FIRSTLY, one of my good friends just passed away, so there's a good chance that I won't post a chapter in the next few days. I will be back by Sunday at the latest.
5:50 a.m., the first-class section on an international flight from New York to S City.
After a long, nearly 11-hour flight, the passengers on board looked quite tired.
Bai Yutang, who had always been active and was not good at staying silent, felt as though the bones in his whole body were going crisp. Turning his head to look at Zhan Zhao next to him, he saw that he was writing in a notebook and working on a code, concentrating. Bai Chi, who was on the other side of the aisle, was lying back in his seat and sleeping soundly.
"Kitty~~" Bai Yutang still decided to harass Zhan Zhao.
"Shh~~~” Zhan Zhao ignored him and continued to work on the code.
They had gone to New York this time to assist with Wilson's case and had gotten a lot of information. Zhan Zhao and the criminal psychologists there had exchanged thoughts on the case, and they had obtained a lot of valuable data. He had to sort it out.
Seeing that the Cat was ignoring him, Bai Yutang had no choice but to stand up and stretch, walking back and forth.
At that moment, a stewardess came over in a panic. She went up to Bai Yutang and asked, "Sir, are you a policeman?"
"Yeah." Bai Yutang noticed the flight attendant's erratic emotions and asked, "What's wrong?"
Zhan Zhao to the side also turned his attention away from the notebook and looked up at the two.
"Well, three pasengers in the economy class are in a strange state." said the stewardess.
"Strange? Strange how?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.
At that time, the sleeping Bai Chi also woke up. He stumbled up and looked at the crowd blankly.
"I saw them taking a few pills, and then something felt off." The stewardess said, "The plane is about to land in less than an hour, but they are getting worse and worse. Could you take a look? "
"No problem." Bai Yutang nodded. "But how did you know that I was a policeman?"
"Uh, the passenger in the front seat told me." Then, the stewardess looked forward. They saw a man leaning back in the front seat, waving to them.
...? ...
Bai Yutang made certain that he didn't know this person, and then turned to look at Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao shook his head at him, meaning he didn't know him either.
The man looked about the same age as Bai Yutang. He was wearing a stylish black leather coat and had excellent looks. He had yellow-lensed glasses on his high-bridged nose, short and neat hair, and deeper eye sockets and contours than Asians traditionally had. He should be mixed...… No, but… He felt familiar.
"Don’t be surprised." The man pushed his glasses up with his middle finger and smiled brightly. "I know everything."
"Zhen! Stop it." A solidly-built middle-aged man stood up from the seat beside him and pulled him up as well, apologizing to Bai Yutang, "I'm sorry, he's a little weird."
"No." Bai Yutang interrupted him. "I want to know how he knew."
"Hehe." The man named Zhen continued to smile. "Every type of person has a different aura. I can see them because I have magic."
……………………
"Uh... could you come take a look first?" The stewardess interrupted them and urged Bai Yutang.
"Let's go," Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows at Zhan Zhao with a question—would you like to come?
Zhan Zhao also raised an eyebrow at him—Not interested! Then, he looked down and continued writing.
Bai Yutang followed the stewardess to economy class, and the now-awake Bai Chi quickly hurried after him. As he passed by the man, the man asked Bai Chi puzzledly, "Are you also a policeman?"
Strangely, Bai Chi, who had always been gentle and obedient, turned, glared at him, and said viciously, "I don't talk to magicians. They are all swindlers." After that, he quickly followed Bai Yutang and left the first-class section.
The man was frozen for a while, then he looked back at the also surprised Zhan Zhao, "How did he know that I was a magician?"
Zhan Zhao held back a smile and shrugged. "Maybe he can see your aura..."
"Pu~~" The middle-aged man sitting beside the man couldn't help but laugh.
Zhan Zhao lowered his head. He knew... He had finally remembered why the man felt familiar. He had seen his posters on the street, and there were related reports in magazines. This man was called Zhao Yan, known as the greatest magician of their time. Everyone called him a "wizard (1)" because his magic performances were often incredible, and it felt like he was actually magical. He was also quite a showman, always declaring that he knew magic. He was wearing colored glasses and didn't look much like the poster, so Zhan Zhao hadn't recognized him at first. Besides, even if it was like that, a person like Bai Yutang who never paid attention to entertainment would likely not recognize him. Zhan Zhao only remembered him because of his outstanding memory.
At that time, a commotion broke out from the economy class section. Two men with small knives suddenly rushed out and one after another. Their eyes were flushed, and their breathing was fast. Apparently, they were taking some hallucinogenic drugs, and the dose was obviously not small.
Following them closely, Bai Yutang also came out.
He grabbed the one running in the back and jammed his shoulder. He heard a kata sound, and the man fell to the ground with a cry. The man running ahead was shocked, and Zhan Zhao, who was standing right next to him, suddenly took out his shoulder with almost the same movement as Bai Yutang. He looked up and smiled at Bai Yutang. “How was that? Have I learned well enough?"
Bai Chi brought in another person that Bai Yutang had brought down from economy class, and the captain set the three up in the first-class lounge.
"What's going on?" Zhan Zhao walked up to Bai Yutang, curious.
"These boys took too much medicine, pulled knives to take a passenger hostage, and asked the pilot to fly the plane to Afghanistan." With a smile, Bai Yutang asked the stewardess to pour some tea for the three men. They seemed to have somewhat returned to their senses from the pain of their dislocated shoulders, and they looked depressed.
The commotion had horrified several passengers, and a little girl was sobbing. No one could persuade her to stop.
Zhao Yan walked over and touched her hair lightly and said, "Hey, little beauty, do you like flowers?"
The little girl choked up and looked at him, her eyes a little puzzled.
"What is this?" Zhao Yan said, reaching out and taking out a red rose from behind her ear.
"Eh?" The little girl was surprised and stopped crying before she even realized it.
"En!" Zhao Yan sat next to her and asked, "What animal do you like?"
"Dolphin!" Said the little girl excitedly.
"Haha." Zhao Yan laughed. "That's too big. It wouldn’t fit in the plane, so..." With a slight wave of his hand, he stretched his hand out in front of the little girl's eyes and slowly opened his hand, "We’ll make it small."
She saw a delicate plastic dolphin in his palm.
The little girl immediately burst into tears of joy and laughed. The passengers around them began to applaud, and Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao also looked on with interest.
Zhao Yan seemed to enjoy feeling like the center of attention, and he stood up to pay tribute to the surrounding passengers. However, when his eyes turned towards Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, he was surprised. Wait...
He saw Bai Chi behind them staring at him angrily. He whispered, "Swindler!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked back at Bai Chi in bafflement. Zhao Yan was even more shocked and whispered to the middle-aged man next to him. He was his agent, Qin Bi, "Did I offend him?"
Qin Bi shook his head. "I don’t think so."
Bai Chi walked over to his seat and sat down, and Zhao Yan walked to his side and asked curiously, "Why do you say that I'm a swindler?"
Bai Chi glanced at him angrily and said, "As long as the movement is faster than 0.25 seconds and you use a decent distraction, it is difficult for the naked eye to capture your movements." After speaking, he turned away and ignored Zhao Yan’s embarrassed face, not forgetting to add a sentence, "All magicians are swindlers."
"Passengers, please note that we are about to arrive at the airport of S City. The plane is about to land. Please return to your seats..." The stewardess's wonderful voice sounded in time, alleviating the awkward atmosphere. Zhao Yan quickly returned to his seat to sit down and fasten his seat belt, but he was desperately raking his mind. Had he offended this person before?? Why didn’t he remember him? Small, baby-faced, with big eyes... impossible! He hadn't seen him before... The entire time until the plane landed, he continued to try hard to think about it~~~~~!!
Bai Chi followed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang with the luggage and got off the plane. Zhao Yan suddenly asked him, "What's your name?"
Glancing at him coldly, Bai Chi lifted his luggage and left quickly—completely ignoring him.
"This person must have a grudge against me!" Zhao Yan was once again certain~~~
After getting off the plane, Bai Yutang's cell phone rang. The caller was Wang Chao.
"Hey! Boss, are you back?" The background sound coming from the phone was a bit noisy, and the sound of sirens was mixed in.
"What's wrong?" He had a bad feeling.
"Big things. You had better come directly to Nova Kindergarten." Wang Chao said, "I can't explain clearly on the phone."
"Okay." After hanging up the phone, Bai Yutang shook his head at Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi and said, "There is another case. Let’s go to the scene first."
They drove in a rush to Nova Kindergarten.
This kindergarten was very familiar to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. It was the one that had the hostage situation not too long ago. It was very dangerous the last time. They didn’t know what had happened this time.
Looking at the chaotic scene at the door, Bai Yutang sighed, "Should we find a Feng Shui (2) master for this kindergarten?"
Wang Chao had rushed out to report the case, "The students who came to class this morning found their teacher dead in the classroom."
Zhan Zhao frowned, "Dead in the classroom? Why would a normal murder be given to the S.C.I.?"
Wang Chao smiled bitterly, "It’s too evil to talk about it! Anyway, just go in and look at the scene and you’ll understand."
Soon, everyone arrived at the classroom on the second floor. It was a large classroom. There was no class number at the door, and there was only a colored, moon-shaped sign. There were three classes in each grade of this kindergarten. They were distinguished by stars, the moon, and the sun.
Entering the door of the classroom, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang paused. They saw that the tables and chairs in the middle of the classroom had been removed, revealing an open space. The deceased was a young woman, a very beautiful kindergarten teacher. Her carotid artery was cut open, and she was lying quietly in the middle of the classroom. The most peculiar thing was that a strange circular pattern was drawn with blood on the ground beneath her, like the magic arrays popular in ancient Europe... The scene was too familiar.
Taking a breath, Zhan Zhao murmured, "The Magic Murders..."
Wang Chao nodded, "Our brothers in the severe case team were all stunned when they saw this and notified us as soon as possible."
"Bizarre!" Bai Yutang also looked grim.
The police knew that the magic murder was one of the top unsolved cases in the city. The mysterious murderer murdered indiscriminately, and every time he committed a crime, he left a weird magic circle under the corpse at the place of the crime. A total of no fewer than thirty people had been killed within a year... But this murderer had stopped committing crimes ten years ago. The Magic Murderer seemed to have evaporated. Unexpectedly, exactly ten years later, the same exact type of case occurred.
Gongsun came over with his gloves on. He had already performed a preliminary autopsy.
"How is it?" Bai Yutang asked as he hurried forward.
"The deceased was named Zhang Zhenzhen. She was 23 years old. The preliminary cause of death is excessive blood loss caused by the rupture of the carotid artery. The time of death should be between 10 to 11 last night."
"What about that magic circle?" Zhan Zhao asked a little eagerly.
"It was painted with the blood of the deceased, using tools like brushes..." Gongsun said, then paused and looked at Bai Yutang before continuing, "It's almost the same as the case ten years ago."
Bai Yutang rubbed his brow in distress, "That is, it isn't a boring fool who is imitating previous offenders?"
Gongsun shrugged, "That is not my jurisdiction. I am only responsible for the autopsy."
Zhan Zhao walked up to the corpse and looked down at. He walked around it, then climbed onto a table and looked down...
"Kitty, what's wrong?" Bai Yutang asked.
Zhan Zhao stood on the table and shook his head, saying, "It wasn't that person."
"Oh?" Bai Yutang and several others gathered together. "Why do you say that?"
"I have studied that case for a long time." Zhan Zhao took Bai Yutang's proffered hand and jumped off the table. "The murderer stood in a higher place every time he killed someone to see what the dead looked like. Like he was appreciating a piece of artwork. That process may have been even more enjoyable than killing the deceased. Thus, every time he kills, there must be a raised thing that is four or five steps directly above the deceased's head, just like this..." Then, Zhan Zhao took a chair and walked away from the head of the deceased for five steps. He lowered the chair, let Bai Yutang stand on it, and asked him, "What do you see? "
Bai Yutang looked down at the corpse and said, "The entire corpse and pattern are in the field of vision." After that, he climbed down and beckoned to a police officer from the forensics department. “Take a few pictures from that angle.”
Wang Chao touched his head and said, "It seems to be a copycat crime. Let's give it back to the serious crimes team."
Bai Chi squatted on the ground and looked at the picture carefully, then said, "He will kill again." Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded.
Seeing that Wang Chao was still a little confused, Zhan Zhao asked him, "If you killed a person and wanted to blame a serial killer, would you choose someone who had not committed a crime for ten years to imitate?"
Everyone was silent.
Bai Yutang sighed and said, "A copycat serial killer..."
"It's not so much imitation, it's more like something else." Zhan Zhao said, "Typical copycat serial killers have certain borderline and anti-social personality disorders. They don't have basic feelings, such as compassion and morality, but their ideological feelings are more developed. They worship the person they imitate and enjoy the thrill of being an idol in the process of imitation, so they will pay less attention to details! It’s just that... "
"It's just that this person's imitation is hasty," Bai Yutang said. "There’s no sense of enjoyment at all. It’s just a learning step."
"What does that mean?" A police officer off to one side of the crime team couldn't help asking curiously.
"It shows that the murderer has some sort of relationship with the real Magic Murderer... but it should not be the kind of relationship that we know or understand." Zhan Zhao tapped his chin gently. "To be more precise, I think he may have been involved in the murder cases of the Magic Murderer."
Bai Yutang thought for a moment and said to Wang Chao, "We’ll take this case, so ask the people in the group to find out the previous information about the Magical Murder cases. Investigate all the victims and give me a list of their relatives and friends."
"Yes, boss!" Wang Chao immediately led the way out.
Bai Chi finally stood up, looked back at Zhan Zhao, and said, "This is a medieval magic formation, like a pattern of eyes."
"It really does look like an eye." Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at it carefully.
"What does the eye represent?" Bai Yutang asked.
"I don’t know much about that." Bai Chi shook his head.
Zhan Zhao smiled, touched Bai Chi's head, and said, "Bai Chi, go to the city library later and borrow all the books about magic!"
"Well." Bai Chi turned and prepared to leave, then suddenly thought of something and came back and whispered, "Does Harry Potter count?"
............ Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and pointed at the door. "Go on!"
"Oh... Okay~~" Bai Chi hurried away.
After walking out of the school building, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were not far away from a dozen children gathered in the small playground, all in shock. Obtaining evidence from these children was very difficult. Most children who are six or seven years old cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality, but they were glad to see a familiar figure... Xiao Lu Zhen.
Lu Zhen was comforting a crying female classmate, and from time to time he looked up in both directions. Bai Yutang beckoned to him. Lu Zhen nodded and turned to say something to the girl next to him. The girl nodded, and Lu Zhen pulled her with him over to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.
"Uncle Bai, Uncle Zhan, her name is Sun Qian. This morning, she was the first to find the body." Lu Zhen looked up. "I asked her just now. She doesn't know what happened. She saw it when she opened the door. Teacher Zhang was lying on the ground with blood all over her body, and then she started to cry. Then we came, and I called the teachers in other classes, and they called the police. "
Later, Lu Zhen talked about Zhang Zhenzhen's situation in detail, but they did not gain anything special.
After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had finished asking questions, they decided to return to S.C.I. first.
"Kitty, you didn’t sleep last night." Bai Yutang said as he drove.
"I'm not sleepy." Zhan Zhao leaned back in his seat and looked out the window. "Where are you going? The police station is not in this direction."
"Let's go home and take a shower first. You'd better sleep for a few hours." Bai Yutang said. The car had reached the front of their dormitory building.
"No, everyone has work to do... Hm......" Zhan Zhao was anxious, but his words were blocked by a kiss from Bai Yutang.
"Kitty, you just need to keep a clear head, understand?" Bai Yutang tapped Zhan Zhao's chin lightly.
Pushing him away with a blush, Zhan Zhao got out of the car and headed upstairs, panting with rage. Bai Yutang shouted from behind, "Kitty, help me with the luggage!!"
Zhan Zhao was angry with himself as he walked. What was the matter with him recently? The Mouse could say anything, and it would cause him to blush and his heart to race~~~!
Translation notes:
(1) This word here also means “magician,” but unlike the previous “magician” it can also mean “wizard” or “sorcerer”
(2) Feng Shui is about properly placing and arranging dwellings and such for positive energy flow. Bai Yutang is saying that the kindergarten must have a bad energy flow. It’s inauspicious.
ADDITIONALLY, my releases will slow down slightly. I've been able to translate so quickly because I just graduated from college, so I've had a lot of free time. Now, as I'm preparing for my upcoming job, I've gotten a bit busier. Releases should be about 4 times a week for a while (Tuesday, Thursday and two weekend nights).
Magic Murderer 1: Imitation
5:50 a.m., the first-class section on an international flight from New York to S City.
After a long, nearly 11-hour flight, the passengers on board looked quite tired.
Bai Yutang, who had always been active and was not good at staying silent, felt as though the bones in his whole body were going crisp. Turning his head to look at Zhan Zhao next to him, he saw that he was writing in a notebook and working on a code, concentrating. Bai Chi, who was on the other side of the aisle, was lying back in his seat and sleeping soundly.
"Kitty~~" Bai Yutang still decided to harass Zhan Zhao.
"Shh~~~” Zhan Zhao ignored him and continued to work on the code.
They had gone to New York this time to assist with Wilson's case and had gotten a lot of information. Zhan Zhao and the criminal psychologists there had exchanged thoughts on the case, and they had obtained a lot of valuable data. He had to sort it out.
Seeing that the Cat was ignoring him, Bai Yutang had no choice but to stand up and stretch, walking back and forth.
At that moment, a stewardess came over in a panic. She went up to Bai Yutang and asked, "Sir, are you a policeman?"
"Yeah." Bai Yutang noticed the flight attendant's erratic emotions and asked, "What's wrong?"
Zhan Zhao to the side also turned his attention away from the notebook and looked up at the two.
"Well, three pasengers in the economy class are in a strange state." said the stewardess.
"Strange? Strange how?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.
At that time, the sleeping Bai Chi also woke up. He stumbled up and looked at the crowd blankly.
"I saw them taking a few pills, and then something felt off." The stewardess said, "The plane is about to land in less than an hour, but they are getting worse and worse. Could you take a look? "
"No problem." Bai Yutang nodded. "But how did you know that I was a policeman?"
"Uh, the passenger in the front seat told me." Then, the stewardess looked forward. They saw a man leaning back in the front seat, waving to them.
...? ...
Bai Yutang made certain that he didn't know this person, and then turned to look at Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao shook his head at him, meaning he didn't know him either.
The man looked about the same age as Bai Yutang. He was wearing a stylish black leather coat and had excellent looks. He had yellow-lensed glasses on his high-bridged nose, short and neat hair, and deeper eye sockets and contours than Asians traditionally had. He should be mixed...… No, but… He felt familiar.
"Don’t be surprised." The man pushed his glasses up with his middle finger and smiled brightly. "I know everything."
"Zhen! Stop it." A solidly-built middle-aged man stood up from the seat beside him and pulled him up as well, apologizing to Bai Yutang, "I'm sorry, he's a little weird."
"No." Bai Yutang interrupted him. "I want to know how he knew."
"Hehe." The man named Zhen continued to smile. "Every type of person has a different aura. I can see them because I have magic."
……………………
"Uh... could you come take a look first?" The stewardess interrupted them and urged Bai Yutang.
"Let's go," Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows at Zhan Zhao with a question—would you like to come?
Zhan Zhao also raised an eyebrow at him—Not interested! Then, he looked down and continued writing.
Bai Yutang followed the stewardess to economy class, and the now-awake Bai Chi quickly hurried after him. As he passed by the man, the man asked Bai Chi puzzledly, "Are you also a policeman?"
Strangely, Bai Chi, who had always been gentle and obedient, turned, glared at him, and said viciously, "I don't talk to magicians. They are all swindlers." After that, he quickly followed Bai Yutang and left the first-class section.
The man was frozen for a while, then he looked back at the also surprised Zhan Zhao, "How did he know that I was a magician?"
Zhan Zhao held back a smile and shrugged. "Maybe he can see your aura..."
"Pu~~" The middle-aged man sitting beside the man couldn't help but laugh.
Zhan Zhao lowered his head. He knew... He had finally remembered why the man felt familiar. He had seen his posters on the street, and there were related reports in magazines. This man was called Zhao Yan, known as the greatest magician of their time. Everyone called him a "wizard (1)" because his magic performances were often incredible, and it felt like he was actually magical. He was also quite a showman, always declaring that he knew magic. He was wearing colored glasses and didn't look much like the poster, so Zhan Zhao hadn't recognized him at first. Besides, even if it was like that, a person like Bai Yutang who never paid attention to entertainment would likely not recognize him. Zhan Zhao only remembered him because of his outstanding memory.
At that time, a commotion broke out from the economy class section. Two men with small knives suddenly rushed out and one after another. Their eyes were flushed, and their breathing was fast. Apparently, they were taking some hallucinogenic drugs, and the dose was obviously not small.
Following them closely, Bai Yutang also came out.
He grabbed the one running in the back and jammed his shoulder. He heard a kata sound, and the man fell to the ground with a cry. The man running ahead was shocked, and Zhan Zhao, who was standing right next to him, suddenly took out his shoulder with almost the same movement as Bai Yutang. He looked up and smiled at Bai Yutang. “How was that? Have I learned well enough?"
Bai Chi brought in another person that Bai Yutang had brought down from economy class, and the captain set the three up in the first-class lounge.
"What's going on?" Zhan Zhao walked up to Bai Yutang, curious.
"These boys took too much medicine, pulled knives to take a passenger hostage, and asked the pilot to fly the plane to Afghanistan." With a smile, Bai Yutang asked the stewardess to pour some tea for the three men. They seemed to have somewhat returned to their senses from the pain of their dislocated shoulders, and they looked depressed.
The commotion had horrified several passengers, and a little girl was sobbing. No one could persuade her to stop.
Zhao Yan walked over and touched her hair lightly and said, "Hey, little beauty, do you like flowers?"
The little girl choked up and looked at him, her eyes a little puzzled.
"What is this?" Zhao Yan said, reaching out and taking out a red rose from behind her ear.
"Eh?" The little girl was surprised and stopped crying before she even realized it.
"En!" Zhao Yan sat next to her and asked, "What animal do you like?"
"Dolphin!" Said the little girl excitedly.
"Haha." Zhao Yan laughed. "That's too big. It wouldn’t fit in the plane, so..." With a slight wave of his hand, he stretched his hand out in front of the little girl's eyes and slowly opened his hand, "We’ll make it small."
She saw a delicate plastic dolphin in his palm.
The little girl immediately burst into tears of joy and laughed. The passengers around them began to applaud, and Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao also looked on with interest.
Zhao Yan seemed to enjoy feeling like the center of attention, and he stood up to pay tribute to the surrounding passengers. However, when his eyes turned towards Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, he was surprised. Wait...
He saw Bai Chi behind them staring at him angrily. He whispered, "Swindler!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked back at Bai Chi in bafflement. Zhao Yan was even more shocked and whispered to the middle-aged man next to him. He was his agent, Qin Bi, "Did I offend him?"
Qin Bi shook his head. "I don’t think so."
Bai Chi walked over to his seat and sat down, and Zhao Yan walked to his side and asked curiously, "Why do you say that I'm a swindler?"
Bai Chi glanced at him angrily and said, "As long as the movement is faster than 0.25 seconds and you use a decent distraction, it is difficult for the naked eye to capture your movements." After speaking, he turned away and ignored Zhao Yan’s embarrassed face, not forgetting to add a sentence, "All magicians are swindlers."
"Passengers, please note that we are about to arrive at the airport of S City. The plane is about to land. Please return to your seats..." The stewardess's wonderful voice sounded in time, alleviating the awkward atmosphere. Zhao Yan quickly returned to his seat to sit down and fasten his seat belt, but he was desperately raking his mind. Had he offended this person before?? Why didn’t he remember him? Small, baby-faced, with big eyes... impossible! He hadn't seen him before... The entire time until the plane landed, he continued to try hard to think about it~~~~~!!
Bai Chi followed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang with the luggage and got off the plane. Zhao Yan suddenly asked him, "What's your name?"
Glancing at him coldly, Bai Chi lifted his luggage and left quickly—completely ignoring him.
"This person must have a grudge against me!" Zhao Yan was once again certain~~~
After getting off the plane, Bai Yutang's cell phone rang. The caller was Wang Chao.
"Hey! Boss, are you back?" The background sound coming from the phone was a bit noisy, and the sound of sirens was mixed in.
"What's wrong?" He had a bad feeling.
"Big things. You had better come directly to Nova Kindergarten." Wang Chao said, "I can't explain clearly on the phone."
"Okay." After hanging up the phone, Bai Yutang shook his head at Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi and said, "There is another case. Let’s go to the scene first."
They drove in a rush to Nova Kindergarten.
This kindergarten was very familiar to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. It was the one that had the hostage situation not too long ago. It was very dangerous the last time. They didn’t know what had happened this time.
Looking at the chaotic scene at the door, Bai Yutang sighed, "Should we find a Feng Shui (2) master for this kindergarten?"
Wang Chao had rushed out to report the case, "The students who came to class this morning found their teacher dead in the classroom."
Zhan Zhao frowned, "Dead in the classroom? Why would a normal murder be given to the S.C.I.?"
Wang Chao smiled bitterly, "It’s too evil to talk about it! Anyway, just go in and look at the scene and you’ll understand."
Soon, everyone arrived at the classroom on the second floor. It was a large classroom. There was no class number at the door, and there was only a colored, moon-shaped sign. There were three classes in each grade of this kindergarten. They were distinguished by stars, the moon, and the sun.
Entering the door of the classroom, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang paused. They saw that the tables and chairs in the middle of the classroom had been removed, revealing an open space. The deceased was a young woman, a very beautiful kindergarten teacher. Her carotid artery was cut open, and she was lying quietly in the middle of the classroom. The most peculiar thing was that a strange circular pattern was drawn with blood on the ground beneath her, like the magic arrays popular in ancient Europe... The scene was too familiar.
Taking a breath, Zhan Zhao murmured, "The Magic Murders..."
Wang Chao nodded, "Our brothers in the severe case team were all stunned when they saw this and notified us as soon as possible."
"Bizarre!" Bai Yutang also looked grim.
The police knew that the magic murder was one of the top unsolved cases in the city. The mysterious murderer murdered indiscriminately, and every time he committed a crime, he left a weird magic circle under the corpse at the place of the crime. A total of no fewer than thirty people had been killed within a year... But this murderer had stopped committing crimes ten years ago. The Magic Murderer seemed to have evaporated. Unexpectedly, exactly ten years later, the same exact type of case occurred.
Gongsun came over with his gloves on. He had already performed a preliminary autopsy.
"How is it?" Bai Yutang asked as he hurried forward.
"The deceased was named Zhang Zhenzhen. She was 23 years old. The preliminary cause of death is excessive blood loss caused by the rupture of the carotid artery. The time of death should be between 10 to 11 last night."
"What about that magic circle?" Zhan Zhao asked a little eagerly.
"It was painted with the blood of the deceased, using tools like brushes..." Gongsun said, then paused and looked at Bai Yutang before continuing, "It's almost the same as the case ten years ago."
Bai Yutang rubbed his brow in distress, "That is, it isn't a boring fool who is imitating previous offenders?"
Gongsun shrugged, "That is not my jurisdiction. I am only responsible for the autopsy."
Zhan Zhao walked up to the corpse and looked down at. He walked around it, then climbed onto a table and looked down...
"Kitty, what's wrong?" Bai Yutang asked.
Zhan Zhao stood on the table and shook his head, saying, "It wasn't that person."
"Oh?" Bai Yutang and several others gathered together. "Why do you say that?"
"I have studied that case for a long time." Zhan Zhao took Bai Yutang's proffered hand and jumped off the table. "The murderer stood in a higher place every time he killed someone to see what the dead looked like. Like he was appreciating a piece of artwork. That process may have been even more enjoyable than killing the deceased. Thus, every time he kills, there must be a raised thing that is four or five steps directly above the deceased's head, just like this..." Then, Zhan Zhao took a chair and walked away from the head of the deceased for five steps. He lowered the chair, let Bai Yutang stand on it, and asked him, "What do you see? "
Bai Yutang looked down at the corpse and said, "The entire corpse and pattern are in the field of vision." After that, he climbed down and beckoned to a police officer from the forensics department. “Take a few pictures from that angle.”
Wang Chao touched his head and said, "It seems to be a copycat crime. Let's give it back to the serious crimes team."
Bai Chi squatted on the ground and looked at the picture carefully, then said, "He will kill again." Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded.
Seeing that Wang Chao was still a little confused, Zhan Zhao asked him, "If you killed a person and wanted to blame a serial killer, would you choose someone who had not committed a crime for ten years to imitate?"
Everyone was silent.
Bai Yutang sighed and said, "A copycat serial killer..."
"It's not so much imitation, it's more like something else." Zhan Zhao said, "Typical copycat serial killers have certain borderline and anti-social personality disorders. They don't have basic feelings, such as compassion and morality, but their ideological feelings are more developed. They worship the person they imitate and enjoy the thrill of being an idol in the process of imitation, so they will pay less attention to details! It’s just that... "
"It's just that this person's imitation is hasty," Bai Yutang said. "There’s no sense of enjoyment at all. It’s just a learning step."
"What does that mean?" A police officer off to one side of the crime team couldn't help asking curiously.
"It shows that the murderer has some sort of relationship with the real Magic Murderer... but it should not be the kind of relationship that we know or understand." Zhan Zhao tapped his chin gently. "To be more precise, I think he may have been involved in the murder cases of the Magic Murderer."
Bai Yutang thought for a moment and said to Wang Chao, "We’ll take this case, so ask the people in the group to find out the previous information about the Magical Murder cases. Investigate all the victims and give me a list of their relatives and friends."
"Yes, boss!" Wang Chao immediately led the way out.
Bai Chi finally stood up, looked back at Zhan Zhao, and said, "This is a medieval magic formation, like a pattern of eyes."
"It really does look like an eye." Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at it carefully.
"What does the eye represent?" Bai Yutang asked.
"I don’t know much about that." Bai Chi shook his head.
Zhan Zhao smiled, touched Bai Chi's head, and said, "Bai Chi, go to the city library later and borrow all the books about magic!"
"Well." Bai Chi turned and prepared to leave, then suddenly thought of something and came back and whispered, "Does Harry Potter count?"
............ Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and pointed at the door. "Go on!"
"Oh... Okay~~" Bai Chi hurried away.
After walking out of the school building, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were not far away from a dozen children gathered in the small playground, all in shock. Obtaining evidence from these children was very difficult. Most children who are six or seven years old cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality, but they were glad to see a familiar figure... Xiao Lu Zhen.
Lu Zhen was comforting a crying female classmate, and from time to time he looked up in both directions. Bai Yutang beckoned to him. Lu Zhen nodded and turned to say something to the girl next to him. The girl nodded, and Lu Zhen pulled her with him over to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.
"Uncle Bai, Uncle Zhan, her name is Sun Qian. This morning, she was the first to find the body." Lu Zhen looked up. "I asked her just now. She doesn't know what happened. She saw it when she opened the door. Teacher Zhang was lying on the ground with blood all over her body, and then she started to cry. Then we came, and I called the teachers in other classes, and they called the police. "
Later, Lu Zhen talked about Zhang Zhenzhen's situation in detail, but they did not gain anything special.
After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had finished asking questions, they decided to return to S.C.I. first.
"Kitty, you didn’t sleep last night." Bai Yutang said as he drove.
"I'm not sleepy." Zhan Zhao leaned back in his seat and looked out the window. "Where are you going? The police station is not in this direction."
"Let's go home and take a shower first. You'd better sleep for a few hours." Bai Yutang said. The car had reached the front of their dormitory building.
"No, everyone has work to do... Hm......" Zhan Zhao was anxious, but his words were blocked by a kiss from Bai Yutang.
"Kitty, you just need to keep a clear head, understand?" Bai Yutang tapped Zhan Zhao's chin lightly.
Pushing him away with a blush, Zhan Zhao got out of the car and headed upstairs, panting with rage. Bai Yutang shouted from behind, "Kitty, help me with the luggage!!"
Zhan Zhao was angry with himself as he walked. What was the matter with him recently? The Mouse could say anything, and it would cause him to blush and his heart to race~~~!
Translation notes:
(1) This word here also means “magician,” but unlike the previous “magician” it can also mean “wizard” or “sorcerer”
(2) Feng Shui is about properly placing and arranging dwellings and such for positive energy flow. Bai Yutang is saying that the kindergarten must have a bad energy flow. It’s inauspicious.
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Ugh what a sad news. My deep condolences for ur friends fam and you wolfie 🥀
ReplyDeleteSorry for your loss.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate, that you still continued...
This is several years after, but condolence on your loss. I appreciate that you finished this case.
ReplyDelete