S.C.I. Mystery Vol. 1, Ch. 60

Magic Murderer 15: Sudden Change

As a large number of police entered the scene of at Entertainment City, its previously chaotic state became orderly.

Gongsun was sitting in the black Mercedes-Benz with Bai Jintang. Its closed windows blocked the noise from outside, and on the other side of the panes people bustled about silently... Gongsun suddenly felt as though the whole world seemed to be quiet.

Bai Jintang lay quietly on the car seat that was reclined beside him. Except for his white complexion, he could not see anything else that appeared off. It was just as though he was asleep.

Gongsun looked carefully over the other man’s face in detail. He had never imagined that a powerful person like Bai Jintang would faint~~ or that the person who had always appeared tough in front of him had a secret side that was weak and frail... Even the second before he had fainted, he was still joking with Gongsun... Someone like him, even if he died the next moment, would still be laughing all the way until the end~~

Reaching over, Gongsun pinched Bai Jintang's nose in a mischievous manner, and then poked his cheek, watching the man who had always bullied him being bullied by himself. His heart steadied a bit. His worry and fear from earlier also slowly disappeared~~

He had heard that when a person was in a deep sleep state, a corresponding image would appear in their mind if you talked to them.

Gongsun leaned over and whispered in his ear, "You ate a fly~~~"

Bai Jintang's eyebrows frowned slightly, and his throat shook slightly...

~~ It was so fun! ~~

"There is a dog chasing you." Gongsun tried harder.

His brows pulled tighter and his eyelids twitched slightly.

............ Smiling to himself, Gongsun thought for a moment, then stepped forward and said softly, "Gongsun said, if you don't wake up, he won't want you."

All of a sudden, Bai Jintang stopped responding~~ Gongsun stared at him, a little puzzled, and then he saw Bai Jintang’s closed lips slowly open. The unconscious person suddenly said, "Even if I die, I’d better wake up."

...! ...

Seeing Bai Jintang's open, smiling eyes, Gongsun almost screamed, "You, when did you wake up?"

"Just a moment ago." Bai Jintang smiled and tried to reach out but found that his left hand was grasping Gongsun's hand tightly.

"We can’t be separated, what ever do we do?" Bai Jintang asked roguishly as he clasped Gongsun’s hands together

"..." Gongsun at first said nothing, looked at his white fingers, and then said softly, "It hurts~~"

Bai Jintang quickly let go.

The atmosphere was very harmonious, and even the temperature of the surrounding air seemed to be slowly rising. Bai Jintang felt like it was a rare opportunity.

The twins stuck their heads in, "Boss! Are you awake?"

Stare~~ These two blind third wheels!! Bai Jintang reached over and tried to throw them out.

The twins saw the murderous intent on Bai Jintang's face and quickly waved their hands, "Brother, you will be happy after listening to this!"

"Gongsun was worried about you earlier, and he was crying anxiously!" Da Ding embellished the facts tenfold.

"I didn't..." Gongsun blushed and explained that although he was very anxious at the time, he didn't cry~~

"He didn't even care about his work and came to take care of you!" Xiao Ding also exaggerated tenfold.

"You..." Gongsun Ji.

"Also!!!" The twins inflated the truth a hundredfold in unison, "He called you 'Jin~ Tang~', and said that as long as you were fine, he would do anything!!!" And then, they shut the door with a bang.

"..." Gongsun ground his teeth with anger. Those dammed twins were making things up at random~~ Although part of it was true, how could it be so exaggerated... He looked at Bai Jintang again, who was looking at him with amazement and happiness.

"They... their nonsense~ Nothing happened." Gongsun quickly explained but was pulled by Bai Jintang.

"Say it again." Putting Gongsun in his arms, Bai Jintang kissed his ear softly, "Call me by name."

............ Gongsun hesitated a little, then saw the expectation in Bai Jintang's eyes. He leaned into his ear and called it softly.

In exchange, Bai Jintang gave him a soft and unusually long kiss.

"I... I should go do the autopsy~~" Gongsun struggled out and quickly opened the door to escape~~ Bai Jintang stayed alone in the car, watching the figure of Gongsun in the distance with devotion.

After calming down, Gongsun walked over to Shen Ling's body. He put on gloves and performed the autopsy in person instead of Dr. Yang who had been called to help. As soon as he saw the wound, he was surprised for a moment~~ Gongsun looked back at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao who were standing behind him. They blinked at him, seemingly asking him for his consultation. Gongsun thought for a while, then nodded.

The result of the autopsy was that Shen Ling had been strangled rather than stabbed to death. There was a transparent glass rope around her neck. The other end of the rope was fixed on the rooftop fence. The length was so accurately calculated that it ended just in the center of the magic array. Wang Chao and the others took people to the top floor and found a large pool of blood on the ground~~ Shen Ling had been there and was stabbed in the neck by someone. Then that someone tied the rope and threw it into the air. The knife impaled in her neck and the fixed rope were all props for magic shows.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went and found Shen Ling's friend to ask about the situation.

They said that Shen Ling drank wine with friends for a while after talking with Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. Shen Qian went to prepare for the opening ceremony and left very early. Later, everyone noticed the time and were going to the square to watch the performance. However, Shen Ling suddenly said that she still had some things to do, so she left alone through a special passage.

"Special passage?" Zhan Zhao asked, a little puzzled, "What special passage?"

"It's a passage that only insiders of the Shen Group can use." A friend of Shen Ling replied.

Zhan Zhao called one of them over alone, the one who was said to be Shen Ling’s best friend and asked her a few questions.

Back with Bai Yutang, he and Zhan Zhao whispered a few words. The two looked at each other and turned to leave.

In the parking lot, a person opened a car door in a panic, stuffed a big bag into the back seat, and closed the door. He took a breath, and was about to return but was shocked to find out that two people had come up behind while he wasn’t aware—Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

"What's wrong, Attorney Kong? You appear to be sweating quite a bit." Bai Yutang asked with a smile.

Standing beside the car, face pale, was Kong Cheng, the head lawyer of the Shen Group.

"Uh... what a coincidence, officers~~ what's the matter?" Despite his self-control, Kong Cheng was still a bit nervous and unintelligible when he spoke.

"It's not a coincidence, we came for you specifically." Zhan Zhao also laughed. "The car behind you doesn't seem to be yours. If I remember this white BMW, it should be your boss’."

"Oh~~ Right, right." Kong Cheng nodded. "The boss just gave me a bag and had me put it in the car.

Bai Yutang frowned and shook his head, "I think it should be bloody clothes, clear rope, and a few knives, isn't it?"

"I... I don't know, I haven't opened it." Kong Cheng quickly shook his head.

"You have not only seen the contents, but you put them in it." Bai Yutang sighed. "You killed Shen Ling, and you want to blame Shen Qian. You really don’t expect the thief to be living in your house~~"

"You... what are you talking about? What evidence do you have?" Kong Cheng raised his voice, "I, I want to sue you for framing me!"

"Don't worry about that yet." Zhan Zhao motioned him to calm down. "Oh, what time is it?"

Kong Cheng was surprised. His hand instinctively reached into his suit's pocket but stopped suddenly.

"Do it. Why aren't you taking out your pocket watch?" Bai Yutang asked with a smile. "Or, is there something wrong with the watch?"

"..." Kong Cheng was silent, his eyes fixed on Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, "How could you know ..."

"We were always quite baffled. In this situation, Shen Ling could be in danger at any time, so why did she leave the crowd and go through the special passage alone? And even more strangely, why did the murderer know that she was going through it and attack her there?" Bai Yutang seems to be asking himself, "The answer is because she wanted to avoid a certain person. That person is you!"

"I heard from Shen Ling's friend that you have recently been following her very closely." Zhan Zhao went on to say, "Shen Ling also told her that you also devised and orchestrated a kidnapping case this morning, so she hates you very much now. The farther away from you she was, the better."

"Just earlier, you said you would go to the bathroom and come back immediately, asking everyone to wait for you before going to the meeting place. After hearing that, Shen Ling left alone and chose the special passage... This was all within your plan. According to Shen Ling’s friend, you were gone for a long time, and you only came back after about 20 minutes.” Bai Yutang calculated for him. “You killed someone in a special passage, and then transported the person to the top floor with an elevator, tied the rope you had prepared to them, threw them down and came back again. It’s exactly twenty minutes. "

"The staff said that you signed a confidentiality agreement on behalf of the Shen Group and Zhao Zhen and did not disclose the details of the magic trick. Therefore, you ordered the top floor area to be closed from the day the performance was planned~~ The key was Shen Qian... Of course, if I was Shen Qian, I’m sure I wouldn’t be distracted by those little things! You could even get his car keys, and the string of keys to the top floor would be even less of an issue~~ So, no one discovered your preparations." Zhao explained slowly, "The magic array was drawn before you hung the signboard! Because the key to this magic is—that the signboard itself had already been hanging on the outer wall of the Entertainment City, just that the outside had been wrapped with a special cover layer. The visual effect was exactly the same as the wall~~ and the signboard had been placed on the top floor until it was installed, so you could take advantage of the dark cover of night, go up alone, and uncover the outer layer. Then, you could draw the magic array and recover it~~ Absolutely no one would know. "

Kong Cheng listened silently then laughed a few times, "This can only show that I had the conditions to potentially commit the crime. How can you be sure that it was me? There’s also the chance that it was Shen Qian and Zhao Zhen!"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao smiled after listening to him.

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "It's a pity that you messed up. Even the most careful can make a mistake!"

"What was wrong?" Kong Cheng was puzzled.

"At the first sight of the corpse, we were very surprised. The habit of a real magic murderer is to cut the throat of the deceased with a knife. That has been the case in so many incidents, and it has never changed! But would he pierce the throat with a knife if they were deceased? And after the deceased was strangled, no less." Zhan Zhao shook his head, "It's just superfluous."

"That's because..." Kong Cheng swallowed back saliva, his face full of annoyance.

Bai Yutang nodded, "Indeed, this can't be blamed on you. There is no way~~ that it’s an accident, am I right?"

Kong Cheng lowered his head and reached into his pocket.

Zhan Zhao continued, "Shen Ling was strangled, why did she have to be stabbed as well? That is, the place where the knife was stabbed was a place that the murderer wanted to destroy~~ What was wrong with that skin? We thought there must be something special about the tool used by the murderer to kill her, but the mark left there was very thin. That is to say, the weapon we are looking for is a very thin and special rope… Or chain~~!"

"We asked your friends, and you have been carrying an old copper pocket watch with you. The chain is very long, and there is a round copper coin on the chain with your name on it." Bai Yutang said, "Probably when you were strangling Shen Ling, evidence was left on her neck that could prove it was you—a mark with your name! So, you wanted to destroy that evidence."

"Hehe~~" Kong Cheng smiled a bit hoarsely and took the pocket watch out from his pocket. There was a one-dollar copper coin on the long chain. "I didn't expect that when strangling her, this copper coin would happen to be right in the middle of her neck, and my name was so clearly printed on it."

"You cut off that round piece of skin, but that would definitely attract the attention of others, so you suddenly had an epiphany and plunged the knife in to cover up the wound, didn't you?" Zhan Zhao stared at Kong Cheng, "Judging from the drawing of the magic array, Zhang Zhenzhen was also killed by you, right? Why did you kill them?! "

Kong Cheng stared at his pocket watch, nodded slowly, and gritted his teeth, "Yes~~ because they deserved it!" Then, he said nothing.

Next, Kong Cheng was escorted to a police car and sent to the police station.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were slightly relieved, and everyone was astonished when they understood the whole process. It was still an unusual crime that could have been called a once in a century perfect crime, and it was so cleanly broken in an instant. And it was solved together with Zhang Zhenzhen's case~~ They could not help but admire Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao~~

It was just that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's expressions were grim~~ Kong Cheng and Wei Yong's attitudes and qualities were almost the same— "They deserved to die~~" What had happened in that year? All the real insiders were dead. What did Kong Cheng mean for the whole case? Or, was it just the tip of the iceberg?

Everyone returned to the S.C.I. with some fatigue. Now Wei Yong, Li Xu and Kong Cheng all awaited interrogation. Bai Yutang wanted to call everyone to a meeting, but he found that Ma Han was not there.

"What about Ma Han?" He asked Jiang Ping, "Did he go to watch Zhao Jue himself? Didn't you tell him to send someone?"

"Oh!" Jiang Ping took out a bunch of photos, "I'm still wondering why, but he hurried away after seeing these photos."

Zhan Zhao took the photo, and everyone crowded around to look. It was a photo of a girl dancing.

"Where did this thing come from?" Bai Yutang glanced at Jiang Ping and grabbed him.

"Uh... I, I contacted Xu Jiali's family... This was when she performed while she was alive..."

"You said she was Xu Jiali ?!" Zhan Zhao was also surprised.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Ping looked at everyone, puzzled.

At that moment, Lu Fang ran in panic, "It's not good. The police car escorting Kong Cheng was hit by someone. The policeman was injured, Kong Cheng ran away, and he also stole a gun!”

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