S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 126

Mad Doctor Murderer 21 – The Devil's Waters

---

Kevin was caught, but his condition was not quite normal, it was as if he had lost his mind.

Zhan Zhao first had someone wash his face thoroughly, and then asked him to look in the mirror. After looking in the mirror for half a day, Kevin fell into a state of confusion, which was very odd.

Bai Yutang seriously asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat, what's he doing? Hypnotised? Under suggestion? Or neurotic?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged slightly, "The effects of hallucinogenic drugs plus maybe a little bit of suggestion, I'm not too sure because there's no way to determine the effects of the drugs."

Gongsun and several old Chinese doctors smelled the paint that Kevin used to paint his face and agreed – the paint had a large amount of hallucinogenic drugs in it, all of which were very rare. Some of them were even herbs that could not be found in the country, such as some plants that appeared in the tropics or some algae that grew under the sea.

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang returned to Chen Kefeng's room, they saw Chen Yu and Qi Le sitting there. The nurse was treating their wounds, and both of them had some small abrasions. Lan Xi was sitting on the side asking Chen Yu about her injuries, and Zhao Hu was asking Qi Le, "Has that Kevin ever been like this before?"

"How is that possible?" Qi Le shook her head, "Kevin's legs would go weak at the sight of a fake snake, and even if he had a hundred nerves, he wouldn't dare to kill a chicken, let alone a man."

"Kevin can't even stand up when he sees blood." Chen Kefeng roared, "He's a wimp and he still has the nerve to try to kill me, he's sick in the head."

Chen Kefeng was very angry, and it was not clear whether it was directed at Kevin or at Chen Yu and Lan Xi who were whispering and looking close.

Qi Le scolded him, "It's you ah, you usually make fun of him three times a day for being timid. This time, the first thing he did was try to kill you when he lost his mind!"

"Do you always make fun of him?" Zhan Zhao asked Chen Kefeng as if he had heard something crucial.

"It's not much..." Chen Kefeng shrugged.

"He makes fun of everyone, and there are so many people who want to kill him that even the fans want to kill him." At this time, Da Ding and Xiao Ding walked in from outside and held out two fingers to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, making a V, "Good news, Forensic Pathologist Yang is through the danger period."

"Seriously?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were so excited that they both stood up.

Gongsun hurried and ran towards the emergency room, and the twins hooked their fingers at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Old Yang woke up for a bit after the surgery and refused to use pain medication, saying he wanted to stay awake to tell you guys something. Yang Fan asked you two to hurry over."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded and hurriedly ran over, leaving Da Ding and Xiao Ding behind to keep watch on this side.

In the ward, Old Yang was leaning against the bed with a respirator. His family and students saw that he was fine and went back first without disturbing him. Old Yang was now in a highly protected state, and Bao Zheng had gathered many police officers around him in three different layers, denying visits. Only his granddaughter was left behind to help serve tea and take care of him.

Entering the room, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found that apart from Bao Zheng, Gongsun, Bai Jintang, the SCI crowd and Yang Fan who was checking the machines, there was also a young man they hadn't seen before.

This person looked to be a mixed race, or maybe a somewhat Asianized foreigner? He had curly blonde hair, it was not clear whether it was natural or dyed, and his skin was snow-white and very eye-catching. He was looking at Gongsun with a smile and was chatting with Bai Jintang.

Zhan Zhao was curious about this man's identity, and Bao Zheng said, "It's the new leader of the bomb disposal team, Captain Wang."

Bao Zheng couldn't bear to say his full name, but Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang understood – Oh! He was the bomb disposal expert who was disliked by Bai Jintang.

"Does he have something to do with the case too?" Bai Yutang asked Bao Zheng.

Bao Zheng nodded and looked at Old Yang.

Wang Ba raised his hand to greet the crowd, "When I was chatting with Forensic Doctor Yang, I found out that we used to live in the same city, so we talked."

Bai Yutang went to the bedside and asked Old Yang, "Old Yang, are you sure you can talk now?"

Old Yang nodded, looking a little laboured.

Everyone was worried about whether he was strong enough to hold on and talk, but they might not be able to catch the murderer if he didn't tell them the truth, so they had to watch him grippingly as he endured the pain.

Yang Fan looked at his watch, "You only have ten minutes, after that I'm going to give him a painkiller so he can get some rest.

The crowd all nodded and hurried into the subject.

Zhan Zhao took out the photo that he had with him and handed it to Old Yang to look at, asking, "Is it about him?"

Old Yang smiled faintly and nodded at Zhan Zhao, "I'll simply say it even if I die, you'll definitely find out."

His granddaughter immediately pinched him, "No nonsense!"

Old Yang laughed a few times, causing his wound to hurt, and he covered it as he gasped for breath.

Gongsun told the crowd not to make him laugh and asked, "Who is this man in the picture?"

Bai Chi took a printed screenshot of the movie and showed it to Old Yang.

Bai Yutang asked, "Old Yang, is it the same person?"

Old Yang nodded, "Yes, this man's name is Bobby, I don't remember his full name, it was too long ago."

The crowd all nodded and waited for Old Yang to continue.

"My family has been practising medicine for generations. When I was a child, my father studied medicine in America and my mother and I accompanied him. Bobby was my neighbour, he was very introverted and thin, unlike the average American kid who was obsessed with football or baseball. Like me, he loved to read and watch horror movies and aspired to be a doctor. We were best friends from that time until my dad finished his studies and brought me back home. We wrote to each other a lot in high school, and he was already somewhat self-introduced to the medical profession by then. But by the time I had finished high school and done the bloodletting procedures, I was ready to see him again, but I learned something amazing."

Old Yang paused to catch his breath slightly after speaking.

His granddaughter hurriedly gave him the respirator to let him rest for a while.

Wang Ba told the crowd instead of Old Yang, "It was many years ago, before we were born I think, and I knew about it from reading the information. I lived in a small town in the south when I was a kid, and my parents used to use Mad Doctor Bobby to scare the kids."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Mad Doctor Bobby... I remember, there was a very famous case."

"The same mad doctor killer who was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to one hundred and fifty years in prison?" Bai Yutang was also very familiar with the case and frowned, "Very famous indeed."

Bai Chi also seemed to recall, "Oh! The one who kidnapped people for dissection for human experimentation?"

When everyone heard the name ‘Bobby', they couldn't help but frown at Forensic Pathologist Yang.

Bao Zheng looked at the photo, "That Bobby was still very young when he was arrested, just a medical student. Back then, many people lamented the fact that a talented doctor who could have been an angel had degenerated into a bloodthirsty demon. Some also said he was the new Jack the Ripper, he was famous."

Wang Ba pointed to the picture of the drooping Bobby, "I can't imagine that he would have aged like this, I still remember his young face when he was escorted to Alcatraz, I've seen his picture in the police academy's database."

"A chance to live in Alcatraz?" Bai Yutang was impressed, he really wasn't young anymore.

"But he only caught the last train, this old guy seems to have been blessed by the gods all his life." Wang Ba sighed and put the photo down, “Alcatraz was abandoned in 1963, and when the prisoners were separately escorted to other prisons, Bobby escaped."

"What?" The crowd was surprised.

"Escaped from prison?" Zhan Zhao frowned, "Never heard of it!"

“Of course." Wang Ba shrugged, "The boat met with a shipwreck at sea, and as you know, the waters around Alcatraz were swarming with sharks, so everyone thought Bobby might have been fed to the sharks. To avoid panic, no one spread the word either. And it's true that there have been no more murders like that since, I just didn't expect... that he would survive to this day."

Old Yang took off his respirator and continued, "According to the time calculations, I had been in correspondence with Bobby before he was imprisoned. He was still the medical student who was keen on medicine, but then I lost contact with him, so he may have been imprisoned. When I was having dinner with the Bao Sir the other day, I saw a man from a distance and didn't believe it at first, but then I looked closer and it really looked like Bobby, so I went after him and he said I had mistaken him."

"He's really here? What's he doing here?" Bai Yutang couldn't figure it out.

Old Yang shook his head, "I can't figure it out either. After seeing Yu Xiaofeng's corpse that day, and her wounds, something suddenly occurred to me."

The crowd listened attentively.

"I remember that Bobby once did some research on herbal medicine, and the medicinal properties of plants can vary from region to region. He once deduced that in some special geographical location, there existed some unknown plants with unknown properties." Old Yang said and looked at the crowd, "He also said that if he became famous in the future, he would take the name of Dr. X."

"Dr. X?" Zhan Zhao frowned slightly. Was this how the mysterious ‘X’ was explained?

"Because X represents the unknown." Old Yang smiled, "Since he was a child, he has been willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants, so one could say he is either extremely complicated or extremely simple. If he really had killed many people, I dare say that there was probably no personal grudge or pursuit of any personal gain at all, he was only seeking to prove some truth that existed in medicine, or to explore or test it. Nothing in this world means anything to him except medicine."

After hearing this, Wang Ba summed it up, "Just paranoid, I guess."

The crowd nodded – complete paranoia!

"Could it be that he is the one who wants to kill you?" Zhan Zhao asked Old Yang.

Old Yang shook his head uncertainly, a little sad, "I don't know, maybe... if I blocked the path of his medical research, no matter who I was, he would kill me without hesitation."

The crowd generally understood, it seemed… that this Bobby, their first suspect, was by far the most suspicious one.

It was just that the crowd couldn't for the life of them figure out why this Bobby had come all the way out here to kill someone. And not only kill someone, but rather torture several people who are related to Hao Ling, who died in the plane crash back then. Was there a connection between them?

Leaving Forensic Pathologist Yang to recuperate, the group returned to the SCI office.

In the office, Jiang Ping was tapping away at his keyboard at a speed that was incomprehensible to humans.

Zhan Zhao took a look and raised his eyebrows, "Jiang Ping is in a good mood, he might be onto something!"

The crowd looked at each other in disbelief, how could he possibly tell if Jiang Ping was in a good or bad mood when he was tapping on the computer every day with such dexterity?

Faced with the crowd's doubts, Bai Yutang helped Zhan Zhao explain again, "Tapping on the keyboard slightly faster than usual, his fingers are lighter, and his eyebrows are more relaxed."

"Correct!" Zhan Zhao nodded in agreement.

The others thought breathlessly, it's really those who are close to vermilion are red... Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao also learned to be godly. (Angel: Those who are close to vermilion are red is the first half of the metaphor 近朱者赤，近墨者黑, and means that approaching a good person can make a person better)

When they walked into the office, Jiang Ping waved to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

The two hurried over and heard Jiang Ping ask with a smile, "Did you watch Pirates of the Caribbean 4?"

Zhan Zhao looked at the sky speechlessly, while Bai Yutang looked at him with his arms crossed, "Get to the point!"

"Aren't the little mermaids in it very cute?" Jiang Ping said, drawing an affirmation from Bai Chi, “Yes..."

"Is that gap-toothed girl?" Zhao Hu also came over.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other speechlessly. Jiang Ping hurriedly asked Zhan Zhao in order to avoid getting beaten up, "Dr. Zhan, the song that struck Chen Yu earlier was called Mermaid's Song, wasn't it?"

Zhan Zhao faintly stared and nodded, "En, what's the connection?"

Jiang Ping held up the printout of the mask pattern on Kevin's face, "This mask, it's called the Mermaid Mask."

"Mermaid..." The crowd's mouths opened wide in surprise.

"Why is the mermaid mask so scary?" Zhan Zhao wondered.

"I found the answer." Jiang Ping found a website which was the official website of a recent art exhibition of the lost civilizations of the archipelago in Europe. In it, there was a group of oil paintings depicting the faces of indigenous people wearing rapeseed masks, one of which was exactly the same as the one painted by Kevin!

"This one is called the Mermaid Totem." Jiang Ping said, "I contacted the organisers and they helped me find the donor. The other party said that this was the legendary mermaid totem that lured the crew with the sound of drums and then robbed and ate them."

As soon as the crowd heard that – bingo!

Zhan Zhao then asked, "Where do these mermaid tribes live now?"

Jiang Ping clicked on some information, "I was just talking to the donor, these drawings were made by his grandfather when he was adventuring back in the day. He scanned his grandfather's travel journals to show us and I found one thing."

The crowd all gathered around the computer.

They saw Jiang Ping pull up a scan of an ancient notebook with a simple map drawn on it, and next to the map, a string of odd characters was written.

"This map looks so familiar!" Together, the crowd thought of the coordinate axis with the mysterious X written on it, and that outline map was very similar to this one.

"What does that string of characters next to it mean?" Bai Yutang pointed at the characters and asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao looked at them and whispered, "Hebrew, the Devil's Waters."

‿︵‿︵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: October 10, 2022 by Angel

Edited: October 21, 2022 by Angel