Cataclysm Chapter 46: Play Till Death 2; Red Clothed Woman

Chapter 46: Play Till Death 2; Red Clothed Woman

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Karai

 

Zhang Qiudao told Ma Shanfeng about the Mr. Qian job. Ma Shanfeng wrote and submitted the report to the Taoist Association and the Main Office. Others listened in on their conversation leisurely and sighed, “They were devout. They worshiped Buddha and Bodhisattva but didn’t know they were worshiping evil animals that eventually killed innocent children. Poor Mr. Qian.”

“I don’t think they are devout, I think they are stupid. If she really believed in Buddhism piously, how could she not know that Bodhisattva is merciful? How can she use the life of a living being to borrow spiritual energy? Neither orthodox Taoist Gods nor Buddhist deities will indiscriminately kill innocent living things.” ¹

Mao Xiaoli, “In Buddhism there is also the Vajra with Angry Eyes, and the Gods also have the likes of Yasha. I’m simply refuting your last sentence, but the Bodhisattva is very kind and merciful and will not kill innocent living beings indiscriminately.”

Zhang Qiudao: “Buddhism has the Vajra, but he will not kill indiscriminately either. There are Gods like the Rakshasa who eat living things, but they will not eat the innocent after they convert to the Buddha. And they will not kill those who worship themselves, except for evil spirits, evil animals, and evil gods who are from the wrong path.”

Mao Xiaoli thought about it and agreed with Zhang Qiudao. She said, “The Five Clearance God in the south, and the Fur Ghost God in the north are both evil gods with high folk beliefs. They are worshiped by many people for money and fortune. However, they have changeable temperament and often harm the families who worship them. There are also some people who worship this kind of deity. Even though it is obviously an Evil God, they will still bring them home and worship it. I can’t even begin to understand them.”

Zhang Qiudao: “What’s there to not understand? It’s all for money.”

Chen Yang brought a pot of fried dried fish to the table. After a while, a black meat mountain suddenly appeared on the dining table and picked up the dried fish as calm as Mount Tai. Chen Yang was having quite a lot of fun patting Fatty, and others naturally reached out their hands to do the same as they spoke. Fatty pulled up a sign in front of the crowd: “Payment is required.” It meant that whoever wanted to pat him needed to hand over fried fish, then he would sell his body.

Fatty’s eyes squinted at the few scums who all took back their hands and tried to explain. As if he was a real mountain, he refused to approach them coldly. Chen Yang has Fatty’s body all to himself, it was a real blast. 

Ma Shanfeng was there too, “It’s OK. It’s just like pinching a pillow. Xiao Li, turn on the TV and turn on the news.”

The remote control was closest to Mao Xiaoli. She glanced at Ma Shanfeng, she didn’t say a thing as she turned on the TV and changed to the news channel. In the whole Branch Office, only Ma Shanfeng would watch the news. Even Du Shuo, who has the closest taste to Ma Shanfeng, didn’t like watching the news. Mao Xiaoli turned to see Fatty staring at the screen. After a long silence, she thought that from now on Fatty should be added to his group.

They were gonna leave and do their own thing, but then the next news attracted all of their attention. There was a traffic accident, almost every day there are traffic accidents, that was nothing strange. But this news was very odd. The dead man was hit on the head by a car, making his whole head fly off, but suddenly he stood up and walked several meters away before he fell back to the ground and died. 

At that time, the scene of the headless corpse standing up and walking scared many passers-by. Then the news broadcasted footage from a roadside security camera. The blurry video lasted for more than ten seconds, but clearly captured the scene at that time. The truck was running fast. A man on the streets suddenly ran out onto the road. He was hit by the truck and his head was stuck under the wheel of the truck.

People at the scene screamed and were confused, and then saw the headless body trembling to get up and walked forward for several meters before falling down. The scene was horrifying.

Chen Yang looked up and noticed something wrong. So he took out his mobile phone and Baidu-ed the car accident just now. He simply inputted a few keywords, and soon found the news, including videos. He clicked to open the video and looked at it over and over again, then he suddenly paused the screen: “Come and have a look, there is a woman in red here.”

Several people looked and found a woman in red standing by the side of the road. She was particularly eye-catching against the background of the crowd. The next second, the woman in red was gone. Chen Yang rewinded the video and paused again, “Look, just now when the dead man ran into the road and was hit by a car. It seems that the woman in red was covering his eyes from behind and she said something in his ear, which stimulated the man to run out onto the road and be killed.”

Obviously, the woman in red was a fierce ghost. Covering the eyes of the dead and leading him to the road to kill him, she was looking for a replacement. This video’s weirdness spread overnight in all big network forums. It was screen captured by many and analyzed. There were many compelling theories. However, there was no woman in red in the video broadcasted in the news, so some people believed it was fraud. Someone might have added the woman in red afterwards.

Ma Shanfeng looked at the woman in red and said, “I think her eyes look familiar. It seems that I have seen it somewhere.”

Mao Xiaoli, “Uncle Ma had seen her before?”

“Yes.” Ma Shanfeng nodded: “It’s a pity I can’t remember right now.”

Chen Yang: “Don’t worry. You can think about it later.” Looking up, Chen Yang found Zhang Qiudao having a strange expression, he asked, “What’s the matter? Do you know the woman in red too?”

Zhang Qiudao shook his head: “No. I saw a news report about a mother and daughter committing suicide by jumping off a building in the hospital. It seems that their two children died due to the lack of care from adults. They felt guilty and were grieving too much. They jumped from a building to commit suicide one after the other. The mother and daughter were surnamed Li. They are the wife and mother-in-law of Mr. Qian respectively, my employer yesterday.”

“That’s unfortunate.” Chen Yang sighed thinking that the Qian family was too unfortunate. “Now that all of his family members are dead, will Mr. Qian be able to bear it?”

Zhang Qiudao’s expression was even odder, “I’m afraid he’s way too happy.”

Chen Yang: “What do you mean?”

Zhang Qiudao pointed to the video of the car accident on Chen Yang’s mobile phone, “Some onlookers were blocking the road, and a luxurious car opened the side window. The person inside had a look at the commotion before it drove away. The car owner was Mr. Qian and sitting next to him was a beautiful young woman.”

Mao Xiaoli: “Maybe it’s his secretary or a friend or a relative or something. It’s better not to wrongly accuse people so casually. Especially with the death of Mr. Qian’s whole family. It’s not good to wrong him some more.”

While talking, she went to watch the video too. Zhang Qiudao pointed out the same scene, she got silent after watching it. After a while, she said, “If there is no adultery involved here, I will be the first one not to believe it.”

When Mr. Qian rolled the window up again, the woman in the co-driver’s seat leaned over and stuck on his arm. They were very intimate. It didn’t matter who didn’t believe it, Mao Xiaoli’s face was full of disgust. “He’s disgusting. His wife, mother-in-law, including two of his own children died. He is still able to flirt with another woman the next day. By the way, does the death of his wife, children and mother-in-law really have nothing to do with him?”

Everyone present, especially Zhang Qiudao, had very grim expressions. As soon as he thought about having saved a scum, his mood got very bad. Ma Shanfeng frowned, he was the one who introduced this job to him. He will be investigating this. If it is something hidden well in the family, then it is the employer’s privacy and they will not be able to investigate it. What’s more, the job really belonged to the level of two stars, and the Taoist Association has not judged wrong.

If Mr. Qian really had a problem, they can only say that humans are more terrifying than ghosts.

Ma Shanfeng said, “Mr. Qian is a member of the Li family. The Li’s family is one of the city’s middle-range rich families. Their family runs an e-commerce business at home. Mr. Qian’s mother-in-law and his wife are both the only daughters in the family, and both of them had their husband married into the family.”

Mao Xiaoli: “A Phoenix Man?”

“Even a tiger won’t eat their own children. If Mr. Qian is really not innocent, it would be horrible.”

Zhang Qiudao’s expression was gloomy: “I will investigate Mr. Qian’s affair. If it is confirmed that he killed his wife, children and mother-in-law, I will never forgive him!”

“I’m afraid it’s not easy.” Chen Yang said: “Even if we call the police, and tell them about his affair, it is still true that his wife and mother-in-law committed suicide on their own volition. It has nothing to do with him. When the two children died, he was not even in the city and had an alibi. Even if it involved a supernatural event, the woodcarving Bodhisattva was also brought into the house by his mother-in-law, which has nothing to do with him.”

Everyone shivered at the thought, “What about the underworld, can’t they investigate his sins?”

As Tianshis, they all understand the justice and fairness of the Underworld. The crimes committed by any villain will be recorded, and they will go to hell to receive punishment after their deaths. However, if you kill people through this kind of cunning and sly method, you may even be able to avoid the underworld’s judgment, which is really terrifying.

Chen Yang thought, “This reminds me of Dong Hong.”

“What did you say, brother Chen?” Mao Xiaoli asked curiously.

Chen Yang shook his head: “Nothing.”

Probably around evening, Ma Shanfeng patted his own thighs and said, “I remember who the woman in red was. She was the woman who had been mutilated by a serial killer.”

Others asked him to be more specific. Ma Shanfeng asked them to take out their mobile phones to search for keywords and said, “That’s why you should watch the news more, don’t just play games and look at gossip posts. There have been several cases in which women have been killed. The murderer was judged to be the same person because of the same modus operandi. The last victim was the woman in red, he had a deep impression of her because she died in the most miserable way. Not only was she killed, but she was tortured to death when she was still alive and finally her corpse was thrown into the river.

They saw the news and saw the appearance of the woman in red before she died. She was a beautiful girl. She was like two peas in a pod with the red clothed woman in the video.

“Revenge? Is the dead the murderer?” Chen Yang looked at Du Shuo.

Du Shuo glanced at the video and said, “I’ll ask after I go back.”

“Okay.” Chen Yang stared at the photo of the woman in red. After that, he turned off his mobile phone and put the matter aside for the moment.

In the early morning the next day, Zhang Qiudao went out to inquire about Mr. Qian’s affairs. Kou Xuanling sent the woodcarving Bodhisattva to a nearby Taoist temple and asked them to purify it. Mao Xiaoli continued to attend school. Ma Shanfeng continued to drink tea in his office and went to the yard to look after his flowers and plants in his spare time.

Chen Yang became the most leisurely person in the whole office. He simply turned open the Book of Ghost Curses and learned from it while reading. During this period, Yi Fusheng the elder Wu, called him and hoped to cooperate with him.

“The job of the Deserted Village of the South has been hanging on the app for a long time, and the Taoist Association had made a mistake. Later, it was changed to a four-star job, making it a very difficult job. The Taoist Association wanted several vice presidents to take over the job and complete it. I will take the job and I am wondering if you are interested?”

Chen Yang: “Can you send me the information so I can have a look?”

“Sure. You can contact me when you are interested. We plan to go in August,” after Yi Fusheng talked about the job, she asked Chen Yang about his recent situation. After getting his reply, she asked, “I’d like to invite you to Sichuan Province so that you can meet your peers.”

“After the job of the Deserted Village of the South is solved, I can go there.”

“That’s good.” Yi Fusheng immediately said, “Then it’s settled. Don’t go back on your words.”

“Of course not,” Chen Yang replied with a smile. Looking down at the book in his hand, he hesitated for a long time but did not mention its existence. After hanging up the phone, Du Shuo came back, and he asked, “Elder Wu, Yi Fusheng asked me to go to Sichuan Province to meet my peers. I thought about it and agreed. On the way, I can see the place where Aunt Wu lived before. In addition, I plan to hand over the Book of Ghost Curses to the elder Wu, Yi Fusheng, who can print it into more physical copies. For the disciples who passed the examination, the book can be passed down to them. Are you okay with that?”

Although Du Shuo gave him the book, after some thought, Chen Yang understood that Du Shuo got it from some old ghosts in the underworld. Therefore, he had to get his permission before spreading it. If Du Shuo doesn’t want to, he won’t hand the book out. After all, Du Shuo was still the person he was closest with.

Du Shuo gazed at him and could easily see what he thought. He smiled and said: “If I gave you  things, it’s all up to you on how to treat them.” After a short pause, he added, “Giving it to the Wu clan is fine, but it is not recommended to print it into many physical copies.”

“Mn?”

Du Shuo sat down and held Chen Yang in his arms: “Elder Wu, Yi Fusheng, assesses all her disciples, and then her disciples will examine the other younger disciples. The book is one that teaches about communicating and enslaving ghosts and spirits. If someone with a bad mind learns this book, I’m afraid it will lead to huge disasters.”

Chen Yang, “It sounds dangerous.” He was hesitating whether to hand it over or not now, but he could not bear to let the book be lost forever.

“It doesn’t hurt to hand it over. Not everyone can learn it.”

Chen Yang flipped through the book: “I think it’s very easy.”

“For most people, it’s like a Book of Heaven.” Du Shuo took the Book of Ghost Curses in his hand and said: “The book was cut off from inheritance because the skills of communicating and enslaving Gods and ghosts surpasses heaven. Only a few people who are approved by heaven can learn the book. Even if you print a whole stack of physical copies and put it on the stall, no one can understand it. Therefore, there is no need to print copies, as not many can learn. Also this is to ensure that only gifted people who also have a sense of justice can obtain the knowledge. At least it won’t cause a big mess and others need to clean up the trouble.”

Chen Yang: “You are saying it as if you had to clean up the mess.”

“I really had to clean it up.”

Chen Yang held Du Shuo’s face, “You are bluffing. If the sky falls down, the higher-ups are there to deal with it. Why would you need to clean it up?”

That was because he was always the “higher-ups” Chen Yang spoke of. The emperor said without changing his expression, “You are wrong, when chaos appears, the pawns are deployed first thing.”

Chen Yang kissed Du Shuo: “If there’s chaos, I’ll go with you.”

“Really?”

“If the husband sings then the husband follows.”

“I’m very moved.”

“If you are moved, then do that. Don’t move this around,” Chen Yang grabbed Du Shuo’s hand which was swimming under his clothes. “You’ve been too free lately. Have some restraint.”

“This is the natural course of action, why would I need to restrain myself?”

Chen Yang seized the chance to say, “If you don’t control yourself, my kidneys… body can’t bear it.”

“Nonsense.” Du Shuo chuckled, “Yang Yang is very strong.”

Chen Yang rolled his eyes. When Du Shuo asked him to train his body, he didn’t want to exercise, but Du Shuo said he was too weak and should run another lap. It was useless no matter how much he complained. Chen Yang put his arm around Du Shuo’s shoulder, he let him do as he pleased. At the same time he mumbled in his head and complained.

Du Shuo got up early in the morning and finished washing up. He picked up Chen Yang and said, “I found the woman in red in the video last night and asked her a few questions. Are you listening?”

Chen Yang couldn’t open his eyes. He hummed and buried his face in Du Shuo’s chest and continued to sleep. Du Shuo laughed and picked him up. Chen Yang abandoned Du Shuo’s chest and turned his head into the bed. He pulled up the quilt to cover his head and continued to sleep.

Du Shuo pulled the quilt down, looked at Chen Yang’s sleeping face, and kissed his naked shoulders. He then picked up his mobile phone, got up and went into the bathroom. He recorded everything he wanted to say in the bathroom and put it back on the bedside table. He then tore off a sticker and wrote down a memo of reminders before leaving.

When Chen Yang woke up, he turned to see the stickers pasted on the bedside table. He picked it up and looked at it. After reading it, he turned on the recorder on his mobile phone to play Du Shuo’s recording. Du Shuo’s voice came out of it.

“Yang Hong, who died in the car accident, was a serial murderer. In two years, seven women were killed by him. The woman in red would have been killed directly like he did with all his other victims, but Yang Hong met Dong Hong in the process of the murder. The woman in red was tortured and killed by Dong Hong.”

Dong Hong? He participated in this!

Chen Yang frowned, he was surprised at their relationship. Yang Hong had been rampaging around the country for two years. During this period, he used black plastic bags to cover the heads of women that were alone on the streets, causing them to suffocate. The method of killing was relatively neat, but when he kidnapped the woman in red, he happened to run into Dong Hong, who has a habit of abuse.

When Dong Hong found the woman in red tied up in Yang Hong’s house, he had a bad idea in his heart, so he killed and tortured the woman in red with Yang Hong. The woman in red saw the faces of Yang Hong and Dong Hong in the process of being tortured and killed, so she stuck onto Yang Hong in the human realm during the first seven days after her death to take revenge. However, she only killed Yang Hong and failed to get revenge on Dong Hong.

After getting her revenge, the woman in red went back to the underworld. Hearing that someone was inquiring about Yang Hong, she simply told all she knew. She said that Yang Hong seems to be a member of a mysterious organization, and the people in it are powerful and mysterious.

Participants will follow the instructions given and try their best to complete them. The instructions will change from small tasks to large ones, from small things like stealing, to killing.

Yang Hong was originally an ordinary person living in a village. He had no wife and children. He was lonely, honest and silent. He was first told to steal some female clothes in the village, and then he raped a widow and killed her by mistake. Later, he was addicted to killing while he was on the run. At the same time, he acted according to instructions. Those instructions were catering to Yang Hong’s deepest desires, enticing him to indulge in crimes.

She was not very clear about Dong Hong’s situation. The woman in red only knew the general situation, and the organization part was also her guess. She did not know the name, location, contact information and members involved.

The other party was very confidential. They only contacted Yang Hong twice when she was tortured and killed and when she was entangling Yang Hong.

Chen Yang got out of bed and took a pen and paper. He wrote down the names of Yang Hong, Dong Hong and Meng Xi on the paper. Then added a symbol referring to the mysterious organization in the mouth of the woman in red. Suppose the mysterious organization issued instructions through some special contact method, and ordered the three to complete the instructions.

If the instructions were small things that didn’t matter. At first, it gives people the psychological illusion of playing a game, which would make people slowly ignore reality and lose humanity while gradually adapting to more serious tasks. At the same time, when you are playing the game, you can’t help but indulge in it because of the tasks catering to their hearts.

Now both Yang Hong and Dong Hong are dead. Looking at their actions, it seems that their deaths were well-deserved. And, of course, the deaths were self-inflicted. But if they connect their behaviors with the commands and then look at the results, it feels like they were dragged to death’s door step by step.

Chen Yang circled the word ‘secret organization’ and then brought it up to others in the office. “How about calling the police? I feel like this is a killing game using psychological factors to lure them to kill. They placed their guilt and fear of committing the crimes on the tasks and the game, which led them to indulge in the killing. They rely on and never resist the commands.”

“It’s like a suicide game that uses psychological methods to lure underage children to commit suicide. This situation is within the scope of police work. Their reconnaissance ability is more professional than ours. We should call the police. Let uncle Ma do it, he can write better reports.” Zhang Qiudao proposed.

Chen Yang asked him, “Weren’t you going to check Mr. Qian? Did you find out anything?”

Zhang Qiudao: “Mr. Qian was married into the Li family, and his two children are also surnamed Li. Mrs. Qian and her mother didn’t treat Mr. Qian very well. Mr. Qian worked outside all year round and was not close to his family. He had been discussing with his wife about having a child with the surname Qian, but they refused. Mr. Qian was frustrated and he met his current girlfriend, who was pregnant some time ago. Mr. Qian wanted to go home to discuss divorce with his wife, but the woodcarving Bodhisattva incident happened and he didn’t have time to ask for a divorce with his wife.”

“These things are not secrets, they are easy to find out. Mr. Qian was very open about them, which reduced people’s suspicions of him. Moreover, the death of his wife, children and mother-in-law had nothing to do with him. Many people have seen his wife and mother-in-law commit suicide by jumping off a building. Their children died of an acute illness, and he was in another province at that time. He’s clean. There’s no doubt about it.”

In addition, people generally have the impression that ‘even tigers would not eat their own children’. Mr. Qian placed heavy importance on having offspring and was very fond of children. If he really wanted to take the wealth of the Li family, he didn’t have to kill his children.

“The problem is that the two children who died were not the biological children of Mr. Qian. At the beginning, Mrs. Qian was pregnant and discussed marriage with Mr. Qian. Mr. Qian knew all that but was still willing to marry into the Li family.” Zhang Qiudao shook his head and his eyes were cold: “To tell you the truth, I don’t believe their deaths had nothing to do with Mr. Qian.”

If they think about it carefully. Mr. Qian always stressed the ‘Qian’ family and not the Li family in front of Zhang Qiudao. If he didn’t pay special attention to that, why would he have stressed it all the time? There were also many loopholes in his explanation. For example, if he liked children that much, and loved them even if they were not his biological sons, why would he insist on doing business when his two children were seriously ill? They had lived together for seven or eight years, they should be very close.

Moreover, Mr. Qian was too calm. It showed when he was facing the evil spirit that has harmed his family. He had no anger towards it at all.

Zhang Qiudao had to admit that he was fooled by him.

Chen Yang comforted him: “No one could think of something like this. I’m afraid that even Mrs. Qian and her mother will not suspect anything after their deaths. On the contrary, they might even be grateful for Mr. Qian’s loyalty.”

The author has something to say:

In fact, Mr. Qian is not afraid of being found out, ‘Because he even deceived the Underworld.’ At least Mr. Qian thinks so, but he’s wrong.

 

 

 

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