S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 153

Special Files – Collector 38 – Fish and Fish

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In a stretch of forest without surveillance cameras between the resort and the examination area at the top of the mountain, Bai Ye followed the map and laid out a "net", helping Bai Yutang and the others to catch "fish".

Bai Ye's thinking was very simple, just like fishing. He, Issel and Eleven lay in ambush in the largest area. The others were divided into two groups and only needed to drive anyone attempting to enter the side paths towards the ambush zone or into areas covered by surveillance.

Bai Jintang waited at the exits with the twins, ready for any fish that slipped through the net.

The surveillance areas were handled by Jiang Ping and Bai Chi, who were monitoring from a distance. As long as they managed to capture footage, that counted as a success.

Bao Sir had already called in police support. Once the "fish" all entered the forest, the return routes would be cut off, ensuring the safety of the people participating in the event.

This was the simple "drain the water to catch the fish" method that Bai Ye had previously mentioned to Zhao Jue.

However, Bai Ye felt that it would be difficult to catch the "big fish" and that they would probably only catch some small fish, while the truly cunning big fish might not show themselves at all. Even some smarter small fish would choose to flee after seeing those ahead go in and never come back... After all, people were people, not fish. If they were fish, with their short memories, even after seeing the fish in front get hooked, the ones behind would still bite. Especially when there were a lot of fish... the shoal would rush forward in competition, which was the whole point of chumming the water.

Up on the top of the mountain, Zhao Jue was doing the "boring" exam questions and could not help sighing that, as expected, Wu Wen's level was poor and the questions he set were just as bad...

Zhao Jue turned his head to look outside the room, originally intending to ask Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang whether Bai Ye's side had caught any fish, but he froze when he saw the scene.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were squatting by the roadside, and Zhan Zhao was arranging pebbles on the ground, like two little children.

Zhao Jue looked confused – What are they doing?

Zhan Zhao had just gone over his glorious record of battling an eel with Bai Yutang, and then suddenly said that he knew why the residential compound had been haunted, and also knew where Tian Ming was hiding.

Naturally, Bai Yutang asked where Tian Ming was.

But Zhan Zhao opened his mouth, then scratched at his hands. He looked very much like a kitten kneading when nursing at home, his expression carrying a hint of hesitation.

Based on Bai Yutang's understanding of him, he figured that Zhan Zhao was having another bout of language failure, his internal translation system crashing again. After all, what a cat's brain came up with could not be fully expressed in human language.

After struggling a bit with his choice of words, Zhan Zhao said, "If you hadn't killed that eel back then, and it was kept alive in the pool, I would absolutely never have gone anywhere near it, right?"

Bai Yutang nodded.

People tended to assume that dead things were harmless, that was how someone could still be bitten by a decapitated venomous snake. The key point here was... how one judged something as "harmless". Was it harmless once it was dead? Or once it was locked up? Or was it something whose potential danger could never be fully determined, and therefore needed to be kept at a cautious distance?

Bai Yutang understood what he was saying, but he was not quite sure what Zhan Zhao was getting at – So where exactly is Tian Ming?

Seeing that Bai Yutang hadn't quite grasped it, Zhan Zhao continued, "Based on our current deductions, and all the information we have, Tian Ming's present identity might be that of a psychologist, someone who can come into contact with patients at T Hospital... right?"

Bai Yutang stared at Zhan Zhao for a moment, then suddenly got what he was trying to say. "Maybe he isn't disguising himself as a psychologist, but as a patient being held in the T Zone?"

Zhan Zhao snapped his fingers, his eyes lighting up – Exactly!

Bai Yutang understood instantly. "No matter how well a doctor disguises himself, he still has to work and see patients. But if he's a patient in the T Zone, he only needs to come into contact with a few specific medical staff..."

Zhan Zhao nodded. "The perfect cover! A patient who's been confined, whose identity appears harmless, he's in a state of isolation from the outside world, so no one can find him!"

"But successfully cutting himself off from the outside world also comes with a downside!"

Bai Yutang smiled. "He has a head, but no body!"

Zhan Zhao was satisfied, it was indeed easy to talk to Yutang. "His channels for obtaining information must be extremely limited. It's impossible that all the medical staff in the T Zone are his people. There should be one or two contacts who, in a very low-key way, pass information from the outside world to him, then carry out his instructions."

"Then what does that have to do with the resort being haunted?" Bai Yutang felt that the clues were all fragmented, impossible to link together.

"What's near the resort?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang frowned – What is there?

"Didn't Laughing Bird go up to the block district to shoot videos?" Zhan Zhao reminded him. "He previously filmed haunted houses all over the place, like Wisteria Manor... What's near that place?"

Bai Yutang thought for a moment. "The collection hall?"

"Exactly... There might also be a collection hall near the resort. Didn't Big Brother and the others find a sign in the forest?"

A characteristic of intelligent people is the ability to draw inferences. Bai Yutang spotted the common thread. "Laughing Bird filmed haunted houses, and those haunted houses had unresolved mysteries, like urban legends. After he filmed a haunted house, there would be similar murder cases. There is a collection hall near the garden in Wisteria Manor... There must be more than one collection hall. Could they all be hidden near haunted houses? Is Laughing Bird helping Tian Ming to ‘scout locations'?"

"But what's the difference between this resort and Wisteria Manor?" Zhan Zhao asked, arranging small stones on the ground into the shape of a shoal of fish as he spoke.

Bai Yutang stared at the fish. "The resort might be fake... a place that imitates Wisteria Manor, pretending to have a collection hall? Because Big Brother and the others only found a sign, but no collection hall."

"What are the characteristics of fishing?" Zhan Zhao toyed with the pebbles on the ground. "The bait is here, the feeding spot is placed here, the shoal is here... and the fisherman is here."

As he finished speaking, Zhan Zhao reached out and placed a single pebble far away from the fish.

Bai Yutang seemed to be thinking about something. "So we're also part of the plan?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "The situation on our side will force Tian Ming's subordinates to contact him, and his identity in the T Zone will be exposed. We're all pinned down here. If Tian Ming ends up being killed over there... Do you remember what Uncle Ye mentioned before? When he and Zhao Jue came back from the T Zone, there was a fire?"

Bai Yutang stared at Zhan Zhao. "Earlier, Xiaoxue tried to manipulate students into setting a fire to help her escape..."

"Tian Ming is a collector, and the defining characteristic of a collector is that his collection is as important to him as his own life, so he would definitely keep it with him, but at the same time, there will certainly be backups. Whether they kill Tian Ming or take him away, any collection found in the T Zone will definitely have to be destroyed, and burning it is the fastest method. At the same time, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the fire, some of the patients could be released... This way, it will no longer be possible to determine who Tian Ming was, and it could mislead our investigation."

"So... the big fish thought it could drive the small fish, but in the end, the small fish joined forces to take out the big fish?" Bai Yutang pointed at the shoal Zhan Zhao had laid out. "As long as the collector is destroyed, then those small fish..."

"... Can escape." Zhan Zhao pointed at the shoal. "This group has formed a villainous alliance, using the conflict between the collector and the collection halls in reverse. Through us, they find Tian Ming... even if Uncle Ye's side manages to scoop up a whole net of fish..."

"They're all small fish who came to deliver themselves." Bai Yutang frowned. "Then what do we do? Has Tian Ming been exposed?"

Zhan Zhao looked at the crowd that was still taking the exam. "That depends on the situation. If the contact gets information from among these people, or is simply one of them, then Tian Ming is temporarily safe. But if it's through some other channel..."

Zhan Zhao pointed at the wristband he was wearing. "For example, a technical channel. If they see that there's one extra examinee, they might go looking for Tian Ming immediately. In that case, they've probably already locked onto Tian Ming's identity."

Bai Yutang immediately contacted Jiang Ping and asked him to check whether there had been any fire or fire alarm incidents in the T Zone.

Jiang Ping checked and said there were none.

Zhan Zhao calculated the timing. Zhao Jue had already been taking the exam for quite some time, and nothing had happened over there yet, which meant there had been no change.

"We still have a bit of time." Bai Yutang felt the situation was tricky. "But how do we determine which one is Tian Ming? We can't let either the fish or Tian Ming get away. Even if the fish escape, Tian Ming can't. Once we have Tian Ming's collection, we can also use the list to arrest people."

"Speaking of Tian Ming's collection, we once had a small fish in our hands." Zhan Zhao picked up a pebble from the pile.

"You mean Wang Yong?"

"Yes... Speaking of Wang Yong, doesn't that bring something to mind?" Zhan Zhao winked at Bai Yutang. "There are still two people hanging around at the police station."

"You mean Shi Yanshuo and Fang Beibei also know about it?" Bai Yutang felt it was possible. The two of them were facing death, but they still looked fearless. It felt like they were holding onto some information that could save their lives.

"Shi Yanshuo has Wang Yong's weakness in his hands, and he may know Tian Ming," Zhan Zhao analysed. "Tian Ming used to specialise in dealing with juvenile offenders, and Shi Yanshuo was definitely a pervert from a young age, so the two of them may well have crossed paths."

Bai Yutang frowned – As expected, the destructive power of a perverted psychologist is amazing. Xiaoxue might not have been that twisted originally, perhaps it was Tian Ming's ‘treatment' that turned her into what she became.

"If we negotiate terms with Shi Yanshuo, wouldn't that just be letting him off lightly?" Bai Yutang felt that Shi Yanshuo was a heinous criminal, ruthless and cunning. He might not actually reveal Tian Ming's identity at all, and would only use the situation to play tricks.

"Speaking of which, I can understand Shi Yanshuo's behaviour, but what's going on with Fang Beibei?" Zhan Zhao was still a little bothered. This old classmate was quite something. "When she first approached Wen Xiaorou, she said there was a ‘ghost' hunting her. She implied it was her own sharp tongue that led to Tan Wen's death back then, but that wasn't the truth at all. And Wang Yong's death was also caused by him taking the same kind of capsule that Fang Beibei used to harm people. The two people she harmed, one was a cheating man and the other his mistress. In fact, the cheating man was only an attempted murder, he actually died at the mistress's hands. She could have stayed out of Shi Yanshuo's case altogether, yet she deliberately attempted to murder Guan Xiaoyue and was caught red-handed by Big Brother. Why did she want to kill Guan Xiaoyue? Murdering Guan Xiaoyue wouldn't have been of any benefit to her."

Bai Yutang also felt that Fang Beibei's motives were a mystery. "Moreover, when she attacked Guan Xiaoyue, it just so happened that Shi Yanshuo was at the scene, which always gave the impression that she acted on Shi Yanshuo's orders... But the problem is, although they're both bad and both have secrets, they're not on the same side."

Zhan Zhao agreed. "So maybe starting with Fang Beibei will be more useful than starting with Shi Yanshuo."

"But the two of us can't leave right now." Bai Yutang was afraid that if they made a move and accidentally alerted the enemy or something went wrong, whether Tian Ming escaped, the fish escaped, or Tian Ming was killed by the fish, it would all be troublesome.

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly and took out his phone. "It doesn't have to be the two of us, we can find someone to go and have a chat with Fang Beibei."

‿︵‿︵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 18, 2025 by Angel

Edited: January 20, 2026 by Angel