S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 36

Ghost Murderer 04 - The Ghost and the Magician

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On the white A4 papers, the words written in black marker were not a vicious curse or a crazy show of love, but… simple numbers, written in Chinese.

These three letters were opened by Zhan Zhao according to the date. The first letter read, “Nine hundred and seventy-two days”. The second letter read, “Nine hundred and seventy-three days”. The third letter read, “Nine hundred and seventy-four days”...

“Is he counting?” Li Ying threw the letters down, “How perverted, what do those days mean? Is he counting the days he has been stalking Zhao Zhen. or something else?”

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, who shook his head helplessly, “The information we have is too little, it would be best to take all the letters back and analyse them carefully before we can identify the reason.”

“Okay.” Li Ying nodded, “Take these with you for now. Tomorrow I will have all the letters, the videos of Zhao Zhen's recent performances, recordings taken by his entourage, and information on the people he has contacted sent over.”

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were taken aback, “Is the information so complete? It’s good enough to be a professional intelligence officer.”

“Heh.” Li Ying smiled slightly smugly, “Which of the celebrities I used to bring along are not handsome men or beautiful women who are terribly enchanting? The likelihood of such people attracting perverts is one hundred percent, so I'm the one with plenty of combat experience!” After speaking, she raised an eyebrow, “After I catch that pervert, I'll personally destroy him! Won’t let him plague people again!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, she truly is an expert agent, so bold!

Zhao Zhen’s show was a success and after his last magic trick, his tour finally came to an end.

After the curtain came down, Zhao Zhen felt that his whole body was about to fall apart, so tired!

Just when he was feeling exhausted, Zhao Zhen suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from backstage, “Zhen!”

Zhao Zhen turned around, and sure enough, he saw Bai Chi dashing over to him, “Amazing!”

As soon as Zhao Zhen saw Bai Chi, he felt refreshed. Finally, he can have a whole year off and can spend some quality time with Bai Chi, although he is also very busy… Zhao Zhen had already started thinking that instead of doing a big tour after this, he would attend some stage shows. After his two-year contract is over, he could retire. He has enough money saved to live with Bai Chi lying around for several lifetimes anyway, but the problem is that Chi Chi refuses to let him support him and is busy every day.

This time around, Bai Jintang signed the contract with him for no other reason than to give him good security and freedom, without any thought of using him to earn money, otherwise, it wouldn't be possible for him to take a whole year off.

“Chi Chi,” Zhao Zhen put his arm around Bai Chi, “I’m so tired.”

“Tired, huh?” Bai Chi was a little distressed, he wanted to let Zhao Zhen eat and sleep later, and then let Brother and the others ask him about the case. However, every time his tour would end, Zhao Zhen would sleep lazily for three full days, during which he would eat when the food was brought to his mouth, and would rather sleep hungry when it wasn't. There was nothing he could do about it, as he had been a young master since he was a child.

When Bai Chi dragged Zhao Zhen backstage, he saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walking out of the lounge together with Li Ying.

“Brother.” Bai Chi greeted Zhan Zhao and the others.

Zhao Zhen then saw Zhan Zhao holding a file bag and frowned slightly, glancing at Li Ying.

Li Ying smiled at him and Bai Chi looked at the group and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Zhao Zhen rubbed his head, “So hungry, let’s find a place to eat.”

“That’s right, I have something good! Boss Bai is very generous!” Li Ying took two gold cards out from her pocket and said, “A gold card for Food City, one large room, one small room, all the staff members can come, feel free to order what you want!”

As Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances, Zhao Zhen walked over to the sofa to sit for a while while the staff sorted things out before removing his makeup, and asked, “What brings you guys here? Oh, that’s right, today is Brother Bai and Gongsun's first wedding anniversary.”

“There are some things I want to ask you about your area of expertise.” Zhan Zhao smiled slightly slyly.

Zhao Zhen faintly froze, then understood and nodded, “Oh… then let’s go eat together.” Then he hugged Bai Chi and said, “I’m so hungry.”

At that moment, Lisbon and the little lion were brought over by the staff at the front desk.

As soon as Lisbon saw Bai Chi, he rushed over to rub against him, while the little lion lunged towards Zhan Zhao, who hurriedly caught and hugged him.

“Let’s go eat together then.” Li Ying smiled and said, “I’ll drive.”

Afterward, the group drove together to Bai Jintang's five-star hotel in S City to celebrate the success of the performance.

The big room was left to the staff. Everyone had a deep relationship after working together for so long. Today, the six-month-long tour finally ended, so naturally they had to celebrate before going home for a vacation. Bai Jintang has always been generous. This time there was bound to be a lot of bonuses and they were free to eat as much as they wanted, so the entire crew made a mess inside the big room.

Zhao Zhen and Li Ying opened two bottles of champagne for them and drank a celebratory drink, then hurriedly retreated.

When they got to the small room next door, all of the food had almost come out.

Zhao Zhen went to sit down next to Bai Chi, and Bai Chi brought him a bowl of soup, “Why don't you eat something before you go drinking, not afraid of stomach pain?”

Zhao Zhen smiled, picked up the bowl, and drank the soup. Next to them, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang drank soup from their bowls. The two looked at each other. Zhao Zhen’s face was full of tiredness, and they didn’t know if it was a good idea to interrupt him now to ask questions.

Zhao Zhen ate something to settle his stomach and he felt much better. Lisbon and the little lion were nibbling on a large and small piece of beef respectively on the side.

Zhao Zhen looked at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, “What do you want to ask me?” He asked, without forgetting to tease them, “I find that the prisoners that SCI has arrested recently are all super talented and can invent magic by themselves. The one that jumped off the building last time even used high-end props.”

“It’s more high-end this time.” Zhan Zhao said, “Ghost hauntings.”

“Ahem” As Zhao Zhen was drinking his soup, he inhaled a mouthful of soup and coughed.

Bai Chi hit his back while he said, “It’s true, when we watched the video, a woman got in the car and suddenly disappeared.”

“Where’s the video?” Zhao Zhen wiped his mouth with a tissue.

Zhan Zhao opened the small laptop he had brought from the car and handed it to Zhao Zhen.

Zhao Zhen looked at the video that was on the screen.

Curious, Li Ying also came over and stood behind Zhao Zhen to watch.

When she saw the woman disappear, Li Ying screamed, “Ah! She’s really gone!”

Zhao Zhen frowned, and when the footage of the crash shifted violently later in the video, Zhao Zhen suddenly pressed pause.

“Look here!” Zhao Zhen said, reaching out and pointing to a spot in the middle of the screen, saying, “Look!”

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang moved over to look, they saw that what Zhao Zhen was pointing at was the car window.

“What?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were a little nervous.

“There's a shadow on the car window!” Zhao Zhen said seriously, “That woman's shadow!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other. That’s right, at that time, the woman was still sitting in the car, it was dark outside, and the window was like a mirror, so it was normal to see the reflection of the person in the car.

“Zhen,” Bai Chi poked Zhao Zhen and asked, “that shadow, what does it mean?”

Zhao Zhen frowned and looked at the group, “You don’t understand?”

Bai Chi shook his head. Bai Yutang also shook his head and looked at Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao shook his head honestly. He always believed he was smart, but this time, he really didn't understand at all.

“What does it mean?” Li Ying also felt puzzled and urged Zhao Zhen, “Tell us quickly, don’t talk nonsense!”

“Tsk.” Zhao Zhen said, “Isn’t she supposed to be a ghost? How can a ghost have a shadow? Therefore, she is not a ghost!”

……

After Zhao Zhen finished speaking, everyone was silent.

Bai Chi awkwardly went to pick up a dish to eat, that little snack was so delicious.

Zhao Zhen looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, and saw that the two of them had complicated looks on their faces, and they both seemed to have the urge to beat him up.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang really wanted to beat him. He caused their emotions to go up so high before crashing down, these big ups and downs can hurt your body!

Behind them, Li Ying’s teeth were grinding and creaking, “You have been very cold recently, be serious!”

Zhao Zhen sighed and shrugged, “No sense of humor, huh?” Then he finished watching the video.

“How is it?” Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao asked, “Can magic do that?”

“Magic can do anything.” Zhao Zhen smiled. He picked up a vegetable and ate it while saying, “You can make the sun disappear. Magic is the art of deceiving the five senses. This is not so much a kind of magic, it’s more like a kind of… um…” Zhao Zhao seemed to be considering how to put it, and after a while, he said, “... Let’s put it this way, it’s like fabricated evidence.”

“Do you think this video is fake?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhao Zhen nodded, “I think it is an illusion created by the camera.”

“But…” Bai Yutang said, “the driver and the car were selected at random. Is there a possibility of faking it?”

“Well, magic is an art, and deception is a kind of abuse.” Zhao Zhen picked up his glass and took a sip of champagne, “The difference in aesthetics is huge, and I don’t see any beauty in this.”

“The main purpose of this murder is to scare people.” Zhan Zhao said, “Is there a way to crack the murderer’s technique? If the technique can be cracked, then we can find important clues.”

“En.” Zhao Zhen nodded. Looking at the two of them, he asked, “Any other videos? It’s best to analyze them together.”

“Uh…” Bai Yutang frowned, “The traffic department only got this one.”

“Huh?” When Zhan Zhao heard this, he suddenly stroked his chin with one hand and went into a daze, “In that case, there’s something odd about it.”

“Hmm?” The group looked at him, “What’s odd?”

“There’s only one video.” Zhan Zhao said to himself, "That’s true, swapping the video is easier and more practical than performing actual magic tricks.”

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, “Cat…”

“Could it be that we're overthinking things?” Zhan Zhao thought about it and said, “If the driver encountered a scam, a scam that only fooled one driver and caused them to get into an accident, people will be nothing but skeptical about this. Some will think that the driver hallucinated, or that someone played a prank. Nowadays, few people believe in ghosts and gods. When it comes to such things, they look for scientific principles. And that video, which amplifies the story, turns into a piece of evidence that proves the scam was real. Then the scam starts to scare people, and everyone consciously links the scam with the truth. Then, with more and more people believing it, the scam soon becomes the truth, and the facts are gradually forgotten, and they become a scam.”

Bai Chi was a little dizzy from the roundabout explanation. Li Ying also found it troublesome and asked, “That, can you make it clearer? It's best to keep it simple.”

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes, and he heard Bai Yutang say, “What Cat means is that as long as that video illusion is created, then everyone will believe that the ghost is out there.”

Zhao Zhen, Bai Chi, and Li Ying nodded their heads together – Got it!

“The media will flock to report this kind of news that can create a big stir… there are actually a lot of questions hidden in this!” Zhan Zhao said, “Their intent is not clear yet, because based on their current behaviour, many things could be achieved. The real killer must be anxious now, waiting for the day when the police can do nothing as rumours fly around and all hell breaks loose. They want that kind of chaos and excitement.”

“That,” Li Ying suddenly raised her hand to ask a question, “do you guys really think that a ghost might have done it? There is no evidence to prove that ghosts do not exist.”

“Ghosts wouldn't be that boring,” Zhao Zhen laughed, “only humans would come up with such unoriginal things.” After saying that, he looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, “Your recent case seems to be very tricky, so concentrate on investigating, otherwise more drivers and innocent passers-by will be unlucky, don’t be distracted by other things.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, Zhao Zhen didn't seem to want them to look into the matter of the stalker and the anonymous letter.

“What other things?” Bai Chi looked at Zhao Zhen in confusion.

Zhao Zhen smiled faintly and whispered in his ear, “For example, sexual things.”

Bai Chi blushed and stared at Zhao Zhen blankly as Zhao Zhen smirked.

After this, the group ate. While eating, Zhao Zhen repeatedly watched the video and prepared to study it after resting for two days, as it was quite interesting.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang decided to change the angle of their investigation. Tomorrow, they would start with the taxi drivers who were haunted, take a good look into them.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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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: October 7/9, 2021