S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 5: Chapter 10

The Doppelganger Killer 10 - Stunning Discovery

Seeing Weiyong's corpse lying on the floor, all three of them froze in shock. Bai Yutang swiftly shoved his gun back into its holster and flattened himself against the wall beside the door. At that moment, the door pushed open just a fraction, and a figure appeared in the doorway. Before they could even make out who it was, Bai Yutang lunged out instantly.

"Whoa~~" The person outside let out a startled yelp, but clearly possessed impressive reflexes. He rapidly sidestepped and raised a hand to block Bai Yutang, only for Bai Yutang to pivot and lash out with a kick. The person retreated a step, but his footing faltered for a split second, and he took a direct hit to the groin, hissing sharply in pain. His signature flippant drawl rang out: "Handsome, are you trying to castrate me?"

Recognizing that slightly familiar voice, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both froze. There, massaging his waist and yelping dramatically, stood none other than Eugene.

"What are you doing here?" Bai Yutang lowered his stance, eying him with guarded suspicion.

"I came out to get some fresh air!" Eugene shrugged with both hands shoved in his pockets. "The air inside was terrible. Sit down there long enough and it makes you irritable."

Bai Yutang swept his gaze around the surroundings. The alley was dead quiet, devoid of anyone else entirely... He turned back to Eugene. "Did you hear the gunshot just now?"

"Heard it the moment I reached the top of the stairs," Eugene smiled. "So I came out to see the commotion."

"Didn't see who fired the shot?" Bai Yutang frowned. "Can you speak a bit more straightforwardly?"

"Heh heh." Eugene sidled up with a cheeky grin and lowered his voice. "That's the only way I can get to say a few more words to you."

Bai Yutang shot him a cold, unamused glare, causing Eugene to quickly step back and duck behind the wall. "Ugh, you're so fierce."

Ignoring his antics, Bai Yutang looked back into the room to find Zhan Zhao wearing an expression of pure bafflement, while Loach Luoyang stood with wide eyes, staring blankly at Weiyong's body on the floor.

Right then, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from outside. Zhan Zhao nodded at Bai Yutang, slipped one of his business cards into the copy of Crime and Psychology, and placed the book back on the shelf. He leaned down and whispered into Luoyang's ear, "I have a feeling your father's death was fishy, and Uncle Weiyong's too... If you trust me, come find me."

The moment his voice trailed off, a clamor of shouts rose from outside as Chen Jie and her subordinates came rushing up.

Everyone froze the moment they laid eyes on Weiyong's corpse, before instinctively drawing their weapons and aiming them at Bai Yutang and Eugene.

Chen Jie shot her subordinates a stern glare. "What are you doing? Put your guns away."

The subordinates obediently lowered their weapons, but their bloodshot eyes remained fixed on Bai Yutang and Eugene with undisguised fury, clearly devastated by Weiyong's murder.

"It's a misunderstanding!" Eugene hurriedly waved his hands and ducked behind Bai Yutang. "I just came out for some fresh air, and I don't even carry a gun."

Chen Jie looked at Bai Yutang. "Captain Bai, what happened here?"

Bai Yutang stared at the group for a moment before saying, "You'd probably get a more reliable answer if you asked him instead." With that, he glanced back at Luoyang inside the room.

"Yangyang, tell me, how did Brother Yong die?!" an impatient subordinate demanded, bursting into the room.

After a long silence, Luoyang muttered, "They didn't kill him. I don't know who did."

Hearing Luoyang's words, the crowd exchanged glances and finally lowered their guard.

"Get the brothers to search this entire alley from end to end!" Chen Jie ordered, then turned her gaze back to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao. "Yangyang's been shaken up; he's in no condition to answer your questions. Besides, I will get to the bottom of this matter myself. The two of you should head back."

Without a word, Bai Yutang glanced back at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded, turning to Chen Jie. "Sorry to have intruded. We'll take our leave for today." With that, he gently patted Luoyang on the shoulder and turned toward the exit.

As the two stepped outside, Chen Jie pulled the door shut behind them, only for Bai Yutang to ask unhurriedly, "Boss Chen's hearing is quite impressive. With all that noise inside, you were still able to pinpoint the gunshot out here."

Chen Jie paused, looking up just in time to meet Zhan Zhao's penetrating gaze. For a split second, she failed to mask her expression, and Zhan Zhao clearly caught the flash of panic and awkwardness in her eyes.

Smiling with satisfaction, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took their leave together.

Once they were gone, Chen Jie finally let out a breath. She pushed the door open again and stepped into the room, finding Luoyang still standing frozen in the exact same spot. Sighing softly, Chen Jie walked over and pulled him into a gentle hug. "Yangyang, remember this: black and white can never coexist. Don't touch the underworld, and don't ever trust the police!"

After a moment of silence, Luoyang nodded, looking up at Chen Jie. "Yeah, I understand. I didn't tell those two cops anything. I hate the police the most."

Nodding, Chen Jie led him over to the bed, tucked him in under the covers, turned off the light, and left.

Long after the footsteps and voices outside had completely faded away, Luoyang quietly slipped out of bed, hurried over to the bookshelf to retrieve the book, crawled back under the covers, pulled out Zhan Zhao's business card, and clutched it tightly in his hand.

Leaving the Dark Night Kingdom, the two climbed into the car. Bai Yutang fastened his seatbelt and let out a long breath, his expression unusually grim.

"What's wrong, Bai?" Zhan Zhao blinked at him. "Still holding a grudge about being flirted with by Eugene?"

Bai Yutang was momentarily taken aback by the remark, then looked at Zhan Zhao with a helpless chuckle. "Cat, you surely aren't jealous over that."

"Didn't get the chance this time, but I won't let him off next time!" Zhan Zhao declared with an unyielding look.

"Heh... I was just thinking about Chen Jie and Luoyang." Bai Yutang shook his head. "Luoyang definitely knows something."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Chen Jie made it blatantly obvious she didn't want us asking questions... And Weiyong's death was way too convenient, though judging by the M.O., it looks like—"

"No, the vibe is completely different." Bai Yutang shook his head repeatedly before Zhan Zhao could finish. "There's none of that eerie feeling."

"What eerie feeling?" Zhan Zhao smiled. "Are you talking about that creepy aura surrounding the Midnight Punisher?"

"Every crime scene we've seen involving him gave me that exact sensation," Bai Yutang said, looking puzzled. "But this time, I didn't feel it at all. Besides, Weiyong was shot in the head, which means the killer fired from the sides of the alley..."

"That alley has zero places to hide. If the killer had approached from either side, Weiyong surely would have noticed them, yet not a single sound was made." Zhan Zhao picked up the thread of Bai Yutang's thought. "Which suggests Weiyong likely knew the person."

Bai Yutang nodded, then asked, "Cat, what about Luoyang..."

"Relax, the kid is smart; he'll find a way to reach out to us on his own," Zhan Zhao said. "Under those circumstances, pressing him further wouldn't have yielded any answers, and it might have put Luoyang in danger."

"At any rate, someone thought Weiyong was worth killing while sparing Luoyang... That detail alone is worth chewing over." Bai Yutang started the engine. "Cat, what's our next move?"

"Let's pull up Luowen's records." Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin. "Today's events show that Luowen's death wasn't just a simple gang turf war."

Back at the police station, the two had Jiang Ping pull up Luowen's file, only to discover it was classified.

"Hah..." Bai Yutang let out a cold laugh. "He was just a regular underworld hoodlum, yet his file is classified?!"

"This dossier belongs to the Anti-Gang Unit." Jiang Ping clacked away at his keyboard for a few moments, then shrugged helplessly at Bai Yutang. "It's an internal classified file within the department; even I can't hack it."

Bai Yutang frowned. Suddenly, Zhan Zhao nudged him and whispered in his ear, "Did you forget about the airplanes and artillery just because you're used to musket fire?"

"Ah!" Bai Yutang's eyes lit up. "We can check the physical archives room." Reconsidering a second later, he shook his head. "Those are all kept in the classified archives room. To get in and read them, you need a signed slip from Chief Bao, and actually pulling the files requires official authorization from the Anti-Gang Unit!"

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it just Chief Bao's signature?"

"Cat... are you thinking of forging it?" Bai Yutang eyed him.

"Don't you find it strange?" Zhan Zhao tugged at the hem of Bai Yutang's jacket. "This case smells fishy from top to bottom."

Bai Yutang thought it over, nodded, and had Jiang Ping print out a blank request slip for reviewing classified documents. Zhan Zhao casually flipped through a document previously signed by Bao Zheng, studied it for a moment, and then swept his pen across the slip with a few quick strokes. An identical signature materialized on the request form.

Bai Yutang raised an eyebrow. "Cat, if Chief Bao finds out about this, it'll be enough to keep the two of us scrubbing toilets for half a year."

Zhan Zhao shot him a glare. "I'll handle the forging, you handle stealing the slip back, and there won't be any evidence left behind!" With that, he grabbed Bai Yutang and dragged him toward the door.

By the time they reached the archives room, it was already the middle of the night. Bai Yutang lingered a few steps behind, pretending to make a phone call.

The duty officer sleepily dragged himself up. "Captain Bai, you SI folks are really hardcore, still working this late?!"

Zhan Zhao casually handed him the slip and lowered his voice. "We're on a classified operation. Make sure you don't mention to anyone that you saw us!"

"Understood! Understood!" The duty officer nodded repeatedly, taking the slip and feeding it into the handwriting scanner. The computer confirmed it was indeed Bao Zheng's handwriting.

Stowing the slip away in a drawer, the duty officer grabbed the keys to unlock the door. Because the classified room had no signal reception, Bai Yutang stood outside lagging behind on his phone, loudly saying, "Cat, you go on in first, I'll be right there."

The moment the duty officer turned his back, Bai Yutang darted over to the drawer, yanked it open, snatched back the paper slip, and slammed the drawer shut.

Having retrieved the evidence of their crime in a split second, Bai Yutang acted as nonchalant as ever as he walked up to Zhan Zhao, hung up his phone, and stepped into the archives room with him.

"How'd it go?" Zhan Zhao asked in a hushed voice once they were inside.

Bai Yutang pulled the slip from his pocket and gave it a little wave. The two exchanged a grin and set to work searching through the records.

Luowen's case hadn't happened all that long ago, so they quickly located the thin file.

They took one look, and were completely dumbfounded.

"Luowen was an undercover cop?!" Bai Yutang stared at Zhan Zhao with wide eyes. "Undercover for five years!"

Zhan Zhao found it equally hard to believe. "If he was undercover that long, what kind of case was he actually investigating?!"

Flipping back and forth through the entire folder, they found no mention whatsoever of the specific case he had been working on, deepening the mystery even further.

"Bai, look at this!" Zhan Zhao pointed to the seal on the file cover. "This file was sealed and classified by Lan Chenglin!"

"And nowhere in this file does it mention that Luowen had a son!" Bai Yutang frowned. "Luoyang looks at least six or seven years old, which means he was born before Luowen went undercover. Would anyone really take their son along with them while going undercover?"

Zhan Zhao stared at Luowen's photograph for a long time before shaking his head. "Did you notice? The two of them don't look a single bit alike..."

They exchanged a look—was it possible that Luoyang wasn't actually Luowen's son?

Zhan Zhao looked somewhat disoriented. "Then why..."

Before he could finish, a sharp click echoed from the outer room. The two exchanged glances—who on earth would be coming here at this hour?

Bai Yutang snapped the file shut, shoved it back onto the shelf, and pulled Zhan Zhao behind another row of bookshelves to hide.

They heard the duty officer outside saying, "You need to register files before taking them out."

"I know, didn't I already give you the authorization slip?!" a curt, impatient voice snapped back, and footsteps entered the classified archives room.

Judging by the sound, there were two people coming in. Fearing exposure, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't dare poke their heads out to look. Bai Yutang extended a finger to part a stack of documents slightly, peering through the gap to see two plainclothes officers he recognized—both members of the Anti-Gang Unit.

He heard one of them mutter, "What's gotten into the captain? Dragging us out here in the middle of the night just to grab a file?"

The other yawned. "Who knows? Let's just grab it and get out of here, it's freezing."

The two searched around for a moment, pulled out a file, and muttered complaints as they left.

Once the pair had signed out and their footsteps faded into the distance, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stepped back out to the shelves. A quick check confirmed their suspicion: Luowen's file was gone.

"What a coincidence. The moment we went to look for Luoyang, Lan Chenglin had someone come take Luowen's file away?" Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow at Bai Yutang. "Looks like someone tipped him off."

"Meaning Lan Chenglin doesn't want us to find out that Luowen was an undercover cop." Bai Yutang tapped his chin in thought, then asked with a hint of worry, "Cat, could Luoyang be in danger?"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly. "Tell me... why do you think Eugene showed up there?"

Bai Yutang was momentarily stunned before breaking into a helpless, knowing smile. "Cat, you really are something else."