S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 30

A Requiem for a Murderer 30 – Prelude

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Amidst Zhao Jue's mischief, the other party slipped away before Bai Yutang could figure out the mysterious PTW's true identity, or even determine their gender.

He originally wanted to chase after them, but Zhao Jue told him that there was a good show to watch.

Bai Yutang was a little puzzled, "What kind of show? Didn't we see enough just now?"

Zhao Jue tapped his lips lightly with a vertical finger, signalling for Bai Yutang not to say anything, and turned around to walk towards the door on the other side.

Bai Yutang looked back at the three corpses lying in the church and frowned slightly. As he walked out of the entrance, he glanced back again, seemingly hesitant, wondering if he should call someone to clean up the corpses. With them lying around like this, it felt as if they were not dead people, but rather dead dogs or cats, without even basic dignity.

Seeing that he had not followed him, Zhao Jue looked back, only to see Bai Yutang on the steps of the church entrance, looking back at the church, the bright moonlight outlining his beautiful and three-dimensional profile, and his eyes looking at the church floor. Perhaps because the moonlight was too bright, Bai Yutang's eyes had patches of shining light, like a reflector, bright and soft.

Generally speaking, the sharper and more determined a person's eyes are, the more their eyes will be blurred when there is some hesitation.

Seeing that Bai Yutang seemed to be in a difficult position, Zhao Jue could not help but laugh.

Bai Yutang looked at him in confusion.

The moment he turned his head back, Zhao Jue suddenly thought of a quote someone had once said – If in this life, life is cruel to you in constant repetition, then you don't need to regret it, in the next life, Heaven will definitely find you and then spoil you twice as much. This one sentence is the epitaph carved on the tombstone for all of them, and is the only reason to persevere through this tattered life.

Zhao Jue was very satisfied with the look in Bai Yutang's eyes at this moment, which contained pity and helplessness. Only a happy person would know how to feel pity, because knowing their own fortune, they could feel the misfortune of others and thus sympathise.

Zhao Jue tilted his face up and looked at the shiny and dazzling cross on the wall, as if he was seeing the opposite side of the world through the rows of bullet holes, and on the opposite side of the boundary stood Bai Ye, who was on top of a tall building.

Bai Ye's elbows were casually leaning on the rusted iron railing, with half of his body leaning out of the building. He looked out into the distant moonlit valley and as though sensing Zhao Jue's gaze, he turned his head meaninglessly and glanced at the church. If the inside of the church was the beautiful and bright light of the cross, then the outside was the crumbling and bullet-hole riddled walls. Zhao Jue was on the other side of the church, and it was like he was on the other side of a mirror; clearly visible and touchable, but always the opposite of reality, and no matter how much he moved, the person in the mirror could never come out.

The corners of Bai Ye's mouth lifted a little, his smile so faint, so faint that Zhan Zhao, who was watching his change of expression, tasted a hint of helplessness in this smile. Even he, who was good at psychological analysis, found it hard to guess what kind of mood Bai Ye was in at this moment, whether he was more shocked or happy in the face of such a crazy gift.

Ma Han lifted his head and suddenly looked around.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Hu was curious.

"Uh... it seems..." Ma Han hadn't finished his sentence when he suddenly heard a series of 'kaw kaw' sounds. In the distant canyon, something seemed to have startled the resting flock of birds.

The black formation of birds rose up from the canyon without warning and soon flew off into the distance.

Bai Ye frowned deeply, "Is it open...."

"Open?" Zhan Zhao was curious, "What opened?"

"Listen..." Bai Ye suddenly prompted.

As Zhan Zhao and the others all faintly froze, they heard an odd sound, a sound that could really only be described as odd; the notes were not singular, but more like a combination.

There were some sounds that resembled metal scraping, some that seemed to be wind chimes swaying, others that seemed to be percussion instruments, and even more humming gritty wind instruments, basically a hodgepodge. But as a whole, it still somehow gave people a very heavy and desolate feeling, which was probably related to the background of the Grand Canyon.

Zhan Zhao moved over and asked Bai Ye, "What opened?"

Bai Ye was silent for a moment, and together with Zhao Jue, who had been asked the same question by Bai Yutang in the church, spoke up and answered at the same time – the tomb!

Zhan Zhao looked sceptical.

Zhao Hu gently poked Ma Han with his elbow, "Xiao Ma Ge, what tomb?"

Ma Han was silent for a moment and frowned, "It seems to be the sound of some kind of metal door opening, because the reverberation is what causes this effect, and..."

"There are also the falling bones, and the sudden change in the thinness of the air causing the air currents to form a wind that blew those hollow dead bones, plus the sound of the startled birds flapping their wings." 

Bai Yutang looked at Zhao Jue, "Isn't the Grand Canyon a historical site? Why do you say it's a tomb."

Zhao Jue gently clapped his hands twice, "Amazing, amazing, can you even hear it like that? Do you have an absolute sense of sound? Zhan Kitten said you were tone deaf, sure enough, genes can mutate!"

Bai Yutang sighed, "What exactly do you want?"

Zhao Jue's eyes faintly sank and he walked over in the direction of the cemetery.

Bai Yutang followed behind in confusion, looking at the large tombstones in front of him, before realising that there were already so many victims. He couldn't help but be reminded of those corpses in the church just now, the people who killed and the people who were killed were equally sad.

"This place was originally a ruin." Zhao Jue's voice was light and tasteless, not rising or sinking, and his eyes looked at one of the white headstones.

Bai Yutang saw the familiar sculpture of the cherub – It was the headstone dedicated to Xin Xin, the forgotten child, and the bouquet of snow-white lilies in front of the grave, which was still fresh, created a stark contrast to the deadness of the cemetery.

Zhao Jue slowly reached up, placed one hand gently on his chest, and lightly supported the elbow of his other hand. His slender index finger curved slightly and slowly slid down the slight hollow below his lips to his chin, gently nudged it, and opened his mouth, asking Bai Yutang in a tone with a hint of teasing, "Are you ready?"

Bai Yutang did not answer, merely gazed slightly down at the headstone and took a slow and graceful step forward, then suddenly pulled Zhao Jue over the headstone with one hand. Just as the two of them ducked behind the headstone, they heard the piercing sound of gunshots.

Bai Yutang held the gun and glanced at Zhao Jue, who had his hands pressed to his ears beside him and was making faces at him.

"Listen..."

Bai Yutang faintly froze when he heard the church bell suddenly ringing.

The time should now be around 9:00 P.M. Bai Yutang frowned and glared at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue stretched out three fingers, making an 'okay' gesture, and winked at Bai Yutang, who knew in his heart that if all the PTW test subjects survived back then, then there should be seven of them. One escaped just now, and three were killed by Ma Han's sniping, so that means there are still three here.

The church bell would ring nine times, so...

A thought flashed through Bai Yutang's mind, and paired with that sly smile from Zhao Jue, he, who was always very civilised, couldn't help but swear.

Zhao Jue laughed heartily as he watched Bai Yutang dash behind another headstone, lure out the first killer, pull the trigger as the third bell rang, and then dash into the thick woods.

What followed was a gunshot that was fired at the sound of the bell.

In the distance, Zhan Zhao on the rooftop walked over to the side facing the church and frowned, "Sacrificing a companion?"

"The praying mantis." Bai Ye answered faintly, "It was originally supposed to be used against me."

"But Zhao Jue replaced you with Yutang." Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly, "Is it to be a little more certain?"

Bai Ye looked at Zhan Zhao with a smile that wasn't a smile, "You really dare to say that."

Zhan Zhao turned back, his eyes flowing with composure and smugness, "He is inherently stronger than you."

Another gunshot sounded.

"The third one should be taken care of as well." Bai Ye muttered to himself and couldn't help but nod when he heard the eighth bell ring, "That was fast."

......

When Zhao Jue heard no more movement, he was just about to look over the headstone when he felt his arm being yanked. When he looked back, he saw that Bai Yutang had already yanked him out of the cemetery as quickly as he could, and the two of them ran wildly towards the outside of the cemetery.

"Ya" Bai Yutang threw Zhao Jue over the church wall and he landed hard on the grass. He rubbed his buttocks and was about to curse when Bai Yutang leapt over, grabbed him by his collar and continued on.

As the two of them ran out of the church area, the ninth bell sounded.

A loud boom followed, and Bai Yutang stood still, looking back in the direction of the church.

Zhao Jue was dragged by him and crouched down to pat his chest, looking up at Bai Yutang. He didn't know if the angle of elevation was the problem, or if Bai Yutang's sturdy figure and white clothes were too eye-catching in the dark night.

Anyway, such a look up makes people's hearts stir – Why do so many people want youth, strength, beauty, talent, wisdom... Because all of these are so beautiful that people go crazy.

With a loud bang, the whole church together with the cemetery exploded like a targeted demolition, which was followed by a cloud of smoke and dust that was stirred up and lifted into the air. The ball of dust swelled up in an exaggerated manner and shards of stone and wood flew out in all directions.

In the distance, Zhao Hu's mouth opened wide, "No way..."

Bai Ye frowned, "Sure enough, there was an ambush."

"Oh no, Captain and the others..." Zhao Hu was anxious, and fumbled for his phone to make a call.

Zhan Zhao whispered, "Don't worry, both Yutang and Zhao Jue will be fine."

Ma Han put his rifle down. Through his scope, he had just seen Bai Yutang, who had thrown Zhao Jue out of the church and scurried out himself. In the darkness, the white figure stretched out quickly like a snow-white leopard, full of the beauty of power.

"They're both fine." Ma Han turned back and pointed to the scope of the rifle, signalling that he saw them.

"That's the oriole in the back." Zhan Zhao turned around with his hands in his pockets and walked down the stairs, "Trying to plot against Zhao Jue is too naïve."

Ma Han and Zhao Hu looked at each other and together they looked at Bai Ye who was still leaning against the railing and gazing at the distant canyon, "What exactly is the gift?"

Bai Ye looked back and was silent for a long time before speaking, "Probably, a requiem or something like that."

Zhao Hu blinked and put the gun down, not wanting to ask any more questions. He stood up, reached out and picked up Ma Han's jacket, fished out his cigarette case and found that there were still three cigarettes inside, so he took one in his mouth, gave one to Ma Han and threw one to Bai Ye.

Walking over to the railing next to Bai Ye, Zhao Hu held the rusted iron railing with one hand, "I like this tune."

Zhan Zhao walked downstairs and turned back to see the three men upstairs, all lowering their heads in unison to light their cigarettes. The fiery red spots of light lit up, and the smoke outlined the three different forms to suit the dark night overhead exceptionally well.

Smiling and shaking his head, Zhan Zhao walked forward, and on the fork in the road, a white car sped out and crossed in front of him.

Bai Yutang opened the door and Zhan Zhao got in.

Zhao Jue was in the backseat and leaned forward with interest, leaning over the back of his seat to look at the two of them, "The fun begins!"

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow, "I'm looking forward to it."

Bai Yutang started the car and quickly sped off in the direction of the Grand Canyon.

‿︵‿︵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 27, 2023 by Angel

Edited: March 20, 2023 by Angel