S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 152

Special Files – Collector 37 – Fishing

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After Zhao Jue sent the message to Bai Ye, he stood there waiting anxiously.

Before long, the sound of a reply came through. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both leaned towards the phone screen, wanting to see what "professional advice" Uncle Ye had given.

Bai Ye's reply was very simple, just one sentence – Drain the water.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged a glance and then looked at Zhao Jue together.

Holding the phone, Zhao Jue tapped his chin, then lifted his eyes and muttered with a somewhat displeased expression, "It's indeed a solution..."

Neither Zhan Zhao nor Bai Yutang understood and asked, "How do we drain the water?"

Zhao Jue picked up Wu Wen's tablet. "The AI is a small fish, the ones wanting to collect it are two big fish, the ones hunting the collector are another group of big fish, the police are also fishing, and all other irrelevant people are the water."

As a professional "fisherman", Bai Yutang had indeed thought of this as well. The difficulty this time was gathering all those "big fish" together for arrest without affecting everyone else. But fish were not stupid, they knew to hide among the innocent fish in the deep water. As long as they confirmed the target's identity, their purpose was accomplished, so they had no need to risk exposing themselves.

So the key to catching them without causing chaos was to "filter" out the big fish. If they could drain the "water", then all the better.

Bai Yutang liked watching survival shows in his spare time. In the wild, the usual way to catch fish was to set up a trap in shallow water, use bait to lure the fish inside, and then drain the water from the enclosed area. That way, you could catch the fish with ease.

In the end, it still came down to having bait.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang watched as Zhao Jue operated the tablet. He added a new examinee to the list of students participating in the examination, and then he himself went to join the exam. He also raised a hand and pointed at his own eyes towards Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, signalling them to be alert and ready to catch fish.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang understood at once. What a good idea! Zhao Jue was using himself as the bait. Previously, the collection had always remained in a dormant mode, so the other side assumed it was one of the examinees. This time, they would use the test to identify the target. But now that the hidden target had been made explicit and handed directly to them. It was no longer among the test candidates, so the other side could no longer determine the target by confirming the students, they would have to re-identify a new person.

As long as they could lure the other party out of the densely populated area, it would count as successfully draining the water!

The key to implementing this step is to ensure that no one leaks the information.

It was very difficult for students to leak information. To prevent cheating, all their communication devices had been confiscated, and the tablets used for the exam could only exit the application after completing the exam questions. If they exited early or used other software midway, the exam app would automatically shut down and treat it as cheating.

In other words, the only people who could communicate with the outside were those two teaching assistants.

Bai Yutang signalled to Zhao Hu and Ma Han, and the two immediately began to follow the assistants closely, every step the teaching assistants took was under their watch.

After cutting off all communication between the exam participants and the outside world, Zhan Zhao asked "Got You" to inform the SCI members about this arrest plan.

Zhan Zhao analysed the psychology of the collector and the collection group. When a new individual appeared, one that neither side had known about in advance, a psychological urge to "rush to be the first" would emerge.

They would certainly harbour doubts, but they also feared falling behind and losing everything at the last moment. So while they watched the target, they would also pay close attention to what the other side was doing.

If the collector really was Tian Ming, he should understand how dangerous Zhao Jue is.

The collection organisation is afraid of Bai Ye. With both Zhao Jue and Bai Ye present, the two main targets they wanted to catch would definitely not go anywhere near the top of the mountain. They were probably hiding far away while directing things remotely. But they would make use of "other big fish", using other fish could also drain the energy of those catching fish. Fortunately, SCI had many "fishermen" available in the form of external support.

Bai Yutang sent a message asking Uncle Ye and the others to help catch fish, but Bai Ye replied that after finishing grilling the meat, he was now focused on watching the judges eat the grilled meat with Chopsticks and Radar.

When the two of them heard it was about catching assassins, they wrinkled their noses and shook their heads repeatedly – Not interested.

Bai Ye was just about to reply that he was not interested when Bai Yutang sent another message – There's a bounty, ranging from a hundred thousand to five hundred thousand per assassin.

Bai Ye blinked and showed the phone to Eleven and Issel.

Both of their eyes lit up – Let's go! Time to make some extra money!

Bai Yutang called the twins and the others to help, asked Jiang Ping and Bai Chi to go to the command vehicle to deploy drones for support, and reminded the brothers to bring their AI wristbands for easier communication.

And just like that, a whole group of "external reinforcements" stopped watching the competition and started playing a round of PUBG.

Of course, the killers could not take the main road to go up the mountain. There was only one road leading up, whether they drove or walked, they would be caught, so they could only travel through the forest.

Jiang Ping had the forest terrain map the twins had prepared previously for their off-road race, which included monitored areas as well as several surveillance blind spots.

If they wanted to get up the mountain unnoticed, the best method was to pass through those blind spots.

All the blind spots could be linked together to form an encirclement. After dividing into groups, each group would guard one area. Once the fish entered, they would use the electronic wristbands to communicate, shrink the encirclement, drive the fish into monitored areas, and then catch them in one net.

However, outside the encirclement, there were still several important sections that needed someone dedicated to handle...

In the grandstands at the racetrack, Bai Jintang was holding Xiao Yumi in one arm and Jiajia in the other, watching the competition with the two children.

Suddenly, his phone rang. Bai Jintang passed the children to Hao Ling, picked up the phone, and heard the twins' voices come through, "Big Brother! Want to go jungling?!"

Bai Jintang hung up in disgust.

No sooner had he hung up than the phone rang again. He answered, and the twins tempted him, "There's a bounty!"

Bai Jintang sneered and hung up again.

It rang yet again.

Bai Jintang picked up, just about to scold them, when he heard the twins say, "We'll give you time off!"

Bai Jintang held the phone and thought for a moment, then raised an eyebrow and stood up.

Once he left the grandstands, he soon ran into Chen Mi, Xu Lie, and the two Lan brothers. Big Brother Bai pulled all of them along.

On the way, Bai Jintang asked, "What does 'jungling' mean?"

Lan Qi and Lan Xi both asked whether it meant going hunting. There were tools in the car. What were they hunting? Were there wild boars here?

Chen Mi felt it ought to be some sort of tactical jargon, while Bai Jintang thought that in the twins' dictionary should be full of slang and no terminology.

Xu Lie followed behind, shaking his head speechlessly, unable to help muttering, "What do you lot do besides go to work..."

Bai Jintang and Lan Xi looked back. "Dating..."

Lan Qi and Chen Mi also looked back. "Look after the children..."

Xu Lie curled his lip – I haven't even figured out how to date properly and I already have a child... all I can do is play games...

Then he thought of something. Unmarried, already had a child, and addicted to gaming...

Xu Lie instinctively reached up to touch his hair – Why do I feel so much like one of those blond layabout stereotypes?

Chen Mi glanced at Xu Lie's hair, which he had dyed blond for a role – You are one!

After arranging all the external support, Bai Yutang put his phone away.

When he looked up, he saw Zhan Zhao watching him – Where is this bounty supposed to be coming from? We don't even know what kind of killer it is yet.

Bai Yutang waved a hand – It's not important, we can sort it out after catching the person. Worst case, we'll just refuse to pay.

Zhan Zhao shook his head repeatedly – If you do that, your credibility would collapse! Next time you want to use the same trick, no one will fall for it.

Bai Yutang thought for a moment. "Then how about this, once the case is over, you write a book and use the royalties to pay off the debt..."

Zhan Zhao nodded – All right, I'll probably be able to finish it in ten or twenty years.

Bai Yutang saw no problem with that – At worst, we can pay in instalments!

Once everyone had been arranged, the only ones left standing there staring at each other were the two of them. Other than chatting, they had nothing to do.

Zhan Zhao rubbed his hands together, glanced at Zhao Jue inside the room, analysing "clues", and asked Bai Yutang, "Aren't we supposed to be catching fish? What are we doing?"

Bai Yutang burst out laughing. "You may be a cat... but I've never seen you catch a fish."

Zhan Zhao curled his lip in disdain. "So what if I haven't caught a fish? I've caught a snake!"

Bai Yutang was stunned for a moment, When had this cat ever caught a snake?

"You've forgotten!" Zhan Zhao reminded him. "Last time you bought that black-backed, white-bellied snake from the seafood market!"

Bai Yutang felt something tug at his memory. Black back, white belly...

Suddenly, Bai Yutang remembered what had happened and looked utterly speechless. "That was an eel!"

Zhan Zhao clicked his tongue. "Then that means I have caught a fish!"

Bai Yutang was rendered speechless by what he said. That day, Zhan Zhao had said he fancied grilled eel rice, so Bai Yutang had gone to buy one.

As a result, while he was killing the fish, Lilia, for some unknown reason, startled Luban. Luban bolted and knocked over the marinade on the table that was meant for the eel, spilling it all over Lisbon.

Lisbon, soaked in soy-sauce marinade, stood up and was just about to shake its coat dry when Bai Yutang threw down the fish and rushed out to grab Lisbon and Luban for a bath.

Zhan Zhao had originally been lying on the sofa reading. Seeing Bai Yutang in a fluster, he got up, intending to go help in the kitchen.

In the kitchen sink, there was a dead eel, its belly split open and its innards removed.

Zhan Zhao wanted to help Bai Yutang wash it and then cut it into sections, but the moment he reached out and squeezed it, the eel suddenly flicked its tail, and shot right out of his hands.

Bai Yutang had just turned on the water to rinse Lisbon when he heard Zhan Zhao's miserable scream from outside... He quickly shut the water off and rushed out. He almost slipped at the doorway, but luckily Lisbon was there to cushion him so he didn't fall.

He dashed out and ran to the kitchen, only to see Zhan Zhao holding a frying pan in one hand, locked in combat with a writhing eel on the floor. When he saw Bai Yutang arrive, he quickly shouted, "It's a zombie!"

Bai Yutang was just about to go over when the bathroom door behind him, which hadn't been fully closed, was pushed open by a dripping-wet Luban, who squeezed through the gap and bolted. Bai Yutang immediately knew it was bad when he saw this – Whenever Luban wanted to escape a bath, he always fled under their bed to hide. Now there was a trail of wet cat paw prints and soy-sauce marinade across the floor.

Bai Yutang rushed off to catch the cat, telling Zhan Zhao in the kitchen to pick up the fish and throw it back into the sink.

This was a difficult task for Zhan Zhao. He tried grabbing the fish from all sorts of angles, but every time he got hold of it, it twisted, putting up a desperate struggle.

That day, Bai Yutang spent nearly an hour catching and washing the cats. By the time he finally came out, Zhan Zhao was still in the kitchen "fighting" with that dead fish.

"You can't blame me for that..." Zhan Zhao grumbled. "That fish was practically a mutant super-fish. Anything long and thin tends to have ridiculous vitality."

"That's true..." Bai Yutang nodded. Just like snakes, even with the head chopped off and the skin removed, they could still move...

"Snakes and eels can move after death because of nerve reflexes, and octopuses can still move because they have auxiliary brains." Although Zhan Zhao wasn't good with his hands, he was quite professional when analysing things.

Bai Yutang was amused by him, "You know, that's actually a bit like the two we're trying to catch. If the collector is a snake, then the collection organisation is like an octopus."

"Even a venomous snake that's been dead for an hour still needs to be handled carefully when dealing with the head, because it can still bite, and you can still get poisoned..."

As he spoke, Zhan Zhao suddenly reached up to stroke his chin. He poked Bai Yutang. "I think I know where Tian Ming is hiding! And I know why this resort cabin is haunted!"

‿︵‿︵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 12, 2025 by Angel

Edited: January 20, 2026 by Angel