S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 28

Murderer vs Murderer 01 - Black Canvas Bag

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Bai Yutang was at Flying Dragon Fitness Club in S City, on the third floor. He ignored the eyes that were looking at him and went to take a shower in the bathroom.

Taking off his white sports jacket, Bai Yutang walked into a shower stall with a towel wrapped around his waist. He drew the curtain, turned on the shower, and the rush of hot water washed down his body. The sound of water mixed with some other sounds, and a cool wind blew in from outside, alerting him to the fact that someone had slowly opened the shower curtain behind him.

The corner of Bai Yutang's mouth was slightly raised. He pretended to be unaware and continued to wash himself.

At that time, a hand was slowly placed on his back. Bai Yutang turned his head and saw a man standing behind him with a gun in one hand smiling at him.

The man was not short. He had a towel around his waist, but the smile on his face is a little wretched, and he spoke gloomily, "Don't move, handsome guy."

Bai Yutang nodded, turned off the faucet with his backhand, and asked, "What are you doing?"

The man whistled, "Not bad...you are the calmest of all of them so far. And of course, the most handsome one."

Bai Yutang thought about it for a while, and said, "Are you the pervert who has been raping and killing people in major fitness clubs?"

"Heh..." The man smiled triumphantly, "You are right. I have done this so many times but you are the most handsome one I have seen, so I won’t kill you. How about that? Aren’t I kind?"

Bai Yutang thought for a while, and shook his head somewhat unappetizingly.

"Aren't you afraid of death?" The man raised his eyebrows, "I advise you not to toast or drink fine wine." (Angel: ‘to toast or drink fine wine’ is a Chinese proverb that means not to give praise, so I assume he is telling Bai Yutang not to praise him for saying that he wouldn’t kill him)

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows and looked at the gun in his hand, and sneered, "Who are you trying to scare?"

"Heh... don't believe it?" The man laughed, "The first one, I stabbed him three times, and the second one, because he was not good-looking enough, I stabbed him ten times. As for you..."

Bai Yutang nodded and said, "These details are indeed not disclosed to the public."

"Then, you believe me?" The man smiled and took a step closer, "Then just be obedient and do what I say.” He attempted to reach his hand over to grab the towel around Bai Yutang’s waist. Before his hand reached the towel, he was caught by Bai Yutang who grabbed his hand and twisted it hard.

"Ah!" He screamed in pain; he also felt pain in the hand that held the gun. By the time he reacted, Bai Yutang had already gotten the gun from his hand and had kicked it out of the shower stall.

At the same time, a large number of police officers rushed in. Zhan Zhao rushed forward aggressively and kicked the pervert who fell on the ground, "Dead pervert!"

The police officers hurriedly subdued the man and handcuffed him, "You are suspected of multiple murders and are now under arrest!" After speaking, they escorted him away.

The leader of the team took the gun from Bai Yutang and said with a smile, "Thank you for Captain Bai. Our team members tried for a few weeks and he didn't take the bait. You got him in just one try. Ah, the handsome guy is different…"

"You're welcome." Bai Yutang smiled at him, but he caught a glimpse of Zhan Zhao's dark face.

After the team had left, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other in the bathroom.

Zhan Zhao glared, "Won’t you find a larger towel. Everyone will see!"

Bai Yutang couldn't laugh or cry, "I'm not a woman, so why would I want such a big towel? Do I need to cover my chest?"

"Why don't you cover it?!" Zhan Zhao angrily asked, "It’s the public security division job to catch to the pervert, what are you here too?!" (Angel: the author used the term ‘Weathering Group - 风化组’ which, after extensive research, I decided would be described as the public security division.)

"Cat...I didn't want to come; Bao Sir sold me off." Bai Yutang felt a little helpless, and reached out to touch Zhan Zhao's ear. "But I'm very happy that you are jealous."

Zhan Zhao kicked his foot and was grabbed by Bai Yutang, "Cat, let’s wash up together."

"You can wash yourself just fine!" Zhan Zhao broke free. He gave Bai Yutang a fierce look and stormed outside to wait.

Seeing that Zhan Zhao had left, Bai Yutang said to the next stall, "You can come out now."

After a while, a man wrapped in a towel came out from the shower stall next to Bai Yutang’s. He had a shallow horizontal scar on the bottom left of his face. He had a strong build and had curly black hair. He looked like a foreigner of Chinese descent.

He walked out of the shower room, looked at Bai Yutang, and said, "Just now, it was not convenient for me to come out."

Bai Yutang glanced at him and didn't say a word. He closed the curtain to finish his shower.

The man took his clothes out of the locker outside and grabbed his backpack. He took one last look at the shower stall that Bai Yutang was in before turning around and leaving with his bag on his back.

Meanwhile, Zhan Zhao sat on the sofa reading a magazine in the lobby of the fitness club. His hair was cut into a refreshing short style, while is features were made more handsome on his fair complexion. He was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans, but the T-shirt is a bit big on him; it probably wasn’t his…

Zhan Zhao felt that there someone was looking at him. When he raised his head, he saw a person carrying a bag passing in front of him; it was a black canvas bag with a cartoon of three pompous chickens doing gymnastics on the back of it. Zhan Zhao thought the bag was cute, so he took another look, but soon, the person carrying the bag had left the club and got in a taxi.

"Cat." Zhan Zhao was in a trance. When he turned his head, he saw Bai Yutang standing behind him, also in a white T-shirt and blue jeans... They looked like a couple.

"What are you looking at?" Bai Yutang followed his gaze and looked out.

"I just saw a very interesting bag." Zhan Zhao stood up, "Where are we going next?"

Bai Yutang thought for a while, "Let's go and eat first..." Before he finished speaking, his cellphone rang. Taking out the phone, Bai Yutang murmured, "Don’t let it be another murder case.”

Seeing the caller ID, Bai Yutang smiled bitterly at Zhan Zhao, "Looks like we aren’t going out for lunch anymore.”

Zhan Zhao wrinkled his nose.

"Hello? Bao Sir." Bai Yutang answered the phone, listened for a while, and said, "I see." Then he hung up.

"What's the matter?" Zhan Zhao saw that Bai Yutang's expression was not good so he asked, "Is it another big case?"

Bai Yutang thought for a while, then he took Zhan Zhao out to the car, "I think that old man is confused. He should have called the archaeologist, why did he call me?"

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

As he drove past a cake shop, Bai Yutang stopped the car. He got out and bought a large bag of fresh milk puffs for Zhan Zhao. As he handed them over, Bai Yutang stroked a certain cat’s hair.

"We’re going to the outskirts of the city?" Zhan Zhao put a puff in his mouth, then put another in Bai Yutang's mouth. As Zhan Zhao kept feeding the two of them, Bai Yutang drove further and further away from the city.

“Did you know that there is an ancient tomb in the outskirts of the city?” Bai Yutang asked. “It’s some kind of lard from the Warring States Period.” (Angel: the author uses 猪油, 猪油 together means lard, but broken down it means 猪 pig and 油 oil, or pig oil)

"Ahem..." Zhan Zhao almost coughed out the puffs in his mouth, "What lard, it’s princes." (Angel: the prince used here is not 王子, but instead it’s 诸侯. 诸侯 is a collective term for the feudal princes, princes that were appointed to rule over local areas. At least that was the understanding I came to form my research)

"That's right, that’s the one!" Bai Yutang laughed. "Bao Sir told us to go and take a look."

"Why are we going to the ancient tomb?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "To catch a tomb thief? Or did the lard blow up the bodies?"

"Who knows." Bai Yutang parked the car outside the barrier set up by the archaeological team. He saw a lot of police cars parked nearby, including those from the SCI team.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao got out of the car and they saw a group of police officers in the distance, all looking underground; they did not know what they were looking at.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other. They both crossed under the barrier and walked towards the crowd.

From a distance, they saw Zhao Hu standing outside the crowd and beckoning to the two.

"Boss, I heard that you sacrificed your appearance and bravely captured the pervert." Zhao Hu roared with a grin.

Bai Yutang looked at the sky speechlessly, and Zhan Zhao glared at Zhao Hu, "Hu Zi, why did you bring a child to the scene? Wouldn’t it be bad if they were to be frightened?"

"Huh?" Zhao Hu blinked, "What child?"

Zhan Zhao pointed next to him, "Who is he? He is holding the corner of your clothes. He looks to be about three or four-year-old."

"Huh..." Zhao Hu took a breath and turned to look beside him, “Where is he?”

"Ah..." Zhan Zhao was startled, "Take a closer look at the ancient clothes he is wearing!”

"Huh?" Zhao Hu was shocked, "What?"

"I get it!" Zhan Zhao suddenly realized something, "This is an ancient tomb and it's dark. You must have something dirty on you!”

"Huh?" Zhao Hu jumped up in shock, "What should I do?"

"There is a way!" Zhan Zhao said, "Try to recite Amitabha a hundred times!" (Angel: 阿弥陀佛 Amitabha, also known as the Buddha of Infinite Life)

"Oh, good." Zhao Hu immediately went to the side to recite Amitabha.

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao helplessly — ‘Bad cat, you are bullying people again.’

Zhan Zhao turned around — ‘Humph!’

"What's the situation?" Bai Yutang asked Ma Han who was standing by the pit.

Ma Han signaled for them to look down into the pit.

Walking over to the edge of the pit, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao saw a square tomb below. Gongsun was squatting on a layer of dirt and stone steps, and there was a pile of white bones in front of him. The faintly visible human skulls indicated that the scattered bones were human.

"Captain." Luo Tian came over with a gray-haired, dark-skinned old man who was wearing glasses, "This is the leader of this archeological team, Dr. Wen Moyao.”

"Old Wen." Zhan Zhao greeted him quickly.

The old man smiled and shook hands with Zhan Zhao, "Xiao Zhan, I haven't seen you for many years."

"Do you two know each other?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

"En." Zhan Zhao nodded and introduced Bai Yutang, "Old Wen is an expert in studying the tombs of the Warring States Period, and he is a world-renowned archaeologist." He spoke. Gesturing to Bai Yutang, he said, "This is Bai Yutang, the leader of SCI."

"Oh, I have heard a lot about you.” Wen Moyao hurriedly reached out and shook Bai Yutang's hand.

While shaking his hand, Bai Yutang felt that the old man's hands were hard and powerful. When he looked down, he saw a thick layer of calluses and hand injuries which belonged to the hands of someone who had been working in the field for a long time.

"These are what we just discovered this morning." Wen Moyao explained to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "I felt it necessary to contact the police, so I called Old Bao and asked him to arrange a forensic doctor to take a look.”

"At first it was only Gongsun who came." Luo Tian said, "He only took a few glances before calling back. Bao Sir then sent all of us here."

“Why did you feel like you needed to call the police when you found the bones in the tomb?” Bai Yutang asked Wen Moyao. “Is there a problem with these bones?”

"At first, when we discovered this pit, we thought it was a mass grave." Wen Moyao said, "But this does not fit with the burial customs at the time. This is the prince’s tomb and he should have been buried only with his concubine. In that case, there should not be this many bones here. Also, the bones are completely broken, which is even further from the traditions. Due to this, we had some doubts.”

"It's really strange." Zhan Zhao said, looking at the bones that were in this pit, "Some of them don't seem to be human bones."

"Yes." Wen Moyao nodded, "We found the bones of canines, cows, and horses, which is even more weird. Then we found this..." Wang Chao, who was next to them, grabbed a bag and showed Bai Yutang.

It was a black canvas bag with yellow cartoon patterns embroidered on it. The cartoon was of three pompous chickens doing gymnastics.

Zhan Zhao stared at this bag in a daze, and said, "This bag..."

"We found it in the bone pile." Wen Moyao said, "There should be no such thing thousands of years ago."

Bai Yutang frowned and took the bag. He looked at it and asked, "You mean to say that these bones were brought here in this bag?”

"That should be the case." Wen Moyao nodded, "We roughly calculated the total volume of the bones and it is indeed just right to fit in this bag."

Bai Yutang nodded. After thanking Wen Moyao, he turned to look around Zhan Zhao, who had been staring at him, "Cat? What's wrong?"

"Well, I thought of something." Zhan Zhao said. He asked the officer next to him if they had paper and a pen.

Without thinking about it too much, Bai Yutang jumped down into the pit. He went to Gongsun’s side and asked “How is it?”

Gongsun was studying a skull and said, "It's very interesting. There are two human skulls, as well as bones from dogs, cats, and rabbits. The other bones have all been scattered. I must bring them back and put them together to determine how many people there are.”

"Is there something special about those two skulls?" Bai Yutang asked.

"En." Gongsun showed the two skulls to Bai Yutang and said, "There are traces of beatings to the head with blunt instruments; the wound is fatal. In addition, there are some strange scratches on the bones.”

"What does that mean?" Bai Yutang asked.

"The bones are very clean." Gongsun said, "However, it doesn't seem to have been done naturally, and they don’t seem to be very old. I need to bring them back to conduct a more detailed analysis."

Bai Yutang nodded and jumped out the pit. He saw Zhan Zhao holding a piece of paper in his hand and making a call.

"Yes, it’s a taxi." Zhan Zhao said to the phone, "It’s orange. It picked up a person at the entrance of the Flying Dragon Fitness Club at noon today. The person was roughly 1.8 meters tall and was carrying a black travel bag on his back. Find the driver and find out where the passenger was taken… Yes, the license plate number is the one I just told you.” Zhan Zhao hung up the phone. Bai Yutang took the piece of paper from his hand and saw that he had written down a license plate number.

"Cat, what's the matter?" Bai Yutang asked puzzledly.

"Well, I saw a man with that bag on his back while I was waiting for you at the entrance of the fitness club. I thought that it was cute so I took a closer look. It's almost exactly the same and it was bulging.”

"What a coincidence." Bai Yutang asked, "What about this license plate?"

"I just remembered it." Zhan Zhao replied indifferently.

Bai Yutang couldn't laugh or cry. Soon, Jiang Ping called back, saying that he had found the taxi driver. He had an impression of the man and said that he had driven him to an abandoned construction site.

"Abandoned construction site?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "Give me the address." Zhan Zhao quickly wrote down the address. He hung up the phone and got into the car with Bai Yutang. As soon as they wanted to leave, they saw Zhao Hu pulling Bai Chi not far away, asking him, "Chi Chi, take a look. Is there a child pulling on the corner of my clothes?"

"Huh?" Bai Chi widened his eyes and looked at it for a long time. "There’s no one..."

"Oh." Zhao Hu patted his chest. "Reciting Amitabha is indeed very useful. By the way, let me tell you something. The air in this place has a very dark energy in it!"

Bai Chi looked serious and surprised, "Really?"

......

Bai Yutang glanced weakly at Zhan Zhao, who was smiling mischievously next him, and started the car.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

I am back °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° 

Of course the chapter I come back with is filled with difficult expressions and words (≖͞_≖̥), but I tried my best to either explain them or chose the most appropriate alternative. 

From now on, I will try to do one chapter a day. Most of my classes have either a big group assignment or a big individual assignment that is due in the next few weeks so I need to work on those too. But I promise to get one chapter done a day. Some days I will have more time than others, so on those days I may be able to get more than one chapter done.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: March 20/21/22, 2021