S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 42

 

Murderer vs Murderer 15 – Cooperation

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After Zhan Zhao finished speaking, he stared at everyone with an expression that was conveying his excitement; ‘Did everyone understand? Did they find it interesting?’. He was hoping that they would be just as excited as him, however…

Zhan Zhao saw everyone staring at him with wide eyes. After about half a minute, everyone turned to look at Bai Yutang with an expression of ‘please enlighten us’.

“Cough…” Bai Yutang coughed. He reached out and grabbed a piece of paper from the desk, asking everyone “What is this?”

“Paper.” Everyone nodded together.

Bai Yutang picked up another piece of paper and folded the two together into a cross shape. “What about this?”

“Ten…” Zhao Hu replied blankly. (Angel: the Mandarin symbol for ten looks like a cross; 十)

“Cross?” Jiang Ping tilted his head, “Vampire?”

“Doctor.” Bai Chi said, “Hospital.”

“Building blocks” Luo Tian replied.

After they all answered, Bai Yutang rotated the cross to make an X shape and asked “What about this?”

“X” Zhao Hu continued to answer in a daze.

“X-Men.” Jiang Ping tilted his head. “Wolverine?”

“Multiplication.” Bai Chi said, “Arithmetic.”

“Cha cha.” Luo Tian thought for a while, “Disappeared.” (Angel: I don’t know what Luo Tian is talking about…I agree with Zhan Zhao’s analysis of his thinking process…)

Bai Yutang glanced at the crowed. He separated the two pieces of paper and threw them down on to the wolf’s head, asking “Do you still have the cross and the X in your mind?”

Everyone nodded, “En.”

Bai Yutang nodded again. He pointed at the wolf’s head and asked “What do you think of when you see that?”

Zhao Hu, “Wolf”

Jiang Ping, "Death."

Bai Chi, "Scared."

Luo Tian, ​​"Punish."

“Your thinking processes are very interesting.” Zhan Zhao stood on the side and rubbed his chin, pondering, “Zhao Hu is a linear thinker, Jiang Ping is a descending thinker, Chi Chi is an ascending thinker, and Luo Tian is a curvilinear thinker.”

Everyone’s head tilted and they all looked at Bai Yutang for a translation. Bai Yutang pointed at Zhao Hu, “Stupid.” Pointed to Jiang Ping, “Bad.” Pointed to Bai Chi, “Cute.” And lastly pointed to Luo Tian, “Strange.”

“Heh…” Ma Han and the others who watched the excitement but did not participate all applauded, “So insightful!”

Zhan Zhao’s mouth slumped. He stood aside and squinted at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang mixed up the lines that had formed the wolf’s head and asked, “Can you still remember the wolf’s head?”

Everyone was stunned. There was a mess of white lines in front of them and they didn’t know which ones were the nose or which ones were the ears. However, it caused everyone to imagine the picture of the wolf that they all had in their memory.

“Oh!” Bai Chi was shocked, “I understand! The scrambled lines make the wolf head appear in the minds of the people who looked at the painting… They must have seen the wolf head before being kept in the closed off space every day. When they would see the white lines, the image of the wolf head would become clearer and clearer in their mind. Using the lines is more effective than using an actual wolf!”

“That’s right!” Zhan Zhao nodded excitedly, “This is an indirect suggestion, just like cursing someone and insinuating that you are curing at someone!”

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone glared at him, “Why didn’t you say that at the beginning?!”

“So this is the profoundness of psychological suggestion.” Everyone started talking about it.

 Bai Yutang gathered up the notes from the desk. He saw Zhan Zhao standing by the desk, drawing a circle on the desktop with one finger.

“Cat, what are you doing?” Bai Yutang looked up at him and he could tell that Zhan Zhao was disheartened. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, Zhan Zhao raised his foot and harshly stomped on Bai Yutang’s foot.

“Oh…” Bai Yutang’s tail was trampled on.

Everyone had an epiphany about what Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were trying to say. Only Zhao Hu rubbed his chin and asked Ma Han next to him, “Brother Ma, aren’t curing someone and insinuating that you are cursing someone the same? What’s the difference?”

Ma Han shook his head and stretched his hand out to pat Zhao Hu’s shoulder, “Forget it, don’t think about it. You are a linear thinker; this kind of problem is not suitable for you.”

……

While they were talking, Lu Fang hurriedly walked in with a pale face, “It’s incredible.”

“What’s the matter?” Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other. From the look on Lu Fang’s face, they could tell that something big must have happened.

“This is a video that Interpol sent us this morning.” Lu Fang said, “They said that TVA has split and a newly established organization called WOLF has emerged.”

“WOLF?” Zhan Zhao frowned, “Wolf?”

“The organization’s first mission shocked the entire European continent.” Lu Fang said as he inserted the USB drive into Jiang Ping’s computer.

Jiang Ping turned on the projector and played the video on the big screen.

The picture quality was quite clear and the angle was very good; it felt like a close-up shot. They saw three men dressed in black with knifes in the frame. The men rushed into a group of gang members and used extremely brutal methods to hack and kill them. Their quick actions and cruel methods made the people watching all think of the same thing: they’re beasts. The most outrageous part was that once the three had killed all of the gang members, they all raised their faces and howled at the sky. They sounded like wolves.

“Are they really fucking playing like the X-Men?” Jiang Ping frowned, “They’re better than Wolverine.”

Other people’s faces were also a little pale. Thinking about the recent cases they have had, it really made people feel cold all over.

Finally, they saw a wolf head pattern appear on the screen. At a glance, they could tell it was the same as the tattoo on the man and the woman that they had caught. It was also the same as the wolf head made from the white lines.

Everyone looked at each other… Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao went to the interrogation room and entered it. Bai Yutang asked the woman that they had arrested, “What exactly is ‘WOLF’?”

The woman smiled slightly and stared at Bai Yutang, “Wolves are the greatest creatures in the animal kingdom.”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, “I think dogs are a bit better than them.”

“Haha…” The woman laughed, “Wolves are at the top of the food chain! They have no natural enemies and no fear! WOLF, sooner or later they will occupy the whole planet!”

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao and asked the woman “Who is the leader of WOLF?”

A weird smile appeared on the woman’s face, “Do you really need to ask that? Of course it’s Wolf!” After speaking, she suddenly opened her mouth and roared. She leaned forward and Bai Yutang violently pulled Zhan Zhao back. The woman was chained to the iron chair and couldn’t move. She desperately tried to get out, making the iron chair and handcuffs constantly move, which made a very uncomfortable noise.

Then the woman howled. She was a human, but it felt like she was a wolf through and through.

“Abnormal.” Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao out of the room and turned to look at him, “Cat, aren’t you scared?”

Zhan Zhao gave him a glance, “You are treating my like a child. Why would I be scared?”

“Aren’t you a cat?” Bai Yutang said half jokingly, “Aren’t all cat’s afraid of canines?”

“You are still thinking about joking around!” Zhan Zhao glared at him, “That Wolf, it seems like he is the one who used us to hold back ZJ, distract Interpol, and is infighting with Karula inside TVA… He is not an easy person to deal with.”

“Why do you say that?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Usually, when you use psychological suggestion, you have to guide your targets yourself. However, he was able to take a set of theories and form a fixed model of implementation for his psychological hints… This shows that he should have carried out a lot of experiments.”

Bai Yutang was silent for a while, then asked “Cat, why people carry out such experiments?”

Zhan Zhao shook his head and took a deep breath, “Did you hear what the woman said? ‘WOLF will eventually occupy the entire planet’.”

“Heh…” Bai Yutang curled his lips in disdain, “Is she really an idiot? How can a bunch of beasts occupy the planet?”

“But it’s true that TVA and ZJ both lost business to them.” Zhan Zhao smiled.

“Heh…” Bai Yutang also laughed, “So this is what Leonard was worried about? That’s why he came to find you?”

“Xiao Bai, do you know the biggest difference between a wolf and a lion?” Zhan Zhao suddenly asked Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang nodded, “In terms of an animal on its own, a lion is much more powerful than a wolf. However, when in a group, the lethality of a wolf pack is not comparable to that of a pride of lions.”

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “Lions pay attention to power control; there is only one male lion in the pride and they may have 20 to 30 females with them. However, wolf packs care about power control more. In a wolf pack, there is a certain degree of democracy, as a wolf pack can reach up to a thousand members. A few decades ago, even the armed forces couldn’t defeat the wolf pack they encountered in Tibet and Mongolia.”

"En." Bai Yutang nodded, "But those packs are almost extinct now, aren’t they?"

“The fighting style they used against the wolves was to separate the wolves and take care of them in smaller groups. They used submachine guns and incendiary grenades, but even those couldn’t defeat the wolf pack” Zhan Zhao said, “However, those large-scale wolf packs really are almost extinct.”

"Cat." Bai Yutang asked suddenly, "What did you think of?"

Zhan Zhao touched his chin, "Wolf is a wolf now, but he is a lone wolf. He doesn’t have a large enough wolf pack.”

Bai Yutang understood, “So, what you mean is that his current actions are focused on gathering and strengthening his wolf pack?”

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “Once there is a theory that implies that people are a model that can be taught by example, it is like the terrorists have a Bible to follow… You don’t need to teach them; they will spread and grow by themselves. When the time comes, it is as simple as harvesting the crops from the seeds that you planted.”

Bai Yutang frowned deeply, “It may be true that WOLF is an organization that is only operating in Europe for now, however, with its growth model, it will soon spread all over the world.”

Zhan Zhao thought for a while and said, "I think..."

"We should call Ouyang!" Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao forward, "Let's notify Bao Sir first!"

Zhan Zhao was dragged forward by Bai Yutang, and said with some wonder, "Why can you understand what I say when the others can’t? You can even guess what I am going to say.”

"It's not that I can understand you while that they don’t." Bai Yutang turned around to correct him, "It's because no one in the world can understand you except me."

Unconvinced, Zhan Zhao kicked Bai Yutang, "Nonsense! My students understand me!"

“Your students are there to admire your beauty. Who would dare to refute what you tell them?” Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao towards him to prevent him from attacking again, “Besides, who knows if you will use the black hole theory or the quantum theory as examples. The more examples you use, the more confused they get. Except for Stephen Hawking, how can ordinary people understand?”

"Then why can you understand?" Zhan Zhao asked bitterly.

“It's only natural that I understand you." Bai Yutang leaned over and whispered into Zhan Zhao's ear, "I have been inside you, so of course I can understand you.”

"Ah!" Zhan Zhao flushed, and kicked Bai Yutang, "Indecent! Who did you learn from! Dead mouse, you didn’t learn well."

The two of them fought and made their way to Bao Zheng's office. As they entered, they saw Bao Zheng put down the phone. Seeing the two coming in, Bao Zheng nodded, "I already know about the situation."

"Bao Sir, what shall we do?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and asked Bao Zheng, "The situation is serious this time. If no action is taken, the consequences may be disastrous!"

"Ouyang called just now and said that he would like to invite you to assist in the investigation." Bao Zhen said.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were delighted, "Ouyang really stands by his words."

"There's more." Bao Zheng handed Zhan Zhao a package. "I was sent this by the international express just now. This package is for you."

Zhan Zhao took a look and frowned involuntarily. He asked Bao Zheng, "Who sent it?"

Bao Zheng raised his eyebrows, "Who do you think sent it?"

"Zhao Jue?!" Zhan Zhao widened his eyes. "No one but him can think of this method."

"It seems that he also sent a copy to Interpol," Bao Zheng said in a low voice. "This mission is not trivial. Interpol wants to invite the best psychologists in the world to assist them."

"Who did they choose?" Zhan Zhao asked Bao Zheng.

Bao Zheng was silent for a while, "You and Zhao Jue... They want you to work together to create a 'special medicine' that can fight WOLF."

Zhan Zhao took the information and read it again, raising his face, "I have to say, he is indeed a genius."

"So you promised to cooperate with him?" Bao Zheng was a little surprised.

"Of course." Zhan Zhao closed the materials, "It’s for work!" After speaking, he pulled Bai Yutang, "Let’s go Xiao Bai! We must pack our bags and get ready to go!"

Bai Yutang nodded, and after leaving the room, they heard Bao Zheng’s sturdy roar from the room; “This time it’s an international cooperation. If you dare to lose the face of the S City Police Department, I will make you clean the toilets! Oh oh oh!”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao smiled at each other and opened the door of the SCI office. Bai Yutang instructed everyone, "Everyone go home and pack. We are flying to Europe tomorrow morning!”

 ‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

They answers to Bai Yutang's questions and Zhan Zhao's analysis of their thought processes being translated by Bai Yutang was so funny. I love the dynamic of this team so much.

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

Translated: March 31, 2021