S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 2: Chapter 3

The Killer Training Camp 03: Student 

After the police finished registering everyone, the people in the banquet hall left one after another.

Gongsun rubbed his temples, left the hall, and headed toward the elevators.

Seeing the elevator packed as tight as a tin of sardines, Gongsun felt a wave of nausea. He shook his head and decided to take the stairs down instead.

He pushed open the door to the stairwell, just about to head down... when suddenly, his arm was yanked hard.

Before Gongsun could even let out a gasp of surprise, he was pulled into a deserted corner corridor.

He looked up and saw Bai Jintang standing before him with a smile.

Gongsun glared at him: "What exactly do you want?!"

Bai Jintang shrugged: "Oh, you helped me a great deal earlier. I was just thinking about how to thank you."

Gongsun raised his head, stared into Bai Jintang's eyes for a moment, and said softly: "You want to thank me? That’s simple."

Bai Jintang was slightly stunned and began to lower his head for a kiss, only to see a cold flash before his eyes. Instinctively, he reached out and grabbed the wrist Gongsun had raised mid-air... revealing a gleaming scalpel.

"Hey, hey～～" Bai Jintang hurriedly took two steps back, "Why do you always pull out a blade without a word?"

"Didn't you want to thank me?" Gongsun said fiercely, "Perfect! I've been wanting to try a vivisection for a long time!"

"Heh heh～～～" Bai Jintang was not angry, but instead laughed, "Do you know, that's exactly why I like you!"

"Asshole! I'm going to slaughter you!"

"As you wish, as you wish. If you want it, my life is yours, no problem～～～"

"Who wants... take your hands off me!"

...

In the stairwell, Ding Zhaohui took out a handkerchief and handed it to Ding Zhaolan: "Here! Wipe your drool..."

Ding Zhaolan took it, wiped her drool, and handed it back: "Return to sender! Wipe your nosebleed..."

"But speaking of which, our big boss is really..."

"A hooligan～～～～～～"

"I'll see you home," Bai Jintang said, not without gentleness.

"Who wants you to see me home?!" Gongsun pushed Bai Jintang away hard, turning to leave.

"It doesn't matter, it's on the way anyway!" Bai Jintang grabbed Gongsun and dragged him in the opposite direction, "There's a private elevator over here."

Until he was dragged downstairs by Bai Jintang and shoved into a car, Gongsun was still wondering what "it's on the way" was supposed to mean.

Watching Bai Jintang insert a key into the door of the apartment next door, Gongsun’s jaw dropped in shock.

Before he could say anything, he saw the Ding family twins—who had followed them at some point—inserting keys into the door next to that one.

Furious...

"You... you all..."

Bai Jintang pushed the stunned Gongsun into the room and closed the door. He looked up to see huge floor-to-ceiling windows with tightly drawn curtains.

"It seems like you've been living at the police station for the last few days, haven't you?" He pulled Gongsun to the window and reached out to pull back the curtains, revealing a brilliant night view.

Gongsun stared blankly at the dilapidated building opposite, which had originally been pitch black but had now become brightly lit, bustling with the activity of ongoing renovations.

"This area has great development potential. I’ve already bought it, and over there..." As he spoke, he pointed to that once-chilling window, saying: "The office of the Bai Group’s president!"

"..." Gongsun felt uneasy, "You, there was no need..."

"Tsk tsk tsk..." Bai Jintang waved a finger, "That angle has the best view. You can see me, and I can see you. Every night, you can sleep soundly."

............

Gongsun turned back to look at him, serious for the first time, only to hear Bai Jintang add: "By the way, I made a hole in the wall!"

Looking in the direction he pointed, Gongsun discovered that at some point, a huge, previously non-existent doorway had appeared in the wall, connecting the two rooms.

............

"Bai Jintang! Get out! You psychopath!!"

"That's the first time you've called me by my name!"

"Get out! Get the hell out!"

............

That night, Bai Jintang lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep. After Gongsun had kicked him out, he had blocked the hole with furniture. "Sigh～～～" He let out the 30th sigh of the night—how could this man be so difficult?

The next morning, the fresh and spirited Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao had just arrived at the S.C.I. when they were summoned into the Chief's office by Bao Zheng.

"What do you think?" Bao Zheng threw a folder at them.

Opening it, they saw it was indeed the case from last night, along with several other sniper assassination cases.

"It doesn't look like a professional assassin." Bai Yutang flipped through the documents, "The technique isn't very professional!"

Bao Zheng nodded: "That is exactly what is most worrying!"

Zhan Zhao frowned as he looked at the data: "The assassin yesterday was a student at M University? Qi Lei, he just turned twenty?"

Bao Zheng continued to nod: "This case is quite strange. Dr. Wilson and Jon King are both famous foreign celebrities, and the incident has a high level of public attention. I want you to solve this case within half a month!"

Bai Yutang scratched his head: "Chief Bao, are you setting another time limit?!"

Zhan Zhao echoed from the side: "Exactly."

Bao Zheng looked at the two of them with amusement: "You two little whelps, stop singing the same tune. Solve the case in half a month—if you're a day late, you're going to spend a year scrubbing toilets!"

The rest of the S.C.I. team watched as Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao stormed inside in a rage.

"Ma Han!"

"Boss?"

Seeing Bai Yutang in such a bad mood, Ma Han immediately ran over obediently to take orders.

"Take the technical team to the four crime scenes to investigate!"

"Yes!"

"Wang Chao, Zhang Long, go investigate the backgrounds of the victims, as well as that professor and that celebrity."

"Yes!"

"Xu Qing, go find out where the guns came from!"

"Yes!"

"I want this case solved in half a month!"

"Huh??"

Bai Yutang looked at his subordinates and said with a smile: "If you're a day late, you're going to spend a year scrubbing toilets!"

The group hurriedly scattered...

Zhan Zhao shot a side-eye at the mouse taking his frustrations out on his subordinates, muttering under his breath: "Hmph, a petty man drunk on power!"

Bai Yutang glanced at him: "Dead cat, what are you mumbling about?"

"What should we do?" Zhan Zhao tilted his head and asked.

"Huu..." Sighing, Bai Yutang picked up the file on the table, "Go to M University and dig into Qi Lei's background!"

M University was a third-tier private university; the students' habits and style of dress were completely different from those at C University. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao arrived at the Law School office—that’s right, Qi Lei was a student in the Law Department.

Jia Zhengyan was a young teacher in his thirties; he was the homeroom teacher for Qi Lei’s class, 2004 Law Class 2.

(Gentle reminder: If you can't find the book by its title, try searching by the author; it might have been renamed!)

He received Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang enthusiastically. According to his introduction of Qi Lei, he was a very unsociable student who had lived in the dormitory for only half a year before moving out to rent his own place.

"Why? Was he not on good terms with the people in the dorm?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Um..." Jia Zhengyan hesitated for a moment before saying: "Qi Lei is ill; he can't live with classmates."

"What illness?"

"...Sleepwalking..."

"Sleepwalking?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged a look of surprise.

"Could you be more specific?" Zhan Zhao asked with great interest.

"Of course." Teacher Jia nodded, "Qi Lei has repeatedly gotten up in the middle of the night to attack his roommates. He would start fires, hit people... the worst time, he almost suffocated the person in the bed below him."

"How do you know it's sleepwalking?" Zhan Zhao frowned.

Teacher Jia sighed: "Although Qi Lei isn't very social, he is usually very gentle. According to his roommates, when he attacks people at night, he is like a different person—extremely fierce... and afterwards, Qi Lei has absolutely no memory of what happened."

Zhan Zhao looked down, lost in thought. Bai Yutang asked Teacher Jia a few more questions; during this time, Zhan Zhao didn't say a word, brow furrowed in deep thought.

After the questioning ended, Zhan Zhao finally spoke: "Does the teacher know where he lives?"

"Oh, there's a record on his contact sheet. I’ll copy the address for you."

Jia Zhengyan took out a notepad and wrote down the address, saying: "For specific details, you can ask the members of his band; they should know the most."

"Band?"

"Qi Lei is very talented in music and plays bass well. He formed a band called 'Boiling Point' with other students in the school. They are quite famous on campus, and I hear a record company recently wanted to release an album for them."

"Where can we find the other band members?"

"Oh, in the school's activity room, that three-story red building in the back."

Jia Zhengyan checked his watch: "They practice there every afternoon. You'll hear the commotion as soon as you enter the building."

The two walked out of the Law School office building. Zhan Zhao, who had zero sense of direction, spun in three circles, trying to find that activity room.

Bai Yutang checked his watch: "Cat, it's twelve o'clock. It's an awkward time—let's eat first."

...Reminded by Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao realized his stomach was already rumbling.

"What should we eat?" After spinning in three more circles on the spot, Bai Yutang pulled him toward the school gate before Zhan Zhao could make himself dizzy.

"Where are we going?"

"When we came in earlier, I saw a Japanese restaurant at the school gate that looked pretty good."

"Japanese food?" Zhan Zhao’s interest was piqued, "SUSHI! SUSHI! I want salmon maki."

"Okay, okay, salmon maki."

"I also want sardine rolls!"

"Yeah, yeah, sardine rolls."

"And salmon!"

"Yeah, salmon."

"Sea bream sashimi!"

"Why is it all fish? Are you really a cat?"

"Wasabi!"

"You are not allowed to eat wasabi!"

"Why not?!"

"People with bad stomachs aren't allowed to eat it!!"

"Hmph!"

The two walked into the Japanese restaurant at the school gate.

"By the way, Cat." Bai Yutang found a secluded table and sat down, "You were distracted just now. Did you find something?"

Zhan Zhao sat opposite him and took the menu to order, "I can't be sure yet, I'm just suspicious."

"Suspicious of what?"

"Hmm..."

"Speak up! Dead cat, don't keep me hanging."

"I don't think Qi Lei’s state at the time was sleepwalking." Zhan Zhao poked at his eel rice with his chopsticks.

"How so?"

"Generally speaking, the probability of sleepwalking occurring in adults is extremely low. Moreover, it usually isn't goal-oriented. In terms of behavior, it’s usually just walking around aimlessly, and the state should be muddled." Zhan Zhao continued to poke his eel rice, lost in thought.

"His teacher said he was abnormally fierce at the time and didn't know what he had done after the act." Bai Yutang stared at the pitiful bowl of eel rice.

"That’s the strangest part!" Zhan Zhao said, "Sleepwalking is mainly the result of activity in the cerebral cortex. Brain activity includes both 'excitation' and 'inhibition' processes. Usually, when a person is sleeping, the cells of the cerebral cortex are in a state of inhibition. If a group or groups of nerve cells governing movement remain in an excited state, sleepwalking occurs. The range of movement during sleepwalking is usually the environment the sleepwalker is most familiar with and movements they perform repeatedly..."

"Cat." Bai Yutang tapped the bowl in front of Zhan Zhao with his chopsticks, "You've stopped speaking Chinese again."

Zhan Zhao rolled his eyes at him and picked up a large sushi roll, "Simply put, it is unlikely for a sleepwalker's personality to change drastically! Moreover, some time after the fact, they would recall it, feeling that what happened in the dream was what actually happened." He opened his mouth and took a bite.

Bai Yutang thought about it: "Are you saying he did it on purpose?"

Zhan Zhao chewed on the sushi and shook his head: "Um... it doesn't seem like it."

"Then what is it?"

"...I can't prove it right now, so I want to look at his living environment." Zhan Zhao continued his struggle with the food.

"...Could it be another lunatic?" Bai Yutang sighed helplessly, "Why are so many people abnormal these days?"

Zhan Zhao pointed a fried shrimp at him: "White Rat! I forbid you from saying the word 'lunatic' again!"

Bang～～～～

Before Zhan Zhao could finish his sentence, a table not far away was overturned, followed immediately by an argument.

"You have the guts to say that again?!"

The two turned their heads to see two people arguing at a table near the door.

One person grabbed the other by the collar, cursed viciously, and then launched a flurry of punches and kicks.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were horrified to find that the fierce person beating the other up was a woman, while the one being beaten without any ability to fight back was a man.

The woman wore a tight black outfit and had a punk-rock style. After beating the man, she spat forcefully and turned to leave.

"Hiss～～" The man, whose face was bruised and purple, climbed up from the floor and cursed, "Just because it's a campus band, acting so high and mighty..."

He threw down some money and turned to leave as well.

After eating, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed the address copied down by Teacher Jia and found Qi Lei's residence near the school.

It was a low-rent tenement-style group dormitory. The two walked upstairs and knocked on the door—no answer.

"It looks like he lives alone." Zhan Zhao looked around, "Should we go find the building manager for a key?"

Bai Yutang waved his hand: "Where are we going to find a manager? That’s too much trouble." Finishing his sentence, he raised his foot and kicked the center of the door.

With a bang, the door swung wide open.

A strange, overwhelming odor hit them, making both of them frown. Just as they were about to walk in, they heard a loud shout: "Stop! Who are you guys?!"

Turning around, they saw the punk girl who had been beating someone up in the restaurant earlier standing not far away, glaring at them with fury.