S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 44

Ghost Ship Murderer 10 – Dancing with the Devil

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Zhao Zhen opened the door to the hidden room and everyone heard the chilling sounds coming from inside, the live effect was comparable to a horror movie.

In the basement, apart from the sound of nails scratching the walls and chains dragging the floor, as Zhao Zhen said, there was also the sound of a woman singing.

As Zhao Hu pressed himself against the wall, he heard that the song didn't seem to be in Chinese. He couldn't hear it too clearly, so he didn't know if it was someone singing or talking to themselves, but it was definitely a woman's voice.

"Wow... what's going on." Zhao Hu pawed at Ma Han who was beside him.

Ma Han frowned and nudged Zhao Hu, "Go down and take a look."

"No way?" Zhao Hu shrank to the side, "It's more scientific to let Luo Tian or Captain do this kind of thing!"

Ma Han frowned, "Hurry up, before anyone else is around."

"It's because there's no one, there are people down there... aiya!" Zhao Hu was still talking back when behind him, Zhao Zhen kicked him without much pressure.

Zhao Hu stumbled and lurched down. In order to keep his balance and not roll down, Hu Zi pitifully rushed to the bottom of the stairs.

Ma Han followed, and Bai Chi was about to follow when Zhao Zhen gently tugged him.

"Not going down?" Bai Chi looked at Zhao Zhen.

Zhao Zhen shrugged, "Let the two brothers take care of it, we'll keep watch for them."

"What if Hu Zi gets scared to death?" Bai Chi was a little worried.

"You listen to his nonsense." Zhao Zhen shook his head, "He's very courageous."

On the other end, Zhao Hu rushed all the way to the basement and found that there was another door. He missed the brakes and crashed headlong into it.

There was dim light in the basement, which was quite a bit more spacious than one would expect, and it seemed to be the underground garage of the villa. The sound of chains in the darkness was even clearer, and there was an odd buzzing sound.

Zhao Hu identified the location of the sound and twisted his face to look to his left. The cars in the garage were all parked on the right, the left side was completely empty, and in the darkness, a white figure could be vaguely seen.

Behind Zhao Hu, Ma Han followed. The two stood at the entrance of the basement and looked into the dim corner, they saw a person standing there, and the white dress looked familiar... After carefully identifying it, it was the big fluffy mediaeval dress that Sally was wearing when she was attacked.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu looked at each other and took two steps forward. Suddenly, they heard the sound of chains and the figure squirmed a little.

"Who is it?" Zhao Hu asked.

At that moment, they heard voices that sounded like singing or crying, but they could not make out what they were saying.

At that moment, the person suddenly struggled, but they seemed to be bound with a large number of chains, the length of which could not be distinguished in the darkness. Nevertheless, she was moving forward step by step.

Zhao Hu took a step forward and suddenly felt that he had kicked something, so he looked down... and saw a white, round object roll aside.

Ma Han and he both lowered their heads to take a closer look and drew a cold breath, it was a white skeleton that had rolled far away.

"Yahhh!"

It was a gloomy atmosphere when suddenly a tragic and frightening scream was heard. The sound, which Zhao Hu and Ma Han felt that even an old cat whose tail had been run over by a car could not scream with this effect, was simply a sound that only metal scraping porcelain violently would make.

Following the scream, the woman in the darkness suddenly lunged forward, her skeletal, long, thin, claw-like hands stretched out in front of her, holding a long, bloodied axe in her hands.

Ma Han drew his gun.

"Hey, wait a minute." Zhao Hu grabbed Ma Han's arm, "I don't think it's a ghost, it looks like a madman to me."

But strangely enough, as Zhao Hu's words fell, the person who was rushing towards them, who they didn't know whether she was a female ghost or a female madman, suddenly stood still.

She stood in place, holding her chin in one hand for a moment, and asked, "More like a madman than like a ghost?"

Zhao Hu and Ma Han looked at each other with blank faces – Talking!

Then, the woman in white shook her head and let out a rather displeased "tsk" as she stepped aside and pressed a button similar to a light switch, lighting up the entire basement.

The woman put down her axe, reached out and removed the chains from her wrists, and stepped aside.

Only then did Ma Han and Zhao Hu notice that there was a camera and a monitor, even a moving track, as well as many props and clothes, all set up as if they were making a movie.

The woman went to the monitor and replayed the video she had just recorded, stared at it for a while and frowned, "It seems a bit exaggerated, not very scary."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han glanced at each other – Was this another type of madman?

At that moment, Bai Chi hurried down from upstairs, followed by a curious Zhao Zhen.

The two of them had heard the commotion from upstairs, and as the screams from down here were as sharp as if they were dying, they couldn't help but be curious.

But at this time, the basement was as bright as day, and a woman with a concentrated look was standing in front of a monitor.

"What..." Bai Chi just wanted to ask Zhao Hu and Ma Han what was going on, but suddenly stared closely at the woman in front of the monitor in front of him.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han followed his line of sight. The two thought Bai Chi might also be surprised and were just about to speak up, but they saw Xiao Bai Chi suddenly push the two away, take a step forward, and stare at the woman. After a long time, he was surprised and delighted, "Ya, Jiang Nan!"

Zhao Hu and Ma Han both tilted their heads and asked in unison, "Who's Jiang Nan? You know them?"

Bai Chi looked at the two with a disgusted look on his face, seemingly somewhat speechless at them both.

At that moment, the woman's eyes moved away from the monitor and she reached up to take off the large curly black hair that was somewhat dirty and bloodstained.

It turned out that underneath the wig, she herself had kept a very handsome short, ear-length haircut.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu visually estimated that this woman was not that young anymore, probably in her forties? However, she was well maintained, and there was probably makeup on her face, hence the blood stains. She reached out and took out a pair of glasses from her pocket and put them on, and her whole person immediately became quite civilised.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han instantly felt as if they looked a bit familiar, where had they seen her before?

"It seems my acting is a complete failure, I look more like a madman than a ghost, and I've been recognised straight away." She sighed helplessly, "But thank you all for telling me the truth, all those people do is clap and shout, they don't tell the truth about anything I perform, it's not interesting at all."

Zhao Hu and Ma Han listened to the tone of her speech, could it be that she was an actress?

Bai Chi fumbled for half a day to find a notebook and ran over with a pen, "Can I have your autograph?"

Jiang Nan looked at him and smiled, "You like watching my movies?"

"Like."

"Which of my characters did you like best?" Jiang Nan took the notebook and pen, "I'll only sign it for you if you say something reasonable."

"I like the granny you played in 'Grey City' the best." Bai Chi was close to having stars in his eyes, and Zhao Hu and Ma Han subconsciously glanced back at Zhao Zhen, only to see Zhao Zhen with a displeased look on his face.

"It's a role few people like, and the movie doesn't sell." Jiang Nan said with a smile, but she signed the autograph for Bai Chi.

"No, the granny was superb, in any case, I like it!" Bai Chi held his autograph in his hands and was overjoyed.

Jiang Nan seemed satisfied with this answer and reached out to touch Bai Chi's head. It was really nothing, Jiang Nan was old enough to be Bai Chi's mother or aunt or something, but Zhao Hu and Ma Han still felt that Zhao Zhen's emotions were down more than one or two degrees.

"What are you doing?"

At this time, several people came down from upstairs, led by Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao, with Stephen and Lin Ruo behind them.

"Jiang Nan!" Stephen seemed a bit surprised when he saw Jiang Nan, "Why are you..."

"I couldn't sleep tonight and wanted to come and rehearse a bit to get a feel for it." Jiang Nan went over to give Stephen a hug and seemed to have a good friendship with him.

"She's Jiang Nan?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang curiously.

Bai Yutang had also heard of this name, he didn't pay much attention to the entertainment industry and didn't watch many movies or even dramas, but his mother liked Jiang Nan a lot and always told him about this legendary actress. It is said that Jiang Nan was born poor and had a difficult history, but she was a talented actress and had won many awards, and was considered an internationally renowned artist.

Zhao Zhen is also a big star, and they seem to know each other, but Zhao Zhen's face was dark and he seemed to be in a bad mood.

What Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao paid more attention to was actually the outfit Jiang Nan was wearing, which was the same as the one Sally was wearing.

"Can you explain this?" Bai Yutang asked Stephan.

"This venue was used for a styling trial before, for the sake of secrecy it was never made public."

"Did something happen?" Jiang Nan was a little puzzled and asked Stephen.

Stephen told Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao that they actually had a business plan and were going to launch a film based on the legendary story of Emilia alongside the launch of the Emilia trip. The investment in the film was huge and it was ready to start shooting in the next few days to be released in half a year's time, by which time the Emilia would have been completed and the premiere was going to be placed on the Emilia to make a full gimmick.

After reading the script, Jiang Nan was interested and agreed to play the role of Emilia. It is said that even the cameos in this movie are great cards, and it seems that Chan Jiayi was also invited to star in it, but Jiayi refused because of her schedule. Ma Han had a week-long vacation next month, and Jiayi was very happy. She arranged to go on a trip with him and was very excited about preparing for it every day for the past few days, so she probably refused it because of that.

Zhan Zhao looked around the surroundings with interest, "Is this the garage?"

"Yes, that secret door and the tunnel are emergency exits." Stephen replied, "I was almost kidnapped once and I have lingering fears, so every residence has an emergency escape route.

Zhan Zhao subconsciously glanced at Zhao Zhen.

Zhao Zhen raised his eyebrows slightly, with a look that looked like he was saying – it would make sense if he insisted on explaining it that way.

"How long have you been rehearsing here?" Bai Yutang asked Jiang Nan.

Jiang Nan, who was obviously of artist level status, who should have had everyone hugging her on a normal day, and who rarely heard anyone speak to her in such a tone, looked Bai Yutang up and down with great interest and surprise, "Huh? Are you Bai Jintang's brother?"

Bai Yutang nodded, sure enough, they all knew Bai Jintang. His elder brother hadn't been back in China for very long, but he was really making a name for himself.

"Then you should be a police officer." Jiang Nan looked at Ma Han and Zhao Hu again, "So you're all cops, I told you all the truth."

"Jiang Nan." Seeing that Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were both looking rather serious, Lin Ruo alerted her, "Something happened just now, Sally was seriously injured, so you should cooperate with the police's questioning."

Jiang Nan froze and looked at Stephen, "What happened to Sally?"

Stephen roughly told her what had happened and Jiang Nan was surprised, "Oh my God, Ryan's dead?!"

"When did you start rehearsing?" Bai Yutang asked Jiang Nan, "Were you the only one in the garage during that time? Did you see anyone else pass by?"

"Hmm..." Jiang Nan seemed to have some difficulty.

"What's inconvenient to answer?" Zhan Zhao found Jiang Nan very interesting and paid attention to her expression.

Zhan Zhao had always been very interested in the acting profession, which was actually one of the more specific groups of people that were the subject of sub-psychological research, especially some famous actors.

This Jiang Nan, Zhan Zhao knew about her and had even seen two of her films. Zhan Zhao found that good actors were actually acting in a way similar to a hypnotic process, they were not hypnotising the audience, but hypnotising themselves. Jiang Nan had left an extremely deep impression on him because she not only combined both her spirit and body when interpreting her role, but even her voice would change, it was almost like she turned herself into another person. He had always wanted to have the chance to come into contact with this kind of actor with exquisite acting skills similar to soul possession.

"I've been here for about two hours or so." Jiang Nan said.

"That long?" Bai Yutang thought it seemed a bit unreasonable, "All alone in a dark basement?"

"Yeah, I came in through the back door." Jiang Nan pointed to a white roll-up door not far away.

"Did you see anyone else when you came in?" Zhao Hu asked her, "You didn't notice all that commotion outside?"

Jiang Nan stepped aside and took out an ipod along with a very large set of headphones, and apologetically told the crowd, "I collected some music that matched the emotion I had in mind for Emilia, and in order to brew that emotion, I kept listening to the music in the dark then chained myself up and hummed along. It wasn't until I saw you guys push through the door that I felt the emotion come up, so I acted it out, but alas... it wasn't perfect and I never caught the feeling."

Everyone looked at each other – What should they say about this reasoning? Theoretically sound, but logically incomprehensible, after all, it was the personality of the artist.

Zhan Zhao reached out, "Can you let me listen to the music?"

Jiang Nan handed him the headphones.

Zhan Zhao put on the headphones and began to listen to the music.

Jiang Nan's music selection was very strange, but the rhythm and genre, including the style of the song, were all consistent. This kind of music was very rare, it was the kind of majestic soundtrack, organ with percussion, the rhythm was heavy but slow, with a heavy feeling, similar to that of a stone hammer being used to hit the heart over and over again. Depressing but feeling very empty...

Zhan Zhao closed his eyes and listened, and after a long time, he took off his headphones and nodded, muttering to himself, "Is that how you interpret Emilia?"

Jiang Nan suddenly laughed, "To be honest, I don't quite understand how I interpret this person."

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "No wonder you acted closer to a madman than a ghost."

"Oh?" Jiang Nan asked after him with great interest, "What's wrong with that?"

"I think that you've invested too many of your personal feelings into the character of Emilia." Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, "You convince yourself into believing that you are Emilia when you are acting, but the truth is that you are not Emilia, and there is the most fundamental difference between you and her."

"What?"

"You are among the group standing at the top, while Emilia is among the group being stepped on at the bottom." Zhan Zhao analysed with interest, "Simply put, you think Emilia's actions are revenge, a very high end behaviour, but Emilia's actions are resistance, she doesn't feel any artistry in it... Well, but it doesn't really matter how you act. "

"What do you mean?" Jiang Nan didn't quite understand.

"Your kind of interpretation method of substituting yourself into another person is indeed very good, but as a psychologist I suggest you use this method sparingly, because the extreme result of self-hypnosis is disorientation." Zhan Zhao stretched out a finger and wiggled it gently, "The current state is that you are controlling Emilia, so you are not acting like her, but if you do act like her, then it is Emilia who is controlling you. Dancing with the devil is too dangerous, it is better to try not to try it."

When Zhan Zhao finished, everyone looked at him. It is estimated that a large part of the people here did not understand what Zhan Zhao was talking about, while the SCI people basically ignored what Zhan Zhao was talking about, as Bai Yutang would usually translate the key points, and there was no point in bothering to figure out the non-key things.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, which meant – Cat, you are sick again, ah.

Zhan Zhao scratched his head – Sorry for being too excited, Jiang Nan is great research material.

Bai Yutang had the forensic section collect evidence from the scene in the basement, while the others' focus remained on the previous case. There was still that delicate atmosphere between Lin Ruo and Stephen, awkward and tacitly silent.

As Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang stood inside the underground garage with its odd atmosphere and tone, they could only say that it was really foggy between this group of elitists.

Later on, the investigation came to an end and Jiang Nan was about to leave. As she was leaving, she looked over at Zhan Zhao and said to herself, "Dancing with the devil, ah..."

After saying that, she thoughtfully lowered her head and got into the car, and left.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao beside him and spoke in a low voice, "Cat, do you have any plans?"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, "Follow Jiang Nan."

Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows, tacitly understanding.

‿︵‿︵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: April 10, 2023 by Angel

Edited: May 9, 2023 by Angel