S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 113

Screen Murderer 09 – Strange Bullet Hole

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Whether it was due to the Bai Group's feng shui issues or Captain Bai's jinxed nature was unclear. But one thing was certain... they had rushed here at night to question Jin He, only to witness his tragic demise.

Jin He's lifeless body lay on the ground, Tang Xing sat nearby, still shocked, while Zhan Zhao observed him closely, and Bai Yutang dashed into the bushes.

Behind the bushes and the low trees was a large lawn, with a prominent camphor tree in the centre. Beneath it was a bench, and in front of the bench lay a cell phone.

Bai Yutang shone his flashlight around.

The surroundings were encircled by low trees and bushes. Aside from the completed studio and the one still under construction, there wasn't much else nearby.

Observing the terrain, Bai Yutang couldn't help but furrow his brow... On one side were studios one, two and three, brightly lit and bustling with people. On the other side were studios four, five and six, still under construction, deserted and locked up for the night...

Shining his flashlight on the ground, Bai Yutang found some bloodstains, likely from Jin He's movements earlier... Following the trail towards the bench... Bai Yutang suddenly noticed a hole in the backrest of the bench.

Under the tree, there was only this single bench, a common metal-framed bench with wooden planks, similar to those found in parks.

Towards the middle of the uppermost wooden plank on the backrest, there was a hole pierced through it.

Bai Yutang crouched down, shining his flashlight through the hole... It lined up perfectly with studio two.

Bai Yutang furrowed his brow... Could it be that someone shot Jin He from the direction of studio two?

But there was a problem...

The bench faced studio two, and the wooden plank on the backrest had some thickness to it. Moreover, the back of the bench faced the large tree.

So, it could only mean that someone shot Jin He directly from the front, and the bullet penetrated Jin He's chest before going through the bench's backrest...

Bai Yutang looked at the hole and the thickness of the wooden plank again, puzzled – What kind of gun had such power? Even a standard pistol, if fired directly in front of Jin He, might not necessarily penetrate through the thick backrest of the bench... It would likely get stuck in the plank.

Bai Yutang continued to shine his flashlight on the ground and the tree trunk behind.

After searching back and forth for a while, Captain Bai became even more puzzled – No bullet!

Bai Yutang found it incredulous – Where could the bullet have gone? Could someone have come by and picked it up just now?

But it didn't make sense to Bai Yutang; he didn't hear any gunshot just now!

Jin He had taken a bullet and managed to run out of the bushes, indicating he had been shot not long ago. To be precise, he must have been shot and then immediately climbed out of the bushes... Why hadn't they heard anything?

Bai Yutang couldn't make sense of it.

Similarly perplexed was Zhan Zhao.

Tang Xing was too frightened to get up. His hands were covered in blood, and with his raincoat on, wet hair plastered to his head and blood on his face... his appearance oddly matched the situation.

A few staff members helped Tang Xing up and seated him on a chair. An assistant brought a wet towel to wipe his hands, but Zhan Zhao stopped him, saying, "Wait a moment, he has touched the corpse, the forensics team will need to collect the evidence soon."

The assistant nodded and stood aside.

Tang Xing seemed to have recovered from the shock, looking somewhat flustered as he asked, "He's dead? Jin He, he's really dead?"

Zhan Zhao nodded.

......

At this moment, the police cars arrived, along with Bai Jintang's car.

Big Brother Bai had been having a good time with Gongsun, enjoying their time together, when a phone call interrupted them. Bai Jintang felt like slamming the phone down, but Gongsun told him there was a dead body in their studio.

After a moment's thought, Big Brother Bai asked, "The venue for the film festival?"

"Probably." Gongsun nudged him, asking him to drive him over.

Getting out of the car, Big Brother Bai glanced at the distance between the studio and the main venue of the film festival, nodding to himself. It's quite far! Bai Jintang silently told himself – Stay calm! It's okay!

The police put up a cordon, attracting quite a crowd of onlookers who were discussing in hushed tones.

Tang Xing sat dumbfounded on the chair as forensic workers collected evidence from him.

Ma Xin and Xiatian also arrived, heading straight to their respective bosses with toolboxes in hand.

Bai Yutang emerged from the bushes and waved to everyone.

The forensic pathology team examined Jin He's body, while the forensic department went to gather evidence from the flowerbed.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu both went over to look at Jin He's body.

Zhao Hu clicked his tongue twice and shook his head – People are starting to die!

Ma Han bent down to take a closer look at the wound on Jin He's chest.

Gongsun briefly examined it and said, "It pierced through the chest."

"Not just the chest, it went through the back of the bench too." Bai Yutang interjected.

"The back of the bench?!" Gongsun exclaimed, "What back of the bench?"

Bai Yutang gestured towards the flowerbed with his head.

Gongsun became suspicious and, with Ma Xin and Xiatian, went to take a look, only to be dumbfounded.

Gongsun found it incredible. Several members of the forensic team were measuring the size of the hole, seemingly trying to determine the calibre of the bullet, but the hole was really small and perfectly round.

"There's no way!" Gongsun shook his head incredulously, "What calibre of bullet would that be? Was the gun fired from right in front of him?"

Gongsun led his team out again, inspecting Jin He's body once more, puzzled. "Is this really a gunshot wound?"

Bai Yutang mentioned he hadn't found any bullets.

At this, both Ma Han and Zhao Hu looked up.

Zhao Hu asked Ma Han, "Hey, is this similar to the case at the flower and bird market?"

Ma Han nodded, squatting down to examine Jin He's wound. "The gunshot wound on the neck of the body at the flower and bird market looks similar to this."

"Boss, did you hear any sounds?" Zhao Hu was curious.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged a glance, then both turned to look at the twins.

The twins were gazing at their older brother affectionately. Upon seeing everyone's gaze, they shook their heads. "We didn't hear anything unusual."

Bai Yutang called the scriptwriters and a few makeup artists over, questioning them about what had happened earlier.

Their accounts were mostly consistent.

They were filming Tang Xing's scenes in the studio just now, with artificial rain set up for a rainy scene involving Tang Xing.

But after shooting a few scenes, not even halfway through, Jin He suddenly picked up his phone, saying someone was calling him, and rushed out to answer it.

Because the studio was quite damp, Tang Xing came out to sit outdoors for touch-ups.

Not long after, Bai Yutang and his team arrived.

During this time, the staff didn't hear any unusual sounds. Moreover, Jin He clearly went to the alley next to the studio to answer the phone, so how did he suddenly end up at the flowerbed?

But the staff mentioned that if he had genuinely intended to play a prank to scare someone, it was possible.

Jin He only needed to run to the back of the basketball court, bypass studios one and two, and then run out from the alley next to studio one, crossing the road into the flowerbed. He could easily go unnoticed from this side.

"Did any of you hear any particular sounds just now?" Bai Yutang double-checked, "Like gunshots or something?"

The scriptwriter wiped his sweat and pointed to studio two beside them, saying, "They're shooting a gunfight scene next door, and studio one is filming a spy film, both involving guns. Forget about gunshots, even explosions are part of the effects. So, it's not surprising to hear such noises."

"Does Jin He have any enemies?" Zhao Hu asked, earning him slightly strange looks from everyone in the production crew.

Hu Zi was a bit puzzled, "What's wrong?"

"Jin He has enemies everywhere," the scriptwriter muttered, "you should ask how many people he knows who aren't his enemies..."

"His social circle is that bad?" Zhao Hu was surprised.

"Is it because he loves playing pranks?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The makeup artists sighed, saying Jin He was unbearable. When they were applying makeup, he would suddenly bring fake hands to scare them, and when they pulled his hand, it would fall off. Those were minor pranks; he would go even further with bigger pranks, sometimes even planning them out meticulously. It was just outrageous.

"Do you know who called him?" 

Bai Yutang took the phone from the forensic team and put it in an evidence bag.

But all the call logs and messages on the phone had been deleted.

Bai Yutang handed it back to the forensic team, instructing them to take it to the SCI office to see if Jiang Ping could recover anything.

The production crew couldn't provide clear information, and Jin He's phone was always on silent, never answered, he just returned calls when he saw them.

Fortunately, the Bai Group's facilities were well-equipped, with nearby surveillance cameras. The twins led everyone to the monitoring room to check the footage.

As they headed out, both Ma Han and Zhao Hu glanced back at the flowerbed.

Ma Han seemed to be searching for an angle. He walked to a certain position in front of studio two, stopped, and gestured to everyone – It was probably this spot.

Bai Yutang had just looked out from the hole in the back of the bench, and it was roughly this position.

This spot was the entrance to studio two.

The studio was bustling, everyone was filming scenes and you could even hear the sounds of fights. The director was holding a megaphone, shouting at the actors at the top of his lungs, asking if they hadn't eaten, why were they fighting like they were dancing, did they have osteoporosis? Did they need calcium pills?

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found the director's remarks quite biting, and couldn't help but ask the twins – Were all directors this bad-tempered?

The twins chuckled and said they should go talk to him.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed the twins into studio two.

The setup in studio two was quite grand, as if they were shooting some kind of sci-fi film, complete with a large spaceship set that had been erected.

A middle-aged balding uncle wearing a camouflage vest was directing two actors on the spaceship with a large megaphone, instructing them on how to fight.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang weren't particularly interested in the film industry, but they had seen this director on TV before. His name was Zhou Yi, a quite famous commercial film director whose movies seemed to always do well at the box office.

"Lao Zhou."

The twins called out.

The director seemed busy and was visibly annoyed at being interrupted.

However, upon recognizing the twins, the rather fierce-looking Director Zhou immediately smiled, "Aiya! What brings you two here?"

The twins gestured towards Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao behind them.

Director Zhou momentarily froze, then headed straight towards Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang looked at the uncle standing in front of him, tilting his head slightly in confusion as the man assessed him.

"Oh ho!" Director Zhou rubbed his hands together, circling Bai Yutang, "Impressive, impressive! Finally, I've seen him live!"

As he spoke, the uncle suddenly swung a fist towards Bai Yutang's face.

Zhan Zhao was startled by his actions, wondering what was up with this director, attempting suicide right off the bat.

Bai Yutang didn't dodge. He extended his hand and lightly flicked the director's wrist with two fingers.

"Ow!" Director Zhou winced in pain, shaking his hand and complaining that his arm had gone numb. Then, he turned to the two actors on the spaceship behind him, saying, "See that? That's how a master fights! Stay calm! Stay calm, you hear me! Move fast and accurately! Don't just pose! And keep quiet! Fighting, heh heh heh, what do you two think we're filming?"

Bai Yutang and the others were speechless – No wonder there were always several assistant directors around. It felt like the director could get taken out at any moment...

The twins grinned and told Bai Yutang, "Aren't there some videos of you catching thieves online? Director Zhou is your fan, he wanted to get you for an action movie."

Bai Yutang clearly wasn't interested and instead asked, "Did anyone pass by the entrance within the last half an hour?"

"Within the last half-hour..." Director Zhou pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "Nope, we've been shooting this action scene for two hours! These two idiots have no strength, can't even deliver a punch! Useless!"

Everyone looked at the two young actors on the spaceship with a hint of sympathy.

Zhan Zhao asked Director Zhou, "Are you familiar with Jin He?"

"Tch!" Director Zhou scoffed, "That arrogant little brat!"

"Oh, by the way, there seemed to be quite a commotion outside just now. I even heard someone shouting about a dead person." Director Zhou half-jokingly asked, "What happened? Was Jin He the one who died?"

The cast and crew in the studio had also heard the commotion outside earlier, but the workaholic director didn't let anyone leave, so they were all curious. Upon hearing Director Zhou's words, they started whispering to each other.

"Is Jin He really dead?" Director Zhou was surprised when neither Bai Yutang nor Zhan Zhao denied it.

But he quickly shook his head, muttering to himself, "Maybe I know something."

"What do you know?" both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked him.

Director Zhou looked around, then leaned in closer and whispered, "I know who the murderer is!"

‿︵‿︵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 6, 2024 by Angel

Edited: April 10, 2024 by Angel