S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 146

Special Files – Collector 31 – Observe Discreetly

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In the resort, Eleven and Issel had prepared the ingredients needed for the barbecue livestream later and packed them into boxes to load into the car.

Mia was holding a teddy bear, teasing Xiao Yumi in the stroller.

The brothers Lan Qi and Lan Xi were both there, and Lan Xi was carrying his precious little niece, running back and forth in the courtyard.

Jiajia sat on Lan Xi's shoulders, giggling nonstop.

The twins were on the phone by the car at the door, handling matters related to the livestream. The two of them had a heap of work today, on one hand, they had to run the barbecue segment of the gourmet competition's livestream, and on the other, the mountain off-road vehicle race was also about to begin.

However, what worried the twins the most wasn't these two things, the cooking competition had Qi Le's band and Chen Jiayi and Jiang Nan as guests, the mountain bike race had Xu Lie, Lin Ruo and that whole group of theirs... and Big Brother Bai was going too.

Not only had the jinx stars all arrived, they had even split into two groups! After their buffs stacked and then doubled, it was impossible to defend against them!

But SCI had found a new case just now, so perhaps all that bad luck would be offset... The twins busied themselves while comforting themselves.

At this moment, they saw two familiar cars approaching from ahead.

The twins' gaze followed the cars as they drove into the courtyard... A bad premonition!

As the door opened, Zhan Zhao jumped out of the car.

The twins looked at the SCI group getting out with utter distaste, their eyes asking – Aren't you working? Aren't you doing overtime? Haven't you just found a case? Are you here to pick up your big brother?

The twins exchanged a look at this thought, feeling that it might work! Once Big Brother Bai finished his opening speech later, they should let them take him away! Best if they took that whole bunch of jinx stars with them!

In fact, they didn't even need the twins to chase him off. Bai Jintang, who was sitting in the car waiting, kept checking his watch. Gongsun had already gone back, so what was the point of him staying here alone? He wanted to finish his work quickly and return to the city too! He muttered as he spammed Gongsun with annoying messages.

After Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang got out of the car, they asked Bai Ye, who was about to get into his car, where Zhao Jue was.

Bai Ye pointed towards the holiday cabin where Professor Wu Wen and the others were staying, meaning he had gone over there.

Bai Yutang immediately led Ma Han and Zhao Hu over, while Zhan Zhao took out his phone and opened the electronic ticket he had taken a screenshot of. The QR code this time also produced an image, though its meaning was a little unclear.

This time it was a landscape photo... mainly showing a wooden cabin by a river, with woods on one side.

A rather large motorbike was parked in front of the cabin, fitted with three panniers, its body silver with dark green, with some paint peeling off.

Zhan Zhao stared at it for a long time and still couldn't work out what it meant. Feeling he had entered a knowledge blind spot, he casually asked the twins whether they had seen it before.

The twins huddled together, stared at the phone for three seconds, then shook their heads simultaneously – No idea!

Zhan Zhao looked at the two of them speechlessly – Talk properly, what are you acting cute for!

"But this bike," the twins said, probably because they had been preparing for the mountain bike race recently and had seen a lot of such things, "it's a fake motorbike."

"A fake bike?" Zhan Zhao didn't understand – What do you mean?

"It's just a model!" Xiao Ding said. "This should be something that can't be started up, a model used specifically for photos or set dressing."

"Are you sure?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Seeing the doubt in his eyes, the twins became displeased and waved towards the distance.

Zhan Zhao turned around and saw Mia running over with her teddy bear.

The twins asked her to look at the picture to determine whether it was a real bike or a model.

Mia stared at it for a while but didn't answer. She made a couple of hand gestures, signalling them to wait, then ran into one of the cabin rooms.

Zhan Zhao looked at the twins in confusion.

Da Ding thought for a moment. "She probably went to find her mother."

Zhan Zhao suddenly understood – Right, Kalin should be better at identifying models, although she specialises more in corpse-related mannequins...

After a short wait, Mia came running out again with a tablet in her hands, but Kalin wasn't with her.

Mia ran up to them, tapped on the tablet a few times, and brought up an image that looked like a movie poster to show Zhan Zhao.

On the poster was also a small cabin and a motorbike. Although the cabin and bike were slightly different in style, the layout, composition and orientation were all exactly the same. The poster even had a layer of blood effects added, and the image had been processed to look darker and gloomier. At a glance, it was clearly the poster of a horror movie.

The title of the horror movie was also quite straightforward, Terrifying Ride.

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin – It looks like one of those low-budget gore horror movies.

"Terrifying Ride?" Hearing Zhan Zhao read the two words aloud, Xiao Ding leaned over to look. "Aiyo... wasn't this that divine film written by the Lord?"

"Who's the screenwriter?" Zhan Zhao looked baffled.

"Ah, Gongsun is the screenwriter." Xiao Bai Chi seemed hungry, walking over while eating a burger and looking at the tablet Mia was holding.

"You're saying it was a film written by Gongsun?" Zhan Zhao was stunned.

They all nodded – Yes, didn't you know?

Zhan Zhao began to wonder whether he had entered a parallel universe – Since when did Gongsun become a screenwriter? How did I not know?

"Doesn't Gongsun like to watch these niche horror films? Earlier, Big Brother said a project had fallen through, leaving some extra funds, and there was also sponsorship from a motorbike brand that they didn't want to waste, so they planned to whip up a script and shoot something." Xiao Ding told him. "Gongsun happened to overhear. He said he had written a novel in his free time that had something to do with motorbikes, and asked us to adapt it."

"So did it get released?" Zhan Zhao was still bothered by the fact that he hadn't known about this. "With Big Brother's personality, there's no way a film written by Gongsun would be released without him making a big show of promoting it..."

Da Ding and Xiao Ding both shook their heads. "It only had a digital release. The plot was quite obscure and not really suitable for cinema screenings... After it went up for streaming, the results were phenomenal. It was the cult classic of that year, and loads of people begged for a sequel! But the Lord didn't have any inspiration and wasn't in the mood to write a second film."

Zhan Zhao asked, "What exactly was it about? Who acted in it?"

"The lead actors weren't famous, but their acting was decent enough, and the budget was very small." Xiao Ding admitted that he actually hadn't watched it either, he had been too busy at the time, so even the poster was new to him...

After the twins finished talking, it was about time, so they first drove Bai Jintang to attend the opening ceremony of the mountain bike race.

Zhan Zhao had no choice but to ask Mia for help, asking whether she had seen it and whether she could give him a quick explanation.

Mia spread her hands and pointed at a line under the poster – For viewers aged eighteen and above.

Zhan Zhao looked over at Bai Chi, then took out his phone, preparing to ask Gongsun directly.

Bai Chi became unhappy. "I've watched it! Why aren't you asking me, Brother?"

Zhan Zhao pointed at the eighteen-and-above line on the poster to tease Bai Chi.

Xiao Bai Chi scrunched up his face.

"What's it actually about?" Zhan Zhao stopped joking and asked Bai Chi to explain properly.

Bai Chi said, "It's a story made up of several seemingly unrelated death incidents. Wherever this motorbike appears, a mysterious murder will take place!"

Zhan Zhao curled his lip. "Sounds a bit old-fashioned... Don't tell me it's some revenge plot, a motorbike team or something, and the owner of the bike got killed?"

"Ehh ehh ehh." Bai Chi shook his head vigorously. "Brother! You have to understand, the script was written by Gongsun, how could it be that simple?"

Zhan Zhao actually became a bit interested in the film. How had Gongsun never mentioned it? If he had said so earlier, I would've watched it already...

"This motorbike," Bai Chi pointed at it, "there was something in the left pannier."

"Drug trafficking?" Zhan Zhao's police instincts immediately kicked in.

Bai Chi shook his head again. "Ai, what Gongsun was interested in was of course homicide. The way the film was shot used a scrambled timeline. Summarised in the proper chronological order, the plot went like this... A junior worker at a vehicle scrapyard killed his boss with a wrench. He dragged the corpse up onto a pile of scrap and shoved it, staging it as an accidental fall. Then he placed the murder weapon inside the left pannier of a motorbike that was packed and ready to be shipped, and fled home. Early the next morning, the transport truck left with the cargo. Only then did he go to work, where he and two colleagues, who had been searching everywhere for the boss, 'accidentally' discovered the boss's body behind the scrap heap."

Zhan Zhao felt a bit exasperated. For all its absurdity, the story somehow still carried a hint of plausibility.

"After the police were called, they handled the case as an accidental fall. But at that point, one issue began troubling the killer. He had wiped the blood off the wrench with a cloth before putting it into the motorbike's pannier. The motorbikes there were all second-hand, modified and refurbished ones, only circulating in the second-hand market. It was quite possible that the buyer would only discover the item in the pannier after taking the bike home... After all, with a second-hand vehicle, finding a wrench or something left behind wasn't unusual. But had the blood really been wiped clean? The killer wasn't entirely sure..."

Hearing that, Zhan Zhao nodded, it made sense! This was a normal psychological reaction, all killers doubted whether they had overlooked or neglected something during their clean-up.

"The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became. One night, he secretly snuck into the dealership that had sold the bike, hoping to retrieve the wrench. But he didn't find the bike, instead, he was spotted by the old man on duty. And that old man happened to recognise him and knew he was a junior worker from the repair yard... In a moment of panic, he killed the old man. Then he looked through the sales register and discovered that that batch of motorbikes had been bought by a motorbike club... He went to the club to find them, but all the bikes had already been rented out. He checked the renters' addresses and began searching for the motorbike. Each time, an accident occurred, and as if compelled by some unseen force, he killed someone near the bike... And in the end, he still didn't find the wrench. When he returned to the scrapyard, he discovered a motorbike parked in an empty space. He went over, opened the pannier, and found the wrench sitting right inside..."

"Hmm..." After listening, Zhan Zhao nodded. "So is it a suspense film? Or a ghost film?"

"It had an open ending," Xiao Bai Chi said. "It could be a ghost film, or it could just be a suspense film. There were loads of details, and lots of reviewers analysed it, any explanation could be possible. That's why it was considered a cult classic."

"Then what's with the little cabin?" Zhan Zhao pointed at the poster. "Wasn't it supposed to be a scrapyard?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure about that. The poster was requested by Gongsun."

No sooner had Bai Chi finished speaking than Mia raised her hand and gestured – This didn't sound like restricted content, so why was it rated eighteen plus?

Zhan Zhao also looked at Bai Chi.

Bai Chi thought for a moment. "The atmosphere was quite scary. All those rules were set by Gongsun, whatever he says goes!"

Zhan Zhao and Mia both nodded. That's right –  he was the lady of the house, after all.

Zhan Zhao felt he still had to call Gongsun to ask.

......

Inside the SCI building, the forensic team was moving those "collections".

A few officers from the criminal police team were holding tablets, comparing the wanted notices with the severed heads. Gongsun was preparing the equipment for clearing the formalin, while his cell phone buzzed incessantly in his pocket.

Gongsun fished out his phone, glanced at it, shook his head, and put it on the table.

Ma Xin leaned over to have a look, then covered her eyes and ran off.

At that moment, the phone rang.

Gongsun picked it up without even checking the screen. "I'm working! No sexual harassment!"

On the other end, Zhan Zhao looked at his own screen in confusion. "Sexual harassment?"

Gongsun froze for a second, then checked the caller ID and realised it was Zhan Zhao.

"Ahem." Gongsun cleared his throat and asked, "What is it?"

"Oh... about that movie, Terrifying Ride." Zhan Zhao asked, "Why is there a little cabin on the poster?"

Gongsun paused. "Er... because of a detail. The night the killer murdered his boss, there was actually a witness."

"Oh..." Zhan Zhao understood. "So after the killer left, the witness pushed the motorbike off the truck? And that's why the killer couldn't find the wrench afterwards."

"Yes, I asked the director to add more third-person perspectives when filming, especially when the murderer was committing the crime, as if someone hidden in a corner was secretly watching... The third-person perspective needed a sense of malice, something that made the viewer feel that the person hiding and peeping was very excited..."

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao suddenly looked up. Why does this sound inexplicably familiar?

"That little cabin is actually a symbol, representing an even more terrifying person watching the killer... The cabin could be the hiding place of the one secretly observing, or it could represent the killer's own home..."

Gongsun was still going on and on when Zhan Zhao suddenly asked Bai Chi, "That Yellow Raincoat Killer..."

Bai Chi looked at him. "Wang Yong?"

"Wasn't he desperately trying to find a USB drive? The one containing the footage of the Yellow Raincoat Killer committing murder? That was also filmed from a third-person perspective. Every time Wang Yong killed someone, even as a serial killer, he was filmed, someone even more frightening was stalking him from the shadows..."

Zhan Zhao glanced at the electronic ticket, then at the movie poster – This is clearly a deliberate hint... Could this case be related to the person who had filmed the Yellow Raincoat Killer?

‿︵‿︵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: December 4, 2025 by Angel

Edited: January 13, 2025 by Angel