Cataclysm Chapter 20: Gilded Infant Corpse 2; Red Arteries Perforating Pupils

Chapter 20: Gilded Infant Corpse 2; Red Arteries Perforating Pupils

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

As soon as Feng Yuan’s job was finished, the four Tianshis did not stay. They left in the afternoon, but Ge Qing secretly looked for Mao Xiaoli when they were about to leave. Seeing how when Mao Xiaoli left the villa to get in the car, the arc of her mouth never went down. Chen Yang knew she must have made a lot of money.

Mao Xiaoli thought that she should share the happiness and took the initiative to tell Chen Yang everything, “Ge Qing and Ma Qiqi asked me to draw Peach blossom talismans ¹.”

Upon hearing this, Kou Xuanling said, “Engaging in dishonest business.”

Mao Xiaoli didn’t like Kou Xuanling’s tone, “What do you mean dishonest business? Stopping evil, exorcizing ghosts and demons, and bridging relationships ² are all a Tianshi’s job. How can Kou Tianshi degrade the importance of relationships after being promoted to Wulei(3rd grade)?”

In Taoism, the Arts of Bridging Relationships promotes marriage and the development of love. The Arts of Bridging Relationships is a part of the Maoshan faction. Unfortunately, swindlers are often found pretending to be practitioners. Moreover, many people associate the Arts of Bridging Relationships with evil methods such as Thailand’s Qingjiang  ³ and the Miao tribe’s Gu insects of love  ⁴ which controls people’s minds and forces them to have a sense of adoration.

As a result, the Arts of Bridging Relationships had declined significantly. Nowadays, there were almost no disciples of the Arts, and no one was willing to inherit this practice either. Moreover, today’s youngsters were more willing to believe in the Western horoscope and all kinds of lucky charms that could attract fortune in relationships. On the contrary, the traditional Taoist Arts were regarded as scams.

Mao Xiaoli originally studied the Arts of Bridging Relationships, and the Zushiye she paid respect to was also the Progenitor of Bridging Relationships. However, to make a living, she took up jobs of catching ghosts.

Chen Yang was quite surprised, “Business related to people’s love lives is the most profitable. How is the business so bad now?”

He was not talking nonsense. Nowadays, many people may not believe in ghosts and gods, but they would rely on ghosts and gods when it came to things they couldn’t get and desired. The most typical example was love. Otherwise, why would there be so many people who believed in the peach blossom charms and horoscopes so much that they’d spend loads of money to buy those lucky charms?

Hearing that, Mao Xiaoli and Kou Xuanling were extremely surprised. They both looked at Chen Yang, with a face that screamed, ‘That’s impossible?!’

Chen Yang shook his head and sighed, “What’s wrong with you guys? Your business abilities are lacking, and you do not understand the market. How can you guys do business like this?”

“Remove the word ‘guys,’” Kou Xuanling said. “A person who can make tens of millions of yuan a month,” he used his finger to draw a line between him and Mao Xiaoli, “are not the same.”

Mao Xiaoli lowered her head in shame. She was the one who was not good at business. Chen Yang didn’t want to be mean to the young girl, so he quickly changed the topic.

When he and Mao Xiaoli went to the villa area, they took the train. Now, when they were going back, they hitched a ride in Kou Xuanling’s car. No man alive hated cars, Chen Yang also loved cars. However, there were no cars in the Dafu branch office and it was quite inconvenient to run a business without one.

Mao Xiaoli replied, “We have vehicles.”

Chen Yang was surprised, but he had just joined the branch office, so he didn’t know there was a vehicle at the office.

“Brother Chen, there are a whole row of shared bikes in front of our branch office,” Mao Xiaoli added.

Chen Yang replied, “Xiaoli, do you want some candy?” After that, without waiting for Mao Xiaoli to reply, he put a handful of candies into her hand and said with a smile, “Eat it.”

Mao Xiaoli was speechless. 

“My car is assigned to me by headquarters, I didn’t buy it myself. If you want to get one, ask director Du. I remember he had two cars.”

Chen Yang stared at Du Shuo in silence, “Do you have two cars?”

Chen Yang made a face at Du Shuo, one that screamed, he just found out his husband had secretly hidden money from him, and even raised two kids outside without him knowing. He knew how much money Du Shuo had in his pocket. Where would he get the money to buy a car?

Hearing this, Du Shuo’s face stiffened and said, “I don’t have a percentage dividend in every job headquarters takes, so headquarters assigned me two cars as a compromise.”

That made sense. Chen Yang immediately accepted the explanation. In fact, Du Shuo did not lie. The cars were really assigned by the Bureau, but Du Shuo cleverly chose his words.

‘Did not have a dividend’ and ‘did not take the dividend’ was completely different. The initiative was not the same. Du Shuo decided starting from this point on that he would take his salary as the director and give it to Chen Yang. In case Chen Yang found out one day and scolded him for wasting money. He drooped his eyes and said, “I’ll write a report when I get back, apply for headquarters to assign a car to the branch office as well.”

Hearing this, Chen Yang was smiling happily.

Kou Xuanling looked at Du Shuo and Chen Yang in the back seat through the rearview mirror. No matter how he looked, the two’s relationship was strange. However, at present, he was an iron and steel straight man and had never opened that door to a new world yet ⁵, so he couldn’t tell what was weird. Because of his thoughts, he almost drove past the red light. 

Mao Xiaoli snarked, “Can you look at the road when you drive?”

“If you are so great, you drive.”

“Sure. Give me your driver’s license and I can drive.” Mao Xiaoli hadn’t gotten a driver’s license yet.

“Go away.” Kou Xuanling stepped on the brakes, the car stopped without running past the red light, but just barely. They were at the intersection road of an urban area. There was a large shopping mall nearby, hence there was a lot of traffic and people coming and going. It was bustling.

On the opposite side of the road, on the wall of a shopping mall building with dozens of stories, hung an LED display. The last advertisement just finished, and a piece of entertainment industry news popped up. The news of He Tianna, who was a new female actress, had become quite popular recently. She had been threatened by some love crazed fans, and nearly got killed recently.

As a result, He Tianna’s news had grabbed much attention recently. Some people scold her for hyping things up, while others sympathized with her. There were also many more who were indifferent and said that an idol attracts the same type of fans.

The LED screen showed He Tianna had a haggard face and a deep frown, she was deeply disturbed. In the face of reporters’ questions, she did not say a word.

As soon as Mao Xiaoli saw He Tianna, she suddenly said, “Yin Suwen.”

Chen Yang looked up, he just happened to have seen the TV drama He Tianna starred in before. She once played a role called Yin Suwen in the ancient TV drama series, which led to her popularity. After a glance, he looked away from the screen and said in a low voice, “the acupoint above the bridge of her nose ⁶ is dark, disaster is going her way. Red arteries are perforating her pupils, her death is near.”

“What did you say, brother Chen?”

Chen Yang had his eyes down and said, “Nothing.”

“Oh.” Mao Xiaoli was not sure if she had heard wrong. The light turned green and the car turned. She took out her mobile phone to check Weibo and read gossip.

Kou Xuanling however, stared at Chen Yang through the rearview mirror. He suppressed his surprised expression, the studies of a Tianshi, knowledge on Feng Shui and Physiognomy ⁷, Chen Yang knew all of them. Although he only showed a bit of his knowledge on Feng Shui and Physiognomy, if he had such broad knowledge, he should be a Wulei(3rd grade) Tianshi at the very least.

He wondered who Chen Yang’s teacher was. During his thoughts, Kou Xuanling accidentally glimpsed Du Shuo peeling the candy wrapper and putting a white milk candy into Chen Yang’s mouth. Without even lifting his head, Chen Yang took the piece of candy into his mouth along with Du Shuo’s fingers. The piece of candy in Chen Yang’s mouth made his cheek bulge out slightly.

Du Shuo pulled his fingers out and poked Chen Yang’s bulging cheek. 

Kou Xuanling’s lips pursed together tightly, he was thinking this over very seriously. Was it true that after sleeping in the same room together, their level of friendship had grown exponentially? He gradually moved his eyes to Du Shuo. Du Shuo seemed to have felt his gaze. He looked up at him and his cold eyes met Kou Xuanling’s through the rearview mirror. Kou Xuanling shivered, sleeping with director Du was something that required a lot of courage.

Mao Xiaoli asked suspiciously, “Kou Xuanling, are you cold?”

“Hot,” Kou Xuanling said with a face void of any emotion.

Shivering from heat? Mao Xiaoli shrugged her shoulders to show that she did not understand him. Then she said in a gossipy tone, “Did you know that there are a lot of popcorn-worthy dramas in the entertainment industry recently? It’s so fresh and sweet that you can’t stop watching them.”

“Popcorn-worthy dramas?”

All three were puzzled.

“……” Mao Xiaoli was speechless. “Let’s not talk about Kou Xuanling and director Du, but how can brother Chen lack the vitality as a youngster as well?”

“……”

Mao Xiaoli lowered her voice and said mysteriously, “Recently, there have been several entertainment industry accidents in a row, some stars had been photographed when they were being crazy and weird. They were rumored on the Internet to have raised ghosts. And something was amiss, leading to a backlash from the ghosts.”

“Speculations,” Kou Xuanling said.

“Well founded speculations.” Mao Xiaoli ignored Kou Xuanling and put her mobile page in front of Chen Yang who was in the rear seat, “Brother Chen, watch this video, It’s really weird, isn’t it?”

It was impossible for Chen Yang to see anything from a video with such a shaky camera. He just said, “It’s probably due to too much pressure, or they have just been drinking. That’s what the media is like. It’s scaremongering.”

“However, it has been revealed that this Duan superstar had always made a special effort to spare a room and placed bowls and chopsticks every time he eats. He is not married, but he was seen coming out of the children’s toy store several times. He even had a lot of toys in his hands.”

Chen Yang put on a serious expression, “It’s because you put your attention to these things every day that you fall short in your Taoist studies. From now on, you are not allowed to keep staring at your mobile phone. You should practice drawing talismans every day and strive to be promoted to the fifth grade Mengwei Tianshi.”

Mao Xiaoli said, “Ehh? But brother Chen, didn’t you say that you would write a report to the Taoist Association and recommend me for promotion?”

On hearing this, Kou Xuanling sneered and said in a loud voice, “Saying as if you will succeed as long as you get a recommendation. You think the Taoist Association will examine you? If that was the case, any cats or dogs could become a Tianshi.”

Mao Xiaoli pursed her lips. Although she was not satisfied with Kou Xuanling’s attitude, she had to admit that he was right. For a while, she was caught in a dilemma between reading gossip and promotion.

Chen Yang shook his head helplessly.

Mao Xiaoli was still young. Although she had talents, she was more interested in playing. She did not have too much obsession studying to be a Tianshi and could not make up her mind to quit playing.

Du Shuo held Chen Yang’s hand with his, “Let her do what she wants.”

Chen Yang replied, “I just can’t bear seeing her wasting her talents.”

“Things cannot be forced.” When Du Shuo finished this sentence, he just shut up completely. He only mentioned that since he didn’t want his little wife to worry, if it was not for that, he would not have said a word.

Chen Yang thought for a moment and then let this go. Du Shuo was right. Things cannot be forced. It has its own route and paths. Sometimes, thousands of words preached by others couldn’t win against one’s self-enlightenment.

“Wait? What did you mean by the red arteries are perforating her pupils?” suddenly asked Mao Xiaoli.

Chen Yang was slightly startled, this was what he just said. “Why did you ask this all of a sudden?”

Mao Xiaoli explained, “I read this from a popular Weibo user, he was a famous fortune teller on Weibo. A lot of idols have asked him to tell their fortune and change their lives. His advice is usually very accurate.”

Kou Xuanling glanced at Mao Xiaoli’s mobile phone page and recognized the fortune teller on it, “Pan Canghai, he is the first disciple of the Tianji Pavilion. The successor to the art of Ziwei Doushu ⁸, is a descendant of the Shen faction ⁹.”

In other words, Kou Xuanling was saying that he was believable.

“I just saw him post a blog comment on the fortune of He Tianna on physiognomy, and that sentence was what the fortune teller said in his comment.”

Chen Yang thought, it seemed that this fortune teller was the real deal then. While Kou Xuanling was very surprised. Kou Xuanling wondered what method Pan Canghai used to deduce one’s future. However, when it comes to somebody’s life, the process would be extremely complicated. Chen Yang, however, managed to come to the same conclusion without inaccuracies after he had just casually looked at He Tianna’s face.

Does that mean his skill in physiognomy was not inferior to the successor of the Tianji pavilion?

“The so-called ‘red arteries perforating the pupil’ is the red blood vessels piercing straight through the pupil starting from the center. It is a very bad omen signifying that great misfortune is coming and that death is near.” ¹⁰.”

 

The author has something to say:

Mao Xiaoli: Reading gossip shows the vitality of young people, and is something necessary. 

 

 

 

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