S.C.I.谜案集 Mystery Special Criminal Investigation Novel [𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖕𝖑𝖊𝖙𝖊𝖉✔]

Murderer 27 Accident

Wrapping up their discussions, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stroll out of the research centre.
"Cat, now we are going to visit my brother?" Bai Yutang pulled up opened the car door.
"Do you know where is your brother?" Zhan Zhao asked.
"Erm... Well." Bai Yutang shakes his head, "In theory, I have no idea, but I guess..."
"Yep!" Zhan Zhao nods turns around to look at him, "I guess so too."
They speak in unison,
"Gongsun's place!!"
During the drive to Gongsun's place, Bai Yutang is silent for the entire trip, seemingly to be contemplating something.
Zhan Zhao attempts to say something several times, but seeing Bai Yutang's frowned brows, he swallows his words back in.
The moment they step out of the elevator outside of Gongsun's flat, they hear a loud bang. Startled, they rush out the elevator and spot Ding Zhaolan and Ding Zhaohui squatting down with their head covered at the flat entrance. The flat door is wide open, stray objects flying out occasionally.
"What are you two doing?" Bai Yutang holds out his arm to protect Zhan Zhao behind him and leans down to ask the twins.
"We are keeping a lookout for brother, ah I mean, guard the door."
"..." Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchange a look, "What is my brother doing inside?"
Da Ding and Xiao Ding smile, "Gongsun's arm are injured, brother wants to help him shower!"
...!...
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao inhale in alarm and charge into the flat. At the exact same moment, Bai Jintang, covered in foams scrambles out of the flat. A black object flies out behind Bai Jintang, and Bai Yutang is just in the doorway...
'Bang'... Bai Yutang is, after all, someone with quick reflex, noticing the unfriendly object heading towards him, he was about to duck his head but remembered just in time that Zhan Zhao is behind him. Instead, he held out his hand to block the object, which falls to the ground... Looking down: It's a pan.
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang are momentarily stunned. They look up to see the unkempt Gongsun standing in the middle of the room. He too is covered in foams and breathing heavily. His left arm is in a cast, his right arm is holding up a spatula and ready to hurl it at the door.
"Wait!!!" Bai Yutang holds up his hand in surrender, "Don't hurt us, we are innocent!!"
Identifying the intruders as Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, Gongsun drops his 'weapon' onto the floor and collapse onto the sofa.
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao plod in carefully, "Are...Are you alright?"
Gongsun glowers at Bai Jintang near the door, "If you come near me again, I will drown you in Formalin!!"
After calming down the furious Gongsun and sending him to his room to rest, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang pull Bai Jintang over to fill him in on the events happening at the research centre.
"..." Bai Jintang is silent throughout the entire narrative, only frowning his brows slightly when he heard Zhao Jue has placed psychological suggestion on the research centre staffs.
"So...what are you planning to do?" Bai Jintang looks at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "What do you need from me?"
"Cat wanted to hypnotise you!"
"Hypnosis?" Bai Jintang looks distracted for a moment, "To remember all the things I have forgotten?"
"Yep!" Zhan Zhao nods, "Brother, you are not willing?"
Bai Jintang shrugs with a smile, "I don't mind. It's just that, I don't think it will be possible."
"Impossible?"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchange a look, "What do you mean?"
Bai Jintang points at his own head and says, "It wasn't a psychological wound, but rather, an actual physical wound."
"Meaning?" Bai Yutang looks over at Zhan Zhao in confusion.
Zhan Zhao looks surprised, "Brother, your lost memories are due to physical injury, rather than mental trauma?"
Bai Jintang nods, "I have seen my fair share of doctors. My head was injured at the part where memories are stored. After I was injured, I was like a newborn, I even have forgotten how to speak."
"Cat, will it still work?" Bai Yutang looked up at Zhan Zhao.
Zhan Zhao frowns in concentration, "Actually there is two types of human memories, declarative memory and procedural memory... I still want to give it a try."
Bai Jintang nods, "Sure."
Because the process requires a quiet room, Zhan Zhao borrows Gongsun's study. Before entering the room, Bai Jintang suddenly say, "Xiao Zhan, after you hypnotised me, don't do anything strange just because I can't fight back~"
Bai Yutang kicks him into the room in a rage.
Zhan Zhao follows in and shuts the door behind him.
Bai Yutang stands outside the door for a while, before turning away.
The twins are playing Chinese checkers near the entrance. It seems heated, but they are not making any sound at all. This makes the whole affair look rather ridiculous.
Bai Yutang strolls out, and the twins look up at him.
"I need to go and check on something." Bai Yutang tells them, "My brother and Cat have an important matter to attend to, they cannot be disturbed. Gongsun is incapacitated at the moment as well."
The twin's grin, patting the two black suitcases lying next to them, "Nothing short of an armoured force will be able to get past us!"
Smiling in understanding, Bai Yutang walks towards the elevator.
"Xiao Bai!"The twins call out to him from behind.
Bai Yutang turns his head back, Ding Zhaohui tosses something at him, "For rainy days."
Taking a look at the object he just caught, Bai Yutang smiles before dropping it into his pocket. He waves at the twins and steps into the elevator.
Bai Yutang heads straight for the psychiatric clinic that professor Xu was killed, the yellow police line is still intact.
Going up to the second floor, Bai Yutang takes a close look at the decoration in the clinic, including every single furniture or vessels. And he leaves the place, frowning his brows even more tightly than before.
Walking back to the bar street and taking his time to survey the area, Bai Yutang spots a building opposite the clinic building.
It is an old three-storey house, the tightly shut door has a sign that says: Opening hours, 9 pm to 5 is. From the look of it, it should be a pub.
Bai Yutang looks up and spots the open small window on the third floor. He knocks on the door.
At first, there was nothing from inside, Bai Yutang keeps knocking until an annoying female voice yells, "Who is it? We are not open during daytime!"
Bai Yutang ignores her and continues to knock.
Not long after, he hears footsteps and a woman swearing, "Who is it? Piss off!"
The door swings open, a sloppily dressed young women with messy hair appears by the door.
Getting a clear look at Bai Yutang, the woman is distracted momentarily.
Bai Yutang shows his badge, "Police."
"Oh?" The woman smiles, "You are the best-looking police officer I have ever seen!"
Bai Yutang smiles slightly as well, "I have some questions."
The woman shrugs, "Your colleagues already did their interviews with me."
"Then I will ask about those things that they didn't ask about."
The woman pushes the door wide open, "Come in for a drink?"
Bai Yutang nods and follows her in.
Zhan Zhao asked Bai Jintang to lie down on the armchair and relax as much as possible. Although Zhan Zhao already foresees the difficulty of this procedure, the uncontrollability of Bai Jintang still surpassed Zhan Zhao's expectation.
Hypnosis is not an easy psychological procedure to conduct at all. The primary criterion for successful hypnosis is that the subject to be hypnotised needs to have sufficient trust in the person performing the hypnosis. But Bai Jintang is someone who is highly controlling, strong-willed and incredibly intelligent. It is hard for this type of person to completely let down their guard and trust another person.
"Brother, relax!"
"Ah..."Bai Jintang looks, for once, bashful.
"Okay, here we go."Zhan Zhao takes in a deep breath, and tries to project his calmness onto Bai Jintang, "Brother, clear your mind now."
Bai Jintang tries his best to be cooperative.
"Now, I will start counting, from one to ten. When I reach ten, I will snap my finger. When you hear the sound of snapping, start to recall. You don't have to go for any specific memory, just recall any memory in general. Once there's an image that flashes in your head, you grab onto it, and tell me what you see, alright?" After getting Bai Jintang's agreement, Zhan Zhao looks down at his watch and starts to count, "1, 2...."
When he reaches 10, Zhan Zhao snaps his finger.
Behind Bai Jintang's closed eyes, his eyeballs start to move. Zhan Zhao knows, this means he has started remembering.
"You are seeing something, aren't you?" Zhan Zhao asked gently.
"Yes..."Bai Jintang nods.
"What do you see?"
"I see...Yutang when he was younger, and Xiao Zhao from next door."
Zhan Zhao realises this is the memory after Bai Jintang's trauma. The earliest memory since the trauma was Bai Yutang and himself...this might just work!
"Now, can you feel yourself, you are beside Yutang and Xiao Zhao..."
Bai Jintang's eyelashes flutter, he is trying his best to feel that.
"Yes..."Bai Jintang says hesitantly.
Zhan Zhao notes his anxiety, he knows that Bai Jintang's controlling tendency is forcing himself to stay conscious. Now is the crucial moment...
"Bro..." Zhan Zhao softens his tone, mimicking the way Bai Yutang used to call Bai Jintang when he was younger.
Bai Jintang's body trembles and his eyelashes stop its quivering. Zhan Zhao seizes the opportunity to ask, "What did you just do? What did you just say?"
Hearing his words, Bai Jintang makes a gesture almost instinctively...
Zhan Zhao watches him, dumbfounded...
Bai Jintang lifted his index finger, pressing it against his lips, and whispers lightly – "shhh".
Bai Yutang bids his farewell with the bartender, Anne, and drives to University C Psychology. Through the teachers in the university, he manages to find the master students under professor Xu.
"Ah? Your Dr Zhan's good-looking boyfriend!" One of the girls says excitedly, recognising Bai Yutang.
Bai Yutang smiles, "Good memory. I want you guys to tell me about professor Xu."
"Professor Xu?" The students look at each other blankly, "What about him?"
"Anything, his personality, character, temper or habits. Oh, by the way, he suffered from heart diseases?"
"Yep! It's quite serious."The students start to chatter immediately.
"Professor Xu is really serious! He rarely smiles."
"Yep yep. And he really dislikes Dr Zhan!"
"Not just Dr Zhan, he doesn't like all the young Doctors!"
"And he is really strict! Also a clean freak!"
"Right! That time I forgot to write half a quotation mark, and he gave me a huge scolding just for it!"
".."
The students keep talking.
Bai Yutang's frowned brows loosen, and his face starts to show a hint of a smile.
He sprints out of the university and into his car, heading straight for Gongsun's apartment. He is so excited that he almost rips the steering wheel off the car, "Cat, we were being played!"
Bai Jintang looks at the bewildered Zhan Zhao in confusion, "Xiao Zhao, are you alright?"
Zhan Zhao stands up suddenly and starts to pace, "Why? How? How...keep calm...are they connected..."
Bai Jintang doesn't dare to speak out, and just continue to watch the circling Zhan Zhao.
"Bastard!"Zhan Zhao, in one of his rare moments, swears, "We were being played!"
He turns around to leave the room. At this exact moment, the elevator door opens, and Bai Yutang rushes back into the flat in a hurry.
"Cat!"
"Xiao Bai!"
When they saw each other, they call out at each other at the same time.
"I've got it!"
They give each other a surprised look.
"You too..?"
Nodding at the same time.

.... DIDIDID...

Zhan Zhao's phone rings — unknown number.
Picking it up, "Hello...I am...What do you want...Okay!"
Hanging up, Zhan Zhao smiled at Bai Yutang, he said: "Guess who?"
Bai Yutang rubs his chin, "Zhang Boyi!"
"Smart!" Zhan Zhao messes up Bai Yutang's hair, "He finally gave himself away!"
Bai Yutang sneers and retrieves his phone, "After playing us for so long, if we don't give him a taste of what we are capable of, I would be a disgrace to Bai family!"
Bai Yutang dialling a number, "Hello! Wang Chao! Bring the team! Time to close the net!"