Cataclysm Chapter 29: Ye Family Estate No.444 2; Vertical Eye

Chapter 29: Ye Family Estate No.444 2; Vertical Eye

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

Shen City was a first tier city in the country, and its prosperity was comparable to that of the capital city. When they arrived at Shen City airport and came out, they learned that Su Li had sent his eldest disciple to pick them up.

Mao Xiaoli murmured, “Ziyang Palace is very popular in Shen City and is loved by female believers. It’s hard to even see Supervisor Su.”

Chen Yang asked, “What are you trying to say?”

“What kind of car will Supervisor Su send to pick us up?” Mao Xiaoli ran at the front with her suitcase and walked while looking backwards to Chen Yang, “Aren’t you curious?”

Zhang Qiudao, who had been on the first-class seat and hence knew stuff, said, “An SUV.”

“Luxury car.” Kou Xuanling who had a lot of experiences in the matter said. “There are three of us. Supervisor Su sent his eldest disciple to pick us up. They can’t lose face. Ziyang Palace has a good market in Shen City. He can afford to buy a luxury car.”

Mao Xiaoli wondered, “What does this have to do with face?”

“Of course you don’t understand,” Kou Xuanling said.

“Don’t toy with me, spit it out already,” Mao Xiaoli was the most impatient, she urged people to speak quickly.

“Between the two Taoist factions, with certain things, especially the reception of others from another faction, they will certainly make great efforts to maintain the superficial glory. I’ve been to Shen city to pick up jobs and worked with Tianshis of the Baiyun (White Cloud) Temple. Do you know what kind of car I was picked up by?”

The crowd shook their heads. Kou Xuanling replied, “A Bentley.” He raised his hand and made a gesture, “This number, it was worth tens of millions of yuan.”

Whoa! The other three people marveled. They could only get around 10 million yuan from one job and yet the other had cars that were worth tens of millions yuan each, so rich.

“That’s not even the best,” Kou Xuanling waved his hand carelessly, “When Baiyun Temple’s people came to the Dafu Main Office of the imperial capital, we had several ten million yuan priced luxury cars waiting for them. Next time, when I went to them again, their luxury cars were upgraded too. I’ll tell you, this is called ‘not losing formation’. If you lose on the front, then you lose face.”

Zhang Qiudao and Mao Xiaoli excitedly looked at Chen Yang, “Brother Chen, what kind of car is going to be sent by the Supervisor Su?”

Chen Yang calmly motioned to them to be quiet. Then he asked Supervisor Su, “We have three people here, will the car have enough room?” 

He was given the answer, “Definitely enough… We will have enough room if you are six to seven people.” 

“Oh, good.” After thanking him and asking about the characteristics of his eldest disciple, Chen Yang hung up the phone and looked at Kou Xuanling, “There are seven or eight seats. What kind of car is it?”

“Lincoln limousine.”

They all know that the Lincoln limousine was one of the most luxurious cars. They were looking forward to it as they got out of the airport. Seeing a tall and beautiful girl waving to them, they went to introduce themselves.

When they got closer, they found the girl even more beautiful, her height was almost near Zhang Qiudao’s. She was wearing flat shoes and a pair of sunglasses. She had light makeup on and had red lips, her whole person had a cool heroic look. She introduced herself, “Hu Yinnan, the eldest disciple of Ziyang Palace.”

“Chen Yang, director of Dafu branch office.” Chen Yang introduced the other three to Hu Yinnan one by one.

Hu Yinnan nodded, “Master asked me to pick you up and bring you to a hotel near Ziyang Palace. Ziyang Palace cannot let male guests stay there, but there is a believer in our temple who runs a hotel. The environment there is not bad. You can live there.”

Chen Yang thanked her. Zhang Qiudao and Mao Xiaoli were looking forward to following Hu Yinnan. Then they saw a bus stop in front of them. They were all stunned, staring at the yellow air-conditioned bus, none of them spoke.

Hu Yinnan looked back, “You aren’t coming up?”

“……”

Chen Yang and the other three turned their heads and looked at Kou Xuanling. Where’s the luxury car?

Kou Xuanling’s values had been greatly impacted and was now in a state of remodeling, he could not answer.

After getting on the bus, the three people waited for some time, because Hu Yinnan had booked the whole two-decker bus but was still waiting for customers. She didn’t let the driver drive until the bus was full. Hu Yinnan turned to Chen Yang, who was sitting at the end, and said, “Master taught us in the first doctrine to make the best use of everything.”

Chen Yang nodded in silence. For the first time, he saw how fresh and refined a person who was described as stingy.

Because of carrying other passengers, it took longer, as they made some detours instead of directly going to the hotel. On the contrary, the driver didn’t complain at all. It was later discovered that the driver and the bus company of the driver had been benefiting from the Ziyang Palace. Moreover, Hu Yinnan would still give half of the earned money back to the driver, while the other half would be donated.

Hu Yinnan said, “Making use of everything to the best will bring great fortune. We should also make full use of what we have. But we can’t base our gains on other people’s pain. In other words, don’t be mean to others.”

So far, Chen Yang and others had a good impression on Hu Yinnan and Ziyang Palace. Mao Xiaoli also called Hu Yinnan as sister Hu, but she had a sweet mouth. When she saw people who she admired and worshiped, she would call them brother and sister.

There were many Taoist temples in Shen City, which were mainly divided into the Zhengyi and Quanzhen faction. Ziyang Palace was one of the main Quanzhen factions, a Kun type temple. The so-called Kun meant the Taoist nun. Men were Qian and women were called Kun.

At first, the four people had no expectations for the hotel mentioned by Supervisor Su anymore, but it was beyond their imagination. It was a well-known characteristic hotel in Shen City, the terrace outside had a barbecue stove.

Chen Yang said to them, “We are having a barbecue in the evening and I’ll be roasting. You guys prepare the ingredients.”

Mao Xiaoli, who had tasted Chen Yang’s food, cheered immediately. Chen Yang invited Hu Yinnan to the barbecue dinner. After a few seconds, he asked, “Can Hu Daoyou eat meat?”

Hu Yinnan nodded, “I can even drink alcohol. I’m just a disciple and cultivate at home. I didn’t accept the commandments, so I don’t have to give up meat and alcohol.”

The Quanzhen faction was not like the Zhengyi faction, which were mostly Fire Dwelling Taoists who could get married and have children. In fact, even in the Quanzhen faction, there were two kinds of disciples, one were Following disciples, the other were at home disciples. At home disciples only learned and practiced Taoism, they didn’t have to live in the temple, but could cultivate at home. So they could still get married and have children. They also didn’t have to give up meat.

“Well, come over at night then.”

Hu Yinnan nodded, readily agreed and showed them where to buy cheap barbecue equipment and fresh and delicious ingredients. It just happened to solve Mao Xiaoli and the other two’s tasks.

After that, everyone found a room to live in and put away their luggage. Chen Yang stayed in his room to pack. He was carrying a large suitcase with clothes and supplies for himself and Du Shuo.

Du Shuo found the hotel according to the information given by Chen Yang. Standing at the hotel gates, Du Shuo was about to step in when a group of people rushed by him and quickly entered the hotel.

The group wore blue robes, black windbreakers outside the robes and had hoods on. They covered themselves up so that no skin showed. They even wore large and strange bronze masks on their faces, but they did not attract the slightest attention of passers-by. It was as if they were born to be dressed like this, not surprising and very ordinary.

Du Shuo stood where he was and watched them for a long time. He also stepped into the yard and headed for Chen Yang’s room. The group of people dressed strangely were booking rooms with the owner’s wife. Without discussing the price, they threw down the money, took the key and left. The obvious leader of the group suddenly turned around and looked at where Du Shuo stood before with awe and admiration in his eyes.

“What do you want, sir?”

“Nothing.” The man turned back and said, “Let’s go.”

As soon as they left, it was like a light wind blowing across the lake, which only slightly wrinkled the surface of the lake, and soon returned to calm, leaving almost no trace. The owner’s wife was quite surprised to find that there were three new booking records in her book. She checked today’s account and the money matched up. So she put her heart down and thought to go check the three rooms out later. It didn’t take a while for her to forget about it completely though.

Du Shuo knocked on a door. Chen Yang opened the door and pulled Du Shuo in. After closing the door, he pulled him and said, “Come and try. I chose a T-shirt and bought it.”

Chen Yang unfolded a black T-shirt with a thin white dolphin at its center. The dolphin’s snout was embroidered with two small letters: Lo.

The T-shirt was very fancy. It was definitely not what Du Shuo would wear. He didn’t even wear T-shirts. Even in summer, he wore long-sleeve clothes and long trousers, which made him look very calm and grown-up. In the past, when Chen Yang sewed his clothes for him, they were always traditional style clothes. After seeing the world, Chen Yang still made modern clothes that were simple and serious for him. Du Shuo would never wear clothes that were too fancy.

Du Shuo looked up and saw Chen Yang’s bright eyes full of expectation. His refusal turned out oddly, “I’ll go change into it.”

Chen Yang handed him the T-shirt and asked him to change it on the spot, “I washed it before I came here. It won’t be dirty.”

Du Shuo fit in the T-shirt well. Chen Yang was familiar with the size of the clothes he wore and didn’t make a mistake. After changing, he naturally changed his trousers too. Chen Yang took out a pair of trousers and handed them to him. Du Shuo was speechless. Chen Yang hugged Du Shuo’s waist and pleaded, and the latter immediately compromised.

After Du Shuo was all dressed up in young and fashionable clothes, he looked a few years younger. His beautiful face and tall stature made him undefeated even against a pop star. Although his imposing aura had not been reduced at all, he seemed to be more eye-catching.

Chen Yang happily picked up his clothes and went out to change. He was wearing a T-shirt also, the T-shirt was the same as Du Shuo. Just instead of a white dolphin, there was a black one on his chest; the two small letters embroidered on its snout were ‘ve’.

Du Shuo didn’t react to the two wearing the same clothes until they came out of the room and met Mao Xiaoli. Mao Xiaoli looked at their T-shirts for a while and then exclaimed, “Lovers’ T-shirts, how romantic!”

Chen Yang raised his eyes to meet Du Shuo’s laughing and teasing gaze, “It turns out Yang Yang hurried me to change clothes, because he wants to wear a couple’s clothes with me. How long has Yang Yang been planning this?”

“I didn’t plan it. I just saw it and thought it was good, so I bought it.”

“My Yang Yang didn’t plan this? Then did Yang Yang only buy one set?”

“…Not too many. About four or five sets. We can change a set every day, we need to clean them anyways.” Chen Yang grabbed Du Shuo’s arm, which meant ‘if you don’t wear it, I will bite your arm’. “You have to wear it with me. When you go out, people will know that we are a couple.”

Du Shuo was satisfied with the last sentence, but he still chuckled and said, “I’ll wear it with you these few days, but don’t buy anymore of these fancy clothes in the future.”

Chen Yang raised a smile, “I know.” That was not what he was thinking in his heart though, when the time comes, he will deal with it then. On the surface, he agreed to Du Shuo, but if he sees clothes he likes, he will still buy them. Whenever he bought younger clothes for Du Shuo before, he refused to wear them.

It’s too fancy! A brown coat with a regular style was rejected as fancy and ugly because it had a bit more decorative pocket zippers. The old man, this old antique, refused to wear them. The last clothes Chen Yang bought were still hung at home and never worn. The color of the clothes always had to be black or gray, some white could be seen occasionally. The style must be the simplest and must have long sleeves.

Ugly. Every time Chen Yang saw it, he had to complain about it. Even if Du Shuo was a walking clothes rack, he could wear anything and still look good in it. He still hated Du Shuo’s clothes. In his mind, he was secretly planning things. Du Shuo should wear couple clothes for this whole trip, if he does not wear them, he will bite him!

Du Shuo pinched Chen Yang’s neck, leaned down and asked, “What are you thinking about, your eyes are moving so fast?”

“What sauce to use for the barbecue tonight?” Chen Yang’s face did not change.

Du Shuo chuckled, “Little schemer.”

They went to the courtyard, where there were a lot of green plants and red flowers, which were quite artistic. The barbecue stand was built in the middle of the courtyard. When the lodgers saw someone preparing barbecue, they were interested as well. When they went to discuss with the owner’s wife, she told them that the barbecue stand had been reserved. So they could only give up.

It was exactly Chen Yang and co. who had made the reservation. Kou Xuanling had expected others would take a fancy to this barbecue stand as well, so he pulled Hu Yinnan to rent it beforehand ¹. In the face of Hu Yinnan and Ziyang Palace, the lady agreed to rent the barbecue stand, but asked that they had to prepare all the tools themselves, and they could not break things.

After making the pledge, they started buying barbecue utensils, condiments and food. They started the fire, got everything ready, and waited for Chen Yang to come roast food. Zhang Qiudao was chatting with Hu Yinnan. When he looked back and saw the two, he questioned, “Lovers’ clothes? How romantic.” Hu Yinnan did not understand, Zhang Qiudao explained, “They are a couple, and married.”

Hu Yinnan understood and said that they look good together. Then she said, “Do you mind if I have a cousin over and she will bring a friend here too?”

Chen Yang replied, “Totally fine. The more the merrier.”

Hu Yinnan laughed and took all the bills on herself. Chen Yang was polite and did not refuse. He had a cheerful and direct personality, Hu Yinnan liked him quite a lot, so she quickly treated Chen Yang as an old friend.

Kou Xuanling brought a pile of coal. After putting it down, he saw Chen Yang and Du Shuo. He was stunned and asked, “Where did you buy these clothes?”

Chen Yang asked, “Do you want to buy it? Do you know what these clothes are?”

“Of course not. It’s very interesting, no matter how I look at it, It’s brother’s clothes.” Kou Xuanling was very serious and continued, “I want to buy them and give them to a pair of twin brothers in my family. They often wear the same clothes, so they must like this.”

Hu Yinnan almost spouted her drink out of her mouth, “What’s with him?”

“Too straight of a man.” Zhang Qiudao calmly explained. “He just transferred into the Branch Office, he doesn’t know that brother Chen is married.”

The brain circuits of straight men were never easy to understand. Hu Yinnan nodded to show understanding, but her gaze on Kou Xuanling had changed, “How cute.”

Zhang Qiudao’s hand trembled and didn’t say anything.

Chen Yang easily swayed Kou Xuanling, and then introduced him to other genuine brother’s clothes and parent-child clothes to attract his attention. So he wouldn’t actually buy the couple’s clothes set and send it back to the twins as a birthday present. Chen Yang didn’t want him to get killed after all.

The campfire was almost ready. Kou Xuanling set up the barbecue grill, Chen Yang sat on a wooden stool and slowly roasted meat, sprinkled with other ingredients and sauce. Du Shuo sat beside him, taking sauce or condiments for him from time to time, also helping him turn the meat when needed. At the same time, Mao Xiaoli was about to open a beer, Chen Yang said without looking back, “Minors can’t drink.”

Mao Xiaoli was deprived of the right to drink, and she yelled, “I’m an adult. I’m a freshman. I’m really grown up.”

Zhang Qiudao broke her lie, “That’s probably a virtual age.”

Mao Xiaoli was so angry that she ate a bunch of snacks, but Chen Yang quickly finished roasting a plate of food and stopped everyone’s mouths. Chen Yang secretly saved a plate for Du Shuo to eat. Du Shuo had a can of beer next to him. After he opened it, he took a sip of it and put it aside with a lack of interest. Whenever Du Shuo ate the meat, he’d only take a bite, then fed it all to Chen Yang. When they nestled together and chatted from time to time, it all seemed so sweet.

Less than halfway through the barbecue, Hu Yinnan’s cousin brought her friend over. The two girls were sophomores with a lot of courage and energy. They soon got along with all the people present. Especially chatting with Mao Xiaoli, it was as if they had found a new ally.

When they heard Mao Xiaoli mention Ye family estate No. 444 live broadcast, they all laughed stupidly. Mao Xiaoli didn’t know why. One of the girls was Yang Xiao, who was Hu Yinnan’s cousin, Hu Xiang’s college friend. Yang Xiao couldn’t stand up straight as she laughed, “Do you really believe it? Ha ha, it’s fake.”

Mao Xiaoli asked, “Fake?”

Seeing that Yang Xiao couldn’t explain because she was laughing too much, Hu Xiang explained it to her, “Of course, it’s all fake. The things with strange screams and sudden black screen are all made up by her and the other team members, it’s all in order to get rid of superstition.”

Mao Xiaoli pondered, “What do you mean?”

The rest of them were also attracted by their conversation.

“Yang Xiao formed a community in the University called the Psychic society,” Hu Xiang said. “In fact, it’s not a community that studies supernatural beings, it’s a community that dispels superstition. They specially go to various legendary haunted places to take pictures of the so-called haunted rumors, and then solve the mystery behind them. Everything is science. There is no ghost in the world. It’s all bluffing.”

Mao Xiaoli said, “Saying that there are no ghosts in the world is too absolute. Maybe you just haven’t met them yet.”

Yang Xiao laughed, “I only know that I am so old now. Not only did I not meet them, but also the people around me haven’t met them. I have only heard about many ghost houses, but I haven’t met any ghosts. It’s rumored that the only thing that comes out every night is the wind. I even heard that there are ghost shadows, but it was just a coincidental projection. There are no ghosts in this world.”

Chen Yang and the others didn’t try arguing with Yang Xiao whether ghosts exist. There would always be people who didn’t believe in ghosts. There was no need to force her to believe it. So Mao Xiaoli urged her to talk more about the live broadcast of Ye family estate No. 444.

“In fact, there has always been a legend of the Ye family estate No. 444 in Shen City, and each city has its so-called top ten mysteries. The Ye family estate is one of the top ten mysteries in Shen city. Before this, there was a rumor, someone went to do a live there and finally went crazy? It spread like crazy online, we have concluded that this was a man-made story. So I brought the members of the association to do a live broadcast at the haunted house as well. Every time, the screen always turns black whenever someone is on the stairway, right? That’s just because the network there is not good, sometimes it will be cut off directly. As for the terrible screams, we yelled them out on purpose. Nothing happened, no sight of the ghosts.” Yang Xiao finished and invited Mao Xiaoli, “I think you are very interested in the Ye family estate. We will go there again tomorrow evening. This time, we will solve the mystery directly. Would you like to come with us?”

Mao Xiaoli readily agreed.

Chen Yang looked back and asked Du Shuo in a low voice, “Have you heard of the Ye family estate No. 444 in Shen City?”

Du Shuo replied, “Yes.”

“If there is any story there, tell me.”

“Decades ago, a family of four lived in it and were killed in the middle of the night. No bodies were found. There was blood all over the room and couldn’t be washed off. It’s still a pending case. At one time, it was rumored that no one dared to live there. Twenty years later, the Ye family estate No. 444 was destroyed and rebuilt. Another family of three moved in and were killed in the middle of the night. The house was full of blood again, but their corpses disappeared. There was a lot of uproar, and the local government kept the matter under control and it was not allowed to be rented after that. Ten years later, the area was rebuilt into a new area with many residents. In the same way as before, the tragedy happened again and the bodies disappeared. The rumors about the Ye family estate No. 444 could no longer be suppressed and became a real haunted house.”

“It’s that evil? Weren’t Tianshis hired to exorcize it?”

Hu Yinnan came over and sat beside them waiting for the meat to be done. She heard his question and said, “We hired Tianshis from Baiyun Temple and Ziyang Palace, but we only managed to close the estate down and not allow people to live in it.”

“Why?”

Hu Yinnan shook her head and said only one word, “Ominous.”

Ominous, but not ghostly.

In other words, the Tianshis from Baiyun Temple and Ziyang Palace couldn’t find the reason, so it was called ominous.

“Not to mention the corpse, we can’t even find their souls.” Hu Yinnan picked up the stick of meat and ate, and said, “I heard that there is a room full of blood. Forensic examination showed that the amount of blood present should be from the dismembering of several people. It’s a pity that the corpses couldn’t be found. You know what? The people who have been killed called the police themselves. Every time they call the police in the middle of the night, the police rush there immediately, it takes at most an hour to reach that place. How could they clear the bodies of several people in just an hour? In addition, there were people living near the Ye family estate. Naturally, the people who have been dismembered will cry for help. But after asking the people who live nearby, they all didn’t hear any sound and slept well.”

Hearing these descriptions, Chen Yang also found the place ominous.

Hu Yinnan picked up another kebab and took a sip of beer, “More than that. The Ye family estate No. 444 was renovated three times. Each time, after a person died, a house number plate could be found at the scene, which read: Ye family estate No. 444. Over time, no one dared to live there, and the reputation of Ye family estate No. 444 has spread.”

“It’s really ominous,” Chen Yang concluded. “You can rest assured with your cousin going to such an ominous place?”

Hu Yinnan sighed, “Of course not. So I have to follow her.” She shook her head and wryly smiled, “These young people are really not afraid of heaven and earth, they are not afraid of ghosts and Gods at all.”

Seeing this, Chen Yang offered her a tray of kebabs as a consolation. Hu Yinnan didn’t change her expression but said thanks. Then she took the plate and hid somewhere to eat them all. Chen Yang felt cheated instantly.

“This house is so ominous, does the underworld not care about that either?”

“Doesn’t care.”

“Why?”

“Hell servitors aren’t that free, and we don’t know everything. The Ye family estate is not easy for ordinary Hell servitors to deal with but for a Ghost emperor, it’s too boring, so we don’t care.”

“Even you don’t care?”

“Hmn,” Du Shuo paused and said, “Human realm things, we don’t care.”

Chen Yang’s hand holding the kebab wavered a bit, he was in deep thoughts.

Originally, they thought it had nothing to do with them, but the next day Hu Yinnan came to them with a grave face and said, “Something happened.”

The five of them sat in front of Hu Yinnan, all of them were still sleepy. Hearing this, they all woke up. Hu Yinnan said, “A member of Yang Xiao’s association was found dead at home, he was kneeling in front of the window. His eyes were nailed in by stakes. He died from the third stake that was pierced through his head.”

 

 

 

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