Chapter 101: Liuhua Street
Drake really wanted to dig open the tunnel’s wall to see the secret hidden beneath the tunnel, but this wasn’t something a small F-level mysterious investigator like him could decide on his own; even A-level mysterious investigators didn’t have the authority to act first and report later without a definite emergency.
After all, this tunnel was at least considered a city cultural heritage.
Even so, Drake had no intention of giving up on finding the missing boy.
The recent frequent disappearance cases in Liuhua Port City were almost all related to that group of “mermen,” and the seabed beneath the tunnel might hide merman secrets; the boy’s disappearance very likely had a great probability of being inseparable from this tunnel. Linking them together, solving Liuhua Port City’s mysterious disappearance case might just find the missing boy.
Before leaving, Drake glanced at the boy’s parents who cast expectant gazes at him; he didn’t speak or express any attitude, just calmly withdrew his gaze and steadily walked away from them.
It wasn’t that he was too heartless, but he couldn’t give this couple any guarantee.
Drake casually ate something, and during that time, he asked his mission contact person to look up some information—local historical information related to mermen.
When he finished breakfast, the mission contact person also sent a message just in time, and he immediately hailed a passing taxi.
“Mr., where to?” The taxi driver glanced at Drake through the rearview mirror in the car and was slightly surprised to see the other’s mixed-race appearance.
“Liuhua Street.” Drake glanced at his mobile phone and replied, then immediately put away the phone, leaned on the car backseat’s chair back, and closed his eyes to rest.
He hadn’t slept all night and had been exposed to a large amount of knowledge that nearly shattered his worldview in a short time; to keep his mind clear enough for solving the case next, he had to rest well for a bit.
“Got it.” The taxi driver started the car right away; he glanced at Drake, who seemed to be asleep, shook his head, seemingly regretting not being able to chat properly with an out-of-town passenger who could speak Chinese.
The Liuhua Street that Drake mentioned was located in the eastern district of Liuhua Port City, nearly an hour’s drive from where he was.
This one-hour drive was long, but still too short for the sleep-deprived Drake; when he woke up from the car, he hadn’t enjoyed the satisfaction of sleep.
With a bit of displeased morning grumpiness, he got out of the car and walked into Liuhua Street, this “painting” filled with near-modern historical charm.
According to the reply from the mission contact person, the history of Liuhua Port City had an inseparable connection with “mermen.”
This city was born from the ocean, but its prosperity was inseparable from “mermen.”
On the land of Liuhua Port, there was once a mysterious organization that believed in “mermen”; the organization worshiped mermen and often held ritual of wishing ceremonies for mermen, as if treating mermen as deities for adoration, and the mermen seemed to know humans’ intentions, actually giving back to the humans on shore—these mermen would give all the gold, silver, and jewels salvaged from the seabed to the humans who believed in them.
Because Liuhua Port back then had frequent sea monsters that injured people and wrecked ships, a large amount of treasure sank beneath the nearby sea area; but at that time, humans were limited by their fragile bodies and crude tools, unable to dive deep into the sea to salvage this wealth. After discovering that mermen could bring them value and benefits, almost no one could resist the temptation and began to believe in mermen, so the members of this mysterious organization grew more and more.
If you could get it for free, mooch off, then mermen or whatever, you could believe in them a little.
After obtaining merman wealth, this city gradually grew because of it, once becoming one of the most prosperous cities of that era.
However, all things have rise and fall; this mysterious organization that once brought huge wealth to the city gradually fell silent and eventually seemed to disappear into the river of history.
Nowadays, within this Liuhua Street, there is a museum that still preserves information about that mysterious organization.
Drake came here precisely to look for things related to that mysterious organization; if he could find clues related to the disappearance case and mermaid disease from it, that would undoubtedly be a great thing.
Soon, Drake found records about the mysterious organization in a copybook of an ancient book on the second floor of the museum, and from it finally learned the true name of the mysterious organization—Anhai Divine Society.
The copybook was almost one-to-one faithful to the original ancient book except for the degree of wear; the cover, like the ancient book, was drawn with a strange symbol, a pattern similar to an eye, but with a fish in the pupil area.
The mermen worshiped by the Anhai Divine Society were not the merman population, but the merman leader, their ruler, also known as the Sea God of Anhai.
“Is that the big fish?” Drake thought of the giant merman he had seen in his dream.
The reason the Anhai Divine Society was established was solely because the Sea God of Anhai defeated the sea monsters that always attacked tourists and local fishermen at the time; its continuation and growth were as previously stated—the Sea God of Anhai and its kin would bring wealth to the humans who believed in them.
And when Drake wanted to know why the Anhai Divine Society suddenly declined, he found that the copybook was blank afterward.
Drake’s careful flipping through the copybook seemed to attract the attention of a guide in the museum; she came to Drake with a professional smile, “Mr., is there anything I can help you with?” As she spoke, her squinting eyes suddenly jumped in shock, and her smile immediately became somewhat strangely ambiguous.
The guide miss’s eerie change in expression was fully taken in by Drake, but he remained unmoved.
Actually, it wasn’t just the guide miss who was a bit strange; ever since he entered this street and walked along, whenever he passed by and approached the merchants and residents living here, he always felt the abnormal gazes of those “locals.”
That wasn’t unwelcoming or vigilant; rather, it was like the enthusiasm and curiosity of villagers seeing a wanderer returning home after many years away.
However, this enthusiasm was mixed with unsettling “fanaticism” and “adoration”; Drake could only sincerely feel a wave of discomfort, strongly suppressing his nausea and resistance, and responded to the guide miss’s question: “Why is there nothing after this?”
The guide miss smiled and said: “Because the original in the display case ends here, so the copybook can only be copied up to this point.”
“I see.” Drake nodded.
He didn’t believe it.
“If Mr. wants to know what happened afterward, I happen to know some and can explain it to you.” The guide miss noticed a hint of displeasure in Drake’s emotion, suddenly restrained her smile, and a flash of panic passed through her eyes.
Drake frowned slightly; he was very puzzled by this inexplicable respect, and the doubts in his heart became more and more chaotic like a fuzzball, “I want to know about the subsequent development of the Anhai Divine Society organization.”
“The Anhai Divine Society fell silent due to a later turmoil, and that turmoil was the blessing brought by the Sea God of Anhai.” The guide miss answered immediately; at this point, a trace of indignation appeared on her face, “Humans rejected the eternal life blessing brought by the Sea God of Anhai to humans and regarded the blessing as a curse; those who evolved from receiving the blessing suffered ruthless suppression, many died, and the Anhai Divine Society thus lost many members… This was truly a tragedy.”
Listening to the guide miss’s words, Drake surprisingly couldn’t tell what this lady was indignant about or which event she was calling a tragedy.
“What is the blessing?” Drake didn’t want to hear the other beat around the bush; he wanted to hear the answer, even though he had already guessed it.
“The chance to become a servant of the Sea God of Anhai and obtain eternal life.” The guide miss replied, and as she spoke, she respectfully bowed slightly at the waist.
So it really was this…
The so-called blessing of the Sea God of Anhai was mermaid disease!
Drake’s heartbeat began to accelerate, the masseter on his cheek trembling; he noticed the guide miss’s bowing posture toward him and soon discovered the enthusiastic gazes of the other museum employees around, and a bold yet cautious conjecture formed in his heart.
The employees in this museum… no, even the original residents of this whole street, they were all remnants of the Anhai Divine Society back then; they were waiting for the return of the Sea God of Anhai, longing for that “blessing.”
And with him, bathed in the “blessing” by bloodline, appearing here, to them, it was like seeing the envoy sent by the Sea God of Anhai, come to lead them to realize the great ideal.
Thinking this way, Drake finally understood why these people had such strangely reverent attitudes toward him, though he didn’t know how exactly these people confirmed he had “mermaid disease.”
With such doubts, Drake, heart pounding, went to the restroom; only then did he discover his eyes were starting to show abnormal colors—not human whites and pupils at all, the whites yellowish and glowing, while the pupils enlarged and dilated.
“Cough cough.” Drake suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his heart and lungs, followed by coughing sounds; a fishy taste surged in his throat, and a mouthful of acidic water mixed with blood sprayed out, covering the entire sink.
Drake incredulously opened his mouth and was terrified to discover that his teeth were starting to show abnormal serrations, just like shark teeth and mouth.
The early symptoms of mermaid disease were finally manifesting on him, and the reaction was so intense.
Drake said to himself in the mirror: “I am… I am Drake Wu, a detective…”
He had to repeatedly confirm that his voice was still normal, his vocal cords not yet fully mutated by mermaid disease, and his brain’s thinking still clear.
After confirming his mind was still clear, Drake decided that from now on he would speak less to avoid normal people noticing his abnormality.
He didn’t know why his mutation symptoms suddenly accelerated; perhaps mermaid disease’s mutation speed was inherently this rapid. Drake eventually fled the museum like escaping, fled this Liuhua Street gathered with madmen and lunatics.
Hastily hailing a taxi, Drake got in; after the car started, he heard the familiar voice from the driver on the car ask: “Done shopping so quickly? Not planning to look around more?”
Hearing this familiar voice, Drake’s mind shook; he stiffly raised his head to look and unexpectedly found that this taxi driver was the one who brought him here, as if the other had been waiting for him to leave the street to pick him up at the first moment.
It was also at this moment that Drake finally noticed the pendant on the taxi driver’s chest was exactly the Anhai Divine Society’s pattern!
“Who are you!?” Drake could no longer restrain his impulse and began questioning the taxi driver.
“You really do look a lot like her.” The driver showed a somewhat emotional smile at this and said, “My name is Ma Hong, respected envoy.”
“Tell me, what exactly do you know, what are you hiding? Are the recent mysterious disappearance cases in Liuhua Port City related to you!?” Drake asked the man in front of him in a deep voice.
Driver Ma Hong respectfully confessed truthfully: “We will certainly tell you everything we know without reservation. As for the disappearance case you’re asking about now, I can tell you yes, it is indeed inseparable from us.”
Ma Hong’s eyes showed fervor, excited bloodshot veins filling his eye sockets; he ferociously and uglily bared his mouth, two rows of eerie old yellow teeth spitting out word by word: “The stars will soon align, my god will awaken from slumber, at that time the god’s envoys will lead His believers to solemnly welcome His return; the son of god will use twin spirits and blood, soul and flesh, to build an incarnation for Him to walk the human world, then His incarnation will lead us to spread the gospel to the world…”
“Madman!” Drake cursed angrily, “That’s not a god at all!”
What descends from the sky is not necessarily a deity; demons can also come from beyond.
Ma Hong smiled; he didn’t argue with Drake, just continued on his own: “When the stars align, the day my god awakens, you will believe everything I say.”
As he spoke, Ma Hong happened to stop the car at an intersection waiting for the light.
Drake forcefully opened the car door and jumped out of the car; he looked at the driver in the taxi in shock and suspicion, only to see Ma Hong still smiling at him, the other not even trying to stop him from leaving.
Scared by Ma Hong’s eerie expression, Drake seemed to hallucinate; he stumbled and ran on the road, and when he accidentally bumped into pedestrians, he always hallucinated those pedestrians also showing Ma Hong’s eerie and dangerous smile.
He fell to the ground, seeing the group of pedestrians surrounding him all facing him with uniform terrifying smiles; Drake only felt a massive amount of pain suddenly injected into his brain, and all of a sudden, his whole body lost strength and collapsed on the ground.
“Sigh… da… Hui Ke…” Drake felt a thick bloody taste surging in his mouth, murmuring, his vision gradually going black…
“Li Nuowei, you’ve had many absences from classes lately and haven’t returned at night; can you explain why?” In the School of Economics and Management office at Liuhua Port Comprehensive University, the young counselor was patiently communicating with the problem student.
Li Nuowei looked at the counselor and smiled, saying: “Please don’t worry, I have no problem.”
“Then what’s with the absences? I have to remind you, if you continue like this, you might fail this semester.” The counselor earnestly reminded.
“Oh, rest assured, I won’t fail.” Li Nuowei shook his head, then his eyeballs stiffly turned toward the counselor’s mobile phone on the desk; soon the phone lit up.
The counselor heard the incoming call ring, glanced at the caller ID, frowned tightly, and was about to habitually hang up when he heard the student in front say: “I suggest you still listen to what it is; otherwise, you might regret it, like not making it in time to see your control-freak mother one last time…”
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