S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 1

A Requiem for a Murderer 01 – E and the Ghost

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Regional Cup Junior Tennis Tournament, the primary school final is underway.

"Go Yang Yang!"

Xiao Yi stood in the first row of the audience, cheering for Luo Yang who was playing.

Qin Ou the twenty four filial dad held an umbrella for Qin Yi who was bouncing around, afraid that the little white and red treasure would get a tan. Yang Fan was watching from the sidelines with a Coke. Luo Yang was in good shape!

Luo Tian and Ma Xin were also standing in the first row, watching the game nervously, and the SCI crowd were there to cheer Luo Yang on. There were also other young players from their school district, as well as teachers and classmates.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang sat halfway up the bleachers. Zhan Zhao crossed his legs and held a beverage in his hand as he analysed the psychological situation of Luo Yang and his young opponent.

“Cat," Bai Yutang yawned, "I don't think the mentality of children is in the realm of psychology, is it?"

"Ah, this research subject is very popular these days!" As soon as Zhan Zhao mentioned his major, he immediately got energised and mentioned a long list of terms that he was recently researching, making Bai Yutang dizzy.

"Brother, do you want a cold drink?" Bai Chi carried a plastic bag of cold drinks and came over to share.

"Chi Chi, what's the score?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"It's the second set, three to one, Yang Yang just cracked the other side's serve."

"It's two wins in three sets for kids, right?" Bai Yutang counted the time, "This time Yang Yang is serving, he'll finish him off in one go!"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Not far away, Zhao Hu and Ma Han also arrived, the two of them had just gone to prepare the equipment they would need for their departure. Yesterday, Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue had communicated, and they would take off tonight and arrive first thing in the morning.

"It's all ready." Zhao Hu sat down in front of Zhan Zhao and the others and asked Gongsun, who was further ahead, "How's it going?"

"Looking at it now, the chance of winning is 90%!" Gongsun was confident that Luo Yang would win.

Ma Han also sat down. At that moment, a couple of boys who looked like middle school students came up next to him and asked Ma Han, “Ai, Brother, let me borrow a lighter."

Ma Han looked at them and shook his head, "No."

"Then what do you have in your hand?" The three teenagers seemed a little disgruntled and pointed to the lighter in Ma Han's hand.

“Ai, brats!" Zhao Hu glared, "Are you old enough to smoke? And borrowing a lighter from a cop, at the school?"

The few kids were taken aback and hurried away.

"Kids nowadays are really..." Bai Chi shook his head.

Zhan Zhao saw that now was a good opportunity, so he hopped down a level and sat next to Ma Han, smiling at him.

Ma Han was taken aback by him. When Zhan Zhao showed a cat-like smile to anyone, it was essentially either a split or a fission, and he subconsciously moved away a little.

“Ai, Xiao Ma Ge." Zhan Zhao reached out and tapped him on the shoulder, “Let’s have a chat!"

"Chat about what?" Ma Han asked warily.

"For example, this lighter." Zhan Zhao reached out and pointed, "Who gave it to you? It's very precious."

"Oh." Ma Han seemed relieved as he took the lighter and said, "It's from the person who taught me how to shoot."

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes faintly, "Taught you to shoot?"

"Mm." Ma Han nodded, "The person who told me I was going to be a sniper in the future was also him, the enlightening teacher... or something like that."

“Hey, Xiao Ma Ge, it’s so boring to wait, why don't you tell that story!” Zhan Zhao asked with interest.

"What story?" This time it was Ma Han's turn to be puzzled.

At the same time, a cheer could be heard. It turned out that Luo Yang had managed to defend his serve, and it was four to one, victory was in sight!

"Tsk." Zhan Zhao tugged on Bai Yutang who was dozing off at the back and told him to sit on the other side of Ma Han.

Bai Yutang had no choice but to join Zhan Zhao in a pincer attack. Ma Han was so nervous and looked from side to side, "What do you want to know?"

"Of course it's the story about teaching you to fire the first shot!" Zhan Zhao seriously asked, "Tell me? What kind of man was he?"

"Well, he's the strongest sniper in the world." Ma Han began to recall the first time they met, "It wasn't much of a story, just a coincidental encounter. When I was a kid, I went to summer camp with Xin Xin. Girls are timid, Xin Xin never seemed scared, but when it mattered, she still needed company to go to the toilet in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere."

"How old were you?” Zhan Zhao wondered.

"Well, seven years old… summer camp in the first year of primary school.” Ma Han recalled, "After sending Xin Xin back to the tent that time, I had just laid down when I heard a 'ping', so I got up and looked for the sound."

"You mean you were seven years old?" Bai Chi's eyes widened, “You heard the shot and followed it?"

Ma Han nodded, “It was an instinctive reaction to hear a strange sound and go and have a look, ah."

To the side, Bai Yutang and Bai Jintang both nodded and said – this was natural!

Bai Chi flattened his mouth as Zhao Zhen stroked his head from the side, gesturing for him to ignore this group of non-humans.

"I ran off into the woods, far, far away, and eventually saw a man with a gun.” Ma Han recalled, "Well, he was signalling for me to keep quiet and I saw him aiming at a grouse."

"And then what did you do?"

"I walked over and lifted the barrel of his gun a little.” Ma Han saw the crowd looking at him in disbelief and shrugged, "There were a lot of grouse in that tree, all sleeping. But I saw a nest of grouse behind the one he was aiming at, and there were probably baby grouse inside. There was no need to cause collateral damage, so I told him to hit the male grouse at the highest point."

"About how far away was it?" Bai Yutang interjected and asked.

Ma Han thought for a moment, "Now that I think about it, it was about two or three hundred metres."

The crowd was silent for a long time before saying in unison, "Good eyesight."

"And then what?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"He was very kind, handed me the gun and asked me if I wanted to try it out. He also taught me how to load it, how to hold and aim it, and roughly how much recoil and roughly how far the range was.” Ma Han finished and shook his head, "Actually, that night he told me all the elements of shooting in general in one breath, and then let me judge for myself."

"The result?" Zhao Hu was curious.

"I hit that grouse."

Bai Chi was surprised, "So impressive."

"But the grouse hit that nest when it fell.” Ma Han smiled, "He told me that in that one tree, there were a total of seven grouse, four birds and three nests. Only the one he aimed at in the first place could have done no collateral damage."

The crowd all raised an eyebrow, "That was really impressive!"

"What next?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"He talked to me for a while and taught me a few things, like how important details are when shooting, and how watching and waiting takes more time than aiming. When shooting you have to become one with the gun, you can't feel your body, you can only feel the wind." Ma Han said, "I don't know how long we talked, but it seems Xin Xin woke up to find me missing and started crying, waking up the instructor and sending all the teachers out into the hills to look for me."

"And he left?" Zhan Zhao was regretful, "Did you remember to ask him his name?"

Ma Han shook his head, "When he was leaving he told me to keep it a secret and said... I should go on to be a sniper in the future."

"Wait a minute." Zhao Hu heard something suspicious, "When was that lighter given to you? Have you seen him since then?"

“En." Ma Han nodded, "Until I became a real sniper, more than ten years later, I think, he visited me all the time, at irregular intervals, once every couple of years. He would pop up anytime, anywhere, and go hunting with me or to the range to practise, or up on the roof of a building to do mock drills. At one point I thought he was a sniper instructor."

"Is he not?" Zhan Zhao frowned slightly.

"The last time he came to see me, I told him I had been accepted into the sniper team." Ma Han said, "He gave me this lighter after his last fight with me, and he said 'Bullets don't stop, they penetrate everything, and a good sniper avoids collateral damage.' Since then, and to this day, he hasn't appeared again."

As a police officer, Bai Yutang nodded very appreciatively, "Quite a good enlightenment."

"But I didn't find him on the list of famous snipers in the police force later." Ma Han shook his head.

"What did he look like and what was his name?" Bai Jintang asked.

"When I first saw him, he was young, maybe in his early thirties, with not too long but not too short black hair, handsome in appearance, tall and lean, very athletic. He was always in black and had a very eerie and steady aura, and was quiet. He must be in his fifties now." Ma Han smiled, "The last time I saw him, he was still a handsome uncle, looking young and maintaining his figure very well." He said, pointing at Zhan Zhao, "Something like your father's style, only he's a bit more wild and has a beard."

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, imagining his father's temperament with a sexy beard... tsk! That sniper should be super strong.

"What's his name?" Da Ding and Xiao Ding inexplicably thought of someone and asked, "Is he missing a piece of his left ear?"

Ma Han smiled faintly, "Do you really know them?"

“No way?" The twins were startled.

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao wondered.

"That man is Eleven, often referred to as E," Bai Jintang answered helpfully, "the number one professional killer, the strongest sniper."

"Eleven?" said Zhan Zhao, not quite understanding, "Eleven? What does that mean?"

"The record for the number of kills in one second." Ma Han looked up, "He worked as a mercenary in street battles and set a sniper record that no one could break, killing 11 people in one second, hence the name."

"He's very famous indeed, and it's said that some tribes in West Africa and the Middle East, where blood revenge is popular, often hire snipers for their battles. While he is the god of victory for the employing side, he is the god of death for the enemy side." Bai Yutang frowned at Ma Han, "But he taught you to shoot and cared for you like a disciple for over ten years? And then you ran away and became a police officer and might have to turn around and hunt him down later?"

Ma Han nodded, smiling feebly, also finding it somewhat ironic, "So he never came back to me after I became a cop."

Jiang Ping, who had his laptop with him, did a search, "Wow, Xiao Ma Ge, do you know how many people this teacher of yours has killed in total? It's like a monument to professional killers."

Ma Han smiled bitterly, "But I heard that he might be dead."

"How did he die?" Zhan Zhao was inexplicably eager to meet this man, what a shame it was that he died.

"I've heard about it too." Xiao Ding said, "It was rumoured back then. It was said that E killed the boss of an organisation. That organisation was very powerful and specifically searched for a large number of snipers from all over the world to train and hunt E for a heavy payout. Finally, a killer called Ghost succeeded and killed E."

Ma Han nodded, "It's the same as what I heard."

“Ghost?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "Ghost?" (Angel: The first ghost was in English and the second was in Mandarin.)

Bai Yutang raised his eyes to look at him, and the two of them looked at each other with understanding – they were going to T City this time to catch the so-called ‘ghost', and Zhao Jue specifically mentioned taking Ma Han the sniper and the lighter, and said that the ghost had something to do with Ma Han... Could it be that Zhao Jue wants them to deal with the professional killer called Ghost this time? The entire SCI was mobilised to catch a killer? When did Zhao Jue become so nosy? Or did that unscrupulous professional killer piss him off... But then again, there was no reason for someone to piss off Zhao Jue, and for Zhao Jue to be unable to clean up after himself and have to ask them for help.

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin and raised the corner of his mouth, muttering to himself, "That's interesting."

"It is interesting, why would I look for you if it wasn't interesting?"

Zhan Zhao was lost in thought when he heard a familiar voice ring out in his ears and turned back with a start.

He saw a flash of a white figure, and when he looked again, he saw a man dressed in white, with his long hair tied up casually, sitting next to Bai Yutang and taking him by the arm, "We're in a couple's outfit!"

It has been a while since they have seen each other, Zhao Jue still looked good, and has remained fat and thin... This person never seems to change.

Bai Yutang looked at the sky, how did Zhao Jue come running?

Zhan Zhao glared murderously at the hand he had wrapped around Bai Yutang's arm.

"Yo, you're here too." Zhao Jue went down a step and arrived at Bai Jintang's side, glancing at his eyes, "Do you still have headaches lately? Have you had any nightmares?"

Bai Jintang shook his head, "No."

Zhao Jue smiled faintly, and Gongsun looked at him in confusion... He had a relationship with Zhao Jue?

"I want a white Bentley." Zhao Jue reached out as if he was asking Bai Jintang for a gift.

Bai Jintang raised an eyebrow at the twins, "Buy it for him."

The crowd looked at each other in disbelief as the twins secretly spat out their tongues cursing the scoundrel and ran off to call and order the car. (Angel: The author used the term 败家子 to describe Zhao Jue, which refers to ineffective children who squander the family property at will, but there is no real English equivalent for this.)

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang watched with a puzzled look on their faces as Zhao Jue messed with the entire SCI team from top to bottom before finally sitting back down next to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao looked at him, "Didn't you say you were waiting in T City? Why are you suddenly here?"

Zhao Jue smiled and moved around Zhan Zhao, saying to Bai Yutang behind him, "In a moment, you accompany me to go get something."

"What is it?" Zhan Zhao wondered, asking while blocking Bai Yutang.

Zhao Zhen pointed to his lips, "Se~cret~"

Zhan Zhao was furious when Zhao Jue suddenly jumped up, "Win!"

The crowd turned their faces to look again, only to see that Luo Yang had won the second set in a row, easily taking the second set and eventually winning this district group. The crowd all ran down happily to celebrate for Luo Yang.

Bai Yutang finally stood up and patted his white trousers, and saw Zhao Jue sitting on the steps to one side, looking at him while holding his chin. He looked down and locked eyes with him, asking, "Is it really as simple as you just wanting to catch the ghost?"

Zhao Jue smiled harmlessly, “En, you guys help me catch someone and I'll treat you to music."

"What music?" Bai Yutang counted as a music idiot and had no interest in it.

"Has Captain Bai ever killed anyone?" Zhao Jue smiled.

Bai Yutang nodded, signalling that – naturally, he had killed.

"Then let us make a tribute to the spirits of the dead." Zhao Zhen moved his fingers, "Play a requiem."

Zhan Zhao stood at the bottom of the stand and tilted his face upwards, only to see Bai Yutang frowning at Zhao Jue, who was sitting on the steps in a playful posture... Was he being paranoid?

Zhan Zhao subconsciously frowned, this action of Zhao Jue's seems to imply something.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Hello, welcome to volume 4! I know the photo is for book 5, but that is the photo Er Ya used for book 4 on JJWXC so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyways, let's enjoy volume 4 together, the beginning is full of some hilarious shenanigans (Those of you on my discord server have already gotten a sneak peak).

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

Translated: November 21, 2022 by Angel

Edited: December 15, 2022 by Angel