S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 129

Special Files – Collector 14 – Drama

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Zhan Zhao's exploration of baby language had turned the tone from adorable and innocent to eerie and supernatural.

After a comprehensive analysis, they concluded that the baby's "maidudu" meant that the mannequin in the forest was the same as the one in the photo, and just now, that plastic model had walked on its own.

Everyone stared at Jiajia. Lan Qi hugged his daughter tightly, clearly declaring his disbelief in feudal superstitions!

Zhan Zhao studied the photo on his phone for a while and asked Bai Yutang, "Could this photo have been taken recently?"

Bai Yutang thought it was possible. He suggested checking the recent rental records for the holiday cabin next door, after all, if someone had taken the photo, they would have needed to stay there.

"But it might not have been taken next door," Zhan Zhao glanced around. "All the cabins are furnished similarly, after all."

"Ai..."

Just as Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were discussing it, they heard someone sigh.

When they looked up, they found that everyone else in the cabin had left. Only Lan Qi remained, tidying up Jiajia's toys.

"Where is everyone?" Zhan Zhao asked, puzzled.

Bai Yutang gestured outside... It seemed the barbecue was ready, and everyone had run off to eat.

The sigh, naturally, had come from Lan Qi.

Lan Qi shook his head repeatedly. "Seriously, you two, investigating a case is one thing, but how did you manage to turn it into a supernatural investigation?"

Beside him, the baby mimicked him perfectly, "Supernatural!"

"Supernatural?" Zhan Zhao didn't think it was that serious.

Lan Qi gave the two of them a look and asked, "Haven't you seen it?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a glance. "Seen what?"

"That TV series that aired recently," Lan Qi pulled out his phone. "The kid's mom was watching it, it's been really popular lately..."

After saying that, he found the relevant clip from the show and showed it to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. "This scene of the plastic mannequin turning into a person has gone viral..."

At that point, Lan Qi paused, tilted his head towards his daughter, and asked, "So you picked up maidudu while watching the show with your mom, didn't you?"

Jiajia blinked her big eyes and chirped, "Maidudu!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang took the phone and leaned over to watch the video together...

The scene showed a plastic mannequin standing in a shop window suddenly come to life, smashing through the glass, and walking out...

After watching this random clip with no context, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both turned to Lan Qi, equally confused, "What is this TV series about?"

Lan Qi thought for a moment. "Er... it's something like this: a meteorite fell to Earth, and after entering the atmosphere, it broke into several pieces that were found by different people. Those who possess the fragments of the meteorite gain special abilities, one of them being the power to bring inanimate objects to life... But the things that come to life possess evil souls and become extremely violent... The villain wants to collect all the fragments, while the protagonist wants to destroy them... That's roughly the story."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both fell silent, staring speechlessly at Lan Qi – Is that supposed to be a good plot?

Lan Qi thought again. "It's pretty good... It doesn't seem to have high ratings, but my wife's been really enjoying it."

"What's the name of the show?"

"The Collection of Sin," Lan Qi thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes, that should be it."

Zhan Zhao picked up the remote and turned on the TV in the living room. He searched for it, and sure enough, it was a popular series, ranked first in on-demand dramas.

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang with the remote in hand.

Bai Yutang looked back at him.

Zhan Zhao tilted his head – Why have I never heard of this?

Bai Yutang shrugged, as if to say – Don't ask me, I don't know either.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Lan Qi shook his head repeatedly. "See? You two are out of touch with real life. What's that line from The Shining again? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looked at Lan Qi.

Lan Qi stared at the two for a while. "Don't tell me you two haven't even seen The Shining..."

Before he could finish, the two of them blurted out in protest, "Of course we have! We watched it when we were kids!"

Lan Qi hugged his daughter and kept shaking his head.

Zhan Zhao pressed play to start the drama.

As soon as the opening music began, Jiajia turned her head towards the television. "Bengbeng."

Lan Qi jiggled her playfully, making her giggle.

Zhan Zhao stroked his chin... Bengbeng, what does this mean? Earlier, Big Brother said that Jiajia called the two trees "bengbengba" and "bengbengga"... Could bengbeng mean "tree"?

He looked back at the show's opening sequence. Against a grey background, a black, gnarled tree was growing, its branches twisted and claw-like. Hanging from the tree were one photo after another.

Zhan Zhao kept rubbing his chin, then took out his phone to check the contents of the email in the screen recording.

And indeed, that electronic ticket had a subtly similar design style to the show's opening sequence.

Zhan Zhao followed the order of episodes. The title of the first was Container, with a small line beneath it: Adapted from a true case.

Bai Yutang was puzzled. "Didn't you say it was caused by a meteorite? So is this a sci-fi drama, a horror drama... or a detective drama?"

Zhan Zhao was puzzled too. Both turned their eyes to Lan Qi.

Lan Qi was braiding his daughter's hair. When he noticed the two looking at him, he said, "It's a show that combines sci-fi, mystery, and the supernatural... and quite a few of the cases are adapted from real ones. There are even some of your famous cases in it, the box corpse case, the ghost ship case, and the mummified body case. Xu Lie even made a cameo."

Bai Yutang thought the series had far too many elements. How can sci-fi and the supernatural even go together?

Zhan Zhao muttered, "They used our case, why aren't they paying us royalties?"

Lan Qi tied the last of Jiajia's two little braids and started clipping on butterfly bows, chuckling. "Ling Ling said the same thing that day. Fortunately they didn't include Bobby's case..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him with a smile – So do you call your wife 'the kid's mom' or 'Ling Ling' in private?

As soon as Jiajia heard "Ling Ling", she clapped her hands and called out, "Mommy!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang raised their eyebrows. "Oh! That was a standard one!"

"And what about him?" Zhan Zhao asked, pointing at Lan Qi.

The baby chirped, "Baba!"

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were amused, while Lan Qi hugged his daughter and pretended to sob. "Not Baba, it's Papa!"

"Aren't you two having any barbecue?"

Xiao Bai Chi came in carrying a tray, followed by Lisbon, who had eaten, been washed clean, and was now looking full of energy.

Zhan Zhao took the skewer Bai Chi handed him, leaned back on the sofa, and got ready to binge-watch the series.

Bai Chi sat down beside him to watch as well... SCI had probably been too busy lately, or perhaps they had simply handled too many supernatural, sci-fi, mysterious, and horror-like cases in real life, so none of them ever sought out such shows voluntarily. Bai Chi hadn't seen this one either.

"This container..." Bai Chi felt it looked similar. "Isn't that the square waste disposal site halfway up the mountain?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded, they thought so too.

"No wonder that area became a viral check-in spot, it's because the drama got popular." Bai Chi felt the visuals were rather eerie and hurried off to fetch more food for Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

The two of them huddled together on the sofa, watching the series.

Big Brother Bai came in holding a plate of food, took one look at the two of them, and felt speechless – How could these two young people turn into such old men? We are on a countryside holiday, yet here they are, glued to the sofa watching TV. What's the point of coming all the way to the mountains to watch television? Couldn't they have done that at home...

Just as Big Brother Bai was about to complain, Gongsun came over carrying a plate of grilled prawns, sat down on the sofa too, and said, "The visual style of this, looks just like that ticket and those crime scene photos!"

"Right?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both agreed.

Seeing Gongsun sit down, Big Brother Bai went over and sat beside him, leaning against Gongsun to watch the television together.

The scene was littered with corpses right from the start. Gongsun adjusted his glasses and said, "Oh, these corpses are... not bad!"

Zhao Jue came in holding a bowl of shaved ice. Seeing that the main sofa was already full, he sat down on a nearby armchair, eating while glancing at the screen.

The four on the sofa all looked at him curiously – You watch TV too?

Zhao Jue blinked. Just then, Bai Ye came in as well.

Uncle Ye noticed they were watching a drama, so he sat down on another armchair, handing Lan Qi a portion of grilled meat and a bowl of steamed egg custard.

Lan Qi took the food, eating the grilled meat himself while feeding the baby the egg custard... She scooped up a spoonful and found minced lean meat and chopped vegetables mixed in. After Jiajia had a taste, she gave a big thumbs-up.

Bai Ye sat on the sofa with his coffee, took a glance at the television, and asked, "Is this the one Mia was binge-watching last month?"

Everyone turned their heads towards him in unison – Uncle Ye, you watch it too?

Bai Ye was a bit puzzled by their intense reaction – What's wrong?

Zhao Jue muttered around his spoon, "I was wondering why that ticket looked familiar, it's from this series."

The four exchanged looks, struggling to picture what it must have been like for Bai Ye and Zhao Jue to sit in the living room with Mia, watching dramas together...

Before long, Bai Chi, Zhao Zhen, Uncle Chopsticks, and Issel also came in. There was no room left on the sofa, so they sat on the floor, leaning against Lisbon and the coffee table to watch the series.

Curious, everyone asked Issel, Didn't Mia already finish this series? Didn't Uncle Radar watch it with her?

"Ahem." Issel looked a bit embarrassed.

Eleven smirked mischievously. So this is how you sneak out to discuss parental romance while Mia's binge-watching shows...

Everyone understood instantly. No wonder the progress has been so rapid recently, it turns out that they don't have to bring their child, and they can go out and enjoy their own world...

And truth be told, though sitting together on the sofa watching television was the most common way to pass the time, this group was usually far too busy for such things. At home, the living room was used mostly by the twins to watch soccer or play games, and occasionally by Gongsun when he watched horror films. Otherwise, the television was only ever turned on to watch the news.

After Lan Qi finished feeding the baby her egg custard, he looked up... and saw everyone quietly sitting together, watching the television.

Lan Qi smiled faintly. This group, although they were all powerful and influential people, when gathered like this, there was something unexpectedly warm about them, even if their expressions still looked quite serious while watching the drama.

So why did everyone look so serious while watching a television drama? Because it was too realistic!

At first, they had all thought that with such an absurd plot, part sci-fi, part supernatural, the investigation scenes would be riddled with flaws.

Yet to their surprise, not only was the investigative process flawless, but even the depiction of the crimes themselves had no holes at all!

"Don't you feel..." Zhan Zhao couldn't help but mutter, "... that quite a few of the scenes are filmed from the criminal's perspective?"

Everyone nodded, That's right!

"Has the screenwriter actually killed someone?" Issel couldn't help complaining. "Why are the murder scenes so realistic? Not a single flaw."

Everyone looked at Issel – Sure enough!

"That screenwriter seems to have died."

Everyone turned towards Lan Qi, who had suddenly spoken.

"He's indeed dead..."

Just then, the ending credits rolled, and Big Brother Bai noticed the white frame around the screenwriter's name.

"How old was the screenwriter, and how did he die?" Bai Yutang asked Lan Qi.

Lan Qi said that his wife had mentioned it once over dinner, it had apparently been a very bizarre death.

Bai Chi had already pulled out his phone to search for the news. After glancing at the related news articles, he exclaimed, "Wow... that really is bizarre!"

Everyone curiously gathered around. "How bizarre?"

"He was struck by lightning right outside his house," Bai Chi read the article. "And it wasn't even raining, it was broad daylight, clear skies, and a sudden bolt of lightning struck him dead at his doorstep... How bizarre! And when they cremated him, the incinerator exploded, so even his ashes were gone."

Everyone stared silently at Bai Chi – This... where did you even find that story? It sounds made up.

"It's true!" Bai Chi confirmed several times. "There's an official notice confirming it was a lightning strike. As for the crematorium explosion, they said it was caused by an ignition failure."

"The odds of that happening... are lower than winning the lottery, aren't they?" Zhao Zhen asked.

Bai Chi nodded. "Forget winning the lottery, this kind of luck, he'd be fifty-fifty against the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period."

Zhan Zhao turned to Gongsun. "That kind of death, there couldn't have been foul play involved, could there?"

But at that moment, Gongsun sat there in a daze with no expression on his face.

Bai Jintang poked his cheek.

Gongsun snapped out of it and muttered to himself, "Struck by lightning, then cremated, and exploded... I think I've heard of something like that before!"

‿︵‿︵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: November 5, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 26, 2025 by Angel