S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 133

Screen Murderer 29 – Sick

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Clearly, Eleven's visit to deliver the documents was just incidental. His real purpose was to discuss Zhao Jue's situation.

"Well..." Eleven crossed his arms and shook his head, "I haven't spent much time with him, but I'm wondering if he's always been like this or if it's a recent change?"

"What do you mean?" Bai Yutang asked.

"I always feel like he's teetering on the edge of turning dark," Eleven spread his hands helplessly, "he seems to be in an unstable state."

"Unstable..." Bai Yutang pondered Eleven's description for a moment and found it strangely fitting.

"I feel like he's like a volatile chemical reagent, the more peaceful the outside world is, the more unstable he becomes as if he could explode at any moment..."

Eleven looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, implying – Do you guys understand?

Bai Yutang nodded, looking at Zhan Zhao – Cat...

Zhan Zhao put down his chopsticks, sighed, and reached for his phone, dialling Zhao Jue's number.

After a moment, the call was answered, and a stern "Hello!" came from the other end.

Both Bai Yutang and Eleven were startled by the harsh tone, it sounded like he was angry.

Zhan Zhao didn't say anything. After a moment of silence, Zhao Jue asked impatiently, "What?"

"I'm here to offer you psychological counselling. Are you coming over, or should I come to you?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Huh?" Zhao Jue seemed to find it amusing, "Offering me psychological counselling..."

"What's wrong? Can't psychologists have psychological issues? Neurologists can't have neurological disorders? Gynaecologists can't experience childbirth pains?" Zhan Zhao's tongue was as sharp as ever, "You, with your severe PTSD and retirement syndrome, need to undergo regular treatment!"

Zhan Zhao took a piece of paper and roughly calculated, saying, "I'll come to your place every Saturday afternoon from one to three. Don't do anything else that day, just obediently accept treatment."

There was still no sound on the other end of the phone. Finally, Bai Ye's voice came through, "Got it, thank you."

The phone was hung up, and Zhan Zhao shook his head.

Eleven was surprised, "So Zhao Jue was so erratic because of a mental illness?"

Zhan Zhao smiled and asked rhetorically, "Do you think he's the only one? None of you can escape it, it's just that his symptoms are more severe."

Eleven pondered, touching his chin, and muttered to himself, "I see..."

"Mental discomfort is the same as physical discomfort." Zhan Zhao said, "When you feel unwell, you should see a doctor. Just because you're tough and not afraid of pain, doesn't mean your wounds won't get infected or fester."

At that moment, a police officer downstairs called to say that the takeaway had arrived.

Eleven decided not to disturb them with the investigation and got up to leave.

Zhan Zhao stopped him as he walked towards the elevator and said, "All patients need more care."

Eleven paused slightly, then turned to look back.

Zhan Zhao continued, "I know you guys think you're monsters and aren’t afraid of anything except human emotions... Sometimes, having emotions requires more courage than not having any."

The elevator doors opened.

Eleven smiled, waved gently to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, then entered the elevator.

After he left, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat, is there something wrong with Zhao Jue?"

Zhan Zhao smiled, "Do you think he doesn't know what his problem is?"

Bai Yutang frowned, "He knows?"

"Of course he knows, and he knows that I've noticed too, that's why he's so angry. He's just throwing a tantrum." Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang, "Have you ever seen those old men who cause trouble everywhere after retirement?"

Bai Yutang held his forehead, "Just because of this?"

"It’s precisely because of this!" Zhan Zhao also felt helpless, "That's why he's tirelessly organising data every day, and as a result, he must have found that there are very few cases that he can investigate, so he's getting more and more cranky every day!"

After finishing speaking, Zhan Zhao summarised, "Once all his special skills are stripped away, he's just a dead stubborn long-haired spirit! No matter how powerful the weapon, it still needs maintenance."

Just as he finished speaking, his phone vibrated, and Zhao Jue sent a voice message.

Zhan Zhao opened it with some confusion, and he heard Zhao Jue roaring on the other end, "You're the dead stubborn one!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked around with their phones in hand – Where exactly was the surveillance hidden?!

......

Setting aside the annoying affairs of those retired "monsters" for the time being, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang carefully studied the information Mia had found for them.

The incident involving those three girls caused quite a stir locally at the time.

The data included numerous photos taken by the police and detailed forensic information.

As they were looking through it, they heard the sound of the elevator door opening, and Bai Jintang walked in.

Their older brother's dinner was disrupted by a homicide case earlier, and his date was ruined too, but fortunately, he was used to it. He dropped Gongsun off at the police station and went to buy supper himself.

Bai Jintang walked in carrying supper and sighed when he saw two bowls of instant noodles on the desk, then urged Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang to eat something else.

Meanwhile, Gongsun was still working in the adjacent forensic room.

Ma Xin and Xiatian rarely left work on time, and Gongsun didn't bother calling them over, he could manage alone.

Bai Jintang, seeing Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang studying the data, initially wanted to lean against the sofa for a moment, but then noticed the newspaper clippings on the desk.

He picked up the news article about the three missing girls from years ago and said, "This news rings a bell for me."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang immediately remembered that their older brother was also in Italy back then, so they asked him if he remembered any details.

Bai Jintang said, "I remember some news reports saying that the three of them brought it upon themselves, as if they had bullied classmates before. Some of them suffered frostbite, and others had psychological issues and dropped out of school. But the three of them cooperated and provided false alibis for each other, so neither the police nor the school punished them. Plus, one of their grandfathers was the school principal... so they got away scot-free."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded. "So these three were the type to bully classmates regularly, relying on their underage status and influential backgrounds to commit crimes everywhere?"

"Most of the local newspapers reported it that way. I remember when I used to go to restaurants or cafés back then, people often discussed this matter, saying they had angered the Grim Reaper and received punishment of some sort."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang flipped through the documents and indeed found many reports mentioning their "pranks against the Grim Reaper."

"Why was there such a saying?" Zhan Zhao wondered.

Bai Yutang also felt there might be something to it.

At that moment, the elevator door opened again, and a sleepy young girl from the forensic department walked in, handing them the USB drive.

Zhan Zhao asked her if they had extracted the fingerprints.

The girl nodded, saying Dong Fei's fingerprints were extracted, but the USB drive was too small, and the fingerprints were fragmented, so not much information could be retrieved.

Bai Yutang handed the USB drive to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping opened it on the computer... Inside the USB drive was a document containing a string of sixteen numbers.

Jiang Ping opened the previous USB drive, also containing sixteen numbers, and found that the two sets of numbers were different, and they didn't seem to have any correlation.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both puzzled – What were these numbers for?

Zhan Zhao also took it over to show Bai Jintang.

Bai Jintang looked at Zhan Zhao in confusion – What's this?

"Do you have any special thoughts when you see these?" Zhan Zhao asked suggestively.

Bai Jintang was silent for a moment and said, "It would be nice if it were Gongsun's vacation."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang silently thought to themselves – Wishful thinking.

......

As they were discussing Gongsun, Gongsun finished his autopsy next door and came over.

Handing over the autopsy report to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, Dong Fei had died from arsenic poisoning, with no other abnormalities found.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both frustrated – This case was also a dead end. Dong Fei's killer was Viper, and it seemed unrelated to Wang Meiyun.

Bai Jintang pointed to the clock on the wall, implying – Don't you guys need to go back to sleep?

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao took their folders and headed home together to rest.

......

Back at the villa, the twins were watching the rehearsal program for the film festival.

Zhao Zhen and Bai Chi seemed to have just returned home too, both playing happily and watching the program with the twins.

The twins were mainly going through the schedule for the film festival, scratching their heads.

Bai Jintang finally showed some ambition, sitting down on the sofa and asking them, "How's it going?"

The twins glanced at him, indicating that they wouldn't talk about the film festival for now.

Instead, they showed Bai Jintang a few photos.

In the pictures, Wang Meiyun was seen escorting several Dong Group executives in and out of the Bai Group premises.

The twins said, "We just received a bunch of calls asking if we were interested in acquiring Dong Group."

Bai Jintang then asked, "Are they selling?"

The twins looked at Bai Jintang speechlessly, "What would you buy that mess for?"

Bai Jintang remarked that the Dong Group's building wasn't bad.

The twins didn't bother discussing it further with him, continuing to watch the rehearsal process while mentioning, "Anna agreed to debate with Wang Meiyun! Just now, some reporters asked her lawyer. There's a lot of dirt on Anna flying around now, the situation is not looking good for her!"

Zhan Zhao sat down and took out his phone to check the news, while Bai Yutang placed two boxes on the coffee table.

The twins stared at the two boxes, then looked up together – What are they?

Bai Yutang pointed to a beautifully wrapped box and said, "Eleven's wedding gift for Ma Han and Jiayi."

The twins' eyes lit up as they stared, imagining all sorts of possibilities – What could it be?

"He said it's for Jiayi."

"What about this box?" Bai Jintang pointed to another box that looked like a cake box.

"This one's for Luban."

Bai Yutang clicked his tongue twice.

Just then, Luban and the little lion came running towards them with a group of kittens.

Bai Yutang smiled faintly, reached out, and opened the lid of the cake box.

Luban, who had just arrived, immediately stopped in his tracks. The kittens, along with the little lion, all tilted their heads, looking at the cake on the coffee table.

Lilia also jumped onto the sofa, glancing at the cake, then at Luban.

The twins exclaimed, "Oh!" when they saw that the cake box contained a stuffed cat doll that looked just like Luban.

Bai Jintang felt somewhat speechless. "Why does this look so much like him?"

"Oh!" Gongsun, who had changed into pyjamas and returned to the room, also noticed and said, "The other day, I saw Ma Xin bought a Shar Pei, and it looked very similar too."

Bai Yutang reached out, picked up a knife, and asked the others, "Who wants to give it a try?"

Zhan Zhao raised his hand.

Bai Yutang handed the knife to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao took the knife and approached the cake.

Luban immediately stared nervously at the knife in Zhan Zhao's hand. As the knife approached the cake bit by bit, Luban's eyes widened gradually.

After gesturing for a while, Zhan Zhao didn't proceed, he put down the knife, picked up the cake, and let Luban sniff it.

Bai Chi took out his phone and asked Zhan Zhao to take a photo with Luban and the cake.

Bai Yutang also went to change clothes. When he came out, he saw the twins flipping through the folders.

Knowing that the twins had a wide network in Italy, Bai Yutang asked, "Do you two know any students or alumni from that girls' school?"

Xiao Ding said, "We can ask around. Maybe we can really find someone."

After that, the twins started making calls.

‿︵‿︵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 28, 2024 by Angel

Edited: October 25, 2024 by Angel