S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 4: Chapter 6

The Non-Human Killer 06 - The Eagle King  

Bai Yutang relayed what Jiang Ping had told him to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao quickly asked Fu Yishan, "Mr. Fu, how much do you know about the details regarding this Eagle King totem? What is its connection to death?"

"Uh..." Fu Yishan pondered for a moment before saying, "I have roughly looked into some background information. In the Tusi tribe, this Eagle King totem is equivalent to the God of Death, uh..."

"Time is of the essence..." Bai Yutang interrupted Fu Yishan's lengthy discourse. "Do you know what kind of fate befalls those punished by the God of Death, which is the Eagle King?!"

"Uh... decapitation..." Fu Yishan answered concisely.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged glances.

"Cat'er, the broadcast van will arrive in ten minutes at most." Bai Yutang checked his watch. "We only have ten minutes."

"Normally at this hour, what are you usually doing?" Zhan Zhao asked Fu Yishan.

"Uh... I..." Fu Yishan was also made somewhat nervous by the question. "I should be reading in the study."

"Where is the study?" the two asked in unison.

"I'll lead you there..." With that, Fu Yishan guided the two of them as they walked briskly toward his study on the second floor. Arriving at the door, he reached out to open it—when Bai Yutang suddenly grabbed him by the arm. "Wait."

With that, pulling Fu Yishan behind him, Bai Yutang turned the doorknob and gave it a gentle push. The door creaked open.

The room was completely empty. Bai Yutang stepped inside first, followed closely by Zhan Zhao.

Once inside, the two raised their heads to survey the surroundings. The study's layout was quite simple: rosewood furniture, a spacious desk, bookshelves packed with rows of books, and antique vases—Zhan Zhao suddenly patted Bai Yutang on the shoulder and pointed up toward the ceiling. Bai Yutang looked up... and frowned.

On the ceiling, which at first glance appeared completely empty, there were several faint, shimmering lines of light—upon closer inspection, one could see they were intersecting glass threads.

The two moved their gazes along the trajectory of the glass threads, thinking at lightning speed. A moment later, they exchanged a tacit understanding with a glance, their eyes finally landing on the telephone resting on the desk.

Zhan Zhao scanned the study once more, pulled over a half-meter-tall vase from the floor, and placed it onto the chair behind the desk.

Bai Yutang instructed Qiu Yu, who was standing behind Fu Yishan, "Find a thin cord about five meters long, and get a watermelon or a cantaloupe—make it quick!"

"Alright..." Qiu Yu dashed out, returning shortly after with a watermelon and a roll of thin cord.

Zhan Zhao took the melon and placed it atop the vase. Then, without lifting the telephone receiver, he carefully tied one end of the cord to the receiver, pulling the other end out into the hallway and laying it flat on the floor.

At that moment, Fu Yishan and Qiu Yu finally noticed that beneath the telephone's handset, a glass thread was pinned down. The thread was extremely slender, trailing down to the floor and crawling out the window along the baseboard... If one didn't look closely, it was completely impossible to spot!

Once the preparations were complete, everyone retreated outside the door.

"Does the orientation of the adjoining room match this one?" Zhan Zhao asked Fu Yishan.

"Yes," Fu Yishan nodded.

Bai Yutang turned and headed downstairs, while Zhan Zhao stepped into the adjacent room, taking Fu Yishan and Qiu Yu with him to conceal themselves behind the windows.

Through the window, the television station's broadcast van could already be seen driving in from a distance. Zhan Zhao's phone rang, and he answered it: "Little Bai, are you ready?"

"Ready!" Downstairs, Bai Yutang was concealed behind the door, focusing his gaze through the glass on everyone pacing about in front of the main entrance: bodyguards, servants, gardeners...

Before long, the broadcast van drove up to the main entrance, and crew members stepped out carrying camera equipment. Several bodyguards stepped forward to block them, and the female host appeared to be engaging in some sort of dispute with the bodyguards. Right at that moment, one of the shorter, dark-skinned bodyguards produced a phone and pressed a few keys—at the exact same time, a sharp, hurried telephone ring echoed from the study next door.

Zhan Zhao strode to the study doorway and gave the cord on the floor a sharp yank—the telephone handset on the desk was violently yanked down with a clack, and the section of glass thread pinned beneath the handset instantly whipped away into thin air—just as a soft clack echoed from outside the window.

Following this sound, the crisscrossing glass threads on the ceiling snapped taut and rigid, slashing horizontally across the air—a flash of faint light swept through the space—and the people waiting outside the door felt a few wisps of chilly wind graze past them. With a crisp snap... a crack appeared on the watermelon sitting atop the vase, and the melon instantly split in two. The upper half slid off, hit the floor... and shattered into pieces.

With a few more swish-swish sounds, the glass thread that had just sliced through the melon flew out through the window, vanishing from sight almost instantly.

At that moment, the faint sound of commotion drifted up from downstairs.

Zhan Zhao picked up his phone. The call between his and Bai Yutang's cell phones had remained connected the entire time. "Little Bai! It's done!"

Holding his phone, Bai Yutang fixed his eyes firmly on the short bodyguard running back in a hurry, and smiled. "Cat'er, I'm done here too." With that, he hung up the phone and strode out.

Zhan Zhao quickly ran back into the adjacent room and looked down through the window, watching as the bodyguard walked over to the flower bed downstairs, bent down, and reached out to pick up something from the ground. Just as he attempted to straighten up, Bai Yutang stepped up right behind him and tapped him on the shoulder: "What are you picking up?"

The bodyguard started in shock, evidently realizing that things had gone horribly wrong. He seemed to have some background in martial arts as well, whirling around to throw a punch! Unfortunately, he picked the wrong person to fight—Bai Yutang tilted his head slightly to evade the punch, grabbed the man's wrist with his left hand, and applied force—a crisp joint-dislocation click rang out.

"Ugh..." Before the man could let out a miserable scream, Bai Yutang had already delivered a sharp palm-strike directly into his ribs.

"Ah..." Letting out a muffled groan, the bodyguard was swept along by Bai Yutang's momentum and hurled out of the flower bed, collapsing flat onto the ground where he curled up, groaning and unable to move a muscle.

Seeing Bai Yutang stoop down, the bodyguard nervously tried to struggle to his feet. Bai Yutang smiled and patted his shoulder: "Just lie there, brother—you've got at least two broken ribs!" With that, he rummaged through the man's pockets and pulled out a roll of glass thread—one end of which still had a small steel crossbow bolt tied to it. Raising his gaze, he spotted a small crossbow concealed in a hiding spot beneath the windowsill. A glass thread was also tied to the bow, trailing all the way down to the ground, though it was completely obscured by the Boston ivy climbing the wall, making it impossible to spot from a distance. Giving the glass thread a pull, he brought it down together with the crossbow.

One could easily imagine that if he and Zhan Zhao hadn't come today, the object sliced in half by the glass thread inside wouldn't have been a watermelon, but Fu Yishan's head! If the bodyguard then took advantage of the chaos to retrieve the glass thread and crossbow, this case would once again have been recorded as a perfect cursed murder!

By this time, Zhan Zhao had also run downstairs. He looked at the bodyguard lying on the ground and asked Bai Yutang, "How is it?"

Bai Yutang handed him the crossbow. "It's all right here!"

"As expected!" Zhan Zhao took the items. "This time it proves that there's no curse at all!"

Nodding, Bai Yutang said in a deep voice, "Clearly, the murderer is human!" With that, he questioned the bodyguard, "Hey! Why did you try to kill old man Fu?"

"Ki... kill?!" The bodyguard was so startled he nearly bounced off the ground, agitating his fractured ribs and wincing in pain. "I... I didn't know it was murder... I was just blinded by greed..."

"Blinded by greed?" Zhan Zhao pondered for a moment and asked, "Did someone give you money to do this?"

"Yes... yes." The bodyguard nodded frantically. "I lost money gambling a few days ago and piled up a mountain of debt. That day, someone suddenly called me, saying that as long as I followed his instructions, made a phone call at this exact time today, and helped pick up and throw away an item, he would give me a huge sum of money... He put the deposit in my mailbox first, and also threatened me that if I didn't help him, he would report my debt problems to the security company. By then, I wouldn't even have a job left, so... I—I genuinely didn't know he wanted to murder someone..."

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang felt that this man had simply been utilized as a pawn. The mastermind behind this entire case could be described as calculating and shrewd to the extreme, and would never take such a risk in person.

Soon, the police department dispatched personnel to take the bodyguard away. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao bade farewell to Fu Yishan and drove away—not heading back to S.C.I., but rushing straight toward Akasha's studio, where the video live stream was currently broadcasting.

In this string of incidents, Akasha was definitely someone in the know. Otherwise, why was she present at every single case? The crucial point was that the timing of her prophecies matched the intricate layouts of the murder cases with flawless precision!

Zhan Zhao picked up his phone to call Jiang Ping, asking him how Akasha's live streaming program was holding up since she wasn't dead yet.

Jiang Ping replied, "The video stream has been frozen since a moment ago and hasn't reconnected at all. It's stuck on Akasha's expression of shock and bewilderment." With that, he even sent Zhan Zhao an image showing Akasha staring straight ahead with a look of astonishment on the computer's live stream video.

"Oh no!" Zhan Zhao cried out in alarm. "She might be in danger!"

Bai Yutang slammed his foot down on the accelerator. "Cat'er, you mean she might be silenced?"

Zhan Zhao frowned. "When the murderer killed Xiao Lu the first time, he was very low-key, even disguising it as a suicide case; the second time he killed Carlos, it drew a certain amount of attention; the third time he killed Tanaka, it was right in front of the camera; and next, when he killed Mo Ning, he started issuing advance warnings... He's escalating step by step... growing more and more confident!"

"Akasha has consistently been the cheerleader for cursed murders. Leaving her alive would definitely benefit the murderer, but the crux of the matter is that we prevented Fu Yishan from being killed. That means everyone will guess that Akasha is an accomplice or privy to the murders," Bai Yutang said, mounting the police light onto the roof of the car. "That is to say, the murderer's operation to kill Akasha was decided on the spur of the moment... We just might run right into him!"

At the entrance of S.C.I., Bai Chi stepped out of his cute yellow Volkswagen Beetle and retrieved a massive load of materials, books, and old newspapers from the passenger seat.

The library administrator already recognized this police officer who specifically came looking for reference materials.

Hugging the pile of paper, Bai Chi couldn't see where he was walking and was swaying forward when two figures suddenly darted out from the side and crashed heavily into him.

With a crash, papers and books scattered all over the ground, and Bai Chi tumbled down onto the pavement as well.

Since it had snowed not too long ago, certain patches of the ground were still damp. Bai Chi scrambled back up, too preoccupied to bicker over who had bumped into him, and hurried to gather the scattered papers.

Just as he was picking up an old newspaper, a foot abruptly stepped right down on top of it.

Startled, Bai Chi looked up and saw two men standing before him, looking down at him with mocking grins. Once he recognized their faces, Bai Chi furrowed his brows.

He reached out to tug at the pinned newspaper and said to the man, "You're... stepping on my... reference materials."

"Oh my..." the man exclaimed with exaggerated theatricality, lifting his foot and saying to Bai Chi, "Sorry, sorry... I didn't see it~~"

Gathering all the materials and placing them back into the car, Bai Chi pulled out a tissue to gently wipe away the mud stains on the papers.

Far from leaving, the two men actually crowded closer to Bai Chi and said, "I say, Officer Bai, I thought you transferred to S.C.I. to crack some major cases, but turns out you're just here collecting waste newspapers for people~~"

Ignoring the pair, Bai Chi simply worked on quickly organizing his documents and preparing to leave, but the two men deliberately blocked his path.

"Don't leave yet. Tell us about S.C.I. What's it like? That's a place we wouldn't even dare to dream of."

Bai Chi looked at the two men in front of him. They were his former colleagues from the patrol unit, having served as patrol officers for many years. One was named Wu Kai, and the other was Xu Yadong. They used to make fun of him all the time.

Seeing that Bai Chi ignored them, Xu Yadong remarked, "Sigh~~ the man is an elite now, you see! Sweeping toilets at S.C.I. is still better than being a big boss in the patrol unit!"

"Indeed!" Wu Kai nodded along. "I'd love to go too, but what a pity—I don't have the last name Bai, and nobody's covering for me..."

Hearing this, Bai Chi looked straight into their eyes and said, "You guys... cut the nonsense!"

Seeing Bai Chi, who used to be like a timid little rabbit, actually glare and snap back at them, both men were somewhat taken aback. But immediately afterward, their expressions turned even more disdainful: "Look at that fierce attitude. Well, who doesn't know that Bai Yutang is notoriously protective of his own people~~ Since even someone like you can get into the police force's elite unit, it looks like S.C.I. isn't all that special either!..."

Placing the documents onto the hood of his car, Bai Chi glared angrily at the two of them: "You can say whatever you want about me, but do not insult Captain Bai and S.C.I.!"

Xu Yadong and Wu Kai assumed Bai Chi was still the same as before—that no matter who bullied him, he wouldn't dare fight back. But what they didn't know was that under Zhan Zhao's "therapy" and "training," Bai Chi was now frighteningly fierce when provoked. Plus, he held an extraordinary level of respect for Bai Yutang. Daring to insult his idol right in front of his face—even a rabbit would bite!

Seeing that words could no longer intimidate him, Xu Yadong reached out and gave Bai Chi a hard shove: "Haven't seen you in a few days, and you've gotten entirely too full of yourself... Do you really think you're some kind of elite?!"

As the few of them argued right there, none of them noticed that a large black Jeep had already parked not far away from them, and its door swung open...

"What? Didn't you get all high and mighty?" Wu Kai stared at Bai Chi, who had just been shoved. "Why aren't you fighting back?!"

Bai Chi straightened up and glared at the pair. "Are you two even police officers anymore? Since when do cops act this barbaric?!"

"............" The two exchanged glances, momentarily lost for words. Feeling that they were losing face, they raised their voices and hollered at Bai Chi, "You're trying to lecture us now? How many days have you even been a cop?!"

Bai Chi's expression remained completely unperturbed. "Being a good cop has nothing to do with how long you've been on the job. The most important thing is to always remember never to bring shame upon the police uniform!"

"You..." With nothing left to say, the two of them raised their fists to strike, but suddenly sensed some creature panting heavily right behind them—it sounded like a dog... Whirling around in panic...

They saw a gigantic white African lion standing directly behind them...

Seeing the two of them turn around, Lisbon abruptly threw back its head, opened its blood-red cavernous mouth, and let out a mighty roar—

"Mommy dearest~~" Terrified out of their wits, Xu Yadong and Wu Kai landed flat on their bottoms and scrambled backward in panic.

Instead, Lisbon walked aggressively toward the two of them.

Xu Yadong seemed to snap out of his stupor, frantically trembling as he drew his pistol... and aimed it straight at Lisbon.

"Stop it, don't!" Bai Chi cried out in alarm, but Xu Yadong had already pulled the trigger.

Strangely enough, after clicking clack, clack a few times, nothing happened at all... Wu Kai also pulled out his gun... and it was the same—neither of the two guns had any bullets in them.

"Pardon me..." Zhao Zhen had leaned against Bai Chi's car at some point, raising a hand to lightly toss a handful of bullets in his palm. "He's my pet... He's usually very gentle, but if you push him too far, he bites!"

Bai Chi's face flushed bright red. Hearing Zhao Zhen's words, he couldn't tell whether he was talking about Lisbon or about himself.

Noticing quite a few people around staring with curiosity, presumably startled by that lion's roar just now,

"Lisbon, get back in the car!" Bai Chi patted the head of Lisbon, who was obediently sitting down beside him, and Lisbon trotted right back into Zhao Zhen's large Jeep.

Xu Yadong and Wu Kai were scared out of their minds. Casting one terrified look at Bai Chi as if he were a monster, they turned tail and bolted.

Zhao Zhen smiled, tossed the bullets in his hand onto the ground—and reached out to drape an arm over young Bai Chi's shoulder.

Bai Chi's face was flushed red. "Who asked you to help? I could've handled it myself... I'm not that useless..."

"Mhm, mhm~~" Zhao Zhen nodded, leaning in close to brush a kiss against his hair. "You looked totally awesome just now..."

With a whoosh, steam began puffing from the top of Bai Chi's head. After delivering a vicious stomp to Zhao Zhen's foot, he turned red-faced and fled with his materials in his arms.

Zhao Zhen laughed heartily from behind, and just as he wanted to chase after him, someone tugged at his sleeve. Turning around, he saw Morris wearing a woebegone expression: "Zhen, what's your relationship with that boy? You promised to accompany me to S.C.I., but was it just so you could go see that boy? My heart is so broken!" As he spoke, he put on a theatrical act of reaching up to wipe his eyes.

"You're out of your mind~~" Zhao Zhen shook his head, shut the Jeep door, and walked forward, calling out to Morris trailing behind him, "Hurry up!"

"Right!" Morris smiled and nodded, but the moment Zhao Zhen turned his back on him, that smiling expression instantly morphed into a chilling glare. Morris glanced back over his shoulder, coldly eyeing Bai Chi's cute little car parked by the roadside, his eyes filled with utter contempt.