S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 46

Ghost Ship Murderer 12 –The Devil Is Near

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The dark and quiet night, the dim light, the eerie empty house, a deadly place that is hard to find in the city, the legendary haunted house, and the pale woman who acts strangely.

People are fearful creatures, but everyone feels fear in different ways, as some people are afraid of the darkness, while others are afraid of the light.

Jiang Nan's behaviour was so different from ordinary people, so to the eyes of everyone, this woman was now in a state that could only be described as terrifying.

But there is another question here, and that is Jiang Nan's identity.

Jiang Nan is an actress who lives in the haunted house for the purpose of speculating on the character of Emilia, who, despite eating raw steak and acting strangely, is still within the bounds of acceptable human ethics. At least it's not a human being she's eating and it's not a corpse she's holding.

Bai Yutang, Zhao Zhen and Bai Chi were all looking at Zhan Zhao together, what they were trying to figure out was – Was Jiang Nan crazy, or was she normal?

Zhan Zhao was also thinking at this point, he still needed some more details to judge, so... the four of them didn't say anything, quietly observing Jiang Nan's actions.

Jiang Nan leaned back on the sofa and fondled the melon, and from time to time she opened her mouth, as if she was talking to someone.

Bai Chi recorded Jiang Nan's words on his phone.

Of course, it was only Jiang Nan's voice alone, but she left a gap after every sentence she said, as if she was conversing with someone, it was just that Zhan Zhao and the others couldn't hear that voice.

"In fact, do you know, when he told you that he loved you, did he really mean it?"

......

"Knowing that and still falling head over heels?"

......

"Since you were already prepared, why are you still so sad?"

......

"That's true, I can understand how you felt at the time."

......

"It's truly unfair, some people broke your heart, but they don't have a heart, so you can't even try to get justice."

......

"What should I do next?"

......

"Okay, I'll listen to you."

The short conversation ended, the crowd looked at each other, not understanding what Jiang Nan was talking about, could they do a fill-in-the-blank? A question and an answer, who knows what the answer is.

At this time, they saw Jiang Nan sit up straight, raise her hand to take the lighter on the table and light another candle on the coffee table. There were two additional candles on the candlestick, so the room was much brighter after they were lit.

Jiang Nan's pale face also became clearer.

At this point, everyone had a doubt – It had recently been hot and sauna-like in S City, with temperatures reaching forty degrees during the day, and although it was now nightfall, the weather had not cooled down.

Bai Yutang and the others were standing outside the window with most of their backs wet, but inside there was no air conditioning or fan, and Jiang Nan, wearing a thick skirt and sitting on a leather sofa, with a head of thick black hair covering her entire back and neck, had not even a drop of sweat.

It was probably her overly white foundation as well as the refraction of the light from the large amount of blue decorative glassware and white candles in the room that made her face appear to be blue.

Bai Chi subconsciously looked behind him; at this time, if anyone ran out and tapped him, he would probably scream in terror, and that would be bad.

Inside the room, Jiang Nan took out a pack of cards from under the coffee table, some very ancient tarot cards.

Zhan Zhao gently touched his chin with one hand, watching her movements... At this time, Jiang Nan, as if by instinct, gently leaned to the side to make some room.

At this moment, Bai Yutang suddenly felt Zhao Zhen pat him.

Bai Yutang turned around to look at him.

Bai Chi took a deep breath, Bai Yutang is Bai Yutang, he wasn't frightened by this, but Zhao Zhen suddenly tapped him at this time.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhao Zhen with some confusion, and saw Zhao Zhen suddenly reaching out in front of him and pointing to the surface of the sofa next to Jiang Nan...

Bai Yutang looked over in the direction of his finger – and saw that beside Jiang Nan, a dent had appeared on the leather sofa that should have been flat.

Bai Yutang's eyes subconsciously widened a little, as if he couldn't believe his eyes.

At this moment, Bai Chi also came over to look, and upon seeing it, he subconsciously opened his mouth. Fortunately, Zhao Zhen knew him very well and covered his mouth, so Bai Chi managed to swallow back the scream that had reached his mouth.

However, poor Chi Chi still opened his two round eyes and blinked excitedly at Zhao Zhen, which meant – What's going on? Is there someone beside Jiang Nan? The sofa is dented even though we can't see them? Is there an invisible person?

Seeing that Bai Chi was about to freak out, Zhao Zhen reckoned that his exceptionally developed brain must be flashing all sorts of images right now, from Harry Potter to Sadako, from horror stories to science fiction films.

Zhao Zhen had no choice but to calm Bai Chi down for a while in his own way, just to keep his brain from running at full capacity for a while...

Bai Yutang looked back, somewhat speechless. Bai Chi unsurprisingly froze after a kiss from Zhao Zhen, then after his brain temporarily crashed, he scratched his head and recovered his sanity while his shyness took over, turning from a frantic rabbit into a small quail, looking at the crowd with a puzzled face – Why is this happening? Is it a ghost or an invisible man?

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao. At this moment, Zhan Zhao had his head slightly lowered, but his eyes were looking intently at Jiang Nan in the room, and his hand was still on his chin.

Bai Yutang knew Zhan Zhao best, and this expression indicated that he knew the key to the problem.

At that moment, Zhan Zhao suddenly turned back to Bai Yutang and winked at him, it seemed like he wanted Bai Yutang to rush into the house.

For the first time, Bai Yutang wondered if he had picked up Zhan Zhao's brain waves correctly – Rushing in at this time?

Zhan Zhao nodded seriously and opened his mouth, saying with his lips – Hurry!

Bai Yutang began to look around for an entrance. The window in front of him was locked and the door was closed, only the window in the kitchen could be climbed through...

After thinking, he turned around and quickly went around to the kitchen at the back and opened the window.

At that moment, they saw Jiang Nan draw out a tarot card, and after taking a look at it, she slowly turned her face and looked at the empty spot beside her, and opened her mouth with trembling lips, "You really, are you sure you want to do this?"

After a moment of silence, Jiang Nan took a deep breath and stood up...

Her movement drew the attention of the people outside the window, and Zhan Zhao frowned, unable to resist whispering, "Hurry up!"

Zhao Zhen and Bai Chi exchanged glances – Who did Zhan Zhao tell to hurry up? Jiang Nan, or Bai Yutang?

At this moment, Bai Yutang gently opened the kitchen window and climbed in, running to the door of the living room.

He saw Jiang Nan walk to the front of a cabinet, open a drawer in the middle of the cabinet and suddenly take out a gun from it, then after pulling the bolt, she turned the gun towards herself and slowly opened her mouth...

Just as the muzzle was being put into her mouth, a hand came up behind her and snatched the gun from Jiang Nan's hand.

Jiang Nan was startled, and when she turned around, she saw Bai Yutang holding the gun, pulling back the bolt and pushing the cartridge clip out to take a look, frowning – The clip was full.

"Ah!" Jiang Nan suddenly started screaming and pointing at the sofa behind Bai Yutang, as if she had seen something extremely scary.

At this point, Bai Yutang shielded the frightened Jiang Nan behind him, instantly shoved the clip back in, and with a pull of the bolt fired six shots at the sofa where Jiang Nan had just been sitting.

Zhao Zhen noticed that the corners of Zhan Zhao's mouth lifted slightly – It was clear that Bai Yutang's behaviour had gained his approval, and it seemed that their brainwave reception was as normal as ever, as the two still had a psychic connection through the window.

Following Bai Yutang's action, Jiang Nan stopped screaming and hid behind Bai Yutang like she was in shock.

Bai Yutang reached out and patted her on the back, as if he was simply comforting a frightened woman.

Jiang Nan threw the headgear off her head and wiped her face as she cried.

Bai Yutang took her out of the room and opened the door to walk outside.

Zhan Zhao, Bai Chi and Zhao Zhen all walked over.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, "I know how Ding Yuan, Ryan and Chen Fei died"

Bai Yutang looked at the gun in his hand and nodded, "I probably understand that too... they were all suicides, right?"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, "That's right, and some tricks were used when committing suicide."

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen put his hands in his pockets and walked into the room, pulled out a magic knife and cut open the leather layer on the surface of the sofa. He saw that there was a very simple mechanism underneath the sofa, there was an airbag like thing underneath the spot where Jiang Nan was sitting, as long as he pressed down hard, next to this airbag, a flared mouth-like thing would suck air downwards... This was how the strange depression appeared on the surface of the leather sofa... A little trick indeed.

Jiang Nan stared at the couch, seemingly confused.

“Emilia, she..."

"What you're seeing isn't Emilia at all." Zhan Zhao whispered, gesturing that he was going to look into her eyes.

Bai Chi handed over a flashlight and Zhan Zhao observed Jiang Nan's eyes with the light, "What you saw were all illusions, a combination of mechanisms and suggestion that made it impossible for you to judge reality from illusion."

Jiang Nan looked at Zhan Zhao, as if there was something she couldn't quite figure out.

"You were afraid and defiant before, and it was only after hearing me talk about dancing with the devil that you decided to work with it, wasn't it?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Jiang Nan looked at Zhan Zhao in surprise.

Zhao Zhen and Bai Chi probably understood, no wonder Zhan Zhao had asked Bai Yutang to follow Jiang Nan in his car, it turned out that he had sensed Jiang Nan's problem a long time ago and had given her some hints, which in her head, tampered with her a little, thus saving the woman's life.

Bai Yutang called the SCI members who had just returned to the police station and began to carefully take evidence in the villa, and they took Jiang Nan back to the police station first to ask for details.

......

In the brightly lit SCI office, Jiang Nan washed her face clean of the thick makeup. She looked very thin and pale, and also had a little trace of age left on her face, in fact, she was not much different from an ordinary aunt in her forties, just a human being.

Ma Xin gave her a cup of hot tea, and Jiang Nan took a sip to settle her mind. The air conditioning in the police station was cool, she changed out of the dreadful white dress and wore the sports jacket Ma Xin had lent her, and thanked Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "You guys saved my life, thank you so much."

Bai Yutang sat at a table to the side and Zhan Zhao sat on a chair beside him, and together they looked at Jiang Nan.

"When did you start seeing ghosts?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Jiang Nan was a very intelligent person, and a strong woman who had managed her trials and tribulations, she had probably figured out a few things along the way, and she replied, "It started when I took the role of Emilia." Saying that, Jiang Nan asked Zhan Zhao, "Dr. Zhan, I would like to ask, was I given some kind of suggestion that made me hallucinate to a certain extent, while at the same time, someone had built that mechanism in that villa to give me the illusion of seeing Emilia's ghost while I was trying to figure out the role with my usual interpretation, so that I was scared and could not extricate myself from following her command, and so that in the end I almost killed myself?"

Zhan Zhao nodded in delight, "But fortunately you are among those who are extremely difficult to be hypnotised, do you know why?"

Jiang Nan thought for a moment before nodding, "I see, I've been using the technique of immersion to figure out the character, but I have tried hard to keep my self awake so that I don't really let the character take over the real me. So this time I've been unable to really get into Emilia's character because I'm so repulsed and afraid of becoming her myself. But you had just intentionally reminded me in the garage that my interpretation was a dance with the devil... so I thought then, since my real situation is now a dance with the devil, why don't I communicate with that devil for a bit – and so I convinced myself to stop resisting and just got trapped!"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Sorry to put you at risk, but it's the fastest way."

"It's also the best way." Jiang Nan was clearly not angry, "If this went on, I would either go crazy or die, again, thank you... but that murderer is too scary."

"So it's up to you to help us catch him." Bai Yutang requested, "Tell us in detail about your experiences over the past few days. You and Emilia, how did you communicate."

Zhan Zhao also asked her with interest, leaning over the back of his chair, "Right, I'm curious, that Emilia, what does she look like?"

‿︵‿︵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 19, 2023 by Angel

Edited: May 13, 2023 by Angel