Chapter 55: Hezi Xinniang 6
“You know Japanese, right?” Jiang Si approached the DM. “The incantation you were chanting just now was some scripture from Japan. Even if you deliberately changed the intonation, one can still hear that it’s very similar to their pronunciation.”
Under questioning, the DM honestly confessed: “No, I just studied Japanese. Don’t you know that graduating with a language major is a dead end? I finally saw the recruitment information for this shop on a job website, so I applied. Who knew I actually passed the interview, and then I’ve just been here ever since!”
“Bro, I just joined last week. The date on the contract is written plain and clear, I can’t lie to you guys either! I also didn’t know that the names written on these tablets were all Japanese people.”
Jiang Si: “Why did you choose this shop?”
“They restricted the hiring to people who had studied Japanese majors. When I saw it, didn’t I fit the bill? The salary offered was decent too, plus there are weekends off and five insurances and one housing fund. Isn’t this better than going to work in an office building?”
“…” Hearing this, Jiang Si couldn’t help but put himself in those shoes for a moment, realizing that these conditions were indeed quite hard to refuse.
Weekends off plus five insurances and one housing fund was simply a killer combo for modern wage earners.
Seeing Jiang Si fall silent, Hai Di picked up the conversation and continued asking, “Do you know why a Jubensha shop requires its employees to know Japanese?”
The DM kept a wooden face, “Who knows, as long as he pays. As an employee, why would I care so much? That H-hotpot place even requires employees to know how to dance, right? It’s still just doing whatever the boss says.”
“You really don’t know the origin of the background of this game?” Jiang Si asked him again.
“I… When I realized the incantation was Japanese, I guessed a little, but I didn’t overthink it. Isn’t this just a game? There’s no need to blow things out of proportion.” The DM sighed, pointing to the tablets on the floor. “You guys threw them and vented your anger; I’ll still have to clean them up later. They’re just props—”
“What ‘just a game’? Do you know that this ritual is real!” Hai Moyun furiously grabbed a tablet and walked up to him. “I played the game at your place, got pinned down by a ghost, and this morning I was almost smashed to death by a flower pot!”
“…” Although the DM didn’t say anything, his eyes were full of an “Are you okay?” expression, looking at him like he was an idiot. “If you walk on the main road and get hit by a car, can you blame that on the game too? That’s just your own bad luck!”
“You—”
“Alright, alright, since we’re done playing anyway, you guys hurry up and leave.” The DM bent down and picked up the tablets one by one. “You really startled me just now, I actually thought I had committed some crime. It’s the 21st century now, can we not be so conservative! No matter how great the hatred, it’s been decades already, what is there that can’t be let go of?”
Jiang Si gave him a deep look. “When the knife hasn’t fallen on your own head, there will always be all sorts of pretty words. I hope you can be this magnanimous when the time comes.”
The DM cursed inwardly that he truly had met lunatics. Looking perfectly respectable, but they actually came to pick a fight.
He ignored the three of them, and Jiang Si took the lead to walk out. Standing beneath the upturned eaves, he looked up at the square patch of azure sky and realized that it wasn’t just this Citang that resembled a box, the structure outside also looked like a box.
This exposed patch of sky might just be the space where the bride in the game finally poked her head out.
“Are we just leaving like this?” Hai Moyun was unwilling to resign. “We didn’t discover anything!” As he spoke, he took out the paper figurine he had been tightly clutching in his palm. The yellow paper figurine had been pinched so hard by him that it was wrinkled, with the edges curled up twice.
“His eyes?” Hai Di looked at Jiang Si.
“There’s something inside his eyes,” Jiang Si nodded. When they first met, he thought it was due to the lighting, but after testing him a few times just now, he finally confirmed that there was a problem with the DM’s eyes.
“Ah? What’s wrong with his eyes? No, even if there is something, we can’t just grab him and dig out his eyes to study, right? That’s illegal!” Hai Moyun reminded them. “Even if Gufu does human experiments, he wouldn’t dare do that.”
Hai Di shot him a cold glare. “You better say that to his face when we get back. The first brain he dissects will be yours.”
Hai Moyun dodged to the side, avoiding Hai Di’s line of sight.
“…” Jiang Si pursed his lips, finding it a bit funny. “Do I look like an outlaw fanatic?”
Hai Moyun was stumped. He scrutinized him carefully for a while and shook his head firmly. “With your looks, if you said you were an idol making your debut, I’d believe it.”
“Then there you have it.” Jiang Si said, “His eyes are covered by something. Things that seem very strange to us, he cannot see. Perhaps this is also why he doesn’t remember you. His cognition is also being subtly altered, making him actively become someone who maintains the game.”
“What time is it now?”
The topic shifted too quickly. Hai Moyun, who had been listening with relish, couldn’t wrap his head around it, but Hai Di immediately replied, “Half past four.”
They had spent nearly two hours playing this script.
Jiang Si smiled at him. “Let’s go back first. I have some clues, but I need to find someone to ask.”
“Who are you going to ask? Is there anyone else who knows about this thing?” Hai Moyun was curious.
“I’ll ask Shen Hu. I heard he participated in an international exchange conference, he might know about this Hezi Xinniang.”
“Oh, oh, okay.”
Jiang Si walked fast, taking the lead out of the shop door. Seeing Hai Moyun lagging far behind, he quietly tugged at the hem of Hai Di’s clothes and asked curiously, “What did your cousin say just now that made your face look so awful?”
“?”
Jiang Si reminded him, “What was wrong with what he said about Shushu doing experiments?”
Hai Di sighed helplessly. “My Ba researches microscopic physics. He doesn’t dissect human bodies, nor does he know how to.”
“…”
.
An accident happened on the way. Hai Di was driving perfectly fine when suddenly the car in front changed lanes without even turning on its hazard lights. Before he could react, he directly rear-ended it.
The driver of the car in front furiously got out, just about to argue, but upon seeing the car logo of the vehicle that rear-ended him, his attitude instantly did a 180-degree turn. He spoke amiably to Hai Di, who had just stepped out of the car, “Aiya, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was driving a bit slow just now, and I wasn’t paying attention when changing lanes. I’m sorry.”
Hai Di glanced at the condition of his car. It was hit quite severely; one headlight was already shattered.
He ignored the driver’s apologies and directly called the traffic police, then asked the insurance company to send someone over to handle it.
Knowing he was in the wrong, the driver spoke a basketful of sweet words, terrified that Hai Di would make him pay for it.
This was a Cayenne, a limited edition from a few years ago. Just this one headlight would cost at least over a hundred thousand.
“Is it serious?” Seeing they hadn’t moved for a while, Jiang Si simply got out of the car himself to check. Finding it boring to stay inside, Hai Moyun also followed out, leaning against the railing with his head down playing games.
“It’s fine.” Hai Di replied to Jiang Si downplaying it. His phone was still connected. Finding the driver too noisy, he shot him an emotionless glance.
The driver instantly fell silent, leaving only anxious apprehension.
“Yes, we are on the elevated highway. En.” After finishing the call in a few words, Hai Di looked at the car in front. His car was merely smashed up a large chunk, not to mention the car in front, whose rear end had a massive dent caved in.
Looking at the driver’s attire again, Hai Di spoke calmly: “I’ve notified the insurance company to come over, you won’t need to pay for the vehicle repairs.”
Before the driver could rejoice, he continued: “The traffic police will also be here shortly. You should think carefully about how to explain your drunk driving to them.”
The smell of alcohol was carried to Hai Di’s nose by the wind. The moment the driver opened his mouth, Hai Di knew the man had been drinking. He was too lazy to argue with a drunkard; handling the accident as quickly as possible was the main priority.
Seeing that he had arranged everything, Jiang Si stood to the side watching with folded arms. His phone “dinged”, a message popping up.
It was a message from Lin Nan. His high-speed rail was about to arrive in Ningshi. He was giving Jiang Si a report.
Jiang Si replied: “En, be careful on your way.”
“Don’t worry! I specifically asked my mom to guard the bowl and stare at it. No one is allowed to touch that bowl of water and millet. I will definitely arrive safely by your side!” Seeing the distance getting closer and closer, Lin Nan spoke with more confidence.
Jiang Si: “…I wish you success.”
Lin Nan was on his second day, and Hai Moyun was also on his second day. One had yet to experience anything, while the other had already taken a walk under the scythe of the Grim Reaper.
It was currently the evening rush hour. Cars in the adjacent lanes shuttled past one after another. White headlights and red taillights flashed into streaks of flowing light across the elevated highway.
The temperature dropped a few degrees. The wind blowing from the river surface brought a dense, chilling dampness that rushed to the face. Standing in the wind, Jiang Si inexplicably felt a surge of cold intent rise up his back.
His heart pounded violently. As if verifying his sixth sense, his bracelet instantly heated up, burning terrifyingly hot.
What exactly was wrong?
Jiang Si subconsciously surveyed his surroundings.
Hai Di was waiting for someone, the driver of the car in front was on the phone, Hai Moyun had his head down playing on his phone…
The few of them standing in the open space between the vehicles and the railing had inadvertently formed a small circle, all busy with their own things.
His breathing suddenly paused. He heard the ear-piercing screech of tires rubbing fiercely against the ground, and the sound was close at hand.
Almost subconsciously, he shoved Hai Moyun fiercely forward, while simultaneously grabbing Hai Di’s arm and throwing them forward.
The moment their bodies rolled onto the ground, an explosive sound erupted right beside their feet.
The earth-shattering noise caused everyone’s ears present to temporarily plunge into a state of deafness.
The whole world turned into a black-and-white movie. In the lens, the out-of-control truck rubbed against the ground, scraping out a string of pale sparks, smashing straight into the cars, crashing through the guardrail, flying off the elevated highway into the air, and falling into the river water.
“…”
Jiang Si barely stabilized his body, then clutched his abdomen and began to cough violently. Large swathes of cold air poured into his lungs, scraping the flesh of his throat like a razor blade. Little by little, it ground out quite a few traces of blood, which were difficultly spat out mixed with his rapid breathing.
“Cough, cough, cough—Hoo…”
Bouts of tinnitus prevented him from hearing Hai Di’s shouts; he could only vaguely feel the large hand patting his back.
“…” It felt like a century had passed before Jiang Si intermittently heard Hai Di’s urgent voice. He said: “Jiang Si, Jiang Si… can you hear me? How are you?”
Jiang Si propped himself up on the ground with his elbows. As soon as he spoke, it was like a tent with a hole pitched on a high mountain, rustling as cold air rushed through.
“I’m fine… how are you?”
“I’m fine too.” Hai Di managed to force out a smile. His fingers brushed past the dirt on Jiang Si’s face. He truly couldn’t resist pulling the person into his embrace, saying hoarsely: “You saved me again.”
“It’s not like that.” Jiang Si paused for a moment before sighing faintly. “It’s my fault. I underestimated the danger level of that ritual.”
Hai Di’s hair tickled his neck, which was even harder to endure than the pain on his body. Jiang Si only held on for a moment before pushing him away, “Let me speak properly.”
“You speak,” Hai Di’s voice was hoarse.
“I know why none of us could see the existence of the evil spirit summoned in the ritual. Because it wasn’t an evil spirit at all, and the people playing the game weren’t entangled by an evil spirit. Rather, through the medium of the ritual, our fortune was sucked away.”
In his excitement, Jiang Si couldn’t help coughing twice, continuing, “Once our fortune is sucked away, we become extremely unlucky. Like being smashed by a flower pot, or encountering a car crash while driving. These events, which are originally small-probability incidents in life, are infinitely magnified, turning accidental events into inevitable ones.”
Hai Di fell silent, staring into his eyes. “You mean Jieyun?”
“Pretty much.”
Jiang Si struggled to get up. Leaning on the remaining section of the railing, he looked toward the riverbank. One large and one small vehicle were entirely soaked in the water, with only a car roof exposed. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly, “Your car is completely totaled.”
“There are a few more cars at home, there’ll always be a car to drive.” Hai Di patted the dust off his hands and pulled him a few steps to the side. The railing had been violently smashed open by the truck, leaving a large gap, below which was the surging river water. A slight lapse in attention and one could fall straight down.
The commotion here was too great, and the surrounding crowd gathering grew larger and larger. Those watching the spectacle and those calling the police stood in three inner and outer layers.
“My phone flew away too,” Jiang Si said helplessly. “Just now was really—”
As he spoke, he sharp-sightedly saw that Hai Di’s fingers were constantly dripping blood, yet the man himself was completely oblivious, earnestly listening to him speak.
“Your hand.” Jiang Si frowned and went to pull his hand. Bringing it to his eyes, he could see that a chunk of flesh had been scraped off by the ground. Dirt mixed in the blood stuck around the wound.
Just looking at it was terrifying.
“It’s fine, just a little scraped skin.” Hai Di wanted to pull his hand back.
Jiang Si looked down at the ground where they had just fallen. The flat ground wouldn’t have such great destructive power; it was right where a step protruded for the placement of the railing. It must have scraped against the edge of the step.
It was to protect his head, Jiang Si still remembered the situation just now.
“Does it hurt?” Jiang Si carefully bypassed the wound, brushing away the dirt next to it, his face revealing his heartache.
Hai Di actually didn’t feel much pain; instead, his fingertips brushing past the flesh roused quite a bit of an itchy sensation. Just as he was about to say it didn’t hurt, he saw the emotion in Jiang Si’s eyes.
With a turn of his mind, he drooped his eyelashes, pressed his lips into a straight line, and nodded lightly.
Jiang Si believed it to be true. Holding the hand, he gently blew on it.
At this moment, a hoarse voice drifted up faintly from under the car.
“I say, is there anyone who can see me?”
Translator’s Note
- Shushu: Uncle.
- Ba: Dad.
- Jieyun: Borrowing luck / Stealing fortune. A Daoist/metaphysical concept where one’s good luck or positive fortune is maliciously siphoned away by an entity or practitioner.
Recommended Reads
![Accidentally Turned a Tragic Romance Plotline into a Sweet and Pampering One [Transmigration]](https://beereads.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ACCIDENTALLY.png)
