S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 134

Special Files – Collector 19 – Script

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Laughing Bird's haunted house investigation livestream started right on the stroke of midnight.

Bai Yutang hadn't been particularly interested at first, but somehow, the timing felt a bit... odd. And on top of that, there had just been that ghostly commotion earlier.

"Cat," Bai Yutang turned on the television and asked Zhan Zhao to cast the screen so they could watch together.

Gongsun and Zhao Jue were clearly interested too. Uncle Ye and Bai Jintang had originally been getting ready for bed, but when they realised no one else was going to sleep, they felt out of place going to bed... so they sat down to watch as well.

The twins, who had just sent the two babies back, also came back in, saying they were hungry and wanted a late-night snack.

Uncle Chopsticks and Issel happened to be in the kitchen preparing ingredients for the next day, so they showed off their culinary skills and made some instant noodles for the twins.

Bai Chi was sitting inside the playpen, tidying up toys while glancing at the television every now and then, muttering, "Ai, another one of those first-person views, it's uncomfortable to watch."

On the sofa, Bai Yutang, Bai Jintang and Bai Ye all nodded in unison, each wearing the same expression of disdain.

As the livestream began, before anyone appeared on screen, the audience was greeted first by Laughing Bird's exaggerated laughter.

The three Bais on the sofa once again pulled identical looks of distaste – Just hearing that laugh was enough to make them want to beat him up.

Zhan Zhao and Gongsun had already lost interest in the stream altogether, focusing instead on the sofa.

Bai Chi wasn't much into the video anyway. Sitting comfortably inside the playpen, he took out his backpack, rummaged through his camera bag and pulled out a Polaroid, planning to take some photos of the babies the next day.

Zhan Zhao spotted the Polaroid and waved at him.

Bai Chi handed the camera to Zhan Zhao.

Meanwhile, Bai Yutang, Bai Jintang and Bai Ye were still watching the livestream. Laughing Bird was being annoyingly long-winded and theatrical, dragging on forever before getting to the point. It was driving them insane...

Just as they were getting irritated, there was a click.

All three turned their heads, and then there was another click.

Zhan Zhao was fanning two freshly printed photos in his hand...

The twins emerged from the kitchen with their bowls of instant noodles. Finding no room on the sofa, they sat on the carpet in front of it and placed their noodles on the coffee table.

Just then, the sound of the door opening came from outside. Bai Chi and Lisbon both looked up to see Zhao Zhen returning.

Zhao Zhen had gone down the mountain earlier, his agent had come by to drop off some materials for him, which were several plans for his next tour.

Holding a document folder, Zhao Zhen stepped inside, took one look at the chaotic scene in the living room, and thought that there were just too many elements going on here...

The atmosphere was about the same as that afternoon when they had been watching television... Have they all got hooked on another drama again?

Besides, looking at who was sitting where, on the sofa, on the floor, in the playpen, or busy in the kitchen... it was easy to tell where everyone ranked in the household hierarchy.

Zhao Zhen yawned, walked over to the coffee table and set down the folder. Then he opened the playpen gate, went inside, sat down next to Bai Chi, lay back with his head tilted up, and leaned against Lisbon, ready to sleep.

From the television came that creepy laughter again...

"Ah..."

Zhao Zhen was drawn to the sound and glanced at the TV, "I heard that same laugh on the road just now, I thought I was imagining it..."

"When you were on the road just now and heard that laugh, did you happen to see a female ghost as well?" Zhan Zhao asked casually.

Zhao Zhen suddenly stopped talking, rubbed his chin and went, "Oh." Then he asked, "So that was a female ghost?"

Everyone turned their heads to stare at him. Bai Chi reached over and nudged the still half-dozing Zhao Zhen. "What did you see? Tell us properly!"

Zhao Zhen opened his eyes, saw everyone looking at him, and was about to speak when he suddenly frowned and fixed his gaze ahead.

Bai Chi followed his line of sight and saw that he was looking at the screen.

By then, the lengthy preamble of the livestream seemed to have ended, Laughing Bird had just entered the container zone.

Zhao Zhen pointed at the television. "Just now... something flashed past..."

Everyone turned back to the screen.

There were no lights around the container area. Although the livestream crew had a lighting technician following along, the range of illumination was limited, and the footage had just the right degree of gloominess to create an eerie effect.

Compared with first-person camera angles, the livestream footage with a cameraman was much easier to watch.

The camera stayed mostly fixed on Laughing Bird, who was walking and narrating at the same time... But whether for dramatic effect or not, the footage would occasionally swing away, focusing instead on the space behind or beside Laughing Bird.

Those empty shots usually flashed by in an instant, very brief... yet highly effective at creating a sense of dread.

The cameraman was clearly very experienced. Those "accidental" off-frame shots were, in fact, deliberately aimed at hidden corners like staircases, corridors, or windows. What's more, the production team had already placed mirrors, panes of glass and other reflective objects in those spots in advance.

This kind of filming technique easily created tension, and there were often members of the production team lurking in the comments section to steer the atmosphere... In short, although it was called a livestream, there was generally still a script behind it.

But whether the formula worked or not depended on who was watching... When Zhao Zhen had glanced at the television just now, it happened to be one of those fleeting empty shots.

It was probably only a few frames long, yet it had instantly caught the eye of a highly trained master magician.

Zhao Zhen frowned at the screen, then tilted his head slightly. "That person..."

When Zhan Zhao and the others looked again, that shot had already passed. Moreover, a livestream couldn't be rewound until it finished broadcasting. With the resident tech expert Jiang Ping not around, everyone was momentarily caught off guard.

"What did you see?" Bai Yutang asked.

"When I was coming back just now, I saw a woman with long hair running through the woods on the side of the road... She was running really fast." Zhao Zhen recalled, then pointed at the television. "I just saw in the shot, when the camera swung, it looked like the same woman, running along the narrow path between two rows of containers..."

Zhao Zhen even gestured with his hand, meaning she had vanished with a whoosh.

"What kind of woman?" Bai Yutang asked, pulling up the earlier footage of the 'female ghost' escaping by the garbage bins outside the door and showing it to him.

Zhao Zhen stared at the video. "Whoa... it's only just past midnight and things are already getting this exciting..."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both pressed him – Is it her or not?

Zhao Zhen said she looked a bit like her, but he wasn't sure. Both the one in the woods and the one in the earlier clip had only appeared for a split second...

"There it is again!" The twins, who were slurping instant noodles, suddenly pointed at the TV and shouted, "There's a ghost! It looks like it's following them..."

The comments section of the livestream was buzzing too, several sharp-eyed viewers said they had also seen a shadow flash by. Although Laughing Bird kept laughing, "hahaha", and pretending to stay calm, his facial expression looked rather stiff.

"Could it be something that wasn't part of their script?" Zhan Zhao said, glancing instinctively at Big Brother Bai.

Earlier, Big Brother Bai had mentioned that according to certain mysterious patterns... the next one to die might very well be Laughing Bird.

When Bai Jintang noticed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both looking at him, he drew a hand across his throat, meaning – This is dangerous.

After thinking it over, Bai Yutang still felt a little uneasy. He put down the remote control and decided to go and check things out himself.

Zhan Zhao looked a little worried. "You're going by yourself?"

Bai Jintang kicked the twins, telling them to follow him.

But the twins were still eating their noodles and shook their heads, bowls in hand, unwilling to go.

Bai Ye seemed rather interested in the female ghost, so he said to Bai Yutang, "I'll go with you..."

As soon as he said that, Uncle Ye stood up and pulled Bai Jintang up with him.

Bai Jintang glanced at Gongsun in confusion.

Gongsun took the Polaroid from Zhan Zhao and snapped another photo of the three men surnamed Bai who were heading off ghost-hunting.

Zhan Zhao and the others stayed to continue watching the livestream, while Bai Yutang and his group drove out.

Just as they reached the little cabin ahead, they ran into Ma Han and Zhao Hu coming out. The two of them were clearly watching the livestream too, and the Lan brothers, Lan Qi and Lan Xi, had both just spotted the moving female ghost.

Bai Yutang told them to get in the car as well, and together they headed down the mountain toward the container area.

......

On the way, Bai Ye received a message from Uncle Chopsticks, asking him to stop by the supermarket and pick up some chilli peppers.

Bai Ye was beginning to worry about the futures of those two. Will they change careers and become chefs after the competition... Not that it would be impossible...

......

Back at the holiday cabin, Zhan Zhao and Gongsun were still watching the livestream intently, while Zhao Jue was monitoring the surveillance feed of the neighbouring cabin's living room.

Zhao Jue was clearly the type to learn from past mistakes. Having just been caught out by a diversion tactic earlier, he suspected the livestream might use the same trick again this time.

For now, though, the neighbouring cabin remained quiet.

The students, frightened by the earlier haunting, didn't dare stay alone and had all moved their bedding to the living room to sleep on the floor.

Wu Wen sat on the sofa, not lying down, just leaning back with his eyes closed, holding a walkie-talkie and an alarm trigger in his hands.

"Waaah!"

A sudden scream erupted from the video, startling everyone watching.

It was a woman's scream, not Laughing Bird's, and it came from right beside the microphone. It was extremely piercing in the middle of the night, like the high-pitched squeal of a kettle whistling.

The members of Laughing Bird's team were startled too, staring speechlessly in the direction of the camera.

The cameraman even zoomed in for a close-up.

A young woman with short hair and a baby face appeared on screen.

Zhan Zhao glanced at the comments section, which was flooded with lines like: "Little Dolphin may be late, but never fails to show up, Little Dolphin's signature performance, always reliable..."

"Little Dolphin?" Zhan Zhao looked her up. The girl was Laughing Bird's assistant, she did everything from writing copy and handling business contacts to buying coffee and paying the rent and utilities. She had a remarkable voice, and every time she joined a livestream, she would inevitably get frightened and scream, startling the viewers in turn. Over time, it became a running joke, in every episode, the audience would wait to see when she would scream.

Zhan Zhao found it fascinating. People watched livestreams precisely for their unpredictability, yet they still looked forward to certain predictable moments. Humans might call themselves the spirit of all living things, but they were also highly domesticatable.

Zhan Zhao was in the middle of analysing this bit of human psychology when Laughing Bird suddenly shouted, "Holy shit!"

Then the whole livestream team started running. The footage turned chaotic, filled with numerous empty shots, as though they were chasing after something.

"Over there!" Laughing Bird suddenly yelled. "Did you see that?"

At that moment, the camera captured something in the dark container area. At the far end of a pitch-black path between the containers was a human-shaped silhouette, and it was moving!

On the sofa, Zhan Zhao, Zhao Jue and Gongsun all instinctively leaned forward, squinting at the television.

The livestream clearly showed a woman's figure moving in the distance. Dim lighting, murky shadows, it looked very ghostly.

The three were trying to determine whether it was the same one that had escaped from the garbage bin earlier when they heard a click!

The three turned their heads just as Bai Chi took another photo, capturing all three of them.

Xiao Bai Chi shook the photo in his hand.

"Is it the same person?" Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue asked Gongsun at the same time.

As an authority in anthropology, Gongsun shook his head. "The outfit's similar, but it's not the same person."

"That makes sense..." Zhan Zhao nodded. "There should be two of them. The one knocking on the window earlier must've been the other."

"Why's she standing still?" The twins asked in unison, still holding their bowls of noodles.

By then, in the livestream, Laughing Bird and his team had also stopped, holding the camera as they cautiously edged forward.

The members of the livestream team were debating among themselves whether it was a person at all, and Laughing Bird even called out to her.

"If there are two of them... could it be another distraction tactic?"

No sooner had Zhao Jue said this than a piercing scream tore through the speakers, Little Dolphin screamed again. The scene immediately dissolved into chaos. The camera fell to the ground, showing only the floor and people's feet, as if someone was struggling or wrestling nearby. Legs filled the frame, all in a jumble.

 "How many people are on their team?" Zhao Zhen suddenly asked.

Zhan Zhao had just checked. "Every time they go live, there are four of them in total..."

"Five pairs of shoes..." Bai Chi pointed at the television screen. "There's one extra person!"

Little Dolphin was still screaming. The scene was in utter chaos, and no one had gone to pick up the camera. Watching this made Zhan Zhao and the others terribly anxious.

......

Equally anxious was Bai Yutang.

The container area wasn't far, but to get there by car, they had to drive down the mountain and circle around.

Bai Yutang had never driven there before, and with the darkness and winding mountain roads, he took a bit of a detour before arriving.

The moment he got out of the car, he heard screams. The group immediately ran in the direction of the sound.

The run was nerve-wracking. The container area was full of shipping containers, with tall stacks of empty ones piled high. It was not only hard to see but also hard to hear clearly because of the echoing.

Bai Yutang and the others searched along the way, and fortunately, the girl's screams were persistent enough to guide them.

When the light from their flashlights finally fell on the scene, what they saw was complete chaos.

A woman was screaming miserably, something seemed to be clinging to her back, two men were tugging at whatever it was, and Laughing Bird was pacing back and forth with his arms crossed nearby.

Bai Yutang had no idea what was going on, but judging by the degree of the woman's screams, whatever was on her back probably constituted a criminal offence.

Bai Yutang rushed forward, grabbed at the thing on the woman's back, and instinctively yanked it off and threw it aside... but the feel wasn't quite right. How could it be so light?

Bai Ye and Bai Jintang also rushed forward, only to see that what lay on the ground was a human-shaped mannequin dressed in women's clothes.

By then, the woman had stopped screaming, and the cameraman and lighting technician who had been "struggling" to pull at the mannequin a moment ago were no longer busy either.

Laughing Bird was frantically gesturing at the cameraman.

The cameraman hurriedly crouched down and turned off the equipment.

"Finished yet?"

At that moment, a shout came from a distance, it sounded like a man's voice. "It's really dark over here, is it done yet?"

Laughing Bird looked speechless and waved in that direction.

From the far corner, the "female ghost" came running over. It turned out to be a tall, skinny young man wearing women's clothes and a wig.

Laughing Bird glanced at Bai Yutang and his team, who had suddenly rushed in to "rescue" them. He recognised Zhao Hu, so he guessed these people must be the police.

Hu Zi rolled his eyes to the heavens. This bunch is at it again, staging their own little show.

Little Dolphin, who had just been screaming nonstop, calmly took out a compact powder case to touch up her makeup, popped a throat lozenge into her mouth, and looked perfectly composed.

The cameraman and lighting technician were checking the comments in the livestream chat and gave Laughing Bird a thumbs-up, indicating that the effect was great.

Laughing Bird grinned cheekily and asked Bai Yutang's group if they wanted to make a cameo appearance.

Bai Jintang and Bai Ye were both at a loss for words.

Since Laughing Bird and his team were going to continue streaming, Bai Yutang and the others had no choice but to leave first.

As they exited the container area, they noticed a makeshift work tent set up near the entrance. Inside were several staff members, all focused on monitoring the show's performance.

......

Back at the holiday cabin, the interrupted livestream reconnected. Laughing Bird stood there grinning, holding the mannequin.

The comment section was full of people cursing, but despite the scolding, the number of viewers was rising sharply.

"So it was fake?" Bai Chi was rather annoyed. "That's fraud!"

The twins nodded in agreement, while Zhao Zhen stroked his chin. "Then what about that female ghost we saw in the distance just now?"

Laughing Bird and his crew continued forward to search for the female ghost, but as soon as they reached an intersection, a "female ghost" suddenly jumped out from the side...

Not surprisingly, the screaming began all over again.

Zhan Zhao and Gongsun both pressed their hands to their foreheads – This livestream is really hard on the throat.

After another round of chaos on screen, the cross-dressing "female ghost" revealed himself to be a fan, clutching Laughing Bird's hand with an excited expression.

Zhan Zhao and Gongsun both widened their eyes. "So this is... the legendary haunted house fan meet-up?"

Zhao Zhen tilted his head, though, feeling that the one he'd seen earlier in the woods wasn't the same person... The one in the woods had definitely been a woman.

At that moment, the sound of a car approaching came from outside.

Everyone looked up to see Bai Yutang and the others returning.

After Bai Yutang's brief explanation, those watching the livestream were all speechless. Even the so-called fan meet-up had been fake...

The crowd, who had lost all interest, didn't intend to watch any more. Whether the place was haunted or not, at this rate, if these people really did bump into a ghost one day, it would serve them right.

Everyone on holiday simply washed up and went to bed, not caring about anything and deciding to deal with it in the morning.

‿︵‿︵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 13, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 27, 2025 by Angel