S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 205

The Intelligent Killer 10 – Mischief

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SCI looked at the surveillance and encountered a haunting event. Everyone was dumbfounded, especially Zhao Jue, who found the ghost encounter as delightful as winning a prize and couldn't stop laughing.

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping to check if this "female ghost" appeared on any other surveillance footage.

However, Jiang Ping checked all the videos, and the female ghost only appeared in one segment and was absent in the rest.

"Did the not cameras capture her entering and exiting?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Jiang Ping nodded, "There's a problem with the surveillance recording system. I'm not sure if it's a technical issue or hardware damage, but there are intervals of static, nothing was recorded during those times!"

The SCI team sighed collectively. It seemed all the surveillance systems malfunctioned at critical moments, leaving them to question their usefulness.

"At times like this, dash cams are more reliable." Bai Yutang instructed Jiang Ping to locate the owners of the vehicles parked near the elevator from their licence plates and retrieve the footage from their dash cams.

......

Outside, the rain was getting heavier. In the hospital room, Chen Mi had bought a sandwich from the downstairs cafeteria and handed it to Xu Lie, then went to fetch the warmed milk to feed Xiao Yumi.

Xiao Yumi had recovered well after the surgery, and all the tubes had been removed. He had just woken up and smiled at Chen Mi as he approached.

Chen Mi smiled back, gently poking his little hand and supporting his head to feed him the milk.

Xu Lie, chewing his sandwich, sat back on a chair, leaning over the backrest and watching Chen Mi feed Xiao Yumi.

A thunderclap sounded outside, and the heavy rain pelted the windows.

At that moment, Xu Lie's phone buzzed.

He glanced at it, flattened his mouth, and got up to look out the window... Bai Jintang's car was pulling into the hospital entrance.

"What's wrong?" Chen Mi asked Xu Lie, who was fiddling with his phone.

Xu Lie clicked his tongue, "The boss is here!"

Chen Mi had overheard Xu Lie avoiding the twins on the phone earlier and his refusal to return to S University.

Chen Mi was a bit curious as to why Xu Lie was so reluctant to go back to S University... Knowing Xu Lie's carefree and fearless nature, what could possibly be at that school that made him so unwilling?

While he was pondering, the elevator doors opened, and the twins burst in, followed by Bai Jintang.

At the door, Xiao Ding waved to Xu Lie, "A'Lie!"

Xu Lie clung to the back of the chair and refused to move.

Da Ding also waved at him, "Hurry up!"

Xu Lie held his head, claiming he had a headache and a cold, and didn't want to move...

The twins looked at him in exasperation.

Bai Jintang kicked the twins through the doorway, walked into the room himself, and closed the door behind him. He pulled up a chair next to Xu Lie and sat down.

Big Brother Bai looked at Xiao Yumi drinking milk and asked Xu Lie, "Why are you so unwilling to go to that school?"

Xu Lie muttered, "Who said I'm unwilling..."

The twins both stared at him.

"Ai..." Xu Lie sighed, looking up to find Chen Mi also looking at him.

Their eyes met, and Chen Mi quickly looked down at Xiao Yumi, pretending not to care, but his curiosity was evident.

Xu Lie squinted, stroked his chin, and murmured to himself, "Do men with secrets really have more charm? Aiya..."

Before he could finish, Xiao Ding smacked him on the head.

Xu Lie clutched his head and turned around.

Xiao Ding shook his phone, "I've already called a good reporter!"

Xu Lie whined, "Couldn't we at least wait for a sunny day? Who goes to S University in this rain..."

Everyone exchanged glances, and Bai Jintang asked Xu Lie suspiciously, "What does this have to do with the rain?"

Xu Lie sighed, put down the half-eaten sandwich, and said seriously, "Fine! You guys wanted to hear this!"

Everyone looked at him expectantly – Say it!

Xu Lie began mysteriously, "Back when I was studying at S University, there were four of us in the dorm: A'Gui, Four Eyes, Fatty, and me."

Everyone nodded, waiting for more details.

"A'Gui was a rich kid, came from a wealthy family, and he loved to have fun. He wasn't exactly a playboy, but he did change girlfriends frequently. Four Eyes was a bit of a nerd, liked playing games, and had poor eyesight. Fatty had good grades but was very timid, easily bullied," Xu Lie introduced his three roommates and then asked the twins, "Did you two go to my school to dig up info? What did you hear?"

Big Brother Bai chimed in, "We heard about the time you saved someone... Who was the one who jumped?"

Xu Lie scratched his head, "A'Gui."

"Did he end up in a mental hospital?" Bai Jintang continued.

Chen Mi looked over, intrigued –What's this about jumping off a building and being sent to a mental hospital? He had never heard Xu Lie mention anything about it...

Xu Lie shook his head.

"He didn't end up in a mental hospital?" Everyone was curious.

Xu Lie said, "He died in the end."

Everyone was puzzled, "Suicide?"

Xu Lie shook his head again, "After he was discharged, he accidentally ate peanuts and died from an allergic reaction."

Chen Mi found this strange, "Was his allergy that severe?"

Xu Lie smiled, "When A'Gui was in university, he loved peanut-flavoured things, peanut candy, peanut butter... We even joked that he could eat cardboard if it had peanut butter on it."

"So he didn't have a peanut allergy at all?" Bai Jintang asked.

Xu Lie shrugged, "He didn't have it then."

The twins asked Chen Mi, "Isn't an allergy congenital?"

"Aren't allergies usually more common in childhood? It's related to the immune system..." Chen Mi wasn't entirely sure and said they needed to consult a doctor about it.

Bai Jintang waved his hand, indicating they could discuss that later. "So your reluctance to go to the school is related to this classmate?"

"I'm not afraid of the school!" Xu Lie curled his lips, looking quite conflicted.

"Explain in detail!" Bai Jintang urged him to get to the point.

"So A'Gui, that kid, he liked flirting with girls. He was good-looking and had money, so he usually succeeded in his pursuits. But changing girlfriends frequently gave him a bad reputation," Xu Lie said, crossing his arms. "He was indeed a bit of a scumbag, but not every girl he dumped was easy to deal with. One girl he broke up with gathered a few of her friends from the same school and formed a 'revenge alliance' to teach A'Gui a lesson."

"How did they teach him a lesson?" the twins were quite curious.

"They pretended to be ghosts to scare him," Xu Lie said.

Everyone couldn't laugh or cry – This... was quite creative.

"At first, we didn't know about it. It was only after A'Gui had an accident that those girls came to us and confessed," Xu Lie shook his head. "It was initially just a prank. Every school has popular ghost stories, we've all heard some... I remember our school had a popular one about a female ghost in a red dress, a drawn umbrella, revenge contracts and the like."

Bai Jintang looked at the twins with a puzzled expression – Was campus life always this peculiar?

The twins, who loved gossip, mentioned that there had been scripts for campus horror dramas like this before, but they were rejected by directors for being too eerie and not wanting to film them.

Bai Jintang stroked his chin, thinking he should catch up on this with Gongsun.

Chen Mi asked Xu Lie how those girls specifically messed with A'Gui.

"Based on the legend, they forged an electronic contract in the name of the woman in red and sent it to A'Gui. Then they started playing pranks... For example, when A'Gui went to an internet café to play games, they would quietly place a red umbrella next to his desk. They also sent him photoshopped photos to scare him... and drew umbrellas on our dormitory windows."

Xu Lie shook his head while speaking, "Honestly, I never noticed any of it back then..."

Everyone looked at him with resignation – You're the one with the most nerve!

"And what about A'Gui?" Chen Mi asked, "Did he notice?"

"During that period, I don't know if A'Gui was scared by the prank or something else, but he changed a lot!" Xu Lie said. "He was constantly on his phone, seemed very anxious, and often skipped classes... In short, he became very secretive. At first, we didn't pay much attention, thinking he had found a new target... There were also rumours that he had a girlfriend outside the school, someone had seen them on a date, and she was wearing a red dress with a great figure."

Everyone frowned – This sounded like he was dating the ghost directly.

"One night before he attempted to jump, we returned to the dorm after evening self-study and found the bathroom door locked from the inside. Fatty knocked for a long time, but no one answered, so I kicked the door open... and..."

Xu Lie still felt a chill thinking about it, "A'Gui was sitting in the bathroom, holding a fruit knife, with his wrists slit. There was blood everywhere, and he had drawn red umbrellas all over the bathroom tiles with his blood."

The twins huddled closer to Bai Jintang – It was getting eerie!

"We quickly got him out, and at that time, he was not in a good state... Fatty suggested taking him to the school hospital, but Four Eyes stopped him, saying if the school found out, they'd either expel him or send him to a mental hospital, ruining his life! So, Four Eyes and I took him to an off-campus hospital, while Fatty cleaned up the blood in the bathroom. After having his wounds treated at the hospital, we asked him what happened... A'Gui seemed more sober and said he had been dumped and drank some alcohol... That was it. But it didn't seem like him, we thought he was covering something up, but it was his private matter, so we didn't push further."

About a week later, A’Gui's ex-girlfriend came and confessed about their prank.

Everyone connected the timeline, it turned out they had confessed early on.

"I was quite confused at the time. Four Eyes and Fatty also asked them if A'Gui's strange behaviour could be because he was scared. Since their prank worked, why did they come to confess?"

The girls hesitated and said, "They had originally planned to scare A'Gui by pretending to be a ghost, but then they heard that A'Gui was really with a woman in a red dress... It was too weird, and they didn't know what was going on! They thought they had gone too far and caused trouble!"

Bai Jintang also found the situation odd.

"That day, I asked A'Gui to go to the library to talk about this." Xu Lie spread his hands, "But then that incident happened, and he jumped off the building..."

Chen Mi and Bai Jintang both asked, "So, what was the real reason?"

Xu Lie sighed, "He was always unstable after that, repeating the same things about running out of time and constantly attempting suicide, so he was restrained and sent to a mental hospital, where no one could visit him. I went back to those girls, and they were terrified, saying they had only sent the prank contract and some photoshopped photos, nothing more. The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed, so I checked A'Gui's email. I guessed his birthday for the password and got it right... I found his last email A'Gui opened, which contained only a link. Clicking it led to a login page with spaces for an account and password. The background image was a woman in a red dress with a red umbrella on a dark rainy night. I tried a few account names and passwords but couldn't get it right. After three incorrect attempts, the email disappeared."

"What happened next?" Chen Mi and Bai Jintang asked, feeling that although it was strange, it didn't seem enough for Xu Lie to avoid S University.

Xu Lie scratched his head, "After that... I found out the truth."

‿︵‿︵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: July 16, 2024 by Angel

Edited: December 30, 2024 by Soojin