inside the car, gazing with a sort of devout reverence at Gongsun's flustered, retreating figure, utterly unable to tear his eyes away.
Having steadied his emotions, Gongsun walked over to Shen Ling's corpse, pulled on a pair of gloves, and personally commenced the autopsy in place of Forensic Pathologist Yang, who had been summoned to help. The moment he caught sight of the wound, he froze~~~ Gongsun turned his head in surprise to look at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao standing behind him, and seeing the two blink at him as if soliciting his opinion, Gongsun thought for a moment and nodded at them.
The autopsy results revealed that Shen Ling had been strangled to death rather than stabbed. A transparent glass cord was wrapped around her neck, with the other end secured to the rooftop railing at a length calculated with extreme precision—right at the exact center of the magic circle diagram. When Wang Chao and the others arrived at the rooftop, they discovered a large pool of blood~~~ Shen Ling must have been right there when someone stabbed a knife into her neck, tied her to the cord, and cast her down from the heights. The knife protruding from her neck and the cord used for securing her were both specialized props commonly used in magic shows.
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang summoned Shen Ling's friends to inquire about the situation.
According to accounts, after finishing their conversation with Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, Shen Ling had spent a bit more time drinking with her friends. Shen Qian had left quite early to take care of preparations for the opening ceremony. Later on, figuring the time was right, the group prepared to head down to the plaza to watch the performance, but Shen Ling suddenly announced she had some loose ends to tie up and took the special passageway by herself.
“Special passageway?” Zhan Zhao asked with a hint of perplexity. “What special passageway?”
“It's just the corridor that only internal personnel of the Shen Corporation are allowed to use.” One of Shen Ling's friends answered.
Zhan Zhao called aside one particular girl reported to be Shen Ling's best friend and questioned her on several points.
Returning to Bai Yutang's side, Zhan Zhao whispered a few words to him. The two exchanged a glance and turned to leave.
In the parking lot, a figure hurriedly unlocked a car door, shoved a large bag into the back seat, shut the door, and let out a long sigh of relief. Turning around with the intent of heading back, the person was startled to discover that two figures had somehow appeared behind him—Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.
“What's wrong, Attorney Kong? Look at all that sweat on you.” Bai Yutang asked with a smile.
Standing by the car with a face as pale as paper was none other than the Shen Corporation's retainer lawyer—Kong Cheng.
“Uh... What a coincidence for the two officers~~~ Is something the matter?” Although he forced himself to remain steady, Kong Cheng's speech still retained a nervous stammer that slurred his words.
“It's no coincidence. We're here specifically for you,” Zhan Zhao also smiled. “That car behind you doesn't seem to be yours—a white BMW~~~ If I remember correctly, it should belong to your boss, Shen Qian.”
“Oh~~~ That's right, that's right.” Kong Cheng nodded. “The boss just handed me a bag and asked me to put it in the car.”
Bai Yutang shook his head with a frown. “If I had to guess, inside should be blood-stained clothing, a glass cord, and several knives, am I right?”
“I... I don't know. I never opened it to look,” Kong Cheng hurried to deny.
“Not only did you look, but you're the one who put them in there.” Bai Yutang sighed. “You murdered Shen Ling and even tried to frame Shen Qian for it. They say guards against outsiders are easy, but thieves within the household are the hardest to defend against~~~”
“Y-You guys talking nonsense! What evidence do you have?!” Kong Cheng raised his voice. “I-I'm going to sue you for frame-up!”
“Don't be in such a rush,” Zhan Zhao signaled for him to calm down. “By the way, what time is it?”
Kong Cheng was startled, his hand instinctively reaching toward the pocket of his suit jacket before stopping abruptly.
“Take it out. Why aren't you pulling out your pocket watch?” Bai Yutang asked with a smile. “Or is there something unmentionable about this watch?”
“...” Kong Cheng fell silent, his eyes locked dead onto Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao. “How... how did you know...”
“We've always found it strange. Given the circumstances, Shen Ling was in a state of constant peril, so why would she leave the others and take the special passageway alone? And what's even stranger is, how did the killer know she would take that specific route and ambush her right there?” Bai Yutang seemed to be answering his own question. “The answer is because she wanted to avoid a certain person—and that person was you!”
“According to Shen Ling's close friends, you've been pursuing her quite aggressively lately,” Zhan Zhao continued. “Shen Ling told them that you even staged a fake kidnapping earlier this morning, which made her utterly despise you and want to stay as far away from you as possible.”
“Just moments ago, you claimed you needed to use the restroom and would be right back, telling everyone to go on ahead to the venue without you. Hearing that, Shen Ling left by herself and chose the special passageway... All of this was calculated within your plan. According to your friends, you were gone for a long time—around twenty minutes before returning.” Bai Yutang helped calculate the timeline for him. “You went to the special passageway, committed the murder, transported the body to the rooftop via the elevator, tied her to the rope you had prepared in advance, dropped her down, and headed back—taking precisely twenty minutes.”
“The staff stated that you signed a confidentiality agreement with Zhao Zhen and the others on behalf of the Shen Corporation, agreeing not to disclose the details of the magic trick. Consequently, you were the one who ordered the rooftop area locked down from the day preparations for the performance began~ The keys were under Shen Qian's management... Naturally, given Shen Qian's position, he certainly wouldn't waste his focus on such trivial matters! Since you could even get your hands on his car keys, getting your hands on that ring of rooftop keys was even less of an obstacle~~~ Thus, no one discovered the preparations you made.” Zhan Zhao explained at a leisurely pace: “The magic circle diagram was drawn by you before the signboard was even hoisted up! Because the core secret of this magic trick was—the signboard itself had actually been hanging on the outer wall of the entertainment center all along; it was merely wrapped in a special covering layer so that its visual texture appeared identical to the wall itself~~~ And before that signboard was installed, it had been stored up on the rooftop. You could take advantage of some moonless, pitch-black night to go up there by yourself, peel back the covering layer, paint the magic circle diagram, and cover it back up~~~ completely undetected.”
Kong Cheng listened in silence until he finished, then let out a couple of dry chuckles: “That only proves I had the opportunity to commit the crime. How can you be certain it was me? Shen Qian and Zhao Zhen had the opportunity too!”
Listening to this, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao smiled faintly.
Zhan Zhao shook his head. “Too bad you made a single mistake—a single flaw that ruined everything!”
“What mistake?” Kong Cheng asked, bewildered.
“The very first time we laid eyes on the corpse, we found it odd. The true magic murderer's consistent habit is to slash the victim's throat with a blade. Across so many cases, it has always been like that, without a single exception! But why, of all times, did this instance involve stabbing the knife straight into the victim's throat? And to top it off, it was done *after* the victim had already been strangled to death.” Zhan Zhao shook his head. “It was completely superfluous.”
“That's because...” The words teetered on the edge of Kong Cheng's lips before he swallowed them back, his face filled with exasperation and regret.
Bai Yutang nodded. “Indeed, you can't entirely be blamed for that; there was no helping it~~~ An accident, wasn't it?”
Kong Cheng lowered his head, sliding his hand into his pocket.
Zhan Zhao continued: “Shen Ling was strangled to death, yet you still drove a knife into her. That means the spot where you stabbed the blade was an area the killer wanted to destroy~~~ Was there something wrong with that patch of skin? It led us to consider whether the tool used by the killer to strangle her possessed some unique feature that left a distinct mark behind~~~ The ligature mark was extremely fine, which meant the murder weapon we were looking for had to be a very thin and somewhat unusual cord or chain—!”
“We asked your friends and found out that you've always carried an antique bronze pocket watch with you. The watch chain is very long, and attached to the chain is a round copper coin engraved with your name.” Bai Yutang stated, “Presumably, when you were strangling Shen Ling, that copper coin happened to press right against the center of her throat, leaving your name clearly stamped upon it as evidence pointing straight to you! So you had to destroy that evidence.”
“Heh~~~” Kong Cheng let out a raspy chuckle, withdrew the pocket watch from his pocket, and held up the coin—roughly the size of a one-yuan piece—dangling from the long watch chain. “I never expected that while strangling her, this copper coin would press squarely against the dead center of her neck, leaving my name printed upon her skin plain as day.”
“So you carved away that circular patch of skin, but realizing that would inevitably draw unwanted attention, you had a sudden flash of inspiration and drove the entire knife straight in to conceal the wound, didn't you?” Zhan Zhao gazed fixedly at Kong Cheng. “Judging by the execution of that magic diagram, you were also the one who murdered Zhang Zhenzhen, weren't you? Why did you kill them?!”
Kong Cheng stared down at his pocket watch, nodded slowly, and ground his teeth: “That's right~~~ Because they deserved to die!” Following that, he clamped his mouth shut and refused to say another word.
Shortly after, Kong Cheng was escorted onto a prisoner transport vehicle and dispatched to the police station.
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao heaved slight sighs of relief. Once the rest of the team learned the full sequence of events, they clicked their tongues in utter amazement. What had moments ago appeared to be a once-in-a-century, seemingly flawless masterpiece of a bizarre crime had been cleanly and neatly solved in a flash, resolving the Zhang Zhenzhen case right along with it~~~ This left everyone looking at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao with a deep sense of reverence and awe~~~
Yet, the expressions harbored by Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang remained severe~~~ Kong Cheng and Wei Yong's attitudes and testimonies aligned almost perfectly— “They deserved to die~~~” What on earth had happened back then? The true insiders were all dead. What did Kong Cheng signify in the grand scheme of this entire case? Perhaps he was nothing more than the tip of the iceberg.
Wearily returning to S.C.I., with three individuals—Wei Yong, Li Xu, and Kong Cheng—waiting for interrogation, Bai Yutang intended to summon everyone for a meeting, only to discover that Ma Han was missing.
“Where is Ma Han?” He asked Jiang Ping, who stood nearby. “Didn't you tell him to send someone else? Don't tell me he went to tail Zhao Jue himself?”
“Oh!” Jiang Ping produced a stack of photographs. “I was wondering the same thing myself. He hurried off the second he finished looking at these photos.”
Zhan Zhao took the photographs, and the group crowded around to take a look. They showed a young girl dancing.
“Where did these come from?” Bai Yutang glanced at them a few times before snatching them away to ask Jiang Ping.
“Uh... I-I contacted Xu Jiali's family... These were taken... during her performances before she passed away.”
“You're saying this is Xu Jiali?!” Zhan Zhao wore an expression of sheer astonishment as well.
“What's wrong?” Jiang Ping looked at the group with a puzzled expression.
Right at that moment, Lu Fang came running in looking frantic: “This is bad! The police transport van carrying Kong Cheng was rammed by another vehicle! The officers are injured, Kong Cheng has escaped, and he even hijacked a firearm!”