S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 113

Mad Doctor Murderer 08 – Song of the Mermaid

---

After getting dropped off by Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, Chen Yu reached the front door of her house when she ran into Chen Mi. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang briefly said hello before leaving as the Chen siblings went upstairs.

“I thought you had a boyfriend who sent you home.” Chen Mi poked at Chen Yu, “Look at your other three female friends, they already have their significant other, you should also work harder.”

“Aye…” Chen Yu scrunched her nose, “Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m possessed by evil spirits, when I have time, I’ll go worshiping with Le Le, I need to be careful so I’m not bringing home a crazy murderer or else that will be an issue.”

“Hey, don’t say those kinds of things. What happened this time?” Chen Mi scowled, those two really do have the worst luck.

Chen Yu explained the situation and Chen Mi slightly furrowed his brows, “I vaguely remember the plane incident from three years ago.”

“Really?” Chen Yu said excitedly, “Didn’t you go by yourself? Perhaps the aircraft blew up?”

“The plane indeed exploded mid air and crashed. After they gathered the debris, we went to confirm it.” Chen Mi exited the elevator with Chen Yu and inserted the house key, “At the time it did seem suspicious. As far as I know, the number of people never matched up, but it would’ve caused other issues so it never got looked into.”

“It has to do with human lives, yet they just didn’t look into it?” Chen Yu wasn’t content, “Xin Xin’s teacher also died during this, and Lan Xi’s brother! How is it possible that the police didn’t investigate this thoroughly?”

“Lan Xi? Who’s that?” Chen Mi listened.

“Hmm… a friend.” Chen Yu went into the kitchen to heat up some dishes as Chen Mi shook his head smiling and went to the sofa to sit down.

Grandfather Chen heard the commotion and came downstairs, “A’Mi, is Xiao Yu back? There was something looking for her.”

“In the kitchen.” Chen Mi responded.

“Who was looking for me?” Chen Yu ran out.

“I heard it from your room. The answer machine was going off.” Grandfather Chen said, “Maybe it’s your manager.”

“Oh.” Chen Yu ran upstairs to check the answer machine, but she couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t just call her cell phone.

Upon pressing the playback button, there was a strange music that came from the other end, but nobody was speaking.

Chen Yu furrowed her brows, leaning over to listen. The drumming from the music was clear, but it wasn’t modern music; instead it sounded like music from minority groups or originating from Africa. There was also an odd buzzing noise, but it was unclear what type of instrument it was.

Chen Yu listened for a while, the music lasted for about three minutes until someone spoke. Chen Yu scowled, taking out the cassette tape to record that music piece before sitting on the bed to listen again. After listening, there is a sense of hallucination as if… someone is crying. A baby? Or maybe a kitten?

After listening, Chen Yu had a bad feeling, the day was turning dark, and her mood was starting to get worse…

“Xiao Yu, time for dinner!” In the living room, Grandpa Chen placed down the chopsticks and hollered upstairs as he asked Chen Mi, “She’s been upstairs for so long, what’s she doing?”

Chen Mi also felt like something was up, so he went upstairs and as soon as he opened the door…

“Xiao Yu!”

Grandpa Chen heard Chen Mi’s shouting from downstairs, it gave him a scare as if his heart was about to beat out of his chest. As he was about to go upstairs, he heard Chen Mi shout, “Grandpa, call an ambulance, quick!”

“Okay!” Grandpa Chen trembled as he ran down to call an ambulance, but Chen Mi had already carried Chen Yu downstairs, “It’s too late, I’ll just send her to the hospital.”

“What happened?” Grandpa Chen glanced at an unconscious Chen Yu.

“She overdosed on medication and tried to suffocate herself with a plastic bag…”

“Ah?” Grandpa Chen stomped his feet in panic, “How could this happen?”

…

Chen Mi sent Chen Yu to the hospital and Yang Fan went to pump her stomach.

Chen Mi took out his phone and called Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao. Chen Yu had so much energy when they had sent her home, how could she just randomly want to kill herself?

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang rushed to the hospital where they saw Grandpa Chen in the ward holding Chen Yu who seemed to have lost a sense of herself, murmuring “Let me die, I want to die…”

“How did this happen?” Bai Yutang scowled.

Yang Fan gave Chen Yu a dose of sedative before asking, “Did she get stimulated too much? She is all over the place mentally right now.”

“She came home for dinner just fine! Before she went upstairs she was also fine…” Since Chen Mi was a policeman, he had a tingling sense that something was up, and after thinking about it, he told Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, “Xiao Yu went upstairs to listen to the answer machine.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao glanced at each other. They had Luo Tian stay with Chen Yu to make sure she didn’t do any stupid while the two of them went to Chen Yu’s house with Chen Mi and Grandpa Chen.

But when they got out of the elevator, the door to the Chen household was open.

Zhan Zhao wrinkled his brows as Bai Yutang took out his gun and approached the door.

Chen Mi asked, “Hey Gramps, did you close the door before you left?”

The old man seemed to panic, shaking his head, indicating he doesn’t remember… But he had a habit of closing the door, so he shouldn’t have forgotten.

Opening the door, there was nobody in the room. As Zhan Zhao was going to enter, Bai Yutang gently stopped him, reaching out and pointing at the ground.

Everyone looked at the ground, there were a few footprints on the red wooden floor.

Chen Yu’s house is very clean; any time they wanted to come into the house, they would change their shoes out of cleanliness habits.

Bai Yutang looked at Chen Mi.

Chen Mi shook his head, signalling that these footprints weren’t theirs! Someone had broken into the house!

Zhan Zhao quickly scanned the room and looked at the coffee table next to the sofa and patted Chen Mi.

Chen Mi scowled – Where was the telephone?

Bai Yutang went upstairs to check every single room and noticed that outside of all the telephones missing, everything else was still here.

 “Seems like the telephone is the problem.” Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “Someone used the telephone to hypnotise Chen Yu, making her want to kill herself. That person might’ve laid in wait nearby and when you guys went to send Chen Yu to the hospital, they came in to steal the recording. But it seemed like this is the first time they came to your house, because they didn’t know which room is Chen Yu’s, so they stole all the telephones instead.”

Chen Mi knew that Zhan Zhao is the specialist here, so he asked, “Then will Xiao Yu recover from this? Or is the hypnosis not breakable, making her want to kill herself over and over?”

“I need to know the recording so I can treat her.” Zhan Zhao started to look around.

“But the recording was stolen, doesn’t that mean Xiao Yu can’t be treated?” Grandpa Chen’s blood pressure was rising as he got worried, and he held his chest to prevent himself from fainting.

Chen Mi quickly helped him to the sofa. Bai Yutang watched as Zhan Zhao was still looking around, so he tried to reassure the two, “Let’s not get too worried, maybe there’s a chance.”

The two of them were stunned, watching Zhan Zhao walk to the middle of Chen Yu’s room.

Zhan Zhao stood there in a daze before sitting down on the bed, taking his shoes off and sitting there crossed-legged.

Chen Mi told Bai Yutang, “Xiao Yu usually likes to sit like that or lay down to listen to music, she doesn’t like to watch TV, she just likes listening to music.”

“That’s a lot of CDs.” Zhan Zhao’s attention was on the bookshelf next to Chen Yu’s bed that was filled with different types of CDs.

“Yeah, Xiao Yu has liked music since she was very young.” Grandpa Chen said and felt scared as he thought of how his granddaughter almost died.

Chen Mi asked Zhan Zhao who was still looking around, “What are you looking for?”

“Don’t you think something is missing?”

“Cat?” Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, “Headphones!”

“En.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “People who enjoy music usually really like headphones right? This room should have a large headset.” Zhan Zhao explained, leaning his body over on the bed and falling onto the ground.

Bai Yutang stood there, Zhan Zhao layed on the ground and asked Chen Mi, “When you came inside, was Chen Yu on this side?”

“Yeah…” Before Chen Mi could finish, he saw Zhan Zhao reach under the bed and took something out, it was a large headset with a voice recorder attached to it.

“That’s Xiao Yu’s!” The old man quickly pointed at the recorder, “No matter what kind of interesting sound she hears, Xiao Yu will record it and listen it using the headset, even when it’s raining she would record the sound, saying that a large rainstorm and a small rain’s beat is different, that she can see the god’s mood.”

“Grandpa, don’t get worked up.” Chen Mi rubbed Grandpa Chen’s chest.

Zhan Zhao put on the headset and pressed the play on the voice recorder.

After listening for a while, Zhan Zhao put the headset down and smiled, “Don’t worry, I know what happened.”

Chen Mi and Grandpa Chen were filled with shock and excitement.

Bai Yutang also wanted to come over to listen.

But Zhan Zhao gently stopped him, “Don’t listen to it.”

Everyone was confused, “Why?”

“Because it can kill.” Zhan Zhao pointed at the recorder and the corner of his mouth curled upwards, “Because in that recorder is a mermaid’s song.”

“Huh?” Everyone stared at Zhan Zhao with shock and confusion.

“Regardless, let’s go save Chen Yu first, then I’ll explain it to you guys.” Zhan Zhao said as he left the house with Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang called Zhang Long over along with a few other people from the forensics department to take samples of the shoe prints.

When they arrived at the hospital, they saw Ma Xin, Qi Le and a few others there, worryingly surrounding Yan Fang to ask what happened.

Zhan Zhao shooed them all out of the ward, closed the door and stayed with Chen Yu inside for about ten minutes.

After the door opened, everyone glanced inside to see Chen Yu gagging while sitting on the bed, “Why do I feel like I just ate detergent?”

“Oh my, Xiao Yu!” Grandpa Chen happily rushed inside, “You scared your gramps to death!”

“What happened?” Chen Yu felt the inside of her mouth was dry, a bitter yet disgusting taste lingered in her mouth making her stick her tongue out. Grandpa Chen held her, crying yet also smiling, which made her even more confused.

Everyone also gathered over and Chen Yu was puzzled, “What’s this for?”

Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao over and asked, “What’s going on?”

Zhan Zhao whispered, “Someone tried to use the recording to hypnotise Chen Yu, trying to make her want to kill herself!”

Bai Yutang looked up, “What kind of music, that mermaid song?”

Zhan Zhao smiled, “Ever heard myths about mermaids?”

“Mermaids?” Bai Yutang folded his arms and waited for Zhan Zhao to explain.

“There are myths about mermaids that are not like a children’s fairytale, where it’s all pretty and cute.” Zhan Zhao said, “In the myths, mermaids are greedy, brutal, violent, and… ah!”

“Okay, okay.” Bai Yutang nodded, “I’m starting to like them, can you get to the point?”

“At the time, sailors were all scared of running into a mermaid.” Zhan Zhao said, “Because a mermaid’s song has a hypnotic effect, every time they find a boat, they would start singing in the sea. The seductiveness of the song will make humans hallucinate and the sailors would jump into the dark sea willingly, then get devoured by mermaids. That’s why when people find ghost ships, there is enough food and water, but there is no trace of any humans!”

“Because they all got eaten by mermaids?” Bai Yutang laughed dryly, “So you’re saying it’s not Ariel from Little Mermaid but Ursula?” (Kanna: Direct translation is “the mermaid princess” and “mermaid witch” but this is referring to pop culture Ariel and Ursula most likely) 

Zhan Zhao continued, “The existence of Mermaids has always been debated, of course humans born with a fish tail is biologically impossible, because it doesn’t fit any of the evolution theories, and biologically it’s also not realistic. Yet the Dugong that people bring up… would carry their young to nurse them, I feel like people suspecting otters make more sense than people suspecting those chubby Dugong right? Even if it really is a Dugong, then that’s not a mermaid princess, but a fat mermaid mother.” (Kanna: Dugong is similar to a manatee, have the nickname ‘sea cow’, and the source of a lot of mermaid legends)

Bai Yutang was amused at Zhan Zhao’s explanation.

“When I was still in school, remember there was a time when I really liked to read stories about deserted islands and rafting?” Zhan Zhao asked.

“Is this some sort of psychological guilt? Maybe geography?” 

Zhan Zhao glared at him, not letting Bai Yutang interrupt him and continued, “There’s more than 50,000 islands in the world with an area of almost 1,000 square kilometres. On these islands, there are many mysterious primitive tribes with very little research and understanding around them. I read it in an article that was written by a psychology professor. He said that on a small island, he heard a very ancient drumming music. Sometimes it sounded like an owl hooting, yet also sounded like a crying child, it was very interesting. After listening to this type of music, many people started to hallucinate. The professor heard about the history of the music from the local residents. Then they realised that the music they were listening to was already modified. It was said that the original music was a type of music that could kill. The locals’ ancestors would use this music often, luring the sailors on the ships that would be docked near the islands to kill themselves, then retrieve the sailors to eat them; their ancestors were known to be cannibals.”

Bai Yutang felt disgusted after listening to the story, “So you’re saying that their ancestors are the mermaids from the myths?”

“I think it’s one of the reasonable explanations for mermaids’ existence.” Zhan Zhao said with a smile.

“One of the explanations?” Bai Yutang’s smile disappeared, “Cat, you know more explanations?”

“Yeah, there are a lot of different explanations, interested in hearing them?” Zhan Zhao excitedly asked.

“Next time, next time.” Bai Yutang raised his hand.

“After the professor analysed this type of music, the focal point was found to be the drumming, paired with some secret language. In it hid some sort of hypnotic speech which gave you hints of suggestions, and it causes you to want to commit suicide unconsciously.”

Bai Yutang nodded, “Then the person who wanted to hurt Chen Yu… using this method, there aren't that many people then?”

“That’s why it’s a clue.” Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, “But I still don’t understand why they wanted to hurt Chen Yu?”

“Maybe it has something to do with this case.” Bai Yutang flashed a smile, “This murderer seems really interesting, hmm?”

“Yeah.” Just as Zhan Zhao nodded, he saw Ma Xin rushing over.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at her, but Ma Xin signalled a “shh”, telling them to not make a noise.

Ma Xin’s phone rang and she quickly placed the phone on Zhan Zhao’s ear.

Zhan Zhao only heard a drumming noise, and a low-beat music, which was rather unique, as if a child is crying but also like a kitten screaming.

Zhan Zhao quickly looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang called Jiang Ping to trace the phone number that was calling Ma Xin.

Jiang Ping quickly found the location, it was at a public phone booth.

Bai Yutang told Ma Han’s group to go take a look.

“It’s still playing?” Bai Yutang watched Zhan Zhao continue to listen and started to worry, “Hey, Cat! Stop listening to it, if you also try to kill yourself, there’s nobody to save you.”

Zhan Zhao glanced at the sky – How was this possible?

At this time, Bai Yutang’s phone started to ring, it was from Ma Han, “Captain, there’s only a recorder in the phone booth…”

Zhan Zhao heard it on the side and suddenly came to a realisation, reaching forward and yelling, “Run!”

Bai Yutang felt his ears ring from Zhan Zhao’s shouting, and at the same time, on the other end of the phone, there was a huge sound coming through… as if something exploded.

“Ah!” Ma Xin jumped, “Brother!”

…

“I’m okay!” Ma Han quickly said through the phone, “Thank god Qin Ou came, he noticed when I was getting close that the phone booth had explosives.”

Once the phone hung up, Zhan Zhao let out a long sigh.

“Scared me to death, what’s that person’s deal?” Ma Xin asked the two, “A challenge for the police?”

Zhan Zhao shook his head, “There’s no reason to provoke us like this.”

Bai Yutang agreed, “I feel like it’s more of a threat, or at least a warning.”

“I feel that way too.” Zhan Zhao nodded, “As if someone is warning us, telling us to mind our own business.”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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: August 25/26, 2022 by Lei

Edited: September 20, 2022 by Angel