Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 60: Accomplices Turn Against Each Other
“Scapegoat? No need to put it like that. We’re just ‘playing together’.”
The goat’s tone sounded pleasant, as if he were laughing.
“Anyway, my case doesn’t involve you, so they can’t get any evidence. Besides, you’ve been able to get away with it for so long under Shian’s watchful eye, which means we’re both good at handling traces… Just help me muddy the waters. You don’t have anything to lose.”
Zhong Chengshuo stared at the “unconscious” Yin Ren.
“For an irrelevant crime in exchange for a ‘preservation’ technique.” The goat’s smiling tone became even more obvious. “Isn’t it worth it?”
His words were quickly blown away by the night wind. The weeds rustled in the crevices of the stone bricks, and the insect in the grass kept buzzing. Across the iron railing of the back door, there was a flowing creek. The dark clouds had slowly dispersed, causing bright moonlight to spill down.
Silence was mixed with pin pricking malice.
The “rabbit” didn’t answer immediately, while the “goat” waited patiently. Time was frozen at this moment, like a picture that was illustrated from a distorted fairy tale.
“It is indeed a very exciting proposal.”
After about five minutes had passed, Zhong Chengshuo responded as he squatted in front of Yin Ren.
“…Let’s cooperate. Let me see your ‘preservation’ skills.”
The goat took two steps forward and stopped on the other side of Yin Ren, separated from Zhong Chengshuo by the bean bag.
“Of course you can, but your aesthetics are better… You can plan the design first and let me observe.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “Alright. Untie the chain first.”
The goat was silent.
“I can’t measure his body size with him tied up like this,” Zhong Chengshuo said coldly. “If you’re worried about him waking up, I’ll deal with it.”
Zhong Chengshuo took out a needleless syringe from his loose pocket and plunged it into Yin Ren’s neck without hesitation. With a soft grunt, the medicinal liquid instantly penetrated the skin.
Yin Ren quickly grew some taste buds in his body… ‘Well, it’s sweet but nothing else,’ Yin Ren thought. This kind of injection was a bit fun. Comrade Xiao Zhong had more toys than he thought.
A few of his hair quietly stretched out, extending into the weeds along the cracks in the stone bricks. They chose a hidden grass stalk to climb up and knotted it into two dark eyeballs at the top. Under the cover of night, they sway gently with the wind like two unopened flower buds.
Lord Ghost King chose the perfect angle to watch the play.
The goat raised a knife in his hand and pierced Yin Ren’s arm with a deep wound. Seeing that Yin Ren was unresponsive, the goat untied his chains.
“Don’t destroy the integrity of the material,” Zhong Chengshuo raised his face and said with some warning in his tone.
“Okay, I won’t act. Please go ahead.” The goat retracted his knife.
Zhong Chengshuo unfolded Yin Ren’s arms and put him on the bean bag, forming the “大*” character. Then he stretched out his hand and pointed his index finger at the hollow of Yin Ren’s collarbone.
*Big.
‘How amazing,’ Yin Ren thought.
This was originally the part he was most worried about—King Yama only killed evil things and never took on tasks related to the living. When facing a standard living human body, Zhong Chengshuo might not be able to act well.
However, facts had far exceeded his expectations.
He couldn’t feel Zhong Chengshuo’s body temperature through the black leather gloves. He only knew the hand slid along his muscles and shoulders before moving on to his joints and bones. Zhong Chengshuo’s ten fingers were heavy and light at times. It went through his arms, waist, legs, and feet in turn, then finally returned to his head.
Then Zhong Chengshuo pulled Yin Ren towards the bean bag again.
Although Yin Ren was motionless, it looked as if the two were rehearsing some kind of duo dance.
Gradually, his head was lifted, and his arms were carefully placed as his waist was pressed against the bean bag. It was obvious the man didn’t hurt him in the slightest, but Yin Ren had the illusion of being mutilated.
At this moment, Zhong Chengshuo’s fingertips were following Yin Ren’s neck upwards. His thumb crossed Yin Ren’s throat vaguely, but the force wasn’t light or heavy.
The black leather gloves were soaked with Yin Ren’s heat, which was then cooled by the night wind.
It felt like he was being licked by a snake’s tongue. There was no intimacy in that action and no sense of closeness. Zhong Chengshuo’s “measurements” were cold and skillful, like a predator sizing up its prey.
…Calculating whether it could be smoothly devoured.
The eyeholes of the rabbit mask were as black as the void, as if there were nothing under the mask. The handsome and harmless scholar’s face was covered, making Zhong Chengshuo feel like a “real stranger”.
The goat also seemed to be shocked by this atmosphere. “Do you need to measure so carefully?”
“Yes, the human body is very magical.” Zhong Chengshuo smoothed Yin Ren’s hair and distributed it to the best position on the sofa. “The distribution of nerves in parts is different. In some places, a little stimulation can make living worse than death, leading to deformation and convulsions of the body… Of course, the most wonderful thing is here.”
He emptied his hand and tapped on Yin Ren’s brow.
“Even if you don’t do anything, as long as there’s a sufficient amount of fear here, the human body will collapse on its own, and these collapses will react to the flesh. Physically, it can cause coma, vomiting, incontinence… or mental disorders.”
“And here—”
Zhong Chengshuo covered Yin Ren’s eyes.
“Fear will leak out from here, just like tears. You can see a lot of personal characteristics, which makes it very interesting.”
This was the first time Yin Ren had heard Zhong Chengshuo speak in this kind of tone—flat yet pleasant, even relaxed. He seemed to be really chatting with a “like-minded” person.
And the way he was placed was almost shockingly accurate and exquisite. Zhong Chengshuo could melt him into a perfect bean bag if he really knew how to penetrate flesh into things. In terms of the aesthetics of flesh, this person was no worse than himself.
“It sounds like you’re very proficient with torture,” the goat said.
“Really?”
The goat tilted his head. “I’m starting to wonder, how many have you killed?”
“I don’t know,” Zhong Chengshuo replied slowly, without raising his head. “I haven’t counted.”
“Haha, amazing.” The goat laughed emotionlessly. “You’re such a freak.”
“People often say that.” Zhong Chengshuo had a smile in his tone.
He was still carefully adjusting Yin Ren’s posture. Even if they had reached an agreement, Yin Ren still felt he was “really going to be made into a bean bag”.
“…But since you have killed so many, you must understand that feeling,” the goat murmured as he looked at Zhong Chengshuo repeatedly with those eyes behind the doll costume, as if trying to figure out the authenticity of the other party’s words. “There will always be a few prey that you really enjoy handling… The kind of excitement that brings a rapid heartbeat and makes your hand stand up…”
“Hm, I have experienced that.”
Zhong Chengshuo paused for a bit before continuing.
“That is a very powerful target. I enjoy that feeling and look forward to more reactions from him.”
“I get it, I get it.” The goat clapped his hands in satisfaction. “It seems that we are quite in tune.”
……
“It’s done.”
Around 4 a.m., Zhong Chengshuo finally finished fiddling with Yin Ren. He stood up and let out a long breath.
“If it were me, I would use the technique of piercing flesh into objects next, but after that, the person will slowly die. Next, it’s your turn—follow this posture and melt him. The outline won’t be too bad.”
“Well, I only have one question left to ask.” There wasn’t any expression on the goat doll’s face, and his tone remained cheerful. “How did you get rid of the traces?”
“Secret.” The rabbit mask turned away. “In general, the simpler the method, the less error-prone… How about you? How did you do it?”
“Well, I also have my secrets as well.” The goat stretched awkwardly. “In general, you must always plan a way out before making a move—”
The two were only one step apart. In the next moment, the goat hugged Zhong Chengshuo fiercely.
Under the doll’s clothes, more than a dozen stunning devices were activated at the same time, causing a thin buzzing sound to cross the night sky.
Zhong Chengshuo: “……”
Yin Ren: “……”
Yin Ren felt sad for those spirit weapons—they were painstakingly crafted by a spirit smith, and worked hard to shine and heat up all night. As a result, first they ran into a Ghost King, then an atheist, and neither of them were knocked out.
Zhong Chengshuo didn’t take long to react and softened his body obediently.
The goat doll unceremoniously released his arms. Zhong Chengshuo fell heavily to the ground like a stone brick, creating a loud and dull sound that caused Yin Ren to “hiss” in his heart.
The goat doll quickly pulled the iron chain that he had used to bind Yin Ren and tied Zhong Chengshuo firmly. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and straightened up.
“Things like spirit weapons are really useful against you cultivators.” There was a little more gratification in the goat’s voice. “Unlike that rookie from Shian, you’re really strong. You’re still conscious.”
Zhong Chengshuo said with “difficulty”, “I don’t…understand…our…work…”
“Well, I plan to produce another work. I didn’t lie to you about this.” The goat reached out towards a drain on one side and revealed a rusty iron cover. “If things go well, I’ll also tell you about my preservation skill. I didn’t lie to you.”
After looking at the gurgling water of the creek, the goat straightened up with satisfaction.
He took out a thin coin collection box from his pocket that was engraved with layers of runes. The coin inside was plain and unadorned, looking quite ordinary.
When the goat snapped open the box, Dog Thing instantly shook in Zhong Chengshuo’s pocket. Yin Ren also felt a familiar feeling—there was no doubt it was a source of corruption full of Evil Force.
“Listen, my preservation skills are actually very simple.”
The goat flicked the coin in his hand.
“I just stick this to the target at the center of their brows for a while. Next, as long as I try to imagine it, they will slowly merge. Isn’t this amazing? …Unfortunately, this ability can only be used by me.”
“…Impossible…”
Zhong Chengshuo continued his performance while Yin Ren turned his eyeballs on the grass stalk—Comrade Xiao Zhong had already secretly untied the chains as the runes on them had no effect on him, as if they were carving patterns.
“You know what? I once had the same problem as you.”
The goat greedily looked at the coin, oblivious to Zhong Chengshuo’s small movements.
“After making a person into a piece, that valuable body heat and vitality will always disappear… The shelf life of the piece is too short to touch comfortably.”
“But with this, I no longer need to worry about that problem. Just find strong ‘wildflowers’ who can withstand, giving lasting enjoyment.”
The goat dipped the coin into the gutter. His voice was stirring with excitement as it grew shriller.
“Ah, I have long wanted to try this. Think about it. Your flesh, blood, and bones will melt into the water, flowing underground throughout the city—you’ll disappear completely.”
“The people of Shian are intact… Killing me… brings you no benefit.” Zhong Chengshuo stared tightly at the coin. “I don’t understand…”
The goat sighed pretentiously.
He took the coin out of the gutter. Under the moonlight, the small piece of metal gleamed dimly.
“Like I said, if you want to get rid of tracking, you always have to plan a way out before you act.”
The goat walked leisurely towards Zhong Chengshuo. He stood still at a distance of about half a step away from him, obviously enjoying the feeling of looking down from the top.
“Actually, this is a simple story.”
He started to play with the coin again.
“There used to be an artist who couldn’t make satisfactory works. One day, he made a deal with the devil, wanting a more superb technique.”
“The devil lent him a lucky coin. Using the lucky coin as a medium, he cast a special magic that is ‘uniquely his own’.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “……”
“Do you know where this story gets worse?” The goat squatted down. “The lucky coin is only lent by the devil, and things that are lent must be paid back. But without it, the artist will lose his magic.”
Zhong Chengshuo: “The deal… you made… with Sunken Society?”
“Very smart.”
The goat smiled happily.
“I’m really grateful to that idiot who surrendered himself. He gave me an excellent opportunity—as long as I cooperate and release some of my works, Shian will definitely intervene, giving me the opportunity to get rid of Sunken Society.”
“It didn’t matter if the wrong person was framed. From the beginning, my position in this script was ready.”
The goat stretched out his hand and grabbed the edge of the rabbit mask.
“Do you know where this script gets worse?” Zhong Chengshuo suddenly spoke calmly and blinked behind the rabbit mask.
The goat hesitated for a moment.
“You missed one point.”
Zhong Chengshuo said in a soft voice, “…I already have an accomplice, and he’s more cunning than you.”
The air was silent for a moment.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Behind the two of them, in front of the pirate ship, a burst of insincere applause rang out. The goat abruptly turned and looked in the direction of where the sound came from.
“Don’t be discouraged. In fact, your script is pretty good.”
Yin Ren commented happily.
“Deliberately approaching the daughter of the police officer in charge of the case and awkwardly releasing the ‘chat history’ as a clue to create just the right suspicion.”
“Then you kidnapped a rookie from Shian and played a bitter trick in front of him. Let me guess, is the next arrangement ‘be a good citizen who was used by Sunken Society and can’t bear to see the true killer committing a crime again, so you sacrifice your life to save the Shian employee’?”
The goat held his breath, and his entire body became stiff like a slab of stone.
“Well… If you injure yourself a little more, it will be even more touching. When the poor rookie wakes up afterward, he can provide you with testimony—in this way, your role in the script of a poor, persecuted, controlled accomplice will be complete.”
Yin Ren crossed his legs on the beanbag. He propped his chin up with one hand as the tips of his hair gently fluttered in the wind. Behind him hung a damaged ship and chains, making him look like the God of Disaster.
“This accomplice even fell in love with a police officer’s daughter… Oh, what a classic ‘redemption routine’.” Yin Ren clicked his tongue.
At the same time.
Crash. The chains fell to the ground. Zhong Chengshuo stretched out his arms and stood up neatly. The goat turned around vigilantly again, a little flustered.
“Even if the victim is indirectly related to you, you can still use the ‘accomplice statement’ to lie, which makes it difficult to convict.”
Zhong Chengshuo took two steps back and restored his original voice.
Even if the framing of Lu Guangzu failed, this person only needed to make an appointment with a “wicked person” and meet in front of the victim. Then he would get rid of the other person and leave just the right amount of clues. Shian wouldn’t miscalculate the number of people on the scene and will continue to track down the “real culprit”.
In this way, the script of “the accomplice abandoned the dark and turned to the path of light to stop the culprit from committing another crime” would be complete.
…Now that Zhong Chengshuo thought about it, when this person readily released the second work, he probably had plans for “skinship” who delivered himself to his front door.
“On the other hand, as a ‘tainted witness’, you’ll be protected by Shian. When the time is right, you can take the coin and fly away—in your case, just slip away to a foreign country.”
Zhong Chengshuo took out the toy gun from his waist and pointed the black muzzle straight at the goat. Using his other free hand, he took out Yin Ren’s phone and tossed it in a perfect parabola towards Yin Ren.
“Are we right, Mr. Bai?”
The goat–Bai Yongji didn’t answer.
Under the muzzle of the gun, he stood like a sculpture. His hand gradually clenched, clicking their joints. The face of the goat doll was crooked, and the embroidered smile became particularly distorted.
The next moment, he seemed to wake up from a dream. The goat stuffed the coin in his mouth and swallowed it with a grunt.
Then he threw the cloth bag to the ground. Countless milky white smoke filled up, and the clear night suddenly turned into a pot of porridge. The irritating gas rushed straight to Yin Ren’s and Zhong Chengshuo’s faces that weren’t covered.
The goat didn’t bother with talking nonsense. He seized the opportunity and rushed straight to the back door of the amusement park.
The van used for the kidnapping was still parked there.
Things had changed. Although he didn’t know what was going on with Yin Ren, those two guys definitely weren’t acting on behalf of Shian—Yin Ren aside, there was something definitely not right with that rabbit mask. Shian wouldn’t raise this kind of pure evil.
He would always have a way, and he would always win. His opponent was nothing more than a human made of flesh and blood. As long as he could escape, he only needed a little time to figure out a way back…
Unfortunately, there was already a figure standing in front of the small back door.
“Where are you going?” Yin Ren asked with a smile. “I haven’t finished speaking yet.”
Bai Yongji took a deep breath. He took out a knife and stared at Yin Ren’s throat.
“…It’s okay.” Unlike during the abduction, his voice was smooth, and his tone was certain. “You’re just a ghost master. In your own words, I ‘don’t believe’ in them.”
“No matter how strong your ghosts are, they can’t hurt me.”
“Indeed.” Yin Ren’s smile became deeper. “But may I remind you what my accomplice said as well. As long as there’s enough fear, people will be shaken… I only need to shake you for a moment.”
He ignored the knife and grabbed the front lapel of the goat doll costume.
“Want to give it a try?”
In front of Bai Yongji, Yin Ren’s facial features gradually disappeared.
First the mouth, then the nose, and finally the left and right eyes that were full of smiles. They sank under his skin, like they fell into a sticky quagmire.
Bai Yongji stared at the face that looked like a demon. His fingers relaxed, causing the knife he was holding to fall with a clang onto the slate floor.
Yin Ren’s face first became perfectly blank, then a hole gradually appeared. The hole slowly expanded, turning into a deep vortex. Its depth completely exceeded the size of Yin Ren’s head, and he couldn’t see the bottom from a glance.
In the vortex, a large amount of black mucus surged, rotated, and kept changing, like a never-ending nightmare.
Accompanied by a sticky churning sound, something slowly emerged from the whirlpool, like the eyes of a snail. They stretched, thinned out, and drilled into the gaps of the goat mask.
Almost in the next moment, a particularly shrill scream came from the doll costume.
The air instantly smelled foul—the decent serial killer was stimulated inexplicably to incontinence.
Vague laughter sounded from the depths of the whirlpool.
Those terrible tentacles that were close enough to touch quickly retracted into the whirlpool, returning back to beautiful facial features. Yin Ren loosened the front lapel of the doll’s costume and took out his phone. The goat fell to the ground and struggled in pain, unable to get up.
“Elder Lu.”
Yin Ren turned on his phone and greeted him in a low voice.
“How is your practice of ‘piercing flesh into objects’?… The culprit is this gentleman. Be gentle and remember to keep him alive.”
In Bai Yongji’s blurred vision, something huge climbed down from the iron railing of the back door. Six blood-red eyes were locked on him.
“Give me back Yuanyuan…”
A distant voice sounded in his ears, as if it were separated by a film of water.
“Yuanyuan… my good boy…”
Bai Yongji instinctively took a few steps back, only to hear a woman’s chuckle. His hand touched something soft.
It was a blood-red bean bag. But that was obviously near the pirate ship just now…
“Pfft.” A thin and fuzzy arm pressed on his shoulder.
Then severe pain struck. His shoulders were pierced through the depths of the sofa. The fabric was mixed with his flesh, but this time, Bai Yongji couldn’t even scream.
Lu Tanfei was surrounded by evil qi. He muttered curses while his hands and feet couldn’t stop moving. At first glance, it really looked like a predatory spider.
“Pfft.”
“Pfft. Pfft.”
……
Zhong Chengshuo stepped out of the white mist. There was a beanbag that was moaning in pain at the back door. Probably in order to keep him alive, the bean bag wasn’t as refined as the previous one.
“It’s hard for me to explain to Shian what you did.” Zhong Chengshuo looked at the living bean bag and pushed up his mask.
“It’s okay. I didn’t do it.”
Yin Ren crossed his arms indifferently.
“I’m just a ghost master who was kidnapped and was frightened. My ghost happens to have a grudge against this guy—in this case, the ghost went out of control, and neither I nor the ghost can be held responsible.”
He smiled. “Mr. Bai is right. After disposing of the evidence, we only need a reasonable ‘script’.”
“I thought he wouldn’t be affected by magic. How did you do it?”
“Perhaps fear caused him to be exposed? I don’t know either.” Yin Ren pounded his waist. “Oh, it’s uncomfortable lying in one position for a long time.”
Zhong Chengshuo was still wearing the rabbit mask. He looked at Yin Ren in silence.
Yin Ren snorted. “Alright, we have to clean up the aftermath as soon as possible. Anyway, I’ll deal with this person’s memory first…”
“Haha.”
“Haha.”
At some point, the moaning disappeared.
“Haha.” The fleshy sofa laughed hoarsely.
Yin Ren dragged Zhong Chengshuo behind him and narrowed his eyes at Bai Yongji—the man’s body was inseparable from the bean bag and only his head was left exposed.
“You shouldn’t have cornered me.”
Bai Yongji on the sofa seemed to have lost his sense of pain, and his tone was so calm that it was creepy.
“I want to thank you… thank you… It turns out that there is really karma in this world…”
Fear bred despair, and despair bred wavering. The proud man was cornered, creating a little crack in his faith, and then—
Snap!
“…It turns out that ‘belief’ is such a feeling.”
Bai Yongji sighed.
“Trouble. This guy has been overly stimulated.” Yin Ren wiped his face.
It’s not uncommon for atheists to convert under too much provocation. The average atheist, however, didn’t have a source of Evil Force corruption in his stomach.
There was a tingling, tearing sound as flesh and blood oozed from the surface of the bean bag. A human figure stood up staggeringly, ignoring the restraints. The figure had a fused honeycomb structure, with only his face intact.
Just like Feng Qi back then, pus and blood kept pouring out of all of Bai Yongji’s facial orifices.
His face was pale, and his body was riddled with holes, looking like a broken sponge net. Through the skin full of holes, Yin Ren could see his internal organs squirming in his body. Bai Yongji’s heart beat continuously, but not a single drop of blood leaked from the holes.
He stood up like this, like some ridiculous ghost.
Fused with the doll suit and bean bag, the man stood almost naked in front of the two of them. The fierce Evil Force gradually spread, and through the fine holes, a little metallic brilliance flashed from his abdominal cavity.
“Thank you.”
He smiled and repeated.
“Actually, I omitted a little detail about the artist’s story.”
“According to the devil, the coin should have given the artist the power to ‘fulfill his wish alone’. Unfortunately, the artist has a special physique and was difficult to affect… The magic that belongs to him alone has appeared, but he had to rely on the lucky coin to perform it.”
“Now the story can continue—one day, in despair, the artist finally learned magic.”
“…It’s not a substitute that can only be used by relying on a coin. This time, it’s ‘real magic’.”
The author has something to say:
Bai Yongji: Listen to me, thank you?
It doesn’t matter, he hasn’t realized the seriousness of the problem yet.
winner99: Hehe, actually I’m fishing.
skinship: What a coincidence, so am I.
It could be a two-way hook.
——————
Gay friend: Bean bag.
Gay friend: Is a lazy shark hair*, right?
*Clarity: Bean bag/(lazy sofa) is [laren shafa] (懒人沙发). He’s making a joke by saying lazy shark hair (懒人鲨发), which is a homonym to bean bag, connecting it to Yin Ren’s avatar (the Ikea shark) + how he likes to use his hair = lazy Yin Ren (as Yin Ren’s entire goal is to be a salted fish).
Me: ?
Kinky Thoughts:
I did think Bai Yongji was suspicious, but the previous chapter threw me off.
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