S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 116

Mad Doctor Murderer 11 – Intimidation

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At first, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were nervous for a while, thinking that someone had gotten the jump on them, but after a closer look, they felt that something was wrong. If someone was walking around, it was impossible for the figure to keep swinging from side to side regularly, right?

Zhan Zhao tilted his head to look at the shadow through the doorway, which was black, left~right~left~right~... like a pendulum, and not very fast.

Zhan Zhao could not figure out what kind of stunt this was. He looked at Bai Yutang in confusion.

Bai Yutang listened and heard some strange sounds in the room, similar to a kitten whimpering, “wu wu" and “si si..."

Bai Yutang frowned, took out his gun and pushed the door to enter the room.

The living room was not lit, the light was coming from the room inside, which should be the bedroom. The shifting light in the bedroom showed that something was hanging under the light and was swaying from side to side.

Bai Yutang quickly checked and finding no one outside, he signalled for Zhan Zhao to follow him carefully. Zhan Zhao naturally cooperated with him and looked left and right.

The two of them walked towards the illuminated room. After a few steps, Zhan Zhao felt something sliding across the back of his foot and looking down... Through the faint light in the room, he only saw a cyan, two finger-thick snake sliding across the back of his foot.

"Ah!" After all, Zhan Zhao rarely goes out in the field, plus he has three taboos in life: spiders, poisonous snakes and big ants. As soon as he saw this thing, Zhan Zhao's hair stood up and he jumped up and screamed.

Hearing this sound, a ‘wu wu' sound came from the room, as if someone was crying with a beak.

"Cat, get out!"

Bai Yutang shouted, while pointing at the door of the room with the light on.

Zhan Zhao glanced towards the doorway and instantly got goosebumps.

There were several snakes slithering out of the doorway.

Bai Yutang quickly went to turn on the light, and when he reached the doorway of the room, avoiding the snakes, he took a look inside and instantly frowned. He reached out to the person inside and said, "Don't move, calm down!"

Zhan Zhao couldn't stop his curiosity and ran over to have a look, and was also startled.

He saw that there were several snakes slithering over the floor of the room. In the middle of the room hung a huge cloth bag, which was hanging from the hook of a chandelier and was swaying. The figure the two men had just seen in the doorway was the shadow caused by the swaying of this thing. There was a hole in one of the sides of the bag and snakes were emerging from the inside, and one fell after a while.

And inside the cloth bag, the writhing mass of snakes was clearly visible.

In the corner of the room, Xue Qin was tied to a chair with intricately wrapped ropes that attached to the hook of the chandelier from which the snake bag hung. Xue Qin's mouth was taped shut and she could not speak, only whimper.

Her shoes were taken off and she was standing barefoot on a stool, with snakes slithering on the floor, and she kept crying in fear.

"Cat, call the police station and tell them about the situation, tell them to notify the fire department to come and catch the snakes, there are a lot of them." Bai Yutang said as he found a broom in the room and drove away any snakes that slithered near Xue Qin.

Zhan Zhao made the call and stood beside Bai Yutang to look at the snakes nearby. Both of them now had a question, who had done this? This was a bit too creative!

Xue Qin's mouth was still taped. Bai Yutang wanted to help her peel it off, but Zhan Zhao wouldn't let him.

"In the current situation, once you tear off the tape, it will lead to an emotional breakdown and you may lose control at that time. If you tear the rope and the snakes all fall down it will be trouble." Zhan Zhao explained to Xue Qin, "So bear with it for a little while longer, someone will be here soon."

Xue Qin nodded as she cried, showing her understanding.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao – Cat, what kind of mentality did this person have?

Zhan Zhao raised an eyebrow gently – revenge and torture!

Not long after, they saw Gongsun arrive with a large group of people, followed by firefighters who were wearing protective clothing.

"Captain Bai." One of the firefighters at the front greeted Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang recognised him as the captain of the firefighting brigade in the area where the police station was located, called Xiao Shen.

"Captain Xiao." Bai Yutang pointed to the bag, "There are quite a few snakes here."

"People are really getting sicker and sicker nowadays." Xiao Shen shook his head as a few of the team members had already started to grab the snakes on the ground.

"They're all non-poisonous." From behind the crowd, another man came up.

This man was wearing a white lab coat, twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, with short chestnut coloured, naturally curly hair, good looks and an aura close to Gongsun's: a unique, doctor's aura. When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at him, they felt that something looked familiar – where had they seen him before?

The man froze when he saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, and seemed to remember something. After a long time, the man remembered all of a sudden, "Ah! You two are the owners of that fat cat."

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang heard the words 'fat cat', they immediately remembered, "Oh! That poison-tongued doctor!"

"His job as a veterinarian is just a personal hobby," Gongsun smiled and introduced the two of them, "He is the most famous zoologist in China, his name is Chen Yin. We recently had to work together on a topic about evolution, and I invited him here when I heard there were snakes."

"Chen Yin, I've heard of that name before." Zhan Zhao shook hands with him.

"I've heard a lot about Dr. Zhan as well." Chen Yin greeted everyone politely, then looked at the huge snake bag hanging in the middle of the room and froze, "A very creative approach." With that, he pulled out his glasses and put them on, and stared at the bag of snakes for a long time, "These snakes didn't come from here."

Bai Yutang asked him, "What do you mean, not from here?"

"It is rare to see snakes in the city, most snakes come from the countryside, grass snakes and water snakes are the most common. There are about two hundred kinds of snakes in the country, with the majority being land snakes, but these snakes come from the tropics." Chen Yin said, casually pulling one out of the bag and placing it in his hand, "Cold-blooded animals require a high temperature. These snakes don't seem to have adapted too well to the climate here and are already in a semi-rigid state, so they didn't slither all the way out of their bag."

“Is that so..." Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both nodded their heads.

"Captain Xiao," Chen Yin said to Xiao Shen, “cover this hole with tape, then just climb up and take the whole bag down. At this temperature now, these snakes are not aggressive."

“Okay!" Xiao Shen had the team follow Chen Yin's instructions and successfully removed the bag, and it was safe and sound.

"There should be a few more." Chen Yin pointed to several corners of the room, and wherever he pointed, the firefighters recovered drowsy snakes.

"They're all caught." Chen Yin finished and received a phone call. Hanging up the phone, he apologised and said to Gongsun, "Sorry, a Polish dwarf horse is having a hard time giving birth and I have to leave for a while.

"Oh." Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both thanked him.

"By the way, it takes specific conditions to raise a snake like this." Chen Yin left his business card for the two, "If you need any help you can come to me at the clinic, or just give me a call. Say hello to that fat cat for me." With that said, he hurried away.

"Cool doctor." Bai Chi came over to look at the business card.

"A zoologist running a veterinary clinic, huh?" Zhan Zhao asked Gongsun, "He likes animals a lot?"

"Well, Chen Yin is probably the most animal-loving person in the world." Gongsun smiled, "He can handle any kind of animal."

"He does understand the psychology of animals, after he spoke to Luban the other day, he really went home and succeeded in losing weight." Zhan Zhao was interested, "I'll discuss it with him sometime."

By this time, Xue Qin had already been rescued, and she kept shaking after being carried to the sofa.

"Is everything alright?" Bai Yutang asked her.

"No..." Xue Qin shook her head, but couldn't stop shaking, her eyes were slightly glazed over and the crowd thought she was in a strange state.

"Do you want to go to the hospital?" Bai Chi asked.

"No, there's no need." Xue Qin shook her head, her hands clinging to the towel that Gongsun had draped over her.

Zhan Zhao looked at her and frowned slightly, "Cold-blooded animal phobia?"

Xue Qin kept nodding, "Mm, yes, my psychiatrist said the same thing."

"What kind of illness is that?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Is it a mental illness?"

"Same as your cleanliness fetish. If it's not serious, it's just a psychological shadow. If it's serious, it's like claustrophobia and acrophobia, it can cause problems in life."

"Why would there be such an illness?" Gongsun wondered.

"Have you ever been attacked by snakes? Or been around them for a long time?" Zhan Zhao asked Xue Qin.

"Oh... well, I once fell into a snake nest." When Xue Qin said this, the crowd was shocked.

"A snake nest?" Zhan Zhao felt amazed, "It wasn't in S City, was it?"

Xue Qin shook her head, "On a trip to the Amazon."

"Oh." The crowd all nodded, thinking back to the plots of some horror movies that were bad enough.

"Who attacked you?" Bai Yutang asked Xue Qin.

"I... don't know. I fell asleep somehow while I was waiting for you guys, and when I woke up I was like this." Xue Qin said, shaking again, and asked, "Could it be, that someone is trying to kill me?"

"If they wanted to kill you, they would have just thrown you down the stairs when you passed out, no need to do this, right? And with the door open, someone would definitely find you by dawn." Bai Yutang replied.

"That's right." Xue Qin nodded.

"Miss Xue, you called us here with something to tell us." Bai Yutang asked, "Can you say it now?"

"Uh..." Xue Qin hesitated for a moment, "No... it's nothing."

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned.

The other SCI officers on the side were a little puzzled and looked at Xue Qin.

"Miss Xue, you just clearly said..." Before Zhan Zhao could finish his sentence, he saw Xue Qin shake her head, "There is nothing, I am a little nervous and have a bad memory, I don't remember."

Bai Yutang frowned, this kind of excuse is too outrageous. Why did Xue Qin suddenly change her mind and decide to keep her mouth shut? Because of the sudden situation… the influence of those snakes?

The crowd asked her a few more times, but Xue Qin said she had a bad headache and just brushed it off. Finally, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had no choice but to give up.

"You have my phone number, let me know if anything happens." Bai Yutang left another business card for insurance purposes.

"Do you need us to protect you?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Well... it's fine, I'll just call my friends to accompany me." Xue Qin's attitude took a hundred and eighty degree turn, and as if to shoo the police officers away, she closed the door.

At the door, the crowd looked at each other in disbelief.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "What does she mean?"

Zhan Zhao frowned, "It seems that those snakes have changed her mind."

"Snakes..." Bai Yutang frowned, "She's scared, so she's hiding?"

"There seems to be a lot more for us to investigate." Zhan Zhao sighed.

"So what's next?" Bai Chi was helpless, "It's hard to get any clues."

"Well..." Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, “guess how long it takes to deliver a foal?"

Bai Yutang smiled, "Trying to find clues through snakes?"

Zhan Zhao was pleased, "Oh, Luban's weight loss results should also be shown to the doctor, right?"

When the group returned to the villa, Chen Yin also arrived in his car. Opening the door, two beautiful German Shepherds ran out of the car. Very spirited, they appeared to be a male and a female, and they followed Chen Yin in a majestic fashion.

"Wow!" Zhan Zhao saw them from afar, "So handsome!"

"Ahem." Bai Yutang coughed.

Zhan Zhao reassured him, "I'm talking about the dog, not the man, the man is not as handsome as you."

Bai Yutang was speechless.

Chen Yin walked in with the German Shepherds and from far away saw the little lion in Zhan Zhao's hand and Lisbon lying on the white sand, along with a large group of cats and kittens.

"What an interesting family." Chen Yin walked over, then lifted up Luban and looked at him, "Not bad, the weight loss was a success!"

Luban obviously remembered the doctor who had hurt his pride and burrowed into Zhan Zhao's arms to hide.

Chen Yin reached out and stroked his head, "Judging by the breed of Burmese rag doll, he's quite an expensive little fellow."

Luban wagged his tail and Lilia came over.

Chen Yin picked it up, "A purebred Garfield? It's beautiful!"

"There's also a bunch of kittens and..." Before Zhan Zhao could finish his sentence, he saw Chen Yin staring at the two white lions.

Walking over to Lisbon, Chen Yin knelt down to look at him, "Perfect!"

Seeing the little lion again, he lifted it up, "This is heaven!"

The crowd stifled laughter as Chen Yin turned back and asked, "Don't you think there are too many felines? Want to get a few dogs to even things out?" With that, he introduced his two German Shepherds to the crowd, "R and T."

"R and T?" Said Bai Yutang, finding it interesting, "How should we call them?"

"It's simple." Chen Yin smiled, “A'T."

The two German Shepherds immediately ran over with their tails wagging.

The crowd then felt a cold breeze, "Cold jokes ah... so cold."

As the crowd was getting chilly, Gongsun unexpectedly let out a "pfft."

Sitting aside and reading the newspaper, Bai Jintang raised his head then lowered it to continue reading the newspaper.

"Want me to look at something?" Chen Yin asked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang after he had greeted the animals.

Bai Yutang led him over to a large box and opened the lid to reveal at least a hundred snakes coiled up inside, "All the snakes from the bag just now."

Chen Yin raised an eyebrow slightly.

"We wonder if we can use these snakes to find clues about the person who released the snakes and raised them?" Zhan Zhao requested.

"I'll take a look." Chen Yin reached out and grabbed two snakes to take a closer look. "There are more than three thousand species of snakes in nature, less than one fifth of them are poisonous, and snakes are actually quite intelligent and spiritual."

"I have a professional question to ask," Zhan Zhao asked, "under what circumstances does falling into a snake's nest happen?"

Chen Yin froze, then burst out laughing, "Are you guys influenced by horror movies? Like ‘Anaconda' or something like that?"

Zhan Zhao didn't quite understand.

"It is absolutely impossible for that kind of large snake nest, where ten thousand snakes are reunited, with a king snake inside, to survive in such a state." Chen Yin shook his head, "Snakes generally live alone, and snakes like to burrow. One snake in a hole is just about right. Female snakes lay eggs at a rate of a dozen or so at a time. Different species of snakes have very different living environments, and getting them to gather together, unless it's a snake pavilion in a zoo, is simply impossible."

"Then why does Xue Qin have that kind of cold-blooded animal phobia?" Bai Chi asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao smiled and didn't say anything.

Bai Yutang saw Zhan Zhao's expression on the side and asked, "Cat, this illness doesn't even exist, does it? You tricked her."

Zhan Zhao picked up the corner of his mouth, "That's right, I just gave her a reason to explain her abnormal mood."

"Why?" The crowd was puzzled.

"It's human to be afraid of snakes, being afraid isn't actually a problem." Zhan Zhao said, "In that kind of situation, it's perfectly normal for a girl to shout hysterically or simply collapse and faint, rather it's being calm that's not normal."

Bai Yutang nodded, "I also think Xue Qin has a lot of guts and is very calm."

"Indeed, in this case, she was relatively calm, as if she was suppressing her emotions." Bai Chi also agreed.

"A person only needs to make excuses when they are disguising their emotions." Zhan Zhao smiled, "So I gave her an excuse for her abnormality, and she lied to us in a logical manner. She also said that the psychiatrist told her this... Such an illness does not exist, fear is a normal state of mind, and fear of snakes is just fear of danger, which anyone would have."

The crowd understood the reasoning, but did not understand why Zhan Zhao did so.

Only Bai Yutang reached out and gently stroked his chin, "Cat, you mean that what Xue Qin wanted to tell us had something to do with the person who released the snakes, and that the snakes had reminded her not to tell us about that incident. Xue Qin wanted me to make sure her life wasn't in danger, and was deciding whether to tell us or not?"

Zhan Zhao nodded in satisfaction, "I thought the same thing!"

"Say it simply." Bai Jintang was also somewhat interested in hearing about this side of the case, but the big snake gang was not snakes, and it was making his head spin. (Angel: 大圈帮 is Hong Kong slang that generally refers to groups who partake in underworld activity.)

"To put it simply, the story Xue Qin is trying to tell us has these snakes in it. And someone used these snakes to remind her to not tell us that story, so that she wouldn't have to die!" Bai Yutang laughed, "One hundred percent intimidation!"

"The story about the snakes..." The crowd understood, casually tilting their faces up and starting to connect the dots.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about," At this point, Chen Yin interrupted the crowd's thoughts, “however, I should be able to find the place where the snakes were raised."

All of them were delighted. Zhan Zhao pinched Luban's ear and sighed – that’s why people say an expert is an expert!

‿︵‿︵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: by Lei and Angel

Edited: October 4, 2022 by Angel