Evil As Humans, page 60
She really didn’t expect to get a chair and a severed head.
Zhong Chengshuo adjusted the collar of his pajamas. “I don’t know.”
“You didn’t know, but you still helped him?!”
Zhong Chengshuo frowned and thought for a moment. “…I believe him.”
Yin Ren was at least a strong person who could muddle through under Shian’s eyes, so he wouldn’t drop the ball in that kind of place… right? Even if he wanted to make trouble, there was no need to use this method to hurt the enemy’s reputation while simultaneously racking up a self-loss of 250,000.
Zhong Chengshuo’s tense nerves began to relax again, and he started getting sleepy. His consciousness was slowly drifting off.
Lu Xiaohe was more direct. She skillfully dragged out two folding beds that came with two folded blankets. “It’s still a while before the results come out. Let’s nap for a while.”
“I’ll wait for Yin Ren,” Zhong Chengshuo replied, barely able to keep his eyelids open as he looked at the door.
Lu Xiaohe shook her head. She skillfully pulled out a black blindfold from the drawer. “Then good night.”
“Good night.” Zhong Chengshuo continued to sit at the table.
Around 4 a.m., Yin Ren was finally released from the “Non-science Post Accident Handling Department”.
With the deceased having only traces of his own technique and the testimony of several Nightwalkers, the incident was stamped as a magic backlash. The head of the deceased was confiscated, and his bank card was emptied. Yin Ren returned to the office of Special Investigation Group Unit 9 empty-handed.
The lights in the office were dim.
Lu Xiaohe’s folding bed was against the wall. She was buried deep in the thin blanket, sleeping soundly. Zhong Chengshuo was lying on the table, breathing slowly. He looked extremely weary in his pajamas.
Zhong Chengshuo’s face was still facing the direction of the entrance.
Yin Ren paused at the entrance, lightened his footstep, and walked up to Zhong Chengshuo.
“…Quite good. You don’t have dark circles under your eyes yet.” After sitting back at his workstation, Yin Ren propped up his face and looked at his partner’s sleeping face for a while.
Seeing him like this, this person looked like a harmless scholar, but judging by how mobile he was previously, Zhong Chengshuo would definitely wake up if he had been sleeping on the folding bed.
Yin Ren carefully took off Zhong Chengshuo’s glasses and put them aside.
In the dim light, Zhong Chengshuo’s eyelids trembled slightly, as if he wasn’t sleeping well. Without the cover of his glasses, there was a bit more vague strength and stubbornness between his brows, which was quite interesting.
After looking at him from an angle, Yin Ren got up, stretched out a finger, and put it under Zhong Chengshuo’s nose.
The man’s breath was moist and warm, sweeping over his fingertips.
Yin Ren actually didn’t expect Zhong Chengshuo to actually help him. If Zhong Chengshuo had refused to transfer the money, Yin Ren wouldn’t even bother to “counter-offer”.
Why did he insist on contacting Xiao Mengpo? Why did he have to buy that chair? Both things were related to Yin Ren’s abilities that were hidden under the shadow, and he couldn’t explain them clearly to Zhong Chengshuo.
In fact, Yin Ren had a plan.
If this person didn’t make a move, he could only make a scene at the ghost pawnshop. He would snatch the chair first—there was the aura of a living person in that chair, and the living could easily die, so he couldn’t wait on Shian for too long.
If things had settled like that, no matter how things ended, the relationship between him and Xiao Mengpo would be determined. At least the clues from Xiao Mengpo’s side would be cut off.
…Unexpectedly, Zhong Chengshuo took care of everything and quickly arrived on time.
He didn’t know if that would be considered smart or dumb.
A few minutes later, Yin Ren retracted his hand. He stretched his joints for a while, then pulled a thin blanket from the empty folding bed. The thin blanket was light and soft. He carried it gently and carefully covered Zhong Chengshuo’s back.
“How heartless,” Lord Ghost King commented. “If you really want to study me, you should give me more trouble.”
Feeling the warmth on his body, Zhong Chengshuo curled up, and his brows relaxed a little. Yin Ren didn’t know if he heard it or not.
Yin Ren made a grimace at his partner, then he yawned. He lay down beside Zhong Chengshuo and soon fell asleep.
He dreamed of endless potato stir fry.
Lord Ghost King had to climb up on foot to get to a box of crayfish at the top of the potato mountain. The moment he reached the top and stretched out his hand to reach the lunch box…
“Everyone, get up.”
Fu Xingchuan mercilessly gave them a smack on the head.
Yin Ren almost couldn’t control his murderous aura. He rubbed his head and glared at Fu Xingchuan with great dissatisfaction. Fortunately, at the next moment, Minister Fu brought good news like a desert spring.
“Shian will reimburse you for your 250,000 yuan. Originally, you should have been rewarded with some money, but because you caused an incident at the ghost pawnshop, the rewards and punishments were hedged.”
Fu Xingchuan pulled out a chair from a vacant seat and sat down in front of Yin Ren.
“That’s great that I’ll be reimbursed.” Yin Ren sighed with relief.
Otherwise, carrying a heavy debt when he first entered society would be too cruel for his ghost life.
After receiving a blow to the head, Zhong Chengshuo straightened up in a daze. He was momentarily stunned when he felt the warm blanket on him. On the other side, hearing the sound of dialogue, Lu Xiaohe got up from bed on her own. Her eyes weren’t opened yet, while her hands were already giving several punches to the pillow.
“All awake? Good. Xiaohe, turn on the screen—the results from the chair we got last night are out.”
Clusters of data covered the screen. Shots of the chairs from all angles were attached. Lu Xiaohe and Zhong Chengshuo looked at them line by line, and their expressions gradually became complicated.
Yin Ren looked at the two of them inexplicably. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s not cognitive pollution,” Zhong Chengshuo replied while still looking at the screen. “On a physical level, human cells have fused with the wood of the chair.”
“And that person… How can I put this? He’s still alive but in very poor condition.” Lu Xiaohe’s voice trembled. “At least as far as my expertise is concerned, there have been no similar cases.”
Scans, x-rays, and all kinds of inspection means were used. Science post staff barely found the person in this “human chair”—
It was as if the person’s entire body had become plasticine material and was then rubbed into strips while alive and melded into the wood in equal proportions.
Fat, muscle, internal organs, bones… The person’s entire body was twisted, making all the cells hard to separate from the wood fiber, yet it still maintained some kind of strange activity. It was difficult to say whether this was a “corpse” or not.
The man’s heart had become long and twisted, like a curled earthworm, and the myocardial fibers had obvious wood characteristics, but the heart was still weakly beating rapidly.
“The technician restored the broken DNA overnight and barely managed to identify the man. Fan Chung, 38 years old, disappeared two months ago. The police have this person in their missing people file. Sun Qinghui is now interrogating Lu Guangzu, though the situation is more or less the same.”
Fu Xingchuan rubbed his temples.
“This is not something a spirit smith can do. The water in Lu Guangzu’s case is deeper than we thought.”
The three of them looked at him quietly, waiting for his next words.
Although Fu Xingchuan had a good temper, he was essentially similar to Professor Li; he wouldn’t have come here without a reason*. Since he came in person, the matter was definitely more than just “deeper water”.
*Would come to the Hall of Trinity without reason. (无事不登三宝殿)
Sure enough, Fu Xingchuan unscrewed his thermos cup and poured himself a cup of strong tea.
“…This time we checked on the chair again and found a faint trace of Evil Force.” He gritted his teeth as he accentuated the word “again”.
Yin Ren cheered enthusiastically. “Ah, I have an impression! It was written in the report for Feng Qi’s case. His ability appeared only after being corrupted by the ‘force of an Evil Spirit’… Minister Fu, what is an Evil Spirit? A super concentration of evil qi?”
Fu Xingchuan gave a helpless smile. “It’s in your textbook.”
“We haven’t learned it yet.” Zhong Chengshuo tried to make up for Yin Ren.
“It’s hard to guess what’s going on in God’s mind. Recently, you have encountered two cases related to Evil Spirits.” Fu Xingchuan wiped his face. “Alright, let me tell you. Do you know what carbon dioxide is?”
Yin Ren: “……”
Yin Ren hid his guilt and nodded confidently.
“If an evil spirit is carbon dioxide, no matter how powerful they are, the strength of their evil qi is at most dry ice. However, ‘Evil Spirits’ are different. Their ‘Evil Force’ is more like a diamond—purer, rarer, and stronger.”
“Of course, you can burn diamonds into carbon dioxide, but under natural conditions, this process is completely irreversible. By the same token, Evil Spirits can be transformed into evil spirits, but so far, no one has been able to reverse this process.”
Therefore, the cause of the force of the Evil Spirit was still an unsolved mystery.
“I see.” The Evil Spirit himself pretended to be stupid. “The matter seems to be very serious. Do we need to withdraw from the investigation again?”
“Don’t do things three times in a row*. Our business pays attention to ‘fate’. Since you keep encountering this kind of case, you might as well participate to the end.”
*(事不过三) Idiom referring to the same thing shouldn’t be done three times in a row. From Journey to the West.
Fu Xingchuan grinned at them, showing them a shady smile.
“How about, Xiao Yin, tell me first, why did you think that chair is related to the case?”
Yin Ren had long been prepared.
“That chair didn’t feel right to me. It has too many human characteristics. Lao Jiang also said that the person who wanted to sell it left a message saying, ‘Let the game of hide and seek commence’… This is along the lines of ‘hiding the victims and letting us try to find them’.”
“Moreover, this style of giving clues at auctions is also consistent with Lu Guangzu’s exaggerated style of surrender. The rest is… intuition.”
Zhong Chengshuo frowned. “That’s too arbitrary.”
“The point is that the chair has the characteristics of a living person, Zhong Ge.” Yin Ren’s smile didn’t change, and his tone was casual. “If I was wrong, that’s my loss, but if it’s really a living person, isn’t it worth 250,000 to save a life?”
Zhong Chengshuo’s lips moved, but he didn’t respond.
Fu Xingchuan wanted to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, a ringtone sounded from his pocket. Minster Fu took out his phone and quickly walked out of the office.
Lu Xiaohe was busy studying the data on the “human chair” while frowning, unknown what was on her mind. Yin Ren stretched out his waist, hung on the back of the chair, and turned his head to look at the bright sunlight coming from the window.
Unlike when he was in the ghost pawnshop, Yin Ren’s cold aura had cleanly dissipated. The man squinted his eyes in the sun and was surrounded by a lazy warmth.
It was like a soft and thin blanket covering one’s back.
Zhong Chengshuo lowered his head, opened WeChat, and clicked on Sun Qi’an’s avatar, who had just been added a few days ago.
[Final Fruit: Hello, Dr. Sun. I would like to consult about a psychological problem.]
[Final Fruit: Maybe I really do have some psychological issues.]
* * *
The author has something to say:
It’s okay, Xiao Zhong. Zombies aren’t good to touch, but the Ghost King feels good! When the time comes (?) touch as much as you want!
Xiao Yin: That was close. I almost fell into debt from the company…
Xiao Wu’s injured world has been achieved (x
* * *
Kinky Thoughts:
Note: Evil qi and Evil Force are not the same. Evil qi refers to general “energy” from any evil beings, while Evil Force specifically refers to “energy” from an Evil Spirit (note the capitalization). This chapter establishes the difference (to Yin Ren). You can think of it as “Evil Spirit qi” but I’ll use Evil Force for an easier distinction.
The process of converting a diamond to CO2 comes from chemistry. Personally, I was never good at chemistry so I don’t really know the details behind the process, so someone who’s more knowledgeable can hopefully provide a better explanation.
Also you can also turn CO2 into diamonds, though as Minister Fu said, that’s not possible under natural conditions, while likewise, diamonds can be burned and eventually become CO2.
Using Minister Fu’s analogy, he’s saying an Evil Spirit can become an evil spirit, and theoretically, it can reverse that process (but no one has been able to engineer such a process so it’s currently believed to be impossible).
Evil As Humans Ch51
Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
* * *
Chapter 51: Help Wanted
It could be that the time was too early for Dr. Sun to reply. Minister Fu was taken away by a phone call. Being experienced, Comrade Xiao Lu instantly contacted her immediate boss and got the reply, “You can go rest”.
“Go. To the staff lounge to get some sleep for another 7 hours.” She rubbed her eyes frantically.
“Breakfast…” Zhong Chengshuo was still struggling, “and lunch…”
Yin Ren: “I’ll bring it for you.”
“I’m not eating. I want to sleep.” Lu Xiaohe yawned again. “Don’t wake me up.”
“Okay.”
Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo had stayed in the visitor lounge before, but they didn’t come into contact with the legendary “staff lounge”.
As the name implied, the staff lounge was designed for each action group to rest after a task—after all, many people lived far away from the company, and it wasn’t convenient for them to temporarily vacate a dorm.
After seeing the actual lounge, Yin Ren only felt happy and relaxed.
Sleeping in this place was much better than sleeping on a folding bed.
The staff lounge was warm and clean. The main color was a soft earth color, and the curtains had excellent shading. It was currently daytime outside, but the room was dark as night. Only the night light was on at the head of the bed. The temperature and humidity of the room were adjusted just right.
Eight single beds were placed against the wall, and there was a movable screen that divided the area into two: one for men and one for women. Considering the number of members in their Unit 9 group, only four beds had mattresses and sheets.
Lu Xiaohe went straight to the women’s area. She slumped into the bed and casually shook off her shoes. “Good night, comrades.”
After two seconds, she fell asleep.
Zhong Chengshuo shook his head while confirming the bedside table to make sure that the drawers had Shian’s standard clothes inside, then he slowly fell onto the bed.
Given the space utilization rate, the bed density here was similar to that of a hospital ward, with each bed close to the other. Yin Ren stretched his body for a while and turned over with interest.
After thinking about it carefully, the last time they slept together was in a hotel outside of Shian.
He thought Zhong Chengshuo would lie upright, but instead he resolutely turned his back to him and curled up like a shrimp. Yin Ren didn’t know if this was some kind of adaptation to the environment or what, but Zhong Chengshuo’s breathing hadn’t slowed for a long time. It was obvious he was still awake.
Yin Ren slipped out of bed lightly and laid down beside Zhong Chengshuo’s bed. “Hey, what do you want for breakfast?”
Zhong Chengshuo: “A carrot veggie bun, two boiled eggs, and lean meat porridge, or something similar to these.”
“Order something good. My treat.”
“Then one green veggie tofu bun, two boiled eggs, and beef porridge with salted eggs.”
“What about lunch?”
“Beef with garlic sauce, roasted veggies with fermented bean curd, rice, and unsweetened yogurt.” Zhong Chengshuo spoke as if he was reading a report.
“Okay. Pan-fried wagyu beef, stir-fried seasonal fresh vegetables, rice, and unsweetened yogurt. I’ll take it upon myself and add some honeydew melon for you.” Yin Ren responded lightly.
Zhong Chengshuo turned over. He wanted to protest when he met Yin Ren’s smiling eyes.
Yin Ren was squatting on the edge of the bed. His arms were pressing down on the soft mattress, creating a depression. The depression slanted slightly, as if influenced by a gravitational force. His face was only half an arm away from Zhong Chengshuo’s face. The sound of their breathing was clearly audible.
Zhong Chengshuo pulled back, trying to retreat, and almost fell off the single bed.
The smile in Yin Ren’s eyes became a little stronger. ‘This person is simply too entertaining,’ Lord Ghost King thought cheerfully.
Thousands of years ago, there were many humans who wanted to deal with him. Many of them got along with him at first, but then tried to stab him in the back. None of them were like Zhong Chengshuo… They were scheming but shortsighted.
Yin Ren didn’t notice any hostility from this person. Even when the sharp razor slid across his neck when he was cutting his hair, Yin Ren didn’t feel the slightest malice from Zhong Chengshuo… If he had to put it into words, the only emotion he found was similar to “wariness”.
