S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 6 Chapter 46

The Card Murderer 46 – Turnip and Hole

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One bitterly cold winter thirty years ago, heavy snow was falling in S City.

That evening, the alarm suddenly blared inside a juvenile correctional facility on the outskirts of the city. Several juvenile delinquents had escaped.

After a manhunt, nearly all of them were recaptured, except for one, a boy named A'Jie, who was nowhere to be found.

A prison guard looked out at the distant snow-shrouded mountains and forest and shook his head, "He probably ran into the mountains. In this weather, if he gets lost, he might freeze to death."

......

A'Jie was a regular at the correctional facility. He had run away from home at the age of sixteen, and over the years had gone from petty theft to brawling, committing no shortage of misdeeds.

Each time he was caught, he was locked up; once released, he'd go right back to his criminal ways and get caught again.

But now he was nearly an adult, and given his repeated refusal to reform, there was a real chance he'd be transferred to a proper prison to serve time. So this time, A'Jie had taken advantage of the chaos to make his escape.

Running into the mountains, it didn't take long for him to get lost. The freezing wind and falling snow made it nearly impossible to tell which way he was going.

A'Jie hid in a pit, trying to figure out how to escape. It was getting dark, and if he stayed out overnight, he might freeze to death.

Just when he had run out of options, A'Jie heard a strange sound.

It seemed like some sort of metal object rhythmically striking the ground... and there was music, too.

A'Jie followed the sound... and gradually it became clearer. In time with the music, it sounded like someone was shovelling dirt.

A'Jie climbed over a small mound and saw, not far ahead in the snowy mist, a white silhouette.

It was a tall, thin man in a white lab coat. His hair was a mix of grey and white, though whether it was naturally so or dusted with snow, it wasn't clear.

The man was holding a shovel, digging at a rectangular pit about two metres long, and it seemed he had been shovelling for a while.

On the ground beside him lay a black body bag, bulging and lumpy. Judging by the shape, there was probably a person inside.

Although A'Jie was accustomed to committing crimes, they were mostly minor thefts. What he was seeing now, though, was something else entirely. It looked very much like he had stumbled upon someone burying a corpse.

The man digging the hole had a headset hanging around his neck, not worn on his head. He probably had a radio in his pocket, the music was blaring, coming out of the headset, loud enough to be heard all around. The rhythm had a kind of chaotic feeling, and the sound quality was very poor. Combined with the sound of the shovel scraping the earth, the setting of a remote, snow-covered mountain forest made it all the more eerie.

A'Jie thought the man in front of him looked suspiciously like some sort of serial killer. Just the silhouette alone gave off a dangerous vibe… it was best to leave as quickly as possible.

Only, whether it was because his legs had gone numb from crouching too long or because the cold had stiffened his limbs, as he tried to retreat, his foot suddenly gave way beneath him and he tumbled to the ground.

With a thud, he landed in a pile of snow.

The man shovelling up ahead stopped.

The man reached into the pocket of his white coat and, with a click, turned off the radio.

Then he slowly turned around and looked behind him.

A'Jie stared nervously at the man who had turned around.

The man was wearing a white lab coat like a doctor would, with a surgical mask over his face and a pair of round black-rimmed glasses that looked very thick. Perhaps from the warmth of his breath, the lenses were fogged up, making his eyes impossible to see.

The man in the white coat tilted his head slightly, examining A'Jie, who sat on the ground looking panic-stricken. He reached out a finger and pushed his glasses down a little.

A'Jie caught a glimpse of his eyes. Judging from the deep wrinkles around them, the man wasn't young.

They stared at each other for a while. The man in the white coat looked at A'Jie's prison uniform and seemed to understand something. He gave a slight nod. "It turns out to be a radish."

A'Jie was momentarily stunned– A radish?

The man in the white coat reached down beside the body bag and picked up a plastic bag, which he tossed to him.

A'Jie instinctively caught it. Opening the bag, he found a set of white work clothes, the sort worn by medical staff, along with a wallet and a staff ID card with a silver clip.

Holding the items, A'Jie looked at him in confusion. "What's this?"

The man in the white coat pointed at A'Jie. "Aren't you a radish?"

Then he pointed at the things he had just thrown to A'Jie. "That's your new hole."

A'Jie looked down at the ID card, which bore a name, and then opened the wallet. Inside were various documents... all belonging to the same person, a young man.

While A'Jie stood there staring at the items in a daze, the man in the white coat had already finished digging. He stuck the shovel upright in the snow, bent down to grab the body bag, and gestured to A'Jie. "Give me a hand."

A'Jie put down the items in his hands, got up, and went over to help him toss the body bag into the pit.

The man in the white coat handed him the shovel and motioned for him to fill in the grave.

A'Jie took the shovel and began to shovel the soil back in.

The man in the white coat walked off to the side, found a rock to sit on, took off his mask, and lit a cigarette.

While shovelling, A'Jie asked curiously, "Is there a hospital nearby?"

The man in the white coat raised a hand and pointed in a certain direction. "Not exactly a hospital, more like a rehabilitation centre."

A'Jie didn't seem to understand. "What kind of rehabilitation centre? What kind of illnesses does it treat?"

The man in the white coat took a drag on his cigarette, thought for a moment, and said, "For example, let's say there's a rich man who's grown tired of his ageing wife and wants to replace her with a younger and prettier one. But he doesn't want a divorce and to split the assets, so he comes to us for some medication to give his wife. We will prescribe medication as required, and after taking it, his wife will exhibit symptoms of mental instability. No matter which hospital she's taken to, the diagnosis will always be something like manic disorder. After that, the man sends her to our rehabilitation centre for treatment, and following a period of treatment, the wife ends up committing suicide due to her mental illness. After he holds a funeral, he's free to marry his new lover without having to divide the family fortune."

A'Jie stared at the man in the white coat in disbelief, his hands mechanically shovelling soil as he tried to figure out whether the man was being serious or joking.

"The first wife is a bit miserable," A'Jie muttered to himself.

The man in the white coat nodded, apparently not intending to stop there, and continued, "Not long after, the man's house starts becoming haunted."

A'Jie looked at him in confusion – There's more to this story?

"He and his mistress begin to catch glimpses of a woman with bandages wrapped around her head," the man in the white coat finished one cigarette and lit another. Judging from the dark yellow staining on his fingers, he was clearly a heavy smoker.

"No matter how they look at her, she seems just like his ex-wife. Then one day, the man comes home and finds the place covered in blood. On the mirror in the bathroom is a blood-streaked crack, and his mistress has vanished."

The man can't find her anywhere. He stares suspiciously at the mirror because he's seen the ghostly figure of the bandaged woman in its reflection many times before.

The man calls the police. The police can't find the woman, nor a body, but the forensic team collects the blood from the scene. The analysis confirms it is his mistress's blood. Based on the volume lost, it amounts to a quarter of the total blood in a human of her weight. That amount of blood loss means she might already be dead, but theoretically, survival is still possible.

There are no signs of forced entry in the house, so the police conclude it was likely someone the victim knew, and the man becomes the prime suspect.

However, the man is agitated and keeps insisting it was the ghost of a woman with bandages around her head, which leads the police to suspect he might have a mental illness.

After a lengthy investigation, the police still fail to locate a body, and the man has an alibi for the time of the incident, so he is temporarily ruled out as a suspect.

In the end, the case is shelved, but the man continues to see the ghost. Coupled with the fact that he really caused the death of his first wife, he becomes increasingly paranoid.

Normally, people capable of murder aren't superstitious, so he begins to suspect that the house isn't haunted at all, but rather that he is suffering from some kind of mental illness, perhaps brought on by stress or something similar... Still, he is afraid to go to a regular hospital in case he accidentally lets something slip, so in the end, he comes back to our place.

After a series of tests, he is diagnosed with delusional disorder and sleepwalking and is prescribed medication.

He purchases a costly supply of medicine, and after taking it, the hallucinations stop. Not only does the ghost vanish, but he finds himself eating better, sleeping soundly, feeling energised during the day, and even his sexual function improves.

But a month later, when the medicine runs out, the very day he stops taking it, the ghost reappears, only this time, she is even more terrifying than before.

The man has no choice but to return to the facility and buy another expensive supply. But this time, the original dosage no longer works, the amount has to be doubled.

Just like that, what was originally enough to last a month could only last half a month, then down to a week... The man begins to spend large amounts of money on medicine, even eating it like food, but his condition only worsens. He begins to lose the ability to distinguish between reality and dreams, seeing ghostly figures of people, and the bandaged woman would occasionally appear by his side. In the end, he drives his car off the winding mountain road, and the car is wrecked, killing him.

When the police search his home, they find he has stockpiled a large quantity of vitamin tablets, and they don't know whether he has some kind of health anxiety.

He left a suicide note on the table, stating that he had developed a severe and incurable mental illness. He wishes to donate all his assets to the rehabilitation centre in the mountains, in the hope that others like him could be cured.

After he finished speaking, the man in the white coat stubbed out his cigarette in the snow, rubbed his hands together, and gave A'Jie a smile.

A'Jie listened to the whole thing in stunned silence. After a long pause, he asked, "So your rehabilitation centre, is it a scam syndicate that kills for money?"

The man in the white coat shrugged. "Killing for money... that's one part of the business, I suppose."

"Then are you a scammer too?" A'Jie asked.

The man in the white coat shook his head. "I'm a pharmaceutical researcher."

"Pharmaceutical research?"

The man in the white coat, who had barely shown any expression before and hadn't seemed particularly interested, suddenly got excited at the mention of medicine. "Medicine is the best tool in the world, it can control a person with ease, destroy them, even turn them from human into a ghost. As long as you control the dosage and get the formula right, knowing how to use medicine can make you a god who manipulates others."

A'Jie couldn't laugh or cry as he looked at the slightly manic figure before him. Although he wasn't exactly someone with strong morals himself, this man was clearly even more unhinged.

"So what do I need to do?" A'Jie finished filling the hole and picked up the uniform.

"That's a nurse's uniform," said the man in the white coat. "Of course, nurses are responsible for looking after patients."

"Patients?" A'Jie was puzzled. "So your hospital has patients?"

The man in the white coat tilted his head. "Of course we have patients, how can we test medicine without people? And without testing, how do you know if it works? It's just like the role of lab mice, but of course, it's much better than using lab mice."

A'Jie stared at the man in the white coat, mouth agape.

After a long moment, he swallowed hard and pointed at the freshly filled pit, already nearly covered by snow. "So that hole in the ground, why was it empty?"

The man in the white coat smiled and said, "Because I have a conscience."

Then the man in the white coat asked him, "What about you? Do you have a conscience?"

A'Jie stared at the man in the white coat for a long while, then crouched down and asked seriously, "Can I make a lot of money?"

The man in the white coat thought for a moment. "Money, probably a lot..."

"A lot a lot?"

"If you want a lot, then you'll have a lot."

After listening to the man in the white coat, A'Jie put on the nurse's uniform and smiled. "Then I don't have a conscience."

With that, he clipped the staff badge onto the breast pocket of his uniform. The badge read – Tu Zi.

‿︵‿︵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: May 4, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 1, 2025 by Soojin