S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 38

Inheritor of the Three Murderers 07 – Hire and be Hired

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Bai Yutang intuitively felt that A'Mo was not as simple as he appeared to be, and his intuition proved to be as correct as ever.

Zhan Zhao had wanted to go back and argue with Zhao Jue, but the black-faced Bao Zheng was waiting ahead, so he just fished out his cell phone to send a text message first and then went with Bai Yutang to the front of the blown-up cafe to investigate the case at hand.

In Bai Yutang's car, Zhao Jue's cell phone rang, and when he tapped on it, the text message from Zhan Zhao only had one word – Liar!

Zhao Jue scratched his head and glanced at A'Mo, "It's all because of the trouble you've caused, I'm the one who got caught in the crossfire."

A'Mo let out a tsk, "These two kids are quite clever, it's not easy for me to be discovered with such a realistic performance."

Outside the car window, Bai Ye looked at the two in the back seat who were looking defeated, but he found it quite amusing.

Outside the yellow line, Zhao Hu was questioning the two police officers who had just liaised with them over the phone, both of whom were also witnesses.

While questioning, Zhao Hu glanced to the side...

He saw that Ma Han was standing by Eleven's sports car not far away.

The window was open. Eleven leaned against the window with one hand and took out a lighter with the other hand to daintily light a cigarette.

Ma Han asked him, "Why are you here?"

Eleven shrugged, "Going for a drive."

Ma Han gives him a blank look, "Is it such a coincidence that you went for a drive and met a bombing?"

Eleven exhaled a mouthful of smoke, "Bad luck."

Ma Han frowned at him.

Eleven held the cigarette, "Don't be so serious."

"Forget it." Ma Han was about to leave, but Eleven grabbed him, "How come you've been so boring since you were a kid? Your sister and girlfriend are so cute."

Ma Han looked at him, irritated.

Eleven stopped teasing him and said, "I do know something that could be useful to you, but you'll have to give me something in exchange."

Ma Han was puzzled, "What do you want in exchange?"

"You have a few smart people at SCI don't you?" Eleven asked.

Ma Han nodded – It wasn't easy to find a stupid one, but there were quite a few smart ones.

Eleven pulled a card the size of a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Ma Han, "Check this guy out for me."

Ma Han took it and had a look, he saw that there were large numbers on the card. Rows and rows of them filled the whole card, and there were at least a few hundred numbers on it.

"What's this?" Ma Han was at a loss, not understanding what a long list of numbers had to do with a person.

"I'm looking for someone, and this is all the information I found." Eleven was helpless, "Don't you have a lot of smart people at SCI, help me look for clues."

Ma Han accepted the card and asked Eleven, "So you're ready to talk?"

Eleven narrowed his eyes, "Find the clues first and then I'll tell you..."

Ma Han handed the card back to him, which meant – Forget it if you won't say anything.

Eleven surveyed Ma Han with surprise, "Yo-ho, learnt to haggle?"

Ma Han raised an eyebrow – Say it or not, it's up to you.

Eleven nodded, looked around, and hooked his hand at Ma Han.

Ma Han bowed his head, and Eleven was just about to say something when he looked to Ma Han's side.

Ma Han also felt as though there was someone behind him, and when he turned around, he saw Zhao Hu standing behind him with his neck stretched out, cocking his head to eavesdrop.

Ma Han looked at him helplessly.

Zhao Hu glared, "What are you doing? I'm helping Jiayi keep an eye on you. Jiayi explained that in addition to preventing women, we must also prevent men, being snatched away is just as dangerous as being bent!"

Ma Han glared at Zhao Hu.

Eleven happily pounded the car door, "Your girlfriend is too funny."

"Hurry up." Ma Han pushed Zhao Hu away in disgust and urged Eleven.

Eleven said, "Did your people see an old lady?"

Zhao Hu nods, "Yes! According to police witnesses, the bomb was carried into the cafe by an old lady."

"That old lady was just a courier, the one who was really meant to blow up was another person." Eleven pulled out a folder, extracted a piece of paper and gave it to Ma Han.

Ma Han took it and opened it to see a very simple profile.

Zhao Hu also curiously moved over and looked at it, only to see that there was a photo on the profile, and in the photo was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing glasses and looking quite gentlemanly. His occupation was a computer engineer, and his family lived nearby. On this piece of paper, apart from a short description of the man's physical features and habits, it also listed a few locations where he would often hang out, and this cafe was among them.

"What's this?" Zhao Hu was surprised.

Eleven said, "The information on murder targets is usually provided when hiring a professional assassin, known in the trade as a list."

Ma Han held his forehead.

Zhao Hu had almost forgotten that Eleven was a top professional killer and had the urge to fumble for his handcuffs and arrest him.

"Save it, you guys don't have any evidence, and even if you arrest me and sentence me to a hundred death sentences, it's still hard to comfort the souls of the dead." Eleven smiled at the two with his cheek resting on his hand, "The punishment for people like me won't come until after I go to hell."

Zhao Hu looked at Eleven with admiration, "Big Brother, you are not only thick-skinned but also self-aware."

Ma Han frowned without much nonsense and shook the piece of paper, "Why do you have this?"

"There's more than just this list." Eleven simply handed Ma Han the entire folder.

Ma Han flipped it open and saw the 'profiles' of four other people, including A'Mo and Xu Ming, who had caused trouble at the school earlier.

"These guys are all on the black gold list." Eleven said.

"What's the black gold list?" Zhao Hu was puzzled.

"Similar to a bounty list, it's like if there's an antique collector who wants to collect a certain antique, so he puts out a message in the black market and whoever has it makes an offer, and they buy it for however much they want."

Behind the two, Bai Yutang's voice came.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu turned around, only to see Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao already walking over.

Bai Yutang reached out and took the list to check it out, "The black gold list isn't something that ordinary assassins can see, right?"

"Only the top can see it, but none of the top ones will take these lists." Eleven stretched out a finger and wiggled it gently, "It's so unusual!"

"How so?" Zhan Zhao was curious, don't assassins do things for money?

"Because it's not difficult. These few people are ordinary civilians, the kind of people that are all over the streets, why would they risk so much by offering a bounty to take them out?" Eleven shook his head, "No top assassin would take this kind of job."

"But these people are still being killed." Bai Yutang frowned and asked Eleven, "Do you know any clues about the murderer?"

"Well... I made a deal with Xiao Ma." Eleven pointed to the card in Ma Han's hand.

Ma Han gave the card to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao took it and looked at it for a moment before handing the card back to Eleven, "This is information about a certain person."

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao in confusion – It was only a string of numbers.

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly and asked Zhao Hu, "Do you have a pen?"

Zhao Hu ran to ask a police officer for a pen and ran back to hand it to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao drew on the card, stringing some numbers together, and handed it to Eleven to look at.

Eleven raised his eyebrows, "This is a map of the business district of S City, the dot right in the middle is a certain business building, along with the floor and door number..."

Zhan Zhao circled another set of numbers on the card.

"What number is this?"

"The driver's licence number."

Eleven smiled and nodded.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, a little worried – Cat, isn't this the target he's going to kill? Is it okay to tell him?

Zhan Zhao shook his head and drew a few more lines on the string of numbers, and after connecting the lines and showing them to the crowd. They saw that they formed a "deleted" symbol.

"This person has already been killed, no matter how capable I am, I can't kill a dead person." Eleven put the card away and said, "I just wanted to know the identity of the dead man, and my purpose was achieved."

As he said this, Eleven winked at Ma Han, "Getting smart people to help you saves you energy."

"So you can tell us?" Bai Yutang asked, "Clues to the murderer."

Eleven nodded, "These times are different from ours."

Everyone frowned – This was a clue?

"There's high tech now, kids don't do it themselves anymore, they manipulate it at home like a game." Eleven said, "We were all about not causing collateral damage back then. To make a simple analogy, my generation would find a way to dig a tunnel if they wanted to empty a bank, nowadays people merely zero out the numbers in a bank account through hacking. If we were the pirates of the Caribbean back then, today's kids are like Somali pirates."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other.

Zhao Hu tilted his head, "What are you trying to say?"

Eleven helplessly flicked the finger holding the cigarette and said, "Different natures mean different techniques and different techniques mean that they're not the same kind of people at all."

Everyone stared at him.

Eleven continued, "Those who can see the black gold list are only top killers."

Everyone nodded.

"One of the most basic things to become a top assassin is to learn to keep a low profile. Using an old lady to deliver a package, clearing the target while causing collateral damage of at least four or five lives," a look of disdain appeared on Eleven's face as he shook his head, "this is not an act of assassination, this is terrorism."

Zhan Zhao gently stroked his chin, "Makes sense."

"So..." Eleven saw Zhan Zhao's reaction and asked, "any thoughts, smart guy?"

Zhan Zhao pointed to the folder and said, "The one who uploaded the bounty list and the one who committed these murders are the same person!"

Eleven snapped his fingers, "That's why communicating with smart people just saves time."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han both took a moment to react, then as if they had figured it out, they nodded at Zhan Zhao, "Makes sense!"

Bai Yutang frowned, "Using the black gold list to send out a list of people to be eliminated. Because you know that surely no assassins will take this business, you don't have to worry about the money. Instead, you do it yourself by manipulating other people to kill them, and clearing out the murderers themselves while killing others... No matter what the cost is, it will also implicate all the killers who can see the black gold list, which will make it very difficult for the police to trace."

"It's almost like money laundering. By changing hands, the clues for the police to investigate are cut off, and the entire nature of the event is transformed." Zhan Zhao frowned, "Who is the murderer?"

"I think there should be a problem with his nerves, this is not something an ordinary person can do." Eleven stubbed out his cigarette, pointing his middle finger at his temple as he spoke, then shook his head and started the car.

"Wait." Bai Yutang pulled on his car door once and asked, "How can we see the black and gold list?"

Eleven stared at him in a state of amnesia, "Why can't I understand what you're saying?"

Bai Yutang frowned.

The others also understood that with Eleven's identity, it was impossible to break the rules of the trade. If he told the police about the method to view the black gold list, it would be the same as the list being nullified.

"The other party is quite careful." Eleven leaned against the steering wheel, "The list is published one by one, I'd be happy to let you know when a new name appears on the list."

Bai Yutang released the handle.

Eleven smiled, "I never thought I'd have been able to have a day of police-civilian cooperation, bye~"

After saying that, he drove off.

When Eleven was gone, Ma Han and Zhao Hu both turned back to look at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

"Why did they kill these people?" Bai Yutang looked through the information of several victims in the folder, "The identities vary but they are all just ordinary people."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and reached out to pull out A'Mo's profile, turning back to look at the car behind Bai Ye in the distance, "That would be a question for the one who used us to stay alive, but I have a guess as to one possibility."

Bai Yutang asked, "An inheritor?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu both frowned – This "inheritor", what exactly does it mean?

‿︵‿︵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: February 2, 2024 by Angel

Edited: May 5, 2024 by Angel