S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 142

Special Files – Collector 27 – Three Flowers

---

"What exactly is this white label for?" Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue's reaction and guessed it must have been the remnants of the organisation. However, he had long since memorised the documents Zhao Jue had given him and did not recall anything in them about a white label.

Zhao Jue returned to the vehicle and explained it to Zhan Zhao.

"No organisation has the same structure at its birth as it does at its end. White label was a department that existed when the organisation was first founded, and more or less responsible for logistics."

"Logistics?" Zhan Zhao's understanding of logistics was the department in charge of buying vegetables for the cafeteria.

"You can look at it that way." Zhao Jue spread his hands. "For the cafeteria to cook, it needs ingredients. For a laboratory to run experiments, it needs raw materials, doesn't it?"

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao touched his chin. "So it was the department that prepared materials for each experimental project?"

"In the early stages, the organisation wasn't large, and there were few experimental projects. Whatever materials or data were needed would all be requested from a single department. That department had funding and would collect and provide materials based on the requirements of each laboratory. But such a structure only worked when the initial scale was small. Once the number of experimental projects increased and the scale grew later..."

Zhan Zhao understood. "The efficiency would drop, and there would be all sorts of problems..."

Zhao Jue nodded. "The point of setting up the white label department in the first place was to save manpower and improve efficiency, but later on, white label itself became an enormous, inefficient department, with different internal factions. The order in which each laboratory received data no longer depended on the importance of the experimental project itself, but turned into a matter of the relationship between the laboratory's head and white label. On top of that, white label held the data of all the laboratories... After all, if you needed materials, you had to explain the content of your experiment to white label. Gradually, white label shifted from being a peripheral support department to one that controlled core data... So in the end, white label was abolished."

Zhan Zhao was a little surprised. After all that explanation, it turned out to be a personnel issue... As expected, wherever there were people, there would be intrigue.

"White label was abolished very early on, so there was hardly any record of it in the information I gave you. But..." Zhao Jue asked Zhan Zhao, "what do you think a department that provided such major resources for an organisation could also do?"

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment. "Monitor?"

Zhao Jue nodded. "Quite a few of the directors running experiments were madmen. Once you gave them funding, they went off to do their own things and could very easily slip out of the organisation's control. The organisation did have its own monitoring system, of course, but you can dodge an open attack, and people can guard against you. That's when the importance of a hidden arrow became apparent..."

"So white label became a department that secretly monitored experiments?" Zhan Zhao felt that something was off because they had investigated so many of the organisation's experimental projects and had never found any trace of white label. Even covert monitoring would leave some signs or clues, so why had it never surfaced?

"It's just like this, I opened a milk tea shop, didn't I?" Seeing Zhan Zhao's doubts, Zhao Jue patiently explained. "Once the business did well, I opened many branches. I then set up another department specifically to supply these branches with raw ingredients, recipes, and staff training. Later on, as the branches grew, they started sourcing their own ingredients and training their own staff. So I turned that department into one that monitored the branches' quality and handled brand management, so as to avoid quality problems or the branches striking out on their own... Later, when I started running franchise stores, this monitoring department began to shrink... In the end, both my main shop and the franchise shops closed, and the brand was deregistered..."

Zhan Zhao frowned. "In that case, that department would have held part of the core technology, and they could start a similar brand again?"

"What if they didn't want to run milk tea shops?" Zhao Jue countered.

Zhan Zhao scratched his head, the explanation had looped back around. "So these people who were in white label back then started their own business and used the resources in their hands to do something else?"

"These people split into several groups, each with their own expertise. Most of them have already been eliminated, but some of them have disappeared." As Zhao Jue looked out of the window, he saw Bai Yutang and Bai Ye walking back. "Some of the key figures in white label vanished..."

"Then what is the relationship between these people and Uncle Ye?" Zhan Zhao thought that Bai Ye's reaction earlier when he saw the white label, and Zhao Jue asking Yutang to stop him, looked a bit like Luban wanting to rummage in the garbage bin and being kicked by Lilia...

Zhao Jue lowered his voice and said to Zhan Zhao, "It seems that there was an enemy of Bai Ye's among those who disappeared from white label."

Zhan Zhao was curious. "Uncle Ye's enemy?"

Then another thought struck him. "Did they come for Uncle Ye this time?"

"It really does feel like someone has come knocking to provoke us this time," Zhao Jue agreed. "This place isn't somewhere we chose to come to. From the hospital earlier, to Wu Wen's group of students, to the haunted holiday house, then to this Laughing Bird and the haunted house... every step has clearly been led by the nose. What the remnants of the organisation feared most was Bai Ye, yet this time they actually came right up to him, so there must be something wrong."

Zhan Zhao still had his communicator linked with Bai Yutang. Over on the other end, Bai Yutang also heard what Zhao Jue said and was a little concerned.

Zhan Zhao asked Zhao Jue, "Who has a grudge against Uncle Ye? How did they become enemies?"

Zhao Jue said, "A former high-ranking member of white label. The emblem was a blue-and-white badge with three flowers... The names and identities of field personnel were all confidential. I only met that person once, and Bai Ye had met him three times. Bai Ye once said he was extremely evil."

"Evil?" This was new to Zhan Zhao. Normally, Uncle Ye's descriptions of people were all about how dangerous they were, he rarely spoke about whether someone was good or bad. People are complicated, aside from a few extreme cases, it's difficult to describe someone simply as good or bad. But for Uncle Ye to use 'extremely evil'... what kind of person would warrant such a description? How bad would they have to be?

"They all relied on badges to distinguish identities?" Zhan Zhao grew quite interested in this. What did the blue-and-white three-flower badge look like?

"Most of the badges were circular, with simple patterns inside the circle. They were divided into different levels according to different needs, just like puzzle games, and there were certain rules." Zhao Jue clicked his tongue. "Precisely because this department ceased to exist long ago, we know even less about them. Since they no longer existed, no one would bother keeping records of them."

Zhan Zhao began thinking about where he could find related clues...

"Oh, right." Zhao Jue suddenly said, "After Bai Ye told me that person was extremely evil, he asked me something about collecting obsessions."

"Collecting obsessions?" Zhan Zhao tilted his head. "So that's why it's called the collection hall? Collecting what? Before he died, Han Li's father said that getting close to this patch of forest would turn you into a collection item. Is there some sort of connection?"

Zhao Jue spread his hands. He knew how active Zhan Zhao's mind was, and he himself had made a whole chain of associations just now. "But you need to keep one thing in mind, everything we have right now is information given to us by the other side. Basing our thinking on that is very dangerous."

Zhan Zhao nodded. Indeed... this opponent is rather interesting.

At the entrance, Bai Yutang had more or less understood the situation. After taking off his earpiece, he looked at Bai Ye, wondering how to ask Uncle Ye what kind of person they were supposed to catch.

Bai Jintang glanced at Bao Zheng.

Bao Sir looked around everywhere except at the two brothers, and seized the chance to slip away.

Both Bai Yutang and Bai Jintang clicked their tongues – He actually ran off.

"Uncle Ye."

At that moment, Gongsun returned. After going up the mountain earlier, he had arranged for the forensics team to collect bloodstains at the junction.

He turned around and looked at Bai Ye. "What was that just now?"

"It should have been Three Flowers," Bai Ye said.

"Three Flowers?" Everyone looked at him in confusion – What three-flowers? A cat?

"They have internal badges, with one flower, two flowers and three flowers. One of them is a blue-and-white three-flower badge," Bai Ye explained. "I've seen him a few times in the past, he was a pervert."

"How much of a pervert?" Gongsun was quite interested. "Is he the murderer this time? Is it one person or an organisation?"

"Hmm... it's hard to say." Bai Ye shook his head. "That kid was quite clever."

"How clever?" Gongsun remembered that Bai Ye hardly ever praised someone's intelligence.

"Even Zhao Jue didn't notice him."

Gongsun widened his eyes at Bai Ye, he was very convinced!

Bai Yutang and Bai Jintang instinctively turned to look in the direction of the surveillance vehicle.

Zhao Jue and Zhan Zhao had just stepped out of the vehicle and happened to hear this.

Zhan Zhao glanced at Zhao Jue. Zhao Jue lifted his foot and kicked an empty mineral water bottle across the ground.

"What did that person look like?" Gongsun said that Jiang Ping had recently developed an AI programme for producing criminal sketches, it was a good time to try it out.

Bai Ye nodded, indicating that he remembered the man's appearance.

Knowing the appearance made it much easier to catch him, after all, with facial recognition, even someone who had had cosmetic surgery could still be identified.

Bai Ye followed Gongsun into the surveillance vehicle. Zhao Jue looked at the two Bai brothers – Trust a forensic doctor to be the bold one, why were the two of you suddenly shy at a crucial moment? Aren't you usually the closest to him?

Bai Yutang and Bai Jintang felt a little embarrassed. Zhan Zhao ran to the vehicle to watch Bai Ye produce the sketch.

Bai Yutang went into the house to see whether the search team had found anything.

Wen Xiaorou had taken off her gear and was standing beside the vehicle, chatting with Han Li.

Bai Jintang saw Xiaofei walk over to Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue looked at him.

With some curiosity, Xiaofei asked, "I rarely see Han Li take the initiative to get close to someone."

Following his gaze, Zhao Jue glanced over and smiled faintly. "Because she can sense that she isn't afraid of her."

Xiaofei didn't quite understand. "There are other people who aren't afraid of her... but it's usually very hard to get close to her."

"Saying you're not afraid and actually not being afraid are two different things." Zhao Jue smiled. "Watching a predator at the zoo through the bars doesn't mean you aren't afraid."

Xiaofei seemed a little moved by that. He turned and asked Zhao Jue quite seriously, "Han Li... she'll be all right, right?"

Zhao Jue looked at Xiaofei. "Do you think she's in danger?"

Xiaofei wasn't sure. "Is she in danger, or is she a danger to others?"

Bai Jintang also glanced at Han Li and Wen Xiaorou. It wasn't clear what topic the two girls were talking about, but they were standing there laughing.

Xiaofei was also surprised. He'd known Han Li for so many years, but he'd never seen her smile so normally... She usually had little expression and not much emotional fluctuation.

"Hehe." Zhao Jue chuckled. "What behaviour do you think is the most perverted?"

Xiaofei and Bai Jintang stood there thinking.

"Does cannibalism count?" Zhao Jue asked.

Both nodded.

"Some primitive tribes treat cannibalism as a custom, and history hasn't been without incidents of people eating people...Humans are animals by nature, they were only tamed after being bound by rules. If the world had no laws and no rules tomorrow, many people who don't even have antisocial personalities would become killers."

Xiaofei nodded. He understood the reasoning, but it still didn't explain why Han Li would take the initiative to get close to Xiaorou.

"Because the rules are the same," Zhao Jue said. "The same applies to you."

Xiaofei was stunned. "Xiaorou and I also have antisocial personalities?"

Zhao Jue stared at him speechlessly, feeling his intelligence level was about the same as that amoeba-like little husky in SCI...

"Without rules and restraints, you two would be far more dangerous than antisocial personalities." Zhao Jue shook his head. "When she's with you, she feels safe, not only because she knows you two won't suddenly kill her, but more importantly, because she couldn't kill you either."

"Oh..." Xiaofei seemed to understand. "So we're the same kind!"

Zhao Jue was so exasperated that he drew in a deep breath. Xiaofei tilted his head at him – Aren't we?

Zhao Jue turned to Bai Jintang. "What's a dog that's even dumber than a husky?"

Bai Jintang actually thought about it seriously. "An Alaskan malamute?"

Zhao Jue narrowed his eyes at Xiaofei.

Xiaofei very sensibly moved back to Wen Xiaorou and Han Li's side.

Big Brother Bai didn't know whether it was his imagination, but watching Xiaofei walk off while uncertainly glancing back at Zhao Jue... he really did look a bit like that Alaskan malamute in Bai Ye's pack of dogs...

Inside the surveillance vehicle, Bai Ye roughly described the appearance of "Three Flowers".

Jiang Ping used the AI he had trained for over a year, called "Got You", to analyse Bai Ye's written description.

Soon, a composite image was generated, and Jiang Ping began searching for similar figures in the surveillance systems of the surrounding areas.

Gongsun asked Jiang Ping why he had named the AI "Got You".

Jiang Ping said, "Because it feels so good to shout!"

Who would have thought that not even three minutes into the comparison, the system began sounding alarms... A large number of surveillance clips were flagged.

Bai Yutang entered from outside the vehicle just in time to hear Jiang Ping clapping at the computer, "Good job, Got You!"

Bai Yutang leaned in beside Zhan Zhao and peeked at the screen, hearing Jiang Ping say to the computer, "Got You, carry out a behavioural analysis of this suspect in Dr Zhan's style."

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Why does he keep saying 'got you'?"

Zhan Zhao snorted, looking rather displeased.

Before long, the nearby printer produced everything the AI had generated: the suspect's portrait, movement routes, possible hiding locations, and a behavioural analysis report written in Zhan Zhao's style.

Bai Ye looked at the suspect's photo and nodded. "Very similar."

Bai Yutang picked up the analysis report and glanced over it. Read on its own, it was that style of Chinese strung together in a way that made it impossible to tell what it was actually saying...

Everyone silently looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao glared at the computer. "It actually stole my job!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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 27, 2025 by Angel

Edited: December 4, 2025 by Angel