S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 9

A Requiem for a Murderer 09 – Kidnapping Case

---

Zhan Zhao and the others sent Zhixin and his sister to their house. The house was not as simple as one would expect, it was tidy and clean. Zhixin helped to promote his sister, saying that she was the one doing all the tidying up and cooking well.

Zhixin originally wanted to continue working at the gas station, but Xiao Hu didn't dare to go, and Zhiqin wouldn't let him go anymore. The three were only high school students after all, and after all this, it would be a lie to say that they weren't scared.

"Come in and have a cup of tea?" Zhixin invited Bai Yutang and the others inside gingerly, as his grandmother was supposedly already asleep.

Seeing the homework and books on the table, Zhan Zhao casually flipped through them; Zhiqin was getting good grades and Zhixin seemed to have fallen behind in some classes, but was not a dumb student either.

Zhan Zhao held his chin and watched as Zhixin poured out tea, a little embarrassed because there were not enough cups.

When Bai Yutang saw that it was getting late, he asked Zhan Zhao, "They shouldn't bother them anymore, right?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "No, they won't."

Zhixin and Zhiqin looked at each other, and Xiao Hu asked, "That, who exactly are you people?"

Zhan Zhao looked around and said to Bai Yutang, "Xiao Bai, you guys go wait for me outside, I want to talk to them alone."

Bai Yutang nodded and stood up to lead the group out.

Zhao Jue refused to go and wanted to continue watching, but was dragged out by Bai Yutang by the back of his collar and the door was closed.

When Zhao Jue got outside, he rubbed the back of his neck and glared at Bai Yutang.

It was cold at night in T City. Qin Ou, Luo Tian and the twins all hid in the car, Bai Yutang was still standing at the door, and Zhao Jue stood beside him at the corner of the house, out of the wind.

Bai Yutang looked at him and saw that he was wearing a white low-necked jumper, and was freezing and hunkering down.

"Go to the car if you're cold."

Zhao Jue tilted his face up and smiled, "You care about me, huh?"

Bai Yutang leaned against the doorway and tilted his face up to look at the dilapidated roof of the old house, which had been carefully painted and nailed with some fireproofing and insulating material around it, so it was clear that it had been carefully and meticulously refurbished.

"That little brat, he cherishes his family quite a bit." Zhao Jue moved closer to Bai Yutang to block the wind a little more, "What's that cat doing inside?"

Bai Yutang looked at the night sky in a daze and said nonchalantly, "Cat has a very kind heart."

"Cut." Zhao Jue was dissatisfied, "If you know your cat is good, you don't need to talk about it, it's disgusting."

Bai Yutang smiled, "I mean it."

"Yes, he's good, I'm bad." Zhao Jue scowled, "Your Zhan Zhao is a white lotus flower, and I am a pillow!"

Bai Yutang looked at him, "I think I've said that about you before."

Zhao Jue squinted.

"Very excessive words." Bai Yutang whispered.

"Hmph." Zhao Jue twisted his face, "Fierce to say my hands are dirty."

Bai Yutang looked at him, "I'm sorry."

Zhao Jue was slightly stunned, looking at Bai Yutang in surprise as if he had seen the eighth wonder of the world, "Aren't the Bai family people lacking in apology cells? You're actually telling me you're sorry?"

"My brother seems to trust you a lot." Bai Yutang stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at the warm light coming through the window, "I sometimes wonder if it was you who saved Brother back then, what really happened back then, or, if the Bai family owes you a lot."

Zhao Jue covered his ears, "Not listening, not listening."

Bai Yutang looked at him in wonder. Zhao Jue twisted his face to look away, his long hair blocking his face, so he could not see his expression. Perhaps it was the cold wind in the air, which inexplicably added a sense of sadness.

After a long time, Bai Yutang asked, "What's his name?"

Zhao Jue remained silent for a long time, "Bai Ye."

"Is it 'Ye' of ‘night'?"

"Heh." Zhao Jue laughed, "Do you think the person who picked such a name is a psychopath? It's Bai and Ye, it might as well be called Bai Hei, fine powder!” (Angel: I will put an explanation for the naming in the translator notes at the end of the chapter.)

Bai Yutang couldn't laugh or cry, "Or is it Ye as in Ye Ye Fireworks? That wouldn't be fine, the whole name is glorious.”

"Then just call him Bai Guanghui or Bai Canlan? It's not bad to be called Bai Lan, and it's also pronounced as night, pretending to be thirteen!" Zhao Jue looked contemptuous, "From now on, we'll call him Bai Shisan!”

"He's very powerful." Bai Yutang said, "I fought with him that time, I could feel it."

Zhao Jue smiled and tilted his face up to look at him, "How could he be willing to hit you?"

Bai Yutang frowned, "You mean he was just playing with me without using force?"

"Tsk." Zhao Jue shook his head, "Children just don't know the sky's the limit."

"How good is he?" Bai Yutang was curious.

Zhao Jue slightly lifted the corner of his mouth, "Just like his name."

Bai Yutang did not understand.

"A bastard who brings fire or darkness pretending to be thirteen!" When Zhao Jue finished, he laughed to himself.

Bai Yutang wondered, and asked him after a long time, "So do you hate him, or do you love him?"

With a sudden attack, Zhao Jue pushed Bai Yutang back and stumbled.

Bai Yutang looked at him in confusion.

Zhao Jue reached out and pointed at his nose, “Asking such a retarded question."

Bai Yutang rubbed his nose, raised his eyebrows and stood up straight with a smile, "Yes, it's so retarded that you can't even answer it."

Zhao Jue turned his face to look the other way, seemingly sulking.

Not long after, the door to the room opened and Zhan Zhao walked out, followed by a kindly looking old lady, somewhat thin and frail, who should be Zhixin's grandmother.

The old lady walked him to the door, and Zhan Zhao politely said goodbye to her. The old lady nodded goodbye to Bai Yutang and the others as well. Behind her, Zhixin and Zhiqin, who were sincere, and Xiao Hu, who was also in the back, seemed to be quite happy about something.

Zhan Zhao and the others got into the car and left after waving goodbye to the crowd.

Starting the car, Zhao Jue asked Zhan Zhao curiously, "What did you do?"

Zhan Zhao looked at him in the rear view mirror and said with a smile, "Aren't you smart? You can guess!"

Zhao Jue scowled, "What are you so proud of?"

Bai Yutang drove back to the train station while asking Zhan Zhao, "Planning to sponsor them?"

“Mhmm." Zhan Zhao leaned back in his seat, "I plan to sponsor the two siblings until the end of their studies."

"The end of their studies?" Zhao Jue came over, "If the two study medicine and then study for a master's degree, or study architecture or something like that and keep furthering their education... then wouldn't you have to pay for them for more than ten years?"

Zhan Zhao stretched out two fingers and made a V, "Luckily, I have plenty of money."

Zhao Jue scowled, and Bai Yutang smiled and shook his head.

“Ai." Zhao Jue held his chin, "You have been a police officer for many years, you should have seen a lot of poverty, starvation and misery, right? You can't help each one, even if you have a lot of money, right? You even donated the large sum of money I left you last time, you two scoundrels!"

Zhan Zhao twisted his face to look at him, "Why would I want to help everyone? If I can, I'll help them one by one."

"What if that kid turns out to be bad?" Zhao Jue reminded him, "These days, good intentions may not always be rewarded."

Zhan Zhao reached out and patted him on the head, "It's okay, I can teach him well! Look, you've changed for the better, at least give the youngsters a chance."

Zhao Jue pursed his lips and stared at Zhan Zhao for a long time, then pounced on him and grabbed his hair, “Cheeky!"

Behind them, Qin Ou narrowed his eyes at the car in front of him, "How come the captain's car is moving forward in an S-shape?"

The twins hurriedly patted the driving Luo Tian, "Keep a distance, ah, sure enough, it was right not to share a car with them! Zhao Jue is unreasonable." (Angel: The twins described Zhao Jue with the term that means that someone does something a little unreasonable, and thinks and acts differently than ordinary people.)

Luo Tian looked at the car in front of him. He still had a bit of a psychological shadow towards Zhao Jue because of his previous experiences, and always felt that this man was scary, so he asked, "Should we really trust Zhao Jue and work with him?"

Qin Ou didn't know anything about Zhao Jue because he was late to the party, so he asked, "Isn't he a family member?"

"Family?" The twins looked at him in confusion.

"Oh, I had previously thought he was a relative of Dr. Zhan and Captain, or a mentor or something... hmm."

As soon as the word "mentor" was uttered, the twins covered Qin Ou's mouth, "If Zhan Kitten hears you say that Zhao Jue is his mentor, then you'll be finished!"

Qin Ou looked at them – finished?

"For example," Xiao Ding scared him, “split your personality into thirteen parts packed into one body and become thirteen points!” (Angel: Thirteen points means someone is crazy.)

Qin Ou's eyes widened a notch.

“Or," Da Ding continued to scare him, “split you into three different personalities and let them have a love triangle in your body!"

Qin Ou felt his right eyelid start to throb and he swallowed his saliva – how scary!

"Ah-choo." Zhan Zhao sneezed and rubbed his nose.

Bai Yutang handed him a tissue, and suddenly...

In the middle of the road ahead, something appeared within the range of the car lights.

Bai Yutang braked sharply and turned the wheel furiously to avoid hitting it.

When Zhan Zhao wanted to open the door and get out to see, Bai Yutang grabbed his hand, "Wait."

Behind them, Qin Ou's car also arrived. Luo Tian slammed on the brakes and looked forward, "What is it?"

Bai Yutang rolled down the window to take a look and frowned slightly... only to see in the middle of the road, there was a large white cloth bag. The key thing was that the bag was still moving.

"There's someone inside!" Zhan Zhao saw it at a glance. Bai Yutang got out of the car, and behind him Luo Tian and Qin Ou also ran over.

Unzipping the white cloth bag, he saw that there was a teenager inside. He was sixteen or seventeen years old, his hands were tied behind his back, his eyes were blindfolded, his legs were trapped, and his mouth was gagged.

The boy was left in a cloth bag on the street. If Bai Yutang hadn't been so keen-eyed, a random car would have crushed him to death.

Bai Yutang first released the cloth ball from his mouth.

"Help, don't kill me, my father will give you money..."

The crowd looked at each other – a meat ticket for a kidnapping case?

"Don't be afraid, we were just passing by." Bai Yutang untied the cloth covering his eyes and loosened the binding ropes, finding that the binding marks on the teenager's body were very deep and some had worn through the skin, so it was clear that he had been tied up for a long time.

“Should we take you to hospital?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Give me, call my home, I just want to go home." The teenager was so pitiful that Bai Yutang asked for his phone number and called it.

When the person who answered the phone heard him say that he had picked up a teenager who said to call this number, he was so excited that he shouted, "Master, Young Master has been found!"

A few moments later, a small black convoy pulled up nearby, and a large group of bodyguards dressed like black super-soldiers came out of the car.

The young man was wearing Luo Tian's jacket and shivering. At that moment, a white-haired old man ran out of one of the cars, "Young Master! I'm glad you're alright, Young Master!"

The young man looked behind him, "Uncle Tian, where's my dad?"

"Uh, Master was worried about you, so worried that he got sick, so I came to pick you up." The old man spoke with a hint of hesitation on his face, seemingly lacking in strength. Zhan Zhao frowned and shook his head - the old man was lying.

The teenager nodded with a disappointed look on his face, and he stood up, "He, has he paid the ransom yet?"

"Paid it, paid it the first time!" The old man hurriedly nodded, "Master is very anxious and worried about you!"

"Uncle Tian," The teenager laughed bitterly, “the ransom money was delivered by you or uncle, right?"

The old man was embarrassed, "How can you say that..."

"I was the one who was kidnapped, not Brother, so he won't care." The teenager lowered his head in loss, then as if remembering something, he turned back to Zhan Zhao and thanked them, "Thank you for saving me."

"Oh… many, many thanks to you!" The old man reached out and took a brown paper bag from a bodyguard behind him and handed it to Bai Yutang and the others, "A small token, a courtesy."

Bai Yutang laughed, naturally he couldn't take his money, otherwise he would be a kidnapper, right? He grabbed the neck of Zhao Jue, who was about to take the money, and threw him to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao dragged him behind him, and Bai Yutang waved his hand, "It turns out that the security here is so bad, be careful in the future." After saying that, the group got into the car and left.

The car drove away, and Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue were still looking back to see what was going on behind them.

The young man was taken into a luxury car by the old man, and the convoy drove away quickly.

Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue, "What do you think?"

Zhao Jue smiled, "What do you think?"

"Hmm." Zhan Zhao reached out and gently rested his hand on his chin as he and Zhao Jue exchanged a glance, both of them shaking their heads together, "Subtle! Subtle!"

Bai Yutang laughed – these two were, in some ways, really similar.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Bai is white and hei is black. 

The last thing he said there was 精粉, jing fen, or fine powder.

Guanghui, 光辉, can mean brilliant

Canlan, 灿烂, can mean glorious

Bai Lan, 白烂, is the name of a disease 

Pretending to be thirteen, generally written as 装13, means that you are pretending to be great and awesome

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

Translated: December 12, 2022 by Angel

Edited: January9, 2023 by Angel