S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 73

The Murderer Is Not Human 06 - The Eagle King

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Bai Yutang told Zhan Zhao what Jiang Ping had said.

Zhan Zhao hastily asked Fu Yishan, "Mr. Fu, do you understand the details about this Eagle King Totem? What connection does it have with death?"

"Uh…" Fu Yishan thought about it and said, "I have some general understanding of the background information. This Eagle King's totem is equivalent to the God of Death in the Tu Xi tribe, uh..."

"Time is running out…" Bai Yutang interrupted Fu Yishan's long speech, "Do you know what happens to people who are punished by the God of Death, that is, the Eagle King?!"

"Er… beheaded..." Fu Yishan replied concisely.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other.

"Cat, the broadcast truck will be here in ten minutes at most." Bai Yutang looked at his watch, "We only have ten minutes."

"What do you normally do at this time?" Zhan Zhao asked Fu Yishan.

"Uh… I..." Fu Yishan was also getting a little nervous, "I should be in my study reading a book."

"Where is the study?" The two men asked in unison.

"I will take you there..." said Fu Yishan, leading the two men quickly towards his study on the first floor. When he reached the door, he reached out to open it… Bai Yutang pulled him back with a hand, "Wait."

Bai Yutang turned the door handle and gently pushed it open with a ‘creak’.

The room was empty. Bai Yutang took the lead and went in, followed by Zhan Zhao.

The two of them looked up and around, the study was simply furnished: mahogany furniture, a wide desk, shelves full of books, antique vases~~Zhan Zhao suddenly patted Bai Yutang's shoulder, reaching out to point to the ceiling, Bai Yutang looked up… and frowned.

He saw that the ceiling, which at first glance appeared empty, had a few faint ghostly lights - and it was only when he distinguished them carefully that he could see they were several interlaced glass lines.

The two men moved their eyes in the direction of the glass line, contemplating quickly. After a few moments, they exchanged a knowing glance, their eyes eventually landing on the telephone placed on the desk.

Zhan Zhao blearily looked around the study again, moved over half a meter tall vase on the floor and placed it on the chair behind the desk.

Bai Yutang told Qiu Yu, the secretary behind Fu Yishan, "Find a thin rope about five meters long and a watermelon or cantaloupe… Be quick!"

"Okay..." Qiu Yu ran out and a short while later, returned holding a watermelon and a roll of thin rope.

Zhan Zhao took the melon and put it on the vase. Then, without picking up the telephone handset, he tied one end of the rope, carefully, to the handset and pulled the other end to the door and placed it on the ground.

It was only then that Fu Yishan and Qiu Yu noticed that underneath the handset of the telephone was pressed a glass rope, which was extremely thin. It hung down to the ground, along the corner of the wall, and climbed out of the window… If they hadn't looked closely, they wouldn't have been able to spot it!

After the preparations were made, the group retreated to the door.

"Is the orientation of the room next door the same as here?" Zhan Zhao asked Fu Yishan.

"Yes." Fu Yishan nodded his head.

Bai Yutang turned around and went downstairs, while Zhan Zhao went into the next room, taking Fu Yishan and Qiu Yu with him and hiding behind the window.

Through the window, one could already see the TV broadcast truck coming in the distance. Zhan Zhao's phone rang and he picked it up, "Xiao Bai, are you ready?"

"Ready!" Downstairs, Bai Yutang hid behind the door and watched intently through the glass at everyone hovering in front of the gates: the bodyguards, the maids, the gardener...

Soon, the broadcasting van pulled up to the gate. The crew came down carrying the camera equipment, a few bodyguards came forward to stop them, and the hostess seemed to have some argument with the bodyguards. At that very moment, one of the shorter, darker-skinned bodyguards took out a phone and pressed a few buttons - at the same time, in the study next door, there was a sharp ringing of the phone.

Zhan Zhao walked quickly to the door of the study and tugged the rope on the floor - the telephone handset on the desk was ripped off with a snap, and the glass rope pressed under the handset instantly flew out~~~a soft snap was heard from the window.

With this sound, the glass ropes crisscrossing the ceiling were pulled straight and tight, and slashed horizontally~~a ghostly light in the air - the three people outside the door felt a few cool breezes passing by, and a crack appeared on the… watermelon that was placed on the vase, and the melon body was instantly split into two, the top half slid down and fell to the ground… and shattered.

The glass rope, which had just cut the body of the melon, flew out the window and was soon lost.

At this point, there was a vague sound of commotion coming from downstairs.

Zhan Zhao picked up the phone, his and Bai Yutang's phones were still connected, "Xiao Bai! It's done!"

Bai Yutang held the phone, his eyes fixed on the short bodyguard who was quickly running back, and smiled, "Cat, I'm done here as well." After saying that, he ended the call and walked out quickly.

He saw the bodyguard walking to the flower bed downstairs, bending down and reaching out, picking up something on the ground. He was just about to stand up straight when Bai Yutang walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder, "What are you picking up?

The bodyguard was startled, probably because he didn’t expect something bad to happen. He seemed to know some kicks and punches, and threw a punch back! Unfortunately, he hit the wrong person...Bai Yutang slightly tilted his head to avoid his fist, and grabbed his wrist with his left hand, and with force, he heard a ‘click’ sound of joint dislocation.

"Umm..." Before the man could scream out, Bai Yutang had already slashed towards his ribs with one hand.

"Ah..." the bodyguard let out a muffled grunt before being grabbed by Bai Yutang in one smooth motion and thrown out of the flower bed. He fell to the ground and grunted, then curled up and couldn't move anymore.

Seeing Bai Yutang lower himself, the bodyguard nervously tried to struggle to stand up, but Bai Yutang smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "Lie down brother~~you've broken at least two ribs!" With that, he rummaged around in his pockets and pulled out a roll of glass thread~~a small steel crossbow arrow was tied to the end of the thread. Looking up again, he saw a tiny crossbow in a concealed place under the window. It had a glass cord tied to it, and it hung down to the ground, but it was hidden by the vines on the wall, and could not be detected from a distance. With a tug of the glass cord, he pulled it off, along with the bow.

It was conceivable that if Zhan Zhao and himself hadn't come today, then what had just been chopped off inside by the glass rope wouldn't have been a watermelon, but Fu Yishan's head! The bodyguard would have taken advantage of the chaos to pick up the glass rope and the crossbow, and this case would have been another perfect case of cursed death!

At that moment, Zhan Zhao also ran down, looked at the bodyguard lying on the ground and asked Bai Yutang, "What happened?"

Bai Yutang handed him the crossbow in his hand, "It's all here!"

"Indeed!" Zhan Zhao took the items, "This time it can be shown that there is no curse after all!"

Nodding, Bai Yutang said in a deep voice, "It's obvious that the murderer is human!" Saying that, he asked the bodyguard, "Hey! Why did you kill Fu Lao?"

"Kill… kill?!" The bodyguard was so shocked that he almost jumped up from the ground, tugging at his broken ribs and showing his teeth in pain, "I… didn't know it was murder… I just got money obsessed..."

"Money obsessed?" Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and asked, "Did someone pay you to do that?"

"Yes… that’s right." The bodyguard nodded vigorously. “I lost money gambling a few days ago and was in debt. That day, a phone call came to me out of the blue, saying that as long as I do what he wants, at this time today, make a phone call and help pick up something to throw away, he will give me a large sum of money… He first put a deposit in my mailbox, and threatened me that if I did not help him, he would have to report my debt problem to the security company. By then, I can't even keep my job, so… I, I really didn't know he was going to kill..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also felt that this man was just being used. The murderer in this whole case could be described as sophisticated and would never take a risk like this on his own.

Soon after, the police sent someone to take away the bodyguard. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao said goodbye to Fu Yishan and drove away, not to S.C.I., but to the studio of Akasha, who was doing a live video broadcast.

Akasha was definitely someone who knew about this incident, otherwise, why was she in every case? The key was the timing of her foretelling, which matched seamlessly with the subtle layout of the murder case?!

Zhan Zhao picked up the phone and called Jiang Ping, asking him how Akasha's live show was going now that the person was not dead.

Jiang Ping replied, "The live streaming video has been stuck since a while ago, it never got through and was fixed on Akasha's astonished expression." After saying that, he sent a picture to Zhan Zhao. He saw that in the live video on the computer, Akasha was staring straight ahead with an astonished look on her face.

"Not good!" Zhan Zhao screamed in shock, "She might be in danger!!!"

Bai Yutang stepped on the gas, "Cat, are you saying that she may be silenced?"

Zhan Zhao frowned, "The first time when the murderer killed Xiao Lu,it was very low key, and it was even disguised it as a suicide case; the second time when he killed Carlos, he attracted some attention; the third time when he killed Tian Zhong, it was in front of the camera; the next time when he killed Mo Ning, he had started a teaser… he was escalating step by step… getting more and more confident!"

"Akasha has always been an advocate of cursed deaths, and it would definitely be to the murderer's advantage to keep her. However, the point is that we prevented Fu Yishan from being killed, which means that everyone will guess that Akasha is the one with knowledge of the murder." Bai Yutang took out his police lights and mounted them on the roof of the car, "That means the murderer's move to kill Akasha was impromptu… we might be able to bump into him!"

......

At the entrance to S.C.I., Bai Chi got out of his cute yellow beetle and pulled out a large amount of materials, books, and old newspapers from the passenger seat.

Holding up the pile of papers, Bai Chi could not see his way and wobbled to move forward when suddenly two men flashed out from the side and bumped him hard.

With a ‘crash’, the papers and books were scattered all over the floor and Bai Chi fell to the ground.

As it had just snowed, some parts of the ground were still wet. Bai Chi got up, not bothering to think about who had bumped into him, and quickly went to pick up the scattered papers.

As he was picking up an old newspaper, a foot suddenly stepped on the paper.

Bai Chi was startled and looked up to see two people standing in front of him, looking down at him with mockery on their faces, and when he saw what they looked like, Bai Chi just frowned.

He reached out and tugged on the old newspaper that had been stepped on and said to the man, "You… stepped on my… materials."

"Oops..." the man gave an exaggerated yelp, lifted his foot and said to Bai Chi, "Sorry sorry sorry… I didn't see it~~"

Picking up all the information and placing it on the car, Bai Chi took out a paper towel and gently wiped the mud stains from the paper.

Instead of leaving, those two men came up to Bai Chi and asked, "I say, Officer Bai, I thought you had transferred to S.C.I. to solve some big case. But it turns out that you went to collect waste newspapers for others~~"

Bai Chi ignored them both and just quickly put his papers in order and prepared to leave, but the two men blocked his path.

"Don't go, tell us about it. How is S.C.I.? That's a place we wouldn't even dare to think to go."

Bai Chi looked at the two men in front of him, they were his colleagues when he was on the patrol and had been patrol officers for years. One was called Wu Kai and the other was called Xu Yadong and they used to make fun of him.

Seeing that Bai Chi was ignoring them, Xu Yadong said, "Ugh~~ someone is an elite now, cleaning toilets in S.C.I. is still better than being a boss in the patrol!"

"Yeah!" Wu Kai nodded his head, "I want to go too, but unfortunately, my surname is not Bai, there is no one to shield me..."

Hearing this, Bai Chi looked straight at the two men, "You guys… don't talk nonsense!"

The two men were a little surprised to see the formerly bunny-like Bai Chi talking back cross-eyed. But then they were even more disdainful: "Look at this look, alas, who doesn't know that Bai Yutang is notoriously protective~~even someone like you can get into the police department's elite unit, it seems that S.C.I. isn't good either!..."

Putting the information down on the front cover of the car, Bai Chi looked at the two men angrily, "It doesn't matter if you talk about me, don't talk about Captain Bai and S.C.I.!"

Xu Yadong and Wu Kai thought Bai Chi was still the same as before, no matter who bullied him, he didn't dare to resist. But they didn't know that under Zhan Zhao's "treatment" and "training", Bai Chi was now so fierce that he had a great deal of respect for Bai Yutang. He dared to insult his idol in front of him.

Seeing that words could no longer intimidate him, Xu Yadong reached out and gave Bai Chi a push: "You've been gone for a few days, and you're so angry that you can't even… You really think you're an elite, don't you?"

As they argued, they didn't notice that a large black jeep had pulled up not far from them, the door opened...

"What? Doesn't that come out of nowhere?" Wu Kai looked at Bai Chi who had been pushed, "Why don't you fight back?!"

Bai Chi stood up straight and looked at the two men, "Are you two still police officers? What kind of police officers are so rude?"

"......" The two men looked at each other and were speechless, but they felt ashamed and raised their voices and yelled at Bai Chi, "You still want to teach us about being a police officer? You've only been a policeman for a few days!"

Bai Chi did not change his expression: "It doesn't matter how long you've been a good cop, what matters is that you always remember not to disgrace the police!"

"You..." The two men had nothing to say and were about to make a move when they felt that some animal behind them was panting and it sounded like a dog… turning back...

They saw a huge white African lion standing right behind them...

When Lisbon saw the two of them turn around, he suddenly opened his voice and roared with that wide bloody mouth ~~

"Holy shit~~" Xu Yadong and Wu Kai were so scared that they sat down on their asses and backed up repeatedly.

Lisbon, however, strode aggressively towards the two.

Xu Yadong seemed to snap out of it and hastily pulled out his gun with shaking hands… and aimed it at Lisbon.

"No!!!" Bai Chi shrieked, but Xu Yadong had already pulled the trigger.

Strangely enough, ‘click, click’ a few times, no response… Wu Kai also took out his own gun… the same, two guns~~no bullets.

"Excuse me..." Zhao Zhen had leaned against Bai Chi's car at some point, raising his hand and gently tossing a handful of bullets in his hand, "He's my pet… The actual fact is that he is usually very gentle and will only bite if he's pissed off."

Bai Chi's face swished red, as Zhao Zhen's words sounded like he was not sure if he was talking about Lisbon or him.

Seeing that many people around were staring curiously, they were probably all surprised by the lion's roar just now.

"Lisbon, get back to the car!" Bai Chi patted the head of Lisbon, who had obediently squatted down to sit beside him, and Lisbon immediately went back into the big jeep that Zhao Zhen owned.

Xu Yadong and Wu Kai were scared out of their wits, and after looking at Bai Chi like a monster, they turned around and ran.

Zhao Zhen smiled and threw the bullets in his hand to the ground~~ then reached out and put his hand on the shoulder of the small Bai Chi.

Bai Chi blushed, "Who needs your help, I can fix it myself… I'm not that useless..."

"Mmm~~" Zhao Zhen nodded and moved over to kiss his hair, "You were so handsome just now..."

Steam rose from Bai Chi's head, and after stepping on Zhao Zhen's foot, he fled with the information in his arms, red-faced~~

Zhao Zhen laughed loudly behind him and was about to go after him when he was pulled by someone. When he turned around, he saw Morris with a teary face: "Zhen, what is your relationship with that boy? You said you would accompany me to S.C.I., did you come here to see that boy? I'm so sad!" As he said that, he pretended to reach out and wipe his eyes.

"Crazy~~" Zhao Zhen shook his head, closed the door of the Jeep, and walked forward, calling to Morris behind him, "Hurry up!"

"Okay!" Morris smiled and nodded, but when Zhao Zhen turned his back on him, the smiling face turned instantly cold. Morris turned his head back and coldly glanced at the cute little car Bai Chi parked on the side of the road. His eyes, filled with disdain ~~

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: March 8, 2022 by Turtle

Edited: April 26, 2022 by Angel