Cataclysm Chapter 45: Play Till Death 1; Wooden Bodhisattva

Chapter 45: Play Till Death 1; Wooden Bodhisattva

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Girl from the East

 

Chen Yang lay on the sofa in a daze as he watched  TV. He saw the news of Dong Hong’s accidental death. Du Shuo entered through the door, took the remote control from Chen Yang’s hand, his arm hugged Chen Yang’s shoulder and asked, “What are you thinking?” Then he caught sight of the red string missing from CY’s wrist and asked, “Is the string gone?”

“Mn,” Chen Yang nestled in Du Shuo’s arms, his eyes still fixed on the TV screen. He told Du Shuo what had happened in Liyuan, then said, “Now the truth is clear, but I feel fog before my eyes. Dong Hong was addicted to abusing people, which was influenced by his parents. From abusing cats to attacking humans, he put the blame on the ‘Cat Ghosts’ in Liyuan. Then he was taken for revenge by the cats, a steel bar inserted through his abdomen and he died. The cause and effect are all clearly organized. I just think it’s too clear and too coincidental.”

“Tell me your speculations.”

Chen Yang sat up straight, crossed his legs and faced Du Shuo. He told him his doubts. “First off, why did Dong Hong pretend to be a Cat Ghost when he attacked people? My original thought is that given the legend of cats worshiping the moon in the school, it had led many people to believe in the existence of the Cat Ghost. He just hated cats, so he was blaming the cats in Liyuan? But as a criminal, there is no reason for him to pretend to be a Cat Ghost and attract so much attention. Let’s ignore whether Dong Hong was aware of the existence of the Cat Ghost, the news of the Cat Ghost attacking people would surely attract attention from all parties. This can be explained by a serial murderer’s attempt to attract attention, but Dong Hong was usually cautious and low-key. He was not stupid.”

“Secondly, who posted the video of Dong Hong’s cat abuse online? The police found that Dong Hong was extremely cautious and had killed many cats before. He had wiped things very clean. When the police checked the source of the cat abuse video, they found that it was from a foreign registered account. Either the other party was afraid of Dong Hong finding him out, or someone was trying to kill Dong Hong. If my guess is right, I think Dong Hong has been led to a dead end step by step.”

“My conjecture mainly came from Meng Xi’s words, ‘If he didn’t kill people, he would die. He has been given two chances already.’ The ‘two given chances’ should be the previous two attacks, but Dong Hong chose to attack the girls in Liyuan and it happened that both of them loved cats. They often go to Liyuan to feed cats. Cats put great importance in repaying kindness, so the cats in Liyuan saved the two girls. He failed twice.”

The girl involved in the first attack woke up yesterday and was interviewed by a reporter. She claims that the cats saved her. As a result, the cat’s revenge and cats repaying kindness have become hot topics. In addition, cats worshiping the moon and other extremely human practices of the cats added a mysterious color to the cats in Liyuan. Liyuan was also commonly called the cat’s garden. Mao Xiaoli’s school was not rash in eradicating the cats in Liyuan, which attracted people’s praise.”

“And thirdly, the third girl who was attacked mentioned Dong Hong’s steel blade and cat’s claw. At that time, dark clouds were covering the moon. She said that when she first dodged the attack, she broke the light from her mobile phone. Normally, she wouldn’t be able to see Dong Hong’s weapon being a steel blade. I remember when we arrived at the scene, she was so frightened that she didn’t dare look at Dong Hong until she was sent to the ambulance. So how did she know that Dong Hong’s cat’s claws were steel blades?”

“So what is your guess?”

Chen Yang frowned and hesitated: “I might be thinking too much into it.”

Du Shuo looked deeply at Chen Yang. He pulled him into his arms, rested his own chin on Chen Yang’s head, then gently stroked his back. He said, “My Yang Yang is smarter than I could have ever imagined and your intuition is always very acute. I trust your instincts. Tell me what you are thinking.”

“If everything Dong Hong did was ordered by someone, from cat abuse to human assaults, there is one more odd thing that proves it. If Dong Hong’s cat abuse really stemmed from abusive addiction, why was his choice of weapon in killing the girls such a lethal one? Rather than choosing a weapon that allowed him to slowly torture them to death? In addition, suppose that Dong Hong was guided to kill people. He was given two chances, but he failed. So he was directly led into his own death the third time. Let’s assume again that if it was decided that Dong Hong will be led to a dead end from the beginning. That was why he chose to attack the two girls in Liyuan and both of them were saved by the cats. So did that person just want Dong Hong dead from the beginning?”

Chen Yang was frightened by his hypothesis. If the purpose from the beginning was to kill Dong Hong, someone had set up a game step by step to lead Dong Hong to a dead end. So, even after he died, he would have thought that he died from his own mistakes. He was afraid that even the Underworld would be cheated and only tried Dong Hong. If that’s true, Dong Hong was just toyed with to death by someone. That is very creepy.

“If,” Chen Yang whispered, “The third so-called ‘opportunity’ was but a trap, then it would be terrible.”

Du Shuo’s eyes were not clear, “Your guesses are reasonable. Meng Xi led you away in order to get Dong Hong in the trap, that’s one. The second is that he took away your red string. Someone is targeting you.”

Chen Yang, “I had that guess. But what’s the use of taking my red string?”

“They might have thought the red string was your Taoist Instrument.”

“Really?” Chen Yang was very surprised. “There are people in the Tianshi community who use a red string as their Taoist Instrument?”

Du Shuo, “The Dharma Rope.” ¹ It is concise and to the point. He was referring to a kind of Taoist Instrument similar to a rope, but it is also called Purifying Whip. It is twisted into a rope whip with hemp rope. The rope head is in the shape of a snake’s head. It is painted with red lacquer and the pattern of a trigram is engraved on the snake head. It is a Taoist rope used to remove evil spirits.².”

Chen Yang nodded to show his understanding. Although his red string and the Dharma rope are totally different things. If the other party thinks his red string was very important and tried his best to take it away, then let it be. Chen Yang took out a wooden box from the cupboard and picked out one of the dozens of red strings inside. Then he strung the ancient copper coin on the string and tied it back on his wrist.

His Taoist Instrument was not the red string, but the ancient copper coin on the red string. The ancient copper coin was not too expensive either. It was just the currency used in the old Bashu area, and it had been used by the Wu for many years. It was handed down from generation to generation, and was given to him by his Wu grandfather. Therefore, the ancient copper coin was his real Taoist Instrument. It was also his Wu tribe Zushiye’s Taoist Instrument. The red string only absorbs the powers and Yang aura of the copper coin and can be replaced at any time. 

Chen Yang came over to kiss Du Shuo’s lips: “I hope my guess is just overthinking.”

“No one can have ideas about you.” Du Shuo said holding him.

Chen Yang smiled. He likes Du Shuo’s attitude of protecting him and never allowing anyone or ghosts to hurt him. This made him feel at ease from the inside out. He had such a strong trust in Du Shuo, longing for him and loving him.

“Thank you.”

Mao Xiaoli was the first to find Chen Yang wearing a new red string on his wrist. She was surprised and asked, “Brother Chen, have you found your red string back?”

“No. This is a new one.” Chen Yang raised his arm and waved the red string on his wrist.

“How did you replace your Taoist Instrument so fast?” Zhang Qiudao passed by and heard this and inquired curiously. A Tianshi’s Taoist Instrument needs to be handy and have enough mana. Therefore, it is not easy to obtain and replace.

Chen Yang: “It’s easy. I have a whole drawer of replacements.”

Mao Xiaoli felt that he and director Chen were not from the same Tianshi world. Zhang Qiudao glanced at her obliquely, nodded and agreed, “You guys are not the same. You are a rookie and Director Chen is a master.”

Mao Xiaoli hummed and sneered: “With my talent, once I try hard enough, I will beat you any minute.”

Zhang Qiudao replied with a sneer: “I’ll wait.”

That was all talk though. It was not yet time for her enlightenment. She has talent, but just that. Chen Yang didn’t worry about Mao Xiaoli at the moment, and even didn’t urge her to work harder. He let her draw peach blossom charms and fortune symbols to sell for money happily.

Because Ma Shanfeng had told him, “The Mao family are all weirdos. They have talents but don’t work hard. You have to wait for them to figure it out for themselves. Taoist master Mao, Mao Xiaoli’s father, did not even get a blessing before he was 30 years old. When he was 30 years old, he suddenly got enlightenment. He spent only ten years to become a second grade Sandong Wulie Tianshi. If not for his limiting merits and virtues, he would have been promoted to a Shangqing Tianshi long ago. However, he became the leader of the Maoshan faction because of his profound Taoism skills and powers. The last Mao family head was the same as he was. Every generation of the Mao family has to wait for them to get enlightenment.”

Ma Shanfeng strolled out of his office with tea and said, “There’s a new job.”

After a long drink of tea, Ma Shanfeng said, “It’s a two star job. A family was invaded by evil spirits and two children in the family died. His wife and mother-in-law are seriously ill, and now the house is full of evil. If you accept the order, you will be paid three million yuan.”

Mao Xiaoli didn’t go: “The Wishing House that had robbed my business has moved away. I’d better go back and develop my business.”

Kou Xuanling shook his head: “No. I want to take a few more days off.”

Chen Yang also refused: “Brother Du finally has a day off. I have to accompany him.”

Finally, Zhang Qiudao was the only one who didn’t respond. Thinking that he hadn’t received a job for a month, Zhang Qiudao nodded and agreed, “I’ll take it.”

The job was settled. Kou Xuanling said, “There is a black cat outside, I don’t know who it’s trying to find. Do you guys know?” Mao Xiaoli ran to the door and looked at it. Then she turned to Chen Yang and said, “Brother Chen, it’s Fatty.”

Fatty sat on a table like a meat hill, and everyone in the branch office came around and stared at it. Kou Xuanling said, “Say… it’s really fat, right? At least 25 kg.” As he said that, he pinched the fat on Fatty’s stomach.

Fatty swatted Kou Xuanling’s hand away and held up a sign. There were three big words on the sign, “20 kg!”

Chen Yang: “Fatty, it turns out that not only one person mistook your weight.” Otherwise, why would he have a sign ready to prove his innocence?

Fatty rolled his eyes and changed the sign, “Ani!”

Chen Yang: “Fatty, are you going after a girl called Ani?”

Fatty changed the sign: “Called Ani!”

Chen Yang: “Fatty, do you want some fried fish?”

Fatty threw away all the signs and dignity and let the people in the Branch Office pet him thoroughly while he ate fried dried fish with indifference. Mao Xiaoli was obsessed with Fatty: “I tell you, since Fatty became famous, many people have come to the canteen to catch Fatty. Later, Fatty stopped going to the cafeteria. No one has fed him. That’s why he came to the Branch Office to beg for food. Gwad, the fat is so soft and comfortable.”

After eating the dried fish, Fatty turned over his cat’s face and refused to recognize people. He stared at all the people there. He was arrogant like an emperor, but after perceiving Du Shuo’s aura, his fur exploded and he ran away. However at supper time, he was there to sell his body to get dried fish, which will always be a huge meat hill on the table of the Branch Office.

Fatty, of course, chooses to come only when Du Shuo was away. Once he finds out Du Shuo was not there, he will regain his domineering nature. As soon as Du Shuo appeared, he would run away with his tail between his legs. After a long time, people knew that Fatty was the most afraid of Du Shuo. Du Shuo knew that Fatty existed. He didn’t like cats and couldn’t tolerate them. As long as the Cat Ghost doesn’t show up in front of him he doesn’t care.

Fortunately, no one in the Branch Office wanted to keep Fatty, and Fatty didn’t want to stay in the Branch Office either. Fatty was used to being free and had no fixed home. Except for Xu Ani, he never had a master. In the eyes of the Branch Office members, Fatty was more like a partner who can go or stay at will.

Zhang Qiudao took the job and went to the family’s house. As soon as he entered he found that the house was full of Yin aura. It was clear that evil spirits had entered and violated their lives. Mr. Qian, the owner of the house, was tired and sad: “I don’t know what evil being I’ve attracted but it has harmed my children, and now my wife and mother-in-law. After they have died, are they going to kill me too?”

Zhang Qiudao said, “Mr. Qian, please calm down. For things that have happened, I cannot fix them. If it hasn’t happened yet, I will try my best to stop it. I’ll find out where the evil is coming from.”

Mr. Qian: “Zhang Tianshi, please.”

Zhang Qiudao took out the Taoist compass. The pointer on the compass began to shake under the influence of the auras in the room, and slowly it stabilized and pointed to one direction. Zhang Qiudao walked forward, pointing to one of the bedrooms, he asked, “Mr. Qian, whose bedroom is this?”

Mr. Qian replied, “My mother-in-law’s.”

“Can I open it?”

“Yes.” Mr. Qian quickly opened the bedroom door and said, “My mother-in-law and my wife were seriously ill. I already took them to the hospital. I thought it was a common disease, but I didn’t expect it to have an evil cause.”

Zhang Qiudao walked into the bedroom and asked, “How did Mr. Qian know it was evil?”

“Well, a business friend of mine believes this. When he heard that there is something wrong with my family, he came to see my house and said that something evil is in my house. So he suggested I hire a Tianshi, but I didn’t believe it. If my wife and mother-in-law were not seriously ill so soon after, and our children were killed, I would not have believed it.” Mr. Qian expressed grief and remorse. “It’s my fault. If I had listened to my wife at first instead of thinking it’s no big deal. Focusing only on my work, and being too busy to not even see my children for the last time – I…”

Zhang Qiudao comforted Mr. Qian with a few words and found that the compass was turning wildly. He looked up and saw a niche. In front of the niche was a wood carving of Bodhisattva. He walked up to it and inspected the wooden Bodhisattva, he was about to pick it up.

Mr. Qian came up and said, “My mother-in-law believes in Buddhism and is very sincere. This woodcarving Bodhisattva is the one she specially asked someone to carve and purify. She would pay respect to it day and night. Zhang Tianshi, is there a problem?”

Zhang Qiudao took down the woodcarving Bodhisattva, he opened it up at the back, revealing the hollow part inside, and said, “The problem is very big.”

Hearing this, Mr. Qian’s face changed, “Why? Did the woodcarver trick my mother-in-law to hurt my Qian family?” His expression of indignation was incomparable: “It must be the opponent in the market. If they want to hurt me, then fine, why do they need to harm my family?”

“The woodcarving Bodhisattva itself is OK. The problem is the contents in the heart of the statue.” Zhang Qiudao looked serious: “Did you put snakes and turtles in it? Did you put them in when they were still alive?”

Mr. Qian was stunned: “Is… is that wrong? My mother-in-law said that woodcarving Bodhisattvas are inanimate. If they are worshiped, they will easily let evil animals occupy their bodies and harm our family. So the woodcarving Bodhisattva’s heart needs to be empty, and then put spiritual objects in it. Let the Bodhisattva come back to life, then offer sacrifices day and night, they will bless my Qian family.”

Zhang Qiudao: “Ridiculous! Bodhisattvas are merciful and kind. How can they kill and torture living beings? When a carpenter completes the wood carving of a Bodhisattva, he will open a hole in his back to make the Bodhisattva hollow. Then the wood carving Bodhisattva is sent to the temple for purification. The master there would put magic instruments, charms and other spiritual objects into the heart of the Bodhisattva. They do not put living things in as spiritual objects. This is black magic. You are not purifying the statue, you don’t need to wait for evil spirits to invade your house, you are raising evil spirits!”

Mr. Qian was startled and pale. He didn’t expect that his mother-in-law, who was devout to Buddha, killed his children. In his heart, he could not help complaining, but even if he complained, he still needed to rescue his wife and mother-in-law who were entangled by the evil Bodhisattva.

“Zhang Tianshi, what should I do now? Can you get rid of the evil Bodhisattva as soon as possible?”

Zhang Qiudao: “Lure it out.”

“Lure.. lure it out?”

“It now occupies the statue of Bodhisattva and was worshiped by incense and fire. It had become a small evil god. Even I can’t catch the evil god if they hide. Unless you lure it out, that is, you are the best person to lure it out.”

Mr. Qian: “Me… me? Why? Will it kill me?”

“That’s exactly what it wanted. Giving oblations to evil spirits and evil Gods, they won’t be grateful to you. But because you killed it, it will resent you and try to kill you.” Zhang Qiudao left the bedroom: “There is a snake in the heart of the woodcarving Bodhisattva. Snakes usually come out at night to hunt for food. Moreover, it regards the whole house as its nest, and it will come out of the bedroom at night. Now you go to the market to buy a few living frogs. Snakes like to eat frogs and will not give up food.”

“Buy the frogs and you should sit in the living room and wait. I will be in the master bedroom. If you find any abnormality, you can pull the red string. The other end of the red line is tied with a copper bell. I’ll come to kill the evil spirit immediately.”

Mr. Qian: “What if that evil animal doesn’t eat frogs and kills me first?”

“No. Although the evil animal is worshiped, it still has no intelligence and is controlled by its appetite.” When Zhang Qiudao saw Mr. Qian was still very scared, so he gave him a Five Thunder talisman and a Camouflage Talisman: “As long as you don’t speak and keep your mouth closed, the evil animals will not notice you.”

Mr. Qian took the talismans. He was very grateful.

“Finally, remember to pour out the incense ash from the niche and spread it on the living room floor. You can see the trace of those things with the ash on the floor. Also, buy some realgar powder and realgar wine.”

Mr. Qian did as Zhang Qiudao told him to. He bought frogs, tied their feet, and let them loose in the living room. Then, he sat quietly in the living room, waiting for the evil spirits to come out.

The living room was as quiet as death, and the sound of the clock ticked. Soon it was ten o’clock in the evening. Behind him, the door of his mother-in-law’s bedroom opened slowly, making a ‘squeak’ sound which was especially terrifying in the dead and silent environment.

Mr. Qian held the red string tightly, but he didn’t dare to breathe. Out of the corner of his eye he saw nothing was there. He was about to take a deep breath. Suddenly, he noticed that there was a long strip shape on the ashes, which was still expanding. It seemed that there was a snake crawling on the ground, leaving traces on the ashes.

Mr. Qian swallowed his saliva nervously and watched the thing crawl past his feet. It seemed to notice something wrong and stopped in front of him to inspect. But Mr. Qian didn’t see anything. He could only imagine. He imagined a rotting serpent stopping in front of him to sniff. He felt his trouser legs being stirred, wet, sticky and disgusting.

Fortunately, at the next moment, a frog’s croaking attracted the thing to crawl away. Mr. Qian was relieved to see the frogs being swallowed by an invisible big mouth. So he pulled the red string carefully, trying not to make any sudden movements. He didn’t hear anything, so he pulled on the string with force a few more times. He felt something was wrong, so he turned to look at the string, only to find that it has long been severed. He quickly stood up and wanted to pick the other section of the red string in front of him, but he didn’t notice the table and made a huge noise when he hit the table.

“Hiss!”

Mr. Qian let out his breath and was stiff. He noticed a chill on his back. He didn’t even turn his head back and rushed to grab the red string, that thing came flying to entangle his neck tightly. Mr. Qian’s eyes rolled back as he pulled the red string. The sound of the bell came from the master bedroom. The next moment, Zhang Qiudao came out and sprinkled realgar powder around Mr. Qian to trap the things.

When the evil animal was stained with realgar powder, it showed its original form. It was a poisonous snake with a length of one meter, black and rotten, showing white bones. The snake jumped up and down in the room and was flexible. Unfortunately, it was stained with realgar powder, which made it weak. Zhang Qiudao took out his sword to cut off the evil animal’s escape.

 He led it into the wine jar containing realgar wine. He used a Fire talisman then formed a seal with his index finger and the talisman ignited in a flash. It was thrown into the wine jar with the snake and the lid was quickly closed. Zhang Qiudao jumped away from the wine jar. It soon exploded, the wine spilled out, and the evil animal inside had been burned to death and dissolved in the wine.

Zhang Qiudao took up the evil sword and said to Mr. Qian, “This is solved. For the wood carving Bodhisattva, do you want to take it to the temple yourself for purification by an eminent monk, or should I take it away.”

“You take it, please take it.”

”Okay.” Zhang Qiudao nodded. He took the money and the woodcarving Bodhisattva and then left: “In the future, it’s better to go to orthodox temples to ask for Buddha and Bodhisattva statues that have been purified.”

Mr. Qian nodded repeatedly and said yes. After seeing Zhang Qiudao off respectfully, he received a call from the hospital. The people who were seriously ill in bed had recovered. His unconscious wife and mother-in-law had both come to. He was very excited and quickly drove to the hospital. When he saw his wife in the ward, he comforted his wife who had lost her children. Then he told his wife about hiring a Tianshi to exorcize the evil spirits.

“It turns out that the wood carving Bodhisattva mother-in-law had had evil animals in it. She should have placed charms, magic tools and talismans as spiritual objects, but instead evil objects belonging to cults were inside. We offered incense to it day and night, raising the evil animals and then they tried to kill us,” Mr. Qian sighed: “We can have more children in the future. Don’t blame mother-in-law and don’t let her know. Old people can’t afford hearing the bad news.”

Mr. Qian’s wife was so sad that she threw herself into her husband’s arms and cried repeatedly. She did not stop her mother’s foolish behavior, and it killed her two children. She was full of self reproach.

Outside the ward, the old woman who had learned the truth by accident had already burst into tears. The nurse bent down and asked, “Ms. Li, do you want to go in?”

The old woman shook her head and left. She stopped at the window and said to the nurse, “Go… buy some porridge for my daughter.”

“OK.” The nurse left.

Looking down at the seven story building, the old woman struggled to support her own weight, tears fell from her eyes uncontrollably. She was a fool and believed in the evil Bodhisattva, killing her own grandchildren and making her beloved daughter seriously ill. Being alive, she harmed herself and harmed others. What was she alive for?

“Ah! Someone jumped out of the building!” Someone screamed.

Mr. Qian was surprised and patted his wife on the back, “I’ll go and have a look.”

After leaving the ward, he saw the crowd gathering at the window. He found many people surrounding the lawn below. It was said that an old lady committed suicide by jumping off the building. No one knew why. Mr. Qian went back to the ward and told his wife about it. His wife said calmly, “I want to have some porridge. Would you please buy some for me?”

Mr. Qian nodded and went out to buy porridge for her.

The wife covered her face with grief and had no more will. She was not like her husband who had been working hard outside for years. She had a great relationship with her mother and her two children at home. She regarded her children as her only spiritual support. When her children died, her world collapsed.

After Mr. Qian went out, she went out too. She knew that the person who had committed suicide was her mother. She felt both grief and relief. The person who died was her mother and the enemy who killed her children.

The wife couldn’t bear it and jumped out of the window.

Mr. Qian met the nurse who had bought porridge at the stairs. After listening to the nurse’s words, he suddenly realized that the old lady who had jumped from the building was his mother-in-law. He ran back to the ward in a hurry but he did not find his wife. The people around him all had sympathy in their eyes.

Mr. Qian lost his two children, his wife and mother-in-law. He had truly become a loner. He met the sympathetic eyes of many people as he dealt with the aftermath of his wife and mother-in-law’s deaths. He returned to his empty home in despair.

After closing the door, he looked at the empty living room where his wife and children once lived happily in, his dull eyes slowly tinged with a faint smile. His once numb face beamed.

 

 

 

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