S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 3: Chapter 9

The Magic Killer 09 - Speculation  

"What is your name? Hurry up and tell me!" After planting a fierce kiss on Ma Han's cheek, Chen Jiayi refused to let go of his collar, demanding that he tell her his name.

As for Ma Han, he had probably never been in such a flustered state in his entire life, staring in horror at the excited young woman beside him~~~ How could modern women act like this??

"What is with that expression?!" Chen Jiayi shook Ma Han's collar a couple of times with a fierce demeanor. "You'd think I took advantage of you!"

Just as the two of them were at a stalemate, the man who had been sprawled on the ground moments ago suddenly let out a shout, "Hey!"

Ma Han and Chen Jiayi turned their heads to see that Shen Ling had already picked herself up from the ground, draped in the man's suit jacket, with a look of lingering terror still on her face. The man, however, looked completely different from his previous pathetic self, blazing with anger.

"You!" The man pointed a finger at Ma Han, demanding, "Why the hell did you let them go just now?!"

Ma Han was slightly taken aback, finding it rather amusing. However, being a man who utterly despised talking and even less inclined to argue with people, he chose to ignore the fellow, deciding to head back inside. If he had known earlier, he wouldn't have bothered coming out in the first place.

"Stop right there!" Seeing that Ma Han remained silent, the man refused to let the matter drop and stepped forward a few paces. "Are you secretly in cahoots with those guys or something?"

Just because Ma Han didn't like talking didn't mean he had a good temper! Come to think of it, inside the entire S.C.I., aside from Zhan Zhao, not a single person had a mild temper; they basically all belonged to the predatory, aggressive category of carnivores~~~ Still, as the saying went, S.C.I. was a team composed of elites handpicked from the entire police force, and nobody inside was brainless. Ma Han knew he still had a mission to attend to, and causing a scene here might stir up unnecessary trouble, especially with Shen Ling standing right beside the man.

However, Ma Han could hold his tongue, but Chen Jiayi by his side certainly could not. She sneered, "Aren't you something else? Sitting on the ground shaking like a leaf just a minute ago, and now that you're safe and sound, you're standing here barking like a mad dog?!—What a spineless coward."

"What did you say?!" The man lunged forward a few steps.

Chen Jiayi quickly ducked behind Ma Han, poking her head out to continue, "Look at you, all skin and bones. What's the matter? Still got weak knees? Were you scared out of your wits just now, you little scaredy-cat?"

"You~~" The man's face flushed a mottled shade of red and green.

Chen Jiayi gave Ma Han a nudge. "Mutester! Don't hold back! Beat him up!"

Glancing sideways at Chen Jiayi, who was trying her best to stir up trouble, Ma Han suddenly felt she bore a striking resemblance to Ma Xin, right down to their apparent age, and he could only shake his head with a helpless sigh. "Let's go."

Seeing a faint smile break across Ma Han's face, Chen Jiayi happily prepared to follow him back inside...

"Don't you walk away! Leave your names behind! We're going to investigate you!" The man rushed forward another few steps, putting on an aggressive front.

Ma Han halted his steps, expressionless, and turned around to walk toward him~~~ His pace was neither fast nor slow, a steady, measured stride.

Seeing Ma Han approach so close without any intention of stopping, the man instinctively retreated two steps, stammering, "What... what do you think you're doing..."

Ma Han stopped, stared at him for a moment, and gave a faint, flat smile. "Take a look around. Are there any security cameras here?"

………… The man was startled.

"Heh~~" Ma Han chuckled, glancing at Shen Ling. "Coming all the way out here to stage a kidnapping, you should've checked beforehand that there were no cameras around. The moment they got scared, they bolted—these kidnappers are terribly simple-minded~~~ And as for the one in the car, staying knocked out for that long..." With that, he patted the man heavily on the shoulder. "Hard to tell whose little play this is..."

The other three people present froze. The expression on the man's face shifted through a spectrum of extraordinary colors, while Shen Ling beside him seemed to suddenly snap out of her haze, turning her gaze toward the man with a look of profound shock.

Without looking back, Ma Han turned and walked away. From behind came the sound of a sharp, ringing slap as Shen Ling pointed right at the man and cursed at the top of her lungs, "Kong Cheng, you actually went out of your way to stage a show just to trick me?! Go to hell!"

"Shen Ling, Shen Ling, let me explain..."

……………………

Finding the spectacle immensely entertaining, Chen Jiayi hurried to catch up with Ma Han. "I get it now! That guy deliberately hired people to put on a show so he could get 'kidnapped' along with the woman, only the play got ruined before it finished by you... How did you figure it out? That was amazing!"

Ma Han stopped right before the entrance of the casino. "Can you pretend you don't know me?"

Chen Jiayi blinked in surprise, then nodded. "Alright."

"Thanks." Ma Han pulled the heavy glass door open and strode swiftly inside.

Left standing in place, Chen Jiayi pondered for a moment... and still hadn't managed to get his name out of him~~~

Meanwhile, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had returned to the S.C.I. office.

"Jiang Ping, run a check on this Wei Yong and see if he's the exact same police officer Wei Yong from back then," Bai Yutang instructed.

"Will do." Jiang Ping swiftly pulled up the archived personnel files from the past on his computer.

"Cat, what are you looking at?" Seeing Zhan Zhao staring intently at a document with a furrowed brow, lost in thought, Bai Yutang stepped closer with a curious look.

"Kong Liping gave us a few names the other day, and these are their files... Something about them is rather strange," Zhan Zhao said.

"What's strange about them?"

"Take a look!" Zhan Zhao flipped through the pages as he spoke. "These individuals—Kong Liping is 31 years old this year, which means she was 21 ten years ago. Zhang Zhenzhen, An Qingyao, and Li Xu are all 28, making them 18 back then. Even the youngest, Shen Ling, is 27 this year, meaning she was already 17 at the time. But Xu Jiali was only 13 years old when she died!"

Bai Yutang carefully examined the data, a puzzled expression crossing his face as well. "That's true. Why would people in their early twenties have any sort of feud with a thirteen-year-old child? And... with such a wide age gap, why would they be taking dance classes together?"

"It's a pity that school was shut down right after that case took place," Zhan Zhao muttered in frustration after finishing the files. "Otherwise, we could have tracked someone down to ask."

"Heh~~" Jiang Ping suddenly let out a chuckle from the side.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao turned their heads toward him.

"What are you laughing at?" Bai Yutang asked, perplexed.

"Oh~~ Chief, do you know why that Wei Yong got fired back then?" Jiang Ping asked, his eyes fixed on the data.

"Why?" The two of them stepped closer.

"Look!" Jiang Ping clicked open Wei Yong's file and read aloud: "Willfully tampering with a crime scene."

"Tampering with a crime scene?" Zhan Zhao frowned. "What happened?"

The reason listed under Wei Yong's discharge read: "Failed to adhere to basic protocol for law enforcement personnel and deliberately destroyed a homicide crime scene."

"Can you trace which case it was?" Bai Yutang asked.

"...Ah, it was Xu Jiali's case. Look, it's written right here!" Jiang Ping pulled up the corresponding record. "He altered that magic array diagram."

"What did he alter it into?" Zhan Zhao asked urgently. "Are there any photographs?"

"No photos. Everything we have on record was taken after the initial evidence collection." Jiang Ping performed a search across the database, yielding nothing.

"Cat," Bai Yutang recalled aloud, "When I went to question Uncle Wen downstairs the other day, his expression kept changing colors the moment Wei Yong was brought up, as if he were trying to hide something."

"And don't forget, Li Xu was there that day too. She was drunk and muttering things about 'a good man' and 'a life for a life.'"

"We interrogate Wei Yong first, then track down Li Xu!" Zhan Zhao closed the folder.

"My thoughts exactly!" Just as the two of them turned toward the door, Jiang Ping's desk phone rang. He picked it up, and upon hearing the voice on the other end, cried out in shock, "Chief, Kong Liping is dead!"

"What?!" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were momentarily stunned.

"Weren't we supposed to have the Homicide Squad keep eyes on her? How could she be dead?!" Bai Yutang demanded, his face flushing with anger.

"She... she committed suicide," Jiang Ping reported.

Fifteen minutes later, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao arrived at the entrance of Kong Liping's apartment building. They found Ai Hu and several other Major Crimes detectives lingering outside the unit, while a long-absent Gongsun stood outside with his arms crossed, refusing to step inside.

"Gongsun?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao stared at him in surprise. "What brings you here?"

Gongsun frowned and offered a cold snort. "What? When did you Captain Bai officially fire me?"

"...No, aren't you on leave?" Bai Yutang hastily plastered on a conciliatory smile, exchanging a quick glance with Zhan Zhao—what a murderous aura radiating off him~~~

Averting his gaze with an expression of pure displeasure, Gongsun muttered, "I received a text alert stating there was a homicide here, so I came. The forensics team didn't know I was on leave." Inwardly, however, he was cursing that damned Bai Jingtang a hundred times over~~~ making him pull another all-night shift—what a beast!

"Why aren't you going in?" Bai Yutang asked the gathered officers.

Gongsun shook his head. "Nobody dares to go inside." With that, he gently nudged the ajar door open.

At first, Bai Yutang found the whole thing novel. What did they mean nobody dared to go inside? Was there a ghost in there? With so many police officers around.

When the door swung wide open and the two of them peered inside... they froze.

Hanging from the ceiling fan in the center of the room was Kong Liping's corpse. A deep, long slash wound ran across her neck, and fresh blood had spattered all over the floor. Sweeping their gaze around the room, they saw that the ceiling, the walls, and the floor were completely covered in intricate magic array diagrams... The scene was chillingly bizarre.

Bai Yutang finally understood why everyone was too terrified to step inside—they were afraid of contaminating the crime scene.

Gongsun spoke up. "I told them not to enter beforehand. Given a scene like this, it's best for Xiao Zhan to take a look first."

Zhan Zhao stood at the threshold, remaining silent for a long moment before asking Gongsun, "Do you believe she committed suicide?"

Gongsun nodded slightly. "What do you think?"

"Suicide," Zhan Zhao answered succinctly. "However, it should have been done while she was unconscious."

Ai Hu hurried forward, his face flushed. "Captain, my men didn't keep close enough tabs on her. We failed to do our job properly and let such a huge blunder happen."

Bai Yutang patted him on the shoulder and asked, "Who was assigned to watch her?"

"It was us." Two remarkably sharp-looking detectives stepped forward. "We didn't leave our post for a single second. We watched her the entire time; she definitely never stepped outside, and no one else entered her apartment either. Later on, when we noticed she hadn't come out for work, we figured something was wrong. We knocked, got no answer, and when we forced the door open, this was what we found. It's spooky as hell~~"

Bai Yutang nodded, turning to Zhan Zhao. "Cat, you mentioned just now that she committed suicide while unconscious?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Do you notice anything abnormal about this room?"

Bai Yutang remained silent for a beat. "No footprints."

"Right!" Zhan Zhao nodded. "These diagrams might look chaotic at a glance, but upon closer inspection, they follow a strict pattern—a spiral closing inward from the perimeter."

"And the focal point is the pool of blood beneath the victim... If someone else had drawn these diagrams and then faked a hanging scene, there's no reason they wouldn't leave footprints behind," Bai Yutang continued. "And the officers confirmed nobody came out."

"Look at her hands!" Gongsun pointed toward Kong Liping's hands.

Everyone raised their eyes to inspect her hands and arms closely; they were riddled with cuts and completely stained crimson with blood—self-inflicted mutilation?

"She must have slashed open her arms to draw the diagrams with her blood. As for the ones on the ceiling, they look like they were drawn a long time ago and have already dried. The vibrancy of the color is different too," Gongsun sighed. "This is not something a normal person would do."

"Sensory hypnosis," Zhan Zhao stated abruptly.

"What?" The others looked at him in confusion.

Gongsun asked, "You mean something akin to hypnotic anesthesia?"

"Exactly!" Zhan Zhao nodded. "Such methods have indeed been utilized in the medical field by certain practitioners."

"Hypnotic anesthesia?" Bai Yutang was baffled.

"Some people are immune to anesthetic drugs, meaning it takes a massive dosage to produce an anesthetic effect, or sometimes they cannot be anesthetized at all. As you know, an excess of anesthesia is harmful to the body. Therefore, there was once a documented case where a master hypnotist placed a patient's senses under hypnosis, temporarily stripping them of the ability to feel pain so surgery could be performed, and waking them up afterward," Zhan Zhao explained patiently.

"..." The group listened in silence until Bai Yutang chimed in, "Isn't that just a superpower??" The rest of the police officers nodded in unison, up and down.

Gongsun and Zhan Zhao shot the group a scathing glare, as if to say—you a bunch of uncultured ignoramuses~~~

"Wait a minute~~" Bai Yutang waved a hand. "Are you implying that Kong Liping first used her own blood to cover the room in magic symbols, then hanged herself, and didn't forget to slash her own throat along the way?" He turned to look at Zhan Zhao. "Who on earth could drive a person to treat themselves with such cruelty?"

Zhan Zhao turned his gaze fixedly onto him and replied slowly, "Her... self..."

……?……

After the forensics colleagues finished taking their photographs, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stepped into the room. Surveying the surroundings from the center of the apartment, the visual impact was even more staggering!

Gongsun had someone take down Kong Liping's body to perform a preliminary autopsy. "She died early this morning, no more than three hours ago... The murder weapon is a utility knife blade lying in the large pool of blood on the floor; I didn't notice it earlier." Gongsun stood up and reported concisely, "There are far too many injuries on her body, both old and new... I'll give you the full report after I take her back for a complete autopsy."

"Gongsun," Zhan Zhao suddenly called out to him as he turned to leave. "When you're doing the autopsy, could you help me tally up the number of scars from different time periods on the victim's body?"

Gongsun paused slightly, then nodded. "Alright."

"Cat, what crazy scheme are you cooking up now?" Bai Yutang reached out and slung an arm around Zhan Zhao's shoulder. "Spit it out!"

Zhan Zhao slapped his hand away. "Keep your paws off!"

With a slightly sheepish expression, Bai Yutang withdrew his hand, though a wave of warm satisfaction washed over him when he caught sight of the ring on Zhan Zhao's left hand, identical to his own.

"Uh~~~~" Zhan Zhao noticed the ring as well and let out a sudden, soft gasp. Bai Yutang started as well, and the two of them simultaneously realized a grave problem—where was Kong Liping's child?

They rapidly searched every single room in the apartment—nothing!

"Shh!!" Bai Yutang suddenly whispered to the others. "Quiet down, everyone!"

The remaining police officers fell completely silent... The room grew utterly still... and faintly, a sound could be heard... resembling the mewing of a tiny kitten.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao traced the sound—leading straight to the balcony.

Kong Liping's home was located in an older residential building, featuring a balcony roughly three square meters in size... A washing machine sat on the balcony... Its lid was propped open with a small towel, not fully closed—the sound was coming from inside.

Y

Stepping forward, Bai Yutang lifted the washing machine lid, reached inside, and lifted out a small infant... around one year old...

The baby seemed to have just woken up, looking with wide-eyed curiosity at Bai Yutang who had picked him up. The little hands reached out and flailed, and feeling somewhat uncomfortable, the tiny feet kicked about while his little brow furrowed.

Holding the child with both hands, Bai Yutang didn't dare to move a muscle. He asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat, what do we do?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head. "Xiaobai, why are you holding a baby like that? You look like you're about to throw a lateral pass in rugby!"

"Dead cat! Don't make jokes... He's so soft, what if I accidentally squeeze him to death~~" Sweat began to bead on Bai Yutang's palms; this was the first time in his life he had ever held a child this small.

"He looks really uncomfortable!" Zhan Zhao began to panic as well. "Use less force!"

"I'm not using any force!"

"Idiot mouse! You don't even know how to hold a baby?"

"Then you take him!"

"I don't know how."

"Then why on earth should I automatically know?!"

"You know how to do housework! And you're a mammal too!"

…………

Mid-argument, the infant suddenly puckered its lips, tilted its head back, and let out a wail.

……！……

"He's crying!" Zhan Zhao glared angrily at Bai Yutang. "Think of something, fast!"

"You dead cat!" Bai Yutang looked back at the rest of the team. "Are there any women here?"

Ai Hu and the rest of the criminal investigators exchanged glances and shook their heads.

The baby's crying grew louder and shriller.

"Xiaobai! Did you hurt him?" Zhan Zhao took a step back, pointing an accusing finger at the infant.

"I didn't think so!" Sweat began to sprout on Bai Yutang's forehead. "I wasn't using that much strength~~ Somebody, think of something!"

"Captain! I found a cradle!" Ai Hu emerged from the room carrying a delicate rocking cradle.

"Bring it over here, quick!" Immensely relieved, Bai Yutang hurriedly placed the baby into the basket.

The moment the child was laid inside, the cradle rocked a couple of times, and the crying stopped. He began to babble incomprehensibly to himself.

Bai Yutang wiped away a bead of sweat and let out a breath.

It was the first time Zhan Zhao had ever seen Bai Yutang looking so flustered and helpless, and he found it quite amusing.

"Why on earth did Kong Liping put the kid inside the washing machine?" Bai Yutang wondered aloud, reaching out to cautiously tease the little fellow, who immediately grabbed hold of his finger.

"Perhaps..." Zhan Zhao gazed at the patterns covering the walls of the room. "She was afraid something might harm this child."

"Cat, what did you mean earlier when you asked Gongsun to tally up the number of scars from different time periods on the victim's body?"

"Count them. How many patterns are there on the ceiling?" Zhan Zhao pointed overhead.

"..." Bai Yutang counted them. "Thirteen."

"What about the floor and the walls?" Bai Yutang counted once more, and to his astonishment, discovered, "They're all thirteen?!"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Do you remember when Kong Liping went to the crime scenes of Zhang Zhenzhen and Sun Qian to burn some paper talismans?"

Bai Yutang nodded. "You're saying this is some kind of... ritual, a ceremony?"

"Kong Liping's state of mind seemed rather trance-like," Zhan Zhao observed. "She was likely hypnotized."

"Hypnotized?" Bai Yutang was skeptical.

"Think about it," Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin. "Kong Liping and the others clearly covered something up back then, and it weighed heavily on their consciences... That magic array diagram must have been a haunting shadow hanging over her mind all this time~~~ Besides, her life didn't seem to be going very smoothly either—so for a woman of this type, what kind of place is she most likely to turn to, seeking help..."

"Fortune-telling!" Bai Yutang had a sudden flash of realization, before adding, "Are you saying a fortune-teller hypnotized her?"

Zhan Zhao noted, "Hypnosis bypasses conscious awareness. If you were Kong Liping, and you woke up one morning to find your ceilings covered in these familiar magic array diagrams, how would you feel?"

Bai Yutang chuckled. "If I had genuinely done something wicked back then, I'd probably be scared out of my wits."

"And then shortly after, you hear that Zhang Zhenzhen has died." Zhan Zhao guided him step by step.

"You'd think you're next in line," Bai Yutang chimed in. "And then Sun Qian dies too, making her believe her son will be next, which is why she hid the child away."

Zhan Zhao gave his sleeve a tug. "Xiaobai, you're so smart!"

Bai Yutang tugged back on Zhan Zhao's sleeve. "Cat, when you're praising my intelligence, could you please refrain from calling me 'Xiaobai'roomId?!"

"Of course, this is just a hypothesis..." Zhan Zhao added. "A rather bold one."

Bai Yutang instructed Ai Hu and the others to thoroughly comb through Kong Liping's home and conduct an investigation at her workplace, specifically asking her colleagues and friends whether she had ever mentioned anything about fortune-tellers or divination.

"Right," Bai Yutang said suddenly. "Since we're already guessing, I have an even bolder idea."

Zhan Zhao looked at him with a smile. "Do you think Wei Yong's actions might also be connected to that 'fortune-teller'?"

Bai Yutang grinned. Seeing that nobody else was around, he leaned in close to Zhan Zhao's ear and whispered, "Cat, we really share a telepathic connection~~~ Then do you know what I want the most? Make sure you remember to get it for me for Christmas, okay~~"

Zhan Zhao's face turned beet red. He raised his foot and delivered a vicious stomp onto Bai Yutang's shoe, gritting his teeth, "You dead mouse!"

"Ahem~" Bai Yutang coughed feignedly. "Once we head back, we can also approach our interrogation of Wei Yong from this angle."

Zhan Zhao rolled his eyes and proposed, "I think we shouldn't head back just yet today. Let's go somewhere else instead."

Bai Yutang leaned in close to his ear. "Now it's my turn to guess. Are we going to Shen Qian's... casino opening event? After all, he was the last person to see Kong Liping alive last night!"

"Hmph!" Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow. "You parasite living in my stomach!"

Hearing that, Bai Yutang was amused, flashing a profoundly meaningful grin as he lowered his voice. "Inside your stomach? When did I crawl in there?"

"Shut your mouth!" Flushing crimson, Zhan Zhao raised his foot to kick him. "You dead mouse, that's disgusting!!"

"Let's go." Bai Yutang pulled out his car keys, grabbed Zhan Zhao, and hauled him toward the exit, only to hear Ai Hu shouting behind them, "Captain! You guys forgot to take the kid!"

"Huh?!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's jaws dropped.

Looking thoroughly pleased with himself, Ai Hu trotted over carrying the cradle and shoved it straight into Bai Yutang's arms. "Once the crime scene is sealed off, there won't be anyone to watch him. You guys take him back; he counts as a witness anyway, so according to protocol, he belongs under your jurisdiction."

With a bitter expression, Bai Yutang accepted the baby and headed downstairs to the car alongside Zhan Zhao.

"This kid Ai Hu is really showing some growth!" Bai Yutang gnashed his teeth. "He even knows how to invoke protocol!"

Placing the cradle on his lap, Zhan Zhao chuckled merrily. "Weren't you the one who trained him? Which of your subordinates would ever willingly take a loss?"

"Why did he stop crying?" Bai Yutang started the engine and cast a curious sideways glance at the infant.

Zhan Zhao reached out to give the baby's tummy a gentle poke, prompting the little fellow to burst into a fit of gurgling laughter.

"So much fun! He's all soft." Zhan Zhao poked him a few more times. On the final poke, he likely used a bit too much force, causing the baby to press his lips together and let out another piercing wail.

"Yutang! He's crying! What do we do now that he's crying?" Zhan Zhao, who had been having fun just a second ago, instantly panicked.

"Yutang isn't crying!" Bai Yutang gloated.

"Why is it wet..." Zhan Zhao felt the underside of the cradle... "Oh! He peed!" With that, he hastily shoved the cradle away.

"Cat! You just soaked the car!" Bai Yutang was horrified!

"My pants are soaked through, and you still have time to worry about the car?!" Zhan Zhao grumbled with a miserable expression.

"Pants are wet? Take them off!"

"Fine!……………… Go to hell!" With a shove, he shoved the cradle right back at him.

"Hey~~~ Cat! I'm driving... get it away, my clothes are covered in it now..."

"We share weal and woe!"

……………………

On the way back to S.C.I., they continued driving in a zig-zagging S-pattern~~~