S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 25

A Requiem for a Murderer 25 – Bell Ringing

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In the darkened auditorium, Zhao Jue's few words had temporarily stabilised the situation, and the students began to look forward to the next performance in the darkness, some whispering and some using their mobile phones for light.

There wasn't much time for Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang to analyse the situation at hand, because if the darkness and silence lasted more than a minute, the students would surely start another commotion.

At this point, everyone held their breath and waited.

Bai Yutang grasped what was in his hand and frowned slightly as he watched Bai Ye walk out the door while gesturing for him to make a phone call... In the darkness, there was only an outline and a finger pointing upwards, but it was clear enough.

Bai Yutang picked up the phone and asked Ma Han, "Still there?"

"Yes." Ma Han turned on speakerphone, Zhao Hu was crouching beside him, trying to remove the guidance device from the inside of the sight, but couldn't manage it.

"Where's Eleven?"

"Ran off." Ma Han replied.

"Bai Ye went up, do whatever he tells you to do."

"Bai..." Ma Han and Zhao Hu looked up and saw Bai Ye appear beside them. In the darkness, the man approached silently, and it wasn't until he was close that the two realised there was someone beside them. The two broke out in a cold sweat… If this was a sneak attack, wouldn't they have lost their lives?

Ma Han was somewhat alert, fortunately Bai Yutang called first, otherwise he and Zhao Hu might have instinctively fought back a little... Of course, it is not certain whether it would have been effective or not.

Bai Ye picked up his gun and chose a firing position.

Ma Han reminded him, "It's dark, where are you aiming?"

"Pa..."

Just as his words fell, a spotlight shone right in the middle of the stage.

The students, who were already getting suffocated, immediately got excited as a person appeared where the spotlight shone.

Everyone was faintly curious... Even Liu Meng and Chen Xi, who were acting as hosts, flipped through the script, was there a programme like this?

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang tilted their heads to look at the stage, only to see a person standing in the middle of the stage, holding a violin in his hand...

In addition to the silver-grey suit, he was wearing a grey hat and had a slender body with perfect proportions, so it was impossible to tell who he was.

He held the violin on his shoulder, and after his bow drew a nice arc, a gorgeous G major string serenade played.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang opened their mouths slightly – it sounded amazing!

Zhan Zhao grabbed Bai Yutang's clothes and shook them twice, "Isn't that Zhao Zhen? Do you think Brother needs to pay him an appearance fee?"

Bai Yutang held his forehead, at this moment, he was full of confusion, what exactly did Zhao Jue want?

The students in the audience were stunned at first and then started to applaud, after all, they belonged to an aristocratic school where violin and piano were almost compulsory. A couple of them were praising the skill of the player, which was simply at a professional level.

Bai Chi looked around him. Zhao Zhen had just been there, how come he was on stage performing violin all of a sudden? And what's more, his Zhao Zhen is such a star, he can do anything well!

While the crowd was listening to the music and revelling in the beautiful notes, a second spotlight suddenly came on.

The crowd's eyes immediately moved away from Zhao Zhen and into the second circular spot of light. They were expecting a beautiful woman to come up and dance to the music, but instead they heard a "meow".

This was followed by screams from the audience, accompanied by girls shouting, "So cute!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang drew a breath of cold air – They saw two big cats with a group of kittens sauntering into the light, rhythmically wagging their tails and cocking their ears to the sound of the music, which was quite rhythmic and entertaining.

A Burmese ragdoll and a white Garfield, none other than Luban and Lilia.

Luban and Lilia were both extremely cute themselves, and the group of kittens were even more plump and beautiful with Bai Chi's careful feeding, and had different colours, some like their father and some like their mother. The group of cats came on stage and were so cute that they immediately caused all the girls to get excited.

Zhao Zhen picked up the corners of his mouth slightly; his mission was to do just that, to draw everyone's attention away.

Zhan Zhao was standing on the sidelines and wondered when Luban, who was usually so disobedient, had become so familiar with Zhao Zhen.

As he was wondering, Bai Yutang suddenly asked him, "Cat, help me do an arithmetic problem."

"What problem?" Zhan Zhao looked at him in confusion.

Bai Yutang told him, "Area B, row 13, seat 23; area C, row 3, seat 21; area C, row 9, seat 2; area D, row 8, seat 15; area E, row 5, seat 7; and area F, row 22, seat 9." Bai Yutang said, "In the whole venue, how many locations in total are there where you can shoot at these positions at the same time and hit Eleven's position from just now? Do you still remember what the person in that position looked like?"

Zhan Zhao blinked, tilted his face up and started counting, while telling Bai Yutang, "Give me a minute."

Bai Yutang nodded, and incidentally looked down at the phone in his hand, the call was still active.

Ma Han's phone was still in his hand, and Bai Yutang's words were clearly heard by him.

Bai Ye faintly raised the corner of his mouth while asking Ma Han, "Little demon, flashlight, do you have one?" (Angel: Little demon is an endearing way to call a child.)

Ma Han nodded, it was a must for snipers. He fished one out of his pocket, it was pocket-sized and hung from his keys for decorative purposes, and had plenty of power.

"The position just now, do you remember?" Bai Ye asked him.

Ma Han already understood, "You want me to illuminate the approximate position for you, and then you will shoot?"

"En."

"But that person is in the shadows, do you want to shoot before they do?" Ma Han was a little confused, "Then it's better if I just use the guide to help point him out."

Bai Ye laughed, "I'll just strike faster than him."

Ma Han was even more confused and looked at the gun in his hand, "What kind of bullets are in yours? What's the difference? Whether you knock someone out or kill them, won't they still be in their seats? Wouldn't it be the same if that person took another shot?"

Bai Ye looked at Ma Han and shook his head, "That's why Eleven said you weren't cut out to be a killer."

Ma Han was slightly taken aback.

Bai Ye didn't say much more, "Begin."

Ma Han was at a loss, but did as he was told.

He recalled the general location. It was dark, there was a spotlight down there, and everyone's attention was on Zhao Zhen and the cats, so the average person wouldn't notice anything upstairs.

However, it was impossible to keep the flashlight on, so Ma Han probably found the location based on his memory and then suddenly turned on the flashlight in a single swipe. Meanwhile, Bai Ye had already pulled the trigger.

Instead of talking about shooting, take a look at soccer. A good striker is only as good as his kick; a quicker kick is a world class striker, a slower kick will never lead to a goal. Similarly, for a good sniper, it's all about the finger on the trigger, the difference is significant.

The speed at which Bai Ye pulled the trigger made Ma Han and Zhao Hu look at each other subconsciously – Truly a master among masters, a godlike being.

At the same time as the shooting from above, Zhan Zhao had already solved that arithmetic problem and looked up to answer Bai Yutang, "There is only one location, area D, row 18, seat 1, over there."

Bai Yutang looked up and past the dark stage, densely packed with people. Area D was in the corner and was a dead spot for shooting from the second floor, so it was clear that the other side had carefully calculated, but... who had shot Eleven?

"Shooting Eleven, it should have been fired over from area F." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "If I remember correctly, area F is not beside area E, but diagonally opposite. Moving from area E to area F to shoot in such a short period of time is simply impossible, unless it was Zhao Zhen doing magic."

"So, there were two of them?" Bai Yutang frowned, "It seems Eleven only counted on the one in area E, and the other one was an accident?"

"It should be an unexpected situation." Zhan Zhao nodded, "It depends on how Zhao Jue handles it." After saying that, he looked at the thing in Bai Yutang's hand and asked with a smile, "Did Bai Ye ask you to deal with the one in area E, or the one in area F?"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, and after a moment of silence, the two spoke in unison, "E!"

"Eh?"

Speaking of this, Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered a question... Where was Zhao Jue who was on the stage with the megaphone just now? The only people on the stage at this time were Zhao Zhen and the cats, and Zhao Jue had completely disappeared.

With a slight firing sound, Bai Ye finished shooting all the targets smoothly, then put away the gun and started to change the barrel.

Zhao Hu was dumbfounded, as Bai Ye was using what appeared to be a stun bullet, and each shot landed almost simultaneously with Ma Han's flashlight, so it wasn't easy for anyone to get a second shot.

Ma Han put away his flashlight and dropped his aching wrist, feeling the pressure.

Bai Ye looked back at him and offered him a smile, "Not bad for the expert that Eleven talks about, he's really not an ordinary person."

Ma Han laughed dryly and didn't take it personally, he just asked him, "Who was the one who hit Eleven just now?"

"There are only two people in this world who can hit him." Bai Ye said indifferently, "One is me."

"There's another one?"

"Ghost."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han looked at each other in surprise – Ghost had appeared?!

At this point, Bai Yutang covered the phone's microphone and moved over to ask Zhan Zhao in a low voice, "Cat, do you feel that Zhao Jue's real purpose doesn't seem to be Ghost? We seem to have been fooled by him."

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, "I also feel that what Zhao Jue said about giving Bai Ye a surprise meant something else. And Eleven is simply using us for something else, their common target is someone else other than Ghost, the mysterious man in area E who just shot him! They just didn't expect Ghost to show up out of nowhere and disrupt Eleven's plans."

"So you think Eleven is working with Zhao Jue and the others as a team, working together against the same person. They are sniping that mysterious person in area E, while that mysterious person is trying to snipe those killers?" Bai Yutang asked, "What a complicated relationship!"

"Tsk." Zhan Zhao stretched out a finger and wiggled it gently, "I'd say it's the other way around."

Bai Yutang faintly stared, "Reversed?"

"I think Eleven is the unexpected situation, while Ghost... and Zhao Jue could be in cahoots." Zhan Zhao said, causing Bai Yutang to be slightly confused.

Just as the two were mulling it over, they heard a vague pause in Zhao Zhen's violin, and Luban, Lilia and the group of kittens all stopped as well, which instantly led to applause.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao subconsciously looked at Zhao Zhen and inexplicably froze. Zhao Zhen had a white mask on his face with his back to the audience, and the expression on the mask was a somewhat wicked smirk.

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had an illusion – Was this person Zhao Zhen? How come his eyes felt a bit like Zhao Jue's?

At the same time, a 'bang' was heard and all the students in the auditorium were startled. Looking at the stage again… Zhao Zhen and the cats were gone and Zhao Jue's voice was hard, elegant and magnetic, "Ahem, students. Please enjoy the following special program, a stage play..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang opened their mouths offstage – Wasn't the stage play the last programme?

At that moment, Chen Lu rushed out from the backstage area in a panic, "Ah! It's bad, the headmaster messed up the curtain call, it's your turn to go on!"

"What?" Bai Yutang was shocked, so suddenly?!

Zhan Zhao rubbed his hands together and tugged Bai Yutang towards the backstage, hurrying to change his clothes.

Chen Lu saw that Bai Yutang was wearing a large black cloak, and could not distinguish from it in the dark, so she asked, "What's that you're holding?"

Bai Yutang suddenly seemed to come back to his senses, he looked at her and smiled, "Props."

Chen Lu covered her mouth and froze there, watching Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang enter the backstage area, her heart pounding.

Zhan Zhao put on his mask while narrowing his eyes at Bai Yutang, "Teasing indiscriminately!"

Bai Yutang put aside the long sniper rifle aside, put on the black cloak, and hid the gun under the black cloak; there was no sign of anything wrong.

Zhan Zhao squatted down to examine the gun.

"The inside is loaded with electric shock bullets that can knock people out but not kill them." Bai Yutang put the mask back on and listened to the sound of lilting music coming from the front.

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Is the music that strange? Is it background music?"

"Why does it sound like the echoes of an empty valley?" Although Bai Yutang hadn't memorised many lines, he still knew the basic plot, "Isn't it a story that takes place on a rainy night?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged, "Who knows, there are probably lines from Zhao Jue on stage."

Bai Yutang frowned and thought about it, "Is this what you mean by... a show that Zhao Jue had originally prepared?"

Zhan Zhao helplessly spread his hands, "We both seem to have inadvertently become actors. Zhao Zhen is probably the one who provided the props and sets, and as for those hunters, they have instantly turned into prey. The one who most thought he was the ultimate web-weaver has turned into the ultimate prey."

Bai Yutang looked at the gun in his cloak, "Bai Ye wants me to catch the one in E? I can shoot at that location from the stage, but with the stage lit up and the room dark, we are both targets until we shoot!"

"Zhao Jue would have thought of that in advance." Zhan Zhao slightly raised the corner of his mouth, "Besides, I can probably guess some of the content of the plot? Including the whole case itself."

Bai Yutang was puzzled, "Something to do with the shooting that took place at the church?"

"That's not the case." Zhan Zhao reached out and pointed to his ear, "Listen! The sound of the bell, is it familiar?"

Bai Yutang frowned faintly, "The person in area E, so it's him!"

‿︵‿︵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 9, 2023 by Angel

Edited: March 6, 2023 by Angel