S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 21
When they arrived at Liu Ying's door, the group noticed at a glance that the door was ajar. Bai Yutang frowned, had someone already been here?
He reached out and pushed open the door. As expected, the room was turned upside down, as if someone had been looking for something.
Bai Yutang frowned and went to the window to look down.
The man with the cello had already reached the bottom of the stairs, and did not forget to look up and give them a slight wave, then he left at a fast pace and it was too late to chase him.
Zhan Zhao wandered around the room and whispered to Bai Yutang, "Whatever he was looking for, he shouldn't have found it."
Bai Yutang nodded.
Chen Xi and Zhou Yi were quite perplexed, but the two had a vague feeling that these people were, it seemed, not just students and teachers, it was as simple as that.
At the door, Zhao Hu asked Zhan Zhao, "What people can't find, you can find!" Zhan Zhao smiled and looked at Zhao Hu, "Hu Zi, where do you usually hide things?"
"Hmm." Zhao Hu thought for a moment.
"He basically doesn't hide anything." Ma Han interjected from the side, "Everything in his hand gets thrown away."
Zhao Hu hemmed and hawed.
"Speaking of which..." Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Hu, "I heard from Brother the other day that he ran into your father at a dinner party of some sort, so it turns out your family is in business, huh? And quite rich."
Zhao Hu blinked, "Right… He seems to be selling something."
Bai Yutang flipped through a notebook on the desk while replying absently, "I've read his profile, his family is well-off."
Zhan Zhao opened his mouth into an O and asked Zhao Hu, "Then isn't Hu Zi Young Master Hu? Why doesn't he have the demeanour of a nobleman, but rather has a gangster's demeanour and likes to work undercover and take on IOUs?"
Zhao Hu bristled, "A man has to rely on himself!"
Ma Han laughed on the side, “Hu Zi has no concept of money."
"Then what is the thing you are most afraid of having stolen from you?" Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Hu.
Zhao Hu looked around and saw Chen Xi and Zhou Yi whispering to the side about something, so he whispered to Zhan Zhao, “My gun."
Zhan Zhao looked at the sky, "Apart from this, anything else?"
Zhao Hu tilted his head and thought for half a day, "Oh! I have a set of NBA star cards."
"Where did you hide them?"
"In a book." Zhao Hu looked at the bookshelf to the side, but the books were all on the floor and had obviously been gone through.
"This has all been turned over." Zhao Hu flattened his mouth.
"It means that the other party is indeed looking for something flat." Zhao Jue wandered off to the side to look at the view.
"CD or paper?" Zhao Hu looked at the table, the notebook was gone, "CD?"
Zhan Zhao waved his hand, "The audio equipment is intact, the discs are scattered all over the place, they shouldn't be looking for a CD."
"The CDs are scattered all over the place, yet they are not looking for a CD?"
"There's no way to check them one by one." Zhao Jue said, "If he was really looking for a CD, he would have taken all the CDs, it's more convenient, isn't it?"
"Then he's looking for a piece of paper..." Zhao Hu looked around, "A photo?"
Zhan Zhao smiled and nodded, "Well, one of the things is a photo."
"Then what else?" Ma Han was curious.
"It's a printed piece of A4 paper." Zhan Jue spoke slowly and methodically, while pointing a finger at the spot where Bai Yutang was standing not far away, "There's something wrong with the window."
"The window..." The crowd walked over to look at the window.
Zhan Zhao turned around and narrowed his eyes at Zhao Jue – stealing my thunder!
Zhao Jue smirked at Zhan Zhao, "You think you're the only one who can do it? You were still wearing diapers when I was doing it."
Zhan Zhao was furious.
After checking the window, he found that it was an old-fashioned wooden window. Bai Yutang felt along all sides of the window and found that the base of the window sill was thick, so he pried it open and pulled out a pen box.
Opening the box, there was a fountain pen inside.
Bai Yutang unscrewed the pen only to find that the inside was empty and it contained a roll of paper. Pulling it out and opening it, he frowned slightly...
"Blank paper?" Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.
"It's probably invisible ink.” Zhan Zhao told him to put the paper away and ask Jiang Ping to deal with it when they went back.
"What about the photo?" Zhao Hu asked.
Bai Yutang shook the pen box again and found that there was still something rattling around inside, so he pried away the soft cushion and found a photo folded in three underneath
He opened it to see… that it was a graduation-like group photo.
"It seems to be quite old." Zhan Zhao took the photo. It was a black and white photo, with a wavy border. The photo paper was old-fashioned matte photo paper, but the photo was very clear. At the bottom of the white frame there were the words 'People's Photo Studio', it seems to have taken at least twenty years.
"Ho ho." Zhao Jue took the photo and examined it, "It's been a long time since I've seen this"
Zhan Zhao looked at him, "You mean the photo, or the person in the photo?"
Zhao Jue smiled mysteriously, pointed to a person in the photo and asked Zhan Zhao, "Do they look familiar?"
When Zhan Zhao looked at it, his mouth opened wide in surprise – the person in the photo was Zhao Jue.
Bai Yutang also looked Zhao Jue up and down, puzzled, "Why..."
Zhao Jue tapped his lips gently, signalling the two to keep quiet and keep looking.
Following the slide of his finger, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang saw several other familiar faces, including – Bai Yutang's father Bai Yunwen, Zhan Zhao's father Zhan Qitian, Bao Zheng when he was young, and... Bai Yutang.
Zhan Zhao poked at the Bai Yutang in the photo and looked at Bai Yutang.
Bai Yutang waved his hand repeatedly, "It's not me."
Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue, "Your guardian?"
Zhao Jue's face collapsed as he reached out and pinched Zhan Zhao's cheek, "Say it again!"
Zhan Zhao hurriedly evaded and rubbed his face as he glared at him.
"Who exactly are you people?"
At this point, Chen Xi couldn't help but ask.
Zhao Jue turned around and gently patted him on the shoulder, "Good boy, just stand to the side."
Chen Xi blinked, "Oh." Then he went to the side and stayed there.
When he saw this, Zhou Yi took a step back, looking at Zhao Jue in horror, and saw Chen Xi standing motionless by the door like a wooden man, which was too abnormal.
Zhou Yi wanted to grab the door and leave, but Ma Han, who was at the door, lifted him by the back of his collar and yanked him back.
"What are you doing?" Zhou Yi struggled and tried to shout at the top of his lungs, "Help..."
Before the words came out, Zhao Hu knocked him on the head, "What's wrong with you, why do you want saving?"
"You can stop acting.” Zhan Zhao waved at him, "Why don't we talk?"
Zhou Yi froze and turned back, looking at Zhan Zhao with a troubled face.
Zhan Jue crossed his arms, "If you don't want to tell the truth, I have ways to make you talk, so it's best to behave and give an explanation yourself."
Zhou Yi frowned, "Who exactly are you people?"
"You're actually the right person." Bai Yutang interjected, “Zhao Xueyan didn't shoot anyone else yesterday, she only shot you as soon as she saw you, and coincidentally avoided your vitals.
"You were pretending to be unable to hit the target despite your arm strength." Ma Han leaned against the door, “Your character is also fake, people who shoot so accurately rarely have such exaggerated character."
Zhou Yi looked left and right, and seeing that there was really no way to get out of it, he had to spread his hands, "I've been in school for a long time, but I'm just an ordinary student, you guys are the ones who got me involved, okay?"
Everyone looked at each other.
Zhou Yi stuck his hands in his pockets, "I just said that there were suddenly so many new teachers who came, and even the headmaster changed." He said, pointing at Ma Han, "This man looks like a sniper. I just wanted things to be peaceful, the less trouble, the better. But who knew that that kid Chen Xi knew how to play and had to go into the forest to fight, and who knew that he would run into that crazy woman and Eleven in a fight to the death."
Everyone froze when they heard this.
Ma Han looked at Zhou Yi in surprise, "You know Eleven?"
"I've had the pleasure of meeting him once before he died." Zhou Yi smiled awkwardly.
Everyone stared at him. Usually, college students were in their twenties, which was the hardest time to distinguish their ages, but Zhou Yi looked very young, more like a boy of eighteen or nineteen, and smelled very much like a student.
"Who exactly are you?" Bai Yutang asked.
"Are you killers or cops?" Zhou Yi asked rhetorically, sticking his hands in his pocket.
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and together they pointed at Zhao Jue, "You don't know him?"
Zhou Yi shook his head honestly, "Don't know."
Zhao Jue also said, "He shouldn't be from my side, he doesn't have that style."
Bai Yutang looked at him, "You're a killer?"
Zhou Yi smiled helplessly, "Uh huh, so... you guys are cops?" Saying that, he pointed to Zhao Jue, "He doesn't look like one."
Zhao Jue consciously moved towards Zhan Zhao, "He and I are from an alien planet, we're from Meow Star People.” (Angel: This is a reference to the Cats play/movie.)
Zhan Zhao pushed him a metre away from him.
"Why is a killer lurking in the school?" Bai Yutang wondered, "What exactly are you looking for?"
“Wrong, wrong." Zhou Yi waved his hand, "I have no purpose at all. This school is a haven for killers, I have long since called it quits and just want a quiet life to start afresh. If I had been seeking revenge against my original enemies, I would have admitted it. However, recently there have been professional killers lurking around, and I had a feeling something would happen, but I didn't have time to hide before I got involved."
"A killer's haven... How old are you this year?" Zhan Zhao couldn't help but ask.
"I'm twenty-one." Zhou Yi replied.
Everyone was stunned, "Then how old were you when you became a killer?"
Zhou Yi tilted his face up and thought, "Well, I guess I started at fourteen or fifteen, all the way until I was nineteen."
The crowd was silent for a long time. Zhao Hu gently poked Ma Han, "Dare I say there is child labour for killers too?"
"It's easier to control a child who doesn't know anything." Zhou Yi said lightly, "And they are not easily suspected, have a higher success rate, and are good at hiding."
Zhao Jue thought for a moment and suddenly clapped his hands gently, "Oh..."
Zhan Zhao looked at him, "Thought of something?"
"Well, it's true that there are several assassin organisations that often do this kind of thing, but assassins rarely get to retire in one piece, how were you able to reclaim your life?"
Zhou Yi thought for a moment and looked at Bai Yutang, "Can you not pursue this and just take me to jail?"
Bai Yutang frowned at him, "You're a professional killer, do you really need to go to jail after being caught?"
Zhou Yi flattened his mouth, knowing that, not surprisingly, the charge should be straightforward execution by firing squad, so he put his hands in his pockets and stopped talking.
“Oh, don't be so rigid." Zhao Jue waved his hand at Bai Yutang, "You have no proof of what he has done before."
Bai Yutang didn't say anything more, lowering his head and continuing to flip through the diary. Zhan Zhao looked at Ma Han and Zhao Hu at the door, who exchanged glances and turned to look around. Speaking of which, Zhou Yi must have been forced to start killing at such a young age, and his background was probably quite pitiful. But since he had killed innocent people, how it would end could be imagined. Zhan Zhao was really not sure, even if they didn't arrest him this time, how far he could continue to go? Just like this time, there was a cause and effect in the world, and it was simply impossible to live a normal life again.
"Speak up." Zhao Jue urged him.
Zhou Yi stepped forward, took the blank piece of paper that Bai Yutang had just found in the pen box, and reached out to ask Ma Han, "Do you have a lighter?"
Ma Han took out a lighter and gave it to him.
Zhou Yi took the lighter and opened it, put it under the piece of white paper and ignited it, and soon, burnt yellow letters appeared on the paper, a list of names.
Everyone wondered – how did he know this method?
"Liu Ying is also a killer." Zhou Yi said, "This practice is rather common, this list is the names of the clients and the targets killed, written in lemon juice. Many killers will do this to leave something for themselves. As for whether it is out of pride or guilt, you will have to ask the dead Liu Ying."
Zhan Zhao took the list and gave it a cursory scan. Liu Ying was young but had committed many crimes, the list had a large number of people on it, it definitely wasn't something that could be done in a year or two, so he asked Zhou Yi, "Was he like you? Going to a haven school to prepare for a new life?"
"Impossible." Zhou Yi shook his head, "Do you really think there are that many people who can get a new identity? I was lucky enough to come across that incident and break away from the organisation. And as for Liu Ying, he should be here at the school on a mission."
"On what kind of mission?" Ma Han asked, "You didn't get wind of that?"
"According to what that man just said, it's to party." Zhou Yi said.
"A party?"
"It's a group hunt." Zhou Yi explained, "There might be a big buyer offering bounties to various contractors to kill a certain person. Moreover, that person should be a high-level killer, and killing him would increase the value of the hunter themselves, which is why they're scrambling like this."
"Then do you know exactly how many killers have gathered in T City?" Zhan Zhao asked.
Zhou Yi shrugged slightly, "Not sure, and I'm not sure who they're targeting, do you have any subjects? For example, who is Zhao Xueyan trying to capture? She and Eleven shouldn't be the target, right? After all, Zhao Xueyan's little level isn't worth Eleven's personal effort."
Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.
Bai Yutang gently nodded.
Zhan Zhao then told him, "Here to catch a ghost."
Zhou Yi was stunned and stared at the crowd.
"What?" Zhao Jue asked him with a smile, "Haven't heard of them?"
Zhou Yi laughed dryly twice, "Ghost ah... no wonder."
"So now you can deduce how many killers have gathered and how many more will come flooding in, right?" Bai Yutang asked.
Zhou Yi was silent for a moment and lifted his head, "Ministry."
"You mean all of the professional killers, they will all come over?” Ma Han thought it was a bit of an exaggeration.
"It's all the ones of sufficient calibre who come back!" Zhou Yi frowned and muttered to himself, "But it's a bit too crazy, who would offer a bounty to catch Ghost?"
"What's the problem?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Is the other party offering a high price?"
"It's not a matter of money or not." Zhou Yi shook his head, "Do you guys know how risky it is to catch Ghost? The other party is a walking murder weapon, if they are not successful in sniping, they will be killed, and the person offering the bounty will definitely become the target of Ghost's lifelong hunt."
"Isn't it also strange that all the murderers are flocking over?" Zhan Zhao felt that the logic made some sense, "Since Ghost is number one in the rankings, there aren't many killers who can really challenge her, so why have so many people come this time? Are they not afraid of being slaughtered?"
"Understandable." Zhou Yi's tone of voice lowered a few points.
"Understandable how?" The crowd was puzzled.
"The reason why Ghost is invincible is because she is an illusory ghost. According to legend, she has a pure white soul, like a blank piece of paper, completely devoid of any feelings." Zhou Yi said to himself, "But a killer will instantly turn into a toothless tiger once they don't want to kill anymore."
"Are you sure she doesn't want to kill anyone?" Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly, "Maybe she's just on a mission too."
Zhou Yi suddenly laughed and shook his head.
"What's so funny?" Bai Yutang asked him.
"You guys wouldn't understand." Zhou Yi said quietly, "Between people and killers, there is a line that once you cross it, you can never cross it back."
Zhao Hu pondered, "That's so deep."
Zhou Yi looked at his watch, "Once a person becomes a killer, they will never be qualified to be a human again, and once a killer wants to be a human again, it will be impossible to be a killer again for the rest of their lives. I think I'd better find a place to escape from the storm so that I don't get mixed up in the muddy waters."
At this time, Zhou Yi's mobile phone rang briefly. He took it out to read the text message, "It's from Chen Lu, asking why Chen Xi isn't returning his calls and asking when we're going back, the show is about to start."
Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered what Zhao Jue said when they were going upstairs earlier, that there would be a good show, so he asked him, "Why did you just say that there would be a good show at the party later?"
Zhao Jue smiled wryly, "Don't you know? The stage is going to be very big later on and the grand finale is the school's girls' chorus, and whoever is absent will be expelled."
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
Zhao Jue gently patted his chest, "It's good to be the headmaster, you can assign the program and make it easy to find people."
‿︵‿︵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 31, 2023 by Angel
Edited: February 23, 2023 by Angel
Thank you for your translation
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