S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 88

Countdown from the Murderer 18 – Smells, Sounds, Aesthetics

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn't know how to react for a while, so they lowered their heads and looked at this "fantasy" scene in the dimly lit living room.

As for Xiao Bai Chi, who had completely woken up from drowsiness, he began to wonder if he was actually awake.

Reaching out, Bai Chi ruthlessly pinched his cheeks, making a red mark and huffing – It hurt!

Zhan Zhao also came back to his senses when he heard this movement, he turned around and ran away.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao who ran away like the wind, and was surprised – This is the first time he has seen his lazy cat being so swift. It would be nice to have this performance in the physical fitness test...

Zhan Zhao quickly rushed into their room and then quickly rushed out again, holding his cell phone and preparing to film while going downstairs.

Bai Yutang hurriedly grabbed the cell phone. It's not that he wouldn't let Zhan Zhao film, but the possibility of him filming with his cell phone while going down the stairs without falling down them was very low.

Bai Yutang simply filmed it for him, letting him and Bai Chi go down first.

Zhan Zhao and Xiao Bai Chi went downstairs together, while Bai Yutang held his cell phone and followed him down while filming.

Zhan Zhao ran to Zhao Jue's side, and the two of them observed the four people in the living room together.

The situation at hand was quite perplexing.

Firstly, the four people in front of them, Bai Jintang, Zhao Zhen, and the twins, belonged to the category of people that were the most difficult to hypnotise. It would be difficult to hypnotise these four people at the same time even if Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue were allowed to work on them together.

These four people were actually hypnotised at the same time because they looked at a painting.

But the problem was that everyone had seen the painting just now! In the office, the painting had been placed on the desk. Xiao Bai Chi had been sitting by the desk for a long time, but he had not been hypnotised.

Bao Sir's situation was the same. Even Zhao Jue hadn't hypnotised him, so how did he get caught by a painting?

In addition, the things these people did after being hypnotised were also very strange.

Bao Sir cleaned.

The twins played games.

Big Brother read the newspaper.

Zhao Zhen made coffee.

This was simply unimaginable!

You could say that Bao Sir was cleaning subconsciously and that the twins were playing games subconsciously, that was okay, but Bai Jintang was reading the newspaper?!

According to the nature of Big Brother Bai, shouldn't he be hugging Gongsun?

Zhao Zhen's subconscious should at least be doing a magic trick or flirting with Xiao Bai Chi or something like that, why was he making coffee?

Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Jue, "How long has it been going on?"

Zhao Jue looked at his watch and stated, "Twenty-five minutes."

Zhan Zhao's mouth opened wide – It lasted that long? Does that mean they've already been deeply hypnotised?

Bai Yutang took his cell phone and walked over to Zhan Zhao's side, continuing to film while asking, "What should we do next?"

Bai Chi asked if they should wake them up, but Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue shook their heads together – Nothing!

Bai Yutang and Bai Che both looked at them – Nothing?

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue nodded – Such good research material!

Bai Yutang was speechless and gave Bai Chi his cell phone, asking him to hold it for him.

Bai Chi pouted and held the cell phone. Following Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue's instructions, he aimed and shot, without being allowed to move or make a sound!

Lisbon slipped over to Xiao Bai Chi and sat down to lick his fur. The other felines probably got used to it after watching them for a while and went to sleep on their own.

Luban was probably hungry. When he saw that Bai Yutang was up, he came over and rubbed against his leg to ask for food, and even meowed.

As a result, Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao both faced him, "Shhh!"

Frightened, Luban hurriedly ran to hide beside Lilia.

Bai Yutang looked helplessly at Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, who had "disowned their relatives", and spread his hands – Stop fooling around! Hurry up and think of a solution!

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and poked Bai Yutang, "Yutang, call Zhao Hu and the others."

Bai Yutang pointed at the clock, which meant – It's only four o'clock...

"See if he and Ma Han have been caught." Zhan Zhao said, "And Luo Tian."

Helplessly, for the safety of his subordinates, Bai Yutang had to go make some calls.

As a result, not only did he wake up those few people, but even the other party's family members were woken up and were resentful in various ways. Bai Yutang wasn't too keen on gossiping about when they moved in together, so he had to say that Luban accidentally pressed his phone and hastily hung up the call.

Going downstairs, Bai Yutang shrugged at Zhan Zhao – Nothing happened to those guys.

Zhao Jue curiously asked, "Then the little husky didn't get caught either?"

Bai Yutang was bewildered – Little husky?

Zhao Jue reached out and stroked his chin, "Interesting."

At this time, Bai Chi, who was holding his cell phone, suddenly stared at the twins...

Xiao Ding won the game, and Da Ding was regretting that he should have shot just now, why did he pass...

Bai Chi suddenly felt that this scene was familiar.

"Ah!" Bai Chi suddenly remembered, "This... looks like what happened that night!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both turned back to look at him – Which night?

"It looks like last Sunday. After dinner, the twins were also playing, and the result was that Xiao Ding defeated Da Ding in the eighty-fifth minute. In Da Ding's last minute of extra time, he could have taken a shot on goal, but he passed the ball, and passed it to Benzema..."

Bai Yutang held his forehead and didn't even know who to complain to.

Bai Chi's memory was definitely not wrong, so Zhan Zhao asked him, "What about after the match?"

"Xiao Ding said that he had two hundred and twenty-seven wins and one hundred and seventy-five losses, an overwhelming victory, and also jumped up and twisted for a while..."

Before Bai Chi could finish his sentence, sure enough, Xiao Ding jumped up and twisted while saying that he had won over Da Ding or something...

Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao watched in disbelief – Memories resurfaced!

Bai Yutang suddenly thought, "Bao Sir seems to have cleaned that floor before too..."

After Bai Yutang finished speaking, he saw the twins collect their things and go back to their room as if nothing had happened.

Bai Yutang followed them upstairs to take a look and saw the twins each going back to their rooms, falling back on their blankets and drifting off to sleep.

Captain Bai rubbed his forehead and walked out, signalling to Zhan Zhao – Back to sleep.

Zhao Jue was puzzled, "This is a standard sleepwalking state, and this kind of situation will only appear in patients with very serious mental disorders..."

At this time, Big Brother Bai suddenly put down the newspaper. Everyone looked at him, thinking that he was also going to sleep.

But who would have known that Bai Jintang would sit there without moving, his eyes staring at the few people in front of him.

After a long time, Bai Jintang suddenly asked, "Why am I here?"

Everyone froze.

Zhan Zhao asked, "Brother, you're awake?"

Bai Jintang's eyes were clearly awake at this time. He looked around and confusion was evident on his face. He obviously didn't know why he was on the sofa, he was definitely sleeping with his arms wrapped around Gongsun...

Thinking about it, Big Brother Bai looked towards the more "suspicious" Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue.

Zhan Zhao hurriedly shook his head – It wasn't us!

When Bai Jintang saw Bai Chi recording, he stood up to see what had just happened.

However, when he stood up, he knocked down the game controller that Da Ding had casually placed on the armrest of the sofa just now, and there was a snapping sound.

With this sound, Zhao Zhen, who was humming a little song and making coffee, suddenly stopped moving.

After freezing for a while, Zhao Zhen raised his head, the same confusion in his eyes – What happened?

Bai Yutang sighed in relief, they were all finally awake.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue rubbed their hands together in excitement, great! One woke up naturally and one was woken up by noise, wow! Fresh material A and B!

Zhao Jue clapped his hands and the sensor lights in the living room lit up.

Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen are still wearing pyjamas. The two looked at each other, somewhat confused.

To be honest, the two of them were usually even more domineering than Bao Sir. They've been 'all-powerful' for so many years, who would have thought they would also hit a snag today?

After watching the clip played by Bai Chi, both of them were somewhat reluctant.

Big Brother Bai was okay, his younger brothers saw it, but Gongsun did not see. At worst, he could force the two to delete the video later.

Zhao Zhen was a little embarrassed, Xiao Bai Chi observed the whole process and also recorded it.

Bai Chi was just quite worried, but now that he saw Zhao Zhen scratching his head, he covered his mouth in joy.

Bai Jintang thought for a moment, looked at the two paintings still leaning next to the coffee table, and asked, "Are these paintings responsible for this?"

"Possibly." Zhan Zhao asked the two, "What do you two feel when you see these paintings?"

Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao began to "interview" the two "cases".

Bai Yutang and Bai Chi took their cell phones and went to fetch the twins.

"There's no special feeling..."

Zhao Zhen and Bai Jintang both shook their heads.

Zhan Zhao told them both to express their thoughts truthfully.

"Well, such ugly paintings."

"Bao Sir was capsized with just this?"

"They look very ordinary."

"What ugly paintings."

The two finished and thought for half a day, then nodded together, "What ugly paintings!"

Zhan Zhao was somewhat speechless, why do people keep calling them ugly?

Zhao Jue smiled evilly, "So it's not hypnosis, maybe it's a curse."

Big Brother Bai and Zhao Zhen both looked gloomy.

At this time, they heard a voice from upstairs, "Shit! My god, we hit evil!... %@#@#"

The twins had probably watched the video that Bai Chi had recorded and had started spouting profanities due to their excessive shock.

The twins who were cursing were brought down as well.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue asked both of them how they felt while looking at the paintings.

The resulting opinions were pretty much the same as Big Brother Bai and Zhao Zhen's. They both felt that the paintings were ugly and also felt that the paintings were nothing remarkable, they looked very ordinary.

Bai Yutang and Bai Chi both nodded – It seems like it's a curse all right, making all of you disrespect those two paintings.

Zhan Zhao proceeded to take out the notebook from his previous interview with Bao Sir and recorded the symptoms of the four "cases" over here.

The twins had not woken up at all earlier. When they were woken up, they had no memory of anything, they didn't remember what had happened.

Da Ding and Xiao Ding were now doubting life. They thought that it was too dangerous. If they got up in the middle of the night and broke the law, what would they do? By the time they got caught, they wouldn’t even know what they had done.

As for Bai Jintang, he woke up naturally. Zhan Zhao asked him to recall why he woke up, and what he felt at the moment he initially woke up.

Big Brother Bai thought carefully and said, it seemed like he smelled a scent.

"A scent?" Zhan Zhao asked, "The smell of coffee?"

Bai Jintang shook his head, "No, it smelled more like a flower."

"What flower?"

This could be the death of Big Brother Bai, he couldn't tell the difference between what flowers. However, Bai Jintang said that it wasn't the first time he had smelled this scent, it seemed like he had smelled it just now, while he was at home.

"At home?"

Everyone then began to look around.

"Ah!" Bai Chi suddenly pulled out a packet of tissues from his pocket and asked Big Brother Bai, "Is this the scent?"

Bai Jintang took it, sniffed it, and nodded, saying that this was the scent.

Bai Chi said that these tissues were given to him by Ma Xin just now. Ma Xin said that she went to the supermarket to buy tissues and grabbed the wrong ones, taking the scented ones instead of the unscented ones. The forensic room couldn't use the scented tissues, so she gave all those tissues to Bai Chi.

"Scent..." Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue discussed in a low voice.

"Because of the presence of a scent that shouldn't exist in familiar surroundings."

"So he woke up?"

"With such a weak scent, the ability to resist interference is very strong!"

"Sure enough, he has a constitution that's extremely difficult to hypnotise."

Zhao Zhen said that it was because he heard a sound. That sound was quite loud, as if it had been amplified, and there was an echo.

At the same time, Zhao Zhen also said that he smelled a scent, the scent of this tissue.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue also looked at the twins – Did you two smell the scent?

The twins had a "who am I, where am I, what happened?" look on their faces. Sure enough, those who are incredibly unhinged are also unhinged in their sleepwalking state.

Xiao Ding was still lamenting that his dance moves in his dream were still great!

Bai Yutang's original plan to have a good night's rest went out the window. He went to the sofa and sat down, crossing his legs and looking at Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue who were enthusiastically discussing academics, "So what exactly happened?"

The two reached out and pointed at the painting.

Bai Yutang raised his hand and shook it, signalling – I know it's about the painting, go on!

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue glanced at each other and continued pointing at the painting.

Bai Yutang jerked his hand through his hair and let out a long, helpless sigh.

At this time, the sound of parking came from the door as two cars drove in. Zhao Hu and Ma Han arrived.

They got out of their cars and first looked into the living room. After seeing the bright lights, they hurriedly ran in.

Both of them live nearby. They received an inexplicable phone call from Bai Yutang in the middle of the night, so they couldn't sleep. Luo Tian also called to ask about the situation.

The two came over first to see if something had happened.

Hearing that the four people in the family with such strong "resistance to attacks" had been hit, Zhao Hu couldn't help but be a little worried about himself, "No way... these paintings are so powerful? Then am I awake or asleep now?"

Zhao Jue looked at Zhao Hu – Little husky raised a philosophical question!

Zhan Zhao then asked, "You two looked at these two paintings as well, right?"

Both of them nodded.

"What did you two feel?"

Zhao Hu and Ma Han both thought about it.

Zhao Hu said, "Well... just, I didn't feel much."

Ma Han nodded.

"Don't you think they're ugly?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The two shrugged and said that they couldn't tell if it looked good or not, and that they both didn't understand it anyway.

Zhan Zhao's eyes suddenly lit up as he looked at Zhao Jue beside him.

Zhao Jue had the same expression and seemed very excited.

Together, the two asked Bai Yutang and Bai Chi, "Do you think this painting is ugly? "

Bai Yutang thought for a moment, "Er... it's just, there's nothing special about it. "

Bai Chi nodded.

Bai Jintang and Zhao Zhen said that they felt that they were ugly and couldn't help but feel very tempted to complain about that feeling.

"Could it be that it has something to do with aesthetics?" Big Brother Bai said and suddenly stood up, "Oh no, Gongsun also said it was ugly earlier..."

After saying that, Big Brother Bai hurriedly ran upstairs.

Everyone clamoured and followed.

Opening the door, they saw Gongsun sitting on the bed, appearing to have just woken up.

Bai Jintang hurriedly walked over, wanting to check his condition and judge what state it was in.

But just as he approached Gongsun, Gongsun suddenly reached out and yanked him by the collar, pulling him onto the bed.

The crowd at the doorway gasped – Wow!

Big Brother Bai waved his hand – Close the door!

The crowd hurriedly exited and closed the door behind them.

Zhan Zhao didn’t forget to cover Zhao Jue's eyes, saying that he was too old to be subjected to this kind of stimulation.

Zhao Jue kicked Bai Yutang in retaliation towards Zhan Zhao.

Though Bai Yutang didn't really understand the logic...

Everyone stood in place and gossiped – It turned out that only Gongsun's dreams were adult-style.

Just as they were thinking, they saw the door suddenly open.

Big Brother Bai's collar was askew, and he opened the door and came out with a speechless face.

The crowd looked at him even more gossipingly – So fast? No way...

Big Brother Bai looked at the sky and pointed inside, "Sleeping!"

Everyone looked at each other. Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue ran in to take a look and saw Gongsun lying on his back with his arms and legs spread out and snoring, his sleeping posture was quite luxurious.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue both rubbed their chins – Huh? The symptoms are different! This one seems to be really sleepy...

Both of them turned back to look at Big Brother Bai – Aiya, you've been working quite hard.

Big Brother Bai speechlessly shooed the crowd out of the room and went back to continue sleeping himself.

After the turmoil, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, "What's the conclusion? How did that painting do it?"

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue said in unison, "The key is not a painting!"

The others looked at the two of them, "Then what is it?"

The two smiled faintly, "It's two paintings!"

After those words were said, the group of sleep-deprived people across the room grabbed pillows and threw them at the two of them.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

"Bai Yutang jerked his hand through his hair and let out a long, helpless sigh." Somebody send help, Angel down (♡´艸`) 

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: March 21, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 1, 2024 by Angel