S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 3: Chapter 14

The Magic Killer 14 - The Riddle  

Bai Yutang picked up Bai Chi's call, only to hear the voice on the other end trembling incessantly. He truly couldn't make out what was actually being said.

“Hey~~~ Take your time and speak slowly...” Bai Yutang reminded himself to be patient—he had to be patient.

Zhan Zhao, sitting right beside him, watched as this white mouse's mouth twitched over and over again, reaching its absolute limit—

However, the expression on Bai Yutang's face transformed instantly once he made sense of Bai Chi's words. He hung up the phone and uttered only a single sentence: “Cat, hold on tight!”

“Huh? ...Ah!!” Before Zhan Zhao could even react, Bai Yutang had already pulled a violent U-turn right where they were, slammed his foot down on the gas pedal, and sped back in the direction they came from.

“White Mouse, do you think you're flying an airplane?!” Zhan Zhao gripped his seatbelt tightly, telling himself that when he had the time, he would definitely buy his own car and never ride in Bai Yutang's car again!!

Yet Bai Yutang's next words left him stunned in place— “Cat, Shen Ling is dead!”

………………

The scene at the entertainment center was absolute chaos, with terrified guests fleeing in all directions. After calling to notify Bai Yutang, Bai Chi tried to stop the guests from leaving, but—although he was a member of the Bai family, he didn't possess the commanding aura of Bai Yutang's two older brothers. Everyone simply looked right past him as if he weren't there—just as he was growing frantic, another piercing scream rang out.

Turning back around, he saw someone pointing in terror toward the stage. He recognized that person—it was Zhao Zhen's manager, Qin Bi.

Following the direction of the manager's pointing finger, he saw that Shen Qian had pulled out a handgun from somewhere. Holding the gun with both hands, he was aiming it directly at Zhao Zhen...

Bai Chi's mind was still hesitating, but his body had already acted a step ahead.

“Stop... it!” he shouted while sprinting rapidly onto the stage, opening his arms wide to block in front of Zhao Zhen, and yelling loudly at the completely out-of-control Shen Qian, “You... calm down!”

“Get lost!” Shen Qian's eyes were completely bloodshot, his expression terrifying to the extreme. He flicked off the gun's safety catch. “Get lost! I'm going to kill him! He's the one who killed Lingling!”

“No... it's not confirmed yet! Everything has to wait for an investigation...” The more anxious Bai Chi grew, the less clearly he could articulate himself, sweating profusely from panic.

“Shut up!” Shen Qian gripped the gun with a single hand, saying with a rather vicious edge, “Get lost! Otherwise, I'll kill you along with him!”

Bai Chi wanted to try persuading him a bit more, but seeing that Shen Qian had already lapsed into a state of utter madness, there was no way he would listen to reason now no matter what was said.

“Anyway... I won't let you kill him!” Bai Chi stared fixedly at Shen Qian, spreading his arms as wide as possible to shield the behind-him Zhao Zhen.

Standing behind him, Zhao Zhen looked at the young Bai Chi striving to protect him—such a small stature, clearly trembling with fright, yet still exhausting every ounce of his strength to try and save him... For some inexplicable reason, his heart skipped a beat~~~

Rushing over in his car, Bai Yutang arrived in front of the entertainment center and spotted the crowd scrambling outward. Just as he intended to step in and stop them, a gunshot rang out not far away—

Hearing the gunfire, the crowd shrieked in terror, hugging their heads and squatting down. No one dared to run anymore.

Bai Yutang drew his pistol, forcefully shoved Zhan Zhao—who was just about to step out of the car—back inside, slammed the door shut with a loud bang, and locked it. Then, he sprinted at top speed toward the crowd.

“Whitey! Bai Yutang!~~~” Inside the vehicle, Zhan Zhao pounded furiously against the window, only to find that the keys had been taken and the car was completely locked—even though he knew this mouse had locked him in out of fear that he might get hurt in the chaos of an unknown situation, still... Zhan Zhao viciously ground his teeth— “Damn mouse! I won't let you get away with this!!”

Arriving at the front of the podium, Bai Yutang found Zhao Zhen standing right where he was, a graze marking his left arm while his right arm was wrapped around a stunned Bai Chi. Opposite them, Shen Qian was clutching a bleeding hand as he collapsed onto the floor, a handgun lying nearby.

Bai Yutang put away his weapon, walked over, picked up the gun by Shen Qian's side, and inspected it closely. He saw that a small blade was piercing right through the back of Shen Qian's hand... It was the sort of performance throwing knife commonly used by magicians. The blade had pierced clean through his hand, and blood was flowing unceasingly.

He looked back toward Zhao Zhen.

“It was self-defense.” Zhao Zhen shrugged, seeming not to take the matter seriously at all. In his embrace, Bai Chi snapped out of his dazed state, shoved Zhao Zhen's arms away, and ran toward Bai Yutang.

“What happened?” Seeing the absolute terror on Bai Chi's face—he had only mentioned over the phone that Shen Ling was dead without explaining the specifics—Bai Yutang wondered why Shen Qian had tried to kill Zhao Zhen.

“Just now, Zhao Zhen was performing a magic trick, and then, up there!” Bai Chi reached out and pointed toward the billboard suspended in mid-air.

Bai Yutang looked up, and in an instant, everything clicked into place—no wonder Shen Qian insisted that Zhao Zhen had killed Shen Ling. In a place like that, nobody except Zhao Zhen could possibly pull off such a feat...

“Cat, take a look at this...” Instinctively, Bai Yutang turned his head to ask for Zhan Zhao's thoughts—on the feeling this diagram gave him—before remembering that Zhan Zhao was still locked inside the car, sweating profusely under the collar—Oh crap, the cat was about to blow a fuse.

Bai Chi fetched the keys and let Zhan Zhao out of the car. Zhan Zhao, who had stormed over with a menacing air intending to settle accounts with Bai Yutang, was so startled by the bloody, gruesome crime scene that he forgot everything else~~~ He stood frozen in a daze, staring at the magic circle and the corpse of Shen Ling hanging suspended in mid-air, entirely at a loss for words...

Police sirens wailed in confusion, and the personnel from S.C.I. arrived at the scene in short order.

Gongsun was driven over by Bai Jingtang. After casting a glance at the corpse, he said to Bai Yutang, “Get her down first.”

“I want to take a look at the scene first,” Zhan Zhao suddenly stated. “Up there!”

“There's a helicopter up there,” Zhao Zhen chimed in.

Instructing someone to call for a fire truck so they could set up an aerial ladder to retrieve the body, Bai Yutang took Zhan Zhao and headed upstairs.

Reaching the rooftop, he gestured to the pilot—who was still standing there in a daze—confiscated his aviator goggles, and boarded the helicopter alongside Zhan Zhao.

Even if the timing wasn't exactly appropriate, Zhan Zhao knew that Bai Yutang simply had an itch in his hands; the moment he laid eyes on an aircraft, all sense of direction went out the window.

The helicopter lifted off the building, pivoted in mid-air, and hovered steadily right in front of the corpse. Bai Yutang meticulously calculated the distance, granting Zhan Zhao the optimal viewing angle while ensuring the immense downdraft from the helicopter's rotor blades wouldn't cause any further damage to Shen Ling's body.

Standing down below and gazing upward, Bai Jingtang suddenly slapped his own forehead and muttered to himself, “I just figured out what to get Yutang for Christmas this year!”

Gongsun, standing right beside him, turned his head to shoot him a sidelong glance: “You surely aren't planning to gift him a helicopter, are you?!”

“Ce, we really do share a telepathic connection~~~” Bai Jingtang leaned in close, eager to steal a kiss, only for Gongsun to brandish a silvery-white scalpel. “If you dare try anything reckless, I really will finish you right here! At least have some decency about the location!”

Bai Jingtang arched an eyebrow. “True, this isn't exactly the most suitable place...” As he spoke, he looked up toward the magic circle diagram suspended mid-air—and suddenly felt a sharp pang of pain in his head...

Noticing that Bai Jingtang had abruptly fallen silent, Gongsun turned back with a hint of curiosity, only to find the man's complexion deathly pale. One hand was massaging his temple, his brows knit tightly together as if enduring intense discomfort.

“Hey!” Gongsun gave him a shove. “What's wrong with you?”

“Ugh... nothing~~~ just a bit of a headache.” Bai Jingtang shook his head, yet the pain only seemed to worsen. Inside his mind, fragmented images appeared to be flashing past at breakneck speed, too blurry to make out clearly—what were they... Suddenly, the scene snapped into sharp focus: an abandoned, derelict room—enormous, resembling some sort of warehouse... Followed by sheer chaos—

“Hey!” Sensing that something was seriously off with Bai Jingtang's condition, Gongsun shook him hard. “Bai Jingtang, what's wrong with you?”

“Heh...” Letting out a weak, fragile chuckle, Bai Jingtang forced himself to focus on Gongsun's face. “Why are you still addressing me by both my given name and surname~~~ after we've gotten so ‘familiar’...”

Under normal circumstances, Gongsun would have delivered a punch straight to him without hesitation, but right now, he had zero bandwidth to bicker. Perhaps driven by a doctor's intuition, he only knew that Bai Jingtang's current state was terrifyingly bad.

Bai Jingtang saw the chaotic images before his eyes instantly get swallowed up by a sea of crimson red. A curtain of blood seemed to shroud his vision, rendering everything around him hazy and unreal~~~ Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and a bullet spun through the crimson haze, flying straight toward him— “Watch out!”~~~ someone was shouting... Someone grabbed hold of his hand...

Gongsun felt a sudden sting of pain in his hand as Bai Jingtang's grip clamped down on it with crushing force.

...?... Startled, Gongsun lifted his head, only to see Bai Jingtang's eyes squeezed shut as he collapsed directly toward him.

Gongsun hurriedly reached out to catch him, though Bai Jingtang's build was nearly twice his own size. Instinct was all that allowed Gongsun to break his fall against his own body, preventing him from crashing hard onto the icy ground.

“Jingtang~~~ what's wrong with you? Jingtang?!” Completely ignoring the dull ache of being crushed under the weight, Gongsun scrambled upright and gently shook Bai Jingtang. He almost wished Bai Jingtang was just pulling a prank on him, yet no matter how much he shook the man, there was no response...

“Big bro~~~” Having returned to ground level after inspecting the scene, Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both sprinted over in a panic.

“Big brother!” Bai Yutang immediately checked Bai Jingtang's condition. His breathing, pulse, and heartbeat were all normal, and his body temperature was fine too~~~

“How could this happen?” Zhan Zhao asked Gongsun, who was clearly out of his wits with panic.

Struggling to steady his own emotions for a moment, Gongsun thought back. “He just glanced at that billboard, complained of a headache, and then collapsed.”

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao reached out, lifted back Bai Jingtang's eyelids, and inspected his pupils.

“Boss!” The twins, having arrived at some point, suddenly appeared before them.

“Oh no, it's been ages since he last had a sudden fainting spell like this,” Ding Zhaohui said with an anxious expression.

“Big brother used to get like this before?” Bai Yutang asked the twins in astonishment. “Does he have some underlying medical condition that was never checked out?”

“It's not an illness,” Ding Zhaolan shook his head. “When he was a kid, this happened all the time. He'd be totally fine one moment, and then out of nowhere, depending on what someone said or what he saw, he'd suddenly pass out... Though it hardly ever happened once he grew up.”

“Then how does he wake up?” Zhan Zhao asked abruptly.

“He wakes up on his own. Usually takes no more than two hours; at the fastest, just a few minutes.”

The twins set to work lifting Bai Jingtang into a vehicle to rest. Noticing Gongsun's utterly vacant, absent-minded expression, they genuinely felt it was a tragedy for Bai Jingtang—if he could see how worried Gongsun looked right now, he'd probably pass out from pure joy all over again~~~

“Gongsun, don't worry too much. It's probably just a lingering aftereffect of a head injury from childhood...” Big Ding wanted to say Gongsun, you can go handle the autopsy and not worry about things here, but Little Ding jabbed him in the ribs, signaling him to look down at Gongsun's hand.

Big Ding looked down and saw that Bai Jingtang's hand was still tightly locked around Gongsun's...

“Gongsun, I can have Forensic Pathologist Yang handle the preliminary autopsy. You should go take care of Big Brother.” Bai Yutang gave Gongsun's shoulder a reassuring pat.

Watching them depart, Bai Yutang gathered his focus—he could follow up on his older brother's situation later; right now, the priority was...

Turning back around, he found Zhan Zhao standing there with knitted brows, lost in deep thought with his head lowered.

“Cat, what are you thinking about?” Bai Yutang called out.

Seeming far too absorbed in his thoughts to notice, Zhan Zhao didn't give the slightest reaction.

“Cat!” Bai Yutang leaned in close to his ear and shouted.

“Huh?” Zhan Zhao snapped back to reality with a start, widening his eyes as he looked at Bai Yutang.

“What's on your mind?” Seeing his expression was nothing short of adorable—much like a startled cat—Bai Yutang couldn't help asking.

“Mn... I'll be right back.” Dropping those words, Zhan Zhao sprinted over to the car, spoke briefly with the twins—who nodded with skeptical, puzzled looks—and then ran right back.

“What kind of medicine are you selling in your gourd?” Bai Yutang was thoroughly baffled.

“I'll tell you in a bit. Right now, what matters most is...” As he spoke, Zhan Zhao pointed toward Shen Ling's corpse, which had just been retrieved by the firefighters— “Solving this riddle!”

Bai Yutang nodded. “Cat, did you see it clearly just now?”

“Mn,” Zhan Zhao nodded. “Crystal clear!”

“Now, all the people in the know are dead, coupled with a murder that's practically impossible to pull off...” Bai Yutang offered a faint smile. “Regarding this chain of riddles, any thoughts~~~ Expert?”

A brilliant glimmer flickered within the depths of Zhan Zhao's eyes~~~ as he spoke slowly: “Yeah, it's truly breathtaking~~~ What a pity... a single flaw spoils the whole effort, a clumsy cover-up that only exposes the truth!”