S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 18

A Requiem for a Murderer 18 – Sniper Formation

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Bai Yutang entered the forest and quickly found Ma Han's location using the locator. He saw Ma Han behind a tree, holding his usual gun in his hand, and behind him were two men, one was Chen Xi, who was holding Zhou Yi, who had been shot in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Chen Xi's two young followers were nowhere to be seen.

Zhou Yi's shoulder was all bloody. It seemed... that he was injured by the shot just now. Bai Yutang took a visual inspection and felt that the injury was quite serious.

Bai Yutang was still a student, so it was not convenient for him to draw his gun. He just stood in a relatively concealed position behind a tree and looked at Ma Han.

Ma Han exchanged a look with him, and Chen Xi, who was beside him, also saw Bai Yutang and waved his hand at him, telling him to leave quickly.

Bai Yutang understood… The empty area between the trees where Ma Han and the others were hiding was probably the shooting area, and seeing as there were some bloodstains on the ground, Zhou Yi had probably been shot there just now.

Bai Yutang looked around. If he wanted to leave the most dangerous sniper area and escape from the woods to take Zhou Yi to the hospital, the fastest way was to go through here. Ma Han was absolutely correct in picking the most suitable location to escape with Zhou Yi and Chen Xi, but now the situation was unclear and he could not escape without someone to cover him. But to cover him, Bai Yutang was not in a position to draw his gun in front of Chen Xi and Zhou Yi, and even if he were to draw his gun, his own position would not work, it would be better to be at a distance or high up...

Ma Han frowned at Bai Yutang and shook his head, glancing back at Zhou Yi. Bai Yutang followed his eyes and looked over. Zhou Yi was bleeding profusely, and his face was now pale and he was sweating. If he waited like this, he might lose too much blood and his life might not be saved. Bai Yutang understood that Ma Han meant that his position was not good and that he could not wait any longer, so he needed Bai Yutang to think of something.

Bai Yutang thought about it. Excluding the students, there should be three other people with guns in the forest: Zhao Xueyan, Eleven and the mysterious Ghost.

All three were ruthless killers, the only difference lies in why Eleven had called Ma Han in. Was it simply so he could watch the action? Or did Eleven know that there were students playing here and had Ma Han come in to protect those students? There shouldn't be any snipers in this world who are that kind...

When he thought of this, Bai Yutang suddenly froze faintly – kindness? He suddenly remembered that when Zhan Zhao asked Ma Han about the meaning of the lighter, Ma Han seemed to have mentioned that when Eleven taught him how to shoot, he said that the best snipers would not cause collateral damage!

In other words, Eleven asked Ma Han to come in to protect the students so as to avoid collateral damage!

In other words, when Ma Han moved out with the two students, Eleven would definitely not shoot to stop them, leaving only Zhao Xueyan and Ghost. They both wanted to kill each other and must have hidden their positions, neither of them would shoot first, otherwise they would expose their positions. So who had fired the shot that had just hit Zhou Yi's shoulder?

Bai Yutang made a rather simple assumption. Ghost had lured them into the forest, and Ghost would not have been stupid enough to run into the forest as well, so their best position would have been to snipe from a short distance away! The angle at which Zhou Yi was shot did not look like a shot from a height, and there was no need for Ghost to expose their position by killing a student... which means that the one who hit Zhou Yi was Zhao Xueyan.

There was only one shot from the beginning to the end, indicating that Ghost did not fire. One of the world's top snipers and assassins, under what circumstances would they find their position but be unable to shoot? It's when there is an obstacle. With the clear lens of the sniper rifle's high powered scope, the leaves, canopy and branches of the trees couldn't stop a target as big as a person. In other words, there were tree trunks big enough to hide an entire person, and there really weren't many trees that thick in this region.

Bai Yutang went around to the other side of the tree trunk where he was hiding and took a look around... and spotted the largest fir tree standing not far away. That should be the only place where Zhao Xueyan could hide.

Bai Yutang took a smooth step around to the tree trunk directly in front of him, facing the fir tree, then quietly drew his gun and hid it behind him, waving his hand at Ma Han.

Ma Han saw Bai Yutang's gesture, it should have been telling him to stand on the other side... If the target of the sniping was behind that tree, the ghost's firing point must be opposite that tree.

Ma Han understood, and together with Chen Xi, they stood Zhou Yi up and quickly went to the back of the tree where Bai Yutang was, and sure enough, there were no shots fired.

Bai Yutang nodded to him, and Ma Han leaned against the tree and said to Chen Xi, "Help him out!"

Chen Xi was a little hesitant.

“You haven't left yet?!" Ma Han glared at him, "He will bleed out if you don't leave."

Chen Xi had no choice but to help Zhou Yi, who looked like he was going to die, and ran outside.

At the same time, a very loud gunshot could be heard...

At that moment, Chen Xi and Zhou Yi did not see that more than one bullet was fired at the same time while they were running away quickly.

The first shot hit the sequoia tree that Zhao Xueyan used as a cover. At the same time, Bai Yutang saw Zhao Xueyan dodge violently and turn back around to get out from the cover and raise her gun...

The second shot already appeared above her head.

Ma Han also fired at the same time, but in the opposite direction from the sequoia tree.

At this time, Bai Yutang suddenly had a strange feeling from behind him, his heart immediately tightened and he fiercely dragged Ma Han to hide behind the tree.

With a ‘bang', a male corpse, shot in the head, fell to the ground from a tree behind them.

When he saw who the victim was, Bai Yutang froze – it was Liu Ying!

The strangest part was that Liu Ying had a gun in his hand. Bai Yutang looked up into the distance, and Ma Han had already put away his gun, "I might have killed one too."

Bai Yutang pointed at Liu Ying, who had been killed with a single shot, on the ground, "Then who killed him?"

Ma Han looked at him for a long time and shook his head, "It wasn't Eleven. It was Eleven who fired the first shot, to draw out Zhao Xueyan. The second shot should have been fired by the one I killed."

"Ghost?" Bai Yutang was curious.

Ma Han gave him the gun, "Probably not, because the one I hit was a man."

Bai Yutang raised his gun and looked into the distance – Sure enough! There was the body of a man lying on the roof railing of a small building about two or three hundred metres away. Bai Yutang looked at it, feeling that something was wrong, and suddenly raised his gun with a jerk and looked higher up...

After a long moment, he lowered his gun and frowned, "It's him..."

"Eleven should be gone by now." Ma Han asked Bai Yutang curiously, "Who fired that shot?"

Bai Yutang thought about it and smiled faintly, "Backup, I guess."

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Hu's hearts raced when they heard the startling sound of a gunshot from the outside.

Soon, Chen Xi was seen rushing out with Zhou Yi in his arms, and Zhao Hu hurried downstairs to help call for an ambulance. Zhan Zhao stared anxiously at the woods for a long time... before he saw Bai Yutang and Ma Han walking out.

Zhan Zhao let out a long sigh of relief – safe and sound!

"It seems that trying not to alert the police is not an option." Bai Yutang called Bao Zheng to notify him to communicate with the local police station. Incidentally, he was scolded by Bao Zheng for finding a mummified corpse along with three dead people, stirring up such a big mess at the very beginning!

Not long after, an ambulance came and took Zhou Yi to the hospital. Chen Xi was a bit hysterical, "What the hell is going on here?"

At that moment, two more people came running out of the woods; they were Chen Xi's two followers, their faces were green as they ran and pulled up their trousers. It turned out that the two of them had just been playing the combat game and they both had to pee so badly that they ran to the washroom to avoid being killed, but when they heard a gunshot outside, they were scared and rushed out.

Bai Yutang's gun had long been put away, so Chen Xi didn't suspect him at all, he just asked Ma Han, "Hey, you're a teacher, right, how come you have a real gun?"

Ma Han stood up, "It's just a training bullet, and I didn't hit anyone." A perfunctory statement from Ma Han.

"Is everything alright?" Zhan Zhao went to Bai Yutang's side and winked at him, as if asking him – did you find the ghost?

Bai Yutang shook his head gently. Whether it was Eleven or outside backup, what he struggled with the most... was why Liu Ying would also act like a killer, holding a gun and ambushing from the treetops?...

"Hey, Xiao Meng, Xiao Lu, what's going on with you two?"

At this time, Chen Xi found Chen Lu and Liu Meng who were sitting in the office, and saw that the two of them were staring straight ahead in a daze, not responding even when they were called.

"Cough cough." After Zhan Zhao coughed, Liu Meng and Chen Lu snapped awake, still a little out of shape.

The corners of Bai Yutang's mouth twitched slightly as he glared at Zhan Zhao and lowered his voice, "You hypnotised them..."

Zhan Zhao muttered, "The situation was urgent!"

Not long after, a police officer came and took away all the bodies, asked Bai Yutang and Ma Han a few general questions, and then left without asking too much... Obviously, Bao Zheng had already told them.

By the time Bai Yutang and the others had managed to get rid of the large group of students who were asking questions, it was almost dark.

Zhan Zhao's stomach rumbled with hunger, “I’m starving, nervousness consumes a lot of calories."

“Let’s go back and eat." Bai Yutang looked at his phone, and there was a text message he had just received, "Zhao Jue said the bodies have been transported back safely, and that Gongsun was examining the bodies on the train and got a lot of clues."

"What about the two students' bodies? Were they sent to us as well?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang frowned and shook his head with some difficulty, "I think it's difficult, after all, the bodies can't be transported indiscriminately... at most, we can get an autopsy report from the local coroner."

"Those two students are both boys, which means neither of them is Ghost, but look at the technology, it's very professional, how scary is this school?!"

Back at the station, as soon as they entered, they smelled the freshly cooked pasta that was sitting on the table.

"You went outside to buy this, huh?" Zhan Zhao sat down and asked Zhao Jue curiously.

Everyone took their seats, tasted the pasta and froze... then looked up at Bai Yutang together.

"When did you cook the noodles?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang as he ate the delicious food.

Bai Yutang shook his head, "I didn't cook it."

"It wasn't you?" Everyone looked at him in surprise, except for Zhao Jue.

"It tastes exactly the same!" Zhao Hu found it unbelievable.

Everyone nodded, it tasted just as good as Bai Yutang's signature pasta!

Bai Yutang thought for a moment and looked at Zhan Zhao, while Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue slowly took his fork and stuck it into his shrimp to eat.

"What about that outside backup?" Bai Yutang suddenly asked.

Zhao Jue pursed his lips, "I told you it was backup and not the main team, so he was thrown away!"

"Hey, he at least saved me and Ma Han, should he come out and meet us?" Bai Yutang spoke up.

Zhao Jue scowled, "He ought to have saved you, ignore him!"

Bai Jintang looked around, feeling that the atmosphere was a little delicate, so he asked Zhao Jue, "Who's he talking about?"

Zhao Jue flattened his mouth and did not speak, seemingly angry at something.

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes and suddenly reached out to poke him, "I see, it was your nemesis!"

Zhao Jue immediately became angry and pointed his hand at his own nose, "How can he be my nemesis?"

"Then why are you so afraid of him?" For the first time, Zhan Zhao saw such an interesting expression on Zhao Jue's face, so he couldn't help but ask.

"I'm not afraid of him, he doesn't know good from bad, I want to cut relations with him!" After saying that, he didn't bother with the meal, he just stood up and returned to his room in a huff.

The crowd looked at each other in disbelief. Gongsun had just been examining the corpse and had not paid attention to the situation outside, so he asked Bai Jintang, "What's the matter? His anger is so intense."

"Just a quarrel." Bai Jintang laughed meaninglessly and just told him to continue eating.

The more mysterious these people were, the more Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang wanted to know who that person was.

However, Gongsun remembered the main matter of the autopsy just now and looked up, "By the way, the corpse we found in the crack of the wall should also be a professional killer!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

♥♥♥ Happy valentines day! ♥♥♥

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

Translated: January 27, 2023 by Angel

Edited: February 13, 2023 by Angel