S.C.I. Mystery Files Case 2 Chapter 29



Killer Training Camp - Chapter 29 Banquet

Thank you to K.D.A for the coffeessssssss


A heavy thunder-clap broke the deep sleep
within my head, so that I roused myself,
as would a person who is waked by force;
and standing up erect, my rested eyes
I moved around, and with a steady gaze
I looked about to know where I might be.

Truth is I found myself upon the verge

of pain’s abysmal valley, which collects
the thunder-roll of everlasting woes.
So dark it was, so deep and full of mist,
that, howsoe’er I gazed into its depths,
nothing at all did I discern therein.

————————
《Divine Comedy》The First Circle. The Borderland1


Suddenly, a figure jolted awake to cries and shrieks of terror. When they opened their eyes, all they could see was darkness and that horrifying sound was gone. 
(lilies: there isn't even a subject mentioned in this part like not even, 'a person', or whatever, so I just used 'they')

They heaved a deep sigh and got out of bed but was hit by a sudden wave of dizziness. 
They staggered over to the floor-to-ceiling window and reached out to open the thick curtains... Blinding sunlight shone into the room. 

They proceeded to open the windows, to let the cool, fresh air blow away the thick stench of mould in the house. 

While massaging their aching head, they turned around to see a white wall littered with spots of dried blood. Under the sunlight, it looked like blooming flowers... As expected, no matter how unpleasant or repulsive something was, under the beautiful glow of the sunlight, anything could appear divine2 


They took out a bottle of hard liquor and sat by the window, staring blankly into the sunlight, watching as the sun gradually move westwards. Til the bright white light slowly became a blend of rich hues of red and orange, darkening bit by bit as the sun dipped...
(lilies: sunsets are kinda fun to write)

Turning back inside, the blood splatter "wall art" seemed to have regained its dynamism under the remnant blood-red rays of sunlight peeking through the horizon. Like fresh blood oozing out from an open wound... Oh, what a sight to behold3.

As the sunlight disappeared into the night, so did the liquor. 

Di~~~~

An email flashed on the computer screen. 

They got up mechanically and walked to the computer. Placing a trembling hand on the mouse, they clicked open the email to reveal a single line:

The time has come, wake up the demon! From here on out, you are no longer yourself!


Zhan Zhao rushed out of an auditorium in S City while muttering to himself, "Crap crap crap! I'm going to be late!"

He had just finished listening to an important lecture by world-renown psychologist, Dr. Wilson-Brown, on the topic of "Personality Disorders". 

As expected of Dr. Wilson, who was the leading expert in this area. His entire speech was absolutely splendid. Zhan Zhao listened to the lecture so attentively that he almost forgot the major event taking place tonight. He was going to attend a banquet celebrating the opening of the Bai Corporation, headed by Bai Jintang.

The banquet was supposed to be at 7 PM and it was already 6.30 PM. He hasn't even changed his clothes, "Shit... Bai Da Ge's definitely going to kill me!!"

"Dr. Zhan!"

Someone called out to Zhan Zhao at this untimely moment when he was already dying from anxiousness. He looked up to see a besuited young man cutting through the crowd to get to him. That young man had rather unfriendly facial features. He had an aquiline nose, thin brows and narrow eyes, coupled with a sharp chin and fair skin. There was some sense of harshness hidden under his shrewd appearance. 
——Zhan Zhao had no idea who that was. 

Zhan Zhao was kind of in a daze while that man smiled at him, "Oh, it really is you, Dr. Zhan! I've heard so much about you!"

Then, he politely offered a handshake, "My name is Pang Yu."

"Oh~, hello," Zhan Zhao replied as he shook the man's hand while trying to recall where on earth had he heard that name. Ah, but he definitely didn't know this person, so... Ignore!!

Zhan Zhao wanted to quickly take his leave but that Pang Yu stopped him and continued speaking, "I've listened to your last lecture on 'The Causes of Dissociative Identity Disorder" and it was simply remarkable."

"No no, you flatter me..." Zhan Zhao replied politely, but he was crying internally, "I'm dead meat! Why do I have to be caught in this sticky situation4..."

When he tried the leave again, that Pang Yu added, "Were you also here to listen to Dr. Wilson's lecture?"

Zhan Zhao rebuked him inside his mind, "Well, duh. Why else would I be here?? This person is wasting my time!!"

Just as he was about to say tell that man he was in a hurry, someone honked at him from behind. Turning around...

He was greeted with a gorgeous silver sportscar stopped by the side of the road. Bai Yutang peeked his head out from the car and called out to him, "Kitty!!"

"Sorry, I'm in a hurry, let's talk another time," and with that, Zhan Zhao hurriedly got rid of that pestering Pang yu and rushed towards the car.

"And just what time do you think it is? Da Ge's going to flip out again!!" Bai Yutang opened the door for Zhan Zhao and passed the latter an indigo suit. 

"I lost track of time. Why are you late as well?" Zhan Zhao closed the door and took off his jacket to put on the suit. 

"It's 'cause I saw your clothes in the office and knew that you definitely forgot," Bai Yutang reached out to tug at his collar while grumbling, "These clothes really aren't made for human wear!"

Zhan Zhao peeked at him from his peripheral vision. Bai Yutang was dressed in a pure white suit paired with a silver tie. He looked like the perfect example of a rich young master. He couldn't be more princely5... This Mouse! His personality and his looks don't match at all!!

The two blazed their way through the roads and managed to arrive at the most expensive 5-Star hotel in S City before 7PM. 

The entrance was parked full of high-end cars and the red carpet went on for miles. Both sides of the red carpet were lined with hoards of reporters, so many that one might mistake it for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

The two of them alighted from the car and tried to find a relatively more secluded entrance to avoid drawing attention onto themselves. 

"How did it turn out like that?" Zhan Zhao remarked with a wrinkle of his nose, "It's so gaudy. Just what industry is your brother's company working in??"

"I think it's the hotel industry," Bai Yutang scratched his head and looked around, "Where do we enter??"

"AaaaAAAaaaah!!" 

All of a sudden, there was a commotion coming from the crowd not to far away from them. The screams from the girls pierced through the sky.

Bai Yutang instinctively reached for his gun. But when he turned around, all he saw was a blonde-haired foreigner in a black suit walking down the "Walk of Fame".

"Who is that?" Bai Yutang whispered to Zhan Zhao who was beside him.

"Erhm..." Zhan Zhao shooked his head while watching those squealing female creatures a little worriedly. 
(lilies: lollol those girls are a mega mood whenever I read BL)

"He's Jon King, a popular Hollywood star," two people suddenly answered them from behind with the exact same voice at the exact same time. 

"Da Ding? Xiao Ding?" Bai Yutang whipped his head round to see the twins standing behind them, staring at them with a look of disdain. 

"We knew the two of you would definitely be late!!" the twins shrugged, "Let's go, Boss told us to pick you up and enter from the back entrance!"

...

As they followed behind the twins, Bai Yutang expressed his queries, "Isn't my brother in the hotel business? What's the point of bringing in all these celebrities?"

Da Ding and Xiao Ding turned around and sighed exasperatedly, utterly disappointed by Bai Yutang's cluelessness, "Sigh~~ The main businesses under the Bai Corporation include, hotels, F&B and entertainment management. There are people here today that are signed with the film company. That Jon King is one of our signed actors."

"Ohhhhhh," Bai Yutang nodded in understanding.

And in returned he received a combo of the twins rolling their eyes at him, "Aren't you the Boss' biological brother? Shouldn't you at least know something about what he does??"

"Oh, so Da Ge isn't part of those criminal organisations?" Zhan Zhao leaned in and whispered to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang hurriedly reached over to cover his mouth, "Stupid Cat! Are you trying to get me killed?!" Then his eyes nervously darted around to make sure the coast was clear. 

"Is that actor very famous?" Zhan Zhao asked the twins curiously, "Why hasn't he heard of him before??"

The twins pressed the button for the top floor and gave the two of them a dirty look, "Do neither of you ever watch television or flip through magazines normally?"

After thinking about it for a bit, both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang could only look up to the sky...

The elevator doors opened on the top floor to reveal an extremely extravagant ballroom. The hall was filled with well-dressed, well-known names, though Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang hadn't a single clue who any of them were. But they could still deduce that those people were probably famous... After all, their whole body was all bling bling. 

When the four of them walked out the lift, they attracted a lot of attention. Especially given the similarity in the looks of Bai Yutang and Bai Jintang. There was a small commotion to say the least. 

Bai Yutang was getting a little uncomfortable from all the watchful stares and turned to ask the twins, "Where's my brother? The Cat and I will just go say hello and head back."

Zhan Zhao knew that Bai Yutang didn't have any patience for all these tiresome socialising and nodded his head vigorously in agreement. He still had a book to finish tonight. He's a busy man!

"You dare?!" they heard someone ask in a threatening tone from behind. Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao instinctively shrunk away. Turning around, they saw that Bai Jintang had somehow appeared right behind them. 

Tonight, Bai Jintang was dressed in a gorgeous black suit. Gosh, it virtually screamed, "Elite!!" Do you see that air of nobility oozing out from him? Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang sighed internally, "Do you see that? This is the crème de la crème of all prospective bachelors! You won't be able to find anyone better than him6!"

However, there was a beauty with a bomb-ass body following this bachelor around with a glass of champagne in hand, curiously checking out Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao. 

"The two of you better stay put until the end of the banquet!" Bai Jintang warned while glaring at them. 

Neither Bai Yutang nor Zhan Zhao had the guts to go against Bai Jintang and they nodded their head obediently.

"Which one is your younger brother?" The beauty suddenly asked. 

"Both of them are," Bai Jintang answered her rather brusquely before turning to the greet several guests that approached him. However, his eyes couldn't help but kept glancing at a certain corner of the hall. 

Zhan Zhao blinked at Bai Yutang which meant, "What's wrong with your brother? Is he in a bad mood?"

Bai Yutang shook his head to indicate that he didn't know either and looked at the twins for the answer.

Ding Zhaohui and Ding Zhaolan tried to gesture with their face for Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang to look in the direction Bai Jintang was looking in. 

Following that line of sight, they saw Gongsun sitting elegantly on the sofa with a glass of champagne in hand while chatting with a dignified-looking lady. His normally downcast face was covered in a warm smile instead.

"Why is Gongsun here?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao in surprise.

Zhan Zhao shook his head with a frown as he replied, "I clearly remember seeing him rip the invitation to shreds and flushing it down the toilet bowl."

Bai Yutang nodded, "Yeah, he even said that he'd rather die than attend a banquet organised by an upstart..."

Da Ding and Xiao Ding gasped when Bai Jintang, who had his back to them, turned around with dark expression of his face, "He really said that?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang immediately shut the hell up. 

"Aiya, Kitty, don't you wanna get a drink?"
"Sure... I was just feeling a little thirsty..."

...The two of them desperately tried to change the subject. 

Bai Jintang's face turned pale from rage as he walked to the crowd at the centre of the hall.

Ding Zhaolan said in a hushed voice, "Gongsun was sold out by Commissioner Bao."

"What does that mean?" Zhan and Bai asked, confused. 

"Because Boss gave the police station a complete set of the most advanced forensic equipment along with a smart temperature control system. All under the condition that Gongsun has to attend the banquet tonight."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged looks before commenting, "Despicable! How despicable!!"

"However!" Ding Zhaohui said all mysteriously, "The moment Gongsun arrived, he's been having a good time chatting with that lady."

"And!" Zhanlan added on, "They appear to be acquaintances who haven't met in a long while!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged looks again before shaking their head and concluding, "His brilliant plan ended up backfiring on him7!"

...

"She's called Fang Jing," the beautiful lady standing beside them suddenly spoke, "She's my manager. Apparently, she was classmates with that Gongsun guy back when they were in school."

"Ohhhh" as Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang sent Bai Jintang a sympathetic gaze as he glanced in that direction again...

"This is the 23rd time he's look over at them," after saying that, the lady then sauntered away with her glass of wine. 

Da Ding and Xiao Ding huddled in and said, "That was Chen Jiayi. She's also an actress signed with us. She's really pretty, isn't she?!"

By this time, most of the guests had already arrived. Zhan Zhao was shocked to find out that Dr. Wilson who gave the lecture in the auditorium earlier that day was also in the mix. He was engaged in a conversation with the celebrity known as Jon who was walking on the "Walk of Fame" just now.

Dr Wilson had also noticed Zhan Zhao and immediately nodded at him enthusiastically. 

Out of respect for an elder as well as a leading expert in the field, Zhan Zhao took the initiative to offer a handshake and greet him. Bai Yutang didn't really know what was going on but followed along. 

"Ah! Zhan! It's great to see you!" Dr. Wilson exclaimed. Although he was nearing his sixties, the man still retained that spirit and enthusiasm of Americans. It was clear to see that he thought highly of Zhan Zhao from the way he shook the latter's hand with much vigour and the face full of smiles. 

Zhan Zhao was just about to speak when he saw a red dot appear on Dr. WIlson's forehead out of nowhere...

...!...

"Watch out!" 

Bai Yutang shoved him aside virtually in the same moment he noticed the red dot. At the same time, a bloody hole appeared on the shoulder of the person standing behind Wilson, and blood came pouring out. That person cried out in pain and fell to the ground while clutching his shoulder.

"AaaAaaaAAaaah!" 

The ballroom immediately became a scene of chaos. The female guests all screamed at the top of their lungs as everyone pushed and shove in their panic to escape.

Then, Bai Yutang saw that dastardly red dot crawl its way up to the forehead of Jon who stood frozen in his spot, but he was too far from that man...

"Get down!" just then, Zhaohui charged in from the side and knocked Jon over. 

Bang!

Came another gunshot and a black hole appeared in the carpet, a tiny plume of smoke rose from it. 

"Hide against the wall!" Bai Yutang bellowed out the order and pulled out his gun.

In the darkness of the night just beyond the balcony, he could clearly see a red dot, flickering from the roof of the opposite building. Based on his estimations, the distance should be more than 50 m.

He aimed his gun at the red dot followed by tilting the nuzzle 45 degrees upwards.

Bang!

He took his shot. The bullet broke through the glass with a clean sound and roughly a few seconds later, a black sniper rifle fell from the opposite building. It bounced up upon hitting the ground, breaking into a million pieces. 

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1. This excerpt was taken from here
2. Written as '都会长出圣洁的翅膀' which directly translates to 'it will grow a pair of holy wings' loilol
3. Written as '奔腾如涌,娇艳欲滴' I'm so confuzzled, it's like tryna say the beauty (etc.) is rushing out?? 
4. Written as '遇见块牛皮糖' The vibe is kinda like getting gum stuck in your hair. You'll have a hard time trying to remove it 
5. Written as '白马得都不能再白马' Okay, I think this is an internet language. So like '白马王子' means prince charming and the phrase is kinda saying like you already cannot be any more prince charming than prince charming himself?? If anyone knows the real meaning please enlighten me ahahah
6. Written as '这才是真正的钻石王老五啊!简直钻石得不能再钻石了' I basically wrote the meaning, but kind of direct translation, 'This is the 5th son of the true diamond king! The rarest and most precious of all!'
7. Written as '偷鸡不成蚀把米' meaning that you tried to gain an advantage only to end up worse off 

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.

2 Comments

  1. Soo excited to be starting the second book! 😍 Thank you lilies!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The last scene of the chapter is whooaaaaa aweesomeeee !!!

    ReplyDelete
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