S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 92

Toothless Murderer 15 – Dark Mode in Full Effect

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Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao raised their heads and looked at the lax–eyed old man in front of them. At this time, the elevator door had already closed, and the three of them were sharing a closed elevator while the old man had a knife in his hand.

Fortunately, the hospital's elevators are all required to be able to accommodate at least one emergency bed, so they are quite spacious and not as narrow as ordinary elevators.

But no matter how spacious it was, there was at most one or two steps between them, and that old man raised his knife.

"Yaaaah!" Zhao Jue hid behind Zhan Zhao and grabbed the clothes on his shoulders, "I'm so scared!"

Zhan Zhao glanced at Zhao Jue speechlessly, but now was not the time to talk about this. That old man didn't seem to be very rational, lowering his head and not making any eye contact with them. Holding the knife with both hands, he rushed towards Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao instantly somewhat regretted that when Bai Yutang taught him self–defence before, he took the opportunity to touch Bai Yutang's abs, and then the lesson changed, besides... he seemed to have a gun… where did he put it again?

While he was lost in thought, the old man had already rushed up to him. Zhan Zhao then felt Zhao Jue pulling him to the side, seemingly wanting to face the old man directly.

Zhan Zhao was startled, and instinctively reached out and grabbed the knife as quickly as he could.

Although Zhan Zhao didn't have much experience in fighting, at least he was an adult male, and he was probably producing adrenaline. A thought flashed through his mind – At least don't let Zhao Jue get his hands on it!

So, not remembering the pain, Zhan Zhao grabbed the knife in the old man's hand and kicked at the old man.

Originally, they were going from the third floor to the second floor.

The elevator door had opened a long time ago, and the old man was kicked by Zhan Zhao and took several steps backward and out of the elevator.

However, the old man's hand was holding on to the knife, so Zhan Zhao felt that the knife embedded in his hand was pulled out again – It hurt so much that cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

The hospital was crowded with people, and there were a lot of people waiting at the elevator entrance. The sudden turn of events caused many people to panic, and there were also people who caught a glimpse of the bloodied knife in the old man's hand and screamed in shock.

"Security! Over here!"

At this moment, He Ying, who rushed down from upstairs the fastest, held her phone that she hadn't had time to hang up in one hand, while loudly summoning the security guards behind her.

But the old man didn't even pause when he stood firmly, and directly rushed towards the elevator.

The elevator door was closing as he rushed over. The old man's behaviour was very odd, and he seemed to have lost his mind, slamming headlong into the elevator door...

As he hit the door, it opened again.

The old man fell to the ground with a bang, and just as he was about to get up again, the door of the security staircase next to him was slammed open, and Bai Yutang rushed out and grabbed the old man's hand, twisting it behind his back.

Behind him were Bai Ye and the others who had followed him down.

The knife had fallen to the ground, and there was blood on it.

As soon as Bai Yutang saw the blood, his heart jumped to his throat. He violently turned his face to look at the elevator and saw that Zhan Zhao was frowning and looking at the old man who was restrained by him, with one hand placed in front of his body that was covered in blood, so much so that it had turned his hand red.

On the other hand, at this moment, Zhao Jue was looking down, staring at Zhan Zhao's hands.

One of Zhan Zhao's hands was covered in blood, and the other hand was blocking his view, grasping his arm, seemingly trying to hold him back. This was the action that Zhan Zhao had taken just now when he was preparing to deal with the old man's second rush over, and perhaps being too nervous, Zhan Zhao had not withdrawn his hand yet.

"Cat."

Handing the old man over to Luo Tian and the others who had rushed over, Bai Yutang rushed into the elevator to check the injury on Zhan Zhao's hand.

Zhan Zhao blinked, then jumped to his feet with a hiss, "It hurts!"

Bai Yutang's heart ached when he heard the word "hurt", and he shouted, "Doctor!"

"Aiya, you need stitches!" He Ying had Bai Yutang take Zhan Zhao to the emergency room to treat his wound.

The security guards came over to maintain order, while Gongsun, Zhan Qitian and the others all followed.

Zhan Qitian's face was very dark. Bai Yutang's mind was completely on Zhan Zhao at this time, otherwise he would definitely have felt a chill down his spine... Following the last time Zhan Zhao was shot in the leg, this is the second time he has seen his blood.

Luo Yang and Xiao Yi followed Yang Fan down, trotting behind them and looking at Zhan Zhao's bloody hand in distress.

Yang Fan, on the other hand, went to see the old man – Why would there suddenly be a madman committing murder in the hospital?!

At this moment, Bai Ye blocked the elevator door and looked in.

In the elevator, Zhao Jue was still standing, seemingly in a daze, looking at the blood on the floor.

Reaching out to pull Zhao Jue out, Zhao Zhen walked down with his hands in his pockets, asking, "Is everything okay?"

Bai Ye shrugged, "Zhan Zhao is injured."

"Ah!" Xiao Bai Chi, who followed Zhao Zhen down, jumped in shock and hurriedly ran to the emergency room.

Soon, everyone was pretty much gone.

Bai Ye looked at Zhao Jue, and saw that he was slightly narrowing his eyes, looking at the old man who was being handcuffed by Luo Tian.

The old man couldn't stop struggling, and Zhao Hu frowned, "He doesn't seem to be normal."

As he spoke, several doctors ran over.

"How did he escape?" Several doctors asked Zhao Hu and the others about the situation.

Yang Fan whispered to Qin Ou, "He's a doctor from the psychiatric department."

"This patient has a very serious mental illness, he was originally in a closed ward, I don't know how he got out." The doctors seemed to have heard that someone had been injured and knew that the consequences were serious, so they explained to Yang Fan as well as Zhao Hu and the others.

"He got out on his own?" Zhao Hu was dissatisfied, "Your hospital's management of dangerous patients is so relaxed? What if a life is lost here!"

"No, this patient was originally going to be sent to the mental hospital... The door was locked properly, I don't know why the door opened." The doctors were busy explaining.

"Someone broke the door lock and let him out on purpose?" As soon as Ma Han heard it, he knew that there must be something wrong with this attack. Was it such a coincidence that he injured Zhan Zhao?

"Is there any surveillance?" Luo Tian asked.

"Yes yes." The doctor hurriedly contacted the security office, and everyone got busy checking the footage for clues.

When Bai Ye turned back again, Zhao Jue was gone.

Bai Ye froze slightly.

Bai Yunwen, who had followed him down to see what was going on, pointed to the stairs not too far away and spread his hands at Bai Ye, pointing to his head in the process.

Bai Ye knew that Zhao Jue was going to be 'sick'.

Opening the door to the staircase, Bai Ye looked in and saw Zhao Jue standing by the window alone, his eyes staring out of the window, his fingertips unconsciously poking the window sill, and his mouth mumbling something. His eyes were lifeless, his face was gloomy, and his body was surrounded by an aura of resentment.

The corner of Bai Ye's mouth twitched – Dark mode is on.

Bai Yunwen also came and glanced inside, raising his eyebrows, "Oh, he hasn't been sick for a long time, right, last time was that time, right?" He said, not without worry, "Last time he was sick, he killed so many people, and he had to be locked up in a special prison for so long. This time, I don't know what kind of trouble he's going to stir up."

Bai Ye was also somewhat in a difficult position, "How about I take him away first?"

Bai Yunwen laughed, "You said the same thing back then, did you do it then?"

Bai Ye was speechless.

"What are you two doing?"

At this time, Bai Jintang, who had heard that Zhan Zhao was injured, also ran downstairs.

Bai Jintang's voice not only interrupted Bai Ye and Bai Yunwen, but even Zhao Jue, who was fuming, looked up.

Bai Jintang glanced at Zhao Jue and was startled – Zhao Jue's current aura was somewhat close to that of a ghost...

Zhao Jue walked out slowly, and when he stepped out of the stairwell, he began to look from side to side. Then, in a ghostly manner, he "floated" to the emergency room.

"What's going on?" Bai Jintang asked Bai Yunwen and Bai Ye in confusion.

The two sighed – It's a long story, but in short, it's troublesome.

In the emergency room.

Bai Yutang frowned as he watched He Ying stitch up Zhan Zhao.

Anaesthesia had been administered, so Zhan Zhao didn't feel as much pain as he had earlier, but with twenty stitches in the heart of his hand, the visual impact of the needle passing through his skin still made Zhan Zhao feel a little uncomfortable.

He Ying's movements were very sharp and clean, but Bai Yutang's heart was twitching as he watched, feeling unable to breathe.

"Fortunately it didn't hurt the bones." He Ying bandaged it while comforting everyone.

Wanting a distraction, Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang, "Where is that old man?"

Ma Han and the others had already reported to Bai Yutang. This old man was a severely mentally ill patient who was originally waiting to be transferred to the mental hospital, but someone deliberately broke the lock on the door of the closed ward and led him out. They had already looked at the footage, and the hospital's CCTV had indeed captured the entire process. There was a female doctor in a white coat with long hair who used a gun to open the lock of the ward door. After the old man came out, the female doctor seemed to say a few words to him, and the old man followed her.

That female doctor wore a pair of glasses and consciously lowered her head, her hair covered most of her face... so there was hardly any usable footage of her captured.

Ma Han had already asked the forensics section to come and take evidence, and the videos were sent to Jiang Ping, in the hope that he would be able to analyse some useful footage.

"There's something strange." Zhan Zhao said, "That old man is severely mentally ill, how did he choose us as the target of his attack? People with severe mental illness are poor targets for implementing hypnosis, unless..."

"Unless it's someone the other party trusts." Yang Fan walked in, holding a piece of information in his hand and handing it to Bai Yutang, "This is that old man's file."

Zhan Zhao was about to reach out to pick it up, but Zhan Qitian glared at him from behind, "Don't move!"

Zhan Zhao was so shocked that he retracted his neck. He was too focussed just now, he didn't even realise that his dad was standing right behind him.

Zhan Qitian reached out and grabbed Zhan Zhao's ear, "If you let your mother find out, you're dead!"

Zhan Zhao looked innocent, "Mom is still sick, don't stimulate her..."

Zhan Qitian glared at him again, glaring so hard that Zhan Zhao didn't dare to pick up that document again.

Bai Yutang had just received it in his hands when suddenly, a hand reached out from the side and jerked the document away.

Bai Yutang turned around, and saw Zhao Jue open the document, scan it from top to bottom, turn the page, scan it again, and turn the page... It was a thick stack of documents, and he finished reading it in about ten seconds, then shoved it back to Bai Yutang and turned around to go out again.

The crowd looked at Zhao Jue's actions in surprise.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and said to Bai Yutang, "There seems to be something strange about Zhao Jue."

Bai Yutang subconsciously looked at Zhan Qitian, and saw that Zhan Qitian was looking at the door with some concern, then he suddenly lowered his head and whispered in Zhan Zhao's ear, "I have something to say to you guys in a moment, so you and Yutang go to the lounge beside your mother's ward."

Zhan Zhao nodded blankly and exchanged a glance with Bai Yutang – What is there to hide and talk about?

When Zhan Zhao was done being bandaged, Bao Zheng had also arrived, but before he could see Zhan Zhao, he was grabbed by Zhao Jue and dragged to the side corridor.

When Bao Zheng met Zhao Jue's eyes, he was stunned, as if he had some kind of illusion. Had he gone back in time? That nightmare–like memory...

"What are you doing?" Bao Zheng asked Zhao Jue.

"Xiao Black." Zhao Jue's tone was smooth and gentle, even with a bit of a smile, which made Bao Zheng feel even more creeped out.

"Give me the information on your case this time." Zhao Jue continued to hook his hand at him, as if he was summoning a puppy.

Bao Zheng frowned, "What do you want?"

"Give it to me give it to me." Zhao Jue prodded, seeming impatient.

Bao Zheng frowned, "You want to help investigate the case?"

Zhao Jue's eyes turned slightly colder, "You want me to say it three times?"

Bao Zheng froze slightly, his eyes meeting Zhao Jue's, "Don't mess around..."

"Show me." Zhao Jue said slowly.

Bao Zheng had no choice but to hand his tablet over to Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue took it, spent about a minute, finished reading it, threw the tablet back to Bao Zheng, then put his hands in his pockets and walked away.

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked out of the emergency room, they saw Bao Zheng wiping his sweat as he walked out of the stairwell, and as soon as he saw Zhan Zhao, he pulled him back, "You take a look at me, I'm acting out of character!"

Zhan Zhao froze, "Huh?"

Bao Zheng pointed at his eyes, "I just stared at Zhao Jue for about three minutes, look at me!"

Zhan Zhao couldn't laugh or cry, "You're afraid that Zhao Jue is going to divide you?"

However, seeing that Bao Zheng insisted, Zhan Zhao still looked at his eyes and shook his head, "Everything's fine. "

"You sure?"

"Of course, Zhao Jue is still disciplined, he shouldn't divide you. Where is he?" Zhan Zhao looked around.

Bao Zheng stared at his hand and suddenly asked, "You wouldn't... have been injured to protect Zhao Jue, right?"

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow, which meant – I finally made a gentleman's move without using my mouth for once!

Zhan Qitian frowned and asked Zhan Zhao, "You were injured protecting Zhao Jue?"

"Heroic, right?" Zhan Zhao was quite happy, "Not really, it was an instinctive reaction, taking care of the elderly."

Looking again, they saw Bai Yunwen, Zhan Qitian and Bao Zheng all looking at Zhan Zhao with wide eyes, as if they had seen a ghost.

"You guys don't have to be like this ah..." Zhan Zhao felt like his pride was hurt.

Bai Yutang was helpless, looking at Zhan Zhao, "You too, don't try to be a hero at a time like this, it's only right to let Zhao Jue protect you."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "It's not like his physical strength is greater than mine! That old man is obviously schizophrenic, and can't be divided again when he's already divided..."

"Zhao Jue's physical strength is far higher than yours, right?" Bai Yutang interrupted him.

Zhan Zhao's eyes widened.

"He's right." Bai Ye held his forehead, "He's different from you, he's not only a very accurate shot but he can completely destroy that old man in seconds if he wants to."

Zhan Zhao was dissatisfied, "What do you mean different from me, is this discrimination?"

Bao Zheng rubbed his neck, "It's been a long time since I've seen him lose his temper like this, is he overreacting?"

Zhan Zhao saw Bai Yutang raising his eyebrows and looking at him, which meant – I told you to be brave and courageous, have you become handicapped this time?

Zhan Zhao bristled, "He's so superior in physical strength, why did he pretend to be so scared and hide behind me?"

Everyone was slightly stunned.

Zhao Zhen rubbed his eyebrows, "He was playing a prank..."

"I didn't expect it to be self–defeating." Bai Jintang nodded.

Looking at Zhan Qitian, Bai Yunwen and Bai Ye again, the three of them seemed to come to a realisation after looking at each other.

Bao Zheng sighed, "So that's how it is, it's somewhat like back then..."

"Back then, what back then ah?" Zhan Zhao has always been particularly sensitive to words like "back then" and "in the past", and immediately came over to ask.

"Where is he?" Zhan Qitian raised his hand and pushed Zhan Zhao to Bai Yutang, which meant – Take care of your injury and mind your own business.

Everyone looked again – Zhao Jue was nowhere to be seen.

"He went downstairs just now." Bao Zheng said.

"Gotta get him back." Bai Ye frowned, "Before he makes a mess."

At this time, He Ying packed up the emergency room and walked out. Two young nurses were walking out of the elevator and immediately ran over when they saw her, asking, "Doctor He, who's that handsome, long–haired, beautiful man?"

He Ying was stunned for a moment and laughed, "What do you want? Thinking of something delusional?"

"He's so handsome!" Several young nurses surrounded He Ying and swooned.

Bao Zheng went over and asked, "Where did you see that man?"

"Downstairs in the lobby." The young nurse said, "He asked us for directions, and he looked so handsome up close..."

"Where did he want to go?" Bai Ye interrupted the young nurses.

"He asked where the psychiatric department is..."

"Oh no."

Without waiting for the young nurses to finish, Zhan Qitian and Bai Yunwen spoke in unison, and Bai Ye had already rushed downstairs.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao felt like they were out of the loop, and asked Bao Zheng in disbelief, "What's going on?"

Bao Zheng took out his phone, "Level 1 alert ah... that madman's dark mode is switched on and it's going to affect innocent people."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other – Dark mode?

When everyone ran to the psychiatric department, Ma Han and Zhao Hu were walking out after watching the video.

"Head." Ma Han thought that Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were here to interrogate that old man, so he said, "His mental state is extremely unstable, so I don't think we can ask anything."

"Where is that old man?" Bai Ye asked.

"In the closed ward, the door is locked, and someone is guarding it..."

Ma Han and Zhao Hu pointed back, but they couldn't finish their words, because in the distance, the police officer in charge of guarding was slumped on the ground and seemed to have fainted, and the door of the closed ward was ajar.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu opened their mouths wide – How could this happen?

The crowd rushed to the door of the ward. Fortunately, the police officer was simply unconscious and uninjured.

Bai Ye pushed the door open and went in to take a look...

In the room, he saw Zhao Jue holding his chin and crossing his legs, sitting at the table, and spinning a ballpoint pen in his hand.

And on the hospital bed not far away, the old man who was originally bound to the bed with restraints, had now been stripped of his restraints and was lying like a corpse, with his eyes looking at the ceiling, not moving at all.

A couple of psychiatrists followed them in and were a bit perplexed by what they saw in front of them, going over to check on the old man's condition before looking up at the crowd in bewilderment – The old man was in a state of complete unconsciousness at this point, which was extremely abnormal.

"What did you do to him?" Bai Yutang asked Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue raised his eyelids to look at Bai Yutang, reached out, and handed over a piece of A4 paper.

Bai Yutang took the paper in bewilderment, and saw that on the paper, there was a portrait drawn with a ballpoint pen, of a woman with long hair. Although it was drawn with a ballpoint pen, it looked like a blue photograph.

Bai Yutang frowned after looking at the portrait.

Zhan Zhao also looked at it and asked Zhao Jue, "This is..."

"The person who opened the door and let him out." Zhao Jue raised an eyebrow.

"How did you draw that?" Ma Han and Zhao Hu were puzzled, the woman was very cautious and didn't leave any kind of image.

"But he saw it." Zhao Jue pouted and gestured to the old man on the bed.

At that moment, the old man suddenly convulsed and foamed at the mouth.

"Shock!" The doctors shouted, and the nurses came in and pushed the bed to the emergency room together.

"Hurry up and resuscitate!" The doctors had their hands full.

Zhao Jue watched with his chin in his hand.

Bao Zheng frowned and glared at Zhao Jue, "What did you do to him?"

Zhao Jue had a disinterested look on his face, "Cooperate with the investigation."

"You..."

"It's normal for him to go into shock." Zhao Jue said slowly, "Someone drugged him, he is simply in drug shock."

Yang Fan thought about it and turned around to leave.

Bai Ye lowered his head and whispered to Zhao Jue, "You stopped in moderation."

"No, he's been a big help this time." Zhan Zhao, however, interrupted Bai Ye.

Zhao Jue raised the corner of his mouth slightly.

Bai Yutang smiled as well, handing the portrait to Ma Han and the others to look at, asking, "Does she look familiar?"

Ma Han and Zhao Hu tilted their heads to look at the portrait, then glanced at each other with a puzzled expression – Why is it her?

‿︵‿︵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: September 17, 2023 by Angel

Edited: October 5, 2023 by Angel