S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 111

Love Murderer 18 – Old House

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Everyone followed Zhao Jue into the fortress-like villa. This villa was very special; the whole structure was quite European and old. There were brass chandelier candlesticks, hollow wall decorations, oil paintings, and sculptures that could be seen everywhere, as well as busy maids that passed by.

Gongsun stared at a few sets of European armor in the hallway, “The things in this room should be very valuable, right?” He remembered that Bai Jintang had said before that he wanted to buy a few sets of armor for decoration. Of course, such a thing was in line with Gongsun’s aesthetics, but when he saw the price, he immediately felt that it would be unforgivable to make such thing a decoration, so he firmly disagreed. With this kind of spare money, it is better to use it for charity.

“You know about antiques?” Zhan Jue looked back at Gongsun.

Gongsun shook his head, “Just a little bit.”

Zhao Jue smiled, “I took a liking to a medieval duke’s castle while abroad. It took more than half a year to completely dismantle it, then another half year to move it here and restore it. However, the original castle was gray and I didn’t like that, so I had people paint the exterior white.”

Zhan Zhao laughed twice and said, “Did you bring the servants with it?”

Everyone was a little speechless. Zhao Jue smiled and looked back at Zhan Zhao, “I bought this castle for a reason… you will definitely agree with my approach.”

Everyone followed Zhao Jue to the second floor. Zhao Jue went to the end of the hallway, opened a door, and said to Zhan Zhao and the others, “This is my bedroom. There are several master bedrooms like this one, you can stay here overnight.”

Zhan Zhao was a little puzzled, “Why are we spending the night here?”

Zhao Jue chuckled and whispered, “If you stay here overnight, the little lion can sleep with you.”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows and lowered his head. Seeing that the little lion was licking the back of his hand, he admired it; it was so cute.

Bai Yutang and the others looked around and saw that above the head of the big bed in the middle of the room, on the main wall facing the door, there was a huge oil painting covered with a white cloth.

Zhao Jue walked over to the painting and said, “The reason I bought this castle is for this painting.”

“This painting was in the castle?” Bai Yutang asked.

“En.” Zhao Jue nodded, stretched out his hand, and unveiled the painting under the cloth with a ‘swish’.

When everyone looked up, they couldn’t help but gasp.

Zhan Zhao opened his mouth wide; he saw a man dressed like a medieval nobleman painted on the canvas behind the white cloth, and his appearance was… familiar — like his father, or rather, exactly the same as himself.

Everyone felt a little shocked, but the expressions on their faces showed extreme shock. When they looked at Zhao Jue, they saw him lying on the bed, grinning sullenly, and patting the bed with a smile. Zhan Zhao immediately realized that something was wrong, and thought about it again — How could an ancient painting be so new? Turning his head to face Zhao Jue, he said, “Zhao Jue, are you kidding me?”

Gongsun walked in front of the oil painting and looked at it, saying weakly, “It should be a relatively new painting… not an antique.”

Bai Yutang felt that Zhan Zhao’s blood pressure was getting higher and higher, and he thought that Zhao Jue was really good; he could provoke Zhan Zhao to explode every time. But to be honest, this joke was really boring.

The atmosphere was awkward. Zhao Jue finished laughing, reached out his hand, and gently pressed the bell next to the bed. After a while, the butler came in with a milk bottle in his hand and handed it to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao was a little speechless, but the lion in his arms moved, staring at the milk bottle in Zhan Zhao’s hand and calling out in a low voice — his eyes made him look like a cute emoji saying “I want”.

 Only then did Zhan Zhao understand that this was for the little lion… Thinking about it, he turned the bottle upside down, and stuffed the nipple into his mouth. The little lion squeaked and sucked hard, his feet kicking; he seemed to be sucking well.

Zhan Zhao instantly sighed in relief, no longer feeling stressed — it’s so cute.

On one hand, the others were impressed by the cuteness of the little lion, and on the other hand, they were amazing at Zhao Jue’s understanding of Zhan Zhao. He was really capable; one moment he had caused Zhan Zhao’s hair to stand on end, and the next moment he used the little lion to defeat Zhan Zhao in seconds. Usually, only Zhan Zhao could toss others around like this, but today’s main character is the little lion.

“I’m just joking.” Zhao Jue went to the other end of the bed and pointed to the wall beside the door behind everyone, “To be precise, it’s because of this painting.”

Everyone turned around. Sure enough, they saw a fireplace next to the door, above which, there was a huge oil painting that was also covered in a white cloth.

Zhao Jue gestured to Bai Yutang and said, “Please take off the white cloth.”

Bai Yutang walked over, grabbed the white cloth, and gently pulled it off… The white cloth was torn down… exposing an oil painting that had been yellowed by time.

The painting was a group picture of a family; there was a standing man, a sitting woman, a standing teenager, and a baby being held.

Everyone frowned lightly; this family was very interesting.

They saw that the standing man, probably in his thirties, was a European with brown hair and blue eyes, deep eyebrows, a tall nose, a square chin, and a burly figure. He was dressed in black clothes with a well-cut style. Although there was a slight smile at the corner of his mouth, this person’s face was serious, which showed that he usually didn’t smile. What Zhan Zhao and the other cared about, however, was the pendant hanging on his chest; it was a cross with an s-shaped snake wrapped around it… it was almost exactly the same as the pendant in Xu Tian’s urn.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Chi and nodded to him. Bai Chi opened his backpack and took out the urn. Zhan Zhao originally wanted to show Zhao Jue the urn and ask him about the pendant.

Zhao Jue frowned slightly when he saw the urn in Bai Chi’s hand. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other; Zhao Jue has always been cynical or unpredictable, this was the first time he had frowned.

Bai Chi opened the urn and took out the pendant. Zhao Jue stretched his hand out and carefully took it. He picked up the magnifying glass from the table and looked at it seriously. After examining it, he was silent for a long time before speaking, “The black snake is obsidian, the cross is silver… yes, it should be the earliest pendant.”

Zhan Zhao had many questions to ask him, but he turned to look at the portrait first.

The woman next to the man aroused everyone’s curiosity; it was a Chinese woman full of classical beauty, dressed in elegant clothes. Her clothes were indeed European in style, but they embodied Chinese elements, showing that they were very careful when making them.

Standing next to the woman was a beautiful boy with brown hair. He should be the child of the man and the woman, as there was indeed a hint of mixed blood. In the woman’s arms, there was a baby that was about one year old. The baby was wearing a cute dress, so it should be a girl… No matter how you look at it, it should be a happy family, but this family’s expressions were quite weird. The smile at the corners of their mouths feel very reluctant and their eyes were dull, making the people looking at it very uncomfortable.

“Does that painter hate them or something?” Gongsun couldn’t help but asking, “Why is it so weird?”

Everyone nodded, it should indeed be described as weird.

“If you stay here tonight, you might want to read this book.” Zhao Jue walked to the bedside and took out an old book. It was almost faded, but Zhan Zhao could still read it.

Zhan Zhao took the book to take a closer look and saw that it was the original German work, 《Monster》, which was the book that Jiang Ping found when investigating the pendant. (Angel: I’ve decided to just leave it as Monster, as I have had no luck finding an old German book with the Chinese name that was given.)

“Where did you get it?” Zhan Zhao was a little surprised, “I heard that this book is out of print.”

“This family is very old.” Zhao Jue smiled, “That’s why I bought this house and tore it down, every brick contains secrets.”

Everyone looked at each other, and Gongsun asked inexplicably, “Then what did you want me to bring dissection tools for?”

“Don’t worry, they will be useful in a while.” Zhao Jue smiled.

At that time, they heard the sweet sound of a piano float through the building. Zhao Jue seemed intoxicated and said, “They are both smart children.”

“How smart are they?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhao Jue smiled, “Very smart.”

Everyone was clueless as to the game that they were playing, but Zhao Jue’s smile made them feel a little nervous.

“Right,” Zhao Jue suddenly said, “it’s almost time for dinner.”

Everyone was confused by Zhao Jue’s completely illogical way of thinking. Bai Yutang spoke up, “Ther is still something I haven’t figured out yet.”

“There’s no hurry.” Zhao Jue waved his hand, “It took me several months to find all of the clues in this house, and I promise that you can figure it out in a day… But you have to believe that it is better to eat first than to eat later. I am doing this for your own good.”

With that being said, Zhao Jue stepped forward, gently took Bai Yutang’s arm, and said, “I heard that you are good at cooking, I wonder if you can cook western food.”

Bai Yutang looked up at Zhan Zhao weekly, but saw that Zhan Zhao’s hair hadn’t stood up this time. Instead, he took a napkin, bowed his head, and wiped the little lion’s mouth seriously. It had already drunk the large bottle and was still hiccupping. Seeing Zhan Zhao’s eyes full of pampering, Bai Yutang was a bit annoyed; if this cat has a lion, it doesn’t need a mouse!

But it doesn’t matter, after all, this is Zhao Jue’s home so he has the final say. As such, Bai Yutang was dragged by the arm to the kitchen downstairs.

It wasn’t until Bai Yutang was forced to take off his coat, put on a long black apron, and start cooking that Zhan Zhao understood what was happening. Raising his head dissatisfiedly, he asked, “Why is Xiao Bai cooking?”

Everyone looked at him feebly — Did you finally notice it?

Afterwards, Bai Yutang washed vegetables in the kitchen. Zhao Jue, Gongsun, and Zhan Zhao leaned on the bar outside the kitchen while drinking, and watched Bai Yutang cook. Bai Chi and Luo Tian were taken to play in the sand by the two children who had finished their piano practice.

Zhan Zhao pet the little lion from time to time; the little lion was very friendly towards people.

“It came from East Africa.” Zhao Jue smiled suddenly, “Its mother was driven out of the pride and wandered around with it. Shortly after, its mother died and a local animal protection organization took it in with a few other cubs. Putting it with the other cubs, it was bullied because it was the smallest and white… I happened to see it, so I brought it back.”

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, pinching the little lion’s ear and asking, “What’s its name?”

Zhao Jue lifted the corner of his mouth and said, “I have been thinking about it, but I haven’t thought of one yet.”

“Why are you investigating the affairs of this family?” Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Jue seriously, “I have always wondered, what do you seem to be looking for?”

Zhao Jue was silent for a while, then spoke without answering his questions, “… Do you know why Zhang Ying entrusted the child to me?”

Zhan Zhao was slightly stunned, and shook his head in confusion, “Didn’t you say that she had important things to do? Things more important than children?”

Zhao Jue smiled, reached his hand out to the urn, and took the belt out, “This belt is very smooth, with traces of use, but not of being worn.”

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly.

On the side, Gongsun propped his chin up with his hand, “Indeed, this is not the smoothness caused by frequent wearing, but more like the smoothness caused by frequent touching. Leather things often have a kind of oily texture, which is very easy to recognize.”

“Worthy of being a forensic doctor.” Zhao Jue nodded and spoke seriously, “Some things must be found out, some hatred must be reported, and some people… must be killed.”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Zhao Jue really won't miss any opportunity to tease Zhan Zhao.

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

Translated: June 4, 2021