S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 59

Misplaced of the Three Murderers 06 – Mystery

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In a certain open-air café in the city of Manaus in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, Zhao Jue was wearing a casual beige suit, a sun hat and sunglasses, and was sitting down to drink coffee while looking at his cell phone, looking like an ordinary tourist.

Zhao Jue was staring at the screen with his head lowered, and the corners of his mouth curled up every now and then, revealing a smile, as if he was watching some interesting video.

Across the street from this café was a small hotel, and there was a station next to the hotel, where many tourists would get on the bus to go sightseeing on the outskirts of the jungle. It was very lively.

Zhao Jue looked at the screen for a while, then raised his head and glanced in the direction of the station. In the distance, there was a van driving in, this kind of van was a common means of transport for the locals to carry passengers.

Zhao Jue sent a text message to Bai Ye, the content of the text message was only one word – Coming.

The van stopped, the driver jumped out and opened the door, and several tourists got out. The weather in the Amazon was sweltering and humid, and most of the tourists were drenched in sweat.

After a few of the tourists jumped out of the van carrying large bags and cameras, a middle-aged older man carrying a briefcase, wearing a white suit and gold-rimmed glasses, and estimated to be in his fifties, got out. Because of his slightly obese physique, it was quite a struggle for him to get out of the van. He put down his briefcase, took out a handkerchief, took off his hat and glasses, and carefully wiped off his sweat.

Taking a sigh of relief, the fat uncle lifted his briefcase and walked straight to the café.

"Hi! Rick!"

The fat uncle greeted the café owner, a middle-aged black man.

The owner stared at him for a moment, and was surprised, "Mr. Zhang?"

The fat uncle nodded, "Long time no see."

The surprised expression on the boss's face didn't lessen at all. He shook his head and examined the fat old man who walked up to him, "Goodness gracious, are you cursed? Why haven't you aged?"

The fat uncle known as Mr. Zhang laughed and pointed to his grey hair, "You still call this not ageing?"

"That's not it..." the café owner waved his hand, "I mean, you were like this the first time I saw you, and I was just a little kid then... Now my kids are so old, and you're actually..."

While they were chatting, there was a clamour coming from the distance. Two military Jeeps bringing rolling dust rather arrogantly burst into the parking lot, and after the vehicles stopped, eight well-built men jumped out. These men were all dressed in the clothes of an archaeological team, yet from their build and temperament, they didn't look like archaeologists, they were more like soldiers. These people were not locals, they carried heavy backpacks and were a bit noisy.

At the head of the group was a lanky middle-aged white man, with thick hairspray fixing his short hair in a skyward direction. it wasn't clear how much hairspray had been used, but it looked as if his hair had the texture of steel needles.

He was obviously the leader of the group. Getting out of the car, he lit a cigarette. When he saw the fat uncle who was waving at them from the café, he nodded and winked at the group behind him, and the crowd walked towards the café.

The fat uncle asked Rick, "Are there any guides? Anyone willing to go into the jungle."

Rick frowned at the group of archaeologists that didn't look like an archaeological team. Given his experience, these people looked like they were a bunch of mercenaries in any case.

"Find me two locals who are familiar with the jungle." The fat uncle pulled out a roll of US dollars from his pants pocket and handed it to Rick, "Price is negotiable."

The boss nodded and went inside a room to make a phone call to connect him with a guide.

The fat uncle warmly greeted and hugged the "mercenary" leader, calling him "Eddie".

Zhao Jue just sat there, picked up the coffee and took a sip. At the same time, the cell phone on the table vibrated.

Zhao Jue picked up his phone, it was a text from Zhan Zhao.

The text contained several pictures of bugs.

Zhao Jue smiled slightly and scrolled up through the texts... A photo that Zhan Zhao had sent him yesterday appeared – In the photo, there was a grey-haired, middle-aged uncle in his fifties wearing glasses, with a slightly chubby figure, who looked exactly the same as the Mr. Zhang in front of him, who had said hello to the mercenaries.

Below the photo were the words Zhan Zhao asked him – This person's name is Xia Rui, also called Zhang Rui, do you know him?

Zhao Jue's answer was –  Don't know them.

After looking at those insect photos for a while longer, Zhao Jue replied with a few words, then smiled as he deleted that text message, put away his cell phone, and stood up.

"Is everyone here?" Eddie asked Mr. Zhang.

"There is one more person, I hired an expert... I ... ah!"

The fat uncle was originally looking around to find a certain expert that he had arranged to travel with him, and at a glance, he saw Zhao Jue who was walking towards him.

Zhao Jue raised his hand slightly in what seemed to be a greeting. His beige suit jacket was slung over his arm, and despite the intense heat, he didn't seem to be dishevelled in any way, rather he exuded a suave demeanour as if preparing for a night at a concert

"Hey, old friend." Zhao Jue walked forward and reached out to put his hand on Mr. Zhang's shoulder.

The fat uncle stiffened and looked at Zhao Jue with his mouth wide open, "Zhao... Zhao..."

Eddie asked Zhao Jue, "Are you the expert?"

Zhao Jue smiled faintly, "You can call me Dr. Zhao."

Saying that, the hand that was placed on Mr. Zhang's shoulder gently tapped twice, and instantly, the fat uncle paled.

Zhao Jue retracted his hand, held Eddie's hand with both hands and shook it twice with vigour, seemingly polite, "Long time no see."

Eddie raised the corner of his mouth and shrugged, "We are only responsible for keeping you safe, if there are any additional conditions, it's going to cost extra."

Zhao Jue smiled and nodded, "Naturally."

Eddie tilted his head at his men, and together they went to unload their equipment and make preparations to go into the jungle.

Zhao Jue continued to chat with "Mr. Zhang".

Zhao Jue whispered in his ear, "Zhang Rui, it's been a long time, you pest."

"Zhao Jue!" Zhang Rui lowered his voice, "You... what did you do to me?!"

Zhao Jue blinked and reached out to pat his stomach three times, "You~ tell~ me~."

Zhang Rui huffed, "You... don't mess around! I! I hired mercenaries, they'll..."

Zhao Jue suddenly reached out and pointed behind him.

Zhang Rui turned around and saw Rick, the coffee shop owner, walk out with two people, one was a local, and the other was none other than Bai Ye.

Zhang Rui's face paled when he saw Bai Ye, and Zhao Jue asked him in a low voice, "You only have eight mercenaries, eight may not even be enough, right?"

Zhang Rui looked back at Zhao Jue with a dejected face, "You... what do you want?"

Zhao Jue smiled faintly, "To find someone."

"Wh... who?"

"You know." Zhao Jue patted him on the head, "Aren't you just going to find him? I!"

Zhang Rui's head dropped. Zhao Jue pinched his chubby cheeks and shook them, "Be obedient."

Bai Ye's arrival aroused a bit of vigilance from a few of the mercenaries.

Eddie asked Zhang Rui, "Why aren't both guides local?"

Zhao Jue raised his hand, "I brought him here."

Eddie seemed to want to say something else, but Zhao Jue waved his hand at him as if giving an order, "Let's enter the forest now."

Surprisingly, Eddie seemed to have a rather good temper and nodded obediently, "Okay."

After saying that, he called out to his men and prepared to go into the jungle.

Eddie's men looked at their boss and then at Zhao Jue with some confusion, all suspicious as to why the short-tempered Eddie was so obedient to this person.

Zhang Rui sighed and fished out his handkerchief to wipe his sweat again while giving Zhao Jue a sorrowful look, "You demon..."

"Likewise." Zhao Jue sneered and yanked Zhang Rui into the forest by his cheeks.

Bai Ye looked around and followed.

......

In the SCI office, Zhan Zhao was lost in thought as he held his chin and stared at the slowly moving red dot on his cell phone screen.

He had sent a picture of the bug to Zhao Jue, but Zhao Jue gave him an inexplicable reply, "Keep going".

Zhan Zhao let out a "tsk". What did that long-haired spirit mean? Was he asking him to continue investigating? Or was he telling him to persist?

At this moment, there was the sound of footsteps outside the door, and Zhao Hu ran in, "It's over, it's over! A level one alert!"

Everyone else in the office looked up, and saw Bao Sir walk in aggressively behind Zhao Hu, "Why would the director of the nature museum call me complaining that you've demolished the pavilion he's opening tomorrow?!"

The crowd silently bowed their heads and glanced at the two dogs that were napping on the ground.

After the mission was over, the many dogs were picked up by their respective owners. Only the two of them, Dunbu and Mwah Mwah, were still there, as both of their parents were in a meeting and wouldn't come to pick up their children until later.

Dunbu and Mwah Mwah both sat up and wagged their tails at Bao Sir.

Bao Sir stared at the two dogs for a while, seemingly a little less angry, and asked Bai Yutang, "Did you catch the bug thief?"

Bai Yutang nodded, and Bai Chi handed over the two men's background information to Bao Sir.

"Sky Technology Company... CEO..." Bao Sir frowned, "The boss personally went out to steal something?"

"This technology company has only four employees, these two brats are the founders, the other two, one is a mystery and the other is a janitor." Jiang Ping printed out the information about this company, "But these two brats are quite powerful, making quite a lot every year."

"Have they been interrogated yet?" Bao Sir asked Bai Yutang.

"We asked, the two of them work for money. Someone paid a high price for them to steal specimens of rare insects from various nature museums." Bai Yutang took a catalogue and gave it to Bao Sir, "This is a list of the items they've stolen so far, the previous serial nature museum thefts were all done by the two of them."

"What about the client?" Bao Sir asked.

"They said it's someone who calls himself Mr. Zhang. It's an online transaction every time, the buyer orders online, they steal the bugs and send them by courier for delivery, and the buyer pays them electronically."

"So after you guys demolished half of their pavilion and caught the two little bug thieves, there's nothing else?" Bao Sir scowled, "No word on someone who wants to destroy the world? Where are they?"

Bai Yutang looked at Gongsun, who was holding a cup of milk tea on the side – Where's Chen Yin?

Gongsun blinked – Ran away long ago.

Bao Zheng lectured for a while, then realised that something seemed to be missing, and thought – Right, how come no one is talking back today?

Everyone in the office was looking curiously at Zhan Zhao, who was sitting at the desk and holding his chin in a daze.

Zhan Zhao was still staring at the moving red dot on his cell phone, not moving a muscle.

"Ahem." Bao Sir coughed.

At this time, Zhan Zhao raised his head.

After staring at each other for a moment, Bao Sir quizzically twisted his face to look at Bai Yutang – What's wrong with your family member? What cat food did you feed him, why is he in a trance?

Bai Yutang didn't know what happened to Zhan Zhao either.

Suddenly, they heard a pop sound as Zhan Zhao smacked the table and stood up.

The SCI crowd was startled by him.

"Mysterious event!" Zhan Zhao stood up and walked to Jiang Ping's side, "Look in the last thirty years, no, the last forty years, for events related to biologists, nature museums, flora and fauna... mysterious events."

"Mysterious events?" Bai Yutang and Bao Zheng also walked over, "What mysterious events?"

"The kind that sounds too outrageous..." Zhan Zhao wiggled his fingers, "the unusual kind."

"I'll have to check the news reports for this one." Jiang Ping tapped the keyboard and looked at the long list of search results, "Ooh! It turns out that there's a lot of weird news..."

"Look for the more horrifying ones." Zhan Zhao asked Bai Chi and Jiang Ping to look for it together, and added, "Just the ones from S City will do, and it's best if they're related to Zhao Jue."

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Related to the I we were investigating before?"

Zhan Zhao shook his phone, "The direction we investigated should be right."

Bao Zheng put down the information and was about to leave, but stopped after hearing Zhan Zhao say, "It's related to Zhao Jue." Bao Sir looked back at the two, hesitated, and finally walked back, "If we're talking about mysterious events..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at Bao Zheng.

"One year, a very strange thing did happen." Bao Zheng grabbed a chair and sat down, "That case, was a case that Zhao Jue had investigated. The investigation records were all burnt by him, he called it, a mysterious event."

‿︵‿︵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 22, 2024 by Angel

Edited: May 16, 2024 by Angel