S.C.I. Mystery Files Case 2 Chapter 34



Killer Training Camp - Chapter 34 Probability

I will be taking a break from posting on my blog for some time, due to some things that happened on another book that I was doing. Hopefully, I'll be back soon. I'm sorries


Mama Bai and Mama Zhan's cooking were absolutely out of this world! For Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao who had been so busy these days that they could only live off fast food, they were so happy their tails were all perked up. Ah, so delicious~~

During the meal, Bai Yutang would fill Zhan Zhao's plate with dishes as he ate while Zhan Zhao would throw the stuff he did not like into Bai Yutang's bowl.

"No shiitake!"
"Picky Cat!"
"I don't want carrots either!"
"Vitamins!"
"Then you eat it!"
"I hate carrots the most!"
"Oh, so you're allowed to be picky but I'm not?"

And just like that, the two of them bickered while they ate. The adults of the two families were obviously used to it as they paid those two no heed and chatted amongst themselves while they ate. 
Bai Chí stared blankly at the two people considered to be idols within the elites of the police force. To think that they would even fight over food on the dinner table. It gave Bai Chí such a shock that he couldn't even eat. 

Once they were done with their meal, everyone sat around to chat. 

Bai Yutang got restless after five minutes and found an opportunity to slip into the room. After a while, he reemerged with a basketball and said, "Cat! Let's go!"

Zhan Zhao also felt beyond stuffed as he had eaten too much so he asked Bai Chí who was sitting on the sofa with a stiff expression on his, "Do you want to come along?"

Bai Chí was slightly startled at first, but then he felt pleasantly surprised and followed Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang out the door. 
Bai Yutang bounced the ball as he moved forward while Zhan Zhao stretched his back as he followed behind and Bai Chí carefully followed behind the two of them.

There was a public basketball court in the neighbourhood. There was no one there at night but the overhanging spotlights were still brightly lit, illuminating the entire court. 

Bai Yutang walked into the basketball court that was surrounded by wire fencing and started shooting hoops by himself. 
Zhan Zhao walked to the concrete steps that were used as bleachers and took a seat. As he watched Bai Yutang shoot hoops, he subconsciously started thinking back to his university days. 

"A-Aren't you going to play?" Bai Chí sat down beside Zhan Zhao and asked in a small voice.

Zhan Zhao chuckled, "Partaking in vigorous exercise within half an hour of a meal can lead to appendicitis!"

"T-Then, Bai..."

Zhan Zhao turned his gaze to Bai Chí and remarked amusedly, "That Mouse's appendix has been removed long ago! And it was precisely because he played ball after dinner."

"Oh~~" Bai Chí nodded in understanding.

"You seem very scared of him." Zhan Zhao commented. 

"..." Bai Chí's face turned bright red. "H-He took by bullets that day."

"Hmm?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled by his reply.

"T-That time I forgot to open the safety," Bai Chí added a little hesitantly, "I-Isn't he saying that I'm not qualified to use a... gun?"

Zhan Zhao smiled at him for a bit before saying, "Does your family often mention that you have such a cousin?"

"Un." Bai Chí nodded. "They often tell me to... learn from him."

"Then, when you first met him that day, did you feel like you were too far removed from him?" Zhan Zhao asked with great interest, "Did you feel that it was impossible for you to become like him?"

"Un!!" Bai Chí nodded earnestly. "I-I had just barely managed to graduate from the police academy... There's no way I can..."

Zhan Zhao waved it off. "Don't think too hard about it! Just because you can't fight or shoot a gun, doesn't mean you can't be a cop!"

"..." Bai Chí looked up at Zhan Zhao in surprise. "There are cops... like that?"

Zhan Zhao cheerfully pointed at himself and said, "Why not? There's one right here!"

"Y-You?" Bai Chí's jaw dropped. "How's that possible?"

"I've never fired a single shot save for the exams," Zhan Zhao said while pointing a finger to the moon in the sky, "I have astigmatism as well. Right now, it looks like there are four moons shining in the sky!" 
(lilies: don't do that, didn't your parents tell you someone will come to chop off your ears at night if you do that XD)

Zhan Zhao's words finally drew a chuckle out of Bai Chí. The latter started to  feel more relaxed around him and said, "But you're still so famous and they all say you're a genius."

"Actually, when Xiao Bai unloaded your gun that day, he wasn't trying to say that you're undeserving of using it."

"T-Then, that's the reason for it?" Clearly, Bai Chí had been plagued by this question for a long time. 

"He's simply an amoeba!" Zhan Zhao whispered, "You can't think of him as too complicated!" 

In the distance, Bai Yutang sneezed really loudly.

"A-Amoeba??" Bai Chí's eye widened. 

"It's that basic single-celled organism!! If he thought that you were not qualified to use a gun, he would've told you flat out."
"So... why?"

Zhan Zhao replied with a smile, "He just felt that you weren't in a state fit to hold a gun."

"I-Is that so?"

"Hey~~~~" Bai Yutang called while bouncing the ball, "Isn't it about time? The two of you should come to exercise too! Stupid Cat, always lazing around after meals. You better beware of your stomach growing bigger by the day!"

To which Zhan Zhao responded with a roll of his eyes.

"He's so fit! He threw 60 shots in such a short amount of time and he isn't even out of breath!" Bai Chí looked at Bai Yutang in amazement. "I wouldn't be able to even get 10 shots through the hoops!"

"What did you just say?" Zhan Zhao turned to him in surprise. 

"??" Bai Chí was puzzled. 

"Xiao Bai!" Zhan Zhao shouted at Bai Yutang, "How many shots have you made when you called us just now?"

"Huh?" Bai Yutang put away the ball and patted on it as he made his way over to them. "Probably around 60?"

Zhan Zhao turned around to face Bai Chí, looked all nervous, and asked, "You were keeping count while we were chatting just now?"

"N-No... T-There's a rhythm to it and I did some division based on the total time..." Bai Chí stuttered an explanation. 

Zhan Zhao thought about it for a while before looking down for a small stone and began drawing circles and crosses on the concrete steps.

By then, Bai Yutang had already come up behind him and questioned, "What are you doing?"

Looking at the mess of circles and crosses, Zhan Zhao threw the stone at Bai Chí a little excitedly and said, "Follow the pattern and draw the next five symbols!"

Bai Chí was bewildered by the sudden request, but he still obediently did as he was told and lowered his head to look at the symbols. Taking barely a split second's time to think, Bai Chí proceeded to draw a few circles and cross after the row of symbols. 

Seeing that, Zhan Zhao gasped.

"What are you up to, Cat?" Bai Yutang leaned in curiously to check out the symbols on the ground.

"Edward's Intelligence Test1!" Zhan Zhao exclaimed in excitement, "Do you know that your cousin's IQ is above 170!!"

"What does 170 imply?" Bai Yutang had no idea what Zhan Zhao was saying. 

"80 is average, 100 is smart, Madame Curie's IQ was 150 while Einstein's was 160!!" Zhan Zhao answered, "If he had studied physics, he might have become even more accomplished than Hawkings!!"

Bai Yutang blinked blankly before patting Bai Chí on the shoulder, "Good lad! You're so promising. Are you sure you weren't picked up2?"

Zhan Zhao kicked him hard the moment those words left his mouth. "What are you saying!!" 

"Damn Cat!" Bai Yutang patted on the ball and walked to the centre of the court. "Come out, let's have a duel if you're done resting! I'm going to wipe the floor3 with you!!"

Zhan Zhao took off his jacket and threw it onto the stands. Just as he was about to call Bai Chí to join him, he was greeted with the sight of the latter standing rooted to the ground, in a daze, face flushed red. "I-I'm really not... a disgrace to the Bai family?"

Zhan Zhao laughed, "You don't have to use a gun to be a good policeman!" And added while nodding his head, "You have the best weapon bestowed by the heavens!!" Then, he rolled up his sleeves and ran up to snatch the ball from Bai Yutang. "White Mouse! Your days of arrogance are over!"

"Cat! That's a foul!"
"Who says so?!"
"You running with the ball is not a foul?!"
"Hmph!"
"Hey! Do you think this is soccer??"
"And shoot!"
"You damn Cat! Do you even know the rules??"
"I am the rules!"

...

The three of them fooled around until it was 9 PM. Actually, it was Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, who were supposed to be the older brothers, messing around and Bai Chí, who was the younger brother, picking up the ball after them.

Dididdi~~~

Bai Yutang's cellphone rang all of a sudden.

"Hello?" He picked up the call. "What?! ...We'll be right there!"

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked, seeing the grim expression on Bai Yutang's face. 

"Something happened to Qi Le."

"What?" Zhan Zhao jumped at his answer. "How is she?"

Bai Yutang shook his head while saying, "Don't worry. Luckily, I had Zhao Hu follow her today. She was attacked with a knife when she was purchasing drugs at 'Nishang Street'. Zhao Hu saved her but the assailant got away."

"She was slashed" Zhan Zhao had confusion written all over his face.

Bai Yutang put the ball away and threw the jacket at Zhan Zhao while saying, "Qi Le was injured but refuses to go to the hospital so Zhao Hu brought her back to S.C.I. for Gongsun to perform some simple first aid for her."

"Then we better hurry over!" Zhanzhao put on his jacket and followed Bai Yutang to leave.

"Here!" Bai Yutang tossed the ball at Bai Chí. "You head back first. We have some matters to deal with so we'll be taking our leave first."

"Ah~~~" Bai Chí hurriedly ran up to them with the ball in his arms, plucked up his courage and called out loudly, "I-I want to come along!"

As soon as those words left his lips, even Bai Chí himself was taken aback. That was the first time he had spoken this loudly in his entire life. He lowered his head, his face bright as an apple. 

Bai Yutang was stunned for a moment before turning to Zhan Zhao to give him a big thumbs up which meant: Impressive, Kitty, you cured his Autism in half an hour!

To which Zhan Zhao responded with a 'V' sign: Of course! I am an expert after all.

"Let's go," Bai Yutang said to Bai Chí succinctly in two words and quickly ran to the car parked below the apartment with Zhan Zhao. 

It took a while before Bai Chí finally reacted and realised that Bai Yutang had allowed him to follow along. He hastily moved his legs to catch up to them. 


At the S.C.I. office in the police station. 

Qi Le sat on a chair all wrapped up in a blanket Zhao Hu gave her, trembling slightly. Blood was still oozing from the knife wound on her left upper arm. 

Gongsun walked in with a medical box and handed Qi Le a cup of hot tea as he said, "Don't be afraid, I'll help you tend to your wound."

Qi Le shuddered and looked at Gongsun with some fear in her eyes before nodding her head. 
Gongsun gently checked her arm and saw that the cut wasn't too serious but it still needed stitches. He took out the alcohol, cotton gauze, etc, and began to treat her wound. 

Qi Le appeared like she couldn't feel any pain. Gongsun frowned at that. Something was off. 
Zhao Hu stood by the side with a terrible expression on his face. When he saw Gongsun looking up at him, he retrieved a bag of powder from his pocket to show the latter. 

Gongsun gasped and thought to himself internally, she's still so young yet she's already taking drugs? And the way she looked right now...

Just as he thought about it, he saw Qi Le's body spasm violently as her face gradually distorted. 

"Crap!" Gongsun exclaimed, "She's having withdrawals!"

"Ah~~~~" Qi Le suddenly sprung up. Gongsun tried to grab her but in this moment, she was so strong it was virtually monstrous and she violently shoved him away.
As Gongsun stumbled backwards, he felt a familiar pair of hands catch him from behind. 

"Bai..." When Gongsun turned around, he saw that Bai Jintang had somehow appeared behind him. 

"I saw that you still hadn't returned even though it was getting late so I came to have a look." Bai Jintang helped Gongsun steady his footing as he looked at Qi Le, who was desperately struggling against Zhao Hu, who was trying to pin her to the chair, with a complicated expression. 

The Ding twins who came with Bai Jintang had already rushed forward, one took out the blanket to wrap Qi Le on the chair while the other found a rope and tied Qi Le, who was wrapped tightly in the blanket, to the chair, while Zhao Hu pressed down on the chair with all his strength.


Qi Le struggled in pain, desperately twisting her body about as she screamed her heart out, begging for them to give her drugs...

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were greeted with this miserable scream the moment they exited the elevator. Seeing the chaos in the S.C.I. office, the wretched state that Qi Le was in, being in intense agony where it felt too painful to live but was unable to seek death either. They stood by the side with their lips pursed, feeling a tightness in their chest.
While Bai Chí stood at the door, watching the scene before him in horror, afraid to take a step forward. 

As the seconds slowly turned to minutes, Qi Le gradually quietened down and so did the entire police station. There's no one more familiar with this kind of screaming than the police. No one would be able to muster a scream so miserable unless their withdrawal was acting up. 

Feeling all his strength zapped out of him, Zhao Hu slumped onto the chair behind him, breathing heavily. Ding Zhaohui loosened the ropes on Qi Le wrapped her up in a blanket, and carried her up to a larger couch so that she could sleep more comfortably. 

The entire S.C.I. team was silent for a while before Bai Yutang asked Zhao Hu, "What exactly happened?"

Zhao Hu scratched his head and said, "When I rushed down to M University in the afternoon, I saw that lass walking out of school by herself and taking a cab to Nishang street. I found it strange and wondered just what business a female college student would have in a place like Nishang street so I followed her more closely. Then I saw her buying something from a dealer on the street. I've seen that kid before, he specialises in selling inhalants."

Zhao Hu sighed and continued, "It was at this time that I saw a black hoodie sneaking up to her with his arms behind his back and a freaking large watermelon knife in his hand. It was obvious he was going after Qi Le so I hurriedly rushed in. Unfortunately, that kid was very alert and got away in a blink of an eye. I didn't dare leave a girl by herself so I brought her back with me."

"How did he look like?"

Zhao Hu shook his head. "This guy is wearing more than just a hoodie. he had some headgear on to obscure his face as well. I heard a while ago that recently in red-light districts like the Nishang Street, unidentified people have been frequently slashing up prostitutes and female junkies. I didn't expect for Qi le to be targeted this time!"

Bai Yutang furrowed his brows together. "What a coincidence, for Qi Le to be the target this time round."

Zhan Zhao also shook his head. "It's really odd. We just went to find Qi Le earlier today and then something happened at night?"

"I-It 's unlikely to be a coincidence," Bai Chí, who had walked in at some point, whispered.

"What do you mean?" Zhan Zhao looked at him and prompted. 

Bai Chí looked at Zhan Zhao and said a little timidly after some hesitation, "Let's take a month's duration as an example. The probability of you guys going to look for someone today is 1 in 30. In a university with at least 10,000 students, you have a 1 in 10,000 probability of looking for her. The probability of her going out tonight is 1/30 and assuming there are 10 drug deals occurring at the same time as she was there, that's 1/10. The probability of the assailant coming out to carry out his attack today is 1/30. Which is to say that the probability of these two events being completely coincidental is 1 in 10 billion, infinitely close to 0. Therefore, it's not possible for these two cases to be completely unrelated..."

Bai Chí's voice gradually faltered as he spoke because he noticed that everyone present was looking at him in amazement. 

"Who is this kid?" Bai Jintang suddenly asked Bai Yutang. 

Bai Yutang answered with a smile, "A brother, he's our third uncle, Bai Feng's, son, Bai Chí."

"Oh~~" Bai Jintang rubbed his chin in interest and said, "Are you sure he wasn't picked up?"

...

Zhan Zhao was at a loss for words as he glanced at these two brothers. They truly are biological siblings!

"Zhao Hu, head over to the Major Crimes team to get all the relevant materials on these attacks. We'll handle the case too."

"Yes!" And with that, Zhao Hu sprinted downstairs. 

"Hey! Little Cousin!" Bai Yutang called out to Bai Chí, who wanted to hide behind Zhan Zhao as the stares were too nerve-racking to him, "Do you want to transfer to S.C.I.?"

...?!... What... 

Bai Chí's eyes rounded in disbelief. 

Bai Yutang said, after some consideration, "We'll do a temporary transfer for this case! And if you do well, we can make an official transfer! However..." Bai Yutang added, "You can only do clerical work!"


As yonder o’er Charybdis doth the sea,
which breaks against the one it runs to meet,
so must the people dance a ring-dance here.
I here saw folk, more numerous than elsewhere,
on one side and the other, with great howls
rolling big weights around by strength of chest;
they struck against each other; then, right there
each turned, and rolling back his weight, cried out:
“Why keepest thou?” and “Wherefore throw away?”
They circled thus around the gloomy ring
on either hand unto the point opposed,
still shouting each to each their vile refrain;
then each turned back, when through his own half-ring

he had attained the other butting place.


————————《神曲》The Fourth Circle. Intemperance in Wealth4


A figure ignited the Molotov cocktail in their hand and threw it into the crowds of people, cackling as they listened to the screams. 

Waving around the long knife in their hand, admiring the reflection of blood against the polished blade... while muttering, "The only one that can save them5 is you! The only one that can save them is you! ..."

Over and over again with no end. 

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1. Written as '爱德华标准测试' I'm assuming this is just an IQ test since Einstein's IQ is 160. When you search it up, it gives the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule which is a forced choice, objective, non-projective personality inventory designed to illustrate relative importance to the individual of several significant needs and motives. 
2. Basically means adopted. Funny thing is, Asian or at least Chinese parents, for whatever reason, don't like talking about the birds and the bees, there also isn't anything romantic like a crane bringing you to them or whatever. They prefer telling you they picked you up from the rubbish bin BAHAHA or at least, that was the case for me lol ∠( ᐛ 」∠)_ maybe that's why I'm trash for so many things ahahhah
3. Written as '打得你片甲不留' meaning completely destroy you. A more literal translation would be to beat you to the point where you don't even a single fragment of armour left. 
4. This excerpt was taken from here. I'm not sure if I stopped at the correct part though lol
5. The 'them' here is written as a female pronoun. 

I just wanted to say, I'm glad I play a bit of PUBG?? AHAHAH if not I don't think I would immediately thought of Molotov cocktail lollol

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.

4 Comments

  1. I didn't realize you were taking a hiatus until this chapter! I hope you are well, thank you for all you've shared with us. 🙏🏼💕 I hope it would be okay if I reread this series and leave more comments... I'm just so in love. 😅😍 Best wishes, lilies!

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  2. Yaayyyy finally gt the next chapter.. waitin fr more chapters😁😁❤❤❤

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  3. Hey I really enjoyed reading your translations for this series so far! It was difficult to find one as enjoyable as yours, even the side comments were something I looked forward to :) The footnotes really showed the effort you put in and that’s amazing!! Thank you for this! We don’t mind waiting so rest well and take care☺️<3

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  4. Why can't i go to the next chapter even if i click on "next"?

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