S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 19

A Requiem for a Murderer 19 – Bloodline

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"A killer too?" Bai Yutang was puzzled, "How can you tell?"

"This." Gongsun put down his bowl and chopsticks, went to the back room to bring over a long barrel of oddly shaped riffle and placed it in front of Zhan Zhao and the others.

"What kind of gun is this?" Zhan Zhao had never seen a gun like this before, "So deformed."

"Remington..." Ma Han took the gun.

"Does a Remington look like this?" Zhao Hu didn't think so.

"This is the earliest Remington rifle." Bai Jintang reached out to take the gun and looked at it. He adjusted it slightly, pulled the bolt, and saw that there was still a round inside, so he reached in and took it out, “From the gun to the bullets, they modified it themselves, the earliest snipers all modified their guns.” (Angel: There were a lot of missing characters from the last part of this sentence, so I made do with what I had.)

Everyone opened their mouths slightly as they looked at the big brother of the Bai family.

Zhan Zhao whispered and asked Bai Yutang, "Brother is really in the arms business..."

Bai Jintang put the gun in front of Bai Yutang, "This gun was mass produced in the sixties, but no one used it in the eighties."

"Wouldn't that be forty years ago?" Bai Yutang frowned and asked Gongsun, "What about the results of the autopsy? How long have they been dead?"

Gongsun shrugged, "About three years.”

Everyone looked at each other.

When Ma Han picked up the bullet, he saw two simple initials on it – B.K.

"B.K....” Ma Han frowned, "No..."

"What's the matter?" Zhan Zhao asked him.

Ma Han looked up at Zhan Zhao, "Eleven told me that he used to have a partner, nicknamed Black K, who disappeared twenty years ago. He's been looking for that person, and according to him, apart from being a great sniper, he was also the best expert at modifying guns at the time.”

"That's a great gun modification." Bai Yutang pointed at the barrel, "It's almost impossible for a riffle to be silenced, but the noise reduction tube of this modified gun is so intricately made that it can be almost completely silenced. If used in a close range ambush, it is a flawless killing weapon, and it also allows the sniper to get away safely without revealing his whereabouts."

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow, "Missing for twenty years, dead for three years... then what was he doing for the seventeen years in between?"

None of them could figure it out.

"I just said the corpse had been dead for three years." Gongsun suddenly raised his head, a silver fork in his hand with a shrimp stuck on it, and a meaningful smile on his face, "But I didn't say the person had also been dead for three years."

Everyone looked at Gongsun like he had eaten something bad, and the simple description was – bewildered and puzzled.

Zhao Hu scratched his head, "Gongsun, what do you mean?"

"Hair?" Zhao Zhen suddenly asked.

Gongsun smiled.

Zhan Zhao nodded, "It would take at least a decade or two for a normal person's hair to grow like that."

Bai Yutang frowned, "I can understand that hair grows after death, but after growing for twenty years, where does it get the nutrients?"

"Cells." Gongsun raised his head, "I just called for Ma Xin to bring the instruments over, and after a preliminary check, although this corpse's body has dried up, the cells are still partially alive!"

Everyone's mouths opened wide.

Bai Jintang looked at Gongsun, "You just asked me to pluck a hair from Zhao Jue, with the roots attached, just for this?"

Gongsun nodded, "For comparison purposes. I found that the cells that didn't die were not vigorous, but rather decayed slowly."

"I don't understand." Zhan Zhao wondered, "Cells regenerate, right? How can cells be regenerated when the person is dead?"

"When people die, their bodies start to decay, but cell regeneration lasts longer than normal, and death lasts longer than normal." Gongsun gave an example, “In the case of a living person, it means that injuries heal faster than others, and serious injuries get infected slower than others."

"Vampire?" Zhao Hu bristled, "With teeth or without? Is that really B.K.?"

"I'm afraid this man really is B.K., the partner Eleven is looking for." Gongsun nodded with some regret and told Ma Han, "Because I found a tattoo on the back of his hand that wasn't visible on the original shrivelled and purple body, but I saw it with the UV light during my autopsy earlier."

"The king of spades?" asked Ma Han.

Gongsun nodded, "Or the split king of spades."

Ma Han sighed softly, "Eleven is here, could he have had something to do with his death?"

"Then how did he die?" Bai Yutang asked Gongsun.

"A shot to the chest." When Gongsun saw that everyone had finished eating, he led the group to the back of the carriage, where the luxurious autopsy room was located.

"He was shot in the heart." Gongsun took out the bullet that had been removed.

"Beretta." Ma Han took the bullet and frowned, looking at Bai Yutang, "Modified gun too." (Angel: Once again, the characters for the gun were completely missing so I had nothing to work with. I went with Beretta because it’s the oldest active manufacturer of firearm components in the world.)

Bai Yutang walked around the corpse, examining it closely, "Can you restore its appearance? It looks as if it's just dried up now."

"There's still a small percentage of the cells that are active." Gongsun said, "If we freeze him, in a few decades when technology and medicine are a bit more advanced, we might be able to complete the cellular regeneration and bring him back from the dead."

"Science fiction?" Zhao Zhen leaned against the door to look at the corpse, "Well, the subject matter is very new."

“Eleven doesn't get old either?" Zhan Zhao asked Ma Han.

Ma Han shook his head, "I also think he is slightly more youthful, somewhat similar to Zhao Jue and the others. But he grows a beard and is usually unkempt, so he doesn't look that young."

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, "Interesting."

Bai Yutang looked at him, "What's interesting?"

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and reached out to pat Bai Yutang's shoulder, "Where would you go after you've finished cooking? "

Bai Yutang frowned, "Huh?"

"To have dinner."

"Dinner."

“After dinner?"

“Washing the dishes."

......

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao with disdain, not cooking and not washing the dishes!

Zhan Zhao coughed, "Finished loading the dishwasher?"

"Washing by hand."

"Finished washing by hand!" Zhan Zhao was already a little angry.

"......" Bai Yutang was silent for a long time, “Do the laundry and mop the floor."

Zhan Zhao jumped up and pointed at Bai Yutang, "Don't talk about yourself like a housewife, you obviously will go out for a walk after eating to digest the food!"

Bai Yutang thought about it, he seems to be getting in the habit of standing up after eating and going out for a walk, sauntering around with Lisbon...

Thinking about this, Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao curiously.

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Want to go pull a hair out again?"

Bai Yutang smiled heartily, nodded and walked outside with Zhan Zhao.

Bai Chi had a confused look on his face, "Brother, what are they going to do?"

Zhao Zhen patted him, “Digesting, don't mind them."

Gongsun picked up the scalpel, looked at the dried corpse on the table and asked Ma Han, "Do you want to ask Eleven if he really doesn't want to take the body to be frozen?"

Ma Han couldn’t laugh or cry, "Freeze it where? Everest or the North Pole?"

Zhao Hu clapped his hands, "Xiao Ma Ge, that's a good idea!"

Ma Han slapped him on the head.

Bai Jintang went out to light his cigarette, then continued to sit back and read the newspaper while Gongsun studied the matter of the cells.

When Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao got outside the train, there was nobody in front of or behind them, and not far away was an abandoned construction site with iron frames piled up. The iron frames were large and seemed to be the racks of cable towers, abandoned and piled there, along with unfinished factory buildings.

Bai Yutang suddenly pointed at the tall steel frames in the distance for Zhan Zhao to look at.

When Zhan Zhao looked over, he saw that the frame was at least ten metres high, and on top of a protruding steel plate at the highest point, there was a man.

The moon was particularly bright that night, and the full moon perfectly outlined the shape of the man high up in the darkness.

Just looking at his figure… Zhan Zhao shook his head and looked like Bai Yutang; well proportioned, slender and proud of the golden ratio. The man had one hand in the pocket of his trousers, and was doing an action that Bai Yutang would not normally do – smoking.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but the way the man lowered his head to remove the cigarette – was Bai Jintang.

Zhan Zhao panicked, a hallucination? It was as if Bai Jintang and Bai Yutang were combined in the same body.

Perfect!

A word suddenly popped up in Zhan Zhao's head, and he looked at Bai Yutang.

Zhan Zhao was lost in thought again... this is perfect, more youthful. His thoughts suddenly tumbled, and Zhan Zhao thought of many words somewhat uncontrollably, such as – evolution.

"Cat!" Bai Yutang called out to him, interrupting his out of thoughts and asking, "Do you want to go up?"

Zhan Zhao visually measured the height of the frame and said very seriously, "It's too tiring to climb up there, but it looks cool to stand on it."

Bai Yutang laughed, "You can ask him to come down, since he has appeared here, it means he has no intention to hide from us"

"So what do we say when we meet?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Hi, Mr. Bai Bai Bai, is your name Bai Ye? Bai Ye or Bai Ye? Shouldn't you be lying in the grave? Why have you come back to life? And what is your relationship with Bai Yutang? What's your relationship with Bai Yutang's father? What's your relationship with Bai Yutang's father's father?"

Zhan Zhao rambled on, but Bai Yutang was already looking at the sky and pulling him forward.

In the carriage behind them, Zhao Jue was lying by the window, originally admiring the person's pleasing silhouette under the moonlight, when he saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walk past him. After a moment's thought, Zhao Jue stood up and ran outside to watch the action!

When Zhao Zhen saw Zhao Jue, who had just been angry, hopping out like a rabbit, he was a little curious and pulled back the curtains, glancing out and rubbing his chin.

"Zhen." Bai Chi poked him, "What are you looking at?"

"Oh." Zhao Zhen turned back, "Next time I have an iron frame, I'll pose like this too, and then make the moon disappear, what do you think?"

"Wow!" Bai Chi's mouth opened into an O shape and he clapped his hands, "Cool!"

Zhao Zhen stroked his head, "Good boy!"

Bai Jintang was reading the newspaper, but when he heard their conversation, he couldn't help but raise his head and lift the curtain to look out, and he saw the man in the moonlight.

Next to him, Gongsun had walked out at some point and sat down, taking the cigarette from his mouth and holding it in his own, and opened the newspaper with a swipe.

Bai Jintang looked at him.

Gongsun nudged his glasses with his index finger and asked him, "Do you know what the key to smoking and reading a newspaper is?"

Bai Jintang looked at him blankly.

Gongsun raised his legs and shook the furry cotton slippers on his feet, “Slippers! Better yet, flip-flops!"

Bai Jintang laughed and simply reached out to open the curtains, leaned against Gongsun, and took his glasses and put them on to see what was going on in the distance.

Gongsun squinted and held up the newspaper, “Sure enough... glasses are more important than flip-flops!"

Bai Jintang turned back to him, pulling his tie and smiling, "Let me rest for a moment."

Gongsun rested his head on his lap and leaned back in his chair, also looking out the window. In the darkness of the night, the only thing visible under the particularly bright moon was the slender figure, who, with a familiar movement, lit a second cigarette.

"It turns out that heredity isn't the most amazing." Gongsun suddenly muttered to himself.

Bai Jintang looked up, "Then what is it?"

Gongsun was silent for a moment and spoke, "It's bloodline."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had already walked to the bottom of the iron frame.

Zhan Zhao tilted his face and looked at them; the iron frames were staggered and stacked, they should be very strong, after all, each iron pipe was as thick as an arm. It wasn't very high, at most three stories, but it was just that the surrounding area was too empty, so it felt very high.

When Bai Yutang raised his head, he saw a red dot fall down lazily, hitting an iron pipe and sputtering out scattered sparks… then falling to the ground, it was a cigarette butt.

Zhan Zhao was still looking at the cigarette butt when he felt the presence of wind.

Behind him, Bai Yutang pulled him back a step, and a figure landed on the ground in front of him. Stepping on that cigarette butt, with a black coat and black jeans, just like Bai Yutang who wanted to get into the ink and roll around, the sky and the earth, the day and the night.

Zhan Zhao surveyed the man in front of him, trying to put aside the fact that he had just jumped straight down, an act that defied the laws of nature.

A similar face, but the slightly defined stubble on that person's chin was something that would never appear on the face of the clean Bai Yutang. However... it also brought out a bit of vicissitude.

The two sides stared at each other for a moment, before the man walked past the two men, went to an empty petrol drum not far away, picked up a long case, similar to the suitcase that held the cello, and casually carried it behind his back. He walked off, but not in the direction of the train, but outside the station. In the distance, there was an empty darkness, and there was no telling where he was going.

"Bai Ye?" Bai Yutang couldn't help but ask.

The man paused and looked back at Bai Yutang, "Bai Ye is in the grave."

When Zhan Zhao heard his voice, he inexplicably found it a little familiar, where had he heard it before? Once he thought about it, he felt inexplicably hairy in his heart, indescribably weird – it was somewhere between Bai Yutang's and Bai Jintang's voice, that kind of voice.

Bai Yutang frowned, "Then who are you?"

The man stared at the two for a moment, and suddenly the corners of his mouth twitched gently. As he turned around and continued walking, he raised his hand absently and waved it lightly as he said slowly, “Zhao Jue's guardian."

"Pfft..." Zhan Zhao inexplicably felt relieved and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Behind him, the originally hidden eavesdropping Zhao Jue scurried out, jumping and cursing, "Guardian my ass, don't come back if you have the guts!"

Soon, the person in black disappeared into the night.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked back and asked in confusion, "Who the hell is he?"

The angry look on Zhao Jue's face gradually eased and he looked at the two of them, "What do you think?"

"He's very strong." Bai Yutang whispered, "Is he the one who took out Taber with the key?"

Zhao Jue suddenly smiled, reaching out his index finger and tapping his lips gently, "Shhh."

Zhan Zhao frowned, Zhao Jue was trying to...

However, before Zhan Zhao could say anything, Zhao Jue had already opened his mouth and spoke in a low and somewhat mysterious tone, "The only piece in this world, a perfectly finished piece, without any flaws, cannot be copied and cannot be destroyed... disqualified from death, person."

‿︵‿︵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 28, 2023 by Angel

Edited: February 13, 2023 by Angel