Fate Trading System – Chapter 137

Plan A

Red Moon in the Barrier 1

Tong Ning

【We’re currently settling your account. This world deducted 1/12 of your life. Your remaining lifespan is 69 months. Memories have been blurred. Enjoy your life, and I’ll pick you up again next month.】

Okay.

Su Xin didn’t feel too sleepy this time. She lay sideways on the bed, looking out the window. It was a cloudy day, 3 PM, and the temperature outside looked comfortable. Su Xin’s room window was open, and the breeze coming in felt a bit cool.

She was rarely spacing out, seeming to think about something, yet also seeming to think about nothing.

Su Xin knew she must have forgotten many things. Those things hadn’t completely disappeared from her memory, they were still vaguely there, blurry. She seemed to remember something, but those images in her mind weren’t very clear, and would disappear again after a moment.

This was for her own good, she knew.

A person’s fundamental existence is their memory. If memories are lost, that ‘person’ no longer exists.

Su Xin couldn’t remember much. Sometimes she didn’t know what she was thinking about, seeming interested in everything, yet also seeming interested in nothing.

Master Fourteen, have you left already?

【Not yet. To be precise, I’ve never left. I’m just in an invisible state. Host, please rest assured, I haven’t been peeking into your private life.】

I know. I just wanted to ask how many worlds I’ve experienced so far?

【Seven.】

Only seven? Why do I feel like I’ve lived for so long?

Although her memories had been blurred, although the date shown on her phone wasn’t too far from the day she died, there was always a feeling of being in a different world.

【A sense of isolation is inevitable. This is something the host needs to overcome on their own.】

Umm…

【Is the host tired?】

How could I be? I don’t even remember, how could I possibly be tired? It’s just a kind of…

Su Xin sighed, a feeling that couldn’t be expressed.

【If the host has any questions, feel free to ask this servant. This servant is available 24 hours.】

Okay, thank you.

【You’re welcome.】

Su Xin was counting her fingers on the bed. Only seven left. Adding the ones spent and deducted, it’s just over five years. What can be done in five years? It seems like not much can be done. It sounds like quite a long time, but time flies in the blink of an eye. What do five years even count for?

Still, better to work hard, complete tasks well, and then be liberated.

Being able to come back to life is already a miraculous thing.

After Su Xin figured things out, she had a good sleep. This time she didn’t sleep for too long; she got up from bed at dusk and went to the bathroom to freshen up.

Qiu Qingqing was cooking in the kitchen, wearing a blue bear apron around her waist. Her long hair was tied up, looking gentle and graceful from behind.

“Wow, what delicious thing are you making? It smells so good.”

Su Xin walked over and hugged Qiu Qingqing’s slender waist as she was watching the pot.

“Of course, I’m making all the things you like to eat. Go wash your hands, then sit at the dining table and wait for me to serve the meal.”

Qiu Qingqing didn’t turn around, lifted the pot lid, and picked up the spatula next to it to continue stir-frying a few times.

“Okay.”

Su Xin took her hand off Qiu Qingqing’s waist, went to the sink to wash her hands, then happily left with two bowls and two pairs of chopsticks.

Qiu Qingqing looked back at her retreating figure, then turned her head back down to continue doing her own things.

She gripped the handle of the spatula tightly, then loosened it after a while.

Every time it wasn’t something she could choose, she could only passively watch her leave, and leave again.

Eating and drinking well is the goal of life, Su Xin rubbed her belly and sighed with satisfaction.

She was a rather ordinary person, not interested in jewelry or famous paintings at all, and didn’t have the artistic sense or appreciation talent. The three things she loved most in life were eating, fighting, and sleeping. She was easily satisfied, didn’t have much power or ambition, and while not exactly honest, she was quite decent. She was also very lazy and afraid of trouble, didn’t like having too many friends, and Qiu Qingqing alone was enough.

Having Qiu Qingqing was really great, she didn’t have to do housework, clean, or cook for herself. Plus, Qiu Qingqing’s cooking was delicious. She didn’t have to do anything, it was extremely comfortable.

“Qingqing, do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

Su Xin brought up this question on her own. Anyway, she had a routine one-month vacation and wasn’t going anywhere, which seemed like a waste. Besides, going out to play with Qiu Qingqing after completing a mission had become a habit.

Qiu Qingqing strongly agreed with her habit of going out to play every few days. After all, the two of them were just really compatible.

“No plans, it’s all up to you. I’ll go along with whatever you want to do.”

Qiu Qingqing cleared the bowls and chopsticks from the table, looking exceptionally virtuous.

“How can you be so good?”

“Huh? You just realized I’m good?”

“That’s not what I meant, I meant why do we get along so well!”

“…You just realized this?”

“I’m just marveling, to have a wife like this, what more could a husband ask for!”

“Are you sure that’s how you use that phrase?”

“More or less, more or less.”

The two of them immediately made plans for where to play tomorrow. They planned to go to N City, which is a very famous tourist city, with blue skies and white clouds, as well as tropical jungles, different beautiful scenery.

Beautiful places always make people can’t help but relax. Looking at the blue sky and white clouds, Su Xin felt much more comfortable, as if the world suddenly became broader. This city doesn’t have much pollution. Looking up at the sky, the clouds seem like cotton candy within reach, so soft that one can’t help but be intoxicated.

Su Xin and Qiu Qingqing are just playing in this place for a few days. Because it’s not a peak tourist season, they don’t have to see crowds. After appreciating several classic scenic spots, they plan to go to the next stop.

The main thing is to make themselves comfortable. If they like a place, they’ll stay there for a few more days. If they don’t like a place or aren’t interested in it, they’ll leave quickly. After all, they don’t lack money or time. Being hitmen is sometimes quite comfortable because time is plentiful and free. After all, there aren’t that many people in this world they need to kill, and not just anyone can hire Su Xin and Qiu Qingqing.

After wandering around several places for half a month, Su Xin and Qiu Qingqing returned home.

How to put it, although traveling outside is very comfortable and the hotels they stayed in were very good, that feeling is always different from coming home.

Coming back home, it feels like everything relaxed at once.

Humans are creatures with a strong sense of territory. They divide this space very clearly: yours, mine, theirs. A door can isolate a world, this is called personal domain.

“It’s still more comfortable to be back home.”

Su Xin put down the bag she was carrying, rubbed her wrists, and collapsed on the sofa. Somehow, she felt a long-lost and heartwarming feeling.

“Of course, if you’re not comfortable at home, where else would you be comfortable?”

Qiu Qingqing had just emptied out everything from the backpack and started organizing.

“Although this is your home, it doesn’t matter, it’s my home too anyway.”

“Otherwise, should I go and add your name to the property deed tomorrow?”

“No need, I was just saying. Of course, you’re mine, we’re in this together.”

Su Xin sat cross-legged, smiling.

“Mm-hmm.”

Half a month passed, and Fourteen, who had been hiding, came online.

The timing was quite inconvenient, as Su Xin was just playing around with Qiu Qingqing.

Su Xin was about to return to her own room, but then she thought, since the real world is frozen when she does tasks, maybe she’s already back in one world, but to Qiu Qingqing, she hasn’t moved at all, so it doesn’t seem to matter.

Su Xin lay on the bed, closed her eyes, and entered the system space.

This time, the client gave Su Xin a shock right away.

“Are you the person who can help me? Please, please help me.”

It was a fresh-faced girl of about seventeen or eighteen, wearing old blue clothes, with two braids, looking extremely pure and innocent. As soon as she arrived, she was about to kneel down to Su Xin.

“Yes, I can help you, but it depends on what kind of wish you have. You don’t need to kneel.”

Su Xin quickly held the girl’s arm, fearing she would kneel down. She couldn’t accept such treatment.

“My name is Tong Ning. Something strange happened to the family at the east end of the village. Two servant girls drowned in the pond, but the pond is very shallow. It’s impossible for two girls to drown there. The widow Wang next door suddenly hanged herself for no reason. Strange things keep happening in the village. The scariest part is that no one can leave anymore. The road is clearly there… Please, you must help me. I don’t mind dying, but my little brother must live.”

The girl wiped her tears, looking very scared.

Su Xin was a bit confused. What the hell?

“You mean none of you can leave your village now?”

“Yes, we can’t find the way out.”

The girl nodded.

“My wish is for my little brother to live. He’s obedient and makes us proud. Our parents are dead. Their dying wish was for me to raise my little brother. That day when I came back home, someone evil put a sickle on our door frame. My little brother was about to come out to greet me. If I hadn’t called out in time, the sickle would have fallen and cut off his head. Someone must be trying to harm my brother. I don’t mind dying, as long as he can live.”

“So your wish is for me to take your little brother out of that village?”

“Yes! Our village must be cursed, but my brother and I haven’t done anything wrong. Neither did our parents. Although many strange things have happened in the village, someone wanting my brother dead must be a living person!”

This girl was actually very pretty, with snow-white skin and watery eyes. She had a kind of pure, unpolluted simplicity that was clearly from the countryside. When she cried, it made one feel sympathetic.

【Host, do you accept the commission?】

Yes.

Whatever demons, ghosts, or beautiful spirits in disguise there might be, with the system by her side, she wasn’t afraid.

Su Xin suddenly opened her eyes. It was still daytime, and she was sitting on a chair. The house looked very simple, just like the common houses in rural areas, with a rough cement floor.

Su Xin stood up and walked around. The house wasn’t very big, but it looked cozy.

From the main entrance, there was a courtyard. After walking through the yard, there was the living area. Pushing open the wooden door led to the main room. The westernmost room was the kitchen for cooking, and the two rooms on the east side were the original host’s and her brother’s rooms.

This house wasn’t big, just two rooms. Originally, one room was for the original host’s parents, and one was for the original host. When the original host’s brother was born, he started living with the parents. At two or three years old, he began sleeping with the original host. But this couldn’t continue forever, so the original host’s parents discussed using some money to expand the house a bit, first raising their son, then continuing to save money to build him a wedding house when he grew up.

Because they planned to earn more money, farming at home wasn’t enough income. So the original host’s father decided to leave the village for work. But things didn’t go as planned. When the original host’s brother was four and she was twelve, her father was directly killed by falling steel bars at the construction site. The contractor had a conscience and calculated it as a work injury, compensating the original host’s mother with a sum of money. But it wasn’t much. The original host’s mother, a woman who had to take care of the children and work in the fields, had already worn out her body. Now, hearing this terrible news, while burying the original host’s father, she fainted and never opened her eyes again.

This was like misfortune never comes alone (idiom meaning troubles come in pairs). The original host raised her brother alone, and because he was too young, she didn’t even dare to go to school.

Schooling required money. Although it wasn’t much, the school was some distance from the village. Moreover, if she went to school, who would tend to the fields at home, who would take care of her brother? So, the original host ended up staying at home to work, working hard. All the money at home was in her hands, she kept it safe, wanting to support her brother’s education and even build him a house in the future.

The original host treated her brother as her life, which is why she had such a strong obsession.

Su Xin sorted out everything and began to make sense of the strange events happening in the village, including the sickle placed on their doorstep.

Master Fourteen, were those things done by humans or ghosts?

【There are people and ghosts.】

This village is just an ordinary village, there’s nothing strange about it anywhere, but if we say there’s not a single strange thing about it, that’s not true either.

The village holds ancestor worship activities every year. First is to worship Cloud Lady, second is to worship Old Man Hu, and third is to worship one’s own ancestors.

The first and second are group activities, while the third is done individually by each family.

Cloud Lady is a legendary figure. The legend says that a long time ago, this village suffered from a plague, and many people died. But a girl appeared, whose given name was Cloud, who prayed to the heavens and saved the people of this village. The villagers believed she was a fairy sent by the gods, so they built a temple for her, enshrined her, and respectfully called her Cloud Lady.

Old Man Hu is even more mysterious. It’s unclear when his story originated, but it’s been passed down orally from generation to generation. It’s said that Old Man Hu is a land god who really loves children and can bless the children in the village with health and safety.

The original host believes in these things, but Su Xin doesn’t.

It’s not about being feudal or superstitious, it’s just that Su Xin doesn’t really believe in things like fate. If killing someone means paying with your life, Su Xin doesn’t know how many times she’d have to die.

“Big sister, what are you doing?”

The cloth curtain was lifted, and Tong Qing looked at the sky outside, then strangely at his sister.

“Nothing, just got up for a walk.”

Outside, the sky had just brightened, and the roosters in the village hadn’t started crowing yet.

This Tong Qing is her current mission target, ten years old, and the mission is to take him out of the village.

Because there’s no way to leave the village, Tong Qing can’t go to school. He stays at home doing housework, and sometimes when the original host is too busy, he also cooks and brings food to the fields.

“Big sister, when do you think I can go to school? I haven’t been to school for five days now.”

Tong Qing looked out the window, seeming gloomy.

“Wait a little longer, big sister will surely let you go out.”

Tong Qing grew up very delicate, although he’s a boy and still living in the countryside, he’s not naughty or tanned at all, and his brain is very smart.

If the original host’s parents hadn’t died, everyone would praise them for their good fortune, having such a good pair of children.

But the original host’s parents passed away, and the original host and her brother became unfortunate.

“Okay.”

Tong Qing opened his big eyes, he didn’t understand some things, the original host kept it from him and didn’t tell him, she only told him that there was a problem with the road out of the village, and now no one could get out.

Su Xin’s arrival timing was quite good, it was winter, no need to plant, hoe grass or harvest. How could Su Xin do these things? She indeed had calluses on her hands, but those were from holding guns, not from doing manual labor.

Su Xin had never done much manual labor, she could endure hardships and undergo extreme training, but she didn’t know how to farm.

Su Xin planned to go out for a walk, to see the strange situation of this village, why they couldn’t get out, what exactly happened to that road.

“You go back to the room and continue sleeping, remember to cover yourself with the blanket.”

Originally, the original host had already started sleeping in separate rooms with her brother. The original host slept in the room where her father and mother used to sleep, and her brother slept in hers, but after that incident, the original host let her brother sleep with her.

Su Xin closed the wooden door, walked through the courtyard, and opened and closed the main gate.

Outside, the weather was already very cold, without much wind, just freezing, as if trying to crawl into people’s bones through their noses and throats. Wearing a little less would make people shiver.

It hadn’t snowed yet, just started to freeze.

Su Xin exhaled, watching the mist disperse in the air. She wore soft cotton shoes, stamped her feet, rubbed her hands together, tucked them into her sleeves, and walked towards the outside.

It’s just dawn now, still very early.

There’s only one road leading out of the village, a neat and flat dirt road. It’s not really “built,” but made even by everyone’s footsteps.

Su Xin walks slowly, observing the surroundings at the same time.

This village is very small, with people who left and those who died, there are only a few households left.

The original host wanted to leave too, but had nowhere to go. Even if she went to a big city, what about her younger brother? It’s better to rely on this small piece of land to slowly make a living. The original host had planned to leave after her brother finished middle school.

There’s only one middle school in the distant town, and high school is even further away in a bigger place. The original host had planned to follow her brother.

From one end of the village to the other, there are only fourteen households in total, very few.

The whole village can be considered related, most with the surname Tong. The family at the east end of the village is the Tong Xing family, also known as the original host’s uncle’s family. The two families get along well, and after the original host’s parents passed away, this uncle would help out sometimes, like during wheat harvesting or when moving heavy things.

Uncle Tong is also a pitiful man, honest and simple. His wife always complained that he was useless. A few years ago, his wife left him and their two daughters for another man, making Uncle Tong a laughingstock.

Speaking of Uncle Tong being pitiful, it’s really to the extreme. His two daughters, Da Ya and Er Ya (literally “Big Girl” and “Second Girl,” common nicknames for daughters), seven and five years old respectively, not long ago before the ice formed, Da Ya took Er Ya to catch fish in the lake. It’s not really appropriate to call it a lake, it’s just a small pond formed by a small river, very shallow. Usually, people wash clothes there, and the water is only as high as an adult’s knee. But somehow Da Ya and Er Ya drowned.

It’s strange, these two little girls often caught fish there, and Da Ya was taller than the water even when standing up. How could they drown?

It doesn’t make sense, but that’s what happened. Both daughters were gone, and Uncle Tong, a man in his thirties, cried so hard it was heartbreaking to hear.

The old folks said Da Ya and Er Ya were taken by water ghosts as substitute spirits, which earned them several glares from Uncle Tong.

Su Xin continues walking, occasionally rubbing her hands to warm them up, then putting them in her pockets, hunching her head, looking at the road ahead.

Because there were only fourteen households, everyone in the village knew each other well, and Su Xin’s memories were very clear.

The woman living next door to the original host had the surname Wang. She married into the village from another village two years ago. Her husband died of illness, and she became a widow at a young age, feeling gloomy every day.

Although Widow Wang was unhappy every day, she didn’t seek death. Occasionally, you could still see her put on some rouge (traditional Chinese makeup) and smile a little. But for some reason, not long after something happened to Da Ya and Er Ya, she died too.

It was suicide. She hanged herself in her room. The original host discovered the body. She noticed Widow Wang hadn’t come out for a stroll for several days, so she thought of knocking on the door to ask if she was sick. But after knocking for a long time with no response, the original host found the door wasn’t locked. Curiously, she pushed it open and saw Widow Wang hanging from the beam, dead for several days. She screamed and had nightmares for days.

At this time, some people who wanted to rush to the fair (meaning: go to the market) discovered something was wrong. They couldn’t ride their donkeys to town no matter what. It was like hitting a ghost wall (idiom meaning: to encounter an invisible obstacle), and they returned to the village entrance.

This scared everyone. People became anxious and tried to leave together, but all with the same result. They couldn’t get out.

The atmosphere in the village was unusually gloomy, and everyone was on edge.

The original host didn’t tell anyone about someone placing a sickle on her doorstep to harm her or her brother. She felt it was useless to say it.

The village was this small, with only this many people. Now the people inside couldn’t get out, and those outside couldn’t come in. So this thing must have been done by someone in the village; there was no one else.

The original host calculated all twelve households except herself and the deceased Widow Wang, but found that no one had the necessity or motive.

People say that the human heart is the scariest thing, and that’s true. Everyone keeps their thoughts hidden well in their own minds, and it’s hard for others to tell what’s real and what’s fake in how they act.

The original host felt that the people in the village were all very nice, but the person who wanted to harm her and her brother was among these people she usually thought were good. She found it too scary.

She couldn’t guess who it was. She felt like no one was suspicious, yet everyone was suspicious. She didn’t dare trust others, but she was also afraid others would find her behavior strange and notice something was off.

Tong Ning couldn’t eat or sleep well and was on the verge of breaking down. She was determined to keep Tong Qing alive, so that’s why she made this request.

Su Xin walked to the village entrance. At the entrance, there was a very big tree, very leafy, it was a locust tree.

Locust trees bring yin (negative energy), willow trees bring yang (positive energy).

Ghosts that live in trees choose locust trees. This locust tree at the village entrance grew so thick, it looked wrong no matter how you looked at it.

In winter, a thin fog spread in the air, making it hard to see the road in the distance.

There wasn’t a sound around, the silence was hair-raising (made one’s hair stand on end).

Su Xin took a step, walking towards the road ahead.

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