S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 121

Love Murderer 27 – Mystery Cargo

---

Zhan Zhao took Bai Yutang to see the portrait of Paris. Bai Yutang called and asked Jiang Ping to look into the painter, hoping to find some clues about Paris.

At this time, Li Hao had already stepped onto the stage and announced the start of the auction.

When the master of ceremonies presided over the auction, Li Hao got off the stage, said a few words to a middle-aged man, then left the event hall altogether and walked into the elevator.

“I couldn’t get any clues from him.” Zhan Zhao seemed a little sorry, but Bai Yutang smiled, stretched his hand out, took a headset from his pocket, and put it into Zhan Zhao’s ear.

Zhan Zhao was a little puzzled at first, but he soon heard the familiar voice of someone speaking; it was Li Hao.

“Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang probably came to investigate the case. Recently, the wind has been tight, so you should be careful when handling things.” Li Hao said to another person. (Angel: The wind being tight is a phrase usually used for being tracked down or watched frequently/tightly.)

“I know.” The other person replied, “Recently, that woman has caused us trouble everywhere.”

“Don’t pay attention to her.” Li Hao said lightly, “Try not to get involved with her, just get the things in hand and find a way to ship them out.”

“Send it out tomorrow.”

“It will be shipped tonight.” Another person replied.

“Okay.”

At this time, there was a ‘ding’, and the elevator door opened. Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang; it was obvious that he had installed a bug in the elevator when he came up.

“Nice.” Zhan Zhao smiled at him.

At this time, Bai Yutang took out his phone and said, “Zhang Long and Wang Chao will come with me.”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, “They are afraid that you are driving tired.”

Bai Yutang smiled and called Zhang Long, “Hey, did you see a middle-aged man in a black suit coming out? He was in his thirties, about 1.75 meters tall, slightly fat, and he was with Li Hao.”

“He is wearing blue pants, black leather shoes, his hair is parted three to seven and combed back, has triangular eyes, a relatively large nose, thin lips, and he looks like a scum.” Zhan Zhao added.

“I saw him,” Zhao Hu said, “he got into a car.”

“Watch him.” Bai Yutang said, “This person is very important, don’t stop watching him. He is going to a cargo ship tonight, ask people to watch him in shifts, don’t be taken by surprise.”

“Okay.” Zhang Long hung up and saw the man getting into a car and leaving, so he drove to follow him. He called and had people check the man’s license plate and identity.

At this time, the auction arrived at the oil painting of Paris. The starting price was not high, and it seemed that nobody was interested. At this time, they heard someone bidding. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found the voice very familiar, so they turned to look at its source; they saw the twins bidding and winking at them.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and smiled slightly. In the end, the twins bought the oil painting without spending a lot of money. Zhao Zhen also bought two useful gadgets and left the auction house with everyone.

“Zhen, Zhao Jue gave a little lion to Brother.” Bai Chi said to Zhao Zhen with some excitement, “It’s very cute.”

“Really? A little white lion is not easy to get, Zhao Jue seems to have used a lot of effort.” Zhao Zhen said as he opened the door of the Jeep.

Lisbon saw Bai Chi coming and nuzzled him affectionately. Bai Chi patted his head and said, “Lisbon, will you come to see the little lion?”

Everyone returned to the police station. In the office, except for Jiang Ping who was still checking the information, everyone else went out to make arrangements. Gongsun and Ma Xin had gone home because they stayed up all night.

“Did you find anything about the painter?” Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping.

“Well, there are only sporadic records, nothing valuable. He was never married and is not famous at all.” Jiang Ping shrugged, “His paintings are not very valuable.”

“Hmm.” Zhan Zhao touched his chin, “It is indeed doubtful that Li Hao would exhibit such a painting for sale at this time.”

“You mean that he deliberately took out this painting to sell?” Bai Yutang asked, “In order to get out attention?”

“Hmm…” Zhan Zhao looked at the painting closely, “Li Hao seems to know a lot, so I don’t know what he is taking away tonight.”

While talking, Zhan Zhao reached out and picked up the little lion from the sofa.

The little lion had been taking a nap this morning. Just now, Luoyang had come and played with him for a while, and then went to school.

Zhan Zhao walked over to Lisbon with the little lion in his arms and said, “Look!”

Lisbon squinted at the little lion, then chuffed softly.

The little lion seemed to be frightened by Lisbon, as he burrowed into Zhan Zhao’s arms, only leaving his butt exposed.

“That’s normal.” Zhao Zhen said, “Little lions are very afraid of adult male lions. Unless it is their father, if they meet one, it will eat them.”

Zhan Zhao hugged the little lion and went to the side.

“What’s his name?” Zhao Zhen asked.

“Hmm…” Zhan Zhao sat on the sofa, put the little lion on his lap, played with him, and said with some embarrassment, “I can’t think of one, I want a more interesting name.”

Bai Yutang prepared the milk powder with glucose for the little lion, making sure it was a suitable temperature, and gave it to Zhan Zhao, who fed the little lion.

Bai Yutang touched its soft belly and said, “It should be a good name.”

“Well, Lisbon, Luban, Lilia…” Bai Chi rubbed his chin, “He should get a matching one.”

“Leave it empty for now.” Zhan Zhao squeezed its ears, “When the time comes, we will give you a meaningful name and you will like it.”

The little lion seemed to agree as it rubbed its head against Zhan Zhao’s hand.

Afterwards, everyone ate a meal. They were exhausted from the continuous work over the last few days, so they all went to the rest room to sleep, preparing for the night’s action.

In the evening, Bai Yutang got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up. His phone rang and it was from Zhang Long, who said that it has been investigated; tonight, a small freighter was going out to sea to deliver a batch of cargo to a freighter anchored on the high seas.

Bai Yutang frowned slightly and asked, “How much cargo is there?”

“There is only one small container.” Zhang Long replied.

“A small container?” Bai Yutang thought for a while, “Is it like drug trafficking?”

“It’s not.” Zhang Long said, “It feels weird… Captain, I think it’s like they are smuggling endangered wild animals.”

“What?” Bai Yutang was a little puzzled. After thinking about it, he said, “Prepare to ambush and inform the marine team… We will come to collect the stolen goods personally tonight before the cargo goes to sea.”

“Yes Sir.” Zhang Long hung up the phone, and Wang Chao was ready to go.

Bai Yutang returned to the office with hot coffee, and told Zhan Zhao what Zhang Long had just told him.

“Smuggling wild animals?” Zhan Zhao frowned, “Zhang Long meant that the things in the cages are alive?”

“Probably.” Bai Yutang said.

“Captain,” Zhao Hu suddenly asked, “have you seen Jurassic Park?”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him weakly at the same time, knowing that he was about to say something messy again.

“Think about it.” Zhao Hu said, “Aren’t those videos made like ghost movies? Wouldn’t it be similar to Jurassic Park? In the opening scene, a staff member was dragged into the container by the Tyrannosaurus rex.”

“Ghost movies?” Zhan Zhao frowned slightly, as if he was thinking about something.

“What did you think of, Cat?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Hmm…” Zhan Zhao suddenly smiled, “Maybe… the cargo tonight is indeed the key.”

Everyone looked at each other, not quite understanding what Zhan Zhao meant.

After hastily eating a meal, everyone rushed to the dock to make arrangements before it got dark. Once everything was ready, they just waited for night to fall.

They waited until almost midnight, and it was not until almost one o’clock in the morning that some people began to gather on the dock.

Two black cars drove over, and a group of people got out of the cars. The middle-aged man who they had seen at the auction led the group. He instructed them to lift a small container with a crane and to put it on a freighter.

Zhan Zhao and the others watched the box settle on top of the freighter. The man waved his hand to signal that the ship could set off. Bai Yutang took out the walkie talkie and spoke to the police officers lying in ambush, “Don’t let any of them go, move out.”

In an instant, the officers rushed out and grabbed all of the people. Luo Tian asked the one controlling the crane to take the container off of the ship and put it back on the dock.

Zhan Zhao looked at the middle-aged man and saw that his face was discoloured. He smiled and asked, “What’s in the box?”

The man frowned and shook his head.

Bai Yutang asked some officers to open the container, and the man anxiously yelled, “This is private property.”

Bai Yutang sneered, “Not anymore.”

The man’s face was a little worried, and at this time, the phone on his body rang.

Bai Yutang stretched his hand out, and the man reluctantly put the phone in Bai Yutang’s hand. The phone only rang three times, then immediately went silent, and the phone number was not displayed.

“Captain!” Zhao Hu and Ma Han called from beside the container, “It’s open!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and walked to the front of the container.

Ma Han and the others slowly opened the container.

The light brightly illuminated the container, and everyone was a little nervous. Zhao Hu stood beside Ma Han and said, “Look, it really looks like Jurassic Park, right?”

Ma Han glanced at him. Everyone looked inside and saw that the container was filled roll by roll with paper towels.

Bai Yutang frowned, “Move all of the paper towel away… Are you transporting paper towel in the middle of the night?”

Several police officers went in and removed the paper towels. It didn’t take long before someone shouted, “Captain Bai, there is a cage inside!”

“Cage?”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other. When their hearts moved, they heard an officer say, “It’s a person! There is a person in the cage!”

“Get him out!” Bai Yutang said, “Is he alive or dead?”

“He’s tied up!” Luo Tian and Zhao Hu both went in, and dragged out a large cage.

When everyone saw it, they couldn’t help frowning. They saw a man tied up in the cage. He was wearing a wooden mask on his head, so they couldn’t see his face at all. The mask was shackled, as if they were afraid of it being opened. He was tied up with an iron chain as thick as his thumb, tied to the cage, unable to move.

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao frowned. This person seemed to be extremely lethal, hence why he was transported like this.

“Captain, he is very strong.” Luo Tian stood by the cage, staring at the man, and saw that as he struggled, the chain creaked, “I’m afraid it will be dangerous if we release him now.”

“How about anesthesia?” Zhao Hu asked, “Why does it feel like Hannibal?”

Ma Han looked at him helplessly, “Can you watch less horror movies?”

“Aren’t I also learning from them” Zhao Hu whispered.

Zhan Zhao thought for a while, then took his phone out of his pocket, dialed a number, and was connected shortly after… Speaking into the phone, he said “We rescued a person from Li Hao, but he doesn’t seem to want to cooperate with us.”

The person on the other end said something to Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao handed the phone to Luo Tian, “Let him listen.”

Luo Tian took the phone, opened the cage, walked over to the person, and put the phone to his ear.

The person on the other end of the phone seemed to say something to him, as the person in the cage slowly calmed down and stopped struggling.

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao and raised his eyebrows – Cat, who is it?

Zhan Zhao smiled, “We all know each other.” As he said it, he walked over to the man in the cage, “We’ll let you out, don’t resist!”

The man slowly nodded.

Luo Tian and Zhao Hu looked at each other, took the pliers, and cut the iron chains off of the man’s body. Luo Tian used the pliers to break the lock that locked the mask… then gently reached out and helped the man remove the mask.

Everyone took look and everyone understood why Zhan Zhao said that they all knew this person.

Bai Yutang frowned, then asked after a long time, “Are you Xu Tian?”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

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

Translated: June 12, 2021