Cataclysm Chapter 7: Human Skin Painting 7; Innate Gift

Chapter 7: Human Skin Painting 7; Innate Gift

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Karai

 

Chen Yang spoke and people’s cell phone lights were extinguished instantly. The villa was plunged into darkness again, and there seemed to be a giant in that darkness. The sound of an iron chain clanging was very clear.

After a few seconds, the lights from the cell phones recovered, there was brightness again. Everyone looked at Chen Yang. The ghost under his feet had been detained by a Hell servitor. The Han family breathed a sigh of relief, the looks of Tianshi Luo and Lu toward Chen Yang had changed to awe.

The ability to summon a ghost from the Underworld was beyond them. They couldn’t even begin to get jealous as it was something light years beyond them. They could stare in awe. Mao Xiaoli opened her mouth and stared at Chen Yang. She felt like she had to refresh her understanding of Chen Yang altogether.

Chen Yang picked up the red string, tied it back to his wrist, then looked up, and said, “Isn’t anyone going to turn on the light?”

Han Jiashan helped Mrs. Han to sit on the sofa, heard his words, and hurried to ask the maid, “Turn on the lights.”

When the maid saw that the ghost had been taken away, she went to turn on the lights. The lights were blazing, the clouds outside the villa dispersed, and the moonlight came out. At this time, the sound of insects in the grass drove away the dead silence.

Han Ke was supported by Mao Xiaoli and sat on the sofa, KeKe looked over at Chen Yang. Mrs. Han, who did not believe in ghosts and spirits, ultimately regarded Chen Yang as a master. It was so obvious when the ghost was attached to her body for a moment. She was still shivering when she thought of it.

Mrs. Han, “Master, did that ghost really disappear?”

“Not gone.” Chen Yang looked up and said, “Just taken back to the Underworld by the Hell servitor. But she will not cause trouble for Miss Han again.”

The Han family breathed a sigh of relief, and Han Jiashan asked, “But after being possessed by the ghost for so long, will there be any physical problems? Will her fortune be damaged?”

“Her fortune is not damaged, but her physical health was certainly affected.” Chen Yang looked at Han Ke and saw that there was still an aura of the dead between her eyebrows, but it would not decrease immediately. When her body recovered, the dead aura would disappear.

“What should we do about that? What charms do we need? Master Chen, give us a price for anything, money is not a problem. By the way, you said just now that ghosts and spirits were trying to come into the house, will there be any other evil spirits who want to rob KeKe of her life? Is there any magic charms to-“

Mao Xiaoli couldn’t help interrupting him, “Mr. Han, there aren’t that many ghosts. Miss Han was originally the type that couldn’t easily be possessed by evil spirits. If she had been respectful of ghosts and spirits before and had not been talking nonsense in front of other people’s tombs, she wouldn’t have been possessed by a ghost.”

Han Ke laughed bitterly, “After such an encounter, how dare I disrespect ghosts and the dead in the future again?”

Chen Yang said warmly, “Don’t worry. Outside your house, there are door gods. Inside are your ancestors’ altar, and Guan Sheng emperor’s altar. Generally, ghosts and evil spirits can’t come in. Miss Han was entangled in death and should go to the hospital for a check up with her doctor. After that, exercise more and sunbathe more. In the next month, it’s better not to go alone to places with people and full of Yin aura. I’ll ask Xiaoli to draw two protection charms for you… It’s free. Our office aims to serve our customers to the fullest, including the aftermath.”

Han Jiashan, who was also a businessman, felt he was very kind, but he dared not show the slightest disrespect. He only said in awe and admiration, “Master is really devoted to his work.”

……

Mao Xiaoli’s expression looked like she wanted to kneel at Chen Yan. Her object of admiration at the same time was smiling indifferently and continued publicizing the Dafu Branch Office without any reservation. Chen Yang had a pleasant exchange with Han Jiashan and exchanged contact information.

Han Jiashan was part of Chen Yang’s sustainable business plan as he was an effluent businessman with lots of connections. He would bring many big customers to the Dafu Branch in the future. This was for a later time, and was not worth mentioning for the time being.

After the battle, everyone was a little tired. After two to three hours of rest, the sky was bright. Chen Yang and the others stood up to say goodbye. Han Jiashan’s 400,000 yuan plus Han Ke’s later 100,000 yuan was paid to Chen Yang. However, Luo and Lu Tianshi also contributed to the arrest of the ghost, and thus received satisfactory remunerations as well.

When Chen Yang left the Han family, he took away the human skin painting paper. When he told Han Ke that it was human skin painting paper, her expression was like she was about to faint and she gave it directly to Chen Yang.

Mao Xiaoli stared at the message on her phone that said they had received the huge 500,000 sum of money. She did not return to herself for a long time.

“Br, Brother Chen, you are too good.” Mao Xiaoli followed Chen Yang and entirely became his fan. “Half a million dollars, I haven’t seen a huge sum of money since I entered the industry.”

Chen Yang asked curiously, “How many years have you been in this industry?”

“Three years.” Mao Xiaoli was moved, “I used to hang around with my family, but later I worked alone and joined Dafu Branch for one year and only got the base salary. I can’t afford to buy anything with that.”

Chen Yang, “…” Sure enough, it was a vast pit.

“Right, Brother Chen. How did you know that this drawing paper was human skin?”

“It feels almost the same. Normal paper doesn’t feel like that.”

Mao Xiaoli touched the paper and nodded, “Yes. But Brother Chen, how did you guess that the ghost with Miss Han was a hundred years old?”

Chen Yang sighed, “At that time when you saw the beauty in this painting, you didn’t feel anything wrong?”

Mao Xiaoli shook her head. “No.”

“The Yin Qi is strong, too ghostly, it was so obvious and you were not aware of it?”

Mao Xiaoli silently opened his mouth and cried out, “Brother Chen, why would I be able to feel ghosts and yin qi?”

Chen Yang frowned, “But you are a Tianshi.”

“Even Tianshis can’t do that.” Mao Xiaoli cried and laughed, “Brother Chen, do you have a misunderstanding about Tianshis? Although Tianshi catch ghosts, we rely on tools to see and detect ghosts. Unless it’s extremely ghostly, it is not obvious to us. Like this painting, I didn’t feel the slightest ghostly thing about it.”

Chen Yang was shocked for a moment. “Really? I don’t know much about Tianshi.”

Mao Xiaoli stared at Chen Yang, “Brother Chen, are you really not a Tianshi? How did you catch that ghost if you are not one?”

“When I was young, gramps next door taught me some stuff for two years, so I’m not a Tianshi.”

“Wha… you’re already this powerful after only two years of learning?” Mao Xiaoli was quite jealous. Sure enough, if you wanted to use Tianshi as a job to eat rice, it depended on your talent. If your talent was not good, one might have to learn for more than ten years just to get a Dugong blessing (grade six), such as her. He was so gifted, with only two years he was able to get rid of a strong ghost. Mao Xiaoli shook her head. She didn’t want to think about it any longer. The more she thought, the more jealous she was, the more unbalanced she became.

In fact, Mao Xiaoli was also very talented in the world of Tianshi. For typical cases, she could finish the task efficiently. But she happened to look unbalanced when compared with an extremely special case like Chen Yang.

Mao Xiaoli decided to return to her original topic, “Then what? How did you guess everything after you saw the human skin?”

Chen Yang explained it to her in detail. In fact, the main reason he understood this incident so quickly was because he used to live in a closed-up village in the South before he went to college. In the South, especially in Guangzhou and Guangdong, many people still believed in ghosts and gods. In addition, Chen Yang had a unique constitution and often had to deal with ghosts.

So, once he knew that it was a piece of human skin painting paper, he knew this incident was not simple. At that time, the fierce ghost tried to confuse him, but her accent was a Western Guangdong accent. After calling her ‘Xiu Cailang,’ he confirmed her age, as it was not a name modern people would call.

The inscription on the painting was Xiao Fengyu, like the artistic name of a former actress. He just took a look on Baidu, and actually found information about her life. Xiao Fengyu, formerly known as Zhu Xiaoyu, was originally a female actress in Western Guangdong in the early Republic of China. She became a famous actress for her sweet singing and ethereal beauty but at the age of twenty-one, she was taken away by bandits and finally died with a dismembered body.

Chen Yang speculated that she was stripped of her skin to make human paper after her death, that was why she was lacking a part of her spirit, and no monuments were erected to worship her, so she could not be reincarnated. Zhu Xiaoyu’s bones were gradually buried in the ground. Later, a new deceased woman was laid above Zhu Xiaoyu’s bones and that provoked Zhu Xiaoyu.

It just happened that Han Ke was paying respects to her ancestors, and Zhu Xiaoyu took the opportunity to lure Han Ke and hid in a piece of human skin.

“There used to be a ritual for stripping the skin of the deceased to make paper, and then painting the deceased on the human skin to trap their soul.” Although he didn’t know how Zhu Xiaoyu got the drawing paper made from her human skin, he didn’t think it would be with a peaceful method.

The two returned to the Dafu Branch office. Chen Yang stood at the door and stared at the sign of the ‘Dafu Street office’ with grief and indignation, “Hanging sheep heads and selling dog meat.”

Mao Xiaoli laughed, “Ignore that, we won’t be asked to go for tea much with this sign.” ¹.”

Chen Yang could not believe it, “Aren’t you guys civil servants?”

“We are civil servants. Totally a civil servant. Outside the system…”

Chen Yang couldn’t say a word.

When Mao Xiaoli entered the branch office, she took out the contract and pen and asked him to sign it. “After signing this contract, you will be the director of our branch office. I’ll tell you, the director’s base salary is twice as much as ours, and the share of each finished job is five percent more than ours.”

Chen Yang raised his eyebrows, “What’s the director’s share, and what’s your share and base salary?”

Mao Xiaoli was trying to speak, and the deputy Bureau chief Ma Shanfeng came in with his protruding stomach and called her out. She did not know what to say. After Ma Shanfeng came in, he was very enthusiastic towards Chen Yang, “Xiaoli doesn’t understand some things yet. The director can ask me if he has any questions.”

“I haven’t signed yet –“

“The director doesn’t know the wages and welfare of our branch office clearly enough.”

“I don’t think it has much to do with that. I think I need to think about it again –“

“The director’s base salary is 30,000 yuan (4572.82 USD), and if our branch accepts orders, you will get 5% of the total payment of that order whether you participate or not. Our way of dividing payment is to draw out 30% for the daily operation of the branch office, and the remaining 70% will be shared equally by those who participated in the job.”

In other words, even if Chen Yang was not involved, he could get 5% of the total payment if they succeeded. If he participated in the job, he would get the divided 65% of the total in addition to the 5%.

Coupled with the base salary, food and shelter, and the average wages of an ordinary civil servant… Even if all his colleagues were Tianshis and he had a suspicion that they were selling dog meat, he really wanted to sign it!!!

“Since the director participated in the three-star task, the amount has been divided. Tomorrow, you can get the money into your account. Let me calculate that….”

“187,500.” ²

“Yes!”

Chen Yang glared at the smiling eyes and gentle expression of the deputy director Ma Shanfeng, who was in fact a sly and cunning person. Chen Yan was silent. Should he sign it?

Yes, sign it!

The author has something to say:

By the way, the next chapter, gong finally appears!

… Please everyone. How can the Emperor of Fengdu be summoned so easily at will?

 

 

 

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