S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 8

A Requiem for a Murderer 08 – Examination

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Bai Yutang drove towards the gas station and saw Zhan Zhao beside him holding his phone, looking at the text message he had just received, so he asked, "Cat, under what circumstances would someone send a text message like that?"

"It's very abnormal." Zhan Zhao also found it strange, "If you're in danger, if you can send a text message, why not send one asking to save your life at the gas station or something like that, instead of asking if you want to refuel?"

"You're an expert in psychology, what do you think?" Bai Yutang turned a corner and found that, as Zhixin and the others had said earlier, there wasn't even a ghost in this small place at night.

"To send a text message without specifying means there's a hint, to hint without specifying means you are being watched. Being watched and being able to send SMS messages, there are only two situations."

Bai Yutang listened and his mind was clear.

The twins were puzzled, "Then what exactly are the situations?"

"Sensing that danger is near and that you are near the person who is creating the danger, but the threat has not yet begun, this is one type.” Zhan Zhao replied, "The other is that they did not send it with any intention at all, but were controlled."

After hearing this, the twins looked at each other and together they turned to Bai Yutang, "Please translate!"

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes.

Bai Yutang smiled feebly, "Simply put, one is that Zhixin and the others took the initiative to secretly ask for help, and the other is that they were forced."

"Oh..." The twins nodded, "But what danger could there be at a gas station? Even for a robbery, you don't go to a gas station, the convenience store near the gas station probably has more money in silver."

Zhan Zhao took his phone and tapped his chin, "Reasonably speaking, they go to work often, why is it that something happened today?"

The car stopped near the gas station. Bai Yutang got out and looked around, frowning - there was no one at the gas station. The twins pointed to the small convenience store to the side of the gas station, "There's no one there either! But there are cars."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took a good look at the black Audi and frowned slightly... It looked familiar, it couldn't be that coincidental, right?

Bai Yutang and others walked into the gas station and found a phone by one of the gas pumps. Bai Yutang picked the phone up and found that it was the same one that Zhixin had used to send them a text message earlier. It still had the text message on the screen, and it had not even been closed, so it was evident that it had been dropped immediately after the text was sent.

"The back cover of the phone is cracked, it should have been dropped in a panic." The twins looked around, "Those brats you guys were talking about, could they be in some kind of danger?"

Zhan Zhao stood by the gas pump, looking at the one car in front of the convenience store in the distance, and then turned back, looking at the empty station in front of him.

Bai Yutang caught a glimpse of a bag of chips scattered in front of the station, raised both eyebrows, and walked over quickly.

He reached out and pushed the door of the station, and finding it locked, knocked on it.

There was no response from the inside.

“Xiao Hu." Bai Yutang said, "It's us, open the door."

 A short while later, a panicked sound of tables and chairs falling over was heard from inside.

Soon, the door was opened and Xiao Hu came out with a crash.

Seeing that his face was white, Bai Yutang asked, "What's wrong?"

"That Zhou Yue!" Xiao Hu was in a panic, "They've got Zhiqin!"

"That's the boy from earlier? They've grabbed Zhixin's sister?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "Isn't that kidnapping?"

"Just now, Zhixin and I were eating chips in the duty room when we saw that car parked over there. There were four boys, and they grabbed Zhiqin." Xiao Hu's voice was a little hoarse, "Zhixin hid me inside the duty room and told me not to come out even if I died. Then the boys came over and they... had knives and guns in their hands!"

"Guns?" Luo Tian was surprised, "Are they for playing games?"

"I don't know." Xiao Hu shook his head, "They forced Zhixin to text the four of us, to lure the four of us together to the gas station, but he was not allowed to call the police, otherwise they would have killed Zhiqin."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang understood, so Zhixin sent the text message to them... It was indeed a forced text message.

"Where are they now?" Bai Yutang asked.

"They said something about there being trouble here if the place catches fire, and escorted both Zhixin and Zhiqin to the ruined factory behind the oil depot." Xiao Hu cried, "They just left, I was calling to try and contact Chen Jing and the others when you guys came..."

"There's no need to contact them." Bai Yutang pointed to his own car in the distance, "Go there and wait." After saying that, he turned to Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, "You two go too, the twins will keep watch." After saying that, he nodded to Qin Ou and Luo Tian, "Let's go and save the others."

"Ugh!" Zhao Jue objected, "I want to go too!"

Bai Yutang glared at him, and Zhao Jue hurriedly shrank to Zhan Zhao's side, "Fierce!"

Bai Yutang didn't say another word, he just nodded to Zhan Zhao and took Luo Tian and Qin Ou towards the factory at the back.

Zhan Zhao crossed his arms and looked around. His eyes eventually fell on the black Audi parked on the roadside, and he narrowed his eyes and smiled.

The twins looked at each other and went over to look at him, "What are you thinking?"

Zhan Zhao stuck his hands in his pockets and circled around the car with Zhao Jue, looking in through the window and noticing a school bag inside.

"Hey." Zhan Zhao patted the twins, "Open the car door."

The twins looked at Zhan Zhao with admiration, "Just open it when you say so, where are the keys?"

Zhan Zhao looked at his watch, "You have three minutes to open the car door!"

The twins were speechless as Xiao Ding felt in his trouser pocket and pulled out a mobile phone like object, stuck it on the car door and pressed the button. After a series of numbers changing, the number stopped, and at the same time, a 'piu' sound was heard and the car's electronic lock was opened.

Xiao Hu was particularly interested in the device, and the twins gave him a stern lecture, "Don't learn to do bad things from others, little brat!"

Zhan Zhao opened the car door, took out the bag and began to look through the contents, finding a black notebook and looking at it carefully. Zhao Jue curiously looked into the car as well, touching it here and there in the process.

At the other side, Bai Yutang led Qin Ou and Luo Tian in the direction of the factory.

Qin Ou asked Bai Yutang, "That Zhou Yue or whatever is a student? So bold?"

Bai Yutang smiled, "You can't look that bold on the outside."

"Students nowadays are really lawless!" Luo Tian frowned, "Kidnapping and threatening all the time, and they even want to carry guns?"

When they arrived at the factory, they saw that the light was on in one of the rooms, and the sound of a girl crying and calling for help was coming from inside.

Bai Yutang arrived at the door and saw that a girl dressed like a high school student had been tied up and thrown on the floor. There were no other people around.

Luo Tian went over and tried to untie her, but the girl screamed as soon as she saw a strange man coming.

"Take it easy, we're here to save your brother." Bai Yutang showed her Zhixin's phone and went over to untie her.

The girl did look a bit similar to Chen Zhixin, so she should be his sister. As soon as she heard Bai Yutang's words, she immediately quieted down, then cried and begged, "Go and save my brother, those guys are crazy, my brother is going to be killed!"

"Where are they?" Bai Yutang frowned.

"In the woods at the back." The girl cried and cried, "They all have guns and rifles, saying they want to hunt, so my brother must run into the woods or they will kill me."

Even though Bai Yutang had seen a lot of things, he was still surprised – so exaggerated?

"How many of them are there?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Four, one is Zhou Yue, and the other three are his classmates." Zhiqin whimpered, "It's all my fault, I didn't see that they turned out to be all perverts with human faces! I got my brother killed."

"Take it easy for now." Bai Yutang told Qin Ou to send Zhiqin back to Zhan Zhao and the others, and he took Luo Tian in the direction of the forest.

When it came to going into the woods, no one was probably more sure than Luo Tian, who had survived in the jungle wilderness back then. There was not much of a jungle here, just a wild area with a few trees.

The two of them quietly arrived at the forest, which was mostly roadside trees for protection from the wind, with nothing to shelter them.

Luo Tian and Bai Yutang spotted the bright lights of the night vision devices at a glance and frowned, they were quite well equipped! Locking on to the two spots of light, the two quietly approached and heard the two conversing:

"Where did that kid go?"

"I shot him in the leg, he shouldn't be able to get very far."

"The other four didn't show up either."

"What's the hurry, it's fun to play slowly... wu."

Before the two men finished speaking, Bai Yutang and Luo Tian stood behind them, raising their hands to strike the side of their necks, and the two men instantly fainted, neither of them understanding what was happening.

“Ai! What's wrong?"

Bai Yutang then noticed the walkie-talkie on the waist of one of the boys was chirping.

Luo Tian picked up the guns in the two men's hands and showed Bai Yutang that they were both BB guns. Although they were theoretically toy guns, they were filled with steel BBs, which were absolutely lethal when fired at close range like this!

The night vision devices, the black night gear, as well as the positioning system and the simulated weapons... were sets of field game equipment, however they had all undergone certain improvements and were no longer toys, but real weapons.

"Hey!"

At that moment, another light came from a flashlight ahead, and Bai Yutang and Luo Tian flashed and hid behind the bushes.

"What are you guys doing? Points will be deducted for losing contact!"

"That's right, you two are dead if you fail the examination!"

Bai Yutang and Luo Tian looked at each other – deducting points? Examination?

When the other two arrived in view, by the light of the flashlight, Bai Yutang instantly recognised the boy who had ordered the bodyguard to almost injure Zhixin in the afternoon, who must have been that Zhou Yue.

Zhou Yue and the other student had just arrived close and were surprised to see their two friends unconscious on the ground. But before they could understand, they were already taken down by Bai Yutang and Luo Tian, who came up behind them.

In order to avoid being recognised and getting into trouble in the future, Bai Yutang and Luo Tian also quickly knocked them unconscious.

After crouching down and checking the four men's equipment, he saw that Zhou Yue had a timer on his wrist.

"They're really playing a live game." Luo Tian took the gun to look at it.

Bai Yutang suddenly looked back... into the depths of the dense forest.

"What's wrong?" Luo Tian asked, "Did you find the boy?"

Bai Yutang shook his head, turned off his flashlight, and pulled Luo Tian aside. The two of them hid behind a large tree and looked out.

Not long after, a figure could be seen appearing in the distance.

At the other end of the forest was a highway with street lights on both sides, so a person standing by the roadside could be clearly seen as a silhouette through the light of the street lights.

Bai Yutang at first thought this was Zhixin, but on closer inspection, no... according to body proportions, it looked like a tall adult. Moreover, this person was well proportioned and athletic, and seemed to have a good reach. He wore a hat and carried a large bag, and seemed to be holding a pocket watch in his hand. He looked down, turned around and walked quickly.

After that, Luo Tian and Bai Yutang heard the sound of a car starting in the distance.

"Should we chase?" Luo Tian asked Bai Yutang.

"Look for Zhixin first."

Bai Yutang and Luo Tian split up to look for him, and not long after, they found Chen Zhixin lying in a tree.

"Boss!" Chen Zhixin cried, "I knew you'd come!"

Bai Yutang looked at the sky and waved at him, "I'm not your boss, come down!"

"Where's my sister?"

"Don't worry." Bai Yutang led him outside, “She's safe."

Passing by Zhou Yue and the others, Chen Zhixin looked down and noticed that all four had fainted, so he looked around, "Where's the other one?"

"There's another one?" Bai Yutang was stunned, "Didn't you say four?"

"There's another one waiting in the woods, holding a pocket watch to time them, like he's some kind of examiner." Zhixin rubbed his bruised calf, "Pervert, playing a real-life game and treating me like a zombie, and counting the score for the exam, I wonder what kind of hobby class they're in."

"They're taking an exam?" Bai Yutang asked, "And calculating the score, they're not looking for revenge on you?"

"I suppose so, even keeping score." Chen Zhixin was furious, "That boy Zhou Yue even said he wanted me dead, talking as if it was true."

"What did the other one look like?"

"I didn't get a good look, he kept hiding quite far away, but they called him an instructor or something."

"Instructor... is he a teacher?" Luo Tian was suspicious.

Leaving the four boys unconscious like this wasn't an option, and calling the police might be too public, so Bai Yutang and Luo Tian took all four out and put them in the car.

"What's the haul?" Bai Yutang saw Zhan Zhao holding a black notebook, pursing his lips as he read it, and he guessed that he had found a clue.

Closing the notebook, Zhan Zhao looked at the four boys who were thrown into the car and asked Bai Yutang, "You can save the siblings once, but you may not be able to save them a second time, you need to treat the symptoms to cure the root cause."

Bai Yutang laughed, "Cat, how are you going to cure the root cause?"

"Just give them a little suggestion." Zhao Jue smiled, "And ask for details along the way."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and knew that he and Zhao Jue were going to take ‘extraordinary' measures to ask questions. However, considering the situation of the four boys, this was probably the best way to go, so he had the good sense to tell the others to back off first.

Zhan Zhao opened the car door and woke up the four boys with Zhao Jue, and ‘talked' to them for a while.

When they finished talking, the four boys mechanically drove away, as if they didn't know Chen Zhixin and Chen Zhiqin, the two siblings.

“Just let them go?" Bai Yutang frowned.

"I asked everything you wanted to know." Zhan Zhao smiled and whispered in his ear, "It turns out these students are also catching ghosts."

‿︵‿︵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: December 19, 2022 by Angel

Edited: January 10, 2023 by Angel