As the tape in the cabin rotates, the sound of retro mechanical shafts makes a faint sound in a quiet environment.
Qin Zhibo lowered his voice as much as possible and sat solemnly on the boss's chair, ready to listen to the secrets of the black organization.
However, the tape continued to play for more than three minutes and still did not make any sound.
Could it be that something was done wrong?
Qin Zhibo was about to check whether the tape was inserted backwards, when the silent tape suddenly made a sound.
"I wish you a happy first birthday, Shiho."
"Now you can only learn to speak English, right? Haha, just like your sister Mingmei..."
"But it doesn't matter, you can take your time, the outside world is very exciting, waiting for you to discover..."
What is on the tape is a gentle female voice, which sounds light and airy, giving people a comfortable feeling. Although the Japanese is spoken very fluently, a foreign accent can be heard.
Is this the recording that Elena Miyano recorded for Ai Haihara?
If this is 1 year old, then the number on the tape is actually the age?
Regarding the content of the tape, Qin Zhibo had imagined many possibilities in advance, such as numbered confidential documents, a list of organizational members, scientific research project information, etc.
But what he didn't expect was that this was just a message from a mother to her child?
But after thinking about it, Qin Zhibo felt that it shouldn't be that simple.
If it were just an ordinary recording, Miyano Akemi could have given it to Haibara Ai within the organization, instead of keeping it secretly for so many years and then using this secret method to pass it on to the grown-up Haibara.
The night was still long anyway, so Qin Zhibo decided to continue listening.
...
An hour passed in a hurry, and Qin Zhibo was sitting at the table, with his hands propped up in front of him, his eyes full of seriousness.
He had listened to the first three tapes. In order not to miss any key information that might be hidden, Qin Zhibo did not speed up or skip.
However, the words in the tape contained no other irrelevant content except the mother's full maternal love for her child.
Elena Miyano provides life experience to Haibara Ai according to different age groups and wishes her healthy and happy growth.
The number on the tape represents Hui Yuan's age, 1 to 5 refers to one to five years old, and the numbers increase in sequence.
But even after listening to so much, Qin Zhibo still felt that these tapes were a bit weird.
Why was Elena Miyano the only one recording? Why did Haihara Ai’s father never speak out?
Generally speaking, if he wanted to make a message tape, Miyano Hiroshi would also want his daughter to hear his own voice, right?
Pulling open the cover of the phone, Qin Zhibo put the fourth tape, numbered 16 to 20, inside and pressed the play button.
As usual, there was silence for the first few minutes before Elena Miyano started to speak.
"I wish you a happy birthday, Shiho, who is 16 years old. At this age, you have already begun to face the pressure of study and life, right?"
"But I believe you, Shiho. After all, you are your parents' daughter, so there will be no problem..."
The 16-year-old's message remains unchanged, it still comes from her mother's instructions and blessings.
Still at 17...still at 18.
Just when Qin Zhibo was thinking this, Elena Miyano, who was about to say her concluding remarks, suddenly changed the subject.
"Then I'll see you next time on your 19th birthday...and now is almost the time to tell you."
"Actually, mom, she is making a very scary medicine."
"The partners in the laboratory thought it was a fantastic drug. My father and mother privately named the drug based on their deepest wishes - Silver Bullet, it is a silver bullet~"
"..."
Silver Bullet?
Qin Zhibo thought about the inherent impression of this title.
In vampire novels, silver bullets are pure silver or silver-plated bullets that can cause special damage to vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures.
This setting is because metallic silver was relatively scarce in the past. Silverware was a valuable item that could only be used by old European aristocrats. It was often given a symbol of "purity and cleanliness", which was exactly the opposite of the property of dirt, so it was set to
It has an exorcism effect.
In addition to this, the English name of Silver Bullet is Silver Bullet, and its down-to-earth translations include trump card, trump card, panacea, and panacea.
Which one Elena Miyano chose as the basis for naming the drug she developed is unknown to Qin Zhibo.
"Shiho, speaking of which, your father and I also got together because of this drug."
"Thirteen years ago, your father and I both worked as members of the drug development team in a company called Baijiu Pharmaceutical."
"Five years later, Baijiu Pharmaceutical closed down and we opened a small clinic elsewhere."
"Later, a large group kept sending invitations. After a while, your father finally agreed."
"Yes, that large group is the 'organization' you know..."
"Oh, I've said so much without realizing it. I'll see you next time when I'm 19~"
Click.
Qin Zhibo pressed the button, paused the tape playback, and sorted out his thoughts.
The look in his eyes at this moment was a bit incredible, because these words that Elena Miyano seemed to say casually actually contained important information.
Pay attention to the time point mentioned by Elena Miyano. If we count from the time point of her recording, 13 years ago is almost 30 years ago.
Because the recording time of Elena Miyano should have been shortly after Ai Haihara was born.
Another evidence is that Baijiu Pharmaceutical closed down five years later.
Qin Zhibo just happened to learn about the existence of such a pharmaceutical company, Baijiu Pharmaceutical, when he was investigating the cases of Mermaid Island in the United States and Ryugu Island in Okinawa.
Since decades ago, a strange disease has spread among the islanders of the American Island, which gradually turns into a mermaid monster. According to the habit, the islanders will exile these sick islanders to die on their own.
Five years ago, Shimabukuro Kimie's father and some villagers fell ill. Their increasingly strange looks were banished to the sea. After a long wandering, they arrived at an uninhabited island in Okinawa.
After living there for a while, Shimabukuro Kimie's father was captured by a group of robbers who suddenly landed on the island.
The woman in that group of robbers was the daughter of the local mayor of Okinawa. She was just the child of the mayor’s wife and her ex-husband, and had no blood relationship with the mayor. In order to test whether the mayor really cared about her, she
A robbery was planned.
On the other hand, this woman also suffered from a strange mermaid disease, but when she was gradually entering the onset of the disease, she received medicine in the mail from her biological father who was far away in the United States.
The woman tested this drug on Shimabukuro Kimie's father, and only took it after she was sure it was effective.
The woman then sent a robber to regularly deliver small amounts of medicine and food to Shimabukuro's father.
Until a year ago, Shimabukuro Kimie's father lurked in the waters where the robbers landed on the island. While the robbers boarded the island to observe the location of the treasure screen blown away by the typhoon, he sailed away alone.
The robber had little ability to survive in the wild, and was trapped on the island and starved to death. Before he died, he wrote down a code for his companions to indicate where the treasure was hidden. This is the whole truth about the mystery of Ryugong Island.
The biological father of the robber woman was the project leader of the Baijiu Pharmaceutical drug development team, an American named "Mark Allen".
Qin Zhibo found the address information of the mailed drug and found it in Los Angeles, USA, and contacted this person.
Under his introduction, Qin Zhibo also had a thorough understanding of the former "Baijiu Pharmaceutical".
Baijiu Pharmaceutical is actually the Japanese office of STK Transcontinental Corporation. STK was founded in 1934 by Walter Marsh. Behind it is the Marsh family of Innsmouth, a company that has relied on the metallurgical industry since the last century.
A big family started to rise.
The main research direction of "Shiroji Pharmaceutical" of STK's office in Japan is to develop drugs to combat "deep dive syndrome".
Deep Diving Syndrome is a disease originating from the Innsmouth area. The local people's traditional beliefs are closely related to a creature in the deep sea called "Deep Diver".
At an unspecified period in adulthood, patients with submersible syndrome will gradually develop strange faces, webbed feet, and bulging eyes, and eventually become submersible and live in the sea.
Conducting this experiment requires a large number of related human experiments, so STK began a secret plan half a century ago and chose Japan, which was extremely backward at the time, as the site for human experiments.
The American Island is Baijiu Pharmaceutical, or one of STK's experimental sites.
This experiment took a long time, and it was not until the collapse of Shiroji Pharmaceutical 25 years ago that STK completely withdrew from Japan.
In other words, the drugs developed by Miyano Hiroshi and Miyano Elena during their time at Shiroji Pharmaceutical are actually drugs to combat "deep dive syndrome"?
If this is the case, this drug can indeed be called a "silver bullet" because its principle is to target and eliminate the cells of deep divers. As long as the patient takes the drug regularly, the patient can maintain his or her human identity.
But even so, Qin Zhibo still felt a little confused.
This unique targeted drug was actually developed by STK later. The Miyano couple’s new drug development does not seem to be this.
And what does the black organization want the members who develop this drug? Their boss is not from Innsmouth...
...
In order to clear up the doubts in his heart, Qin Zhibo continued to press the play button.
"Happy birthday to my 19-year-old Shiho."
"You are now able to take charge of research and development, right? After all, you are my daughter, I believe you can do it."
"If I'm not wrong, you should be conducting the research that I can't complete, right?"
"Regardless of the progress of your research, I think it's time to tell you something more distant."
"Actually, it's about your father. Although he is Japanese, he graduated from Miskatonic University in the United States, which is a sister school to the University of Brightchester in the United Kingdom where I studied."
"Your father is very studious. When he was studying at the University of Michigan, his grades were among the best in the medical school. He is a real academic master~"
"Until he met the senior student, Herbert West..."
Elena Miyano's conversation changed from gentle to serious.
"That was a fanatic who violated scientific taboos. He secretly used the dead bodies in the morgue to develop drugs to bring the dead back to life. Something happened..."
"Herbert's research was originally banned, but your father attached great importance to the research on the 'resurrection drug' and continued the same research and published some articles."
"Because of this incident, your father was called a 'mad scientist' by the scientific community and was exiled by the orthodox scientific community."
"But I don't care about that~ In fact, apart from this somewhat scary name, your father is really an easy-going, straightforward person who is easy to get along with..."
"That year, Baijiu Pharmaceutical went bankrupt. Your father and I originally planned to just stick to that small clinic and live our lives in such an ordinary way, until the man in black that day invited us to conduct new research...
.”
"However, the content of the research is not the 'silver bullet' that I think is meaningful, but the 'research' that has been exiled by the scientific community..."
"Okay, I said some weird and scary things, I'm sorry, Shiho."
"See you again when we are 20 years old."
In shock, Qin Zhibo finished listening to this recording.
It turns out that Haibara Ai’s father, Miyano Hiroshi, was also a student at the University of Michigan and his alumnus.
Judging from his age, he should be his senior.
And Miyano Atsushi's senior, or the leader of drug research, was a man named "Herbert West".
Regarding this name, Qin Zhibo felt like he had heard this name somewhere in his mind for some reason.
This is an American name, so I must have met it in the United States.
Where is it?
Suddenly, Qin Zhibo's face was shocked and his eyes widened.
When I went to the United States, the psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum whom I met was named Herbert West!
Qin Zhibo still remembered this person relatively clearly. He was thin and wore delicate round glasses under his light yellow hair.
But what impressed him most was that although this person's age was 37 years old, and he looked about that age, his actual age after physical contact investigation was 64 years old.
At the age of 64, Miyano Atsushi has already met the requirement of "senior" in terms of age.
Could he be the first researcher of a drug that brought the dead back to life?
In other words, he is the real creator of APTX-4869!
Qin Zhibo rubbed his forehead. He never dreamed that the answer to the question would pass him by as a psychiatrist.
Conan and Haibara Ai used drug A to reduce their age by about 10 years each.
Herbert West's age was reduced by a full 27 years, and the effect was more than twice as strong.
Qin Zhibo: "..."
wrong.
There's still something wrong.
If the effect of this medicine is just this, it is far from being able to bring the dead back to life. At most, it can only prolong life.
Moreover, Haibara Ai once said that what she originally envisioned to develop was not a poison, but she just happened to develop a toxic drug that could not be discovered by any judicial inspection.
Rejuvenating people was just an accidental effect of this drug. Although she could guess the principle, it was not part of her research and development plan.
I'm afraid... Herbert West, Miyano Atsushi, and Haibara Ai, the three of them are not developing the same drug.
Moreover, when Elena Miyano was 18 years old, she specifically mentioned the "silver bullet" developed at Shiroji Pharmaceutical. Why?
Qin Zhibo's body lay slumped on the chair, feeling that although he knew a lot of things, things seemed to be more complicated.
And whether we can solve this mystery depends on the final 20-year-old recording.