S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 116

Shadow Murderer 24 – Trap

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Coming out of Chen Jie's residence, Zhan Zhao sat down on the passenger seat and began to ponder, as if he had something on his mind.

"What's wrong Cat, you have a ghostly look on your face." Bai Yutang started the car, "It's not a bad harvest this time, be happy."

Zhan Zhao looked at him, then turned around and whispered, "Xiao Bai, we can actually find out where 2-12-11 is by asking Jie Jie."

Bai Yutang nodded, "But it's probably difficult to interrogate him, he's crazy, and we don't know if it's true or not."

"There is a way to get him to only tell the truth." Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang beside him again.

Bai Yutang was silent for a moment and sighed, "Cat, do you want to hypnotise him?"

Zhan Zhao nodded and added, "It's very simple, it will only take a moment."

"No." Bai Yutang shook his head, "You can't use hypnosis during interrogation, it can't be used as evidence, and if people find out, you'll be in trouble."

"I'll just ask him where 2-12-11 is." Zhan Zhao muttered, "Who will know if you don't mention it."

Bai Yutang hesitated a little.

"Just ten minutes!" Zhan Zhao assured Bai Yutang, "Ten minutes and we'll know where 2-12-11 is! This man is so dangerous, it's more dangerous for him to stay around for one more day."

Bai Yutang let out a long sigh and looked at him helplessly, "Just ten minutes!"

“En!" Zhan Zhao nodded confidently, "I'll take care of it!"

Back at the police station, Bai Yutang arranged for Jie Jie to be secured in the interrogation room, and since Zhan Zhao had asked not to watch, he had to wait outside the door.

Ten minutes had never been that long before. Bai Yutang had kept an eye out and installed an alarm on Jie Jie's immobiliser, so that if the immobiliser moved slightly, the alarm would go off and he could rush in within three seconds.

He was waiting impatiently when he saw Wang Chao rushing over with a grim face, "Chief, something's wrong!"

Bai Yutang felt his eyelids twitching, why was there so much going on lately, "What's wrong?"

"Lan Chenglin has escaped!"

"... What?" Bai Yutang furrowed his brows tightly with a look of disbelief.

"Motherfucker!" Zhao Hu on the side was so angry that he kicked a stool next to him, "Taber ran away when he was captured and now Lan Chenglin has run away too, are all their watchers vegetarians?!"

Ma Han was also a bit discouraged "I really don't understand what we're trying so hard to arrest people for!"

"What's all the yelling about?" Bao Zheng's voice came from afar, and he walked up to the crowd, his already dark face darkened even more, "The three guards were all killed in the line of duty, isn't it enough for them to fight for their lives?"

The crowd was speechless and sighed.

"Where is Zhan Zhao?" Bao Zheng looked at the crowd and his eyes fell on Bai Yutang, "What are so many of you doing outside the interrogation room?"

Bai Yutang was a bit speechless and tried to find an excuse to stall, when he saw Bao Zheng frown, "He's interrogating the prisoner?"

“Uh..." Bai Yutang hesitated.

"You're the police officer, he's a psychologist, in his capacity as a consultant, how can he question the prisoner alone..." Having said that, Bao Zheng stopped sharply and stared into Bai Yutang's eyes, "He's hypnotising?"

"No." Bai Yutang denied it without even thinking about it.

"... Okay!" Bao Zheng did not say much. He raised his hand and tried to open the door to enter, but before his hand touched the door handle, the door was opened from the inside. Zhan Zhao came out with great enthusiasm, almost colliding with Bao Zheng.

"Uh... Bao Sir." Zhan Zhao greeted him with a smile on his face without a trace of panic.

"You hypnotised the prisoner?" Bao Zheng asked directly.

"No.” Zhan Zhao did not think twice.

Bao Zheng was furious, "Then what were you doing in there alone?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang spoke in unison, “Heart-to-heart talk."

The other SCI members beside him couldn't help but laugh.

Bao Zheng took a deep breath and nodded, "Okay, what did the talk result in?"

"There's a major discovery!" Zhan Zhao answered Bao Zheng, but his eyes were looking at Bai Yutang, "According to the culprit, 2-12-11 is hiding in a villa in the southern suburbs of the city, along with Taber."

"Bao Sir." Bai Yutang turned his face to look at Bao Zheng, "I want to apply for a commando team to assist!"

Bao Zheng was speechless and nodded, "Alright, I'll sign the approval. Depart in ten minutes, but be careful, bring the heat sensor and a police dog, don't fall into the path of others!"

"Yes!" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao watched Bao Zheng leave together, not forgetting to wave their hands, "Take care, Chief.”

Bao Zheng shook his head in exasperation, but his face, which had its back to the crowd, showed a genuine smile.

The crowd began to prepare, this time anticipating that the opponent's firepower should be very strong, all of them wore bulletproof vests and were heavily armed.

Zhan Zhao also wanted to get a bulletproof vest, but was pulled aside by Bai Yutang, "You're not allowed to go!"

"Why not?" Zhan Zhao glared, "You promised to take me with you when you go into the field!"

Bai Yutang was also a bit embarrassed, but still shook his head ruthlessly, "This is different from the past, it's a special operation, you don't have professional training, it's too dangerous to go like this!"

Zhan Zhao gritted his teeth with an unhappy expression, "I can take care of myself!"

Bai Yutang took a deep breath, "Cat, I'll be distracted!"

“Wh..." Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

"I can't concentrate at all when I think that you might be in danger." Bai Yutang calmly said, "If I don't concentrate, I might get my brothers killed, but if anything happens to you, how am I going to survive?"

Zhan Zhao bowed his head and said nothing, this dead rat, he was talking like a love story, when did he learn how to do that?

"Good boy, you stay safe and sound here until I come back!" Bai Yutang reached out to pinch Zhan Zhao's chin, "I'll come home and cook you dinner, okay?"

"Chief, hurry up!" In the distance, Ma Han poked his head out and called out, "It's all ready!"

Bai Yutang nodded and gestured for Ma Han to get in the car and wait for him.

"You take care of yourself." Zhan Zhao whispered, "Taber is an old man, remember not to force your way in, it could also be a trap."

Bai Yutang nodded, moved over and gave Zhan Zhao a kiss on his forehead, before turning around and quickly descending the stairs to meet up with the group before getting into the car and driving towards their destination.

..................

In the empty office, only Jiang Ping and Zhan Zhao were left behind.

Seeing Zhan Zhao sitting on the sofa worriedly holding a pillow, Jiang Ping left his computer and walked over to ask, "I'll go to the cafeteria to get something to drink, does Dr. Zhan want anything?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head.

Jiang Ping nodded and left.

In the large office, only Zhan Zhao was left alone. Somewhat bored, he turned the ring on his middle finger. Zhan Zhao sighed softly and checked his watch every five minutes, his too good calculation skills made him involuntarily calculate the speed of the car, the time elapsed, where it had travelled now and how far it was from the target, and his heart hung in the air and could not let go.

Bao Zheng, who was passing by the door, shook his head at Zhan Zhao's dispirited look. This look, déjà vu, ah.

Walking back to the office, he saw Luo Yang fidgeting on the couch, holding a tiny phone in his hand, which was a cute style.

"The phone is cute." Bao Zheng walked over and sat next to him.

"Uncle Wei gave it to me on my birthday." Luo Yang smiled a little bitterly, "It's a pity that Uncle Wei, who was such a good man, still died."

Bao Zheng did not say anything. Looking at the sadness on this young child's face that should not belong to someone his age, he reached out and touched his head, asking, "Do you like Uncle Zhan and Uncle Bai?"

“En!" Luo Yang's face was soon smiling and he nodded vigorously, saying somewhat shyly, "When I'm with Uncle Zhan, I feel all warm and fuzzy, and it seems that even the weather is better; Uncle Bai, when I'm around him, I feel very safe, as if nothing in this world is scary, so Yang Yang likes both of them very much."

"Your Uncle Zhan is in the office," Bao Zheng saw a delighted look on Yang Yang's face, “go and keep him company."

"Okay!" Yang Yang got up and politely said, "Bye, Uncle Bao." and ran away.

Bao Zheng froze for a moment, reached out and rubbed his chin, muttering to himself, "Uncle? I'm not that old..."

Luo Yang ran to the entrance of the SCI office and was just about to go in when the cell phone in his pocket suddenly rang. Luo Yang froze, the only people who knew this cell phone number of his were the uncles who had taken care of him before... With some hesitation, Luo Yang took a few steps back and did not enter the office, instead he ran to the stairwell around the corner and took out his cell phone – the caller ID showed the word 'Dong'. Luo Yang knew it was Uncle Dong, who had always taken care of him before, so he picked up the phone.

"Yang Yang?" The voice of a pleasant middle-aged man came from the other end, but there seemed to be a hint of a trembling tone between the words.

"Uncle Dong," Luo Yang replied, “how have you been recently?"

"......" The other end was silent for a moment, seemed to sniffle, and said, "We're in the cemetery, today is Brother Yong's funeral."

It took a long time for Luo Yang to let out a soft “en", but his eyes were already red.

"Brother Yong loved you so much when he was alive, he treated you like his own son, come and see him one last time." He said, his voice already choked up.

Luo Yang was silent for another moment, then took a deep breath and nodded, "Mm! I'm coming." After saying that, he hung up the phone, turned around, and carefully went downstairs.

After leaving the police station, Luo Yang knew that if he snuck out like this, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao would definitely be angry. However, after all, Wei Yong was someone who had really been good to him, and if he didn't even attend his funeral, he would be too heartless. Luo Wen had told him since he was a child that one could be without anything, but not without a conscience.

As he was thinking, a white van drove up from not far away and silently stopped behind Luo Yang. Before Luo Yang could react, the door behind him opened and something stabbed him in the neck, then he felt a tingling pain throughout his body, his eyes went black, and he lost consciousness...

Fifteen minutes had passed, Zhan Zhao looked at his watch, Bai Yutang and the others should have arrived at the place. At this time, his cell phone rang. He picked it up and looked at it, and saw a text message, which came from Luo Yang's cell phone.

When Zhan Zhao opened it, he saw that it was two rows of pinyin. Yang Yang could not write too many Chinese characters, so his text messages had always been in pinyin. Zhan Zhao spelled it out and found that it read – I went to the cemetery, today is Uncle Wei's funeral.

He suddenly stood up. Zhan Zhao's first reaction was to rush downstairs, and he looked around and saw no sign of Luo Yang. He hurriedly called Bai Yutang while stopping a taxi, but the call didn't connect, and only then did he realise that Bai Yutang must have turned off his phone when he went on the operation.

A taxi pulled up slowly in front of him, and Zhan Zhao pulled open the door and got in. He thought something was fishy and said “To the cemetery", and then hurriedly tried to call Bao Zheng to ask him to cancel the operation. Before he could dial the phone, the driver suddenly gave a cold laugh. 

Zhan Zhao felt that the sound of his laugh was somewhat familiar, and when he looked up, he saw the driver turn around and smile at him – Lan Chenglin!

He saw Lan Chenglin covering his mouth and nose with one hand, while holding up a bottle of spray with the other, and pressing...

The strong smell of anaesthetic made Zhan Zhao instantly lose his ability to resist, and the only thing that came to his mind before his consciousness drifted away was – Bai Yutang could have gone to a trap this time, fortunately he had brought a thermal sensor and a police dog...

Seeing Zhan Zhao lying softly in the back seat, Lan Chenglin started the car and drove away contentedly. He was now very proud of himself, thinking that this time he was really oblivious, but he didn't know that there were no such things as coincidences...

Zhao Zhen had just returned this morning from a trip abroad to perform, and had brought some gifts for Bai Chi. He wanted to see the little thing quickly, so he drove Lisbon to the police station in his big Jeep.

Just as he arrived at the door and before he could park his car, he saw Zhan Zhao rushing out in a frenzy, making a phone call and stopping a taxi at the same time.

Zhao Zhen found it a little strange that Bai Yutang was not with him, and was about to go over and ask, when he saw a taxi drive around the corner and stop in front of Zhan Zhao.

When it comes to playing tricks, Zhao Zhen is probably ranked among the best in the world. That car was obviously waiting for Zhan Zhao to come out... Would anyone wait for a passenger in front of a police station?

Zhao Zhen, who was keeping an eye on the situation, drove the car a little closer, and his extraordinary eyesight of nearly three point zero allowed him to see what was happening in the car at a glance, and he immediately realised the seriousness of the situation.

Following the taxi unhurriedly, Zhao Zhen dialled Bai Yutang's number, and like Bai Chi's, there was no answer.

Zhao Zhen thought about it and dialled Bao Zheng's number...

......

Bai Yutang and the others drove for about twenty minutes before they reached the outskirts of the villa in the southern suburbs, and the group got out of the car and prepared to move. At this moment, the security phone in the police car rang. Bai Yutang frowned, this is the operation command phone which only Bao Zheng knows the number for, and if it's ringing now, it means there is a change in the operation.

When he picked up the phone, he heard Bao Zheng's blunt words, "The operation is cancelled!"

Bai Yutang was stunned, "Cancelled?"

Everyone around him gathered around and found that Bao Zheng had said something on the other end of the phone which instantly turned Bai Yutang's face white. Before anyone could understand, they saw him throw away the phone and dash to his car. After starting the car, he stepped on the accelerator as hard as he could and sped away.

The crowd all looked at each other, not knowing what had happened. Ma Han was calmer and picked up the security phone, “Bao Sir? What's happening..."

Ten seconds later, the crowd all rushed to the car, turned around and flew away, chasing after Bai Yutang's car. However, after driving a short distance, they realised there was no sign of Bai Yutang.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: June 12/13, 2022 by Angel

Edited: September 8, 2022 by Angel