S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 5

A Requiem for a Murderer 05 – Delinquent Boys

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After Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue finished arguing and the meal was over, the crowd split up. Bai Jintang took Gongsun, Bai Chi, Zhao Zhen and the twins with him, and went to visit the Grand Canyon.

Qin Ou, Luo Tian and Jiang Ping stayed behind on the train, as Jiang Ping needed to collect some information and debug the machine.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, on the other hand, went to the church with Zhao Jue, and took Ma Han and Zhao Hu with them.

Zhan Zhao scratched around with his portable map, "Which church are we going to?"

"This one." Zhao Jue took out a photo and handed it to Zhan Zhao to look at.

Zhan Zhao took the photo and frowned, "This is a church? How come it's pure black? And it's not an onion head either!"

“En." Zhan Zhao nodded, "It's a very old building."

Bai Yutang looked at the old building in the photo, "This building only has two floors, right? It's so small, could it have been torn down?"

"Well... it should still be there," Zhao Jue muttered, “he obviously went there last year."

"He?" Zhan Zhao asked with his ears pricked up in interest.

Zhao Jue smiled faintly and mysteriously said, "He comes every year, well... the day hasn't arrived yet this year."

Bai Yutang was puzzled, "He goes to church every year, to pay respect to someone?"

Zhao Jue let out a 'pfft', reached out and patted Bai Yutang's shoulder, "Indeed very different, haha."

Bai Yutang was a bit puzzled.

"After all this, you don't know the way, do you?" Zhao Hu asked.

Zhao Jue thought for a moment, "Sort of don't know."

The other four all looked at the sky.

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Then why don't we go to a different church?" As he said that, he could already see the biggest church in T City from afar, with a beautiful onion roof full of Russian style, "Let's go there? I wonder if there will be nesting dolls for sale, I've always wanted to get a set for my collection."

"No going." Zhao Jue frowned and looked unhappy, jabbing at the picture, "You are only allowed to go here."

"Why?” Zhan Zhao frowned, "There's nothing particularly nice about it."

"Fine.” Zhao Jue spread his hands, "Go to that big one."

Zhan Zhao had originally only sung against Zhao Jue in order to ask for more clues, but he didn't expect him to compromise so quickly and was still a little uncomfortable. Unexpectedly, Zhao Jue ran to take Bai Yutang's arm, “Don’t pay attention to that tacky cat."

Zhan Zhao hurriedly followed, pulling Bai Yutang back, "You're the one who's tacky! There are no clues as to how to find it, besides, you’ve not given a reason for why we have to go to this church."

Zhao Jue smiled faintly and took the photo and turned it over. They saw a date written on the back, the 6th of November, and some rust yellow marks.

Police officers were particularly sensitive to marks of this colour, especially the spattered ones.

"Are they bloodstains?" Bai Yutang asked.

"This church is not a simple church." Zhao Jue winked at Zhan Zhao, "Behind the church, there's a cemetery!"

Zhan Zhao listened to him with his heart hanging for half a day and then released it, "Many churches have cemeteries behind them, okay?"

"In this cemetery, someone special is buried." Zhao Jue laughed.

"How special?"

"So special that that person comes to pay his respects every year."

"Who is that person exactly..."

“Surname Bai..." Zhao Jue trailed off the word 'Bai' for a long, long time, "Bai Bai Bai Bai..."

Zhan Zhao's heart was hanging again, hanging for half a day without the conclusion. Knowing that he was definitely not willing to say anything, he could only wave his hand, "All right, don't bother singing about it, we’ll just go with you."

Zhao Jue smiled and opened a piece of paper on which a topographical map was sketched in a crooked way, "It's probably in this direction."

"So ugly, who drew it?"

“Bao Zheng ah." Zhao Jue finished and smiled mysteriously again.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt as if there was some kind of secret. These old men, could it be that something had happened here back then?

Picking a path, they walked forward in a direction that was probably feasible.

Not too far ahead, they saw a flower shop. Bai Yutang walked in with the photo in hand, and the owner of the shop, an aunt, was sorting out the newly arrived lilies.

"Excuse me."

The aunt turned back, "Oh, Xiao Bai."

Bai Yutang froze, Zhan Zhao walked behind with a slight frown, and Zhao Jue snickered.

"Uh..." The aunt walked out with a bunch of lilies and handed them to Bai Yutang, probably a bit nearsighted, and came up to see clearly, "Oops, I mistook the person."

The fat aunt covered her mouth and laughed, "You're brothers, right? So much alike, but you're much younger."

Bai Yutang smiled and asked, "Does he come here often?"

"He comes every year, buys a bunch of lilies and goes to the little church out front."

"I'll have a bunch too." Bai Yutang took a bunch of lilies and asked the fat aunt, "Do you know who he comes to see?"

The aunt cocked her head in thought, "It's to see Auntie Cai, isn't it?"

"Auntie Cai?" Bai Yutang hadn't heard of any relatives in the family surnamed Cai.

"It's Xin Xin's grandmother!" After that fat aunt finished, she saw that Bai Yutang had no reaction and seemed a bit puzzled, "You... are his friend, right?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "I want to know more about it."

"Oh, Xin Xin and his grandmother are buried there. You guys have a heart, and it's probably only Xiao Bai who remembers them." The fat aunt sighed, "Alas, some lives are as precious as gold, and some lives are as light as grass."

Bai Yutang wanted to ask more about this, but felt that he was asking too many questions, and the fat aunt had already gone in to continue packing the flowers.

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin with one hand as if he was pondering the fat aunt's words. When he saw Bai Yutang looking back at him, he hooked his finger at him, signalling that he had asked enough questions here and that any more would arouse suspicion.

Bai Yutang paid for the flowers and the group was about to leave. Just then, the sound of chasing and beating came from the distance, along with a roar, "Don't run, I'll cut you down today!"

Zhan Zhao and the others took a step back and looked out, only to see a group of students dressed in school uniforms and who looked like high school students.

There was a boy with a book in his hand, running as fast as he could, with a group of boys behind him, chasing after him with iron rods and wooden sticks.

"Wow..." Zhao Hu looked amazed, "School violence, huh?"

"Ugh, another fight!" The fat aunt took out the picked flowers and put them at the entrance while telling Bai Yutang and the others, "The high school students lately, I don't know if it's the social pressure or the school not teaching them well, but one or two are like little hooligans, either blackmailing their classmates or beating one so severely."

Zhao Hu watched with interest as he asked Ma Han beside him, "Xiao Ma Ge, have you ever been bullied as a child?"

Ma Han gave him a blank look, "How is that possible?"

Seeing the boy running in front of them stumble and fall as if he was dying, Zhan Zhao patted Bai Yutang, "Are you going to help?"

Bai Yutang frowned, but he couldn't refuse to help because the boy being chased had already fallen at their feet.

“Run again! Run again!" The one chasing after him was blond, tall and thin with long hair, wearing a school uniform consisting of a white shirt and navy trousers, which should have been quite civilised, but instead had an extra punk belt attached to the top of his trousers.

He was holding a lead pipe, presumably picked up from the roadside, and swung it around to hit the boy.

The boy being hit was holding his head, but the pipe didn't hit him, as it was caught halfway down by Bai Yutang.

The blond haired boy froze and looked up to see a few men standing in front of him, who didn't look like local people. The one who was holding his pipe was a tall, thin man in white, who was very handsome and looked quite svelte. Looking to either side of him, on one side was Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, on the other were Ma Han and Zhao Hu. Several of the boys frowned... five adults, who looked like they were not to be messed with.

Zhan Zhao counted a total of four boys who were beating the boy. Although that school uniform was only for high school students, most of them were already quite tall. Beside the blond one was a short one who was wearing lensless glasses and holding a basketball. Behind him was a big fat guy, at least two hundred pounds, and another was a tall guy, pitch-black, with a face as dark as Bao Zheng's, who looked particularly friendly. It was a pity that their minds did not quite match this appearance, and they were so childish that they only used violence to solve problems, but usually violence does not solve problems, it only creates them.

The boy being chased got up, picking up the book and patting it.

Zhan Zhao glanced at the book – Nietzsche's Selected Essays on Aesthetics. Looking at the ‘weapons' in the hands of the students on the other side, Zhan Zhao flattened his mouth. The stark contrast, he wondered which side was living a more selfish life. This is also a topic of philosophical discussion, right?

The boy being chased wore glasses and was short and thin, no wonder he was being bullied. Although he was wearing a school uniform, you could tell by his school bag and glasses - his family should be well off.

Holding up his glasses, the boy quickly scanned the crowd as if relieved to know that he had a drink.

Zhan Zhao observed his expression, this was a man who was quite good at judging the situation and weighing the pros and cons of the scene... one could say he was very shrewd.

Looking at the blond haired boy, the pipe in his hand was grabbed by Bai Yutang and he couldn't get it out. He tilted his face, chin up and eyes down, very similar to the look of a delinquent boy fighting in a school movie nowadays. It was obvious that he was doing something silly to show off his strength and courage. It was not clear if the movie was realistic or if he was simply imitating the movie. As a result, the bad incident and the bad influence are like a pair of twins, following each other like a shadow and developing abnormally – the bad event is what produces the bad effect, and the bad effect leads to the bad event, and there will never be a solution! Childish and impulsive, yet resigned to mediocrity, this is youth. Children with excess brain power use and children with excess hormones choose two outlets and two starting points in life.

“Let's go!" The teenager's words came out from between his teeth, but he was not as tall as Bai Yutang, and his so-called ‘fierce' face made Bai Yutang want to laugh.

Zhao Hu grimaced, he used to be with gangsters when he was undercover, from petty yakuza who stole chickens and dogs to big drug lords who had plantations in Southeast Asia, which one had he not dealt with. Usually, the more they looked like hooligans, the less they were real hooligans.

"I told you to mind your own business, I'm going to ruin him today!" The blond teenager tilted his face to warn Bai Yutang, not forgetting to threaten the boy behind him.

Zhan Zhao saw that on his dark cheek, there was a short indentation, which should be a scar. The scar looked like it was probably inflicted as a child... Was it an accident? Or was it a violent injury resulting from a violent habit?

"It's against the law to kill people." Bai Yutang gently pulled, and the teenager's hand stung. As soon as his hand let go, the pipe was in Bai Yutang's hand, and he looked down at the palm of his hand – a piece of skin had come off, and it was raw.

The boy who had just been chased looked at him and knew he was safe, reaching up to pat the dust on his trouser leg as he took out his cell phone to make a call.

"I'm underage, no matter what, I'll kill him and go to jail for three years." The teenager raised his voice, proving his youthfulness and naivety with his loud voice and loud words.

Zhan Zhao suddenly became curious, "Why do you want to kill him? Did he offend you?"

"He fucked with my sister!"

The reason given by the blond haired boy seemed very acceptable. Zhan Zhao looked at the boy who had finished his phone call, the other party hurriedly explained, "I didn't, it was his sister who came to ask me homework questions, I just said a couple of words."

"Saying a couple of words made my sister almost get pushed down the river by a girl in your class, huh?!" The more the blond haired boy said, the more it made Zhan Zhao feel that the boys had a good reason to get beaten up.

Bai Yutang handed the pipe back to him and looked at the three boys behind him, "What about you guys? Helping out a brother?"

The three of them were still quite dignified, which meant – of course!

At that moment, from not far away, a black Audi drove up.

The car pulled up beside Zhan Zhao and the others. Two burly men got out, and the boy who was being chased rushed over.

"Young Master."

The two large men were respectful, obviously bodyguards, and there was a driver in front of them.

"That's the group." The boy pointed at the delinquent boys, while looking at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang again, and politely bowed to the crowd, "Thank you for helping me."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, how can they say it - this was a good boy who could not be faulted, from earlier until now, he had behaved in a courteous manner, although a bit too mature.

The two bodyguards looked at the delinquents with their ‘weapons' with a warning look in their eyes.

The blond haired boy didn't buy it and held up the pipe, "Get your ass out here! It's not that easy..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the pipe was slapped to the ground by the bodyguard, who then reached out and grabbed the blond haired boy's wrist, twisting it backwards as if to press him against the hood of the car.

Only his arm hadn't been twisted all the way, and the blond haired boy stung for just a moment, but then he felt himself being ripped away.

Before the bodyguard could figure out what was going on, the man was already in Bai Yutang's hands and he stumbled himself. Frowning slightly, he and the other bodyguard both looked at Bai Yutang in surprise – knowing that they had met a master.

"It's just a child, why hit so hard?" Bai Yutang was an expert. That bodyguard's move just now looked like nothing, but in reality, the blond haired boy's arm could have been twisted off. Moreover, this kind of technique was taught during the special forces training. A sprain-type fracture, which could cause misalignment and ligament rupture, was the most painful and dangerous, and it was possible that the blond haired boy's hand might not heal again for the rest of his life.

"Let's go back, I'm fine."

The teenager, who was already in the car, frowned and shouted to the two bodyguards outside.

The bodyguards bowed their heads and got back into the car, and the boy poked his head out and said to the blond haired boy, "I hope you don't find any more trouble with me."

The blond haired boy was so angry that his face went a little white.

Zhao Hu suddenly said, "You're also a smart guy, you say one thing on the surface and another behind the scenes." With that, he pointed at the two bodyguards.

The boy was stunned.

Zhan Zhao smiled and pointed at his own eyes, "We saw it, you nodded just now before your bodyguard did it. Good boy, if you have a record of violence, you won't be able to get guaranteed admission to a prestigious university."

The boy was stunned for a moment and then the meekness and manners on his face dissipated as he gave the blond haired boy a blank look, "Your sister sent herself to me and she's not pretty, why should I be responsible for her wishful thinking?"

"You bastard!” The blond haired boy was about to kick the car, but was stopped by the two brothers behind him, and kicked the car, those bodyguards had even more reason to be adults.

The boy simply stopped pretending to be a good boy, leaning out of the car window and smiling at him, "Only savages use force to solve problems, you and I are destined for two worlds. Don't let me see you again next time." With that, he waved his hand.

The driver drove off, and the crowd was dumbfounded as they watched the car go away.

“Sigh." Zhao Jue couldn't help but sigh in admiration, "How badass!"

Zhan Zhao looked at him unable to laugh or cry, "You weren't like that when you were a kid, were you?"

Zhao Jue raised his eyebrows, "How could I be so classless?!"

Bai Yutang turned around and saw the blond haired boy was covering his shoulder with sweat on his temple, "Is it dislocated?"

The blond haired boy froze, "Mind your own business, it's all your fault."

"You blame us?" Zhao Hu frowned, "If you had really hurt him or killed him just now, you would have suffered." He said, and seeing that Ma Han beside him didn't say anything, he poked him with his elbow, "What do you think?"

Ma Han looked at the blond haired boy and suddenly reached out and pointed to the scar on his face, "A scratch caused by a bullet."

A flash of panic suddenly passed through the blond haired boy's eyes, then he gave the crowd a blank look and didn't reply, gesturing for his brothers to leave.

His three brothers seemed a little hesitant, and the fat one looked at Bai Yutang, "It's dislocated, can you fix it?"

Bai Yutang reached out and tugged on the blond haired boy's arm, and there was a ‘click'.

"Ah!" The blond haired boy bared his teeth, "Fuck!"

Bai Yutang glared, and the blond haired boy bristled, still in pain as he moved his arm.

Zhao Jue, who had been watching from the sidelines with his arms crossed, suddenly asked, "Ugh, kid, do you know Grandma Cai?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, the boys all looked at Zhao Jue in surprise. The blond haired one asked, "Which Grandma Cai are you talking about?"

"Xin Xin's grandmother." Zhan Zhao said.

The blond haired boy scratched his head and with a glance, he saw that Bai Yutang was holding a bouquet of lilies in one hand, and his mood immediately improved, "Oh! You guys aren't relatives or friends of the Cai family, are you?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "We want to pay our respects to Grandma Cai, do you people know the way?"

“We know." A few of the boys were quite energetic and their faces weren't as bad as they had been earlier, and they pointed ahead, "Follow us. You guys are kind and righteous, remembering Xin Xin and Grandma Cai."

The words sounded familiar to Zhan Zhao and the others, as they were similar to the tone of the florist's aunt just now. They were also a bit puzzled as to why they all said that. Could it be that many people had forgotten about those two people?

‿︵‿︵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: November 28, 2022 by Angel

Edited: December 29, 2022 by Angel