S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 24

A Requiem for a Murderer 24 – Show

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Even though Bai Yutang was reluctant to do so, the time passed little by little and the party was about to start.

The performance of the stage play was the last act, before which there was a series of performances. At this time, students entered the stage one after another, and the girls who had finished rehearsing the 'set-piece', also went down to their seats.

Zhan Zhao rolled up his script and tapped his chin, looking around.

Bai Yutang began to observe the various entrances and found that the situation was very congested. If there was any chaos in the venue, there might be a big mess.

Bai Yutang unconsciously remembered what Bai Ye had told him, that Zhao Jue was "crazy" and once he became crazy, there was nothing he couldn't do. He had organised such a big party, could he have already prepared for it?

"Tsk."

Bai Yutang looked up and saw Zhan Zhao's face right next to his cheek.

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at Zhan Zhao – What's the situation, Cat?

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes, "You seem to be quite worried."

Bai Yutang told Zhan Zhao about the worry in his heart.

Zhan Zhao reached out and stroked his head, "Don't worry."

Bai Yutang did not understand, "Don't worry about what?"

Zhan Zhao laughed, "You didn't predict that Zhao Jue was crazy, but I did. I never thought he was the craziest, only crazier."

Bai Yutang faintly froze, "Then are you sure there won't be a mass incident this time? I don't want a stampede or something later, otherwise Bao Sir will have to kill me."

Zhan Zhao waved a finger in the depths, "The so-called craziness of Zhao Jue is not this kind of craziness."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, as if waiting for him to explain in detail.

Zhan Zhao crossed his legs, "Which is crazier, sinking a ship and throwing everyone in it overboard, or throwing everyone in the ship overboard and not sinking it?"

Bai Yutang shook his head, "Pretty much the same."

Zhan Zhao raised the corners of his mouth, "That's not crazy, the real crazy is to turn that ship into a ghost ship in an instant and have the bodies found intact after a hundred years of drifting at sea."

Bai Yutang furrowed his brow, "Just crazy in a different way?"

"There will definitely be a good show later, but I'm not worried about hurting innocent people at all." Zhan Zhao lowered his voice a bit, "Hurting innocent people is a mistake only fools make. If Zhao Jue messes up today, I will laugh at him for the rest of his life."

Bai Yutang immediately felt at ease, indeed, for Zhao Jue, there was nothing more humiliating and unacceptable than being laughed at by Zhan Zhao!

As the clock struck 7:00 p.m., the party officially began.

With a 'click', the lights around the room dimmed, while the coloured lights overhead lit up.

The students raised their heads and looked up at the starry lights on the roof, and wondered if the new headmaster had got the God of Wealth to sponsor them. It was a bit too magnificent.

Bai Yutang looked at the brochure for a long time, and then turned to the last page, where it read – Sponsored by the Bai Group.

Zhang Zhao and Bai Yutang both felt a drop of sweat on their heads; does Brother have so much spare money that he uses it to play with water?

The hosts of the party were Liu Meng and Chen Xi, the two of them stood on the stage and looked quite a good match. Zhan Zhao was watching happily with his legs crossed, while Bai Yutang was tilting his face and looking at the overhead lights...

Although he has better than average eyesight, it is unlikely that he will be able to see the reflected image inside the camera, however, it would be a different story for Ma Han and Eleven if they had scopes. But... if you really look at it carefully, you can still tell the difference between light and shadow. After a few glances, Bai Yutang gradually adjusted to the lights. The most obvious were the people sitting in the seats, because the people looking directly at the scene were essentially black on the top of their heads, and once they looked up, it was obvious that there was a faint colour shifting. If they look up a lot... it means there is some problem.

Bai Yutang was watching when a man sat down beside him and stared – it was Zhou Yi.

"Hey, handsome." Zhou Yi poked Bai Yutang's shoulder, "If you tilt your face again, it will affect the situation!"

Bai Yutang didn't quite understand and looked at him.

"Do you ever feel very shiny?" Zhou Yi grinned, "There are many girls behind you shooting your profile with flashing lights, Brother, you should be more restrained!" Zhou Yi was helpless.

Zhan Zhao reached out and pressed Bai Yutang's head, "Be good, hide it and don't let people take pictures of you!"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao speechlessly.

Zhan Zhao showed him his watch, "Don't be anxious, there's still an hour to go before our turn to perform."

Bai Yutang froze, he hadn't even read the script yet...

At this time, someone was singing on stage. Chen Lu ran over and asked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Have you memorised the lines?"

Zhan Zhao made an OK gesture, and Chen Lu looked at Bai Yutang and asked with trepidation, "That, is the script very badly written?"

Bai Yutang wanted to nod and say "yes", but was pinched by Zhan Zhao, so the yes that was on his lips was changed to no, but it would be difficult for him to comfort the girl, and Bai Yutang didn't know how to coax a girl.

"How about this," Chen Lu said, "if you can't recite the lines later, you can just play freely."

Bai Yutang froze, "It's okay to play freely?"

"Yes!" Chen Lu nodded, "If you think it's too mushy, just play it cooler. You're playing a killer, it's okay to be cooler!"

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, finding it acceptable and tucked the script aside, "I'll do my best. "

Chen Lu happily ran off, and Bai Yutang shrugged at Zhan Zhao – at least he didn't have to memorise the lines.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "If you don't know your lines, but I do, won't I be at a disadvantage?"

Bai Yutang reached over and rested his hand on the seat behind him, gently rubbing his brow as he said to Zhan Zhao, "Did Zhao Jue do something, it seems that the patterns on the top are changing in a very regular manner."

Zhan Zhao froze and raised his head to take a look, frowning slightly as he turned back to look at Zhao Jue.

He saw that not far away, Zhao Jue was gently waving his hand at him as if to greet him, looking a little playful.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Did he do something?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "We really didn't misjudge, it wouldn't be Zhao Jue if he didn't make a big mess!"

"What did he do?" Bai Yutang frowned.

"Suggesting that people sit still." Zhan Zhao bristled, "No wonder he's not afraid of chaos later."

Bai Yutang was also a little speechless – This was how to prevent trampling and chaos?

"Are you sure it will be fine if it just flashes like that?" Bai Yutang felt very uneasy.

Zhan Zhao tilted his face to look at him, "Aren't you fine? Everyone's physique is different, this kind of thing can only deal with some young boys and girls who aren't very mindful, but..."

"But what?" Bai Yutang was anxious, "Cat, say the whole sentence!"

"Human instincts cannot be changed, but those who train regularly will have much improved instincts." Zhan Zhao said, "For example, a person who exercises a lot will have sharper reactions. For a killer, they will have stronger willpower than the average person, higher resistance to many things, and better resistance to interference than normal people, so..."

"A killer will pick up on suggestions?"

"Tsk tsk, the killers don't have a psychologist honey like you do, and this set of lights was set up by Zhao Jue, no one can see that something is wrong except me." Zhan Zhao confidently tsked twice, "It takes a dinosaur an hour to notice the pain after being stabbed, by the time that group of people find out they've been set up, Zhao Jue will have already sold them out."

When Zhan Zhao finished speaking, he saw Bai Yutang staring at him, as if there was something he did not understand.

Zhan Zhao frowned, had Bai Yutang suddenly become stupid? So he asked, "Which sentence did you not understand?"

"The first sentence." Bai Yutang answered without even thinking about it.

"The light is Zhao Jue...."

"A little further back!"

"Killers don't have a psychologist honey like you do!" Zhan Zhao laughed.

"Remove all the modifiers and just keep the last nickname." Bai Yutang also laughed, "I didn't hear that one clearly."

Zhan Zhao poked his finger in his ribs, "Honey"

Bai Yutang smiled.

Zhou Yi looked at the two of them with admiration, thinking, at this time, they still have the heart to flirt? How good must this relationship be and how high must their EQ be?

At this time, it was Bai Chi's turn to perform magic. Bai Yutang looked back and found that Zhao Zhen was not there... This was a bit strange, why was Zhao Zhen not there to watch when Xiao Bai Chi was performing magic?

Just as he was thinking about it, he saw Bai Chi running onto the stage, followed by a so-called 'assistant' who was wearing a hat and helping him carry things.

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes, "I have a feeling Bai Chi is going to be a hit!"

Bai Yutang was speechless as well. Zhao Zhen himself went up to act as Bai Chi's assistant, and sure enough, after Bai Chi transformed into a living person, the audience exploded.

Zhan Zhao shook his head as he clapped his hands, "It's too much, bastard!"

Bai Yutang was amused, "Why are you so excited?"

"What if our play loses later? The score will be lowered, it's not fair, Zhao Zhen is a professional!" Zhan Zhao protested.

Bai Yutang was speechless, "Cat, are you getting too into the play?"

Before Bai Yutang finished his sentence, he suddenly paused for a moment.

He turned his head to look somewhere, frowning slightly, as if he had noticed something strange.

"Hey." Zhan Zhao patted him, "What's wrong?"

Zhou Yi, who was beside him, also turned his head to look, not understanding what was going on.

Bai Yutang frowned, "Maybe I heard it wrong."

"Not necessarily." Zhan Zhao pointed to a short distance away.

Bai Yutang turned to look over, and saw that in the middle of Zhao Jue, Ma Xin and their bunch, Luo Tian had also twisted his face and was looking in the same direction as Bai Yutang. From that location, Luo Tian was a little closer than Bai Yutang, and in terms of senses... Luo Tian had an amazing gift, and was very accurate most of the time.

Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang, "What exactly did you hear?"

Bai Yutang said, "The sound of silenced gunshots."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Silenced… wouldn't it be a sniper rifle?"

Bai Yutang nodded, "It shouldn't be Ma Han and the others, right?"

"... Ma Han would have reported to you no matter what kind of gun he fired, right?" Before Zhan Zhao could finish his sentence, Bai Yutang's mobile phone 'meowed', it was a text message sent to him by Ma Han – Someone in the thirteenth seat of the third last row had been shot, sniped, couldn't find the source.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other.

Zhan Zhao picked up his phone and gently shook it at Zhao Jue who was looking his way, giving him a look in the process – What's going on?

Zhao Jue faintly raised the corner of one side of his mouth, smiling wickedly...

Zhan Zhao was stunned. Bai Yutang was about to go to the back to take a look, but then he heard a stealthy 'poof' sound.

Bai Yutang frowned and pulled Zhan Zhao towards the backstage corridor.

"What?" Zhan Zhao was surprised.

"Uneasy." Bai Yutang hid him in a concealed place first, and his phone rang: it was Ma Han calling. He picked up and asked, "What's going on?"

Ma Han whispered, "These two deceased should both be killers. Eleven and I had just noticed that something was wrong with them and were about to mark and anaesthetise them, but someone shot before us. And it should have been a sniper with a silencer, it was too noisy for us to find the source of the bullets."

"Both killers?" Bai Yutang tapped his chin lightly with one hand, "As soon as you guys took aim, they were shot at..."

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang thought for a moment and said to Ma Han, "Try aiming at the back of Zhao Jue's chair."

"Huh?" Ma Han didn't understand.

"Do it." Bai Yutang instructed simply.

"Oh." Ma Han took aim at the back of Zhao Jue's chair.

At the same time, a 'poof' was heard, and Zhao Jue jumped up in surprise, throwing himself into the arms of Bai Chi, who had returned from his magic show and sat down beside him.

Zhao Zhen hastily lifted him up, and Bai Chi went over to look at the back of Zhao Jue's chair, and saw something eye-catching... He opened his mouth wide in surprise, and before Zhao Jue could say anything, Bai Chi held him down and stuffed him under the chair.

"Ai!" Zhao Jue was pressed down and struggled, but Bai Chi stepped on him and said seriously, "Do not move, someone wants to kill you!"

Zhao Jue was furious and yelled, "Kill my ass, it's that Bai who's messing with me!"

"Which Bai is it?" Bai Chi wondered, thinking, 'my surname is Bai too'. Zhao Zhen told him to let Zhao Jue go and not to worry about him, he wouldn't die.

Zhao Jue easily broke free, grumbled, stood up and walked out, rolling up his sleeves and stroking his arms as he headed towards the backstage corridor.

Bai Yutang saw him and, with a clear understanding in his mind, told Ma Han, "Your scope has been tampered with."

"What?" Ma Han flinched slightly and removed the scope, and was surprised to find an extra device inside the lens – a guiding device usually used to guide the shot.

He frowned at Eleven.

Zhao Hu approached him, "What's wrong?"

"It's been rigged." Ma Han dropped the gun and went to confront Eleven, when he heard a 'poof'.

As he froze, Zhao Hu pounced on him from behind and threw him to the ground.

When Ma Han looked up again, he saw Eleven on the ground in front of him, with blood on his shoulder, and the scope of his gun had been pierced through, the lens shattered on the ground.

"Eleven!"

After all, there was a master and disciple connection, so Ma Han wanted to go over, but who knew that Eleven would grab his gun and turn around to run away.

"Ma Han?" Bai Yutang was still on the phone when he heard a strange noise from the other side and wondered what was going on.

Zhao Hu pulled Ma Han to hide in a secluded place on the second floor where there was a billboard and took the phone, "Head, Eleven got shot and is now running away."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue's face was expressionless, he just gently rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "There should only be two people in this world who can hit Eleven..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, someone at the end of the corridor not far away spoke, "It's not me."

The crowd turned around and saw Bai Ye standing there.

Zhao Jue smiled, "Oh? Looks like it's moving in an increasingly interesting direction!"

Zhan Zhao looked around and raised his eyebrows slightly, "Could it be..."

Zhao Jue tilted his face up and smiled, "Quite a quick response, isn't it, but I was prepared for this." With that, he took out a walkie-talkie and said to the other end, "Are you ready?"

From the other end, the twins' voices came, "OK."

Zhao Jue held out three fingers, as if he was counting down.

Just then, upstairs, Ma Han's phone rang. He picked it up and an unfamiliar voice came through, "Go ahead, or I'll just shoot."

Ma Han froze, "Who are you?"

"I'll give you three seconds to find the next killer... one, two..."

"Wait a minute!" Ma Han frowned.

"I'm aiming for the girl in the middle of the twelfth row in the seventh section, if you don't find your next target, I'll start with her."

Ma Han felt his ears buzzing, that was the seat where Ma Xin was sitting...

"So, three..."

At the same time as the person's "three" was uttered, a 'pop' was heard and all power was cut off, and there was silence all around.

The students froze for a moment and then stirred a little, talking to each other – had the power gone out?

"Ahem." Zhao Jue took out a megaphone, "Students, no need to be nervous, it's not a power cut, we have paid the electricity bill."

Zhao Jue's words elicited a burst of laughter from the crowd.

Zhan Zhao frowned, looking at Zhao Jue, whose outline could barely be distinguished in the darkness, while muttering to Bai Yutang, "Where did he get the walkie-talkie and the megaphone? Doraemon?"

Bai Yutang held his forehead, thinking about the whole thing, and felt as if he had overlooked something.

When it seemed that Zhao Jue was about to go on stage with the speaker, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both stopped him, "What are you doing?"

Zhao Jue smiled and patted the two of them, "I'll sing a good song for you." After saying that, he went on stage.

When Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao turned around, they saw that Bai Ye had already reached them, holding a gun in his hand.

And at that moment, no one noticed that the seat beside Bai Chi was empty, and Zhao Zhen had, at some point, disappeared.

Bai Yutang then felt that Bai Ye had stuffed something into his hand and was puzzled.

"There's someone who must be caught." Bai Ye whispered in his ear, "Let me see if there's a decline in your side of the lineage of the Bai family."

Zhan Zhao stood right beside them and suddenly realised – this was a show that Zhao Jue had prepared a long time ago, where all the main actors were actually extras, and all the extras, in turn, had unwittingly become the main actors. The positions of prey and hunter kept swapping, and no one knew whether they were the hunter, or the prey, until the moment they were shot.

‿︵‿︵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 7, 2023 by Angel

Edited: March 6, 2023 by Angel