S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 94

The Culinary Murderer 46 – Expected Accident

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In the Bai Group's lounge, Big Brother Bai was preparing formula milk for Xiao Yumi, following the method detailed in Xu Lie's childcare notes.

On the projection screen, the cooking competition was streaming smoothly.

Unlike the SCI team, Big Brother Bai's feed included an extra panoramic camera view that showed the staff, as well as access to back-end data, and he noticed the broadcast was performing extremely well.

Initially, Bai Jintang had been a little worried about Bai Ye's group, after all, those two newbie chefs had only crammed for one night...

But unexpectedly, the group was proving wildly popular. Watching the numbers shoot up, Big Brother Bai suddenly had a realisation, although he himself had terrible luck, his fortune seemed to be quite good when it came to wealth. Was this the conservation of energy at play, a loss in one area balanced by a gain in another?

Just as he was thinking about this, Xu Lie appeared on screen, and Xiao Yumi immediately clapped her tiny hands.

Big Brother Bai walked over and handed her the bottle.

Xiao Yumi looked up at him and stretched out her arms for a hug.

Big Brother Bai flipped through the childcare notes and found that there was even a detailed section on how to feed a baby.

After studying the notes for a while, he picked up the baby, sat down on the sofa, let her lean against his legs, and held the bottle for her.

Xiao Yumi slurped away with fierce enthusiasm, and Big Brother Bai finally understood how drinking milk alone could make a baby so chubby.

After watching the baby drink for a while, Bai Jintang couldn't help but recall the look in Shi Yanshuo's eyes when he'd been staring at Xiao Yumi earlier... That boy was about to get married, and yet he looked at a child with outright disgust... What was wrong with him? Even if someone didn't like kids, no normal person would show that kind of expression, it was like he wanted to kill her.

Still bothered by this, Bai Jintang held the bottle in one hand and picked up his phone with the other, sending a message to Zhan Zhao.

......

Back in the SCI office, everyone was glued to the livestream screen.

Issel and Eleven had finished their tasks, and Bai Ye had just finished making his coffee, pouring it into cups filled with frozen milk balls and setting them aside for the time being.

Taking out the warmed bread, Bai Ye started making sandwiches.

Bai Yutang was a bit worried that the two newbie chefs wouldn't season anything...

Bai Ye brought out a frying pan, followed by a few jars, all of which were grinder jars, though no one knew what was inside them.

Issel and Eleven tilted their heads in curiosity.

Bai Yutang thought for a moment and realised this was actually a good idea, if those two didn't know what was in the jars, they wouldn't nag about it.

Bai Ye finely chopped the boiled and poached eggs, tossed them into the pan for a quick stir-fry, and finished preparing the egg filling... then gave a few sharp twists on the grinder jars.

"Whoa..."

At the judges' table, Guan Xiaoyue was immediately drawn in by the aroma and looked over.

Xu Lie had never eaten Bai Ye's cooking before, but he had tasted the steak grilled by Bai Yutang at a dinner gathering. When it came to cooking skills, he genuinely respected the Bai family. Didn't little Bai Chi know how to make milk tea and other drinks? It must be some kind of inherited family talent. He wondered whether Big Brother Bai had any aptitude in this area...

In the lounge, Big Brother Bai watched Xiao Yumi finish her bottle of milk with great satisfaction. He felt his first attempt at preparing formula had been quite successful, and he continued flipping through the childcare notebook, following the illustrated instructions on how to burp a baby.

......

In the SCI office, Zhao Hu was pestering Xiao Bai Chi nonstop, asking if he'd ever eaten that kind of egg-filling sandwich. No ham, no bacon, just an all-vegetarian sandwich, can it really be any good?

Xiao Bai Chi nodded seriously, like a chicken pecking rice. "It's super delicious, okay! Even though it's vegetarian, it tastes like ham and seafood!"

Ma Han glanced over in curiosity as well. He knew Bai Ye could cook well, but how could an all-veggie dish taste like ham and seafood?

"The key is in that custom-made seasoning!" Bai Yutang pointed to a few grinder jars on the table. "Those bottles are all Uncle Ye's own blends, they've got freeze-dried ham, shrimp, and all sorts of ingredients. Uncle Ye gave me a few jars before, you can use them in sandwiches, pasta, fried rice, anything!"

Zhan Zhao suddenly recalled something. "No wonder Luban always jumps onto the kitchen counter and sniffs the spice jars, I thought it wanted to drink soy sauce."

Bai Yutang laughed. "Didn't Uncle Ye make loads of freeze-dried snacks for the cats at home? It's probably the same process."

Zhan Zhao looked up at the ceiling - Well then, turns out it wasn't seasoning, but powdered cat food.

In just a few swift moves, Uncle Ye had finished preparing the sandwiches.

By then, the coffee had settled nicely too. After a stir with the mixing stick, the "simple" breakfast was ready.

In the comment section, it was all drooling emojis and enthusiastic discussions, everyone was urging them to let Guan Xiaoyue and Old Ma taste it quickly, eager to hear the two of them unleash their sharp-tongued critiques.

Bai Ye's group was almost the fastest to finish, so they were scheduled as the first team for the tasting.

Being the first to be tasted had its pros and cons. The upside was that the judges likely hadn't eaten yet. The downside... was that by the end, people tended to forget the first dish.

So generally, nobody liked to go first or last, everyone preferred a middle slot.

But Bai Ye seemed indifferent.

He cut the sandwiches into small pieces, poured the coffee into little cups, and brought them over to the judges.

Back in the SCI office, Zhao Hu shamelessly leaned over to Zhao Jue and asked when Uncle Ye was going to host a food party.

Zhao Jue was flipping through the economic crime division's data on Zhan Zhao's desk. When he heard Zhao Hu's question, he looked up and asked with a perfectly kind expression, "You mean like the kind Hannibal hosts?"

Hu Zi immediately shrank his neck.

Zhan Zhao's phone buzzed. He took it out and saw that it was a message from Big Brother Bai.

First came a photo of Xiao Yumi sucking on her bottle.

The image made Zhan Zhao smile, the child had quite a sense of the camera. When Big Brother took the photo, she puffed out her cheeks and glanced towards the lens.

Below it was a line from Big Brother: Shi Yanshuo seems to really dislike children.

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly and asked how Big Brother Bai could tell.

Big Brother replied that just now, Shi Yanshuo had glared viciously at Xiao Yumi.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin. The sample size was too small to be sure, he couldn't tell whether Shi Yanshuo disliked children in general or just disliked Xiao Yumi... However, given that he didn't know her and it was their first meeting, to show such dislike was... a little odd.

Bai Yutang had also seen the message and asked Zhan Zhao in confusion, "What does that mean?"

"Hmm... it's hard to say," Zhan Zhao murmured, lightly tapping his chin with the phone.

Just then, a wave of excitement stirred around them.

They both looked up to see that the judges had already started eating the sandwiches and drinking the coffee.

There were five judges in total for this competition.

Four were permanent judges, and one guest spot rotated. Aside from Guan Xiaoyue, the fixed judges included a renowned food critic known as Old Ma.

Old Ma was famously sharp-tongued but held real authority in the culinary world.

Another judge was a pastry chef named Celine, who had opened many chain dessert shops and had won several awards for her cakes.

The final permanent judge was Chef Wang, a five-star chef and well-known online celebrity cook.

This episode's guest judge was Xu Lie. Jia Yi, Qi Le, and Jiang Nan would take their turns in future episodes.

The organiser twins were still plotting, and given how strong the viewership data was for the first stream, it'd be even easier to invite guests moving forward.

Back at the judges' table, as soon as they took a bite of the sandwich, the panel paused for a moment, then silently bowed their heads and proceeded to finish every last bite.

The sandwich had been sliced into five portions, so each judge only had two or three bites, and the coffee was only a small cup.

Xu Lie clearly wasn't satisfied, he looked up at the table longingly, his expression saying – Uncle! Give me a whole one! And a jumbo coffee, please!

The twins kept throwing warning glances at Xu Lie – Save some room, you've got other dishes to try later!

Bai Ye, on the other hand, didn't mind if they ate a bit more, after all, he was feeding children himself these days...

The judges just kept eating and didn't say a word, which was driving the viewers mad. The comments section was nearly exploding. Just give your comments already, stop eating!

After finishing, Guan Xiaoyue licked his fingers and asked Bai Ye, "Are you interested in opening a chain?"

While asking, he leaned over the table, sniffing at a few of the grinder jars. "There's something to this. Are you selling the formula? Are you launching a brand?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang watched Guan Xiaoyue sniffing around the spice jars at the edge of the table, and began to suspect he might be Luban's brother...

Bai Ye actually thought the suggestion wasn't bad, selling sandwiches and cat food at the same time...

The other judges had also finished eating. Each of the judges had a different style, Guan Xiaoyue and Old Ma were the more sharp-tongued among them, with Old Ma being the most cutting, and Guan Xiaoyue coming second.

Since there were two who could dish out harsh criticism, naturally, there had to be two who handed out excessive praise. Celine was especially good at gushing, while Chef Wang took a more rational and objective approach.

Celine held her face in her hands and repeatedly praised the three handsome men, how their looks alone were appetising, and their culinary skills were outstanding... The comments section had already collapsed into a frenzy over their appearance, with many remarking that Bai Ye looked so much like Bai Yutang, like real brothers!

A whole bunch of viewers were also asking whether the three handsome guys were single.

The host was quite adept at seizing opportunities. Seeing that the judges were still "organising their thoughts", he seized the moment to interview the trio.

He asked Issel whether he was seeing anyone, and Issel replied – Yes! And a lovely daughter, her mother is a perfect goddess.

The SCI members collectively clicked their tongues, Smooth talker.

Zhao Jue shook his head in disgust, while Mia clenched her fists beside him – Go Daddy!

The host then asked Eleven, Uncle Chopsticks spread his hands and said he was currently single.

Just as the host was about to move closer to Bai Ye, there was suddenly a loud bang from next door, seems like something had fallen.

Everyone looked over and saw that it was Fang Beibei's mixing bowl that had fallen to the floor, and batter was splattered everywhere.

This was a major mishap. A cook dropping a bowl mid-prep was no different from a hairdresser dropping their scissors, a very amateurish mistake.

Everyone looked over in confusion. Fang Beibei's two assistants were hurriedly cleaning up while Fang Beibei scrambled to start over. She was already behind due to skipping rehearsal, and now she'd likely be the last to finish. She might even run out of time before completing her dish.

The comments section was already buzzing about Fang Beibei's tardiness and the brake failure incident, with many viewers feeling like something was off about her.

The host quickly tried to smooth things over. Bai Ye glanced over but didn't pay it much mind. When he turned back, he saw Issel staring upwards, not at Fang Beibei, but at the overhead lights.

Hanging from the ceiling of the livestream set were several lighting fixtures, both general lights and fill lights, as well as reflectors and boards. Although none of them were in shot, they were essential.

To clearly capture the ingredients and make them look fresh and appetising on camera, lighting was critical. So, above each competing group, there was a dedicated spotlight.

Issel stared at the light above Fang Beibei's head for a good while, then suddenly reached out and handed his knife to Eleven beside him.

Uncle Chopsticks noticed Issel looking at the light too. As a sniper, Eleven naturally had sharp eyesight. He fixed his gaze on the light for a moment and noticed that the light seemed to have moved slightly downwards just moments before... 

Just as he realised something was wrong, Issel tilted his head towards him. Uncle Chopsticks suddenly took a few steps back with the knife, stepped out of the shot, then raised his hand...

Almost at the same moment the knife flew out, the spotlight above Fang Beibei's head fell down.

Everyone instinctively looked up... but what they saw was not Fang Beibei struck on the head bleeding, but rather the spotlight precisely pierced by Uncle Chopsticks' flying knife through the hanging ring above.

The blade passed through the ring, but the back of the knife couldn't get through and got stuck, so the light flew sideways with the knife. Opposite was the livestream room's wall, made of wooden panels. The knife poked right into the wooden wall, the light still hanging on the handle, not touching the ground...

Almost everyone in the live studio was stunned, but the livestream footage captured none of it except the light above Fang Beibei suddenly dimming. The lighting technician quickly reacted and added fill light.

Everything on screen went on as usual. The host busily looked to the director, who signalled him to continue.

At that moment, the cake from Qian Lin's station was ready, and the host swiftly diverted everyone's attention there.

The twins were standing not far by the wall, quietly looking up at the chef's knife that had pierced through two layers of wooden boards and the light hanging on the knife, thinking that Uncle Chopsticks had chosen the wrong career... He'd be better off in a circus throwing knives...

The livestream audience didn't notice anything unusual, but SCI and Bai Jintang, who had the extra panoramic view, saw everything clearly.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance – Sure enough...

Bai Jintang, on the other hand, noticed Shi Yanshuo standing in the corner.

Back in the studio, everyone felt it had been a false alarm and hurried to continue with their work.

Bai Ye glanced at Fang Beibei and thought something was odd.

Before the light fell, she kept glancing up now and then, as if she somehow knew it was about to happen.

‿︵‿︵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 14, 2025 by Angel

Edited: October 15, 2025 by Angel