S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 147

Special Files – Collector 32 – Among Them

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Bai Yutang asked Wu Wen for the students' assessment schedule for the day, then took two cups of coffee back to the holiday cabin to find Zhan Zhao.

On a swing in the small courtyard outside the lodge, Zhan Zhao was wearing a pair of sunglasses, arms folded, gently swaying back and forth.

Bai Yutang stood in front of him, unsure whether he was asleep or simply daydreaming. Whose sunglasses are this dark?

Looking around, Bai Ye and the others were loading up for the food competition, and a whole group was preparing to set off for the recording.

The students next door were also packing their luggage, ready to leave. It seemed that once today's assessment ended, their holiday began, and they would be heading straight back to school on the bus.

"Ahem."

Bai Yutang cleared his throat to see how Zhan Zhao reacted.

But Zhan Zhao still didn't move.

In the end, Bai Yutang had no choice but to walk over and push the sunglasses down a little... Beneath them, the pair of feline eyes was indeed closed.

Bai Yutang thought that perhaps Zhan Zhao was tired and resting.

However, Zhan Zhao opened his eyes, looked up at him once, and asked very seriously, "Suppose there is someone who, every time a murder occurs, manages to arrive on time, hides in the shadows and films the entire process, yet he never takes part in the crime at all, only secretly records it... can he be arrested?"

Hearing this, Bai Yutang was stunned. He stood there with the two cups of coffee and thought for quite a while. "If he is just an ordinary citizen... then at most he'll be condemned morally. If he didn't commit any offence like covering up or assisting... the most he could be charged with would be violating portrait rights for secretly filming?"

Zhan Zhao removed his sunglasses. "Or think about it the other way round... the police actually wouldn't be able to arrest him, but..."

Bai Yutang laughed. "If the criminals found out he existed, then he'd probably be hunted down by the group."

"But what if someone got hold of the footage he had, or rather, what if he made proper use of those recordings?" Zhan Zhao asked. "Then wouldn't he be able to control a whole group of murderers?"

Bai Yutang thought about it, then sat down on the swing as well. He handed Zhan Zhao a cup of coffee and stared blankly at the one remaining in his own hand.

"Are they the same group?" Bai Yutang asked after a long while. "The ones who collected those heads and props, are they in the same group as the one filming the videos? Who exactly sent us the electronic ticket? Laughing Bird, remnants of the organisation, or the one secretly filming?"

Zhan Zhao pointed at his phone. "This last electronic ticket is the key."

Bai Yutang drank his coffee as he watched Zhan Zhao, waiting for him to continue.

"There are different types of collectors. Some people collect anything and everything, while some collect only one thing. The collection hall and the one taking the videos showed two entirely different kinds of collecting behaviour. The collection hall gathered everything from film props to murderers' heads, they collect it all, right?"

Bai Yutang nodded.

"But the one filming the footage, his methods are extremely consistent, and the pattern in Laughing Bird's videos is actually closer to that of the person doing the filming," Zhan Zhao continued. "The likelihood of Laughing Bird himself being a serial killer is extremely high, so he should be the target of the one filming. But his technique of shedding his skin was aimed at the collection hall. I think the matter might be one layer more complicated than we imagined."

Bai Yutang had drunk his coffee down to the ice cubes and simply stared at Zhan Zhao – Isn't it complicated enough already?

"Actually, it's just an extra layer. We think Laughing Bird wanted to shed his skin and use us to catch the remnants of the Three Flowers organisation, right? But what if Laughing Bird was being controlled by someone to do this?"

Bai Yutang rubbed his chin, gave an "oh", and seemed to understand. "Laughing Bird's killings were recorded as well, and then the one who recorded it used that video to control him and expose the collection hall to us? Did he use this method to control Wang Yong as well?"

"Wang Yong seemed more likely to have been controlled by Shi Yanshuo's mom," Zhan Zhao analysed. "It was probably the person filming who gave Shi Yanshuo's mom that footage, and then she used that video to control Wang Yong."

"Why would that person give the video to..." Bai Yutang paused, then realised. "Could it be that... he ate the oysters as well? Except he didn't pay with money, he paid with footage?"

"That's a resource, isn't it? Serial killers are highly dangerous and destructive. Although many are caught, the ones who aren't tend to be not just lucky but also more capable." Zhan Zhao slurped up the remaining ice in his cup. "What's the point of collecting murderers' heads after they're dead? At best, it's just a hobby... but keeping the killer alive while holding leverage over him, that's the real resource. If that kid has over a hundred recordings in his hands, I don't dare to think about what he can do!"

"Then the person who sent us the electronic ticket wasn't the one filming the footage?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao nodded repeatedly. "It was impossible to tell before, but that final ticket made it obvious, it's practically telling us that there is someone filming behind-the-scenes. It shows that that side is getting anxious as well."

"Why did the two sides start fighting?" Bai Yutang asked, puzzled. "Because rivals in the same trade are natural enemies?"

"They are all collectors. If they become hostile and start fighting, there is probably only one reason... a particular item," Zhan Zhao speculated. "There must be a rather extraordinary piece in question."

"Laughing Bird?" Bai Yutang thought for a moment. "No, Laughing Bird can be sacrificed. The real treasure won't be used up so casually."

"Do you remember the very first case?"

"You mean that one in the psychiatric hospital...?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Issel was investigating it, Xiaoxue, the girl who committed suicide in that special hospital."

"That case really was strange. Xiaoxue clearly had the upper hand in her conversation with the student; how could she have ended up committing suicide..."

"When you first learned about that case..." Zhan Zhao glanced at Zhao Jue, who was watching Gongsun's movie with Bai Chi not far away. "Who did you think had the ability to kill Xiaoxue in that manner?"

Bai Yutang instinctively also looked over at Zhao Jue, and said quietly, "The way Xiaoxue killed herself, either she ran into a ghost, or she was mentally controlled by someone... otherwise it's hard to explain how the whole process was carried out... so..."

"So only Zhao Jue and I could have done it, right?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang nodded. "But Zhao Jue didn't go looking for Xiaoxue... The surveillance footage and the time Uncle Ye picked him up proved he had no time to commit the crime."

At this point, Bai Yutang frowned and looked at Zhan Zhao thoughtfully. "Unless..."

Zhan Zhao also smiled. "The murderer who killed Xiaoxue must have been someone with extremely strong psychological control, someone with professional knowledge and ability."

"So, Cat, what you meant earlier, the resource those two collectors are fighting over is someone with abilities as strong as yours and Zhao Jue's?" Bai Yutang was a bit doubtful about this possibility.  "Was he a member of the organisation before?"

"If such a person existed, Zhao Jue would have thought of it as soon as the Xiaoxue case happened... but neither he nor Uncle Ye ever mentioned such a person."

Talking it through again led them into another dead end. Bai Yutang was baffled – So did such a person exist or not?

"If one possibility is ruled out, then only the other possibility remains." Zhan Zhao spread his hands.

Bai Yutang looked slightly disdainful. "The other... ghosts?"

"So that means..." Bai Yutang glanced at the rubbish bin by the door. "The holiday cabin is haunted as well..."

"Since the collector is a serial killer, it means Xiaoxue isn't the first victim," Zhan Zhao continued analysing. "Xiaoxue's murder is extremely strange, and the couple's murder in this holiday cabin before that, and last night's model case where we ran into a ghost, all of them are strange. In Xiaoxue's case, the first electronic ticket we received had that drawing, and the square venue underneath belonged to a movie production. And the model murder was also connected to a movie... The poster we received this time was also from a movie, and the enormous number of props in Wisteria Manor were all movie props!"

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao. "Cat, you mean the murderer is hiding somewhere in this resort?"

Zhan Zhao motioned for Bai Yutang to look towards the door.

Bai Yutang turned his head and saw the students next door coming out with huge bags. A bus had stopped outside, and Wu Wen was leading the students and the teaching assistants onto the bus, ready to head up the mountain for the exam.

Wu Wen kept looking towards Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang. When he saw both of them glance over, he hurriedly waved, calling for them to join.

Bai Yutang remembered the mark that had been made on the roof of the cottage next door and frowned as he asked Zhan Zhao, "So is the killer targeting the people in that cabin... or is one of the people staying in that cabin the killer?"

"Judging by the students' ages, it's unlikely that there's a serial killer among them. Of course, we can't rule out the possibility of a prodigy. Wu Wen's likelihood is also very low. Zhao Jue and I have known him for many years, he doesn't have that ability. The ones who are more suspicious are actually those two teaching assistants."

Bai Yutang thought for a moment. "Last night, when the villa was haunted, only Wu Wen and the students were there, those two teaching assistants didn't seem to be around."

"There was a teaching assistant when the students were taken to the special hospital that day, and there were teaching assistants when they went out last night as well. It's the school rules, when students take part in off-campus school activities or assessments, they must be accompanied by a teaching assistant. But teaching assistants don't have to be responsible for the students' accommodation, so they can go home at night and return in the day. And there are many teaching assistants, if one has class the next day or has something to do for another professor, they might be replaced."

"No wonder their presence is so low." Bai Yutang thought back to the people in the cabin next door last night. Indeed, there had only been students.

"Of course, it could also be another guest hiding in the resort, or even one of the staff. After all... the haunting had a very high level of technical skill! Without some sort of advantage in controlling the environment, it would've been very difficult to pull off."

"Then at the special hospital, did the murderer also have a terrain advantage when killing Xiaoxue?" Bai Yutang asked.

Zhan Zhao felt that Bai Yutang had hit the key point. "Many of the professors in our university's psychology department have projects in the T Zone. Professors often leave a lot of work to their teaching assistants."

Bai Yutang put down his cup and stood up. "Then that matches perfectly, doesn't it?"

Zhan Zhao also stood, looked towards the bus at the entrance, and asked Bai Yutang, "Shall we go? Either there's a serial killer hidden on that bus, or the people on that bus have already been targeted."

Bai Yutang nodded. "Let's go!"

The two greeted Bai Chi, then headed towards the bus.

At that moment, someone caught up behind them.

Bai Yutang turned back and saw that Zhao Jue had come as well.

They both asked him, "Aren't you going with Uncle Ye to the barbecue?"

Zhao Jue glanced at the two of them and smiled in an unreadable way, then walked straight towards the bus.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look – It seems our deduction is right.

But when the three of them reached the bus, they saw the students coming down one after another. Wu Wen was holding a cell phone and complaining angrily, as if he were lodging a complaint.

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked him.

Professor Wu Wen said helplessly, "The bus driver says he's got diarrhoea and isn't coming, so we'll have to find our own driver."

"So coincidental?" Bai Yutang felt that something was off. Since the resort had shuttle buses going up and down the mountain, surely they didn't rely on only one driver?

"There's an off-road race and a barbecue competition at the foot of the mountain today, and loads of fans and hikers have come. All the other shuttle buses and drivers have been reassigned down there." Wu Wen looked thoroughly frustrated, where was he going to find a driver...

Bai Yutang looked up towards the mountaintop. "Actually, it's not that far, walking would take forty to fifty minutes. Why not just hike up?"

"What?!" The students immediately exploded. Some who were homebodies and hated moving shook their heads furiously, while the energetic, outdoorsy ones looked eager to try.

Professor Wu Wen checked his watch. "We'll put it to a vote then. Those who don't agree to hike, please raise your hands..."

As soon as Wu Wen spoke, quite a few students raised their hands.

Zhan Zhao also raised his hand, his face full of resentment – Why does the psychology assessment require mountain climbing?!

Bai Yutang glanced at him – Shall I carry you up?

Zhan Zhao silently lowered his hand – That isn't impossible.

‿︵‿︵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