S.C.I. Mystery Files Case 1 Chapter 27



The Numbers Killer - Chapter 27 Unexpected



After they wrapped up the discussion, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked out of the research centre. 

"Kitty, shall we visit my brother then?" Bai Yutang asked while opening the car door. 

"You know where your brother is?" Zhan Zhao asked in response.

"Hmm... well," Bai Yutang shook his head, "Technically I don't, but I'm guessing..."

"Un!" Zhan Zhao concurred and turned to look at Bai Yutang, "I guess so too."

"Gongsun's house!!" they declared at the same time. 


During the entire drive to Gongsun's place, Bai Yutang remained silent like mulling over something. There were multiple occasions where Zhan Zhao tried to speak but once he saw the frown on Bai Yutang's face. He swallowed them all back down. 

Soon, they arrived at Gongsun's apartment. Just as they took one step out the elevator, they heard a loud crash. The two got and shock and rushed out the elevator only to be greeted with the sight of Ding Zhaolan and Ding Zhaohui crouching down with their head in their hands. The door was wide open and pots and pans would fly out from time to time. 

"What are the two of you doing?" Bai Yutang moved in to ask the twins while holding out an arm to protect Zhan Zhao behind him.

"We're helping the Boss keep a lookout. Ah no, I mean, guard the door."
"..."

Bai Yutang exchanged looks with Zhan Zhao before following up with another question, "What's my brother doing inside?"

Da Ding and Xiao Ding1 replied with a smile, "Since Gongsun's hand is injured, Boss wants to help him shower."

...!...

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao gasped at those words. Just as they were about to charge into the house, Bai Jintang who was covered in bubbles fled through the door. And following closely behind him was a black flying object. Bai Yutang happened to be standing at the doorway...

Bang!

Bai Yutang being Bai Yutang with his quick reflexes, immediately saw the hostile object flying towards him. He wanted to duck but then remembered that Zhan Zhao was standing behind him, so he raised a hand to block it instead. The hard object hit his hand and fell to the floor... He looked down and saw that it was a pan.  

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both got the shock of their lives. When they looked back up they were met with a dishevelled Gongsun standing in the middle of the room, covered in foam from head to toe. He was panting hard, his left hand was in a cast and in his right was a spatula. He raised it above his head, all ready to hurl it at the door. 

"Wait!!" Bai Yutang shouted as he hurriedly raised his hand to stop Gongsun, "Don't hurt innocent people!!" 

Once Gongsun noticed that it was Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, he threw his 'weapon' on the floor and huffed his way to the sofa. 

The two cautiously zoomed their way into the room and ask, "A-Are you ok?"

Gongsun glared at Bai Jintang who was standing by the door and threatened, "Come near me one more time and I'll drown you in Formalin!!"

After calming down the rampaging Gongsun, they sent him to his room to rest. Then, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao pulled Bai Jintang to the side and told him about the situation at the research centre.

"..." 

Bai Jintang remained silent during the entire account, only frowning a little when he heard Zhao Jue putting psychological suggestions on the people. 

"So... what are you guys planning to do?" Bai Jintang asked as he looked at Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao who were standing before him, "What do you need from me?"

"Kitty wants to hypnotise you."

"Hypnotise me?" Bai Jintang was surprised by their suggestion, "To get me to remember the memories I had lost?"

"Un!" Zhan Zhao nodded, "You not willing to, Da Ge?"

Bai Jintang simple smiled and shrugged it off, "I don't really care, but it'll probably be difficult."

"Difficult?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, "What do you mean?"

Bai Jintang pointed to his head and replied, "This is not an internal injury but rather a physical one."

"What does that mean?" Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao puzzledly. 

Zhan Zhao was stunned, "Da Ge, you mean to say that the loss of your memories was not due to mental trauma but physical trauma?"

Bai Jintang nodded, "I've seen my fair share of doctors. They said that I had injured the part of my brain which governs memories. After I got injured, I couldn't even remember how to speak, like a newborn baby."

"Cat, will it still work?" Bai Yutang looked up at Zhan Zhao and asked. 

Zhan Zhao knitted his brows together and considered it for a bit, "The human memory can actually be divided into declarative memory and procedural memory2... I still want to give it a try."

Bai Jintang nodded his head, "Sure, no problem."

Since they needed a quiet space, Zhan Zhao borrowed Gongsun's study for the hypnosis. Just before they entered the room, Bai Jintang suddenly said, "Xiao Zhao, you better not do anything strange to me after you've hypnotised me just because I can't fight back~~"

Which resulted in Bai Yutang angrily kicking him into the room.
Zhan Zhao followed him in and shut the door behind him.

Bai Yutang stood outside the door for a while before moving away.

He saw the twins seated by the doorway playing chinese checkers without a care for their image. It seemed really intense but they weren't making a single sound which made it appear rather comical. 

When Bai Yutang walked out the door, the twins lifted their head to look at him.

“I'm going, there's something I need to do," Bai Yutang informed the twins, "Da Ge and Kitty are in the middle of something important. They can't be disturbed. Gongsun also needs a lot of rest."

The twins beamed at him and patted the 2 black suitcases lying beside them, "Unless they're some armoured force, no one will be able to get through us!!"

Bai Yutang chuckled in understanding and headed for the elevator. 

"Xiao Bai!" the twins called out to him from behind. 

When Bai Yutang turned around, Ding Zhaohui threw something at him, "For emergencies!!"

Seeing the thing in his hand, the former smiled and pocketed it. Bai Yutang waved to the twins and boarded the lift. 


Bai Yutang drove down to the psychology clinic where Professor Xu was murdered. The place was still cordoned off with yellow police tape. 

When he got up to the 2nd floor, Bai Yutang carefully observed every single one of the furnishings in the clinic. Once he was done, the frown on his face only deepened as he left that small buidling. 

He walked back to the street lined with bars and surveyed the surrounding area. He spotted a building that was opposite to the building that housed the clinic and headed towards it. 

It was an old three-storey building. The door was tightly shut with a sign on it that read: "Opening hours9 PM to 5 AM". Judging from its appearance, this should be a low-class bar. 

Bai Yutang looked up and saw that a small window on the 3rd floor was open. So he raised his hand and pounded on the door. At first, there didn't seem to be any reactions coming from inside. But as he continued pounding, he heard the voice of a woman yelling annoyedly, "Who is it? We're not opened during the day!"

Bai Yutang didn't care and continued knocking. 

After a while, the tapping of slippers could be heard, along with a woman's irritated shouting, "Who the hell is it? So annoying!"

The door opened with a creak and a sloppily dressed young woman with messy hair appeared.

The woman was momentarily stunned when she saw Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang flashed his ID at her and said, "Police."

"Oh?" The woman smiled, "You're one of the best-looking policemen among all that I've met."

Bai Yutang returned a small smile, "I have some questions for you."

The woman shrugged, "Your colleagues have already questioned me."

"Then I'll ask questions that they haven't asked."

The woman opened the door fully and invited, "Come in for a drink?"

Bai Yutang nodded his head and followed her in. 


Back in Gongsun's apartment, Zhan Zhao got Bai Jintang to lie down the armchair and relax as much as possible. Although he had been mentally prepared, the difficulty to control Bai Jintang was beyond his expectations. 

The thing was, hypnosis was in itself a highly challenging psychology procedure. The first condition for a successful hypnosis required the person being hypnotised to have full trust in the person performing the hypnosis. However, Bai Jintang was a highly intelligent and strong-willed person with a similarly strong desire for control. It's very hard for someone like that to completely let down their guard and believe in another. 

"Da Ge, please relax!"

"Ah..." this was one of the rare times when Bai Jintang seemed at a loss.

"Let's begin," Zhan Zhao took a deep breath, in hopes of influencing Bai Jintang with his own calmness, "Da Ge. please clear your mind of any thought now."

Bai Jintang did his best to cooperate. 

"Next, I'll be counting from 1 to 10. When I reach the number 10, I will snap my fingers and that will be your cue to start recalling. You don't need to try and remember anything specific, just think about your memories in general. Once an image flashes in your mind, I want you to grab on to it tight and tell me what you see, alright?" 

After Bai Jintang agrees, Zhan Zhao glanced at his watch and started counting, "1, 2,..."

When he count to 10, Zhan Zhao gently snapped his fingers. Under Bai Jintang's closed lids, his eyeballs slowly moved about. Seeing that, Zhan Zhao knew he had started recalling.

"The image has appeared, hasn't it?" Zhan Zhao asked slowly. 

"Un..." Bai Jintang nodded.

"What do you see?"
"I see... young Yutang and Xiao Zhao from next door."

Zhan Zhao immediately understood that this was Bai Jintang's first memory post-trauma. The memory of Bai Yutang and himself when they were younger... This might work!

"Now, can you feel yourself by Yutang and Xiao Zhan's side?"

Bai Jintang's eyelashes trembled slightly, he was trying his best to feel it.

"Yes..." Bai Jintang replied hesitantly,

Zhan Zhao could feel his unease. He knew that Bai Jintang's strong desire for control was fighting to keep him awake. This was a crucial moment...

"Ge..." Zhan Zhao softened the tone of his voice, mimicking the way Bai Yutang used to call Bai Jintang when he was a child. 

Bai Jintang's body jerked slightly and his eyelashes stopped quivering. Zhan Zhao seized the moment and asked, "What did you just do? What did you say?"

Upon hearing the latter's questions, Bai Jintang made a gesture almost instinctively...

Zhan Zhao stared at him blankly...

Bai Jintang brought his index finger to his lips and lightly whispered, "Shh~~"
(lilies: yAsssss the flipping iconic actions is here)


On Bai Yutang's side, he bid the the bar girl known as Annie goodbye and drove down to the Psychology Department of C University. With the help of the teachers in the school, he found the Masters students that were under Professor Xu when he was alive. 

"Oh? You're that handsome boyfriend of Dr. Zhan's!" one of the girls who recognised Bai Yutang exclaimed excitedly. 

To which Bai Yutang replied with a smile, "Your memory is pretty good. Could you guys tell me more about Professor Xu?"

"Professor Xu?" the students exchanged blank looks, "What about him?"

"Anything. Like his personality, character, temperament or habits, etc. Ah right, doesn't he have heart diseases?"

"Yep! And it's quite serious!"

Several students started chiming in.

"Professor Xu is very rigid and he rarely even smiles!"
"Yeah yeah! He dislikes Dr. Zhan the most!"
"Please, he doesn't like all the young Drs!"
"He's also very strict! And he has OCD!!"
"I know right! The other time, I just forgot to close the quotation mark and he reprimanded me for it!"
"..."

The students said a lot as they chattered one after another. 

Bai Yutang's brows that were originally tightly creased gradually relaxed and a smile formed on his face. 

He ran out of the school to his car and hurried back to Gongsun's apartment at godspeed. He was so excited, he almost pulled the entire steering wheel off the car, "Cat, we've been played!"


Bai Jintang looked unsurely at Zhan Zhao who looked absolutely flabbergasted and asked, "Xiao Zhao, are you okay?"

Out of the blue, Zhan Zhao shot to his feet and starts pacing around, "How could this be... how could... No, calm down... there should be some links..."

Bai Jintang didn't dare make a sound as he watched Zhan Zhao, who was turning round and round on the same spot. 

"Bastard!" Zhan Zhao who rarely swore did just that, "We've been played!"

He turned to leave. At that exact moment, the elevator doors opened and Bai Yutang charged back into the apartment hastily. 

"Cat!"
"Xiao Bai!"

They cried out in unison the moment they saw each other. 

"I got it!"

They gave each other a surprised look. 

"You too...?"

And both of them nodded their head.

Didididi... 

Zhan Zhao's phone suddenly rang——it was from an unknown number.

He answered the phone, "Hello... I am... What are you trying... Alright!"

When he hung up, Zhan Zhao flashed a smile at Bai Yutang, "Guess who called?"

Bai Yutang rubbed his chin before stating, "Zhang Boyi!"

"Clever!" Zhan Zhao reached out and messed up Bai Yutang's hair, "The fox has finally given himself away3!"


Bai Yutang scoffed while taking out his phone, "After playing for so long, if I don't show him what we're capable of, I'd be a disgrace to the Bai family!"

He dialled a number on the phone, "Hey! Wang Chao! Bring the team over! Get ready to reel in the net4 on this case!" 

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1. In case you forgot, it's the twins
2. Lol the raws are: '脑部记忆和身体记忆' and nothing really comes out when I plop it into google. I had to search up types of memory instead. Hopefully, the terms I used are what he's referring to
via human-memory.net
3. Written as '狐狸露出尾巴了' which basically means that the person gave themselves away
4. The phrase is '收网' which in this case means they can close the case. But I felt trying to directly translate it out would be cuter(????) ahhahha

Please feedback to me in the comments below if you find any typos or terrible grammar, etc that you think I should change. Or maybe you think my interpretation is completely off lol Help me help you have a better reading experience ahahah what a tongue twister XD
Thank yous!! (˶‾᷄ ⁻̫ ‾᷅˵)

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peace lilies~

lilies

I'm a mega weeb who just wants to share some online novels I've read and maybe translate some of them to english along the way. I do not guarantee the accuracy of my translations.

5 Comments

  1. This is the first time I'm reading this novel... and this chapter was amazing. 🤫 I almost screamed... wait, I actually did. OMG, this novel has been so great so far. After reading Seizing Dreams, The Earth is Online and Mo Dao Zu Shi... I thought I wouldn't find another excellent BL novel. But this... this might just be one of those and I'm so so so happy. I'm so happy I found this novel and ur translations!

    So THANK YOU so much!!! Your translations are perfect. Thank you for all the hard work and effort. I'm sorry I'm onky commenting now but I'm not really happy I have to use google 😔.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mhm sozz for the inconvenience :< I set it such that readers had to use to their google accounts to comment in order to reduce the likelihood of receiving spam. Thanks for still deciding to comment^^

      Delete
  2. Another amazing chapter! 😍 So descriptive, Bai Jintang's hypnosis gave me chills! I think "get ready to reel in the net on this case" was perfect, totally like one of those zingy one liners in TV. 😆 Thanks again lilies!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Poor GS is er... totally overwhelmed, leaving soapsuds on the floor, sofa and then bed!

    Thank you for your wonderful work <3

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