Cataclysm Chapter 38: Crimson Embroidery Shoes 5; Karma

Chapter 38: Crimson Embroidery Shoes 5; Karma

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Karai

 

Early in the morning, before dawn, someone came out to clean up Li Hui’s body. As Li Hui mocked before, the school’s speed in picking up the bodies was getting faster and faster. Not long after she fell, several people appeared to drag her body away and cleaned the ground of any residual blood.

Not long after the sun came out, the ground was dried and all traces of blood were cleaned. Although Chen Yang didn’t feel sorry for the death of Li Hui, he found the school’s practice cold. He stopped teacher Li and said, “You’d better tell us in detail everything that happened at school.”

The person in charge of collecting the body was teacher Li, who turned to face Chen Yang, “No comment.”

“Aren’t you afraid we’ll leave now?” Kou Xuanling asked him.

Hearing this, teacher Li showed a sly smile, “Can you leave?”

Chen Yang frowned. Li Hui said before that those who took the card and participated in the game could not leave the school. After a quick sneer, teacher Li regained his expressionless look, “I’m going to prepare for my lessons. If there’s nothing else, I’ll go first.”

“You don’t want to die, right?” Chen Yang said abruptly.

“No one wants to die.”

“Oh, that’s great then.” Chen Yang shook his feet and the next moment he had reached teacher Li and held his shoulders, “If you don’t tell me everything, I can kill you right now.”

As soon as teacher Li’s expression changed, he turned calm again, “Can Tianshis kill people?”

“Certainly not.” Chen Yang grabbed teacher Li by the shoulder and dragged him away, “But I can drag you to the back hill space to see what will happen. I suddenly think this method is very good.  Maybe you don’t even need to tell me what happened in the school and I’d get the answers.”

“Wait a minute.” Teacher Li saw that he couldn’t get rid of Chen Yang’s hold, and he was really walking in the direction of the basketball court. “Don’t take me to the back hill space… Fine, I’ll tell you what you want, OK?”

Chen Yang suddenly turned back and squeezed teacher Li’s shoulder with both fingers together with his thumb. In an instant, half of Teacher Li’s shoulder collapsed and he screamed with pain. At the same time, he kicked teacher Li’s kneecap with his right foot, which made him so pained that he couldn’t even call out. Then he whispered, “Teacher Li, your students are dead. You are calm. But when it’s your turn to face death, you are so afraid.”

In the face of angry Chen Yang, teacher Li knew that saying more meant more mistakes. What’s more, Kou Xuanling looked eager to have a try as well. So, he didn’t dare to scream loudly anymore. He was even careful with his sounds of crying pain.

After that, teacher Li took them back to the dormitory, where he lived alone. In addition to Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling, there were two other male students. The boy who was scared to tears was Cheng Dong, and the boy who had been to the back hill space was named Ling Hao. Ling Hao witnessed with his own eyes that Li Hui was dismembered and thrown downstairs. He was greatly stimulated and it took a long time for him to regain consciousness.

Chen Yang kicked the chair and made a loud noise. Teacher Li and the other two were startled. But when teacher Li turned back, Chen Yang was sitting upright on the chair. He had a seemingly gentle smile on his face and he said, “Go ahead. Say everything, big or small. If there is any concealment -”

Kou Xuanling cooperated with him well, he pulled out his peach wood sword and hit the top of the table splitting it in half. The three had dark expressions. How could they expect that a peach wood sword could be sharp enough to split the table. What’s more, they never thought Kou Xuanling, who seemed to be reticent and reserved, could actually smile grimly. He said, “Whoever conceals something will be dragged to the back of the mountain.”

For them, the back hill space was more terrifying than hell, so they didn’t dare to hide anything. They just hoped they could finish asking and leave quickly. Don’t really drag them to the back mountain! Those who go to the back hill space will surely die!

Chen Yang straightened out all the questions he needed to ask, “Did you three play the game Li Hui played?” When asking, he stared at teacher Li, because he had already seen the other two play yesterday.

Teacher Li nodded, “I was forced to… People who get the cards have to play. If you get a card, you will be killed if you don’t play.”

“When did you get the card? How did you get the card? How many people participated in the game up till now? As far as you know, what are the general rules of the game and how many people have died so far?”

Teacher Li, “I got mine two weeks ago, the day after Guan Xinyu died. A red card suddenly appeared in my drawer with a number on it. That’s for me. I took part in a game after I got the card. I was lucky to have survived. Then I learned that every week from Monday to Thursday at 10:00 pm, a card will appear on everyone’s body. White means war free, red means that person must participate in the game. Those who do not participate will die miserably.  Those who failed when participating will also die miserably. I don’t know why the card appeared. It just came out of the blue.”

“I got mine three weeks ago. My roommate was hanged on the basketball court and I got the card a few days later,” said Ling Hao.

Cheng Dong, “I only got it a week ago. Last night was my first time participating in the game.”

Teacher Li, “As far as I know, there are nine teachers and Deans participating, and three classes were involved in the game. The three classes are class one, two and three, but I don’t know if there’s anyone in class four and class five participating.”

As soon as teacher Li said that, Cheng Dong and Ling Hao stepped back and looked at teacher Li in horror, “Why do you know that? What’s the use of knowing that?” Their intuition tells them that it’s not good for him to know this so clearly. Because everyone who participated in the game of death is confidential to it since they were afraid of being used by others. Those who get the red card will definitely keep it a secret. Those who get the white card will hide in the dormitory and dare not come out at all.

So far, except for having worked together to play the game and cleared it, there was no way to know whether the other party was also a card holder. No one knew how teacher Li found out how many people hold cards. Of course, they were also shocked to learn that so many people were holding cards.

Today, in addition to the canteen staff and some patrol guards, there were only five classes left in the school, including 14 teachers, 4 directors, the principal and Vice Principal. More than half of the students are drawn into the death game. What’s more frightening is that there might be people who are playing without teacher Li’s knowledge.

“How do you know that?”

“I’m the head of the grade, and there’s a list of students in every class. According to the death toll concentrated in the first three classes, you can probably guess how many people participated in the game. And I have more contact with the director and other teachers, and I can guess how much. Everyone who just started playing the game of death was in a very bad mood the next day. Just watch carefully and you will know.”

“Why don’t you call the police when so many people are dead? Don’t other students find it strange? The parents didn’t come to inquire?”

Teacher Li, “The students only take half a day off every other month. It’s not enough time to go back and forth from the mountains to the city. So most of the students return home every two or three months. Although they are still in the second year of high school now, they are about to be promoted to being third years. Parents know that too.”

“In other words, parents don’t even know their children are dead? You didn’t even notify them?”

“We don’t even know if we can survive.” Teacher Li showed a sarcastic smile, which was similar to Li Hui. “The message can’t go out, everyone is stuck in school and can’t leave,” he said. “There’s no signal. If you want to call the police, you can’t get through. If you want to inform their parents, you can’t get in touch. We can’t help it.”

Chen Yang frowned, “You can’t contact the outside world? So how did we get here? How did you post information on the app and hire us?”

Teacher Li was stunned and said, “I don’t know. The person who posted the request was head teacher Jin. But if he can contact the outside world, why didn’t he call the police?”

Immediately, teacher Li and the other two boys were pale. Obviously, they were angry that headteacher Jin could contact the outside world without telling them or calling the police. God knows how much they wanted to get out of this place!

“What’s behind the backhill space?” Chen Yang stared at Ling Hao and asked.

Ling Hao was reluctant to think about the backhill space, but he knew that it was the only hope if he wanted to leave Jinshui secondary school alive. He said, “There are many bodies buried in the space in the backhill. At first, I didn’t know. After my roommate’s strange hanging in the basketball court, his body soon disappeared. I went to the backhill space to check it out, where I found a lot of bones buried in the empty ground. There are not only white bones left from those who died a long time ago, but also some who have been dead for more than ten years, their bodies just rotting. I saw the body of my roommate there also.

“Why do you want to go to the backhill space?”

“Because my roommate came back to find me.” Ling Hao looked in horror, “he came back, the third day after he died. Others didn’t know, but I did. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep. Maybe it’s because someone died in the dormitory, and I felt uneasy. Everyone else was asleep. I took out my mobile phone to check the time. It was just over one o’clock at that time. Then I found that the mobile phone light was shining on the opposite bed, and there was a person standing on the opposite bed. I think it’s strange because I sleep on the upper bunk, and the man opposite is standing on the lower bunk.”

Someone was sleeping in the lower bunk, and the upper bunk bed belonged to his dead roommate. Ling Hao’s bed was facing the bed of his dead roommate, which made him feel disgusted and unlucky. At that time, the figure was standing on the lower bunk with his back to him, motionless. Ling Hao thought it was his roommate who got up in the middle of the night and was about to wake him up, but he found that the roommate in the lower bunk opposite was sleeping soundly. He was shocked and immediately went to see the bed of the other three roommates and found that they were all well in bed.

Then who was this figure in front of him? Why would he stand in front of his roommate’s bed and stare at it? Soon, the figure gave him the answer. It slowly turned around. Ling Hao quickly turned off his mobile phone and pretended to be sleeping. His eyes opened quietly, the moonlight shone on the figure, he was surprised to find his dead roommate. The other party’s neck has been broken, and his appearance is twisted and terrifying. He stared in the direction of Ling Hao.

Ling Hao was so frightened that he could not speak with his eyes closed tight. Then he heard the sound of the bed shaking, as if something was climbing up the bed ladder and stopping. For a long time, there was no sound. Ling Hao opened his eyes secretly and just happened to face the twisted face of his dead roommate. The next day, he found that there was a strangulation mark on his own neck, and he knew that his dead roommate had really come back.

“That’s why I went to the backhill space. I know that he died only after he went to the backhill space. He said that his ankle had been caught by the hand that came out of the open space. I saw that his ankle had black palm prints, and it even caved in. But he didn’t feel pain at all, and he died within two days after that. So I asked the guard to bring some paper money and incense to worship him in the backhill space. The guard believed in Buddhism after all.” At this point, Ling Hao’s expression was strange, “Later I learned that he didn’t die because he went to the backhill space, but because he received a card and didn’t pass the game.”

Chen Yang nodded, “the last question, you can’t hide anything.” With a sharp eye, he glanced at the three people in front of him, “I heard that Guan Xinyu saw a pair of red high-heeled shoes before she died. The red high-heeled shoes had something to do with the teacher who committed suicide a year ago. Is there any secrets about the teacher’s suicide?”

Ling Hao and Cheng Dong are bewildered, “did a teacher commit suicide a year ago?”

Chen Yang frowned and looked at teacher Li. Teacher Li replied, “it’s teacher Bai Yan. It is said that she was involved in a corruption case. The police came to arrest her. In the middle of the night, she fled to the row of bungalows in the back hill and hanged herself.”

On hearing this, Ling Hao and Cheng Dong suddenly changed their faces and showed their fear. Ling Hao asked in surprise, “Dead? She hanged herself? Why, why is there no rumor in the school?”

“It was a Sunday, and there were not many people in the school. What’s more, this is not a glorious thing. The school blocked the news and put barbed wire around the basketball court to prohibit students from going to the backhill.”

Ling Hao and Cheng Dong still found this too hard to believe. “Why were you so shocked?” asked Kou Xuanling.

Ling Hao murmured, “My roommate is the student who was rumoured to have an affair with teacher Bai Yan. Do you think it’s teacher Bai Yan who retaliated and killed my roommate?”

Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling looked at each other, and it’s not easy to make a conclusion. They had already asked everything they could. As for those questions that could not be decided through asking, they had no methods. So they left teacher Li and the two students. Finally, Cheng Dong collapsed and wailed, “it must be teacher Bai Yan who has come back to take revenge on us!”

“Bullshit!” The other male student said, “Why would she retaliate against us? We didn’t force her to die, she hanged herself! Teacher Li, the school had done a good cover up job as per usual. We didn’t even know the news of teacher Bai Yan’s suicide.”

“Guan Xinyu knew.” Teacher Li said indifferently, “don’t make yourself sound so clean. Do you think that Bai Yan will let you go when you have the card to participate in the game of death? Naive.”

Cheng Dong collapses, “it’s none of my business! It’s none of my business! It’s Guan Xinyu and Li Hui who did it. They deserve their death! But it’s none of my business. I didn’t do anything!”

Ling Hao grabbed Cheng Dong’s collar and said, “This is why you are not innocent! Teacher Bai Yan was very kind to you. Don’t forget that, you ungrateful person.”

Cheng Dong is depressed. He was a big boy already, but he was holding his knees and crying bitterly. Ling Hao was full of disgust and scolded impatiently. Teacher Li sat quietly by and looked at them ironically.

Chen Yang and Kou Xuanling, who were not far away from the door, only left after hearing that. As they walked, Kou Xuanling said, “Of course they were still hiding things from us, so the teacher Bai Yan is the key?”

“It is obvious that he has done something wrong. In these two days of staying with them, I don’t think it’s strange for them to do extremely disgusting things.” Chen Yang hated these people, but he knew that there are still some people who are really innocent and are locked up in Jinshui secondary school. What’s more, those people likely didn’t even know they can’t leave Jinshui secondary school.

“Do you remember the student who spoke to us yesterday at the canteen?”

“Why?”

“He’s lying.” Chen Yang went upstairs and went back to their dormitory room. From outside came the sound of students doing the morning jog, adding a trace of vitality to the shadowy school. “It is obvious that the two male students have something to do with the teacher who committed suicide. Even they didn’t know that the teacher had committed suicide. How can he know?”

“When you mentioned that, it really felt a little out of place. Many things in the school are hidden, especially the suicide of the female teacher. There were no rumors. However, he knew “that” [teachers suicide] even though he did not see the dead and supernatural events in the basketball court and in the classroom. It’s not a coincidence. But what is the reason? Why would he lie? He didn’t seem to be hiding the key things from them. He seems to be guiding us to discover the truth.”

Chen Yang took out the talisman from the box. There were many five thunder talismans left in the box. Only a few were left of the three days’ blessing talismans. Mao Xiaoli didn’t draw too many of those for him. He took out a three-day blessing charm and put it on his mobile phone. After editing the message, he used the talisman and clicked send.

“Does Mao Xiaoli’s blessing talisman have this effect?”

“Luck matters.” Chen Yang sent an edited information to Du Shuo, telling him about the events and the course of the Jinshui secondary school. He told him of the difference between no ghosts in the day but a gloomy night and asked why.

After a while, Du Shuo sent a reply, “Evil causes have bad consequences.”, “Magic circle”. The last message was “Wait for me”.

After that, he didn’t receive any more information. The precious talisman of blessing burned instantly and lost its effect. Chen Yang swept the ash into the trash can and said, “With some luck we can send the messages, which means there’s still a signal here, but most of the time it’s not strong enough. However, head teacher Jin can send out the request information on the app, indicating that he has a way to contact the outside world. When he was able to contact the outside world, the first people he contacted were Tianshis. After seeing us, he disappeared.”

“Teacher Li said that the Head Teacher was also in those death games, not the general director. But, it’s also possible that teacher Li didn’t know.”

Just at this moment, there was a knock at the door. Kou Xuanling opened the door. It’s the Qiu siblings outside. When they entered the door, they said, “We can’t leave Jinshui secondary school.”

“When the school door opened in the early morning, we drove away and saw the foot of the mountain suddenly fogged up,” Qiu Shengmin said. “We didn’t think much about it and kept driving. Because there is no turning on the road downhill, as long as you keep going down the road, you can get to the foot of the mountain. But when we opened the car door again, we found the gate of Jinshui secondary school in front of us. We tried to go back and forth a few times, each time we came back to the school gate.”

Chen Yang told them what he had learned. Qiu Shengming sat down on his chair and said, “How could this happen?” He apologized to Qiu Shengmin with a sad face, “If only I had listened to you yesterday, we would have left already.”

According to their judgment, they could have left if they did not stay overnight at Jinshui secondary school yesterday and would not be trapped here. Because of her YinYang eyes, Qiu Shengmin often meets ghosts. Although she was afraid of this situation, she still kept calm. “So if you get the card and number that are involved in the game, you’re likely to have to continue playing,” she asked.

Chen Yang, “I know.”

Qiu Shengmin, “I guess there’s something else about the death of teacher Bai Yan. In the beginning, the people who got the cards and numbers to participate in the game should be the people who directly killed teacher Bai Yan. Bai Yan planned this game. The purpose is to take revenge, let those who killed her die while in infinite fear. Later, the participants were bystanders or downers, and the number will continue to increase until those who do not know the truth are involved.”

“We have the same conjecture,” Du Shuo sent him a message that also mentioned “evil cause and evil result”. Chen Yang continued, “But what makes me wonder is Bai Yan’s ability to trap the whole mountain of people? What is the reason that there are no ghosts in the school during the day but ghosts are everywhere at night? Those lonely souls and wild ghosts dare to pretend to be Hell soldiers too. In Guan Xinyu’s words, they were ‘ignorant and fearless’.”

Kou Xuanling, “Is it possible that the ghosts in the school didn’t know the existence of the Hell soldiers? Or mistakenly think they are Hell soldiers?”

Qiu Shengmin, “Not likely. No matter how closed off this place is, they should know the existence of Hell soldiers.”

“Maybe the whole Jinshui secondary school is not only confining the students, but also the ghosts of the school. It’s even possible that they’ve been locked up in the school for a long time. So long that they forgot the existence of the Hell soldiers. Or from the beginning they just think that the underworld is like Jinshui secondary school after death. If that’s the case, then the description of ‘ignorant and fearless’ was understandable.” Chen Yang got up and walked back and forth a few steps. “I have to think about whether there are any magic circles that can trap them in the mountains without being noticed by the real Hell soldiers.”

Qiu Shengmin hesitated for a moment and said, “Are you going to the back mountain space?” After Kou Xuanling nodded, she said, “I’ll go with you. The school is full of Yin aura and you can’t detect the ghost aura here. At least I can see them but I’m not sure how much I can help though.”

Qiu Shengming stopped Qiu Shengmin anxiously, “Big sister, you have no self-protection ability at all. Don’t go. If you need someone, I can go for you. I run very fast.”

“Faster than the devil?” Qiu Shengmin was speechless. At the moment, Qiu Shengming was full of remorse that he should not be greedy for money. “If you go to the open space in the back mountain during the day, there will be no accidents,” Kou Xuanling added.

“But it will still provoke those things,” Qiu Shengming muttered.

Qiu Shengmin gave her younger brother a look and told him to talk less. At the same time, she asked him to look around for head teacher Jin and the male student who lied to Chen Yang. She was grateful to Chen Yang for telling them everything, so they don’t have to be in fear while not knowing anything. In return, they will naturally try to find out the truth about the school and be of help. Only after knowing the truth can they leave the Jinshui secondary school.

Kao Xuanling looks back, “Director Chen?”

Chen Yang, “let’s go.”

So the four people split up, and Qiu Shengming went to find head teacher Jin, and the other three went to the back mountain area. As soon as they arrived Chen Yang felt a chill. It is not that he is afraid, but that his body was alert to danger.

The backyard was as quiet as death and cold. There was a row of bungalows in the distance. There were many things hidden behind the dark windows. They were watching the three people who were breaking into the open area.

“I’ve had a similar chilly feeling before when I was going to a haunted house to exorcize them,” said Qiu Shengmin. “There were really ghosts in that house and now I feel ten times as cold as being alone in that house.”

“Look at the soil on the ground.”

The other two looked down to the ground and were surprised to find that the soil on the ground was wet and sticky. All of it was clay, it smelled of stench. They’ve seen the whole mountain and the rest of the school. The natural soil was not clay, it’s mostly loam for planting. Otherwise, the mountains and forests will not be lush, but they can also know why there was a large barren area in the backhill.

Chen Yang, “Ling Hao said there were bodies buried here.”

Hearing that, Qiu Shengmin recoiled reflexively. As she was stepping on the soil a ‘clark’ sound was heard. She looked down, and saw a piece of white bone. Her face changed instantly, “There are really corpses and bones buried here.”

 

 

 

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