S.C.I. Mystery Vol. 1, Ch. 50

T/L ANNOUNCEMENT: I study birds. In this case, I'm studying birds in the middle of a desert. Though I want to update more frequently, I will literally be out of cell signal for the most part. Thus, you will be getting updates once a week on average, probably around the weekend, when I go to town for shopping. If I happen to be out of signal for, say, two weeks, I'll post two chapters the next week I'm in service.

Magic Murderer 5: Curse

Zhao Yan said, "I remember who you are..." and Bai Chi cried "Swindler!"

Zhan Zhao asked Bai Chi, "Did you know each other previously?"

Zhao Yan smiled a bit awkwardly, and Bai Chi bowed his head uncomfortably, seemingly angry.

After being silent for a long time, Zhao Yan suddenly softened his voice and asked Bai Chi, "You... you’re not stuttering?"

Hearing that, Bai Chi turned his head to stare at Zhao Yan fiercely. There was a faint mist in his eyes. Turning around, he grabbed Zhan Zhao and said, "I want to go back first."

"No, no!" Zhao Yan quickly reached out and pulled him back, "Sit here for a while before leaving. I haven't seen you for a long time..."

Bai Chi shook his hand off vigorously, "You are not allowed to touch me!"

"Not touching, not touching..." Zhao Yan quickly withdrew his hand and smiled.

There was a thought flashing through the minds of all the people present. Could Zhao Yan have done something offensive to Bai Chi? Otherwise, why would the little guy be so fired up?

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, meaning "See? Rabbits bite when they are anxious~~"

Zhan Zhao glanced at him, "You don't think it's messy enough yet?"—He warned him "Don’t make trouble!"

The old housekeeper suddenly uttered an "Ah!" He looked at Zhao Yan and Bai Chi and laughed.

Bao Zheng asked, "Why, do they have a history?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang immediately looked at Bao Zheng in admiration, and thought, "He really deserves to be the boss~~ We were thinking about it secretly and he gossips about it so naturally~~ Such admiration..."

The steward led everyone to the living room and served tea before he spoke. That year, there was a small episode~~

Generally speaking, children who are different do not have happy childhoods... Because they are different, they have no friends.

For example, that was why Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang mingled together. It was difficult for others to fit in with them from childhood all the way to adulthood.

Bai Yutang knew that by the time Zhan Zhao was ten years old, he had mastered three languages ​​proficiently and could read very thick and heavy old books. Zhan Zhao knew that when Bai Yutang was ten years old, he could break twelve bricks with a bare foot and could lift an uncle who was several times larger than him in the police station. In other words, if there had been no Zhan Zhao beside Bai Yutang and no Bai Yutang beside Zhan Zhao, then their childhoods would have been lonely. It would have been difficult for them to find other friends.

However, in this world, not every gifted child is fortunate enough to have a talented childhood friend. For example, Bai Chi, and for another example, Zhao Yan.

Zhao Yan's mother was French, so he was born in France. When he was almost ten years old, he returned to China with his father. When he returned to China, Zhao Yan couldn't speak Chinese yet, so... he had no friends. In order to relieve his young son’s boredom, Zhao Yan's father gave him the little white lion called "Lisbon". Since then, Lisbon had become Zhao Yan's only friend.

Bai Chi's childhood was even more unfortunate, because a scholar (1) was born into a wealthy family of upright officers (1). A white rabbit was born into a pride of lions.

From the time he was small to when he was fully grown, Bai Chi had lived under the strict requirements of his parents and in the shadow of a cousin who he had never met before. Bai Chi ran very slowly, had poor balance, and wasn’t very brave. The only things about him that might be considered good were that he had a good memory and calculated things quickly... But all that was not appreciated in the Bai household. Therefore, the lonely Xiao Bai Chi became cautious about everything and he had no friends.

Xiao Bai Chi's favorite activity was to go to the library to borrow a book that adults couldn’t digest and then hide in places where no one could find him, but where he could get sunlight, see flowers, and read with interest. He had many small, secret bases that belonged to him. One of his favorite ones was in the small yard behind the library. The janitor at the gate would kindly invite him in for snacks.

This went on for a long time, day after day. Suddenly one day, a very cute big white "cat" climbed over the low wall.

It seemed to be hungry. Bai Chi invited it to eat his dessert, glutinous rice dumplings. After that, the one person and one "cat" established a strong relationship.

For the next while, Bai Chi would bring some food from home every day after school. The "cat" would definitely arrive on time, and Bai Chi's purpose of coming to the library had also changed from reading books to simply playing with the "cat". Until one day, a beautiful little boy calling out "Lisbon" found the yard. The boy was Zhao Yan.

Zhao Yan has been obsessed with magic since he was a child. This may have been inherited from his famous magician grandfather. And his grandfather had also found out that this grandson was extremely talented, so Zhao Yan had three hours of magic practice every afternoon. Originally, the little "Lisbon" slipped out to play because Zhao Yan had to practice and didn't have time to accompany it. Gradually, it became fond of staying with Bai Chi, and the time it went home got later and later until Zhao Yan found out that it was regularly missing and went to find it.

Seeing Lisbon, who was having a good time with Bai Chi, Zhao Yan felt a sense of betrayal. He decided to teach a lesson to this "little guy" who had taken away his good friend.

Children are different. They may all only be as high as your knees, they may all be afraid of the dark, and they may all like snacks better than staple foods... but there are still big differences between individual children. For example, Zhan Zhao was the kind of little angel who would pick up injured little animals on the roadside and raise them. Bai Yutang was the kind of little devil who would put caterpillars in the teacher's chalk box.

By analogy, Bai Chi was a dazed little angel, and Zhao Yan was a bad little devil.

Zhao Yan became friends with Bai Chi by looking for Lisbon. He was surprised to find that the little kid even spoke French. Then, after he gained Bai Chi's trust, Zhao Yan fiercely—lied to him.

That day, Bai Chi went to the library to find his "cat" and play with his new friend as usual.

Zhao Yan proudly told Bai Chi that he would do magic.

When Bai Chi didn't believe him, Zhao Yan performed a magic trick that he had learned recently. He turned a pigeon into a frog. In the previous few days, Zhao Yan had learned that Bai Chi was most afraid of frogs.

Finally, Zhao Yan patted Bai Chi's shoulder three times and said that he had cast a spell on him. As soon as Bai Chi spoke, he would become a frog.

The frightened Bai Chi ran away in tears. Zhao Yan hugged Lisbon and returned home. In the blink of an eye, he had forgotten about it.

A month later, Bai Chi's mother appeared in front of Zhao Yan's house. At first, she only came to ask about the situation since Xiao Bai Chi had never spoken since he returned from the library that day.

Only then did Zhao Yan find out that Bai Chi really believed in his tricks. After he told Bai Chi that he had helped him release the magic, Bai Chi began to stutter.

Xiao Bai Chi's stammer was not good, but Lisbon had become his best friend. He often slipped out and didn’t return as if Bai Chi was his real master. Because Zhao Yan felt guilty, there was no repeat incident... but the stammer made Bai Chi's already bad childhood even more desolate. At school, children laughed at him; at home, his parents always looked at him with a kind of pity and regret... he became even more timid and did not like to talk.

A year later, Zhao Yan took Lisbon back to France... He did not bid farewell to Bai Chi. Although Bai Chi had ignored him since he had lied to him, Zhao Yan knew in his heart that Xiao Bai Chi would become even more lonely if Lisbon left. He was afraid to see Xiao Bai Chi crying with small, rabbit-like red eyes.

In fact, Zhao Yan had never forgotten this. Because of it, no matter where he was living, Zhao Yan liked to go to the local library... He hoped to meet Xiao Bai Chi. However, the child in his memory was a timid little stutterer... Now, Bai Chi was more than a stutterer. He was also a policeman.

It wasn't until he saw Bai Chi holding Lisbon and happily rubbing him that Zhao Yan had recognized the outline of that child—he had also called him a swindler... it really was true!

After listening to the butler's narrative, Bao Zheng and the others felt like both crying and laughing.

Zhan Zhao blinked at Bai Yutang, meaning "He was worse than when you were young!"
Bai Yutang nodded, "This is true. It is unforgivable!"

Then, both of them looked at Zhao Yan with contempt at the same time and said in their hearts, "He is, indeed, Zhao Jue’s nephew. Genetics!"

Then the two of them suddenly thought about how, when Bai Chi was really nervous or afraid, he would stutter unconsciously... the crux of that matter was here.

They gave Bai Chi a sympathetic look; "This is a lifelong victimization~~ It's terrible~~"
"Hai, hai.” Zhao Yan coughed. No matter how thick his skin was, it still felt a bit unbearable. He switched topics. “Uncle Bai, you said earlier that you wanted my help?”

…………

Then, everyone remembered that there was serious business. Zhan Zhao took out the photos of the magic arrays from the file folder and showed them to Zhao Yan, asking, "What are the special meanings of these pictures? Do you understand them?"

Zhao Yan took the pictures and looked at them carefully. As he looked through them one by one, his brows also became more and more furrowed. After looking at the photos, Zhao Yan removed the cups on the coffee table and divided the photos into two piles.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked curiously at his movements.

After Zhao Yan was finished, he leaned on the sofa and asked, "The white human outline in the middle... was it a corpse?"

The photos brought by Zhan Zhao are all of the magic arrays left after the bodies were removed. After all, Zhao Yan was not a police officer. The photos of the dead bodies were not good to look at. When he was asked, he nodded.

Zhao Yan smiled and said, "The patterns on these photos were not drawn by one person."

Bai Yutang looked at the two piles of photos on the table and asked, "You divided them into two piles. Is it two people?"

"No, I can't be sure of that," Zhao Yan said, shaking his head. "I can only be sure that these patterns are correct, and this bunch is wrong."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other with faint surprise.

"You know what these patterns mean?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"En." Zhao Yan nodded and said, "The real origin of these patterns is the totems of a primitive tribe. Originally, they were very irregular. Later, with the popularity of alchemy, people classified these patterns and they gradually evolved into a fixed style. "

"Alchemy?" Bai Yutang frowned. "Is it so mysterious?"

Zhao Yan said, "The alchemy diagram has a simpler structure, and what stands out here are the constellations and the elements... these pictures, you see." Then, pointing at the photo, he said, "Eyes, gender, snakes... They are no longer simple abstract symbols but are concrete objects. "

Zhan Zhao nodded, "In other words, it has been developed?!"

"Clever." Zhao Yan said with a smile, "Everyone says that you are a genius, and it is true... indeed, these have been developed from the alchemy maps."

"What are they then?" Bai Yutang asked.

"... Curses!" Zhao Yan said, "These are all curses representing heavenly condemnation."

"Heavenly condemnation?" Everyone looked surprised.

"Yes! Heavenly condemnation!" Zhao Yan repeated, "The eyes are the eyes of the god of death. They will cause the cursed person to die for wrongdoing he once committed. The sexes represent the unclean relationship between men and women. They cause the cursed to die. It is sinful sex, which is generally used to curse prostitutes or mistresses. The snake represents lies, and it is his own deception to the world that will cause the cursed person to die... "

"Then, when you said earlier that some of the pictures are wrong... what did that mean?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

Zhao Yan said, "In fact, you should show me pictures of the dead body. They will be more accurate... because these pictures are directly related to the cursed."

"You mean, there are rules for what kind of images should match different people?" Zhan Zhao said.

"Haha~~" Zhao Yan laughed, "Talking with you is pretty easy, just a little bit... Yes. These pictures are drawn correctly, just like by a professional magician, but these...… " He picked up the other pile, "They’re rough. Obviously, the people who painted these don't know anything about the curse itself."

Bai Yutang picked up the photos, and the color of surprise on his face grew stronger. He pulled out the picture from Xu Jiali and said, "You said that this is not the same as the previous ones?"

Zhao Yan groaned and nodded, "You can say that."

Zhan Zhao looked at the two recent cases and picked up the photos from Zhang Zhenzhen and Sun Qian, "These two are from the same person?"

Zhao Yan shook his head with a smile. "I can only say that these two pictures were drawn by professional people. Are they the same person? I don't know... but..."

"But what?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him.

Zhao Yan picked up the photo from Sun Qian’s scene and said, "The person who painted this picture was the best. Do you know why?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other and said at the same time, "Because a child was killed. It had never occurred before, but he painted it right!"

"Good!" Zhao Yan said applaudingly, "It's easy to deal with smart people!"





Translation Notes:

(1) The words used are references to minister gods who are represented by stars in the big dipper. The first (Bai Chi) is Wenquxing, or the “god of literature,” and the second (Bai family) is Wuquxing, or the “god of wealth and martial arts.” When referring to households, Wuquxing can indicate wealth or military/police/officer lineage.




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