S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 105

Shadow Murderer 13 – Mystery Code

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Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao led Xiao Luo Yang back to the police station with a bloodied Yu Qingyan, which immediately caused a lot of commotion. Lan Chenglin, who had rushed to the scene upon hearing the news, looked at the wretched Yu Qingyan and turned his face to sneer as he said to Bai Yutang, "Captain Bai, you're too harsh."

Bai Yutang smiled and raised his eyebrows, "Don't misunderstand, it wasn't me who did the beating."

Lan Chenglin looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi with a suspicious look, and then his eyes fell on Luo Yang, who was beside Zhan Zhao, and he visibly froze.

Luo Yang gazed up at Lan Chenglin with an unkind look in his eyes, as if he had a grudge, and Zhan Zhao gently patted him on the shoulder.

"Captain, that kid is crazy." Yu Qingyan's hands were handcuffed and he could not break free, and he looked at Lan Chenglin with pleading eyes. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao did not say anything as they could already see that not far away, Bao Zheng and Ouyang Chun were approaching at a fast pace.

Bao Zheng looked at the two parties and asked in a cold voice, "What's going on?"

Lan Chenglin wanted to speak, but swallowed his words when Bao Zheng glared at him. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and did not open their mouths.

"You speak." Bao Zheng demanded of Yu Qingyan, whose head was covered in blood.

"I saw something odd about this little kid, so I wanted to go up and ask about it, but I didn't expect him to be a madman, attacking someone with a brick." Yu Qingyan said, "Then Captain Bai and the others arrived and thought I was going to hurt this child, so they handcuffed me."

Bao Zheng frowned as he listened and turned to Zhan Zhao, "Is that what happened?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head and patted Luo Yang, "Tell us, is that what happened?"

Everyone looked at Luo Yang.

Luo Yang looked up at Bao Zheng, and his originally cold face suddenly showed some fear. He timidly hid behind Zhan Zhao, grabbed the corner of Zhan Zhao's coat, and pointed at Yu Qingyan, "He wants to kill me because I've seen him go to a nightclub to look for a girl."

Many of the police officers who were watching the scene heard Luo Yang's words and started to whisper, this anti-gang unit police officer went to look for a lady?

"You are talking nonsense!" Yu Qingyan was so angry that his face turned green, "When have I ever been there?!"

Luo Yang looked even more scared for a few moments, and hid behind Zhan Zhao, "My parents died early, I was serving plates at a nightclub... I saw him go into a room with a lady there, and he paid money when he came out."

The sound of huffing and puffing came from all around. Yu Qingyan had a hard time arguing and shouted to Luo Yang, "Don't spit blood.” (Angel: Spitting blood, 血口喷人, is an idiom that means to venomously slander someone.)

"What are you yelling about?" Bai Yutang glared at him, "Scaring children, huh?"

Luo Yang cautiously looked up at Bao Zheng and asked, "Will he come to kill me again in the future? I'm scared! He even pointed a gun at us just now and shot."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Yu Qingyan was furious, "I didn't shoot at all..."

"So you did draw your gun?" Zhan Zhao asked without waiting for him to finish.

As soon as Yu Qingyan hesitated and tried to speak again, the crowd had already understood, and was even more disapproving of him.

"To kill someone like this, and to kill a police officer as well, seems a bit unreasonable, doesn't it?” Zhan Zhao looked at Lan Chenglin behind Yu Qingyan, "Or do you have something else on the kid?”

"I..." Yu Qingyan had no choice but to look back at Lan Chenglin, and he saw that Lan Chenglin's face was also a little white.

"Maybe it's a misunderstanding." Ouyang Chun, who was on the side, smiled and said, "It was probably Vice Captain Yu who was misunderstood when he was meeting an informant."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and turned their faces to look at Bao Zheng, and saw that his expression appeared to be one of some difficulty.

"You want to let them off the hook because these two people were the threads you laid down to investigate the current case, and you actually had the facts of these two people's crimes long ago, but you just wanted to follow the vine, right?" Bai Yutang looked at Ouyang Chun.

Ouyang Chun's eyes widened as he looked at Bai Yutang, while at the same time, Lan Chenglin and Yu Qingyan beside him were also shocked.

Bao Zheng sighed, he knew Bai Yutang would not give up like this. It would have been fine for him to turn a blind eye, but now that he had been provoked, with Bai Yutang's nature, there was absolutely no room for sand in his eyes, exactly like his old man. Bao Zheng had no choice but to turn his face to Lan Chenglin and say, "You two are suspended for now, and this case is transferred to SCI."

Before Lan Chenglin could say anything, Bai Yutang said to Bao Zheng, "Lan Chenglin and Yu Qingyan are suspected of murder, the evidence is conclusive. The two of them may also be involved in this gangster serial murder case as well as the murder of undercover police officer Luo Wen and the destruction of evidence, the circumstances are serious, so we are requesting an arrest and detainment."

Bao Zheng nodded and a police officer came forward to handcuff Lan Qinglin and Yu Qingyan and escort them away.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao turned to leave when they heard Ouyang Chun say coldly to Bao Zheng, "I don't think I can work with a police officer who can't take care of the big picture like this."

Bai Yutang turned around and smiled coldly, "I don't think I can work with a police officer who thinks about the bigger picture like this either."

Seeing the two men at war, Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and pulled Luo Yang, who was still flabbergasted, to his feet and said to Ouyang Chun, "This is Luo Wen's son, please look him in the eye and tell him what police justice is, whether it's solving the case or saving human lives that matters."

Ouyang Chun froze, a little speechless.

It took Luo Yang a long time to respond, turning back to Zhan Zhao and asking, "My father was a police officer?"

Zhan Zhao nodded and stroked his head, "Don't worry, your father was a police officer who would take the risk of raising you even as an undercover officer, not the kind of police officer who would look at people breaking the law and still think about the bigger picture in order to solve the case." After saying that, he pulled Luo Yang away.

Bai Yutang smiled at the grim-faced Ouyang Chun and said, "You know which floor SCI is on, right? Feel free to come up if you want... Also, I'll get the whole police force to hold a seminar later on, so we can learn from your Interpol officers what it means to think about the big picture." After saying that, he patted the unhappy Bai Chi beside him and went upstairs.

When he entered the elevator, Bai Chi still looked dissatisfied and muttered, "How can this be, the police officers of the anti-gang unit even went to a nightclub to find a lady..."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao couldn't laugh or cry, this child was too honest.

Zhan Zhao patted Luo Yang's head and said, "It's not right to lie to people."

Luo Yang blushed a little and nodded, "I know."

Downstairs, the people watching the fun dispersed.

Bao Zheng looked at the distressed Ouyang Chun and said, "It's not exactly spoiling the plan, these two should be arrested."

Ouyang Chun nodded and said helplessly, "What I fear most is dealing with someone surnamed Bai."

Bao Zheng smiled, patted him and said half-seriously, half-jokingly, "If you deal with those surnamed Zhan for a while, you will think that those surnamed Bai are easy to get along with." After saying that, he walked away with his hands in his pockets.

Back in the SCI office, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took Luo Yang into the office, and Zhao Hu and the others all gathered at the door to watch – was this the legendary seven-year-old wonder boy who had beaten the shit out of the tall vice captain of the anti-gang unit with his bare hands? In the end, Bai Yutang drove them out with a roar, and the crowd had to gather around Bai Chi and make him tell them the details of what happened.

Closing the door to his office, Zhan Zhao sat Luo Yang down and poured him some hot tea.

"You guys said my dad was a police officer?" Luo Yang asked, tilting his face.

"That's right." Zhan Zhao nodded. At this time, Jiang Ping, who had gone to the anti-gang unit to retrieve the information, knocked on the door and handed a document to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao handed the document to Luo Yang and said, "This is your father's information, he was an undercover cop."

Luo Yang, who was only seven years old, couldn't quite understand it and tilted his face, "I can't read it, I also asked the taxi driver to read your business card."

With a smile, Zhan Zhao took the document and said, "Let me read it to you." With that, he sat down next to Luo Yang and read out the document about Luo Wen's background to him.

Luo Yang listened quietly and finally nodded, "I understand."

"You know that Luo Wen is not actually your real father, right?" Bai Yutang asked in a direct manner.

Luo Yang nodded, “En, but I still want to avenge him."

"Then you have to help us." Zhan Zhao said, "We need your help to get the case straight."

Luo Yang nodded, "I know, that's why I'm here."

“We’ll continue with the questions that weren't finished that day." Bai Yutang pulled over a chair and sat down in front of Luo Yang, "Big Beard, your father had a friend who had a big beard, does that ring a bell?"

Luo Yang nodded, "I know him."

"What's his name? What does he do and do you know where he lives?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"I just call him Uncle Big Beard, I don't know anything else, but he often plays with me, so I know where his house is." Luo Yang obediently answered.

"Can you take us there?" Bai Yutang asked.

"You want to arrest him?" Luo Yang was a little nervous.

"Why do you ask that?" Zhan Zhao looked at Luo Yang, "Do you think he's done something bad so we need to arrest him?"

Luo Yang looked at Zhan Zhao and whispered, "There's something weird about him."

"How weird?" Bai Yutang pursued. At that moment, a knock sounded at the door. Immediately afterwards, the door was opened and Ouyang Chun walked in with an awkward face, saying, "Our people are here to participate in the investigation, and I want to listen to this together."

Without speaking, Bai Yutang nodded and resumed looking at Luo Yang, waiting for his answer.

Luo Yang looked at Ouyang Chun and turned his face to ask Zhan Zhao, "Can I say it while he's here?"

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang saw Ouyang Chun's depressed face, they both couldn't help but laugh.

Ouyang Chun sighed, moved a chair and sat down, saying to Luo Yang, "Go ahead, I'm not a bad person."

Luo Yang stared into his eyes, nodded and said to Bai Yutang, "He is like you in some ways."

All three of them were stunned, not expecting Luo Yang to say such a thing. Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang and turned his face to ask Luo Yang, "What do you mean by like him? Do they look alike or something else?"

Luo Yang shook his head and said, “They don't look alike, but they feel very similar."

"What feeling?" Bai Yutang frowned, "Give me an example."

Luo Yang tilted his head and thought about it, pointing to Zhan Zhao, "For example, if you were to treat me fiercely, I wouldn't be afraid. But..." Luo Yang pointed to Bai Yutang, “you and Uncle Big Beard, even if you just stare at me, I feel scared."

Bai Yutang blinked and was silent for a moment before turning his face to look at Zhan Zhao: "Cat, help me translate."

On the other side, Ouyang Chun also nodded, "I don't understand either."

Zhan Zhao couldn't laugh or cry, "Have you ever heard of the term animalistic?"

"Animalistic?" The three, two big and one small, shook their heads at the same time, staring at Zhan Zhao.

"The world of animals can be roughly divided into two categories, natural enemies and their own kind." Zhan Zhao patiently explained to the three, "In fact, there are many parts of humans that maintain their primitive instinctive state, such as nurturing offspring, foraging for food, etc... This is animal nature."

The three people nodded.

Zhan Zhao continued to explain, "Generally speaking, herbivorous animals will be afraid of carnivorous animals, which constitutes a natural enemy relationship. What is the first reaction of an animal when it sees a natural enemy?"

"Run!" Luo Yang was the first to answer. Ouyang Chun and Bai Yutang looked at each other and nodded.

"Right! It is to run, and this kind of running is instinctive, it is not necessarily the realisation of fear that makes them run. For example, a mouse instinctively runs when it sees a cat, and only feels fear when it is caught." Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, "Right?"

Ouyang Chun and Luo Yang both nodded their heads in agreement, but Bai Yutang shook his head, "There are also mice that are not afraid of cats, and those that eat cats."

Zhan Zhao glared at him, and Bai Yutang raised his hand, signalling – you continue.

"However, between animals of the same kind, they do not develop this instinct. For example, when a small dog sees a big dog, it creates a difference in status and ability."

The three men continue to nod.

"Usually when a small dog messes with a big dog, the big dog won't try to hurt the small dog, but will be mean to it, at which point the small dog will basically roll over and show its belly so as to show submission."

"That's right." Luo Yang nodded, "I've seen it before."

Bai Yutang and Ouyang Chun looked at each other again, not denying it.

"At times like this, the small dog is also scared, it realises the fear first and then reacts. But it doesn't need to run away... because what makes him fearful is his own kind, whose abilities are higher than his and who would never harm him, which can be described as a sense of majesty caused by strength."

Zhan Zhao finished and looked at the three, "Understand?"

The three of them looked at each other, and finally Bai Yutang nodded and said, "Your words translated into Chinese means that if me and that bearded man are the big dog, Luo Yang is the little dog... If Lan Chenglin and Yu Qingyan are the cat, Luo Yang is the little mouse."

Zhan Zhao's expression changed a few times, but he finally nodded: "You can also say that."

Ouyang Chun looked at Bai Yutang and said with a bit of admiration, "What an amazing understanding and expression."

Bai Yutang smiled, "You're very polite, just get used to it."

Zhan Zhao held his forehead.

"Well... there's more." Luo Yang continued, "He would often recite a string of numbers."

"Numbers?" All three of their attention was again drawn to Luo Yang, "What numbers?"

"3-17-12," Luo Yang paused, trying his best to imitate the tone of the bearded man's usual recitation.

"3-17-12," The three of them repeatedly recited it a few times, all a little confused.

"What is this? A code, a password, a secret word?" Ouyang Chun turned his face to look at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, and saw that they were also puzzled.

"We'll understand when we find the person." Bai Yutang picked up his jacket and said to Luo Yang, "Take us to him!"

"He's not a bad guy." Luo Yang looked at Bai Yutang with some worry.

Bai Yutang nodded and suddenly asked, "Have you ever heard of the name Dark Night Punisher?"

"Huh?" Luo Yang looked bewildered, obviously not having heard of it.

"Let's go." Zhan Zhao reached out his hand to pull him.

Luo Yang was a little reluctant and said, "I can't take you guys there, I'm friends with him."

"Friends?" Bai Yutang smiled, "Then if Luo Wen asked you to go, would you go?"

Luo Yang nodded, "Of course, he's my father."

Bai Yutang took out the signed adoption certificate from his pocket and handed it to Luo Yang, "Look at this! The adoption certificate, from now on this cat and I are your fathers, so are we related or is the bearded man related?"

Luo Yang's eyes widened as he looked at Zhan Zhao, who nodded, "We both adopted you together, this is also the last wish of Luo Wen. Are you willing to do so?"

Luo Yang lowered his head, his face surprisingly red, then finally nodded and took Zhan Zhao's hand, "I will take you there, but you must not hurt him!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: November 17, 2022 by Angel

Edited: December 15, 2022 by Angel