S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 95

Christmas Ghost Story

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Early morning of December 24, 2010.

Zhan Zhao woke up to a cackling cacophony and opened his eyes in a daze. If he remembered correctly, today was a day off. SCI's laborious lives hardly managed to usher in Bao Zheng's mercy to take a long Christmas holiday together, and it was said that there was a red packet... seemingly sponsored by Big Brother.

"Meow~ meow~"

Zhan Zhao was just trying to get up when he heard a soft and muffled kitten purr.

Following the sound, he looked down and saw Luban and Lilia lying lazily on the pillow beside him.

Zhan Zhao was puzzled, it was Bai Yutang who was originally lying there, so he reached out and shooed the two cats away, "Go down quickly, if Xiao Bai sees you, he will have to wash the bed sheets and covers again."

The two cats, Lilia and Luban, naturally did not understand, and when they saw that Zhan Zhao had woken up, they immediately came over and nuzzled around for a hug.

At the same time, there was another meowing sound from under the blanket.

Zhan Zhao lifted the blanket in suspicion and took a look - well, the litter of kittens were all under his blanket, all chubby and round. They had not been born long ago and had not been completely weaned yet, so they were all very cute.

Zhan Zhao was in a very good mood early in the morning. He took the kittens out and stroked them all over when he heard the sound of creaking coming from the yard again.

He got up, leaned over the windowsill, and took a look... There was a big snowstorm last night and the yard was already covered in white. Two big ladders were clamped to a cedar tree, and Da Ding and Xiao Ding were standing on them. With saws in their hands, they were cutting the top of the tree, so it looked like they were going to take it home to make a Christmas tree. 

Lisbon and the lion cub were running around in the snow, and Bai Chi had a large washbasin with fresh beef in it and was feeding it to the lions.

Zhan Zhao yawned and stretched, already feeling a strong Christmas atmosphere. Looking at the alarm clock on his bedside table - it was not yet eight o'clock, Bai Yutang must have gotten up to prepare the Christmas meal. They hadn't been shopping for a while, and Zhan Zhao was going to go to the supermarket with him later to prepare the food for the holidays... and, of course, the gifts to be exchanged tomorrow for Christmas.

From the bedside table, he quietly took out an invoice... which was for something that Zhan Zhao was going to pick up today. A few days ago, he ordered a very special gift for Bai Yutang that that mouse would definitely like, but of course, it had to be kept secret! He carefully hid that invoice in his money clip and put it on the bedside. After thinking about it and thinking that it wasn't quite safe, Zhan Zhao stuffed the money clip into his pocket... For the first time in his life, he walked around with a money clip, but thinking about the surprise for Bai Yutang, it is better to endure it.

After washing up, Zhan Zhao was refreshed and brought a group of big cats and kittens out of the bedroom and downstairs. On the sofa, Bai Jintang was drinking coffee and Gongsun was drinking black tea. The two men were in full uncle style, one reading a boring financial magazine and the other reading an even more boring newspaper.

"Brother, Gongsun." Zhan Zhao came downstairs and caught the young lion who rushed over to kiss him.

"Morning." Gongsun greeted him.

Zhan Zhao saw a pickled salmon sandwich, which he liked, and a glass of warm fresh milk on the table, and then looked into the kitchen, "Where's Yutang?"

"He's gone shopping." Bai Jintang said, "There's a Christmas dinner tonight, so I guess there's quite a lot to buy, so he and Zhao Zhen went out early in the morning."

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao was a little upset, he had left himself behind and went out.

Gongsun smiled, "He probably had something to buy that he couldn't let you see."

When Zhan Zhao heard this, he understood, Bai Yutang had gone to prepare gifts for him... just in time, he would go and get something himself later.

"Speaking of which..." Gongsun suddenly asked Bai Jintang, "what have you prepared this year?"

Bai Jintang smiled slightly and said with a slight air of amusement, "It's a secret... Anyhow, you will definitely like it."

The corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched, between Gongsun's kind of inhuman taste and Bai Jintang's even more inhuman, unprincipled spoiling, there was a good chance he'd buy something shocking!

After a hasty breakfast, Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi partnered up and drove out to do some shopping. Satisfied, they brought the gifts back and split up to go back and find a place to hide them.

It was not until the afternoon that they saw Bai Yutang and Zhao Zhen returning with large bags of things, followed by Luo Tian, who had been dragged along, holding something more than one person tall.

Zhan Zhao was curious and wanted to peek at what Bai Yutang had bought for him, but Bai Yutang didn't hide anything... this person, did a good job at keeping secrets.

Zhao Zhen was even better, what he wanted not to let people see, others naturally could not see, so Xiao Bai Chi was anxious.

The evening Christmas Eve dinner was set to start at eight o'clock, and the people were divided and busy preparing.

Bai Yutang went to the kitchen with Bai Chi to make the dinner, while Zhao Zhen, Zhan Zhao, and Gongsun decorated the Christmas tree and the room, and took out their gifts, wrapping them and piling them under the tree.

At nightfall, Bai Jintang received a phone call, "En, yes, it's okay to land."

Zhan Zhao and the others listed with their ears picked up. The moment they heard the word ‘land', they immediately understood... Gongsun's gifts were being flown in.

Sure enough, the sound of a helicopter soon followed.

Soon after, Da Ding and Xiao Ding pushed in a square box, which was about one and a half metres long and half a metre wide.

Bai Yutang and Bai Chi came out with a roast turkey bigger than an ostrich, and they were both curious when they saw the box

"So big?" Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Zhen, "Guess what it is?"

Zhao Zhen looked at Gongsun who was slightly squinting his eyes as he examined the box, and only after a long time did he say, "It would be just right for a corpse."

"Ding dong..."

At that moment, the doorbell rang. From the electronic screen, it appeared to be Bao Zheng, and Zhan Zhao pressed the button to open the door.

The group of people at SCI were already owned by someone else or by each other, all with their own agendas, so the only ones who came tonight were the loners. Bao Zheng was one, and Zhan Zhao sent a text message to Zhao Jue as well, telling him to bring that mysterious partner if he was interested, but to bring double the gifts!

Zhao Jue didn't reply, and Zhan Zhao certainly didn't care much.

When Bao Zheng entered the room, it started snowing heavily again outside. He patted the snow on his body on the porch and asked Bai Chi, who brought hot tea to him, when he entered the room, "Whose kid is that outside? It's so snowy and he's still playing, let him in!"

Zhan Zhao and the others were stunned, and Bai Chi looked out the window, "Where's the kid? You must be blind, Bao Sir."

"No, they’re building a snowman in your yard." Bao Zheng said, standing up and gesturing out the window... but the snow outside the window was very flat, and beyond the trail of footprints he had just left when he walked in, there was nothing.

"Eh?" Bao Zheng rubbed his head with a puzzled look.

At that moment, the doorbell rang again. Zhan Zhao padded over to the electronic doorbell monitor screen and looked out. He originally thought it was really Zhao Jue... but there was no one outside the door.

"The doorbell is broken?" Zhan Zhao asked Da Ding.

"It shouldn't be. It could be a prank by the kids in the neighbourhood." The twins who were carefully hanging stars on top of the Christmas tree spoke in unison, "The furniture and equipment was just checked two days ago."

The crowd didn't care too much and continued to decorate. Bai Yutang had prepared a particularly generous meal tonight and the aroma was wafting throughout the room, and the crowd had long been too hungry to bear.

At this time, the doorbell rang again. Zhan Zhao flashed over to look, and saw that it was the delivery man. Bai Jintang had ordered a few seafood items that were not normally available in the restaurant, and seeing that everyone was busy, he went to the door with his umbrella to sign for them.

The delivery man was very polite, "Hello, Merry Christmas."

Bai Jintang smiled and nodded, "Merry Christmas."

"Your house is so lively." At the moment when Bai Jintang was signing, he heard the delivery man suddenly say, "Is that child your family? Why are they wearing short sleeves and building a snowman outside in the cold? Let them go inside the house."

Bai Jintang was in a daze and wrote his name as Bai Jintang… and looked up at the delivery man. (Angel: The second Bai Jintang was written as 白锦棠 instead of 白锦堂)

The delivery man didn't care that much. He took the ticket and handed the stuff to Bai Jintang, "The king crab is fresh, there is also a box of crabmeat that is not cooked according to the instructions. It has to be cooked within an hour, otherwise it has to be refrigerated ah." After saying that, he turned around and walked away.

Bai Jintang closed the door and looked back at... The yard was white, where was there a child...

He rubbed his chin and said to himself - it can't be that evil.

Walking back to the room, the crowd was still busy. Bai Jintang handed his things to Bai Chi and went to sit down at the sofa... Just then, the doorbell rang again. Zhan Zhao frowned, "So many people ah?" He went to the front of the doorbell to take a look, "Ah!"

The crowd was startled by Zhan Zhao and went over to look, but there was nothing outside the electronic doorbell's display.

"Cat," Bai Yutang happened to come out with the dishes, "why are you so startled?"

"Uh..." Zhan Zhao pointed to the electronic display, "I just saw a cloaked, white-clothed, Sadako-like person standing at the door ringing the doorbell, and now it's gone again."

The crowd was silent for a moment, and then they all laughed, laughing at Zhan Zhao for telling undernourishing ghost stories that didn't scare them at all.

Zhan Zhao argued anxiously - Really, it's true!

"It's almost time to eat." Bai Yutang asked the crowd to go sit down. Zhan Zhao took out his phone, wrinkled his nose and sent another text message - We're eating, the food is super good tonight, it's your own loss if you don't come.

Just as the text message was sent, a sharp ringing of a phone was heard.

Bai Chi walked over to answer it, "Hello, Merry Christmas."

"Heh..." On the other end of the phone, there was only the sound of raspy breathing.

"Hello?" Bai Chi thought it was a bad signal and turned his ears to the side to listen, but he heard someone on the other end of the line say, "Give me back my child..."

The voice was low and hoarse, "Open the door quickly and give me back my child..."

"Whoa!" Bai Chi threw the phone and shrank back, Zhao Zhen was behind him, "What's up, Chi Chi?

"Ghost!" Bai Chi pointed at the phone, "The female ghost is seeking revenge!"

"No way..." Zhao Zhen reached for the phone to listen, but all that was left on the other end was the ‘dududu' sound of a dropped call.

"What female ghost?" Zhan Zhao came over and asked, "What's it say?"

"She said something about giving her child back to her..." Bai Chi remembered that the home phone had a recording function, so he turned the recorder on, but strangely enough, that part was not recorded.

"Huh?" Bai Chi ended the phone call to check it up and down, left and right, "That’s not right ah!"

The twins came over and grabbed Bai Chi's arm, "Xiao Chi Chi, are you trying to scare people? "

"I'm not, I really just... ah!" Bai Chi suddenly shouted. At the same time, in the room, the lights went out with a 'pop'.

In the darkness, everyone saw a female ghost in white clothes with dishevelled hair lying on the glass door facing the outside, her sharp voice shouting, "My child, give me back my child!"

The room was instantly in chaos "What child?" Zhan Zhao was also a little startled. At the same time, he felt that someone behind him had grabbed him and spoke in a sinister manner, "Mom... I am here."

Zhan Zhao glanced out of the corner of his eyes, only to see a small, green, frightening hand on his shoulder.

"Ah!"

At the same time, the lights went on with a loud pop.

They saw Bai Yutang standing next to the electric switch, looking helplessly at the panicked people in the room, and as he opened the door, he pulled in the 'female ghost' who was scratching the glass outside.

The female ghost laughed loudly with a familiar voice, and Zhan Zhao immediately had a black face… Looking back, he saw Bao Zheng standing behind him, holding a green, frightening prop hand.

Everyone instantly stiffened.

The 'female ghost' took off her hood and took off the white cloak she was wearing, revealing her original face. Zhan Zhao's eyes twitched, it was none other than Zhao Jue's ungrateful face, with his signature combination of a smile with wrinkles, and he winked at the crowd, "Merry Christmas!"

It turned out that Bao Zheng had not come alone just now, but had infiltrated the villa with Zhao Jue, who was wearing a white cloak and hiding in the snow, so it was impossible to detect him.

Bao Zheng was the first to lie to the crowd and say that he had seen the child in the snow. The takeaway man, and the female ghost who just came to ring the doorbell were all arrangements they had made, the so-called three men becoming a tiger, to give the crowd a sense of a haunting. The phone call was also made with the help of the actors in the crowd, but Bao Zheng had simply turned off the recording function of the phone when the crowd was not paying attention. The electric switch was also pulled by him while the crowd's attention was on the phone... borrowing from Zhao Zhen's magic techniques. (Angel: Three become a tiger is an idiom that means that repeated rumours become a fact.)

Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi were overwhelmed by the shock, and on a rare occasion, Bai Jintang also went white...

Bai Yutang looked at Bai Jintang with a look of disbelief, "Brother... you also believe such tricks?"

Bai Jintang ate the crab meat passed over by Gongsun with a black face to suppress the shock, "Don't be so naggy."

After the beautiful dinner, everyone exchanged gifts. The gifts of the sweethearts were naturally the result of a great deal of effort to make each other smile, and each was satisfied.

Zhao Jue and Bao Zheng said that the impromptu performance they had just given was a gift, and that they had brought nothing else, having come purely to dine. Instead, they took away the gifts given to them by the crowd.

In the end, everyone turned their attention to Bai Jintang's big box

It took Gongsun a long time to open the box... and when he lifted the lid, he saw that inside was a crystal clear sculpture. The shape was lifelike, and it seemed to be a mother and son embracing together.

"Ah!" Gongsun instantly understood, "This is that world-famous corpse sculpture! It's where a natural corpse is used as a mould and the outside is poured with crystal to freeze the moment of death forever!

"En." Bai Jintang lit a cigarette, "This corpse is a mother and son who died in a disaster, hugging each other tightly when they died.

The crowd immediately understood, no wonder Bai Jintang was just scared into having a white face, thinking about it now… sure enough.

After midnight, Bao Zheng and Zhao Jue said goodbye and left, and the crowd went to bed.

The gift that Zhan Zhao got from Bai Yutang was an ancient black sword, which was said to be a pair with the ancient white knife that Bai Yutang got that day, which had been buried in a grave.

Bai Yutang, on the other hand, was a little depressed that Zhan Zhao hadn't given him anything tonight and seemed to have forgotten.

When he got under the covers sullenly, Bai Yutang suddenly felt some diaphragm under his pillow. He reached out to feel under the pillow and immediately smiled...

Just to the side, he saw Zhan Zhao narrowing his eyes and smiling too.

When he fished the object out, he saw that it was a crystal pendant that was super cheerful. On one end of the pendant was a mouse tied up in a big bundle, and on the other end was a kitten holding the end of the rope with glee.

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow and slapped his chest, "Designed it myself!"

Bai Yutang put the pendant on and smiled as he moved over to give him a kiss. The mood was just right tonight and with three days off, there was no reason to stop the good things that would logically follow.

Just as the mood was getting better, Zhan Zhao suddenly heard a sound of laughter coming from outside.

It seemed to be the clear laughter of a woman and a child.

He raised his head and looked out the window... and instantly stiffened - he saw a snowman piled up on the snow downstairs, and a mother and son were laughing and having a snowball fight, indescribably happy. The only feature of the two people is that their faces were whiter than paper. The corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched, it is not...

Bai Yutang dragged him back and continued the entanglement they had just had.

"Ai ai." Zhan Zhao patted Bai Yutang who was hard at work next to his neck, "Xiao Bai, did you see that just now?"

Bai Yutang pulled the blanket around the two of them, "No, I didn't see it!"

"You clearly saw it!"

"No!"

"You really didn't?"

"Even if you saw it, you have to pretend you didn't!"

"......"

‿︵‿︵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: June 14, 2022 by Angel