S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 14

A Requiem for a Murderer 14 – A Suspicious Person

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Twenty laps. Although the field is not large, once they start running the students will complain that it’s miserable nonstop. Of course, the most miserable is not the students.

Even though Xiao Bai Chi’s stamina is not the best, he frequently practises on weekdays, so running is not a problem for him. In addition Bai Yutang is a sports maniac, don’t mention twenty laps, even if you let him run two hundred laps he won’t feel tired. But Zhan Zhao…

After running twenty steps, Zhan Zhao will stop and start checking his watch that measured his pulse.

Bai Yutang returned to his side on the second lap, “Cat, you ought to keep moving, keep the body healthy.”

Zhan Zhao replied sternly, “I already exercised!”

Bai Yutang looked up at the sky, “Life lies in exercising, come run two laps.”

Zhan Zhao refuted, “Life definitely lies in stasis.” (Lei: “Life lies in exercising” (生命在于运动）is a popular Chinese saying especially among young adults. 运动 means sports, but in this case I prefer to use exercise because it can mean any type of exercising (physical such as running, mental such as Sudoku). Bai Yutang is pulling a saying on Zhan Zhao, who is jokingly refuting the saying by saying the exact opposite.)

Bai Yutang couldn’t help but pursed his lips.

“Look, turtles have the longest lifespan among any animals, yet they live in stasis and rarely move!” Zhan Zhao explained the reality, trying to reason with Bai Yutang. “In relativity, an elephant has a longer lifespan than a leopard, a whale has a longer lifespan than a tuna…”

“Okay okay… You continue to stay still then.” Bai Yutang shook his head, then continued to run.

Zhan Zhao stepped to the side and checked his watch. Because he and Bai Yutang were transfer students, a lot of people do not know him, hence they don’t know why Zhan Zhao was not running and was on the side waiting instead. Then again, after five laps, students are usually already exhausted and don’t have the time to pay attention to other things.

Getting bored of watching, Zhan Zhao walked over to grab a chair under the parasol and sat down to rest. Not even a few moments later, Bai Yutang came to his side.

Zhan Zhao looked up, “Done running?”

“Yea.” Bai Yutang sat down next to him.

Zhan Zhao raised his head, watching the turtle-speed students continue to run, “How many laps have they run?”

“Around five.” Bai Yutang pointed at Bai Chi, “Chi Chi has run thirteen laps, seems to me that he’s almost out of gas too.”

Zhan Zhao was amused, Bai Chi’s stamina has been improving very fast.

Around five minutes passed, and Bai Chi completed twenty laps as he walked over while stretching. But to Bai Yutang’s surprise, Chen Xi was also done, this kid’s got some endurance. At the same time, Zhou Yi who finished his squat jumps also returned with a Coke in his hand. There were also a few athletically gifted boys who finished running their laps, and the remaining were students who were squatting on the track field exhausted and have given up already.

Ma Han shook his head, letting everyone rest instead of pushing them further.

Zhou Yi placed his hand on his legs catching his breath as Chen Xi looked at Bai Yutang, “You run pretty fast kid, good stamina too. Are you an athlete?”

Bai Yutang simply just shrugged.

“Right, what's your name?” Zhou Yi also came over to ask Bai Yutang, although he may seem smug and sly in his demeanour, he doesn’t have the guts to do those.

Bai Yutang remembered the name on his student ID and opened his mouth, “Bai Wu.”

“Bai Wu?” Chen Xi smiled, “That’s a pretty cool name. Are you ranked fifth?”

Bai Yutang shook his head, this was Zhao Jue’s formula for counting using age. The Bai family has so many people: Bai Yunwen, Bai Ye and Bai Feng are all his elders, Bai Jintang is fourth, Bai Yutang is fifth, Bai Chi is sixth. Hence, Zhao Jue happily made up the name Bai Wu for him. As for Zhan Zhao…

“How about you?” Chen Xi curiously glanced at Zhan Zhao, “Why aren’t you running?”

Zhan Zhao blinked, remembering that the name on his student ID was a bit suffocating and didn’t really want to say it, “Zhan Mao.”

“You know the new instructor?” Zhou Yi wondered, “You didn’t run and he didn’t say anything about it.”

Zhan Zhao raised his brow, “I have a motor coordination disorder as well as dissociative motor disorder, I cannot participate in any intense, regular, or repetitive exercises. My breathing and heart rate has to be in a stable and comfortable condition, or else there will be dangerous health risks.”

Zhou Yi and Chen Xi’s jaws slowly dropped… What disorder? They couldn’t understand a single word.

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, “Hence, I won’t be participating in exercising. I already spoke to the teacher, and he already excused me.”

“Oh…” Zhou Yi and Chen Xi nodded half understandingly. During this time, Ma Han called for everyone to gather around, and both of them hurried over.

Zhan Zhao got up, gracefully brushed away the grass on his pant legs, and slowly walked over to the group. Behind him, Bai Chi couldn’t help but ask Bai Yutang, “Brother, what’s the disorder he’s talking about?”

Bai Yutang scowled, “Laziness disorder!”

Upon saying such, Zhan Zhao turned his head and shot daggers at him.

After gathering everyone in the middle, there were a few who were so exhausted that they became humble, carefully listening to Ma Han’s lecture.

Ma Han opened the shooting results from last semester in front of everyone and became puzzled – One year of learning shooting is not enough, do they need another year? What are these people doing with their marksmanship abilities?

From the first row to the last row on the results, Ma Han’s lips curled upward as he couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“Ah!” Chen Yi pointed at him, “You’re making fun of us!”

The rest of the students were also discouraged. Ma Han flicked the result sheet, “You guys really are something, learning for a whole year and you still can’t hit the fifth ring.”

The students all stood there looking depressed. Zhou Yi hugged his elbows and muttered on the side: don’t throw him with the other useless students to compare.

Zhan Zhao, who had nothing to do, kept looking around to observe the situation, and Bai Yutang didn’t forget to make a sarcastic remark, “It’s pretty good, some people learn for decades and still shoot off target.”

Another dagger was thrown his way by Zhan Zhao – This rat actually tried to roast him!

“Shoot a few for me.” Ma Han brought everyone to the shooting range. The target wasn’t far, twenty metres at best. All the students lined up, and one by one they fired their guns. Only some were slightly more accurate, hitting the seventh ring. But the majority were at five or below, and the rest were off target. Chen Xi and Zhou Yi were the more accurate shooters.

The remaining were Bai Yutang, Bai Chi, and Zhan Zhao.

Bai Chi went first, he practised a lot previously. His fundamentals are pretty good, after shooting a nine he figured the training gun is a lot lighter than a real gun. The recoil was a bit different, he would need to adjust the data.

Bai Yutang took the gun, felt its weight, then raised his arm and fired a shot.

Ma Han’s brow slightly jumped… Bullseye.

Everyone was shocked, even Zhou Yi. This Bai Wu seems to be outstanding at sports.

“You learned shooting before?” Ma Han took the gun from Bai Yutang. Of course… this was on purpose, because under these circumstances, if he didn’t ask it would arouse suspicion.

Bai Yutang nodded, “En.”

Ma Han then gave the gun to Zhan Zhao, who was last.

Zhan Zhao glanced at the gun, “I am a pacifist, I refuse to use violence.”

Bai Yutang put his hand to his forehead and Ma Han also had no choice…

“Then run twenty laps?” He looked at Zhan Zhao who immediately grabbed the gun.

“When the time calls for it, violence is still necessary.”

Bai Yutang shook his head… this cat has no principles at all.

Zhan Zhao took the gun to a spot that wasn’t far from the original shooting position, lowered his head with a gun in his hand and shuffled around as if he was  looking for something.

The rest of the group didn’t know what was going on with him, even Ma Han was a bit puzzled. Zhan Zhao finally stepped on a particular spot, turned sideways and raised his arm to shoot…

A wave of shocked voices followed.

Bullseye!

The students all glanced at each other, speaking of which, originally Zhan Zhao refused to run laps which made everyone think he was a nerd or some pushover. But nobody would’ve thought… his marksmanship skills were so good.

“Oh boy, hiding your real skills huh.” Chen Lu praised, and Liu Meng nodded. Beside them, Chen Xi wasn’t convinced and was pouting, “Probably a coincidence.”

Ma Han also couldn’t believe it. He secretly pinched himself, making sure everyone wasn’t being hypnotised by Zhan Zhao. But from the pain from the pinch and Bai Yutang’s surprised look, Ma Han was puzzled.

Zhan Zhao placed the gun on the table, staggered back over and stood a little behind Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang looked at him, “Cat, how did you do it?”

“A secret.” Zhan Zhao smirked.

Bai Chi was also surprised, of course, if Zhan Zhao were to do something, he had to do it right.

Bai Yutang was a little concerned over the way Zhan Zhao walked, was everything okay?

Ma Han picked up the gun and walked in front of the students, “First learn how to hold a gun. If you want to shoot accurately, you must learn the gun.”

…

The students started to become interested in Ma Han’s lecture, so they all crowded over to listen. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stood in the back.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, “Did you find anybody suspicious?”

“Suspicious people? There’s one or two girls.” Zhan Zhao stared.

“I didn’t ask you about physiologically, I meant psychologically.” Bai Yutang reminded, “Is there anyone who may be disguising as a ghost?”

Zhan Zhao pursed his lips, “Honestly, I think we should do a clear physical examination.”

“Physical examination?” Bai Yutang was curious.

“Think about it, professional killers, even if they’re young they have practised the skill before. I don’t believe their hands or feet won’t have calluses, or that there won’t be a scar on their body.”

Bai Yutang started to think about Zhan Zhao’s explanation, there must be a reason behind it!

Around halfway through the lecture, Zhan Zhao noticed that on the nearby observation deck, there were a few students gathered to observe. However, they weren’t there to observe them shooting, since there was nothing interesting about that, but rather they were watching something else.

Zhan Zhao poked Bai Yutang, “What’s over there?”

“Seems like a basketball court.” Bai Yutang just finished speaking when Bai Chi joined them, “Huzi is next door teaching PE right now.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. They turned around to look at Ma Han who was teaching the shooting seriously, then at the girls who were starry-eyed around him, and the two of them decided – they were leaving.

Getting out of the gates, they arrived at the basketball court next door. They don’t need to take any tests or exams, so they didn’t feel any pressure. The basketball court was very rowdy, as if there were many spectators watching.

“So many people.” Zhan Zhao tapped on a spectating student, “What’s going on?”

“There’s a game.” The student said excitedly.

“Who’s playing against who?” Zhan Zhao doesn’t understand, do inter-school games bring this many spectators?

“It’s against the neighbouring school’s basketball team.” The boy was getting upset, “Previously there was a scholastic match, they won because they used sly tricks on us. This time there’s a new instructor. And by chance the other school’s basketball team came over to provoke us, so now they singled someone out.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang couldn’t help but snicker – This was indeed Zhao Hu’s style.

They squeezed into the court, and the game was unpredictable.

Zhan Zhao yawned a few times when he noticed two girls walking by him, and one of them had bandages over her arm as if she was injured. There were a few people who were enthusiastically discussing: the new doctor was pleasing to the eye, and the white coat was fashionable.

Zhan Zhao smiled a bit as he raised his head… Suddenly, he noticed a girl standing on the bleachers above. She was wearing a black fur coat, short skirt, socks and wool boots and her hair was brown or maybe blonde? Because Zhan Zhao was looking up, he couldn’t see clearly.

The bleachers were very high and empty, as most students were crowded on the lower two floors, it was only her standing at such a high spot and in a rather odd position.

Zhan Zhao wanted to take a look closer, but the sunlight shone in his eyes. When he closed his eyes and opened them again, the girl was gone. He stood there stunned, looking left and right… It made no sense, only a few seconds had passed, where could she go?

“Cat.” At this time, Bai Yutang snapped his fingers in front of Zhan Zhao, “What are you looking at?”

“Huh?” He came back to his senses and asked, “There was a girl standing on the bleachers, did you see her?”

“Are you talking about her?” Bai Yutang pointed not far ahead.

A cute girl flew down the bleachers' left stairs. She jogged over to some other girls and started whispering… It was the injured girls from the nurse’s office, it seemed like the three of them knew each other.

The girl with the black coat, short skirt and brunette hair was indeed pretty cute. After she ran down, Zhan Zhao didn’t feel she was suspicious.. Was his intuition wrong?

Everyone returned to the shooting range, but Zhan Zhao’s brain was still thinking about the appearance of the girl standing on the bleachers… What was off about her?

After the shooting lecture, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went to Zhao Jue’s office. Upon entering, they saw a bunch of food stacked on the desk and Zhao Hu eating. He had taken a quick shower and thrown on a sports outfit as if he was a healthy young athlete. He pulled Ma Han over to talk about the game enthusiastically.

Zhan Zhao didn’t go over to the desk, but instead had the technical crew bring up the basketball court’s security camera. The camera picked up the girl in the bleachers and Zhan Zhao wanted a clearer photo of her so he could look into her identity.

“Already got a person on your suspect list?” Zhao Jue smiled as he came over, “As expected from our Doctor Zhan.”

Zhan Zhao rolled his eyes and took the information handed to him by the technician, “Cao Ling, a pretty normal name.”

“Student council, calligraphy club, Go chess club, Guzheng club…” Zhan Zhao flipped through the pages, “She joins a lot of extracurriculars.”

“Hm, isn’t she a bit short?” Zhao Jue wrinkled his nose. “Flat chested, flat chested!”

Zhan Zhao glared at him. “Can you not be weird?”

Zhao Jue was curious, “What about her made you suspect her?”

“I don’t know, I think…” Zhan Zhao hadn’t finished his sentence when a ‘bang’ sounded and a person bolted in through the door. 

Everyone raised their heads to look and realised the person who came in was Gongsun. He closed the door and widened his eyes, as if he was stimulated by something.

“What happened?” Bai Yutang asked him.

Gongsun stared at them for a bit, and when he spoke his voice was rather calm, “Somebody died!”

‿︵‿︵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: January 9, 2023 by Lei

Edited: January 11, 2023 by Angel