S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 97

Toothless Murderer 20 – Failed

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Zhan Zhao dragged Bai Yutang all the way out of the special prison. When he reached the gate, he stood at the top of the hill and began to look out in all directions.

Bai Yutang looked at him with some confusion, "Cat, what's wrong?"

Zhan Zhao stood on the hill and asked Bai Yutang, "From the opposite side, where can you see this place most clearly?!"

Bai Yutang was a little puzzled and asked Zhan Zhao, "Looking here?"

"Mhmm." Zhan Zhao nodded.

Bai Yutang raised his eyes and looked at the barren mountain in front of him. Because there had been a sniping incident previously, all the sniping positions on the opposite mountain were equipped with cameras, and there was a duty room at the bottom of the mountain as well, "It's unlikely that someone could lie in ambush somewhere close by, but if you're talking about the field of view..."

Saying that, Bai Yutang stretched his hand out and pointed to a high mountain in the distance, "That mountain is a possibility."

At this moment, Fu Min took out a pair of binoculars. Zhao Jue took them and held them up for a moment, then blinked, "It's so dark!"

Bai Ye glanced at him speechlessly and brought the binoculars over, taking the lens caps off and looking through them himself.

After a while, Bai Ye pulled down the binoculars, "There's a box on that hill with reflections in it, and judging by the shape, it should be high powered camera equipment.

"There are abandoned air–raid shelters on the mountain." Ma Han said. He had led men to that mountain once before to look for snipers, and had seen the entrances to a few air–raid shelters. They had been built years ago, but had since been abandoned, and there weren't many people who would go there.

The crowd glanced at each other, descended the hill and got into the car to drive to the bottom of that mountain.

After getting out of the car, Zhan Zhao looked for a cable car like always, and Bai Yutang dragged him up the mountain.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu walked ahead, glancing in the direction of the special prison as they went, stopping when the line of sight was almost level, as Zhan Zhao had said.

"Almost there?" Zhao Hu asked Ma Han.

Ma Han walked up a few steps, looked around, and nodded, "Almost..." Before his words were finished, he looked at a tree to the side.

The crowd came up at this time, and Ma Han pointed to a tree on the side.

Everyone tilted their faces up to look at it, and they saw that the tree was set up with a bellows–like object, which looked like an air collector or some other device.

Zhao Hu climbed up the tree to the side to look into the vent and popped down, "Camera equipment."

Bai Ye nodded, it should be what he had just seen with the binoculars.

Zhan Zhao looked into the forest around them and said, "Find the nearest cave entrance."

Thus, the crowd spread out to find the entrance.

Bao Zheng stood on the side of the road, stroking his chin as he looked around, wondering, "Is it possible that Xie Tiancheng is hiding here?"

"It should be." Zhan Zhao nodded.

"Why? Monitoring Xie Tianlang?" Bao Zheng didn't quite understand.

"It's to wait for death." Zhao Jue said indifferently.

"Head."

At this time, Ma Han seemed to have found something on his side and beckoned to the crowd.

Everyone ran over... and saw that there was a hole with a diameter of roughly half a metre or so that appeared on the mountainside.

After visually measuring the distance between this hole and the camera equipment over there, Zhan Zhao nodded, "This is probably the place."

"We'll find out if we go down and take a look." Saying that, Bai Yutang drew his gun, implying that he would be the first to go down.

"Ai." Zhan Zhao suddenly stopped him and pointed to the cave entrance, "You stand here, you're not allowed to go."

Bai Yutang looked confused, "Why?"

Zhan Zhao tugged on Bai Ye as well, making him stand beside Bai Yutang, "You're not allowed to go either."

Bai Ye and Bai Yutang looked at each other.

"Pfft." To the side, Mura was suddenly delighted, with his arm around Zhao Jue's shoulders, "Ah, his character is just as bad as yours."

Zhao Jue gave him a blank look.

Thus, Luo Tian drew his gun and went down first.

Bai Yutang protested with his eyes to Zhan Zhao, who reached out and patted his shoulder, "Be good, wait here."

Bai Yutang looked at the sky.

Bai Ye was indifferent. He went to find a tree nearby and leaned against it to look at the scenery.

Bao Zheng called the SWAT team for backup and stopped the crowd from going down, "What if there's a trap? Wait for the SWAT team to arrive."

"What if that person runs away?" Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow at him.

Bao Zheng struggled for about five minutes before finally nodding his head and signalling for the crowd to be careful and send a few down to take a look first.

However, everyone expressed their intention to go down. Qin Ou was the first to jump down, and after a preliminary check, he came up and said, "No bombs capable of blowing up the entire mountain were found in this section of the cave."

Thus, the crowd went down together, leaving only Bai Yutang and Bai Ye both staring blankly at each other at the top.

Bai Yutang crossed his arms and stared blankly at the cave entrance, while Bai Ye took out a cigarette and lit it to kill time. For a while, the atmosphere was a bit awkward.

Zhan Zhao and the others entered the air–raid shelter.

It was pitch black down there. Everyone took out their cell phones to light their way, but the inside of the air–raid shelter was like a maze, with many corridors.

The crowd was a little unsure of the direction.

Bao Zheng looked at the crowd who were looking around like headless flies and shook his head, "Do you guys have any common sense?"

Everyone looked back at Bao Zheng.

Bao Zheng pointed to the stone slabs on the ground: vertical stone slabs indicated access routes, while horizontal stone slabs indicated dead ends.

The crowd looked at Bao Zheng with an expression of "Is there such a thing?"

Bao Zheng looked at the sky.

"He should be hiding in a dead end somewhere, right?" Zhao Jue asked, "Why are there so many forks in the road?"

"Hhmm..." Zhan Zhao thought about it, and at that moment, he heard Luo Tian ask, "Do you guys hear anything?"

Everyone froze and held their breath to listen.

"Mhmm." Bai Jintang nodded. There was a kind of "drip–drip–drip" sound, which sounded like some kind of machinery.

"Could it be a bomb?" Zhan Zhao suddenly said.

The corners of everyone's mouths twitched as they looked at Qin Ou.

Qin Ou scratched his head. This sound didn't sound like it was counting seconds, and the structure of this air raid shelter wasn't suitable for a bomb at all, it wouldn't be very lethal if it blew up... But Zhan Zhao winked at him, so Qin Ou stayed quiet.

Zhao Jue suddenly said, "It's not impossible. For example, if you step on a certain stone slab and then it explodes, killing everyone in the cave or something."

Bao Zheng drew a breath of cold air and grabbed everyone, "All of you, get out of here!"

......

Finally, at the entrance of the cave, Bai Yutang saw the crowd crawling out again one after another, squatting at the entrance of the cave and waiting.

Bao Zheng was the last one to come up, scolding Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, while waiting for the SWAT team to provide backup.

After about another ten minutes of waiting, a group of SWAT officers brought some instruments over, and Qin Ou and Luo Tian led the men down.

After about ten more minutes, Luo Tian ran up and said, "Found it."

"Found the person or the bomb?" Zhan Zhao asked him.

Luo Tian couldn't laugh or cry, "Person."

"Are you sure there's no bomb?" Bao Zheng asked.

Luo Tian shook his head, "No, but he seems to be dying, the dripping sound we just heard was the sound of some electronic instruments."

"Dying?" Bao Zheng was startled.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue looked up at the sky.

Bao Zheng looked at the two of them, "Did you two know that he was dying or something?"

Luo Tian hesitated for a moment and said, "He appears to have committed suicide, and, the method is a bit strange."

Bao Zheng was even more puzzled.

"Let's hurry up and go in." Gongsun couldn't help but be curious, thinking to himself, if you guys keep talking about them, they might really die.

Everyone went down one after the other. Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao, "I'm going too."

Zhan Zhao thought about it and hooked his finger to a SWAT team member who was packing up on the side.

The SWAT team member came over.

"Lend me the mask and bulletproof vest."

The SWAT team member didn't quite understand, but still took off his own gear and his mask and handed them over to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao handed them to Bai Yutang, "Put them on."

Bai Yutang was puzzled.

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes, "You're not allowed to enter unless you wear them!"

Bai Yutang was speechless, so he could only go to the side and put them on.

Zhao Jue was somewhat curious, stroking his chin, "Bai Yutang is so obedient ah?"

After saying that, he yanked on Bai Ye, who was ready to sneak in, and pointed to a SWAT team member watching from the side, "Take it off and give it to him!"

Helpless, Bai Ye also went to change his clothes and cover his head.

Although the crowd didn't understand what kind of drugs Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue were selling, since the two of them had arranged it this way, then there must be a reason for them.

After everything was prepared, the four people who were left at the end went down together.

At this moment, Mura, Fu Min and Gongsun had already arrived.

On the ground, there was a route that the SWAT team used fluorescent tape to mark out for the crowd, and following the direction indicated by the tape, the crowd soon came to an alleyway.

This was originally supposed to be a dead end, but someone had built a wall here, partitioned off a room, and installed a moving door. The colour and material of the door were all similar to that of the wall, so if it was closed, it was pretty unlikely that it would be discovered.

The path at the entrance as well as the main route outside were all equipped with cameras in hidden corners. The facilities were very complete.

Walking to the door of the room, Zhan Zhao turned back to Bai Yutang and Bai Ye, "Don't talk for a while."

Bai Yutang nodded. He sensed that Zhan Zhao seemed to not want Xie Tiancheng to see him or Bai Ye, and as for the reason, he probably guessed some of it.

The group entered the room and found that it was also a medical ward, with bright, white lights.

There was a pale old man lying on the bed, and beside the bed there was a variety of equipment that was no less complex than that of the special prison ward, as well as... an object similar to a syringe.

Fu Min walked over and said to the crowd, "He just injected himself with venom, he can probably last another five minutes."

"What?!" Bao Zheng was shocked.

"Originally, these venoms were able to sustain him for half an hour, and the time of his injection... seems to be a little early." Saying this, Fu Min pushed up her glasses and glanced at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue looked at the sky.

Bao Zheng then ground his teeth and looked at the two of them. It was evident that Xie Tiancheng had turned on the venom injection machine on his own after seeing them come down, but he didn't expect that Zhan Zhao would dawdle and take more than twenty minutes before coming down, and now, there were only five minutes left.

"He he." Zhao Jue laughed, walked to the bedside and asked Xie Tiancheng "Not everything in this world is within your calculations, right? How does it feel to be waiting to die?"

Xie Tiancheng was lying on the bed with an eye patch on one of his eyes, while the other eye turned around and looked at Zhao Jue, "I knew that as long as you're around, I won't be able to die peacefully, but being able to see an old friend at the end of my life is also an unexpected surprise."

"It's an unexpected fright, isn't it?" Zhao Jue reached out and gently poked his wrinkled face, "What? You originally wanted to stay for thirty minutes to bargain, but now that there are only five minutes left, you're destined to die in peace."

Xie Tiancheng's body trembled slightly, and he looked at Zhao Jue maliciously, "No matter how powerful you are, there is a kind of person who can't be hypnotised, and that is, a dead person... cough cough."

Xie Tiancheng coughed, then looked at the machine at the end of the bed, which showed that his vital signs were weakening little by little.

"But it doesn't matter." Xie Tiancheng chuckled heatedly, "You guys helped me send my brother away, it's already enough, ha ha... he still, died in front of me."

Everyone speechlessly looked at the old man on the bed who still had a grim and twisted face when he was dying.

"Why would I die with my eyes open? I, can't tell you how happy, I would be to see him on my death... deathbed," Xie Tiancheng said, and began to look into the crowd. He kept on looking, from left to right, and from right to left again. He braced his body, which was no longer very obedient, and went towards the doorway. Looking around, there seemed to be some incomprehension in his cloudy eyes. (Angel: Dying with your eyes open means to die with a remaining grievance.)

Zhan Zhao came over to him and asked with a smile, "What? That person didn't come to see you off?"

Xie Tiancheng looked at Zhan Zhao, "You... you call him out..."

"I don't want to!" Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow at him, "By the way, your brother saw him. He went to see your brother off, but he didn't come to see you off. Do you have any regrets about your legacy?"

Xie Tiancheng suddenly began to twitch violently, his eyes filled with unwillingness.

Fu Min frowned and looked at the numbers on the monitor that jumped down bit by bit. Xie Tiancheng's life was about to end.

"... I still have, pawns!" Xie Tiancheng's hoarse voice shouted up, "You let me, see him, I'll tell you who the other pawns... are..."

Both Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue blinked at him, tilting their heads and squinting with a smile, "Pawns? Aren't you two brothers pawns yourselves? Oh, no, you should be abandoned sons."

"Last ten seconds." Fu Min looked at the monitor and said.

Everyone looked at Xie Tiancheng.

"I... you guys, mustn't... good..." Unfortunately, Xie Tiancheng's words were not completed. The numbers on the screen had quickly jumped to zero, and at the same time... his heartbeat turned into a straight line, as if repeating the scene of Xie Tianlang just now.

This pair of elderly brothers, hands stained with blood, had harmed countless people in their long lives. At this moment, the two of them left the world with the same twitching and unwilling expressions with their eyes wide open.

Everyone present inexplicably felt that this was the fate they deserved, that their end had just begun, and that there were countless unjust souls in hell waiting for them.

Bai Yutang took off his mask and looked at Zhan Zhao, already understanding the purpose of what Zhan Zhao was doing.

Zhan Zhao lifted his head and walked over to Bai Yutang's side, asking him, "I took matters into my own hands, to the extent that I didn't ask about many of the secrets, you aren't angry, are you?"

"His mind had locks just like Xie Tianlang's, it was impossible to ask..."

Without waiting for Zhao Jue to finish, Bao Zheng gently waved his hand, signalling – it doesn't matter anymore.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and smiled, "Why should I be angry? Let him go to hell with those secrets, there's nothing more worthwhile than seeing him die with his eyes open."

Zhan Zhao smiled, and Bai Yutang reached out and touched his head.

After leaving Mura, Fu Min and the others with the men to clean up the mess, the crowd returned to the surface.

Bao Zheng asked Zhan Zhao, "Hu Zi casually said something, how did you know that Xie Tiancheng was hiding in this cave?"

"That's right!" Immediately, Zhao Hu also expressed his confusion, "I said that we gave Xie Tianlang one last send off, how did that make it clear that Xie Tiancheng was here?"

"Xie Tiancheng's purpose was for us to send Xie Tianlang on his last journey." Zhan Zhao said, "Xie Tianlang and Deng Che are the same, although they are both abandoned sons, they were also once pawns. Since he wants to be a qualified pawn, he should at least have a self–destruct button, and at critical moments, he can use his death to keep his secrets."

Everyone nodded.

"So, Deng Che's self–destruct button is eye, and Xie Tianlang's self–destruct button is Bai?" Bai Yutang thought that these words were quite common.

"It's not really the words, but the image as well as, some sort of realisation!" Zhao Jue laughed, "When a person is talking about a certain person or a certain item, there's usually an image that appears in their head. The human brain is quite magical, and this kind of self–destructive hypnosis operation is extremely complicated, no less than a precision surgery, and it's done by an expert."

"An expert, do you know him?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Zhao Jue raised an eyebrow, "There are talents in every generation, ah, it's long past the time when old men are in charge."

Zhao Hu thought for a moment, "Oh... Xie Tiancheng wanted Xie Tianlang to die before him, so he asked us to meet him?"

"Actually, this was originally Xie Tiancheng's ultimate goal, but there were some accidents that made him have to move his plan forward." Saying this, Zhan Zhao pointed at Zhao Jue.

Everyone nodded, Zhao Jue's unexpected appearance was just that, an accident, and Xie Tiancheng had thought that the crowd would look for Xie Tianlang first.

Zhan Zhao spread his hands, "Xie Tianlang said that Xie Tiancheng was hiding in a cave, it might be some kind of habit of his, and the two brothers seem to care a lot about who dies before who, thus… if he wanted to be the first to know about Xie Tianlang's death, he just had to watch when we would come to the special prison, so he must be in a cave nearby."

Everyone understood, this pair of brothers were really...

Zhao Hu nodded, "Then, the 'Bai' that stimulated Xie Tianlang's death, what exactly does that mean?"

Zhan Zhao pointed to Bai Yutang, "This is the meaning."

The crowd froze – Bai Yutang?

"It was an illusion of some kind that he saw through Bai Yutang." Zhao Jue said.

"Xie Tiancheng killed himself like this? What about the case?" Zhao Zhen was puzzled.

"Right." Luo Tian nodded, "He has been planning this for so long, and he simply died like this?"

"He couldn't move well, there should be someone else helping him, the few remaining pawns he had." Bai Yutang said.

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Xie Tiancheng prepared such a set of equipment to kill himself within half an hour. On the one hand, he wanted to bargain with us, on the other hand, he was afraid that after he was captured alive, Zhao Jue and I would pull out the secrets of those few pawns from his brain."

Everyone frowned, this man seemed determined to make things difficult for SCI.

"What kind of deal did he want to make with us?" Bai Chi asked curiously.

Zhan Zhao suddenly laughed, "It's ironic, his arsenic is my honey... Xie Tianlang's self–destruct button happens to be Xie Tiancheng's dying wish."

"Was he also seeing that person through Brother?" Bai Chi asked.

"It's the person he saw through Yutang that came to see him through to his death." Zhan Zhao said, raising an eyebrow, "In your dreams!"

‿︵‿︵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 27, 2023 by Angel

Edited: November 2, 2023 by Angel