S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 118

Special Files – Collector 03 – Catching a Cheater

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In the evening, Issel and Eleven returned home.

After getting out of the car, they noticed Bai Yutang's car parked nearby.

Uncle Chopsticks opened the trunk, took out two large woven burlap sacks, gave one each to Issel and Eleven, and carried them into the villa.

As they entered, Issel saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang sitting at the table eating, so he raised the sack in his hand. "Want some meat? Fresh beef!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were each holding a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, eating strawberry sundaes made by Bai Ye. Hearing the words "fresh beef," they both nodded at the same time.

Mia was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, reading a book. The title was just one large word, Cheating.

On the table were two large crates of strawberries. Bai Ye was shaking a hand-cranked ice cream maker while glancing down at his phone.

These strawberries had just been delivered by Wen Xiaorou, who had also dropped off two alpacas and Zhao Jue's phone.

Zhao Jue had gone to the dessert shop earlier, and when he left, he had forgotten his phone there.

The dessert shop had ordered several different varieties of strawberries, which had just been delivered. Bai Ye was choosing which kind would taste best for fruit sundaes, and since Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang happened to be there, he roped them in for tasting.

After delivering the alpacas, Xiaorou had driven off in her small truck to move house. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at Zhao Jue's phone, feeling rather puzzled – Where has he gone?

The phone's location tracking had stopped working, but Bai Ye didn't pay much attention. He opened his own phone and used another tracker to check.

After looking, Bai Ye frowned slightly, as though puzzled why Zhao Jue would appear in that place...

Eleven put down the meat, washed his hands, and came over to eat some strawberries.

Bai Yutang glanced at the beef in the two sacks with some curiosity. "Didn't you two go hunting? Whose cow did you slaughter?"

Eleven waved a hand. "These days you can't even find a wild boar in the mountains, so we went to intern at a friend's slaughterhouse..."

"Intern..." Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both unconsciously repeated the word.

Comparing the white and red strawberries, Eleven muttered, "Anyway, the anatomy of four-legged mammals is all the same, much easier to kill than fish."

Issel put his things down and received a text message, it was the table information sent over by the twins.

Bai Yutang received it as well.

After reading the message, Issel sat down beside his daughter and asked, "What should Daddy wear for his date with Mommy tonight? Should it be a bit formal, or more casual?"

Holding the book Cheating with one hand, Mia looked at Issel and pointed with the other towards the coat rack behind her.

Issel raised his head and saw two sets of clothes hanging on the rack, apparently newly bought suits, and hurried over to pick them up for a look.

One set was black and the other navy blue, both with a good cut and style.

Issel held up the two suits and asked Mia, "Which one should I wear? Would it be a bit too plain?"

Mia had changed to another book, holding it up while continuing to look at her dad. This time, the cover still had just one word, Scumbag.

Issel looked over at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

The two of them simultaneously pointed to the black set.

Rubbing his chin as he looked at the black suit, Issel muttered, "All black... looks like I'm going to a funeral..."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao silently nodded.

Mia switched books again, this time picking up the English edition of Why Women Kill.

No matter how Issel looked at it, he really didn't feel like wearing the black one. He dashed back into his room and soon came out carrying several flamboyant outfits, asking, "Which one looks best?"

At the same time, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both thought of the phrase "dancing on a grave".

Mia picked up a copy of Confessions and pointed at the black suit – That one!

Just as Issel was choosing clothes, a ding sounded from his bag.

He walked over, opened the bag, and took out a phone.

Everyone present, apart from Eleven, looked over.

The phone Issel took out was the very one they had found earlier.

Everyone was stunned – He actually pulled it out here!

Issel lowered his head to look at the phone.

Mia had changed to another book again, I Foresee Your Ending.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both puzzled – Where did this child find so many strange books...

Issel looked at the phone for a while, but didn't interact with it. After a glance, he shoved it into his pocket, then went upstairs to shower, comb his hair, and change, even humming a little tune, clearly in a good mood.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang tilted their heads – This one is cheating so brazenly.

Mia pouted and switched to yet another book, How Should I Save You.

Bai Ye asked the two, "Aren't you going back to change clothes?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at themselves and thought he was right, they were going on a date too! After finishing the last two spoonfuls of ice cream, they picked up a bag of beef and went home.

As soon as they got home, their phones buzzed twice. They found that everyone who had booked a table tonight had been pulled into a group chat by Mia – Temporary Catch-the-Cheater Task Force.

Mia then sent a screenshot to the group, it was the chat log they had just seen on Issel's phone.

That "mistress" had sent another message – Tonight, I will come to find you!

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stared at the screenshot in confusion.

After thinking for a moment, Zhan Zhao asked, "Did Mia hack Issel's phone?"

Bai Yutang felt that, with Mia's skills, it shouldn't be difficult. However...

"Issel saw that message earlier, didn't he?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao nodded.

"Then he wasn't the least bit flustered or afraid, and even looked like he was in a good mood." Bai Yutang was puzzled. "Is this... the way to handle a relationship crisis?"

Zhan Zhao also felt it was a bit odd. But by now the group chat was already flooded, after all, it wasn't just the few of them who had booked tables tonight. Gongsun and Bai Chi were still manageable, but the key was Ma Xin, Jiayi, Qi Le, and Chen Yu... the girls had all started gossiping...

"Catching a cheater? Who's cheating?"

"Issel?"

"Seriously?"

"So the mistress is going to their date tonight?"

"Wow! What kind of drama is this?"

"Tonight? Are there still tables?"

"Oh, this is exciting!"

......

Bai Yutang shook his head, carried the sack to the kitchen, and when he took the beef out, he discovered the quality was exceptional. He first cut a large piece and fed it to Lisbon, who had come nosing over. Then he prepared a raw bone-and-meat dinner for the house's little cats and lion cub. He cut and set aside the parts suitable for steaks in the fridge, and cubed a good piece of brisket, planning to stew a beef hotpot in a few days.

Bai Yutang was quite happy dividing up the beef, especially since the texture was so tender. With each slice, the knife went through like cutting tofu, which was very stress-relieving.

Bai Jintang was also in a good mood. The food city had "escaped a disaster", and there had been no problems. He was dining with Gongsun that evening, and he still had a few days off. Big Brother Bai was spinning a globe, looking for a good place to take Gongsun on holiday.

He was leisurely spinning it when he suddenly overheard Gongsun and Bai Chi discussing something about catching Issel cheating...

The twins, having showered and changed into pyjamas, were ready to eat takeaway, drink beer, watch football, and pull an all-nighter gaming!

Just as they were choosing a takeaway on their phones, the phone rang.

Xiao Ding answered, and his face was full of question marks. "Huh? What do you mean take the child into a fancy restaurant? You two are eating out and still bringing Xiao Yumi along? Just have Chen Yu watch her later!"

Xiao Ding rolled his eyes while listening. Da Ding asked what was going on.

Xiao Ding, utterly speechless, explained that Xu Lie and Chen Mi had also booked a table to eat out tonight and had asked Chen Yu and Lan Xi to help watch the child. But once Chen Yu heard about catching a cheater, she also wanted to go with Qi Le and the others to eat. Since Grandpa Chen isn't free this evening, Xu Lie will have to bring Xiao Yumi along...

Big Brother Bai glanced at the twins. "Xu Lie and Qi Le... are both going to the restaurant?"

The twins nodded.

Big Brother Bai looked at the clock on the wall again. The day wasn't even over yet... It turned out the alarm hadn't been lifted...

Big Brother Bai cast a look at Gongsun – How about the two of us go eat somewhere else?

When Gongsun noticed Bai Jintang staring at him, he turned his face away – Clearly, catching a cheater is a lot more fun!

Bai Jintang rubbed his forehead, thinking to himself, Issel really is something. If he is going to cheat, he could at least look at who with, but to cheat with Kalin? Kalin is, after all, Zhao Jue's goddaughter...

Zhan Zhao also remembered this detail. If Zhao Jue found out about this, Issel would definitely not get away with it.

He picked up his phone, intending to send Zhao Jue a message to sound him out, but then recalled that Zhao Jue probably didn't have his phone on him at the moment.

"This morning he was perfectly fine, and suddenly in the afternoon he became so strange..." Zhan Zhao muttered to himself.

"It seemed to start after he spoke with you about that professor." Bai Yutang had clearly noticed too, though he didn't think much of it, since Zhao Jue occasionally "disappearing" wasn't anything new.

"Uncle Ye seems to know where he is." Bai Yutang shook his head at Zhan Zhao. "It should be fine. I don't think Uncle Ye is worried either, just a bit puzzled."

Zhan Zhao nodded, then asked Bai Yutang a little gossipingly, "How many trackers has Uncle Ye fitted him with? He doesn't even have his phone on him and he can still find him?"

At this point, Xiao Bai Chi said quietly, "Master Jue always wears a string of beads."

"Does he?" Gongsun had never seen it.

"He does, an ash-grey, very fine chain. He always wears it high, tucked away in his sleeve." Zhan Zhao gestured to the middle of his forearm.

"Is that chain a tracker?" Bai Yutang thought Zhao Jue wasn't the type to obediently let people track him. And if it were a tracker, why hadn't he left it in the shop along with the phone?

Zhan Zhao wagged his finger meaningfully. "Not exactly. If every tracker really failed, then Uncle Ye might go looking..."

Bai Jintang looked at his two younger brothers in exasperation. "You two, investigating cases, catching cheaters, and now even worrying about missing persons... are you workaholics or something? Don't you know to go on dates when you have time?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look, realising he was right. Why were they worrying about it?

With that thought, the two of them simply let it be, went upstairs to change, and headed out for their dinner date!

......

After night fell, everyone first drove to the food city to eat.

The food city was just as bustling at night, especially the upstairs restaurants, where it was impossible to get a table.

The twins opened up the banquet hall on the top floor, gathering all those who had "pulled strings" to get in. This way, they wouldn't affect business downstairs, and with all the jinxed stars gathered together, well, if any trouble really did break out while catching the cheater, it wouldn't spread to the other guests.

The banquet hall was big. To avoid disturbing all the couples sitting face to face, the twins had put up a lot of glass partitions, with each table set quite far apart so they wouldn't disturb each other.

Originally, this arrangement should have pleased everyone, but now the situation had changed. People had gone from focusing solely on eating to eating while gossiping and trying to catch someone cheating... But with the glass partitions and distance, they couldn't hear a thing!

Bai Jintang looked at the twins, who had taken their own table as well – Aren't the two of you usually eating takeaway, watching matches, and gaming all night? How come you turned up too?

The twins raised their hands at the same time, pointing at Mia sitting at their table – She insisted on coming. Then they pointed at the stroller beside them.

Big Brother Bai was speechless, the twins had even brought a child.

Mia had her head down, staring at a tablet.

Gongsun glanced over and found it was all surveillance feeds. He was puzzled. "Mia, what are you looking at?"

Mia lifted the tablet for Gongsun to see.

Gongsun looked and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Isn't this the food city surveillance? Looking closer, he realised Mia was holding Zhan Zhao's tablet. Earlier, when they caught Wang Yong, they had connected it to the food city's system, and now she was using it to catch cheaters red-handed.

Bai Jintang and Gongsun had just sat down when they saw Bai Ye and Eleven arrive at the entrance.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both fixed their eyes on the two as they sat down awkwardly – You two... are eating here as well?

Bai Ye nodded while glancing at his phone.

Uncle Chopsticks spread his hands and gestured towards Mia – She insisted we come.

Zhan Zhao shook his head – The child wants to guard her parents' love, doesn't she...

Bai Yutang motioned for Zhan Zhao to look at Mia's expression.

Zhan Zhao turned back and saw Mia hugging a rabbit plush, cheeks puffed in anger as she glared at the table by the window where her parents were sitting. Judging from the way she was holding the plush, the rabbit was about to be strangled to death.

Everyone was curious about that expression... until they turned and saw Issel chatting with Kalin while glancing at his phone, the very phone he had just been using to contact his mistress.

Everyone shook their heads – How brazen! How outrageous!

The twins sent a message to the chef to prepare some tofu, they might be able to eat tofu rice straight away later...

Issel was dressed in a black suit and looked uncomfortable, tugging at his tie every so often, constantly feeling as if everyone were staring at him, making him all flustered.

Kalin rather liked watching him fidget with his tie and paid him no mind, scrolling through her phone to order food.

Just then, Issel's phone lit up. He glanced down at it.

Kalin asked, "Well? Any progress?"

Issel looked at the screen, seeming a little troubled. "It's tricky... the situation feels different from before. Maybe I should ask Zhao Jue or Zhan Zhao?"

‿︵‿︵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 22, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 26, 2025 by Angel