S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 103

Lucky Murderer 31 – Bet

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That figure flashed past so fast that Zhan Zhao only caught a glimpse of a shadow for a split second, and he almost thought he was looking at the wrong person. Turning his eyes to look at Bai Yutang again, he saw that he was staring at the ship's layout diagram, holding a walkie-talkie to talk tactics with the boarding crew at the other end, as if he hadn't seen it at all.

Zhan Zhao retracted his eyes and searched on all the monitors, but the trail was gone... It was evident that the man just now had been specially put there by Zhao Jue for him to see.

While pondering, Zhao Jue had already dragged Zhao Zhen to the gambling table.

Singh is indeed a gambler, and almost all the guests on this luxury cruise ship were particularly wealthy tycoons or powerhouses, none of whom cared about money.

As a result, the chips on the table were stacked high, and Singh was such a master that almost everyone who played cards with him lost.

"Someone who keeps winning like this is obviously cheating!" Zhan Zhao frowned, "How come the casino doesn't care?"

"Cruise ships only charge exorbitant boarding fees, this kind of gambling doesn't have a bookkeeper, it's just gamblers earning money from each other. The merchants are happy to see it. It’s because there are no rules that it draws that bunch of lawless people up there." Jiang Ping had checked the details before, not letting go of a single detail.

"Zhen should be careful." Bai Chi sat on a stool and watched the camera nervously. Because he couldn't see Zhao Zhen on the screen and he could only see the people and things he was facing, he was even more worried.

Zhao Zhen went and sat down across from Singh, with Zhao Jue right behind him.

Singh, apparently only looking at the opponents at the table, saw Zhao Zhen with a slight flinch, "Oh? Mr. Magician."

"It's over!" Bai Chi cried, "He knows Zhen."

Zhan Zhao couldn't laugh or cry, and rubbed his head comfortingly, "Chi Chi, there aren't many people who don't know Zhao Zhen."

Bai Chi was even more depressed. The other party must know about Zhao Zhen's relationship with Zhao Jue, wouldn't they...

Sure enough, Singh slowly raised his head, and when he saw Zhao Jue who was smiling at him from the table, the expression on his face made Zhan Zhao and others who were originally worried unable to stop themselves from laughing.

"It's like that toad inside the seismograph that has its mouth open waiting to catch a bead." Gongsun described it vividly from the sidelines, once again making the crowd laugh.

It took Singh another three or four minutes to take his eyes off of Zhao Jue's face, at which point it looked like his face was white and his eyes were even more dazed.

But Zhao Jue said coolly, "Well, it's interesting to run into an old friend in a place like this."

Singh's face loosened slightly.

Bai Yutang sighed, "So good at fooling people?"

But Zhan Zhao frowned, "Not only is he a good liar, he should also be obedient."

Bai Yutang froze at first when he heard this, then was shocked, "Zhao Jue has done the trick so quickly?!"

"What?" Everyone looked at the two men in confusion – what trickery?

"That idiot stared at Zhao Jue for three minutes, he could be told to go and die right now." Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Replay the footage from just now and you can see the change in his pupils!"

The crowd looked at each other with blank faces.

"But Zhao Jue didn't say anything..." Jiang Ping felt that it was a little too scary, and Zhan Zhao was able to spot it.

Zhan Zhao sneered, "That Singh is probably also a small fish, or rather, a technician with no fighting ability at all."

"And a helper?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Well, after all, Singh is too powerless to resist, he's just a lamb for slaughter in front of Zhao Jue. There must be someone else hiding, maybe not with as many secrets as him, not as high as him, but definitely more capable and decisive than him!"

As soon as Zhan Zhao finished speaking, a soft laugh came from the other end of the receiver, "Very true."

When Zhan Zhao came back to his senses, Zhao Zhen had already won three hands with lightning speed over Singh, who was still unable to concentrate.

Singh looked at Zhao Zhen, dumbfounded.

Zhan Zhao sighed, "He's using this expression a lot today."

Singh put down the cards in his hand and stared at Zhao Zhen for a moment before reaching out to nod at him, "Master."

Zhao Zhen, however, spoke indifferently, "I often play cards, but rarely gamble."

Bai Chi smiled and said, "Zhen's card magic is superb, he shuffles the cards beautifully."

The crowd looked at him somewhat helplessly; Bai Chi had been so completely tamed by Zhao Zhen that he didn't even remember being bullied to the point of misery as a child.

Singh, however, smiled and shook his head, "Young man, being overly humble is arrogant."

Zhao Zhen raised an eyebrow, "I'm telling the truth."

Singh nodded and settled down to play cards with Zhao Zhen, however… he lost even more.

"Wow." Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Zhao Zhen didn't turn the cards in Singh's hand directly into tarot cards, that's already giving him a lot of face! This Singh is really a gambler through and through, losing like this and continuing to gamble?"

"A real gambler is like that. The more they lose, the more they gamble, always thinking that they will definitely turn the tables when the time comes. That's why there are people who have lost all their money overnight." Bai Jintang said faintly from the side, "Those who know how to collect and let go are not gamblers."

Half an hour later, Singh had lost all his chips, and if he kept gambling, he might really lose his trousers, so Zhan Zhao poked Bai Chi at the side, "Chi Chi, how much did Zhao Zhen win?"

Bai Chi blinked, "About half a million dollars."

The crowd narrowed their eyes in indignation - good money!

With that, Zhao Zhen heard the crowd at SCI shout from the end of the miniature headset, “Treat! Ask for a present!"

Zhao Zhen was so annoyed that he tugged at his ears.

Zhao Jue put his arm around Zhao Zhen's shoulders and leaned into his ear and said, "You're surprisingly in tune with the group, my Zhao family's genes have developed a serious mutation!"

Zhao Zhen looked at him helplessly, and the crowd over here tilted their faces up to think about it; a magician who brought a lion around would never fit in, and Zhao Zhen really did seem to be the loner type before, so it was really Bai Chi's doing!

While pretending to praise Zhao Zhen, Zhao Jue quietly told him to think of a way to set Singh's watch ten minutes ahead.

Zhao Zhen didn't make a sound when he heard this, but when he saw Singh coming from behind the table, he reached out as if to shake his hand.

After all, Singh was an older man, so how could he possibly refuse to shake Zhao Zhen's hand? He shook his hand slightly, drew it back, and left, complaining to the people around him about the bad feng shui and how he should have known not to pull out that white hair when he came out.

The crowd grinned. Eating, drinking, gambling, smoking, everything was deadly!

Bai Yutang, on the other hand, noticed what Zhao Jue had just asked for and went over to ask, "Set the time on his watch ahead? "

Zhao Zhen coughed, indicating that he had changed it.

Jiang Ping tried to adjust the time of his watch on the side, trying to study just how fast Zhao Zhen's hands were. To accomplish it in the split second of shaking hands and still not be noticed? This person would have been an absolutely fabulous thief if he hadn't been a magician, the genes of Zhao Jue's family are really something!

Zhan Zhao stood aside with his arms crossed, his heels gently banging on the ground, seemingly impatient, "Those thieves are still not doing anything? The cucumber dishes are getting cold."

The crowd all looked at him with a smile, knowing that he was upset that his thunder had been stolen by Zhao Jue.

"Is there any chance that Singh will correct the watch?" Bai Chi asked Bai Yutang worriedly.

"Well, since Zhao Jue has requested this, I guess there's no risk in that regard, and he must have no concept of time since he's all in when he gambles."

"Head!"

At that moment, Ma Han, who was watching from the distant helipad lookout, sent back news, "There's a big boat approaching!"

"A big boat?" The crowd looked at the radar surveillance and monitoring images, and indeed a very large boat had sailed by, in the shape of a small naval vessel.

"How come that group of arms dealers are selling everything?" Bai Yutang frowned, "This kind of ship is not civilian at all."

"These days, you can buy an aircraft carrier if you have the money, but it has to be a decommissioned one." Bai Jintang whispered to the side, "It's popular for tycoons nowadays to live on warships, drive out to sea and install a ground-to-air or something to avoid being wiped out. Or some simply buy an island, build a walled barbed wire fence, hire a group of mercenaries to guard it, and build a kingdom of their own inside."

The crowd couldn't help but turn their faces to look at him, wondering if he was already planning.

"Is it expensive to buy an uninhabited island?" Zhan Zhao suddenly took some interest in the topic.

"It's okay." Bai Jintang replied, "But it's very uneconomical. For one thing, it's impossible to buy a large island, and it's too much work to repair it. Buy a small island, spend a huge amount of money to build a palace on it, and keep mercenaries on it, but they can't stop a big wave, they'll all be fed to the fish by then."

"What about buying a bigger one?" Zhan Zhao's interest in this topic didn't seem to be due to curiosity, but for other reasons.

Seeing that he looked serious, Bai Jintang replied, "I'll ask the twins to find someone to ask for a quotation, but there are many uninhabited islands that are sold in secret, and some involve military secrets, so it's hard to get all the information, and there are really a lot of uninhabited islands on Earth!"

"If anything, to build a secret experimental base, there's nothing better than an uninhabited island!" Zhan Zhao said to himself, "It is almost impossible to do so on land, and no land is as safe as an island!"

Bai Yutang nodded, indeed.

"Where are they going?"

It was at this point that Jiang Ping turned back to ask Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, as Zhao Jue led Zhao Zhen out of the casino and up to the suite on the top floor of the ship.

"Zhao Jue?" Zhan Zhao asked, "What are you guys doing?"

"Five more minutes and we'll be almost there, send the men out, beat the other side to the punch!" Zhao Jue smiled faintly, "That sheep will tell the time accurately." After saying that, he gave a heated laugh and pulled Zhao Zhen to hide in the room, into the most luxurious one that was owned by someone else.

Zhan Zhao looked back at Bai Yutang, who picked up the intercom, "Attention all departments, prepare for action."

Afterwards, Bai Yutang left the cabin. Zhan Zhao walked him to the deck, suddenly pulling him, who was about to jump on the speedboat, then leaned over and whispered in his ear.

Bai Yutang was stunned and turned to look at Zhan Zhao, "Really?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, moved over to him, and whispered something in his ear. Bai Yutang nodded, reached out and pinched Zhan Zhao's ear, then left the boat and boarded the speedboat to meet up with the larger group.

After Zhan Zhao returned to his cabin, he had a serious expression on his face, and everyone else was nervous, it was a big case after all.

Jiang Ping intercepted the communication signal inside the boat, filtering calls made during this time so as not to miss anything. On the other hand, the display had been connected to the CCTV footage of the cruise ship's interior, and many dead spots had been equipped with police surveillance, which was done by the police department's technicians who were sent on board.

Jiang Ping loosened the joints of his hands and started tapping furiously on the keyboard, "Catch you all one by one!"

The cruise ship's advanced surveillance equipment locked on to Singh and the others, and the cameras followed the targeted man so closely that no matter where he went or what he did, it would be caught on camera.

Sure enough, Singh was seen making a trip back to his room before walking out with his men in a large long trench coat, which bulged out with a large bag with a gun hidden inside.

"Did Zhao Jue really do something to Singh?" Bai Chi couldn't help but ask Zhan Zhao, "Why did he want to advance the time by ten minutes? Was it to mislead Singh into acting early?"

“He's trying to lure out the other fish!" Zhan Zhao whispered, "Where there is an organisation, there are generations, and where there are generations, there are mediocre people, rising stars, and ageless myths. With talent and mediocrity, there will be constant internal struggle and subsequent gang formation. According to Zhao Jue and Bao Sir, Singh is part of the old generation, the kind of outcast who has the skills but can't keep up, but the generation’s seniority can't be messed with, he's here to command, though only in name. In addition, there should be a junior, a younger, more capable junior to organise the operation. Singh's task is nothing more than to simply shout 'start', and if that start is shouted early, the crowd is bound to seek the advice of the vice-captain. Keep an eye on the gang and we'll find the fish."

"Hehe." On the other end, Zhao Jue laughed, "You really know me, does it count as a connection of the heart when you can comprehend each other with one look? We really are a perfect match."

"Save your breath, be careful of Yutang going up and shooting you later.” Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows slightly, "I have someone. I like the sunny, healthy, and perfect type, I hate the gloomy and mysterious type. Long-haired sissies are definitely out of the question, step aside and cool off."

The crowd all looked down and pretended to cough, holding back their laughter.

On the other side of the intercom, Bai Yutang helplessly held his forehead. As long as Zhan Zhao is involved with Zhao Jue, he will immediately turn his evil key, and his darkness index will rise sharply, transforming from an ordinary black cat into a little devil instantly.

Zhao Jue was holding a glass and sulking at the other end, “Not cute at all!"

Zhao Zhen stood by the window and looked down, "There are speedboats on all sides and boats in the distance, another ten minutes or so and they'll be close."

"Oh, then the good show will start soon." Zhao Jue looked at his watch, at the same time, heard a, 'da da da da' sound of bullets from downstairs, and the panicked shouting of the crowd.

On the monitor, they saw Singh entering the casino hall, taking out a gun from his trench coat and putting a bullet into the ceiling, scaring the crowd to run in all directions, and he shouted on the speaker, "Don't panic, I don't care if you get killed running around, just squat down where you are.”

"Oh!" Zhan Zhao looked at his words and actions and nodded with interest, "This guy still has some western plots, ah, really old."

"Western plot?" Bai Chi did not understand.

Zhan Zhao did not have time to explain, so he turned Bai Chi's head around and asked him to look at the monitor to watch with him.

At the same time, they saw that Singh's men were also in a mess, each subconsciously checking their watches, and in the end, they had no choice but to immediately pull out their guns to assist Singh, but their thoughts were - how come they acted ten minutes early?

Jiang Ping thought about locking on with the camera and said excitedly, "Lock you up and see where you go!"

Looking again, the crowd of Singh's men all looked at one man in unison.

"Him!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi shouted out in unison, pointing at a man, "That's him!"

"Yutang, did you see that?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang had already boarded the helicopter with the SWAT team and left the tarmac, and from the laptop monitor he was carrying, he clearly saw the person Jiang Ping had highlighted for him, "Cat, I see it!"

"Be careful of this man." Zhan Zhao reminded, "The watch on his wrist, can you see it?"

Bai Yutang replied, "I see it!"

"Watch out for anyone wearing this kind of watch, including the same style as well as others… As I often say, you know."

“En, I understand." Bai Yutang replied briefly.

Bai Chi and Jiang Ping looked back curiously and asked, "Understand what?"

Zhan Zhao raised the corners of his lips, "Birds of a feather flock together, and the most perverted perverts also have individuality and commonality... There are no two people in the world that are exactly the same, and naturally there are no two people that are completely different. All heroes have something in common with each other, which is temperament, and perverts also have something in common with each other, which is details!"

‿︵‿︵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: July 22, 2022 by Angel