S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 111

Screen Murderer 07 – Midnight Show

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All members of SCI went to the Bai Group's building to watch a movie.

Originally, Zhan Zhao just wanted to organise a small-scale event, let Jiang Ping handle some technical issues, and then he and Bai Yutang would watch it together, that would have been it. But the entire SCI team, except for Luo Tian, Ma Xin and Qin Ou, who went home to accompany their children, showed up.

Gongsun also came and headed straight for the fish tank as soon as he entered the Bai Group’s building.

The two devilfish in the fish tank probably recognised Gongsun, as when he leaned against the glass, the two fish started flapping their fins as if "flying".

Gongsun skilfully climbed up a ladder and fed them.

Everyone else gathered around to watch. They hadn’t seen these two fish for days and they had grown even larger. The tank itself was sizable, with corals and a bunch of other sea fish, making it look like an aquarium.

Just as they finished feeding the fish, the elevator doors opened and Zhao Zhen arrived with Lisbon. Right as they stepped out, the adjacent elevator doors opened and Qi Le and Chen Yu emerged with guitars on their backs, and everyone came to ask what movie they were watching. The few girls huddled together to discuss Wang Meiyun's situation, quite gossipy indeed.

The elevator opened again and Xu Lie arrived, curious about what movie they were watching...

There were multiple elevators in the Bai Group’s building, and Bai Jintang also came down, asking Gongsun, "What movie are we watching?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at the twins speechlessly – How many people did you two tell about watching the movie?

Wang Meiyun's situation had caused quite a stir throughout the entire S City. Coupled with the fact that many of these people knew her, everyone was extremely curious and wanted to see this legendary horror film.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had no choice but to drag the large group of people to go to the screening room to watch the movie.

The screening room in the Bai Group’s building was actually a small-scale cinema, used by the Bai Group's internal staff to watch their own films. Everyone was quite familiar with it.

However, this cinema was more comfortable than the ones outside that sold tickets because there were no tickets required. It had long sofas and even cushions, allowing everyone to sit together, much like in a living room at home.

Since it was a horror movie, Jiayi hugged Xiao Ma Ge's arm, while Qi Le's family was reversed, and Zhao Hu hugged Qi Le's arm.

Chen Yu, feeling annoyed watching Jiayi and Qi Le showing affection, sent a message to Lan Xi, while Xu Le took the opportunity to persuade her to call her brother to come too.

As a result, she didn’t call Chen Mi, instead, she called Chen Xiaofei and Grandpa Chen. Lan Xi also brought along Lan Qi and Hao Ling, who was carrying a baby.

As soon as they saw the baby, everyone crowded around to play with it, creating quite a lively scene.

Zhan Zhao was speechless, and Bai Yutang sighed, holding his forehead – These family members...

Zhan Zhao couldn't bear it any longer and stood up, "This is a serious movie screening..."

Just as he finished speaking, Zhan Zhao noticed that Hao Ling was holding the baby up towards him.

Zhan Zhao locked eyes with the baby, who was sucking on a pacifier, for a moment before reaching out to hold him, "Aiya, so chubby and adorable!"

The movie screening, which was supposed to start at seven-thirty, didn't begin until eight-thirty due to all the commotion.

Everyone bought snacks, drinks and ice cream. Jiang Ping adjusted the machines, turned off the lights, and finally, the movie began.

Half an hour later, almost half of the people in the screening room were asleep.

Zhan Zhao looked around helplessly. Bai Yutang, Bai Jintang, Zhao Zhen, Ma Han, Lan Xi, Lan Qi and Lisbon were all sound asleep.

Zhan Zhao felt that if everyone in the world were as oblivious as these people, it would be quite challenging to cause any mischief with movies...

But indeed, the movie was quite boring, just as Zhou Yuanyuan had said, a terrible film!

Zhan Zhao occasionally glanced at his watch.

At that moment, Jiang Ping reminded Zhan Zhao, "We're about to get to the part around midnight."

Zhan Zhao nodded, coughing slightly, "Ahem!"

That single cough woke everyone up.

Zhan Zhao felt like he had saved a few seconds of countdown time.

First, Jiang Ping was asked to play the movie at a normal speed.

But then Bai Yutang said, "Stop!"

Zhan Zhao had just caught a glimpse of something, so he turned to look at the people behind him. Probably because everyone knew there would be ghostly images at this point, they were all paying close attention. Even those who had been asleep earlier claimed to have seen something different.

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to rewind and play frame by frame.

Jiang Ping then played it slowly... After that, the images on the movie screen seemed like watching a slideshow, one frame at a time.

Among a series of consecutive frames, there was one frame that was different.

It was a portrait, which at first glance, looked like a man wearing black clothes and glasses. Individually, this frame wasn't scary, but when it flashed among the other frames, it gave an indescribable eerie feeling.

What intrigued Zhan Zhao and the others even more was that this wasn't a photograph but an oil painting! The style was exceptionally familiar, and there was even a signature in the bottom right corner. It didn't take much guessing, it was a flower vine in the shape of a J.

All the SCI members chuckled, "It's you again!"

Jiang Ping finished playing the rest of the movie. In the approximately twenty-minute segment of movie footage, there were ten paintings interspersed. Although ten paintings might seem like a lot, in fact, if the content of a twenty-minute segment is broken down into frames, there are almost thirty thousand frames. It's not easy to detect ten paintings inserted among thirty thousand frames.

Jiang Ping edited the frames of the ten paintings and projected them all onto the screen.

At first glance, these ten paintings seemed to depict the same content, but upon closer inspection, there were subtle differences.

Jiang Ping combined the ten paintings into a dynamic image. When he played it, it startled several people.

Popcorn flew out of Chen Xiaofei's hands as he pointed at the screen, saying, "He's looking at me! Holy crap..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he received a smack from Grandpa Chen, who told him not to swear.

"These paintings have a strong suggestive function, and the technique is quite crude!" Zhan Zhao frowned. "Qian Yu's hypnotic abilities are all instinctual; he hasn't undergone systematic psychological training. If he continues like this, there will be consequences. We must stop him."

"Isn't this evidence?" Bai Yutang said. "Handwriting analysis should be able to confirm that Qian Yu is Flower Vine J."

Zhan Zhao was somewhat troubled. "It can prove his identity..."

As a police officer, Bai Yutang naturally understood Zhan Zhao's concerns. It was like catching a murderer who used a knife; you had to catch the murderer, not the one who sold the knife... Proving that Qian Yu was Flower Vine J didn't necessarily prove his connection to the movie, even though Wang Meiyun starred in it.

"You need to find the director of the movie and the distributor." Bai Jintang reminded them.

Jiang Ping fast-forwarded to the credits. The movie's distributor was Dong Group, and the director was someone named Jin He.

"Jin He..." Xu Lie seemed to know this person. "I think I've heard of him before."

The twins didn't recognise the name. "Is he a new director? Has he made any movies before?"

"Oh, right!" Xu Lie remembered something and took out his phone, scrolling through and showing a video to the twins. "This guy sounds familiar. I heard Lin Ruo talking about him before."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang once again heard a familiar name and asked curiously, "Lin Ruo?"

"Lin Ruo recently started a gaming company and is doing quite well." Xu Lie said. "We’re vertical neighbours."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him – You haven't moved yet? Isn't your room a haunted house? How brave are you?!

Xu Lie continued nonchalantly, "I like playing games..."

Everyone nodded, thinking about the figures in his room. He was a classic otaku.

"There was a gaming company that released a horror game before, but it received complaints because the scene design and game animation were too scary. It's said that some people were even scared out of their wits." Xu Lie said. "When I was chatting with Lin Ruo, we talked about this. Lin Ruo said he knew about it and mentioned that the director of the game animation was named Jin He. He was later fired by the gaming company, and people in the industry say he's not mentally stable."

The group frowned upon hearing this “character”, finding it quite fitting for Qian Yu's team.

"How can someone like him still be making movies?" Zhan Zhao grumbled.

Bai Yutang instructed Jiang Ping to find out where this director was now and expressed his desire to talk to him.

Jiang Ping checked and found that the director indeed had no reputation. Search results related to his name were all mixed in with news about Wang Meiyun.

Xu Lie suggested asking Lin Ruo to see if anyone knew about this guy's recent whereabouts.

Soon, a message came back from Lin Ruo saying that someone knew him. He had recently joined Dong Group and was currently shooting a horror film. He was presumably at the film and television city.

Originally, there was no film and television city in S City; there was only a large-scale entertainment complex built by the Bai Group, which included a film and television city that was also available for external rental.

The twins checked and found it quite coincidental... There was indeed a crew renting a studio to shoot a horror film, with Dong Group as the production company, Jin He as the director, and starring Tang Xing.

"It's that Tang Xing again?" Xu Lie leaned back on the sofa, eager to gossip with Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. "This is quite interesting. I've worked with Tang Xing on an advertisement before. This lad is incredibly timid; he's scared to walk alone at night. I really don't understand why they keep having him star in horror films."

Chen Jiayi also nodded, "I've heard he's really timid. Maybe their company is making him star in horror films to toughen him up?"

The twins pondered for a moment, "Studios are rented on a daily basis, and there are too many films being shot now, so demand exceeds supply. Everyone's queuing up for slots, so they're probably shooting in the film city right now."

They called the staff over there; it was convenient since it was a business within the Bai Group.

The staff checked and said the production crew was indeed filming in the studio, and they were shooting until midnight every day.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at the time and decided to pay a visit.

They didn't bring Ma Han or Zhao Hu along, letting them go home with Jiayi and Qi Le instead.

The twins suggested going together to check out the preparations for the film and television festival venue.

Once they were in the car, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked the twins, "Is the film and television festival really happening?"

The twins laughed, "Of course! The film and television city’s business is booming, so holding a film festival to promote it is a no-brainer. Besides, Golden Week is coming up soon, so it's a great opportunity to attract more tourists. Qi Le and Xu Lie are even planning to organise a music festival!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a silent glance at the twins in the rearview mirror, who were happily calculating their profits. Brother, Qi Le and Xu Lie... are they serious?

Bai Yutang shook his head, "Let's not talk about the film festival for now. There might be trouble with that Jin He's crew..."

Before he could finish, the twins threw tissues and earphones at Bai Yutang from the back.

"Don't jinx it!"

‿︵‿︵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: April 5, 2024 by Angel

Edited: April 10, 2024 by Angel