S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 116

Special Files – Collector 01 – Let's Go Hiking

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In the SCI office, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had just come back from the food city and were sitting at the desk watching a video.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu had also returned from the hospital. After washing their hands, they sat down to eat seafood fried rice.

Zhao Jue and Mia had brought back quite a lot of samples from the competition, and this fried rice had been made by Bai Ye.

Since Eleven and Issel had been so good at catching seafood, their speed had been much faster than the other teams, and they gathered far more ingredients, which had led to Bai Ye cooking too much fried rice.

The SCI team had been busy all morning and hadn't eaten, so Bai Ye asked Zhao Jue to pack up some food and bring it back.

Zhao Hu scooped up a spoonful of fried rice. "It is tasty, but the squid and prawns are all cut into heart shapes, and for some reason it's a bit disgusting..."

Mia, munching on her starfish biscuits, nodded in agreement – Dad and Uncle Chopsticks have developed a compulsive obsession with cutting vegetables.

"But the effect is great." Jiang Ping said while scrolling through a live stream. "This heart-shaped fried rice has now become an internet hit. The GIF of Issel cutting prawns into hearts has even gone viral as an emoji."

Jiang Ping shared it with the group, and they laughed as they ate.

Bai Yutang was in good spirits too. He had been worried that with so many people at the food city, there might be serious trouble today.

But things had gone unexpectedly smoothly. The video on the USB stick recorded a large number of crimes committed by Wang Yong as the yellow raincoat killer.  It could be called ironclad evidence. No wonder Wang Yong had always worked so hard for Shi Yanshuo, even risking arrest to fetch the USB stick, it turns out it was the evidence of his crimes.

Outside, Gongsun came out of the elevator holding a report, followed by Ma Xin and Xiatian, pushing Wang Yong's corpse towards the morgue.

When Gongsun walked into the office, everyone looked at him.

Gongsun shook the examination report in his hand. "The autopsy still has to be done, but the hospital carried out a simple toxicology test. The cause of death is the same as Guan Xiaohong's."

Zhan Zhao, who had been staring blankly at the screen, finally reacted a little. He raised his head and asked, "He also took that capsule with the mixture of aconitine toxin and tetrodotoxin?"

"Very likely." Gongsun nodded. "We'll know after the autopsy."

"Suicide?" Bai Yutang was perplexed. "If he was going to commit suicide, why would he still go to the food city to look for the USB stick?"

"If he took capsules and neutralised the poison, it would only delay the onset of the poison by two to three hours," Gongsun said. "As for whether he took it himself or someone gave it to him, we don't know."

After finishing, Gongsun went off to the autopsy room to perform the autopsy.

The jingle of bells echoed from upstairs. Zhao Jue walked to the staircase and waved upwards.

Mwah Mwah scampered down the stairs, tail wagging, and followed Zhao Jue into the office. Ma Han handed a tennis ball to Mia, and she began playing with Mwah Mwah.

Bai Yutang answered a call from Wen Xiaorou, who was discussing the matter of Zhu Yi leaving the safe house with him.

With Wang Yong dead, Zhu Yi should no longer be in danger. Bai Yutang said she could go home any time.

The four girls, Guan Xiaohong, Tan Wen, Zhu Yi, and Wen Xiaorou, had gotten to know each other well and were planning to rent a house nearby together with Guan Mei. Guan Xiaoyue was very enthusiastic about helping them arrange it.

As expected, Su Hai had disappeared, but Bai Ye seemed to have gotten along quite well with him. The two had even exchanged contact details and agreed to go fishing together when they had time.

After hanging up, Bai Yutang turned back and noticed that Zhan Zhao was still sitting at the computer, staring blankly at that video file on the desktop. He reached out and poked his shoulder – Cat?

Zhan Zhao came back to his senses and looked up at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang raised an eyebrow slightly – What's wrong? The case is closed, are we going out for dinner tonight?

Zhan Zhao stared at Bai Yutang for a moment, then turned back to that video file and asked, "Don't you find it strange?"

"It's strange!"

At that moment, Jiang Ping cut in, leaning over to say, "This video isn't a surveillance recording!"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had also noticed that when they watched it earlier.

The video showed two complete incidents of Wang Yong kidnapping and murdering victims. Judging from the camera movements, the clarity of the video, and the shooting angles, Wang Yong must have been under surveillance.

Firstly, the video clearly wasn't filmed by an accomplice, because it was obviously shot in secret, from a distance.

Secondly, the person filming had been unusually professional and calm. Just think: a serial killer was committing murder not far away, and yet this person had held a camera steady, hiding in secret, and recording it clearly without being noticed and without a trace of trembling.

Lastly, and most unsettling of all, who exactly had filmed it? This was a murder, but instead of stopping it or calling the police, the person filming had followed along to capture "footage". It was impossible to say whether the murderer, Wang Yong, was more terrifying or the person who calmly took the video.

Jiang Ping analysed the video, but Zhan Zhao didn't seem to be dwelling on those points. Instead, he reached out and pointed at the file name, the words "Yellow Raincoat Killer", and said, "This naming is very strange."

"Strange?" Bai Yutang looked at the file name, not quite understanding what was odd about it.

"Normally, a video copied directly from a camera or similar device would have a simple alphanumeric string that the system auto-generated, right?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Then this file was deliberately named like this." Zhan Zhao paused, gathering his thoughts to articulate his point clearly. "Why was it named like this?"

Zhan Zhao pointed at the screen and asked, "Doesn't it look as if this file was originally among a whole bunch of others, like ‘Green Raincoat Killer', ‘Red Raincoat Killer', ‘Black Raincoat Killer'... Wouldn't that make more sense?"

Everyone was left a bit bewildered by what Zhan Zhao said. As always, his words seemed to make no sense, yet somehow also made perfect sense.

As the only one here with level-ten Cat Language reading ability, Bai Yutang grasped Zhan Zhao's meaning instantly. Muttering to himself, he said, "You mean, there might be more than one video like this, and more than one serial killer like Wang Yong?"

"Right?" Zhan Zhao nodded immediately. "If there's only this one video, why would it be named like this?"

The others exchanged bewildered glances, feeling inexplicably that it was absurd – What did it mean, more than one video? Could it be that the person filming hadn't just shot Wang Yong's crimes, but had recorded the crimes of many serial killers and named them one by one?

"Fuck, what kind of person is this?" Hu Zi couldn't accept it. "A psychopath?"

"The key is, it's not so easy to film, is it?" Ma Han found it hard to fathom. We handle cases all year and hardly ever come across a serial killer. How could someone just casually record their crimes?

Zhan Zhao scratched his head, wondering if he had been overly sensitive lately and was overthinking things...

As the group gathered together to discuss, at the doorway, Zhao Jue, who had been tossing a ball back and forth with Mia to amuse Mwah Mwah, seemed to drift off for a moment and glanced over in their direction... The ball flew past him and he didn't even catch it.

Mwah Mwah ran off to fetch the ball, wagging his tail as he brought it back and looked up at Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue reached out, took the ball from its mouth, and tossed it to Mia.

Mwah Mwah happily bounded off after the ball again.

Zhao Jue turned his head and glanced over again.

At the desk, Zhan Zhao was scratching his head.

Bai Yutang asked him, "How about taking a couple of days off? Want to grab dinner at Big Brother's food city tonight?"

"Can we even get a table?" Zhan Zhao tried to steer his attention away from his wild thoughts.

Bai Yutang called the twins. At their own business, surely they could manage to get at least one table.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu immediately came over, asking Bai Yutang to reserve two tables for them as well, as they were going to take their girlfriends out for dinner.

When Mia heard this, she came running over, gesturing to Bai Yutang that he should also book a table for her mom and dad, one on the top floor with a view of the night scenery! And order a bouquet of roses too! Her mom liked black, withered ones!

Everyone looked at Mia helplessly. Children these days are so worried about their parents' love lives.

......

The twins were reliable and reserved several tables.

Just as Bai Yutang hung up the phone, Bao Sir came out of the elevator...

Bao Sir was in quite a good mood. A major case had been wrapped up, a serial killer had been caught, the evidence was conclusive, and the follow-up work should go smoothly.

After praising the team for their hard work a few times upon entering, Bao Sir asked Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, "You don't have any cases on hand right now, do you? Clear your schedules for the next couple of days."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both stared at Bao Sir – What's this about? We have dinner plans tonight!

"I won't keep you two from your meal." Bao Sir waved a hand and asked Zhan Zhao, "That summer camp I mentioned to you before, have you given it any thought? The university is pressing me."

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao's expression clearly showed a trace of disgust. "Do I have to go?"

"Yes." Bao Sir nodded firmly.

Hugging a cushion, Zhan Zhao's whole body radiated refusal. "I'll think about it again..."

"I've already agreed on your behalf." Bao Sir pointed at him. "Now that the case is closed, the two of you can go. Just treat it like a mountain hike."

Having said that, Bao Sir left, bumping into Zhao Jue at the door.

Zhao Jue narrowed his eyes to observe him, then smiled. "Xiao Black's been doing well in both love and work lately, huh..."

Bao Sir hurried into the elevator – Yeah, it's been very smooth, what's there to complain about?!

Watching Bao Xiao Black enter the elevator, Zhao Jue kept his gaze on him, eyes filled with a rather meaningful look.

Bao Sir's inner alarm went off at full volume. What are you staring at? Don't you dare stir up trouble!

......

"Cat, what summer camp?" Bai Yutang hadn't heard Zhan Zhao mention it before, so he asked.

Zhan Zhao sighed. "The Department of Criminal Psychology at X University has organised a summer camp in the mountains. It's a simulated case investigation lasting a week, with an exam at the weekend... They want me to go and grade their assessments."

As he spoke, Zhan Zhao's phone buzzed. It was Bao Sir, sending him the date and location. The time was set for the coming weekend, two days.

Bai Yutang thought it sounded rather interesting. "It's the weekend anyway, so why not go hiking and relax..."

Zhan Zhao cast him a gloomy look. "Resting on the weekend means lying at home. Why would you go hiking? Hiking is exhausting, how is that rest?"

"Moderate outdoor exercise," Bai Yutang said. He recalled buying a hiking outfit ages ago, it was never worn and perfect for this weather.

Zhan Zhao thought back. "How long ago was that? That set that was bought five years ago?"

"So you haven't been hiking for five years?" Xiao Bai Chi asked Zhan Zhao in surprise.

"I told you, why should people go hiking?" Zhan Zhao protested again. "There are mosquitoes in the mountains!"

Bai Yutang glanced at the address. "It's near Big Brother's amusement park."

"There are a few good spots for outdoor activities over there. Why don't we go camping on the weekend too?" Bai Chi suggested.

Everyone else seemed somewhat interested.

Zhan Zhao muttered, "Then why don't you guys go, I'll just stay home and sleep..."

He glanced at that video file on the desktop again, clicked his tongue, and prepared to shut down the computer.

Just as he pressed the power button, his phone rang out a barrage of messages. His editor called repeatedly, sending him a string of urgent messages, "Great God, where's your manuscript? The deadline's this weekend! Have you written it yet? Where's the manuscript!"

Zhan Zhao silently put his phone back on the desk, hugged a cushion and shuffled over to sit by the sofa, then lay down... planning to sleep straight through till next Monday!

"By the way, this weekend's cooking competition is also being held outdoors," Jiang Ping checked the filming location. "It's quite close to the place you guys are going. The next episode is an outdoor barbecue special, it should be pretty exciting!"

Even Bai Yutang had to admire the twins' knack for stirring things up. Lately, almost everyone has been glued to the live broadcasts, with all sorts of tricks and variations for cooking.

Mia was a little worried – Dad and Uncle Chopsticks aren't actually planning to go hunting, are they? What if they run into a bear in the mountains?

Bai Yutang thought that with the two of them, it really wasn't impossible. Fortunately, there were no bears in the mountains around S City, though wild boars were possible...

Zhan Zhao put on a cooling eye mask, ready to get some rest... when a voice came from above the sofa: "How do you test the psychology department's grades outdoors?"

Zhan Zhao pulled back one corner of the eye mask, opened one eye, and looked at Zhao Jue, who was leaning over the back of the sofa asking questions.

"Well... something like Werewolf, I suppose. I had a glance at the plan before, it seemed quite complicated... This professor pays more attention to the practical applications of psychology."

Before Zhan Zhao could finish, Zhao Jue asked, "Which professor? Is his surname Wu?"

Zhan Zhao glanced at him. "Yes, Professor Wu Wen..."

Seeing that Zhao Jue was lost in thought, Zhan Zhao asked, "He's around your age, do you two know each other?"

But Zhao Jue didn't answer, instead, he asked Zhan Zhao, "What do you think of this professor?"

Zhan Zhao reached out, pressed the nose of Mwah Mwah, who had suddenly come over, took the ball from Zhao Jue's hand, then slipped the eye patch back on again, speaking unhurriedly, "Overall, no major problems."

"Overall?" Zhao Jue asked. "So there's still a bit of a problem?"

"Although it's good to emphasise the combination of theory and practice in teaching... when there aren't any patients, how should a doctor show their medical skills? Doctors should be quite good at pretending to be patients themselves, after all, they are professionals, but whether that kind of practice builds medical skill or trickery... that's hard to say."

‿︵‿︵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: September 16, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 24, 2025 by Angel