S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 22

A Requiem for a Murderer 22 – Crazy Intelligence

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When Zhan Zhao and the others arrived back at the school, the party was having its final rehearsal.

When Bai Yutang looked around, he saw someone at a glance – Zhao Zhen.

On the stage, Bai Chi was rehearsing a magic trick, and in the audience below, Zhao Zhen was watching with great interest. His legs were crossed and his chin was resting in one hand, and he was not even wearing a pair of sunglasses. His eyes were full of love as he looked at Bai Chi, and a few girls next to him had already started staring and talking to each other, asking if it was Zhao Zhen.

Zhan Zhao looked at the sky, the Zhao family does not have the gene of keeping a low profile in their blood.

Zhao Zhen picked up the corners of his mouth, ran over and sat down next to Zhao Zhen, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder, "Greet someone!"

Zhao Zhen was embarrassed, and after a long time, he squeezed out a sentence, "Uncle..."

"Good boy!" Zhao Jue rubbed his head.

On the stage, Bai Chi, who was rehearsing, fumbled all of a sudden and the rabbit hidden in his hat ran out. Bai Chi rushed to chase it, his face red.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang shook their heads helplessly, Zhao Zhen was also nervous, while Zhao Jue smiled triumphantly, "A simple rabbit."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were just about to go over when Liu Meng grabbed them, "Oh! Don't you two try to run away, go act out a drama for me!"

"A drama?" Both of them were dumbfounded.

"You didn't give them the script, did you?!" Liu Meng looked at Chen Xi angrily.

Chen Xi had just woken up, unaware of what he had just done, and was in a daze, "Huh?"

"Brother, what are you doing? It's going to start in a minute!" Chen Lu was also in a hurry and shoved the two scripts into Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's hands, reaching out to point at Bai Yutang, "You play the killer."

"Kill..." Bai Yutang opened his mouth, but did not have time to speak.

Chen Lu pointed at Zhan Zhao, "You play the cop!"

......

Zhan Zhao was tempted to refuse, however he couldn't resist chuckling first.

Bai Yutang took the mask and cloak that Liu Meng stuffed into his hand and wondered, "Why am I the killer?"

"You look like one!" Liu Meng and Chen Lu spoke in unison.

Bai Yutang opened his mouth.

"This is the character!" Liu Meng shoved a piece of A4 printer paper into Bai Yutang's hand, "Hurry up and rehearse, you two are the main characters!"

"The main characters?" Bai Yutang was surprised, saying to himself that it was less than an hour since his eyes had been opened.

"Because the girls unanimously voted that you guys beat the main actors by a few miles, so..." Liu Meng patted him on the shoulder, "Our year-end extra points depend on you two!" After that, she and Chen Lu cheerfully directed the other actors to rehearse.

Bai Yutang was frozen in place as Zhan Zhao took the paper in his hand, "Trained as a murder weapon since childhood, simple and emotionless, extremely cold, killed too many to count, and ranked number one on the killers list! Experienced, evil smile, those who see his smile shall die, weapons, guns. He walks the busy streets of the city with a solitary soul, but he is so lonely. One day, under a streetlight, with his face raised forty-five degrees, he looked upstairs and saw his fated enemy and lover..."

 "Cat." Bai Yutang was dizzy listening, "Which brain-damaged person wrote the script, can I tear it up?"

"It's quite entertaining!" Zhan Zhao reached out and poked his chin, "Come on, tilt up forty-five degrees and let me take a look."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were used to messing around with each other, and it was not uncommon for them to touch each other, but just by flirting with each other, they attracted a lot of screams from all around, and when they looked back, they realised that a group of people were eagerly watching.

"Ahem." Zhan Zhao withdrew his hand and continued to read, "The kind and upright police officer saw the handsome and lonely killer downstairs, and the moment he saw him, he was captured by his charming eyes. At that moment, it started raining. He took the drenched killer back home and the two sat in the dark room all night. When dawn came, the police officer woke up and the killer had already left..."

"Tsk." Zhan Zhao sighed in admiration as he held up the paper, "It’s so artistic"

When Bai Yutang saw the original main actor walking past him with his head hanging, he grabbed him and stuffed the mask and cloak into the student's hand.

The boy took the things and looked up at him dumbfounded, "I'll… I’ll act?"

Bai Yutang nodded and patted him, "You're more suitable!"

The boy blushed and asked Zhan Zhao, "So… are you playing the police officer? "

Zhan Zhao blinked and seemed to be considering it.

"Then the last kissing scene, should we rehearse... ah!" Before the boy could finish his sentence, Bai Yutang nearly kicked him off the stage.

The boy was so shocked that he dropped the mask cloak and ran away. Zhan Zhao tugged on Bai Yutang's arm, "Calm down, police are not allowed to hit people."

Bai Yutang took the script with an unhappy face, "I've just become a killer!"

Zhan Zhao laughed and continued to read the script.

"Cat, do you really want to act in this thing?"

"It's quite fun." Zhan Zhao smiled, knowing that Bai Yutang had a slight case of OCD and therefore usually looked cool and would never do something that seemed silly and humiliating to him, thus forcing him to do something embarrassing was one of Zhan Zhao's main pleasures. In exchange for fun, of course, he has to pay a price, and embarrassing himself and watching Bai Yutang embarrass himself with him are not the same kind of fun.

Standing next to Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang flipped through the script, and the more he read it, the more outrageous it became.

At this point, Chen Lu shyly approached the two and asked, "How do you feel about the script?"

"Well..." Zhan Zhao was just about to give a few compliments, as looking at the style of writing, he guessed it was this girl's. But who would have thought that Bai Yutang would say: "It's completely illogical, the person who wrote this script has no common sense at all!"

Chen Lu was a bit dumbfounded and tilted her head, "No... no common sense?"

"Mm." Bai Yutang tapped the script, "Who will run around the street with a gun, and, the most important thing for a killer is to be able to hide himself. Wearing a mask and a cloak, are they crazy? Also, how can this police officer open the window in the middle of the night, it is obviously raining so they should close the window. Also, if they are looking up at the street light, then no matter how handsome he is, the killer is unlikely to see this police officer, not to mention that it is also raining. Also..." 

Before Bai Yutang could finish his sentence, Chen Lu suddenly ran away with red eyes.

Bai Yutang looked puzzled and asked Zhan Zhao, "What's wrong with her?"

Zhan Zhao was speechless, crossing his arms and looking at Bai Yutang, "You scolded her like that, of course she ran away crying."

"How did I scold her?" Bai Yutang was puzzled, "Persecutory delusions?"

Zhan Zhao was speechless and collected his script, "Emotionless rat!"

Bai Yutang was even more puzzled.

"This script looks like it was written by Chen Lu." Zhan Zhao prompted.

Bai Yutang opened his mouth – it isn't that bad!

At that moment, Liu Meng could be seen not too far away walking over aggressively.

Zhan Zhao gently poked Bai Yutang, "From what I've observed, she's definitely here to settle accounts with you!"

Bai Yutang shoved the script and mask into his hand, "So the safest place to be right now would be the men's restroom." After saying that, he turned around and leapt off the stage, going to the back restroom for a while.

Liu Meng ran up to him, "Where's that guy?!"

Zhan Zhao laughed, "He went to the restroom."

"He's fast, I'll deal with him when he gets back!" After saying that, Liu Meng went backstage to get ready.

Zhan Zhao didn't want to stand around on stage either, so he jumped off the stage, went to an empty seat in the first row and sat down, looking through the script.

Zhou Yi sat down next to him and whispered, "Quite a few peers have come."

Zhan Zhao didn't even look up, continuing to read the script while talking to him, "Your peers or my peers?"

"My former peers, to be exact." Zhou Yi said, lowering his voice a few notches, "The chorus is the background staging for your performance tonight, that group of chorus girls will be setting the scene for you with songs. Liu Meng just loves big scenes."

"Wow." Zhan Zhao sighed in admiration, "This girl is so capable."

"Don't forget, there are at least twenty top killers coming from all around today." Zhou Yi said with a faint smile, "You and Bai Yutang are living targets standing on the stage, aren't you afraid?"

Zhan Zhao finally lifted his head to look at him and asked with a smile, "Hmm, what is your IQ?"

Zhou Yi was taken aback for a moment, puzzled.

"Do you know that a person with an IQ of 120 looks very smart to a person with an IQ of 100. And the level of thinking of a person with an IQ of 150 will be beyond the comprehension of a person with an IQ of 120 for an entire lifetime. Likewise, in the eyes of a person with an IQ of 200, those with an IQ of 150 are bedbugs."

"What does that mean?" Zhou Yi was bewildered as he listened.

Zhan Zhao smiled lightly, "People who are geniuses in the eyes of others are bedbugs in the eyes of some people." After saying that, he stopped talking and lowered his head to continue reading the script.

Zhou Yi laughed helplessly and tilted his face up to look at the sky, not knowing exactly what Zhan Zhao was talking about, but when he glanced up at the ceiling, he suddenly noticed something. He saw that the roof of the auditorium had been renovated, with dozens of extra coloured spotlights at the top, which were probably used to set the mood and create a stage effect. However, after careful observation, with his superb eyesight as a sniper, he found that the slits of the spotlights were fitted with a number of cameras that could be adjusted in direction.

Zhou Yi was surprised... The auditorium was covered by cameras without any dead spots. What surprised him even more was that the cameras were not easily detected when mixed with the other laser bulbs, because of a vague green glow that could be seen. With this light, he understood that they were smart cameras with penetrating power and image recognition, and under these cameras, firearms would have nowhere to hide. No wonder Zhao Jue was so excited to hold this party, it turned out that it had been arranged a long time ago. As soon as a killer entered the door, they were already being watched, so it could be said that they had thrown themselves into the net. Zhou Yi finally understood what Zhan Zhao meant – What he was worried about, Zhao Jue had already thought of it and had capitalised on it. Even if those killers' IQs were added together, they would not be able to match Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue.

Shaking his head, Zhou Yi simply leaned back in his seat and dozed off, ready to recuperate and watch a good show later.

......

Bai Yutang walked through the long corridor towards the restrooms. Because the performance had not yet officially let the students in, the area around the restrooms was quiet and unoccupied. Pushing open the restroom door, Bai Yutang went to the sink to wash his hands while, at the same time, noticed some extremely slight, almost negligible, breaths.

"Boom."

The moment the door to one of the stalls opened, Bai Yutang drew his gun with one hand and turned around. He raised his gun, but pointed at the door that was not open. What was even stranger was that the stall belonging to the door that had been kicked open was empty inside.

"Come out." Bai Yutang pointed his gun at the second stall, and not a moment later, a low laugh came from inside, "Alert enough, the Bai family's genetics are truly exceptional."

Bai Yutang was slightly surprised.

The door slowly opened and a man with dark hair, a beard and black-framed glasses was sitting on a covered toilet seat. He had an open cigarette case in his hand and was pulling out a cigarette ready to light it. His shoulder-length hair looked casual, and his skilful motion of lighting a cigarette gave Bai Yutang a hint of familiarity. Frowning slightly, Bai Yutang asked, "Eleven?"

The man raised his head and smiled, "Ma Han admires you."

Bai Yutang put away his gun and turned back to wash his hands.

"Letting your guard down so much in front of a killer?" Eleven asked.

Bai Yutang quickly grabbed a paper towel to wipe his hands, "I'm disturbing you two from chatting." After saying that, he was about to walk out.

"Not disturbing." Eleven laughed, "Why are you guys so out of touch with your own family?"

As he spoke, the door in the innermost stall opened, and Bai Ye... Bai Yutang didn't know if he should call him that, as he had never revealed his real name or identity. He stepped out and asked in a low voice, "Zhao Jue is here?"

Bai Yutang nodded and looked at Eleven, who had pulled out a giant cello case, "What do you want?"

Eleven smiled, "What? I'm performing at the party of course, and I've brought my own band."

Bai Yutang frowned, "There are a lot of innocent students today!"

"Tch." Eleven shook his head, "Xiao Ma has this same tone, it's a pity, he could have inherited my style, but he had to take on such a tasteless job like a police officer for no good reason, huh?" He said, looking at Bai Ye.

Bai Ye didn't look at him, but just asked in a cold voice, "Don't you still have something to do?"

"Oh, right!" Eleven waved his hand at Bai Yutang, "Bye-bye, say hello to Xiao Ma for me." After saying that, he opened the door and went out.

Bai Yutang looked back at Bai Ye, it was though he was looking through the mirror, and it was inexplicably a little awkward. Bai Ye's face was almost identical to his own, Bai Yutang imagined himself ten years later and couldn't say anything.

"What does Eleven want?" Bai Yutang asked Bai Ye in confusion, "What did Zhao Jue mean when he said he was going to give you a surprise?"

"Surprises can sometimes turn into shocks." Bai Ye grabbed paper towels in the same motion as Bai Yutang; drawing three at a time and using all three together. After wiping his hands, the paper towels were balled up into a ball and thrown towards the trash can in the same motion; always aiming for some obstacle above the bin and then bouncing precisely into the waste basket, making at least two if not three or four perfect arcs. In the words of Zhan Zhao, this man instinctively and unfailingly flaunted a superior talent.

Bai Yutang was lost in thought.

"You're not defensive enough, if you're too careless, you won't be able to protect the people around you." Bai Ye reminded him.

Bai Yutang snapped back to his senses, "You haven't answered my question. "

"The question isn't so much what Eleven wants, but what Ghost wants."

Bai Yutang was puzzled, "Isn't she the prey?"

"You and Zhan Zhao are still young." Bai Ye laughed and slipped something into Bai Yutang's hand smoothly, "There is no permanent prey in this world, nor is there a permanent hunter. The most dangerous activity in this world is hunting, because the forest is huge and you never know what awaits you, whether it's a swamp or a trap."

"You're saying that so many killers have been assembled as a trap?" Bai Yutang looked at Bai Ye in surprise.

"You do not know Zhao Jue." Bai Ye shook his head, "But I do."

"You mean, Zhao Jue arranged all this?" Bai Yutang frowned, so why would Bao Sir agree to help?

"But there's no way to guarantee that he knew and pulled something off along the way. Creating surprises is not his strong suit. When he goes crazy, it is not something that can be summed up by shock. Even if he is locked up, he will make the person who locked him up swallow the chain and die in front of him."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly.

"Of course," Bai Ye reassured him, "you and Zhan Zhao will always be his beloved, and he will not harm you."

"What exactly is your relationship with Zhan Zhao and I?" Bai Yutang finally could not help but ask this question that had been nagging them for years, or rather tormenting him and Zhan Zhao.

"To keep you guys from becoming like that too."

"Like what?"

"Hurry back." Bai Ye lifted his own case, "The good show is about to begin. There is no need to rush, sooner or later you will see the truth you want to see."

‿︵‿︵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: February 2, 2023 by Angel

Edited: February 28, 2023 by Angel