S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 35

Ghost Ship Murderer 01 – Boiling Soul

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It was the end of July, on an extremely hot summer day, and the temperature had shot up to nearly 40 degrees… and S City unexpectedly saw a major power outage.

The comfortable room temperature created by the air conditioner disappeared after half an hour of sunshine. The police station building was like a big steamer at this time, and the key issue was that many windows of the high-rise building could not be opened, so the beautiful office building was filled with police officers who were ‘dishevelled' and wet.

Bao Zheng opened the collar of his T-shirt, fanned himself with a folder and walked to the door of SCI's office, freezing as he looked inside.

He saw that Bai Chi was the only person left in the large office.

Bai Chi was wearing a white T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops, holding an ice pack to his neck with one hand and making shaved ice with the other.

"Why are you alone?" Bao Zheng walked in and looked around, "Where are Yutang and the others? Are they out in the field?"

Bai Chi handed Bao Zheng a cup of lemon flavoured shaved ice and pointed to the forensic room at the back, "They're all cooling off in Gongsun's room."

Bao Zheng thought about it and the corners of his mouth twitched – The police station had its own power generation equipment because there were certain areas that always needed power, such as the server room in the data centre, or the air conditioning in the evidence room, or the... freezer in the forensics room.

Bao Zheng helped Bai Chi carry the tray and walked to the door of the forensic room with ten or so cups of shaved ice. Once he pushed the door open, he saw an eerie scene.

The door opened and a blast of coolness struck, it was really comfortable...

There were several people sitting side by side on the autopsy table, some reading books, some playing games on their ipads, and others chatting about the day. Several of the corpse lockers on the side of the autopsy room against the wall were open, with no bodies inside, and the cold air was coming from there.

Everyone looked up and stared at Bao Zheng's darkened face for about thirty seconds before they swarmed to grab the shaved ice.

Bao Zheng shook his head and walked in, shutting the door with his hand and handing a folder to Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang took the information and without looking asked, "There's a case, huh?"

"Ahem." Bao Zheng coughed softly, "Not really a case, count it as a task. Let’s see if you guys dare to be interested."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other – A special task? The police department had a clear division of labour: SCI was used to catch serial killers or perverts, and rarely took on other jobs.

Bai Yutang opened the information and closed it after a glance, "What's so disgusting."

Zhan Zhao knew that in addition to his cleanliness, he had recently added a bit of trypophobia, indicating that his mental stress index was climbing.

Gongsun took the information in his hand, "What's disgusting? I like it!"

Opening the folder, inside was a photo about A4 in size, which appeared to have been taken underwater, with a dim background and some underwater impurities, water plants and a yellow-green underwater searchlight light.

In the middle of the picture, there was an antique box. From the construction of the box, the copper ring rivets bracketing the wooden frame, as well as some classical engraving, you could see that it was an antique object. The top of the box was covered in algae and had some shells stuck to it. The box was being opened by a hand and the black diving suit indicated the identity of the person who opened it. Although only the hand was photographed, it was clearly not the focus of the whole picture.

The focus of this photo was that instead of gold, silver, jewellery or valuable porcelain, the large box in the shape of a hidden treasure chest found at the bottom of the sea was filled with a white, eerie skull.

"Wow..." Gongsun slowly opened his mouth, and the corners of his mouth slightly curled up to show that this item was extremely in line with his aesthetics.

Zhan Zhao also came over, "What's this?"

"Lin Ruo, have you heard of this name?" Bao Zheng asked.

Bai Yutang looked up, "The rich young businessman?"

"Jintang seems to know him very well." Gongsun handed the photo around for others to admire as he said, "They've always had business relations, and Jintang says he's a smart man."

"Ooh." Zhao Hu was surprised, "Brother Bai rarely praises people, right?"

"As far as I remember, he only said that Cat was smart." Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao.

Everyone looked at Zhan Zhao, who was holding his shaved ice and looking at the photo with a spoon in his mouth – Such a high level?

Zhan Zhao tilted up his face and thought, "Lin Ruo... Oh, it's the one who won the chess championship at the age of sixteen, then turned to the real estate industry and became rich overnight, before the real estate downturn came. Then, by virtue of his intelligence, he specialised in close to ten industries, all earning a lot of money. Not yet thirty years old this year, S City's number one ranked bachelor, Lin Ruo?"

......

Everyone was silent for a moment.

Bai Yutang put down the shaved ice in his hand and turned his face to ask him, "How do you know so much?"

Zhan Zhao smoothly picked up the magazine that was delivered this morning, "That is, I just read it, it's amazing, the number one bachelor in S City is surprisingly not Brother."

"Ahem." Gongsun coughed, "Your brother is married!"

Everyone chuckled – Gongsun was getting serious!

Bai Yutang took the magazine and flipped through it. It was a new issue of a financial magazine. Every issue would feature a successful person in the middle, and Bai Jintang had previously appeared in it. From the picture of this Lin Ruo, he was indeed good looking, his height, looks and talent were all okay, he was a keen philanthropist and liked sports, he was highly educated and came from a good background, and he seemed to have a good temper and first-class relationships, he was simply outstanding.

"Oh." Zhao Hu scanned it, "The legendary tall, rich and handsome, very popular recently."

"What does this man have to do with this skull in a box?" Gongsun asked Bao Zheng curiously.

"Oh, Lin Ruo has a hobby, did you know that?" Bao Zheng asked.

Gongsun replied, "Isn't it scuba diving? I heard Jintang mention it, saying that he has gone diving in all the major bodies of water in the world."

Everyone was surprised, this Lin Ruo seemed to have a really good relationship with the eldest brother of the Bai family, he knew about his hobby and told Gongsun about it...

"Lin Ruo's background is illustrious, his father and grandparents are all very good people, and his father knows both of your fathers very well." Bao Zheng looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

"Talking for half a day." Bai Yutang wondered, "What exactly is the task?"

"It's like this." Bao Zheng frowned, "Half a month ago, Lin Ruo went out to sea with some friends and dove in a stretch of water in the high seas. That water is rumoured to be where the Emilia sank back then, and that's where they found this chest."

"The Emilia?!" Zhan Zhao jerked his head up, the wilted energy that he had earlier to preserve his strength because it was too hot was gone, and his eyes shone with a strange light.

Bai Yutang looked at him amusedly, "Cat, why are you so excited?"

"You've never heard of the Emilia?" Zhan Zhao was excited.

Bai Chi was curious, "The Emilia is not one of the top ten shipwrecks in the world, I've never even heard of it."

"The Emilia is not a shipwreck." Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, "It's a ghost ship."

"Ghost..." The crowd was frozen in awe at this point, their expressions very uniform, "A ghost ship?

"That is, the legendary ghost ship?" Zhao Hu confirmed.

Zhan Zhao smiled and nodded.

"But the Emilia isn't in the world's top ten ghost ships either." Bai Chi scratched his head.

The crowd looked at him funny – How many of the world's top ten had this kid read...

Zhan Zhao finished his shaved ice and crossed his legs as he excitedly said, "The Emilia is an almost forgotten ship, but it's very legendary. Because it's rather off the beaten path, many people don't know about it, I only know about this ship because I'm a psychology major."

Everyone looked at each other, a ghost ship is related to psychology?

Bao Zheng sat down with his shaved ice and decided to take a break and cool off while he let Zhan Zhao explain it in detail to the crowd.

"Around 1,000 A.D., halfway across Scandinavia, there lived some people who were the strongest maritime people, even the British Empire was scared of them." Zhan Zhao's beginning was really some storytelling.

The SCI crowd were not usually the uneducated and simple-minded types, they were all quite knowledgeable and asked together, "You mean the Vikings?"

"Yes." Zhan Zhao nodded, "According to legend, among the Vikings, there was a very famous pirate who was also a bard, called Logan."

The crowd listened patiently.

"The Vikings believed that only the brave men who died fighting at sea would go to heaven, so adult men spent almost their entire lives fighting at sea. Logan had wisdom, strength and talent, and was a near-perfect sea powerhouse with a great reputation, but a storm caused his ship to suffer severe damage and he had to dock at an island. At the time, Logan was ambitious, he wanted a bigger ship, and coincidentally, while resting in the island's bar, he heard someone mention that there was a very good shipwright on this island who was good at building rather large ships."

Everyone held their chins as they heard this.

Bai Chi blinked, "Oh, a real life version of One Piece!"

"Of course not." The corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth twitched as he accelerated his speech, "Logan took some gold to ask that shipwright to build a ship, but the other party knew he was a pirate and flatly refused!"

"What happened next?"

"Logan kidnapped the shipwright's daughter, Emilia, and forced him to build the ship."

"Oh..." The crowd could probably guess what happened next, "Logan fell in love with Emilia, huh?"

Zhan Zhao smiled, "Emilia is just the shipwright's daughter, but she also has another identity, the servant of the island owner's daughter."

Everyone looked at each other – Complicated.

"The owner of this island was an earl, and the Earl's daughter was called Senesi, and was very beautiful." Zhan Zhao laughed, "It was Senesi that Logan fell in love with, and he instructed the shipwright that the ship be named the Senesi." As Zhan Zhao spoke, he noticed the confused looks of the crowd, each seeming to ask – It has nothing to do with Emilia?!

"Although the Senesi and Emilia are master and servant, they were also very good friends at the same time." The flicker of excitement in Zhan Zhao's eyes gave Bai Yutang the slightest hint of which character in this was about to develop the extreme psychology that Zhan Zhao was actually interested in!

"Logan was a very attractive man, and perfectly matched with Senesi, but the truth was that Logan had moved on." Zhan Zhao continued, "Logan originally hooked up with Emilia and had sex with her, and Emilia was voluntarily kidnapped by him to trick her father into helping build the boat. But Logan moved on after seeing Senesi for the first time, and on top of that, Senesi's father, the Earl, admired Logan's abilities as well as his ambition, and was willing to fund his trip and even decided to give them a grand wedding on the island."

"Wow..." Bai Chi couldn't help but sigh, "This Logan is pretty badass!"

"It's indeed very unkind." Gongsun also shook his head, "So wouldn't Emilia have been abandoned?"

"En." Zhan Zhao nodded, "Emilia wasn't really pretty, her family was average, and she wasn't as educated and likeable as Senesi... In short, she was far different in every way, and she wasn't a good match for Logan."

"So Logan's purpose in courting her in the first place was to build a boat?" Bai Yutang frowned, "He was using her?"

"That's right." Zhan Zhao nodded, "Furthermore, Emilia's father was under pressure from the Earl and had to build a boat for Logan, which didn't help Emilia."

"Why do people dare to cheat others?" Bai Chi shook his head repeatedly, "Too wicked."

"What was the next development?" Gongsun held his chin in one hand and looked at Zhan Zhao with great interest, "Will Emilia take it lying down?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "On the night of the wedding, Emilia put arsenic into the food, poisoned all the people and beheaded them one by one."

"Every..." Luo Tian's mouth opened wide, "everyone?"

"Yes, everyone on the island, probably thousands of people, everyone was present for the wedding, as well as Logan's mates, and Emilia's own family and father."

The scene was silent for a long time, and the crowd had only one thought in mind at this point – Never lie to a woman… If you really pissed one off, your life would be over!

"At that time, the ship had been completed. It was a very beautiful and large ship. All the exotic treasures that Logan had sourced from all over the world had been placed on the ship, but on the hull, the name 'Senesi' had not yet been carved. Emilia took the heads of Logan and a few of the people she hated most onto the ship and sailed out alone... She was at sea for an unknown amount of time before the ship eventually disappeared after encountering the wind and waves. Some say it sank, some say it disappeared, but the most common theory is that it became a ghost ship. For there are some accounts, one after another, of sailors who went to sea and saw such a grand ship with an unnamed hull and a woman dressed in white standing in the bow. Instead of naming the ship after Senesi, later generations called her – the Emilia."

When Zhan Zhao finished, he looked at Bao Zheng, "Of course, this is just an old legend about the Vikings, but if this chest with a human head really exists, it would also prove that the legend of the Emilia is true."

"Which means that the Emilia may have sunk nearby, with a huge amount of treasure on board..." Bai Yutang nodded, "Treasure hunters at sea can be busy again for a while."

"Lin Ruo actually found this chest." Gongsun asked Bao Zheng, "Does he want me to identify the skull?"

Bao Zheng smiled and shook his head, "The chest and the skull were sent to the museum."

Everyone was slightly taken aback and confused, "Then what does he want?"

"To apply for protection."

"Huh?" The crowd was baffled.

"There were four other people diving with him that day, all explorers and divers of different nationalities, including an anthropologist, a historian and an oceanographer." Bao Zheng shrugged, "All four died within the last half a month."

"Ah..."

At this point, Zhan Zhao suddenly let out a soft "ah", as if he had thought of something.

"What's the situation?" Bai Yutang looked at him.

"In the legend, when Emilia left the island, she set fire to it and burned the entire island with the corpses." Zhan Zhao said, "And Emilia, who was adrift at sea and had no food, used hot water to cook and consume all the heads she brought with her."

The crowd couldn't help but frown – It was indeed tragic that this girl had been tricked once, but the aftermath of this trauma was a little too intense, wasn't it? To hate like this?

"It's the pirates' destiny to die in the water, but they shouldn't want to die in a pot." Zhan Zhao smiled helplessly, "In the legends about pirates, there is a mysterious taboo that the corpses of fellow pirates should not be boiled in water and eaten, otherwise, the souls will follow suit and the resentment will forever surge, cursing anyone who comes near the corpse to death!"

"So..." Bai Yutang asked Bao Zheng, "how did all those scholars die?"

"Drowned." Bao Zheng said, "One drowned in a bathtub, one drowned in a swimming pool, one drowned in a pond, and one even more outrageous, drowned in a large fish tank. This is not even the most outrageous thing."

"How outrageous is it then?" Bai Yutang frowned.

"All the bodies showed signs of boiling."

The crowd slowly opened their mouths wide – Was it really a curse?

"What about the corpses?" Gongsun was extremely curious.

"They were all foreigners. It's impossible for the bodies to have been sent from foreign countries, and because the deaths were ruled accidental, the bodies have been disposed of." Bao Zheng shrugged, "Lin Ruo recently applied for protection. He specifically asked for SCI to protect him, and to look into this case in the process, as he felt it was suspicious. Are you guys interested..."

"Yes!" Zhan Zhao was the first to raise his hand.

Gongsun and Bai Chi also had sparkling eyes.

"It is indeed an interesting case." Bai Yutang nodded, "A ghost ship ah... even the souls are boiling, this is formidable."

‿︵‿︵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: March 16, 2023 by Angel

Edited: April 3, 2023 by Angel