S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 6

A Requiem for a Murderer 06 – The Miracle in the Bell Tower

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The four delinquent boys who showed Bai Yutang the way were not exactly gangsters or hooligans, they were just a few local born kids. The area is one of the more complicated neighbourhoods in T City, with complex terrain and many streets, and over time, somehow it came to be known as the 'old district'.

"All the boys who grew up in the old district would get into fights and were involved in gangs." Gradually, this became a popular saying among the students. So children from the old district were usually labelled as poor and delinquent, and as the neighbourhood was home to some very prestigious schools, the rule was followed - where there was class there was struggle, and there were often clashes between students. And again, according to most people's values, mistakes always end up being attributed to the children of the old district.

The blond haired one, whose name was Chen Zhixin, had a younger sister called Chen Zhiqin. Both of their parents were dead and the siblings lived with their grandmother in a small house in the old district, with the family living on the siblings' part-time jobs and the grandmother's retirement salary.

The tall one was a special sports student at a nearby school, who played basketball, called Xu Jie.

The chubby one, nicknamed Xiao Hu, coincidentally had the same name as Zhao Hu. Zhao Hu took a look at his size and slapped him on the head, "Okay, the big tiger will give way to you, I'm the little tiger."

The other dark-haired boy, who never spoke, looked very studious and wore glasses, was called Chen Jing. He was originally born here, but then his father got rich and found a new love. He was the only son in the family and his father loved him very much, but he still moved back to the old district to stay with his mother.

After listening for a while, Zhan Zhao thought that he was just a rather ordinary child, nothing special. It was strange, but at some point, hardship had become a special status; when a person encountered hardship, they were not given sympathy but discrimination. It was not clear if there was something wrong with the world, or if people in the world had suddenly become ‘powerful'. 

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also introduced themselves, but did not say that they were police officers, only that they were there to visit the tomb and to see the school.

"That's right," Bai Yutang asked Chen Zhixin, “why did you guys say that no one remembered Xin Xin and Grandma Cai?”

"It's not that no one remembers Xin Xin or Grandma Cai, it's that no one remembers anyone here." Zhixin shrugged slightly, "Many of the people living here are single parents or have very few relatives anyway, and usually when they die, no one remembers. So a few of us agreed that if anyone dies first, the other few must remember to visit the graves, and if we all die, we'll all be buried together."

Zhan Zhao raised his eyebrows slightly and rubbed his chin - why so pessimistic at an age when they should be optimistic?

Zhao Hu tapped Xiao Hu on the shoulder, "I say you boys are too non-mainstream, you can't make such a promise at a young age, it should be that you'll meet again in ten years, or come back to meet again in a few decades, and then your kids' wives will continue to be friends!"

Zhan Zhao slightly raised the corners of his mouth, typical optimistic personality.

"By the way, what do you guys do?" Chen Zhixin asked Zhan Zhao and the others curiously, "Are you models? Or in business?"

"Uh..." Before Bai Yutang could speak, Zhan Zhao softly answered, "Teacher."

"Teacher?!" All four of them had a surprised look on their faces.

"A teacher from a nearby school?" Chen Jing shook his head in disbelief, "If there's such a handsome teacher around here the word would have spread long ago, there's no reason we wouldn't know about it."

"Here for a visit." Zhao Jue replied casually, and Bai Yutang and the others nodded stiffly.

"What do you teach?" Chen Zhixin asked Zhan Zhao.

"Psychology."

"Oh, a mental illness teacher..."

After Zhixin's words, the crowd's hearts stuttered. Bai Yutang hurriedly squeezed Zhan Zhao who was ready to storm off, "Don't be bothered by the children."

Zhan Zhao stood to the side and crumbled, "Psychology is not mental illness, psychology is not mental illness..."

Those four students looked at each other, what's the matter, all of a sudden?

Zhao Jue had a face of admiration, "What guts, I wouldn't dare say that."

As they spoke, the group had arrived at the entrance of the church.

"So shabby." Zhao Hu observed for a moment, "Is this church still in use?"

"There's only one bell ringer left."

"Bell ringer?" As soon as Bai Yutang's words left his mouth, he heard the sound of ringing bells coming from the roof of the church. The sound of the bells carried a silent feeling, it was impossible to say whether it was good or bad, but... if you were used to hearing it, you would have a very nostalgic feeling.

"Does the bell ringer live here?" Zhan Zhao was curious, "Who pays for the work?"

"Well, the owner of the land, right?" Chen Zhixin shrugged,, "This piece of land is privately owned."

"Is it going to be demolished to build a building?" Zhao Jue seemed a little regretful

"I don't think so." Chen Zhixin smiled faintly, “This area has been bought out for years, there was never any talk of demolition or redevelopment. Hehe, maybe some guy who went out and made a fortune in the old district bought it as a souvenir.

"The whole old district?" Bai Yutang also felt strange before. T City has been developing rapidly over the years, this old district is still in the city, yet they bought it out and didn't demolish and rebuild it. If they were in real estate, they would have made a fortune, this buyer is really interesting.

"The cemetery is at the back." Zhixin and the others led Zhan Zhao and others towards the back.

"Who buried them here?" Bai Yutang was very curious, "Was it an in-ground burial? Is that still allowed?"

"It's not like anyone cares about this place, and many people probably can't afford to pay cremation fees, so somehow, this place has become a small cemetery."

The crowd was surprised, "Is that okay?"

"Who cares?" Xiao Hu shrugged, "The people here are all people with no relatives or friends, who cares where they are buried after they die? No one will sweep the graves, so naturally no one will find out."

Zhan Zhao looked at them and asked, "What grade are you in?"

"Senior year in high school." Zhixin was quite proud of himself, "Next year I'll be able to get a proper job that pays more money."

"You're not continuing your education?" Zhao Hu frowned, "It's not hard to get into college now, but it's better to study a specialty, children should not enter society too early."

Zhixin bristled, "Forget it, I want to save some money for my sister's dowry."

Zhao Hu frowned and looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao reached out and patted him on the shoulder - reality is always cruel and one has to bow to fate to a certain extent.

Walking into the church, they saw an old man dressed in black and wearing a large scarf to keep warm limping out of a flimsy door. The door was crooked, so it didn't really matter if it was closed or not.

"Don't make trouble!" He yelled when he saw Zhixin and the others come in, and without caring about anything else, he turned to the small dilapidated hut near the church entrance, picked up his bowl of noodles and continued eating them.

"The adults around here have a legend that he's the clock tower monster who eats children to scare them out of being naughty!" Zhixin was playful and seemed to be trying to scare Zhao Jue, as he looked particularly svelte and often had a child-like look on his face.

Sure enough, Zhao Jue wrapped his arms around Bai Yutang, "Ah! So scary!"

Zhan Zhao rolled his eyes at him - you're not ashamed of yourself!

Zhao Jue earnestly winked at him - giving the kids face!

After walking to the back of the church, there was indeed a small courtyard with some towering sequoias growing around it, and underneath the trees, there were rather plain graves.

"Is it Western style?" Zhan Zhao looked over the tombstones one by one and eventually stopped in front of two tombstones carved out of white marble. Both tombstones were small and white, with names and dates of birth and death carved on them, but no photos. In the middle of the two tablets was a beautiful sculpture of a cherub. The sculpture was also made of marble and now looked a little old after years of weathering, but the demeanour was lively and lovely, giving it a warm and happy feeling.

"A very thoughtful little tomb." Zhan Zhao lifted his head and asked Zhao Jue, "That Bai Bai Bai of yours, why does he come here every year?"

Zhao Jue twisted his face, "Who knows."

Bai Yutang walked to the middle of the graveyard, placed the white lilies in front of the cherub and asked Zhixin, "How did this grandparent and grandchild die?"

"Grandma Cai died of illness, and Xin Xin, I don't know how he died."

"Don't know?" Zhan Zhao was a bit puzzled, "What do you mean?"

"That evening, Grandma Cai said that Xin Xin was lost, so she searched for him street by street, but in the end, we couldn't find him, we thought he must have been abducted. Grandma Cai then waited all night in front of the house."

"We even went to keep her company, she spent the whole night saying that the Bodhisattva would bless Xin Xin. If he was really abducted, he could be adopted by a good family and brought up properly, so that he would not suffer."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "And it turns out he wasn't abducted?"

"The next morning, Grandma Cai went to look again, when she came back, she found a note placed at the door of the house, and under the note was a paper bag containing a lot of money. Grandma couldn't read the words on the note, so she asked us to read it." Zhixin shook his head, "The letter was just a few words, Xin Xin is in the cemetery behind the church, I'm sorry."

Zhan Zhao frowned, "Sorry? Is the note still around?”

"It's long gone."

"When we got there, we found the tombstone already erected, the big pit dug, and a very expensive little coffin in the pit with the lid open. Xin Xin was lying inside, with a peaceful face and a clean change of clothes." He said, reaching out and pointing to the neck, "But here, in his neck, there was a hole."

"Did a bullet cause it?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Who knows." Zhixin sighed long and hard. "Xin Xin was already cold and not breathing, it was the first time I saw a dead person, and Grandma Cai was crying her eyes out. Our intention was to cremate Xin Xin and send him to the cemetery for burial, anyway, there was a sum of money, but Grandma Cai did not touch that money. We were very afraid at the time, so nobody called the police. We put the lid on the coffin and covered it with soil by hand. After that, Grandma Cai came here rain or shine and waited, hoping to wait until the murderer came to give her an explanation, but there was no result. Soon after, she also died, and when we found out, the tombstone had already become two.”

Speaking of this, the four kids all narrowed their eyes at the crowd, "Could it be that you had something to do with Xin Xin's death?!"

Zhan Zhao and the others shook their heads, "No."

"Evidence!" A few teenagers looked suspicious.

"We don't know the location of the cemetery." Bai Yutang said, and the four of them scowled – right!

Afterwards, the crowd briefly paid their respects to the two pitiful deceased who they had never met. Zhan Zhao looked at Zhao Jue, "Having paid our respects, there must always be a reason for you to bring us here."

Zhao Jue just stared at the little cherub in the middle of the tombstones in a daze.

When Zhan Zhao saw that he did not say anything, he turned back to look at Bai Yutang. Bai Yutang gave a rather helpless shrug - not understanding what medicine was being sold in his gourd. (Angel: Not understanding what medicine was being sold in his gourd is a common saying that means that the subject is unpredictable and playing tricks, and you don’t know what they are going to do.)

"Ay, should we show them that one?"

At this point, the boys started whispering.

"Don't, it's not like we know them."

"They don't look like bad guys."

"That's right, and he saved your life!"

“See what?" Zhan Zhao was curious

"Something fun." Chen Zhixin waved to the crowd and together they walked into the church.

There was nothing special about the church, except that it was shabby.

 “See what?" Zhan Zhao didn't quite understand.

"What time is it?" Xiao Hu asked Ma Han, who had been quiet at the back.

"Four twenty-eight."

"It's almost time, it's basically four thirty." Chen Zhixin and the others seemed quite excited.

"See what?" The crowd was puzzled.

"I think it's to see that."

Zhao Jue spoke, reaching out as he did and pointing at the wall in front of him.

No one had noticed it before, but on the wall directly in front of them, there was a very large cross that took up almost the entire wall. At first glance, they didn't think it was anything special, as the wall was in disrepair, but when they looked again, they saw that around the cross, a circle of light in the shape of a cross had suddenly appeared.

“No way..." Zhao Hu climbed onto a chair, "Cool!"

As the sun set in the west, the patches of light turned into slanted pillars of light that were projected in, outlining a golden cross on the floor of the gloomy church.

When Zhan Zhao and the others looked around, they found themselves surrounded by the combined light and shadow of the cross, and inexplicably, a sense of shock rose up in their bodies as they got goose bumps. If the ancient and dull sound of the bell was added at this time, it would be an unparalleled experience.

"What a novel design!" Zhao Jue couldn't help but praise it as well.

"Cool, isn't it?" Zhixin and the others were proud, "It didn't exist before, and it appeared all of a sudden!"

"Suddenly?" Zhan Zhao was slightly stunned.

Ma Han picked up a rusty bullet casing from under a chair and handed it to Zhan Zhao to look at.

Zhan Zhao was surprised, and ahead of him, Bai Yutang, who had already walked up to the cross, turned back and said with a smile, "It's all bullet holes!"

At the same time, the golden light outlined brighter shades of light on Bai Yutang's pure white body. The rapidly sinking western sunlight instantly changed its angle, and the direct golden light transferred the cross from the floor to the wall, while also turning the soft light into a blinding glare that shot straight into Zhan Zhao's eyes.

As soon as Zhan Zhao closed his eyes, a bizarre illusion arose at the same time, it was as if the strong light had instantly swallowed up Bai Yutang in front of the cross, leaving only half of the outline intact.

Faintly opening his mouth, Zhan Zhao then heard Zhao Jue's voice speaking in his ears. He didn't know when he had reached his side. His words were laced with laughter, yet seemed to have some sort of hint, "The gods may not bless good people, but they will always take away the important ones."

Zhan Zhao jerked his eyes to look directly into his eyes.

Zhao Jue smiled, "Tsk... nice eyes, ferocious cat!"

That burst of sunlight quickly passed and Zhan Zhao turned back to Bai Yutang, who was still there, and his mood instantly improved, "Xiao Bai."

"Cat... come here."

At this moment, Bai Yutang was tilting his face up, looking at the high dome of the church, while beckoning to Zhan Zhao, "I think I probably know how Xin Xin died."

‿︵‿︵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: December 12, 2022 by Angel

Edited: December 31, 2022 by Angel