S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 103

Countdown from the Murderer 33 – Punishment

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SCI finally found the suspected hiding place of the pharmacist – a nursing home.

Zhan Zhao noticed that Bai Ye seemed to have some reaction to this institution, so he asked him, "Do you know this place?"

Bai Ye said somewhat uncertainly, "Er... a couple of days ago, Zhao Jue checked this nursing home."

With that, Bai Ye left Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang dumbfounded – What?

"When?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked together, "Did he say anything?"

Bai Ye looked at the two before him, "Wasn't he eating at that dark cuisine restaurant opposite the police station that day?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded. That day was when Qian Fu went crazy, and Zhao Jue had called them then.

"Mhmm," Bai Ye recalled, "after dinner that day, he called Fu Min and asked her to check the ingredients of that medicine."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance, both furrowing their brows – So did Zhao Jue already realise that the medicine was actually an antidote and the key to solving the case?

Both of them pressed Bai Ye for more information, "And then what happened?"

"After watching the video of Qian Fu going crazy, he made a call to someone."

"Who?!"

"It was the guy from the original bomb disposal team, the brother of that drummer."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned for a moment, asking in unison, "Chen Mi?!"

Bai Ye nodded, "Yeah, the bomb disposal expert."

"What did he want with Chen Mi?" Bai Yutang asked, puzzled.

"Zhao Jue asked him if anyone had hired him to prepare for a targeted demolition of a certain building recently, and then, after he conducted on-site inspections and made plans, the project was cancelled."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look.

"Chen Mi said it did happen. Just recently, a nursing home was supposed to be demolished entirely and he had prepared the plan. However, the other party cancelled it and even forfeited the hefty deposit."

After Bai Ye finished, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were suddenly startled.

Bai Yutang hurriedly called to alert the officers who had already arrived near the nursing home.

But before the call went through, Bai Ye added, "It should... be fine, I guess."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at him.

Before Bai Ye could reply, the call connected.

Bai Yutang had called to contact Wang Ba, the person in charge of the police's bomb disposal team.

It seemed Wang Ba was also about to contact him, "Captain Bai, did you arrange for someone to disarm the bomb previously?"

Bai Yutang was slightly taken aback.

On the other end of the phone, another voice came.

"Hello, Captain Bai."

Chen Mi's voice came through the phone.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both surprised, "How did you..."

Chen Mi said somewhat helplessly, "Last night, Zhao Jue suddenly called me, saying the person who asked me for the plan before was a terrorist planning to blow up the nursing home. So he asked me to bring people to defuse the bomb quietly in the early morning and not to make a fuss. He said the bomb should be easy to defuse since they followed my plan. When I arrived, I found out it was real! Because the bomb was not on a timer but remote-controlled, I didn't dare to contact you in advance, afraid that any movement might trigger the bomb... We worked on defusing it for most of the night, your people arrived just as we finished."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang held the phone for what felt like an eternity without saying a word.

On the other end, Chen Mi, holding the phone, was puzzled by the sudden silence from the other side and handed the phone to Wang Ba.

Wang Ba held the phone and said, "Hello? Hello?" for a while, but Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang remained stunned.

Wang Ba hung up the phone and instructed the bomb disposal team to recheck the area to ensure the entire nursing home was safe before allowing the SWAT team to enter.

Bao Zheng directed the police to evacuate all the elderly residents from the nursing home first and then began searching for the pharmacist's hiding place.

After about three minutes of listening to the busy tone of the "beep-beep" sound on the phone, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at Bai Ye.

"Where's Zhao Jue?"

"What about Long Hair?"

Bai Ye replied, "He's sleeping at home..."

Zhan Zhao immediately called Zhao Jue, but the phone rang for a long time without anyone answering.

Zhan Zhao then called Bai Jintang, who was at home.

......

At this moment, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

Bai Jintang, still half-asleep, answered the phone, "Hello..."

"Brother! Where's Zhao Jue!?" Zhan Zhao shouted into the phone, "Zhao Jue!"

Bai Jintang, now fully awake, opened the door and looked downstairs. Lisbon was lying on the sofa in the living room, but Zhao Jue was nowhere to be found.

He checked the guest room, but Zhao Jue wasn't there either.

Bai Jintang searched inside and outside the house and said, "Zhao Jue isn't here. Maybe he hasn't returned?"

Bai Yutang hurriedly asked Bai Ye, "Where could he have gone?"

Bai Ye shrugged, not understanding what was going on.

......

Just as Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang anxiously hung up the phone, they received a call from Bao Zheng, "You guys hurry over! We've found a large underground basement with all the organisation's documents inside, along with those files."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, however, asked, "Where's Zhao Jue? Where's Zhao Jue?"

Bao Zheng was puzzled, "Huh?"

Zhan Zhao asked Bao Zheng to put Chen Mi on the phone.

Chen Mi picked up the phone once again.

They asked him where Zhao Jue was.

Chen Mi had been busy defusing bombs all night and naturally had no idea where Zhao Jue was. He was also out of the loop and didn't know what was going on.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both anxious – Zhao Jue should have known the true culprit of this case long ago and found the hiding place of the pharmacist, but he didn't say anything... What was he planning?

"Oh right," Bao Zheng's voice came from the phone again, "the pharmacist wasn't found, neither was Sun Xi."

On the other side, Wang Chao, Ma Han and Luo Tian, who went to arrest Li Linlin and Nurse Jin, successfully captured them.

Zhan Zhao frowned, "This isn't right. Zhao Jue is probably planning to deal with the pharmacist himself... or maybe the pharmacist's target isn't us at all, it's him..."

Bai Yutang also felt that things were developing in an unexpected direction and asked Bai Ye, "Did Zhao Jue mention where he was going?"

Bai Ye shook his head.

However, Bai Ye wasn't too worried, "So what if it's the pharmacist? No one within the organisation can harm Zhao Jue..."

"But!" Zhan Zhao said, "That drug! With that drug, one can be immune to hypnosis. Judging from Sun Xi's method of killing, he seems very professional..."

Bai Yutang told Zhan Zhao not to panic for the time being, saying, "Cat, stay calm, think about where they might have gone."

Bai Ye also said, "Only you can think of where he might have gone. Think hard."

Zhan Zhao stabilised his emotions a bit and, after a moment's thought, asked, "Are there any public facilities like parks near the nursing home? Places where you can see the nursing home from?"

Jiang Ping immediately checked and said, "There's a lakeside park, just across the river from the nursing home."

"Are there benches by the lake?" Zhan Zhao continued, "Do many people pass by there?"

Jiang Ping checked again and said, "Many elderly people go there early in the morning to exercise or jog. There are benches by the lake."

Zhan Zhao nodded to Bai Yutang and Bai Ye.

The three of them immediately went downstairs, got in the car, and headed to the lakeside park...

......

Meanwhile, in the park.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, casting a gentle glow over the lake.

Under a large tree sat a middle-aged man with slightly curly hair, wearing a shirt and a wool vest.

The man's complexion didn't look too good, even bathed in the morning light, he still appeared pale. He seemed exhausted, leaning back in his chair, hands gripping a cane, his eyes lifeless as they stared across the river at a large expanse of white buildings...

Occasionally, people jogging for their morning exercise passed by behind him, and further away, a few elderly individuals were practising tai chi.

The birds chirped in the trees, and the serene morning scene gave a sense of vitality, though not to the man lost in thought.

At this moment, someone walked up to him and sat down on the bench beside him, crossing their legs.

The middle-aged man slowly turned his face and saw a person with long hair and handsome features... This person's demeanour and appearance didn't quite fit with the bustling atmosphere of the park.

"You're here," the middle-aged man said slowly. "it's been a long time, Professor."

Sitting next to him was none other than Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue didn't look at him but gazed calmly at the group of white buildings ahead and said, "You'll die soon enough at your age, why bother building such a grand nursing home?"

"Hehe." The man suddenly laughed.

After just a couple of laughs, he began to cough and reached out to pat his chest.

Whether it was an illusion or not, in just that short amount of time, it seemed like a couple more wrinkles had appeared on the middle-aged man's face.

Zhao Jue finally turned his head and glanced at the person beside him... Slightly, he lifted the corner of his mouth and asked, "And?"

The man remained calm, reaching into his pocket and pulling out two items.

One was a medicine bottle, and the other was a remote control.

The medicine bottle was empty, devoid of pills.

"Is this your lifelong research achievement?" Zhao Jue picked up the empty medicine bottle.

The middle-aged man smiled faintly, "People invest a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources into developing insecticides, but a simple insect-eating plant can attract and eliminate insects. Hypnosis can be broken, and with just a simple pill, all your magic can be undone."

After saying this, the man looked at Zhao Jue, "Once that magic is gone, you're just an ordinary person, like us..."

With that, the man picked up the remote control in his hand. "They should be arriving at the nursing home now... I just want you to watch them get buried underground."

Finishing his words, he pressed the remote control button without hesitation.

With a loud bang, the entire expanse of white buildings ahead began to tilt, followed by a series of massive explosions. The buildings on the opposite side were instantly levelled, surrounded by billowing smoke. People in the park who were exercising fled in panic, and the ground trembled.

The middle-aged man looked at the tragic scene of devastation, but he laughed. He laughed so joyfully that even the severe pain in his chest caused by his laughter couldn't stop him.

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived at the park, what they saw was an extremely bizarre scene.

They saw a frail middle-aged man sitting on a bench by the riverbank, laughing hysterically at the distant cluster of white buildings.

He coughed as he laughed, and many of the people passing by on the pedestrian path behind him looked at him, wondering if he had gone mad. What was so funny about staring at a river alone?

"That man..." Zhan Zhao frowned, "His clothes..."

"Isn't that the pharmacist?" Bai Yutang was also surprised. "How did he age so much in just a few days? He looked much younger when we saw him in the video a few days ago..."

"That's how ageing works. When you spend your whole life avoiding pain, you experience it all in just a few days."

A voice came a voice from behind them.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both sighed with relief and turned around to see Zhao Jue standing behind them with his hands in his pockets.

Bai Ye, however, wasn't particularly surprised, seeming rather accustomed to such events.

"Cat!"

At that moment, Bai Yutang suddenly gestured for Zhan Zhao to look ahead.

Zhan Zhao turned around... to see someone walking up behind the pharmacist, standing beside the empty half of the bench behind him.

The pharmacist held up a medicine bottle, pointing it at the empty seat beside him, "See? This is what you look like without magic!"

After saying this, he turned to Sun Xi and ordered, "Kill him."

Bai Yutang looked at the pharmacist quizzically, who seemed to be behaving strangely, fixating on an empty seat – Was he going mad?

Zhan Zhao furrowed his brow and asked Zhao Jue, "What did you do to him?"

Zhao Jue shrugged nonchalantly, "Just fulfilling his dreams."

With that, Sun Xi reached out, grabbing at the empty space in front of him, mimicking the same action he did when he killed Dong Yuan the previous night.

As Sun Xi performed this action, the pharmacist laughed again, his expression one of utmost satisfaction...

Bai Yutang frowned, glancing at Zhan Zhao.

Bai Ye also looked at Zhao Jue somewhat incredulously, "Sick sense of humour."

Zhao Jue simply chuckled in response.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both vaguely felt that Zhao Jue seemed to be channelling all the resentment towards the organisation's members' deaths onto the pharmacist.

At this moment, Zhao Hu, Ma Han and the others also arrived.

The members of SCI all looked in confusion at the pharmacist laughing maniacally by the riverbank and Sun Xi, who remained expressionless.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Zhao Jue smiled faintly, extending his hands towards Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Three, two, one..."

As the countdown ended, Zhao Jue clapped his hands.

With that sound, the pharmacist's laughter suddenly stopped.

His cane fell to the ground.

He trembled as he struggled to stand up, gripping the back of the bench, staring at the intact buildings ahead and the empty seat beside him, shouting incredulously, "It's impossible... Impossible..."

As he shouted, he turned around and saw Sun Xi looking blank-faced, as well as the SCI members gathering not far away, watching them.

When his gaze fell upon Zhao Jue, the pharmacist's entire demeanour seemed to collapse in an instant. Despair emanated from his eyes along with his hoarse roar, "How is this possible! That medicine can clearly break hypnosis! How is this possible..."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao witnessed the pharmacist's emotional rollercoaster from elation to rage to despair... They suddenly felt that what he had experienced, his lifelong research, was as pitiful and ludicrous as his symptoms of over-ageing.

This was the cruellest punishment Zhao Jue could have given him.

"He got one thing wrong."

As Zhao Jue spoke, everyone turned to look at him.

Zhao Jue smiled faintly, "Magic isn't an insect-eating plant... it's the spider's web."

‿︵‿︵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: March 31, 2024 by Angel

Edited: August 27, 2024 by Angel