S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 23

A Requiem for a Murderer 23 – Monitor

---

By the time Bai Yutang returned to the auditorium again, it was already crowded with people, and all the clubs seemed to have prepared their programmes and were rehearsing very lively. Especially the background chorus of the girls at the end, the school girls all wore uniform black clothes. As for why they had to wear black, the way Zhao Jue put it was – Killers were mostly comfortable with black, so if they wore ordinary girls' clothes, they could just wear pink, and any killing aura would be covered up. But black would make the killer naturally go into a state of alertness and was easier to observe.

Zhan Zhao had changed his clothes and was wandering around with the script, looking like he thought it was quite amusing. Bai Yutang walked over to him and whispered in his ear, telling him what had just happened.

In the audience, Zhao Jue was napping on Zhao Zhen's shoulder, and when he saw that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were discussing something in whispers, he faintly rubbed his chin.

"What's the matter?" Zhao Jue reached out, taking the drink handed to him by Ma Xin who had come to join in the fun, and asked in confusion, "You're here too?"

"Grandpa Zhao said there's a good show to watch!" Ma Xin sat down next to Zhao Jue and handed over the good milk tea loyally.

"Good kid" Zhao Jue took the milk tea and muttered something to Ma Xin, who nodded. Luo Tian came along and sat next to Ma Xin, looking down at a programme, not really caring.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han sat not far from each other. Zhao Hu rubbed his neck and touched Ma Han with his elbow, "Xiao Ma Ge, doesn't your sister like older men, has she moved on?"

Ma Han indifferently flipped through an advertisement for the party and casually replied, "How is that possible? She loves Luo Tian so much that she doesn't know any better, yet she has moved on? All other men are women in her eyes now." 

"So you're not worried, huh?" Zhao Hu asked in a whisper, "Zhao Jue can hypnotise people, what if he hypnotises that girl?"

Ma Han laughed, "There's still Dr. Zhan around, he'll just hypnotise her again. If he can turn that crazy girl into a lady, I'll even buy him dinner."

Zhao Hu scowled, he was too bored of waiting, so he looked around and gossiped with Ma Han, "Look at those girls, they're all dressed like twins, can you tell who's who when the time comes?"

"It's easier to identify people in uniform." Ma Han continued to look at the advertisement with his head down, "Generally people only look at people by their clothes, so to escape, changing clothes is the best way. But if everyone is uniformly dressed, you can identify people just by their movements, forms and faces, so it's not easy to disguise yourself."

"Who do you think that ghost really is?" Zhao Hu felt strange, "These killers are really, she is just a girl, if she has changed careers, why can’t they let her live out the rest of her life in peace, why do they keep chasing her?"

"If they were so reasonable, they wouldn't be killers, they'd be cops."

Before Ma Han could say anything, someone behind him answered.

The two men looked back in surprise to see a man smiling as he walked to the seat behind them and sat down, crossing his long legs and looking at the two men.

Zhao Hu blinked, another stylish uncle, but his temperament was so gloomy!

Ma Han, on the other hand, frowned, "Eleven."

Zhao Hu's eyes widened in surprise as he watched, and thought to himself that Eleven was really a man of extraordinary bearing, why did he show himself publicly? Noticing again the cello case he had placed beside him, Zhao Hu was a little nervous.

"No need to be nervous." Eleven sensed Zhao Hu's mood and said with a smile, "I'm just here for the show tonight."

"What show will there be?" Ma Han looked back at him.

"Well..." Eleven suddenly leaned back in his chair and stared up at Ma Han, then looked to the other side at Bai Yutang, who was talking to Zhan Zhao. He then looked between the two sides, and rubbed his chin as if he was pondering.

When Ma Han saw his actions, he froze slightly, and then laughed out loud.

"Ho, you still have the initiative to laugh at people?" Eleven seemed to be in a good mood.

When Ma Han saw his smile, he suddenly thought of Black K's corpse inside the wall… he was at a loss of words for a moment, so he didn't say anything else.

Eleven looked around and eventually landed on Zhan Zhao, and he asked, "The one next to Bai Yutang is Zhan Zhao, huh? He's exactly the same as the description Zhao Jue gave!"

Ma Han was silent for a moment, "What are you asking for?"

"To go over and say hello." Eleven said, "I've heard a lot about him."

Ma Han shook his head, "I advise you not to mess with him."

"Afraid Bai Yutang will kill me?" Eleven asked.

Ma Han didn't answer, he just looked at his cello case and seemed a little puzzled.

"What?" Eleven asked with a smile, "Does the case look good?"

"Bringing a gun that small when there will be a sniper battle inside the venue?" Ma Han was slightly puzzled, "You should refrain, if there is any movement here, the students will be easily frightened, and when thousands of people crowd and stampede, the casualties will be very serious!"

"You're a little more alert than before, but you still don't have enough imagination, do you know why?" Eleven said with interest, "I've told you before, you should fall in love or something, a little romance would help your imagination."

Zhao Hu blinked, "He has a..."

Ma Han squinted at him, and Zhao Hu flattened his mouth, "There is already something."

"Oh?" Eleven tilted his chin and became more interested, "Which woman is so unlucky? Or which man is so lucky?"

Ma Han turned his face to look at him, "Have you had a lot of time on your hands lately?"

Eleven looked up with a smile, and immediately, the smile faded.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han followed his line of sight, only to see that Bai Yutang had somehow noticed his presence and was looking his way, meeting Eleven's eyes.

Zhan Zhao also glanced at him and turned back to continue reading the script, while inadvertently asking Bai Yutang, "Eleven, huh?"

Bai Yutang nodded gently and turned back as well, picking up his milk tea and drinking it while asking, "What's wrong?"

"Don't look at him smiling, he's actually a bit nervous." Zhan Zhao casually replied, while picking up the script, "Oh, honey, why did you leave me..."

"Ahem..." Bai Yutang choked on his tea in a very humiliating manner and looked at Zhan Zhao, "What are you doing?"

"Practising!" Zhan Zhao poked Bai Yutang's script, "Look carefully, don't forget the words later!"

"Stop messing around, how can you act in something like this?" Bai Yutang felt nauseous after reading the lines once, "How can I possibly say it out loud?"

Zhan Zhao put the script on his knee and leaned over, gently patting Bai Yutang's arm with one hand, "Honey, will you leave me?"

Bai Yutang froze for half a second, "I won't."

"You should have said, ‘Oh, honey, how can I leave you? Without you, my world is incomplete!'" When Zhan Zhao finished reciting the words, Bai Yutang held his forehead and hit his legs, "Let me die."

Zhan Zhao was happy and kicked the ground.

Zhao Hu could see clearly and rubbed his elbow against Ma Han, "How has Head been tortured by Dr. Zhan again? I saw the way he was about to collapse."

Ma Han laughed, "Making him act in a stage play and say so many words at once, he probably wants to die now."

"Oh?" Eleven came over, " you feel the same way, don't you?"

Ma Han bowed his head, then lifted it after a long time to look at him, "You need my help?"

Eleven froze, then laughed, "Am I being that obvious?"

"Not to me, but to someone else." Ma Han said, taking out his phone and showing it to him. He saw that there was a text message from Zhan Zhao that read – 11 wants your help but doesn’t dare to open his mouth.

The corners of Eleven's mouth twitched. He looked up and saw Zhan Zhao silently turn his head around and wave, "Oh, enemy, you won't be the enemy forever..."

Before he finished speaking, Bai Yutang grabbed him by the back of the neck, "Talk properly, don't say 'oh' anymore!"

Zhan Zhao struggled, "Talking like this is super fun!"

Zhao Hu looked at Eleven with a smile and I said, "Brother E, do you want Xiao Ma Ge to give you a hand? Ask him directly, master and disciple don't have to be polite. It’s not nice to beat around the bush."

Eleven laughed and hooked his finger at Ma Han, gesturing for him to come with him.

Ma Han stood up. Zhao Hu glanced at Bai Yutang, who nodded to him, and Zhao Hu hurried to follow them.

Eleven saw him, "One person is enough, you can't help. "

Zhao Hu bristled, "In your dreams, I'm not helping you, I'm helping Xiao Ma Ge."

Ma Han knew that Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were uneasy about him going off on an errand with Eleven alone, so he nodded.

Eleven didn't say anything more and led the two outside. Ma Han originally thought he was going to take them out of the auditorium on an errand, but to his surprise, Eleven just took them up to the second floor of the performance venue.

"Why did you come to the second floor?" Ma Han was a little confused. Moreover, they were in a position where they were facing the audience and could not see the black wall of people.

Ma Han saw that Eleven seemed to mean that he wanted him to occupy the east side and then himself to occupy the west side.

At that moment, Eleven opened his case and took out two sniper rifles.

Ma Han took one look at the guns and felt irritated that they were not completely sniper rifles at all. He brought it over and examined it carefully, frowning, "What's in here?"

"Tranquilliser rounds, the bullets are small. Did you ever shoot a gun loaded with BBs when you were a kid?" Eleven winked at Ma Han and Zhao Hu, "Whether there will be bloodshed tonight depends on you and me. What you hit goes to you, what I hit... also goes to you, that's the terms of cooperation! But if you miss a shot or leave one out, and there's a real mess later, I'm not responsible. Anyways, I didn't start the incident."

Ma Han laughed, "Who do you want me to hit?"

"Everyone, anyone you think is suspicious." Eleven pointed to his eyes, "Remember what I taught you?"

Ma Han was silent for a moment, "Every sniper has the eyes of a hunter."

"Yes!" nodded Eleven, "Weed out the prey and shoot the hunter."

Zhao Hu was a little confused, "Wait a minute, didn't they say the ghost was a woman, inside the black background? And the audience will be full of boys for a while, while the girls will be in the chorus, so we can't watch the girls if we're watching the boys! The roof of the gym is circular, so there must be four of us, right?"

Eleven laughed, offering no explanation, and crouched down to find a position.

Ma Han pulled Zhao Hu, and without a word, headed for the western corner.

"Xiao Ma Ge, you really want to help, huh?" Zhao Hu carefully examined the gun, disassembled a rubber bullet and found that the inside was really filled with liquid, "Do you think he could have filled it with poison?"

Ma Han fidgeted with his lighter, his eyes staring at the ceiling.

Downstairs, Zhan Zhao was still concentrating on his lines, while Bai Yutang was tilting his face; he had a strange feeling since just now, as if someone was watching from above. It was probably because of the keen intuition of being a police officer for too long, but once someone pointed a gun or a scope at them, no matter how far away they were, he would always sense it.

He looked up carefully and suddenly spotted the muzzle of a gun, as well as Eleven, who was smirking at him.

Bai Yutang frowned and whispered to Zhan Zhao, "I know what Eleven wants Ma Han for."

Zhan Zhao lifted his head, looked at them and roughly understood the meaning, "But will it be difficult to handle?"

Bai Yutang looked at him for a long time and asked, "No ‘oh'?"

Zhan Zhao was pleased, "Oh..."

Bai Yutang hurriedly covered his mouth, "It's not difficult to handle, Ma Han should be able to."

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows, "If you can understand it means you can do it too, so the similarities between you and Ma Han are again related to Eleven, a special ability that no one else has... vision?"

Bai Yutang laughed and reached out to knock Zhan Zhao's head, "If they didn't know you that well, the average person would really be scared to death of you."

Zhan Zhao closed the script and tilted his face up to look at the colourful lights of the ceiling, puzzled, "But how do you use good eyesight?"

Bai Yutang also tilted up his face and looked at the ceiling, "What do you see?"

"Coloured lights." Zhan Zhao replied.

"Look more closely.

"Well... the light rack."

"Look again! "

Zhan Zhao looked for a long time, "There is nothing else."

"It's next to the light bulb." Bai Yutang prompted.

"Oh, a camera?" Zhan Zhao nodded, "It's similar to a light bulb, what's so special about it?"

Bai Yutang pointed at a camera above them, "Can you see that camera? "

"Yes." Zhan Zhao nodded seriously.

"What's inside?"

"Oh!" Zhan Zhao could not help but make this sound, "It's a camera the size of a light bulb, how am I supposed to know what's inside?"

Bai Yutang smiled. There were binoculars brought by Zhao Hu in the seat behind him, so he reached over and gave them to Zhan Zhao, "Look again!"

Zhan Zhao took the binoculars and raised his head to look at the overhead camera... After a long look, he put the binoculars down, "There's our reflection inside!"

"Not bad." Bai Yutang nodded, "When the show starts later, the ambient lights around the four sides will be dimmed, leaving only the stage lights, therefore, the audience is monitored by the naked eye, and the stage is monitored by the reflection in the camera."

Zhan Zhao was stunned for a long time before nodding, "I see, this operation is too difficult. Having said that, Eleven, Bai Ye plus Zhao Jue, what exactly do they want?"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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 5, 2023 by Angel

Edited: March 2, 2023, 2023 by Angel