S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 72

The Murderer Is Not Human 05 – Totem

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The crowd stood in front of the computer, watching the live broadcast, feeling as if they were watching some kind of horror movie. All of them were too shocked to speak.

"Jiang Ping!" Zhan Zhao was the first one to wake up, "Quickly find out who else is involved in this Tu Xi culture, preferably the kind that involves death"

Hearing Zhan Zhao's words, everyone else also recovered from their stupor. Lu Fang hurriedly called for an ambulance, and Bai Yutang asked Gongsun to take Ma Han and Zhao Hu to rush to the scene first.

Jiang Ping quickly browsed the webpage while asking Zhan Zhao, "Doctor, ah, are there any relevant clues to hint at, it's so difficult to search like this."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and said, "Search for totems, auctions, creations, deaths...and so on for entries related to the Tu Xi tribe."

"Ah!" Jiang Ping's search quickly yielded results, "There's something here!" He clicked on two web pages and said, "There are two articles here."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao came forward to take a look: one was about the auction of the ancient totem of the Tu Xi tribe, the ‘Eagle King’. It was said that this Eagle King totem was the god of anger of the Tu Xi tribe, and its meaning was – death; the other was about a fiction writer who had died in his home strangely.

"A fiction writer died in his home?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other, "Does the police station have any records?!"

"Yes, the cause of death was listed as suicide." Jiang Ping searched the police department's internal web, "The time is… half a month ago."

"Did he die in S City?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Here are the relevant news reports" Jiang Ping printed out the information quickly, and Bai Yutang picked it up to take a look: "Xiao Lu... a travel writer, who has written a documentary novel about the Tu Xi massacre —《The Extinction of Sin》.  This article caused a great deal of controversy in the literary world because of its originality. It detailed the tragic life of a young Tu Xi girl who eventually drowned herself in a sacred river and was finally liberated… A year after the release of the novel, Xiao Lu was found dead in her home. She drowned in the bathtub while taking a bath, with her masterpiece,《The Extinction of Sin》, by her side… There are conflicting accounts of her death and the police, after multiple investigations and thorough autopsies, did not find any signs of homicide, so  it was determined that it was a suicide. However, according to close friends of the deceased, she had mentioned several times during her life that she might die from an ancient and mysterious Tu Xi curse."

After reading the report, Zhan Zhao frowned, "So it's likely that...Xiao Lu is the first victim of this incident?!"

"Are you saying that… she didn't commit suicide?" Bai Yutang asked.

At this time, the phone rang and Bai Yutang picked it up, "Ma Han, you have arrived at the scene?"

"Yes Chief, the fire is out, but the person is dead." Ma Han explained, "Boss, we looked at the scene and felt that something was wrong!"

"What's wrong?" Bai Yutang put the phone on speaker so that everyone could hear Ma Han's voice.

"There were no stools or ladders at the scene!" Ma Han continued, "The beams were at least four metres above the ground and the deceased was hanging at least two metres above the ground."

"What?" The crowd on the other end of the phone looked at each other.

"Then how did he get up there?" Bai Chi couldn't help but ask.

"It's like he pulled himself up there." Ma Han said as he called out into the distance, "Gongsun? How's it going?"

Gongsun was presumably climbing up the ladder to see the corpse in detail and his voice was heard coming "… Pulled himself to his death."

"Chief, why don't you guys go take a look at the scene?" Jiang Ping asked Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao.

"No ~ it's too late ~" both shook their heads at the same time.

Zhan Zhao said, "The murderer was holding us back all along!"

"That's right!" Bai Yutang nodded, "He's been watching from the shadows, and as soon as we go to the scene, he will go and prepare the next victim!"

"So we need to get one step ahead of him and approach the next victim." Zhan Zhao said, "If that Xiao Lu is already dead, then all that's left of… is ~~"

"The person who owns the Eagle King Totem." The crowd spoke in unison.

"Jiang Ping, check the information on that auction house."

Quickly finding the auction house's webpage, Jiang Ping took a look and was delighted, "Chief, a familiar face!"

"What familiar face?!" Bai Yutang was puzzled.

"This auction house is Shang Luo's!"

"What?!" Disgust showed on everyone's faces, "Him again?!"

"Where's the buyer? Who is it?" Zhan Zhao asked eagerly.

"Uh…" Jiang Ping smirked, "The buyer's information is confidential."

Bai Yutang glared at him, "What are you pretending to be a good citizen for, hack him!"

Jiang Ping smiled, "Bao Sir just warned me two days ago that if I ever hack someone's website without permission again, I'll have to go clean the toilets!"

"If you don't hack, I'll make you go clean the toilets now!" Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, "What are you afraid of? If something goes wrong, there's Cat to take care of it!"

"Um… what?" Only then did Zhan Zhao react, but Jiang Ping had already gotten busy. So, the rest of S.C.I. watched as Jiang Ping hacked someone's website, while Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang went to the side and started to pinch each other.

Fifteen minutes later, both sides ended the fight and returned to the computer.

"Traced it." Jiang Ping pointed out the information, "A big collector – Fu Yishan."

"Seems like I've heard of him somewhere." Bai Yutang picked up his jacket, "Whatever, Cat, let's go and meet him first."

"Bai Chi!" Zhan Zhao suddenly called out, "You go and get a full understanding of the information about the Tu Xi culture!"

"Wang Chao and Zhang Long, you two go and get all of Xiao Lu's case records and visit her close friends." Bai Yutang said, then turned back and instructed Xu Qing, "Xu Qing, go and contact with Han Chang, keep an eye on those gangs, something might be happening recently."

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone else was stunned. But Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had already rushed out without looking back.

They drove to Fu Yishan's residence. As Lu Fang had already called and contacted Fu Yishan himself beforehand, they received a very cooperative reply. Therefore, as soon as Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived at the door, they were welcomed in by Qiu Yu, the assistant who was waiting there.

In the collection room, the two met Fu Yishan, who was over seventy years old. He had a head full of white hair but was in great spirits.

After a very polite greeting, the three sat down and went straight to the point.

Without waiting for Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao to talk, Fu Yishan spoke first: "Recently, the matter of the curse of the Tu Xi tribe has been making a lot of noise, and I have heard a little about it. Even if you guys didn't come looking for me, I would have gone looking for you."

"Oh…" The two of them faintly stared at each other, and then fell silent, waiting for the old man to continue.

"First of all, I have to tell you two the bad news that that Eagle King's totem sculpture has been stolen."

"……!" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were shocked.

"Here are the photos of the totem, I still have them." Saying that, Fu Yishan took out a stack of photos.

The photograph shows a date red wooden sculpture of a cylindrical totem with an eagle's head and a human body standing on the ground, and its height was equal to that of a person. What is most striking is that the totem's hands are held up to its chest, wide open in front of it in the shape of eagle's claws, in a gesture as if it were about to pounce on its prey.

"When was it stolen?" Bai Yutang asked, "Was it a burglary of the official residence, or did someone come specifically to steal this?!"

"Haha…" Fu Yishan laughed, "Captain Bai is really keen… That's right, it happened a month ago. Only this totem was lost, nothing else was missing… everything else is in here."

Fu Yishan's words caused Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao to look up and around the collection room.

Digital cameras, burglar alarms, and the large number of security personnel seen when they entered just now… Bai Yutang smiled, "The security system here is so thorough that even a fly would find it hard to fly out, not to mention such an obvious piece."

"Hehe…" Fu Yishan nodded, "Indeed ah…"

When Zhan Zhao saw that the old man seemed to be a bit embarrassed, he asked, "Why didn't you call the police? Is there something unusual going on?"

“…?…" Fu Yishan stared at Zhan Zhao for a moment in surprise, then nodded and took a deep breath and said, "Actually, I said it was stolen… but… in fact, that totem… walked away by itself."

"Walked away by itself?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were somewhat at a loss as to how to understand the old man's words, and could only repeat them with wide eyes.

"Aiya…" Fu Yishan shook his head and stood up, his face seemed to be somewhat agitated, "I can't say I understand either, you guys will know if you come with me to see it."

Having said that, the two followed Fu Yishan out of the collection room and to the entrance of a closed room.

Qiu Yu took out a key and opened the door; inside was a monitoring room that had gathered some dust.

"This is the surveillance room. After that incident, the security guard in charge ran away in fear, and no one has been using this equipment now." Fu Yishan said, nodding to Qiu Yu. Qiu Yu opened the machine and put in a CD, saying, "This is the surveillance video from that night… everyone can see for themselves."

The location in the image was the collection room where they had just been. As it was night, the light was dim...but the totem statue could still be identified at a glance. It was prominently placed in the centre of the room. Since the camera was mounted at the ceiling of the room, the crowd was looking down on that totem and~~felt~~how to say it...

Zhan Zhao looked back at Bai Yutang, who also nodded to him, and when their eyes met, they conveyed the same message – the totem gave off an~~indescribably eerie~~evil feeling!

"Watch carefully!" Qiu Yu suddenly spoke out to remind them.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao recovered their minds and focused on the screen. They saw that in the deserted room, the totem suddenly shook faintly by itself.

…!…

Then, surprisingly, it slowly moved forward a bit, and then, something even more bizarre happened – the totem, as if it were alive, jumped forward in a slow rhythm, ‘pop… pop…’ It repeated the action almost mechanically, little by little, towards the door. Everyone held their breath, this rigid posture, the rhythm of jumping, it felt, like a~~zombie…

At this point, the security guard in charge of the surveillance probably saw the problem, so he pushed the camera forward. The image gradually zoomed in, and slowly, it became a full-body image of Totem~~half-body image~~finally a close-up of its face…

Just as the image was pushed into a close-up, the totem suddenly and violently jerked back. The hideous eagle head turned straight back 180 degrees, and a pair of hollow eyes stared straight into the camera! Immediately afterwards, the camera flashed a burst of snow… The crowd could not help but suck back a cold breath.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao could almost imagine how that security guard would have been scared when he saw this image alone in the dead of night~~

Qiu Yu's hand that reached over to turn off the video shook a little and he spoke with a bitter smile, "No matter how many times you watch it, it still gives you chills!"

"Is there anything after that?" Bai Yutang asked.

"No more…" Qiu Yu shook his head, "The guard was too scared. He said he was afraid that the totem would come out of the screen and turn off the main switch!"

"It's hard to blame him in that situation!" Fu Yishan said, "It is said that he is still undergoing psychological treatment and is still afraid to go near televisions or  monitors again or stay alone in an enclosed space."

After watching it with a frown, Zhan Zhao turned his head and asked Fu Yishan, "Is that why you didn't call the police?"

"Ugh…" Fu Yishan shook his head, "More than that ah… this thing is really inauspicious! So, I guess it's better to lose it."

"How is it inauspicious?" Bai Yutang pursued.

"I live alone." Fu Yishan slowly said, "My partner died many years ago, and my children are all out of town… life has always been quiet. But…" sitting down on a stool, he continued. "since I bought that totem, there has been no peace."

"How so?!" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao did not understand.

"In the beginning, I often heard the sound of 'pop… pop…' at night." Fu Yishan grimaced bitterly. "At first, I didn't really know what it was, but then, it turned out that this totem would actually move its position on its own – First it was just a little bit forward, and then it started to get more and more over the top! First, it appeared inexplicably in the corridor, then in the living room, and the most bizarre one…" said, patting himself on the heart, "When I woke up, it was standing next to my bed, which almost scared me out of my wits!…It was because of that time that I installed this device, and I never thought that within a few days of using it, I would almost scare a security guard to death!"

"When did you buy that totem?" Zhan Zhao asked, "During this time, did anyone else ever offer to buy it from you?"

"I bought it two months ago." The old man thought for a moment, "Don't you say it… there was really a person who wanted to buy this from me. However, at the beginning, nothing strange was found with this totem… I had also learned something about the Tu Xi tribe… and knew that odd goods are available. Therefore, all along, I refused to sell it."

"So, after the strange incident, has that person ever come back?!" Bai Yutang asked.

"They came!" The old man nodded his head.

"Then why didn't you sell it to him?" Bai Yutang was curious.

"Youngster ~~ what do you take this old man for?" Fu Yishan shook his head, "Back then, Xu Shu asked Liu Bei to sell the horse, saying that this horse hurt its owner, and Liu Bei refused to sell it, saying that since he knew that it hurt its owner, how could he sell it to harm people! I knew it was evil, so I didn't dare to sell it to anyone else, I didn't want to make this kind of money…"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both laughed and thought, ‘Don't look at this old man's babbling, however he is a nice person.’

"What is that man's name?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Oh… he calls himself Luo." Qiu Yu said, "Nothing else was said, just stressed that he wanted to buy it, no matter how much it cost."

"Here's the deal…" Bai Yutang said to Qiu Yu, "Can you go to the police station and do a sketch?"

"No problem!" Qiu Yu promised, "I have a good memory!"

Just then, Bai Yutang's phone rang, and when he picked it up, it was Jiang Ping calling.

"Chief, that Akasha has started foretelling again… The place where she said the curse would fall this time is the one you went to; Fu Yishan's mansion!!!"

……

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Angel: Hey guys, I haven't been feeling good the last few days (not COVID, tested negative for that, probably just a bad head cold) so I am going to pause uploading until I feel better.

Translated: March 7, 2022 by Turtle

Edited: April 5, 2022 by Angel