S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 113

Love Murderer 20 – Key and Bronze Statue

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Zhan Zhao remembered that he had seen a fairy tale called 《Bluebeard》 before. It was originally a happy story, similar to the plot of 《Cinderella》, but because of the last golden key, the story became terrifying. (Angel: Bluebeard is a French folktale first published in 1697.)

But at this moment, Zhan Zhao truly understood that in fact, no matter how dark and terrifying, whether a fairy tale or a novel, the author is very kind to cover up the most extreme part for the reader…

The dead and corpses are nothing to the police or forensic pathologists. After all, there are a lot of horrible corpses, it’s just that they breath less than the living, and are harder and smellier… Maybe the bloody flesh was cut, or it was even pounded into a liquid, either way, it has been seen… However, it was only at this moment that Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang realized that the real horror of a corpse was not in cutting, but in deformation. It was not the deformation caused by a short-term external force, but rather a great long-term force. This kind of slowly-caused deformation was really chilling.

The room was a research room, with a table in the middle that had almost all of the medical equipment that could be found in that era.

That medical equipment, in the hospital, it looks like a magical tool for healing and saving people, but in the dark basement, the rusty medical equipment feels more like torture equipment.

However, Zhan Zhao and the others were of course not uncomfortable because of the furnishings, rather, it was because of the dead bodies in the room.

The topic is — corpses!

In film and television, hanged ghosts are always exaggerated in a similar way; they are nothing more than a long tongue, rolled eyes, or something… But the real hanged ghost, especially a real one that has been hung for hundreds of years, will have obvious changes in their bodies — their necks become longer and thinner.

In this room, there are rows of large iron hooks on the ceiling. On each hook, there is a black metal sling. In each metal sling, there is a head, and the slender neck underneath has been deformed into a state where the shadow of the neck is completely invisible. Below the neck is a naked body which, even if dry, has visible scars, and some were even mutilated.

These corpses are in a mummified state, with dry and wrinkled skin covering them.

Gongsun pointed his finger to a large fan on the wall, “It seems that the corpses were air-dried.”

“It works.” Zhao Jue walked over, reached out, and turned on the big fan… With the sound of rumbling fan blades rotating, a strong wind came from the device… At the same time, the corpses that had already been air-dried moved slightly. The corpses were almost distorted; their necks were so long that they could hardly hold their bodies… They swayed in the wind, as if they were struggling. Imagine that the corpses hanging in the room were drifting in the wind like windchimes on a breezy day; it’s weird and a bit perverted, but also unspeakably disgusting.

Perhaps it was due to the strong breath of death in the air, but the little lion in Zhan Zhao’s arms seemed to be anxious. Struggling in Zhan Zhao’s arms, it buried its face in Zhan Zhao’s hands, its claws hugging Zhan Zhao’s arms as close to itself as possible. Zhan Zhao reached out and touched its neck, comforting it.

Zhao Jue turned off the large fan and looked back at the group, “How is it?”

Zhan Zhao sighed, and took a good look at the room with Bai Yutang and Gongsun. Gongsun touched his chin and looked at the corpses, “A fan was specifically installed to dry the corpses? The master kept these corpses on purpose?”

“It seems that they wanted to use them as some kind of decoration.” Zhao Jue smiled.

Gongsun frowned and looked at Zhan Zhao. He saw that Zhan Zhao was still flipping through the book in his hand, and asked, “What kind of family is this family?”

“You will understand after reading the book.” Zhao Jue said, stretching his hand out and dragging an iron box out from under the table. Looking at Bai Yutang, he said, “Handsome man, come and help.”

Bai Yutang walked over and saw that it was a large iron box measuring one meter by five meters, with handles on all sides, and it looked quite heavy.

“Go to the low table over there.” Zhao Jue raised his hand and pointed to a low table on the side.

Bai Yutang bent down and grabbed one of the handles of the box. When he lifted it up, he frowned and looked at Zhao Jue.

“Is it heavy?” Zhan Zhao and Gongsun both ran over, wanting to help.

Bai Yutang waved his hand and said, “I’d say it’s more than two hundred catties. Go and call Luo Tian for help.” (Angel: A cattie is roughly 600 grams, so 200 catties would be roughly 265 pounds or 120 kilograms.)

Zhan Zhao ran upstairs to call Luo Tian. Bai Yutang turned to look at Zhao Jue, “You have a lot of strength seeing as you can pull it out from under the table.”

Zhao Jue raised his eyebrows and said, “I still don’t like sports… It’s like how Qitian doesn’t like sports very much, but his strength is not bad.”

With Zhao Jue’s words, Bai Yutang suddenly thought of something. His father and others have always said that Zhan Qitian is indeed not capable of fighting or sports, and he is very gentle… But when Zhan Zhao’s leg was injured, Zhan Qitian easily carried Zhan Zhao… Although Zhan Zhao is not heavy, holding a man who is more than one hundred catties… is not an easy thing. At the very least, the cat would not be able to do it! (Angel: Here’s a little more math for you; 100 catties is roughly 133 pounds or 60 kilograms.)

At this time, Zhan Zhao had called Luo Tian to come back. When he entered the basement, he found that Bai Yutang and Zhao Jue were looking at each other, neither of them looking very good, and Gongsun was standing on the side in thought.

Luo Tian saw the iron box and asked, “Do you want to move that?”

“En.” Bai Yutang nodded. He reached out and grabbed a handle of the iron box, saying to Luo Tian, “Let’s lift it to the table.”

“Okay.” Luo Tian walked over and held a handle in each hand. With force, he lifted the heavy iron box and put it on the small iron table.

Both Zhan Zhao and Gongsun walked over, and Bai Chi followed. He seemed to be uncomfortable with the corpses hanging in the air like pieces of paper or wind chimes, bowing his head, he walked over to the group.

Zhao Jue took out a piece of orange-flavoured mint from his pocket and handed it to him, but Bai Chi waved his hand.

Zhao Jue was puzzled, “Aren’t you uncomfortable? Your face is pale.”

Bai Chi shook his head, looking a little stubborn. Although he was a little uncomfortable, he was a police officer.

Zhan Zhao handed him the little white lion in his arms, “Hold him for a while, he is quite heavy.”

Bai Chi looked at Zhan Zhao, and reached out to take the little lion. The little lion tilted his head to look at Bai Chi, sniffed him, and blinked — He smelled another lion!

Bai Yutang looked at the box and asked, “What you want us to see is in this?”

Zhao Jue nodded. He stretched his hand out, pulled the handle embedded in the lid of the iron box, and looked at Luo Tian, “Open it.”

“Do I need to make mental preparations for this?” Gongsun asked with a smile.

“This is what I dug out from the house owner’s grave.” Zhao Jue smiled, “You will be very interested in it.”

Everyone glanced at each other. Bai Yutang nodded to Luo Tian, and Luo Tian pulled up fiercely. He lifted the lid up, removed it, and placed it on the ground beside the table.

Bai Yutang and the others looked inside the box and saw that there was black fabric covering the contents. The fabric was embroidered with very complicated patterns made form golden silk thread which was not only complicated, but extremely delicate and gorgeous…

Looking at the exquisite embroidery, a human figure faintly appeared. It was very small and seemed to be a child; no wonder it was hidden in such a small coffin.

“It’s weird.” Gongsun touched his chin and asked in a puzzled manner, “If this fabric was buried under the ground covering the body for so long, why is it so new?”

Everyone nodded, expressing their doubts.

Zhao Jue stretched his hand out to gently grab the piece of fabric, saying “Well… because what is under this fabric is not a corpse at all.” After speaking, he gently removed the fabric.

When everyone looked inside, they were a little puzzled; they saw that it was a statue of a child. The statue was brass-coloured and the carving was still vivid. It was a little girl with the same appearance as the little girl in the family portrait oil painting in Zhao Jue’s room… exactly the same.

“Why did they bury the statue of the little girl in their grave?” Zhan Zhao asked in a puzzled manner.

“His daughter did not die naturally; you will understand after reading the book.” Zhao Jue said, reaching out and gently pointing to the seam on the side of the statue. Although it was sealed… there was still subtle line visible… There was a buckle crossing the line, which seemed to be locking the two halves of the statue together.

“Hollow?” Gongsun was taken aback, “Can it be opened?”

“Probably.” Zhao Jue smiled, “I haven’t opened it.”

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, and said in their hearts that Zhao Jue was quite tolerant; in this case, most people would be curious about what’s in it.

Zhao Jue saw the expressions of the two men and smiled, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m really curious. But because I can’t predict whether the contents will change after being exposed to light, I was afraid that important exhibits would be destroyed, so I wanted to open it together after you came.”

“Is there a key?” Gongsun asked, pointing to the lock on the statue, “There is a key hole here as if it can’t be opened without a key.”

“This is also a problem.” Zhao Jue said helplessly, “I demolished this entire castle, but I still haven’t found any clues about the key. I have had a few locksmiths look at it, and they all said that it is too old and that it is a Western gadget, so they can’t open it.”

“Was this family completely destroyed?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“En.” Zhao Jue nodded, “At present, the information I have is that after World War II, that last heir died in a foreign land… They left their hometown very early, and the city was very hidden in the mountains, so it was not burned or looted… In addition, the surroundings of the castle were really scary.”

“How did it scare people?” Zhan Zhao asked curiously.

“Well, have you heard of the Sea of Trees?” Zhao Jue asked suddenly.

“Is that the suicide forest in Japan?” Bai Yutang asked.

“En.” Zhao Jue nodded, “I have been to the Sea of Trees in Aokigahara before. I really wanted to feel whether there would be some sort of unknown divine power that would force me to have suicidal thoughts. I spent the night there, but it’s a pity that I felt nothing other than cold.”

Zhan Zhao shrugged, “The suicide fever was triggered after the publication of Seicho Matsumoto’s 《Tower of Waves》. Of course, the dense woods do cause some troubles and feelings of loneliness and helplessness, but considering the number of suicides in Japan each year, this is actually understandable.”

“This is also the case in the surroundings of this castle, and the forest was specifically planted by the owner.” Zhao Jue shrugged, “After a hundred years of hard work, it had grown into a decent forest. I didn’t have time to go in… but I hired a lot of people to go into the forest to search, and they found a few similar corpses.” Zhao Jue stretched his hand out and pointed to the corpses hanging in the air, “There was nothing wrong with the others.”

Zhan Zhao frowned, “Wanting to find a key in the forest… it should just be a fantasy, right?”

“That’s not necessarily true.” Zhao Jue said, “As long as there is enough manpower and equipment, you can find a needle in a haystack. I had the forest divided into square meter segments, separated by yellow ribbon, then assigned everyone one square meter. Using a metal detector to search the entirety of the ground as well as every tree… the results turned up nothing.”

Everyone looked at Zhao Jue in a little surprise, feeling a little incredible in their hearts — Going to such an extent, what exactly does Zhao Jue want to check?

“Would you guys help me figure out a solution, see if you can find the key.” Zhao Jue leaned against the iron coffin, “I’m powerless.”

“With your personality, every brick should have been searched.” Zhan Zhao said, “If you can’t find it, how can we find it?”

“Would the key no longer be in this house?” Bai Chi asked.

“It should still be here.” Zhao Jue shook his head. He reached out, took the book from Zhan Zhao’s hand, opened it, and turned to one of the pages, “Look at what is written here, ‘The Duke personally locked his glory in the bronze statue and buried it in the backyard of the family’s old house. After that, he placed the key in the most conspicuous position of the house, so that his glory would never leave the shelter of the family.’”

“The most conspicuous place?” Gongsun frowned slightly, and everyone looked at each other.

“Never leave the family…” Zhan Zhao suddenly seemed to have thought of something. He stretched his hand out and opened the bag that Bai Chi was carrying, took out the urn, opened it, and took out the pendant.

“Ah…” Zhao Jue exclaimed softly, “Smart, the key is the family crest, that way, it can stay with the family forever.”

“Try it, I don’t know if it’s right.” Zhan Zhao walked over, stuffed one end of the cross into the keyhole, slightly pushed it in, and it seemed to fit… Zhan Zhao was overjoyed. He pinched the cross and turned it to the left, but couldn’t turn it, so he turned it to the right… After ninety degrees, there was a ‘click’… The statue shook slightly.

‿︵‿︵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 5, 2021