Cataclysm Chapter 21: Gilded Infant Corpse 3; Fearless

Chapter 21: Gilded Infant Corpse 3; Fearless

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

Mao Xiaoli was surprised, “Doesn’t that mean He Tianna is going to die?”

Chen Yang hesitated. “It’s not that there is no way to resolve it.”

“Brother Chen, do you have a way to solve this?”

Chen Yang looked at Mao Xiaoli, and then he saw that Kou Xuanling also wanted to know, so he said, “Red arteries perforating the pupil means that she will be faced with a Calamity, this is not her destined path in life. As long as she can avoid the Calamity, she can save herself from death.”

“A Calamity? What kind of Calamity is she going to face?”

“It is a variation of Misfortunes.”

Misfortunes were unexpected accidents, even ghosts and Gods couldn’t predict it in advance. Perhaps one day, someone was just walking on the streets in broad daylight, and a vase fell down from the sky, hitting them on the head and killing them. This was called a Misfortune. If Misfortunes were calculated by human beings with the help of ghosts and Gods, it would be called a Calamity.

Some ghosts pester people and they wanted to find a substitute, so they would make the host encounter all kinds of Calamities. If one was lucky, they might get away from it and avoid death. Nine times out of ten, people who were troubled by Calamities wouldn’t live for long. That’s why he said her death was near.

“It’s better for you to worry about when you will get promoted to Mengwei instead of some celebrities’ life,” Chen Yang said.

Mao Xiaoli screamed and banged her head on the car window to feign death.

Chen Yang shook his head and stopped nagging her. Instead, he whispered to Du Shuo, “Are you coming home tonight?”

Du Shuo said, “Yes. I won’t go together with you, I’ll have to go to Fengdu for a bit.”

“Okay. I’ll wait for you. What do you want to have for dinner? I’ll buy the ingredients before I go back and wait for you with cooked food. By the way, change your face back when you go back. I don’t want to scare anyone else.”

Chen Yang didn’t want people in the branch office to know that his partner was Du Bei, the director of headquarters. It was too conspicuous. At least wait until he had stabilized his job and was competent enough to be the branch office director, before announcing the relationship between them.

“I will follow you.” Du Shuo didn’t care. Anyway, he could use his real face and real name. The name Du Bei was just a facade for being the Director of the Main Office, it was not an important name anyways.

Chen Yang chuckled, grabbed Du Shuo’s big hand and placed his fingers in his palm, playing with them one by one. Du Shuo’s hand was quite a lot bigger than Chen Yang’s, Du Shuo’s fingers were long and powerful, and there were some thin calluses on his fingers, which should be because he often writes.

He was a Hell servitor in the underworld, but deals with more paperwork than hands-on cases. Although he did some ghost catching work as well, he often did the registry instead. The first time they met was the night of their engagement. Only one lamp for paying respects was turned on. Chen Yang could see only half of Du Shuo’s body, and the other half was hidden in the dark.

Du Shuo’s face could not be seen clearly, but Chen Yang was aware that his gaze was on him. He noticed a jade ring on Du Shuo’s thumb back then, it looked like something an ancient nobleman would wear.

In the first year after their marriage, he could still see him wearing the jade ring. Later, he never wore it again. Chen Yang began to wonder whether Du Shuo was a son of a nobleman in a declining Dynasty. Unfortunately, Du Shuo never talked about his life.

“What happened to the ring you used to wear?”

Du Shuo heard his question and glanced at the red string hanging on Chen Yang’s neck. “Do you want it?”

“No. I’ve seen you wear it before. It looked good on you. Why aren’t you wearing it anymore?”

“Still wearing.”

“Mn?” Chen Yang was full of doubts and looked very clever with his head askew.

Du Shuo couldn’t help but pinch Chen Yang’s neck. He didn’t get too presumptuous and quickly changed to gentle touches. He pulled his left ring finger out, showing it to Chen Yang and said, “I cut it into two pieces and used it as a wedding gift.”

Du Shuo had been wearing a jade ring on his ring finger ever since they got married, which was their wedding ring. Chen Yang’s ring was hung around his neck with a red string and had been hidden under his clothes.

“So it’s the same piece.”

Chen Yang was a little surprised, but also a little reassured. He wanted to put the ring on his finger instead of wearing it on his neck, but now his job was dealing with ghosts and Gods. It was easy to break the ring.

Du Shuo chuckled, he approached Chen Yang with a questionable angle, grazed the tip of his ear with his teeth and bit it. Chen Yang stared at the people in front with his pupils wide, fearing that the two people would see. Fortunately, Mao Xiaoli was upset and saw nothing. If Kou Xuanling saw them, he’d probably just think they were whispering to each other.

The car stopped at the Shenchun community. Chen Yang and Mao Xiaoli got out of the car to say goodbye to them and watched them leave. When the car was out of sight, they turned around and walked a few steps. Chen Yang’s mobile phone received a message.

He took it out for a look, and found that it was a notification from the bank account. Four million dollars were transferred to his bank account and was already fully transferred. After Chen Yang had become the director, Ma Shanfeng gave Chen Yang a personal account. Once a job was completed, the money would be automatically transferred into his account. 

At the same time, Mao Xiaoli’s money transfer notification had also arrived, and immediately she called out, “I have the money for a new Taoist instrument now!”

Chen Yang also narrowed his eyes in joy. He finally had money to hold a ceremony to send Du Shuo merits as a Hell servitor.

When passing by the community food market, Chen Yang went in to buy ingredients for dinner. Although Mao Xiaoli didn’t know why, she still followed him in. When they came out, they were carrying many big and small bags.

Mao Xiaoli asked, “Brother Chen, are you going to cook?”

“Mn.”

“Brother Chen, you can cook?” Mao Xiaoli looked surprised.

Chen Yang nodded and said, “Today my partner will come home, so I can introduce them ¹ to you guys.”

“The chief’s wife is coming over?”

The chief’s wife? Chen Yang squinted his eyes a little, but didn’t mean to explain. On the contrary, he was looking forward to Du Shuo’s reaction when he was called ‘the chief’s wife.’

Ma Shanfeng had not gone off work yet. The branch office was lit up in lights and felt very warm. When they came back, they were invited to have some tea. At this time, the TV advertisements had just finished, and it was beginning to play a TV drama series. 

It was exactly the TV drama that He Tianna starred in, leading to her fame.

Ma Shanfeng saw the bags of food in their hands and joked, “Does Xiaoli want to learn how to cook?”

Mao Xiaoli sat down impolitely, took a big sip of the tea, shook her head and said, “Me cooking is impossible, it is impossible for my whole lifetime.”

Chen Yang refused the invitation to tea, unwrapped a piece of candy and put it into his mouth, he said, “I’m going to cook.”

Hearing this, Ma Shanfeng’s eyes brightened and decided to stay for dinner. He had heard from Mao Xiaoli that Chen Yang’s partner was coming tonight, and that made him more determined to stay.

“By the way,” Ma Shanfeng sipped his tea and said, “Qiudao is back.”

“Did he finish that three star job already?”

Ma Shanfeng shook his head and made a gesture, “After he came back, he slept for two days. He’s been playing games all day today.”

Mao Xiaoli was stunned, “Was the job very difficult?”

“Very.”

Chen Yang had not left for the kitchen yet. Hearing his words, Chen Yang looked at Mao Xiaoli in confusion. Mao Xiaoli explained, “Zhang Qiudao is the fourth member of the branch office. He took a three star job before, but now he is back. Generally, when he encounters a very difficult job, he will be tired and sleep for a few days afterwards, and then he’d play games all day to relax himself.”

Chen Yang nodded to show his understanding. Then he followed Mao Xiaoli and looked at Ma Shanfeng. He seemed to know something. It was a pity that Ma Shanfeng drank one sip after another of his tea cup, which meant he was not going to answer.

Mao Xiaoli said, “Ma Shanfeng, stop playing games with us! Tell us already.”

Ma Shanfeng glanced at her and said slowly, “This time, they lost a disciple of the dragon and tiger clan.”

“Ah!” Mao Xiaoli exclaimed, it was so difficult that someone died?

Ma Shanfeng sighed, “That person was complacent and neglectful. He didn’t know that this was not a three-star job, but a five-star one.”

Mao Xiaoli stood up with a loud voice, and the surprise on her face almost turned into real substance, there was even fear, “The Taoist Association isn’t following up with this incident?”

“They are now.”

“They only care when people are dead.” Mao Xiaoli frowned and was extremely unhappy, “The efficiency of the Taoism Association branch office in southern Guangdong is too poor. How could they mix up a five star job as a three star job, and just posting it on the APP like that? If Qiudao wasn’t strong enough, there would be a very high chance that he’d have died in that village directly.”

The job Zhang Qiudao received before was in southern Guangdong, which was named the Deserted Village of the South.². Chen Yang listened quietly, and could understand why Mao Xiaoli was so angry. He had read the list of jobs in the Dafu app himself. Basically, most of them were from one star to three stars. The three star jobs already made people wary. As for four stars and five stars, Zhang Qiudao would never touch them.

Even Kou Xuanling would not easily accept a four star job, let alone a five-star one.

Zhang Qiudao and his party were very lucky to have lost only one person on this five star job. Their survival had a lot to do with the Tianji Pavilion disciples  ³ in their group. They had a strong ominous feeling before they entered the village. Therefore, they did their fortune telling several times before going in, and no fortune telling results what-so-ever returned.

Their group were therefore very alert when they proceeded, as such managed to retreat in time. They only went so far as the village’s gates, but had already lost a person.

Generally speaking, when a job was released to the app, the Taoist Association or the branch office near the location would determine the level of difficulty of the job. They would only state a higher level, but never lower. Like the case with Han Jiashan ⁴ that time, it should have been a two star job, but they stated it was a three star one. 

That, however, didn’t matter. They definitely could not state a lower level though because it would make low-grade Tianshis mistakenly take up the job, and then die. For example, Zhang Qiudao’s job, which was supposed to be the most difficult five star job, yet it was marked as a three star one.

The Taoist association and the branch office in southern Guangdong must give an explanation.

Chen Yang looked down, and the lightness in his heart completely disappeared, leaving only a touch of solemnity.

Tianshis worked with ghosts, and were enemies of ghosts at the same time, so many died very young. Maybe they would die at any given time as well. This was a job with high profits but high risks after all.

He got up and said, “I’m going to cook.”

Fortunately, even if he died, he would still be with Du Shuo. In this way, his heart was at ease and he felt quite fearless.

 

 

 

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