S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 146

Screen Murderer 42 – Game Termination

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Just as SCI had found some clues about the monitors, guardians, and the game, the direction of the case suddenly began to take a turn for the worse.

Zhan Zhao felt something was amiss, subtly wrong, but he couldn't quite figure out what the subsequent development would be.

Issel intercepted the release of the news for them, which was fortunate in the misfortune, but Zhan Zhao felt like something was missing.

Meanwhile, Bai Yutang focused on Chen Gui and Chen Fu in the interrogation room.

Although they came out, Bai Yutang remained vigilant; the recording equipment wasn't turned off, meaning any collusion between Chen Gui and Chen Fu would be captured.

Yet, the two brothers didn't exchange even a single glance.

Through Chen Gui and Chen Fu, the cause of death of the couple in the flower shop should be deciphered, especially what evidence Boss Wang obtained. Therefore, these two were actually very important.

Zhan Zhao couldn't pinpoint what was wrong for a while, so he decided to continue interrogating the two brothers with Bai Yutang.

The two observed the two men through the one-way mirror.

"Something's wrong." This time, even Bai Yutang felt strange.

"Indeed, something's wrong."

At this moment, someone spoke behind them.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were startled and turned around to see Bao Sir standing in the corner behind them, holding a coffee.

Both of them looked at Bao Zheng suspiciously – When did he arrive?

"I came shortly after you two went in." Bao Sir walked over, "Didn't I tell you to take a day off? Are you workaholics or something?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were about to explain but were interrupted by Bao Zheng, "These two being captured by you should be considered an accident, right?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded.

"So why aren't they colluding?" Bao Zheng, after all, was experienced and had seen this kind of situation many times, "Even if they are clever and know that they can't talk at this time, they should have exchanged some eye contact at least. There is usually only one reason for not communicating the whole time."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang shared the same thought, "They colluded beforehand!"

"If they had colluded on their statements beforehand, it means it wasn't an unexpected event, and it was prearranged." Bao Sir concluded.

"I also feel that there's something strange about where these two appeared." Bai Yutang said. "Why were they waiting for Wang Meiyun in the rehearsal room? It feels like someone handed these two over to us... Meaning, Qian Yu sent these two to SCI."

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao rubbed his temple, feeling like he missed something. What was going on...

"Cat," Bai Yutang suddenly said, "if one side of the game discovers Qian Yu's ambitions, what would they do?"

"Terminate the game?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"They probably wouldn't need to deal with Qian Yu directly, they just need to terminate the game so that once Qian Yu's side withdraws, they can't enter anymore, eliminating the danger, right?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Right..."

"But Qian Yu has been laying out his plans for so long, he definitely won't let the other side succeed, so..."

"Qian Yu will do everything to keep the game going." Zhan Zhao said, then fell silent.

Bao Zheng was about to say more, but Bai Yutang gestured with his hand, signalling not to disturb Zhan Zhao's thoughts... Knowing Zhan Zhao, he was probably connecting the dots now...

"Oh no."

After thinking briefly, Zhan Zhao suddenly looked up and said concisely, "Anna might be in danger!"

Bai Yutang took out his phone to call Bai Ye, but Bai Ye's cell phone had no signal, and neither did Zhao Jue's.

Zhan Zhao quickly called Eleven and Issel, but their phones rang for a while without anyone picking up.

"No way..." Zhan Zhao couldn't believe it.

"Issel shouldn't have arrived home yet..." Bai Yutang said, "He should be driving back to the film and television city to pick up Mia and the others."

"Wasn't he watching the concert? Shouldn't his phone be on silent..." Bao Zheng remained quite calm.

Bai Yutang felt it was better to go check, so he and Zhan Zhao went downstairs together.

Just to be safe, Zhan Zhao sent a message to Zhao Jue, but strangely, the message kept showing as failed to send.

"It feels like the signal is being jammed," Zhan Zhao said with certainty, "something's definitely wrong."

Bai Yutang put out the police lights and started the car to rush towards Zhao Jue's villa.

......

Meanwhile, at Zhao Jue's villa.

Bai Ye was feeding koi in the yard with a group of dogs.

After raising them for a while, the koi were in good condition and would swim around Bai Ye during meal times.

As he was feeding, he heard the doorbell.

Bai Ye put down the things he was holding and walked to the porch, glancing at the doorbell camera.

Outside stood a delivery guy wearing a hat and holding a cardboard box.

Bai Ye pressed the intercom button, and the guy shouted, "Delivery!"

Bai Ye didn't respond, he just pressed the door unlock button.

The door opened, and the delivery guy looked around, then pushed open the iron gate and walked in.

Bai Ye switched the doorbell camera to surveillance mode, and the screen displayed several small grids of surveillance footage. Bai Ye randomly clicked a few, confirming everything was normal.

Bai Ye walked to the door and whistled.

With his whistle, the group of dogs ran in.

As soon as Bai Ye pointed to the living room, the dogs obediently ran inside.

Bai Ye saw the delivery guy approaching from the distance, then turned to Anna, who was reading on the sofa, "Anna."

Anna looked up.

Bai Ye said, "Go to Zhao Jue's office and continue reading there."

Anna froze slightly. She hadn't spoken much with Bai Ye since moving into Zhao Jue's villa. Bai Ye cooked, cleaned the house, and took care of the animals every day, remaining quiet and seemingly enjoying the leisurely time. But Eugene had once told her that among the people in this house, don't take anything Zhao Jue says seriously, as it's easy to fall into his traps, but listen to every word Bai Ye says, as ignoring him might cost you your life.

Anna hesitated for a beat, then immediately grabbed her book, got up from the sofa and ran upstairs.

Upstairs, Zhao Jue was sorting through a pile of documents in the study while Eugene was mopping the floor... Eugene was thrown here by Leonard and needed Zhao Jue's help, so he had to do physical labour in exchange for food and rent.

Seeing Anna hurrying up, Eugene looked up curiously.

Anna was still a little flustered, saying that Bai Ye told her to come up...

Before she could finish her sentence, there was a sudden bang from downstairs, followed by the sound of glass shattering and dogs barking.

Eugene quickly rushed to help Anna sit down on the sofa against the wall, then he hurried to the window to take a quick look outside, drew the curtains, grabbed the mop, and ran to the door to look downstairs.

There was no other noise downstairs, just continuous barking from the dogs.

Zhao Jue frowned slightly, "It's so noisy..."

Anna sat on the sofa. Even though she couldn't make sense of the situation, she felt it might be related to her living here... Instinctively, she held her phone close to her chest, looking in the direction of the door.

Suddenly, Zhao Jue asked her, "What's on your phone?"

Anna hesitated slightly, looking at Zhao Jue's calm demeanour.

Zhao Jue looked at her phone, "Does this phone give you strength and courage?"

Anna hesitated for a moment before nodding.

Zhao Jue tilted his head, seeming puzzled.

Anna walked to Zhao Jue and showed him her phone.

The screensaver displayed a photo of her, Dong Yuan, and a baby together.

Zhao Jue asked, "Is this the life you desire?"

Anna hesitated for a moment, then unlocked her phone and showed Zhao Jue the last message Dong Yuan sent her.

Zhao Jue glanced at it. The last message Dong Yuan sent to Anna was, "Don't trust anyone."

After seeing this, Zhao Jue lightly touched his chin and then smiled slightly, "The bad news is, this man is already dead. The good news is, this man loved you, and he wanted to end it all for you."

Anna lowered her head.

Zhao Jue stood up and walked out, seemingly not intending to comfort her.

Anna looked up at Zhao Jue. After living here for some time, she couldn't understand anyone in this house.

At this moment, the barking of the dogs downstairs had stopped, and the faint sound of police sirens could be heard from outside.

Walking out the door, Anna saw Eugene leaning on the mop, peering downstairs.

Anna walked up beside him and glanced down, and her whole body froze.

She saw that one panel of the floor-to-ceiling window had shattered, and the area downstairs was covered with people, but there was not a drop of blood. Those people were lying on the ground, groaning with twisted hands, unable to move.

Anna counted, there were about a dozen people in the room, and there were guns on the ground...

At this moment, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao rushed in. Arriving at the entrance of the courtyard, they both frowned at the sight of the people lying in a row on the path, and they couldn’t help but frown – it looked as if they were lying there like a row of salted fish.

A hydrangea in the yard had been damaged, its branches broken. Bai Ye picked up a few hydrangeas and put them into the koi pond.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at Bai Ye, who had soaked the flowers in water, suspiciously.

Bai Ye said, "If you cut hydrangeas and immediately put them in a vase, they will wither the next day. But if you soak them in water overnight and then put them in a vase the next day, they can last for a long time. When they start to wither, soak them in water again overnight, and they will become full again."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other – So that's how it is. They learned something new...

Then they both shook their heads – Where was this situation going? But the koi pond filled with hydrangeas did look quite beautiful.

Bai Ye picked up a signal jammer that had fallen on the ground and gently squeezed it... The metal casing of the jammer was directly crushed and deformed.

Bai Yutang checked his phone, and the signal had been restored.

They called the criminal investigation team to arrest the assailants.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang entered the villa and saw Zhao Jue stepping on one of the attackers, pointing at the shattered floor-to-ceiling window, and saying, "Compensation!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang suddenly felt that their worries were unnecessary... It was like what Eleven said, this villa was simply a monster house. They didn't know who sent these foolish people here to cause trouble... clearly, they were outsiders.

Before long, Bao Zheng personally arrived with his team, and they took all the unlucky attackers away. Instead of heading to the police station, they were all taken to the hospital first. Bai Ye's actions were quite ruthless, it would take some time for them to recover.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at Bai Ye with some suspicion – Just how strong was this guy’s combat power...

Zhan Zhao encouraged Bai Yutang – Xiao Bai, why don't you spar with him one day?

Bai Yutang silently glanced at Zhan Zhao – Are you sure? I don't think I can win.

After a moment of thought, Zhan Zhao said, "Ask him to spar with you using only one hand?"

Bai Yutang stared at Zhan Zhao for a moment, then reached out and pinched his neck.

"Ahem."

Zhao Jue coughed, interrupting the two.

Judging from his expression, Zhao Jue seemed a bit annoyed by the unexpected visitors, saying to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "How much longer are you going to take? Wrap up this mess quickly and grab that lunatic as soon as possible, I'm tired of this!"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Almost done!"

‿︵‿︵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: May 13, 2024 by Angel

Edited: November 12, 2024 by Soojin