S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 135

Special Files – Collector 20 – Wisteria

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Though he claimed he wasn't paying attention, Bai Yutang still went back to the room that night carrying all sorts of monitoring equipment, glancing at it from time to time to make sure the students next door were safe.

He had also opened Laughing Bird's livestream, but he muted it. He only turned off his phone after that group of daredevils finished their broadcast in one lively piece.

Throughout the whole night, Bai Yutang slept on and off, never very soundly.

Zhan Zhao, however, slept wonderfully. Last night, he went to bed clutching his laptop, saying he needed to rush to finish his manuscript, but fell asleep in three seconds and slept until morning without even turning over once.

Zhan Zhao woke as soon as the sun came up, not because he had slept enough, but because he was hungry.

Bai Yutang was still asleep, so Zhan Zhao quietly climbed out of bed and went downstairs to look for food.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard movement in the kitchen. Issel and Eleven were preparing ingredients they would need later. He had no idea what they were making, but it seemed to be some sort of fried dish.

When they saw Zhan Zhao come downstairs, the two new chefs looked confused – Why are you up so early? The kitchen's occupied and won't be free for another hour!

Zhan Zhao went over for a look and saw the two of them had heated up a pot of oil and were frying fish.

Zhan Zhao wandered around the kitchen and found a box of instant noodles, choosing the flavour he wanted.

Issel said it was a new product released by "Instant Noodle Aliens," something Lin Ruo had given the twins to try yesterday.

Zhan Zhao filled an electric kettle to boil water. The two new chefs stared at Zhan Zhao in surprise as he boiled water to make instant noodles.

"What?" Zhan Zhao looked at the two in confusion.

Both of them turned away and continued with their work, muttering quietly...

"He's actually having instant noodles for breakfast!"

"He can't cook anything else."

"Maybe he only knows how to boil water."

......

Zhan Zhao looked at the two of them speechlessly – A month ago, you two couldn't even tell spring onions, chives, and garlic apart, and you've got the nerve to laugh at me?!

While waiting for the instant noodles, Zhan Zhao watched the oil bubbling in the pot and suddenly thought of something. He opened the fridge, took out an egg, and handed it to Issel.

"What?" Issel accepted the egg.

Zhan Zhao gestured with his chin at the fryer. "Fry an egg! I'll put it in my noodles!"

Issel took the egg and handed it to Eleven.

Uncle Chopsticks found an empty bowl and placed the egg into it.

Zhan Zhao blinked in confusion as the two of them placed the egg, uncracked, into the bowl and then ignored it.

They continued frying fish.

Zhan Zhao poked Uncle Chopsticks. "Fry the egg!"

The two newbie chefs nodded to show they had heard – We know.

"Then fry it!" Zhan Zhao grew anxious, the noodles were nearly done.

"An egg taken straight from the fridge has to be brought to room temperature before you can fry it, otherwise it won't taste good, and the oil will splatter easily," Issel told Zhan Zhao to wait.

Zhan Zhao tilted his head. "How long do I have to wait?"

"About an hour and a half."

Zhan Zhao was speechless. "I can wait, but my noodles can't! Just fry it!"

The two of them shook their heads vigorously, Absolutely not, you can't rush this!

Zhan Zhao took the bowl over and picked up the kettle, ready to pour hot water over the egg.

"Hey!"

Issel hurriedly snatched the electric kettle away. "What are you doing?"

"Didn't you say it needs to be at room temperature? Just pour some hot water on it and it'll be at room temperature! Hurry up and fry it!" Zhan Zhao urged.

The two of them shook their heads at Zhan Zhao. "Have you ever considered the egg's feelings?"

"Why should I consider the egg's feelings?"

"The God of Eggs will abandon you if you do this!"

"You two are so annoying!"

"Your noodles are going to turn mushy."

Zhan Zhao, who had lost his first argument, came out of the kitchen with a bowl of noodles in his hands, sat on the sofa and ate the instant noodles.

Lisbon, who was on the sofa, lifted his big head and rubbed against Zhan Zhao, but after catching a whiff of the instant noodle aroma, he turned away and covered his nose with a big paw.

Zhan Zhao took a bite, raised an eyebrow – Oh ho, Guan Xiaoyue really is a seasoning genius. This is something!

Bai Ye and Zhao Jue were also up early. As soon as they came downstairs, they were drawn in by the smell of Zhan Zhao's instant noodles.

Bai Ye sniffed the odd mix of seafood and fruit in the air and asked, "What are you eating?"

Zhan Zhao showed them the noodle cup – prawn, mango, and taro flavour.

Bai Ye stared blankly at the instant noodle cup, feeling an urge to call the police and have the manufacturer arrested.

Zhao Jue, however, ran to the kitchen to make himself a cup too, and even asked Issel to fry an egg for him.

Without a word, Issel picked up the same egg from earlier and fried it.

Zhan Zhao picked up a cushion and handed it to Bai Ye.

Bai Ye took the cushion in confusion and looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao pointed at the two new chefs in the kitchen who were frying the egg. "Throw it at them!"

Before Bai Ye could throw it, they heard a pop from the oil pot in the kitchen.

"Wow!" The new chef duo quickly dodged.

"It really did splatter!"

"The wrath of the God of Eggs!"

The fried egg spun in circles in the oil, spitting everywhere. Zhan Zhao pursed his lips and took the cushion back from Bai Ye, leaning it behind himself again.

Uncle Ye shook his head and went to make coffee.

Zhan Zhao turned on the television to watch the news. Mainly, he wanted to see whether any cases had occurred. According to Laughing Bird's livestream pattern, a case should have happened at the same time yesterday.

But the morning local news didn't mention any murders. He took out his phone and checked last night's police reports, apparently there had been no murder-related calls either.

One after another, the people in the holiday cabin woke up.

The twins rushed through breakfast. The mountain bike race was starting today, and there was also a large tractor exhibition race at the foot of the mountain, plus the filming of the food competition's barbecue special. In short, they were busy with all sorts of things.

Zhan Zhao had also received the day's assessment tasks sent over by Wu Wen next door, but the instructions were written so vaguely...

Zhan Zhao shook his head, feeling it might be better to simply let the students join the filming of the barbecue programme. At least they would be safe under his nose.

After the twins finished breakfast, they immediately began urging Bai Jintang to hurry up.

Big Brother Bai was, as always, not enthusiastic about going to work. Holding his coffee, he sat on the sofa with Gongsun, shooing the twins to go on ahead.

The twins grumbled and opened the door, just about to head out, when a woman suddenly appeared face-to-face with them.

"Wah!" Xiao Ding, who was at the front, braked abruptly. Da Ding behind him ran straight into his brother. Both crouched down in pain, one poking a finger, the other clutching his nose.

The woman who had suddenly appeared at the door was also startled, letting out an "Ah!"

Zhan Zhao and Gongsun both lifted their heads, finding the voice somewhat familiar.

Bai Yutang, who had just woken up and was coming downstairs, wondered if he was hearing things.

The woman standing at the door was the female assistant who had livestreamed with Laughing Bird the night before, Little Dolphin.

She seemed to have just woken up too. She wasn't wearing makeup, her hair was uncombed, and she had thrown a coat over her pyjamas. She actually looked a little more mature than she had during the livestream.

Little Dolphin looked rather irritable. After being startled, she shouted and stomped her foot, then rushed straight through the door towards Bai Yutang. "Old Cheng is missing!"

Bai Yutang looked over at Zhan Zhao in confusion – Who's Old Cheng?

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and asked, "Laughing Bird?"

Little Dolphin nodded.

"What do you mean by 'missing'?" After last night, Bai Yutang didn't trust this group very much. "Did you stay here after finishing your livestream last night?"

Little Dolphin nodded. "We stayed not far from here... We were supposed to be filming again today."

"Could he have gone to the filming location first?" Zhan Zhao told her to call him or check his phone's location.

"He's untrustworthy, plus he's a brainless idiot who loves pranking people, stupid, boring, and unbelievably annoying, but this time it's different!"

Little Dolphin's full-force rant actually made Bai Yutang find her a bit more believable. At least this girl's values seemed normal.

"This was on his bed." Little Dolphin pulled something out from inside her oversized coat, a piece of black, branch-like wood, and placed it on the coffee table.

Everyone stared at the branch-like object for a while, feeling puzzled.

"That's a wisteria vine, isn't it?" Bai Chi sat at the edge of the sofa with his coffee cup, studying the piece of wood. "It looks like an old vine..."

"This branch..." Gongsun asked in confusion, "does it have some special meaning?"

"Old Cheng is an arrogant, self-important idiot, but he has one weakness." Little Dolphin pointed at the wisteria branch. "He's terrified of this. Terrified to death. As long as there's wisteria somewhere, he'll wet himself and run off immediately!"

"Why?" Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue spoke at the same time.

Both of them were psychologists, they had seen countless phobias, even very bizarre ones. A fear of vines was close to a rope phobia, which was fairly common... but this was the first time they had encountered someone afraid of a specific plant species. What kind of condition was this supposed to be? Wisteria phobia?

"If he saw a branch like this on his bed, he'd definitely scream loud enough for the whole building to hear, then he'd make a huge fuss, go completely hysterical, and demand a room change or run straight to the city to stay there. There's absolutely no way he'd disappear so quietly!" Little Dolphin spoke seriously. "Aren't you police officers? Hurry up and look for him! He might already be dead!"

Everyone stared at her, puzzled. It was all rather odd. You couldn't say she wasn't worried about Laughing Bird, given how panicked she was. But if she was worried... Why was she cursing him in every single sentence...

"Where are you staying? I'll go take a look." Bai Yutang drank his coffee, deciding it was better to check.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue were also curious. Since everyone was heading out anyway, they decided to go have a look.

The livestream team was staying in the part of the resort closer to the entrance, so they reached it quickly.

After getting out of the car, they found the livestream team gathered at the door. There was no need to listen to what they were saying, one look at their faces was enough to sense anxiety.

Getting out of the car, Little Dolphin immediately grabbed the cameraman from yesterday and asked if there was any news.

The cameraman showed her his phone.

Bai Yutang glanced at it and saw it was the phone-locator function, so he reached out and took it.

It displayed Laughing Bird's phone location, which was quite far from the resort...

"Did he drive out?" Bai Yutang asked.

The team members kept looking at one another, but none of them answered.

"Probably not... all the cars are here." The cameraman pointed to several vehicles parked at the entrance.

Zhan Zhao followed Little Dolphin upstairs while Bai Yutang looked at the phone's location, frowning. At that distance, walking there seemed unrealistic if he hadn't driven. Unless he had hitched a ride with someone else?

The room at the end of the hall on the second floor was Laughing Bird's.

Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, one facing east, one facing west, looked at the position of the room and both asked Little Dolphin, "Has he offended someone?"

Little Dolphin looked utterly exasperated. "He offends people every waking moment. He doesn't even need to do anything, just look at his face and listen to that annoying laugh. There's a whole crowd of people who'd love to slap him."

Everyone silently looked at the girl – So much resentment.

Laughing Bird's room looked tidy. His luggage was already packed and lay out neatly on the table.

A corner of the blanket on the bed was lifted, as if he had just turned it back but hadn't gotten in yet...

Everything except his phone was on the desk. The window was closed, and all the resort rooms had the same layout, fitted with protective grilles, meaning no one could get in, nor could anyone climb out.

"Did you hear anything last night?" Zhan Zhao thought that with so many people staying together, for a full-grown adult to leave the room, someone would have noticed, right? Were they all that dead asleep?

When Bai Yutang came up just now, he noticed several futons laid out in the downstairs living room, some right by the staircase. It should have been easy to detect anyone going in or out.

Bai Yutang checked the phone's location again. "Do you know where this is? If not, should we go look there?"

Little Dolphin's hand trembled. "Ah?"

Everyone noticed her reaction.

"Is there something you know that you haven't told us?" Zhan Zhao asked. "If this is life and death, don't hide it from us..."

"No, it doesn't seem possible... He would never go there again." Little Dolphin hesitated for a moment, then pointed to the location on Bai Yutang's screen. "That's Wisteria House."

After she finished speaking, everyone needed a second to react – The name sounds familiar.

"That haunted house?" Gongsun asked.

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment. "Is his fear of wisteria related to that haunted house?"

Little Dolphin nodded, frowning. "There's no way he'd go there on his own. Something must've happened to him. Maybe he's  already dead."

The rest of the livestream team nodded anxiously.

Bai Yutang felt the whole group was acting strangely, so he called the police station and asked the nearby patrol officers to go check the place.

Zhan Zhao had just watched Laughing Bird's "Wisteria House" episode the previous night. Indeed, his behaviour during that livestream had seemed off, he wasn't as relaxed as usual, and he looked tense the whole time.

"Why is he so afraid of that haunted house? Didn't he livestream there before?" Zhan Zhao asked Little Dolphin. "Did something happen back then?"

‿︵‿︵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 25, 2025 by Angel

Edited: November 27, 2025 by Angel