S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 44

Ghost Murderer 12 - The Resurrection of the Devil

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Qin Ou got off of work at the fire station and made his usual visit to the senior community in the park which he goes to every day to help volunteer and buy some bread and cakes for the elderly.

He entered through the gates of the community and was confronted by a man walking out at a fast pace, wearing a black pullover, with his head down... He was walking fast and bumped directly into Qin Ou.

"Sorry!" The man blurted out and then hurriedly ran away.

Qin Ou frowned slightly. The moment the man bumped into him, he was startled because the man's face was very white. It was not like he was wearing powder, but rather like he was transparent, and he could see the pink and white of the veins. Whiter than snow... he should be an albino, right?

He didn't think much of it, as he had already seen the old dean who greeted him up ahead.

"Xiao Qin."

"Dean." Qin Ou ran over and handed over the bread.

"I trouble you every time." Dean Zhang smiled, "By the way, have you seen Old Chen playing chess over there?"

Qin Ou turned his face to look and laughed, "Old Chen is here to play chess again, huh? He's not a widower, is he? Does he come here every day to find someone to play with?"

"He seems to live with his granddaughter, who is very busy at work, so he comes here often."

Just as he finished speaking, he saw the old man turn around and wave at Qin Ou, "Xiao Qin, come over here! Haha, these old guys don't have much fighting spirit."

Qin Ou laughed and said to himself, "You are an old man yourself."

Looking at his watch, he saw that it was still early, and since he had nothing to do at home anyway, Qin Ou decided to play chess with the old man for a while, so he went over and sat down.

Just as he sat down to set up the chess pieces, he saw the old man handing him a picture, "Take a look." 

Qin Ou took it and saw that it was a girl, quite a good-looking girl, so he asked, "Who is this? Your granddaughter?"

The old man nodded his head, "Pretty, isn't she?"

"En." Qin Ou nodded and handed the photo back to the old man.

"Heh heh." Old man Chen laughed, "My granddaughter doesn't have a partner yet."

Qin Ou couldn't laugh or cry, "Old man, your granddaughter looks to be in her early twenties, I'm in my thirties, don't push people into the fire!"

"What?" The old man said, "I brought up this granddaughter, and she has no parents, so I'm in charge... Don't look at her as a wild child, she's a little star!"

Qin Ou shook his head, "That's even worse, you need to find a rich man!"

"What do you need a rich man for?" The old man glared, "Marry a man or marry for money? She's at some dinner party today, come over tomorrow, I'll bring her here and you two can go on a blind date."

The corners of Qin Ou's mouth twitched, it looked like he couldn't come tomorrow.

The two of them played chess for a while before the old man suddenly looked around, "Why is it so noisy?"

"Noisy?" Qin Ou knew that the old man was wearing a hearing aid. Hearing aids are not as intelligent as human ears, they are like a loudspeaker that amplifies all sounds n times, such as car horns, noises, and so on. It's just that it wasn't noisy around here, it was quite quiet. (Angel: n is used as a placeholder for a number. In this case, no number was specified and the author simply used n.) 

"Why does it sound like someone's clock is ticking?" Old man Chen looked around.

When Qin Ou heard this, he was slightly stunned. When he quietly listened, it seemed...

With the experience he had accumulated over the years that had become instinctive, Qin Ou inexplicably felt chills all over his body.

"Ah!" The old man picked up a cardboard box that was sealed with tape from the ground and put it on the table, "Whose package is this? How did it get left here?"

Just as he finished his words, he saw Qin Ou's eyes staring straight at the package in front of him. The package was the simplest kind of yellow cardboard box, except that on the top of the cardboard box, a black artillery shell was drawn with a black marker with one word written on it - 7!

"Uh, Xiao Qin..."

"Get out of here!" Qin Ou stood up abruptly, reached out and yanked the old man by the hand, shouting to the crowd in the distance, "Disperse, everyone spread out!"

The old people were baffled. Qin Ou was usually gentle and elegant, this is the first time they saw him shouting like crazy.

"Scatter!" Qin Ou shouted, pulling old man Chen away and went to pull other old men, telling them all to get out quickly, shouting, "There's a bomb! A bomb!"

The old men were also dumbfounded and ran away from their games.

This senior community is in a park, and behind it is a nursing home. Every day at dinner time, the elderly who have eaten early will come here to play chess and chat... After hearing Qin Ou's shouting, they all ran outside the park.

Just as they reached the entrance of the park, they heard a loud "boom"... followed by a flash of fire and black smoke.

Suddenly, the car alarms of the cars around the park rang out loudly. There was a highway outside the park, and the pedestrians on the road stopped. The traffic was instantly blocked. Those old men were frightened, and their blood pressure rose on the spot. The crowd called the police and paramedics, and there was chaos.

Qin Ou walked back to the park alone. The stone table where he was playing chess had been blown up, and a big crater appeared on the ground. The power of this bomb was not ordinary. This size, that kind of harm… the artillery shell, and the number on top of the artillery shell.

There was no blood left in Qin Ou's face at all, even his lips were white, and his head was buzzing.

"Xiao Qin."

At that moment, old man Chen came back and reached out to pat Qin Ou's shoulder, "Many thanks for your alertness, without it, our lives would have been lost. What's happening here? Terrorists?"

Qin Ou reached out and picked up a blown up microchip from the ground, as well as a few metal surgical threads. A familiar feeling immediately flooded over him, and the wound in his chest, which had long been numb, began to ache faintly again… How is that possible?!

"Xiao Qin?" Old man Chen saw that Qin Ou seemed unsteady on his feet, so he pulled him back, "Are you uncomfortable?"

"This bomb was remotely controlled."

 Qin Ou suddenly said, "It wasn't timed."

"Huh?" The old man didn't quite understand.

Qin Ou was silent for a long time before saying to the old man, "Old man, you should go home now."

Old man Chen nodded and told Qin Ou to go back to rest early. He was about to leave, but Qin Ou suddenly called out to him, "Wait…"

"Hmm?" The old man stopped.

"Wait." Qin Ou looked around and reached down to pull out his phone.

……

Inside the banquet hall.

The dinner party was nearing its end.

Bai Yutang looked at his watch and said to Zhan Zhao, "It's almost time, I guess there's no drama tonight."

"En." Zhan Zhao was also a bit disappointed. He glanced at Yuan Lin, who was not far away, and asked Bai Yutang, "What about him?"

Bai Yutang shook his head, "It's better to think long-term."

"En." Zhan Zhao nodded, "Let's put eyes on him first, don't forget, there will still be clues from Zhao Zhen later."

Bai Yutang nodded and turned to look towards Zhao Zhen who was chatting with Bai Chi, and frowned, "What is this kid hiding?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head. At that moment, his phone vibrated and a call came in.

Zhan Zhao took out his phone and took a look, and his eyebrows furrowed.

"What's wrong?" Bai Yutang moved over to look and saw that the name of the caller displayed on Zhan Zhao's phone screen was - Unlucky Nuisance Smug Pretentious Old Fox Big Bastard…

Bai Yutang couldn't resist a twitch at the corner of his mouth and asked him, "Zhao Jue?"

Zhan Zhao grunted, opened the phone, and stepped aside to take a listen, "Hello."

"Hello?" A laughing voice came from the other end of the phone, "Meow, are you thinking, 'Why is this unlucky nuisance smugly pretending to be a big old fox bastard calling me again?!'"

"Ahem…"

It was not Zhan Zhao who coughed, but Bai Yutang who was eavesdropping beside Zhan Zhao.

"Yo!" Zhao Jue chuckled, "Little tiger!"

"What's your problem now?" Zhan Zhao asked, " It's never anything good."

"Hehe, you really understand me." Zhao Jue smiled, "Near S City, there is a stone mine that lost a lot of gunpowder before, do you know about it?"

"I know." Zhan Zhao nodded his head.

"Then, recently, in K City, there is another stone mine that lost a lot of gunpowder used for blowing up mountains, did you know?"

"What?" Zhan Zhao frowned and asked, "How do you know?"

"I’m smart!" Zhao Jue replied.

Zhan Zhao ground his teeth and asked, "And then what?"

"Then, I guess someone called Qin Ou will call you later!"

"Huh?"

Before Zhan Zhao could even ask, on the other end, Zhao Jue gave him a "mua~" and hung up the phone.

Zhan Zhao held the phone for a long time and looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang heard the general idea and listened to Zhan Zhao say it again, but he was also very puzzled.

To the side, Chen Yu was holding her phone, constantly pressing a number.

"Grandpa hasn't answered yet?" Qi Le asked.

"Does he have a cell phone?" Zhao Hu asked with a smile, thinking the old man was quite interesting.

Chen Yu shook her head and said seriously, "No, Grandpa moves very slowly, what if he's crossing the road when the phone rings? I wouldn't dare to call! He's the one who calls me on the phone!"

Qi Le and Zhao Hu looked at each other, unable to laugh or cry, Chen Yu was a little overly worried.

"En… he gets home at this time every day!" Chen Yu frowned, "Really, I'm worried sick. Let's get him a bodyguard and a babysitter so he doesn't die! But he said that it was troublesome as he would be like a landlord after being from three generations of poor farmers."

At this time, Zhan Zhao's cell phone vibrated again, and when he looked at… Sure enough, Qin Ou called.

"Hello?" Zhan Zhao hurriedly picked it up.

"Dr. Zhan?" Qin Ou was just about to say who he was when Zhan Zhao said, "Captain Qin? Bao Sir gave me your number earlier, what happened?"

Relieved to have saved himself an awkward introduction and to have learned about Zhan Zhao's character, Qin Ou said, "He should be dead, I watched him die with my own eyes, but the yellow cardboard box, the black artillery shells, the number… the powerful bombs appeared again, just now in the park, everything was exactly the same as him.

Zhan Zhao was taken aback. Bai Yutang, who was listening next to him, raised an eyebrow and looked at Zhan Zhao in disbelief.

At that moment, the sound of an elevator door opening was heard from the doorway, and a waiter walked in, holding a tray with a yellow cardboard box on it. The waiter holding the box slowly walked towards Bai Jintang.

"Brother!" Bai Yutang suddenly shouted. Bai Jintang looked back. Xiao Ding had already taken the initiative and rushed over, and he heard Zhan Zhao shout, "Throw it away!"

Xiao Ding flew up with a kick, pulling out a Taekwondo black belt level side kick to send the box straight out of the window.

Ma Han, who was standing by the window and being pulled by Chen Jiayi, saw Bai Yutang wink at him. He reached out and pulled Chen Jiayi aside with one hand, and with his other hand, he pulled out a gun from his pocket and shot at the package that flew out…

With the sound of the gunshot, everybody in the music hall froze as they heard Bai Yutang shout, "Everybody down!"... As soon as his words fell, there was a booming explosion.

The crowd instinctively crouched down, and it all happened in an instant. The waiter had already pulled out a gun from his pocket and aimed it at Bai Jintang.

Gongsun was shocked and tried to push Bai Jintang away, but after he pushed, he found that Bai Jintang hadn't moved and had even shielded him.

The man pointed his gun at Bai Jintang, but he saw a faint smile on Bai Jintang's face… At the same time, a silver knife flew straight over and plunged into the arm that he was holding the gun up with. The man's hand went limp in pain and the gun fell to the ground.

They saw Zhao Zhen, who was eating muffins with a fork and knife, standing not far behind Bai Jintang.

The man turned and ran, but Bai Yutang had already reached him, lifting his foot and tripping him. The man stumbled, and Bai Yutang reached out, grabbed the back of his collar, swung him back and lifted him up, then dropped him.

The crowd heard a muffled "bang". Although the sound was not very loud, they somehow felt that it should be very painful, as if his internal organs were shattered.

When they looked at the waiter again, they saw him lying on his back on the ground, unable to move at all.

"Oh, this is the method that Yutang uses to drop people. It’s the fastest way to disable the enemy, their internal organs will not be injured by the fall, but the joints in their shoulders, knees, and other places will be temporarily dislocated, and the ligaments will be paralyzed, well… and with a little bit of bad luck your ribs will break, right?" With that said, Zhan Zhao said to Bai Chi with a little dissatisfaction, "Chi Chi, we will be robbed of the limelight every time this happens!"

Bai Chi looked at him helplessly, but he saw Zhan Zhao walking over with his hands in his pockets, pointing at the waiter's shirt and saying to Bai Yutang, "There's something in his pocket. "

Bai Yutang squatted down and fumbled around for a bit, and fished out a card. It was yellow with an artillery shell drawn on it with a black marker and a 6 in the middle.

Bai Yutang frowned and looked at Zhan Zhao, who gently tapped his chin with one hand. He moved over to take a closer look at the man's features, and said, "He had a facelift."

Bai Yutang was stunned and watched with fascination as Ma Han put the gun back into his pouch. Chen Jiayi, who was in a frenzy, heard this and came over to look, saying, "It's a complete facelift! His nose is higher, his eyebrows are filled in, his chin is bigger, and he got double eyelids!"

Gongsun, who had been released by Bai Jintang, came over to take a look and frowned, "The more you do, the uglier it gets! It doesn't even match the structural features of a human face anymore, it looks like Kahn." (Angel: Khan refers to Oliver Kahn, a goalkeeper.) 

As soon as the words left his mouth, the guests who were stunned by the sudden series of surprises couldn't help but laugh.

Zhan Zhao shrugged his shoulders, "Since it's not plastic surgery to look good, there's only one reason… you don't want us to recognize your real face… or? You and whoever we have here… are old acquaintances?"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Man, I love Zhao Jue. He didn’t appear for very long in this chapter, but I absolutely love him.

I also love that Qin Ou called Zhan Zhao, the psychologist, and not Bai Yutang, the police captain, when he encountered the bomb. I can see why he would call Zhan Zhao from a psychological point of view, with his PTSD, but wouldn’t your first thought be to call Bai Yutang when faced with a bomber?

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

Translated: November 8, 2021