S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 108

Love Murderer 15 – Monster

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As evening approached, Uncle Qi spoke in an unclear voice, “It’s not a human being.” As he spoke, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang unconsciously felt that there was a cool breeze coming from behind him.

Xu Bao swallowed and asked Uncle Qi, “Uncle, what is it that is not a human?”

“Well… it happened a long time ago.” The old man sighed, looking for a rattan chair to sit down on. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang moved a bench over to sit on, and listened to the old man.

“How should I put it… It was about fifty or sixty years ago.” The old man sat in the chair and began to remember.

“It’s been so long?” Zhan Zhao was a little surprised, “Wasn’t the area just liberated at that time?”

“En.” The old man nodded, “The situation is still not very good. At that time, I was afraid of being beaten, and everyone gathered to organize a militia.”

Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao nodded. Although they were very far away at that time, their parents and grandparents were all people from that era, so they had heard of many things.

“The militia was organized. At that time, weapons were not controlled, so we all had guns. I originally wanted to fight in the Korean War. When the troops landed on the bank of the Yalu River, the war was victorious. After returning, I was considered a veteran who had participated in several battles. There were not many people in the village who were of that status, so I became the captain of the militia.” Even though Uncle Qi was very old, because the memory of that period of time was too deep, he recalled his memories very clearly.

“At that time, there was no food. There were some wild animals on the mountain, so we all went hunting, but there is nothing big here in the south; there are mainly pheasants and hares. Occasionally, you can meet a wolf or two, but they are scared and run away when they see people… We have always lived peacefully with them. I remember… it happened in the early spring of the first year.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang didn’t say anything, and waited quietly for the old man to speak.

“That spring, it was very cold. In early spring, many animals in the mountain froze to death. Many people went up the mountain to hunt rabbits, probably because they didn’t have something to eat. Suddenly, a large number of wolves and wild dogs came down from nowhere.” Seeing Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang’s eyes widen, the old man smiled helplessly, “You may not be able to imagine it, but at that time, that’s how it was, and we were happy.”

“Happy?” Bai Yutang seemed puzzled.

“Hehe.” The old man was happy. He looked at the pistol in Bai Yutang’s gun holster and said, “Young man, there is a gun in your hands, I just want to use one again… You all use pistols now, at that time, I was using a semi-automatic submachine gun. Alas, shooting rabbits with a shotgun all day long, is that what a girl does? Think about it, what it’s like, one shot was fired and the rabbit suffered a hundred small bullet holes. When eating it, you might take a bite of a lead bullet.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and couldn’t help but laugh, remembering that Bai Yunwen and the others also liked hunting when they were young. They also went with them when they were young. The rabbits they ate had bullets in them, and their teeth could break if they didn’t pay attention.

“Our militia group seized the opportunity and started to eliminate the wolves.” The old man sighed, “At that time, we had a good time killing the wolves. After we killed all of the wolves, we went into the mountain to search… Unexpectedly, while searching, we found two people.”

“People?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were both surprised and asked, “You mean, people who lived in the mountain?”

“En.” The old man nodded, “We didn’t know how those two people got there. Their clothes were made of bark and they were both male. At first, we thought that they were little devils who stayed behind and didn’t escape, but they were too young for that. As we asked them, we found out that both of their parents died at a very young age, and they didn’t know how they got on the mountain.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded, but still felt a little weird. Zhan Zhao asked Uncle Qi, “How long had they lived on the mountain? With so many wolves on the mountain, can people live there?”

“Oh…” The old man shook his head, “If we had thought about this at the time and just asked a few more questions, then nothing would have happened.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned, realizing that something terrible might happen next.

“At that time, everyone was a bit stupid.” The old man sighed, “Seeing that the two young men were lost and were suffering, many people gave them food and drinks. At that time, many old mothers in the village had no sons at home, so they let them stay with them and raised them as sons.”

“What happened then?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were a little puzzled; although those two people had unknown origins, they wouldn’t be able to harm such kind-hearted villagers, right?

“Heh…” The old man laughed dryly and said, “Those two were not humans at all!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, just listening to it gave them goosebumps.

“Uncle, what is it that is not a human? A monster?” Xu Bao asked.

“Did you know that those two were cannibals?” The old man asked, “At that time, the village was so ashamed… and almost all of the people who were missing were children and elderly…. We thought that it was the wolves on the mountain, but I felt that there was something wrong. Those two brothers hadn’t been seen for many days!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked, “Could it be that they were eaten too?”

The old man sighed, “We were suspicious about that at the time. A few days later, we took our guns and laid on the road next to the haystack, ready for an ambush.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked back at the haystack, and listened to the old man continue, “The two brothers really showed up. They wandered the road most of the night. Our boldest brother went out as bait, and the two went and bit him, so we all rushed out and beat them to death!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked at the same time, “Was it cleared up after? Did they kill someone?”

“En.” The old man nodded, “When we arrived at their house, their house was filled with things. There were crosses carved out of wood and some other weird things, there were even several corpses.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked, “Where are those things?”

The old man shook his head, “Burnt.”

“Burnt?” Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both felt regretful. If they were preserved until now, they might have been able to search for the origins of those two people. It seems that it’s not as simple as just two lunatics, after all, lunatics’ behaviour would not be so organized. There are also the crosses mentioned by the old man, which had some similarities to the vampire killer, so it is likely to be an important clue.

“That’s right, Uncle.” Xu Bao said, “Why didn’t you leave everything behind at the time? Or call the police to deal with it?”

“Report it to the police?” The old man smiled, “I was in a militia, why should I report it to the police?”

Everyone looked at each other, thinking that it made sense.

“At that time, our old ideas and culture were broken thanks to those monsters. This kind of ghost that is not a ghost, how could we dare to talk about it!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded, feeling that the old man made sense, so they asked, “Later, you buried those two people?”

“En.” The old man nodded, “They were buried by the haystack where they were killed. After that, the village was calm again and nothing happened.”

“Apart from Zhang Miaomiao?” Zhan Zhao asked.

Hearing Zhang Miaomiao, the old man wrinkled his brows deeply, “That girl… Oh, how many times have I told A Tian that that girl is not good. He just didn’t listen to me and he lost his life in vain.”

“Why was Zhang Miaomiao bad?” Bai Yutang asked curiously.

The old man was silent for a moment, then said, “I saw it, that woman was wearing the same kind of cross-shaped necklace!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were taken aback. Their eyes widened and they asked, “Was it the same as the things left behind by those two brothers?”

“En.” The old man nodded.

Zhan Zhao took out the notebook and pen that he had brought with him, and asked the old man, “Uncle Qi, can you roughly draw it for us?”

“Drawing?” The old man tremblingly took the notebook and said, “I can’t draw…”

“It’s fine to draw anything, as long as the shape is there.” Zhan Zhao said.

“Oh.” The old man squinted his eyes, gently took the pen to draw on the notebook, then handed it to Zhan Zhao and said, “It’s probably like this, a cross with a snake wrapped around it.”

“Huh?” Xu Bao took a look and was surprised, “Why does this feel familiar?”

“Where have you seen it?” Zhan Zhao looked up at Xu Bao.

Xu Bao touched his head, as if he could not remember. Uncle Qi shook his head and said, “Impossible… they were only seen by a few militia men at the time. In order to prevent others from knowing, we burned everything. All of the militia members who were with me in the past have all died, I am the only one left.”

“Uh… I might have seen it wrong.” Xu Bao touched his head.

Zhan Zhao took the notebook and looked at it. He frowned and asked the old man, “Do you think that because Zhang Miaomiao has the same thing, she may be related to the two brothers?”

The old man sighed, “When we recalled what happened back then, we were really scared. Knowing that Zhang Miaomiao was bitten, we were even more scared. No matter what, we had to drive her away, otherwise, if those monsters came back, we had no guns to deal with them!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded. Afterwards, Uncle Qi remembered a little more, but it was not important. Zhan Zhao stared at the two graves for a long time, and said, “Xiao Bai, shall we dig up the bodies?”

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, “You mean, take it back to Gongsun for an autopsy?”

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “Although there are only bones left, there may be clues.”

“I’ll call someone to dig.” Bai Yutang called to inform the forensic department to bring the field team and dig up both graves. With a smile, he said, “Gongsun must be going crazy.”

Zhan Zhao laughed. At that moment, he heard someone running from a distance, shouting, “Captain, Dr. Zhan!”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked back and saw Ma Han and Luo Tian running over. Luo Tian was holding something wrapped in newspaper, and they didn’t know what it was.

“How is it?” Zhan Zhao glanced at the object curiously.

Luo Tian saw that there was an old man beside the two of them, and said, “We are finished asking. Captain, Jiang Ping said that there is something extraordinary in the chip that Zhao Jue sent, so we need to go back quickly.”

“Really?” Zhan Zhao was taken aback.

Bai Yutang naturally knew that there was nothing that can arouse Zhan Zhao’s interest more than the two words ‘Zhao Jue’, so he said, “Let’s go back and talk about it.” After speaking, without saying goodbye to Xu Zhong and Xu Bao, everyone got into the car.

After getting into the car, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang learned that Luo Tian and Ma Han had dug up Xu Tian’s grave and took out the burial items.

When the two of them took out the necklace, they were taken aback. They thought of the pattern drawn by the old man, and they understood why Xu Bao had said that it was familiar; he must have seen Xu Tian’s pendant, but couldn’t remember it after such a long time.

“Has Jiang Ping found it?” Zhan Zhao asked, “The source of the pattern?”

“En.” Ma Han nodded and passed the message Jiang Ping had sent him to Zhan Zhao.

“What is it?” Seeing Zhan Zhao’s puzzlement, Bai Yutang leaned forward to ask.

“This pattern is the emblem of a certain mysterious family in Europe.” Zhan Zhao said, “This family fell a hundred years ago and was wiped out buy the church. Later, their story was written in a novel… This family emblem, was the cover of the novel at that time.”

“What’s the name of the novel?” Bai Yutang asked curiously.

Zhan Zhao looked at the title of the book in the picture and paused for a long time, “Monster.”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: June 1, 2021