S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 96

Toothless Murderer 19 – Last Leg 

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Xie Tianlang.

This name was like some sort of switch. Once pressed, it would pull back that dark curtain. Behind the curtain, there was a huge net, and at the end of the net, was the truth that everyone had been chasing after.

From the appearance of Zhao Jue, to getting closer and closer to the bottom of the mystery, over the past few years, Zhan Zhao and the others have already made enough mental preparation. No matter what kind of secret it is, it resulted in creating tragedy after tragedy, and no matter who the person behind the curtain is, the time has come to make him pay the price, in order to pay homage to the innocent lives that have been sacrificed.

Once again arriving at the special prison, standing in front of that long steep slope, everyone tilted their faces up, with some inexplicable emotion in their hearts.

The special prison on the top of the hill had the tightest security system in the world, with reinforced steel bars and iron locks, imprisoning a group of extremely dangerous creatures. These creatures have intelligence or power above ordinary humans, only they didn't use these for the benefit of mankind, but chose destruction instead.

Bao Zheng led the crowd to embark on that long steep slope. Every time the crowd walked up this steep slope, they had the understanding that this was a dividing line between good and evil, and at the top, it was not the world of human beings. Those who live at the top are often not gods, but devils.

At the entrance of the special prison, there were three layers of tight security inside and three layers outside, checking the documents of the crowd layer by layer, and requiring all sorts of fingerprint and iris recognition to confirm their identities. It took close to an hour just to pass through the various layers of checkpoints.

Zhao Jue had his hands in his pockets and surveyed the surroundings with a smile.

When he entered the last door, Bai Yutang suddenly asked Bai Ye, "If I let you in, can you come out?"

Bai Ye looked at Bai Yutang, smiled slightly, and did not say anything.

In front of them, Zhao Jue also smiled with an unclear meaning.

This time, unlike the meeting room where they had previously met Deng Che, the group rode a huge metal elevator to another place, surrounded by reflective metal walls. At a glance, there was nothing but reflections.

A woman in a white coat walked out, she was in her thirties, and very pretty and elegant.

"Director Bao." The woman greeted Bao Zheng before her gaze fell on Zhao Jue, "Long time no see."

Zhao Jue slithered behind Bai Yutang, poking half his head out to take a look at her.

Zhan Zhao looked at him with some confusion.

Like a kitten standing on a table and shooing away a dog wagging its tail underneath, Zhao Jue stretched out his hand and kept waving it at the female doctor, "Why is it you? You've been promoted?"

The woman smiled and went to nod at Bai Ye, "Long time no see."

Bai Ye nodded lightly, still expressionless and cold.

"Hello." The female doctor shook Bai Yutang's hand, "I'm Fu Min, the head of the special prison ward."

Bai Yutang shook her hand, "Ward area, what are you in charge of?"

Fu Min reached out and gently pushed up her glasses, "Very keen? I'm not a doctor, I'm a scientist."

Bai Yutang did not pursue the matter in detail, and roughly introduced the group to her.

Fu Min smiled as she shook hands with Bai Jintang, "Do you remember me?"

Bai Jintang nodded gently.

Everyone was curious, did this person know Bai Jintang?

Afterwards, Fu Min shook Gongsun's hand, "Long time no see."

Gongsun blinked, Fu Min – it seems like he's heard this name somewhere before.

Lastly, there was Zhan Zhao.

Fu Min held Zhan Zhao's hand and took a good look at him, then smiled, "I've heard a lot about you."

Zhan Zhao searched his memory bank and asked, "Fu Min... that authority on genetics?"

Gongsun also remembered, having read her research reports before, she was very low–key but highly accomplished.

"Why would such a famous person be the head of a ward in a prison?" Zhao Hu was curious.

"Because research materials are abundant here." Fu Min winked, while waving at Zhao Jue, "Come sit in my office, I've prepared the tea you like to drink."

Zhao Jue glanced at her and hid behind Zhan Zhao.

The crowd was a little curious, was she familiar with Zhao Jue?

"I'm his student." Fu Min introduced herself while showing the crowd the way, "I studied under him when I was in graduate school, and I worshipped him like crazy back then, and of course... still do now."

Everyone looked at Zhao Jue again.

Zhao Jue slanted a glance at Bao Zheng, "Why did you transfer her here?"

Bao Zheng spread his hands, "It's not just her, you'll probably want to jump when you see that person soon."

Zhao Jue was slightly stunned. At this moment, Fu Min pushed open a metal door.

"Oh! My honey!"

The crowd had just entered the door when they heard a call so disgusting that it made their skin crawl. When they looked again, a white figure jumped out.

Zhan Zhao saw that white shadow pouncing on him, but fortunately Bai Yutang was sharp and yanked Zhan Zhao aside, while Bai Ye also yanked Zhao Jue aside, and Ma Han, who was walking at the end of the line, yanked Zhao Hu, who was still dazed, in front of him to block... so Zhao Hu was unfortunately pounced on by that white shadow.

"Wa!" Zhao Hu then saw a person hanging over him, "Who are you?"

The person looked up, pushed up his glasses, squinted his eyes and examined Zhao Hu for a moment. Expressing that he didn't recognise him, he turned back, grinning at Zhao Jue, "Honey, long time no see, you're so cold!"

Zhao Jue jumped as soon as he saw him, "White–haired monkey!"

"Nasty!" The man turned back around and looked at Zhao Jue with a smile, but his facial expression was a bit grim, "Treating an old friend like this."

Zhao Jue narrowed his eyes, and his expression was even more sinister than his, "You want to die."

After he finished speaking, the man in white hung onto Fu Min in a pouty manner, "Hate it, he's still so unlovable!"

Fu Min helplessly patted him as a sign of comfort.

The crowd looked at the man again. He was wearing a white coat and was dressed similarly to Fu Min, but he was much older, he looked like he should be in his fifties. He was of foreign origin, similar to an Eastern European, quite tall, but not fat, and he had a head of short silvery grey hair, a handsome old man.

He had pale grey eyes and a high nose, a pair of rimless glasses, with a somewhat mirrored effect to the lenses. It's not clear whether it was deliberate or not, but you can barely see his eyes when they're pushed up.

"Are you wearing contacts or..." Zhan Zhao suddenly came over to look at his eyes.

Only then did the crowd notice that the old man had a pair of grey eyes with some green and brown flecks in them, and it seemed that the irises were coloured.

"Pretty?" The man asked Zhan Zhao with a smile.

Zhan Zhao raised his eyes to look at him and rubbed his chin, "It looks like a chipmunk..."

"Pfft..." Zhao Jue held the tea Fu Min gave him and had just taken a sip when he couldn't help but spray it out and stomp his feet in laughter.

That old man glanced at Zhan Zhao and laughed, "Aiya, his character is really bad."

"Oh... you are Bai Yutang." The old man held Bai Yutang's hand with both hands and shook it up and down one after another, "Honour honour."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly, not understanding, "Honour?"

"It's 'it's an honour to meet you' you idiot." Zhao Jue kicked him.

"Ha ha, my Chinese isn't very good." The old man introduced himself, "My name is too long, so I usually just go by Mura for short."

"Mura?" Zhan Zhao frowned in thought and suddenly brightened up, "Mura Hratovsky?"

"Huh?" The old man looked at Zhan Zhao with a malicious smile, "I'm surprised that you know."

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao in a low voice, "Who is he?"

Zhan Zhao blinked, "One of the best psychologists in the world."

"Psychologist? Is he one of those ordinary psychologists or one of those perverted types of psychologists?" Zhao Hu's mouth twitched, thinking that he could be another monster.

"Monster." Zhan Zhao replied very simply, "People call him the Silver Eyed Monster."

Everyone silently sighed – Another monster.

"Aiya, there's no need to be nervous, it's not good to be compared to you youngsters when you're old." Mura grinned as he held his own coffee cup and went over to Bai Ye, "Yo!"

Bai Ye glanced at him.

Mura leaned over to look at the pupils of his eyes, reaching into his pocket and fishing out a magnifying glass to observe Bai Ye's irises, "Hmm, the ageing phenomenon still hasn't appeared ah, it's really a finished product!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other, it's a finished product again.

The old man seemed to know Bai Jintang as well. He went to his side and used the magnifying glass to look at his irises, frowning, "Aiya, the second lock has been unlocked ah?"

Bai Jintang raised his eyebrows slightly and greeted him politely, "Long time no see."

"Aiya, still so well–behaved ah, good good." The old man reached out and gently patted Bai Jintang's head, and the crowd couldn't help but draw a breath of cool air – What a bizarre way of getting along.

"Everyone knows each other, right?" Feeling that they were reminiscing about the past, Bao Zheng asked Mura, "We want to meet Xie Tianlang."

"Xie Tianlang, ah." Mura smiled slightly, "Good timing to come oh, he may be dead in a few days."

Everyone frowned and glanced at each other – Could Xie Tiancheng's sudden appearance have anything to do with Xie Tianlang's imminent passing?

"The theory that there is a certain bond between twins is not unheard of." Mura seemed to be able to tell what was on the minds of the crowd. He smiled, reached out, picked up a pipe, and held it in his mouth, "But... the two brothers, Xie Tiancheng and Xie Tianlang, as far as I know, have a fundamental difference."

"What does that mean?" Bai Yutang asked Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue spread his hands, "One is a test subject and one isn't."

"That is to say, Xie Tiancheng should now have the appearance of an almost ninety year old man, instead of having a youthful appearance like Xie Tianlang?" Bai Yutang asked.

"About the youthful appearance thing," Fu Min laughed dryly and opened a safe with multiple codes, taking out a magnetic card, "let's go and take a look before we say anything."

Zhao Hu frowned as he watched Fu Min press n buttons in a row to enter the password just now, and couldn't help but ask, "How many digits is the password for this safe?"

"Ninety–six digits." Bai Chi said.

The corner of Zhao Hu's mouth twitched, looking at Bai Chi, "You remembered it?"

"Mhmm." Bai Che nodded.

Fu Min smiled and reached out to touch Bai Chi, "Aiya, the young boy is so cute!"

Zhao Zhen pulled Bai Chi aside to save him from being taken advantage of by the weird aunt.

Fu Min propped up her glasses to look at Zhao Zhen, "Aiya, there's such obvious genetics!"

Zhao Zhen, on the other hand, looked down at something and marvelled, "Ah? Already thirty–eight years old..."

"Ah!" Fu Min snatched the ID card that Zhao Zhen had quietly stolen and hid it, "Nasty!"

After that, the group walked out of that office with the classified instruments together and stepped into the bare corridor once more.

"Won't we get lost walking here?" Zhao Hu looked around at the labyrinthine metal passageway with no reference points at all.

"There are precise signposts." Saying that, Fu Min pointed to the metal wall on the side. Everyone went over to look at it, and they saw that there were some skeletonised numbers on the wall.

Zhao Hu blinked and asked, "What's this?"

"Time direction." Zhan Zhao said, "If you bring a watch, you won't get lost, but you'll have to convert it through time."

Fu Min smiled faintly.

The corner of Zhao Hu's mouth twitched, "Does that mean that only geniuses can walk in or out of here?"

"Sure enough, there are no fools in SCI." Fu Min laughed.

The crowd looked at each other in disbelief. Except for Zhan Zhao, Bai Chi and a few of them, they all had a feeling of having travelled to another dimension – they were so tired and wanted to go back to the world of human beings!

Walking through the long corridor, the crowd arrived at the door of a ward.

Fu Min took out her magnetic card and entered another ninety–six–digit password.

Bai Yutang asked, "Is the password different for each ward?"

"Yes." Fu Min nodded.

Everyone sighed silently. It was necessary to remember a ninety–six digit password for each ward, it was obvious that it was not easy to be the person in charge here, they had to have at least as much memory as Bai Chi. In that case... Fu Min's IQ should be very high.

Gongsun suddenly asked Zhao Jue curiously, "What are your criteria for picking a graduate student?"

Zhao Jue smiled mischievously, and pointed to his head.

Gongsun raised his eyebrows in understanding – Sure enough.

The door to the ward opened, and inside was an open and bright environment, with surroundings that seemed to mimic the light of the sky, which was similar to the bright light outside at this moment.

The ward was not a hospital bed, but another small ward, surrounded by airtight glass. There was a communication device outside, and inside the airtight glass ward, there were a large number of instruments. There was a bed in the middle of the instruments, and on the bed was a person whose body was full of all sorts of tubes... or rather, it was a mummy?

The crowd stood in front of the glass room and frowned at Xie Tianlang on the bed.

Completely different from the sexy beauty with big wavy curls in their memories, at this time, he was withered and so thin that only a skeleton was left.

"How could this happen?" Bai Yutang frowned. In fact, it hadn't been that long since their previous case. What kind of force could make a person instantly age like this, as if they were a machine with a depleted battery.

"Instant ageing..." Zhan Zhao frowned, "Is it a side effect of being a half–finished product? Or rather, the price of entering into a contract?"

"He he." Mura laughed, reaching out and gently tapping a button next to the microphone, "Xie Tianlang, wake up, someone's here to see you."

After a long time, the crowd saw the eyes of that mummy slowly open.

That pair of eyes was also clearly devoid of life, and its lax gaze swept past the crowd, before finally landing on Zhao Jue.

After a long time, Xie Tianlang opened his mouth and asked, "It's been a long time since I've seen so many people, he he, my body doesn't seem to be doing well anymore, is it a side effect of the experiment?"

He spoke in a voice similar to that of an old, aged man, low, hoarse, and slow...

Zhan Zhao was a little puzzled – Xie Tianlang's speech was a little odd.

Mura looked at Bai Yutang and raised an eyebrow at him, which meant – Ask whatever you want.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao walked over to the microphone and said, "Do you have any last wishes?"

The crowd looked at Zhan Zhao with some curiosity, this question was unexpected.

Zhao Jue, on the other hand, smiled, and on the side, Bai Ye glanced at Xie Tianlang in the glass room, and a faint trace of mockery flashed through his emotionless eyes.

Bai Chi, who was standing beside him, keenly observed this, not quite understanding the meaning expressed by this look.

"Last wish ah..." Xie Tianlang nodded, "Will you help me kill someone?"

Everyone frowned, should they say that a dog can't change its ways or what? This person was almost dead and still thinking about killing.

"Kill who?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"My younger brother." Xie Tianlang said, "Tiancheng."

"Why do you want to kill him?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Xie Tianlang stared at the sky light imitating lamp on the ceiling, and after a moment of silence, said, "We came together, it's only logical that we should leave together too."

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang asked, "Where is your brother?"

"He he." Xie Tianlang laughed, "Where else could he be? Hiding in a cave."

"In a cave?" Bai Chi was puzzled.

"Things like him that will never see the light of day for the rest of his life, it's natural for them to hide in a cave." Xie Tianlang replied casually, and after that, as if he remembered something, he asked, "Zhao Jue, was your experiment successful?"

Everyone frowned slightly and looked at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue stroked his chin and seemed to find it interesting, "Did his memory degrade as well?"

"Recession and confusion happened at the same time." Fu Min took out a thick medical record and handed it to Zhao Jue.

Gongsun curiously came closer to look, and saw that there was a lot of data recorded in it.

Bai Yutang felt that Xie Tianlang's state seemed like he could die at any time, so he asked, "Where is Xie Tiancheng?"

Xie Tianlang looked at Bai Yutang and frowned, seemingly in some confusion.

"Where is he?" Bai Yutang pursued.

"You..." Xie Tianlang cocked his head.

At this moment, the data and wavy lines on the instruments became violently undulating.

"He's experiencing a rejection reaction!" Fu Min quickly pressed the button on the machine.

"Oh? The password turned out to be this." Mura was not nervous, stroking his chin as he observed Xie Tianlang.

"Cave... in the cave." Xie Tianlang said, then suddenly began to spasm, before his body convulsed violently, his mouth slurring something, "Bai... Bai..."

Zhan Zhao frowned, and inexplicably thought of the previous dying Deng Che, who also uttered the word "eye..." before suddenly dying.

At this time, the alarm sounded loudly.

The side door opened, and a large number of white–clothed medical personnel ran in, opening the glass door to provide first aid.

Fu Min was recording the data, while Mura was watching the fluctuating curves on the electronic instruments repeatedly with interest, as well as the data that was changing drastically, muttering to himself, "Is the self–destruct system activated..."

Just as his words finished, all the turbulence on the electronic instruments came to an abrupt end, and was replaced by a long and calm "du...".

Looking inside the ward again, one of the medical staff looked up and shook his head at Mura and the others outside.

Fu Min nodded and the group began to remove the tubes from his body.

Fu Min recorded the time of death.

Everyone left the ward.

Zhao Jue stroked his chin, "In a cave? Which hole?" Saying this, he asked Bai Ye, "Why don't I remember, has my memory deteriorated too?"

Bai Ye spread his hands and expressed that he wasn't sure either.

Mura and Fu Min both shook their heads as well, "Never heard of it."

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, who was obviously confused as well.

Zhao Hu muttered to Ma Han in a low voice, "After all this, it's the same as coming to see him off for the last time ah..."

Before his words were finished, Zhan Zhao suddenly asked him, "What did you just say?"

Zhao Hu froze.

Ma Han repeated it for him, "After all this, it's the same as coming to see him off for the last time ah."

Suddenly, Zhan Zhao, Zhao Jue and Mura, each with one hand, slapped Zhao Hu's shoulder and said, "Genius!"

After saying that, Zhan Zhao dragged Bai Yutang and headed out. The others followed them out, mostly baffled.

Zhao Hu scratched his head at the back with a bewildered look, what's the situation?

Ma Han reached out and patted him on the head, asking, "What does it feel like to be praised as a genius by three geniuses?"

Zhao Hu thought for a moment and seemed to reminisce for a while, then puffed out his chest, "Cool!"

‿︵‿︵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 25, 2023 by Angel

Edited: November 2, 2023 by Angel