S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 83

Toothless Murderer 06 – Diary

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"Diary"!

With only a one-word hint and a large box of diaries, how should they look for clues?

In the evening, Bai Yutang called the SCI members back for a group meeting.

Firstly, Bai Chi, who had returned, spoke about the situation of the two injured men in the hospital who had attacked Bai Yutang.

"They were identified as two extras." Bai Chi said, "They said that the attack on you was a scheduled performance. They only knew that it was a performance, they really didn't know that you were a police officer."

Bai Yutang frowned, "What do you mean?"

"This is the text message they showed me." Bai Chi handed the two attackers' cell phones to Bai Yutang and said, "This is the job notice they received last night, telling them to go to the dance studio there to do a motorcycle show."

Zhan Zhao also came over to read the messages.

"They said that extra performances are usually temporary contracts like this, and since the dance studio and the film and television city are very close, they're used to it and didn't suspect that it was fake."

"Film and television city?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "There is a film and television city near the dance venue?"

"It's newly built." Gongsun said, "Jintang took that piece of land and built a film and television city. It's a joint project with Lin Ruo's company, and it hasn't been long since it was completed."

"Lin Ruo..." The corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched, "Why is Brother always finding disaster stars to work with."

"On the day of the inauguration ceremony, Qi Le and the girls sang, and Jiang Nan cut the ribbon... and no one died!" Gongsun said with a smile.

The crowd couldn't laugh or cry, these ill-fated gods ah.

"Those two people said that a staff member told them that it was a complete video, so that they pretended to be motorbike assassins and took fake stun batons to attack someone..." Bai Chi continued.

"So the stun batons were fake?" Bai Yutang thought about it, but it was true, they did shatter when smashed, and were not very strong.

"Yeah, the two of them saw that the stun batons were fake, so they came to attack you without suspecting anything." Bai Chi said, "As for the two capsules, both of them took them before the afternoon performance."

"What kind of medicine?" Bai Yutang was puzzled.

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Ecstasy or something like that, right? These two were high on drugs?"

Bai Chi nodded, "Yang Fan gave them a checkup and they were high on drugs. But they said they didn't take drugs, they just took some prescription medication or something like that to have fun, so that they wouldn't get addicted easily."

Gongsun scowled, "Stupid, although this kind of drug doesn't seem to be addictive, the damage it causes to a person's nervous system is irreversible! Suicide as an avant-garde, stupid!"

Everyone nodded, it was especially nice to hear Gongsun scolding people.

"Where's the guy who hired them?" Bai Yutang asked.

"I went to investigate." Qin Ou said, "It was a middleman who specialised in arranging jobs for extras. That job was emailed to him by someone, then money was paid into his account and the job was explained to him over the phone."

"It's all true?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"We checked the email records and phone records, and it is indeed true, but the other party was very cautious and didn't leave any clues." Qin Ou was helpless.

"Those electric stun batons looked so realistic, but they were fake?" Zhan Zhao also found it unbelievable.

"They took it from a film crew." Bai Chi said, "There is a film crew in the film and television city shooting a police film, and their props are all expensive. They said that they lost a few highly realistic props. Fearing that someone would take them out to deceive people, they have already reported it to the police."

"The only simulation props are stun guns?" Bai Yutang asked one more question.

Bai Chi handed over a list of investigations, "There are also highly realistic pistols!"

Everyone frowned... If they were all lost, it wouldn't be good!

"Are we going to finish reading these diaries and newspaper clippings in three days?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and looked at the box of diaries in a daze.

"It should be possible to finish reading it." Bai Chi nodded, but the crowd was a little worried… With such a big box, will you overuse your brain, get tired and vomit blood? Besides, what can be done after reading it? Like a needle in a haystack, can you sift through so many words to find clues to rescue the next victim? Only three days...

"Cat, how about going in two separate directions? "Bai Yutang said to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded, "I also had this idea."

"What do you mean go in two separate directions?" Luo Tian and Qin Ou had never encountered this situation before and asked curiously.

"It's been a long time since we've used this trick, it's when SCI splits into two groups to carry out the work." Zhao Hu replied helpfully.

"You pick the people." Bai Yutang told Zhan Zhao.

"Chi Chi, Qin Ou and Zhao Zhen, I'll take these three." Zhan Zhao said.

Zhao Zhen, who was watching the computer department delete the videos from the sidelines, blinked and tilted his face up, "I don't think I'm from SCI..."

Zhan Zhao put a hand on Bai Chi's shoulder and looked at Zhao Zhen with a smile, "Expropriation of family members!"

Zhao Zhen was helpless.

"Let's split up in two directions." Bai Yutang said, "Cat and the others will investigate the hints given by that murderer, and we'll follow the normal path to investigate the case."

"Normal path?" Luo Tian was curious.

"Ai, it's just investigating this case as if it's a normal case." Zhao Hu hooked Luo Tian's shoulder to give him knowledge, "For example, checking the cameras near the film city ah, chasing that batch of missing props ah, as well as the people related to Chang Yan ah, the clues of this envelope ah... the clues of the cell phone ah..."

"Don't 'ah'." Ma Han slapped Zhao Hu's head.

Zhao Hu touched his head.

"You two, split up as well." Zhan Zhao suddenly interjected, "Lend me Ma Han too."

Ma Han looked at Zhan Zhao with some confusion – What's the point of having him? Qin Ou and Bai Chi were both the types with good brains, he wasn't a genius, and he was a slow reader.

"No way!" Zhao Hu hung onto Ma Han's shoulder and cried at Zhan Zhao, "Doctor, how can you tear down our CP... ouch!"

Before he finished speaking, Qi Le, who appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Zhao Hu's ears, "You're selling your rot again!" (Angel: Selling rot is a term used when two men who are straight pretend to be gay together to attract attention. This is seen all over the BL drama scene, where the two main actors will continue to act intimate as their characters off screen to keep the excitement around the series up.)

After Bai Yutang gave his orders, they split up.

Ma Xin went over to Gongsun's side, "Lord, what about us? Proceed to dissect those corpses? Wasn't that case closed?"

Gongsun stroked his chin, "Right, that case was closed, and nobody has started to die in this case yet..."

"Since everything's fine, let's go on a vacation!" Bai Jintang was very irresponsible as he yanked Gongsun to take him outside.

"Ai!" Gongsun resisted by grabbing the doorframe, "No!"

Bai Jintang frowned, "It's not like you have anything to do."

"Gongsun." Zhan Zhao suddenly said to Gongsun, "Why don't you really go on a vacation!"

"Ah?" Gongsun's eyes widened.

Bai Jintang nodded to Zhan Zhao, indicating – Good job, I didn't pamper you for nothing!

Gongsun was dissatisfied and looked back at Bai Yutang – Sure enough, Bai Yutang never had much of an opinion on Zhan Zhao's decisions.

Seeing Gongsun's incomprehension, Zhan Zhao pulled him to his side and instructed him in a low voice, "All of this happened in Brother's company, there might be some clues, you might as well follow Brother for a few days."

Gongsun thought for a moment, "It could be related to Jintang?"

"Can't say." Zhan Zhao spread his hands – Anyway, it's a thread.

Gongsun nodded, indicating his acceptance... However, the moment he nodded, he had already been dragged away by Bai Jintang.

After the two left, Ma Xin pointed at herself and looked at Zhan Zhao to ask – What about me?

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and patted her shoulder, "I want to drink lemon tea and have a salmon sandwich from the cafeteria." After saying that, he leaned back on the sofa and flipped through a diary.

Bai Chi was a little embarrassed and told Ma Xin, "I want to eat ice cream, vanilla flavoured." After saying that, he also went to read his diary.

The crowd placed their orders for the afternoon tea they wanted, and Ma Xin held a stack of orders and flattened her lips as she went to be an errand boy.

Qin Ou was in charge of reading the newspaper clippings, and he was rather meticulous.

Ma Han looked to his left and right, Zhao Hu and the others had been assigned specific investigative work by Bai Yutang and had all gone out, he was the only one still standing in the office.

Looking at Zhan Zhao, who had already started reading the diary, Ma Han hesitated, bent down, and reached out to take a diary.

But Zhan Zhao suddenly moved away from the diary in front of him and said to Ma Han, "Xiao Ma Ge, you're also on leave for three days."

Ma Han froze on the spot – He didn't understand what he meant.

Zhan Zhao pointed to Chen Jiayi and the others who were curiously looking in the doorway. Jiayi's ears were sharp, as soon as she heard that Ma Han could have a holiday, she hurriedly poked her head in to look, taking out her cell phone as she prepared to ask her agent if she had any time off.

Ma Han looked at Jiayi and the others, then turned back to look at Zhan Zhao once more – What do you mean?

"You follow Jiayi. Jiayi will work normally these days, not taking any time off." Zhan Zhao said, continuing to read the diary. The dumbfounded Ma Han was dragged away by the delighted Chen Jiayi.

As Zhan Zhao was watching, he felt someone beside him glaring at him in annoyance. He turned his face... to see Qi Le's big face.

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow – startled.

"What about me?!" Qi Le asked Zhan Zhao in dissatisfaction, "Why don't you have Hu Zi watching me?"

Zhan Zhao smiled a little, "I'll send a text message to Lan Xi later, he'll keep an eye on you in passing while keeping an eye on Chen Yu, the family expropriation is not used in vain." After saying that, he patted Qi Le's head.

Qi Le opened her mouth wide and touched her head as she looked at Zhan Zhao, "You didn't do anything, did you? Split or hypnotise."

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes and looked at her, this girl and Zhao Hu are really compatible, the two were the same.

Soon, the irrelevant people all left, leaving the SCI crowd to fight with the new case.

"You had someone keep an eye on those people, thinking they might be in danger?" Zhao Zhen arrived and sat down beside Zhan Zhao, casually picked up a diary and flipped through it, asking Zhan Zhao, "But the person on the phone said that the ones he wanted to kill were shameless people, and these girls are all kind-hearted."

Zhan Zhao rested his legs on the armrest of the sofa and smiled, "Their safety shouldn't be threatened, it's just..."

"It's just that many people die every day in S City." After assigning the tasks, Bai Yutang walked in and helped Zhan Zhao explain, "This threat of notifying after three days can become meaningless, like crouching next to the TV to watch the news, and whoever dies after three days, make a phone call to SCI. Or wait in front of the hospital, and whoever gets into a car accident three days later and is sent to the hospital to be rescued in vain and dies, make a phone call to SCI... How can you make that threat meaningful enough to actually threaten SCI?"

Zhao Zhen nodded, "Let the murder happen around us, especially around the family. This is the best demonstration, and it also shows that the other side has won beautifully."

Zhan Zhao nodded in satisfaction. At the critical moment, the Yutang translator was still the best, translating whichever paragraph he wanted to translate.

"Brother."

At this time, Bai Chi, who had already finished reading a diary, raised his head and said to Zhan Zhao, "Chang Yan's character seems to have remained unchanged from childhood to adulthood, and her diary is purely note-taking in nature, with basically no record of feelings, or very little... Some of them are like work notes."

Zhan Zhao nodded, indeed, Chang Yan was actually not a sentimental type... or rather, even if she was sentimental, she was not the kind of person who would use pen and paper to express her feelings. What she wrote was all narrative text such as what she did that day, what she ate, what the weather was like, and what kind of people she ran into.

"There's no emotional ups and downs, and I can't find a point." Bai Chi flipped through the second book while asking Zhan Zhao, "Brother, do you have any special points?"

"Points?" Zhan Zhao turned over and looked at Bai Chi with a smile.

"For example, emotional ties, strangers she met, her fans, or something... that needs special attention?" Bai Chi asked.

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "Just read it aimlessly, don't get too tired." While saying this, he touched Bai Chi's head and asked Qin Ou, who had finished flipping through a newspaper clipping, "What kind of feelings do the newspaper clippings give you?"

Qin Ou raised his head, "There is very little content with text, most of it is just pictures, it's posted very economically."

"Economical?" Zhan Zhao was curious, "What does that mean?"

"It means... I've helped Xiao Yi make newspaper clippings, which are required in their art class. Newspaper clippings are mostly about typography, artistry, beauty and whatnot... but Chang Yan pasted one wherever there was space, it's so full that there isn't even a little gap..."

"Oh?" Zhan Zhao reached out, "Let me see."

Qin Ou handed a copy over to him.

Zhan Zhao flipped through it and smiled, "There's a little bit of OCD, but yeah... she didn't make these newspaper clippings to record anything or express anything... just simply to collect information."

"Information?" Bai Yutang thought there was a clue, "What kind of information?"

"Similar to the material I have to collect for writing, these newspaper clippings of hers should be used to provide inspiration for music creation." Zhan Zhao put down the newspaper clippings, stood up, and began to slowly circle around SCI's office.

The crowd then watched as Zhan Zhao, with his hands behind his back, circled around the desk at a very slow pace, muttering to himself, "Diary?"

Then he went back for another spin and uttered another, "Diary..."

"Chief."

Jiang Ping couldn't help but raise his head and say to Bai Yutang, "Dr. Zhan is good at talking to himself, if he goes on like this for another ten or twenty years, will he be the same as Zhao Jue?"

Bai Yutang looked up and said, "Cat."

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao stopped and looked at him.

Bai Yutang beckoned, meaning – Come over here.

Zhan Zhao walked over.

Bai Yutang patted the desk.

Zhan Zhao sat down on the desk.

At this time, Ma Xin arrived with afternoon tea she bought for the crowd.

Bai Yutang shoved the iced lemon tea and sandwich into Zhan Zhao's hands.

Zhan Zhao sat on the desk and nibbled on the sandwich.

"Have you thought of anything?"

When Zhan Zhao finished nibbling on his sandwich, Bai Yutang suddenly received a text message, and after glancing at it, he looked up and asked Zhan Zhao.

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "I don't feel much motivation..."

"You need motivation?" Bai Yutang laughed, picking up his phone and sending a text message before handing it over to him.

Zhan Zhao took the phone and looked at it, and saw two text messages.

One was sent to Bai Yutang's phone and read, "What's the prompt?"

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly, although it was a very ordinary sentence, inexplicably, these few irrelevant words arranged in such a way reeked with a strong sense of wanting to be beaten.

Glancing at the sender, sure enough – Zhao Jue!

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes and saw Bai Yutang reply – Diary.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, "How can you tell him about the case, he's a bad guy!"

Bai Yutang stroked Zhan Zhao's head, "That bad guy is your motivation, if he guesses it first, Cat, you'll lose face."

After saying that, Bai Yutang went to the side to help read the diaries.

Zhan Zhao crossed his arms and sat on the counter – Diary... maybe...

"Wait!"

At this moment, Zhan Zhao suddenly swooped over and searched through all of the diaries in the box, arranging them according to year, month, and day, and raised an eyebrow, "There's one missing!"

Everyone looked at each other in disbelief – How could it be missing? The months are all correct.

"There's a problem with the date!" Bai Chi quickly scanned through the numbers, "There are a few days missing, there should be a very, very thin book that she specially singled out and wrote."

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin, "I know where that book is!"

At this time, Bai Yutang's mobile phone meowed again.

Bai Yutang glanced at it, smiled faintly, and handed the phone to Zhan Zhao to see.

He saw that it was from Zhao Jue, and the content was – Is the diary complete? Is there anything missing?

Zhan Zhao raised the corners of his mouth.

Bai Yutang replied to Zhao Jue, and he saw that it said – Cat thought of it before you did.

Zhan Zhao nodded in satisfaction.

Not a moment later, there was another meow, and he saw that Zhao Jue sent an annoyed emoticon.

Both corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth curled up.

Bai Yutang asked him, "Good motivation?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Another text message was sent over, from Zhao Jue once again – I know where the little diary is.

Bai Yutang replied – Zhan Zhao already said that.

......

A few moments later, Zhao Jue sent a table flipping emoji.

Crossing his arms, Zhan Zhao snatched the phone away, sent a few words over, put down the phone, and tugged on Bai Yutang, "Let's go, let's find the diary!"

The SCI crowd curiously came over to look at Bai Yutang's phone, and saw that the few words that Zhan Zhao had sent were – Zhan Zhao complete victory!

The crowd silently glanced at each other, this time, it's Zhao Jue's turn to be motivated, right?

......

In the luxurious private room on the top floor of the Bai Group's hotel, Bai Ye looked helplessly at Zhao Jue who was smashing his mobile phone and cursing at the same time – Running all the way back just to look for trouble! Why did they come all the way back?

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Enjoy the bickering between Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, there's so many great moments and scenes between the two during this case. ♥♥♥

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

Translated: August 20, 2023 by Angel

Edited: August 24, 2023 by Angel