S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 59

Bonus Chapter – Hungry Ghost Festival Extra: Float Around Part 2

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When Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen dodged to either side, the man pounced into the elevator and turned back to press the button to close the doors.

When the button was pressed, he threw himself over Zhao Zhen's shoulder, "Wu wu wu, there's a ghost chasing me, I'm so scared."

Zhao Zhen froze in the elevator, looking speechlessly at the person hanging onto his shoulder.

The person who grabbed the door and suddenly rushed in was Zhao Jue, whom he hadn't seen in a while.

Zhao Zhen sighed, no matter how old this dead demon was, he was still young and good looking. He didn't know where he came from, he was wearing a white sweater and white pants, and his long hair was not well groomed, hanging over his shoulder as he flattened his mouth.

As Bai Jintang leaned against the elevator to watch the situation, Zhao Jue hung on to Zhao Zhen and dawdled for half a day, yelling, "I'm starving, I want to eat egg pancakes."

The corners of Zhao Zhen's mouth twitched; feeding him to Lisbon was something to consider.

"Ding."

......

The elevator stopped at the 10th floor, and then, it stopped moving.

Zhao Zhen pressed the button to open the door, but there was no response, and at the same time, the lights inside the lift started flashing.

"Wow!" Zhao Jue hung onto Zhao Zhen, "Get me out, I'm claustrophobic!"

Zhao Zhen looked to the sky, but when he did, he looked up to the top of the elevator where the lights were flashing, and in one of the gaps in the exhaust vent, he saw a fluttering, white figure.

And so, the great magician froze, staring upwards.

When Zhao Jue saw that Zhao Zhen was not moving, he also tilted his face up and looked...

"Ghost!" Zhao Jue pointed with a look of excitement, then felt that his expression might not be quite right, but he couldn't help but be excited, "It's moving!"

Bai Jintang also tilted his face up and saw a white human-shaped translucent ghost-like thing rampaging through the elevator.

Just then, a voice came over the elevator's emergency communicator, "Is there someone stuck in the elevator?"

The person who spoke was probably the security guard downstairs in charge of the elevator.

Bai Jintang replied, "Yes, it's stuck on the 10th floor."

"What floor are you going to?" The other party asked.

"SCI's floor." When Bai Jintang finished speaking, he heard a 'click' and the elevator's light went out. The emergency light came on and the light dimmed as the elevator started to travel upwards.

At the same time, they heard Zhao Zhen say, "Coming in!"

Bai Jintang looked up and Zhao Zhen opened his mouth wide as they saw the "ghost" squeezing in through the air vent.

This scene was an elevator suspended mid-air, with a white ghost pushing its way in through the vent.

Zhao Jue hung on to Zhao Zhen, "It's so exciting and scary!"

The corners of Zhao Zhen's mouth twitched, where was the fear in his excited expression?

Bai Jintang frowned and asked Zhao Zhen, "What is it?"

Zhao Zhen spread his hands, indicating that he had never seen it before either.

Zhao Jue poked Bai Jintang, "Today is the Hungry Ghost Festival."

"What festival?" Bai Jintang had obviously never heard of it.

"It's the legendary Ghost Festival." Zhao Jue reminded, and pointed to the white ghost-like thing that had already squeezed halfway in, "Ghost, ghost oh..."

Bai Jintang raised his head and stared at the white cloud, "Ghost?"

Then, they saw Big Brother Bai take off his jacket and hold it open with both hands, and it looked like he wanted to catch the ghost.

"What are you doing?" Zhao Zhen looked at Bai Jintang in surprise.

Bai Jintang's face did not change, "Catching it and giving it to Gongsun to raise."

Zhao Zhen held his forehead, while Zhao Jue clapped his hands on the side, "Good man!"

Just as Bai Jintang was about to grab the "ghost", a 'ding' was heard...

As the elevator doors opened, the SCI office was outside, and coincidentally, Bai Yutang was standing at the entrance of the elevator, holding a net in his hand, and Zhan Zhao was beside him... At the same time, they saw the "ghost" flying out along the elevator doors. The "ghost" flew out with a 'whoosh'.

"There it is!" Ma Xin reached out and pointed. Everyone tilted their faces up... and the ghost "squeezed" into the ventilation duct and disappeared.

From the elevator, Bai Jintang walked out with his hands in his trouser pockets and his suit jacket over his arm, looking at the net in Bai Yutang's hand, "What are you guys up to?"

Zhao Zhen also walked out, and Zhan Zhao caught a glimpse of Zhao Jue and frowned, "What are you doing here?"

"Came to celebrate the festival." Zhao Jue held Bai Yutang's arm and glared at Zhan Zhao, "What are you guys doing? Celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival? Was that really a ghost just now?"

Zhan Zhao wrestled his hand away and frowned, it was worse for Zhao Jue to come than for a ghost to come.

Zhao Zhen went over and asked Bai Chi what was going on, and Bai Chi told him in detail how Gongsun had "created" a ghost, and how the ghost had then escaped...

It was quite lively in the office, when suddenly, a lion's roar was heard from Bao Zheng's office upstairs, "What the hell is this?!"

......

Everyone was startled.

Then, the sound of footsteps could be heard upstairs.

"Not good." Bai Yutang turned around... Gongsun was gone.

Everyone ground their teeth together – What a quick escape!

Bai Jintang quietly leaned against the wall and lit a cigarette, where would be a good place to go for dinner later?

Bao Zheng rushed downstairs in big strides to see the SCI crowd standing in front of the office, with Bai Yutang still holding a mesh net in his hand and Zhao Jue hanging from his arm.

"Who did this?!" Bao Zheng roared out with a loud voice.

The SCI team collectively pointed at Zhao Jue... Of course, Zhan Zhao took the lead.

Zhao Jue opened his mouth wide... The police have wronged a good man!

At this time, screams came from downstairs, and all the female colleagues on the floor were screaming, "Ghost! There is a ghost ah!"

At the same time, thunder and lightning struck outside. Dark clouds were gathering, and the typhoon had really made landfall. It was dark and raining heavily, and the electricity inside the police station was unstable, so the whole police station sat in a terrifying atmosphere.

Bao Zheng's black face turned green as he pointed at Bai Yutang, "Anyway, it's your SCI who let something out, you're responsible for catching it, or else you'll all go clean the toilets for me!"

Bao Zheng, who hadn't issued a toilet-cleaning threat in a long time, dropped his sentence in anger, turned around and walked away.

Zhao Jue muttered in a low voice, "I guess I was frightened by that ghost just now."

The crowd stifled their laughter.

Bao Zheng turned around, his big black face was a little red on the edges, and he pointed at Zhao Jue, "You, come with me, don't make trouble here!"

Zhao Jue scowled, but it seemed that Bao Zheng had something in his hands, so he had no choice but to follow him. Just after taking two steps, he snuck up on Zhan Zhao and kicked him in the calf to take revenge for Zhan Zhao framing him, and then ran away without a trace.

Everyone sighed and turned around to see Gongsun walking over with a few nets and handing them out to the crowd as if nothing had happened.

Bai Yutang frowned, "One is enough, why so many?"

Gongsun rubbed his chin and showed the instruction manual to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang frowned and went over to see Gongsun's finger pointing to a row of small grey letters at the bottom – The ghost has the ability to split. Once it is exposed to air for too long, it will split. On average, one splits every half hour.

Everyone gasped and stared at Gongsun together – This is unbelievable!

Gongsun flashed behind Bai Jintang, who exhaled a puff of smoke, meaning – What? I'm used to it!

The crowd was speechless as they heard the screams getting more and more intense downstairs. Bai Yutang was helpless and waved his hand to the crowd, "Split up and look for them!"

So the SCI team split into two groups, grabbed their nets and went to catch the ghosts.

Speaking of which, how do you catch a ghost with a net? The instructions said that as long as the net was dipped in alcohol for a period of time before being taken out, the ghost would be extinguished after it touches the net.

Bai Yutang calculated the time. There were still ten minutes to go until half an hour, so it was estimated that another one would split, but if it took another half an hour, there would be four. It would be a big problem if they grew exponentially, so they had to catch the two ghosts within half an hour.

When they got downstairs, everyone frowned.

After all, police officers are also human beings. The police officers downstairs were far less calm than Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen, who had just come up in the elevator, and were frightened by a ghost that had appeared out of nowhere. The desk and chairs were overturned and papers were scattered all over the floor.

Bai Yutang felt bad, and when everyone saw the SCI officers coming down with their nets, they all yelled, "Captain Bai, are you guys up to something again?"

The officers from other sections were also upset, "It's okay for your SCI to be full of perverted killers, but this time it's outrageous, even ghosts have been created."

Bai Yutang was also in a bad mood and shot them a look.

The police officers immediately wilted, but they were obviously still not convinced. However, they heard Zhan Zhao say, "Gongsun made this happen, do you want to complain to him?"

Everyone cowered – It was really Gongsun who did it, who would dare to complain to him. The forensic room upstairs was a forbidden place, there was no returning from it.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu were with Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, followed by Jiang Ping who was holding a strange instrument.

"Where did it go?" Bai Yutang asked.

A few of the officers pointed back, probably in the direction of the reference room.

As the crowd moved forward, they heard another scream.

Bai Yutang and the others quickly rushed over following the sound, and saw the officers from the reference room rushing out.

"Where is it?" Bai Yutang asked.

An officer reached out and pointed to the escape stairs.

Bai Yutang chased after it and saw something white spiralling down the staircase from afar.

Bai Yutang leapt onto the handrail and slid down the stairs, while Ma Han chased after him.

Zhan Zhao leaned on the handrail and frowned as he watched.

He saw the ghost float downwards for some time before suddenly floating up again.

Bai Yutang and Ma Han froze, and Zhao Hu, who was at the back, took his net and slapped it down at the ghost...

The ghost was a little bit faster, so Zhao Hu didn't catch it, and the ghost flew to Zhan Zhao's floor with a 'whoosh'.

"Cat!" Bai Yutang shouted.

At that moment, Zhan Zhao was stroking his chin and staring at the ghost.

The ghost was fluttering lightly, with two holes in its face. It seemed to be fluttering with the air currents, and its face was distorted. At this time, because of the unstable electricity, the surrounding light was dim, and this white ghost was a little fluorescent.

When Zhan Zhao saw that it was not moving, he blew gently towards it...

As Zhan Zhao blew out a breath, the ghost's face separated... The whole thing floated backwards, then closed up again.

Zhan Zhao blinked, "Huh?"

At this time, Bai Yutang had already rushed up, lifted his net and swung it... That ghost was caught in the net, and at the same time... it dissipated like smoke that had been dispersed.

Bai Yutang frowned and looked around, "It's gone?"

Zhan Zhao reached out and waved his hand gently in the air, "It's cool."

Bai Yutang also felt a little chilly. Looking down, there was no powder on the ground, but the air seemed to have a humid feeling.

"Water vapour?"

"It might be some kind of very light chemical composition." Zhan Zhao looked at the alcohol-soaked net and noticed that the netting had turned blue.

"Hmm." Zhan Zhao took the net with him and went to the forensic department with Bai Yutang and the others.

Several chemical researchers in the forensics department analysed the composition of the net and told the group that it was a chemical composition that was very light and could float with the air currents, which was very dense and attracted others, thus forming the so-called "human form" and giving the illusion of a ghost.

Zhan Zhao had them analyse the ingredients carefully and write a long list for him.

When Bai Yutang and the others returned to the office, Zhao Zhen and his team also returned. It seemed that the ghost had not yet had time to "split", but it didn't matter if it split or not, as it was just a vapour made up of chemicals anyway.

Gongsun was quite depressed, he bought the ghost for 500 yuan, but it flew away before he could play with it for half an hour. If he had known earlier, he would not have opened the lid. 

Everyone was shaking their heads silently – 500 yuan for a ghost, what were you thinking?

Back in the forensic room, something even more irritating happened.

Gongsun searched up and down, but the glass jar that he had put the ghost in was gone, as were the instructions!

"Who stole it?" Gongsun was furious.

Zhan Zhao suddenly remembered something and asked Jiang Ping to call Bao Zheng to ask if Zhao Jue was still there.

The answer received was – Gone.

... At the back entrance of the police station, a black Bentley stopped and Zhao Jue got in with a box in his arms.

Bai Ye, who was waiting in the car, frowned at him, "What is it?"

"I took it in passing." Zhao Jue smiled faintly and leaned over to ask, "Are you afraid of ghosts?"

Bai Ye looked at him suspiciously as Zhao Jue hemmed and hawed… and the car drove away.

"Zhao Jue owes me five hundred yuan!" Gongsun was dissatisfied. Beside him, Bai Jintang saw that Gongsun was in a bad mood and reached out to rub his ears, "I'll buy you a few more if you want them."

Gongsun gave him a blank look, "I am not a soft eater." (Angel: A soft eater is a man who relies on a woman to survive.)

Bai Jintang nodded.

"I want five." As he said this, Gongsun took off his white coat, "I also want the witchcraft box."

Bai Jintang then nodded and took him to dinner.

Bai Yutang, who had been busy all morning, was not so lucky. He took the crowd back to continue reading the information, and when it came time to eat dinner, Gongsun brought takeout to the crowd, but looking around… Zhan Zhao was missing.

It was very windy and rainy outside. With Zhan Zhao's character it was unlikely that he would go out, so where did he go?

Bai Yutang searched the police station, but couldn't find him. Just as he was stumped, he saw that Zhan Zhao had mysteriously returned with a McDonald's takeaway paper bag.

Bai Yutang was baffled, "You went out to eat McDonald's during a typhoon?"

Zhan Zhao smiled, "It's a secret."

Bai Yutang looked Zhan Zhao up and down, "Cat..."

"Right, let's go home for dinner later." Zhan Zhao patted Bai Yutang's shoulder, "We're going to stay up late tonight anyway, so we should eat something filling."

Bai Yutang was about to reach for the bag in Zhan Zhao's hand, and asked, "Did our mother call? I'm not going unless she does, I lose my appetite when I run into the old man's black mouth and black face."

"Tsk." Zhan Zhao hid the paper bag behind him, "Don't eat junk food!"

Bai Yutang was even more puzzled – Why did he buy it if he wasn't allowed to eat it?

After a short break, the group spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the information and photos, which made their heads spin. Zhao Hu said that they were going to get depressed if they kept reading, so Bai Yutang told the group to go home for dinner and return to the SCI office before nightfall.

It was still raining, but the wind was not too strong, and it was said that the typhoon would not arrive until the evening.

When he returned home, a large table of delicious food was already prepared. Bai Yutang was a bit puzzled as to why Zhan Zhao still had that McDonald's bag with him when they went home for dinner, but the crucial thing was that he didn't let anyone look at it.

When Bai Yutang was full and took Zhan Zhao with him, Zhan Zhao told him to go home so he could grab something.

Bai Yutang waited for him in the car downstairs, but when Zhan Zhao arrived, his hands were empty, and the paper bag was gone.

Bai Yutang saw Zhan Zhao squinting and pursing his lips, smiling smugly, but he felt that his expression was the usual one after a successful prank. What was this cat so happy about?

When they returned to SCI's headquarters, they saw Bao Zheng reading the materials. Zhan Zhao had a mischievous mouth and asked, "Bao Sir, are you afraid of being alone at night? Don't be afraid, the ghost has caught and taken away."

Bao Zheng glared at Zhan Zhao, who was content and returned to his seat to read the materials, pulling out another paper bag from McDonald's from the drawer in the meantime.

Bai Yutang suddenly remembered that the head of the forensic department, Old Wang, known as Frankenstein, usually liked to eat McDonald's, and he liked to use paper bags to pack things, saying it was environmentally friendly.

He didn't think too much about it and continued to read the materials. Around ten o'clock at night, Bai Yutang's phone suddenly rang.

Bai Yutang took it out and saw that it was his mother calling, he was a bit puzzled and answered, "Hello, Mom?"

On the other side, Mother Bai asked curiously, "Yutang, what have you set up at home?"

Bai Yutang was slightly shocked, "What?"

"Oh, just now, Xiao Zhao said that there was a typhoon tonight, and his mother has been having trouble sleeping lately, so he asked me to keep her company. Your Uncle Zhan ran next door to watch football with your father… Right now, it's like the house next door is being torn apart. Your father even asked me not to go over there, saying something about catching that brat."

......

Bai Yutang was stunned for about three seconds. "Pfft", looking back, he saw Zhan Zhao stretching out two fingers and making a face at him.

Bai Yutang held back a laugh, "Mom, is there alcohol spray in the medicine cabinet?"

"There is." Mother Bai nodded. Through the phone, Bai Yutang could hear the 'ping ping pang pang' sound of banging coming from next door, the neighbours would probably complain about this noise.

"First thing tomorrow morning, take the alcohol spray and go save Dad." Bai Yutang said, "If you see anything weird, just spray it."

"Oh..." Mother Bai was confused by what she heard.

Hanging up the phone, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and the two of them slumped over the table in laughter.

Bao Zheng was a little hungry and reached for the McDonald's bag in front of Zhan Zhao, and as soon as he opened it, there was a "hu"… and a white shadow floated out.

......

Around two in the morning.

The police officers in the reference room downstairs returned to the office with a shiver.

"You look terrible." A colleague said to him.

"Don't mention it." The officer waved his hand, "Those SCI guys are getting more and more nuts."

So, in the middle of a stormy night, a number of people visited the SCI office, only to see the office dimly lit, with a dozen "ghosts" floating around in mid-air, while the SCI members below looked at various gory pictures with their materials.

The police officers silently withdrew, saying that the taste was too heavy.

Bao Zheng had long since gone back to his office, he needed to live a normal life.

However, the weirdest thing at this moment was the forensic room.

There were no lights on in the forensic room, and in the dark room, two computers were on, while various "ghosts" were floating around in mid-air.

Gongsun and Ma Xin were each holding a snack, Ma Xin was checking Luo Yang's summer homework and Gongsun was shopping online for various dark toys.

Bai Jintang had fallen asleep on the autopsy table, and Zhao Zhen was leaning against Lisbon, studying the list Zhan Zhao gave him. He was planning to use these ghosts in his latest magic trick, and the strange ghosts in mid-air were the ones he had just "conjured up".

Bai Chi, who had come out of the bathroom, wiped his hands and looked at the "ghosts" floating around in the two rooms, feeling that his life must have gone astray in some way... Sigh.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

The Bai family really isn't afraid of anything, Bai Jintang was casually napping on the autopsy table...

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: May 28, 2023 by Angel

Edited: June 27, 2023 by Angel