S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 3

A Requiem for a Murderer 03 – Secret Base

---

“Prrrrr prrrr prr~"

Zhan Zhao felt like he was being pressed down by some boulder and heard odd noises. Feeling like he was on the verge of losing his breath, Zhan Zhao snapped his eyes open... a round cat face appeared in front of him.

Zhan Zhao blinked, only to see that Luban was lying on his chest, with his two paws resting on either side of his shoulders, squinting his eyes and sleeping soundly, and making the distinctive purring sound of a cat.

Startled, Zhan Zhao sat up and saw that he was still on the plane, with Bai Yutang beside him reading information on his laptop, and himself lying on the sofa.

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao reached out and picked up Luban, putting him on the floor, "Phew, why did he come with us?"

Bai Yutang didn't look up and reached out to point to the corner.

He saw Bai Chi with a large bag of cat food, feeding a group of kittens. Lilia and the little lion were also here, napping on Lisbon's back.

"We can't just leave them all at home." Bai Chi couldn't leave this group of pets behind.

Zhan Zhao yawned and sat up, "What time is it?"

"A little before two." Bai Yutang looked at his watch, "It's almost time."

Zhan Zhao grabbed a cup and ran to the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee to drink. When he reached the kitchen door, he saw that Zhao Jue was leaning against the bulkhead, looking intently at the night scene below through the round glass window

When Zhan Zhao saw the brewed coffee, he reached out and touched it... It was hot! He poured a cup of coffee and took a sip... He took a deep and comfortable breath, sure enough, Bai Chi's coffee tastes the best!

Looking up, he saw Zhao Jue leaning against the glass window looking at him. Just now, Zhan Zhao did not notice that in Zhao Jue's hand, there was also a coffee cup.

Zhan Zhao walked over, "Did you make the coffee?"

Zhao Jue smiled, "You just drank it, you're not afraid that I would poison it?"

Zhan Zhao held the coffee and looked at him, "You know how to make coffee, how unexpected."

Zhao Jue smiled even more happily, and even went to gently touch Zhan Zhao's cup with his own coffee cup, making a ‘ding' sound, and then continued to lean against the window and look at the scenery.

"There are very few lights in T City at night." Zhan Zhao also walked over.

"It's not that busy of a city." Zhao Jue raised his eyebrows, "Compared to S City, it's kind of a suburb."

"Why would an aristocratic school be built in a place like that?" Zhan Zhao asked the question that had always existed, "I can understand a school being built in a suburb, but they are usually suburbs of large modern cities. Why go to a city in the middle of nowhere?"

"It's a very special school." Zhao Jue smiled faintly, "A school that would teach the children how the weak are prey to the strong."

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly, "In the real world, the weak were originally prey to the strong, so it's not all bad for children to know. Once overprotected, children grow up thinking that the outside world is a fairy tale, and once they face the real society and find out it's actually a horror story, they are vulnerable instead."

Zhao Jue smiled, "Of course normal teaching is necessary, but in the end, being a lamb to the slaughter and being a wolf that eats sheep are still two different things."

Zhan Zhao was stunned, "You mean that school deliberately trained its students to be wolves that eat people?"

"Certain students, to be exact." Zhao Jue took another sip of his coffee, "Certain specific ones, a very small number, extremely special. Special people often make miracles, and history is made because a special group of people did special things and paid attention to special details!"

"Is that why there is a need for poor students who are 'filler' and used as prey?" Zhan Zhao felt amused, "What kind of school is that, a killer school?"

Zhao Jue laughed but didn't say anything.

"But I don't think all kids are the same." Zhan Zhao said seriously, "Humans are animals that change, they won't always be as simple as lambs or wolves. For example, a wolf will become a sheep when it approaches a flock of sheep, and a sheep may become a ferocious wolf when it approaches a wolf. The evolution of biological diversity is the basis for ensuring that life continues and evolves."

“En!" Zhao Jue nodded appreciatively, "I simply like that about you."

Zhan Zhao smoothly poured another cup of coffee and walked towards the living room. When he reached Bai Yutang and sat down, he gave him the coffee, and picked up the chubby Luban to pet his fur.

After Bai Yutang finished reading all that information, he put the papers aside with a bad look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao was curious.

"This school must be a hell on earth, if I had a child I wouldn't let him or her go there." Bai Yutang shook his head.

Zhan Zhao picked up the stack of papers he was looking at and opened it to see a rather ornate stack of information about the school.

"This is a school?" Zhan Zhao's eyes were full of surprise, "The building is built like a museum."

"It's a beautiful building, why not let the kids go?" Luo Tian came over to look with interest.

"Luo Tian, would you let Yang Yang go to a private school?" Gongsun asked Luo Tian.

Luo Tian shook his head, "Well, I respect Yang Yang's choice, but Yang Yang is very knowledgeable and knows that financially, the private sector can be a bit stressful."

"I can sponsor that." Bai Jintang looked up.

"Heh." Luo Tian smiled and waved his hand, "I actually prefer that Yang Yang attends a public school, I want to make his life a little simpler."

"Simple..." Bai Jintang nodded thoughtfully and said nothing more as he continued to read the information.

Gongsun plopped down on the sofa to read the school description in Zhan Zhao's hand, "Ah, a scary place indeed."

"What's scary about it?" Zhao Zhen also seemed to be interested in the pile of information.

Bai Yutang looked around at the crowd and suddenly realised a serious problem, "Speaking of which, none of you are police officers, why are you along for the ride?"

The crowd looked at each other and all pointed at their noses, "Family members!"

Bai Yutang looked at the sky and decided to lie down for a while.

"This school has everything but... er, a lack of childishness." Gongsun thought of an adjective. When he said those words, Bai Jintang on the side couldn't help himself and let out a 'pfft', shocking the twins into bracing their jaws.

"I feel the same way." Zhan Zhao flipped through it again, and at that moment, another school brochure fell out of the information folder.

Zhan Zhao opened it and looked at it, finding that it was a more detailed description of a private university that was supposed to be affiliated with the elementary school that he had just read about.

Zhan Zhao looked at the name of the private university and wondered, "Is this university in China?"

"This school only does three years of university education, and the last year is divided among the world's best schools.” Zhao Jue smiled faintly, "Or, somewhere else."

"For example?" Zhan Zhao began to understand why Zhao Jue had told him initially that 'spring is a great time to go to school' and other nonsense, but this time, the focus was on school.

"For example, the battlefield, the mall, the crematorium." Zhao Jue was a little cynical.

"You want us to go to the school to catch ghosts?" Bai Yutang originally just asked casually, but unexpectedly, Zhao Jue nodded seriously, "Not bad."

"You just said the kidnapping was just incidental..." Bai Yutang had a headache when he heard about the school, that meant dealing with hundreds if not thousands of uncooperative youngsters who were controlled by their hormones more than their sanity most of the time.

“The elementary school is incidental, ah, the university is the main event." Zhao Jue smiled harmlessly.

Zhan Zhao finally fixed his eyes on him, "What exactly do you want us to investigate?"

With a tilt of his chin, Zhao Jue winked at him with an indulgent expression, "Ghosts!"

Zhan Zhao closed the file bag, "I give up, I'm going to bed too."

The crowd had no choice but to go to rest with their bellies full of doubts. As Zhao Jue sat down, he picked up Luban, cupped his ear and whispered, "Can cats see ghosts? So do you see them? Isn't it charming? It's adorable! It's perfect."

......

Without waiting for Zhan Zhao to fall asleep again, the plane landed at the airport.

With Bai Jintang on the trip, there was no need to worry much about transportation, but... in T City, he didn't have his own personal property, so where would they stay? Just when Bai Jintang was considering whether to stay in a hotel or a private house, Zhao Jue suggested, "Want to stay at my secret base?"

Zhan Zhao and the others looked at each other, "A secret base?"

Afterwards, Zhao Jue mysteriously took the group and drove them to a place – the abandoned railway station.

"A station?" Bai Jintang also found it surprising.

"The inspiration for this place came from someone." As Zhao Jue said this, he suddenly glanced at Ma Han, who had been following the group, dazed and yawning.

Zhan Zhao noticed Zhao Jue's action and raised his eyebrows slightly, “Eleven?"

Sure enough, Ma Han woke up from his sleep and looked up.

Zhao Jue shook his head somewhat helplessly and led the group forward, muttering, "I hate dead kids who are too smart for their own good!"

Zhan Zhao made a 'V' gesture to Bai Yutang as he usually did when he won. Bai Yutang didn't know the case yet so he couldn't speculate on the difficulty of the case, but the level of hilarity and bickering in this case, with Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue acting like children and sulking endlessly, everyone knew that the future would not be peaceful and there would be endless bickering all day long.

"You know him?" Ma Han couldn't help but ask Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue looked back at him, thought for a moment, and waved at him.

Ma Han walked over to him and Zhao Jue started tugging at the collar of his shirt.

"Hey!" Zhan Zhao grabbed him, "Don't mess around!"

Zhao Hu also nodded, "Yeah, Xiao Ma Ge has a girlfriend!"

Bai Yutang held his forehead, the thought circuits of these people's heads seemed to be faulty.

Zhao Jue had to pull the collar of his shirt down as far as possible, and he saw a scar on the left side of his chest off the top. The circular wound indicated that... it was a gunshot wound, and it was still very visible.

Zhan Zhao was so surprised that he forgot to use his strength and had unknowingly let go of Zhao Jue to point at his chest, "Isn't this the heart?"

"One centimetre off the top." Zhao Jue answered quite freely and casually, "But it still kept me in a hospital bed for a little over half a year."

"What kind of person is that capable?" Zhan Zhao expressed his admiration for the other man and also his fear for his life, “Eleven?"

"Uh huh." Zhao Jue nodded, "My rival hired him to kill me, and I dare say it's the only thing they've ever done correctly in their lives."

"Actually, we're a little more interested in your rival." Bai Yutang was immediately keen.

"Relax, relax.” Zhao Jue reached out and patted him gently on the shoulder.

"Where's Eleven?” Ma Han had an ominous feeling that he had almost killed Zhao Jue, and with Zhao Jue's character, there was no way he wouldn't take revenge, right? Imagine if you accidentally offend Zhan Zhao, and you were being hunted by Zhan Zhao, it's scary just to think about it.

"Why didn't he insist on killing you?" Bai Yutang wondered, “It doesn’t fit the character of a top killer, or did you kill him?"

"No way!" Ma Han was a little nervous.

"Well, I didn't do the exact operation, so I'm not really sure. Some meddler found him, originally to take revenge, but found out he was being hunted by that rival of mine, so the revenge operation turned into a rescue operation." Zhao Jue shrugged, "Of course, one size does not fit all, after saving him, he ensured that he was left with an identical scar in the same location and the same trip to the hospital bed for six months."

Zhan Zhao looked surprised, sure enough, even the slightest resentment must be retaliated against!

"Six months later?" The crowd looked at him.

“He just... disappeared." Zhao Jue spread his hands, "Like a cloud."

"Be serious." Zhan Zhao frowned.

"I'm serious!" Zhao Jue led this crowd, with a flashlight, to the front of the tracks, where two complete train cars were parked. To be precise, it was a single locomotive with two carriages. Only, it had obviously been modified.

"Cool!" Gongsun looked in amazement at the bizarre writing on the outside of the carriage, and the corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched... It felt so perverted, and then so cool!

Zhao Jue opened a box in front of the car door, and a device for iris recognition and fingerprint and voice pattern recognition appeared inside. After some twists and turns, the door opened.

Zhao Jue led the crowd inside... and they saw that the carriage, which was not empty, had other people in it, mostly waiters, cooks, cleaners and the like, all employed by Zhao Jue.

"Please make yourself at home, you can order them to do anything you need." Zhao Jue said, reaching out and pointing to the back, "That last carriage is the office area, and this is the living area.

The space inside the train was designed with a modern feel, and even though the crowd had just visited Bobby's lavish underground operating room in person not long ago, they were still in awe when they walked in.

Bai Yutang suddenly asked Zhao Jue in disbelief, "Where did you get so much money?"

Zhao Jue blinked and reached out to point at Bai Jintang, "He gave it to me."

The crowd looked at Bai Jintang in surprise, and Zhan Zhao asked, "When did that happen?"

Bai Jintang thought for a moment and looked at the twins.

"About two months ago." The twins imitated Zhao Jue and reached out to Bai Jintang as if they were asking for a Bentley, "I've got my eye on a piece of land! I'm going to buy it."

Everyone looked at Gongsun, as they all wanted to ask Bai Jintang the reason for funding Zhao Jue, but didn't know how to ask, and it was Gongsun who was best suited to do this.

It didn't matter to Gongsun, he had never been in favour of interfering in his other half's financial matters, and since Bai Jintang had earned the money himself, how he spent it was his business.

"The studio is here." Zhao Jue opened a large iron door as thick as a wall, and when the crowd walked in to take a look, they were all dumbfounded.

The room was covered with various screens, and right in the middle of it was a large screen with a detailed geographical map of the city, covered with various dots of light in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, some of which were moving.

"Heaven." Jiang Ping's mouth opened wide.

Bai Yutang walked over to the workbench and, seeing a table full of buttons and dashboards, wanted to laugh a little before asking Zhao Jue, "What are you doing here? Launching missiles or unleashing a war formation?"

Instead of laughing, Zhao Jue complimented him, "You've become funny lately!"

Seeing this, Jiang Ping opened the main computer and pressed the keyboard a few times. At the same time, a screen fell from above that covered all four walls, and then countless small windows of about fifteen inches filled the big screen densely.

Zhao Hu felt some nausea and motion sickness, and hurriedly looked for someone to get water to drink.

Looking at Zhao Hu running outside, Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue suddenly spoke in unison, "He's got intensive trypophobia in his eyes!"

After saying that, the two looked at each other and both twisted their faces to look elsewhere.

Jiang Ping examined the equipment carefully before being horrified, "Three thousand surveillance points, you're monitoring the entire city?"

Zhao Jue reached out and patted Bai Chi, "You can do it, develop your little brain and monitor these screens."

Bai Chi was dumbfounded at this situation, this task required hundreds of people to do it! How could he handle it all by himself?!

Zhan Zhao finally couldn't hold back anymore and asked Zhao Jue, "What exactly do you want?"

The smile on Zhao Jue's face faded away, "Catching ghosts! I've been saying that all along."

Bai Yutang looked around the screen before saying, "T City, is there really a ghost?"

"Not bad!" Zhao Jue's eyes slowly closed and narrowed, "I must find him!"

"Can't you catch him yourself?" Zhan Zhao got to the point.

Zhao Jue shook his head, "The bigger the gem, the more valuable it is, and the bigger the game, the more fun it is! Since we're here, let's treat it as a holiday and have a good game of hunting ghosts."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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: November 24, 2022 by Angel

Edited: December 22, 2022 by Angel