S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 3: Chapter 6

The Magic Killer 06 - Misdirection  

Over the course of the time that followed, Zhao Zhen detailed the general characteristics, origins, and evolution of the curse patterns to everyone.

Being young and all outstanding figures in their respective fields, perhaps due to some common thread running through their bloodlines, or perhaps through some ineffable fate, Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, and Zhao Zhen grew more and more congenial. Their conversation eventually reached a point where Bao Zheng couldn't even squeeze a word in, and they even started cracking jokes with one another. The awkwardness between them completely melted away amidst the chatter.

In the end, Zhao Zhen agreed to assist with the investigation at S.C.I. tomorrow, prompting the group to finally decide to leave.

They had arrived as four, but departed as only three—because a slight complication had occurred.

Upon leaving, Lisbon clamped its jaws tightly around the hem of Bai Chi's jacket, refusing to let him go.

If the entity holding Bai Chi back had been a cat, everyone could have easily pulled it away.

And if the entity holding Bai Chi back had been a dog, everyone could have easily chased it off.

However—what was holding Bai Chi back was a full-grown adult male African lion!! Therefore, Bao Zheng, Bai Yutang, and Zhan Zhao made the rational decision to leave Bai Chi behind at Zhao Zhen's place, letting him accompany Zhao Zhen to the police station the next morning.

The butler saw the group out, leaving only Zhao Zhen, Bai Chi, and Lisbon in the living room.

The atmosphere was awkward to the absolute extreme.

"So your name is Bai Chi..." Zhao Zhen said. "I only found out just now."

Little Bai Chi gave him a sideways glance. "Yeah, back then you always called me 'Hey' or 'Little Thing'."

"Ahem, ahem~~" Zhao Zhen coughed helplessly, offering an awkward smile as he thought to himself: How on earth can this kid hold a grudge for so long...

Bai Chi desperately wanted to turn around and leave right then and there, but Lisbon began rubbing against him again, looking utterly reluctant to part. And truth be told, he genuinely liked Lisbon very much and wanted to spend a little more time with it...

Just as these two people and one lion were staring each other down with wide eyes, the butler stepped in and spoke up, "Young master Bai, why don't you stay in the young master's room tonight?"

"What?" the two of them exclaimed in unison, turning their heads to stare at the butler.

"..." The butler smiled. "Lisbon generally sleeps in the young master's bedroom... so..."

Zhao Zhen suddenly felt that this might just be a golden opportunity to smooth things over with Bai Chi. He took a step forward, slung an arm around Bai Chi's shoulders, and forced an amiable, winning smile as he said, "Perfect, since we haven't seen each other in so long, we have a lot to talk about..."

Bai Chi used two fingers to pinch the fabric of Zhao Zhen's sleeve, lifted his hand right off his shoulder, and tossed it away as if he were flicking off a dead cockroach. He then disgustedly brushed off the dust from his shoulder...

Following his action, Zhao Zhen's face turned livid as he ground his teeth... You brat~~~~

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had harvested a wealth of information that evening and sat contentedly in Bao Zheng's car on their way back to the police station. The three of them had been chatting with high spirits at first, but Zhan Zhao gradually grew quiet. When Bao Zheng glanced back in the rearview mirror, Bai Yutang smilingly made a shushing gesture toward him... Sure enough, Zhan Zhao had already leaned against his shoulder and fallen asleep.

Bai Yutang knew that Zhan Zhao had been exhausted over the past few days. He seemed unusually invested in this case, perhaps because the killer had targeted an innocent young child, which heavily provoked Zhan Zhao. Unlike himself, Zhan Zhao was, to put it more accurately, a pure scholar rather than a police officer... Having to confront such bloody carnage was truly a bit much to ask of him.

Almost unconsciously, Bai Yutang reached out his hand, gently and indulgently tidying up Zhan Zhao's hair. Glancing through the rearview mirror, Bao Zheng caught sight of the undisguised affection in Bai Yutang's eyes and felt a mild wave of surprise... These two kids...

Upon arriving at the police station, Bai Yutang wanted to carry Zhan Zhao over to his own vehicle and take him straight home to get a proper night's sleep, but right at that moment, his phone rang...

Answering the call, Wang Chao's voice came through: "Chief, the situation with that woman isn't looking too good!"

"Not looking good?" Bai Yutang asked, puzzled. "What's going on?"

"She's screaming and shouting, insisting that she has to go back, otherwise someone is going to die." Wang Chao replied with a hint of urgency.

"Die?" Bai Yutang was startled.

"Let's go take a look." Zhan Zhao, who had woken up at some point, rubbed his somewhat sore neck and spoke up.

"We'll be right there." Bai Yutang hung up the phone and reached out to massage Zhan Zhao's neck. "Have your neck pains been acting up frequently lately?"

"Mmm~~ a bit." Zhan Zhao moved his shoulders, and Bai Yutang's moderate, well-paced pressure drew a soft, comfortable sigh of relief from him.

Following that, the two of them walked side by side toward the elevator.

Just as they reached the entrance of the detention cells, they heard a woman's shouting echoing from inside. Wang Chao walked out, massaging his aching temples. "Chief!"

"Did you run a check on her background?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Checked," Wang Chao said, pulling out a file. "Her name is Kong Liping, thirty-one years old, and she's an accountant at a foreign trade company in the city. Two years ago, her husband passed away in a car accident, and she's been raising a child under two years old all by herself."

Bai Yutang glanced over the files. "No wonder she kept claiming her life wasn't going well."

"What was that she said about someone dying if she didn't go back?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Oh~~" Wang Chao sighed and said, "She claimed her baby is home alone. If she isn't back by tomorrow morning, there's a chance the baby might starve or freeze to death or something."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly and turned to Zhan Zhao. "Cat, should we just interrogate her now?"

Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment. "Alright, I suppose we have no other choice."

Wang Chao turned back inside, brought Kong Liping into the interrogation room, and informed her that as long as she cooperated with the investigation, she would be allowed to go home as soon as possible.

Kong Liping immediately quieted down, sitting obediently inside the interrogation room to wait.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't rush right in. Instead, they stood behind the one-way mirror to observe the person inside.

Kong Liping looked far older than thirty-one. Her features were ordinary and her skin rough; her long hair was somewhat disheveled and unstyled, and she wore no makeup. Her cheap clothing looked simple to the point of being destitute...

Zhan Zhao intently observed her actions: her darting, restless gaze, her anxious expression... and her right hand repeatedly twisting the ring on the ring finger of her left hand...

He furrowed his brows slightly.

Seeing that Zhan Zhao's expression was unusual, Bai Yutang leaned in closer and asked, "Cat, something wrong?"

Zhan Zhao mused for a moment before saying, "She's lying."

"Lying?" Bai Yutang asked. "How so?"

"She's extremely uneasy..." Zhan Zhao watched Kong Liping's movements as he spoke. "Her eyes keep shifting toward the lower left... That indicates she's thinking things through, and the current situation might be something she had already anticipated. She dresses simply, but she isn't slovenly... which shows she's an orderly person with strong self-control. Her expression shows far more anxiety than genuine worry; she's not actually thinking about her child right now..."

Listening to Zhan Zhao's analysis, Bai Yutang also stared intently at Kong Liping for a moment. "Cat, are you saying... she let us catch her on purpose?"

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin and smiled. "Perhaps... she has something she wants to tell us, but can't simply walk up and report it to the police."

"Then..." Bai Yutang rubbed his hands together. "What should we do?"

They exchanged a glance—play along with her scheme!!

With their minds made up, the two of them stepped into the interrogation room.

Sitting down across from her, before Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang could even speak, Kong Liping blurted out anxiously, "Officer, can we keep this brief? I... my child is still at home... He's too young, all by himself..."

"Is that so..." Bai Yutang pondered for a moment. "We can have social services drop by to check on him first."

"Ah! No, no need!" Kong Liping jolted in surprise, waving her hands frantically. "My son is very timid around strangers... If he wakes up and doesn't see me, he'll just cry..."

The two of them exchanged a glance.

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow—Well?

Bai Yutang nodded knowingly. Kong Liping had already been brought to the police station for at least four hours! For a mother to refuse social services assistance under these circumstances... there were only two possible reasons: either she didn't care about her child at all, or she knew full well that her child was completely safe.

"Let's begin, then." Bai Yutang nodded. "Let's keep it brief. It was also you who went to the kindergarten classroom last night, wasn't it?"

"Yes..." Kong Liping nodded. "It was me."

"What were you doing at the crime scene?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"I... I went to burn some money for the deceased person..." Kong Liping said.

"What you burned weren't paper offerings, but talisman papers," Zhan Zhao said with a smile. "It looked like you were performing some sort of ritual... Or do you believe this case wasn't committed by human hands?"

Kong Liping gave a slight shudder, looking somewhat nervous as she stammered, "Y—yes, I know it's a ghost..."

"Whose ghost?" Bai Yutang asked. "Xu Jiali's?"

"H—how do you know?" Kong Liping asked in a panic.

Zhan Zhao rested his chin on one hand and asked her with a solemn expression, "How did Xu Jiali actually die?"

"She... she was murdered by someone..." Kong Liping said.

"By whom?"

"I... I don't know."

Bai Yutang pulled out a document and said, "You attended classes at the same dance academy as Xu Jiali when you were young, and Xu Jiali died right there in the school locker room... Do you know something?"

"..." Kong Liping took a deep breath, as if she had finally made up her mind. "Jiali... wasn't killed by that serial killer."

"Then who killed her?"

"I don't know... When we, when we went in, she was already dead." Kong Liping shook her head and said, "We only... only faked that crime scene."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances, then asked Kong Liping with a look of astonishment, "You drew that magic array pattern? Why would you help the real culprit fake the scene?"

"I..." Kong Liping ruffled her hair as if feeling somewhat flustered. "We were just messing around out of boredom... Besides, besides, Jiali usually looked down on all of us. We wanted to teach her a lesson..."

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao, his expression conveying: This lie is a bit too far-fetched, isn't it?

Zhan Zhao nodded, signaling him to play along!

"So you figured Xu Jiali came back for revenge this time?"

"Mmm..." Kong Liping said. "Zhang Zhenzhen... she was with us back then."

Zhan Zhao slid a piece of paper over to her. "Write down the names of everyone who faked the scene with you back then."

With a slight tremor in her hand, Kong Liping took the pen and jotted down a string of names.

Taking the paper handed over by her, Bai Yutang nodded. "You may leave now."

"...What?" Kong Liping seemed disbelieving, staring at Bai Yutang in confusion.

"You can go back now. Or is there anything else you'd like to say?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Oh... n—no, nothing." Kong Liping hastily stood up and headed for the door. After taking a few steps, she turned back and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Officer... um... did you know that Xu Jiali has a younger sister?"

"A younger sister?" Bai Yutang looked somewhat surprised.

"That's right... Jiali and her sister were orphans, later adopted by different families... But the two of them were very close."

"What's her sister's name?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Uh... as for that, I wouldn't know. I never met her, I just heard Jiali mention her often." With that, Kong Liping hurried away in a panic.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao. "What do you think, Cat? She seemed to be deliberately tipping us off about what really happened in Xu Jiali's case back then."

"And that's not all!" Zhan Zhao smiled. "She also reminded us that Xu Jiali has a sister."

Bai Yutang swiftly dialed a number on his phone. "Wang Chao, tail Kong Liping!"

"Got it." Wang Chao hung up and discreetly followed behind Kong Liping.

Putting away his phone, Bai Yutang turned his head and noticed that Zhan Zhao's face had gone pale. "Cat, what's wrong?"

"Hm? Nothing... my stomach hurts a bit." Zhan Zhao smiled and said, "Anyway, whose names did Kong Liping write down? Any of them could potentially become the next target."

Bai Yutang looked at him with concern. "Are you really alright? We should head to the hospital."

"It's not like my stomach has never hurt before ~~ You're making a fuss over nothing." Zhan Zhao reached out, snatched the paper from Bai Yutang's hand, and read aloud: "Mmm~~ Zhang Zhenzhen, Shen Ling, An Qingyao, Li Xu..."

"What?!" Bai Yutang paused, swiftly snatching the paper back from Zhan Zhao to inspect it himself.

"What is it?" Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

"This Li Xu..." Bai Yutang pointed at the name on the paper. "...there's a major problem here~~”