S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 57

Ghost Ship Murderer 23 – Encounter on the Raging Sea

---

When Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang arrived at the hospital, they saw that the doctors had almost finished their examinations, Ma Han and Zhao Hu were waiting at the door, and in the room, Lin Ruo sat quietly on the sofa waiting.

He Ying came out, holding the examination report in her hand, "Congratulations, it's a miracle."

Lin Ruo came out and asked, "There's nothing wrong with him, is there?"

"No, all body functions will recover soon, there is no bruising in the brain, and the memory and brain functions are normal." He Ying handed the report to Lin Ru, "After a week or so of physiotherapy, he will be able to get out of bed, then he can go home to recuperate. Within six months, he will be able to adapt to normal life and recover completely."

Lin Ruo took the report and thanked her. He Ying smiled and went away, and when she left, she looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, then went into the stairwell and took out her phone, "Xin Xin, you SCI..."

Ma Xin helplessly said, "They all have owners, the most handsome two themselves are a CP, so don't get any ideas, be good"

He Ying began to rub against the wall again.

Ma Xin suddenly remembered that there was Jiang Ping who was single, but....

"There is also a nerd, do you want him?"

"I don't want him!" He Ying rubbed back and forth, "They need to be tall, rich and handsome! Otherwise tall and handsome is fine, no matter how bad they are, they need to be handsome!"

Ma Xin was helpless.

"That." He Ying jumped down a few steps, leaned against the wall and asked Ma Xin in a whisper, "The one with the beard, the handsome handsome handsome uncle..."

"Wow..." Ma Xin raised her eyebrows and exclaimed, "you dare to try this high level of difficulty, be careful of dying without a burial place."

He Ying pouted, "Is it that scary?"

"It's life threatening, Sister." Ma Xin seriously said, "Forget about it quickly, a group of men kill to the point of darkness for him, we girls need to stay away. At worst, I will take you to the criminal investigation team one day to pick, there are many handsome bachelors there."

"You said it." He Ying thought it was about right, and as he turned her eyes... she saw something bright and shiny on the next step.

"Huh?" He Ying popped down a step and picked it up to look at it.

Ma Xin then heard He Ying mutter, "Who dropped a ring?"

"What ring?" Ma Xin was curious.

"Uh, I... aiya." He Ying suddenly shouted, and then Ma Xin heard a 'bang' and the phone hung up.

"Ying Ying?" Ma Xin had a bad feeling, "Ying Ying!"

"What's wrong?" Gongsun saw that Ma Xin had suddenly stood up and was a bit surprised.

"Something seems to have happened." Ma Xin called Bai Yutang instead.

Bai Yutang was about to go into the room to check on Han Wei when his phone rang – It was Ma Xin.

"Hello?" Bai Yutang frowned when he heard it, "Speak slowly."

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bai Yutang looked around and asked, "Where's the female doctor from just now?"

"Went down the stairs in the security passage." Zhao Hu pointed to the stairs.

Bai Yutang opened the door to the stairwell, walked in and went down one level, and saw a girl in a white coat lying at the bottom of the next flight of steps. There was a pool of blood on the floor, and the girl seemed to have injured her head.

Bai Yutang hurriedly ran down and reached out to check her nose first, and found that she was still alive, so he shouted to the top, "Call a doctor, someone is injured."

Zhao Hu and the others hurriedly called for a doctor, and the nurses pushed He Ying into the emergency room. After rescuing her, He Ying's life was not in danger, it was just that her head was hit and she had fallen unconscious.

……

Zhan Zhao stood at the entrance of the stairwell and looked at it. He Ying looked like she had fallen down the stairs and hit her head, but...

These stairs had handrails on both sides, and they were gentle, with a small number of steps on each flight and steps that were wide. He Ying had a light build and wore flat sneakers, she looked like she exercises a lot, and she wasn't walking while reading the report, so how could she fall down?

There was also a broken cell phone on the floor, which she used to call Ma Xin. The phone was broken... the way it looked, it had fallen all the way down the steps.

Zhan Zhao looked towards the corner of the wall on the upper floor.

Bai Yutang also walked down, squatting on the upper level and looking down, while saying, "He Ying seems to have been attacked, it doesn't look like an accident. I got Jiang Ping to transfer the hospital's video footage."

Zhan Zhao frowned and walked up, "If someone attacked her, why?"

Bai Yutang looked upstairs, "There shouldn't be anyone coming on this floor, and it's obviously a sneak attack. He Ying looks pretty tough, if she screamed here, we would be able to hear her."

"When she wakes up, we'll ask and find out." Zhan Zhao stuck his hands in his pockets and signalled: let's go up and ask Han Wei first.

"What do you think, what is Lin Ruo's relationship with Han Wei?" Bai Yutang asked a rare gossipy question.

Zhan Zhao laughed and asked in return, "Why? You think the two of them don't match?"

Bai Yutang rubbed his chin, "It's not that... Their auras seem to be different."

"I think so too." Zhan Zhao shrugged, "Lin Ruo probably treats him as his best friend, or..."

"Or what?"

"He feels some guilt towards him." Zhan Zhao said, "I always feel that Lin Ruo is a person who is outwardly cheerful but actually has a lot of secrets. Just like the matter of Han Wei, this guy hides it too well. If not for Hu Zi and Ma Han's lucky hit, we wouldn't know about Han Wei's existence yet."

"Then guess, do Stephen and the others know about Han Wei's existence?" Bai Yutang asked.

"I don't know if they know." Zhan Zhao flattened his mouth and shook his head, "But it's true that they must not play together, they're not even in the same circle."

The two of them pushed open the door of the security passageway and saw a somewhat bizarre scene in front of them: Zhao Jue was reaching out and Zhao Hu was giving him ten yuan.

Bai Yutang was puzzled, "Why are you giving him money?"

Zhao Hu said, "Grandpa Zhao said that I will have a bloody disaster soon, this is called breaking wealth to avoid the disaster."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang squinted at Zhao Jue together.

Zhao Jue held ten yuan between two fingers and gently shook it, smiling smugly.

Zhan Zhao ignored his beard and went into the room.

The room was still quiet, Han Wei was lying on the bed and Lin Ruo's housekeeper had run over and brought him two sets of clothes.

Lin Ruo wanted to go to the bathroom to change, and Bai Yutang gestured for Zhao Hu and Ma Han to accompany him.

Lin Ruo had no problem with this, after all, he had just escaped death, so it was better to be careful.

In the room, Han Wei was the only one left. He looked at the people in front of him with some confusion, and it was still not easy for him to speak.

Zhan Zhao walked over to the bed and dragged a chair over to sit down.

The doctor had encouraged Han Wei to talk more so that he would heal faster, so he tried to speak up, "Are you guys, friends of Lin Ruo?"

Zhan Zhao shook his head, "We're police officers."

Han Wei seemed a little surprised, "Police?"

"Lin Ruo was in danger before he came to see you, someone was trying to kill him." Zhan Zhao spoke bluntly, observing the change in Han Wei's expression.

There was indeed a look of surprise on Han Wei's face, "Why? Did he offend someone?"

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and asked, "Han Wei, do you know about Emilia."

When Zhan Zhao's words left his mouth, Han Wei's face immediately turned white and he looked at Zhan Zhao with his mouth wide open.

Bai Yutang frowned, he had been in a coma for so long, but he knew about Emilia?

"What has, Lin Ruo said?" After a moment of hesitation, he heard Han Wei ask.

As Zhan Zhao was just about to speak, he heard an alarm sound.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion, and there seemed to be chaos downstairs.

Zhao Jue peered out, rubbing his chin as he did so, "Aiya, have I been out of mainstream society for too long, the hospital has an alarm?"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both frowned – What kind of day is this?

Not long after, the alarm was disarmed. The elevator doors opened and Ma Han was seen coming out with Lin Ruo. Lin Ruo had changed his clothes and dried his hair, and was back to being a debonair young man, but his complexion didn't look too good, and Ma Han was frowning.

"Where's Hu Zi?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Ma Han glanced at Zhao Jue and reached out, "Return the ten yuan."

Zhao Jue looked at the sky.

"What happened?" Bai Yutang asked.

Ma Han said, "Lin Ruo was changing clothes just now, I was waiting at the door, and Hu Zi said he would go in to make it easier. Unexpectedly, a man in a hospital gown came out, holding an axe and trying to kill Lin Ruo. Hu Zi subdued him, but his head hit the bathroom door and got busted, and he's downstairs getting bandaged up. He's not badly hurt."

"What about the man?" Bai Yutang asked.

"Handcuffed in the security room." Ma Han said, "I asked Zhang Long and the others to come and collect him. He seems to be a patient at the hospital, and the security guards from the hospital have gone to investigate, but I don't think he's too lucid."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other – Here we go again, how come the ones who tried to kill Lin Ruo were all patients.

Lin Ruo walked into the room and went to sit next to Han Wei, who looked at him and asked, "Have you been looking for her all these years?"

Lin Ruo bowed his head, "Mhmm."

"You're such a fool, you managed to escape, why are you looking for her?" Han Wei sighed.

Lin Ruo's face was grim, "Asking even though you know."

......

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked back into the room. At that moment, the elevator doors opened and Zhao Hu, who had a piece of gauze wrapped around his forehead, came running over with a gloomy face, and also asked Zhao Jue for ten yuan.

Zhao Jue asked him, "Were you disfigured?"

Zhao Hu pressed his forehead, "It's just a scratch, of course not."

"That's right, it was a bloody disaster, but now it's just a scratch, so ten yuan is cheap for you." Zhao Jue glowered.

Zhao Hu dejectedly went behind Ma Han. Seeing Ma Han looking at Zhao Jue, Zhao Hu grabbed his shoulders with both hands and urged, "Forget it Xiao Ma Ge, it's better not to offend him, he is a godly man, let's avoid being divided without knowing."

Ma Han turned around and did not speak. Zhao Jue crossed his arms and went into the room where he continued to watch the show like nothing happened.

"Actually, I never told you guys about what happened back then." Lin Ruo spoke.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded in tacit agreement – It was as expected.

"The time we went out to sea together eight years ago, we encountered something else besides a shipwreck." Lin Ruo said.

"What?" Curious, Zhao Jue took off his shoes and squatted on the sofa, behaving in a way that didn't match his beard, like an uncle who was trying to be cute.

"A ghost ship."

When Lin Ruo's words left his mouth, Bai Yutang frowned, "You mean the Emilia?"

Lin Ruo shook his head, "I don't think so, that ship was not very old, it was white, looked like a cruise ship or a ferry, and..."

"And what?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"The hull was riddled with bullet holes." Lin Ruo began to recall what happened back then, "We were sailing out at sea back then, when we ran into a storm. The main sail rope of the sailboat broke, and the wind and waves were so strong that our small boat couldn't hold up. At that moment, we saw a big boat floating in the sea."

The crowd listened to Lin Ruo's account in silence.

"After we got close to the big boat, we found that there were still a few rope ladders hanging around the sides of the boat, but the ropes were deteriorated, which was a bit weird." Lin Ruo said, "But time was running out, so we didn't think much of it and tied the sailboat tightly to the overhanging ladder, then climbed up the rope ladder and got on board."

"What was the situation on board?" Zhan Zhao asked afterwards.

"It was like the aftermath of a massacre." Lin Ruo said, "This ship was horrible, there were bullet holes all over the hull and deck, and marks that looked like they had been made by knives and axes, but there was no blood on the ship, it was probably washed away by the rain."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had a vague feeling that this should be the PT1001, the one that went missing after the encounter with pirates in 2003. Eight years ago would have been 2004, exactly one year or so after this ship went missing.

"Were there any bodies on board?" Bai Yutang asked.

"It was raining and we went into the cabin to see if the ship had any fuel or if the rudder still worked." Lin Ruo said, seemingly distraught, "When we entered the cabin, which was the wheelhouse, there were no bodies, but there were black blood stains all over the floor."

As Lin Ruo spoke, Han Wei frowned slightly, seemingly not wanting to recall the horrific experience either.

"Go on." Zhan Zhao poured a cup of water for Lin Ruo.

Lin Ruo continued, "We guessed at the time that the ship must have been plundered by pirates previously and didn't explore much. We found that almost all the equipment on board was dysfunctional and the fuel was gone, the big ship was just an empty shell floating on the sea."

"What did you intend to do?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"We had our own radio communication equipment and informed the marine police of our situation. The police told us to take shelter on the big boat and that they would come and rescue us when the storm passed, so we sat in the wheelhouse and didn't dare to go anywhere." Lin Ruo said, smiling bitterly, "It soon got dark, and there was no electricity on board. We found a paraffin lamp, lit it and waited for the storm to pass."

At this point, Lin Ruo paused.

Zhan Zhao asked him, "What happened after that?"

Lin Ruo hesitated for a moment before they heard Han Wei speak, "At that time, I was very scared."

Lin Ruo looked at him.

"What about you?" Bai Yutang asked Lin Ruo, "What did you do."

"I told him the story of the ghost ship." Lin Ruo said, and Zhao Jue on the sofa let out a "heh heh", seemingly finding it amusing.

Zhao Hu and Ma Han suddenly felt sympathy for Han Wei, this Young Master Lin Ruo was really not afraid of anything.

"But not long after I started talking," Lin Ruo said, "the sound of footsteps was heard from the lower deck."

Everyone felt chills when they imagined the scene at that moment.

"Then?" Bai Yutang didn't have much sympathy, anyway, they were both still alive here now, indicating that they had gotten out of danger at the time, so there was nothing to fear.

"I was terrified." Han Wei said, "Lin Ruo said it was probably caused by the waves and the wind blowing into the boat, so there was nothing to be afraid of."

Everyone nodded, Lin Ruo was indeed very courageous.

"But then, in addition to the sound of footsteps, there was the sound of claws scratching at the deck." Lin Ruo said helplessly.

"And then?" Bai Yutang asked, "How did you explain that?"

Lin Ruo sighed and said, "I took two axes that were still on the ground, which had blood on them, and gave one to Xiao Wei, and said..."

When the crowd saw that Lin Ruo was not speaking, they all looked at Han Wei.

Han Wei seemed to find it kinda funny, so he said, "He said, as long as they don't come in, just treat it as the wind, and if they come in, chop whatever it is up, maybe we can get a meal to eat."

Everyone laughed.

"So did they come in afterwards?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Lin Ruo shook his head, "Later, it turned into crying."

"Do you think it was also the sound of the wind?" Zhao Hu felt anxious listening to it now.

"I haven't finished yet." Lin Ruo was helpless, "It was impossible to muddle through this time, apart from the sound of wind, there was also the sound of screaming, and the sound of crying out for help."

Everyone frowned.

"Just as we were getting nervous, behind a door next to the wheelhouse, there was a sudden 'bang, bang, bang' sound, as if something was banging on the door." Lin Ruo said.

"Wow..." Zhao Hu frowned, "This is the plot of a horror movie, what kind of bad luck did you two run into?"

"With your character, you wouldn't not go and take a look, right?" Bai Yutang asked, "You shouldn't have learnt what it means to be scared back then."

Lin Ruo smiled and nodded.

Han Wei smiled too, "It's true that he never knew fear."

"I went and opened that door." Lin Ruo spoke briefly and lightly, "Almost twenty corpses fell from inside, all rotten to the point of being skeletons and crushed out of shape."

Zhao Hu raised an eyebrow, feeling like he needed to re-establish his outlook on life, surprisingly, it sounded similar to twenty dead pigs falling out.

"There's actually no need to be afraid." Lin Ruo said, "When I got on the ship I knew that many people must have died on this ship, and it should be the work of pirates. But the bodies that fell out were all male, with scarves on their heads, dressed strangely, and barefoot... I examined the bodies carefully and found that the dead ones were all pirates. "

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, Lin Ruo's lack of fear was surprisingly strong.

"Then what?" Bai Yutang was very interested in the story.

"Then I thought it was strange, if the pirates killed people, then why were the pirates dead instead and stuffed into the wheelhouse storage room. That storage room was only six or seven square metres in size. Think about it, two dozen corpses, those corpses were squeezed in like dried fish, how could a person have that much strength? Even if there were many people, it would be technically difficult to operate."

Everyone else looked at each other – It made sense.

"At that moment," Lin Ruo's face suddenly changed, and his voice was no longer as calm as it had been earlier, "she appeared."

Everyone frowned slightly and Zhao Jue hugged his knees, there was a look of excitement in his eyes and a smile on the corners of his mouth.

Zhan Zhao glanced back at him at this time, and his expression was somewhat subtle.

"Emilia." Lin Ruo uttered these words in a slightly dry voice.

Before the words could fall, a 'bang' could be heard.

Everyone was caught unprepared and turned around to see He Ying, who had a ring of gauze tied around her head, pushing open the door and standing in the doorway, her face white, "Police Uncle, I'm an atheist who believes in Marxism, but I definitely just ran into a ghost!"

......

‿︵‿︵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: May 22, 2023 by Angel

Edited: June 27, 2023 by Angel