Chapter 2 - New Slave
Translator: Lav
Editor: Levs
The words fuerdai(1), speeding, and drunk flashed through Shi Lei’s mind. His human instincts saved his life at the last second. As the car was about to collide against him, he kicked the ground abruptly and threw himself to the side. He rolled on the ground, twisted his ankle, and his elbow hit the ground hard, so painful as if it was broken. Shi Lei finally saw the car sweep past where he stood a second ago, colliding head on into the safety island, coming to a stop.
Shi Lei looked at his elbow. Blood was dripping and parts of the skin were sc.r.a.ped off. But Shi Lei did not have any intention of interrogating nor scolding the person in the car.
This was a Porsche; Shi Lei recognised the shield shaped logo. A person being able to drive this car would either be rich or high-cla.s.s, in short, not someone Shi Lei dared to offend. If the person was in a good mood, he would even claim payment for his medical expenses.
Of course, what’s more important was that the front of the Porsche was extremely out of shape. Shattered gla.s.s were on the floor, it would be a problem whether the person in the car survived or not. Even if he was still alive, he cannot escape being heavily wounded, and Shi Lei can’t possibly curse against an injured person.
Although he was frightened, but he plucked up the courage, walked towards the car while dragging his leg.
He saw the door being kicked open from inside, a man with blood stained all over his body crawled out of the car and fell, and stretched a b.l.o.o.d.y hand towards Shi Lei.
“Save me… Save me…” A hoa.r.s.e voice escaped his throat and blood filled his face, he was obviously heavily wounded.
Shi Lei didn’t go as far as watching him die because of the crash. He should be drunk, otherwise it won’t result in such a situation. Plus, Shi Lei strongly believed that no one in this world hated him so much that they would wish to kill him.
But how do you even save this person?
Shi Lei took out his phone, wanting to call 110(2) as a reflex.
As the person crawling on the ground saw his actions, he called out anxiously and fretfully: “Don’t call the police, save me, I’ll give you 100,000 yuan… 100,000 yuan! Don’t call the police!”
Shi Lei couldn’t understand why ‘don’t call the police’? Surely it didn’t mean that he stole the car? Then where did he get the 100,000 yuan from?
It wasn’t easy for the man to crawl to Shi Lei. He wanted to stand up but it was in vain. He grabbed the bottom of Shi Lei’s shirt, and said: “Sell me your shirt, 100,000 yuan, I’ll give you 100,000 yuan immediately…”
Shi Lei was confused and couldn’t make any sense out of the man. In a situation like this, wouldn’t calling an ambulance to the hospital the right thing to do? It didn’t matter how much the reward would be, but how did it have anything to do with this shirt? And Shi Lei’s shirts would never exceed 500 yuan, the one he’s wearing would at most be worth 1,000 yuan. How much did this guy drink to buy his shirt for 100,000 yuan instead of going to the hospital?
The man loosened his grip on Shi Lei’s shirt, pulled out a phone from his pocket with difficulty and opened an app, shouting: “Hurry! Open your WeChat(3)! Let me scan it and transfer money to you. Sell me your shirt, for 100,000 yuan…”
Shi Lei was still dumbfounded by what’s happening in front of him and didn’t know what to do.
He didn’t know where the man gained his strength from, he stood up, s.n.a.t.c.hed Shi Lei’s phone and opened WeChat. After scanning the code, he then shoved the phone back in his hands, then returned to his own phone and started operating on it. Shi Lei heard a ‘ding’ from his phone, lowered his head and saw a money transfer notification.
He touched the screen with his finger, the screen showed that the other party had transferred 100,000 yuan into his account. Shi Lei stared in disbelief, opened his WeChat wallet, and he saw 100,000 yuan sitting in his account, dazzling him.
“Hurry! Your clothes!” The man grew anxious and attempted to strip Shi Lei’s clothes.
Shi Lei let him strip off his jacket without fighting back, having difficulty to process this strange encounter.
Sports car, speeding, 200km/h, car crash, fuerdai, 100,000 yuan, one worthless shirt……
How are these words connected to each other?
“You… Did you perhaps lose your sanity from the car crash?” Shi Lei asked the man carefully while putting his phone back into his pockets. Without caring about other things, he has 100,000 yuan in his hands.
The man didn’t respond to him, and stumbled and dropped heavily onto the ground, staring upwards towards the pitch-black night sky with dull eyes, as if waiting for something.
Shi Lei thought everything seemed too strange, and backed off. A voice in his heart told him to run away with the 100,000 yuan hidden inside a phone that was merely worth 700 yuan. That’s 100,000 yuan, a whole 100,000 yuan!
But as soon as he turned around, an extremely sad and shrilling scream exploded behind him.
Shi Lei’s pupil shrunk rapidly, turned his head around and a remarkably freakish scene came into his view.
The man was rolling on the ground, grieving to the extent of wishing to die as both of his legs disappeared, as if they were chopped off.
A streak of blood continuously climbed up from his leg, which quickly extended to his thighs. What’s more bizarre was that his thighs were disappearing too, evaporating into a b.l.o.o.d.y fog. Shi Lei even recognised the irony smell which belonged specifically to fresh blood in the air.
Thighs were gone……
Then the stomach……
The man’s body had stopped rolling and became incapable of producing any sound from his mouth. Anyone who had been amputated from their chest below was impossible to make any more sounds.
The streak of blood came to a stop with the man’s death, Shi Lei watched in disbelief as the man entirely formed into the blood fog, blending into the air, resolved entirely.
Shi Lei’s horror and panic was impossible to be described through words. He felt terrified for no reason, for a living person had just disappeared right in front of his eyes.
For a long time, Shi Lei had thought that death was the thing that humans feared the most. But now, he realised that death was not that scary. What’s really scary was someone disappearing into thin air in such a bizarre way.
On the ground, the b.l.o.o.d.y trail which the man left from crawling had also disappeared, just like his body.
Even the jacket clutched tightly by the man’s hands that originally belonged to Shi lei was gone.
The only thing left, was a black card, shining splendidly under the dim streetlights in the dark night. It was light emitted from metal. It resembled a bank card, but Shi Lei did not have any intentions of picking it up.
Anyone who just experienced something one could only see in a movie scene, even if it was a diamond worth billions of dollars, would not be in the mood to pick it up. The only thought Shi Lei had left in his mind was to escape; run as far as he could, as if he would undergo the same misfortune the man just did if he didn’t run fast enough.
Whilst running, Shi Lei thought of the man’s Porsche sports car, as if, it seemed, perhaps… it also vanished during the process of the man disappearing?
Shi Lei did not dare to think more, but ran back to his dorm as if his life was in risk.
After he woke up, he thought it was just a dream. But the black card that was in his hand clearly indicates that last night’s experience was not just a dream.
Today was Sat.u.r.day and everyone in the dorm left. Shi Lei studied the strange bank card in his hand, hesitating whether he should try his luck with it or not.
As he put on clothes, Shi Lei glanced at his WeChat wallet’s balance……
Um……
Alright, at least he had 100,000 yuan, it was worth the shock.
With the black card in his hands, Shi Lei walked towards the ATM next to the school gate, feeling uneasy. The man was so carefree with his money; he wasn’t sure how many zeros would be in his bank account.
As Shi Lei inserted the card into the ATM and entered the pa.s.sword with shaky hands, his head was filled with the thought of himself escaping in shock and horror. He never picked up this card, but why did this card appear next to his pillow?
Suddenly, he felt chills shooting up his spine. Shi Lei wanted to press the ‘exit’ b.u.t.ton, almost realising that there is some sort of trap that he was incapable to understand……
But it was too late……
From the ATM, a completely strange voice, whose gender Shi Lei was incapable to distinguish, said: “Welcome, new slave.”
(1)Fuerdai: children of the nouveau riche in China; Rich Second Generation
(2)110: police number in China
(3)WeChat: the most popular social app in China which has the functions of transfer funds to contacts
Note: approximately 6.5 Chinese Yuan = 1 USD